Who: Brianna, James & Phee Where: McCarthy residence When: Wednesday late afternoon 12/6 Status: complete
James McCarthy loved his family but more and more lately he'd begun to wonder why he hadn't chosen to be an eligible bachelor for the rest of his life. It was such a hassle, being a husband and a father, possibly more hassle than it was worth. He couldn't avoid them forever (even if he asked himself why not at times) but he'd been doing a good job of that for a while now. He was in a sense also avoiding himself since he didn't want to admit he was homophobic and yet his younger son coming out as gay had definitely brought out that ugly side of him. It didn't matter if it was someone else, but his son? It was a lot to unpack and he wasn't really willing to do so just yet.
He still needed to come home from time to time. He often did so very late so that everyone was too tired to 'talk' but today he actually came back in the afternoon more out of necessity than any sort of planning. Sebastian's car wasn't in for which he was thankful but Brianna and Phee were both in when he came inside and dumped his briefcase on the foyeur dresser. It was tempting to do a quick in and out without speaking to anyone but he decided against it and kicked off his shoes before heading further into the house, looking around for his wife and daughter.
Brianna was in the kitchen sitting at the large island with her laptop and a glass of wine. She supposed she could be working comfortably in the study upstairs but she was also working on an early dinner for her and Phee since Sebastian had a basketball game that evening that Brianna planned on attending. So she was a little surprised when she heard the front door open followed by the sounds of James being home. She hadn't expected to see him so early, but maybe it wasn't a bad thing if he planned on being there for dinner. Phee could talk to him like she wanted to and Brianna could hope he didn't coward out by disappearing again for several days.
She didn't call for him, but waited until he appeared in the kitchen, biting back on the urge to ask him if everything was okay. Something didn't have to be wrong for James to be home. Maybe he wanted to go with her to Bash's game. "Hi," she said with a small smile. "This is a nice surprise."
James was good at playing the game of nothing is wrong so he smiled back at her and walked up to her, kissing the top of her head and resting his hand lightly on the back of her neck. "Hey," he murmured. "Now that's a good idea," he added then as he gestured at her glass of wine. "I'll join you. Do you need help with that?" He was already unbuttoning his shirt sleeves to roll them up, not really waiting for an answer as he headed for the fridge to get himself cooled down white wine.
She was a little taken aback by his mood, and Brianna did buy for a second that nothing was wrong. But Phee was home and Brianna didn't want to potentially start a fight with James now that he was actually here for dinner, so she picked up her wine to take a sip instead, swallowing down the words she actually wanted to say. "It's just baked chicken," she said of the dinner in the oven, her gaze shifting back to her laptop. She began to click off her work to shut it down. "I didn't know if you would be home or not, but I made enough for the three of us before Sebastian's game."
So far, the week had gone better for Phee than the last, which was a relief. Greg punching Justin had apparently gotten the point across to leave her alone, because her bullies hadn’t even looked in her direction, as far as Phee had seen. She kept expecting a dead rat to end up in her locker or something, but so far so good. She was hopeful that this would all just blow over now and stay gone. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t dreading going to the game and seeing them tonight. She had to be there a bit early for band stuff, but not as early as Sebastian, so she’d come home to change and have dinner and all.
Phee could smell it cooking as she came down the stairs. She had her band pants and a t-shirt on, her hair pulled back from her face, ready to go as soon as she and her mom were done eating. Phee was a bit surprised when she rounded the corner and saw her father in the kitchen too. She hadn’t expected him to be home, but maybe the timing was kind of perfect. “Oh hey,” she greeted with a small smile.
Sometimes Brianna and James's marriage really hinged on Brianna's ability to swallow her words and they both knew it without really acknowledging it, admitting it might just put a crack in their relationship. James was just glad she didn't immediately bring up how little time he'd spent at home. Phee was a welcome distraction and he put away the bottle to meet her halfway, pressing a little kiss in her hair. "Hey princess," he murmured before going back to his glass.
Brianna watched Phee come into the kitchen and she closed her laptop, slipping from the bar chair to get back to finishing dinner. With James home and pretending to be in a decent mood, it might be the best time for Phee to talk to him about her new job. She wouldn't push it, of course, but it felt better to get it out of the way while they could. Pulling on the oven mitt, she opened the oven door to pull out the baking dish to set on top of the stove. "Phee, can you grab another plate for the table?" she asked before glancing at James. "If you want we can drive together to Sebastian's game." She had a feeling Phee would probably have a ride home from Greg.
Phee smiled more at the little kiss, always happy to get some affection from her father. That meant he was probably in at least a decent mood too, which meant these conversations might have a better outcome. Phee moved to do as Brianna asked, grabbing another plate from the cabinet and then another set of silverware to put on the table. “So uh, Daddy,” she started, sounding a little overly casual to start with. “Since you’re home, um ... I’ve got a couple things to talk to you about?” As confident as she’d been that James would give her whatever she wanted, Phee’s heart had started to beat harder and her hands felt a bit clammy as she set the table for three.
Whenever people started a conversation by announcing there needed to be one it very rarely meant anything good. If she had something fun to tell him she would just go ahead and tell him so this was either bad news or a request. James sipped his wine as he quirked a brow at her and nodded. "Let's hear it, princess," he murmured, bracing himself for bad news. His little girl was growing up so it could be any number of things and he'd been mentally preparing for some of those possibilities for a while now.
“Okay,” Phee said, then gave a sheepish little laugh and tucked a bit of hair behind her ear. She felt weirdly shy all of the sudden, put on the spot. For a second Phee wasn’t sure which one would be better to start with -- asking him to let her have a magical job, or telling him about Greg. She wasn’t sure which one he would be unhappy with the least. It was kind of a double-whammy of ‘my daughter is growing up,’ she realized. “Well, first, um ... I have a boyfriend now. And he’s super sweet and really awesome and he’s totally a nice guy and he’s ... also Greg Wheeler?” Phee gave James a look that managed to be smiley and pleased and apologetic and hopeful all in one.
There it was, the thing James had been mentally preparing for for years. Phee had a boyfriend. It didn't make him as angry as he'd feared, maybe because he'd been preparing himself for the inevitable. She was a smart girl, he needed to trust her not to let some asshole take advantage of her even if he wanted to keep her locked away and safe for the rest of her life. It was the name that really got his attention because it was like lightning in a clear blue sky. "Greg Wheeler?" he asked, obviously flabbergasted. Had he ever seen Phee hang out with her brother's best friend? It felt almost like a joke but then his kids obviously did a lot of things he didn't know of. "Well-" he started, sighing as he tried to wrap his head around that. Greg Wheeler was... an idiot. As far as James could tell anyway, but he was a kind of happy idiot who didn't seem capable of running a scheme so if his daughter was going to go with anyone for a first boyfriend, maybe a sweet idiot wasn't the worst choice.
"He should know better than to mistreat you, I guess," James muttered. "You seem happy."
Brianna focused on dinner, but listened and occasionally glanced over at James and Ophelia as they spoke. James took the news fairly well, but then Phee wasn't coming out as gay, so that wasn't overly surprising. He seemed to have the same reaction as she had to the fact that Phee was dating Greg Wheeler and she bit back a small smile as she popped some bread into the oven to warm it up. Still, there was a bitter irony in James telling Phee that Greg ought to know not to mistreat her, given how often Brianna and James mistreated each other without batting an eye. Brianna walked over to the sink to rinse her hands, glancing at Phee to see if she planned on approaching the subject of her new job.
A small part of Phee felt a bit defensive of how her father said Greg’s name, like that was the most bizarre thing in the world, but she guessed she could understand it. They’d known him since he was a little twerp of a kid, bumming around with Sebastian and playing catch in the backyard. Phee had disliked him as her sisterly duty until recent history. But James wasn’t angry or really saying anything bad, so Phee took that as a great sign. She beamed and nodded. “I am really happy,” she assured him. And her mother, since Brianna was there too, and she’d known about this for longer. Phee was still happy. She almost told James that Greg was totally scared of him so things would be fine, but that didn’t sound great in her head, so she didn’t. “I know it’s a little weird, but it just kind of happened and we actually get along really well. ... so that’s one thing. Do you wanna wait until dinner’s ready for the other thing?” Her tone was slightly teasing, but it was a legit question.
"I do not," James told her, mildly bemused. He hoped the 'other thing' wasn't related to this relationship with Greg Wheeler because the boy shouldn't affect her life at all save for just providing her with company. She had plans and she was doing well in school, that was not allowed to change. James couldn't imagine waiting to know until they'd eaten, his imagination was already carrying him off to bad places. He was entirely too pessimistic for this shit and the recent upheaval with Sebastian hadn't made that any better.
Phee always had the idea that it was better to ask people for things when you knew they had a full stomach, but she’d already launched into this whole thing, so she might as well push ahead. Maybe James would think that her having a job would be less time she could spend with Greg, so maybe that would be a plus. “Well, okay,” she said. “Liam and I were out shopping on Black Friday? And we went into the Castells’ spice shop. Well like, Liam and Zania Castell know each other, so we all got to talking and ... she offered me a job in their greenhouse. Just a part time thing, a couple hours after school and band, and I could like, practice there. And learn more about plants. Magic ones.” She bit into her bottom lip and watched him with a pleading sort of look on her face.
"She wouldn't perform any magic without running it by you first," Brianna added, since she felt like maybe that was an important part of being allowed to take the job in the first place. Brianna didn't want James to think Phee was having another witch teach her magic, although it was possible he wouldn't mind. Who could tell anymore. Brianna just didn't want to try and mediate another argument between her husband and kids.
James hated the idea of his kids learning from other witches but he had to admit that he wasn't the best teacher when it came to the magical properties of plants. As far as bad news went, wanting to work in a greenhouse didn't quite scratch the surface. It was clear that Brianna was already on board so he didn't feel the need to play bad cop today. "As long as you only study the plants and their properties. Zania Castell is unstable at best so you need to have your wits about you and not let her drag you down a rabbit hole of crazy, do you think you can do that?"
Phee had nodded eagerly at her mother’s interjection. She’d forgotten to mention that, but it seemed to convince James to agree, and a sunny smile burst out on her face. She lifted her clenched hands in a gesture of pure squee, then bounced over to her father to hug him. “I can totally do that, yes, thank you!” she said, squeezing James’s waist. He hadn’t protested about Greg or the job, so all of this had gone very well. Phee was both happy and kind of vindicated that she’d been right about getting what she wanted out of her daddy.
Maybe it wasn't fair to be lenient on Ophelia when he was being so hard on Sebastian but then Ophelia was coming to him before she started working and Greg was... well. Greg. But a boyfriend was a normal thing for a teenage girl. She hadn't participated in any blood ceremonies or come out as gay so James felt justified in not being strict with her on this. The joyous hug was a bonus that made his decision easier to live with and he chuckled as he patted her back affectionately. "If anything feels weird when you're there, I want you to come to me," he muttered. "No matter how insignificant. Don't cling to it if it feels like a mistake, you have nothing to prove here."
It probably wasn't fair for James to go so easy on Phee, but Brianna was glad that he hadn't flipped out the way he had with Sebastian. James should know the potential consequences of teenage sex, and even though Phee was on birth control, there was always that slim chance. At least Sebastian wasn't going to knock anyone up. Brianna wasn't going to say a word about it though. Not now. She was still angry about a few things, but this wasn't the time or place. "Dinner's finished," she said, taking the chicken over to set down on the table. She was eager to just eat and head over to the school for Bash's game. The less conversation she had to have, the better.
“I promise, I swear I will,” Phee assured her father, still beaming like the sun. Maybe it was dumb to be so trusting, since she’d met Zania Castell for all of five minutes, but they were a magical family, and Liam trusted her, so that was enough for Phee. The enticing promise of learning more was too good to pass up. She made an ‘oops’ sort of sound when Brianna announced dinner, then hurried to finish setting the table. Beyond pleased that everything had turned out better than she’d expected, Phee settled in to eat so they could get the rest of the evening rolling.