Söbriety • Mötley Crüe •

64. Intermission

A short look ahead...

December 1991 (Two Years Later)
Ryan's POV

"Babe! Do you know where I put my boots? I can't find them anywhere and I'm already late to leave!"

"They're where they're supposed to be, on the shoe rack by the front door!" I roll my eyes as I rinse the soap off of the last plate I have to wash. I'm the only person in this house that ever knows where anything is.

"Thank you!" I chuckle when the yell across the house signals that the boots have been found.

"Momma, can I please have some juice?" Wylie tugs on the bottom of my shirt, looking at me with her big green eyes. All resemblance to me has faded over the past two years and she is Nikki incarnate.

"Yes you can, baby, because you asked so nicely."

"Thank you very much!" She squeals when I hand her her favorite cup full of secretly watered down apple juice. She never notices the difference. She climbs on top of one of the chairs at the table, happily sucking down every last drop.

I take a moment and marvel for the millionth time at how beautiful she is. Her long, dark brown hair curls at the ends, her green eyes shine under her full eyelashes no matter what mood she's in, and her favorite attire is sweat pants and a t-shirt, just like her momma. She's a rough and tumble kind of girl, tougher than most boys, but she has a heart of gold and enjoys helping anyone with anything she can. She adores her 'baby cousin' Skylar and tries to get her to walk every time she sees her, but Skylar isn't quite there yet.

"Momma, will daddy be back for Christmas?" She stares at the table, a sad look flushing over her face.

"I'm not sure, baby. I think he'll only be gone for a week or two this time, but we'll just have to see."

"Fucker." She sighs out, picking up her cup to suck out the last few remains.

"Wylie Sixx! Language!" She never grew out of her cursing obsession. She's the sweetest girl with the worst mouth I've ever heard.

"Sorry." She mumbles.

"Okay, I'm out. I'll see you two pretty girls soon, okay?" Wylie giggles as kisses are laid all across her face, her former sadness dissipating at the gesture. "I love you, Ry." My mouth twists into a smile when it's my turn for a goodbye kiss.

"I love you, too. Be careful. I'll see you later."

"Always, my love."

"Bye, Layla!" Wylie waves with her whole arm as Layla walks toward the front door. "Have a good night at work!"

"Have a good night with momma, baby. I'll be back later, I love you!"

"I love you!" Wylie screams as the front door closes, her small head turning to me with an expectant look on her face.

"Nap time, chick. Then we'll do whatever you want. Deal?" I have learned that the best way to get her to do what I want is to make her apart of the decision and give her an incentive.

"Can we go to the park with Aunty Sharise and Sky?"

"I'll call them while you're asleep." I nod my head and she huffs, climbing down from her chair and giving me a small wave as she walks down the hall to go to her room.

I glance around the kitchen, everything looks just the same as it always has, but it feels completely different than it used to. This is the worst time of the day for me, when Wylie is asleep and I'm left alone with nothing but the thoughts in my head. I struggle to find something to do or something to clean, but eventually there's nothing left to do and everything is spotless.

"Hello?" The phone ringing scares me from my thoughts and I race to pick it up.

"Let me talk to Wylie." My heart never fails to skip a beat at Nikki's voice. I give it thirty seconds until he starts to scream at me.

"She's asleep. I'll have her call you later."

"Wake her up, I'll be out later." The annoyance and entitlement in his voice quickly ignites years worth of anger inside me.

"I'm not gonna wake her up from her nap. She takes a nap at this time every single day, can't you schedule around it?"

"Sometimes I can't, Ryan. Why are you being difficult?"

"I'm being difficult? Because I want you to put in the effort of calling your daughter when she can actually talk to you?"

"She can sleep whenever the fuck you want her to. Why can't you just go wake her up?" His voice starts to turn into a shout and I rapidly start to lose my patience.

"Don't be a fucking dick, Nikki."

"Don't be a fucking cunt, Ryan." And there goes the last of it.

"I'm sorry you can't schedule five minutes out of your day to talk to your daughter, but that's not my goddamn problem. Figure it the fuck out yourself."

"I wouldn't have to schedule time to talk to my daughter if you wouldn't have blown up our family and ran off with the city's biggest fucking slut!" His voice steadily turns into a scream. It took a whole minute. Sadly, that's improvement.

"You left me, Nikki! Why do you always conveniently forget that part? What was I supposed to do, sit and wait for you to come back? News flash: I did. Until you started fucking other people. So don't throw Layla in my face when you fucking did it first!"

"You know what, Ryan? Fuck you!" I pull the phone away as his screech pulsates through my ear canal.

"Yeah?! Well fuck you, too, mother fucker! Go back to your dumb Baywatch bitch!" The phone hits the receiver with a loud crash, toppling the whole machine to the floor.

"Momma." Wylie's voice is muffled by her sobs as I turn around and see her clutching her teddy in the doorway.

"Shit. It's okay, baby. Momma's sorry. I didn't mean to scream and scare you." I fall to my knees and wrap my arms around her as she starts to sob in my shoulder.

"Why do you and daddy hate each other so much?" My heart snaps in two, my own tears pooling into my eyes.

Nikki's old excuse for everything replays in my head, my tears starting to cascade down my cheeks when I realize I'll never hear him say it again.

"We don't, baby. We just love each other a little too much."

A/N: I wanted to tease a little bit of what's to come while I write the next few chapters that will prolly take me a couple days, because I want them to be perfect. And I just wanted to be a dick. 😛 We will pick back up where chapter 63 (Psycho) left off after this.