Chapter Text
Time is a fickle thing. It heals as it passes, but also takes from you as it does. It takes memories, it takes those you love, it takes the tiny things you did and the big things you experienced all the same. Time turns homes into ruins, graffiti into ancient writings that must have some great importance when really it was just a joke. It turns the places you loved into memories, and takes those memories as the years fade away, leaving only foundations of what you left behind.
But that isn’t a bad thing! It is simply the way of the universe. The point is not to fight the passage of time, or to resist the changing of things, but to embrace it, and move forward. The point is to hold dear the things that matter most to you, and to do your part to protect and preserve them. Let the world remember you for your graffiti on a wall, or your name carved in the stone behind a building you visit every day. Let the world remember your life and your love through letters forgotten and bones stored together for eternity.
But do not live for the future, accept it, embrace it, but live for the present. Live for the time you have yet to have, for the trips you have yet to take, for the people you have yet to meet. Live each day and hold onto time preciously, because each moment you spend with those you love may not be remembered by time, but they will be remembered by you. Fight for your right to love fully, deeply, all those that matter to you because you and those you love are the only ones who can.
The ties that bind us, through space and time, matter more than any force in the universe. Love is more powerful than any entity, any force of nature. They may tear you apart, but it cannot stop the love within your heart. Hold that dear, and be mindful of it. Like graffiti in Pompeii, remnants of us will live on, that love cannot be stolen though your life may be.
Time is a fickle thing. It heals all wounds, even a broken heart, but can steal away the memory of that broken heart. What matters is creating those memories, and leaving an impact for when you are gone.
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“Welcome to the first official Lady’s Night!” Becky said cheerfully, lifting up her glass of wine.
Becky, Emma, and Charlotte had decided to have a monthly or perhaps weekly if they enjoyed it, night where they met up at the Birdhouse in order to decompress. Sure, they had their significant others and their guy friends, and various teens and children in their lives, but there was something nice about a friend group specifically based around being able to talk freely about those people like desperate housewives on TV.
“You know, if you’d told me in high school, hell, two years ago, that I would be drinking at the Birdhouse with Becky Barnes, I would have laughed in your face,” Emma joked, lifting her glass as well.
“Oh how times have changed,” Becky joked back.
“I’m just happy to have other friends who are ladies,” Charlotte said fondly. She was not drinking because two and a half, maybe three months pregnant at that point, but she was enjoying her soda all the same. “Now, don’t get me wrong, Teddy and Bill and Paul are great, I love them to bits and I know I can turn to them if I need to, but having other adult women to talk to is so fun!”
“And I am just as glad that the guys decided to make that dad club, having spaces like that is just nice sometimes,” Emma agreed. “They can talk about the issues involved with being a dad, and we can drink alcohol, and soda, and pretend we’re those bitchy ladies on tv.”
“Well I don’t think we need to be rude to anybody,” Becky said awkwardly.
“No no no, but we can talk about shit, you know? That’s why we decided to do this. Like, let me start. On Friday my boss decided to give me a new job that basically boils down to staring at the thing in a microscope for days on end to see if it moves. Spoiler alert, it has not moved. He insists it’s alive but like? Hello?” Emma said.
“Why does he think it’s alive?” Becky asked, popping a fried pickle in her mouth.
“I have no idea, he never actually explained that. I swear I’m going blind from the microscope light,” Emma groaned.
“Is this normal for him?” Charlotte asked.
“My boss, since I don’t think I’ve told you about him, is a super weird, Sherlock-like motherfucker who is very Russian and very gay. When the ghost thing happened he had me going around and collecting all the ectoplasm without explaining why, this is entirely in character for him,” Emma said.
“What is it you’re looking at anyway? Are you allowed to say?” Becky asked.
Emma shrugged. “If I had a clue what it was, I would tell you. What I can say it that it’s yellow and gooey, which is, as we’ve seen, a bad fucking sign. The file says it was collected back in the sixties when PEIP was founded but I have no idea outside of that.”
“Well, keep us up to date if there’s going to be another attack. Teddy and I may try to get out of town if there is, just to be safe for now,” Charlotte said, placing a hand on her stomach.
“I will definitely let you know,” Emma assured. “Well, that’s my work drama, anyone else wanna go?”
“Oh me!” Charlotte said. “My boss, Mr. Davidson, has been acting weirder than usual. He’s a strange man, as a whole-”
“I heard about the song he sang to Paul, did he tell you about that?” Emma asked.
“Oh yes he told us all about it,” Charlotte said with a nod. “But he’s been acting stranger since Black Friday and I feel like it may be connected.”
“Strange… how?” Becky asked.
Charlotte shrugged. “I’m not sure really, it could just be my imagination, but we’ve been getting new stuff to do from higher up in corporate, so he says, and it’s the strangest thing.”
“What are they having you do? Paul hasn’t mentioned anything,” Emma said.
“Oh he’s more in statistics and all that, he probably hasn’t seen the stuff that’s ended up on Ted and I’s desks. They’re looking to put a button… on the roof…? That’s what Ted says anyway, and I keep getting calls that people are getting some weird virus on their computer that I can’t for the life of me understand,” Charlotte explained.
“How is that connected to your boss?” Becky asked.
“Well, he keeps asking about how the button thing is going, and he keeps asking how many computers are infected and doesn’t seem interested in actually fixing that problem,” Charlotte explained.
“This is weird,” Emma agreed. “Hopefully this is all just minor weird not major weird.”
“Speaking of Major Weird, General McNamara is out of the hospital, that’s nice!” Becky said.
“Oh good, I haven’t been back there since the kids all got released,” Emma said.
“Yeah! It’s been about a month, but he’s doing a fair bit better now,” Becky said. “Otherwise, my job has finally returned to normal, though we’re expecting the usual Christmas Rush.”
“No weird bosses?” Emma asked.
“No weirder than ever, though she did put up a large flying saucer in the nurse’s station,” Becky mused. “That is normal for her, it just shows up every major holiday unless we’re expecting an event. She doesn’t decorate for any holidays other than just putting up alien things.”
“Oh my god,” Emma snickered. “Why?”
“It seems a bit strange to me to decorate PEIP’s hospital with aliens but what do I know,” Charlotte joked.
Becky laughed. “On Valentine’s Day, you might have seen it Emma, but you didn’t Charlotte, she put two of those big blow up Alien kid toys and taped them so they were kissing and put a heart above them. This is normal for her.”
Emma shook her head, snickering. “Okay okay okay, speaking of love, any drama?”
“Tom can’t hang things up in the closet for the life of him, they just end up on the bed, totally forgotten,” Becky said. “I know he has a hard time remembering that sort of thing so I let it slide but I really wish when I come over to spend the night I didn’t have to put his things up.”
“Tell him you won’t stay over unless he does,” Emma suggested.
“Maybe… he just has that blindness thing that comes with ADHD sometimes, he forgets they’re even there most of the time, I feel bad complaining,” Becky said.
“That’s fair, there’s still got to be a solution. In my house, Paul reminds me we need to do laundry, I do the laundry, he puts it away,” Emma said.
“The apartment we’re in right now isn’t entirely made for wheelchair use so it can be difficult for me to do the laundry and reach everything so we do the opposite of that,” Charlotte noted.
“We could have an arrangement like that if I lived with him and the kids, which I do not. I do think Lex does the laundry though to help out,” Becky said.
“Are you two planning on moving in together?” Emma asked.
Becky nodded and took a sip of her drink. “Eventually, we don’t have a set date for it yet though, we’re still debating before or after Christmas.”
“Christmas is in like, a week, right? That seems a bit soon to get everything done,” Emma said.
“Yeah, realistically we’re looking at January or February,” Becky agreed. “We do have a small army of teens and kids to help us though, along with all the friends.”
“Teddy and I are planning on moving into the new apartment in January so we have the space we need. I hope you and everyone will come help?” Charlotte asked.
“Of course we will,” Becky assured, squeezing Charlotte’s arm gently. “After all, what are friends for?”
---
“Welcome to the first official meeting of the Dad Club, and Paul!” Bill said cheerfully. They were sitting in Bill’s living room, because he was the first host, and god, they were all trying so hard to be both normal and not awkward. Given the group involved, that was not possible.
“Thank you, Bill,” Paul said with a polite nod of his head.
“We are all dads, except Paul, yeah,” Tom said, his eyes shifting to each man in the room with uncertainty as to what they were supposed to be saying or doing.
“And I hope not to be a father for another year or two,” Paul said with a smile and more slight nodding.
“Sometimes your plans don’t work out,” Ted joked. “I would know, twice over.”
Bill rolled his eyes and sat the chips and dip on his coffee table. “We are here to support each other and give parenting advice.”
“Because we’re so good at that,” Tom said sarcastically.
“What part? I like to think I give great advice, and I’m sure you have plenty to share. As for support, I think we have that part too, though I’m sure we can work on it to get better, each of us,” Bill replied. “Eat your dip.”
“Is that a threat?” Ted asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
“Yes,” Bill joked. “Avocado doesn’t stay well in the fridge, I don’t want to be left with tons of it.”
They each took a bit more of the dip to help out and settled back into their seats. After a moment of awkwardly looking at each other, Paul cleared his throat and said, “Well, this is fun.”
Everyone snickered a bit, the awkward tension breaking. Ted raised his hand as it did and said, “What the hell are we doing staring at each other? Let’s talk shit. Yesterday Deb decided it was a brilliant idea to try and put leftovers down the garbage disposal and it somehow managed to shoot up and all over the kitchen and I ended up cleaning tomato sauce off the ceiling for an hour.”
“Could’a been worse, you’re so tall I doubt you needed a ladder,” Tom joked.
“I didn’t need a ladder but I did use Deb’s step stool. I needed like, half a foot,” Ted said.
“Alice did something similar a while back, she dropped the milk jug with the lid off and milk was everywhere,” Bill said. “She couldn’t even help clean up at first because she was crying so hard.”
“One time Hannah and Tim tried to help wash clothes and they put way too much soap in the machine and flooded the garage,” Tom said.
“Ooo, yikes,” Paul said. “I heard about that from Emma.”
“Yeah, and neither of you came over to help clean up when I offered pizza,” Tom stated.
“Yeeaahh, no, we didn’t,” Paul agreed. “I also don’t have any stories about my child making messes because I do not have a child.”
“No, shit,” Ted snorted.
Bill turned back to Tom as he ate his chips and dip. “How are your kids by the way? I know most of them were in the hospital for a while after everything that happened, but no real specifics because Alice only tells me certain things.”
“Oh, they’re doing alright now. Hannah didn’t spend much time in the hospital because Webby protected her, but Lex spent about two weeks there just to make sure she was alright. She had to cut her hair real short too ‘cause so much of it was damaged in the whole thing, but it’s in like a pixie cut thing now? And it looks good, she’s doing alright. Ethan was in for about the same amount of time and he’s still got some problems he’s dealing with but he’s recovering alright. His lung is just an asshole now,” Tom explained.
“That’s good, I’m glad they’re all doing better. Obviously I’m doing better, it didn’t take too long for me though,” Bill said.
“Yeah yeah we’re all doing much better,” Ted said. “My daughter is fucking traumatized all over again from all this and she’s been having nightmares and I hate it.”
“Alice too, I’m glad at least that they can turn to each other about it,” Bill stated.
“My kids are all too used to this sort of shit to be healthy,” Tom muttered. “I know the universe chose them or whatever but they deserve to be more traumatized than they are. Lex and Ethan both almost died! And they’re going on complaining that she had to cut her hair and that he can’t exercise too much because he, again, almost died.”
“Sounds like you’re more traumatized by it than they are,” Ted remarked.
“Hey, I’ve got the right. I already have PTSD and I’m their dad, well, Dad and Future Father-in-Law. I’m allowed to worry about them, and all that,” Tom said.
“I’m sure they’re more traumatized than they let on,” Paul said.
Tom rolled his eyes. “That helps, Paul, thanks. I love the idea that they aren’t sharing their problems with me for some unknown reason.”
“Teenagers are like that though, let them come to you in their own time and it’ll be alright,” Bill assured.
Tom sighed and nodded. “I just want them to know they can come to me. Lex and I have had some problems, but we do our best. I love her and Hannah like they’re my own, I just don’t always know what to do.”
“To tell you the truth, Tom? None of us ever know what to do, we make shit up as we go. You did it before with Tim, you’ll keep doing it forever,” Bill stated.
“If anyone has no clue what they’re doing, it’s me. I skipped to the late teens I have no clue what I’m doing,” Ted said.
“And we will all get through this together, right? That’s what this group is for,” Bill said.
“That’s right, Bill,” Paul agreed with a smile and a nod.
Ted snickered and shook his head. “Paul you have even less of a clue than me why are you even here?”
“If I stayed home I would be missing Emma a lot,” he said simply.
“Valid, I love my wife,” Ted said fondly.
“Ted, you still aren’t married to her,” Bill stated.
Ted blinked and sat up a bit. “That’s true, I guess I’m just going to have to fix that aren’t I?”