Title: Stop Wandering
Fandom: The West Wing
Characters: Molly Wyatt-Ziegler, Toby Ziegler , Andy Wyatt
Prompt: tww_minis: Sons & Daughters; fanfic100: 90 – Home; un_love_you: 23 – You remind me of me
Word Count: 765
Rating: g
Summary: Like father, like daughter.
Author's Notes: Thanks to amy_vic for the prompt (and the Mollylove!), and kiss_me_cassie and purple_elefants for the beta.



It was Molly who brought Toby back to their family, his little girl who broke him down bit by bit until the distance was unbearable and he forgot why he had run away to begin with.

She did it with nothing more than unerring admiration for her father. He spent years wondering what he did to deserve such unwavering love from this girl, and it wasn’t until he voiced the question to Andy on the phone one night that he began to understand.

They spoke the most at night, after he said goodnight to the kids, and sometimes their chats lasted long into the darkness, where they were most comfortable with each other.

“She loves you because you’re her father, Toby,” Andy said patiently.

“It’s not that simple,” he argued, frustrated.

“No, it absolutely is. Molly’s not you, and you’re not your father. She’s ten. You haven’t disappointed her, you’re there for her, and you love her. That’s all she needs from you right now, and she’s not afraid to ask for what she needs. She misses you, but she doesn’t really know another way to live.”

He knew his children; he and Andy both made it a point to keep him involved. So even with half the eastern seaboard between them, they saw him one weekend a month, whether he came to D.C. or vice versa. He helped with homework, watched soccer practices and riding lessons, and on those weekends they were the world’s most normal family. And he forgot, after a while, why he’d given it all up.

So he made the trek back from New York, back to an apartment only blocks from Andy and the kids, back to an easy shared custody and more time spent at Andy’s house than away from it.

And while Huck was excited to have him there, and Andy welcomed him back and made room for him in their lives, it was Molly who won him over and drew him into the heart of his family, this charming, energetic child. She showed him everything, asked for his help and his advice, and Toby realized that Andy was right. His little girl just wanted him there.

*********

Molly grew up tall and independent, not unlike her mother, and she left home without a backwards glance as soon as she was able.

College across the country before work as a photojournalist kept her running around the globe, and it was years before she returned home for more than a day.

She knew her brother resented being left as the sole child for their parents to dote on, and she knew her parents wished she were just a little better at keeping in touch, but she was too busy seeing the world through her lens by day and trying to forget what she saw by night.

As the years passed, though, it became clear that she was no longer the little girl who woke her parents up at night with fears that would never even rival the real-life horrors she would see as an adult. She was no longer the teenager who was fearless and crashed the car on an unauthorized trip to the shore two days after she got her drivers license.

Nor was she the young woman who wanted nothing more than to leave her family, in all of their untraditional, frustrating glory: the brother destined for corporate life, a suit, whose brilliance she couldn’t then recognize, who she’d later realize was saving the world too, in his own way. She was, then, eager to leave her parents, who couldn’t live with each other and could live without each other even less. (The frustration faded with age; as she got older, she saw the love that was there so much more clearly.)

In the end, it was her father who brought her back. He didn’t push like Huck, and he didn’t keep stoically (and so very loudly) silent like her mother. Instead, his emails were consistent and newsy and his favorite thing to write. And in between the family news and updates on whether he or Andy would win the race to finish their respective books (if she won, it was only because he was a more careful writer) and complaining about Andy’s cooking, he found the room for a single line, the same theme every time.

“Let us know where you’re headed next. And don’t forget you’ve always got a home here, Molls. Love, Dad.”

So after too many years of running into carnage, blasts, and horror rather than away from it, Molly finally came home.