Daniel smiled at Will, "we had to. Michaela told me she was trans when she was fifteen, but she didn't feel safe telling Mom until a little after her seventeenth birthday. Mom had her committed," he explained for Will's benefit, since Tuck already knew. "Seventy-two hour psych hold. I had already applied for and gotten a place at SVA here, so for those seventy-two hours I barely slept and arranged everything. I bought a car off a friend, packed it full of stuff while she slept, picked Michaela up from the hospital and we were off. Technically, Michaela was a runaway so we were so careful for an entire year, before we found out she hadn't even bothered to report Michaela missing."
Tuck was very much concentrating on angrily grating some potatoes up for hashbrowns. He had been told all this, but that didn't mean it didn't still piss him off. "Important enough to keep me away, but not important enough to report her own kid missing."
"We only contacted her again after Michaela turned eighteen and there were no legality issues," Daniel explained. "She didn't even care. Didn't send any money. Nothing. Michaela couldn't work that first year and I was in university and trying to work enough to keep us fed and a roof over our heads. We shared this shitty studio apartment with a hot plate and no oven. One double bed. Don't regret it for a second."