“Awesome.” He laughs out before he rushes back into the room and finishes packing toys. I just continue to stand, staring after him.
“It’ll be fine, Axe.” She whispers as she places her hand on me. I’m so furious at her. I can’t stop myself as I glare back at her. “It’ll be fine.” She seconds. I just snatch her hand off of me.
“What the fuck.” I snap back, looking at her.
“Axe,” she whispers.
“Ella, what have you done?” I’m snapping. “Did you even think about how he’s going to take it if—” I can see the anger rolling up her face as she cuts me off.
“Did you just ask me if I think about how my son will react. Let me tell you Carter, that every day for the last 4 fucking years every single thing thatIhave done has been for him and only him.” How she stresses I, just fucking pisses me off.
“Yeah, Marcella, and whose fault is that?” I attempt to keep my voice low as I yell back at her. “And I’ve had to deal with my dad dying. I know that pain. I don’t want him to have to go through that.”
“Yeah, and I know nothing of that.” She snaps at me, and I kick myself for a split second, forgetting about Oz. She turns around and storms down the stairs.
“Shit.” I turn, following her down the stairs and out the front door. “Ella, stop.” I’m shouting now at her as she stomps away. “Ella!” I shout at her as I close the distance, grabbing her arm and spinning her around. Her eyes cut to me, and her nostrils flare out as I look down at her.
“What? What, Axe?” she screams at me, snatching her arms away from me, before she stomps a few more feet away. “How long are you going to hold that over me?” She shouts, her back still towards me. I can’t help but menacingly laugh out as she asks that.
“I’m sorry, it's a pretty life-altering scenario to keep from someone yet expect for them to just be okay with.” She’s still walking away from me, putting more distance between the house and us. I’m sure that now no one can really see where we’re at.
Stopping quickly, she spins around and glares at me. “What the fuck do you want from me? I tried. I did my fucking part. What was I supposed to fucking call you and keep reminding you?”
“I didn’t know!” I shout at her.
“AND I didn’t know, that you didn’t know.” She screams back at me. “I thought you were aware. That you had listened to it and just decided that you didn’t want that in your life. So no, I wasn’t going to call and be like, oh, did you get my last voicemail about having a son? How do you feel about that?” She takes a couple of steps into me and glares up. “So, you want to blame me instead of just chalking it up to that’s how life fucking works sometimes. Fine. You want to be in his life. Fine. We can co-parent with very minimal interaction.” She turns around and continues to walk away from me. For a second, I imagine the scenario that she presents. 6 years from now at an exchange as she gets out of the passenger seat, grabbing Jag’s bag and walking it over to my Jeep, Jag runs up and hugs me. We exchange some bullshit small talk as I grab the bag from her, and she may ask me a couple questions or tell me something that he has going on. I make a joke to her, causing her to laugh out loud. The entire time, I can feel her husband’s eyes on me. He’s staring because he knows, he knows that Jag or not, there’ll always be something between us. I would be sure it would be because he sees how she is before we meet. Seeing her little nervous ticks that she never does for him, seeing her foot continuously shaking as he drives, seeing her changing outfits, fixing her makeup, seeing how she gets angry if I bring a girlfriend with me. It’s why she always makes him come, she doesn’t trust herself to be alone with me and if she didn’t make him, he would insist because as much as she doesn’t trust herself with me, he also doesn’t trust her with me. “… or just tell me if you don’t want this. I mean, it would kind of suck now because he knows, but everyone has agreed to not hold it against you.” She’s still talking, but I need her to shut up. I’m closing the distance that she’s continuing to put between us as she starts again. “He’ll understand—” I cut her off as I spin her around and slam my mouth down on hers. I can feel her suck the air out of my mouth with her gasp and she eases in. She kisses me back just as hard as I am kissing her. Her hands grip onto my shirt as I press my tongue into her mouth and it’s almost as if her body slightly melts into mine.
Her hands flatten back out just as quickly as she has accepted the kiss and as she pushes me back. “What the fuck is wrong with you? What are you doing?” She snaps as she stares up at me, trying to hide the fact that she’s breathless.
“Seems to be the same thing that you were.” I smirk at her before she rolls her eyes. “I needed you to shut up. It’s the easiest way I could think of.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“I am.” She smirks at me as I motion back to the house. “We’ve got to get going soon.”
“We?”
“I’m assuming you’re riding with us up there?”
“Yeah.” She continues to stand, staring up at me, looking at me through her lashes, and I have to force myself from kissing her again.
“You’re right.” I finally tell her. “It’s fucked up, but neither one of us is in the wrong. I mean, we both did fucked up things. And we both hold some blame but none more than the other. I swear I never got your message. And as much as that sucks, I can’t blame you for that.” A weak smile forms on her face and I pretend not to see the water forming in her eyes. “But we’re not doing this with minimal interaction. It won’t be good for him to see that.” She nods her head, agreeing with me. “And I don’t want that.” I tell her, leaning back into her and she lets me. Looking up at me, her breathing picks up and her chest is rising and falling quicker. Reaching over, my hand trails up her arm and she gasps simply at my touch.
“Ella! Axe!” we hear Ash yell before we both break out of the gaze instantly and start jogging back up to the house. He meets us halfway with a panicked look. “It’s Oz.” He’s still shouting as he meets up with us. “His doc wants to admit him, but he’s refusing... Khan said it doesn’t look good, but Oz just wants to go to the house...” It’s a near whisper as he looks over to Ella and I reach my arm out almost instinctively to keep her from falling over.
“We gotta go.” I tell her before the three of us move up the mountain again to the house. Caroline is moving out of the house with the kids, and I scoop Jag up as I move towards the Jeep and buckle him in. Ella gets into the passenger seat and then I’m around the Jeep and slide into the driver’s seat. Pulling out onto the gravel trail, I reach over and clasp her hand in mine, just as I did the day we left the hospital. So that she knows regardless, I’m here for her.
Pulling into the driveway, I look over to Ella. “I got him, Go.” I tell her as her door swings open. Then she’s up the walkway into the house, and I place the Jeep into park. Getting out of the Jeep, walking around to the opposite side of the car and opening the door for Jag, who then jumps out. I call after him to wait before we walk up to the door, where I see Khan sitting outside. His hands are holding his head up. “You, okay?” I ask as we approach and without even looking up, he just exhales. Finally, looking up to where I’m standing as Jag tries to pull me inside.
“Dad,” Jag whines, “can we go in?” I’m stuck in shock as I look at him because this is the first time that he’s actually called me ‘dad’ now.
“Ye-yeah.” I tell him, “Go ahead.” He opens the door and runs inside as I stand still stuck before I look over to Khan, who is wearing just as shocked of an expression as I have.
“Holy shit.” He says before we both start laughing. “I guess you guys told him.”
“Yeah, he overheard a conversation that Ella and I were having.” He nods his head.
“How’d he handle that?”
