TEAM FORTRESS 2 BELONGS TO VALVE

Right after getting off the plane, Scout watched his reflection on one of the mirrors in the men's restroom. Dear Lord, did he look awful. He looked like the frigging Elephant Man. His left cheek was all purple and swollen and he could barely open the eye on that side. He had smaller bruises all over his face, and tiny red scars from shrapnel. He opened his mouth and found that one of this front teeth was broken. His first impulse was to get mad at Medic for not fixing him—this was a very important meeting and he wanted to look decent…, or even someone his own mom could recognize!—but then he remembered that Medic had been struggling to stay conscious for five minutes straight and couldn't blame him. BLU had really defended their positions like a bunch of tigers. Guess I'm lucky to have made it alive, he told himself, though he found little consolation in it. He was just afraid of what the twins' reaction would be if they saw him like this…

He knew the address perfectly, no need to check beforehand. His feet drove him there automatically, and very fast, too. He had been dreaming of this moment for very, very long, and was eager to get there already.

Of course, he thought of the mom…She would be at home, surely, and he didn't think she would be in a better mood after these two months he had been away. Or would she? Nah, probably not. What did you expect? A kiss and a hug?

Don't think about them, think of that pair of babes who're dying to see you again, he insisted to that little voice inside of his head which made him feel terrible. He had just come from facing nine big, mean bastards, why was he so afraid of a bunch of unarmed civilians?

Because he could only see them as long as they allowed him to. The moment they decided to take them away from him...

You just can't win this, Spy had warned him. That son of a bitch had found out about it somehow. Luckily for Scout, he didn't lecture him. Not much. He would have even said he was pretty sympathetic, and even given him a hand now and then to get free days, look his nicest and hide a few murders.

Sure he didn't. He kept going anyways. They wouldn't stop him. Nothing would prevent him from seeing them…Neither a bunch of mercs nor the family…

There he saw it. 642. He wished he had a magic potion which could bring his face back to normal. Next time they kicked Merasmus' ass on Halloween, he would see if the old coot had one of those on him, he had to…Oh, but enough mental chatter, he had finally arrived at the door. There was nothing he could do to improve his face, so he combed his hair with his hand. He rang. While he waited, he smelt his own breath. Eugh. Not good, but it was too late to do anything about it…

The door opened. Crap. It was not the mom, but Daddy Dear.

He stared at his wreck of a face for long, then his sneer twisted in a way that Scout interpreted as a smile, a 'your usual business, I see' kind of smile, a 'one can't expect anything else from you' kind of smile…

"Night." Scout said.

"Cindy's not at home." Daddy replied.

"'Kay. I just came to see the twins."

"She's at the cinema with her boyfriend."

"Nice."

"He's a dentist."

"Good for him."

"They're going to get married one day soon, and when that happens, I hope you get your dirty punk ass out of here and never come back, you hear me?"

"May I come in?" Scout avoided looking at him.

"They don't need you. They don't need a good-for-nothing scoundrel to-"

"Whatever! Just let me in!" Scout snapped, getting his hands out of his pockets to show he would recur to force if necessary.

Daddy Dear shot him a gaze full of despise but eventually stepped aside. Scout wasted no time and walked in. He needed no one to escort him to the room: he knew where he had to go. There was someone else in the living room, in front of the TV, who turned her eyes at him to look at him as if a rat had sneaked into the house, but he paid no attention to it. He practically ran to the door at the top of the stair, almost the way he had run to save his life just a few days prior.

Their family thought he was garbage, and perhaps they were right, but they…

What would they think when they saw him like this…?

He felt a pressure inside of his chest all of the sudden. He took deep breath and tried to shoo all the bad thoughts away. He didn't need them. Not now. Later. Not now.

He opened the door without knocking and smiled as much as his swollen face allowed him.

"Heya, babes!" He greeted with a high-pitched voice.

The twins were sat on the carpet, playing with a xylophone. Two pairs of blue eyes turned wide-eyed at him. Then Sandy was the first to leave what she was doing to rush at him and Tommy pointed a finger at him and shouted:

"Dada!"

"Hello, hello, hellooo!" Scout knelt down on the carpet to welcome Sandy into his arms, and kiss and caress her. He attracted the other to him and did the same to him. "How have my lil' champs been? Did you miss me? 'Cause I missed you lots!"

Having them so close, he noticed that they smelt so nice. Sure they were bathed with these fancy scented soap and cologne—one of the things he liked about their mom when he met her at that fried chicken restaurant was her vanilla smell. They did not need to wear second-hand clothes like he did growing up. Their room was pretty and it had toys in every corner. More than he could ever dream of when he was a child. He had made sure of that. The money he earned spilling his blood in some God forsaken bread factory, he wanted it to be spent that way. Nice toys and pretty clothes for the prettiest boy and girl in the world.

"How have you been? What are you doing?" Tommy was sticking his finger into his sore cheek and gently took his hand so he would stop doing it, and grabbed the xylophone and played a random four-note melody with it.

They were not alone, he knew. They were never left alone. Either Daddy Dear or Mommy were always watching from the door. Since the day they saw his face in a newspaper for participating in some serious mess with tons of casualties, they didn't trust him to be left alone with the kids. Did they really think he was going to harm his own children…? He was also aware that soon, sooner than he wanted, they would tell him that it was enough and he had to go away. They wouldn't let him tuck the children into bed or read them a story on how Babe Ruth won the World Series with the Red Sox. They didn't want him near. Cindy…well, he understood that after knocking her up, she wanted to see him dead (though he tried to make things right! He was no dentist but…He asked her to marry him! She was the one who said no!)…But the children? Did they fear that they would become delinquents like him? That he would contaminate them?

A delinquent…An irresponsible bastard…A good-for-nothing scoundrel…

Yeah, why didn't he step aside and make way for a dentist? Everyone would be happy…

But then he saw their little faces looking at him with love, touching his sore face because his reaction was so funny, always happy to see him, always with a smile for him, and thought…

He would go through anything, anything at all for them.