mk robinson is a fallen star. (alittlered) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2014-01-23 04:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | faust, mary jane watson |
WHO MK & Adam (with guest appearance by Delilah Robinson).
WHAT MK's got a surprise for Adam, and he no likey.
WHEN Recently.
WHERE McCarran Int'l.
WARNING language, MK and Adam being jerks, the usual.
Delta Airlines Flight 2082 from JFK is now arriving at Terminal One.
The flight landed a little after six in the evening, as scheduled, after a 3:40 departure from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. MK, who was so used to flying back and forth by her age that it didn’t phase her anymore, still took a few Xanax before takeoff. Not because of any sort of panic from the actual flight, no. She had to quell the constant panic attacks somehow after a week back at home with her parents, but she couldn’t rightfully get blitzed when her mother and father were barely functioning alcoholics themselves. Holed away in their shitty apartment in Forest Hills, they didn’t seem changed at all by the fact that their older daughter was dead, and it disgusted MK in the same way Adam’s apathy to the whole thing appalled her, too. Would she be so cold and callous if he lost one of his siblings? Truthfully, it would always be a problem between she and Adam. She felt too much; he barely felt at all.
The week was draining, to say the least, and it was obvious in the dark purple underneath her dull green eyes and the paleness of her skin. The fullness that had begun to creep back into her cheeks when she was pregnant was gone now, sucked away by months of popping pills and drinking until she passed out. She didn’t look healthy before the call from that doctor, but now there was a distinct offness about her. Distraction. MK never had the pinpoint focus she did in her youth these days, but there was something hanging around her that had people who recognized her past the large sunglasses, the nondescript black clothes, the pulled back red hair furrowing their eyebrows and almost harassing her about what was going on. There were a few paparazzi, but most only snapped a few pictures of the redhead in New York and then at the airport, leaving her alone for the most part.
Maybe it had to do with the young girl always around MK these days. The girl with dark hair and green eyes like hers that had so many similarities to the redhead that there was no way to deny familial ties. Gossip blogs exploded moments after she arrived at the airport in New York with the little girl in tow. Was it a long-lost daughter from a teen pregnancy?
No, it was just her niece, Delilah. Delilah, who had gone through so much at such a young age that MK couldn’t help but identify with. As they walked off the plane, Delilah took her aunt’s hand and tugged on it. Usually, there was a vivacity about the little girl that MK loved, but Gina’s death made the dark haired child demure. MK smiled down at her niece, slid her hand over the girl’s hair in a soothing gesture, and pulled her close to her side. Arm wrapped around the girl’s shoulder protectively. Delilah brought out a motherly nature in MK that she hadn’t felt in ages.
She told Adam to meet her at the luggage pick-up, but that was pretty much the extent of everything they had spoken about over the past week. She omitted the part where Delilah was coming to Vegas, too. Oops.
Adam only regretted staying in Las Vegas because of the hell he’d have to deal with when MK came home. He enjoyed the quiet, the long nights of reading or drinking or sometimes both. He could stay out late fixing up some grunt mobster while his superiors looked on and laughed at the bullet wounds. They were the type of people he hated in Seattle, still hated, but Adam didn’t really care about who got hurt anymore. He liked sewing flesh back together. He liked money. The mob provided him plenty of both. Sometimes he got lonely without MK sitting next to him on the couch curled up with her magazines with those few and far between moments of affection. Sometimes he wished she’d never come home.
He stood by the luggage claim in jeans, sneakers and a button up shirt that looked like it belonged to a middle aged man about to take his family to the museum. He watched families go by, he stared at pretty women, he actively hated anyone who looked even remotely happy. Adam didn’t believe laughter was a sign of happiness. It was the little things. Like when women would smile with the side of their face and men would gaze too long into their lover’s eyes. That kind of happiness made him absolutely sick.
While he was in the middle of mentally throttling a college aged couple who had clearly reunited, Adam saw MK in her usual funeral attire. His gaze slowly lowered to the girl next to her and he could feel his blood turn cold. She couldn’t be that stupid. She couldn’t be. Adam didn’t bother to fake a smile, his expression grim like a bank teller and he stepped forward to meet her near the luggage carousel. “Talk to you for a second? Alone?” Adam said immediately, chin slowly lowering to give the child a long, dead look before flicking his gaze back up at MK.
MK wasn’t expecting a warm welcome back home from her betrothed, not when they hadn’t spoken for the better part of the week. She hadn’t expected him to come to her aide while she dealt with the death of her older sister and everything that came with that. It would have been nice, but when did robots actually consider factoring in feelings or need? MK needed Adam with her to hold her hand, but that didn’t matter one goddamn bit to him. It never did anymore. So, maybe not telling him about Delilah wasn’t the smartest idea, and maybe it was spiteful, but she didn’t really care. She could twist the knife, too.
She twitched a smile at Adam in defiance, casually glancing at the other reuniting couples. If Adam and MK had one thing in common anymore, it was how sick that made her, too. She looked down at Delilah, who was firmly latched to her side. “I’ll be right back, okay? I’m just going to go talk to Adam. Okay? Keep an eye out for our bags.” Her fingers trailed over the little girl’s cheek, and Delilah nodded, fixing her gaze on the carousel, though she still seemed uncomfortable. Still eyed Adam warily like he was one of those strangers that her mommy had told her to stay away from instead of her aunt’s fiance.
MK stepped away, leading far enough away from Delilah to be out of earshot but still close enough to stay in sights. She wheeled around, arms crossed over her chest, and smiled thinly. “I missed you, too, Adam.”
Adam did his best to act like the child wasn’t even there. He didn’t acknowledge it past that initial stare down and turned to follow MK so they were out of earshot. He gave her a look like she brought home a puppy she couldn’t take care of. “Expect a warm welcome after bringing home that?” He asked, arm pointing to the little girl before snapping back to his side. Adam’s blue eyes gave away too much, they showed a familiar anger building up inside of him that he was constantly trying to turn into ice. “Has a father. Has other guardians? Not ready to take care of a little girl. How many pills did you pop just to make it through the flight?” Each word cut harder and harder like a lawyer grilling a guilty witness on the stand.
He couldn’t fake concern for the girl, though. He didn’t care if she got thrown in a foster home or given to her father. The concern was that she was ruining his life. She was stomping on the perfect little dollhouse that he had built for himself and MK. Adam couldn’t fathom coming home, washing the criminal blood off his hands and then making some child lunch before taking her to school. “Not even mine. Expect me to take care of a child that’s not even mine.” Adam didn’t see the hypocrisy there, of course. A foster child using blood as an argument was a losing game.
MK’s green eyes lit up fire. “That has a name, Adam. She’s not a fucking animal,” she said through gritted teeth. She stared down his anger with her own, match for match, not even concerned whether or not other people could pick up on the tension between the two of them. “Her piece of shit dad is in jail more often than he’s out, and what other guardians? My parents? Are you fucking kidding me?” She scoffed at his last question. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” As if he couldn’t see the dilation in her pupils, couldn’t realize how much she would need to just get through all of this.
“Gina apparently thought about this before. She gave me custody.” A harsh laugh bubbled out of her throat. “Isn’t it fucked up that I’m the best option. Actually, don’t say anything.” She snapped, finger raising up and eyes closing for a second. She twisted her face away from him from a second. “Oh, that’s fucking rich coming from you. How many foster homes did you get bounced around to?” MK opened her eyes and glared again. “She needs family right now. Family.”
There was a time when Adam was good with kids. He used to smile and teach them how to take asthma medicine or ask them about their favorite comic book hero. He used to be good with pregnant women, too, who didn’t have a penny to their name and needed help with swollen feet or nausea in the morning. Those day, the days of the free clinic and doing something he believed in were long gone. The change happened while he was working at the ER, his cold efficiency used to scare people who came in with breaks and sprains only idiots could manage. There used to be warmth in Adam somewhere. Some kind of believable bedside manner. Now, he only cared about getting his work done, getting paid and having MK exactly where he wanted her.
“Think you can be a mother?” He asked seriously, implying that she could barely take care of herself. That this was the baby all over again. “Don’t have time to learn with a child her age. Have to know exactly what you’re doing.” Adam leaned forward as he talked, voice low and harsh. People around them looked up from their happy embraces, their stoned-tired stares at the luggage claim and balked. Who fought at baggage claim?
He barely smiled when she said family, blue eyes bright with mocking. “Don’t care if I was a foster child. Ended up fine because my adoptive parents wanted me. Could take care of me. Do not want her in my home. Did not even ask if it was okay.” Adam lectured clearly, as if to make sure she’d understand. “Can’t even debate it now. Knew that. Knew I couldn’t tell you no if you showed up with her.”
MK hated to dwell on how they were months ago, years ago. Happy, warm, human. But, it was always in the back of her mind, especially this past week, how Adam used to be. She could remember the constant concern that bled from him during those first few months. The geeky softness. The tender moments they shared between the two of them. She missed that so much, missed how healthy they were. Or healthier. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of the sadness of something she couldn’t have anymore. She could have her family though, what was left of it.
She didn’t even notice the others starting to stare at them. She just focused on those cold blue eyes that showed nothing but anger these days. “I think I can be a fucking mother, yes,” MK snapped. “Should I have just abandoned her to some fucking foster home? Because there’s no goddamn way my parents could take her. She’d be missing or dead in a week!” Her voice pitch sharpened, but she barely got louder than a whisper over the din of conversations and announcements in the airport. Crossing her arms, she raised an eyebrow at him, challenging and venomous in her rage like he hadn’t seen in some time.
“Maybe if you came with me, you would have found out.” Underneath all the anger, of course, there was hurt and betrayal in her words. She needed him, and he wasn’t there. “If you can’t fucking deal with this, fine. Fine. I thought that this,” she continued as she flashed her glinting Tiffany ring on her left hand, “meant that you were there no matter what. But don’t fucking worry. I should have figured. I should have known.”
Adam angled his long, lean body away from the child and then grabbed MK’s arm firmly. His fingers had no warmth. It felt like getting snagged by a thorned branch. “Didn’t say I was leaving.” He hated how she accused him of leaving every time he showed disapproval of what she was doing. He hated that he couldn’t leave for good. “Don’t ever imply that again. Wanted to leave? Would. Wouldn’t tell you. Would walk out the second I saw that child.” His fingers clenched into her skin before releasing. He took a step away. Disgusted, angry and feeling that rising tide of obligation once again.
Nothing made him feel lower than obligation. He was an adult, wasn’t he? Why did he let MK push him around and constantly ruin the perfect world he had built? Adam knew the right thing to do was to soften the blow now that they both knew they were stuck together with this child. He tried to relax, tried to take the ice out of his eyes. It was a little like waiting for a glacier to melt. “Will take care of her with you. Want to find a better home, but know you won’t let that happen.” He said bitterly and then turned to walk back towards the girl before MK could scream at him.
MK bit back a yelp when he grabbed her arm, eyes narrowed and mouth twisted up like he was so lucky they were surrounded by people. Not like that had ever stopped before, but now her niece, who had just lost her mother, was in that crowd, too. She would try her best to keep Delilah sheltered from all of that. At least for now. She winced when he dug his fingers in deeper, eyes squeezing shut and mouth pursed. More people were beginning to look at them, frowns of concern surrounding the arguing couple just as Adam let go of her and began to cool down.
She yanked her arm back, fingers kneading where he grabbed her arm as if that could stave off the bruising, and she did open her mouth to yell at him, but he was already walking away. MK bit back a scream of frustration before she squared away her shoulders and tried to wipe away the emotion from her face so they wouldn’t worry the little girl. It wasn’t very successful, MK always had her heart on her sleeve, and the concerned onlookers trailed the redhead as she walked back over to the young girl.
“Delilah,” MK said softly, reaching forward to brush gentle fingers down the girl’s arm. She stooped down, and took her niece’s hands in hers. “You remember Adam, right? You’re gonna come live with us for a while, okay?” Delilah looked up at Adam with those bright Robinson greens that hadn’t been tainted by the world yet and smiled at him tentatively. “Yeah?” she asked, softly too and missing the happiness Adam would know from when he met her only a few months before.
Adam felt like someone invited to a dinner where he didn’t know anybody. He felt like these two girls would conspire against him and pull him farther and farther down into a life of servitude, noise and chores. He couldn’t look at the child at first, pretending that he was searching for their luggage until MK walked over and introduced Delilah to him. Reluctantly, he looked down and felt a little blindsided by those youthful green eyes that were so similar to the ones that he had learnt to love a long time ago.
He stared back at the girl, refusing to treat her like a child (or rather he had forgotten how to speak to kids) and then his shoulders suddenly slumped forward in defeat. He nodded and offered the little girl a hint of a smile. “Yes. Have plenty of room for you.” Adam’s spine slowly straightened back up and he offered to take whatever luggage MK had. “Can have whatever you want for dinner. Within reason.” He felt like that was easily the best olive branch he could offer the girl.
“Pancakes?” Delilah asked warily, more towards MK than Adam as if she had already decided who was actually in charge.
Adam turned to say no, but looked at MK, sighed and nodded. “Pancakes.”
As Adam and Delilah quickly sized each other up, MK lugged off two suitcases from the conveyer belt -- hers, a large black one and Delilah’s, a tiny pink one with unicorns on it. She also had her carry-on slung over her shoulder which she kept, but she did hand over the larger suitcase for Adam to roll out. She caught the attempted smile and appreciated that, curving up the corner of her lip towards him. She loved him desperately, and any chance to see good in him was snatched up and catalogued as proof that he was good for her, too.
See? Things could be okay. There were so many details to square away, and there was the issue of Delilah seeing all the ugliness that could drum up between the lovebirds, but MK was convinced that things would be okay.
“Pancakes sound great,” MK said with a more genuine smile. With one hand holding the handle of the little pink suitcase and the other out for Delilah, MK glanced up at him. “I can have her other things sent later on in the week. She’s got enough for now. Clothes. Her blanket, her favorite stuffed animals.” She shrugged the shoulder with her carry-on slung on it, indicating that all of that had come onto the plane with them as a source of comfort for the girl. Silently asking where he parked with a raise of her eyebrow, she followed Adam as he began to lead the way. Suitcase and five-year-old in tow, skipping at the prospect of sugary breakfast for dinner and staying in the shiny city as she called it.
After a moment and great thought, MK turned up to Adam’s tall frame. “Do you think I should tell Wren?” It was clearly something that had been rattling in her brain for a while, and the moment she asked it, she regretted it. She knew what Adam would say. Still, she needed to voice it aloud.
Adam’s twisting anger at the situation was still there, squeezing his head like a vice. He felt suddenly overwhelmed with all the work he’d have to do to take care of a child and he wondered if MK was really going to step up or expect him to do everything. He looked back to catch a warming expression on Maddie K’s face, though and he let it go. Getting angry now would only make it worse and he still had a good bottle of wine to look forward to when the girl was put to bed.
“Wren?” Adam pointed towards the car and then stepped in line with MK. “Depends on the likelihood of running into her. Will probably assume we’re trying to compete with her.” He didn’t think he could hate the Henry’s more, but if they treated this situation like a competition, he’d lose it. He’d dig into Luke so sharply until the angry little ex vigilante boy wanted to beat the ever living daylights out of the good doctor. “Want to talk to her again? Tell her first, might be sympathetic. Give bad parenting advice.” Adam said dryly.
MK shook her head almost violently and pulled a face. “Yeah, she would.” There was always the comparison between the Henrys and she and Adam, and Wren was always all too quick to point it all out. It was what destroyed their friendship, in MK’s eyes. Having to fight again and again because their lives weren’t as picture perfect as Luke and Wren’s were. Her fingers tightened a little more protectively around Delilah’s, and she frowned. “She fucking would. And she has no right. For fuck’s sake, I’m the only reason she even has Gus now. If I didn’t agree to help her, who knows what she would have done to kidnap that poor kid?” She didn’t care about the implications of saying that aloud anymore. Wren hadn’t gotten in trouble for it, and she was the one who snatched the boy from his adoptive parents.
Delilah tugged on MK, an indication of how tightly she was holding the little girl’s hand, and the redhead loosened her grip. “Sorry, sweetheart,” she smiled down at the girl a little thinner, already careless about how she should act. Her stomach lurched for a second. What if she turned out as horrible as her parents did? No. Adam wouldn’t let that happen. Right?
She shrugged, swallowing the bile of worry and rage climbing up her throat. “I don’t know. I just thought--after everything I’ve been through with her, maybe she’d cut the shit for a second after all of this.”
Adam nodded, enjoying nothing more than MK’s rage directed at something he could hate, too. This was when they felt the strongest. When they were both tearing something apart together only to build themselves up a little higher. If Adam could find a way to feel justified, shared rage all the time, he would. “Wren is lonely. Could tell when we saw them.” He said as if he was some kind of mind reader. It was true, though. Wren didn’t just look lonely, she seemed lost. “Handed a life she wasn’t built for. A shame.” Adam shook his head, all pity for the Seattle whore who managed to worm her way back into her angry hero’s heart.
“Should try to reach out. See what happens. Might improve things.” Adam decided after a moment. “Old friendships never die. Only get rusty. If she was truly a friend, she’d try to be there for you.” He said sagely and then momentarily had a daydream about being a real family. MK took care of the girl, Adam made the money and all three lost, broken toys would have peace. Maybe even moments of happiness. That relieved the anger he felt for MK a little more. When they reached the car, he took her hand with his long fingers and held it for a moment. His blue eyes clear and steady. He didn’t tell her he loved her, in fact he didn’t say anything. Only a tiny piece of tenderness to reveal that Adam she knew who was lost in the shadows.
“Yeah, well it’s her goddamn fault,” MK mumbled, anger for Wren and everything she’d done to her seeping into her bones and pulsing through her veins. After all the suffering and pain she’d gone through because of Wren, it still stung deeply that Wren could cut her down so cruelly. That she could condemn MK’s life choices when it was her fault that the redhead was where she was in the first place. But, Adam was right, and her gut told her that reaching out to Wren would be okay. (Because, clearly, her gut was always right.) Maybe she would see the err of her ways and realize what a big fucking mistake she’d made over the past year to destroy the friendship she had with MK.
Still holding onto Delilah’s hand, she took Adam’s eagerly, slipping her fingers into the grooves of his. Desperate and longing for any sort of affection he could give her. She could see the flickers of warmth buried somewhere deep, deep, deep. She squeezed his fingers tightly and gazed up at him with dark green eyes flickering with something. Love? Hope? MK didn’t know anything was there at all in the first place. She didn’t tell him that she loved him either, assuming it was in the pretext of her expression. They were never very good at telling each other how they felt anyway. I love you just felt perfunctory nowadays. Still, she wanted to assure him of one little thing. “It’s going to be okay,” she said before she felt a tug on her hand.
“Maddie Kay? Can we watch a movie tonight, too?”
MK smiled down at her niece, eyes flickering to Adam briefly before nodding. “Anything you want, Delilah.”
Love and hope weren’t things he believed in anymore, were they? Adam told himself a thousand times that those two little words had ruined his life over the past couple years. He told himself that they weren’t even meant for him, something he believed since he was a child. Yet, there it was fused into MK’s green eyes and he had to work extra hard to suppress that familiar feeling that he might actually get what he wanted one day. He nodded when she told him it was going to be okay, actually letting himself believe it.
He smiled when Delilah called MK Maddie Kay, surprised a little that someone else used that name for her. Ever since things went bad, she was always MK. Short, simple, easy to file away. Maddie K took so long to say. But, back when he used to call her that, it didn’t seem like a waste of time. Adam didn’t want to keep thinking about those times, but his heart was hungry for anything resembling happiness.
Adam turned to put the luggage away in his car and then helped Delilah into the car. On the way home he asked her what movie she wanted to watch. He even showed interest as she listed off different Disney movies he hadn’t seen yet. Perhaps it was just his younger self trying to rekindle that escapist joy for any world that wasn’t his.