A/N: Halloween means double update time! I kind of rushed this crucial chapter, so I don't know if I handled it like I should have. Let me know what you think.
It was spring when Laurie and Annie made the decision to tell Sheriff Brackett about their relationship. For the past year they had been planning on telling him sometime in November, but Halloween night happened. But now, after several months of healing and many discussions (most of which ended in fights), the couple had decided that it was time.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Laurie whispers to Annie across the kitchen table, while Sheriff Brackett is in the kitchen, distracted by the pot of coffee.
Annie starts to reply, but at that moment Sheriff Brackett walks within earshot and sits in the chair next to his daughter, a cup of coffee in hand. So Annie settles for running her slippered foot along Laurie's calf and mouthing "positive" in her direction.
"Hey, Dad," Annie starts, nerves suddenly radiating off of her small body, "can we talk to you about something?"
At that, Lee Brackett looks up from the newspaper he was in the middle of reading and looks at Annie before it registers that she said "we", causing him to switch his attention between the two teenagers sitting at the table.
His gaze is the only go-ahead the two girls know they're going to get, so they jump into the conversation head first, silently praying that this won't go badly.
"Dad, I'm just going to come right out with this" Annie says, cringing visibly at the unintended pun, "I love Laurie."
Those three little words come out in a barely-there whisper, one that Sheriff Brackett has to strain his ears to hear. But when he does hear them, a look of confusion smothers his features. Something that Laurie notices right away, while Annie is too nervous to recognize it.
"As more than friends," Laurie jumps in to clear up that look of confusion while reaching under the table to hold her girlfriend's shaking hand in her own.
"Oh." Is all that the older man manages to get out when the realization hits him full force. Barely a word, more of a sound. That is his reaction to his daughter's coming out. The look of confusion is replaced by a slight frown, one that Annie and Laurie both see and take as a bad sign.
The two girls' sentences of "Mr. Brackett, we've been meaning to tell you for months" and "Daddy, I'm sorry" run together as they both jump to control the situation.
It takes a few more moments before he makes any move to discuss the issue at hand. But when he does, he's calm. He asks a few basic questions about their relationship and lays down some rules. Rules like separate bedrooms until they move out, and no PDA when he's in the room.
When he eventually leaves the room Annie and Laurie both let out sighs of relief. They did it. They somehow managed to come out to the only piece of family they had left.