Title: Bass Family Brood
Chapter 16: Stop Running
Author: Ellibells
Summary: Post season 3; Bass brood growing up which is based upon my original fic Mr Chuck and Mrs Blair Bass. Chair are married with a full brood of children including Teddy and Evie who are original characters from my Mr Chuck and Mrs Blair Bass: Part 2. Bass Brood central with NJBC… Fluffy, humour, protective Daddy's, fluff, more babies and pure Bass family fun! "And where do you think you are going dressed like that, Evie Grace Bass?"
A/N: Dare I say it? I am back with weekly updates, which of course, I think we all need! Thank you GGwriters…(barf)
THANK YOU! For everyone who is still reading! Brought a tear to my eyes that you are all still there somewhere! heehee!
Some of you requested some Teddy time? Well, well, well…looky what I have here! Hahah! Need I say more? I do apologise for it being so short but I will probs be updating again this weekend so yeah! :D Enjoy this, little angsty but some good Teddy/Evie time :)
Thank you to everyone who is still reading this and keeping me writing! I am back in the saddle people! :D
"I can remember the last time I ate so much! Why is Lex such a great cook!" Evie sighed in happiness as she fell against the plush sofa in the living room of her grandfather's chateau.
"For the exact reason you're good at spending money on shoes and I am good at courting women." Teddy reclined across from her with a satisfied smirk on his lips, something Evie had seen more than often in her father.
"Oh... so that wasn't you I saw today canoodling over bow ties and expensive suits?..." Evie teased.
"You know as Bass' we have an image to uphold. Fashion shouldn't be forgotten by any means." He corrected in a matter-of-fact tone before placing his hands leisurely behind his head in support.
"When did you get your head so far stuck up your ass, Teddy?" Evie asked seriously with a playful, underlying tone as she smiled bitchily.
"Now, now!" He laughed, taking the insult as if it were nothing closer to the truth.
"I know you had something to do with why Mia and Brandon broke up." Evie tested the waters casually.
"I know why Ben fled from the city in such urgency, yet I don't know why I was the last to know." He shot back, covering her inquest with his hurt.
"That is no business of yours." Evie cut him off, unable to look at him as he pleaded for her gaze.
Teddy thanked silently that his younger siblings had departed to their rooms for the evening and their elders had also fleeted to bed after chatting away in the library following dinner.
It was rare these days that Teddy was able to spend time with his sister, solace in each others company.
"It is my business when my sister got hurt. Needless to say Ben didn't get on his flight unharmed after I paid him a visit before he left..."
"Why the hell did you go after him! I never asked you to fight my battles for me!" She almost yelled.
"He hurt you. No one hurts you apart from me."
"What a lovely sentiment..." Evie rolled her eyes with sarcasm.
When the room dropped into silence, the unwanted memory that had just web rooted up was a mistake.
"You never have to ask me to protect you. You're my sister. If you're hurting I can't and won't stand by and watch. He defended; the look she saw in his eyes when she turned to glance at him was nothing short of hurt, scared.
"And I know you always will be but please, just let this be." She calmed down a little.
"How can I let this be?" He asked in bitter laughs.
"Because he is gone." Eve snapped, shooting her brother a look that told him she didn't believe it for a second.
"And then when he comes back? What then Eve?" She didn't say anything but quickly brushed away the stray tear marring her once flawless makeup.
"You may think burying your head in the sand is going to make this all go away but it's not. When we go back to the city, you still have to live with this. What happens when you have to see Travis or Lila?" He pushed and he pushed until she finally broke.
"I don't know!" She threw her arms and dropped her head.
"It haunts me every night in my sleep. When I look in the mirror and see his hands all over me. How do you expect me to face that? How do you expect me to move on?" She yelled not caring who heard this time.
"By not running away."
"You don't think I am trying? I was literally dragged here. I didn't run. But now-" She paused, glancing anywhere but at him. She didn't want to see the pity in his eyes.
"What?"
"Maybe I can't go back…" She admitted.
"Maybe running is the only thing that will make this go away?..."
"How can I look at Lex after what I did…" She muttered quietly to herself.
"Stop. Just- I am not letting you run from this. I will be there, i'm not going anywhere." He pleaded, wanting her to see sense.
She thought about what he was saying but didn't reply until the silence was replaced by a plead.
"Why was I the last to know? Why didn't you come to me? You used to tell me everything!" He added at her with upset.
Just like his father, Teddy was never one to express what he really felt. He pushed it away, in to a deep corner or his soul and played a cool demeanor on the outside, something of his mother too.
"How do I tell my brother, my best friend, that I was nearly raped? That I had never been so scared, helpless and so out of control in all my life! I'm ashamed!" She whispered as turned her head bitterly away from him to look over the sofa back, anything so she wouldn't see the pity in her brother's eyes.
Within in moments of her confession he was next to her, clutching at her shoulders as she gave in and collapsed against his chest. His arms looping just below her neck as she cried into his arms.
He didn't say a word as he held his sister close to him like a lifetime.
He would be the last one to admit it but Teddy cried silent tears with his older sister as he held her and watched her break into a million pieces before him.
"You have nothing to be ashamed of." He muttered quietly after a pregnant pause.
She didn't want to say it but she felt she needed to. She hadn't even felt comfortable confiding in Mia, her best friend and yet as she sat with her brother, another piece of her heart, she let everything go like it was a weight lifted off her.
"I slept with Zach..."
Ted didn't reply but waited for her to continue.
"After it happened... I needed to feel safe again, in control-" she stuttered, half wishing she would feel awkward or embarrassed at her confession but she didn't.
"He didn't force himself?-" Teddy dared to say it and within an instant Evie was shaking her head adamantly.
"No. No, he would never. I asked him to, I begged him- promised him that I wouldn't resent him, that I wouldn't push him away..." She whimpered softly at her own broken promises.
"But?..."
"I lied myself and to him. It didn't make me feel safe or in control... It made me hate the person I see in the mirror everyday and I could never blame him, but I couldn't stand to look at him and see the pity in his eyes, the need to want to protect me- I-"
"So you ran? Pushed him away." Teddy summarised as she sighed deeply, falling deeper into his chest as she wept her loss.
The loss of herself, the loss of the only man she had ever loved. Her first loved.
"Whatever you are feeling, whatever you need, you have to tell him. You can't leave him in limbo."
"I have no reason to like Baizen but I've seen the way he is with you. Don't keep pushing him out, tell him how you feel." Teddy replied softly, rubbing Evie's shoulders a little as she listened.
xoxo
She sniffled a little while longer and just let him hold her before finally turning to him, his hold on her freeing as she turned to see him.
"If you are telling me not to run away from my desires, why are you running away from yours?..." She asked calmly but firmly and he knew exactly what and who she was referring to.
"Because I can't take something that was never mine to have." He offered in a solemn tone.
"Then why have you already started to push your best friend away from Mia?"
She knew she was treading on thin ice but just ad much as she was, her younger brother was pushing issues away and she wanted nothing more than to see him happy.
"I'm a selfish bastard." He stood and offered her his hand as she took it and stood with him.
Allowing his arm to loop over her slumped shoulders, he led them upstairs to their bedrooms.
They paused for a moment a Evie stood outside her bedroom door, turning on her heels for a moment to see her brother, so grown up stood in front of her.
She took her right hand and placed it chastely against his cheek before she whispered quietly and honestly so only he could hear it.
"Then don't be a coward too. You're better than that."
With her promise she kissed him softly on the cheek before she turned finally and crept into her bedroom where Lullah was sleeping innocently, praying that her brother wouldn't make the same mistakes she had.
A/N: So?...Teddy has something to hide…maybe feelings towards a certain someone? … No, you didn't see it coming and neither did I but I kinda like it!
I hope you enjoyed the intension Teddy had by digging into his sister and making her face things a little more. I have two brothers and love them to bits and quite honestly, writing this story allows me to share my emotions towards my siblings. It's refreshing :) Next chapter will be more Chairy :D Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you thought :D