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Dependents	By : DancingBear Category: +G through L > Hey, Arnold! Views: 6471 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Hey Arnold, nor any of the characters. I do not, and will not make any money from this story. (Original creator: Craig Bartlett)

Chapter List
- 1-Dependents
- 2-Lean
- 3-Steep
- 4-Long
- 5-Hold
- 6-Slouch
- 7-Arch
- 8-Turn
- 9-Fall
- 10-Drop
- 11-Gift
- 12-Balk
- 13-Spill
- 14-Pay
- 15-Scrap
- 16-Warm
- 17-Sink
- 18-Stoke
- 2
- 3
- 4
"Are you sure you're alright?" Phoebe's small upturned face was full of concern. "I'm sorry I can't come in…"

Helga waved a hand "Yeah, yeah… I'm fine." She smiled, "Thanks for all your help, Phoebes… I…" she smiled again, a little shakily this time. What did I do to deserve such amazing friends?

Phoebe just grinned and reached up to give the taller woman a hug. "Give the little one a kiss for me." Phoebe demanded in her soft voice before making her way down the steps and into her car.

Helga waved her goodbye, taking a moment to catch her breath. What a day. She unlocked the front door.

"MUMMY!" Helga's heart flipped when Nina poked her head around the doorframe into the hallway. "Come look what we made!"

Helga groaned a little inside. She was glad to be home, happy to be with her daughter, but she just wanted a few moments to unwind, a little time to herself.

Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, she dutifully made her way into the lounge… except the lounge had been transformed. Blankets and sheets were suspended over the furniture, the big sofa had been tipped forward so that it made a kind of awning…

"In here!" Nina's grinning face emerged from between a gap in the blankets, before disappearing again. Despite her lethargy, Helga laughed. Dropping to her hands and knees, she discarded her bag on the floor and crawled into the fort.

"Welcome!" Arnold grinned from where he was sprawled on cushions, surrounded by Nina's books. They had piled up seemingly every cushion and pillow in the house, creating rooms and alcoves in the low space. The dog was wriggling, excited that there was another person home. The light that filtered through the blankets was muted, soft. It was… magical. "Come, pull up a pillow. We were just about to find out what happened when George's parents got home." He held up a dog-eared copy of George's marvellous medicine.

Helga grinned. "I love that book." She manoeuvred her way around the small space, wedged herself in a corner of the sofa, kicked off her shoes.

"Wanna drink, Mum?" Nina wriggled up against her, held out a plastic bottle of juice. There was a paper label taped to it, with a skull and crossbones drawn crudely on it with purple marker.

Arnold smiled, a crooked kind of smile that he had when he found something genuinely cute, or touching. "It's bootleg liquor… for the pirates den…"

Helga nodded sagely. They've certainly had a good day. Gratitude flooded through her… He's so good to her. She snuggled back into the sofa, Nina laying heavily on her stomach. Her fingers ran through her daughter's fine hair as Arnold picked up where they had left off. Mr Kranky was getting all excited about the possible uses for George's formula…

She watched Arnold as he read, he did all the voices, pulled the faces, encouraged Nina to react to the story, to laugh and giggle and exclaim… Her heart cramped. Why couldn't I have had Nina with a man like him? It's so unfair that she can't have a father like Arnold.She caught that thought, shoved it to the back of her head. She couldn't think like that, that kind of thought was dangerous.

He is gorgeous though… She closed her eyes, stopping herself from studying him too closely. It was a futile gesture though, she didn't need to be watching him to see his face. He had grown into his football head, eventually, although he definitely wasn't conventionallooking. His wide jaw, soft smile, gentle eyes and perpetually scruffy hair made him look forever… romantic.

She sighed. Get your shit together, Pataki. You aren't thirteen anymore. She shuffled deeper into the pillows, concentrated on the story, on her daughter's giggles. It was warm in the fort, and dim, and it smelled good, like dust and incense…

… when she woke up it was quiet. She was disorientated for a second, she wasn't in her bed, and Nina was lying on her. She could tell without looking that her daughter was asleep, she could tell from the softness of her limbs, her even, shallow breathing. Helga opened her eyes… He was there, still, just reading, about a foot away, lounging on the cushions, his legs splayed out in front of him. Lucy was on Nina's leg, her nose twitching as she snored.

The whole situation, waking with her daughter curled into her, in this strange, fairylike nook, with a kind, attractive man sitting protectively over them while they slept… it felt… good. It was the kind of muted, intimate moment that she had never had in real life… and although she knew it was wrong -for just a second- she let herself pretend that it was real.

"You're awake." Arnold caught her eye and smiled, that lop sided smile. Oh shit. For a split second she was worried he could read her mind, that he could just look at her and tell what she was thinking by the look on her face.

She struggled out from beneath Nina's dead weight. "What's the time?"

"Uh…" he dug his cellphone out from a pocked and checked its little screen. "After seven."

She groaned. "I should get something for dinner…"

Arnold shrugged. "I don't think Nina will wake up, let alone want dinner. She ate pretty much non-stop today."

"How was it today? Was she alright at the shelter?"

"She was perfect, as always." He put his book down, his face suddenly serious, "How was court? Did it all go OK? I didn't want to ask in front of…" he gestured to where Nina lay sprawled on the floor.

Helga nodded, shrugged… confused, upset. "He didn't show…"

Arnold's forehead creased. "He didn't even turn up?" he shook his head, stunned, "So the restraining order is automatically granted?"

She nodded.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah. I… I'm glad I didn't have to put forward a case, or jump through hoops… but… I mean… he's her father… and he…" she took a deep breath. "He didn't even give enough of a shit to show his face."

"Helga…" The way he said her name… all soft and low like that. It made her want to cry. Why is he so nice to me? She couldn't understand it.

His soft smile returned. "Put that one to bed, I'll fix us something to eat."

Alarms went off. Don't… don't get cosy, don't get comfortable… he's not yours. "You don't have to do that."

"I know I don't." His voice was stern, but he was smiling. "You fell asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow… you're obviously exhausted." He struggled onto his knees, "You OK with Nina?"

Helga nodded. It would take a bit of manoeuvring to get her out of the fort without waking her, but she looked to be dead asleep, in that way kids had… all floppy limbed and open-mouthed.

She didn't wake up. Helga fretted about letting Nina go to sleep without brushing her teeth, but there wasn't much she could do about that… she changed her daughter into a nightshirt and pulled the covers up to her chin. "Ni-nite sweetheart." She leaned over and kissed Nina's temple.

She quickly got changed out of her –now crumpled- formal clothes and chucked on jeans and a sweatshirt. She wanted a shower, or –even better- a bath. She couldn't remember the last time she had taken a long, hot bath. She checked her reflection in the mirror. Eh. Shouldn't have done that. She looked like shit. Pale and puffy with her eyes ringed in black. Fuck it. She stepped into her slippers and slopped down the stairs, leaving the pooch to stand guard at Nina's bedside.

"Wanna watch a movie with me…" Arnold was leaning against the counter, baby-sitting a pot of soup, heating slowly on the stovetop. He looked up, his dimples showing as he smiled "…in the fort?"

She couldn't help but laugh. In some ways, Arnold had never grown up. "Sure. What're we watching?"

He gave the soup a stir and pushed down the toaster. "Uh… I have some horrors I wanted to watch, but if you're not into that…"

"… horrors are good." She smiled. "I haven't watched an R18 movie in ages."

"I'll find us a good gory one then."

This is perfect. She couldn't help it… it was. Arnold had pulled his laptop down into the fort, and they sat in the small space, the computer between them, eating soup and toast, with a pot of tea stewing for afterwards. They cringed and laughed and sniped their way through the movie. She sat against her pillows, her knees drawn up to her chest. He lounged, with his legs out, apart. She forced herself to keep her eyes off him. Not mine… not mine not mine not mine.

She was both relieved and disappointed when the end credits started rolling. "Well, that was awful." She laughed.

"So, so bad." Arnold was chuckling, his hands behind his head, his languid eyes on her. "It's only ten… wanna watch another one?"

She felt suddenly naughty, staying up late to watch movies with a boy… snap out of it, you're a grown woman. Her stomach exploded into butterflies. "Keen."

…

It was after midnight by the time she crawled into bed next to Nina.

That was stupid, Pataki… stupid stupid stupid. She groaned into her pillow, why did she do this too herself? There was no use in trying to down-play it… she liked Arnold. She knew it was stupid, and futile… that it was all probably just nostalgia and gratitude… but she still wanted him.

How pathetic can you get?

He was kind, that was his thing… that he was being so sweet to her was not a sign of, uh, romantic affections… but she was falling for him anyway. It hadn't yet been a month since she had turned up on his doorstep, and she was already pining over him like a hungry dog. She hated herself for it.

Greg, the youngest of the flatmates, had come home halfway through The Thing and had eagerly joined them in the awesome fort to finish watching the movie. To her disgust, she had loathed him for interrupting her alone time with Arnold… and now she was thoroughly appalled at herself. She was supposed to be an adult, she was a mother for christ's sake. Wasn't she supposed to be over petty crushes and juvenile bullshit?

She watched the blankets rise and fall with her daughter's breath, and made a promise to herself, to her daughter… that she wouldn't fall into her old ways. She wouldn't turn into a nasty, bitter bitch. She would keep all her moony bullshit on the inside, try to get over it, and not let it taint her daughter's life. She had had chosen to live under the same roof as Arnold Shortman, and she wasn't going to let her decisions ruin Nina's life anymore.

So that was that, no more pining. Make a decision and stick to it.

She closed her eyes, pulled the blankets up over her shoulder. Why couldn't she just keep things simple? What was wrong with her? She sighed… she'd been asking herself that for years, and had never found an answer.

Maybe she was just doomed to be fraught.
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Dependents