June 17th, 1978
Who: Estella & Jacob Derrick, Caden & Marcus Flint
What: First meetings and epic baby fights
Where: A baby..gym..thing
It seemed that Jacob had gone straight from crawling, to running. He'd been up and walking for about a day when he decided to go sprinting up and down the halls of her house, and Estella hadn't been able to catch him since. It was exciting to see how fast her son was growing up, but it was depressing to think that he'd be a year in July---that it would be a year since Jake died, a whole year that she's had to watch her son grow up without his father. But, Estella was good at pushing those thoughts away, which often left her with a dazed look in her eyes.
At the moment, though, Estella was forcing herself not to jump off the bench as Jacob rushed around the small play area in the gym she'd found. It wasn't really a...gym, like with exercise machines and workout areas, but it had a ball pit and soft shapes for the children to climb on. She'd found it on a random day running errands, and since Jacob started walking, he'd been spending loads of time here. Tired him out, made nap time and night time easy.
Estella didn't look up as someone sat next to her, she kept her eyes on her son and clenched her hands on the bench below her---why was she so nervous? Everything was soft and plush, there was no way he could hurt him---"Oh! Jacob---don't---climb---ugh."
He never really understood why a pair of sunglasses prevented people from knowing who you really were, but, they worked...so he wore them, for when he had to actually walk somewhere with Marcus. Normally, to save time and energy, he apparated, but he didn't feel like it was very good for a 1 year old to keep popping in and out of places. So, pushing the stroller infront of him, he kept his head tilted down a bit, doing his best to watch where he was going. If everything went as planned, he'd get to the Baby-gym thing in one piece. He was sure that if the stroller wheel hit one more poor individual, he might not get there at all. Guh. He was always so distracted.
Thankfully though, everything went as planned, and before he knew it he was at the door. Sighing, he placed the stuffed bear that he had been holding against the bar gently inbetween his teeth, turning the stoller around so he could open the door with his free hand and pull it in behind him. This would be so much easier if Mack-
Normally when he came here, there were only older women sitting around. Uusually Grandmother's who took the kids somewhere so they could just sit and watch. But, to see someone much younger that 70 sitting on the bench caused him to be a bit...apprehensive. He leaned down and began to undo Marcus from the straps of the stoller, his son's small hands reaching for the bear that was still in his mouth. Smirking, he moved a little closer so he could take it from him, using his own arms to lift out his son with a light grunt. "Okay, go...run off. Climb. Bounce." That Irish brogue slipped easily off of his tongue, speaking rather quietly. His words were pointless though, seeing as the small brunette clone of himself had already waddled away from him towards the ball pit.
Taking a seat, he leaned forward and sighed, watching the two boys play. The woman's remarks made him smirk a little bit and lean back on the bench, debating with himself whether he should say something or not. He was a man of few words, so it wasn't very often that people got to hear him say much of anything. Not that he didn't talk, but...he just usually chose not to.
When Jacob didn't fall and break his neck as he clambered up the small oval...thing, Estella fell back against the wall, brushing the man beside her slightly, causing her to jerk back up into a sitting position.
"Sorry," she muttered, eyes not bothering to look over at him or attempt to catch his eye to make it seem more sincere. She really hated going out in public, she was such a bloody mess. Her dance studio? Fine, Estella could be there all day and be the happiest person on earth, but the second she left those doors? Back to the slumped shoulders and the frown. What was the worst part---is that, is that she knew this, she knew she was a mess but she honestly believed that she should be like this. Her husband had been murdered, she was supposed to behave like this.
Her eyes did, though, drift onto the stroller, and she spotted the name brand.
"I have the same one," she said before she could think about how odd this might be for the man. "After you fold it, is it hard to pull back up?"
"It's fine." He said, before clearing his throat casually as he adjusted himself on the bench, giving each of them more space, if that was possible. If there was any other bench to sit on, he would have been more than happy to move to a different location, but alas, there was only one place to sit that wasn't a table. Usually he'd stand, but he was far too lazy to do that today.
He continued to watch the kids, silently, and hadn't noticed that the woman was talking to him at firt, until he realized that unless she was insane, he had to be the only one she was directing the statement to. So, with a raise of his brows, he looked from her to the stoller, nodding. "Hm. Everytime..." He sighed a little and looked over to her. "I thought I was jus' doin' it wrong this whole time. Glad to know someone else has the same problem."
"Oh, well I'm just going to have to take it back to the store and file a complaint," Estella said more to herself than to the man, who, now that she was engaging in some sort of conversation with him, she noticed was quite handsome, even under the sunglasses. Strangely familiar, too, and Estella felt her ears heat up slightly and turned back to the stroller as she cleared her throat.
She hadn't seen him there before, but maybe it was lucky that this was a muggle place---she didn't have to worry about anyone back in her world to deal with. It was nice, being anonymous, which was why she'd stayed at their house in the muggle neighborhood instead of moving closer to her parents. Not that she could deal with the constant smothering in the first place, but it would've made it worse.
"Have you been here before? I'm...not sure if there's...a time limit, or anything," Oh, Estella, why are you making up things? There is no need to talk to this man, you are a married woman---
"Tell me how that works out." He said as he leaned his head back against the wall, letting his eyes close for just a moment before he went back to watching his son. Playing in that pit of rainbow colored balls that only came up to his knees. Always his favorite place. Thatta boy. Stick with the safe stuff. But, because Marcus did have a tendancy to throw things, he had to make sure her son didn't get hit in the face with a tiny, round, rubber missile.
He nodded his head to her question before straightening up. "Aye, I think we only have 25 minutes per kid. Wouldn't wanna go over the limit I were you. Security is pretty tough around here." He spoke rather dry, and only gave her a glance when he saw how confused she was, not helping but smirk once again. "...it was a joke." He explained before looking at the kids. "You come and go when you want around here...kinda what I like about it."
Estella's eyes had widened, and her mind began to calculate how much money another session would be because Jacob would not want to leave after only twenty-five minutes---oh, the tantrum he would throw! Her little boy was the love of her life but he was a right pain the in---"Joking! Joking. Right, of course you were."
She felt like a bloody idiot for getting so riled up, but it was a nightmare having to deal with a baby all by yourself and--just. Estella let out a light laugh, falling back to the wall and pushing some hair out of her face. Jacob slipped in the ball pit near the man's boy and let out a loud shriek of laughter as if it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen or done in his life. Oy, this one.
"I'm glad, then. Nothing amuses him more. I'm Estella, by the way, you should probably know the name of people you play tricks on."
Oh. Crap. Now he had to be extra careful about what Marcus did. He actually scooted himself up to the edge of the bench, ready to rise to his feet if any sudden movements were made...but it would be hard to tell, with him picking up balls and just randomly tossing them in any direction. Her introduction made him look away for just a moment. Big mistake. He gave the smallest of those rare smiles. "Yeah, probab-" he was cut off however by the sound of children yelling. Looking over, he was able to catch the greenball soar out of his son's hand and hit Jacob ( she had caught his name from before ) in the ear. It took both of the parents a second to process it, and before he knew it her son was pretty much tackling his own.
Fuck it all!
They both quickly got to thier feet to reach into the pit and get thier children, his being a little harder to grab onto. Once he got him under the arms, he held him a little awkwardly, due to his squirming. "Shi-...I am, so sorry. He just-...I mean-...I-" He fought with his son a little more before he got him into a good position. "He's okay right?" Not that that would make it better, but fuck, the kid didn't know any better. Not that it was right, but...
This was so. fucking. hard.
He leaned down and got Marcus' bear from the ball pit, just to calm him down. For being so cute he was a handful...he blamed himself, though. It wasn't like he was around enough to teach him right from wrong. Even though that's what he paid his Nanny to do. Worthless old hag. He needed to fire her, or...something.
Estella could not hold back the shriek at the sight of her baby getting smacked in the face, and she was ready to turn to---the man, why was she never getting names?, she was about to turn to him and smack him for letting his son be such a neanderthal, but then Jacob had to go and tackle the other boy into the pit and it was just one big mess.
"Jacob!" Estella let out in a shrilly voice, rushing over and grabbing the boy off of---oh God, why was he so mean, this was ridiculous---the other boy and holding him tightly to her as he screamed and squirmed. How could he know to get so angry, oh, God, she was a horrible mother, that had to be it, he didn't have a father figure, that's why, oh--oh! Estella's eyes filled with tears as she turned to the other man (find out his NAME!) "I am so sorry, so---so sorry, oh, goodness!"
The owner of the gym came over, hands on her hips with a look that Estella could certainly read as 'please get out' and she whimpered a bit, not knowing what to do now.
He rose a brow and shook his head. "It's not the first time he's gotten' tackled for throwin' something...in all honesty he probably deserved it. I just feel like an...a-s-s for not knowin' how to get him to stop." He was very lucky he remembered to spell the word instead of saying it, because the owner had already begun to walk towards them as he spoke. "But, they're just kids, they don' know any better..."
Turning to the obviously annoyed woman who was staring at Estella, he sighed and lifted Marcus a bit higher. "Listen, I'm terribly sorry for what happened, ma'am. I'll go, if you'd like. You see, Marcus here has terrible aim...her son just got stuck in a rather inconvenient location." The woman rose a brow, before Caden let out a sigh. "I promise you it won't happen again." Giving a rather pleading look, the woman finally eased up a bit. Fine. You, out. The lady can stay. But I swear, if I see one more fight in my gym, you're both out. For good. "Fair enough."
When the woman finally walked away, he exhaled, and began to walk Marcus towards his stroller. "I'm really am sorry for his behavior." He repeated as he strapped him in, and rose to his feet to face her, not even realizing that in the chaos he still hadn't given his name.
"No, it's not just---Jacob shouldn't have....will you stop," she said in hushed tones to her son, who was still wiggling like mad, as if he wanted to go after the man's boy. Oh, this was bloody ridiculous. Why did she have to have a boy? Girls didn't do this kind of thing---why did she have a child, she and Jacob had been far too young for this, she could barely take care of him all my herself and she wanted to cry just as bad as Jacob was. It was so unfair, just---so---oh, how much did she want Jake right now?
Holding back tears, Estella managed to get Jacob into his carriage (still kicking and screaming, she was going to just leave him somewhere----oh, God, she was such a bad mother---), cursing under her breath as he gripped rather hard onto her hair. Oh, was he getting dropped off at his grandmother's---
"Look, I'm sorry about him, I'm going to leave too---woman can't understand that children do silly things sometimes and---utterly and completely ridiculous, I am never coming back here again and," Estella was half talking to the man, half saying all of this to Jacob, was so red in the face she was sure his head was going to pop off. "I am so sorry."
Caden turned around to see how flustered the woman was. He didn't know her well enough to really...do anything, so he just stood there, watching her practically melt down because of the infamous baby fight that had caused so much commotion just moments before. He placed his thumbs into his pockets and tried to be the reasonable one. "Listen, I said it was fine. It's up to you whether you want to stay or not, though." It wasn't as though he hadn't had thoughts of putting Marcus up for adoption many a time, or just...leaving him at the Gym when no one else was around. It had crossed his minds on days when he was just impossible to handle. But then his conscience kicked in.
Fucking, conscience....
"I don't know about you, but I'm tired, and he's probably starving right about now, and I want nothing more than to just walk out of this place peacefully, and just...go home. So, before you blow a fuse, I suggest you do the same, alright?" He wasn't trying to be rude, he was just...trying to give her some advice. At that moment, Marcus started crying about something or another. Perfect timing, as usual..... He sighed and moved over to the stroller, to adjust the bear that had fallen out of reach. That didn't stop him from carrying on. "I need to get out of here...like I said, you have the choice to stay..." His head was pounding, and Marcus was still screaming, and crying and...
He couldn't do this.
"I'm not going to blow a fuse," Estella retorted quickly just as a few tears slipped out of her eyes, and, oh bother. Damn it. She turned away from the man and slung her carrier bag over shoulder, managing to dump its containments to the floor. Huffing loudly, she bent down and swept them all back up, only managing to come stand up and whack her head on the stroller handles. "JESUS CHRI----"
"Excuse me!" the owner of the gym said from right behind Estella, and the woman swirled around, eyes wide. "You can leave too."
Estella frowned deeply, but instead of bursting into tears like she wanted, she just huffed (again) and turned around, pushing Jacob and the stroller out of the gym......where she promptly planted herself on the first bench and began to bawl. This was bloody unfair. That had to be one of the most embarrassing things she'd ever gone through, and all she'd tried to do was take her son out on a nice playdate and she was such a horrible mother for raising such a violent boy!
Bloody hell, the woman who owned this place was quite easily annoyed, wasn't she? Not a very good person to run a business that revolved around children. But, he had at least tried to settle things with her. There was nothing he could do now, though. All he could do was watch the scene, and feel increadibly guilty, because his son had caused all this drama. Damn, kid...he gave the screaming boy a glance, as in to say 'this is all your fault'.
By the time he turned around again, she was already walking past him with the stoller. He didn't want to follow her, but...he had to leave anyway. Looking at the woman, he gave her a hard stare. "Good way to run a business." The sarcasm in his voice was evident, and before she could say anything more, he too had left the building. As if the 2 children crying wasn't enough, he noticed that she too was in tears. He held the handle of the stroller for a few moments more before sighing, dragging it with him as he walked over to her, casually leaning against it with his elbow. "She's rediculous...if there's anyone who should have gotten hit in the head with a much larger, and harder ball, it's her....no offense." He said, realizing that he had just made a joke about the fact that her son had gotten pelted with a piece of rubber not too long ago. "This can't be the only place like this 'round here. I'm sure you'll find somethin' much better suited for Jacob, there. You know, preferrably a place without a ball pit....no offense."
Okay, he was trying to lighten the situation. They both had a shitty day and, well, he couldn't really blame her for crying. Public humiliation wasn't always the best thing to deal with when you're running on only 3 hours of sleep. Well, speaking from his perspective. She probably had a husband who helped out...he wasn't so lucky. He had to raise his kid on his own.
Estella barely looked up at him as he tried to give her some consoling words; she should probably listen to him, he was saying all the right things, but even if she knew that she could find another place for Jacob to safely waste all his energy at and make sure the little brat---oh, God, her son was a brat, that was so, so bad--Estella let out a sigh and nodded, wiping at her face to try and calm herself down, even if Jacob was still screaming.
"I know, it's just---frustrating is not strong enough of a word," Estella said, trying to crack a smile even though her bottom lip was still quivering with her tears. She'd never had a problem with crying in front of people, it just seemed like that was all she did lately; the littlest things set her off, and she often found herself lashing out at those who didn't deserve it. She was lucky she hadn't flipped out on Jacob, yet, and was praying it would never happen.
"Your boy has good aim, though, I will admit." Estella smiled lightly and looked down at her hands, noticing she'd been twisting her wedding band around and around without realizing it.
"Oh, I think I understand that better than you think I do." No, it wasn't frustrating. It was infuriating, to raise a kid. Especially when you didn't know what the hell you were doing. Not that he thought that was the case with Estella, but that sure as hell was his. What was he supposed to do when he cried? What was he supposed to do when he got older? How was he supposed to discipline him, when he can't understand a word he's saying? All he could do was hope that things would get better...they had to.
Right about now, he felt like turning around and telling his son to shut up, but really, what good would that do? He'd probably make him cry harder, and would only look like a horrible, verbally abusive parent. That'd go over well.
Her smile was almost contagious, as he found the corners of his own lips rise into a smirk. "Yeah, well...yours has a pretty fierce tackle, if it makes you feel any better." He smiled for a moment but it faded almost instantly as Marcus began to kick and squirm.
Why are you doing this to me?
He sighed heavily and turned back to her. "Well, I better be takin' him home then." It was then that he realized the ring she kept playing with. Well, of course she was married. Why wouldn't she be? The ring that remained on his own finger was just kept thier out of habit. He should probably take it off, but...he just couldn't bring himself to leaving it at home.
