Chapter 2
Willis can’t say he’s that great of a romancer but he figures his meals can speak for him. That’s why he reluctantly starts to follow Madeline’s advice. And while he doesn’t necessarily know how to make a lot of the meals she requested him to make he tries his hardest.
The woman of course is hard to warm up to, her demeanor is sharp and frigid at times leaving Willis to have a buffer for them to even be close. It’s why he brings meals over to the kids she helps watch and takes some of the food to Catherine’s own apartment.
He doesn’t really know how to get Catherine up and help her out without invading her privacy so he talks with Madeline about it. Talks to her about helping to clean up Catherine’s place, about helping to pay some of the money they need back with the savings he has.
——
Madeline approves of it but it doesn’t go over well with Catherine when she finds out that he’s payed some of what she owed off. He learns a bit later that it’s because she hates being indebted to other people.
It’s the day that Willis decides to cook Beef bourguignon for Catherine that he asks her out to see a movie. He does it after being groceries over and setting the pot on medium. Aiming to make a pot big enough to last the lady a few days or until he decides to come back and see Mrs.Ware or them both.
It works in the end after a spilled bottle of wine, a ruined white shirt and a few laughs that they start to date.
It’s a wonderful experience with Willis who loves non-fiction books and astrology and the stars. Who loves his son more than anything in the world and isn’t afraid to show it. He warms a place in her heart that she thought was cold and would forever be icy.
She tells Mrs. Ware of all her troubles of all her dreams and eventually of her wants. Of how connected she feels to the man that entered her life so abruptly.
That’s why just three months later with many photos and a few documents to show of it Catherine Thomas became Catherine Todd. A wife and a mother to the most wonderful boys in her life.
The boy had a bright sparkle in his eyes that managed to warm her heart. And his father had managed to help her with most of the problems she had with money. It had felt like her own little paradise at times.
——
Catheine hadn’t thought she was ever going to be a mother, not with everything she had on her plate. It wasn’t something that bothered her, it just was.
Jason though was a wonderful happy bouncing baby, maybe just a little underweight but still as cuddly as a teddy bear. When she held him she felt a bit of surprise, as his heart always was beating strong and fast.
Willis wasn’t ever absent from their life, while they sometimes had long shifts they allowed for him to be able to be with his son more. His babysitter and coincidentally her best friend allowed for Catherine and Willis to meet more than once without him having to worry about the baby.
The boy had a bright sparkle in his eyes that managed to warm her heart. And his father had managed to help her with most of the problems she had with money. It had felt like her own little paradise at times.
——
Catherine wasn’t ignorant to the people in her life; she knew what Willis did for money, it was where she met him after all. She knew she wasn’t Jason’s real mother, but it was still what he called her.
Running with the gangs was either a lifestyle or death sentence where she came from. People were like family but that didn’t stop the violence. And it didn’t stop the need for money.
She felt she had become complacent, worrying about money wasn’t that much of a problem anymore. She and she felt they had less worries. Their little family was peaceful and happy but it wouldn't last much longer.
The days were long and she could tell that the streaks of violence in the streets will not be soothed anytime.
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Jason, now 5 is a talker, he loves to hear stories and wants to draw and write and learn all he can. He calls her mommy and every time she can feel a bit of her warm. It’s something she really wishes she could’ve been.
Catherine feels her boy is much smarter than anyone will expect him to be.
She worries at times, her job is a steady one but could only help so much if something were to happen. Willis seems frustrated all the time now, unable to get out of gang, unable to truly stop worrying about the life they’re leading.
Jason notices this, Catherine knows His father is angry now, angry at the world and angry at himself. He wants better for his son, he wants to not have given life to the bright little boy for his light to be sniffed out by the curse his uncle passed on.
He stands tall, goes to work, follows his orders and survives another night. Lives another day to see Catherine’s smile and listens to Jason’s retelling of a new book he got. His heart warms at the thought of his small family but his head only tells him of what he’s about to lose.
——
Willis hadn’t wanted to be like this, when he was younger he had wanted to be an astronaut cook. He hadn’t really thought it out past that. With his imagination the only limit he had, Willis plowed through middle school and his first year of high school.
He eventually learned that it wasn’t an astronaut cook that he really wanted to become, it was just studying culinary science and being able to make cool food. It was a calling his parents fully supported, they felt with the right support he would be able to touch the stars anyway.
Being a bright only child was great, he could do a lot and while he wasn’t well off his family made do with what he had. It was great up until his parents died and left him alone with his mother’s uncle, the man was never talked about except in hushed whispers when Willis wasn’t around.
The man as it turns out wasn’t as bad as Willis thought. The man, Robbey was a bit of a two time criminal and rough around the edges at times but he did help Willis through a tough period in his life especially since he had to move to the Gotham to do so.
He learned from the man what to do, what not to do and how to survive. It was very different from Virginia, one of the greatest differences Willis saw was the amount of obvious corruption and gang activity. Yes, he had grown up with both of the problems in his city but not to a degree that a city condemned several times a year.
He remembers the first time he got stuck up for protection money, the man had held a gun to side and demanded money for safe passage. Willis knew it was likely the man would kill him if it weren’t for the fact of who his family was. He’d blurted out his uncles name and been released with a warning to be upfront with that before it gets him killed the next time.
Robbey finds him later that day curled up on the smaller couch he has pushed up against the wall next to their broken window.
He tells his uncle of the problem he faced, of the threat of another one and he blurts out his fears of being shot. And his uncle, known for his bluntness, tells Willis to join him. That he could not join and have the protection his uncle could try and provide for him. Or he could join a group and have more people to protect him, more people for him to be associated with.
Willis looks up at him in shock but acknowledges how it makes sense, he knows that having more people on his side would be helpful.
He thought that he would on be in a group for a few months or at least until he was able to defend himself against others. He didn’t want it to become his lifestyle, he didn’t know it had become his life until he graduated high school and still stayed in Gotham running around with whoever was biggest and baddest.
He meets shortly after Sheila shortly after his uncle dies in a gunfight. The woman is captivating, fresh and a positive light where Willis only sees the dark.
He could stay with her forever, he thought she felt the same after she got pregnant. He wished she had but she proves him wrong when she leaves Jason in his cradle with their neighbor to give to Willis.
It leaves him shocked for a while, he doesn’t know how to raise a kid and sure the books he read are great but he would give so much to be able to do it with Sheila.
Willis doesn’t know that he’s gonna meet Catherine yet but he hopes for better for Jason. He hopes to be better for him and to do better by him.