fic: no-fault

[lirazel]

Title: no-fault
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Melissa “Mel” King/Frank Langdon, Abby Langdon & Frank Langdon, Melissa “Mel” King & Abby Langdon
Characters: Abby Langdon, Frank Langdon, Melissa “Mel” King
Additional Tags: Future Fic, POV Outsider, abby does not deserve this but at least she’s going to get some amusement out of it, ‘just friends’ huh?
Summary:

She tosses the plastic bottle into the buggy just as Tanner says, “…and Mel says that ponies aren’t baby horses, they’re something different. A baby horse is called a colt.”

“That’s right,” Abby says automatically, the words snagging on long-buried memories of Saddle Club and Misty of Chincoteague. And then, a delayed second later: “Who’s Mel?”

Because she usually does listen when he talks, and she thought she knew the names of all of his friends and all of his friends’ siblings and that she and Frank have both trained him well enough that he wouldn’t call an adult by their first name without some kind of title in front of it. But she definitely doesn’t remember hearing about a Mel before. A new kid in class? Or, God, a character from one of the more annoying shows he and Penny watch, the kind whose shrillness and obnoxious flashing make Abby flee the room?

She absolutely isn’t expecting the explanation Tanner gives.

“Daddy’s friend.”

The buggy jerks to a stop, the broken wheel—there’s always a broken wheel—dragging across the linoleum. Penny giggles at the sound it makes, but Abby doesn’t hear her, her mind suddenly gone blank.