Archive of Our Own ^beta

Claire uses her spare key to open the door to her Aunt Tam's apartment. She steps into the doorway, closes the door behind her, and immediately goes to the fridge, opening a soda can.
“Aunt Tam, I need to borrow your concealer!” Claire screams from the kitchen. She sets her book bag down on the kitchen island and sits in one of the chairs. Tamera comes out of her room tied in a robe, pieces of her hair sticking to her face. She stops in the doorway of her bedroom her lips turned up, pointing at Claire with the concealer.
“I know that did not happen when you and Jack were in my apartment when you were supposed to be watering my plants.” Claire scratches her head in confusion as she tries to make up an excuse.
“We—I—”
“You’re going to have to come up with an excuse and fast when your parents ask you about that hickey on your neck." She rubs her temple as she comes to a realization. “Oh my, they are gonna kill me. Please do not tell me you guys—ew, on my couch, bro.”
“No, we didn’t do anything, just got a little carried away, I promise." Tamera hands the concealer to Claire and glances at the clock. Her lips ball up tightly as she turns to Claire again, side-eyeing her. “Come on, I had to come here first and you know if I’m even five minutes late coming home they send out the cavalry.” Claire pulls out a handheld mirror from inside her book bag and begins to put the concealer on the dark purple bruise, blending it out with her finger. Tamera disappears to her bedroom and comes back out in sweatpants and a crop top with her hair in a messy bun.
“Come on, kid. I’m gonna drive you home and leave my concealer.”
Claire leaves the concealer on the counter and grabs all her stuff before shutting the apartment door behind her.
…
Tamera turns up the radio obnoxiously loud and sings along to some new pop song that just became popular as Claire fiddles with her phone. She has a million unread calls and texts from Jack since she ignored him at school today, not wanting to talk to him because of his irresistible smile. His lips got them in this very predicament. She couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss, the way they fit together, and how the whole world seemed to disappear as if it were just them.
The car stops and Tamera turns to Claire, making a gagging sound that catches her attention.
“You look just like your mom every time she thinks about Tim.”
Claire slaps her shoulder as she makes it out of the car and to the front door, waiting for her impending doom. The door opens to Luca, her 15-year-old brother, smiling from ear to ear.
“What are you smiling about?”
“Oh, nothing, just about how you’re gonna clean the kitchen today or I’m gonna tell Mom—”
Lucy appears behind Luca. “Tell me what?” Her eyes flicker between her two children as they seem to be having a silent argument. Tamera pushes Luca inside the house and immediately takes Olivia off of Lucy’s hip.
“How’s my favorite niece?” she says while tickling Olivia’s stomach.
“Well hello to you, Tamera.” She turns back to her eldest daughter as she closes the door. “How was school?”
“The same as every day.” Claire speed walks past Lucy and goes upstairs. Lucy holds up her finger to make a mental note to check on her later when Tim gets home since they usually like to talk to their children together when things don’t seem right. She walks into the living room and sits on the couch next to Tamera. Her eyes naturally fall on Olivia, watching her freely crawl around on the floor. She smiles at her daughter, who just recently started crawling. She cannot believe how much she has grown in such a short time. Olivia looks similar to what Claire looked like as a kid, with her dark brown hair curled into a singular loop on her head. The only thing they did not share was their eye colors—Claire had beautiful brown eyes, while Olivia had bright blue eyes like her father’s.
“Is Claire okay? Why did you pick her up today?” Lucy’s eyebrows always furrowed together when she got worried about her kids, and Tamera hated lying to her—but this was not her place.
“I can’t just pick up my niece? I was already up and in the area.” Tamera could lie easily—maybe it was all those years on the street—but Lucy could pick apart her lie in seconds.
“You, up and moving before 1 p.m.?” Lucy’s eyes narrowed as she sensed a lie, but Olivia’s cry from across the room distracted her from uncovering it. She walked over to Olivia, picked her up, and peppered her with kisses on her forehead. “What’s wrong, princess? Are you hungry?” Lucy walks out of the living room to feed Olivia. Tamera takes a deep breath as she is just saved by a crying baby.
She whispers to herself, “My favorite niece, thank you.”
…
Tim opens the front door to the aroma of Lucy’s lasagna. He slips off his shoes and turns into the living room to see Tamera lying on his couch, flipping through channels.
“I thought we got rid of you when you got your apartment and a girlfriend.”
“I need to come over more often since you can’t seem to keep your hands off of Lucy. Every time I turn around, you guys have a new kid.”
“Lucy is the one who keeps—”
“Tim, don’t finish that sentence.”
Tim sees Lucy out of the corner of his eye with a smirk on her face. He walks over to his wife and embraces her in a hug. He moves a piece of hair out of her face before dipping down and kissing her. He slips his tongue into her mouth as she steps back onto the island, his hands trapping her in.
“Do you guys always have to make out like teenagers? You have three kids!” Tam yells from the living room.
Tim rests his forehead on Lucy’s as she chases his lips for one last peck. “Why does she think we have three kids?” he whispers into Lucy’s ear. Lucy bites her lip as she puts a hand on Tim’s chest, trying to escape his grasp. Lucy makes her way to the oven to check on the lasagna when Tim’s hands wrap around her waist, pulling her in.
“I missed you,” he whispers into the crevice of her neck as he sneaks a kiss. Lucy giggles as she replies that she also misses him.
“Okay, you’re making it very hard to focus.” Tim releases her from his grasp and leans his back against the island. He looks at the baby monitor that has a picture of a sleeping Olivia down for her nap. His attention is immediately snatched away when Lucy bends down in front of him. He lays a hand over her butt, and she slaps it away. A smirk appears on his face as she turns around.
“Something is wrong with Claire. She ran to her room as soon as she got home.”
Tim’s whole demeanor changes as he realizes the serious tone in Lucy’s voice. “Well, that’s unlike her. Has she said anything?”
“No. I have a feeling she mentioned something to Tam since she picked her up from school.”
Tim wraps his arms around Lucy for comfort since her mind tends to go the worst route when thinking about her children. He was also worried, but knew that Claire would come to them when she felt ready. He kissed her forehead. “We’ll talk to her after dinner.” They hug for a while before Tim goes off to find Luca and see what he was up to.
…
Claire is in her room, giggling on the phone with Jack and a couple of their friends in a group FaceTime call. They made up and lost track of time as they talked. Claire hears a knock on her door before her mom comes in.
“Dinner’s ready.”
Claire is about to hang up when Jack calls out, “Hello, Mrs. Bradford.” Claire rolls her eyes, cursing herself for not muting him. Lucy comes over to where the phone is on Claire’s bed and waves at Jack. Before Lucy can get a word out, Claire ends the call. Lucy turns to Claire suspiciously, wondering why her daughter wouldn’t let her talk to Jack.
“You do know that’s my godson.”
“Come on, Mom. I’m hungry.”
Lucy decides to hold her tongue once more and put a pin in the conversation, as she had agreed to talk to Claire after dinner—therefore, no interruptions from Olivia or Luca. She follows behind her daughter to the dinner table. Tim has already sat Olivia in her high chair, and she is elbow-deep in the cut-up lasagna he gave her.
Claire sits down across from her brother Luca, continuing the silent argument they didn’t finish earlier. Lucy looks at both of them, suspicion written all over her face as she takes a bite of lasagna. Tamera catches the vibe of the table and can’t help the feeling of how similar it feels to a family dinner she shared with her ex.
“What’s up with you two?” Lucy points her fork at both of her children.
“Claire offered to wash the dishes tonight.”
Tim chimes in, “Isn’t it your week, Luca?”
“I’m being nice today.” Claire shoots a look at Luca from across the table.
Lucy shares a look with Tim and they both look Tamera’s way, as she has her eyes glued to her plate.
“How was school—” That’s when Lucy’s eyes land on Claire’s neck. Stunned, she drops her fork. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Luca begins to laugh until Lucy shoots him a look. “You can take your dinner upstairs.”
“I would like to stay for the show.” Lucy looks at him again and he starts gathering his plate to go upstairs. Tamera starts to get up from the table, trying to avoid the line of fire, but Lucy turns to her.
“You knew about this.” Lucy points at Tamera, feeling disappointed and betrayed.
“What’s going on?” Tim interjects.
“She was supposed to be watering my plants while I was out of town.” Tamera throws her hands up in defense. Lucy pinches the bridge of her nose as a light bulb goes off in her head and everything starts to make sense. Tamera grabs Olivia from the high chair and decides to clean her up as her good deed for the day. Tim looks confused at his wife as he recognizes she is holding back from yelling.
“Do you want to tell your father and me why you snuck off with Jack alone to do God knows what in your aunt's apartment?” Tim looks stunned as he repeats to himself, “Alone with Jack.”
“Mom, please don’t make this a big deal.” Claire looks between her parents—her mom scolding her and her father probably thinking of one way he can kill Jack without Angela finding out.
“A big deal? We have rules, Claire. Rules that you have broken. You can’t just sneak out to your aunt's house and have sex with your boyfriend.” Lucy’s hands fly all over the place, as they do when she’s mad.
Claire can feel her heart pumping out of her chest. She does not take lightly to being yelled at. “Mom, we didn’t have sex. We just were kissing and got a little carried away. And if we did, I know to use a condom. We aren’t stupid.” Tim feels like a rug was ripped out from under him. His head spins with all this new information. Sure, Claire is 16, and high schoolers do these things, but to know his daughter was partaking—he needs a moment.
Lucy takes a deep breath before sitting down again next to her daughter. “I’m glad you and Jack have found a home in each other, but you guys cannot go off and break rules just because you are caught up in that love. You are not ready to have kids, so I would appreciate it if you would abide by our rules—which means no sneaking around with Jack.”
“Okay. I can do that.” Claire agrees. If that kiss had gone any further, she’d be having a much different conversation with her parents—and probably buying her aunt a new couch. She looks toward her dad, who hasn’t said a word this whole conversation. She feels tears welling up in her eyes—it hurts more to know her dad is disappointed in her.
“Dad, I’m sorry—” Tim brushes a tear off of Claire’s face.
“It’s okay, my love bug.”
Tim brings his daughter into a hug as he feels her tears wet his shirt. He makes circles on her back while cradling her head. “We both love you. We just want you to be safe.”
Lucy comes back with an ice pack and a wet paper towel in hand. She takes the makeup off her daughter’s neck and hands her the ice pack after kissing her cheek. Lucy hears footsteps and Tamera appears, baby monitor in hand.
Tamera passes her the baby monitor. “Well, I’m going to go.” Tim scolds her, “Hey, save that anger for the guy jumping your daughter’s bones.”
Lucy looks at Tamera with an exhausted expression as she hands the baby monitor to Tim. She walks Tamera halfway to the door. Lucy turns around as if she forgot something. “When you go upstairs, that phone better be on my dresser.”
“Aww, look at you being such a mom, disciplining your children.” Tamera mocks Lucy’s stern voice and furrowed eyebrows.
“I don’t recall having to do this with you.”
“That’s because after you screamed at my ex-boyfriend over dinner, I didn’t introduce you to anyone else—which wasn’t hard since you were always busy with work.”