still no reason to take it out on me

“is your dad like, over-protective or something?”

“what?”

“your dad. why does he keep calling you?”

Day 11: surprise Word count: 186 (infidelity, Abby's POV)

AO3

Abby opened the door quietly and left the boxes of take-out —Frank’s favorite— on the entry table. 

Their house was silent; the lights were out on the first floor. An unusual calmness floated in the air. She took the kids to her parents' for the weekend, and told Frank she would stay with them too after their last fight.

She was so tired of fighting. Their marriage was a minefield; one wrong step and it would blow on their faces. 

But she wasn't a quitter. 

Abby was ready to fix everything up. To have a long overdue conversation about their —his— mistakes. 

So she climbed the stairs to their bedroom. A golden glow shone beneath the closed door, the scent of lavender growing stronger the closer she got. There was a low murmur, a song she couldn't name but felt familiar, one of those cheesy love songs Frank added to his playlist months ago.

​For a second, she thought that he was waiting for her. Let herself be washed with hope.

@kingdonmicrofic day 11: surprise. 249/186. cw: implied infidelity

Stepping foot into PTMC feels wrong that morning. Her stomach clenching and her breathing picking up as she passes the security line, and greeting the guards there.

The back of her neck prickles, and it feels like every eye in the room is on her. Watching her, analyzing her every move. Pitying, judging, leaving aside their pain or the nausea to look at her and say: we know what you’re doing.

Greeting Lupe, she gets a tight smile back with the same edge of wary to it, and she steps away towards the rigid buzz of the door opening so she can enter the ER.

Inside is quieter, but no better.

She feels as if she has the fucking plague the way she sees these people, people she’s known for years at this point look at her wide eyed or smiling, because they know what’s about to happen next.

When she arrives at the middle of the “Pitt”, she sees him. Her husband Frank, curled over next to a mousy little blonde, the two of them giggling like fucking adolescents, her wrists in his hands, pretending like she’s trying to pull away. Flirting like horny teenagers in the goddamn hospital.

Walking up to them feels glorious, like redemption. The surprise covering her pathetic husband’s face, his expression turning pale and terrified, still keeping the little bitch’s wrist in his hand like a safety doll he can’t let go of.

@kingdonmicrofic day 11: surprise (391/186) mild nsfw warning

“No fuckin’ way.” 

She hadn’t meant to keep it from him. In fact, there is very little now that Frank doesn’t know about her, thanks to the compulsive urge to tell him everything and his compulsive urge to ask. He started getting nosy far before anything happened between them, wanting to know what movies she liked (Waitress and Indiana Jones), the music she listened to (90’s Hip-Hop), and her favorite snacks so he could keep extra in his locker (chocolate chip granola bars). 

Like ever since they started dating, Abby has always been accusing him of cheating or flirting with other women, doesn't matter, she'll always find something to accuse him of.

They're out for dinner and Frank smiles politely at the waitress. "Oh you thought she was pretty? Why don't you sleep on the fucking couch." He comes home late because the shift ran an hour over. "Who were you fucking, huh?"

He mentiones one of the women at work, in a very work context. "Bet you're just so happy to be spending your time with other women, right?"

Frank will always grovel, a full on "Baby you know you're the only one for me, I love you baby, don't be mad." on his knees.

Abby kinda loves it, because she knows that every time she does it, he'll grovel, and she'll get a new designer handbag or jewelry out of it. She loves the power it gives her over him.

She loves that she can use it against him to make sure to remind him how lucky he is that she keeps forgiving him.

So when after he goes back to work, one day he casually says something like:

"Oh Mel and I had lunch together in the cafeteria today."

"Who's Mel, huh?"

"I've mentioned her before, she's an R3."

And Abby's bored, and kinda just wants to argue, and maybe even get a new necklace out of it. She wants to remind him of his place.

"So you're fucking her then?"

And Frank just stops and looks her straight in the eyes. Usually this is the part where he'd start apologizing. Saying it isn't like that, she's just a coworker, beg for her to belive him, start promising nice things.

Instead, he goes:

"Yes."