The Child Bride

Ch-3: The Sea of Fish

Ch-3: The Sea of Fish

“Your wife is insane, Boss”

Those words aren’t exactly what Don expected to hear from Matt, but then again he hadn’t really known what to expect from Matt when he had assigned him to keep an eye on Casey. He had mostly done so because even after two months into their marriage he didn’t quite trust the kid yet to not make a break for it when she got the chance, Matt might just see her as a scared little girl, and Don will admit that there isn’t anything threatening about her anymore, but yet it’s better safe than sorry. He might not care for her, but there are people around who would exploit all the weakness they could find, and the skinny, teenage bride of the Carllone heir was one hell of a weakness no matter if Don gave a s**t about her wellbeing or not.

“Okay” Don finally says taking his eyes off the computer screen he was focused on for the past hour or so. Matt doesn’t look like he is annoyed at the proclamation, if anything he looks a little relaxed and more exasperated rather than furious, it’s a strange look on him.

“What happened now?” he asks with a resigned sigh, over the past week Casey has been easing away from her room, finally getting the guts to explore since he hadn’t went back on his words for a good month now. She still mostly avoided him, he had started spending long hours at the office since the wedding and whenever he was home she made a point of retreating to her room, making it evident that she still didn’t trust him.

But the rest of his staff, Matt included, had a different story to speak about his wife, and from what he understood his child bride was a hyperactive, loud and explosive for lack of better word.

“She almost burned down the house today” Matt informs.

“I am hoping it wasn’t intentional?” Don chooses his words carefully, because while these stories are honestly fascinating he still had a hard time relating these incidences to the silent startled kid in his house that still flinched away when she saw him.

“Hobby of the week was cooking, it’s safe to say everyone in the house has been informed not let her go anywhere near the kitchen” he mutters but there is that fond exasperated tone again “I get it, she is bored, she’s moved half way across the country and she has no friends, relatives or a job, but can’t the kid have less life threatening hobbies? I didn’t even know gardening could be so explosive! The animals, I am not sure how many street cats currently resides in the property, neither do I want to, and the god damn TV shows- No grown man should watch that many episode of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, sometimes I think she is seriously doing it knowing that I have no choice but to watch her and her shitty taste in TV” Matt complains, but for once he doesn’t look like he wishes to hurt the cause of his complaints.

Once again, it’s a strange novelty.

“She’ll settle in as soon as college starts in the fall” is the best Don can hope for. He could probably talk to her; she is still scared enough that she would listen but other than a few accidental messes here and there his team tells him that most of her deeds are mostly innocent and purely out of boredom rather than trying to take down his house.

“But that’s another month and a half away!- I promise you she is going to make me watch at least another season of Grey’s Anatomy in that time” he shakes his head as if recalling something then smiles. It’s one of the rare occasions where he is reminded that Matt is not much older than him, the years spend with him doing things most people won’t had worn away on the novelty of Matt that he had all those years ago.

Don would go as far as to say Matt actually likes the kid, but he is pretty sure he won’t agree to it though.

“She’s not much like Marin” now those words do snap Don out of whatever equation his mind was running for the time being, the name causing him to hone in on Matt. “She is not like any of your ex- girlfriends to be honest; I took her out earlier this morning, just until they cleared the smoke from the house. I dropped her off at the mall, figured a little shopping ought to cheer her up because that usually worked with the rest of them. She just blinked at me when I opened the door for her, in the end we brought fish food and an ice cream machine- The ice cream sucked by the way; do not eat anything she makes you” Matt warns with a teasing glint.

“What the hell does an ice cream machine have to do with Marin?” Don bites just for the hell of it, just saying her name out loud is enough to send a wave of memories flashing through him.

“I am saying every time I’ve escorted Marin out for one of your ‘I am sorry, do what you want with my money’ trips she’s never left a shop without spent at least ten grand on shoes alone, I know because i have been her personal moving hanger more than once, Casey on the other hand-” Matt starts but just the idea of comparing Marin to anyone has his blood heating up.

“Casey is 18” he snaps out quickly, hoping that’s the end of the conversation.

“And yet she is more mature, intelligent and is not married to you for your money unlike-”

“No, she is married to me because she had no other choice!” his tone raises a decibel, but he forces himself to take another long breath, “Marin is the woman I wanted to marry, and Casey is the kid I got stuck with- Look, if you don’t want to be babysitting her ill just assign someone else” he insists.

“Look Don, this isn’t actually about-“ Matt starts, but Don gives him a stern glare that dictates that they are done with the conversation “It’s fine, I like the kid. She is just starting to get used to me, you probably shouldn’t switch it up so soon” Matt says with a resigned sigh.

“Don’t know if you noticed, but her comforts aren’t exactly my top priority at the moment” Don knows his words are rash and maybe not entirely true because he did ask Matt to keep an eye on her, but mentioning Marin still has its effects on him, and he tries his best not blame it all on his brand new wife, but sometimes it’s just easier to blame Casey.

Matt barely reacts to his words, Don is pretty sure he had drunkenly ranted about the Casey situation to Matt in less that polite terms before he even knew her name, when he had to end things with Marin for the sake of marrying her, so his irrational rage shouldn’t really surprise him.

Matt just shrugs and gets up from his seat.

“Sure Boss, I just wanted to let you know you aren’t the only one with issues. I think the kid’s having panic attacks and some level of sleep deprivation, but all things considered she is a good kid, just thought you should know” is all that he was willing to say before he abruptly leaves.

He doesn’t ponder on Matt’s words for long, he has far more important things to do that worry about the brat, and if anything Matt’s words about Marin strike him more than anything else he said about Casey.

So it doesn’t surprise him that by the time he gets home that night he is nicely buzzed, already tuning out the rest of the world that even his driver gives him a cautious look, but unlike Matt the old man doesn’t dwell on it and drives of at Don’s command. He is drunk, but it’s not enough, these days he finds that it never really is enough because he can’t get Marin’s face out of his head.

“Hello! This is Marin Vasquez, I am a bit busy at the moment so please leave a message- Unless you are Carter, Carter, just text me baby-I’ll always be up for you, Haha”

It’s all that he gets every time he tries her phone, he knows she is avoiding him because when he tried from Matt’s phone she had picked up until she figured out it was him. It wouldn’t be the first time he is leaving her a drunken voice mail, because he has done it countless time and in a way he knows she listens because she is yet to block his number from her phone.

“Hello! This is Marin Vasquez, I am a bit busy at the moment so please leave a message- Unless you are Carter, Carter, just text me baby-I’ll always be up for you, Haha”

Carter, it’s still f*****g Carter on the other end that he wants to smash this phone to pieces again. He opens his mouth to say something, maybe about how much she was once willing to be up for him and only him, of how he was ready to give her his whole world. He wants to ask her what the f**k she is doing with Carter, whether Carter means half as much as Don meant to her, whether Carter touches and f***s her the way he did for her, because there must be something, some rational reason that he can’t find her and she chose Carter.

But yet when he opens his mouth to say something he finds that his mouth is dry, there are noises coming out of him but it’s nothing that makes sense, and the screen of his phone is getting wetter and wetter. He is just about to throw it at the wall again when he hears another noise coming out from some part of the usually silent house.

It’s not Marin, or god damn Carter, that it’s enough incentive for him to follow it. The hallway leading to the main hall in narrow, but the aquarium fitted in the walls is large enough that it casts its light throughout most of the house, the main door included. It’s not very hard for him to walk over there

“-Not at all cool man, I mean what the hell was Hawkeye even thinking?-I mean come on! Isn’t there a bro code between you guys, there should definitely be a bro code for these type of situation, and insider information Captain America over there has been sniffing around your Zathura’s spaceship- I mean I might be wrong but I think he could totally steal your crib bro- I think she is getting pissed-”

It’s the most incomprehensible blabber he had heard, he is not sure if it’s because he is drunk or because the person crouched down on the floor talking to the god damn fish is an i***t.

“I mean could you even imagine it?-Ohh, maybe it would like one of those transformers thing-but in fish form, how cool would that me- See Jonnie obviously agrees” she giggles a little, tapping on the glass that it’s enough to shake him out of his stupor of watching the kid- his wife- babble to the fishes. There is a chance he is little drunker than he assumed.

“Oh my god, you are clinically insane” Don groans out, he doesn’t really mean to because the kid can babble all she wants, once again it’s none of his business, if anything it makes sense that he got stuck with a wife that talks to animals.

The kid blinks, but she doesn’t look as startled anymore, but she does tighten her hold over the blanket that was around her, and for that moment wrapped like that she honestly doesn’t look very old, eyes wide and innocent and so very- very young and stupid enough to talk to f*****g fishes in the middle of the night. Disgust pools in his guts when he associates the wide eyed mess of blankets to his wife.

“I am married to a god damn three year old” he admits to himself with another groan, his hand yanking at his hair roughly because he is not sure if he is way too drunk or not near drunk enough to deal with this.

“Well sobbing into your phone at three in the morning doesn’t really make you the paragon of maturity either” the kid says unexpectedly, but sinks more into the blanket wrapped around her when he takes to process that she is indeed the one to snap at him.

“Oh and talking to f*****g fishes is?” he retorts back, but finds that there is no heat behind the words.

“They have emotions and can sense change in their surroundings, it’s scientific” the kid adds then seemingly recalls that she doesn’t trust him because she scoots back and makes a motion to stand up.

“No, stay!” he tells her, and then winces at the forcefulness of his words that has the kid flinching away once again, “Please, don’t stop on my account. You know what I am too old for this s**t- Good night” he decides already stepping away, the kid doesn’t say anything else and even though he stumbles a bit he finally manages to fall into a bed.

In the coming morning he’ll wake up to realize for once he hadn’t drank more and there was no embarrassing message send to his ex, and even though he would never admit it he would feel slightly grateful to his baby bride and her sea of fishes.