Chapter Text
Mitchell was an hour and fifteen minutes late getting home from work. Cameron was sitting at the kitchen table with Lily trying to keep it together. The last thing Cam wanted to do was worry her. He had just convinced her to begin eating after constantly asking where Mitch was so they could all be together. He hadn’t eaten yet, too worried about his boyfriend.
A meeting could have just been running late…really late, but he would have texted him by now. What if something bad happened? What if he got hit by a car? Or robbed or died or—?
The front door of the Tucker-Pritchett residence clicked open.
“I’m here, sorry I’m late.” Mitchell apologized.
Cameron sighed in relief. He got up from the table immediately and ran to Mitchell, both of them greeting each other with a kiss. “Whew, thank God! I was this close to making some calls. Dinner’s ready when you are, sweetie,” he said, dragging his boyfriend back to the kitchen.
While Cam was preparing plates of lasagna for them both, Mitch set his briefcase down and now greeted his daughter.
“So how was your day?” Cam asked as casually as he could. His adrenaline was still running high, but he needed to find out what caused such a delay tonight.
“It was alright. Just…one of those days,” Mitch replied as he gratefully took his plate from Cam to the dinner table. He skipped lunch today working on a case whose date was moved up by a week. His boss was breathing down his neck, needing two weeks worth of forms finished by, well, a week ago.
“A lot of meetings?”
“Yeah. The Jefferson case is moving faster than anticipated and we’re having to make up for it. Just the usual, y’know?”
Cam noticed Mitch’s eyes briefly shift downwards. His usual nonchalance felt a tad off, too.
He was trying to cover something up.
Cam decided he’d ask about it when Lily went to bed. For now, Mitch began scarfing down the cheesy pasta dish as Cam and Lily, who had already licked her plate clean, talked about what happened in their days.
Soon after, it was time for Lily to go to bed. She dutifully brushed her teeth and her fathers tucked her in before they started cleaning up the kitchen.
“So, anything else happen today?” Cam once again asked.
“Uh…nothing really important,” Mitch replied as he began washing the dishes.
“Mhmm. Who was it?”
“What?”
“You heard me. Who made you get home so late? Was it Jacob again? That son of a bitch has been far too comfortable with—”
“No, Jacob didn’t do anything.”
“This time.”
Mitch chuckled. Couldn’t refute that one. “Yeah, no. It wasn’t anyone from the office.”
“So it was something while you were coming back then.”
“Yeah…”
“Mitchell, what happened? How bad was it? Oh no, did someone try to mug you? Don’t tell me, it was something worse, wasn't it?”
“No, nothing like that. Just car problems. But no worries, everything’s already been taken care of.”
“That’s it?”
“Yep. Other than the usual, that was all.”
Cameron eyed his boyfriend. He continued drying the plate he was holding, gaze never leaving Mitchell. He did this for another six dishes before Mitchell finally cracked. He sighed deeply and put his hands to his temples.
"…there were some people I ran into.”
Cam gasped. Again, only the worst case scenarios came to mind. “Who?”
"No one we know. At least, I’m pretty sure we don’t.”
“Mitchell, details please!”
“Okay okay! It was just…some…clowns.”
Cam gasped again, this time louder and more dramatic. All previous worries melted on the spot. A wide smile spread onto Cam’s face as excitement glittered in his eyes while Mitchell rolled his.
With everything cleaned up, they moved to the living room, getting comfortable on the sofa.
“Ohmigod!!” Cam whisper-yelled as to not wake Lily. “Who? Where? What did they look like? Honey, I need answers!!”
The man in question tried his hardest to not grumble. The last thing he wanted to discuss was clowns of all things after the day he had. He remained calm and did his best to retell his experience as it happened.
“Okay so, this morning on my way to work, I had seen a big group of clowns on the street handing out flyers. I had a lot to do today, so I took an alternate route. No big deal, right? Well, from the rear-view mirror, I see one of the clowns look me dead in the eye just as I was turning down the street. At least, I think they were looking at me. The mask made it hard to tell.”
“Wait, clowns don’t wear masks. Are you sure it wasn’t just heavy makeup? And what were they wearing?”
“Looked like a mask to me. I don’t know how to describe their clothes, though. They were dressed in pink and black and they all wore hats. Their outfits had a lot of checkers and stripes everywhere…It all just looked like typical clowny circus attire.”
Now it was Cam’s turn to roll his eyes. Truly his boyfriend had learned nothing in all his years of knowing him. Or, knowing Fizbo, to be more specific.
“Some wore dresses and others had, like, a one piece,” continued Mitch. “That’s all I remember. Anyways, I get to work on time and just go about my day like normal. The chaos of today made me completely forget about the clowns and I took my usual route home. Big. Mistake. I’m just driving, nearing the street I first saw them on, when the car starts slowing down. I check and the gas tank was completely empty! And, of course, the car rolls to a stop right in front of at least fifteen of those pink clowns.”
“Shut. Up.”
“Exactly. I could’ve sworn the tank was nearly full this morning too. But yeah, then they all just turned around and stared at me. I wasn’t about to get out of the car, so I called Roadside Assistance to take me to the nearest gas station. They said ‘no problem, one of our guys will be there soon.’ Yeah, he got there almost an hour later.”
“Seriously!? What took that long?”
“No idea. He didn’t tell me. Didn’t even apologize for the wait either. He just pulls up, sees me waiting in the exact make and model of the car I described to the company, and says ‘I’m here for a Michelle Pritchett.’ Even after everything, that still wasn’t the worst part of my evening.”
Mitch shuddered before resuming his story.
“While I was waiting, those damn clowns decide it was a fan-tas-tic time to speak to me. Most people in the large group were still just staring at me, but a few came up to the car and started knocking on the windows. Like hell I’m rolling them down, so I just try to pretend like I don’t notice them. That worked for about three seconds. Then, they start holding up some flyers for a circus they’re performing in, I guess. I just try to keep looking down. Well, more of them start to surround the car trying to get my attention. Some even tried to slip the flyers in. “
Cam continued to listen intensely. He hadn't heard of clowns being so persistent in their promotion.
“It was at that point that my elbow accidentally hit the button that rolled down the driver’s side window.”
“Oh no.”
“Yep. They got a few flyers in the car before trying to tell me about what I presume was the circus they were advertising for, but they were speaking over each other too much. I couldn’t tell what they were saying. Something something performances, something delicious food, and that’s all I could make out. It went on like that for the rest of the time I was there. They only left me alone when the Roadside Assistance guy finally got there.”
Mitchell leaned forward at the same time Cameron went in to give him a big embrace.
“I’m so sorry, sweetie! That must’ve been so overstimulating.”
“It really was! I’m just…SO glad to be home,” Mitch said. He held his boyfriend, the only clown he’d ever love, tightly. Several minutes later, they got up from the couch and readied themselves for bed. As Mitchell drifted off to sleep, he thanked whatever higher power that the whole thing was behind him. He’d never see those clowns again.