Characters::Tass and Britt
Word Count::891

He should have called ahead, Tass knew that much, but this wasn’t exactly a visit he had been looking forward to. Everything was in chaos, but she was shutting basically everyone out. He had tried to in touch with her in the weeks leading up things finally hit the fan, but she ignored his texts, declined his calls, and generally pretended not to get any messages. 

Still, he didn’t knock right away, choosing instead to pace along the porch. He figured she knew he was there already, he had seen that damned zombie bird of hers when he got there. Truth be told, the bird sort of freaked him out a little. 

The door opened before he could decide, Britt standing there with a look he had only seen on her face once before. This was not going to end well.

“Britt.” 

He had no idea where to go with this, dark eyes looking for anything in posture that might give him a clue of how to get her to finally agree.

“Do not say it, Tassos. The answer is no.” 

She had promised Chance when he was younger that no one would take him away from her. She couldn’t break her word, not like that. There had to be something, some detail she had been missing. Something had to have set her son off for him to do all of this. 

But even Az had tried telling her she needed to let him go before he dragged them all down with him. 

“Brittia, you have to see reason here! You should have let me deal with this when he started killing women that look like you. Look what he did to your daughter. To my son. Do you really think he’s going to just stop?” he countered, tossing his hands in the air before stepping forward to touch her shoulders. 

The moment he touched her, Britt was shoving at him, but he was physically stronger. 

“He was doing fine! Something set him off, he wouldn’t do any of this without a reason!” she argued back, hating the way his grip tightened when she tried to shove him off. 

“Fine? You call torturing and killing women that look like you fine?” He couldn’t have heard her correctly. There was just no way. Especially when he knew that she had personally cleaned up a few of his kills. “How can you even look at him knowing what he’s doing, Britt?”

“Because he’s my baby!” It was honestly that simple to her. How could he not see that no matter what Chance had done, she was still his mother? She still loved him and it was her job to protect him. 

“And Sera? What does that make her?” It was a cruel remark, he knew, but he was trying to get through to her in any way that he could.

Of course, he regretted that remark the moment her expression crumbled, the absolute heartbreak laid bare before him. 

“Britt..I didn’t..” Tass shook his head, knowing he might have stepped over a line.

Britt stopped trying to push him away, her body sagging a little as she fought back the tears threatening to consume her. “How did it get so bad? What did I do wrong to make him like this?”

It had to be her fault. She had killed someone when she was pregnant with the twins, had come home coated in blood and shaking. Az had been the one to help her get cleaned up and calm her down, but she had to figure it had left some sort of stain on Chance especially. There was just too much of that darkness in him because of her. 

“You didn’t make him like this. Look at your other kids. The twins…they just…there’s just something not right with them. Like my mother. They’re not going to change, Britt, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stop them from hurting anyone else.” His tone was softer now, more coaxing than demanding. She was at her breaking point and he knew it wouldn’t take much to push her over that last little line.

“But how can I let go? I swore to protect him, Tass.”

“Then protect him from himself. What do you think is going to end up happening if he pisses someone else off? Someone not close to any of us? They might do worse to him, they might go after you. You’ve got to let him go to protect him and everyone else. You already agreed to Oona, what’s so different about him?”

The tears spilled over as she finally looked up at him, one of the few people she had ever truly loved. “Oona would hurt me if it weren’t for him. Chance would never let anything happen to me,” she finally answered, certain in at least that.

“But he is hurting you. Maybe not physically, but he’s going to break you too.”

He was right and, for a moment, she absolutely hated him for it.

“I can’t have any part of this, Tass. I can’t do it. I can’t be there when you take him away,” she finally agreed, breaking down into tears as the words left her mouth. 

It was only his arms around her that kept her upright as he promised her she didn’t have to be involved beyond agreeing.