Chapter 3.9 - Uncommon Emotions

“I don’t remember it being like this last time.”

Madeline shut her eyes and mentally counted to ten to keep herself from strangling her oblivious husband. “Well, last time I didn’t have to single-handedly wrangle two difficult children all day, every day, while heavily pregnant!”

“You aren’t doing it single-handedly. I’m here.”

“It sure doesn’t feel like it when you’re gone every day. I know for a fact that your office lets you take paternity leave-”

“But if I did that, Odessa Winchester would steal that office right out from under me. I can’t let that happen.”

“But you’re willing to let this happ- Amanda, sweetie, you can’t take your doll to the park with you.”

Unfortunately, Amanda started wailing as soon as the doll left her arms. “No! Max! My Max! No!”

Alaric raised his eyebrows. “Good Plumbob, does this happen often?”

Madeline spoke sharply even as she wrestled the doll away from her daughter. “Only daily, as you’d know if you were ever here!”

“Look, I’m already late. We can talk about this later.”

“It’s Saturday! What are you working on that has you going in on your day off?”

“There’s a public policy proposal going through…”

Neither of them noticed a small shadow slipping his way out the door.

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“What are you doing here?”

Jonah looked up sharply. He hadn’t expected to meet anyone on this little bench behind the hospital, which was precisely the reason he had chosen it. He wanted to be alone for once in his life. “I needed to get out of the house. Why are you here?”

She shrugged and sat down next to him. “There’s something relaxing about this spot. And it’s quieter than the library.”

He recognized the girl. Her name was Jennifer Doe, and she sat in front of him in class due to the fact that they had the same last name and her first name came before his alphabetically by a little bit. Until today, he hadn’t thought much about her other than that. “Why did you come up to me, though? There’s plenty of space here for both of us.”

Jennifer looked faintly embarrassed. “I thought… you looked kind of mysterious, sitting up here like this.”

To his shock, he found himself cracking a smile. “I live a mysterious life.”

Her eyes widened, and she smiled back at him. “This is a mysterious town.”

“Isn’t it, though? I almost feel like some mythical creature is going to emerge out of the dark any minute. This is exactly the sort of place where vampires live.”

“I know, right? I’ve always wanted to stake out the graveyard at night, but… I’m too scared to do it by myself.”

Jonah hesitated for a moment, then made a decision. “Jennifer?”

“Jenny.”

“We should stake out the graveyard together.”

Her face lit up, and she grinned at him. “Only one question. When?”

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A Wednesday night a few weeks later found Alaric working late once again. He felt like he had to. Everyone who wanted to get ahead in this world had to put in 100% and then some. But even if that hadn’t been the case… he wouldn’t really have wanted to go home.

Alaric was certain that he loved his wife. He thought he probably loved his daughter. He could even tolerate his stepson, as long as the kid stayed out of his way. But his work meant so much more to him, and they didn’t understand. Whenever he went home these days, Madeline nagged and Amanda screamed and Jonah sulked until he just needed to get out. To get back to what really mattered.

He had been working with John Doe and Odessa Winchester today. Marina Rosa Vasquez almost never stayed late. One night she had told them that late nights were “too much for her old bones”. After she left, Odessa had told him that the whole office had bets on whether or not she would retire before she died. He wasn’t sure whether or not she was joking.

But tonight, it had been the three of them. Now, John was pulling on his coat. “I promised Jane I'd be home for dinner at least one night this week, so I’m headed out. I suppose you two will stay a bit longer?”

“Of course.”

Alaric, though, hesitated. “Madeline’s been nagging me to spend more time at home with the kids lately, but…”

Odessa rolled her eyes and tossed silky red hair over her shoulder. “I don’t understand why you let anyone tell you what to do like that. You’ll never get anywhere if you let people boss you around.”

Alaric laughed a little, as he often found himself doing during conversations with Odessa. “It’s easy to tell you aren’t married. But I’m not going home just yet.”

“Good. We’ve got a lot of work left to do.”

After they’d been working for a while, Odessa put down her papers and looked at Alaric once more. “Why do you let your wife give you orders like that, though? I don’t understand it.”

He just shrugged. “Because I love her.”

“But that doesn’t really mean anything, does it? I mean, I love my brother, but that doesn’t mean I would ever let him tell me how to live my life.”

Alaric really thought about it. “I suppose it’s because… she doesn’t understand it. Not really. In her mind it makes sense that I’d want to be at home with her and the kids. She doesn’t understand the way I feel about this. And because I do love her, I let her believe that, because I know she’d never be able to understand the truth.”

Odessa nodded. “I guess I really just don’t get why you love someone like that when you could love someone who would understand the way you feel about your work.”

“I thought she might understand once… but that was just wishful thinking. Now I think it’s just force of habit. And after I went through so much to win her, I’m hardly going to just throw her away. Still, I do sometimes wish…”

“That she got it?”

He nodded, looking into those strange, pale eyes. He wasn’t sure when she had gotten so close.

Later, he would make all sorts of excuses for himself. He was exhausted. He was lonely. He was under a lot of stress. He hadn’t been with Madeline in weeks. But he knew the truth. He did it because he wanted to, and because he would always be the sort of person who chased what he couldn’t have.

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After it happened, after Odessa had gathered up her things and left, Alaric found himself standing in the office alone, trying to process his feelings. He didn’t feel guilty. He didn’t think he’d ever felt guilty for anything. No, mostly he felt conflicted. What was he supposed to do now?

Before he could figure it out, his phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and saw that of course, it was Madeline. Still, he answered it. There was no point in avoiding her.

“Hello?”

“Alaric?”

“Who else- wait, Jonah? Why do you have your mother’s phone? And I told you not to call me that in public.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, father-of-the-year. I just thought you might want to know that your wife went into labor, since you still aren’t home.”

“I’ll be there-”

“Just come to the hospital. Mom got Aunt Lucy to drive her over after it became obvious that you wouldn’t be home in time.”

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After hours of sweat and tears, Alaric and Madeline stood in the nursery with their new daughter. Alaric spoke softly. “Madeline, I’m sorry I wasn’t here. I promise I’ll make it up to you.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“I’ll take the next week off from work. I’ll stay home with you and Willow.”

“The whole week?”

“I don’t think I can get any more…”

“No, I think a week will be more than enough.”

Madeline hugged her husband, basking in the feeling that everything would be alright from here on.

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Two years later…

Madeline was upstairs when she heard the doorbell ring. “I’m coming, wait just a moment,” she called before she began to waddle down the stairs, wondering how Alaric managed to talk her into “just one more”.

The doorbell continued to ring, and she wondered who was pressing it until she opened the door and found a little device pressing the button down. She frowned, muttering to herself. “I wouldn’t think we would be prime targets for pranksters, but I suppose…”

Then she looked down.

Author's Note: So... yeah. This was a massive chapter, and a lot of stuff happened. First, baby pictures.

This is Willow, who is, update, an athletic genius. I'm also pretty sure she's an exact clone of Madeline, which annoys me, but whatever. This is probably the only time you'll see her as a toddler, because a lot has to happen in these next few chapters.

Red-haired baby is named Serena (like Jonah, SP named her, but I like it) and she is, update, a friendly genius. Like Willow, she will probably not be seen again until her child birthday. Anyway, next chapter: we see the fallout of this chapter!