You saved me Maddie

Fuck you Maddie.

A month passed since Bobby told me Howie had found Maddie. Yup you heard me, a month. In that month, I had my finals, went on multiple dates with Mila and spent a lot of money with May. I've bonded a lot more with Harry and me and Bobby have developed a father-daughter kind of relationship. Me and May have joined them at dinner at the fire house a few times and it's always amazing.

A month and a week after Bobby told me Howie had found Maddie, I woke up to Bobby talking on the phone. He sounded less than happy with the person on the other end of the line. I got out of bed and snuck over to the door. I pushed my ear up to the door so I could hear what he said through it.

"So what you are coming home now?" Bobby asked. "It's been over a month since you told me you found her Chim. I had to tell Ellie that you found her but she basically let her down again."

I swear to god, if it wasn't for Bobby, I wouldn't know what to do.

"No Chimney it isn't okay." He continued. "You basically left a child alone here with strangers. Listen, we're happy to have her here and she's welcome to stay for as long as her heart desires but you can't just expect her to come home again."

"No I don't care that you are her 'parents'."

Parents my ass, Bobby and Athena had taken more care of me than they ever did.

I tried my hardest not to scoff at Chimney's stupid idea. Ain't no way that I was coming home after not seeing her for seven months. I just needed to survive the summer and then I was off to uni.

"No Chim I'm not going to force her." Bobby raised his voice slightly.

I could hear footsteps outside, he was pacing as he spoke.

"The ones responsible for her needs to have a chat with her, until then she's staying here and if you try to take this to court I'll send Athena on you." A click from the phone told me that Bobby had just hung up the phone.

I felt so grateful for Bobby for defending me. He knew better than anyone that I didn't want to go back there. I was far too angry.

I took a breath before opening the door, letting him know I was there. Bobby looked shocked at first, but then his expression turned apologetic.

"How much of that did you hear?" He asked, pursing his lips with a sigh.

"Well," I started, dragging out the word in my mouth, "I heard you tell him off. Great job by the way."

Bobby let out a chuckle and dropped his eyes.

"Well he almost demanded that you came home so I got angry because he should call you not me." He stared at his hands.

"You aren't wrong though." I reassured him, taking a seat at the table. "You know, I haven't heard from Maddie in over seven months and before she even left she ignored me for her entire pregnancy."

Bobby frowned and looked up, his head tilting slightly to the side as he looked at me with evident confusion.

"I guess she got so caught up in all the baby stuff that she 'forgot' to invite me to 'family' dinner." I explained.

Bobby furrowed his brows before asking:

"What family dinner?"

"Oh you know, the dinner where her parents, Howie, Buck and Howie's brother got together for a kind of baby shower." I told him and gave him a closed mouth smile.

"What?" I heard someone say behind me.

I spun around to see Athena, dressed in a pink bathrobe and slippers. She had an angry expression set on her face and her eyes looked like they would shoot lasers at any given moment.

"Well yeah." I shrugged. "Not that I wanted to meet her parents though, they hate me."

May appeared behind Athena, her face set in the same way as her mother.

"Oh Ellie I'm so sorry." May said, walking over and engulfing me in a hug.

"It's okay, don't worry." I tried, looking at the grownups that were now standing behind May.

"It's not Ellie." Athen spoke, her expression softening a tad.

A mechanical sound rang through the living and dining room. Bobby reacted first and reached for his phone. His eyes went from the phone screen, to his wife, to the kids before finally stopping on me.

"It's Chimney, again." He said, looking at me for any kind of approval.

I nodded, gesturing to the phone. Bobby let out a sigh before clicking the green button to pick up the call and putting it on speaker.

"Hey Chimney."

A small pause filled the room as they waited for the person on the other end of the line to answer.

"Hey Bobby." Howie finally said.

Bobby's eyes darted around the room, looking for any idea of what to say.

"How's Maddie?" Bobby finally asked after I made him talk with a few hand gestures.

"She's good, we just got back a week ago so-"

But anything else he said tuned out. She had been back for a week and she hadn't told me? Not surprised though, she never did tell me stuff after she got pregnant.

"Wait, you've been back for a week?" Athena spoke up before May could stop her.

"Uhh hi Athena, and yes we got back about a week ago."

I watched as the woman boiled internally. To try and stop her from saying more, I shook my head and put my pointer finger against my lips to silence her. She seemed to get the memo and backed up a bit.

"Sorry Chim, uh why are you calling again?" Bobby took back control as he fought the rising anger in his voice.

"I was thinking of coming back in to work tomorrow, if that's okay?"

Bobby frowned, obviously thinking that he had another reason to call.

"That's fine." Bobby responded. "Does Buck know she's back?"

"Uh yeah she went to visit him the first day we got back."

Great.

I turned to walk away, I didn't want to hear his stupid voice any longer. Tears burned my eyes and slowly I let them fall, turning my head away from the other so they wouldn't see. In a fit of fury, I fished my phone out of my pocket and clicked into my contacts. I blocked Maddie's number before moving on to my socials and blocking her there too.

Fuck you Maddie.

I turned to find May standing behind me. Without saying a word, she wrapped her arms around me as I finally cried. I hadn't cried about Maddie leaving yet but I guess this was the straw that broke the camels back. Athena came up behind May and joined our hug while I sobbed my eyes out. Bobby was almost screaming in the background and I'm guessing the person he was screaming at was Chimney or Maddie.

—

Another day another chapter. Still no Maddie but a sad Ellie which is depressing but also a bit fun lol. I love how protective I made Athena and Bobby and I'm definitely using that later on. Also, how do we feel about Ellie almost being a grown up? But more importantly, how will Maddie feel about Ellie be in a grown up? Ig you'll have to wait and find out lol.

Slay slay slay the day away - Scarlett Johansson