Who: Kyle and Gwen What: Meeting up in a hotel lobby When: RECENTLY - when they both first got to town Where: Hotel in Vegas. Pick one.
Kyle West learned something new every day. Every.Single.Day. And today he was learning that hotels had very few ways to get into a room once locked out. And that when one was dealing with a very annoyed six year old the only thing to do was to stand outside the hotel room and reason with an unreasonable dictator.
He wasn’t sure where it had all gone so wrong. She hadn’t been thrilled about moving - the girl was Boston through and through (his fault), she hadn’t been thrilled about having to stay in a hotel (also his fault), and he had ruined a perfectly good breakfast by talking about going to school. So naturally, when he’d told her not to open that door - she did. And when he’d told her to get back in the room - she hadn’t. And when he’d chased her down the hall she’d doubled back and gone into the hotel room closing it behind her and refused to open it.
He had only been out there for a few minutes - he knew she wasn’t getting into any trouble because she was too busy standing at the door explaining herself. At great length. And she never had been the type to do dangerous things just to do them. He remembered once, when she had been younger - maybe three -, telling her not to lick any light sockets. And she’d looked at him like he was crazy.
The latest word was that he was in a five minute time out and she’d already set the timer on the microwave. Set.The.Timer. She was using his methods against him. “Sadie,” he said, the gruff voice full of affection - but still Kyle. “Sadie you don’t get to put me in time out.”
He was answered with with “Four minute and forty-five seconds.” From the sass queen behind the door.
He grumbled. Five minutes wasn’t horrible. Of course he was sure she wouldn’t be licking any light sockets - that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be getting into things. She loved to get into things. Loved to get into things.
After what he was sure had been at least five minutes of hanging out outside the room the door peeked open just slightly and before he could get into the room, she ran out - under his legs and he had to turn tail and run after her - the hotel room door closing behind both of them. A flurry of black pigtails, and pink jeans and a white shirt ran down the hall (with no god damn shoes on) and he ran after her.
Ten minutes, a pout, a hug, and a visit to the front desk later, he had thrown her over his shoulder and was walking down the hall carrying her like a sack of potatoes and she huffed and puffed and lectured in her thick - yet still very young - Boston accent all the way back up in the elevator. He was looking at his phone, and vaguely listening to all the reasons why she couldn’t live in the desert (there’s no fish here, and I love fish - was news to him) so he didn’t see that he’d done the awkward step almost into another person when he went to step off the elevator. Once he noticed and looked up the moment became possibly one of the most surreal of his life. “Gwen,” he said with an incredulous smile. Even Sadie stopped her chatterboxing and tried to squirm (or turn her head around 180 like she always said she wished she could do) to see what was happening.
A lot had changed, in fact, everything had changed. The first and foremost being the tiny brunette slung over his shoulder, but most of all he looked healthy. Where someone might have been aged quickly - he had almost gotten a bit younger. He had color in his face, he didn’t look as drawn as he might have otherwise. Sure he was older, but Kyle had aged well, despite the brunette - who ran him ragged - he looked human. And happy. There were some tell tale Kyle traits, he never did get that haircut, the blue flannel shirt and the jeans and boots. The sunglasses clipped to the front of his shirt were exactly his style, the silver chain around his neck with the Archangel Michael pendent that the men in his family wore once they became cops. Things he never saw any reason to get rid of and things that had been part of his life for as long as he could remember.
Gwen, for her part, looked much the same. Taking a flight out of New York on rather short notice had her leaving meetings and heading straight to the airport. Checking in she was a little overdressed for the brightly lit tourist trap, sporting a pair of black heels, slim dark pinstripe pants, a green sweater and white blouse that peeked out from the neck and sleeves. She tugged along a black rolling carryon bag behind her, brushing her red hair from her face when she pulled back to stop from colliding him. When she heard her name and saw his face, a similarly surprised smile broke across her features.
“Kyle?” She hadn’t seen him in years, hadn’t thought about him in just as long. She was struck by how different he looked, healthier and happier than the last time she saw him, and she was also struck by how happy that made her. They had their downs than ups, especially towards the end of their relationship, but seeing him like this was all she had ever wished for him.
Of course, the little thing slung across his shoulder was very new and she leaned over to the side to get a better look at her, a curious little smile quirking her lips up. “And a friend, I see.”
He smiled at her and Sadie squirmed and eventually wiggled her way off his shoulder, down his torso and landed with a thud on the floor. She held onto Kyle’s hand (because she knew she was in big trouble) and stepped behind his leg a little. Just in case she needed to be shy (which she never was for long).
He had thought about Gwen a lot at the beginning. It was easy to think back on his life and remember every bad moment when he was trying to bury himself in a mountain of pills and empty bottles. But once he found his feet again, found Sadie, he’d made peace with the ups and downs of his former life. And now it was staring him in the face - and it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t awful. He didn’t feel like he thought he might should any of this confront him again. She was part of a complicated time in his life, and he was just glad she hadn’t actually seen him at his worst. No one but Max had seen that. “Gwen,” he said and cleared his throat a little, because the situation might raise more questions than it answered, but he didn’t mind a bit. He’d talk about this forever. “This is my daughter Sadie, and trust me, she’s not shy. She’s casing the situation,” he said with a grin and stepping aside so she’d be forced to say hello to Gwen. Sadie waved, said “Hi Miss Gwen,” and stuck her thumb in her mouth for all of five seconds before she remembered that is not where it belonged (like her father, old habits died hard), and put her hand behind her back because clearly no one saw that.
“I don’t think I’d ever expect a West to be shy for long,” Gwen laughed softly before sliding her hands to her knees and bending down slightly. “It’s nice to meet you Sadie,” she said with a warm grin, meaning it completely, before turning her eyes and stance back up towards the father. “You two here on vacation?” Something told her that wasn’t right but she wasn’t about to voice what could only be described as simply a feeling. She had checked her emails once she touched down on the plane and saw one, amidst her company related ones, that would have given her a rundown of everything she would need to know about Vegas. The fact that she decided to read that in her hotel room, and ran into her an ex-boyfriend from years ago before she had a chance to, didn’t bode well for coincidences.
Kyle looked down at Sadie, and rolled his eyes while she continued to mull things over. So he did the natural thing, he stepped aside, “You’re on your own kid, be polite,” he said though through his typical gruff was a softness and a fondness that Sadie automatically responded to with an eyeroll of her own (that matched his almost exactly).
“No,” she said to Gwen’s question before Kyle could answer about their situation in town. “We had to move here. To live in a hotel, because of work,” Kyle moved his hand up to his mouth and pretended to clear his throat when he was just hiding amusement. He nodded at Gwen, “She hit the nail on the head, and that being said - I’m sure you can guess what I’m working on,” he said giving her a knowing look - because the only reason for the both of them to be in the same place at the same time, especially this particular time, was the job.
Not that he was complaining.
“Just one guess,” she said, returning that knowing look but there wasn’t annoyance in her gaze, the little bit only being that she hadn’t known about it beforehand. She’d have to thank someone for that later.
“Well I’m sure your dad will bring you somewhere nicer to live than a hotel soon,” Gwen added cheerfully. “Not that the hotel isn’t great but eventually the novelty of your neighbors being covered in glitter wears off.” As if right on cue, another elevator door opened with a small troupe of young women with glittery makeup that rivaled the sparkle of their t-shirts spilled out next to them. They muttered and giggled their apologies and went on their way. “Point taken,” she said with a smirk before turning toward the same direction. “Where are you two? I’m…” she glanced down at her hotel key and gestured to the left, “that way.”
“I’d be afraid you were slipping if it took more than one,” he said with a grin that came much easier than getting any kind of smile out of him in a former life.
Sadie looked up at Kyle and gave him a pointed look at Gwen’s point, as if to double check that he was listening and he nodded. “Yes, your dad will bring you somewhere nice to live than a hotel soon,” he said tugging lightly on one of her pig tails.
When the glitter queens walked out Kyle shook his head and Sadie looked way too interested and he physically turned her head just a bit. “You’re not old enough to party in Vegas, monster,” he said as his future flashed briefly before his eyes. Christ. He nodded his head down the hall in the same direction as her, “We’re neighbors, we’re that way too. But at least we don’t have to do that awkward thing where we say goodbye and then walk the same direction.”