Chapter Text
I met Lynette Scavo when she and her husband Tom were moving onto the lane. They were having an argument about how Lynette had agreed to pause her career to start a family, consisting of only one child. However, Tom had neglected to mention that twins were common in his family. Fast forward, and Lynette is a stay-at-home mom, raising 4 young kids, Porter, Preston, Parker, and Penny. Lynette would never admit it at the time, but she despised being a stay-at-home mom. She eventually goes back to work, has a 5th child, Paige, and manages to find balance in her life. When her friend Katherine announces she wants Lynette to run the US division of her frozen french pastry company in Fairview, Lynette jumps at the chance to be a high-powered executive again. In these times, however, being an executive wasn’t the only power she’d be needing.
Lynette looked down at her phone in the middle of the freezer aisle in her local grocery to find a text from her friend, Susan, asking if they could hang out. Susan had moved back into her old house and this wasn’t Lynette’s first text she’d forgotten to answer, so she quickly paused her shopping to respond. But before she could, a familiar voice calls out to her, “Lynette!? Lynette Scavo!?” Lynette looks up, and it’s none other than Natalie Klein. The last time Lynette saw Natalie was right after Mary Alice had died, and Lynette had never been in a worse mental state. She had felt as though she was drowning, with four young kids and a husband who was always traveling. Lynette had no choice but to lie to Natalie at the time, claiming motherhood was the best job in the world. Now, Lynette couldn’t wait to show her old work colleague what she has been up to.
“Oh my God, it’s been sooo long! How are you!? How are the kids?” Asked Natalie. She seemed genuinely interested in Lynette, although she was sure she just wanted to one-up her again. Lynette was the one who was going to “win” this time, though.
“Oh the kids are great, Tom’s great. Porter and Preston are on their own now,” Lynette stopped. What was she doing? She’s supposed to be bragging about work, not her kids.
“Well, that’s great. I don’t know if you heard, but I’ve just been promoted to our old firm! Marketing communications manager!” Wow, thought Lynette. That’s a pretty good gig, but it’s nothing compared to what Lynette’s up to these days, but before Lynette could utter another word, she’s cut off. “So, are Porter and Preston in school?”
Lynette didn’t know what to say, so she just said, “Uhh, no.” There was a pause.
“Well, it was great seeing you again Lynette, I’m gonna let you get back to shopping for that family of yours, we really oughta do lunch!” And Natalie started to walk away and with her, Lynette’s one chance at redemption at the interaction that caused her so much pain last time. But, she noticed something in Natalie’s cart.
“Wait!” Lynette called out, “is that Katherine’s in your cart?”
“Oh yes, I just love these, perfect for hor d'oeuvres when I’m entertaining clients, do you like this brand too?”
“Oh yeah, we get them a lot, but I always wondered where they came from, wasn’t around a little bit ago.”
“Yes, I noticed that too, one second I’d never seen them, the next, they’re in every grocery store, must’ve been really great ad work.”
“Yes, very great ad work if I do say so myself.” Lynette chimed in.
“Oh...Lynette! Are you working for Katherine’s? That’s great, so you’re what, an associate?”
“Associate, VP of Marketing, what’s the difference?” Lynette replied.
“Oh…” Natalie left a long pause. She must be wondering how the housewife she met in this same store so long ago could be years ahead of her career-wise. “Well, congrats...oh, I’ve really gotta go, but I’m serious about lunch!” And Natalie walked away, leaving behind a rather smug Lynette.
The joy Lynette felt after that encounter carried her through the next few weeks when she finally arranged a time she could meet up with her friends. That joy wouldn’t last long, as a particularly fun catch-up with the girls turned into a night of terror for Lynette and her friends. Bree, Gaby, and Lynette had just walked home, or rather, forced home, a weeping Susan and her daughter Julie after her son was attacked and then subsequently attacked one of their neighbors at the hospital. Aside from that, the girls were extremely confused and decided to decompress over at Bree’s house. “I cannot imagine how Susan is feeling right now,” piped Gaby after they all quietly sat down in Bree’s living room.
“I am just...so confused,” said Lynette.
“I’m sure the doctors will be able to do everything they can for MJ and Roy,” assured Bree.
“I wonder why they needed everyone to leave? I mean I get things were getting a bit hectic, but even Susan? C’mon, that’s her son,” said Gaby.
“I don’t know, maybe they just wanted to get control over the situation without any distractions,” Bree guessed.
“I’m just...I am so confused,” repeated Lynette.
“What do you mean?”
“Why would MJ do that to Roy?”
“Maybe he was confused, maybe the doctor was hurting him and he thought Roy was the doctor,” said Gaby.
“But he hurt the doctor too.”
“What exactly are you saying, Lynette?” Bree asked.
“I don’t know...I don’t think sweet little MJ would do that to anyone, not a doctor, not Roy. What if...he wasn’t MJ?”
“Okay, now I’m confused,” Gaby chimed in.
“Lynette…” Bree was shocked.
“I don’t know! It just seems too crazy.”
“You sound crazy,” retorted Gaby.
“Maybe I am. But what if this isn’t just an issue with people doing drugs, what if it’s like some disease.” Bree stood up.
“Lynette! Susan is one of our best friends, and I know if the situation was reversed, she’d be thinking of how can she help you at a time like this, and not thinking of some crazy theories!” Lynette was stunned by Bree’s words, but she couldn’t help but feel Bree was right. They should all just try to be there for Susan as best they can.
“You’re right, maybe I’m just tired.”
“We all are, c’mon, let’s go home and get some rest,” said Gaby. They all hugged each other as they left and Lynette departed for her house. Lynette walked home in silence, thinking about Bree’s words. She felt so guilty. But as she approached her dark house, her guilt transformed to fear as she noticed two figures inside her house through her window. She quickly grabbed one of the kid’s baseball bats that they left on the lawn, and carefully entered her home, ready to defend herself if need be. She turned on the lights and found...her son, Porter, making out with someone on her counter.
“Mom!” Porter yelled as he backed away from his lady friend. “What are you doing with that bat?” Lynette was furious. She set down the bat by her door and began yelling at her child.
“I should be beating you silly with it! I thought someone had broken in! What are you even doing here!?”
“Me and Taylor really hit it off and-”
“And!? What? You thought it would be fun to do it in your mom’s house!? Get off my counter!” Lynette directed that to the girl, apparently named Taylor and she jumped off the counter.
“Mom! Relax! Preston locked me out, I couldn’t find my key, I figured you were sleeping, my bad.” Lynette took a look at Taylor and realized she recognized her.
“Aren’t you that nurse from the hospital?”
“Yes, everyone was flooding out of the ER so quickly and I tripped, and Porter helped me up and-”
“Oh my god, do neither of you realize how inappropriate this is? A horrible tragedy falls on our street and you guys decide tonight to consummate your relationship!?”
“Okay mom, I get it. We’re leaving.” Lynette heads over to a drawer in her kitchen and pulls out a key.
“See? We keep a spare here, remember?” Porter blushes, embarrassed at his forgetfulness. He escorts Taylor outside as Lynette storms outside to her bedroom. Surprise, surprise, Tom had slept through that whole screaming match. He can really sleep through anything. All of a sudden, Lynette takes notice of a conversation she hears outside of her open bedroom window.
“I’m sorry about my mom. I shouldn’t have taken you here.”
“No, it’s okay, I get it. She reminds me of my mom, she totally would’ve said the same thing.”
“I guess you’re right, we did move kinda quickly. Let me take you home.”
“Thanks.”
“Although, I do have the key to my place now, just down the street,” Porter jokes, and Taylor giggles.
“How about, you take me home, and we can talk about where you’re gonna take me for our second date during the ride.” Porter sounded surprised but happy.
“Oh! Absolutely, good thing we got this out of the way, I’m terrible at first dates,” Porter said as he opened the door for Taylor and got in the car. Lynette couldn’t help but smile at this conversation she overheard of her son realizing the errors of his ways and making smart decisions, and she easily drifted off to sleep.
Lynette was having trouble sleeping, it had been several nights since the incident on their street left her friend’s son in an unknown condition in the hospital and they have still not received a single update. Calls to the hospital were just returned with “we have everything under control, we’ll call you whenever we have an update.” On top of that, Susan’s daughter, Julie, who worked at the hospital, was put on a paid leave of absence, so they couldn’t get any information. Lynette knew this was driving Susan crazy, and they all did their best to keep her company, but she couldn’t help but wonder how suspicious this whole thing was. Since when have parents not been allowed to visit their kids, regardless of the situation? Lynette had voiced her concerns to her friends, but they were quickly dismissed, but she can’t help stirring over them while trying to sleep. Lynette had decided a few nights ago to use these sleepless nights to be productive and get a head start on the cleaning. Even though Tom had taken care of most of the household chores, he wasn’t particularly effective at them, not like Lynette was. To be fair, for most of their lives together Lynette had taken care of the domestic duties, so of course, she was better. Still, despite her busy schedule and Tom’s insistence to let him take care of the house, Lynette couldn’t help but help out. So she started heading into her sleeping kid’s rooms to collect their laundry and began heading downstairs when she heard a noise. Quickly annoyed, Lynette called out “Porter! You better not be down there again, go to your own house!” And she stormed down the stairs. She turned on the lights at the bottom of her stairs, ready to yell at her grown son, only to find two homeless-looking strangers and a broken back door.
Lynette was stunned for a moment, before she began to yell, “Get the fuck out of my house!” The two strangers were attempting to approach Lynette but were blocked by the baby gate separating the kitchen and living room. “Get out! I’m calling the police!” One of the strangers flopped over the baby gate while the other continued to keep walking into it, as if unable to understand why the baby gate won’t move. As Lynette approached the phone on the coffee table by her fireplace, the stranger lunged toward her and started trying to bite her. Lynette pushed the stranger back and started screaming, “TOM!!!” She knew Tom was a heavy sleeper, but she prayed he would awake to her screams of terror. The stranger kept trying to bite Lynette, and desperate, Lynette grabbed her salt lamp from the fireplace mantle and started hitting the stranger over the head with it. Tired and bloody, Lynette stood over the body of the man she had just murdered, horrified. “TOM!!!!!!!!!” Lynette screamed again. She proceeded to call 911, but before she could finish dialing, the other stranger, who had apparently gotten over the baby gate, charged at her and shoved her to the ground by her front door. Lynette instinctively grabbed the stranger by the neck to prevent it from biting her and started screaming. The stranger slowly started to overpower Lynette and get closer to her face, before a voice called out,
“Lynette!?” It was Lynette’s husband, Tom. Tom’s appearance had distracted the intruder enough for Lynette to grab the bat she had left by her door during Porter’s intrusion and hit the stranger over the head. The stranger fell but continued to pursue Lynette, so she kept smacking her until it stopped moving. “Oh my god, what happened here!?” Tom shouted out, but Lynette had no idea how to answer.