Who: Molly Walker and Jughead Jones Forsythe Walker What: Bad Brother Causing Trouble When: Friday evening Where: Their home Warnings: None Status: Closed/Completed gdoc
Forsythe stood at his front door to collect himself for a moment. He'd run most of the way home from the Brothel and he knew being out of breath was the quickest way to arouse Molly's suspicions. It was a lot better if she didn't know, especially this close to the end of the month, so he straightened his collar and ran a hand through his hair to look a little more presentable. He'd just say work kept him a little later for something or another to explain why he was almost an hour late getting home. It happened every once in a while, maybe once every three or four months.
Set with his lie and oblivious to the lipstick stain on the edge of his collar, Forsythe stepped into their home. "Hey," he called. "Sorry I'm late. Needed me to stay a bit at work and I couldn't get word." Hopefully, Molly would leave it at that and head off to work. And maybe Hell had froze over, since that was more likely. He could hope.
***
Of all the days for her brother to be late.
Molly knew that their arrangement was one that required careful balance and a good amount of compromise, it needed her to be flexible if his work kept him from getting to hers. He was the man of the house, after all, but they needed Molly’s work. She was paid well for what she did, and working long nights only earned her more. They needed the money if they were going to pay for Eleanor’s education, give her any sort of future better than the one her elder sister had found herself in. All their family’s meager savings had been spent on burying their parents. And today was the day pay was handed out to a good many men in town; the saloon was bound to be busy from early on and Molly had hoped to get there early enough that she could afford a night off, just once.
But there she was with Eleanor sitting on the floor while she cooked and Forsythe was later and later, making her later and later. She was going to have to skip on having dinner together tonight at this rate.
She only glanced back for a second when she heard his voice, huffed in annoyance but couldn’t really complain if was work that kept him. “It’s fine. You’re here now. Go wash up quickly and sit down.”
Turning to start setting the table while he did that, she caught a better glance of him, immediately saw the bright red smear on his collar and she wasn’t stupid. She knew exactly where that came from.
Molly immediately just hurled the tin cup in her hand at him.
***
He thought he'd gotten away with it when she told him to go wash up and that was exactly what he did, turned his back to her to head for the washroom. Forsythe definitely felt guilty, but not nearly as much as he probably should have and got maybe three steps before he felt the tin cup hit him square in the back.
"Ow, fuck," he cursed, since she had quite the arm on her. Forsythe turned around, angry even though he knew full well he deserved it. Still, if she had accepted his lie, what the hell? The look he gave her said as much.
"Come on, Molly. That's not fair," he argued as he picked up the tin cup. He wasn't going to throw it back at her, since that would've definitely been uncalled for, Forsythe didn't need her judging him. "I didn't mean to be this late, alright?" He really hadn't. He'd just gotten a little hung up with Mal.
***
“Do you think I care what you meant when you come in here with lipstick on your collar?” Molly asked, anger clear in her eyes and a spoon went flying at him next. She wouldn’t throw anything that risked actually hurting him, but she was irritated enough that he’d been late, late and having wasted their hard earned money, the money they were saving to give their sister a better life, that was too much. “Do you think I don’t know exactly where you were?”
She didn’t even care that he’d went to the brothel. Men did that, it was natural enough. If he wanted to spend the money, though, he just needed to tell her so, let her make sure they wouldn’t find themselves in dire straits because of it.
He obviously hadn’t considered either of them, and that was the part that stung. Everything Molly did she did out of love for her siblings.
***
So that was what had given him away. He was frustrated, but it was no one's fault but his own. "I needed a break, Molly!" Forsythe didn't raise his voice, would never raise his voice to his sister, but this was the first time that he kind of wanted to. He caught the spoon and strode over to the table to set both items down with a dull thud.
"Been workin' like crazy an' so have you, I know that, alright? I know." He'd just wanted to have a little while that wasn't working or looking after a boring or needy baby. Eleanor was great and he loved her and he wanted what was best for her, but he also wanted a break. He hadn't wanted another siblings. He hadn't particularly wanted to go to school or anything, but he wanted to be more than just a livery boy. That was out of the question considering they needed all the money they could for their littlest sister.
"I made sure to work enough that it wouldn't hurt us. I'm not an idiot." And he resented that he had to set aside money for a baby who wasn't ever going to be any better than him or her, awful as that was.
***
“Damn right you know!” Molly wouldn’t ever curse that way outside the safety of her home, normally wouldn’t even do it there for fear of Eleanor repeating her, but she was angry and he was selfish and all she wanted was one night without someone gawking at her chest and her legs. Something she wasn’t going to get now because he’d chosen to waste their money, no matter what he said about making it up already, and he’d chosen the worst possible night to do it on. “Just like you know it’s payday and I ought to be leaving already.”
The baby started crying loudly at the argument, and tears in her own eyes Molly turned to scoop her up off the floor.
“I don’t care if you want to go over there. But don’t you dare think you’re the only one who wants a break and do it on the one night I wanted to go earn enough that we could both take one.” They could have borrowed a cart and gone out to the Barnes’, had a nice meal with some nice people and just for a little while been like they had their whole family back.
***
He knew exactly how pissed she was by the fact that she cussed. She was a hell of a lot better than him when it came to watching her tongue around their sister, so for her to let even the smallest one out meant she was beyond pissed off. Truthfully though, he hadn't really thought about her or the fact that pay day was a good day for her to get to work early.
Of course, instead of actually going to work, she just scooped their sister up. "In what world are you living in that we'd both get a night off?" he asked accusingly. "And what are we going to do, huh?" Forsythe knew what their options were, and it was to hang out with each other and their sister, which was exactly what he'd wanted to avoid for a little while.
"Give me her and just go to work, alright? The longer you spend arguing with me, the later you're going to be." He wondered if maybe he'd get smacked for that one, but it was also true and he really didn't want to get into a screaming match with her. He shouldn't have lingered with Mal.
***
“Oh, you’re going to comfort her?” Molly didn’t believe that for a moment. She did most of the heavy lifting when it came to their sister and the housework, and that was fine, that was normal and the way it ought to be. She was a girl, and those were the sorts of things she should be taking care of. It would just be nice to have some real help once in a while, to be able to work all night without worrying. To not have to work all night at all. She’d wound up doing it because Forsythe’s work kept him busy all day and if he was left with the baby at night it would largely just be time spent sleeping.
“Fine.” The crying child was deposited right into his arms. “You’ll have to feed her as well, if you can manage it. Nothing’s quite cold enough for her so you’ll have to help.” All the things she normally did and always without complaint. She knew better than to try asking him to clean and wash up afterwards, usually she did that too, fully expected it would all still be sitting on the table, anything they didn’t eat wasted, when she came home.
Eyes still bright with anger and tears of her own, Molly just spun on her heel and stormed off to collect her things, but small as their home was it didn’t take her far. “I have a dinner invitation, you know.” He couldn’t. Had never bothered to ask after her nights. “For the three of us. From Deputy Barnes’ husband. He’s a nice enough fellow and I thought it might be nice to go out to visit for an evening but.” She stormed back into the main room, bag containing her dress for work and some things to do her hair over one arm. “If you’d rather spend your time and our money on whores.”
She wished he’d want to spend his time with people who at least treated her as though she was respectable, though. A man who’d said there was no shame in her job. Something as simple as that was so much kinder than anything she got from her own brother. She wished she could say she knew better, knew he wasn’t ashamed of her. She couldn’t.
***
His definition of comfort was to hold her and walk around until she stopped or cried herself to sleep, but it was a valid method as far as he was concerned. Forsythe had to readjust since Molly didn't exactly give him time to get himself prepared for it. Even with how long they'd had her, it was still awkward for him to hold her. Or really do anything with her. Feeding was something he'd done maybe a handful of times, if that, but he managed to not make a face. That would only piss her off more.
"Fine." That was all she was going to get if she was going to get so worked up about all of this. Although, he got pretty pissed when she said there was a dinner invitation for the three of them that she hadn't said word one about before this very moment.
"How was I supposed to know you got invited to dinner? You didn't say anything. Maybe if you had, I wouldn't have gone over to the brothel," he countered, forgetting his resolve to just give her one word answers. She could just push all of his buttons and he wanted to press some of hers. "And it was my money, thank you very much. Don't you go thinking any of your precious saloon earnings got taken to the whore house." She was such a bitch sometimes, when really she wasn't too far from the brothel herself. Forsythe did, at least, have the good sense not to say that to her, even in anger.
***
Molly knew what he thought of her even if he didn’t say it. It mattered a lot more than she’d admit to. She wanted to do something else, anything else, but the job had gotten them a place to live when they came to town and it made her more than she’d get at the Laundry or somewhere.
“When have I had the time?” she snapped. “Mr Barnes only just asked and I’ve hardly seen you!” There were chores to be done when she got home, meals to prepare and she had to make sure he got lunch to go to work with, she has to entertain the baby and do the washing and the cleaning and make sure there would be supper when he got in, and somewhere in everything she had to try and sleep. Dinner together was supposed to be the time they got to talk about things. Something else he’d spoiled.
“And it hardly matters if we can’t take an evening to go have dinner with a perfectly nice, respectable couple because you’d rather get into some girl’s skirts.” She barely cared about the money if he’d already made it up. She cared more that he’d chosen today of all days and then lied about it.
***
Forsythe rolled his eyes at her. He'd known this was going to get him into trouble, but it didn't make it any less exhausting to have her snapping at him. So much for getting her out the door quickly to work. "So you go take the evening and go have dinner with them if you're so worked up about it. Then I'll get another night in some girl's skirts."
She was so ridiculous sometimes. Who cared if they got to have dinner with one of the Sheriff's Deputies anyway? It wasn't like it would actually help them with anything in the long run. At best, it'd just give them a few hours reprieve and that wasn't exactly how he wanted to spend those few hours. Up Mal's skirts was definitely more preferable to socializing with one of the women deputies. Madison Valley was a weird town for a lot of reasons, but the all female deputies? That took the cake.
***
Fumbling for her handkerchief, seething with anger and hurt beyond measure, Molly just shook her head. “You don’t even try to understand.”
Why should he? Of the two of them he was the respectable one, he didn’t seem to miss their parents nearly as much, and he was a man. He could do whatever he liked. Molly was the one who was scorned and gossiped about and who worked so hard both at the saloon and at home to provide for her family when she shouldn’t have to do either yet. She should be worried about learning how to do all the things she’d been forced to learn too quickly and she shouldn’t be responsible for anyone’s life yet. She should be worried about finding a husband and not about whose hands she was going to have to fight off.
She shouldn’t have to feel badly about wanting someone to actually treat her like the girl she should be.
“Just feed the baby.” She wasn’t going to fight anymore. He’d upset her enough and it was going to take enough to pull herself together again in order to work. Molly finished gathering her things and threw a shawl over her shoulders, just left the house before he could make things worse.