Brothers and Sisters fic, "Crushed"
“So how was the movie?” Scotty smiled at his daughter. God, she was growing fast. At thirteen she was tall for her age and quite pretty. She was also more grown-up than most thirteen-year-olds, which was a blessing. His son on the other hand, was a toddler-sized ball of trouble, currently babbling to himself in the back seat.
“It was awesome! There were a bunch of explosions and car chases and one of the good guys was really a bad guy and this dude fought this other dude with a sword on top of a moving train and…”
“Sounds pretty cool.” Scotty tried to sound enthusiastic. Much to his and Kevin’s chagrin Olivia had developed a taste for action movies. Kevin had made sure that his daughter had seen every Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand film known to man, and Scotty had given her a proper education in the art of the campy comedy, but somehow she was only interested in bombs, car chases, and really bad dialogue. Scotty was grateful that she was old enough now to go out to the movies with her friends; he didn’t think he could sit through any more of those things.
Olivia continued to chatter about the movie as Scotty drove, occasionally turning around to say something to her brother. “It was just so cool! I think I should be a stuntwoman when I grow up, then I could be in all those movies!”
“I don’t think Kevin would like that very much.” Scotty looked over at his daughter, she laughed.
“That’s because Kevin is scared of everything.” She paused for a moment. “And there was a really cute guy in the movie.” She looked up at him nervously. Scotty was a little surprised; Olivia wasn’t boy crazy like some of the other girls in her class. But she was a thirteen-year-old girl; it was only a matter of time. He smiled inwardly. He had secretly been looking forward to the day he could give his daughter advice on boys.
“So, a cute guy. Someone famous? Did you catch his name in the credits?” Scotty daydreamed for a moment about flipping through Tiger Beat with his daughter and commiserating with her about schoolgirl crushes.
“Ummm…what was his name? Chad…Chad Barry! That’s it!” Scotty nearly drove off the road.
“Chad Barry. That’s nice, sweetie.”
***
Scotty dropped Olivia and Daniel off at his mother in law’s house; Nora had agreed to take the kids for the rest of the day. Scotty was infinitely grateful to her. He loved his kids, but sometimes it was good to have a little space. He had planned to go home immediately afterwards so as to have as much alone time with his husband as possible, but recent developments required a visit to his sister in law.
He knocked on Sarah’s door impatiently. It opened. “Scotty! What brings you over here?” She stepped back to let him in.
“Gossip Sarah. The very best gossip.” He grinned at her.
“I think you’ve been spending too much time with us Walkers.” She said seriously. Then she returned the smile and continued. “So what’s the story, morning glory?”
“The word, hummingbird, is that Olivia has a crush!”
“She’s thirteen. This should surprise no one…”
“On Chad.” Scotty smiled gleefully as he watched Sarah’s face carefully. She looked puzzled for a moment.
“Chad…Chad…Chad?” Realization dawned. “As in Chad Barry? Kevin’s Chad Barry?”
“Yep. She went to the movies with her friends, and he was in it, and boom!” He clapped his hands together. “She has a crush.” Sarah began to smile, a little at first, then wider and wider.
“You were right, that’s first rate Walker gossip. So…does Kevin know?”
“…No. Not yet. What exactly is the protocol for telling your husband that your thirteen-year-old daughter has a crush on his ex?” Scotty wondered aloud.
“You say ‘Kevin, sweetie, Olivia thinks Chad is cute.’”
“And then what?”
“You steer him away from anything breakable.” She said seriously. Scotty considered this for a moment.
“His head is going to explode, Sarah. Maybe I shouldn’t tell him.”
“And wait for the day when he finds her shrine to Chad?” No. You’ve got to tell him. It’s an important part of being a parent, realizing that your kid is growing up. Olivia’s a young woman now; a crush is totally natural. I remember Paige at that age! I wanted to pretend it wasn’t happening; I kept thinking that she was too young, and that she shouldn’t be caring so much about boys. But then I thought about it. I was totally boy crazy at her age! So was Kitty.” She paused. “…So was Kevin for that matter.” They both smiled. “If Kevin freaks out remind him that he wasn’t much older than her when he lost his V-card.”
“It’s not the crush part I’m worried about, Sarah. It’s the ‘on Chad’ part. They were a couple…they slept together. That has to be weird. I mean…what if one of Paige’s friends had a crush on Luc at thirteen?”
“Have you looked at my husband? I think all of Paige’s friends had a crush on him at first; if they didn’t they probably lacked a pulse…or were lesbians.” She added the last part as an afterthought.
“And this didn’t bother you?”
“No. It’s not sexual at that age, not really. It’s all girlish infatuation; it doesn’t mean anything. Come on Scotty! Do you remember thirteen? I’m sure you had your fair share of crushes.”
“I did, but this isn’t about me.”
“Go home. Talk to your husband, let him freak out for a moment, pour him a glass of wine, or better yet, tequila, tell him to get over it, and enjoy your evening alone.”
“Ok.” He nodded. “His head is going to explode though.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. Don’t chicken out on me now! This is going to be fun, and you know it! If I were you I’d sit back and enjoy the free fireworks.”
***
Scotty opened the door to Kevin’s office. He was sitting at his desk flipping through some papers. “Hey.” He said without looking up. “You dropped the kids off at Mom’s ok?”
“Mmmhhmm.” He stepped forwards. He was a little excited now about delivering the news. Kevin would get over it eventually, but in the meantime he was going to enjoy the reaction. “Your daughter has a crush.” He grinned.
“So she’s my daughter now?” Kevin looked up from his papers.
“Oh, she is most definitely your daughter.”
“Alright, who is it? Some gawky kid at school? One of those cookie-cutter boys from the Disney channel? Who?”
“Chad.” He said it as neutrally as possible, but he couldn’t help sound a little gleeful.
“Chad who?” He looked puzzled. After a few seconds his face contorted in a strange grimace. He opened and closed his mouth a few times like a guppy. “No.” He said it emphatically.
“Yes.” Scotty responded just as emphatically.
“No.” He jumped out of his chair, then sank back into it with a look of disbelief. “That’s…just no. How…how…” Scotty watched in amusement as his husband’s face turned an impressive shade of magenta.
“He was in the movie Olivia saw. You can’t blame her, Kev. He is pretty spectacular.”
“But…but…”
“Breathe, Kevin.”
“No! That is wildly inappropriate. She is thirteen! That’s way too young to be thinking about boys!”
“And how old were you when you started thinking about boys?” Kevin considered this for a moment.
“That’s different.” He answered petulantly.
“Not really.”
“But Chad is…old. He’s my age! Don’t you think that’s a little weird for a girl to crush on a man thirty years her senior?”
“It’s a harmless crush Kev. You remember what it’s like at that age! She just thinks he’s cute. That’s all it is.” He walked over to where he was sitting and put his hands on Kevin’s shoulders. “She’s growing up. We knew this was going to happen. And look on the bright side; she has two dads to give her dating advice when the time comes.”
“I really don’t think I should be giving anyone dating advice, Scotty. I’ve sabotaged every relationship I’ve ever been in, including ours.”
“And look at us now! I think we turned out alright.”
“Well I got lucky.” He wrapped an arm around his husband’s neck and leaned upwards to kiss him.
“So did I.”
***
“So Scotty said you liked the movie.” Kevin put his coffee cup down and sat next to his daughter at the breakfast table.
“Yeah, it was really cool.” Olivia barely looked up from her cereal.
“He also said that there was a cute guy.” Kevin tried to keep his tone neutral. Olivia sighed.
“This is the part when you freak out, right?”
“No one’s freaking out.”
“Yes you are. Or you have. Or you will. You can’t fool me Kevin; I’m not a little girl anymore, and you can’t treat me like one!” She put her spoon down with a little more force than was strictly necessary.
“I know that you’re not a little girl, Olivia. You’re a young woman now…”
“Then why do you care? All the other girls at school are obsessed with boys! I think one guy in a movie is kinda cute, why does it matter? You’re so…” She searched for the word. “…Uptight! Scotty doesn’t care, why do you?” Olivia looked at him, Kevin smiled.
“That’s not the first time someone’s called me uptight, and I guess it won’t be the last.” He paused. “Olivia, I’m not mad at you, really I’m not. Let me explain why I’m a little stressed out, ok?”
“Let me guess. I’m your little girl, and I’m growing up too fast, blah, blah, blah.”
“Actually no, not really. You see…the man you saw in the movie…”
“Chad. Chad Barry.”
“Yes, Chad Barry.” Kevin tried to figure out the best way of saying what he needed to say. “You know how Scotty and I dated for a couple of months and then broke up for a while, right?”
“Mmmhhhmm.”
“Well, in that time I dated other people. One of those people was Chad.”
“What?” Olivia looked at him in utter bewilderment. “He’s gay?”
“Bisexual is probably the better word. But yes, we dated for a while. He was an actor on a soap opera; he was still in the closet…and…then he came out, and we broke up.”
“So let me get this straight; you dated Chad Barry?” She was grinning now.
“Yes, Olivia, I did.”
“That’s so cool! Oh my god, wait until I tell my friends! Their heads are going to explode!”
“Well I’m glad I can contribute to the explosion of your friend’s heads.”
“But really Kevin, that’s so cool!”
“It was…until it wasn’t. But do you understand now? Why it was a little bit weird for me?” He looked at his daughter.
“I get it. You were boyfriends. And he is old.”
“Hey! He’s the same age as me! Are you calling me old?”
“You know it old man!” “So… she gave him an impish look. “Can you get me his autograph?”