His Only Hope

Bread Aisle

A/N: It might not seem relevant to the story at first, but just keep reading! I didn't proofread it - it was sort of a last minute chapter - so please correct me if I mess anything up. Hope you enjoy!!!

Landen Briggs was in the grocery store on a Saturday evening, as usual, buying enough meals to last him and his dog the week. 

Day after day, week after week, month after month, Landen visited the store every Saturday. But never before had it been this exciting.

When he first saw the woman, he didn't think anything of it. She was wearing a black t-shirt and tight fitting jeans, with her shoulder-length hair tucked messily behind her ears. She was pretty, but she wouldn't like him, so he left the bread aisle and went to grab some lettuce.

That's when the shouting started. He automatically ducked down, dropping the basket with his items in it, before slowly lifting his head and creeping to the end of the aisle. He peered around the corner to see the woman screaming at the cashier, pointing a gun at his head. Shaking in fear, the poor worker opened the register and handed over the cash.

Eyebrows furrowed in anger, Landen darted out of the store and after her. He didn't know what had come over him - usually he would've just left as quickly as possible. But something inside of him was sick of living that way. Living an average life as an average man. He wanted to be a hero.

Landen wasn't necessarily super strong, but he was fast. He caught up to the woman fairly quickly even though her clothes blended in with the darkening sky. With a leap, he tackled her to the ground, his elbows roughly scraping the concrete sidewalk. There was a brief scuffle as the woman fought back, but then he was just laying on top of her, their eyes connected.

And then, to his surprise, her lips turned up in a teasing smile. "Whatcha gonna do now, big boy?"

Landen's mouth fell open in abrupt surprise, unsure of how to respond. "Give me the money." He reached for her hand, but she yanked it away with a grin, taking advantage of his distraction and pushing him off of her.

"Bye, vigilante," she shouted gleefully as a car screeched onto the sidewalk. She leapt inside as he was still getting up and sped away.

He watched, his mouth still open in surprise.

He spent the rest of that evening at his friend Manuel's house. Manuel had a stable job as an accountant, even though he was fresh out of college, and a perfect relationship with his girlfriend Elena. "I'm telling you, she smiled at me," Landen exclaimed as Manuel placed a plate of salad in front of him before moving to set next to his girlfriend at the circular dining table. "Like, she wasn't even upset that I was trying to stop her."

"Didn't the police question you?" Elena asked before stuffing her face with a forkful of salad. She was younger than Manuel, still in college. Landen had met his best friend four years ago when they were in college, both of them only 20.

"I left," Landen admitted sheepishly, poking at his kale. "I didn't want to get involved. Do you guys have any ranch?"

Manuel ignored him. "Well, at least your first experience with a woman was a good one, eh?"

Landen glared at him as he laughed boisterously and Elena choked on her spinach.

...

Landen returned to the store the next Saturday, the experience nearly forgotten. Seeing the sidewalk reminded him, however, and even brought a small smile to his face.

When he stepped inside, he returned to the bread aisle, sighing tiredly. He'd come later than usual. When he turned to leave the aisle, his eyes widened in shock.

There she was again. Looking at the Everything Bagels. Just like last time. But... her hair was now pink. And she was wearing a lot of makeup. It only made her look even more perfect. She turned and looked at him with a smile.

"Back for seconds?" 

He stammered, unable to form words. "You - what - I'll call the police!"

"No you won't," she said with a confident smile, shaking her head and tossing her pink hair from side to side. "You think I'm pretty. And I think you're cute. In a weird, scrawny way. So come on."

Landen stared at her in shock as she turned and walked out the doors. He could follow her. Or he could call the police and set things right.

Obviously, he followed her.

The next three months were a whirlwind. She took him to her apartment, introduced him to her two pet parakeets, and showed him the numerous diamond rings she'd stolen. 

At first, he was shocked and appalled. But then she showed him how beautiful it was, how easy it was to provide for herself and her pets and him, if he wanted to stay with her.

"But... I have a job," Landen had responded, his brows furrowed in confusion. 

The girl - Paige, he had learned - simply giggled and brushed his nose with the tip of her carefully manicured finger. "And do you enjoy marketing office items to overzealous upperclassmen, little vigilante?"

"You can stop calling me that," he'd said sheepishly.

He didn't tell Manuel. His sensible best friend would turn her in. And Landen was going to, he was... just not yet. Not yet.

And then it was too late. In February, Paige discovered that she was pregnant.

"Shit, shit, shit," she muttered, pacing back and forth. "I don't have time for this! I can't - I can't do this!"

But Landen reassured her. With his somewhat steady job, he could support the three of them. They didn't need her thievery to make money.

In fact, Landen was a little bit relieved. Not that she was pregnant, of course, but that this would stop her from stealing.

And, of course, her drugs. She had loosened up on those, but she still loved them.

But she loved her baby more. After the initial panic, she fell in love with the idea of having a child. She told Landen how she wanted it to be a girl, and he thought secretly that he wanted it to be a boy. Girls, he thought, were too unpredictable.

But it was. A girl. Paige went into labor on October 1st, 1989, and the child was born on October 2nd. When he returned home with her, eager to tell Manuel about the birth of his child (which he'd conveniently hidden from his knowledge until now), he discovered that Elena had also given birth. Without being pregnant the day before.

And Manuel was freaking out.

"I thought it was one of those anomalies, where the lady doesn't even know she's pregnant until she's in labor. But her stomach grew! We were just in the living room, and... it expanded, I swear!" He didn't even seem to care that Landen had a secret girlfriend and, now, a daughter. "And it sure as hell isn't mine! We were waiting for marriage!"

But a few days later, it was revealed in the paper that many other woman had experienced the same thing. 42, to be exact. 

Two weeks later, Paige was caught selling drugs to a minor and was arrested, leaving Landen to raise (Y/N) on his own.

This sent him into a panicked frenzy. Without Paige, he was nothing. Not a boyfriend, not a man, and certainly not a father.

So he dropped (Y/N) off at Manuel's house the morning after Paige's arrest, and was never heard from again.

This left Elena and Manuel with two kids they didn't want. So when the eccentric billionaire offered to buy their son, they agreed, as long as he took (Y/N) too.

When Paige got out of jail years later, she learned that Landen had abandoned his house. She searched for him and her daughter for years, to no avail.

The most tragic part of all was that the answer was right under her nose all along. But Manuel never breathed a word to Paige, believing her daughter would be much better off with the billionaire than the druggy. 

That is the story of how (Y/N) Hargreeves came into the world.