The Better Life

Ted talks? Nah. These are Lip Talks

Tw: depression, traumatic moments talked about

"Mickey, we got this," Fiona reassured over the phone. "I don't know if you remember but I raised five kids by myself since I was nine and they didn't turn out so bad. I mean, you are married to one of them."

Despite only have dropped them off a few hours beforehand, Mickey was insistent on calling and checking up on his kids. He wanted to know what they were doing, if they were okay, and if Fiona was positive that they had to stay one week. 

Who can blame him? They're his kids, his babies.He never thought he'd see the day where he refers to his kids as his babies. Fifteen year old Mickey is rolling over in his shallow grave.

The kids were doing fine. Carl was doing some sort of crazy science experiment with Oliver. It kept Carl young and reminded him of his youth. Yev was playing go fish with Frannie.
And Felicity was curled up on Ian's old bed in a blanket that smelled faintly like Ian's cologne. She went back and forward between reading and thinking and just plain out staring at the wall. She had thrown her bag to the end of the bed and kicked off her shoes. Felicity still wore Iron Man socks.

She could hear the excited yells of all of the children in the house and she still wanted no part of it. Maybe tomorrow.

Uncle Lip came into the room ten minutes later. He climbed up on the top bunk to search for something.

"Hey, Fliss."

"Mmph."

Felicity then saw her uncle half leaning over the side. He was hanging upside down. "You good?"

She forced a smile. "Yeah, sure. I'm fine."

Felicity heard a sigh before seeing Lip jump off his top bunk. He lost his footing on the landing, though, and ended up falling face first into carpet. Felicity couldn't help the muffled laugh that escaped her.

Lip laid on the ground, arms out like a starfish in some sort of defeat. "I'm getting too old for this shit."

Felicity ended up laughing even harder. Lip wasn't even that funny. He just did relatable shit that made him funny. Lip turned his head to the side and laughed along with Felicity.

He eventually pulled himself into a sitting position. Lip crossed his legs and placed his hands under his chin. "You okay?"

Felicity held back the "don't ask stupid questions" sitting on the edge of her tongue. Lip had down nothing wrong and she wasn't going to take her sadness out on him. She just shrugged.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Felicity shrugged again.

"Hold on, sit up real quick," Lip commanded. Felicity pulled herself into a sitting position. Lip crawled onto the bed and sat up against the wall. "Come here. You can lay back down if you want."

Felicity laid back down with her head in Lip's lap.

"Better?"

Felicity looked up at him. "Much better."

Lip started playing with strands of Felicity's hair. Felicity snorted and giggled at him.

"If you get to play with my hair, I get to play with yours later," Felicity joked.

"Deal."

They sat there for a minute before Felicity took a deep breath. "I'm scared, Uncle Lip."

Lip stilled for a second. "I am, too."

"COVID's a really terrible illness. He could die. I know he's perfectly healthy but even the healthiest people die early, so... I try to keep the thoughts at bay but they just keep coming back." Felicity paused. "I can't lose him," she whispered. "I can't lose another person I care about."