[ King of Bad Decisions ]
Title: King of Bad Decisions
Description: One night, Colleen calls up Tig, drunk and requesting another baby. Tig agrees faster than he probably should. But in the sober light of day, now he has to come to terms with knocking up his ex-wife.
Note: Just in case anyone is wondering wtf is up with the Roxanne/Tig/Colleen dynamic.
The graveyard might not be the conventional spot for a date, but Tig and Colleen were rarely conventional and were definitely not calling this a date. If this was anything, it was an act of mercy. Getting Colleen knocked up (for the third time) all of a week ago had been one of Tig's truly terrible ideas. But Colleen wanted it and…well. He did too. And it had nothing to do with Colleen (he was still in the middle of a twist love affair with a woman-of-the-night that he'd fallen head over boots for) and everything to do with the tombstone looming beside them. Dawn Trager. They'd brought some lunch (greasy tacos from a truck) and sat down to have lunch with their daughter. The closest thing they'd gotten to a family meal in over a decade.
Colleen was still sniffling, about as wilted as her lettuce. Tig had taken her to her doctor's appointment early today (his sole purpose for being here) and she'd cried the whole time. After Dawn died, Colleen had crashed and solely weened herself off the alcohol. She cried a lot when she was sober, like life had a bad way of catching up to her. She'd mumbled a lot of words like "miss her" and "Dawn" and "my baby," which was funny because those were the exact words that had run through Tig's head when he swore into the crook of Colleen's neck some seven days ago.
Now, Tig was picking apart his tacos, hunched over, leg splayed out. Body posture as messy as his finger food. After a moment of silence, Colleen finally spoke up. "I don't even remember her funeral," she said, regretfully. "I was so fucking wasted. I don't remember it at all.
"It was pretty," Tig said, eyes on his taco. "Lotta her friends came…y'know, all these little hippie chicks with feathers in their pink-and-blue hair and shit. Patches on their clothes. Bobby and Gem was there. Gemma helped clean you up a little--don't think you remember that. Fawn gave a speech. Real pretty…smart girl. Got through the whole thing without crying."
Colleen reached out, fingers trailing the gravestone. "I feel like I shoulda brought flowers or something."
Tig glanced around briefly. The gravestone beside them had a bunch of flowers, so he pulled over one of the tiny pots, setting it down in front of Dawn. "Here. Gerald can share."
Colleen's eyebrows knitted together; she was close to crying. Again. "Tig?" She paused until his eyes met hers. "Were we ever good?"
Tig's eyes went soft at that. "Yeah…yeah. Alright…c'mere." He set the tacos down to pull Colleen in between his legs, one arm hooked around her. She scooted in, easily, and dropped her head on his shoulder, familiarly. "You're always my girl…y'know that? A little beat up, but it looks good on you. Dunno how we do it, but we've always made the most beautiful girls I've ever seen."
Colleen cracked a little, a single sob, but then it's just quiet tears and trembling shoulders. Until she said, softly, shakily, "I want a family again."
Tig lapsed into silence, his rings clicking together as he rubbed her side lightly. Because this was nice. Those soft moments when they could actually be comfortable together. Colleen and Tig always had really high highs and really low lows. But then there was Roxanne--his sweet princess down back home. Babysitting Lady. Roxanne, the first woman he'd felt whole with in a very, very long time. He paused, then finally admitted, "I've got a thing down in Charming."
He could hear Colleen let out a breath through her nose. "So drop it. You've got a thing here, too, and this thing is pregnant."
"Yeah," he said. They stayed like that for a couple minutes longer, but now the moment was broken. Here one second--gone the next. The nature of their perpetually on-again-off-again relationship. Unhealthy? Sure. But they were stubborn. Too much like each other. And, at the end of the day, too fucking afraid to live without each other. Colleen was sober now. Colleen was pregnant now. And maybe--maybe--Dawn as their witness--this could work. This time. Before they left, Tig touched Dawn's tombstone and murmured a, "See ya, baby." Yeah. Tig better than anyone else; you don't get a do-over to be a father. But maybe this would take the edge off, at least.
