Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Author notes: for the purposes of this story, it takes place a few years ahead of the show’s present.

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Moxxie and Millie were on their way to the home of Millie‘s Parents. Moxxie was not looking forward to this because it would be the first time in almost two years that he’d be face-to-face with any of Millie‘s family.

He thought he’d made some progress with Millie‘s father after the incident where Striker tried to assassinate Stolas while masquerading as a ranch hand working for Joe but it only took one little slip up on his next visit for things to backpedal between them. After that, Moxxie told Millie that since her family were never going to like him, it would be best for him to stay away from them.

Millie didn’t like the idea of keeping Moxxie and her family separate from each other but Moxxie made a strong case for not wanting to deal with their crap anymore and he was right about how they made it clear they were never gonna like him. Recent developments made them realize that this arrangement was no longer viable.

Moxxie and Millie walked through the door of her childhood home. Millie ran over to hug her parents who had been waiting for the two of them. Sallie May was off to the side and observing.

“So what brings ya over to see us, Moxxie?“ Sallie May asked. “Ya finally grow a spine and decide to stop runnin’ from us?“

“Millie and I have some news to share that should be done in person,” Moxxie answered. “I expect you’re not going to take this news as well, so you should know that I’m armed.” Moxxie moved his jacket to the side to reveal that he had a gun, grabbed it and let his arm rest on his side. “It’s loaded with rubber bullets so I can defend myself without risk of killing anyone.”

“And what is this news that ya think we’ll take so poorly?“ Joe asked. Millie took a deep breath as she prepared herself.

“I’m pregnant,” Millie answered.

“That’s fantastic,” Lin responded excitedly.

“It’s also the end of the good news,” Millie continued and then faced Moxxie. “I’m not gonna be the messenger for ya on this one.”

“I’m worried,” Moxxie began, “that if you, which is to say all of Millie‘s family, are going to treat my kid anything like you’ve treated me then being a good father means I have to protect them from you. I imagine that you’ll also be looking to punish my kid for their existence being the result of us being together. Point is, the best way to protect my kid is to keep them away from you.“

There was a very tense silence in the room as Joe, Lin and Sally May absorbed Moxxie‘s words.

“Millie,“ Lin began as she faced her daughter, “you can’t really be on board with this?“

“I’m not,” Millie answered. “Moxxie and ah talked about this before comin’ here and I think a fair compromise is that you have supervised visits with our kid.”

“With us being able to revoke your visitation privileges,” Moxxie interjected, “if anything happens and not re-evaluating that for at least one year.“

Lin looked at Millie and wordlessly asked her to disagree with Markie.

“Look ma,” Millie began, “ah accepted that there’s nothin’ ah could do to make ya all like Moxxie. By respectin’ that decision, we are all now in a situation where tryin’ to make mah new family and mah old family be the same family is a lot harder than it should be.“

“If ya really respected what we thought,“ Joe spoke up gruffly, “you’d have broken up with him long ago.“

“Now Pa,“ Millie began to counter, “talkin’ like that makes me think you’re gonna take your frustrations with me and Moxxie being together out on our kid.“

Joe had nothing to say as he glared angrily at Moxxie, blaming Moxxie for Millie showing him such disrespect and the little twerp thinking he could keep Joe away from his first grandkid.

Moxxie raised his gun and fired, hitting Joe in the shoulder with a rubber bullet.

“Moxxie!“ Millie yelled at her husband. “Did ya really have to do that?”

“Yes,” Moxxie answered with a hint of panic in his voice. “He was going to attack me. I could tell because he had the same look in his eyes that my…“ Moxxie paused and had an awkward look on his face. “The point is, I panicked and thought it would be a great idea to dissuade him with a warning shot.“

“Ya call that a warnin’ shot?“ Sally May asked.

“Considering,” Moxxie began to answer, “that I’m confident I could’ve hit his head if I wanted to, yes. I may have overreacted but I don’t think it was by a lot: especially since I’m sure he’s fantasized about ending our marriage by killing me.“

“Only a few times,” Joe blurted out and then widened his eyes in realization that he should have kept that to himself. Millie walked over to her father and punched him half as hard as she could in the bruise that Moxxie just gave him. Joe grunted in pain. “I deserve that.“

“Now Moxxie,” Lin said, “I give you my word that despite the issues we’ve had with you in the past, we will not take them out on your kid.”

“Based on how you’ve treated me like shit since we first met,” Moxxie countered emotionlessly, “your word means absolutely nothing to me.”

“Right,” Lin said awkwardly as she rubbed the back of her head.

She hated to admit it but she understood that what this boiled down to was a matter of trust and that Moxxie had no reason to trust them. This was made worse by how Moxxie’s cold response made it clear that his lack of trust was fact-based as opposed to coming from a place of hatred. While she and Joe could force the issue with Moxxie, things would get complicated since Millie made it clear that she agreed with Moxxie in regards to his trust issues.

“Supervised visits,” Lin resumed, “with you havin’ the right to revoke our visitation privileges sounds fair. Ah’ll accept that rather than you keepin’ mah grandchild from me and sharin’ him with your family with no restrictions.“

“I cut ties with my family years ago,” Moxxie snapped back. “Considering one of the results of that was meeting Millie, it was the best decision I ever made. So in addition to the matter of how I see you as a potential threat I need to protect my kid from, I also don’t agree with the idea that more family is always a good thing.”

“Is that true about him and his family?” Lin asked Millie who nodded yes. “How did ah not know that?“

“I would have explained that to you,” Moxxie began, “if you’d asked why none of my family were at mine and Millie‘s wedding if you’d come to it.“

“Ya didn’t invite us to your weddin’.“

“Because you gave me reason to believe that if I had invited you, you’d have voiced your disapproval by trashing the venue and possibly kidnapping Millie to ensure the wedding didn’t happen: a sentiment Millie completely agreed with me on.“

Lin looked at Millie who once again nodded in confirmation.

“We probably would’ve done that,” Sallie May spoke up. “Minus the kidnappin’ part. Maybe.”

“Whose side are ya on?“ Millie asked.

“The truth’s,“ Sally answered matter-of-factly.

“So Moxxie,“ Lin began. “What made ya cut ties with your family?“

“ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?“ Moxxie yelled. “You’ve treated me like shit ever since I came into Millie‘s life and you really expect me to open up to you about that.” Moxxie abruptly shifted his gaze to Joe and then raised his gun while taking a few feet back and pulling out a second gun he had on him..

“Why are you pullin’ those things out?“ Joe asked irritably.

“I’m sure you’ve beaten guys to a pulp for less than talking to your wife like that,” Moxxie began to explain. "The thought of any of you rushing me makes me nervous and being prepared to pelt you with rubber bullets if I have to makes me less nervous.” Moxxie took several more steps back while he swayed the guns back and forth to make it clear that he was ready to shoot anyone who came after him.

“All right,“ Joe conceited his point. Moxxie was right about how he’s beaten guys for less and he was actually somewhat impressed with Moxxie being ready to stand up for himself even if it was less from a place of bravery and more him acting like a cornered varmint ready to lash out.

“Moxxie,“ Sallie May spoke up, “the main problem here is one of trust. There’s nothin’ we can say to make you trust us but maybe there’s somethin’ we can do. “

“Like what?“ Moxxie asked venomously.

“We can kill your pa for ya.”

“What makes you think I want that?“

“Because he used to beat the shit out of ya a lot growin’ up.“

“What?” Moxxie said in surprise and then immediately dialed that back, “would make you say that?”

“Your awkward reaction just now for one,” Sallie May smugly answered. “Yellin’ at my ma when she asked ya to go into detail about your family for another reason. And you givin’ my pa a warnin’ shot when ya thought he was gonna beat your ass cause ya see that as normal dad behavior.”

Moxxie stood silently for a while as he thought of his next response.

“Even if what you said were true,” Moxxie began to retort, “what would my dad have to do with our trust issues?“

“You’re worried about what we might do to your kid,” Sallie May began. “Seems to me like ya have even more reason to worry about what your pa might do to your kid so we can prove we’re not a threat by gettin’ rid of a different one. Plus, there seems to be a bit of poetic justice or whatever the right term might be in workin’ on all our,” Sally gestured with her hands to indicate that she was talking about all of them, “current family issues by takin’ care of your past ones.”

“My dad is a semi big-time mob boss in Greed,“ Moxxie replied. “Whatever you’re planning to do to deal with him, it likely won’t be enough. And if you come at him underprepared, you won’t get a second chance.“ Moxxie lowered his head in sadness. “Mom found that out the hard way.“

Lin gasped in shock as she connected the dots that Moxxie‘s mother died as a result of his father’s cruelty. Joe gave no audible reaction but his eyes did widen and he did feel somewhat bad about compounding Moxxie’s dad issues.

“Well it sounds to me,” Sallie continued, “that your pa has had his death comin’ to him for a while now: all the more reason to kill him. As for what we need to do to deal with him, we'll round up my brothers and some members of the extended family. They all cause several big distractions around him while ah slip in and kill him. Ah can be very sneaky when I wanna be.”

“What do you have to say about this?” Moxxie asked Joe and Lin as he lowered his guns.

“I’m on board with this,“ Joe said. In addition to seeing violence as his preferred method of conflict resolution, Joe also thought this would be the most simple and direct way to deal with Moxxie’s uncomfortably fact-based trust issues.

“Same here,” Lin piped in.

“There is one more slight problem,“ Moxxie began. “My dad is already dead. He caught up to me about a year after Millie and I got married. He tried to rope me in to helping him with a business deal. It fell apart because the person who was making the deal was offering more than he could deliver.”

Moxxie decided to keep the embarrassing details to himself, such as almost being forcibly married to Chazz, wearing a dress and once again needing Millie to rescue him.

“Fast-forward to about three months ago,” Moxxie continued to explain. “Dad catches up to me again. He is pissed off because he blames me for that deal falling through as well as a few other things that happened after that. He backed me into a corner and I didn’t see anything wrong with getting out of it by murdering my way through him. I made my escape from any of his guys who knew what I did. I contacted Millie, Blitzo and Loona and I begged them to help me kill a whole bunch of people in my dad‘s gang as a sort of preemptive retaliatory strike.“

“You’re gonna have to explain that part,” Sallie May said.

“I needed to send a message,“ Moxxie resumed, “that coming after me had already cost the mob quite a bit and it was gonna cost them more if they didn’t leave me alone. We all went to a bar frequented by my dad’s guys and we killed about twenty of them. We also swiped a bunch of stuff from my dad‘s place because I’m sure he didn’t leave me anything in his will. With the windfall we collected from that, having a kid seemed a lot more affordable and that brings us to now.”

“And ya didn’t mention your pa being dead earlier,” Sallie May began, “because ya wanted to see how far we’d be willin’ to go to get rid of him.“

“Yes,” Moxxie admitted. “I’m sorry for the deception but you being willing to help me permanently resolve my dad problems is exactly the kind of show of good faith that makes me want you to be a part of my kid’s life instead of seeing that as a problem to be closely monitored.”

Moxxie took a deep breath. He was close to being choked up about how he finally got Millie‘s family to give him a fair shot. He held his arms out wide and looked towards Sally May.

“Hug?“ Moxxie asked.

“Don’t push it,“ Sallie May said dismissively.

“I’ll take you up on that offer,” Lin said.

“Even after I yelled at you like I did?” Moxxie asked.

“Considerin’,” Lin replied, “that your past with your family is a very sore subject and ah struck it hard without knowin’ about that because ah gave ya no reason to be open with me, ah’d say that you overreacted but not by a lot. The important thing is that we move forward from here on out.“

Lin walked over to Moxxie and the two of them embraced. Moxxie let out a few tears from his eyes, immensely happy about the progress he just made with Millie‘s family. This meant that both him and his unborn child would have some first-hand experience with what a family is supposed to be like.

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Authors notes: so you might think it’s disappointing that I didn’t go the route of having Millie‘s family help Moxxie kill Crimson as their show of good faith but I didn’t really have the vision to follow through on something like that.

So you may think that Moxxie seems out of character here but keep in mind that permanently resolving his problems with his dad has made him more confident in general. Plus, he thinks that being able to threaten to keep Millie‘s family away from their future grandchild/niece or nephew puts him in a strong position to call them out on how they treated him.

Chapter Text

Authors notes: so after running some stuff through my head, I’ve come up with this different scenario that covers some of the same topics as last time, its more Millie centric and brings up some points that were not brought up in the first one.

Millie had decided to go visit her parents by yourself. Millie had taken a train ride from Imp City to Wrath and was then given a ride by her parents to her childhood home.

“So why isn’t Moxie with you?“ Lin asked her daughter once they were inside the house.

“Too much stuff is going on at the office right now,” Millie began to explain. “Blitzo couldn’t give him the time off.“

“All right,” Lin replied. “So how are things with you and Moxie?“

“Fine Ma,“ Millie answered. “I’m sure you’re very disappointed to hear that.“

“That’s uncalled for,” Lin retorted.

“Oh really,“ Millie began to shoot back. “Are you tellin’ me that you askin’ how things are goin’ with Moxxie wasn’t your way of lookin’ for ammunition to use against him?“

“What’s your point?” Lin asked, not bothering to deny Millie’s accusation.

”My point,” Millie continued, “is that Moxxie’s not even here and you're still dumpin’ on him even after successfully driving away.”

”You said he couldn’t get the time off,” Joe spoke up.

“That was a lie,” Millie explained. “I didn’t see any reason to bring it up but Moxxie didn’t so much as not get the time off as much as he never asked for it because he didn’t see any reason to come here after how badly his last visit went.“

“It wasn’t that bad, “Joe disagreed.

“Maybe for you, “ Millie retorted, “but once Moxxie made a reference to a musical you two have never heard of, he felt that it erased all the progress he made after the thing with Striker. I wanted Moxxie to come with me this time but he made a compelling argument that since you two have made it clear that you’re never going to like him, then there’s no reason for him to come here.”

“All the more reason why he’s bad for you,” Joe said. “A little shit from us and his answer is to retreat from the problem because he’s weak.”

”And how he’s supposed to solve the problem of none of you likin’ him?”

“By growin’ a thick skin and takin’ our shit in stride or by toughenin’ up to our standards to earn our respect.“

“He thought he earned some of your respect after the Striker thing. Why should he spend years tryin’ to earn your respect when you’ve made it clear you can take it away in an instant?”

“He should still try to toughen up for the sake of toughness.”

“The things Moxxie‘s dad has done could be considered tough for the sake of toughness and that’s a very bad thing,” Millie angrily countered. She saw the blank expressions on her parents' faces, indicating that they didn’t know what she was talking about and realized that she said too much. “Shit. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Why?“ Lin asked.

“Not my story to tell,“ Millie explained and then pinched her forehead as she thought about what she should do next. “I have to make a call.”

Millie walked away from her parents and took out her phone. She called Moxxie.

“Hello Millie,“ Moxxie said as soon as the call was connected. “How was your train ride?“

“Fine,” Millie answered. “But things went sideways after that.“

Millie began summarizing the conversation she just had with her parents.

“What else did you tell them?“ Moxxie asked when Millie got to the part where he brought up his dad.

“Nothin’,” Millie explained. “Ah stopped myself when Ah realized Ah already said too much. Ah’m sorry for bringing up your dad Moxxie but my parents were pissin’ me off. Ah figured that not bringin’ you here so that they wouldn’t have to deal with you directly was a fair compromise and as soon as we get home from the train station, they start dumpin’ on you. When Dad brought up that you should try to be tough for the sake of toughness, Ah thought about how your dad‘s ………let’s say whole existence proves that toughness needs to be balanced out by other things so it’s OK that you’re lackin’ in toughness.“

“It’s fine Millie,“ Moxxie said in understanding. “I completely agree with the point you started to make about my dad and the things he’s done.“

Moxxie decided to keep it to himself but he was immensely touched that Millie stood up for him like that. When he’d come to visit her home in the past, her family would talk shit about him in front of her and all she’d do is hold his hands and say ‘there there’ afterwards. Moxxie understood that Millie had conflicting loyalties and not caving into the pressure her family placed on her to break up with him was very loyal of her but this was a welcome change of pace.

“I think that’s a point we should try to hammer through,” Millie resumed. “It could finally get my parents to cut you some slack and then they could get my siblings to do the same.”

“I don’t like opening up about my past,” Moxie began, “and your parents have given me many reasons not to open up to them. On the other hand, I doubt they could treat me worse and you are right about how this might get them to cut me some slack. Put me on speakerphone and I’ll tell them.“

“I think somethin’ this major should be done in person,“ Millie disagreed.

“I see your point,” Moxxie said, “but I really don’t want to go all the way out there for one conversation.”

“I know of a small town that’s about halfway between us. I’ll tell ma and pa that we will meet you there tomorrow and you talk Blitzo into lending you the company van.“

“I don’t think Blitzo is going to be on board with lending me the van unsupervised after that fiasco at the summer camp.“

“Shit that’s right,” Millie said in frustration. “I’ll call Blitzo and tell him that he can either lend you the van or drive you himself. You know I can be very convincing.“

——————-

The next day, Millie, her parents and Moxxie arrived in a parking lot of the small town Millie mentioned earlier. She was able to talk Blitzo into lending Moxxie the van with only minimal fuss. The four of them exited their vehicles and walked towards each other.

“All right Moxxie,” Joe began. “What’s this about your pa?”

“Before we get to that,” Moxxie said, “I would like to point out what I’m about to tell you, I didn’t share with Millie until we’d been married for a year so I’m about to give you much more trust than you’ve actually earned with me.“

Moxxie then began telling them about his father, Crimson: how he would beat Moxxie, force him to be a mob soldier and then killed Moxxie‘s mother when she disagreed with his parenting methods.

”Ah would say,” Millie began, “that Moxxie’s pa having a position of power and forcing what he wanted unto everyone else was very tough of him. What do you think?” She finished with a scowl aimed at her father.

”Uhhh,” Joe stammered, attempting to form a counter-argument against Millie’s point of how things besides toughness need to be taken into account in a relationship and coming up blank.

”Moxxie,” Lin spoke up. “Ah……. Ah……..,” Lin wanted to say that she was sorry for how she’d treated him in the past since she was sure she unknowingly poured salt on the wounds from his dead mother but she couldn’t form the words. Instead, she walked up to Moxxie and hugged him.

Looks like ah’ve lost this one, Joe thought. He wasn’t quite sure how he felt about Moxxie but with Millie making it clear that she was on his side and Lin having apparently joined her, he decided to give up this fight.

”What do you say you come back with us?” Joe asked. “We can do some much needed fence mendin’.”

”I have to call Blitzo and get tomorrow off but sure,” Moxxie answered. He called Blitzo, got the next day off and left in the I.M.P to Millie’s childhood home.

Chapter Text

Authors notes: I’m not trying to come up with more of these but stuff just keeps bouncing around in my head. This one starts similar to the first one but diverges early on and it’s focused mostly on Lin.

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Moxxie and Millie had gone to Millie‘s childhood home to visit her family. She had just shared the news with them that she was pregnant.

“That’s fantastic,” Lin said joyously.

“I’m a little surprised to hear you say that,” Moxxie began to retort, “considering how vocal you’ve been about how little you care for me.”

“Do we have to do this right now?” Lin asked in irritation.

“Yes we do,” Moxxie answered. “Millie being pregnant forces us to deal with several issues: most of them revolving around how I’m worried you’re going to treat my kid as poorly as you’ve treated me and based on that treatment, I have no reason to trust you if you say you won’t treat my kid like that.”

“Shit,” Lin swore, realizing that Moxxie was right to be skeptical about how she, Joe and her other children would treat his kid.

“What I have in mind,” Moxxie began, “is that you will have supervised visits with my kid. And I reserve the right to withdraw your visitation privileges if anything happens for at least one year.”

“You think you can keep me away from my first grandkid?” Joe asked Gruffly.

“I think,” Moxxie started to counter, “that if it were up to me, I wouldn’t let you anywhere near my kid because that would be the best way to ensure you don’t treat them like you’ve treated me. But I know Millie would never agree with that so supervised visits with the threat of revoking your visitation privileges seems like a fair compromise to me.”

“Joe,” Lin said as she grabbed his shoulder, “Moxxie has good reason not to trust us with his kid. There’s nothing we can say to change his mind so we should agree to his compromise of supervised visits and work on improvin’ things with him later..”

Joe grunted in annoyed acceptance.

“Fine,“ Joe relented.

Sometime later, Moxxie was able to get to Lin by herself.

“About you backing me up earlier,“ Moxxie began, “what are you trying to pull?”

“Ah believe the words you are lookin’ for are ‘thank you’,” Lin snapped back.

“‘Thank you’ would require me,” Moxxie began to counter, “to believe that you have no ulterior motive, which would mean I trust you and based on how you’ve treated me since I entered Millie‘s life, I don’t. So again, what are you trying to pull?”

“By choosin’ to stay with you,” Lin said, “Millie has had conflicted loyalties. Now that she’s about to have a kid of her own, her loyalty will be a lot less conflicted as it changes to revolve around doin’ what she thinks is best for her kid. If that means that if things between you and her fizzle out, she moves back in with us and brings the kid with her, she’ll do that. If she thinks it means agreein’ with you that bein’ great parents means doin’ what you have to protect your kid from us, she’ll absolutely do that too. So what Ah’m tryin’ to pull is keepin’ her from comin’ to that second conclusion.”

“Fair enough,” Moxxie conceded.

———————

It was years later. Millie had given birth to a son named Lucas who was five. Millie, Moxxie and Lucas were visiting Millie‘s family at their ranch. Lucas was with Joe while Moxxie was observing them from the rafters of the ranch’s barn through a pair of binoculars.

“There you are,” Lin called out from the ground when she spotted Moxxie. “Get down here and explain yourself.“

Moxxie jumped down from the rafters and landed in front of Lin.

“I don’t have to explain myself,” Moxxie began defiantly. “You and Joe agreed to supervised visits. I’m just changing the nature of the supervision to where Joe doesn’t know about it in order to give him enough rope to hang himself with.“

“You really think that’s necessary?“ Lin asked.

“I can tell that Joe loves Lucas,” Moxxie began. “But I’m sure that’s because he primarily sees Lucas as Millie‘s son and his opinion will change if he starts seeing Lucas as my son. Plus, Millie told me about how it took a while for Joe to get on board with Sallie transitioning, which proves that his love is conditional and you won’t find that out until you break those conditions.”

“Shit,” Lin said. “As much as Ah love Joe, you’re right about how conditional his love can be. Things are better between you and me but they’re still pretty shit between you and him so I can’t blame you for being on guard.”

“So what are you going to do?” Moxxie asked.

“I’m going to keep this our little secret,” Lin said.

“Thank you,” Moxxie said.

——————-

It was a year later. Lin was taking care of stuff in the barn when Moxxie dropped down from the rafters near her.

“You’re lucky that it’s me Moxxie or,“ Lin stopped herself from chiding Moxxie for not being careful. She looked at his face and saw that he had a pained expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Moxxie said awkwardly. “Joe and Lucas are getting along great. Better than I’ve ever gotten along with Joe and much better than I did with my own dad.”

Crumbs, I shouldn’t have said that, Moxxie thought. He saw that Lin had a conflicted look on her face. Likely caught between wanting to ask about my dad and knowing that she shouldn’t because there are reasons why that hasn’t come up before.

“Mom died when I was young and Dad was a piece of shit,” Moxxie said, deciding that over the years Lin had earned enough trust to receive a broad strokes version of his past. “Did you ever feel like you weren’t cut out for parenthood?”

“Many times,” Lin answered. “Bein’ a good parent means worryin’ that you won’t do right by your kids and havin’ that drive you to be better.”

“I resent my son,” Moxxie said, “for having better familial connections than I do: how am I supposed to be better about something that fucked up?”

“The important thing is that you know it’s fucked up,” Lin replied as she put her hand on Moxxie‘s shoulder comfortingly. “There’s nothin’ you can do about a knee-jerk reaction you’ve already felt so you should focus on being happy for Lucas.”

“There’s other things though,” Moxxie continued. “When Millie brought up us having at least one kid, I wasn’t on board with it. Based on the parenting I was exposed to growing up, my knowledge would be limited to knowing what not to do and I didn’t think that would be enough. I could tell that Millie felt strongly about this and I relented because I didn’t want to take the chance that she would leave me rather than stay with a man who refused to be the father of her children. I know I made the right choice the first time I held Lucas in my arms but isn’t that a really bad reason to have a kid?”

“Moxxie,“ Lin said, “do you have any idea how many people's reasons for havin’ kids are along the lines of ‘we were drunk’ or ‘the condom broke’? And that’s with situations where the act of baby makin’ was consensual on the women’s part. Compared to that, havin’ a kid because you loved Millie more than you feared fatherhood is a very good reason.”

“Thank you,” Moxxie said as he started getting a little teary-eyed. He opened his arms to initiate a hug but stopped himself because he thought that be pushing for too much. Lin decided to prove him wrong by putting him in a hug of her own that he returned.