Mr. Faust Elliot-York

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

Jill kept going in and out of sleep, too nervous that they would call Fe’s name and that Jill would be fast asleep to hear it. Then everything would be for nothing and it would simply delay Felix getting any sort of treatment whatsoever. It was already a nightmare to begin with. She didn’t want it getting any worse. It felt like eternity had passed before she heard someone call out her son’s name. Jill threw her hand up in the air, signaling that that was them before gently shaking Felix awake.

Faust opened his mouth to call to Jill but before he could utter a word out she had sprung to life, it was quite impressive really. He slipped his phone into his pocket, tore out the sheets of paper he’d used, folded them and tucked them away too before standing up. Faust scooped up Felix’s little jacket so that it wasn’t left behind and offered a hand to Jill to help her up out of her seat, hoping neither of them were too sore having slept away in the discomfort of the plastic waiting room chairs. “Not too bad, huh?” he suggested, he’d waiting upwards of eight hours before, this was somewhat of a short trip with that in mind.

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

“If you’re sure you’re okay…” She didn’t mean to shoo him away, but everything about this situation was complicated and stressful. “No… Nobody else.” The nurse called another patient in and Jill sank back in her chair a little. This was going to be a long night. “I’m just going to nap for a little while. Wake me up when they call his name…” she trailed off, her last word morphing into a yawn. She leaned all the way back in her chair, Felix adjusting his position to lean back with her in his own sleep. Her hand automatically came up to pat his head gently, affectionately as they dozed off.

“Of course” Faust insisted, nodding his head, he wasn’t in the mood for a nap nor would he be selfish enough to busy himself so much that he didn’t hear Felix’s name being called or bother to wake Jill and her son when he did. He watched as she dozed off, smiling softly to himself, it was oddly familiar to him, all those times they had shared a bed. As Jill slept Faust set himself up at a nearby table and worked away, he’d requested a legal pad and a pen and had made a makeshift office from himself. His glasses on and his phone in front of him, resting against a potted plant like a tiny computer screen he scribbled away for hours, only stopping to refill his cup of water or use the restroom.

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

“You can go home if you’d like. I appreciate you getting us here and sticking around this long, but I wouldn’t hold it against you if you wanted to go home.” Jill pulled out her own phone to make she wasn’t getting any other surprises. Nothing. “I bet this wasn’t how you thought your night was going to turn out huh?” Jill considered calling her parents. They definitely would be awake at this time. 

It was one of those many moments where Faust simply couldn’t tell what Jillian meant by what she said. He had deduced that it would be one of two things; she was sincerely grateful but felt bad for him or that he had outstayed his welcome. He searched Jill’s eyes, trying to figure out which one it was but simply couldn’t work it out. “I...no, I don’t think I could have predicted this one.” he said with a chuckle “Could have been worse though” he said and then scrunched up his nose “No, that came out wrong- not that- not that your son breaking his arm isn’t terrible, it is, of course I-” he waved a hand dismissively, he couldn’t find his way out of this one but surely Jill knew just what he meant. “I’m happy to stay, really, Jill. I hate the thought of you by yourself here- I mean, you know while Felix is sleeping” he explained “...Unless you have somebody coming to meet you?” he asked, a decent way of asking where on earth Felix’s father was not only on his birthday but while his son was in the ER. Perhaps he was dead, Faust considered, he couldn’t imagine Jill not knowing the father but maybe Faust didn’t know Jill anymore. Faust’s imagination was running wild with his curiosity about the little boy’s history. 

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

Today had been an eventful day to say the least. Jillian had assumed that after her gig was over tonight, she would be able to go home to a quiet apartment, eat some leftovers and wake up at a decent hour so she could make a special birthday breakfast for her son. Life obviously had other plans for her. “Yup, January 1st.” She yawned again, but nodded, “I’m just tired now. I’ve had a long day.”

Faust nodded his head, it was a cool birthday to have, he thought. No matter what, there was always a party for your birthday, even if it wasn’t specifically a birthday party. He smiled softly and rubbed the back of Jill’s shoulder blades “I’ll stay up if you want to nap, I’m not tired.” he insisted “I could probably do some work” he added, he kept everything on his cell phone’s enormous storage for these sorts of situations, that way he was never too far from the office.

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

Faust wasn’t in the least bit tired, he was usually up working at this hour anyway so the timing hardly affected him. “I didn’t know which one to get so I just- everything, I grabbed everything.” he explained with a chuckle. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out, taking a moment to read the filthy message from somebody who seemed to live near by before he decided to discard his phone screen down on the table. “Did you say it was his birthday?” he asked, pointing at Felix who was fast asleep. “What a birthday” he said with a chuckle, though he’d had his fair share of terrible birthdays too. He loosened his tie and unbuttoned a few of the first buttons on his shirt and settled into his seat a little more comfortably before looking to Jill, placing a hand to her shoulder “You okay?” he asked, in all the panic over Felix he hadn’t stopped to make sure that Jill was coping with it all, perhaps it had happened before, perhaps Jill was used to all of this but he didn’t know.

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

Felix plopped the hard candy in his mouth and the sweet seemed to pacify him for the remainder of the car ride. “When he’s good, he’s really good, but even a good kid like him has his days, obviously.” She messed with his hair and kissed the mop of hair. “I don’t think anyone is ever really prepared to take on this kind of responsibility. One day you have a kid and suddenly you’re responsible for another life. Even people who say their kids were planned have their doubts and hiccups. Nobody’s ever one hundred percent ready to go when it comes to being a parent.” Jill looked out the window as the car came to a stop in front of the hospital. “Alright. Let’s see what’s going with you Fe.”

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

Felix merely looked up at her with questioning eyes. It wasn’t that she didn’t let him have candy, but that he’d be accepting candy from a stranger. She almost laughed at the notion, but held back. “It’s okay. Go on. You can have one.” He took one with his good hand, but then realized he couldn’t unwrap the candy. At this Jillian did laugh. “You’re a helpless mess,” she joked, her fingers already separating the sweet from the plastic wrapper and holding it out for him. “Don’t be fooled by this guilty sad puppy thing. He’s a handful,” she directed at Faust.“Mom!” “Well you are. You’re a kid. All kids are handfuls.”

Faust felt somewhat useful with Felix enjoying the candy, he rarely had anything to do with any children, he simply didn’t know what to say or how to act around them, he felt a little foolish for the fact, a grown man struggling with simple communication. He shrugged his shoulders “I can’t even keep a pet, a sturdy plant is about as much as I can maintain so-” he said, he didn’t know the first thing about kids, he only assumed they were difficult, he had been nothing but trouble after puberty. “I drove my parents crazy” he decided to voice in an effort to make Felix feel better “Still do, I think and I’m probably fifteen years older than you are, I think.” he said with a soft smile, tucking his hands between his knees where he sat.

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

“We’ll be okay. If we need anything, I can always come back if we’re waiting a really long time or something. It’ll give me something to do.” She hoped they wouldn’t be there that long, but who know. Maybe the sun would be up by the time they stepped out of the hospital. “Felix, this is Faust,” she finally introduced once they were situated in the back of the car. “We went to school together.” This all felt so wrong. So fucking wrong. Faust was his dad. And Felix was Faust’s son. They had never really talked about this. Not in detail at least. She suddenly felt like a horrible person. Was there ever a good time to say something like that? No. Did this maybe top the list of the absolute worst ways for them to meet? Oh god yes. Jillian watched as her son looked up at Faust with his teary eyes and mumbled a small “Hi.”

Faust nodded his head, from his prior emergency room experiences he knew that there was always a wait, especially on holidays, especially especially on holidays in which most people over the age of sixteen or so were getting hammered. “Hi Felix” Faust said with a warm smile, delivering the boy a little wave. “Mhm” he hummed in agreement, that was an easy way to describe how they knew one another, he thought. “We were at a party” Faust told the little boy as he reached into his pocket and pulled out some fruit flavored candy in a small plastic bag, each of the candies was printed with the York’s logo on it. “Do you like parties?” he asked the child, attempting to distract him. “They were handing these out- does Mom let you have candy?” he asked, suddenly realizing that he was offering Felix a treat without Jill’s permission, to be fair he was doing so with the best of intentions, he hoped the conversation and candy might just distract Felix from the pain and the clear concern that he was in trouble with his mother for misbehaving, Faust knew those feelings all too well. 

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

Jill didn’t even know what that word meant, but it honestly sounded kind of gross. The drive was jerky to say the least. Certain pockets of the city were filled with citizens still celebrating in the streets while other parts were a smooth ride. “Felix,” she replied somewhat nervously. She wasn’t sure if the choice of name was obvious or not, but she began to feel paranoid. This entire time it never occurred to her that he was about to meet his son. As soon as they reached her apartment building, she jumped out of the car, not even bothering to wait for it to come to a full stop. Her feet were killing her, still strapped into those three inch heels that she had been wearing all afternoon and evening. Nevertheless, she ran up the steps and into the building, not stopping until she was at her door. “Felix!” she called out. She could hear muffled sniffling and crying coming from his room. As soon as she was in the doorway, she could see her son sitting on his bed with his arm held up by a makeshift sling. “What happened?” There was a guilty look on his face. “Felix, answer me.” “I was jumping on the bed..” he mumbled. “What?” “I was jumping on the bed!.. And I fell,” he repeated, this time sounding more pathetic than the first time. “Well that’s great. Good job.” Jill pulled some money out of her purse and relieved the babysitter, letting her know that she’d would contact her at a later time. “Get up, we need to go to the ER.” Jill immediately moved to this closet and pulled out one of his jackets, she threw it over his shoulders and helped him with his shoes before leading him out of their home and downstairs where the car was waiting. The entire time, her son was crying to her, saying things like “I’m sorry mommy.” 

New Year, New Me | Faust x Jill

“No, I um- You can come if you’d like. I’d just feel bad pulling you away from your thing.” Her hand gestured in the direction of the tall hotel. “I’m not sure if you’d enjoy sitting around with me. I don’t know what to expect really. I could be nothing. That girl tends to exaggerate. Then again, it really could be something and we might be there a while.” How rude of her, she considered, she’d only met the hosts of the party maybe five minutes ago and now she was dashing away. It was an emergency though. They really would be terrible people if they thought she was being inconsiderate for tending to her injured son. “Yeah, the babysitter. I honestly overpay her.” Jill looked down at the phone flashing again and sighed, “So I should get going, um… Don’t feel like you have to come, but you can if you want to.” The winter air picked up and she was grateful for the extra layer he had given her, feeling bad at the same time. He must have been freezing. “Seriously, just get in the car.” An executive mom decision was made.

Faust shook his head emphatically “No, no, I honestly- really, I rather give birth to a chair than continue the conversation I was having about fracking.” he assured Jillian with sincerity. He raised his eyebrows as she started to ramble a bit, it was slightly foreign to see Jill so unraveled but it was perfectly understandable when her kid had apparently broken his arm. Faust just nodded his head and followed Jillian, climbing into the car beside her and shutting the door behind them so that the driver could just get straight back in without having to bother with settling them in. In his seat beside Jill he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, surprisingly warm despite the cold, perhaps it was the panic of it all that had him feeling a little toasty. He fixed his tie, a nervous sort of a habit as they sped toward Jill’s home “So, what’s his name?” he asked, attempting to make conversation.