Stay Together For The Kids - Michael Clifford Fanfiction

Mum.

Michael leaves soon after, after I call the therapist he had seen for two sessions over the past year, then left in a fit of rage because she said things he didn't agree with.
He kisses me on the cheek fleetingly before he leaves, and as I watch him drive off, I feel much more positive about the future. As uncertain as it is.
Michael was going to get help. And, if he didn't, I wouldn't come back. Ruby wouldn't come back.
A few minutes pass before my mother pulls up in the driveway, and I hear my daughters giggle from the car. Ruby was just over a year old, but she was already a young lady. There was nothing I was more proud of in this world.
Mum opens the front door and I'm greeted by a big huge from them both. Ruby is the spitting image of her father. She has small dark blonde curls already shaping her face, and the most gorgeous green eyes. But the thing that reminds me most of Michael, is always her smile.
When Michael and I first met, Michael had had a way of making everyone smile with his own grin. Ruby had picked up the talent, by flashing her smile and looking up at everyone with those big green eyes, it was hard not to love her.
"How was shopping?" I ask mum, taking Ruby out of her arms.
Mum chuckles lightly.
"I forgot how fascinated she was with everything." She says, nodding her head to Ruby.
"I took her to the indoor playground too."
"Did grandma have a coffee while you had a play?" I ask Ruby, giggling.
Ruby grins at me, nodding. She is practically falling asleep on my shoulder.
"I think that means someone needs a nap."
I walk Ruby down to out bedroom, and lay her down. I give her a quick kiss, and it isn't long until I hear her breathing fall into the rhythmic pattern that let me know she was sleeping.
I walk back into the kitchen, where mum is bustling around, preparing dinner. I have also been so in awe of her, I had never known my mother to not have everything together in her life. She always knew what to do and never showed a moment of slowing down. We may look the same, but we couldn't be more polar opposites.
"How was your day?" She asks, as I perch myself on her kitchen bench.
"Michael came over." I say quietly, silently hoping she doesn't hear me.
"What?" She asks, stopping what she's doing so she can turn and glare at me.
In the past two years, Mum has really been the only person that actually knew what was going on. I couldn't count how many times I have ended up here, in tears, pregnant or with Ruby, not knowing what to do anymore. The room that Ruby was now sleeping in, had been set up for us for over a month. I had just not had the guts to ever do it.
Then, when Michael didn't come until 3am, after I had gotten a call earlier that day that Michael had not shown up to work again, it was the final straw.
"Did he hurt you?" Mum asks, swiftly walking over to me and holding my face, checking for marks.
"Mum, I'm fine." I say, pulling her hands down.
She purses her lips together. Mum hadn't always thought poorly of Michael. She still saw him as a son, but she wishes he would get help too. And her main concern was not him, but her daughter and grandchild.
"He was actually ok, eventually. He let me call the therapist."
I am trying to read mum's expression. I don't know whether it's pity or something else. I hope it's something else.
"Let's hope he sticks to it then." She says, returning to her cooking. Don't we all.