Mike Schmidt x Reader

Lost and Found - 2! - GN!Reader

Y'all asked for it.  Buckle up/lh/hj

Kind of Mike's POV? There's a small portion solidly in the reader's POV but a good majority is Mike's or ambiguous.

Mike stared at the phone from the dining room, tapping his thumbs on the table. It'd been a couple days since the library and he was trying to get himself to call back. It felt nice to see you again after being apart for so long, but he had a hard time letting go of the guilt. Interspersed in his dreams about Garrett, he'd see and hear you.

"Mike...?" There was soft knocking on the door, a door he had to look at every single day, listening to the secret knock the two of you had used forever. There was a pause before a slightly quieter, "I miss you..."

He tried to answer this time, he always did, but his voice wouldn't work. His throat had dried up. He even tried to go for the handle a couple times, to open the door and see you face-to-face, but it was jammed and no amount of twisting would get it to open. It ended like it always did, listening to the quiet sniffles on the other side of the door before footsteps shuffled off, met by muffled, comforting words from the adults just down the hall.

He didn't have that dream very often, trying too hard to get back to the campgrounds and see Garrett's kidnapper, but that actually made it worse. He'd be randomly blindsided by his own bedroom instead of the Nebraska woods, the soft knocking cutting through the quickly-fading nature sounds as the new dream took over.

"You've been staring at the phone for almost an hour." Abby broke him from his thoughts, blinking a few times before turning to find her drawing at the coffee table.

"What?"

"You've been staring at the phone." She repeated. "Are you thinking about the librarian?"

"I- no-" he huffed, pushing away from the table to get ready before remembering he didn't take weekend shifts, especially during the summer.

"You should just call." Abby mumbled, focus back on her drawing.

"It's... complicated." he muttered, unable to stop his gaze from drifting back to the phone. As if by some weird twist of fate, it started ringing. Mike nearly fell over the chair in surprise, Abby giggling as he made his way to the phone. He picked up, trying not to sound like he'd almost taken himself out by tripping. "Hello?"

"Oh! Hey, I was worried for a second I'd called the wrong number the first time." You tried laughing it off, but he could just barely catch the edge of actual nerves in your voice, chest aching slightly.

"Yeah, sorry, I've been meaning to call you back-" Abby was at the doorway in a second, mischief in her eyes. He tried to wave her off, mouthing 'go away,' to which she just giggled again, ducking behind the door frame for a second before peeking back around when he wasn't looking. "Uhm..."

"D'you want to meet somewhere and talk? We didn't really get much opportunity the other day."

"I uh- I'd need to bring Abby. I don't have a babysitter right now..." He turned just in time to see her duck out of the doorway again, barely holding back his sigh.

"That's fine! There's a park over by the library we could go to. I'm almost done here, so..."

"You work weekends...?"

"Only a little. There's a couple programs that meet on weekends and I tend to sit in. Sometimes I get paid a bit extra for it." You laughed softly, interrupted by something happening in the background. "I'll- I'll meet you in a couple minutes, then?"

"Yeah, yeah-" He hummed, ignoring the feelings beginning to resurface hearing you laugh. "I'll see you there."