S1 Episode 17
The Hale Family Gets It Together
Welcome to Trainwrecks, a free-to-read fiction serial that follows a group of six Seattle-adjacent friends from the year 2004 to the year 2015. Join Luna Cruz, Sebastian Velasquez, Dimitri and Victoria Hale, Duke Kingston, and Jasmine Nolan as they stumble their way from adolescence to adulthood, falling in love, making mistakes, overcoming their pasts, and staying together through it all.
For series introduction, character profiles, relationship charts, and general orientation, check out the Table of Contents!
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Sometimes, when Dimitri got off work, he would drive over to Seattle to have dinner with his sister. One hundred percent of the time this happened while his father was at work; he still didn’t feel like seeing James, and anyway, he had nothing new or exciting to report about his life.
Victoria was fond of competition shows, so they were sitting at the kitchen island having a heated debate over who was going to win season four of American Idol when the doorbell rang. The housekeeper Linda, a gray-haired white woman with massive arms and a commanding presence, motioned for them to keep talking. “I’ll get it.”
“Duke thinks it’ll be Carrie Underwood,” Victoria said as she finished off the last of her post-dinner glass of water.
Dimitri’s eyebrows went up. “Is that so? I should place bets on her, then. He’s got a nose for these things.”
“Does he?” She looked past his shoulder and her mouth fell open. “Mum?”
Dimitri looked behind him, too. Sure enough, their mother stood in the entryway, scrutinizing the townhouse with an unreadable expression. If Dimitri felt like a fish out of water every time he came over, he couldn’t imagine how his mom felt just then, surrounded by clean new furniture, bright lights, open spaces, and a grand piano. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
Makoto snapped to attention. “I’m here for her,” she said, pointing her chin at Victoria. And before either of them could speak, she fired out a question. “What the hell do you mean you think you ruined my life by being born?”
Victoria turned whiter than her dinner plate. “Wh-Who told you that?”
Dimitri stared at his sister. She didn’t really believe it, did she?
“Your friend Duke came over an hour ago. He had a lot to say.”
Ah, Dimitri thought, that explained why he’d asked if their mother would be home.
The color returned to Victoria’s face. “I can’t believe him!”
“So it’s true, then.”
Her mouth opened and closed several times before she could get words out. “Yes, it is!” she cried. She stood from her chair and pointed an accusing finger at Dimitri. “What with him always going on about how great things used to be, and you and Dad walking around acting like bloody ghosts—!”
Dimitri reached for her. “Tor…”
“What the hell else was I supposed to think?” Victoria’s voice wavered. “I didn’t ask to be born! I didn’t mean to come in and destroy your perfect little family! But what right do I have to act like a victim when I was the problem?”
Makoto started towards her. “You take that back.”
“I can’t!” Tears spilled down Victoria’s cheeks. “I’ve seen the photos of you and Dad and Dimitri frolicking around Seattle! You used to smile! You used to be a good mother before I came along! Everyone says so!” She trailed off into loud, heaving sobs, and for one terrifying moment Dimitri thought his mother was going to grab her and shake her until she stopped.
But instead, Makoto threw her arms around her wailing daughter and held her as if she were the only thing keeping her tethered to the ground. She buried her nose in her hair and choked on a sob of her own. Dimitri cast a wide-eyed look at the housekeeper, who stared back at him in disbelief.
“Victoria,” Makoto said, “I wanted you with every fiber of my being. Our family was great before, but something was missing, and that something was you.” She smoothed her hand over Victoria’s head. “I loved being a mom. I was obsessed from the moment I held Dimitri for the first time. So when he was old enough, your dad and I sat down and talked and budgeted and decided that yes, we could handle having another kid.
“I was so fucking happy when I saw that positive pregnancy test. I called everybody I knew. I would have announced it in the newspaper if I could.” She closed her eyes. “And I loved every single day of those next nine months. Even when I was sick as a dog and could hardly eat. Even when you kicked me in the ribs and made me crave tacos so bad I’d cry until I got them. Your dad and I never stopped talking to you—Dimitri, too. We told you when we bought our house, when we bought your crib. I even asked you for your preference on onesies.”
A small, tearful laugh bubbled out of Victoria.
“I chose your name because you were going to be my little queen,” Makoto said. She drew back and brushed her thumbs across Victoria’s cheeks. “And you are my little queen. If there was anything good in me before you were born, I gave it all to you. What few scraps of kindness I had. My sense of humor. All my ambition and every ounce of fight.” She tilted her head in Dimitri’s direction. “He was great on accident, but you were great on purpose.”
Dimitri smiled a bit at that, but it didn’t stop him from drowning in his own shame. He’d had no idea his ranting and complaining and petulant attitudes had been eroding his sister’s self-esteem. Hadn’t he promised to be a good brother to her? Hadn’t he gazed down at her in her crib, newborn and pink and wrinkled, and vowed never to hurt her?
“What’s going on here?”
In all the excitement, none of them had noticed James walk in through the front door. He looked from his ex-wife and daughter to Linda to Dimitri, his expression anxious. Dimitri jumped to his feet.
“Dad, good to see you! Wow, you’re looking sharp tonight. Is that a new tie? Let’s have a chat outside. We have so much catching up to do!” He all but shoved his father back out into the chilly spring night. As soon as the door shut behind him, he dropped the cheerful mask. “Tor had some pretty heavy baggage she was lugging around.”
When he’d finished explaining the situation, James collapsed onto the front step as if he’d had the wind knocked out of him. “How could I have let this happen?” he whispered. Dimitri, feeling suddenly self-conscious towering over his father, sat next to him. James wiped a hand over his face. “It’s my fault. I never could keep it together for her.”
“I think we’re all to blame,” Dimitri said. “Letting go of things has never been one of our strong points.”
“But for her to think we were better off without her…!”
He remembered the three of them—four of them, really—crowded in the doorway of Victoria’s nursery fifteen years ago, awash in the warm glow of the setting sun. How they’d admired the yellow walls James had just finished painting and imagined Victoria toddling around the room, the missing piece of their happy little family. And then came the cold, dark reality of his mother’s illness. Watching his father try to coax Makoto out of bed while she sobbed under the covers. James making them breakfast while comforting a shrieking, red-faced Victoria. Aunt Leila having to step in because his father couldn’t possibly do everything on his own. The fighting. The screaming matches punctuated by Victoria’s hungry cries. The pleading through closed doors. The alcohol. And the end, when a broken and exhausted James had crouched before Dimitri, wiped his tears away and said, “Take care of your mum.”
They had done the best they could under the shittiest of circumstances, circumstances they’d been thrown into without warning or preparation. Hindsight allowed them the luxury to pretend they could have done things differently. But Dimitri knew better than anyone that time, in its relentless forward march, would not give them a do-over.
He stared at his devastated father. James was graying in spots, wrinkled in others, a mere shadow of the man who used to push Dimitri around in his stroller making motorcycle noises, who used to be his hero. He was never going to get that version of his dad back, and he’d carry the weight of that loss with him forever. But maybe, just maybe, he could get over himself and build something with the man who sat beside him now.
He laid his hand on his father’s shoulder. “You did everything you could,” he said. “For all of us.”
And for the first time since his parents’ divorce, he felt like they had survived. Beaten and bruised and far from unscathed—but still alive. Still together. Still a family after all.
Author’s Note: Yes, there will be an update on Christmas! I’m not taking any breaks until the season is over!
Ahhh! Glad for the resolution here. Victoria got to have that moment with her mom
James and Makoto show up for their kids! Victoria finds out how much she is loved AND Dimitri gets over himself?! Let's go Hale family resolution!! (And shoutouts to Duke for making it happen)