Gold Dust Woman (Stanford Pines x OC)

12.) Look Me in the Eye

i know you don't mean it because you can't turn around and look me in the eye

  With Fiddleford back home for Thanksgiving and the portal on a brief hiatus, you'd think Ford would take that chance to be home. But he doesn't, he keeps working. So Celia decides to try and get some work done too. Writing hasn't come easy though.

  Ford is god knows where and Celia is sitting at her piano. She stares at the keys, waiting for what she has to say. At this point, a part of her has accepted that the Ford she married is somewhere deep in the back of his brain. He said he would do better and he hasn't. She thinks back to her cousin and how Celia swore that she wouldn't let herself end up like that. In a small town with a deadbeat husband and a baby.

  The only thing Celia doesn't have out of those things is a baby which she doesn't want. When she was younger, she always saw herself having kids. But when you marry a human, it's a little bit strange to think about. It's unknown if they can even have kids. There were legends back home about two humans in the demon realm and one of them married and had a baby with a witch.

  Celia does a mini birth control spell that she's not even sure works. Well, it's worked so far, she hasn't gotten pregnant yet. Ford wouldn't give a shit about their baby anyway so why even put it on the front of her brain? And she's fine without kids. She's not one of those people who've craved kids their whole life and dreamed about how their life with their children would look like.

  She always assumed it would happen if it happened. And with Ford, it's not happening. And these past couple of months have proved it more than ever because he's rarely home. The way most couples go out to dinner at the end of a long day, Ford and Celia go out to breakfast two or three times a week. But he's usually trying to hide the fact that he's rushing so he can get back to work.

  His attempt at spending time with his wife is noted but not necessarily accepted.

  The door creaks open, and Celia hears the unsteady shuffle of Ford's footsteps before she sees him. He stumbles into the room, shirtless, his hair a tangled mess, eyes glassy, and reeking of alcohol. He stands there in the doorway, looking at her with a mix of shame and regret, unable to meet her gaze for long. He tries to speak, but the words fumble out, barely coherent.

  "Ford," She breathes, her voice wavering between anger and concern. She steps closer to him looking at how droopy and tired his eyes look. "What happened to you?"

  "I... I know Bill took it too far this time, but it doesn't... it doesn't mean anything. It's not—" He's almost nonverbal, his normally sharp mind dulled by the alcohol and Bill's lingering influence. When she sees new tattoos on her husband's body, she loses it.

  "What the fuck do you think you're doing, Ford? What the fuck is wrong with you?" Celia says. He doesn't even look at her, his mind is completely fucked out. It's as if Ford isn't even in there right now.

  Before he can respond, she closes the distance between them, and her hand connects with his face in a swift, stinging slap. Given, that she's a small woman who's at least probably about a foot shorter than him it doesn't do much other than make him look at her. Ford looks at her, stunned, his hand moving slowly to his cheek, where her slap left its mark and a slight stinging pain.

  "You come home like this," She says, her voice breaking as tears well up in her eyes. "After everything, you think you can just brush it off? You think you can say it doesn't mean anything and that's supposed to be enough?"

  Ford's lips tremble, his eyes filled with a mix of guilt and sorrow. He wants to tell her how sorry he is, how much he hates himself for what he's become, but the words won't come.