Chapter Twenty-Two
Nicole felt drained. Physically and emotionally, sitting inside of that booth half on Mason’s lap like she was, even with her parents sitting across from them. She couldn’t be bothered to try and pay attention to public displays of affection, couldn’t be bothered to try to ease them into seeing the two of them together in that light more slowly because she was just too… drained. She was just too emotional, those remnants of hiccups from all of her crying before still occasionally wracking her body mercilessly. The car ride over had been awkward enough, what with her mother’s reminders that she needed to stay inside of her own seatbelt and try to avoid a ticket if at all possible coupled with her father’s steadfast refusal to look in that rearview mirror where he would undoubtedly see Nicole still clinging desperately to Mason.
She wouldn't let him go, she couldn’t force physical separation between the two of them right now, not for anyone else’s comfort, what with what all had just occurred… with the issue of Aaron, and now this legal suit that was likely to come from his baseless, tasteless accusations. She couldn’t believe what he was trying to pass of as fact that he was resorting to what he was attempting to claim. But then, if she’d been asked several weeks previous if he would have physically attacked her just on the basis of her having broken up with him or from her moving on from him, especially once she’d heard what she had from Mason about Aaron’s own infidelity…
Now she had the scars, or at least she would, to prove that her thought process had been opposite of fact. He had come at her with more force than she would have ever imagined him capable of using on anyone, much less her. Her hands were still shaking, Mason alternately taking them between both of his own and massaging the skin as if he were afraid that it was a chill- or maybe he wasn’t, she didn’t know, it wasn’t like they had any opportunity at all to talk. And honestly, it was still so early…even if it didn’t feel like it, even if it had taken months for the two of them to reach the point that they were now at, an accumulation of years even… it wasn’t as if they’d been together in actuality for that long an expanse of time, or had even been acknowledging to one another that they wanted to be.
Her head was already aching from trying to keep up with all of the different trains of thought that it wanted, and didn’t want, to be on- from all of the things that she needed to be considering and from those that were only super invasive thought processes that she would have rather not been thinking about currently. She didn’t even know how to separate them, her bloodshot eyes moving blankly about the three other bodies at the table talking. Mason was explaining the station, explaining what had been said to him versus what Jenson had been providing as far as information went, and she needed to be paying closer attention to it. She should have been more attentive, should have been listening more closely, because it concerned her, it involved her, they were things that she needed to know… and yet….
She couldn’t seem to bring herself to comprehend anything further than just the gist of what was being discussed around her. Mason explaining to her parents about the accusations in full and what it was they would have to do to discount them, including divulging much more of both his and her personal life than anyone was readily willing to do. She was terrified, even listening to it half-assed as she was, as to what all that would entail, terrified at the prospect of allowing so many strangers to closely dissect her life and the personal details within it. To sit and hear it discussed in so clinical a manner absent any of the emotion that had led her to make the decisions she had, or him the decisions that he had. Without their own, personal, reasoning, and in order to defend themselves against claims that should have never been made in the first place.
She was exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with the late time. “I have to pay.” Nicole didn’t even know who she’d cut off, or what exactly had been being said when she cut in. Her voice raised probably past the decibel it should have been in order to keep their conversation, and its details, private and contained to the booth they were seated in. “For lying about the previous assault, even though it wasn’t a testimony, it was my statement and it was a false one. So I have to pay a fine, especially I guess since I’m changing it now in the midst of another investigation or… there were a lot of words and accusations, I didn’t listen to all of them.” Much like she wasn’t listening to the ones that had been passing around her here.
“Psychologically speaking, that’s a very typical reaction for someone in your situation though!” Her mother’s voice nearly toppled over the end of her own statement, hand slamming down into that table in obvious annoyance, even while she worked at lowering her voice in the way that it needed to be for their situation. “That’s-” She cut off, but only because of Nicole’s hand lifting like it had, wincing just enough for it to be noticeable at the phrasing of ‘someone in your situation’. She wasn’t the victim everyone wanted to paint her, she’d liked too many things about her relationship, walked too fully and wholeheartedly into it to be put on the same level as those women who had actually had such awful things happen to them as to be labeled a victim.
She shook her head as if trying to physically clear it, hand tightening around the one that Mason offered her, whether it had been meant for support or not, that was what she was using it for.
“Marie, you have to also consider though, that these people are not going to be concerned with what is textbook typical, as many times those actually committing the crimes and attempting to get away with them use just that knowledge in order to try and dupe them,” Dr. Friedrich interrupted, only just making his presence known at all to Nicole. She didn’t know how she had missed him joining them, or what he might have said previous that she had likewise missed, but no one else seemed surprised by his addition to the conversation, her father nodding along as if backing up his words entirely.
“That’s just the truth mom,” Nicole spoke over her mother’s hurried breath, again cutting her off at the quick and shaking her head. It didn’t seem that the cobwebs in it would be clearing any time soon. “There’s nothing we can do about it and honestly, I’d much rather just pay the fine, it’s not a large one, and it’ll settle that once and for all.” She didn’t mention that she didn’t know how she was going to pay it, because while it wasn’t a large fine, considering, it was still larger than her current bank balance was going to cover. She also didn’t mention that she thought that maybe paying it would make her seem more honest, which felt devious to be thinking of, and she just… was muddled, her fingers tightening around Mason’s hand and swallowing even harder for what she had to say next.
“I’m moving in with Mason.” The band aid method, blurted out of her mouth and her grip tightening all the further in anticipation of the reaction she would be getting. One that she didn’t have to wait more than a few seconds before receiving, Marie’s cup clattering onto the top of the table and coffee sloshing over the sides. Her father was stoic, but so much so that it was obvious discomfort that had him hold himself so, and Dr. Friedrich… was looking at the both of them, censure filling his features and his eyebrows drawing to meet in the middle of his forehead.
“You can’t-” Marie’s voice interrupted by her fathers- “Are you sure that-” and all overridden by Dr. Friedrich’s not-so-quiet clearing of his throat, all gazes rotated towards him expectantly.
“Are you sure that that is the best course of action for the two of you in the burgeoning relationship? Especially considering the haste in which you are executing this?” He didn’t sound outraged like her mother, nor like he was choking on something like her father had… he just sounded…. Like a therapist, looking knowingly at the two of them in a way that was frankly more irritating than it was comfortable. Unfortunately, on top of it, he was the one voice of reason Mason was most likely to listen to out of the three, making her hate his words all the more, especially watching Mason think over what it was he was saying. No, she wasn’t sure it was the best course of action. No, she didn’t have any insurance plans to cover what would happen if this did go wrong. And yes, it was very likely jumping the gun a little… However, it was the course of action that had already been decided on before this whole disaster snowballed… and especially now.
“I can’t be away from him right now.” Nicole didn’t have control over her words, verbal filter completely shot as the raw emotion leaked through her tone. “I don’t want to be across town when- if something happens...” She didn’t want to be alerted to his arrest or something even more sinister by a text or phone call from her parents hours later. She didn’t want to sleep without him, didn’t want to waste any more time than what they had already wasted over the years just because other people weren’t as comfortable with their relationship or the speed at which it was moving at as they were. “We don’t know what is going to happen, we don’t know how this is going to pan out, and I’m not going to waste my time pretending to carry on with life as normal just to make everyone else here comfortable.” Her voice was raising more than it needed to by the end, Mason’s fingers tightening back against hers the only thing that stoppered her words and kept her from going on.
“We understand your concern, we’ll take it into consideration,” Mason added, his tone just as even and blank as it had been before this portion of the conversation came up. “Our decision was already made however and we’re not going to be altering it.”
He ‘d made it so final, in a way that her emotional rant had failed to accomplish, Nicole’s gaze rotated over each of the faces around them and their various levels of concession to that statement. Like Mason had said before, they didn’t need to understand it, they didn’t even need to like it, they just needed to accept it as what they had chosen to do and not try and come between them. It was all that either of them was asking for.
“I just want to go home,” Nicole interjected, falling back more firmly into Mason’s chest and exhaling roughly. “I just want to go home and go to sleep.” Be with Mason, talk to Mason, and not have all of the other’s opinions and reactions to worry about or have to contend with.
“Perhaps that’s a good idea,” Dr. Friedrich acknowledged, once more looking from Mason to her and back again, putting his hand over her mother’s when she opened her mouth as if she was going to disagree with the lot of them. “We’ve all had a tumultuous evening, it might be best if we all went home and digested all of the information and waited until morning to make any other decisions.”
Again, her mostly silent father this evening was nodding along with him, as if he could use any excuse to escape from the revelations that had been forced upon him this evening.
“It might also belay any further hasty decisions,” there was no missing that twinkle in Dr. Friedrich’s eye, his lips twitching to one side and seemingly going over her mother and father’s head who seemed, all of a sudden, much more fond of the idea than they had been a few seconds previous.
Marie’s sigh seemed almost exaggerated, her mostly empty cup of coffee being pushed away from her place even as she stood, hands brushing down the front of her already wrinkled pantsuit with slow deliberation. “Fine, I’ll admit that I’m drained as well, I can only imagine what everyone else is feeling. A cup of tea and bed sounds nice. I’m not going to pretend that the idea of the two of you just suddenly living with one another doesn’t bother me, but then there’s not much about this situation I’ve wrapped my head around yet.”
“It’s hardly the first time they’ve lived under the same roof,” Paul finally added, speaking for what seemed, to Nicole, to be the first time all night. His words were dry enough that she couldn’t tell if they were sarcastic or censoring, eyes refusing to land fully on either Mason or Nicole completely, and Mason’s half snort going ignored by almost everyone except for Marie who looked at him as if in warning.
“Well, he isn’t wrong. I didn’t take advantage of her then, I’m unlikely to now.”
Nicole could feel her very ears heating at Mason’s words, both for the implication and the… dishonesty of it, at least what she hoped was dishonesty. She wasn’t trying to force some sort of physicality or implicate that it was necessary, but she wanted… she didn’t even know, her shaky laugh cutting through whatever her father may have been about to answer, standing up herself and grabbing again at Mason’s hand once he was standing as well. If her mother’s coughing was anything to go by, the ride to Mason’s apartment was going to be even more awkward than the past few minutes had been.
She shifted her weight between feet uncomfortably, preparing to follow the three adults out of the restaurant only to be stopped by Mason’s lack of movement. Something that the other three noticed as well after several moments, looking back at the two of them tenderly, and in her mother’s case- worriedly. “Mason? Nicole?” As if waiting for another bomb to be dropped, Nicole’s heart constricting at the sudden shift in demeanor, at the way her mother obviously worried about what was about to come out of either of their mouths… but Nicole herself didn’t know why they had stopped, her face turning as well to question Mason.
“I think we’re going to take a cab home,” he said by way of answering the lot of them, one arm wrapping about Nicole’s shoulder and her weight gladly falling into his side.
She didn’t even know, after all he’d been through himself that night, how he was able to support her like he was, but she was more grateful than she would ever be able to fit into words that he could.
“We’ll see you guys in the morning.”
“But—”
Again, following the pattern of the night, Marie was cut off, Paul’s hand closing around hers and his head lowering in a slow nod. “Okay then kids, give us a call when you two are ready to talk more tomorrow.” And again, because of his seeming silence previously throughout the night,
Nicole was taken aback by her own father’s voice, near tearing up at the staid compassion coloring his voice. She didn’t even know how to answer him, fingers curling around the fabric of Mason’s shirt at his side, her head leaning even further into him and her heart skipping a beat. She was beyond ready to be back at his apartment, beyond ready to even be in the cab on the way there, even if she had a feeling that, when they did get inside of the vehicle she was going to fall asleep.
“Dr. Friedrich? Thank you for coming,” she called out, shoulders pushing in towards her chest. “And mom? Dad? …. Thank the two of you too, love you,” her tired voice petering out near the end and her hand waving the three of them off to their various responses, none of which she actually heard. She was done, slowly moving with Mason once more when he began to head outside, presumably to the cab that he had called for or texted, her eyes drooping as he helped her through that door and outside. She just wanted to be home…