bruises // heathers

six // home sweet home

The three walked the short distance back to Jason's apartment, where Veronica had in mind to stay one night before hightailing it out of Sherwood. Hightailing it out of Ohio as well, so Jason couldn't ever find her or Giselle. But Jason and Giselle had the romanticized view, they hoped that this arrangement would be a permanent thing. Giselle was happy to see her parents together, she was happy to live with both of her parents and be a family. Much like her father, Giselle was an optimist.

JD unlocked the door to his apartment, Veronica standing against the wall across the hall, finally getting out of his grasp. Elle, on the other hand, stood right next to her father and watched his movements. "Home sweet home." He mumbled, opening the door to reveal a nice apartment. It wasn't messy or anything, it was quite neat. But it looked bare, there was a lack of photographs and other things that make places look occupied. This was the issue with the Deans houses, they didn't look lived in. Veronica noticed it years prior.

JD took a step inside, motioning for Veronica and Elle to follow him. He walked to a white door, once opened it revealed a little girl's room. The room was painted lavender, with a twin sized bed against one wall. The bed had a white metal frame and a purple comforter with embroidered flowers. Against the other wall was a desk. There weren't any toys or anything besides things he purchased for her.

"This is your room." JD said to Elle, who jumped around the room excitedly.

"It's so pretty! I love purple!" Elle exclaimed before running up and hugging her father. "Thank you, dad, I love it." She smiled up at him and he felt his heart hurt a little bit.

"Why don't you unpack your things?" JD asked, to which Elle nodded before grabbing her suitcases.

"We're only staying for one night." Veronica reminded JD, her arms folded in annoyance.

"No, you're not." JD said, grabbing Veronica's wrist and leading her to his room. He closed and locked the door. "You're staying."

"For a single night, JD." Veronica insisted.

"You're staying forever. You aren't leaving me again." JD told Veronica in a scary voice. "I can't lose you again. I can't lose Giselle." He sounded scared at the concept of losing them, this shocked Veronica.

"You don't deserve either of us." Veronica said, feeling her voice waiver in fear. "You never deserved me. You'll never deserve Elle."

"Oh, drop the act, Sawyer. We both know you've missed me. Both of us know that you prayed I'd come back to you." JD replied, lighting a cigarette.

"Why would I ever want that!?" Veronica yelled, angry because it was so true and even angrier that he saw right through her.

"Because you love me. You loved me eight years ago. You love me now." JD answered, his face right up to Veronica's with his one hand holding the cigarette and the other by Veronica's head.

"That's not true." Veronica mumbled.

"You're a bad liar." JD smirked. "Come on, Ronnie, we can finally be a family!" He said in the same excited tone that Elle used minutes prior.

"I don't want to be a family with you." Veronica lied. "I never wanted any of this, Jason. I didn't want to have to run from this town because of all the damn ghosts lurking. I didn't want to raise a child on my own. I didn't want to find out that you have not been dead for eight fucking years." Veronica told him, looking straight into his eyes with a determined mask on.

"Well then, we already have Giselle, let's have another kid, we can raise it together." JD offered, thinking that another child would make things better.

"You're insane." Veronica breathed. "I can't even have more kids. It was a fluke that I got pregnant with Elle in the first place."

"How?" JD asked, genuinely confused, he backed away from Veronica and dropped his hand from beside her.

"I'm practically infertile. Another pregnancy has high chances of killing me. Even if it didn't, I had my tubes tied the second Elle was born. I didn't want more kids." Veronica explained, unsure why she was explaining it. She lowered her voice. "I never planned on having any kids."

"I didn't know." JD said, genuinely shocked. He always thought Veronica would be a fantastic mother, always thought she wanted children.

"Nobody did. I'm thankful every single day that I have Elle but it wasn't something I wanted at first." Veronica replied.

"What changed your mind?" JD asked, taking a drag off his cigarette.

"I knew that it was your baby." Veronica said in the quietest voice humanly possible for JD to still hear her.

"And that mattered why?" JD questioned, even though he knew, he wanted to hear Veronica say it again.

"I loved you. I thought you were gone and then it turned out I had a piece of you inside me. I wasn't going to throw that away." Veronica looked down at her feet, not wanting to meet his blue eyes and crumble immediately.

"I'm glad you didn't. She's beautiful and she seems like such a great kid." JD said. "Happy, you know?" Another drag was taken off the cigarette.

"I should tell you." Veronica mumbled, he asked what she was talking about. "JD, Elle sees Heather." Veronica looked up now, but she stayed strong. She didn't break apart and let him in. This was serious. This was about Elle.

"As in Heather Chandler?" JD questioned. Veronica nodded. "Since when?"

"Since she could talk, maybe earlier. She used to just sit and babble at nothing. When I asked who she was talking to, she said The Red Queen." Veronica explained. "I thought it was an imaginary friend. But one day she drew a picture. The Red Queen wore a red robe, a red bow. She had blonde hair. And blue lips. After a while she started calling her Heather."

"Holy shit." JD sighed.

"I've never taken her to any therapists or anything. She's not crazy." Veronica told JD, worried that if their daughter was not normal that he would not love her.

"She might really need help, Ronnie." JD said in a quiet voice, stubbing out his cigarette in his ashtray.

"She hasn't even mentioned Heather in months. I think she grew out of it." Veronica lied. She knew that her daughter still saw the girl. But she knew that Elle has learned that Heather can hear her thoughts, like Veronica learned when Heather Chandler haunted her as a teenager. Veronica shifted uncomfortably. "How did you find out about Elle?"

"I went to your parents' house, I asked for you, once I got out of the hospital and everything. They said you moved to Lancaster, Ohio. I asked what the hell you were doing in Lancaster. They told me that you were raising your daughter there." JD explained. "The second I heard about you having a daughter, I knew that it was my daughter too. You wouldn't have moved on from me quickly enough to have a one-year old."

"But then what?" Veronica asked.

"I explained to your parents that I was the father of their grandchild. They gave me a photo or two and a way to contact you. I called, you always hung up on me." JD reminisced sadly.

"I thought it was a prank." Veronica answered, feeling terrible.

"Your exact words were 'Never call this number again, asshole.'" JD added, chuckling a little bit.

"I'm so sorry." Veronica whispered. JD was close to her again, not in a threatening manner.

"I know." He said before closing the space between them and kissing Veronica, who after a few seconds reluctantly kissed back.