Old times?
Miles's pediatrician got the not so little kid anymore admitted right away so now Beth, Chris, Scott and Shanna are staying in a hospital room while Miles lays on the slightly elevated hospital bed looking better than he did an hour ago. Chris is sat on a chair beside the bed looking relaxed while Shanna and Scott talk to the pediatrician about what to do to make sure Miles's situation comfortable for the kid. Beth, well she was standing on the side of Miles' bed opposite to Chris, she tied her hair in a low ponytail a little while back when they settled into the room. She uncrosses her arms and takes out her phone to text Steven that she was sorry for the interruption of their date that was actually going quite well.
' Sorry, rain check maybe? ' she types the letters swiftly and hit send before putting it back into her jean pocket. Chris notices Miles waking up, the kid's closed eyelids moves and his eyelashes flutter a bit before they slowly start to open, Chris gently drags his chair closer to the bed to comfort Miles once he was fully conscious.
"Hey buddy" Chris greets his groggy-looking nephew, making sure his voice was soft so he wouldn't startle him. Miles furrows his eyebrows once he notices that he was in an unfamiliar place but is quickly reassured once he sees his uncle's face. "Whew awe we?" (Where are we?) the kid adorably asks as his squinted eyes scan the room "We're at the hospital" Chris says matter-of-fact-ly and Miles looks at his uncle confused. "Why? I don't wike the hospitaw" he scrunches his nose adorably (once again) and turn to rest his head on its other side to look around more. His eyes land on the tall (but seriously that's just because he's a kid everyone is tall to him ) girl standing beside his bed. Her hair and tan skin familiar to him.She smiles at him, the sight making excitement bubble inside the little kid and sits on the edge of the bed "Hey Miles" she greets him with a smile that she always flashed the child whenever he showed her something he made or found back then.
Miles immediately recognizes her and he beams back "Awntie Beth!" he squeals and Beth laughs. Miles always greeted her like this. She never got tired of Miles calling for her like he was waiting since she left."Yea Miles, it's me" she replies with the same excitement Miles had. "I miss you.." he tells her making Beth smile and expression soften. " I missed you too baby" she leans down to kiss his forehead.
"You haven't been eating your veggies have you Miles?" she playfully taunts the kid who crosses his arms and pouts. "I don't wike it " he says the line he was known for and Beth just shakes her head, amused.
"Well you got a fever now, and I was very worried" she scolds Miles and the kid loosened his crossed arms. "You wewe ? (You were?) " he peers his questioning glance from under his long lashes and Beth's heart melts. How long was she gone for that he doubted that she cared for him. "Yes , we all were baby" she assures Miles and smooth his air down
"I'm sowwy".
"That's why you should try to eat your veggies even just 3 of them, okay? For your mommy".
Miles nods his head obediently. "Good boy" she continues running her hand on Miles's hair and it seems like the 5 year old didn't mind the familiar action at all.
Chris watches the two silently . He always liked to watch Beth play with his nephew, their nephew rather back when they stayed in his house here in Massachusetts, it made him think of what it would look like when they had kids , of course that was one of the reasons he asked her to marry him, because he saw a life with her.
A family.
Chris wanted a family, he wanted kids, he wanted a wife to care for them with him. He wanted see little thems running around, playing, laughing, running to them when they got injured or found a bug they wanted to show.
He wanted to see them first thing in the morning.
That hasn't happened to him, he was always busy during his marriage with Beth and everytime he went home, she always suggested they stay over at his family's house. It's not like he didn't like spending time here, it's just that if they were there they had little time for some sex, but he rarely turned her suggestion down. They did spend some time back at their apartment and boy did he cherish it then. Never taking a second for granted.
He looked forward to the time Beth would say the words that would made have made him the happiest guy alive : I'm pregnant. She never uttered those words , they didn't go to the doctors like couples would whenever they had problems like that.
They just didn't seem to care or better yet too afraid to.
Chris and Beth didn't want to be one of those couples that were miserable because they weren't getting a child but they ended up still getting miserable. Because they weren't getting a child and because they weren't talking about it. Chris looks at the women he had wanted to spend his life.
A life. A family.
Chris sighs.
"Whewe have you been ?" Miles' voice pierced through his thoughts. "I've been in New York and I came to visit" Beth answers and gently holds Miles hand. "But why is Uncwe Cwis hewe and you thewe?" Beth looks conflicted so Chris decides to answer for her "Because we were spending time apart"
"Why? Don't you wove each othew?"
"Well we do but its okay to not always be together" Chris was hesitant to say they still did. Did she?
"Dont you miss each othew?" Chris eyes flicked up to meet with Beth's. All the time
It was a yes or no question but those two words felt like the same answer. They led to the same conclusion. No,because she'll always be there. Yes, because she isn't there for the same reasons anymore.
"Whewe's youw wing ?" Miles asks, his fingers noticing the absence of the white gold band around Beth's finger. Both of them were unsure on if they should reply. " I-" Beth gets cut off by Shanna speaking up, "Miles" and from there it was unclear babbling and some what relief for Beth.
She nods to Scott, "I've got to go" she tells him when he walks closer to her, seeing her faintly concealed discomfort and with just one look at her eyes that were welling up with tears he knew not to question her. "I'll see you out" he offers instead, he knew if he didn't, Chris would and he doesn't think that was a good idea for Beth. "Shanna, I'll be going" Beth tells the woman that was currently pampering her kid, finding it rude if she didn't. "Thank you Beth" she whispers to her as they hug "No problem, anytime" Beth barely controls her voice from breaking before pulling away.
" Auntie Beth whewe awe you going?" Miles' screeches his voice panicked but Beth just puts on a smile "I'll be back okay, I promise" she says to comfort the child "Angew pwomise?" (Angel promise?) the little kid holds up his hand and Beth almost tears up "Angel promise" she holds Miles' frail looking hands and kisses his knuckles. Angel promise was something she read from a book, it meant that whatever happens, even when they forget the promise , an angel would lead them right back to fulfilling it. She taught it to Miles back when she first read the book.
They get out of the hospital room and Scott shuts the door quietly. "So you want to talk about it?" he asks trying to keep his voice neutral, no pity and no force. "I just, I am over it you know" Beth sighs and tugs off the hairtie to let her hair loose and fall over her shoulders. "You having to say it to yourself or to anyone proves you're not" Scott practically retorts as a reply and Beth hits Scott's chest. "Scott" she scolds him, what he said was unexpected and true but also wasnt helping her at the moment. "What? I'm just saying " he shrugs not bothered at all by her hit.
"I'm just scared that being attached, even just in this way, would stop me from moving on"
"What do you mean?" he asks as they walk down the stairs.
"I'm afraid still being part of his life means that I can't get over him"
"Chris wouldn't want that for you, you know" Scott points out and Beth nods in agreement, Chris was that kind of person, the one that doesnt want you to feel dragged down because of your past."I know, but I don't think he'd like me avoiding him either" Beth also points out, the funny thing was both of what them are right. Chris would want Beth to move on but he doesn't want her to move on without him, like he has to be there in the process, that's why they agreed to be friends, to support each other.
The problem was the thing she needs to move on from is him."He would practically die" Scott says with humor on his voice."Oh would he now?" Beth sarcastically replies while rolling her eyes. "A horrible death just for you" Scott chuckles because he was pretty sure Chris would do that in some other forms, his brother is such a drama queen sometimes. " Good that you see the humor in this" Beth replies and giggles a bit. "Anytime ex-Evans" Scott jokes as he pats her back. "Hah! I haven't heard that in a long time" Beth exclaims, the reminder gives her a bittersweet feeling. "I mean its practically a royal title in disguise" Scott says in a matter of fact tone and Beth couldn't help but laugh. "We live in a democratic country keep dreaming " Beth retorts as they neared the exit.
"Mrs. Evans makes me think of my mom" Scott scrunches up his nose in feign disgust. "Oh how's Lisa by the way?" Beth asks instead, she hasn't heard from her for a month now. "Ugh don't call her Lisa, its weird" Scott jokingly scolds her . "How's your mom then?" Beth rolls her eyes and finally gets a proper reply from the second Evans son. "She's great as always, I mean she misses you sometimes". "I think she wants me to replace you " Beth sticks out her tongue at Scott and Scott just flips her off. "I have to go home to get Miles' stuff, can you drop me off" Scott asks and Beth raises an eyebrow "Of course get in".
Chris wakes up from his nap, he fell asleep beside Miles after Beth walked out of the hospital room. That was quite a sight: a big and grown ass 33 year old man beside a small adorable basically the size of his legs kid. He takes out his phone to check the time and sees that its already 9:54 pm. He was about to turn it off when a text message pops up on the notifications.
Did you guys get to eat dinner there already?
It was from Mrs. Dorito aka Beth , Chris smiles remembering the time that he woke up to see that she changed her contact name in his phone, he never bothered to change it, the word bother didn't even reach his mind whenever he saw the name flash on his screen.
I'm not so sure if Miles and Shanna already did but I haven't
He replies to her and unconsciously start to scroll up to the earlier conversations they had as he waits for a reply and his eyes land on a message he wouldn't mind receiving again.
I'm getting quite lonely here, husband ;)
Oh that brings him back to times. Whenever Chris was away for some movie, she always pulled this trick at least once a week ( on the other days they just talked about their day) and he couldn't get enough of her. It was never the same day each week so he'd wait in anticipation or he was the one to initiate it. He almost always did , but he got extra turned on whenever she did. Before he can imagine her to the point where he had to do something about it a reply interrupts his inappropriate haze.
I bought in n out and some soup. I'll be right over
"Shanna" Chris calls out to his sleeping sister, she didn't even budge a centimeter which made Chris sigh and slowly get off the bed. "Shanna" he whispers once again when he was near enough to shake her "What?" Shanna groaned not even opening her eyes. "Have you eaten yet?" he asks her softly and Shanna nods and gives a verbal reply "Yeah and Scott went home for Miles' clothes" Shanna murmurs almost incoherently. "Okay then." Chris goes to lie back down on the hospital bed in a way that would not wake his sleeping nephew. People may think he overreacted when he was told that Miles had a high fever , but he couldn't help it , high fever was a symptom for a lot of things and also throw in the fact that he was overprotective of him, that was a good fucking reason for his reaction. He runs his hand on Miles' hair trying to get the little stands of hair out of where his line of sight would be , he hasn't gotten a haircut yet.
Beth always took him, if he remembers it right. No wait Beth always went with Shanna to take him whenever he had his haircut while she was here. Beth was a dentist and had her own clinic so she can decide her own day offs and she rarely had day offs but when Chris is home she's has almost a months worth of day offs. If they come to Boston she went back every Mondays and Fridays. Beth being a dentist just like his father made his dad and her have a good talk and even without that he was pretty sure they would still approve of her. Her and Beth met in a party, the birthday party of RDJ's son to be specific. Beth was his dentist , she was the first dentist she didn't mind so RDJ's wife wanted to invite her . She was like a lost puppy, she didn't know any of the people there except for Susan and Robert who were pretty busy with making sure everything will not end up broken.
So of course, Chris being the nice person that he is and the fact that he also feels anxiety, approached Beth. She was wearing a rust colored sleeveless turtleneck and jeans. He didn't assess her appearance that much then, all he knew was she could use another familiar and approachable face among the house. They talked, immediately clicked ( in a friendly kind of way) so after that he asks for her number so they can talk to each other after, then a friendship started.
They hung out after that, Chris introduced him to some of his friends, Beth as a film buff basically always fangirled and Chris would secretly laugh at her. She told him that when she found out that Robert Downey Jr.'s son was gonna be a patient of hers she basically sterilized all her equipment surely and victory danced while doing it. Beth introduced her to some of her friends too, to be exact he met 2 of them and that in Beth's words are 'all of them' . They liked him, Beth made sure to tell them beforehand to not scream and tell him how they read fanfics of him and let their ovaries explode over a picture of him AND even better a GIF. A fucking goddamn moving picture of him looking up and sucking in your soul with his fucking baby blues. She took him to an ASL class her twin niece and nephew (they were hard of hearing) were taking because she mistakingly thought it was the next day so they had to rush to pick them up. He took her in a roadtrip going to Massachusetts because Scott rambled about her to his sisters and either she brought her with him or they'll turn his room to a playroom though he thought that wasn't much of a threat he was and still is basically a kid. They had movie marathons of Chris' favorite movies and of course Beth wanted equality so she made him sit through some documentaries she liked and movies she memorized at least 5 quotes from.
They danced around or lay down on her bed listening to songs or read each other books most of hers were novels and most of Chris were like a spiritual kinds and she actually bought her own copy of a book he introduced her to cause she wanted to highlight stuff and Chris didn't want it on his. They bought a book together too and there Chris lets her highlight by the deal that every line she highlight that was above 3 each time they read was one shot or one treat. Chris also had to go shopping with her because duh he had to at least once whether it was by choice or forced to. Chris learned she had no specific style really she just went with what she thinks looked good, and she loved thrift shopping 2/3 of her clothes were thrifted. She bought him a leather jacket once and he wore it alot until he became a little too buff for it but he never dares throw it away. And that was all when they were just friends. It was no surprise when people started thinking they were a couple even with other friends they still walked beside each other but Chris and Beth never saw it like that for a long time before well you'll learn about that later.
"Who would let a woman like that go?" he says under his breath, thinking out loud. "Apparently, me" one corner of his lips lift up to form a smirk, but it didn't serve the purpose of a smirk, it was more out of "Chris you sure are a meatball for doing that". Miles slightly shifts beside him, which makes Chris turn his head and adjust in his place. "Uncwe Chwis" he says sleepily as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes. He does a little yawn reminding Chris of a puppy , "Awe Auntie Beth and you okay?" he asks curiously and the look of concern in his face is evident. "Why do you ask, buddy?" Chris raises an eyebrow and rest his hands on top of each other on his stomach. "You don't wook at each othew wike befow" Miles explains and he raises his eyebrows in emphasis at the word 'before'.
"What do you mean Miles?"
"Wike when auntie Beth and you sit at bweakfast with me" Miles starts to talk with his hands and take a gulp of breath and Chris found it adorable, "You wook at her wike she just gave you the best toy and took you to Disneywand" Miles tries to explain through the use of relating it to his experience and Chris laughs at this which made Miles confused. "Then I must have been looking at her right" Chris smiles and pat himself at the back to congratulate himself. "And you didn't give Auntie Beth kisses on her cheek and make her laugh" Miles states, it sounded like a global dilemma coming from him. "Well Miles buddy, Uncle Chris can't do that Auntie Beth anymore" Chris tries to explain in a way his sister Shanna wouldn't kill him for.
"Why? I wike when you did it made Auntie vewy happy" the 5 year old hit his uncle on the chest with a slap. "But she did tuwn vewy red" Miles furrowed his eyebrows like he was pointing out a very important observation. "Was she angwy?" Miles guesses pointing his index finger at Chris' face. "Sometimes she gives me the silent treatment yes" Chris jokes though that was true, she gave him the silent treatment whenever he got "too" lovey dovey in front of his nephews. "Never got tired of doing that" he adds with a longing sigh. "You wove hew right?" Miles' question catches Chris off guard but he was able to recover from it quickly to answer.
"Now how do you know that?".
"James fwom school towd me, his pawents wove each othew" Miles nonchalantly says , he looked like he was losing interest a bit. "Uncle and Auntie are just friends now" Chris tries to explain once again. Friends: that was what they were and that's what they are now.
"What wew you befowe?"
"We were like Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse" Chris decides to compare it to relatable characters for Miles but it just confuses him
"Huh?"
"We were like James' mommy and daddy" Chris tries again and Miles mouth form an 'o'.
Before Miles can ask any more questions the door opens and Scott's voice cuts their conversation short. "Miles we have soup" Scott says in a sing a song voice and both of the males sit up."Yuck" Miles scrunches his nose and Chris chuckles and mimics his nephew's face."We got in n out" Beth says with a wide smile on her face as she walked in the room after Scott. Miles raises his arms and mirrored Beth's smile "But you can't eat it buddy, your mom won't let you" Chris with pity, told his nephew. He knows how much Miles liked burgers. "But uncwe Chwis " the child as devious as Chris pulled the puppy dog eyes. "Miles don't use those eyes" Chris warns as he was resisting- wait what resistance, "Okay fine just a quarter maybe, your mom will kill us".
Beth excitedly slips off her heels with no signs of awkwardness from earlier and climb onto the bed and sits in front of him and Miles. It was a pretty good sight them facing each other and looking at the food like it was the best thing they have ever seen. Scott hands Chris a paper bag of his food and sits on the chair Chris occupied earlier. They ate in silence for a moment before Miles asked to bite a bit of Beth's cheeseburger which made Chris lift his head up and watch Beth feed Miles. The naturally tan girl catches him looking and smiles playfully. "You want some too?" she asks and holds up the burger towards him and Chris takes a bite without breaking eye contact with her. Beth's heart flutters. She quickly retracts her hand. She's distracted by the move Chris pulled if he was even pulling one, well there to make it more depressing she was distracted by a move she wasn't even sure was a move in the first place. How pathetic, Beth thinks to herself and shakes her head, her face heating up. Chris holds up his burger too even though it was the same as hers. Beth takes a bite out of it unconsciously doing the same as Chris and now they were both bothered by each other. Chris slowly retracts his hand and looks down, he forgot just how capable Beth was at affecting him.
"I want to puke" Miles announced from beside him. "We weren't that obvious, were we?" Chris jokes before looking at his nephew and by the looks of it he wasn't kidding. "Oh okay wait um-" Chris' eyes looked around for something but Beth beats him to it and swiftly takes the paper bag she had beside her and open it in front of Miles just in time when he tips over and puke his guts out. Chris rubs his nephew's back as he pukes and Beth firmly holds the bag with her hands. When Miles pulls back showijg that he was done puking Chris lets him lie slowly back onto his bed "No more of that stuff, little guy", Chris scolds softly and Miles just nods his head with a frown and closed eyes. Chris gets off the bed as Beth does the same, holding the paperbag closed with one hand while she walks to the door. Chris decides to go with her and Scott just smiles knowingly at them. Them unknowingly making moves on each other. Those two really knew how to make things complicated.