Watch What Burns

by Kirsty-Anne Still

  I know my hate of Austin compromises the honesty of my letter, but I will always feel that she is the one that you shouldn’t be with. She is a hindrance to you. You are made for bigger, greater things.

  Hear me out and do away with the bad.

  I will always, always love you, Tyler. Please visit and give me a chance.

  Natasha x

  “I can’t believe that woman,” Tyler ground out between clenched teeth. He couldn’t believe her audacity to name Austin a problem in his life when Austin was the one that could make or break him. Tyler quickly read the other letters, his vision only reddening more from the bullshit he read on the papers.

  “And here’s mine,” Steve handed the final envelope over, his actions hesitant and almost nervous.

  Tyler took the manila envelope, reached inside and pulled the letter out. As he read over Natasha’s hand writing, he could feel the need to manically leave and show Austin becoming prevalent.

  Steve

  I know how closely you used to work with Tyler. I know that won’t ever change. Please, if you’re reading this, you’ll understand how dire this is. I need you to tell him I need him, I need to see him; I need him back in my life.

  Please, help me.

  He knows where to find me.

  Natasha.

  Tyler tried his hardest not to screw the paper up into a tight fist. His willpower was beginning to bend and flex, nearing the point of breaking on him and remaining irreparable from now until tomorrow.

  “I’ll be right back,” he told Steve, collecting all of the letters and heading into Robert’s office without even so much as knocking. “When are you next paying your daughter a prison visit?” Tyler asked, slamming the letters down onto Natasha’s father’s desk. Ever since the day that Natasha was put in the system for her dirty deeds, no one really went near the guy. Tyler kept a civil tongue and didn’t bad mouth the man, but he didn’t like him anymore than as a colleague he had to work with. “Maybe I can give you a letter to give back to her.”

  “Why don’t you see her?” Robert asked, flexing into his chair. “I mean you clearly have enough to say as it is to me, why not say it to Natasha? You can tell her all about your perfect little life.”

  “She tried to kill Austin, seeing her plead innocent at the trial was enough for me. You think my life is perfect, it’s not. What your daughter did still causes problems now for Austin, and it will for the rest of her damn life. We might be happy, and believe me we are, but there are lasting effects of your daughter’s arsonist attack that Austin has to cope with.” Tyler hit Robert’s desk, unable to continue this for the moment, “Plus, I can think of better ways to spend my time than seeing your daughter,” Tyler spoke with vehement bitterness and left Robert’s office, his mood darkened and dangerous.

  ***

  “Can we see daddy?” Grace asked as she watched her mother placing the cakes into a tin. “Pwease, mama!”

  Turning to face her daughter, Austin smiled brightly, “Do you think daddy deserves cakes?”

  “Yes!” Grace jumped excitedly in her chair. “Because daddy always needs cake!”

  Austin laughed gently at her daughter’s enthusiasm. It was infectious and everlasting. “Okay,” Austin quickly relented, “We’ll finish these ones up and go and surprise daddy.”

  “Yay!” Grace exclaimed excitedly as she grabbed another cupcake from the freshly cooled batch. “This is going to be daddy’s special cake!”

  Austin laid a kiss upon Grace’s forehead as she started to take the things to the sink to wash up. She smiled as she listened to Grace behind her, talking to herself as she decorated another cake. Even now, after three years, Austin couldn’t believe how perfect life was, how extraordinary Grace was. Every day was a miracle with her, and Austin knew that Tyler treasured his daughter just as much as she did.

  “Mommy! I’m done!” Grace said as she looked down at her icing smothered cake. “Can we go now?”

  Turning around, Austin noticed she had barely made a dent in cleaning up. Smiling, she realized that washing up could wait. “Let’s get you cleaned up, baby, and then we can go over there.”

  It didn’t take long for Austin to clean her daughter of the icing and cake mix and get her changed into clean clothes. Between Grace’s anticipation to see her father and Austin’s need to see her husband, it was swift motions and easy routine. Even in the car, Grace behaved, and Austin couldn’t fault how easy life was becoming as Grace got older.

  “I’m going to make Auntie Sena look bootiful!” Grace told her mother, “And Unca Dean!” Grace continued, making her mother laugh. “It’s going to be so much fun, Mommy!” She literally jumped in her seat as she worked up her plans for the family evening. She noticed the car had stopped, and looked around. “We’re here!” Grace cried out as she looked out to see the police department now to her left.

  “Yeah we are, Gracie!” Austin announced back, turning off the engine, taking the key from the ignition, and climbing out of the driver’s side of the car. “C’mon, Poppet,” Austin said as she pulled the car door open, undid the clasp of Grace’s car seat, and pulled her out. She listened to Grace continue her chat about playing dress up later with her auntie, and she just laughed away at her daughter’s excitement to everything.

  Walking up the few steps to the department, Austin felt nervous. She hated coming here for one reason - Robert Truman. He was the only person that hated her other than Natasha. Swallowing her mounting fear, she pushed the door and entered the small town precinct.

  Austin’s gaze immediately fell on her husband and her heart sank. He wasn’t happy, far from it. She knew of only one thing to break him down right now. Looking at Grace who hadn’t yet spotted her father, Austin leaned in and whispered for Grace to make a beeline for her father.

  “Daddy!” Grace cried out the moment her feet hit the ground and she was running towards her father in an excited haste.

  Austin stood in her spot and watched as Tyler turned around just in time to catch Grace in his embrace and hold onto her tight. Their daughter was their tonic. Apart from the temper tantrums she rarely had, or the fact that there were some days she refused to eat her vegetables like any other child, Grace Armstrong was the most idyllic child. She was the solvent to every problem that Tyler and Austin hit.

  Tyler looked over his daughter’s shoulder and he caught gazes with his wife. He shot her a smile and a silent murmur of gratitude before he applied attention back to his daughter. He could see Austin approaching, but his daughter was clearly excitable over something.

  “What’s got you and mommy down here, Sweetheart?” Tyler asked and Grace giggled.

  “We made cakes!” Grace shouted and offered her father a massive teeth filled grin.

  Tyler chuckled, “Oh, you did? Are they good cakes?”

  “They’re yummy!” Grace announced and twisted in her father’s arms to see where her mother was. “Show him, mommy!”

  Laughing, she opened the box, and looked to her husband. “I thought we would bring some down for you guys, but Grace made a special stash for you,” Austin smirked, and lifted her other arm to show the other box of cakes. “Specially decorated by our chef-artist extraordinaire,” she started and watched Grace smile brightly and then giggle as she rubbed noses with her.

  “It’s a lovely surprise,” Tyler stated as he watched Austin regain her stature and look to him. He leaned in to kiss her. “I really need a chat with you later.”

  “Okay,” Austin smiled, wary of what was wrong, but knew that Tyler would fill her in on all the details when the time was right.

  “Well, well, well,” Robert said as he stepped out from his office. “Bringing family to work again are we, Armstrong?”

  “Step back,” Tyler snapped at Robert, unwilling to put up with the needless behavior. “We all do it, so don’t even begin to bring that attitude with me.” Tyler handed Grace back to Austin and stood protectively before them, “We all know how much dislike you’ve go
t towards me and my family, but your attitude isn’t welcome here.”

  “I’m still one of the top officers here, what I say goes,” Robert argued, standing firm on his position here.

  “And as deputy, I told you to step the hell back,” Tyler restated his previous statement, this time more forcibly.

  “Ty, leave him,” Austin stepped in. “We only came down to give you guys some treats. No harm, no foul today okay?” Austin begged, knowing how hostility rose whenever Tyler and Robert were in a room. It was no lie that Natasha’s father couldn’t forgive Tyler for arresting his daughter, he was the only person who couldn’t accept his daughter’s faults, and with it her fate, and still, to this day, refused to believe it. “Grace and I were making a fly by visit.”

  “Ahh, you brought the little one,” Robert’s gaze narrowed on the three year old in her mother’s arms. “Hey Grace,” Robert said as he stepped towards Austin, his eyes caught on Grace as he leaned in to see the little girl.

  “Don’t touch her,” Austin snarled as Robert reached out to cup Grace’s face. After his attitude towards Tyler ever since Natasha’s arrest, Austin dubbed the man before her the devil’s advocate. “I’m polite enough for you to say hello to her, but you do not get to touch her like you’re some integral part of our lives.”

  “Don’t be like that,” Robert replied, reacting in a hurt manner as if Austin’s cold attitude was unwarranted.

  “I’ll be however I want to be towards you, Robert, and I’ll do it as nicely as I please,” Austin gave him a smile, never losing her cool for a moment. “We have to deal with you because you work with Tyler, but I don’t have to tolerate you in my life other than that. I have to live with the decisions of your family, but that’s all I’ll live with.”

  “Yeah,” Robert spoke with a chuckle, running his hand along his jaw line. “Maybe so, but you’ll always be the one that has to live with the scars of what my daughter did,” Robert offered an evil smirk with his comment, hitting Austin where she was always most vulnerable.

  Austin didn’t take the bait. She remained stoic and strong, unmoved by the harsh comment. “At least I’m not the one related to a deceitful, manipulative,” Austin trained her eyes as she spoke the final word, “Murderer.” She spoke each word in a low, calm tone, her voice barely more than a whisper. As she watched the anger crash upon Robert’s face, Austin smiled, “Now there are some cupcakes over there, so why don’t you be a gentleman and try and not choke on one. Then come back and thank our little chef here,” she looked to Grace and smiled, she looked back over at Robert and was delighted with his expression. “Then you can leave, while being reminded that your words are absolutely futile on me.”

  Everyone watched as Robert stormed off, slamming the door to his office behind him.

  “Mommy,” Grace said looking to her mother with a sour expression. “I don’t like him. He’s so mean!”

  “I know, baby, but not everyone is nice. You just need to know how to deal with them,” Austin told her daughter politely, kissed her forehead and looked at her husband. “Sorry, baby.”

  “Don’t apologize, I love watching him get knocked down a notch or two.” Tyler smirked impressed. Tyler watched his wife as her face once full of thunder melted into its happy complexion. It might have taken time, but the woman before him was definitely the tenacious girl he had fallen in love with.

  Chapter Five

  “WHY do you look so pissed off?” Dean asked as he sat opposite his baby sister.

  She looked to him and huffed before she quickly caved and told him what was wrong. “I’m just fed up with practically all of the Truman family,” Austin mumbled and reached out for her glass of wine. She had originally gotten it to relax, but right now, she was gulping it down with such haste she would make it to the bottom of the bottle before she knew it. “Grace and I took cakes down to the station earlier. Robert tried to touch Grace and I wouldn’t have any of it. He then turned around and told me how I have to live with the scars left from Natasha. As if I don’t know,” she scoffed and looked to her brother. “I mean, really, over more than three years and they’re still going on about all this?”

  Dean smirked and shook his head. “They might still go on about it, but clearly they haven’t learned the all important thing here.”

  “What’s that?” Austin asked as she looked at her brother and cocked an eyebrow, and pressed him to answer her.

  “You’re not exactly the girl who came back to town are you?” he asked her rhetorically. “I mean, the Austin that came home was defeated. You were a ghost of yourself until Tyler was by your side and then it was like you were next to a livewire. The moment he was gone, you were too. Now,” he chuckled, casting a chaste gaze to his niece before looking back at his sister to continue, “Now, you’re strong and feisty, and you hold your own. You’re no one’s pushover and, Austin, you scare me the best of times.”

  Austin could only smile impishly as he said that. She knew she had changed; the fire had done that to her. She might have been scarred, but she was more resilient, more prepared at fighting her own battles instead of admitting defeat. Of course, she was prone to those weak moments like no other, but it was easy to fight back to her happy state. Austin was more than the girl that Natasha had tried to destroy and that was why she was able to be so carefree and confident that Tyler would never stray. She knew, without a doubt, that Tyler loved her wholeheartedly and no one else.

  “I was never a pushover for you,” Austin retorted and winked at him.

  “Lies,” Dean muttered back at her sarcastically. “Big brother rule.”

  Rolling her eyes, Austin realized that after telling her brother what was sitting so heavily on her shoulders, she no longer felt the need to drown the bottle of wine she had deliberately opened. “You know what I don’t get?” she suddenly asked in a quick burst. She looked over at her brother and just thought for a moment before speaking up. “Why Robert can’t see what a little bitch he brought up.”

  “Daddy’s little girl.” Dean chuckled over the matter. “That man, unlike his ex-wife, is blindsided by his daughter’s ridiculous claims. At least, Diane woke up.”

  “Yeah,” Austin sighed heavily, “But look at what she lost. She didn’t just lose her daughter; she lost a family, marriage, everything.”

  “That isn’t on you,” Dean stepped in, trying to steal her minor panicked tone away from her. “You got her practically reintegrated back into the community. You did your bit, but you couldn’t control Natasha’s actions. That family meltdown isn’t down to you.”

  “I know,” Austin replied and nodded her head as if to thicken the conviction in her tone. She did know that seeing the Truman family fall apart wasn’t on her, but it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt any less to see. “It’s just sad to see happen.”

  “I could sit here and tell you until I’m blue in the face that it was bound to happen, but that’s not going to help anything,” Dean told his sister, trying to gauge her emotions. “You showed you were the bigger person by going to Diane that day, but you did your bit. It’s time you let it rest and just let them rebuild their lives.”

  “I know,” Austin replied, only to get her brother to deviate from the conversation. She could keep on at this conversation until it was dead, but she knew she would only end up in a vicious circle that she would just regret.

  “Hey man,” Tyler said as he stepped out onto the decking in the backyard. He found his wife and his brother-in-law hashing something out, and he knew full well it had everything to do with earlier at the station. “Hey baby,” Tyler spoke to Austin as he sunk down next to her, reaching for a welcome home kiss.

  “Hey you,” Austin murmured as she kissed him and pulled back. “Did you get everything sorted?”

  “Yeah,” he said and looked out to Grace playing in the pool with Sienna, “I brought something home because I need to discuss it with you.” He looked to his wife, the frown fixed on her like it was on him and he took a deep breat
h. “The guys and I received some letters this morning, and I can’t just let the matter go.”

  “Who were they from?” Austin asked dumbly as she sat up straighter in her seat. Tyler’s silence answered the question for her and she felt her blood boil, “You are kidding me right?!” she exclaimed loudly, and could immediately feel all eyes on her. “Inside now,” she murmured to her husband to usher him inside. She looked to Dean apologetically. “Sorry, I’ll be right back.”

  “No, it’s fine,” he said, showing his support. “If need be Sienna and I can take trouble with us.”

  “Thanks, Dean, but I hope it won’t lead to that,” Tyler jumped in, grateful for having such an understanding family. “I promise you that I had nothing to do with this. She’s the reason my mood was so off when you got to the station earlier.”

  “I’m not blaming you, I’m just wanting nothing more than to wring my hands around her neck,” Austin hissed her ideal intentions, and followed Tyler into the house, pulling the door shut. “Start from the beginning.”

  “Baby, that was my intention anyway,” Tyler retorted to her and walked over to the pile of envelopes he rushed home with. Since the letters had been brought to his attention, he felt a pressing need to get home to tell his wife. It wasn’t because he was unable to cope with this alone, but more because this involved her as much as it did him. “I hold no bars on honesty with you, you know that. I wanted you to know, but not when Gracie’s around.”

  “Okay, well maybe she won’t bother you if you don’t react,” Austin tried to opt for the easiest way out of this. She knew it was a futile idea, but she had to hope a little that Natasha would get bored pandering after a man’s heart that was completely taken.

  “I don’t want this bothering me now, Aus!” Tyler began to lose his mind. The potentiality of Natasha continuing to do this forever was crucifying him and he knew he couldn’t cope with that. “Okay? I don’t want her bothering my life now.”