Better Off Without Me-TCW verse: Chapter1
"Hmm-hm-hm-hmm-hm-hm-hm-hmmm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hmmm" Richard Watterson happily hummed to himself as he finished putting together a delicious looking spaghetti dinner, complete with garlic bread and even salad, while waiting for the rest of The Waterson Family to arrive home on this wonderful and quiet Friday evening. While he'd normally be lounging around until his wife or kids made him get up, Nicole had called him earlier saying something had come up at school, something about Gumball and a flood/explosion or something, and they would all be coming in late.
Over the phone, Richard thought Nicole had sounded even more exasperated and tense than usual, so, wanting to cheer his wife up, he decided to surprise her and the kids with dinner already ready when they walked through the door.
Though as he set the table, he began to wonder if maybe he was going through all this trouble for nothing. After all, they probably worked whatever it was out by the time they left the school and were going to walk through the door any moment now, happy another week was over and they could sit down as a family and eat a nice home cooked meal together, while looking forward to the weekend ahead.
*SLAM!*
The door suddenly swung open with enough force to shake the house. Richard only barely stopped himself from dropping a handful of plates, after being caught off guard by the sudden intrusion. He quickly turned his attention away from the table to see Nicole walking into the house. She looked absolutely livid and he gulped in fear.
After entering her home, Nicole just stood still while fuming with anger. Gumball, Darwin, and Anais slowly and timidly entered the house behind her, as if they were afraid of awakening some kind of monster if they came in too fast. Gumball tried to slink his way towards the stairway, just past his mother, while his siblings hesitated to make any move past entering the house, fearing their mother's wrath.
But as Gumball reached Nicole's side, her arm shot out and ensnared him by his own arm without even having to turn her head. When he reflexively tried to pull away, she tightened her grip to a painful degree until he stopped. "Darwin! Anais! Go to your room. Now." she said bluntly and coldly as the fish and rabbit hurried up the stairs, only stopping briefly to give their brother looks of sympathy from halfway up.
The moment after her younger children had reached the top of the stairs, Nicole roughly pulled Gumball in-front of her and spun him around, so they were face to face. "Okay young man! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?" She yelled while grabbing her son by his upper arms, not caring that her husband was looking at them with concern or that Anais and Darwin had stayed at the top of the stairs to see what was happening instead of going straight to their room.
Gumball just looked down until his mother forcefully lifted his head up by the chin. "Look at me when I talk to you!" Her fiery gaze was now directly borrowing down into his own eyes. Surprisingly, while he was definitely scared to some degree, Gumball's face was more dejected than fearful. "Well?!"
Gumball tried to turn his head to the side, but once again, his mother forced it back towards her. "Mom… I'm sorry," he said nervously before waiting for her response.
"You're 'sorry'?" Nicole's grip on his arms tightened, before she pushed herself off of him, nearly knocking Gumball to the floor in the process. "YOU NEARLY DESTROY THE WHOLE FUCKING SCHOOL!? AND ALL YOU CAN SAY FOR YOURSELF IS YOU'RE 'SORRY'!?" The sheer power of his mother's voice pushed Gumball down, but he got right back up and looked miserably towards the floor again, but stood his ground, even as his mother's flaming eyes stared down at him. The others meanwhile gasped in shock at what they just heard. While they had heard Nicole yell more times than they count, it was unlike her to resort to such foul language.
Despite her anger trying to push her to continue tearing into her son some more, Nicole took a deep breath and tried to continue in the most calm voice she could muster. "Gumball. (inhale and exhale) Today I had to sit down and listen to Principle Brown rant to me about you for at least twohour straight." Gumball rubbed his arm nervously, as the memories of his principle throwing every little screw up he had ever made back in their faces came flooding back. "I had to listen to them threaten to send you to juvenile detention, not for the first time mind you." Tears were starting to form in her eyes. "And also not for the first time, I had to beg and plead with them not to while that decrepit, smug, evil primate bitch! savored every last second of it!" Try as she might to remain calm, Nicole's fury was still threatening to boil over.
"Do you have any idea what it's like for me to hear someone threaten to take my son away from me and lock him up like... like some kind of criminal!?" Gumball remained silent, until Nicole lightly slapped him on the top of the head. "ANSWER ME!" She yelled while grabbing Gumball by the shirt collar.
"I said I was sorry!" Gumball shouted with tear filled eyes as he made a feeble effort to pull away, only managing to stretch his collar in the process.
"Sorry doesn't fucking cut it this time little man! I am fucking sick of having clean up after your screw ups Gumball! Every fucking time I let my guard down and start to think that maybe, just maybe, you've learned your lesson and are going to try to do better, you remind me that that's too fucking good to be true!"
"What the heck do you want me to say!?" In a surprising move, Gumball actually mustered the strength and anger to knock Nicole's arms away and push her back, leaving his mother momentarily stunned. "I'm sorry I'm such a freaking, worthless screw up! I'm sorry I'm such a disappointment to you! IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT TO-"
(SLAP!)
His rant was interrupted by his mother's palm impacting his left cheek with enough force to send him falling to his side. He managed to catch himself, but Nicole once again grabbed him by the collar, forcing him to, then off his feet and pulling him towards her till they were practically nose to nose.
"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!" She screamed while Gumball tried to feebly pull away from her, before just shutting his eyes in fear. "You ungrateful little waste-"
"NICOLE!" Richard called out as he wrapped his arms around his wife's midsection and pulled her from their son, who fell to his hind quarters, wide eyes and shaking in utter terror.
Nicole, now consumed by some kind of animalistic instinct, tried to force her way out of her husband's hold, thrashing wildly and even elbowing him repeatedly in the chest and clawing at his arms. But Richard, fueled by instincts to protect his son, pressed his feet into the floor and held firm, in-spite of her overwhelming strength. "Nicole! Please! Calm down!" He begged with tears now starting to form in his eyes as well. She suddenly stopped her thrashing, her husband's words seemingly getting through.
After a few heavy breaths, Nicole had calmed down enough for Richard to release her, but the atmosphere remained heavy and he continued to stand ready in case things turned violent again. Gumball had gotten back on his feet, but was now facing down and slightly to the side with his arms crossed, trying in vain to stop the tears trickling down his face. Anais and Darwin looked down at the scene with abject terror, not sure whether the worst had passed.
They all stood in place for what seemed like forever. No one was sure what to do or say. Until Nicole spoke up.
"Do you even know what I gave up to have you?" She was looking straight at Gumball. Her fiery gaze had turned stone cold. "How much I sacrificed to bring a child into this world, who just asks me to give more and more? How much disappointment I have had to go through because I cling to the hope that that child was going to turn out to be someone worth all the sacrifice, even though he's caused me and everyone else nothing but trouble his whole life?" She moved closer towards her son, brushing off a hand Richard placed on her shoulder to try and get her to stop. Gumball was now not even bothering to fight back the tears. "Well do you?"
The other three Waterson Family members were in utter shock at what they were hearing. True, they all knew Nicole could be very harsh, but this was just down right cruel. But they were about to get the biggest shock of the night.
Gumball let out a chuckle. Not the genuine, happy kind of laugh of course. This was the kind you make when you're dealing with very intense emotion and your mind can't think of any better response. "Well if I'm such a fucking burden to you, I wish I'd never been born!"
"Good! Because I wish I never had you!" Everyone's jaw dropped at this and silence once again overtook the house. Nicole's hands immediately shot towards her mouth the moment she realized what she just said. Gumball's mouth was left open with shock while they both processed what had just been said.
After another torturously long moment of silence, Nicole gently reached her hand out towards her son. "Gumball…" But he swatted it away and pushed past her as he rushed up the stairs, pushing through his younger siblings along the way, and slamming his door. Nicole meanwhile, was left to ruminate on just what she had done.
A couple minutes slowly ticked by, as Nicole slumped down onto the couch, tears streaming down her face as she processed what just happened. What she just did. Her guilt was growing more and more as the earlier events replayed in her head. Meanwhile, Richard stood behind her, contemplating whether he should try to comfort his wife right now or go upstairs to comfort his son and come back to help her afterwards. Ultimately, he decided to help her out of her funk right now, so they could make things up with Gumball together.
While this was going on, Anais had gotten over the shock of what just happened enough to go check on her older brother with Darwin timidly following suit.
'How the hell could I let things go that far! What kind mother tells own son she wishes she'd never had him!' Nicole was so engrossed in thoughts like these, she hardly noticed when her husband sat down beside her, until he put his comforting hand on her shoulder. She turned to see his sympathetic eyes, which almost made a half-smile appear on her face. But she was soon hit by another wave of guilt upon laying her eyes on the claw marks she left on his arm, that were only saved from being more serious injuries due to his thick layer of fat.
"Oh Richard," she said while shaking her head and sniffling. "How could I have been so harsh with him? What the hell came over me?!"
"Sh-sh" Richard pulled his wife into a hug. "There there. I know you didn't mean it honey. You just let your temper get the best of you is all," he said, gently rubbing her back while she buried the side of her face in his chest.
"That's no excuse Richard. We both know what I did was wrong. And now… now Gumball's probably going to hate me forever! Just like I hated my parents!" She burst out crying into her husband's chest.
"Gumball's not going to hate you honey. He loves you! And you love him! You two may have your little spats… some a little more intense than others, but you mean the world to each other! You both know that." He looked down at her with a big smile on his face that could melt a heart shaped glacier as he gave her a moment to take in his words.
Nicole was still wracked with guilt over what she had done and knew it could not be brushed off so easily, regardless of how much they loved each other. But her husband's kind words were at least enough to help her calm herself down. "So, what do you say honey? Let's go upstairs and show Gumball you don't wish he wasn't born!" She cringed at his choice of words, but put a smile on anyway when she looked back at him to show she was ready.
But as they were getting up, they heard running coming from upstairs, heading down and turned their heads just in time to see Anais and Darwin tripping over each other as they reached the bottom floor. The kids jumped back onto their feet as their parents rushed to check on them.
"Mom! Dad! Gumball! Gone!" They exclaimed in unison.
"What?" Nicole asked while her panicking youngest children caught their breath. Anais was the first to regain her composure.
"It's Gumball! Mom… he's missing!"
A/N: Well, there's the first chapter folks. I kind of feel bad with starting my first Gumball fic on such a serious note, but that's the story I felt like telling. Though hopefully it won't turn out all gloomy in the end.
I think I'm happy with how this chapter turned out, all things considered, though I debated for a long while if I should this should be two chapters instead of one. I was tempted to end the first chapter just after Gumball ran upstairs and Nicole was realizing what she did. That felt like an appropriate end point to me. But then again, part of me just kinda needed to include that little cool down scene between Nicole and Richard. Also, does anyone feel like I took Nicole's little episode here a little far?
One other thing I was a bit concerned about, was if the set up was a little too familiar to "The Argument". I tried to keep similarities to a minimum and I did come up with this story independently, I just hope you all don't think I'm trying to rip it off is all.