Au: Riley - Tumblr Posts
Awwwww I can’tttt!!! So goodddd!! But I swear if we don’t get a barbecue scene where Maddie meets the gang and everyone falls in love with her daughter I’m SUINGGGG!! ❤️😭
Riley AU. Maddie meeting Hen for the first time. Maybe it’s an accidental meeting. Maddie and Riley spend the night at Chimney’s place after a long day of doing whatever people do with kids in LA and Riley opens his door (something she LOVES to do to even though Maddie always tells her not to) when Hen knocks.
It had been a long day full of excitement and far too much food and joy and Maddie is entirely certain her face aches from the amount of smiling they’ve done today. It had been Howie’s idea to go to the zoo, the one that she had been trying to get to on the first day they had met and hadn’t actually found the time or chance to do so since. He’s wonderful, in every sense of the word, from taking care of her, to being patient and kind to her daughter, to just being an absolute light in what had once been a dull life.
Riley adores him which is really the most important thing because her daughter will always be the biggest, best part of her and of her life and the thought of her not liking someone she does had been terrifying. But Maddie knows, more than anything, that her daughter’s feelings would always come first, no matter what. Thankfully, it’s not a hurdle to overcome, at least not at the moment and it’s a relief because she isn’t sure she would ever be able to feel the way about someone else as she does about him. Truthfully, she hadn’t felt it was at all possible to love again after everything with her husband.
She and Chimney are sitting on the couch as she snuggles into his side, barely paying attention to the movie as she tries to keep her eyes open. Riley had given up on the movie a while ago, happily lying on the floor between the living room and the kitchen with her iPad held out in front of her. It’s peaceful and she feels safe and loved with his arm wrapped around her whilst her hand settles on his stomach. She loves these moments with him because there isn’t any innate desire to fill silence with awkward conversation because the silence is just as comfortable as the flowing conversations they have. She could talk to him for hours and never grow tired but she could also relish in the safety of his touch, knowing she had spent far too long dreading the touch of the man who was meant to love her.
Her eyes are falling to a close just as the door knocks, letting out a groan when the arm is gone from hers but before Chimney can even move off the couch, she hears a “Hi,” and she knows that her daughter has happily scrambled up from her place on the floor to open the door, just as she does at home. And at home it’s usually something that earns her a roll of her eyes and a half-attempt of discipline because whilst it’s irritating and potentially dangerous, Maddie lives in a secure building and usually it’s just takeout or Chimney. With her daughter it’s a case of picking battles, sometimes and the opening of the door is one she knows she might never win because Riley is far too friendly and too eager, at the best of times.
However, this isn’t home and Chimney doesn’t live in as secure a building as she does and she knows they’re going to have to have words about opening other people’s doors, especially when Chimney looks as though he wants to say something but he doesn’t know what to say. He’s barely known Riley anytime at all and he’s not her dad, he’s not quite in that place of being able to tell her off and definitely not in any place to tell her how to parent her daughter. But, for the first time, she can see it as clear as day on his face as she moves to stand up, “Riley!” She rubs her hand against his arm before she walks past him, biting down on her lip as she shakes her head at the little girl who’s standing at the door with a huge smile on her face as though she had done nothing wrong at all.
It’s with a sigh that Maddie beckons for her to come to her, “It’s Chimney’s apartment, not yours, you don’t open the door, especially not when we aren’t expecting anyone, do you understand?”
“But why?”
“Do you talk to strangers in the street?” It comes out a little snappier than she had intended, arms folding as she raises a brow and looks at her daughter, watching the pondering thought on her face before she shrugs her shoulders, quickly followed by a shake of her head when she must see the look on Maddie’s face, growing angrier by the second. “Then why are you answering the door to strangers?”
It might be the first time she’s actually seen some sort of understanding on her face, her hand still on the door before she edges it open a little more, revealing a woman that Maddie recognises from Chimney’s social media, “I was just trying to help.”
She doesn’t know what she was about to say but the words die on her lips before they can, her face flushing a dark shade of red before she pulls on the top she had ‘borrowed’ (stolen) from Chimney, wearing nothing but a pair of shorts beneath it.
Chimney looks confused, moving forward the door to gently pull her daughter away from where she’s standing, “Hen, what are you doing here?” It’s not that Maddie had purposely avoided meeting his friends, she knows how much they mean to him - especially Hen and her wife and the child they have together, the little boy that considers Chimney to be like an Uncle to him. It’s just… she’s not used to having a group of people. Doug had been popular but he had made it clear that his friends were his own and she was his and nobody else’s. She can remember how possessive he’d be around them, as though he wanted everyone to know that she belonged to him and how… quiet she had to be, so unlike herself that she had lost herself along the way. She couldn’t even remember the bright eyed eighteen year old she had once been who would talk to anyone and everyone about everything. All she could remember was the feeling of his hand around her waist and his fingers holding onto her so hard, pressing into her stomach so deep, she’d have finger shaped bruises by the time the night ended.
It’s different, she knows it’s different but it’s herself that she doesn’t trust most of the time. The level of intimidation she’d feel at the thought of meeting these people who actually mean something to him was intense. “I uh, was just coming to check on you because…” Maddie gulps down the lump in her throat knowing exactly what today is - the anniversary of his brother’s death. He’d asked her if she wouldn’t mind distracting him from the day and she had done her best but she can still see the lingering pain in his eyes. It had been ten years and whilst it had been twenty years for her, they’d bonded over that mutual loss in vastly different circumstances. “But I see that I’m not needed.”
Riley, for all her five years, manages to pick up on the slight awkward tension almost immediately, “I’m Riley, mommy and Chimney are tired because they’re really old and they’ve been walking around the zoo all day and Chimney even came into the park with me and he said he hurt his back but I think that was an excuse not to come on the seesaw with me.” Her daughter talks fast and Maddie can see the amusement on the other woman’s face before she takes Riley’s lead, realising she can’t stay hidden from that huge part of Chimney’s life forever.
She steps forward, one hand still trying to pull down the top to no avail, her bare legs on show and the shorts that were far too short revealing way more than she would have liked for her first meeting with Chimney’s best friend but there she is. It’s with a breath and her best smile that she holds out her hand, “I’m Maddie, it’s nice to finally meet you.”
She takes her hand, giving it a small shake, but she can see the look in her eyes and the slight frown. Maddie wonders what Chimney has told his friends about her, chewing down awkwardly on the inside of her cheek as she waits for a response. “Hen… so you are real.” His arm is around her waist within seconds just as her cheeks flush once more and she looks to him for help. Whatever he’s told them about her, she supposes it starts and ends with every rejection she had provided him as to why she didn’t want to pop by the station or go out with Hen and Karen or go to Bobby and Athena’s house for dinner. He’d asked so many times and each time she had told him she wasn’t ready. It probably wasn’t the best first impression when they wanted to meet the person a member of their family was dating.
“She is and now you can go spread that news that I don’t have an imaginary girlfriend.” There’s an annoyance in his tone, met with an amused smirk from his best friend as she looks Maddie up and down and she feels entirely intimidated and scrutinised right then as her heart thumps so hard against her chest, she’s almost sure they can hear it.
“My mommy doesn’t have many friends, just one but Chimney has lots. I heard her telling my uncle. Are you Chimney’s friend?” Said with all the innocence of a child as she holds up a single digit and Maddie might say something if she were wrong but she likes to keep herself to herself and she had a hard time letting people in. Josh had just managed to worm his way into her heart despite her best protests and Chimney… well, he was different. She feels drawn to him by some invisible force of fate.
Hen ignores the man, opting to look down at the little girl in front of her instead, “I am Chimney’s best friend in the whole world and I have been dying to meet his girlfriend and you. I even invited you both around for a family barbecue this weekend but I have yet to hear back.” Chimney hadn’t mentioned it and that would hurt if she didn’t already know that her answer would have been a not yet, she wasn’t ready. He was always waiting for her, always sacrificing something for her and she feels awful, especially if the current rumour was that she didn’t even exist.
But now it’s been mentioned in front of Riley which means she will never let it go and Chimney’s arm wraps a little tighter around her as her other hand reaches to rest on the top of Riley’s head, ignoring the raised brow from the woman at the sight of the still blistering but healing burn on her arm. Her daughter smiles, “Will there be kids?”
“There will be, I have a son named Denny, he’s eight and a little girl named Nia, she’s just three years old. And then our other friends have kids, too, don’t they, Chimney?” She wonders if, judging by the tone in her voice, Hen’s a little annoyed at her for not only avoiding family events but keeping Chimney from them by default. If they had a day off together, he’d spend it with her and the guilt is immense as she presses a little more into his side, wondering if it were possible for her to get any more socially awkward than she felt right then.
“I’m five, nearly six. I’m six in eight months and three days, right mommy?”
Nearly six, Maddie almost scoffs out loud at that one but nods her head instead. Hen has the same look on her face as most adults do when they meet Riley - one of shock that she’s quite as vocal as she is and amusement because as talkative as the little girl can be, she’d endearing too with her big, brown eyes and her long hair and ever innocent look on her face. “I’m sorry,” She finally finds herself saying, letting of the grip she’d had on the back of Chimney’s shirt with a shake of her head, “I don’t mean to seem rude or I don’t know, possessive, maybe? I-I don’t... “ She doesn’t know why Hen is looking at her the way she is but she can take a good guess, she might be awkward and shy but she had been a people person and a people pleaser once. “I don’t avoid stuff like that because I want him all to myself and I really am sorry if Chimney has missed things he shouldn’t have, it’s my fault. I’m just... “ Hard work, she finishes in her head before she frowns, “I was just putting it off for as long as I could because I was scared you all wouldn’t like me and I know how much you mean to him, so… I-I don’t know, I was scared of losing him because he respects your opinion and now I’ve done the opposite of my intention and you all probably think I’m an asshole…”
Riley gasps and Maddie groans, “... who curses in front of her kid.” A childish giggle can be heard as she looks down and her daughter looks up at her with a big grin on her face, and she can see the pleading behind her eyes before she can actually voice what she wants to say aloud. “I would love to come to your barbecue if… if you still want me there and if not, that’s cool too because he can totally go alone, I am really not that kind of person, I promise. Even though I clearly make really bad first impressions, you can ask my best friend, I kind of snapped at him my first day and now we’re all good but--”
“You’re rambling.” Chimney cuts her off, thankfully, because her chest is starting to get tight and she realises she's barely taken a breath between all that. Somehow, her body immediately relaxes when his lips are against her cheek and his arm moves a little tighter around her to pull her as close to his body as he possibly can. “I told you, she’s shy and she has Riley to think about, I didn’t want to push her into something she isn’t ready for.”
Hen is about to open her mouth to say something, a sparkle of amusement in her eyes as Maddie cuts her off before she can, “But I am ready, if that’s okay?”
“You heard the woman.” The grin on Chimney’s face is entirely worth it, even if she does make an awful first impression, he had asked her more than once to meet the people he loves and she had felt awful turning him down each and every time. But it’s been a few months and there’s parts of herself and her perception of relationships that she needs to reclaim for herself, no matter what happened once before. “You two can be in charge of the potato salad, is that okay?”
Maddie wants to say no because neither she or Chimney can cook anything and somehow, she doesn't know how, but she’s sure they’ll mess it up. Instead, she nods her head and gulps down her lump in her throat, moving her hand to Riley’s shoulder when she can sense her about to say something, probably about her lack of kitchen abilities. “W-we’ll be there.”
Chimney finally lets go of her, pressing a soft kiss to her temple before he steps forward, back towards the door that Hen had barely crossed the threshold of and Maddie hopes that it’s okay that he has someone now, other than her, who can be there for him on the painful days. “Thanks for coming, you really are a good friend.”
She pulls her daughter towards the living room, deciding it best to give them a moment as both she and her daughter utter a goodbye to the other woman that would no longer be a stranger to her, she supposes, eyes watching as he wraps his arms around her and they smile at each other. It’s good that he has people, and those people have been by his side for such a long time. “Mommy?”
“Yes, baby?” She looks down when she’s back on the couch as Riley snuggles into her side, wrapping an arm tightly around her until she’s almost on her lap.
“I think you and Chimney should buy potato salad from the store or everybody might hate us.”
Her voice is low, a serious look on her face and her eyes wide as she rests her chin on Maddie’s shoulder, causing her to scoff, nodding her head in agreement, “I think that’s a really good idea, baby. A really good idea.”
Literally me as a Taurus. 😂
Another great chapter!! 😭❤️🥰
Chim, Maddie, Hen and Karen go on a double date in an attempt to build a bridge but Maddie is late as always... so Chim uses the time to have a word about everything and they have a serious, much needed convo.
Maddie is late and he’s both not at all surprised but completely relieved because it gives him a chance to talk to Hen. Karen had been the one to suggest the double date and Maddie had been nervous all week about it whilst Hen had barely mentioned it and he was starting to feel the awkward tension leaking into his friendship with Hen and their working relationship. It’s strange because she’s not liked any of his girlfriends before and has always made it clear from the beginning that it wasn’t her dating life, so it never mattered. She was nice enough to their faces and that was all he could ask for.
But Maddie was a different story. She was never rude and she never said anything to intentionally hurt Maddie’s feelings to her face but there was a coldness there he wasn’t used to seeing in the other woman. Karen was at the bar and he’s sitting across from the woman he considers to be his best friend, and she has been since he’d met her almost a decade before. They had been through hell and back together and he doesn’t know if he would be here today if it wasn’t for her. She’d kept him sane in the midst of bullying and racism at the start of his journey in the 118 and he’d tried to do the same for her, he hoped he was able to do the same for her. This was just a new hurdle, something they could overcome because it was Hen and Chimney and nothing else mattered.
“I know that you’d like Maddie if you gave her the chance.”
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