Work Text:
Aaron’s pulled out of class right before lunch, sulking his shoulders back as he walks to his guidance counselor’s office, the look on Haley’s face when their teacher gets the call sticks with him. Frantic fragments of peace as she smiled at him, suddenly pale and stuck with a terrible gut feeling.
He opens the door with caution, no longer naive as the woman sitting behind the desk offers him the seat across the way. He’s only been here one other time, when the school got word of what was happening with his at home, only pretending to be worried that his father would do something to hurt him, not actually wanting to help him. He doesn’t know who told them. Aaron doesn’t police Haley on it, knows she’s the only one aware — the only person he trusts — and that she wouldn’t do something like that.
She treads the water of his father lightly. Aaron’s thankful for that, he’s scared of what he might do to her if the two ever met.
“Aaron.” His counselor, Mrs. Albert, wasn’t smiling. The light in her eyes had gone out. His chest restricts in a way that only happens when Dad’s around. He knows his body’s about to hit the floor, hard, but he can’t make it stop. “Thank you for coming. We just got a phone call from your mother.” She sighs, moving her gaze from her computer and up to Aaron. “Your father’s been in a bad accident. She’s asking for you to pick up your brother from school and head over to the hospital.”
His pupils dilate as his back hits the chair, too many questions and not a single answer. There’s a smile fighting for life on his lips, he knows she can see the outskirts of joy riddling him as he asks, “What type of accident?” Car accident, quick and easy, Aaron hopes. Fixing his knees as he re-adjusts his shoulders. He was slouching. Dad would have a field day about that.
“He had a heart attack, Aaron.” A beat, just enough time for his heart to start beating again, and then, “According to your mother. It’s not looking good.”
Aaron signs, running a hand through his hair. “You said I could leave?” A nod as he stands, a weight lifted off his chest for the first time as he walks towards the door. Aaron doesn’t run, it doesn’t feel like times stopped, even though it should as he rounded the corner and walked back to class. The door opened as his teacher looks up at him, a resilient smile as he sulked back inside. Everything was in groups, paired off in duos as Haley sat by herself, needing Aaron as his partner as he grabbed his backpack, gently nudging her shoulders.
Haley waits for him to sit, jotting something down in her notebook as he hovers anxiously. “I have to go.” Aaron says, watching as her expression changed. Haley furrowed a brow anxiously, “Something’s happened with my dad.”
“Aaron—“ Haley puts out a hand, gently touching his hips as he fought back tears. Lowering her voice so she didn’t bring too much attention to him, already out of place thanks to his height. “Sweetheart.”
He doesn’t offer up any information, just grabs her backpack and starts to grab her things. “I want you to come with me.” Stupid. “I need you, Haley. I need you to come with me.”
He throws her folded into her backpack as she sighed. She couldn’t just leave, they’d call her parents, but the stoic expression had fallen flat off his face. “Please.” Aaron murmured as she stood, grabbing her lunch box as she excused herself out. The door opened and closed. His hand finds hers immediately as he walked down the hall, grabbing his car keys from his jean pocket as he kept his mouth shut, unable to break when he was still here.
Aaron walked quickly. Haley could barely keep up with him as he stormed out the building. “Aaron.” Haley whispered, voice full of honey. “Honey, you need to slow down.”
He shook his head, “I have to get Sean.”
“He’s at school.”
“Mom said to pick him up and bring him to the hospital.”
She stopped in the middle of the parking lot, putting her hand on his bicep as he ran into her. “He’s in the hospital?”
Aaron sighed. “Yes.”
Haley swallowed, seeing all the emotion fall off his cheeks as he moved her along, not having time to waste. “Aaron.”
“I want him gone, Haley.” He says, unlocking his car as she walked around. Usually he opens the door for her, she doesn’t take it personally when he doesn’t. Wrong, wagging his head like a dog as he turned the car on. “I need him gone, Haley. I need him to stop fucking hurting me because he’s going to start hurting you or Sean.”
“Why don’t I drive?”
Aaron shakes his head, it feels like the beginning of the end as Haley buckles herself up. He doesn’t. His hand finds the steering wheel and the anger sees itself out. “Aaron, you need to—“
“I’m fine, Haley.” He cuts her off, all but used her words against him as he looked out his back window, careful not to hit any cars as his foot slipped onto the gas pedal. He doesn’t ease onto the brake until she yells after he runs a red light.
Haley cries, long tears streaming down her cheeks. Her parents were going to kill her, but at this rate, they wouldn’t be the one at fault. “You have to stop.” Haley quips. “Aaron, you’re going to kill yourself.”
He looks over his shoulder for a moment, going twenty over the speed limit as she cries. “You’re going to hurt me as well.” Haley croaks, “And you don’t want that. You don’t want that, Aaron.” She withers her hand to his shoulder, “You need to slow down, honey. He’s not going to hurt you. He’s not here right now, all you’re doing is putting us in danger and you don’t want that, Aaron. You don’t.”
“What if he’s fine?” Aaron snapped, disregarding her sentiment.
“Sweetheart.” Haley sighed. “You have to stop. All you’re doing is upsetting yourself and that’s what he wants, Aaron.”
“What if he fucking survived, Haley, and then he gets upset at me for not being by his bedside? He’ll kill me if I don’t show up.”
She knows anything she says won’t make him feel better. She also watches steadily as he slows down, her words ringing in his ears — she deserved to live. He might not, but she did and until then, he’d stay for her.
By the time he steps foot inside the hospital, he knows something is off. Haley stands beside him, gently rubbing circles on his hand as they walked inside, shoulders touching as he tried to find his father’s room.
Something’s off.
He rounds the corner to find his mother already with Sean, changing her mind at the last moment, wanting to be the one to pick him up when Aaron was already halfway there. He should have known then, that Dad was already gone.
“Aaron.” His mother exhaled, tears tricking down her cheeks as she held her son’s hand. Sean was too little to understand any of this. He peered inside the hospital bed, empty, snapping his head back up towards Haley as he tensed.
“Where is he?”
Mom shakes her head, unable to remain strong for anyone. “He’s — he’s gone, Aaron. Your father died.” She chokes, “Heart attack.”
Aaron froze, feeling his girlfriend’s hand reach his back as she exhaled. He doesn’t say anything, just looks between his mother and his brother, both in tears as Haley grounds him. “He died?”
Mom nodded, “It was painless.”
Worse. Aaron wanted to see him suffer, wanted to beat him the same way he did him, wanted to scream at him until he realized how much pain he had caused him, all things he would have done as an adult.
Aaron swallowed, turning to leave as he excused himself, “I need water.”
His mother sighed, broken fragments of a relationship that couldn’t be undone as Haley followed behind him. Her sole intention was on Sean, trying to comfort the little boy as he cried.
Aaron rounds the corner, heels on fire as he burst. “Honey.” Haley’s running after him, “Aaron.”
She catches up to him, his eternal comfort as the world shrunk behind him, pressing a dollar into the vending machine as he cried. “He’s fucking gone.” Aaron says.
“I know.”
“Haley, he’s gone.” Aaron exhaled, finally able to breathe, a weight lifted off his chest as he hugged his girlfriend, falling into Haley’s embrace as she struggled to keep him upright, head buried in her neck as he finally let himself cry. “He’s not going to hurt me anymore.”
Haley held him close, cradled his neck as he cried. “I know, baby. You’re okay.”
“He’s not going to hurt me anymore.” Aaron repeated, like he’s trying it out on his tongue.
“I’ve got you.”
Aaron laughed, tears drowning down his cheeks. The bruises on his arms would eventually heal, there wouldn’t be no ones in their place — he was gone. Aaron was safe. He pulled away, cupping her cheeks as her eyes wandered. “I’m free.”
Haley holds him the rest of the night, hands wandering in his hair, his eternal safety net as she thinned out a faint smile, letting Aaron go through the stages of grief. “I’m free.” Aaron said, unable to believe himself. “He’s not going to hurt me anymore.”
“You’re safe.” Haley agreed as it hit him all at once, breaking down into loud tears as she moved him to the waiting area. “I’ve got you, Aaron. I’m right here, baby.”
Shifting his head into her lap, Haley kisses his cheek. “He’s gone.”
“He is.”
Aaron sighed, “Finally.”