Notes:
Not sure about this one but I wanted to update so... here you go... lol.
Chapter 8: Hey little one, it's your big big bro catching up with you, there so much I wanna tell you like that now you're an auntie
Sara was still laughing by the time Ollie helped their daughter get dressed again, so part of her dress wouldn't end up inside of her leggings, given the fact that he didn't take anything off she figured they made it without a hitch and both of them stayed dry. She watched Eloise speed off towards the play structure again as soon as Ollie was done pulling her pants up, going straight for the slides.
"You know you could've gotten me sooner." She only took her eyes off their daughter for a quick sideways glance at the man now standing next to her. Sounding a bit annoyed and slightly out of breath.
"Would've had she let me know sooner that the reason she wanted to get carried down was because she had to pee and not because she was being lazy or just wanted your attention. You know your kid, besides she had this elaborate plan of peeing of off the side of the roof of the castle. Wonder where she got that one from…" The look on her husband's face was priceless. He looked at her and then he looked at their daughter going down the slide and back to her.
"Are you ever going to let me live that one down?" he sounded exasperated. She might bring that event up from time to time, especially in situations like this one. But it was her right as his wife, the mother of his children, and a witness to that incident.
"I watched you pee on a fucking cop and get arrested for it." She's watched him do a lot of stupid shit over the years especially in his teenage years but this one was just so beyond her comprehension and he had never given her an explanation or an insight into his thought process at the time so yeah, this was the card she pulled out whenever she deemed the situation fit. And she probably would continue to do so until he decided to share the reasons behind that insane action to her.
"So, that's a no, huh?" Sara glanced at him again and saw the slightly dejected but also highly amused look on his face, no-one knew her better than him after all. And he damn well knew she wouldn't. And it wasn't like there were a couple of specific events in her past that he liked to point out in certain situations too
"You bet that spectacular ass of yours it is. We are not going to be known as the family who pees on people. This whole peeing on people thing began and stops with you!" She really hoped this was going to be the case and automatically looked at her son while he began to fidget around and reach out to his dad.
Benjamin was his father's son. Through and through, he might not even be a year old yet, but he was just like Ollie in so many ways, while their daughter was the perfect blend between the two of them. It made her wonder about their third one. And just what their baby boy might get into, once he was older, hoping he got his father's charm also, that would help him get out of sticky situations for sure. They stood in silence for a while, moving Benji from her arms to his, watching Eloise go up and down the slides, increasing her speed every time.
"We're going to be fucked when she hits her teens, aren't we?" Ollie broke the comfortable silence after long minutes.
"Yeah, for sure." There wasn't even a question about that. Their daughter was the perfect mix of Ollie and her. So yeah, she was a lot of trouble. But the good kind.
"Since you're here and the one who's requested, mind if I go pee really quick before you head back to Thea? Would make it a lot easier than having to take them both with me." She added as an afterthought. Her youngest was currently awake and moving around, which also meant pushing against her bladder regularly.
"Of course." Ollie bent down and gave her a peck on the lips before slapping her ass when she walked off.
Sara just looked at her husband and his antics, shaking her head, laughing. Yeah, they'd be the talk of the playground for sure.
It was fine. It was bound to happen. She just... they had talked about potentially putting Eloise in preschool. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. Wasn't sure she was ready to hand her first baby over to strangers to look after and she knew neither was Ollie, even though he was pushing it a little. And he was right, it would be good for her. Probably. She still wasn't ready to put the homeschooling idea to the side yet.
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"Ollie? What's going on?" Thea stepped towards her brother, once Sara had left and she had gotten over the first shock of seeing her former babysitter for the first time in five years and the very unexpected situation she found herself in.
"Thea…" Oliver turned towards her and away from watching Sara leave, and it was almost as if he was at a loss for words the moment he set his eyes on her. She looked from him, to the baby on his arm, to the little girl still going up and down the slides, to the direction a seriously pregnant Sara had left in. Still trying to wrap her head around everything that had happened in the last ten or so minutes. Wondering what the hell was going on while at the same time feeling like she already knew… it wasn't that hard to put the puzzle together once she had all the pieces. And a lot of things started to make sense now, when they hadn't before.
"You and Sara…" She wasn't sure how to put it. She didn't want to sound too harsh, but she also didn't want to pretend she hadn't figured out that they ran off together, obviously, unless they had met up at a later point and gotten together then. Thea looked at the little girl again… it was a possibility but probably not… unless the kid wasn't Ollie's, which she sort of doubted. Being confronted with this made her remember situations from before both of them had left that made Ollie, being the little girl's dad, very plausible.
"Speedy, I meant to… the plan was for me to talk to you and explain everything to avoid a situation like this. Unfortunately, things have rarely gone as planned from the moment Eloise became a part of our lives." Her brother sounded genuinely remorseful, but there also seemed to be a little self-deprecating humor in his voice.
"How… I mean… Why'd you never mention anything in your letters? Didn't you trust me?" Those were the only things that were currently going through her head and this was the reason why she blurted it just out. She didn't understand, she couldn't… why wouldn't he trust her? Had she ever given him a reason not to? She had kept his letters a secret for five years. She hadn't even told Tommy or Margo. And Margo had been her best friend for as long as she could remember and Tommy was like a brother too, even more so since Ollie had left and sort of left that place open in her life. He had willingly stepped in and taken on the role. He wasn't Ollie, of course not, and he hadn't tried to be, but he had done all the stuff with her Ollie used to just differently.
She had missed her big brother, her sibling and she figured Tommy had felt the same way, so they had taken on that role for each other.
"Speedy, no! No! don't even think that! It had absolutely nothing to do with that. Of course, I trust you. I just figured it wouldn't be fair to make you keep a secret as big as this one. I didn't want to put you in that situation. Everything was a mess at first and after… I just didn't want to make you lie even more. Asking you to keep the letters a secret was already too much and not fair to you at all. Telling you about my daughter and Sara… it would've been too much. I'm sorry I gave you that impression. It was never my intention." Her brother jumped in right away and interrupted her thoughts and explained his reasons, taking away her fear in the process. What he said made sense, and it was such an Ollie thing to do. And she honestly couldn't say what or how she would've reacted had he told her she was an aunt but not allowed to tell anyone about it.
"Oh, okay. That makes sense, I guess." She had just been a kid, after all, and he was right. It would've been a lot to ask of her at that age. Still, part of her wished he would've told her. Or at least about Sara travelling with him. It would've eased some of her worry about him being all alone and lonely and not having anyone to talk to.
Thea was glad that Ollie had had Sara with him this entire time, that he hadn't been alone after all, and that he had had someone to take care of him, to give him comfort when he needed it and to just love him. And it made sense. Sara and Ollie together made so much sense. They had always spent so much time together, had so much in common, and seemed to get the other when no one else did. Sometimes it had almost been as if they could read each other's minds
She watched Ollie while he was looking at his daughter again. He smiled when she climbed up to the highest slide by the rope connected to it and waved back when the little girl waved at him once she reached the top, grinning proudly. A look her brother returned wholeheartedly. It was in that moment that she noticed the sun reflect on the small, golden object on her brother's left ring finger and her eyes grew big. This was… Thea felt pretty stupid right now. Obviously, her brother and Sara's relationship was serious. They had two kids together, but still, they were married. Sara had never been… it was always something she had spoken out about vehemently.
She could remember several arguments between the Lance sisters quite clearly. Sara speaking out against marriage and Laurel being shocked and not at all sharing her younger sister's view point. It made her curious what had changed about Sara's standpoint in the years she's been away and how exactly her brother had managed to convince her to marry him. She hoped she'd get that story at some point, but she wasn't going to push right now.
"I really did miss you, Thea, and I wanted to tell you. I really did. I just… it is all very complicated. And I promise I will explain it all to you at one point. Or I'll try to." Ollie was looking at her again and he was so sincere, she couldn't help but believe him.
"It's alright Ollie, I didn't expect you to explain everything right away. I'm just happy to have you home again. And I can't believe I'm an aunt!" She tried to ease his mind. She didn't want him to feel bad about his choice. Right now she really just wanted to bask having her big bro back and wrapping her mind around that new found information. How cool was that? She was a freaking aunt!
"Yeah, you are. This little guy here is Benjamin. He's nine months old." Ollie turned so the baby on his arm was closer to her and he was staring at her inquisitively right away.
"Oh my god! He's so cute Ollie!" She couldn't help but gush at her brother, who just laughed at her but didn't deny her observation. Her little nephew was so stinking adorable. With his big blue eyes and almost toothless grin, he only had his top incisors right now, but there was something impish about him. She refrained from stepping into his personal space even though it was a pretty hard thing to do. He was just so cute! But he was leaning into Ollie and hiding his little face in his father's shoulder from time to time just to peek back out again, which made it pretty obvious that he wasn't interested in any closer contact, which was fine. She was still a stranger to him, something she planned on changing now that she knew about his existence, but she was more than willing to give the baby time to get to know her first.
"And the little firecracker over there is Eloise. She's four." He had mentioned her name before, but she hadn't really registered it given all the information she had been receiving. It was a beautiful name. Wow, four years old. Well, she had sort of expected her to be around that age, but still having it confirmed made her fully understand what it meant. Ollie and Sara had been parents for four years already! They had been super young when their daughter was born.
She was just about to say something when she noticed her bro using his free hand to make a come here gesture towards someone behind her. She turned around to see who he was looking at and saw Sara slowly and unsurely walk towards them.
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Sara was thinking about taking the kids to the coffee place close by to grab a bite to eat while walking back towards the playground. They did have snacks with them, of course they did, but she was really craving a cream cheese bagel right now and she was pretty sure the coffee shop served some. That should totally be in their budget. If Ollie and Thea had each something to drink and maybe eat and Ollie paid for it and she and Ellie would've something to eat, it would probably total around twenty, maybe twenty-five dollars, so they should be fine. She was still calculating the money on their bank account with the expenses they still needed to pay this month and the money that would come in. Deciding they'd be okay.
What she hadn't but probably should've expected was Thea standing across from Ollie once she reached the edge of the playground again. So much for breaking it to her gently. They should've known better with the kids around. Shit. She hoped Speedy was going to take it alright. She looked towards the play structure and saw that Ellie was still on the slide, testing out just how fast she could go, looked like she was going down backwards now from the highest one. Her little daredevil.
Sara contemplated for a moment what she should do. Leave Ollie and Thea alone, or walk towards them and cause yet another interruption. She was just about to walk to their daughter when her husband spotted her and beckoned her over at her silent question.
"Sara! Hi!" Thea almost bounced from excitement when seeing her, reminding her of her young daughter.
"Hey Speedy." She smiled back. She had really missed the young woman, man, it had been too long. Thea had only been a kid when they had left, and now she was almost eighteen. It was insane. But then again, her baby girl was already four and her baby boy would turn one soon.
"Can I hug you?" The question surprised and stunned her for a moment. She seriously hadn't expected it.
"Of course you can." She laughed at the teen, but seriously appreciating the question, before pulling the brunette into her arms. It was while holding Speedy close that she realized just how much she had missed her, missed this. It felt good to have her in her arms again.
Notes:
As always let me know what you think. I hope I did Thea justice.
Chapter title is from the song "Lil Sis" by Lloyd.
