Chapter 6! I'm so sorry to keep you all waiting.
Thank you to everyone reading; those who have been here from the start, and those who have just found this story, I'm absolutely overwhelmed by the response!
This chapter's a bit shorter than the rest but I just kind of liked it the way it was. Please, enjoy :)
…
After hearing for the first time a little about his birth mother, Elliot had made it pretty clear that he didn't want to talk about it or be disturbed, but Sawyer being Sawyer ignores his requests completely. She lets herself into her big brother's room without bothering to knock and wait for an invitation in. There, she finds him sat on the floor, his gifted box open at his side.
At the interruption of his sister, Elliot swiftly pushes the variety of papers, artwork and photographs back into the box.
"El?" Her voice is just above a whisper, broken and afraid. Elliot's never been able to ignore that in her.
His eyes snap up, his deep blue meeting her watery greens. He almost smiles, "How do you always do that?"
"It's a gift." She sighs, plopping herself down on the carpet beside him. Her eyes graze the box and she arches her brow, "I thought you didn't want to talk about it?"
He sets his jaw, "I don't."
"Come on," Sawyer nudges him with her shoulder, "You can't ignore this. That's the dumbest idea you've ever had."
"No offence, Sawy, but you haven't got the first idea of what the hell this feels like." Elliot tells her in a level voice. He shakes his head slowly, his eyes prickling with tears.
She shuffles so that she's sat in front of him and gives him her best stare, "Then tell me. Talk to me, Elliot. I know you have this brooding thing that everyone always jokes about but it's not actually funny. It sucks because I can't tell what you're really feeling, and you know how impatient I am, I can't wait for you to process this."
"Well that's real understanding of you, thanks." Elliot scoffs.
Sawyer drops her head, "You're right, okay, I don't know how this feels. I haven't got the first idea. But do you know what I do understand? How it feels to see every member of my family falling apart. You're closing yourself off, Mom's crying her way through the laundry and Dad's drowning himself in the shower. And you're the only one who can change it."
"Why should I?" Elliot bites back, looking back at his sister all he can see is the mirror of their Mom's face. "They've been lying to me my entire life."
"And you've been happy your entire life." Sawyer offers. "Elliot, this isn't going away. Like, ever. We need to deal with it."
Elliot looks up at his sister, aghast, "Sawyer, I can't even get my head around it. I've justbeen told that Mom isn't my Mom. I've just been told that some other woman was made so depressed by giving birth to me that she gave up on me! I've just been told all that and you've just been told that you're a miracle baby, that you were wanted more than anything. So don't tell me to deal with this, you don't get to do that, you of all people."
Her eyes flash with tears. Elliot's the calm one, somehow, through means Sawyer's never understood, he's always been good at keeping his cool. It's always her who lets her temper rule her words, her who speaks before she thinks, her who says things that can't be taken back. She's never heard him say anything so cutting. She's been on the wrong end of a sharp tongue before - her best friend Lacey has comebacks that sting like acid - but nothing has ever hurt her like Elliot's words.
"That's not fair." Sawyer says, leaning away from him.
Elliot regrets his words the instant that they leave his mouth. He's never enjoyed conflict or arguing; he's never seen the point in it and for this very reason. He hates the spite of it, the hurt, and most of all, the time after the apology where things are not quite as they were before.
"I'm sorry." He says. "Sawy, I'd never wish this on you."
"Don't push me out, okay? Just because it's not happening to me." Sawyer says. "Don't do that!"
"Hey," Their father's voice cuts through the room. It's not scolding or harsh but it's enough to make both his children stop and stare. He leans in the doorway, his hair still wet from the shower, squinting over his two kids. "Everything alright in here?"
"Hi, Dad." Sawyer says nervously.
Elliot lifts himself from the floor, "We're good, right, ET?"
Finally Sawyer smiles, "Yeah, we're good."
"Okay." Lucas isn't convinced but he knows when to stop pushing, "So where did Mom go?"
From the identical blank expressions he receives in response, he can tell that they don't know.
"Mom went out?" Sawyer asks, wrinkling her nose.
Lucas nods to his daughter, "I heard the Comet tear off a couple of minutes ago. There's a rattle in that engine again."
Elliot's smile ghosts to his lips, he loves the way his Dad's so protective over his Mom. They're not like other parents he knows; buckled by routine with their romantic years only a distant memory, they still really love each other. He's rolling the thought over in his mind when a contradiction hits him.
He turns his head to look up at his Dad, swallowing down the sickly feeling in his throat, "Am I the result of an affair?"
Lucas looks taken aback by the question and Sawyer even gasps a little under her breath. Elliot just stares on defiantly. He knows that his Mom and Dad were on and off from the time they first locked eyes, practically until they married, but he's not sure when the dips and the highs fit in exactly.
"You are not the product of an affair." Lucas confirms, his voice completely level. "When I find Mom we can talk about it, if you're ready?"
"Yeah, maybe." Elliot offers only a partial commitment.
Waving his hand, Lucas shakes his head, "Whenever you're ready. I'm going to go and find out where your Mom's gone, if you two are alright here?"
Sawyer frowns to her Dad, "Why are you so worried about Mom? She's probably gone to Aunt B's."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Lucas agrees but it's clear that there's no conviction in his words.
"We'll be fine." Elliot answers his Dad's earlier question. The look in his eyes says that he knows his Mom going missing has everything to do with the Lindsey situation.
Recognising the feeling in the air finally, Sawyer bites down on her lower lip. "Okay. You want a rootbeer float, El?"
Elliot smiles at his baby sister, rootbeer floats are her's and their Mom's answer to any problem, "Sure thing. How about a movie too?"
Sawyer grins back, not needing to ask which movie. Where she always reaches for a rootbeer float, Elliot always watches his favourite movie from their childhood to make everything feel better.
…
Peyton slams her car door behind her and powers up the driveway to Nathan and Haley's house. She tries in vain not to pay attention to the unfamiliar car sat out front. She tries not to notice the cream leather seats and the designer label luggage sat on the back seat. She attempts ignoring the sleek black bodywork, polished immaculately. She tries, she does, but all she can see sitting on Nathan and Haley's driveway is seventeen years of birthday presents, seventeen years of new clothes and food on the table, seventeen years of not giving a damn.
Until now.
Making a tight fist, Peyton thumps on the front door, more aggressively than she'd intended. She's angry though, well, that's an understatement, she's mad as hell. Seeing Lindsey's other lifestyle, the one she chose over her perfect baby boy, is not making this any easier. She's sure some would view her anger as resentment; a grudge for having to bring Elliot up, but it's not. Her anger is at Lindsey for denying Elliot her love for so long, for spending it instead on material things, things that don't matter, when she had a little boy tucked away in this quiet town for so long. A little boy who is now going to feel Peyton's pain ten times over.
She's dragged from her thoughts as Nathan pulls open the door and sighs over her. She grits her teeth in response, she doesn't need sympathy right now. She loves him for it but right now she just wants him to take her to Lindsey.
"Let me in, Nathan." She says as evenly as she can.
Her brother-in-law's eyes fly over her, his brow pinching as he takes in her thin cardigan and slippers. "You don't want to go in there."
"I need to see her."
"I get that." Nathan speaks to her with his eyes, sincerity flooding through them. "I do, okay? But do you really want to do this now? Do you really want to do this when you're this angry, when you're on your own?"
Lifting her hand, Peyton holds out a sealed envelope to him. Her throat tightens as she goes to speak again, ensuring her voice will shake with unshed tears. "I just found this, in the mail box. It's addressed to Elliot and it's from her! In the mail box where either of the kids could have found it!"
Nathan nods to tell her he gets it and steps outside into the cold with her, clicking the door shut behind him. His expression becomes sterner, "What does it say?"
She shrugs and sinks down into a seated position on the step, "I didn't open it."
"I can, if you want." Nathan offers, sitting down beside her and resting his arms on his knees, "If it's too hard, or whatever."
Peyton shakes her head, taking a moment before she speaks to try and warn away her tears. "It's not that." She begins in a broken tone, "I don't want to read it, not really. It's Elliot's and it's from Lindsey. It's private, I guess. But I cannot have her sneaking him notes behind our backs. I can't have her calling the shots. She got to do that seventeen years ago. She kept Elliot from Lucas for eighteen months, she then introduced them with no warning and organised the adoption without even consulting us. All on her terms. Not this time. Especially not now he's old enough to realise what's going on."
"I get that. I'll make sure she knows if you like." Nathan says.
She manages a weak smile in reply, "What, you're scared if I go in there I'll break down crying or something?"
Nathan stutters a short laugh and reaches over to wipe away some of her tears, "Are you kidding? I'm scared you're gonna go in there and sucker punch her."
He said it to try and make her laugh too but instead she dissolves into more tears, covering her face with her hands. As her shoulders shake with sobs, Nathan wraps an arm around her and whispers to her softly.
"Hey, hey, Peyton, come on we'll get through it. It'll be okay."
She pulls away from him and shakes her head. "You're right. I probably would punch her. I'm so scared, Nathan. She always brings out the worst in me, the absolute worst. And I don't want Elliot and Sawyer to see that."
"Your worst is better than most people's best. You have nothing to worry about." Nathan tries to assure her before changing the subject slightly, "How's Elliot anyway?"
Peyton gives a strained look, "He's reminding me of myself at that age. With the weight of the world on his shoulders and absolutely no idea of how to deal with it. I want to just take it all on for him but I can't. Currently he's locked away in his room refusing to address the whole thing. And Sawyer's the opposite, desperate to know everything and sulking with every new bit of information she learns."
"Elliot's got something you never had at his age, something none of us had; he's got two parents who would do anything for him." Nathan points out. "And Sawyer, well she's Sawyer. Hell or high water, she'll be okay."
"I hope so." Peyton says, turning her head towards the sound of a new car crunching gravel on the drive.
They both watch, from their perch at the front door, as Lucas' mustang rolls to a stop and he leans out of the driver's window to deliver a concerned gaze, "You okay, Wifey?"
She loves that he addresses her first despite the fact that Lindsey is just inside.
"We should go home." Peyton tells him, lifting to her feet.
Lucas' eyes linger over the black sedan for a moment before he removes his gaze. "Is everything good here?"
Nathan scoffs, "Not the word I'd use but it's under control. You just see that those kids of yours are alright. I'll take care of this."
"Where are Elliot and Sawyer?" Peyton asks as she goes towards her car.
Smirking, Lucas shakes his head, "They're curled up on the coach watching ET."
…
Lucas found his wife in the kitchen, cleaning out bottles and tippee cups. He jerked his thumb back towards the connecting family room, a frown etched over his brow, "Are you sure that ET is age appropriate?"
"What?" Peyton stuttered a laugh, as she set down the dishcloth, "It's a great movie!"
He scoffed, "So is The Exorcist but I'm not about to let two toddlers watch it."
"With the twisty head girl? Are you kidding? They thought it was hilarious. We do the horror genre before nap time." Peyton smirked, "Come on, it's ET. It's about a goofy little alien who makes friends with a little family. It's cute."
"Ye-ah," Lucas said in his usual drawn out way. "Real cute."
Peyton rolled her eyes and grabbed for Lucas' hand, pulling him after her. "They've laughed the whole way through, just watch them."
Lucas arched his brow but obliged, stood beside her at the side of the room. Even though the little boy on screen was crying in his last goodbye to ET, the kids were giggling at the little alien's every move.
"They really like it." Lucas conceded with a shake of his head as he stepped forward to join his favourite little girl and guy.
Laughing, Peyton followed him, slipping onto the couch and pulling Elliot onto her lap. She pressed a kiss to his darkening blonde hair, "Kiddo, tell Daddy how much you like ET."
"Shhh, Momma." Elliot insisted, bringing a cute chubby finger to his lips in an action he'd seen his parents perform many times before, usually in the grocery store with an excitable Sawyer.
Beside him, his little sister only squealed in response. At just over eighteen months, she still wasn't talking. She said the odd 'Ma' or 'Dada' but nothing much outside of baby babble. Lucas was a little concerned but Peyton thought it was just because her big brother usually understood exactly what she wanted without Sawyer having to vocalise it. She believed would speak when she was good and ready.
Above Elliot's head, Peyton sent a smirk to her husband. If Elliot shushing them wasn't proof enough that they loved this movie, nothing was. In response Lucas held his hands up in surrender and returned a grin. He snuggled up to his baby girl and looked down at her like she was insane for laughing so hard at the most soul destroying part of the movie.
"ET go home." Elliot announced in a cute little sing-song voice that only a two and a half year old could get away with.
Peyton smiled, "That's right, Baby, he's gone back home."
Lucas shook his head, "These kids are completely insane. This is like the saddest movie ever and these little monsters are creased up."
"It's a good thing they're cute." Peyton agreed, "Because they're total weirdos."
As they laughed, the kids slipped down from the couch, Elliot singing away about ET and Sawyer giggling after him.
"ET go home, ET go home!" Elliot chanted as he wrapped a towel around Sawyer's head in the style of ET himself.
Sawyer laughed out loud, "Ell-ee-ott!"
The room stopped and all three of the older Scotts turned to stare at Sawyer who just frowned back at them in her adorable baby way.
Elliot pointed to his little sister and looked back at his Mom and Dad, "Sawyer said Elliot!"
"She sure did! Come here, you little genius!" Lucas laughed and rushed to scoop Sawyer up into his arms. She looked up at him bewildered as he bounced her in his arms, "That's my girl."
Peyton laughed at the scene before her, happy tears sparkling in her eyes. She caught Lucas' gaze and shook her head, "Her first word was Elliot!"
"Again, again!" Elliot chanted, "Say Elliot!"
Sawyer, still holding the towel around her head burst into another smattering of laughter, "Elli-ot!"
"She's been saving this up." Lucas remarked with a shake of his head.
"Most likely." Peyton agreed. "Look at her with that thing on her head, yelling out to Elliot. She's like a little ET herself."
Elliot burst out laughing, "ET, ET! you're ET!"
Sawyer, in her adorable way just giggled back, "Elliot!"
"Come play, ET." Elliot said, holding his hand out to his baby sister who, no matter how much she would try and shake it off over the years, would remain ET to him forever.
…
Peyton smiles in the doorway at the sight of her two children sat together on the couch, completely engrossed by the movie they've loved since they were tiny. She feels Lucas' hand wrap around her own and give her a squeeze of reassurance. She smiles back at him and leads them through to the kitchen to put some popcorn in the microwave.
As they wait for the snack to pop, Peyton leans back against the countertop and eyes her husband, "Aren't they a little old for that movie?"
Lucas arches his brow, his eyes smiling back at her, "It's a great movie. It's about a goofy little alien, it's cute."
She smirks, knowing that she's mocking him for the time he caught her showing it to two toddlers. Peyton would argue that Sawyer cries over the movie more now than she ever did at two years old.
"So," Lucas assesses his wife carefully with his eyes, "What were you doing over at Nathan and Haley's? I thought we'd do this together. All of it."
Peyton sighs softly, "We will. We are. I'm sorry, I just got so mad…I found this in the mailbox."
She holds the note up between her fingers, Elliot's name written in beautiful script on the front of the envelope.
"What does it say?" Lucas asks, his voice thick.
A glitter of amusement passes by Peyton's eye at Lucas' reaction matching that of his brother. "I don't know, I didn't open it. I couldn't read his letter."
"Did you see Lindsey?" Lucas asks, as the popcorn pings behind him, almost afraid of hearing the answer.
"No." Peyton replies, her voice laced with slight relief. "Nathan talked me out of it. I don't think I'm ready to see her yet anyway."
Lucas nods solemnly as the microwave bleeps, "Together, we'll do it together."
Peyton nods and slips the envelope into her back pocket before pouring the prepared popcorn into a bowl, "Shall we join them, or do you think they want some space?"
"What they want isn't always what they need." Lucas reminds her, stepping towards the lounge. Peyton gives a soft smile and follows on after him.
When they enter the room, Elliot looks up at his parents. His eyes meet his Mom's and he smiles weakly, moving along on the couch to make some more room.
Sawyer glances up at the movement and checks that her brother is okay with the arrivals before speaking, "If you've got warm popcorn you better get over here quick, the movie's just getting good."
"All of this movie's good." Elliot corrects as his Mom slides onto the arms of the couch beside him, popcorn in hand.
Peyton smiles to herself at the feeling of normalcy that's washing over her. She knows that both Sawyer and Elliot are fearful that everything is going to change with the revelation of Lindsey, but Peyton wants to prove to them that they are still the family that they have been for the last sixteen years.
Nothing is going to change that, no matter how hard Lindsey may try, she will not break the unit that Peyton and Lucas have created.
…
Thank you again and sorry for the shortness. I'd love to hear what you think! Lexie :)