Who: Gavin and Aaron When: morning, Monday, Nov 6 Where: The Back Porch Status: Complete
Aaron was tired. In general, yes, but also because it was early and he’d had to rush out of the house when he got up. He’d reset his stupid alarm and then forgotten about it. He’d shown up right on time to open with Miles, mumbling sleepy apologies as he unlocked the doors so they could get started. Caden would be in later, he trusted Aaron enough to open -- with very specific written instructions -- but closing was a different matter. They weren’t counting on Gavin anymore. Aaron couldn’t blame him for being a mess, of course, but part of him did wish he would at least start straightening his shit out. A little.
He went through the motions of opening the bar, then started up the coffee machine. Aaron needed a cup or two before he could really be much good. Or five. Everything felt so tiring and unhappy, he probably needed more than coffee, but oh well. Small problems first. He leaned the heels of his hands heavily on the edge of the counter and watched the coffee drip, letting his mind fuzz out a bit.
Gavin actually showed up to work today. He was happier than he'd been in a long time and it felt only right to tell the people who needed to know about Amelia, even if they couldn't tell everyone - for obvious reasons. Amelia had spent the night and Jasper was staying home today so Gavin decided to step up and help out. He was a little tired and at the same time he'd never felt so refreshed in his life. Home felt like home, his family felt like family and at the same time everything was so strange he almost expected to wake up at any moment.
He walked into the bar shortly after it opened and today he'd only had one drink just to steady his nerves knowing full well he wasn't going to quit cold turkey. He'd showered and shaved and he felt human. He dropped his coat off at his little office before heading out to the bar itself. "Miles, can you take care of things out here? I need to talk to my brother," he said and it was hard not to smile even if he knew he should technically still be sad in front of people who couldn't know the truth.
Aaron looked up as someone walked in from the back and he was surprised to see it was Gavin. He was even more surprised to see how Gavin actually looked. Clean and shaven and sober, almost normal again. Aaron’s mouth dropped open a little, and Miles sounded a bit surprised himself as he said yeah, of course he could. Aaron straightened up and nodded to Gavin before they both headed back through the swinging doors into the back. He felt a tiny bit more awake since something was obviously going on. “Hey ... what’s up?” he asked once they were alone.
Gavin had no idea how to tell him what was going on. He'd had to see Amelia for himself and even then it had been hard to believe. He draped his arm over Aaron's shoulders and steered him toward his office because they needed as much privacy as they could get for this. "Look at this," he mumbled as he pulled his phone out. He'd taken a picture of Jasper and Amelia at the breakfast table, both of them sleepy looking but happy. Amelia was smiling at the camera, Jasper.. well, sort of smiling though he hadn't appreciated the picture being taken. "What do you see?" Gavin asked, watching his brother expectantly.
Starting to feel a little worried, Aaron allowed himself to be steered. He squinted at the phone as Gavin showed him the picture, studying it for a moment before he glanced up at Gavin again. “Jasper ... is that his girlfriend?” he asked. Something about her face looked vaguely familiar, but it was a small town and people walked around all the time. Aaron had thought Jasper’s girlfriend was blonde though. Whatever, if he was anything like his uncles, he went through girls pretty fast anyway, and it wasn’t like they’d hung out much in the past while.
Of course he'd think that but it was still so ridiculous that Gavin almost laughed. "No," he said softly. "It's... I know it's crazy, Aaron, but that's Amelia. Look closer." It probably would have been easier to just bring Amelia here - or invite Aaron home but she was going to be doing this a lot and last night had been very emotionally draining for all of them despite how happy they were. "She got taken somewhere and she's been gone a lot longer than we lost her for."
Aaron’s face scrunched up in confusion when Gavin said it was Amelia, and he took the phone from his brother to brought it closer to his face to squint at it. He didn’t quite understand that last part, he was still trying to wrap his head around the idea that he was looking at his niece. A grown up version of her. The more he stared, he started noticing the details, the shape of her eyes and nose, that smile that looked so much like Jasper’s. “But ... how ... is that possible?” Aaron asked slowly, his eyes moving to his brother again. “You’re sure? I mean ... she’s not just some girl pretending?”
Gavin smiled, shaking his head because there was no way. "The dogs knew her, wouldn't leave her side. The cops did a DNA test." At least Amelia had mentioned it but he hadn't asked for it because he didn't need it. He probably should though, others would be difficult to convince - especially Caden. "You know the thing you told me about the tunnels? Something took her, Aaron. She wasn't... here. She was in some kinda hell for nine years and she fought her way out." That was his girl, he couldn't help the surge of pride that came with the statement. "And she's back."
His brows lifted high at the words ‘DNA test.’ You couldn’t really argue with one of those, could you? “Holy shit,” he breathed, looking back at the phone and letting all that sink in. Amelia had been taken by something evil, and she’d been in some other world for nine years while only two weeks passed to them? It sounded like something out of a movie, something a crazy person would try to lie about, but Gavin sounded convinced. It made him feel even worse about Mila going back to those tunnels -- what if something had taken her away too? Fuck. “Wow, this is ... and she’s okay?” he asked, sounding amazed.
Gavin nodded and his brother's willing acceptance made him feel a little choked up. "She's strong," he said and then let out a little laugh. "She told me I looked like shit and should eat something. You should see Jasper, he's... he's fucking beaming, I haven't seen him like this in weeks - months even. Just something good happening. We can't tell people though, Aaron. It'll be a circus if people find out... But family, you know? Family's gotta know." He had no idea how they'd go on from there. She'd need a new identity probably, she couldn't go around with the ID of a ten year old girl. Gavin would figure it out somehow.
Aaron was a little dubious as to how they were going to keep this a secret, but he understood the logic behind it. Even with a paper that said she was Amelia, most people wouldn’t believe them, and their family had a crappy enough reputation in town. Besides that, what if like, the government came and took her away or something? So he nodded vigorously to that. “I’ll tell Mila and nobody else,” he said, his gaze ticking between Gavin’s face and the picture. A smile started to grow on his face. It was fucking weird, that was for sure, but if it was really true, then everything was going to get better for them. “This is a fuckin’ miracle, Gav,” he murmured, giving his brother a tiny grin. “I can’t believe it.”
Gavin laughed again and turned to hug his brother tightly. "It's a fucking miracle," he agreed and he was too happy to even let that little guilty pang bother him, the one that always followed hearing Mila's name. "We'll do better now, we'll be better." He had promised that to himself and to Jasper, if Amelia came home they'd be better. It wouldn't be easy but in the moment it felt like anything would be a breeze going forward. "You need some time off," he muttered as he squeezed Aaron. "You kept us going when I couldn't."
Aaron automatically hugged Gavin back, patting his back with a bit of stunned surprise. He didn’t get a ton of voluntary hugs from Gavin, especially not ones that were so enthusiastic. And his words gave Aaron a pang in the chest. He slid his arms tighter around his brother and squeezed back. “Was mostly Caden,” he murmured, but there was still appreciation in his tone. He was a little touched. Aaron closed his eyes and gave Gavin another squeeze. “We’ll do better. I’m so happy for you,” he added, the words coming out a bit thick. He didn’t think he’d seen Gavin smile like that in ... fuck, a year if not months upon months.
Gavin nodded and when backed off he left his hand on Aaron's shoulder. "Don't tell mom and dad," he said quietly. "They don't need to know. Mom would tell dad, dad would... He doesn't need to know." It would be bad, they all knew it and they didn't need to say it. "Just Mila. I'll tell Caden, probably have to punch it in a few times before he believes me but he will. Then Kat. Roxy can know." He'd tell Charlie. Hell he didn't know how he'd explain how happy he was to the rest of the world but she deserved to know. She probably needed some good news after whatever horror had happened to Sadie Gaines.
Maybe it was cruel to keep that sort of news from Amelia’s grandparents, but Aaron understood why. He nodded and finally offered Gavin’s phone back to him, taking one more peer at Amelia’s face as he did so. He couldn’t wait to see her in person for himself. A tiny part of him was still skeptical, like maybe Gavin was mistaken somehow, but if Jasper believed it too and the cops had DNA evidence, for fuck’s sake ... it was a miracle. Aaron gave Gavin a smile and reached up to squeeze his arm. “Can’t wait to see her,” he said. He was happy about it -- how could he not be? -- but Aaron felt a small tug of sadness on his heart, too. Gavin got his kid back, but they wouldn’t get theirs. Of course, a nine year old going missing was completely different than a weeks-old fetus being miscarried, but still. “Lemme know if you need help punching it into Caden.”
Gavin let out a little laugh that quickly turned into a groan. He was still worried that Caden would lead them to war despite his efforts to smooth things over with Reagan Kelly. He'd lost his fingers and Gavin doubted those were growing back. Would he believe Amelia was who she said she was? Even with evidence? There was no telling with his brother, it really could go either way with him. "I'm going to need you on Wednesday when the supplies come in," he said and patted Aaron's shoulder. "But you can come see Amelia anytime. She's going to see Ollie today so I don't know how that'll go. I'll let you know."
Aaron gave a little wince and a nod. “Good luck to her with that one,” he muttered. He hoped Jasper was going with her, at least. Olivia was nuts under normal circumstances, her daughter coming back years older -- or some girl claiming to be her daughter -- was definitely not normal. “But yeah, I’ll go by to see her, maybe later tonight. She might need cheering up after Ollie.” Amelia had always liked him as an uncle, probably because he was way more friendly than Caden, and Aaron had to wonder how she would feel about him now. If he could still pick her up and swing her around. Wow, this was crazy to think about. He really needed to see her in person, just to make sure Gavin hadn’t completely cracked up somehow.
"You should go see her, definitely," Gavin replied. He worried she'd get overwhelmed with everyone wanting to meet her since their family wasn't exactly small, but then she also seemed fine and eager to meet them all. She had loved Aaron as a kid, Gavin couldn't imagine her not being happy to see him again. "She's older than Jasper now," he said quietly. "It's... strange." Strange didn't even begin to cover what it was but Gavin didn't think he had the vocabulary to do so anyway.
He opened his mouth to say ‘naw’ because that didn’t seem possible, but Aaron guessed it was. She’d been ten, and nine years to her somewhere else made her nineteen. That was such a bizarre thought. “Yeah, that’s ... somethin’ else,” he murmured with wonder, staring blankly at nothing for a second as he tried to wrap his mind around that. Aaron thought again that he really would have to see her, and he kind of wished she wasn’t going to see Ollie first. She was Amelia’s mother, for Christ’s sake, but still. “Is she gonna live with you too?”
Gavin shook his head. "I don't know," he said quietly. "I want her to but she probably wants to go back home... If she wants to move in I'll gladly take the couch until we find a bigger place though, but yeah I don't know." He hadn't had time to plan or ponder any of these things. Amelia had just come home and he couldn't imagine letting her stay anywhere else. She hadn't even gone back to her hotel room yet and he was sure she had something there that she needed to go get. Jasper would take care of her, whatever she needed. "I still can't wrap my head around it," he admitted with a little laugh. "My little girl..."
Aaron nodded and bit his tongue on the offer to help with whatever Gavin needed. His brother knew he would always help, but Aaron was having mixed feelings at the moment about offering. Now that the crisis was over -- with a weird ending that was really just a beginning, but still -- he was realizing that nobody had offered to help him, not with the pregnancy or after it was over. Not really. Not like he’d stepped up for Gavin and would do again. In fact, they’d been the exact opposite of helpful. He felt guilty, having all-about-him feelings in the face of his big brother’s happiness, but maybe the relief was warming some of the ice he’d put it all on. It hadn’t mattered with Amelia missing, maybe now it did. “M’really happy for you,” he repeated in a murmur, then cleared his throat. “So are you here today, or ...?”
Gavin nodded. "Go home if you want," he said warmly. Miles could take care of the bar when it was slow so he wasn't exactly stuck there for the day. He was trying to give Amelia space too, she needed to catch up, go see her mom, figure out where she wanted to be. Jasper would be by her side for all of it, Gavin was sure, and he didn't want to crowd her - even if he wanted to just sit and stare at her for hours on end now.
He wasn’t sure if he actually would go home. Things with Mila hadn’t been feeling the best. How could they? But some time alone might do Aaron some good. Maybe he would run home to grab some fishing gear and go out, rain or no rain. Fish liked rain and he had a slicker. “Aight, well ... cool,” Aaron said. He nodded a bit and gave Gavin’s back a couple of thumps and then turned to go. “Talk to you later.”
"Later," Gavin said before grinning a little. "I mean, if you're bored and you wanna stay I'm not kicking you out." He stepped out of his office after Aaron but it was a joke that didn't really require an answer so he headed for the bar with just an amused glance back at his brother. "Call Jasper!" he added. "Go see her."