Work Text:
Every Wednesday at 4:00 on the dot, Emily’s phone rings.
She waits for it. She stresses over it. If it’s even a minute late, she makes the call herself, and if no one picks up, she calls the school, three places of employment, and then the police.
Call her overprotective. Call her crazy. Plenty of people have, her own husband included. But Emily Patterson will do anything to keep her family together. Anything to protect her child. And if that means making damn sure she knows where Luke is at all times, well then so be it.
Today, she’s in a meeting with one of her constituents, but she puts it on pause the second her phone rings, says, “I’m sorry, I have to take this,” and steps out of her office to answer it.
The time, she notes with annoyance, is 4:03.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Emily, it’s Rose Molina! How are you this afternoon?”
Rose’s enthusiasm always sounds false to Emily; she doesn’t think the Molinas like her very much. The feeling is, in fact, mutual.
“I’m very well, thank you,” Emily says, for politeness’s sake, but instead of going so far as to ask how Rose is, she cuts to the chase. “Is Luke with you?”
“Yep, I’ve got both kids right here!” Rose confirms, just like she does every week when she picks up Luke from school, and yet Emily won’t be satisfied, Emily won’t be able to relax, until—
“Hi, Mom!” There’s Luke’s voice, a little muffled, probably half-shouted from the back of Rose’s car.
Emily blows out a long sigh of relief. Luke is with her. Luke is safe. Luke will have a wonderful afternoon messing around at the music school until Emily can get out of work, and the only thing she’ll have to worry about is how long they’ll be in the house together tonight before one of them starts yelling.
She has a good feeling about this week. Maybe Luke will be in a good mood, won’t be so quick to criticize Emily’s parenting after spending all afternoon with someone better. Maybe they’ll break the family record for how long they’ve gone without a fight.
Maybe Emily will finally stop being so paranoid about Ray and Rose Molina taking Luke away from her.
But for now, she has a meeting to get back to, and she wouldn’t have asked Rose to pick Luke up on Wednesdays if she had any other choice.
So she says, “I love you, sweetheart!” and then, “Thank you, Rose. I’ll be by at six.”
And then, because okay, yeah, maybe she is a little paranoid, she adds, “Call me when you get home, please.”
And then she hangs up, because as much as she’s not going to apologize for her parenting techniques, she’s not going to let Rose Molina judge her for them either.