to make things awkward | fillie

28 | finn's dilemma

"Great day." Malcolm declared as he switched off the last light in the studio, Finn had to agree. They'd just about wrapped up their album, and now all they had left to do was a final listen through and a cover shoot.

"I think people are gonna love it." Finn said, "It's so us, like old us, ya know?"

Malcolm nodded, "I smell a Grammy in our future."

Even though Finn scoffed, he hoped his friend was right. This album was special, he could feel it. His and Lucy's song especially. He couldn't wait for the day to share the final product with her and the world.

Today, he'd settle to just share the finished song with Lucy and her mother.

Except, when he got back home to the Gregorio, he found Millie sitting outside her apartment door in a pile of tears.

"Hey-woah, what's wrong?" He ran to her from the elevator. His first thought was that maybe Jake had left her, after all, they had an appointment with their therapist earlier, and according to Millie, the first one had not gone exactly well. Upon closer inspection, he noticed her engagement ring was missing. He felt horrible for her, and even more so that a dribble of hopefulness seeped into his heart.

"Is it Jake?" he asked.

She shook her head, still crying too hard to answer.

If it's not Jake, then. . .

With a shaky hand, she lifted a paper up to him. It was CPS letterhead and the words tore through him like several rounds from a high powered machine gun.

They took Lucy into their custody and placed her with a foster family until their court date in two weeks. The notice referenced an incident of child endangerment at the mall. What Incident? What happened in the last eight hours? He had been with them just this morning. Everything had been fine!

He hadn't even realized he had tears rolling down his cheeks until he tried to talk and a few slipped into his mouth. He wiped his face with his sleeve then stood, reaching down to help Millie up. She felt practically limp, throwing her arms around him and crying into his chest. He hugged her back for a few seconds, but he needed to know what happened. He needed to calm her down enough to be able to speak.

"Let's go inside." He said softly, "Come on."

He opened her door and saw the TV paused on a movie, the screen said Enola Holmes 3, and for some reason, knowing they had been watching that before Lucy was taken broke Finn's heart even more. There was also a trail of Lucy's favorite things coming from her room into the living room. Her stuffed cat, the hoodie he gave her, her slippers, and one of the polaroids he took of the three of them just last week. What happened? Had CPS snatched her up before she could finish packing?

Millie went straight for the liquor cabinet while Finn went over to collect Lucy's things. He was holding the picture of them when Millie shoved a glass of amber liquid into his hand. She was unceasingly sniffling and shaking her head, her face crumpling every few seconds like she was reliving whatever just happened.

Before speaking, Finn took a large draft from his cup, "Millie," he started, "What happened?" It was an obvious question but he needed to ask.

"I fucked up." she said with a shrug, already pouring herself a second glass.

Shaking his head, he said, "What happened at the mall?"

"You mean you haven't read about it yet?"

Read?

"It's all over the news. . .Millie Bobby Brown—terrible mother—loses daughter in mall." She mocked the alleged headlines with animated facial expressions, but Finn hadn't heard anything. Granted, it wasn't like he was scouring the internet, but then he looked down at his phone and saw a text from his brother saying, is this true?, above an article titled, Stranger Things stars lose custody of secret daughter. He dropped into the closest chair, but his heart sank even lower. He, too, downed his remaining scotch and poured himself another.