Sorry for the wait—a personal matter came up and needed to be taken care of. But on the Brightside; who's excited for the premiere? Cause I'm pumped.
Scott slowly pushes himself up from the couch and wipes his face, painting a look of happiness to cover the pain that consumed him. He doesn't even question why someone is at his door at three in the morning.
He pulls the door open quietly and a look of surprise replaces his artificial happiness "Malia?"
"I—" she looks like a wreck, Scott notes. Her eyes are puffy and red, her hair looks like she had been running her hand through it all night not bothering to fix it, tears are leaking at the corner of her eyes and she has her four month old strapped to her chest but there's a smile on her face "I left him"
Scott feels the air leave his lungs "What?"
"I left" she wipes her eyes and she releases a shaky breath "I-I just packed up and left" she holds up her left hand baring her ring-less hand "See?"
"ohmygod" Scott breathes out, he gently grips her hand and smiles at her before pulling her into a tight hug minding the baby still strapped to her "I'm so proud of you, Lia" he lays a gentle kiss on her head "So proud"
"I—" she chokes on her words "I'm gonna leave town and—" she pulls back "I want you to come with me"
Scott's smile falls "What? Malia—"
"Scott" she grabs his hand and holds it tightly "You need to leave too, she—" she points behind him towards the stairs "has done the same thing that he's done to me and—" she whimpers and Scott can see this is tearing her apart, leaving was hurting so "She's killing you Scott"
"Malia—"
"Scott, please come with me" she pleads softly "Take the kids and let's go"
"Malia, they need their mom" he sighs softly and looks at the floor
"No they need a good parent and Scott, I love you, but you haven't been the best lately—I haven't either but that's because we can't focus when our whole world is falling apart" tears well in her eyes "They are killing us and our kids—" she lets out a soft whimper "They're gonna grow up thinking that it's okay to destroy someone you love like that—don't let them think this is right"
"I—"
"Scott, please as your best friend and the closest thing either one of us has to family—please listen and leave"
They fall silent and Scott feels like his heart is being ripped apart—but he can only imagine that Malia is experiencing the same pain. She loved him more than the world but, yet, here she is begging him to run with her.
"W-Why leave town, I mean—"
"Because we both know they will talk themselves right back into our lives—they always have, they always will. We have to stop it"
"I just—" he feels a tear fall down his face and he wonders how much he's cried this week—the best answer would simply be too much "I love her" his words are soft and broken and Malia brings her hand up to wipe the trail of wetness it left behind
"And I love him" her words are just as soft and her hands fall to hold her daughter even closer to her chest—she was the one good thing that he ever gave her "But they don't love us, not like we love them—if they did they wouldn't do this to us. We have to love our kids more and leave"
"I—" he swallows hard, he looks back towards the stairs. She was his wife, they promised to love each other forever and never abandon each other, they promised to always be faith— his stomach lurched. Faithful.
As he looked back he also knew that there were other people up there—his kids. They were everything to him, more than any vow he would ever make to her.
And he was already putting her above them.
His heart squeezed painfully and looked up at Malia and at his goddaughter strapped to her chest—that little girl would have no memory of her dad and who he was and, somehow, that was the right thing to do. His eyes shone and images of his young children flashed through his mind, swallowing hard and almost painfully—he spoke.
"Okay" he said it so softly, she almost didn't hear him
"Really? Y-You'll go?" her eyes shone and the excitement in her voice was something that he never would get tired of hearing. Especially when her tone had been nothing but sadness lately.
"Yes but we need to go now" he took a deep breath of air "She's asleep so—" he swallowed and ran his hand through his hair, his heart was pounding in his chest and he was shaking "We need to do it now"
Malia nodded quickly and kicked her bags to the side. They both crept as quietly and as quickly as they could up the stairs wincing each time a little creak was heard.
Scott turned around and whispered "Can you get the twins? I'm gonna get the baby" Malia nodded wordlessly and softly pushed the door open. Her heart broke at seeing her godchildren.
They were both curled around each other on the older one's bed, they both had an stuffed animal shoved in between them and were obviously trying to find comfort in each other—the room reeked of terror and sadness.
She carefully crouched down and gently shook one, which in turn shook the other. Both blinked slowly taking in their surroundings, their initial fear dissipating at seeing their aunt rather than someone else.
"Aunt Lia?" the girl, Maia, rubbed her eyes as she sat up. Her chocolate curls were sticking to her forehead and cheeks from sweat and her equally chocolate eyes were still half closed.
Malia placed a finger on her lips as a sign to stay quiet. She pointed to the door "Your daddy is getting your sister and we're gonna leave, okay?" her voice as low as she could make it "I need you to get whatever you want to take"
The boy, Jude, looked around, obviously confused still trying to wake himself up, wiping away his own chocolate hair away from his green eyes "Are we coming back?"
"No" she said gently not wanting to alarm them—they were only 4 and a half "No, sweet boy, we aren't coming back"
"I—' he looked at the door and the scent of anxiety was clear "Is mommy coming?"
She moved her hand and stroked his cheek, hoping to soothe him "No, baby, mommy isn't coming"
She could've killed the woman at the way they both visibly relaxed.
"Just get some clothes—then we're going to leave, alright?"
"Is Addie coming?" Maia asked as she looked fondly at the baby who was starting to stir
"Yeah, baby Addie is coming" Malia stood up and quickly ushered the two five year olds out of bed, she walked to the closet and took out some bags and gave them to each of the children "Hurry, let's get packed up"
They nodded wordlessly and Malia helped by walking around the room and picking some clothes out and throwing them into the bags. Her daughter let out a little whimper and Malia looked at the clock that sat in the corner of the room—she wanted to be fed.
"Okay, babies" she said softly "We gotta go now, okay?" they nodded and looked around their room one last time both plucking their stuffed animals off the bed. Jude grabbed Malia's hand and Maia grabbed his hand seeing as Malia had one hand softly patting Addie's back hoping to soothe her till she could feed her.
Quickly and quietly they went downstairs, Malia grabbed the keys off the counter and escorted the kids to the car "Okay, loves—get in the car and just hold your bag on your laps, okay?"
"Where are you going?"
"I have to grab my bags, okay then we're going to wait for your daddy and sister" she sent them a reassuring look "We're gonna be okay"
They just nodded their heads at her and held on to their stuffed toys tightly with their bags on their laps. Malia smiled at them one last time before quickly going back up the porch and creeping into the house just in time to see Scott coming down with his 6 month old daughter, Ella, in a car seat and multiple bags on his other arm.
"You ready?"
He looked nervous but with a heavy sigh he nodded his head "Y-yeah" he swallowed and passed the diaper bag to her and one other bag "Better we do this now, right?"
"Yeah"
"I just—"
"I know" she moved closer to him and squeezed his arm "I know, Scott but this is the right thing to do"
Scott gripped the handle of the car seat tight and he looked down "It just—it sucks. I don't want them to grow up without a mom"
"Hey" Malia said softly "We didn't have one and we did alright" she smiled softly
"Lia.."
"Alright so we could've done better but, hey, our kids are cute"
Scott laughed and Malia knew this is what they were leaving for. Their happiness, to be able to feel like things were going to be okay and the world wasn't completely crumbling under them.
"Yeah"
"Now, lets go before someone wakes up"
"Okay"
Scott and Malia were out of the house in a flash with only a slight stop from Scott who jerked his wedding ring off in a haste and tried to blink the tears back as he placed it in the bowl by the door.
He strapped the car seat into the back seat right in the middle of the twins, and with Malia in the front seat carefully cradling her own daughter while feeding her and his whole life in the back seat—Scott drove out their town and into a, hopefully, brighter future.
X
"Oh my god, just clean it up, Stiles" Lydia said as she looked down at the mess of coffee and eggs the man had just spilt all over the linoleum floors. She was leaned up against the counter with a rag in one hand and a coffee pot in the other; she threw the former at him as he sat right next to his mess.
"but—" he sighed and threw his head back, batting his eyes at her "Why can't you do it?"
She scoffed and rolled her eyes "You spilled it, why in the hell would I clean it up?"
"Because you love me?"
She smiled that smile that Stiles knew only as her 'not-entirely-fake-but-mostly-fake-smile' and leaned down. She squeezed his cheek "Sure, if that's what you want to believe"
Stiles pouted at her and shook her hand off; he huffed and gripped the rag "You know you do, Lyds"
The strawberry blonde huffs "What did I tell you about that nickname?"
"That I could call you that whenever I want?"
"I told you that my name isn't Lyds—it's Lydia. My mother named me Lydia Elizabeth Martin—not Lyds"
"Ugh, I let you call me Stiles"
"Because literally no one, not even your dad, can pronounce your name"
The front door opened and a bell rang, they both looked to see their boss—Derek.
"What do I pay you two for? Servicing customers or talking to each other?"
"Oh be quiet, Derek" Lydia said as she sat down at the counter "It's been a dead morning, we have had a total of two customers and this idiot is cleaning up food that was going to be thrown away"
Derek sighed "Why do I keep you two around?"
"Cause you love us" Lydia sung out "Well, at least, you love me"
Derek sent her a pointed look "Where's Erica and Boyd? Weren't they supposed to come in? Not you two dumbasses"
Stiles laughed "Erica got shitfaced last night and Boyd, being the good husband he is, called in for them both so he could take care of her"
"Yeah, Brae called and asked us to come in for them" Lydia sighed and picked at her nails "Cora should be coming around 1 and Allison said that she would take the graveyard shift"
The older man sighed "alright, just—" he sighed and looked around, there was one customer in the far corner "Just keep the incidents to a minimum, yeah?"
"I will take care of our spaz, Der—no sweat, been doing it since grade school"
"Hey!"
"shut up, Stiles"
The bell rang and they looked back to see a man and a woman, one of them had a baby strapped to her chest, the other carrying another baby in the car seat. A girl, no older than 5, was clinging to the man's leg as was a boy was to the woman's.
Derek nodded to them "Stop making fun of Stiles and go take care of that"
Lydia nodded, put her sweetest smile and walked over not really knowing how much this would impact the rest of her life.
Hope you enjoyed!