behind the lense

At Nicholas’ words, Franklin stopped in his tracks. He had no words for anything else the man was saying. Sure they fought a lot, but they loved each other. They had made it work this long, why not now? “If it will make you hate me, then leave.”

Nicolas sighed, running his hands through his hair. “Franklin I said marriage will make me hate you...I don’t hate you now. I love you...and I don’t want to loose you, I don’t want to leave. Marriage is just...everything’s different. Things get stagnate, people get bored of the person they love the most. Franklin I’m scared you’ll get bored.”

“No worries! We will get you fixed up anyhow!” Marlee smiled. She listened to the story, nodding along. “Well, it seems like you’re very dedicated to your work. Did you get a good picture of the river?” She questioned before taking an alcohol swab to clean some of the wounds. “I’d love to see it if you did.”

Nicolas laughed a little, glad to have the woman’s help. ”Yeah some would say I’m too dedicated, but you know at least I love what I do.” He said with a little smile, “Yeah I did, actually, so honestly the fall was worth it.” He pointed to the camera bag at the end of the ER bed. “Could you hand me that?”

“High school softball works wonders for your arm.” No one ever expected the tiny girl to have played any sports, but she did love playing softball while she was in high school. “Though I’m not sure that I can pitch anymore. That’s the only way I can imagine throwing a ball fast enough for it to work.”

“Well that’s pretty impressive. I was never into sports. I mean I could throw a mean right hook but throwing baseballs is a little different I’d think.” He laughed a little, thinking of high school made him feel a little old. “Well why not give it a try, I mean the worst thing that would happen is you don’t hit it.”

Franklin took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. Everything, all of their arguments and fights of late, could be solved if either he or his fiance could agree on the concept of marriage. “I want that life together. I want to be able to adopt children. You know that marriage has always been important to me, to my family.” He wanted to scream that Nicolas was enough, but what could be holding his fiance back? “Why don’t you want to get married? Why?”

“I don't want to argue about this again, Franklin...” Nick tried to shut the converstation down, but of course Franklin had to keep pushing. Nick never had the best temper and the constant fighting never helped. “Because it won’t work Franklin! Even if we get married and adopt kids, nothing will change and we’re still going to fight! I know what's going to happen, I know how marriage works, and the fact is, it doesn’t ever work! Being married to you will make me hate you!” He was shouting now, partially because of the irritation and partially because he’d made his way across the room to put distance between him and his fiancé. 

Marlee stopped in her tracks and looked at the man. “You fell out of a tree? I don’t hear people over the age of 10 saying that very often.” She chuckled. “When was the last time it happened?” She asked, genuinely curious before she started cleaning up the wounds. “What were you doing in the tree?”

Nicolas nodded a little, knowing it was outlandish, “I know...thirty-three year olds aren’t really supposed to be climbing trees.” Nick has to think for a minute about the last time this did happen, “probably a couple months ago? I didn’t get hurt that time at all.” He said with a little laugh. “I was trying to get a photo of the river banks from a better angle, lost my footing, and when you’ve got a thousand dollar camera around your neck the last thing you think is to grab onto any branches.”

Piper took one of the baseballs, tossing it in the air before catching it. The weight definitely felt… off, but she couldn’t place it. “We shall see,” she said, bringing her arm back before throwing it with all of her might. It hit the top bottle, but nothing happened. “I don’t think I do.”

Nicolas groaned when the bottle didn’t fall, “damn so close, you got a pretty good arm though.” He said with a smile, “Maybe you’ve just gotta throw it harder?”

Piper loved carnivals, but the games were always her favorite part. She watched a man having fun, and she walked forward. “Heck yeah! I would love to!”

“Here, give it a try.” He handed her one of the toy baseballs, “hopefully you’ll have better luck than me.” He added with a laugh.

Franklin tried to meet his fiance’s eyes, but failed. He felt bad that he had ruined their day with the same argument, but it was tearing him up inside. Why wouldn’t his fiance plan to marry him? “Because I want marriage. I want to start a family with you.” He ran his hands through his hair. “I want to adopt children. I want to have your last name or have you take mine. I want… us. I want that commitment.” He knew the last sentence would sting. They were committed to each other, one hundred percent, but it was what he wanted more than anything.

Nicolas groaned at the answer, he’d heard it before, so many times. He hated that answer, it made marriage seem so romantic and perfect, and Nick knew it wasn’t that way. “You have no idea what it will really be like, Franklin. You don’t. You have this whole grand idea in your fucking head and it won’t be like that. You want commitment, you have it! We live together, sleep in the same bed everyday, how is that not enough for you?” He wanted to scream, but he tried to keep himself from doing so.

“Sorry, force of habit.” Marlee smiled as she walked into the little room. She could tell that the other thought her comment was a little silly. She walked over, taking a quick look at him. “Oh boy! You don’t look like you need stitches, but you should definitely get cleaned up.” She reached over to the cart and grabbed some anti-bacterial wash. “How did you hurt yourself, hun?”

“Great, I’m not a fan of stitches so that’s great.” He said with a little nod. Nick laughed a little at her question, “I uh..I fell out of a tree..” he ran a hand through his hair, “Would you be surprised if I told you it’s happened before?”

“Nope. None of my friends are actually picking up their phones, so feel free to join me.” Del gestured the seat next to her. “You alright, you look like you’ve had a rough day. Order what you want, it’s on me.”

“Well guess it’s just you and me then.” He laughed a little, sitting down next to her. “I look that bad?” He said, running a hand through his hair. He certainly felt that bad. “I’ve just been fighting with my fiancé again is all...takes it outta you..” he chuckled a little before ordering a whiskey from the bartender.

Gabriella’s eyes scanned her clipboard once more, the girl chewing on the end of her pen as she read. Bringing the pen away from her lips, she finally pulled her gaze away from her clipboard and to the event happening around her. So far, everything seemed to be going smoothly, just as she had planned. A sigh of relief escaped her lips, a soft smile tugging at her lips as she noticed someone approaching. “Hey! Enjoying the carnival?”

Nicolas had gone to the carnival to get away from Franklin for a little. Ironic, as most couples went to carnivals together. “Yeah..it’s great, my favorite parts the food to be honest.” He smiled a little at his fiancé’s sister, “Oh and I got a lot of great pictures, I’ll get them sent to you.” He added, knowing she probably wanted photographic evidence of her event.

Though typically a labor and delivery nurse, Marlee had been taking some random shifts in the emergency room at the hospital. Paying for two children to go to college on one salary was becoming increasingly more difficult, and the extra money from working overtime was helping. The distraction from her feelings was a nice plus too. She looked at the chart she was given, walking over to the patient’s bed. “Oh boy, it looks like you’ve got a little ouchie there.”

Nick laughed a little at the nurse’s choice of words, “It’s not that bad, honestly.” He brushed off the injury, having scrapped up his arm and his side pretty bad from falling out of a tree while trying to get a better angle for a specific shot. “I’m just glad I didn’t break anything this time.”

Franklin knew what he said was a mistake the second that his fiance pulled away from him. He sat up, staring into Nicolas’ eyes. “We’ve been engaged for 12 years. 12. You know, in most states we already have a common law marriage.” He was tired of arguing over it, but he wanted to finally settle down and be married to the love of his life. “Why don’t you want to be married?”

Nicolas ran his hands through his hair, eyes going anywhere but to meet Franklin’s. “Is that not good enough then? Franklin I’m here, I’m still with you, and you’re still not happy with that.” He shook his head, not really knowing how to explain his feelings against marriage, so instead throwing the question back to Franklin. “Why do you want to be? It’s a piece of paper, why does it matter so much to you? Do you think it’ll be any different than how we are now, do you think all the arguing and fighting will just magically go away with a piece of paper, because it won’t, Franklin.”

“Tell me some of these questionable ideas.” Franklin leaned into the touch, silently begging for the other man to pull at his curls. “I take days off whenever I can. You know I’ve been saving up vacation days for if you ever decide to marry me.”

“Well how about that time you—“ Franklin’s mention of marrying him made Nicolas stop mid sentence, sitting up and looking at his fiancé with clear irritation in his face. “Really? Franklin I don’t want to argue about this again. You know I don’t want to get married yet so how about you just stop saving vacation days...maybe then you’ll stop bringing it up.”

a sigh escaped her lips as she nursed the glass of whiskey in front of her, swirling it slowly. quite frankly, she was bored out of her mind, but no one had been responding to her text messages, so here she was. alone. at a bar. drinking. 

hearing the stool next to her move, del slowly turned to see who was beside her, arching an eyebrow as they looked back at her. “you just gonna stare at me or what?”

Nicolas has stormed out after another fight with Franklin. So he went to the bar, specifically the one he knew Franks didn’t go to, so he wouldn’t have to see him. He hadn’t even been looking at the woman for more than a couple seconds, just taking in the people around him. “Oh sorry I wasn’t I just...you here with anybody? I could use a drinking buddy.”