Felicity Braddock

[Set after THIS and THIS.]

She knew better than most that she shouldn't be here.

She wasn't even supposed to be in the state. She was supposed to have been home in the beginning of the week, but the firm made her stay over for a few days and now she was going to the hospital in the middle of the night because Aaron had given himself alcohol poisoning. She didn't know why she was going, to be honest. She had said she was done with him, and that she never wanted to see him again, but she couldn't help herself.

She loved him. She'd always loved him. She couldn't stop loving him, even if she wanted to, because he had given her her son, and she would always care for him for that. Always hope that one day he'll want to actually meet him, see this incredible thing he'd helped create, but there wasn't much she could do there. All she could do was wait, and she knew that she said she was tired of waiting but she had to see him here. Because she couldn't bear to lose that hope.

She leaned in the doorway of his hospital room, waiting there silently while Jake worked on the paper work. When the nurse started hassling her, she moved inside, going to sit in one of the chairs next to the bed, and just watching him carefully for a moment, before leaning forward and burying her face in her hands.

"Damnit, Aaron. Why do you do stuff like this?"

"Hi, you've reached Felicity. I'm not here right now, but leave me a message and I'll call you back."


BEEP.

---

[Open for anytime, any verse. If you have a specific verse in mind, put it in the subject line.]


♞ Cᴀʟʟ ♞ Tᴇxᴛ ♞ Vᴏɪᴄᴇᴍᴀɪʟ ♞

[So not binding it’s ridiculous. I just—had to get it out of my head.]

She wasn’t miserable.

When most people considered her position, they thought she should be. Single mother who’s son’s father bailed on her wasn’t exactly a recipe for happily ever after, but it wasn’t horrible. Not if you considered all the circumstances. This kind of life wasn’t something he could handle, and she was okay with that. Because she loved him, she knew him, and she saw it coming.

She told him after the wedding. She didn’t want anything at all to make Jake and Grace’s day awkward and that took a lot of the pressure off. It was hard, though, because she desperately wanted to tell him. She never had wanted something as much as she wanted the little person growing inside her, and she wanted to share it with him because they had done this. Together. Every time he touched her, every time he kissed her, every time his hand absently grazed her stomach where that little life was growing she wanted to just blurt it out. Let him know what he was touching. Let him know what was there. But she didn’t.

( *** )

816 words

[Cowritten with aplayfulpup. Becca = waterdoesntwork. Set after Aaron stuff that hasn’t been posted yet, but I will link back when his mun has the internet again.]

Aaron had tried to go see Jake, but he wasn't home. He wasn't answering his phone either. Aaron had a slight recollection of Jake saying he'd be somewhere, but Aaron couldn't remember where. So instead he hopped on his bike and just drove.

He was out of it from seeing his blast from the past, and he needed some air. He wasn't all that surprised when he ended up pulling to a stop by Felicity's apartment up in the city. He found a good spot to park the bike in and headed up. He knocked on her door, hoping Becca wouldn't be around. But, he soon learned that no one was.

He looked at his cell phone. It wasn't too late, and he didn't think Felicity was in Jersey. He tried giving her a call, but found her phone went straight to voicemail. He didn't leave a message because he didn't know what to say. Instead he just sat down by her door and leaned his head back, waiting.

It was well after dark by the time that Becca and Felicity got back to their place. She was a little drunk, and she had wanted to go back to New Brunswick with Jake and Grace in order to see Aaron, but somehow Becca had managed to convince her that getting a decent night's sleep was a better idea. How, she wasn't sure, but she was relatively certain that it had something to do with what today was and how she shouldn't be looking to be a sex toy on the anniversary of her brother's death. She was just looking for a little fun -- at least, she thought she was and a shrink would probably tell her otherwise, but for the time being, that was her story and she was sticking to it.

She was still a little drunk though.

She was leaning into Becca's shoulder as they got off the elevator, and when she spotted Aaron sitting by their front door, she grinned, and pushed off her best friend to make her way towards him. She knew she looked ridiculous -- the dress was all the wrong color and too many ruffles to be fashionable on anyone, but she didn't really care, and she figured he'd be taking it off her anyway.

"Hey, you. What're you doing here?"

( *** )

[Cowritten with str8on_tilmorn. Takes place before THIS.]

It was a couple days after his fight with Aaron, and Aaron still wouldn't speak to him. Jake got out of work pretty early in the afternoon, and since Grace was still working, he decided to go for a drive. He didn't realize it until he was on the way, but he was going to see Felicity. He cared about her, and he didn't want her to be upset over something Aaron didn't even understand.

He sighed and picked up his cell phone before he was in the city and called Felicity.

Felicity was on the bus heading back to her place when she got the phone call. She frowned a little when she saw Jake's name on the caller ID, before placing the phone to her ear. "Hi."

"Hey, sweetheart, it's Jake. How you doin'?"

"I'm okay," she said with a nod. "What's up?"

"Well...I'm..kinda in the neighborhood. Thought maybe my almost sister-in-law would wanna offer me some coffee."

She smiled slightly at that, before nodding. "Where are you in the neighborhood?"

"Just enterin' the city now."

"Come by my place. Becca shouldn't be home for another few hours."

"I'll be there shortly," he said, before hanging up. He continued through the city, remembering why he hated driving there, and soon found parking near Felicity's place. He headed to the building and rang her buzzer.

She jogged her way over to the door, having just enough time to change out of her business clothes and into a t-shirt and jeans before hitting the intercom. "Jake?"

( *** )

[Italicized quote from RP with aplayfulpup. Becca is waterdoesntwork.]

“The question is not why fools fall in love. It is expected of them. When smart people fall in love - that's the problem.”

“There’s really only one person I trust.”

It shouldn’t have stung this much. She should have seen it coming. She did see it coming, in fact, but she had thought the slap would come if (when) she actually fell for him. She was expecting things to be hard when it came to the more complicated stuff. She didn’t expect it to come from what, in her mind, was one of the simplest things in their relationship. The thing she had taken for granted. It wasn’t a matter of him not loving her, it was a matter of him not trusting her, and that—that came like a gut punch.

She could have lived with him not loving her. That wasn’t what their relationship was, and she wasn’t deluded enough to believe otherwise. She was aware that there would be a point where they couldn’t have what they did anymore, but she thought it would be because she wasn’t enough of a masochist to be in love with someone who didn’t love her. She didn’t expect the sucker punch to come from left field over something as simple as trust. She’d never realized how much that mattered until that very moment, and the fact that he couldn’t, he couldn’t manage even that kind of feeling for her, sent her crashing very quickly.

It wasn’t even the physical part of the equation, even though that one made the most sense. Aaron wasn’t exactly a small guy, and she wasn’t exactly a kung-fu champion, so she was trusting him beyond his word not to hurt her. But it was more than that. She’d told him personal things, emotional things, because she thought they were friends. That they trusted each other and were friends and she could say those things to him. And now she was starting to question whether or not he even cared.

( *** )

711 words