This is just a little one off of Love Like Crazy by myself and We Weren't Crazy by One Turtle Dove. Just a bit deeper look at the friendship of Austin and Adam.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything besides Austin.
The door to the Ross apartment was practically kicked open by the young mother with her arms full of baby and baby accoutrements. Austin Hawthorne stepped in the apartment and smiled at her best friend's husband who was sitting on the couch with his son sitting between his legs, "Ross," She turned her smile to the little boy, "Little Ross."
"You know," Adam looked up at her before putting his son on the floor to crawl around, "there's this fantastic concept called knocking. Some people even do it before they enter a residence that is not their own."
"Don't be a loser, Adam." She rolled her eyes and tossed Isabeth's diaper bag in the empty lazy chair and knelt down to her nephew's level, "Hey Little."
"Ah Ah!" The boy mumbled the term he had endeared his aunt with, "Sa! Mine!"
"Isa's yours?" Austin pouted, "Nuh-uh, she's mine!"
"MINE!" The boy who was barely a year old yanked at Isabeth's socked foot, "Mine!" Which prompted the six month old little girl to pull at his hair, "Ow! NO!"
Austin laughed and put her daughter down to army crawl after her best friend. She flopped down on the couch next to Adam, "Does it ever stop being so exhausting?"
"No so much," Adam chuckled as he turned on the DVD player and started the pilot of Firefly, "Linds called, her and Danny are gonna pick up some pizza after their shift."
"Score." She toed off her shoes and pulled her socked feet under her as the Sci-Fi program began. Adam and Austin weren't the kind of friends who naturally fell together but their love for Sci-Fi and their spouses lack of interest in it had served to unite them. They had finished up the original Star Trek series the last time they had both had the same day off and were now starting on Joss Whedon's infamous series.
"Take my love, take my land," They sung together between giggles and shoulder shoves, "take me where I cannot stand, I don't care, I'm still free, you can't take the sky from me."
Austin chuckled and put on her best twang, "Take me out to the black-"
"-Tell 'em I ain't comin' back." Adam joined her, dropping his lip into a near Elvis facial expression.
The ballad of Serenity faded as horses galloped across the screen and Isabeth clapped her hands in excitement. Austin snorted, "That's my girl."
"She's going to grow up and turn into Zoe," He grinned cheekily, "A total bamf that can kill you without making a sound."
"Sure," She rolled her eyes, "then that makes Colton Captain Reynolds and he falls in love with a whore."
"Hey!" Adam poked her in the ribs, "the term is companion! Don't go hatin' on 'Nara."
"Me? Hate on Inara?" Austin laughed, "I would never do such a thing."
Adam stuck his tongue out at her, "Sure, whatever. You talked through the whole opening and we missed the cry baby."
"Cry, baby, cry." She grinned.
And he countered her, "Make your mother sigh."
As "Train Job" began they paused long enough to put the kids down for a nap and grab some chips to tide them over until Lindsay and Danny arrived with dinner. Austin leaned against the arm of the couch and popped her back before sweeping her hair into a messy bun with the hair tie around her wrist. It was then that Adam first got a look at the soft white scar that created a half moon around her left eye. He frowned, "Hey, Aust?"
"Yeah, 'Dum?" She quirked an eyebrow in his general direction.
He gestured to the scar, "What happened to your eye?"
Her pulse rate quickened and her stomach suddenly felt like it was being sat on by a sumo wrestler. Normally it was something she'd just brush off and change the subject but something in Adam's soft gaze told her he'd understand, "Uhm… when I was seventeen… my, uh, my dad clocked me really hard and broke my occipital bone. I had to have surgery to fix it… that's why I have to wear reading glasses."
"Oh," His voice was barely above a whisper, "your dad too, huh?"
"Adam?" She swiveled her head to look at him, "Your dad? He hurt you?"
"Yeah." He turned and parted his hair to show her the scar on his scalp, "I was like nine and he shoved me down the stairs."
"Bastard."
He gave a small half-smile, "Not disagreeing with you on that point."
"How long," Her voice wavered and she chewed on her bottom lip, "how long did it go on for?"
"From as far back as I can remember," Adam explained, "until I was nine and my mom had to choose between leaving him and me being placed in foster care."
"Your mom chose you." Austin couldn't help the jealous feeling in the pit of her gut at that fact.
"Yours didn't?"
"Nah." Austin shook her head, "Can't say I blame her, he was scary when he was angry. Started in on me when I was eight and didn't quit until I left in the middle of the night 9 years later."
"Nine years." He breathed.
She fell back against the couch, "Nine freaking years."
"How'd you cope with it?" Adam couldn't fight the curiosity he felt over finding someone who had grown up in circumstances similar to his.
"I didn't," Austin shook her head trying to shake the memories, "I hid a lot of the time. Spent a lot of time at Danny's house hidin' behind his cop daddy who wasn't afraid to go head to head with mine. And I spent a long time being angry. You?"
"Avoided him like the black plague and did what he wanted no matter how much trouble it'd get me in."
"Adam?" She looked up at him while pulling at the dead skin on her lower lip, "are you afraid of becoming like him?"
"Terrified." Adam wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "but I figure if I'm cognizant of that fact and make Lindsay aware of it then I'm already doing better than he ever did."
"Yeah," Austin sniffled despite herself and Adam squeezed her shoulder, "I made Danny promise when Isa was born that if I ever hit either of them he'd take her and run."
"Truth?" He spoke softly, "I made Lindsay promise the same thing."
She gave him a sad smile, "You're not him, Adam. I see you with Colton and Lindsay and you're like… an oversized teddy bear."
"Thank you," He gave her a real smile, "you're not your father either, Austin. You're a good mother and after further inspection your heart isn't made of stone either."
"Tell anyone that fact and they'll never find the body."
"Understood," He chuckled and wiped the tears away from her eyes.
"Okay," Austin shook her head and wiped the tears away, "no more of that."
"And the moment is over."
They settled back into the world of Firefly and got lost in the future until their spouses came in with pizza and the children woke up. Dinner passed in a similar fashion to that of a Brady Bunch episode as they gabbed about their days and teased each other mercilessly. As the Messer-Ross evening drew to a close, Austin pulled her friend into an uncharacteristic hug, "Thank you for today."
"You too." Adam squeezed her back affectionately.
Lindsay turned to her partner with a grin, "You think they're cheating on us?"
"Please," Danny snorted, "she'd be trading down."
"That's my husband you're talking about!" Lindsay pouted and slugged him in the arm. Danny returned the gesture and they quickly devolved to seven year olds in a slap fight.
"CHILDREN!" Austin rolled her eyes as she yelled at them and adjusted the baby on her hip, "behave before I put you both in time out."
"Yes, Mom."
And with that the Messers exited into the cold night air of New York City and Austin's shoulders felt lighter than they had in the longest time. It was almost like having her brother back but Adam somehow understand better than even Andy ever could. She had made a friend and that made her smile.