Falice oneshots At Midnight

Cabin Tape

(Inspired by This Is Us. It was a very touching episode and I highly recommend watching the show. Enjoy!)

The kids and a wife stayed at the cabin, remembering what the husband and father were like. They were way passed time had been due for. The oldest Charles remembered something his father said back when him and his siblings were young. A time capsule.

Charles always thought it had been a stupid idea. He'd rather watch jurassic Park with his longtime-childhood friend, Chic than be at that stupid cabin anyways. His father, FP Jones wanted to do a dumb time capsule for them to dig up when the Jones kids were 18 years old. His brother and sister seemed quite fond with the idea, Charles not so much.

He sat before him, next to his siblings, Betty and Jughead with an ancient cassette tape in the player and listened to his father's words in completely awestruck by what he was hearing. His mother who sat in the far corner gasped when the voiceover came.

"FP." She mutters, mouth still slightly open in shock. She hadn't heard her husband's voice since the night he died. Hearing it, refreshed her memory even after all these years.

"Hey, guys. It's me, your dad..." FP's voice bled through their eardrums.

"Holy crap." Betty gasps. Both Charles and Jughead don't say anything, continued listening on." It's 1993 and you're all in your rooms here at the cabin, trying to figure out just what you're gonna put inside the capsule. To, uh, refresh your memories: Charles wishes he was seeing Jurassic Park with Chic  right now. Yeah. Uh, my Betty girl is pouring her heart into it as per usual. And, Jughead... Jughead is overthinking his every move. Anyhow, I have this crazy idea to build a bigger house out here for me and your mom to grow old in." They can hear the man take a breath for a moment, to gather his thoughts. "And your mom busted me while I was sketching it. I got embarrassed, crumpled it up, and tossed it in the trash. But then I thought to myself, you know, your mom believes in me, so... why shouldn't I believe in myself, right? So, I go back outside to get my crumpled piece of paper out of the trash to put in the capsule, but it was gone. You know, at first, I thought maybe, uh... maybe the wind carried it away, or, uh, a bird who's got a thing for architecture. But... but then, I realized that your mom must've taken it out of the trash, so that she could put it in the capsule." Alice's eyes stared down at the recording device and fought the tears building to explode from her eye sockets.

"Again, because she believes in my dreams." And that she did. She always had believed that his dreams would come true. She still wished that his dreams had come true.

The night of the fire, the fire that changed her whole world. Even as dramatic as it sounded - it was never not the truth. That fire changed her life. She still had no clue what caused the fire. If she could only remember, maybe it would put her mind at ease, even just a little bit. That fire that took FP away still haunted her, deep down it still did. He ran to save their dog, hot dog because Betty was going to brave the flames herself. FP couldn't have that, so he did what need to do.

Everything had been fine until she got the news at the hospital. She was at the vending machine when... when she got the news. Her husband, the love of her life, father of their children had passed away due to smoke inhalation. Something so stupid, killed her husband. Something that had been preventable if he hadn't gone back in for that damn dog. She knew she sounded ungrateful, but there were days she'd rather had her husband over a fuzzy animal. But he had done it for his little Betty girl and her little bug as she would call her.

His love never frayed for their children. His love tested their limits, exceeding them. The night of his death his eldest fought with him. Charles still regrets it to this day. His last words were over a stupid football match. Betty regrets the dog over her dad. And Jughead well he just wished he could've had more time with his father. And for his former wife - Alice wished that she could see him one last time. She tried not to think about him, even fell in-love with his best friend, Fred.

But nothing was compared to their great love as their kids would call it. Their big three - Charles, Betty and Jughead. And hearing his voice again only brought on emotions that couldn't be peel back any longer.

"By the time you guys hear this, you're gonna be teenagers and probably harder on us than you already are. So, let me just remind you that your mom is the kind of woman who buries a crappy doodle because when it comes to the people that she loves, she does not mess around. And, Ali, if you're hearing this, and I've grown stupid in middle age, I don't tell you enough... damn, do I love you." He chuckled." Aw, man. This is gonna be really embarrassing if it actually was a bird who stole my crappy doodle and, uh, it never made it into the capsule, so, uh, yeah, okay."
Tape recorder clicks after he said the final words.

The family, mother, daughter, son and wife all sat there in silent as tears ran down their cheeks. Betty took time to take in all her late father had said and wiped away the excess tears from her cheeks. Charles and Jughead cleared their throats; meanwhile Alice walked outside for a brief moment.

Charles looked toward the location his father talked about building them a house. "It sure is beautiful up here, huh? I can see why Dad wanted to build that house." The two other siblings and mother followed the tribute.

"It sure is - FP would've been so happy to finally build it for you kids." Alice finally spoke as her heart swelled with the memory.

—-cxxx-xxxxxx

And that was it! I hope you liked this one-shot.