Public High School - noun: a government run institution to educate the general populous. The years are often remembered fondly as "the best of your life." Contrary to popular belief, those who succeed are not all smart, and those who flunk are not all hopeless.
High School AU, Child Oriented, Family Problems, Less... Romance...

WARNING: Parents are all paired here based on what is canon, logical, or fits best with the narrative. Some of your favorite pairings might not be included because of this. I do not necessarily support all these pairings involved, but this is purely for storytelling purposes. I will not respond to people who wish to complain about who I paired, but I will happily explain my madness behind them.
Children will also not be paired on purpose. If it develops into something, then I will consider it, but otherwise I don't intend to put them together. Sorry, but romance isn't the focus of this story.
And a final note, both Morgans are in this story as twins. However, male Morgan will be referred to by their Japanese name of Marc. Why both? Because the Future's Past DLC hints that they both exist and so I am rolling with it. MARC IS NOT AN OC, I PROMISE.

Enjoy!


It's 4 A.M. and Henry hasn't slept a wink. He was in this hospital waiting room with his kids since yesterday evening, and he hadn't so much as dosed. It wasn't obvious, he sat there just as alert after 10 hours of waiting. That didn't mean he wasn't tired; he could feel the ever present temptation to gather up a row of chairs and sleep across them. Instead, he kept himself busy by counting the hours and hoping time would pass a little quicker.

He arrived around 6 in the evening with Morgan and Marc, and they waited for any sort of news they could get. There was an accident, and Robin was found unconscious. No one knew how it happened, and the information he got was vague at best. Serious head trauma, bruises and cuts all over her. No one would say it, but Henry half-wondered if his wife was hit by a car or something.

For a few hours, he watched Morgan pace around restlessly. Occasionally, his daughter stopped pacing to sit down, but jittering hands and restless feet drove her back up again. His son, Marc, kept himself out of the way meanwhile. His eyes were fixed on the television on the opposite side of the room, flickering over the subtitles as they came up. It was some animal documentary; at least, that's what Henry assumed. There were lions and gazelles that kept popping up, but he didn't bother with the text. He needed to keep an eye on Morgan to make sure she didn't bump into anyone.

Around 8, Chrom brought his family down, having heard the news, and they sat with them. Cynthia nudged at Marc, a kind smile on her face and a deck of cards in hand. "Marc, let's play a game."

Marc glanced away from the screen and noticed the cards. He wasn't sure whether or not to refuse her, and quickly found himself drawn into a game of poker. Of course, "because poker's no fun with two people", as she told Lucina with a giggle, she roped her sister in and somehow talked Morgan into settling down to join as well.

If nothing else, Henry was relieved. Although it didn't banish the dark thoughts on their minds, it at least gave them something else to do while they waited. Besides Cynthia, they looked distracted and were oddly quiet. Lucina was a bit more than obvious with her listening in as her parents talked.

Chrom asked what happened, having heard it from a news report. Apparently the local reporters jumped right to the story of a woman who was found battered on the side of the road, and he was positively shocked when they showed a photo of Robin to identify the victim. He came over almost immediately. Henry answered only what he had been told: "There was an accident. Nobody knows what happened."

Sumia patted Henry's arm, and Chrom frowned with worry as he considered what might have happened to his friend. Soon, he got up to get some air outside, and didn't come back until a half hour later, looking no better and walked in tight circles near their seats. His agitation rubbed off on Lucina, who quit the card game to instead distract herself with what little homework she brought with her. Henry noticed how she did more tapping with her pen than she did actual writing.

By 10 at night, Sumia offered to let Henry's kids sleep over at their house for the night. After all, it was a school night and they were too young to drive home. Henry agreed with a grateful smile and called the two over to tell them. Morgan stared at her dad in shock as Cynthia clung to her arm and jumped in excitement at the idea of a sleep over.

Marc looked crest-fallen. "But we want to stay here with you."

"Chin up, boy," Henry told him with a smile. "Mom's going to be fine. You both need your sleep for school tomorrow, either way."

Though he looked no happier, Marc tried to return his father's smile. Henry hugged them both, ruffling their white-haired heads, and watched them follow Chrom and his family out. Looking out the window, he met Morgan's stare as she too smiled and rubbed her eyes with her coat sleeve. After the car drove away into the night, Henry sat back down and waited in silence.

After that, the hours seemed to meld together between the quiet talk at the front desk and the low volume of the television. The people in the waiting room dwindled until it was only him and the night staff. He entertained himself by listening in on their conversations, but most of them weren't all that interesting. And now, it was 4 in the morning.

Stiff and sore, he got up and considered grabbing a cup of the free coffee the nursing staff left for visitors. However, his stomach practically flipped at the idea and he instead went to the water fountain to quench his dry throat. For the seventh time since he arrived, he went up to the front desk. "Excuse me, miss?" He was polite, despite feeling impatient at this point.

"Yes, sir? How can I help you?" she asked, looking up from a folder of papers on her desk. After he explained that his wife was admitted hours ago, she got on the computer and clicked away. The noise of her fingertips striking the keys was the nails-scratching-chalkboard to his patience. When she finally pulled up whatever she was looking for, she folded her hands on the table. "Ah, yes. Doctors declared her stable shortly after she arrived. She has yet to wake up."

He nodded in understanding, and then requested, "May I visit her?"

She stared hard at him. "Sir, I'm sorry. We don't permit visitors until 9 A.M. Maybe you can go home and-"

"Henry?" He turned to see one of the nurses, Lissa, approaching the desk. Her narrow brows arched in confusion. "What are you doing here? Did something happen?"

Once more, he explained the situation, how Robin was injured. Her confusion was very quickly replaced by shock.

The receptionist faced Lissa. "You know we can't just let anyone in outside visiting hours."

"I know that." She replied, sounding a little insulted at the insinuation that she forgot the rules, and returned her attention to Henry, "How long have you been waiting?"

"Since around 6 P.M." Henry answered with a smile, knowing full well how ridiculous it sounded.

Lissa was concerned and even sounded apologetic. "Well, I can't really keep you company for too long, my shift starts in ten minutes. Maybe you can take a nap at home and come back at 9."

Henry laughed and waved her off. "Nah, I think I'm going to get something from the vending machine and crash in my car for a few hours. I don't think I'm awake enough to drive home." This surprised her, as he still seemed totally alert.

Frowning, Lissa shook her head. "You better remember to roll down your window. I don't want you dying in your car."

"Hehe, yeah, it'd be pretty ironic to die in the parking lot of a hospital," he remarked, "buuut- I don't think my kids would be all that happy if I did so I will."

With that, he headed to the vending machine and bought himself a small snack and a bottle of water, then walked out of the waiting room and to his car. He popped open the trunk to get the emergency blanket, and discovered his kids' backpacks inside. He'd have to run these to school, after he rested; he really didn't want to get in an accident. He took the emergency blanket and made a neat pillow out of it so he could sleep on the back seats. It was hard and uncomfortable, and he swore that a buckle was digging into his hip, but he managed to relax enough to drift off.


The only one Morgan saw at the table who looked wide awake was Cynthia. Everyone else was, to some degree, tired or distracted. Chrom was reading over work documents, bills and proposals, but he didn't seem very productive doing it. He seemed to be taking a long time reading one page. Sumia was reading over his shoulder, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder in hopes of easing him. She looked troubled herself, but at least she managed to keep herself in a good mood, unlike Lucina, who stared at her cereal like it would somehow reveal all of life's answers.

Suddenly, Morgan felt a hand reach and take hers to hold under the table. She looked to her brother, who smiled and gave her fingers a firm squeeze. "I'm here." he wordlessly told her. She squeezed back, and couldn't deny the comfort the small action gave her. She wasn't alone.

Chrom finally pushed the papers down and rubbed at his temples, picking up his own coffee. "Gods... Why can't I go two days without someone hounding me about the state budget."

"People want to know if their governor plans to cut funds for education in favor of prisons," Sumia noted. "I get that we only have so much revenue that comes in, but we could find other things to cut than education, right?"

"Or just tax more," Lucina pointed out half-heartedly.

"Oh, yes, that will work," Chrom remarked with clear frustration. "I can hear them now, 'He's raising the taxes again! He's going to steal our money and spend it on stupid things! Vote Gangrel for Governor!'"

Lucina glanced at her father quizzically. "Do you honestly think that lunatic is going to get elected next time elections come around?"

"Of course not," he scoffed. "The people around here are not that angry and stupid."

Sumia sighed and turned to the twins. "Did you two sleep well?"

"Yeah, fine," Marc lied. Neither of them did. They shared the one guest bed and stress kept the two of them up most of the night. Morgan distinctly recalled Chrom getting up several times in the night to walk around. And, when she got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, she caught sight of Lucina sitting awake with her head in her hands. It was a long night, in short.

Cynthia suddenly made a face, "I just realized, you guys are wearing the same clothes as yesterday. Daaad~! We forgot to stop by their house so they could pick up a change of clothes last night!"

Chrom glanced between the three freshmen at the table and realized his youngest was correct. "Oh. Whoops. Sorry about that, you two. I must have spaced it."

"Oh no." Sumia put her mug of coffee down. "Maybe we have something you two can borrow."

Marc was the first to protest, "That's fine, really! It's just one day, no big deal."

"Yeah, one day's not going to kill us." Morgan agreed. "Besides, I don't think you would have anything for Marc."

"Nonsense," Sumia said as she walked out of the dinning room, "Lucina used to wear a lot of boy clothes a couple years back."

This woke Lucina from her stupor, and she stood to shout after her, "MOTHER!" Her face was turning red as she rushed off after Sumia. "You're getting ahead of yourself! Don't just lend people my stuff!"

Several minutes later, Sumia returned with a couple sets of clothes and handed them to Marc and Morgan, who exchanged similar looks of surprise. The ever cheerful woman smiled and told them, "There you both go! Just wash these up and return them."

Morgan knew exactly what Marc was thinking. Lucina's got some long legs.

Sure enough, when they changed their clothes, they found themselves needing to cuff the pant legs up, and the shirts were a size too large. She was tall, simply tall. Morgan pulled her sweatshirt back on, keeping it unzipped, and watched her brother do the same. "Marc...?"

"Yeah?" He replied, straightening his hood.

"Our backpacks." She said slowly, and watched as realization crossed her brother's face.

"They're... in the trunk." Marc recalled. "With Dad."

Morgan pulled out her phone and fired a quick text to their dad. [Our bags r in the trunk. Can you drop them off at school?]

"Do you think he's still at the hospital?" Marc asked.

Shrugging, Morgan felt her phone vibrate in her hand and she saw her dad's reply. [Yeah, I saw that. I'll drop them off. Just realized, eh?]
She sighed heavily and typed a hasty reply. [yes dad. thanks]

Her attention came to her brother's question. "Probably." She answered simply. There was no reason why he wouldn't be, right? Though she desperately wished that he wasn't, that he was home with their mom.

Marc looked down, and made a serious effort to hold himself together. "Do... do you think mom's going to be okay?" He wondered.

She wasn't sure how to answer that either and so she stayed quiet. Morgan wanted her to be okay, more than anything, she wanted to see her smiling and hear her again. It was only twenty-four hours since the last time they saw their mom, and she couldn't deny that she missed her.

If anyone could translate her silence, it was him, and it gave him no comfort. "I know Dad told us not to worry," Marc continued. "I just want to be there with him and Mom when she wakes up."

Morgan couldn't take another word and reached out to pull him close to her. Her arms held him tightly, and he immediately returned it. Against her shoulder, he sniffled and blinked back tears while she did her best to pet his head and help him calm down. "I'm scared too," she confessed, "but we need to keep our chins up."

Marc nodded and clutched the back of her sweatshirt. "I know."


When Henry returned to the hospital after dropping off his kids' backpacks (and picking up whatever quick breakfast he could scrounge up at the convenience store on the way back) he decided to sleep a little longer - since he was still tired and had a couple more hours until visiting hours began. He fell off into a troubled sleep in his car again, which he was woken up from by a tapping on the half open window. Half awake, he yawned out a groggy "Yeah, what...?" without really looking to see who it was.

"Everything alright in there?" He recognized the voice as one of the police officers around town. Vaike. "Lissa tells me you've been sleeping in your car, and wanted me to see if you remembered to roll your windows down."

Henry sat up and grinned. "Yup. Wouldn't want to die of suffocation!"

It never really sat right with Vaike how he could say these things like it was a joke. "Yeah... Well, alright. I'll let her know you're not dead then."

That's when Henry bothered to glance at the time. "I'll come along. Visiting hours have finally started." He crawled out of the car and followed Vaike back to the waiting room, where there was now a lot more activity going on than when he left it. People moved about the room, sitting in chairs, talking at the front desk. It was a little surprising, and amusing, to him how many people could show up at this place to see their sick and dying relatives. Then again, he was no different, now was he?

They were approached by Lissa, who clutched her clipboard and kept glancing around the room to keep an eye on people. "Oh good, you found him. Thanks, Vaike."

"Sure thing, honey," he gave her a kiss on the head and glanced down at his watch. "Oh, damn. I gotta go; my shift starts in twenty minutes. See ya later!" He rushed off with an added, "Tell Robin I said get well soon, Henry!"

Lissa's smile vanished as she got down to business. "Robin woke up just a few hours ago."

"Oh, well that's good," Henry replied, though was aware that she seemed too stiff saying that. "But..." He said as an invitation to hit him with whatever news she had.

"But..." Lissa sighed, "She's, well... I think it'd be best if you see her, yourself."


If time could somehow pass any slower, Morgan would have sworn that every clock in this school was broken. All she wanted was to get out of this class, get out of school, and see her mom. She needed to know she was okay. The wait was practically killing her.

And it wasn't even lunch time yet.

It wasn't like Ricken wasn't an engaging teacher. Heck, this was his first year teaching and he quickly earned the reputation of teacher who totally understood his students. She just couldn't focus with her persistent need for time to speed up, for this day to be over. When she glanced over the class, she caught sight of her brother gazing out the window a couple rows ahead. Beside him was a blond junior boy, Owain, who was scribbling away in his notebook. After a couple of weeks of being in the same class as him, she came to learn that he was jotting down some crazy ideas for a fantasy game.

Morgan felt a tap on her wrist by the dark haired girl sitting next to her; another freshman dubbed Nah. The classmate passed her a stray piece of paper, and she stealthily read the note.
What's up? You look terrible.

Morgan pressed her lips together with indecision. She could jot down her reply - whatever that was - or she could avoid getting caught by the teacher and wait like she normally did. Ordinarily she even kept her cellphone off when she got to school, but today wasn't much of an ordinary one for her to begin with. Quiet and quick, she scribbled down a vague answer.
A lot's going on for me. I'm pretty distracted.

She watched Nah's eyes skim over the note and she quickly wrote back.
Want to borrow my notes later? If you want, you can talk to me about whatever's up at lunch.

She found a tiny smile push at her face from the kind offer. That was just how Nah could be sometimes.
Please?

Nah gave her a stealthy wink and returned her attention to Ricken as he wrote something down on the whiteboard, chattering on energetically. Morgan caught something about chain reactions, but she didn't really pay much attention as she worked to put her thoughts in order. She was anxious. She had no idea if her mom was going to be okay. She texted her dad several times that morning to ask about Mom, but he had yet to respond. The worst case scenario was that her mom died, but she kept coming up with other things. Brain damage, coma, a stroke... It could be anything, she just wanted her mom to be perfectly alright.

The bell eventually rang, and Morgan started to gather her things. Her brother didn't seem to hear the bell, and was startled to his senses by Owain giving him a nudge. The older boy regarded him with actual worry, "Hey, man, are you okay?"

It was rare that he spoke so plainly, and so Marc was clearly put off by this. "Yeah... I'm fine."

Though this didn't seem to convince Owain, he didn't persist. "If you say so. Now I must be off, there are trying matters I must attend to!" In other words, lunch, Morgan translated in her head as she watched him fly out of the classroom.

Before she and Marc could leave, Ricken stopped them with a firm "Could you two stay a minute?"

Nah passed Morgan by with a sorry look and she wondered if he saw them passing notes. Worried, she finished packing her things, but stayed behind with her brother. She had to force herself not to check the clock for the hundredth time this period. "What is it, Teacher?" Please make this quick, she silently begged.

He looked between the two of them and asked, "Is something bothering the two of you? You looked very out of it today."

Morgan didn't want to answer, but Marc spoke up. "Our mom got in an accident, she's at the hospital."

Sympathy played on his face and he nodded. "I see. That can be very distracting, I bet." There was a bit of awkwardness as he asked, "Do you need someone to talk to about it?"

Both twins shook their heads in unison. "No, sir."

"Well, then I'll let it go. When you two are up to it, just swing back over here and I will help you out with whatever material you didn't quite get." Ricken told them. "When you see your mom, tell her I said hi, alright?"

Morgan pulled one of her dad's smiles, hoping that it might sooner get her out of here. "We will. Thank you."

They were then let out and went off to lunch.

While Morgan found Nah to copy down her notes, Marc found himself pulled aside by one of his classmates, who proceeded to ramble on and on about some nonsense that he wasn't even listening to. Something about a club, but that's about as much as his actually caught. Marc's thoughts demanded his attention much more than this guy did. So after what he hoped was only a minute, he politely excused himself and found a quiet place to think in the courtyard.

He was scared, more than anything. How could something like this happen to his mom? Was it even an accident? And if it wasn't, then who could possibly want to hurt her like they did. He wanted to believe that this would pass, that she'd wake up and everything would be alright. He tried his hardest not to consider the horrible possibilities, and that left him with only one option; hope and pray that his mom would be fine. She'd recover, and everything would be back to normal in no time at all. She had to be, he couldn't imagine what life would be like if she wasn't the same.

All too soon, the school day came to an end. A small part of him wished that it would have lasted longer, that he could delay the truth. Some part of him whispered that something bad was going to happen. He was so distracted that he was about to get on the bus to go home when his sister told him that their dad was coming to pick them up.

The car ride felt like the longest part. After they threw their bags in the trunk and got on the road, anxiety found itself fluttering in Marc's chest. His heart beat quickly, and he trembled. Mind swimming, he dimly wondered if he himself was dying. When Henry looked back him through the rear view mirror, he asked, "Are you alright, Marc?"

"I'm fine..." Marc answered and took a deep breath in hopes of calming down. It didn't help him any. He hugged the folded blanket to his chest and waited, counting the cars they passed on the highway to keep himself busy. Never had he felt so sick with worry.

Neither of them had the courage to ask how their mom was, so the drive was practically silent. Once they arrived at the hospital, the twins got out of the car, followed by Henry, who didn't move after he closed the door. It was almost as if his shoes fused themselves to the pavement. "Kids-" he called out after them before they could get far. "-wait a sec."

They turned to him as he caught up, finally seeing that his normal bright and cheery smile, for once, was gone. His narrow eyes gazed between them both as he seemed to try to fish for the words he wanted to say. Marc felt his knees grow weak as dread leaked into his heart. "Dad...?"

If it was possible to look a hundred years older, Henry somehow managed to in that one moment. "Mom's..." he paused, having a hard time even bringing himself to say it. Taking a deep breath, he started again, "Mom's not here right now."

The twins stood there, stunned at his words. Not here? What the hell do you mean, Marc panicked to himself. It couldn't be, anything but that. "I-Is mom...?" He felt physically ill, and dizzy at the thought. Morgan, meanwhile, had blanched several shades. Their dad couldn't be serious. He had to be joking!

Henry somehow remained composed, but he reached out and took hold of both their shoulders and pulled them close. "She's got amnesia."

Marc could feel his world come crashing down.