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Language:
English
Series:
Part 10 of After the End
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Published:
2023-05-24
Words:
570
Chapters:
1/1
Kudos:
47
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903

Is That Even True?

Summary:

Five times Tom ‘met’ Shiv and the first time they met someone else.

Work Text:

Tom, Kendall and Roman are in the tree house. Shiv is at the bottom of the tree, wanting to come up. Kendall and Roman start pelting her with chestnut seeds — conkers, Kendall’s mother calls them, to the boys’ amusement. “Conk! Conk!” they yell, aiming them at Shiv. “Carrot head!”

“I hate you!” Shiv screams, and runs off crying.

Later Tom approaches Shiv when Kendall isn’t looking, hands her a conker, says, “Sorry,” quietly and runs off.

On his first day at Waystar Royco, Tom goes up to Shiv and introduces himself. “You probably don’t remember me. I spent the summer at your house once…”

“No.” Shiv shakes her head, disinterested.

Her coolness only makes her more interesting to him. Getting back in touch with Kendall, and getting the job at Waystar, was a good career move. Dating the boss’s daughter, on the other hand, could be career suicide. He decides to ask her out sometime anyway.

He finds Shiv crying in her father’s office, the day after Kendall is taken into rehab. At first he pretends not to notice the tears, but then he turns back. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She nods. “I just feel like I could have done more, you know?”

“He’ll be fine. He’s in the best place.”

“If you tell anyone you saw me cry I’ll have to kill you,” she warns.

“Understood.”

“I know what you did.”

They’ve just arrived home. Shiv barely waits for him to close the door before she turns on him.

“What did I do?” He avoids her gaze.

“You sold us out to Dad. Don’t deny it.”

He doesn’t.

“Those fucking donuts.” Her eyes widen. “Was that you too? Have you been spying for Dad the whole time?”

“What do you care, Shiv?” He finally lets his anger out. “You don’t love me, remember? I’m not good enough for you?”

“That was just—”

“And that crack at your mom’s wedding.” Tom can’t seem to stop now he’s started. “‘I hope your marriage is as fulfilling as mine’? Fuck you, Shiv.”

“Fuck you,” she spits back. “I want you out of here. You can go and report back to my dad that his daughter’s marriage is over.”

He swallows hard as she storms into the bedroom.

Shiv finally goes quiet on the phone. “Can he even hear me?” she asks. Tom is still holding the phone to Logan’s ear, even though Logan is clearly dead. When Tom broke down the door and found him on the floor, Logan looked at him like he didn’t know who he was, said nonsensically, “I shouldn’t have come home,” then died.

Tom moves the phone so it’s against his ear, taking it off speakerphone. “I don’t know, Shiv,” he lies. “I think he’s gone.”

“Are you being nice to me, Tom?”

Tom smiles, although she can’t see. “It has been known to happen.”

They watch the baby moving on the monitor. Tom knows he’s supposed to feel moved, but it just looks like an alien to him.

“Are we supposed to be able to tell what it is?” asks Shiv finally.

“I’m not sure.” Tom peers at the screen. “I’m very moved, though.”

“Oh, yeah. Me too.”

He smiles and takes her hand.

“You know, even if we do get back together, we’ll probably just fuck it up again,” she says.

“I know.”

“So, shall we fuck it up again?”

He nods. “I’d love to.”

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