brutal | grayson hawthorne

hey hey hey

***
Not Strong Enough by boygenius
***

While Liz was swimming, she couldn't help but notice an irregularity in the stones placed along the bottom of the pool.

She knew she shouldn't write it off as nothing, since nothing in Hawthorne House was really nothing, but swimming is a difficult sport, she only has so much stamina, and Grayson has just broken her heart for a second time within two months.

She decides to finally go to bed for the first time in at least three days, and she'll further investigate the next morning.

She, obviously, doesn't get much sleep knowing Grayson is the room right beside her, so what is there for her to do besides take the duffel bag that she never unpacked and take it back to her own home?

The place was the same as it ever was, so much so that Liz had half a heart to go through and dust everything, because holy shit it felt like a museum in here.

Except for the forty year old woman passed out on the stairs that Liz was trying to climb.

Liz winces and is suddenly hit with an unshakable feeling that she's the worst daughter in the world.

The love of her mother's life walked out on her and their daughter, obviously she needed to cope somehow.

But did that need to be alcohol? Did she need to walk around this house like a zombie? Like Liz wasn't still there? But if Liz has learned anything lately, it's that there's always something beneath the surface.

Liz decides she'll find a way to clear her conscience in the morning, tonight just needing to lift her mother up and take her upstairs by wrapping an arm around her waist.

"Who goes there?" Amber Raine's voice is slurred and dazed, her weight stumbling up the steps with Liz's help.

"It's me, mom," Liz voice is quiet, not even remembering the last time she's had a real conversation with her mother.

"Elizabeth?" Even her mother is surprised. "I thought you'd never come home."

Just like her father.

"Why did dad leave?" Liz knows she probably won't get any answer of significance from her mother in this state, but as she pushes them into her bedroom, she doesn't really know how she'll sleep with the question on her mind.

"He said he wasn't good for us," Liz's mom allows Liz to drop her onto the bed, but Liz crawls in right beside her anyway.

"After he lost his job?" Both of them are under the covers now, and Liz knows neither of them will wake up comfortable from sleeping in their real clothes, but she makes no move to change.

"After he lost his job," she confirms, already drifting off to sleep. "I tried to get him to stay, even if our love had simmered out, to stay for you, but he said he knew you would be fine with those Hawthornes."

And Liz knew her mother was asleep then with her heavy breathing on her hair. Liz stays with her arms around her, trying to ignore the overpowering stench of the alcohol shrouding her, instead focusing on the chlorine Liz still has in her hair.

But that just makes her think of Grayson.

So, even if her parents love had simmered out, her dad still would've stayed. Maybe that was just the case with her and Grayson. Maybe their love simmered out, and if Grayson weren't as defeated as he was because of everything that had happened in his life, maybe they would still be together. Maybe if they fought for each other.

Liz has a new plan. This thing Grayson has with Eve is just because it's his way of fighting back for something. So, all Liz has to do get him back to fighting for her. To get them both back to fighting for each other.

She doesn't know if she's making any sense, but she's heavily sleep deprived and secondhand drinking is probably real, so she decides to let sleep overcome her and she'll be more coherent in the morning.

***

Liz doesn't really know why she's in the Hawthorne brother's group chat (the name being literally "Liz's Hawthorne Hoes"), but she wishes she didn't have to wake up to a 911 text from Xander.

Don't get her wrong! She would swim through hot lava in an active volcano for Xander Hawthorne, but her mother is still passed out on top of her, and Liz has never been in need of a shower more in her life.

She's sure Xander will mind if she's as much as thirty seconds late, but her skincare routine is the tiniest bit more important than karaoke - don't tell him she said that.

Once she's finally collected herself - physically, at least, mentally still trying to figure out where she decided her and Grayson stood - she heads off to Hawthorne House.

***

Liz may or may not have gotten the tiniest bit sidetracked and is now in the pool in only the shorts she wears under her skirt and her sports bra, trying to vandalize Hawthorne House.

Not really vandalize vandalize, just remove one of the stones at the bottom of the pool that she knows is coming loose for a reason.

Her eyes are burning from holding them open under water, but she's finally got her fingers lodged under the opening enough to pull it out, and even though her lungs are screaming at her, she won't move up for air until her fingers are firmly secured around whatever is underneath. A key, she feels.

When Liz finally takes a gasp for air, Grayson is right beside her, however, in appropriate swimming attire.

"I thought you were drowning," he says, seemingly unfazed by their close proximity while Liz isn't sure whether her fast beating heart is from depriving herself of oxygen for so long or the way Grayson looks at her like he was ready perform CPR on her. Mouth-to-mouth.

"Why are you not with Xander?" She keeps her fist closed around her key, not wanting to trigger anything in him by talking about her game.

"I was helping Em- Eve with the files," and even though Liz caught his mistake, she wasn't sure what she could've said to it anyway before he starts talking again. "Karaoke?"

a/n:
the moment i knew but also Liz feels like Timeless