To the states

Chapter 5

Eggsy doesn't call you until he's already home.

"Hey, what happened?" You prod.

"My mum finally got to me. She finally pulled the two cards that I never thought she'd bring into this."

"Your dad and the baby?"

He lets out a long breath. "Yeah. She apologized for all the shit Dean put me through and said that she didn't want it to be that way for the baby. I ain't a monster, that's my sister she's talkin' about, of course I don't want that either. Fuck, it's why I left in the first place. She said she couldn't do it alone. That she wouldn't be able to protect the baby when Dean was at his worst."

"Eggsy, I could see how well you were doing in the marines. Not only your scores, but you seemed content out there. Coming back was a very selfless thing to do."

He lets out a sharp breath. "I was content there. I might not have had control of my schedule, but I had control of my life. I was finally good at something. Harsh as the environment is, you're there to learn and the people there want you to succeed, even if they won't say it. I'm back here ten minutes and Dean is already up my ass again."

"I'm sorry, Eggsy. You know, I've got lots of space here. It—"

"Babes, you know I can't come there. I quit the one thing that made me feel like I was in control of my life to come back here."

"Bring them with you."

"What?"

"Bring your mom and the baby with you."

He pauses for a long minute. "Can she even fly while she's pregnant?"

"Umm, let's look it up."

"Wait, wait, no. I can't put that on you. You've—"

"If I hear one word about how my mom and I took care of you, I'm hanging up this phone and buying two plane tickets."

He sighs. "Babes, that's real sweet of you to offer, but I don't even think she'd go."

"And if she agreed?"

"I'm not going to ask. I need to figure this out here. We'd have to get green cards and passports and it would be a whole thing I can't handle right now. Not to mention, we'd have to leave most of our things here. Both because we couldn't transport them, and because if we started packing, Dean would notice and then our situation here would be so much worse. Thank you, but it's not an option."

"Well, if you change your mind, or if you think of something I can do, let me know. Even if you think you could leave for a few days to come visit, I'll get you here."

He knows he won't take you up on that. Even if you're in a position to help him out financially, he won't accept it. He's pretty sure you know that too, so all he says is "thanks."

—0—

Now that you're only working around your schedule and Eggsy's back with his mom, you get to talk more often. Which would be good— it is good, but it would be better if Eggsy wasn't so depressed. You're glad he's talking to you about it. Sometimes, he calls and tells you he needs a distraction, so you tell him everything you can about your new life here. You'd do anything to make him feel better, but you're thousands of miles away. Every time you video chat, he tries to act okay for your sake. And every time, you wish you could take him into your arms, and give him a place with you to feel what he's feeling without having to face anyone; without having to feel like his pain is bringing you down.

After one such call with Eggsy, you sigh and check your schedule. You notice that you have a couple of days off in a row. If you finish your homework for the week on the first day, you can have a full day to relax after that. In fact, if you did your homework now, you could have two days to do whatever you want. What would you even do for two days? But right now, you're too busy worrying about Eggsy to dwell on it. If only you had one more day, you could go back home. You lay on the bed, not doing homework, thinking about how amazing it would be to be there for him. It wouldn't be enough time, but it would be better than nothing. You double-check your schedule because you want to torture yourself and stare at those two days bookending your days off. In a moment of desperation or hope, you pull up Ginger's number and start texting.