Chapter Text
Maddie choked out a watery gasp as the Judge declared the final ruling. She brought a trembling hand up to grasp at her chest, folding forward on the bench thanking whatever God was listening.
Because he was free.
Evan was free.
"Maddie?" Her brother's timid voice brought her to her feet as she launched herself forcefully into his waiting arms for the first time in 10 years.
"Is this real?" He whispered, leaning down to bury his face into her neck.
"Yes." She sobbed, "you're free."
"Where's Maddie again?" Eddie asked Chimney, dropping down in the seat across from him.
"Boston. She's visiting her brother." He explained over a mouthful of lasagna.
"I didn't know she had a brother." Hen chimed in.
"Yeah, she doesn't talk about him much, and she hasn't seen him in like 5 years. I think he's a carpenter or something.”
"That's a long time with no contact." Hen said, raising a brow.
Chim shook his head, "Maddie says they talk at least once a month, guess life just never lined up for them to meet in person you know? I don't think there's like, any bad blood between them, not like with her parents."
"I'm glad she's reconnecting with him." Bobby said setting down the last dish with small smile, "Family is worth a little effort."
Maddie kept a firm grip on Evan's hand as they made their way through LAX. It broke her heart how anxious and skiddish her brother had become. He'd had a full blown panic attack on the plane, and was still shaky and pale by the time they landed. He flexed his clammy hand in hers, but she wasn't about to let go.
Convincing Evan to move to L.A. with her was harder than she'd expected. He’d argued that she shouldn't have to take on the burden of his entire life while he was getting back on his feet, and worried that by bringing him into her life it would cost her the family she had made for herself these last few years.
"They're cops and firefighters Maddie, do you really think they'll be all rainbows and smiles when you bring your felon brother to dinner?"
Maddie took a deep breath, "You are exonerated." She emphasized, "It was self defense Evan, Doug would have killed me and he would have killed you."
"And I killed him." Evan whispered, looking down at his hands.
"In self defense." She said, firmly grabbing his hands tightly in her own. "You listen to me Evan Buckley. What happened to you was a failing on the judicial system, not on you. Doug's parents paid off judges, jurors, police, and god knows who else to hit you with a charge that never should have been brought forth in the first place. And I did not work my ass off all these years finding the proof we needed to free you, just to drop you the second I got you back." She ran a soothing hand over his curls, and lifted his face to meet her steady eyes, "You are my baby brother. You saved my life. Let me save yours."
"I'm not worth it." He choked out, eyes spilling over as reality crashed down in an overwhelming wave of too many different emotions all at once.
Maddie pulled him in, squeezing tight, trying to press in all the love she'd been unable to give him for 10 years, while Evan unraveled in her arms.
He cried for his sister who'd wasted so much time fighting for a lost cause. He cried for the boy he had been, hands now stained with blood. He cried for the life he could have had, and for the one he'd been saddled with. He cried until there was nothing left.
Until he wanted to scream.
But soon enough he tired himself out and agreed to the move. He felt better knowing that all the money she had used to free him was from the trust Doug had left behind. That and thanks to investments her friend Josh had helped her with, she was set financially for 5 lifetimes. And didn't bat an eye at giving at least one of those lifetimes to her brother.
-
Maddie was huffing and puffing, dragging her feet as she gathered her things to head out.
Evan just rolled his eyes, she wasn't changing his mind.
"Are you sure you-" she started before he cut her off.
"I'm not going to a cop's house for dinner." He said firmly, a little angry. He understood that Sergeant Grant was her and her boyfriend's friend, but Evan's fear of police just went too deep at this point.
Maddie must have seen the irritation because she just sighed and leaned down to kiss his head.
"Call me if you need anything." She said before walking out the door.
Evan sighed too, slumping down into the overly plush couch he just couldn't get comfortable on, much like the overly soft bed Maddie had bought him. With soft sheets and a million pillows. He’d slept on the floor the first few nights before Maddie found him one morning, and Evan didn’t want to see that sad expression on her face ever again if he could help it. It had been 3 months since moving to L.A. and he was becoming increasingly frustrated with his lack of...well, anything. He worked some part-time construction gigs through a temp agency, leaving him home alone with his thoughts more often than not.
Maddie had encouraged him to work if he wanted to, but also to go out and "live a little!"
He'd tried that.
On a day off, he took a Lift to the Zoo, it had always been his favorite outing as a kid. He had been wandering around for about 20 minutes and then proceeded to have a panic attack when he started thinking about all the caged animals a little too hard. He'd felt so fucking stupid calling Maddie to come get him from where he'd barricaded himself in the bathroom.
So no, living a little was just a little too much right now.
Which made him feel even more like shit.
Because Maddie did everything she could to help him. She set him up with a Reentry Employment Specialist, which lead him to the temp agency. But the only work he was qualified for was in construction, and despite the exoneration, his background check would always run black, and the effort of gathering and submitting all the exploratory paperwork to null the check... it just didn't seem worth it.
He would always be a murderer first, exonerated felon second, and barely a high school graduate third.
He'd done some vocational training while incarcerated, mostly in carpentry, and mostly just to occupy his time. When he wasn't in classes he was in the library or gym, trying to keep his head down. He'd learned quickly which inmates and CO's to avoid, and the places never to wander alone. Prison life really wasn't as dramatic as Hollywood makes it out to be. He would say 90% of his time served was just mind numbingly boring, and for someone like Evan, he guessed that was a kind of a torture in and of itself.
And the other 10%...well he tried not to linger on it.
Maddie had also gotten him a therapist that was recommended through her work. He didn't really want to go, but knew it would make Maddie happy, so he had gone twice a week for the first month he was back.
It was okay, not that he had a frame of reference, but Dr. Wells made him uncomfortable with her fixation on his prison time and the event that lead to it.
At first he didn't notice the way she looked at him, he figured it made sense that prison and the murder were the main topics of conversation all things considered. But by the second week she kept pushing him to talk about things he didn't want to, and bringing up things he hadn't told her.
"Tell me about Carl Douglas.” She prompted him, during what would be their last session.
His head snapped up from where he'd been pulling out a thread from his shirt, "What? I-I never told you about that." He blurted in surprise.
"No," she hummed, stretching the word out, "but I could see my usual approach wasn't helping us get to the root cause of your issues." She said calmly, standing up and coming to sit next to him on the couch "I did some research, it's all public record," she waved away, like it was perfectly normal, "so tell me about Carl Douglas, was he your first sexual experience in prison?" She reached over and squeezed his upper thigh making him freeze, "was he your first sexual experience ever?"
Losing time wasn't uncommon for him, in prison, he felt like sometimes he would blink and 6 months or a year had passed without him realizing.
So he wasn't too shocked when the next thing he was aware of was pulling his pants back up, ears ringing, barely hearing Dr. Wells saying something about how they “shouldn't have done this” then writing her number on a piece of paper and sticking it in his front pocket before ushering him out the door.
He didn't remember getting back to Maddie's, he must have walked, because when he looked down at his phone there were a dozen text messages and missed calls from when she'd gone to pick him up and he wasn't there.
He told her that he would not be going back to therapy.
-
Maddie smiled as Athena opened the door and leaned in for a quick hug.
"He say no again?" She asked gently, inquiring about Evan, who had declined their last get together as well.
"He's just not big on crowds." She sighed walking down towards the backyard where everyone had gathered.
"I'd hardly call us a crowd, but to each his own." Athena commented, though not unkindly.
Maddie looked out at her friends, Hen and Karen sat with May on the loungers laughing, Bobby and Tommy were at the grill cooking something that smelled heavenly, the kids were running around playing, and Eddie was currently arguing passionately with Howie over something undoubtedly trivial, while Howie smiled and nodded at him bemused.
She wished Evan was here, that he could have this too. A community of people to have his back.
Chim’s smile turned into a beaming grin as he left Eddie mid-sentence to come greet her with a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey, did he come?" Chim asked hopefully. He, more than anyone else, had been dying to meet Evan, something about wanting his approval for being the only family Maddie acknowledged.
Maddie let out a breath and shook her head, "No, he just wasn't up for it today."
Chim nodded his head, a little disappointed, he really did want to meet Evan, he couldn't deny his curiosity especially with how tight lipped Maddie was about the guy. Going from occasionally mentioning Evan to him throughout the years, to suddenly moving the guy all the way across the country to live with her.
There was a story there, but Chim wasn't going to pry, not after the last time, when he had pushed too hard and learned about Doug. He and Maddie's relationship took a rocky turn after that fight, but ultimately it had brought them together stronger than before.
Soon everyone gathered around the table, while the kids ran to eat on the floor of the living room.
"So where is the elusive Evan tonight?" Karen asked.
Maddie smiled weakly, "He's at home, he had a long day at work."
"Chim said he's a carpenter, I believe?" Bobby asked.
Maddie nodded, "He is, he's working on a site downtown, reconstructing the hotel you guys were called out to after the quake actually."
Eddie whistled, "Damn. That sounds like a long day. Can't believe they're even bothering to re-build. Who's gonna want to stay in a hotel that already collapsed once?"
"Evan said the investors are turning it into a corporate event space and offices, since the foundation was still intact."
"Still, highrise reconstruction makes for a dangerous job site, they'd be better off demo-ing the entire structure and rebuilding from scratch." Tommy said with a pinched displeased expression.
"Well, here's to OSHA!" Hen said raising her glass, "May the gods of workplace safety violations look favorably upon Evan Buckley!"
-
Evan glared at his foot.
"I am so sorry dude! I called 911, they're sending an ambulance." Todd said a little hysterically.
Evan turned his glare to his coworker, "I said find someone here to drive me to the hospital! I don't need an ambulance." He growled out, ignoring the throbbing pain in his foot.
"Dude, you have two nails going completely through your foot!" Todd spluttered.
"And whose fault is that!" Evan snapped back, hearing the faint sound of sirens come from below.