repercussions | l.h

TWO: SHE WON'T SAY IT

Just as Luke had expected, Nellie never responded to his message. Granted, she listened to it and then she cried; just like she always did when she listened to voicemails from him. She wasn't sure what exactly had made her cry. There were so many factors that she started to lose count after a while.

She briefly thought that it was the fact he was so desperate to see his daughter he was the one forcing wagers now. Then that spiraled into how she momentarily thought she was an awful mother for even keeping Luke away from his child. And then she thought about how he said I love you to Nellie before he said it to Gemma. Then finally, she assumed it all piled up, and then so did the tears.

And when Friday night came around, Nellie didn't sleep. She was too anxious, to irritable to even think about closing her eyes. She hadn't actually spoken to Luke in a while, much less seen him in person. It was something she was working hard on, but it had been a few months and if she faced reality, she would have never exactly been 'ready' to see him. Now he was forcing her to rip the bandaid off, and Nellie kept trying to tell herself it would be worth it.

She was still in her pajamas when Gemma finally woke up, the little girl giving her a piece of solace with her waken presence. She clung to Nellie's shirt as she walked the little girl into the kitchen. She sucked on her thumb while she was sat in her height chair and her big eyes followed Nellie around until she poured Cheerios onto the girl's tray. She squealed with excitement when Nellie did it, making her mother smile for once that morning.

Nellie sat on her counter while she watched Gemma place the Cheerios into her mouth attempted handfuls at a time. Her hands were too small to hold anything more than five Cheerios as it was, and she only ever got two in with how many fell of her hands on the way there. Nellie leaned forward to take a Cheerio from her tray, the action causing Gemma to look at her.

Nellie hopped down from the counter shortly after, pulling open a drawer in search of the little hair ties she had brought for Gemma. She found them a few seconds later, feeling somewhat achieved before she stepped over to her. Nellie grabbed a small portion of her hair, putting it up as Gemma smiled at her. Nellie smiled back as she moved to the other side, laughing quietly at her.

"Gem, are you ready to see daddy?" Nellie said. Gemma didn't really have a response unless you counted shoving more Cheerios into her mouth and mumbling something that sounded mostly like gibberish. Nellie shook her head softly, only feeling the sting of the question after she asked it. Nellie tried to gather her thoughts in those moments, even if she knew it wasn't worth the try. Her mind was going to stay cluttered like always. The only difference was, it was worth the try because of the knock at her door.

Nellie took a deep breath before she turned the little girl's chair around, making sure she would still be able to have an eye on her while she was a few feet away. It was slight procrastination, and Nellie was always one to do such a thing anyways. But she knew she couldn't stall for long, so she gave into it, and opened her door a few seconds later. On the other side stood Luke, looking more different than Nellie had expected him to. Sure, she had seen plenty of other pictures of him now and then, but there was something odd about it seeing it in front of her.

He didn't have any bruises on his face, which Nellie found somewhat surprising. His knuckles were still cut up, his one hand wrapped in bandages, and his hair was longer than she had ever seen it. His lips looked softer than Nellie could have ever remembered, but she pushed that thought down the quickest.

Luke wasn't the only one that looked different, Nellie's hair was shorter than it was before; reaching just below her shoulders. Her freckles looked darker, and her lips looked poutier, almost like they had been free of any sort of kisses in a long time. Which, again, was true. She looked slightly thinner, too, and Luke knew why. Michael had told him she decided to become vegetarian, which was another change of hers. She was working out a bit more, but Luke didn't know that, and Michael didn't bother to tell him. It was a subtle sense of a revenge body, but with a greater sense of coping than it was for jealousy.