Chapter Text
It’s a quiet drive to Jeremiahs house. He offered to let Mike and Abby stay with him for a few days while things die down. And with everything they went through this past week, Mike doesn’t know if he’d be able to care for Abby alone.
Abby’s in the backseat, staring out the window and counting the rain drops as they trickle down the car window. Jeremiah’s still in shock and frankly confused at everything that just happened and why it happened; it doesn’t help that Mike’s always been avoidant when it came to talking about Freddy’s and Vanessa.
And then there’s Mike Schmidt. He’s filled with so many different emotions he didn’t know which one to bring to the front of his mind first. He felt terrible for Abby losing her friends again and having to go through all this again, after just starting to have a sense of normalcy; he was angry at Vanessa for lying to him and putting his family in danger again, and he was anxious about what that ghost kid said to him before disappearing.
”I won’t be able to hold him anymore. He’ll get out eventually, and he’ll be stronger than before.”
If the person they were talking about is the monster Mike thinks it is. It’s important that they deal with it sooner rather than later, especially before anyone else like Vanessa’s brother gets the chance to beat them to it.
But in the meantime. They all need some sleep.
They pull into the driveway of Jeremiah's house and get out of the car. It’s small and in a similar neighborhood to the Schmidts old house, but it’ll fit them for a temporary home. As Mike’s getting out he sees Abby, already asleep. He goes to scoop her up and heads inside to put her to bed and figure out where they go from here.
”Okay Mike, you two can take my bed for the night and I’ll sleep on the couch.”
”Oh no Jeremy, you’ve done enough for us already please. You can have your bed, me and Abby have slept in worse.”
“Alright, but I’m only agreeing to this because I haven’t gotten any sleep in 2 days.”
Jeremiah grins and gives Mike a wink to let Mike know things are gonna be okay. Mike can’t help but let out a smirk, Jeremy always knew how to break Mike’s moody wall he puts up.
”Thanks again for this Jeremy, you’ve been a lot of help lately. I just wish I’d be able to repay you.”
Jeremiah yawns and rolls his back.
”The other day Abby said something about you getting her pancakes for breakfast?”
”Deal.”
Mike says his good nights and bundles Abby up in blankets and a pillow. Before Mike can lay down on the couch himself, he can already hear Jeremiah snoring in his room. He didn’t deserve to get dragged into all of this.
Mike falls onto the couch and can already feel his bones melt into the brown polyester cushions after being so tensed up all day.
As much as Mike was being polite by taking the sofa, he wasn’t complaining. When he still worked at the mall, he and Jeremiah would sometimes come back to this house after work and spend hours talking about TV and playing on the old Atari.
And Jeremy would always find a way to work in the story about trading that damn baseball card for a Missile Command cartridge. But Mike would smile and pretend like it’s the first time he’s heard that story if it meant getting to spend time with one of his only friends.
Even with his obsessive dreams, things felt so much simpler back then.
...
It’s been half an hour now and Mike still can’t sleep. All he can do is stare at the ceiling and replay the events of earlier that night in his head. The image of a tear stricken Vanessa, shivering in front of his house as he walked away in angered silence, leaving her with no one again. He has a massive pit in his stomach he can’t ignore
As mad at her as he is, and still angry and confused. He still cares about her, as much as he hates to admit it right now. And with her brother and who knows what else out there. He’s worried about what they’d do to her if she was left alone for too long. Or what she’d-
Mike can’t bring himself to finish the thought. Instead he has a different one.
Maybe I should call her.
He’s reluctant to the idea of giving her an opportunity to come back into his life again; because it feels like whenever she’s with him, troubles sure to follow. Especially for his sister. But when he looks at Abby asleep, but still restless, he remembers the shock in her eyes when he lashed out at Vanessa.
She loves Vanessa and would always beg Mike to let her go with them on their days out just so she could see her again. And it was selfish of Mike to take that away from Abby.
She’s too young to understand, and too forgiving and welcoming of people. Mike can’t help but feel that he could learn something from that instead of always pushing people away.
He begrudgingly gets up and looks at Abby before quietly walking to the kitchen to use Jeremiah's phone.
”I’m only doing this for you Abbs…”
Mike creeps into the kitchen and picks up the phone to dial Vanessas number. He sighs as he waits for her to pick up. He doesn’t even know what he’d say if she did.
She’s probably asleep by now
He thinks of any other excuse to drop this and go to bed, but then he remembers the last place he saw her. He mutters to himself
”The house.”
He knows the chances of her still being there after they’ve been gone for an hour are low. But it’s worth a try if she’s not answering her own house's phone. And he knows she’s not a heavy sleeper.
He punches in his home number and hesitates for a moment before pressing the final key. As he tentatively listens to the dials waiting for something to happen her hears a moment of silence.
”H-Hello?”
”Hi… you’ve reached ‘Castle Schmidt!’ Home of Queen Abby. Prince Mike is currently unavailable. So please leave your message at the sound of the beep!”
Mike sighed. He forgot he let Abby do their house’s voice mail. She was worried about moving somewhere new, so Mike offered to let her do whatever she wanted for their voice mail, to help make her smile and feel more comfortable in their new home. He ultimately regretted it but keeps it anyway if it means making his sister smile.
“Hey... It’s me. I don’t know if you’re still there, but I just wanted to call and…
What am I doing, this is stupid. I sound like a moron.
“Look, I’m only calling because Abby’s making me do it. But I just wanna make sure you’re safe. I said a lot of dumb things the past couple days and I’m sorry. Going back to all of this after a year of ‘normal’ has been hard. And I’m scared okay, I’m scared for Abby and I’m scared for you.“
He can feel his foot tapping to the steadily increasing beat of his heart as he can feel tears start to form in his eyes. He lets in a and out a harsh breath to calm himself down before he continues.
“Last year, you really helped me move on from everything with my brother, and helped me see that I was stuck in the past and need to focus on what’s happening right now. But I guess I was too focused on trying to pay you back for that, that I ended up trying too hard to “fix you” that I didn’t let you work through your past naturally. Because if I were in your shoes I wouldn’t begin to know how to tell people about everything I’ve gone through. And how much my father messed me up.”
“He’s dragged you through the darkest pits of hell, and having to grow up with such a terrible father makes me feel terrible for you because you didn’t deserve that. But you were still really strong and I wouldn’t have been able to be as strong as you.”
“I should’ve done a better job understanding that instead of immediately assuming the worst of you, and I’m sorry.”
”You know, I think a lot about that day you came over, while I was still working at Freddy’s, and we sat by the stream and talked. Nobody ever really made an effort to understand me before like you did. And I just wish I could’ve done that for you instead of only thinking about what I wanted. You were a lot of help these past couple days and me and Abby would absolutely not be here if it weren’t for you.
”I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t hate you, and I don’t want to say goodbye. I think it’s best if we both take some time apart to cool down, but when you’re ready to talk again, and go get dinner at that stupid place where they always sweep away your crumbs”
Mike laughs to himself.
”I’ll be waiting for you Vanessa. Because I-I love-”
Someone picks up
”Hello! Vanessa? Vanessa is that you?!”
Nobody responds. He knows the phone didn’t hang up or is still on voice mail because he can hear the sounds of cars driving by, the groans of his house, and what almost sounds like someone breathing.
”Vanessa, please if you’re there, just give me some sort of sign.”
”Uhh.. I don’t know if you were listening earlier, but I uhm, I was just checking in on how you’re doing. I mean, I know you’re not great, none of us are really great right now. But please can you just say something, anything so I know you’re still even-!”
Mike stops his voice from raising, worried that it’ll wake Abby up but also because he knows Vanessa doesn’t need any more of that.
“Sorry, I know you’re probably mad at me and that’s why you aren’t saying anything. I wouldn’t know what to say to me either, I was a real jerk, and while I’m still upset, that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to still be in Abby’s and my life. I want to take time to understand you.”
Mike clenches his fist and takes a deep breath.
”Because Vanessa, I’m.. I’m in love with you! Okay. I love you Vanessa and the only reason I haven’t told you sooner was because I was scared and scared of ruining what we had. But I’m not scared of that or you anymore. And tomorrow morning I’m gonna bring you pancakes, and hold and love you while we talk this all out!
Still no response but the breathing gets louder. It’s definitely Vanessa. Her voice is typically warm and breathy but right now it sounds like an imitation of the girl he’s grown a relationship with. It feels cold and condensed.
”Is that okay?”
After a moment of silence Mike’s met with a sneering laugh. Mike has to move the phone away from his ear with how loud it is. He knew this was stupid. He knew he didn’t just get to undo what he said to Vanessa. He knew it was stupid to think someone so out of his league could ever love him.
The only reason she stuck around was probably because she felt bad for him, he thought.
No wonder she’s laughing at me.
Mike felt pathetic and embarrassed. All he wanted to do was run away so he could stop hurting the people he loved. But all that embarrassment could come out as was anger.
”You know what, fine! Be that way, I don’t know why I thought it’d be a good idea to call you in the first place! UGH I’m such an idiot!”
As Mike goes to hang up he hears the sound of sniffling on the other end, but before he can process it the phone’s already slammed against the jack.
Mike leans against the wall and slides down to the floor. Letting out a long and defeated sigh as he does. As he looks back up he sees Abby standing in the entrance to the kitchen.
”Mike, what happened? Who were you yelling at?”
”Abby! I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to wake you up. That was nothing it was just.. it was nothing.”
”Is it gonna be okay?”
”I.. I don’t know.”
Mike struggles to hold back tears hearing that. He can’t let Abby see him be weak like this. All he wants to be is a good parental figure in her life, and he can’t even do that.
“Just go to bed Abby.”