Of course he isn't going to tell her. Of course the name 'Sharon Beck' is never going to pass over his lips to the woman he's grown to call his mother after all these years. Not any time soon at least. Rusty sits in his car yet again, watching as Sharon Beck leaves the doctor's office she's worked at for the past year or so. He bites his lip, today was going to be different. Today he was going to follow her. He'd see where she lives, see if anything was different.
Then he'd go. He'd leave and never look back.
At least, he hopes he can.
Rusty tries to stay at a safe distance. This is illegal, he knows. This is a violation of her privacy, he knows. However, leaving him at a zoo and abandoning him was a violation of his childhood.
"This reminds me of when Eve was a baby." Sharon swayed from foot to foot, her newborn granddaughter in her arms, "She had to be held. Hated being put down. Always needed something." She huffed a soft chuckle to herself, "Charlie would...he wasn't really there much, but there was something about him that...he'd just put her on his chest and she'd just fall asleep. Just like that. It didn't last long. He was gone too often."
"What about Katie?" Rusty smiled sweetly, he loved watching Sharon being motherly. It was her element when she let it be. "Katie was like that too with you."
"Like you, maybe. She didn't let me be like that with her." She shrugs, "But it's okay. Katherine and I are much better now." Taking a seat next to him, she watched her sleeping granddaughter's face, "Hopefully Eve will have it much easier with this one than what I had with her."
He tilted his head to the side, "What do you mean?"
"Postpartum depression was pretty bad for me with her at first. Eve can't risk that. Not with all the progress she's made since she was in the hospital before." Sharon shook her head, "It's important that we help her as much as possible to prevent it."
"You think that will do it?" Rusty shrugged, "I think spending time with her in general will help. Maybe that's what made it bad for you. You were alone."
She fell silent for a moment before nodding, "You're right."
"She's not alone, mom." He shook his head, "Neither are you. Not anymore." Rusty saw the slight tears in her eyes, "Family sticks together."
He didn't realize he had fallen asleep watching her. He saw the children run from the house greeting her. Rusty has biological siblings that he never known existed. He wonders if they know about him.
Tapping. Hard tapping with something heavy. Rusty opens his eyes quickly, looking from window to window. The glimmer of a gun catches his eye. He swallows, sitting up more.
"Get out of the car." The voice was raspy, strong. Rusty could hear it through the glass of his driver side door. He's heard that voice before.
Rusty slowly glances to the man's face. He'd suffered many punches at the hands of this man many years ago. He goes to reach for the car keys to the ignition.
"Don't do it...I'll shoot."
He knows this man means it. He slowly lowers his hand with the keys inside, opening his door with the other. "I don't want any trouble, Gary."
Gary chuckles, "I'll be damned. Rusty!" He looks genuinely happy to see the young man before him, "Hell, I hardly even recognized you in there. You've grown so much." When he doesn't receive a response from the young man in front of him, he continues, "You want to come in? Your mother would love-"
"She's not my mother." Rusty's tone is cold, confident.
"Alright...fine. What are you doing following my wife?" The other man circles around him, his appearance changing over the years. Khaki slacks and a powder blue oxford shirt, pair of loafers donning his feet. Blonde hair cut perfectly and clean shaven. This was a man that had taken his time to clean himself up in more ways than one.
"You don't need to know that."
"You're right. I don't." Gary nods, holding the gun at his side, "I could call the police...they might want to know."
"I...I needed to know she was okay." Rusty blurts, still looking at just about anything but the man in front of him, "I wanted to know she wasn't living in her car anymore."
"Well, now you know." He shrugs, "Where did you see her?"
"That doesn't matter."
Gary smirks, motioning toward the house, "Let's go."
Rusty swallows, shaking his head, "I don't-"
"It wasn't an option. I said let's go." He pokes the pistol into the younger man's back, where it meets his ribs. "If you see any one of my kids, you aren't going to say a damn word to them. You're going to remain silent and you aren't going to try a damn thing. You understand?"
The gun doesn't feel very well poked into him this way, he'll do anything the man says at this point in order to make him stop, "Yeah." He answers quietly.
"Sometimes there's things I'm going to not want you to tell Mom, Rusty." Eve shrugged, taking a drag of her cigarette. She holds it out after, flicking the ashes into the slightly open window of her car, "This is one of them."
"That you smoke?" Rusty furrowed his brow, "Mom smokes sometimes. Mostly when she's really stressed."
The young women appeared surprised, "Still?"
"Yeah, well, I mean...she just has to be super stressed. Like...a tough case or a child murder at work. Something that takes a lot out of her. One cigarette and she's finished, usually. I mean, if that's what helps, than that's what helps."
"She told me she quit years ago." Eve laughed to herself, "It's not a big deal, but I still don't want you to tell Mom."
"Fine." He nodded.
"Fine." She replied, mirroring his response.
"And I don't want you to tell Mom I'm gay." Rusty blurt out, knowing it was the only way he could.
"You do you, brother." Eve reached her other hand over to give his leg a gentle squeeze as they sat at a red light. "You tell her when you're ready...if you ever feel ready."
"May I speak to your brother, please? Also, ask him why his cell phone is off." Sharon Flynn cradles her mobile phone between her ear and shoulder, easier said than done, but she's done it many times before. "All he had to do was call and tell me he was staying with you overnight." She takes a sip of her mug of coffee as she scrolls through her emails on her iPad.
Eve bites her lips, unknowing what to say, "Hold on one second." She lowers the phone, knowing darn well that her brother isn't there and he left at a reasonable time the day before. Raising the phone, she replies, "He's still sleeping, Mom. I'll tell him to call you when he wakes up."
The elder of the two checks her wristwatch with a furrowed brow, "It's nearly ten. He's usually up at nine, out of habit."
"I don't really know what to tell you. He had a nice, quiet house to sleep in last night, I guess." She knows her mother will catch her lie, "I already said I'll tell him to call you. Why isn't that enough?"
"Because I'm worried about him." Sharon sighs, "It's what I do. You know that."
"He's a grown man, Mom." Eve smirks slightly.
She rolls her eyes, "None of you are grown, as far as I'm concerned." She takes another sip of coffee, "Where's your brother?" She asks again.
"Mom." The younger of the two warns.
Chad sat on his bed, all of twelve, playing his handheld gaming system. He picks his head up when his bedroom door swung open forcefully, his sister standing there, "Can I help you?"
"You little shit." Eve glared, "You had to get me in trouble?"
"What are you talking about?"
She jumped toward him, sitting on top of him on his bed, ready to punch him, "Mom, somehow, knew that I wasn't in my room last night. Somehow, Chaddy, she knew where I went and who I was with."
"Because all your friends are stupid and you always hang with the same people." Chad groaned, "Come on, Eve! It isn't my fault! You gotta believe me. She just knows!"
Eve sighed, getting off of her brother, "You're right." She tucked her hair behind her ear, "She can tell when we're lying."
The young boy nodded, "She knew I joined the football team without telling her."
"That's because you came home and asked for shoulder pads and football cleats...just for fun. Not to mention you were missing homework and 'hanging out with friends' more often. You weren't exactly very good at hiding it."
"I tried though." Chad shrugged.
Eve tilted her head to the side, "I climbed up the ladder, like I usually do. I was so freaking quiet. Like...spy quiet." She started to speak with her hand, "I open the window and there she was, standing there. Turned my lights on. Nearly scared the shit out of me. She was like, 'no hanging out with friends for a month'. For a month! It's practically social suicide." She folded her leg over the other, "I'm allowed to go to clubs and sports...and I'm to be home immediately after. I'm not allowed to have a real life for a month."
"A month isn't really that long." The young man tries to point out, "Only four weeks...thirty days."
"You're not in high school. You'd understand if you were in high school."
Chad glanced toward her, "Do the months get longer?"
Eve rolled her eyes, rising from the bed, "Smartass." She mumbled as she left his room.