Something Worth Fighting For (Patrick Stump Imagine Story)

In Too Deep

(H/N/F/Y) = His Nickname For You

It doesn't take long for Patrick to find you, seeing as there's only one Best Buy in town. One he was unfortunately familiar with. He pulls his car into the dark parking lot and sees yours sitting right in the center. He parks his car beside yours and gets out, walking around the hood and in front of yours, where he sees you in the front seat, your face covered by your hands and your body trembling as you sob.

He frowns and walks over to the passenger side, grasping the door handle and pulling it open, slipping into the seat beside you and closing the door behind him.

You lift your head out of your hands and glance over at him, tears streaking your cheeks and your eyes red and puffy.

"W-What are you doing here?" You stammer.

"Better question would be what are you doing here?" He retorts, bringing his hand up and swiping his thumb across your wet cheek.

"I told you, I-I had nowhere t-t-to go."

"Why?"

You sniffle and confess to him, "Pete kicked me out. H-He told me to leave because he said h-he didn't want to be with me when I...when I still loved you."

The singer just looks at you with sad eyes.

"I-I want to believe that I don't love you anymore, Patrick," You go on to say, "But I can't. I just can't."

He tilts his head down and murmurs, "You're not making this easy, (Y/N)."

"Like this was ever easy?" You snap, your eyebrows furrowing together.

"Of course not, but...it had to be done. We were miserable."

" No, I was in denial," You mutter, turning your head and looking out the car door window, "And I was taking you guys down with me. I didn't want to accept the fact that something was wrong with me. But there is and now...now I know."

"There's nothing wrong with you, (H/N/F/Y)," Patrick defends you.

"Yes there is, Patrick. There's something fucking wrong with me and I...I want to get better. But I don't know how."

Your ex-husband takes in a deep breath and lets it out slowly, "I just wish we didn't take things so far. Because we're in too deep, hon. We can't just turn back time to the good old days and act like everything's okay. Because that's what we did before, and it didn't do anything for us but make the hole we were digging ourselves into deeper, harder to get out of. We needed to get out, and we finally did."

"Well maybe I didn't want to get out," You argue, "Maybe I was confused. Maybe I didn't know what I wanted. Maybe-"

"You're letting your mind go to places it shouldn't," He interrupts you. You look back over at him. "(Y/N), do you hear yourself right now? You're totally contradicting yourself!"

You stare at Patrick blankly, tears wavering in your eyes.

"I thought this was what you wanted, (H/N/F/Y)," He murmurs, "I thought you wanted to be with someone else, to be truly happy. But here you are, telling me that's not what you wanted. I just...I don't know what to believe anymore."

"Neither do I," You whisper, returning your attention outside of the car and heaving a shaky sigh.

A blanket of silence falls over the car.

Your eyes flicker between Patrick and the empty parking lot, thoughts flooding your mind.

Why had Patrick come? What was he still doing here? Why was he fighting to keep you in his life when all the signs pointed to no?

Why had you called him? What did you think was going to happen? Why were you actually considering begging him to take you back, knowing that if he did, the toxic cycle that tore your life to shreds would inevitably start up again?

Why did Pete have to be right? What changed for him to tell you to leave, to tell you he didn't want you around anymore? Why now, when he didn't seem to mind before?

"You know, before I left the house, Ethan stopped me," Patrick broke the silence and the daze you'd fallen into, twiddling his thumbs in his lap, "He...He told me he wanted me to bring you back."

You scoff, "That's a shocker. I thought he wanted us to get a divorce. I mean, he'd been rooting for us to get one ever since last summer."

"I know, it shocked me too. But he said things just weren't the same without you around."

"What'd you tell him?" You inquire, turning your head to meet his gaze, which is directed down towards his lap.

The man you'd spent more than half of your life with doesn't respond immediately, and when he does, "I...I told him that sometimes change needs to happen. And that before he knew it, everything will feel alright again."

"Will it really?" You croak.

"I hope so," He replies, "Because the past few weeks have been torture for me. It's just like...every day, one more thing becomes harder to do. First it was falling asleep, then it was keeping a smile on my face, now it's being strong for the kids..." He swallows the lump in his throat and finally looks up at you. "You know, I keep telling myself that this is for the better, that things would be worse if you stuck around, but all I'm doing is lying to myself." He shakes his head. "I miss you, (Y/N). I miss you a lot. But I know that if I let you back in, things are just going to go back to the way they were. And I don't want to ever go through that again. I don't want you to go through it either. Or the kids."

"Then what are we going to do?" You verbalize the question that's on both of your minds. He shrugs his shoulders. "I mean..." You cross your arms over your chest and lean back in your seat, "...there's two options, Patrick. One is you leave after this and go back home, and I find some hotel to stay at or something."

"And the other?"

You turn your gaze back to him, "You stay and the two of us go back home together." You watch his Adam's apple move up and down. "It's up to you, Patrick. Last time it was my turn. Now it's yours again. That's how it works. So...what are you going to do?"