That's the Way We Are
Emmett drives her home.
Bay takes off the helmet and gets off the bike, smoothing out her skirt. Still wearing his helmet, Emmett curls up three of his middle fingers and holds his hand up to where his ear would be. Bay nods, getting the message. "Yeah, I'll definitely talk to you later."
Emmett nods back and revs his engine once before riding off. She sighs, almost wondering why she wasn't caught getting off of a motorcycle right in front of her house. But she figures her parents must be out, Toby must be in his room, and Daphne's deaf. For the first time in a while, she seriously feels as if she's dodged a bullet.
Just then, a 1996 Toyota pulls up to the guesthouse and the engine cuts off before Regina gets out.
And, once again, the universe finds a way to make sure that bullet comes around full circle. She rolls her eyes at the irony and turns around to face her biological mother, innocent smile in place. "Hey, Regina."
Regina smiles, "Hi, Bay. You haven't seen Daphne, have you? I just saw Emmett leave."
Bay's lips quirk, "No, I haven't. I don't really see her at school, either."
"Huh," Regina said, the cogs in her mind spinning accordingly. "Then what was Emmett doing here?"
"He..." Bay began anxiously. "He dropped me off."
Regina's chestnut eyes widen in slight surprise. "Oh. And what about Daphne?"
Bay opens her mouth, not sure of what answer to give, but the guesthouse door opens and Daphne emerges with a smile at her mom and Bay. Regina turns to her with a relieved smile, "Hey, baby girl." With every word she says, the older woman sighs each with certainty, and in a synchronized pattern. Bay watches intently as Regina asks Daphne how she got home.
"Oh, I got a ride home from Wilke, Toby's friend." Daphne answers easily and Regina looks between the two 16 year old girls.
"Did you guys switch riding buddies today, or something?" She says, gesturing to both of them, and Daphne looks at Bay, and then back to Regina.
"What are you talking about?" Daphne asks questioningly.
"Bay rode home with Emmett today," Regina says before Bay could and this just got really, really awkward. Daphne's expressive green eyes cut to Bay, and Bay winces under the glare.
"Emmett? Since when do you two talk? How can you even-" Daphne stumbles, unaware of how to proceed while still processing the information. "Why do you get to be friends, or even more than friends, with people I know, but I can't with people you know?"
It's not that; look, I'm sorry about what happened with Liam. I didn't actually think you'd break up with him and I shouldn't have made you feel like I have dibs on Buckner Hall. I don't, and I'm sorry," Bay says pleadingly with wide, dark eyes.
Daphne isn't convinced and shakes her head. "And Emmett? How do you even manage to meet my friends?"
"He was waiting for you today and-"
"He got held up," Daphne nods knowingly with a frown. "So, you held him up?"
Bay huffs through her nose; there's no way she's getting out of this without a tongue lashing of some sort, so instead of beating around the bush, she decides honesty is the best policy and since both Regina and Daphne are in front of her, she can kill two birds with the same signing stone. She raises a hand to her chest, gesturing herself, "I'm looking," She holds a finger to her eye. "For." She childishly holds up four fingers. "My father," She gestures to herself again before tapping the thumb of her spread out hand against her forehead.
Daphne's eyes widen incredulously and she looks between both dark haired women before retreating back into the guesthouse, slamming the front door.
Bay sighs. "That went well."
"Yeah," Regina agrees. "So, why so eager about…your father?" Regina's hand goes to rest on her hips with a quirked brow.
"Wouldn't you be?" Bay asks with imploring wide eyes. "You could always just…tell me."
"I could," Regina readily agrees. "But then, you'd still go looking, wouldn't you?" She asks knowingly, and Bay tentatively consents the point. She would still go looking. "Well then, you tell me if you get in contact with him and how you like it, I won't stop you." Regina nods and she heads up the walkway to the guesthouse and Bay's sure that while Regina may not be thrilled with it, she's taking it much better than Daphne.
Thank God for that.
Bay whips out her cell phone and rapidly types: Daphne knows. In serious need of damage control s'il vous plait! And clicks send with a smiley face.
Emmett receives the message and smirks at the bit of French at the end with a shake of his head.
She's cute, okay? She just is.
He sends her back a quick text of his own: I got it, she'll be fine, and then goes to text Daphne, who he's sure is more upset at the situation than him or Bay if he knows her. And he does know her.
His mom leaves the house for a parent/teacher conference, and his dad hasn't been in the house for a few days, something Emmett is slowly getting used to.
He doesn't want to get used to it.
He looks for a distraction in something, anything, and his thoughts lead him to the basement and his drum set. He pounds on it once, twice, clashes the cymbal with his drumstick, but he can hear nothing. He closes his eyes and he can feel the steady thrum in his chest, but it's still nothing.
He wants to feel something, and so he texts Bay. Tells her that the coast is clear and that she should come over, even though he told her they can resume tomorrow. But why leave something for the future when you can do it in the present?
He drums and drums and drums because at least he can pretend that the pounding in his chest is from an outside force and not because of the cute text Bay sent him back, or because she's coming over to his house, or even that he'll be alone with her. It's nothing, just like the sounds that he can't hear, just like the fact that he likes spending time with her, just like how mad Daphne seemed earlier when he tried to explain the situation, it's all nothing.
He's helping Bay find her father.
He's helping Daphne find her answer.
He feels nothing but friendship for either of them.
So why didn't he tell Daphne about Bay earlier?
Because there was nothing to tell, he convinces himself. That's why. There's nothing to tell.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
A smile comes to her face when he opens his front door and if her dark eyes glitter in some sort of adulation, it's because he continuously seems to amaze her.
An eight year old Emmett had more courage than any adult she's ever met in her entire life. So a sixteen year old Emmett is just that more amazing and conscientious and it's inspiring. She'll go to her art studio later that night and blame it on her pining for Ty, but instead of stark and bold colors, she'll use earthy tones. Russets and reds and blues and greens, colors that remind her of Emmett.
Daphne, calming down from her prior anger, told her the story. The story that defined and changed her outlook as a person all because an eight year old boy saw injustice occurring and decidedly put a stop to it. Daphne was vulnerable and unwanted and made fun of. She didn't know about ASL and she wasn't exposed to people who were just like her. And even though she had Ty, who was more understanding than children his age and willing to look after her, it didn't fill the void because he was a few years older, which meant that he wasn't in her grade, which meant they only saw each other before and after school.
Well, Ty was absent, one day. So, after one full day of teasing and loneliness, Daphne practically ran to the door when it was time to leave. Unfortunately, two girls followed her lead and before they could say anything, eight year old Emmett came running up. And eight year old Emmett stopped them and scolded them and scared them and took Daphne away to meet his family, who was just like him and her. That was how she discovered ASL. That was how she found her best friend.
So, as Daphne tells her story, her eyes light up and Bay's soften. And when Emmett opens his door, her eyes light up and she has a stinging smile plastered on her face. It's only when he looks at her and asks if she's okay that she realizes it. The smile falls and she gestures to the garage and she may or may not have just made herself look like the village idiot. But that's okay because somehow, she doesn't think Emmett would question her sanity too much.
They go to his garage and scour through some boxes for a while. She looks back at Emmett, who's donning an eye patch and pirate's hat and she bites her lower lip to stop the laugh that what's to bubble through when he mimics a pirate's jig. She shakes her head, "You don't make a scary pirate."
He points to himself, expression dimmed and disappointed with a slight shake of his head.
"No," Bay says, amused. Emmett takes the hat and patch off and Bay sighs, looking around with a shake of her head. "I don't think the," She air guitars and pretends she's closing an invisible case. "Guitar case, is in here."
Emmett shrugs.
"We would've found it by now," She mutters, and spots a black suitcase. She takes it down and lays it on the table, and Emmett stands by her side as she opens it and looks in a small manila envelope. A cassette tape cover comes out and it's for Regina. "So the baby knows good music, all my love –A.S." She looks back at Emmett, who's surveying the cover in her hands. "A.S. That has to be my father. He can be Adam, or Aaron, or Andrew-"
Emmett pretends to wield a light saber. Anakin Skywalker.
"Or, whoever that is!" Bay agrees gleefully, not really understanding who he meant. She looks through the suitcase again and finds a birth certificate. Daphne's birth certificate. Her birth certificate.
Emmett looks between her and the paper and it's odd to see that the Daphne on the paper is really the Bay in front of him. She was born October 22, 1995 and at 1:22 in the early morning hours, and she was 6.5 Lbs. A small, small Bay. Or Daphne, as she was at the time.
Mother's maiden name: Regina Vasquez.
Father's name: Angelo Sorrento.
"Oh my god, that's my dad," Bay says, looking between the paper and the auburn haired boy next to her. "My dad is Angelo Sorrento; Angelo Sorrento is my dad!" She bounces up and embraces him and Emmett doesn't know what it is, but he likes being close to her and he's happy that she's one step closer to finding her father.
She lets him go, clutching the certificate, and his arm lingers around her waist. Bay looks at him, "Emmett," Her eyes wide and alight, she brings her fingers up to her lips and extends them forward, just like he taught her earlier. "Thank you so much for doing this, for helping me." She doesn't know another way to express her gratitude, so she embraces him again.
And this time, she isn't so quick to let go.
Bay goes home and she practically floats across the walkway and up to her room. She gets on her laptop and starts searching Angelo Sorrento, anything she can find. In the world, there are 147 results. In the US alone, there are 45. 3 of them live in the tri-city area. One of them is hers.
And that's exactly what she texts him that night. Her fingers sweep over the keypad without stopping and she couldn't stop smiling if she tried.
About twenty minutes away, Emmett smiles.
She's one step closer to finding her father.
And he's one step closer to her.
Okay, so, that covers 1x06. pixiie18 wanted more of a focus on Bemmett, so I tried to do that in this chapter; GG wanted a Bay/Regina scene, so there you go (and I agree, they definitely need more scenes in canon!) And 0appletree0 owns a Holga (which is so cool, I only have a digital camera, but I love taking photos with it). I've noticed a few of you are liking Daphne/Wilke, they'll show up in the upcoming chapter. Even though I favor them as a couple, I'm still planning on doing a Wilke/Daphne/Liam…thingy, I'll figure it out. Also, the chapters are going un-beta'd, thus the mistakes, I'll try to get to them. If anyone is willing to beta, just leave a review/PM.
If there's anything, anything at all, that you want to see, you need only review or PM.
Thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed, faved and alerted. 3 chapters, 20 favs, 75 alerts, and 50 reviews later, the feedbacks been amazing guys. Please keep it up and I promise you'll get that next chapter a lot quicker~
DAC