bruises // heathers

twenty four // sugar cookies

Veronica and JD shared many cigarettes on the drive from their home in Sherwood to the home of Veronica's parents. They headed home that morning and stayed in the house for a bit but now they were sitting in front of the Sawyer's house.

"I don't want to do this." Veronica said out of nowhere, lighting a cigarette.

"Neither do I, baby." JD took a drag off the fresh cigarette. "We gotta. It's the only way we can stay where we want to." He turned around to face Elle, who was hanging on their every word. "Come on, kiddo."

"Do I have to hug them?" Elle asked her parents, holding her arms about herself in her bright pink parka.

"Probably." Veronica answered honestly, before smoking the rest of the cigarette and throwing the butt onto the yard and into the snow. "Let's go." She said, getting out of the car. JD got out and picked up Elle out of the backseat, carrying her on his hip to the front door of the Sawyer's. Him and Veronica stood side by side as he knocked on the door.

Quickly, Valerie Sawyer opened the door. "Jason, Veronica. Glad to see you brought Giselle with you." She snapped, before gesturing for the Deans to come inside.

"What is he doing here?" JD asked, all of a sudden pissed off from seeing his father sitting at the table in the kitchen of the Sawyer's home. He sat down Elle, who hid under her mother's arms.

"I have just as much a right to see the girl as Valerie and Nicholas. I am her grandfather." Bud explained, taking a long swig of beer.

"No!" JD yelled, getting close to Bud's face and yanking the beer away. "You are a sack less piece of shit! You were never a father and you will never be a grandfather!"

"Relax son, I just want to get to know Ella." Bud chuckled, knowing he got her name wrong.

"It's Giselle." Elle said, walking up to stand next to her father, who was fuming. "But my mom and dad call me Elle or Ellie."

"Okay, Elle, tell me 'bout yourself. How old are you?" Bud asked.

"She's eight years old. I was seventeen when she was born!" JD shouted. He was filled with so much rage at his father. "You should know that already!"

"I tuned eight last month." Elle added, trying to ignore her father's hand gripping her shoulder tight with frustration.

"What do you like to do?" Bud asked.

"I like to dance. I want to be a ballerina." Elle answered. "Or a nurse."

Bud stopped asking questions as Thomas and Valerie came back into the room. Valerie took the coats of the Deans and came back into the room shortly after putting them in a closet.

"You hurt yourself recently." Valerie commented, noticing Elle's bandaged arm. "Veronica, is Giselle hurting herself often?" Valerie asked, turning to face her daughter.

"No. This was the second time. She's really stressed out." Veronica defended, feeling her mother's judgment and anger focused on her.

"No eight year old should be stressed out to the point of harming herself." Valerie smiled a tight lipped smile, knowing she had a point that Veronica couldn't defend against or deflect from.

"We didn't come here so you can judge our child." JD said, noticing Elle's wan face fall towards the ground as she heard her grandfathers mock her for what she did to herself.

"I don't like being made fun of." Elle squeaked, interrupting her grandfathers.

"Oh, that's what Bud does, Elle. He makes fun of women and children to make himself feel like a big man." JD spat, lowering his head to look at his father. "How does it feel, pop?" JD asked, popping the p's. "You can't torture my mother anymore, can't torture me, so you're gonna torture my kid?"

"Fuck you, Jason." Bud snorted.

"You miss her?" JD asked, switching to a serious tone.

"Like hell." Bud replied, taking a swig of his new beer.

"I didn't know it was possible for you to miss someone you killed." JD said, storming out of the house after telling Veronica and Elle to come with him.

"To be clear, mom and dad, I don't want Elle around Bud." Veronica told her parents in the living room while Elle watched intently in her hot pink parka. "You're my parents and I love you, even though we don't always get along. But I will not allow an abusive asshole to be around my daughter. I can't. So, if you want to keep seeing her, he isn't involved. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Veronica." Valerie said. "Bud's moving to San Francisco in a few days anyway. He just wanted to see her again before he left."

"Well I hope he got his fill of Elle, because he'll never see her again." Veronica stated before saying goodbyes to her parents and leaving with Elle.

The two got into the car to see JD crying into the steering wheel.

"Babe, are you okay?" Veronica asked softly.

"I just miss my mom. It's been fifteen Christmases since she died." JD explained while Veronica rubbed his back soothingly.

"How did Gramma Josephine die?" Elle asked quietly from the backseat.

"I don't want to talk about it." JD said. "I don't want to think about how she died. I like to remember how she made me feel safe, the way she sang lullabies to me every night. I like to recall that she always tried to keep things as normal as possible. How she didn't force me to move around, how she didn't hit me. How she made the best sugar cookies in the world." JD listed memories, sniffling away his tears.

"Let's go home now," Veronica spoke, her voice a mere whisper.

"Let's." JD said, pulling the car from the side of the road and driving back to their home, while Elle smiled and thought about how happy she was to be home again.