The circumstances surrounding Robin's disappearance were sketchy at best, especially when it was remembered that she, a grown woman, vanished into thin air in the middle of a midsummer day. The only person that had been with her that was capable of recalling any events of the day (as the other two who were present were both far too young) explained her understanding of what had happened in the same way every time she was asked, never leaving out a single detail from what little she had.
"We were just out walking with the boys in the park," Lissa would always say, "and I said something to her that I thought would make her laugh. When she didn't laugh I looked behind me to see what she was lost in thought about, and she was just…gone. It was scary and I didn't want to worry either of the kids with me worrying about her, so I went back to Chrom's place right away, dropped them off, and then me and Chrom went looking for her, but by then it was too late to find anything." Since there was no reason to distrust a single word Lissa said, and her panic and concern were prevalent in her explanation time and time again, it was just accepted that Robin had disappeared while in the middle of conversation, and any clues as to what might have happened were few and far between.
For weeks after her disappearance, everyone was in full search mode, going out at every moment they had to look for the missing woman. Chrom would only search for himself whenever he could find someone to watch his kids for him—he wasn't going to subject Lucina to looking for her mom, and Morgan was far too young to be going out and having to deal with his father breaking down as he searched. But despite all the people giving it their best effort, absolutely no progress was made, no leads were found, and Robin was as good as permanently gone.
Life had to get back to normal eventually for everyone, despite her having vanished. The first way the change back to normal first became apparent was when Lissa, after having spent a month with her brother and his kids, decided that she and Owain needed to get back home before harvest time came into full swing. She knew that leaving Chrom in his time of suffering wasn't the best idea, but he understood that she was her own woman and had a life of her own to get back to. But her leaving meant that he didn't have someone to spend the days he worked with his kids, something that Robin had always done, and he couldn't just quit running the business that he'd put so much time into, nor could he send the two kids off to be taken care of by someone he didn't fully trust.
He had to turn to others for help, and while he would have loved not to have done it, he went straight to the only person he felt comfortable with watching a child as young as his son, as well as a child as inquisitive as his daughter. To be asked to become a babysitter of sorts a few days a week for his best friend's children was a strange request, but it was one that Frederick said he'd do with no hesitation. Finding someone to fill his shoes in his job would be much, much easier than Chrom doing the same for himself.
Not expecting to be made into a full-fledged officer instructor so soon in her life, Cordelia took the temporary (or, at least, hopefully temporary) position with pride. She'd been working alongside Frederick for several years, learning all she could about how to train the up-and-coming officers on Ylisse's police force, and if he needed her to do the full job whenever he was playing babysitter, she felt that she was capable of it. Of course, her working all day, multiple days a week, meant that someone would have to now watch her precious Severa for her while she was away, but that was a sacrifice that could be made.
All these changes in position, all of which were done to keep Chrom relatively happy and his mind at ease, even when his life was shattered into pieces. Now, rather than having to focus on everything negative that was happening and the resulting chaos from it, he could set his mind on keeping his work in check while everything else was taken care of by others. And the others were trying their hardest to keep their own lives in order while accommodating the changes they'd made to help Chrom.
It was difficult, but eventually the changes became the normal living standard, and everyone grew used to filling their new roles in life. This didn't stop them from coming up with other, outside ways to try and help Chrom, however, especially not when they would see him in passing or hear stories about him from Frederick, and it was very apparent that the loss of his wife was clearly still weighing heavily on his mind. The problem was, with someone having vanished in the manner that Robin had, what was there that really could be done?
The idea of a search party was proposed one day after Frederick and Cordelia had finished with a meeting where they'd spent most of their time discussing training regimens that their recruits needed to take on. He had finished with the real work and she, eager to get home to her daughter, had just been about to head out when he stopped her when he loudly cleared his throat. "Cordelia, would you mind hanging around here for a few minutes more?" he asked, watching the excitement of getting to leave fade from her eyes as she reluctantly nodded. "Thank you. There is something unrelated to our jobs that I would like to speak with you about."
"It's not about arranging playdates between your child, my child, and Chrom's children, is it? I don't think Severa would enjoy so much company, not when she's already opposed to playing nicely with anyone…" Cordelia's voice trailed off as she thought about her little girl at home and how she required all the attention in the world, but was nasty to anyone who did anything for her. "But if this is about something else, I might be able to be of assistance."
Frederick nodded, hearing the answer he'd been hoping for. "It is, in fact, nothing to do with children and their interactions with one another. While I'm sure bringing some new faces into Lucina and Morgan's lives would do wonders for them, I believe that bringing their mother back would be better."
"But she's been gone for a while now," Cordelia replied, looking to Frederick with an almost heartbroken gaze, "and I think everyone believes she's never coming back. What happened to her was a tragedy, but we have to accept that she's gone and that Chrom is going to have to keep going on without her at his side."
"I don't believe I can keep up with this child care duty for much longer before I find I spend more time with Chrom's children than I do my own child." Returning the gaze, albeit a slightly less hurt one, Frederick sighed. "My only suggestion for a course of action would be to begin a search of our own, using our own free time. I've spoken with the police chief and he believes that there isn't enough evidence to continue a funded search, but I believe that if we bring together people who truly care about Chrom and our cause, we just might make a difference in this case."
Taking his suggestion to heart, Cordelia swallowed down a negative thought and gave a strong nod of approval. "I think I may just know of a person or two who would be interested in giving this search a solid attempt. It would be hard for you and I to both be present at the same time, so perhaps we could both be in charge of this endeavor?"
"Oh, I informed you of this task because I thought you would be most interested in helming a search party for Chrom's missing wife on your own. I would rather spend what free time I have with my son, and I would much rather not get an earful from my wife about how 'quality parenting time' cannot take place when others are around." His face visibly heating up at the thought of being scolded by his wife, Frederick had to shake his head to move to the rest of his point. "You and your husband, you both are fairly good friends of Chrom's, and I am sure that you two, even with your child in tow, would be able to focus long enough to get some adequate searching done."
"I don't think he can focus on anything long enough when Severa's around, but I understand your point." The corners of Cordelia's mouth ticked upwards as she thought more about what this meant for where she stood in Chrom's eyes. Why, if she were directly responsible for his wife's return, he would be thanking her for the rest of their lives, and if there was one thing she had always wanted, it was affection of any kind from Chrom. "I can think of someone else who would be a great asset to this search, and I'm sure she wouldn't argue against at least trying to bring light back to Chrom's life."
Clasping his hands together, Frederick said, "Then it is settled. You begin preparations for this search, and when you have a free day you should get started doing whatever you think is most appropriate. Time is not on our side here, Cordelia, and every day that passes is another day we are closer to never seeing her again. Do you understand what that would mean?"
She understood very well: it would mean that Chrom would remain in a state of loneliness and heartache, and his children would remain motherless for as long as they lived. She wasn't going to let any of that happen, not if she had anything to say about it, and so the preparations began for what just might have been too little, too late.
The six people gathered in the park while the sun was still relatively high in the sky, a blessing that Cordelia hadn't thought they would be given. It was all luck that she had managed to finish her work early in the day, and that her ideal companions had been doing nothing with their time that day anyway, so she got them to come together at the first chance she got. "I think we all understand why we are here today," she said, looking around at the three adults and two children surrounding her, "and I want to say that, no matter what happens here, we are trying to make a difference in someone's life by doing this."
"This is possibly the sweetest thing we could do for Chrom right now," her best friend Sumia responded, her eyes focused on the street that ran next to the park, watching as cars drove by without a care that a disappearance investigation was about to be taking place. "The moment I heard Robin was gone, I felt so bad for him, but after I baked him enough pies to last him a lifetime I felt like there wasn't much else I could do to help. This is a really good way to help him without seeming overbearing."
"I still don't get what we're doing out here, looking for someone who's clearly dead." The statement was a bit blunt and unwanted, but seeing as it was Henry who said it, it wasn't unexpected. "I know, I know, I wasn't exactly 'invited' to come look, but I came anyway because…" He thought for a second about why, exactly, he had come to the search party, before looking down and seeing the little white-haired girl sitting on the ground beside him, poking at a bug. "Because I wasn't going to keep Cynthia trapped inside on such a nice day! Yeah, that's why I'm here!"
"I could have brought her here myself, you know, but you wanted to be around to make bad death jokes that we don't want to hear," Sumia reminded him, shaking her finger at him as he cackled. "I really should have thought better of letting you actually come."
Cordelia awkwardly smiled at the couple, before looking at her own husband, who had taken to swinging their daughter around like they were out for some quality time at the park, not looking for a missing woman. "Ahem, I do believe I said that we all understand why we're here today," she repeated, raising her eyebrows at him and his childish behavior, which did not stop with her gentle reminder. "Please, take this situation seriously and put Severa down right now, Vaike. We are here for a reason."
"Okay, okay, puttin' her down," Vaike said as he did the exact opposite of what he'd just been told, continuing to spin a shrieking Severa around until Cordelia actually approached him, her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowing into a glare. He caught a glimpse of just how upset he was making her and brought the fun to an end, the little girl stumbling around on unsteady feet once she was back on the ground. "Sorry 'bout that, but I just had t'play with her a bit. Ain't every day we're out at the park, y'know."
"But we're here today to look for Robin, not to play around." Her glare might have been lightening up, but Cordelia was still far from pleased. "You could bring Severa over here at any time if you want, but you choose not to, so do not take advantage of our time out here to make amends with previous bad decisions."
He stared blankly at her, blinking a few times as he made sense of her scolding, and once he thought he had it he gave a rather overdramatic shrug. "Don't worry, next time it's just me and her, we'll come on out here and have all sorts of fun! But can't we just, uh, let us play for a li'l bit? Playin' never hurt anyone."
Cordelia sighed, covering her face with her hand. "You've done enough playing today, I would say, but if you would just give me a few hours of solid looking, I guess I could allow you and Severa to play for a few minutes…" When she was younger, she never would have thought that she would be married to someone so undisciplined, but somewhere along the line she'd made a decision that she never really regretted unless she needed Vaike to do something for her. This was one of those times where she really wished he would just take things in life a tad more seriously, because not dedicating an entire day to searching was more or less a waste of that day. Time was clearly not on their side, and they needed to really understand and respect that fact.
The hours they did search flew by, with every inch of ground in the area that Robin had last been seen covered by observant eyes. Or, at least, it was covered by Cordelia and Sumia's eyes, as they were the only ones really focused on the task at hand—Henry was too busy cracking jokes about all the ways Robin could have died in that area, and Vaike was constantly being distracted by little Severa and her want to go play on the nearby playground. By the time the sun was beginning to set, he'd spent more time playing with her than he had helping them search, and Cordelia was beginning to tell herself that the next time she came out looking, she was going to leave him at home.
But she didn't leave him home, because on her next free day he stopped her before she could sneak out and asked her where she was going; rather than lying to her husband, she told him exactly what she was going to do, and he promised that if he came with he'd actually help out. "We're doin' it for Chrom, after all, and if there's one thing in this world the Vaike can't stand, it's hearin' about how sad Chrom is from this happenin' to him," he explained, as Cordelia reluctantly went back on her promise to herself just because he had such a strong reason to come with.
On that outing, and the ones that followed, it was the two of them and Sumia all looking, Henry having given up after the first day because no one would laugh at his jokes about untimely demises that Robin could have encountered. Some days both children would be out with them, others it was just Severa (and when it was just her, it was much harder to try and get anything done as her headstrong nature would keep her from listening to her parents asking her to behave, but when Cynthia was also present she would play nicely and be a good girl). On one or two occasions, Frederick came out with both of Chrom's children and had them at the park while he discussed any progress that might have been made, while on a different occasion he brought his own son instead, and that boy spent most of the time asking well-worded but redundant questions about the search as a whole.
Time went by, and the chances of them actually accomplishing anything with their searching was next to nothing, but as they learned, just the fact that they were dedicated to their cause was enough to make Chrom smile on occasion during this hard time in his life. He never came out to see what they were doing, but they heard of his appreciation second-hand from Frederick, who seemed thrilled to be able to tell them some good news regarding his best friend.
Knowing that they were making a difference, no matter how small, in his life was enough to keep them going with their searches into the fall months, even when the weather turned cooler and staying outside for long periods of time was brutal. The park was the only place they knew of that she might have been, and that was the only place they looked, but just the act of looking meant the world to Chrom, and knowing that was enough to make them feel like they were doing exactly what they needed to do.
Like he had every day since he'd assumed the position of leader of the family company, Chrom was once again rushing on his way to work, although he was more crunched for time than usual. This morning's delay came from Lucina being hesitant to let her dad leave her sight, and when she was upset, Morgan picked up on it and he'd been nothing but fussy until long after the front door had been shut. He hated leaving his kids in Frederick's care when they were in such a state, but he didn't have a choice, and his friend had assured him that he would be able to calm them both down with relative ease. While that had helped him with leaving a bit, it still meant that Chrom's mind was focused on worrying about his children as he rushed to take the tram to Ylisstol's business district.
As he'd expected, being delayed because of his kids meant that he was taking a later tram than normal, which meant that he'd be cutting it close on time to get to his office and whatever work waited there for him. The entire duration of the tram ride was spent with him worrying about how he was going to handle his workers if they questioned his tardiness—a habit he'd never had until Robin had disappeared. She had always kept him in line, always making sure that he got to work right on time while she did whatever it was that made her feel mentally at ease.
It was on days like this that he really, truly missed her, and his heart hurt just thinking about her serene smile and her calm voice and everything about her that had made him fall in love. Why had someone chosen to take her from him? It wasn't a pain he'd wish on anyone else, certainly, but it was a pain that stung more than he would ever be able to articulate. Not everyone in the world would have such a strong support system around them to rally when times got rough, either, so it might have been for the best that out of all the wives in the world to disappear, his was the unlucky one.
Once the tram got to his stop, he rushed off and out onto the sidewalk, trying to make up lost time on his way to work. Normally, he'd stop to get something to eat at one of the many cafés that lines the street, but with such a crunch on time that just wasn't a possibility; in fact, his eyes were focused solely on the path before him, not drifting to windows of small businesses he typically chose to pop into for a moment or two. It wasn't until his office was in view that he took a moment to look anywhere aside from where he was going to be walking next, and that was because he was about to pass an alleyway that had always seemed like a place where someone would jump out at him to attack.
He didn't find an attacker, but he did find someone's curled hand sticking out from behind a grimy dumpster. The sight struck him as odd, as the hand seemed far too delicate to belong to someone who lived on the streets, but he didn't have time to be gawking at someone who'd fallen on hard times. He needed to be the responsible businessman he was and get to work before he was late. But what kind of person would he be if he just walked on by without a second thought? In recent times, he'd been helped out so much by people who cared about him, so what if this person didn't have anyone who cared about them to come and help them? Surely someone had to step in.
It was against his better judgment by far, but Chrom was going to share the kindness he'd been showered with and help this person in the alley. He stopped walking and crouched down beside them, grabbing their hand and feeling a familiar warmth in it that he thought was forever gone from his life. "There are better places to be lying than on the ground, you know," he mumbled to himself, tugging at the hand to try and get the person to stir. Their body was obscured by the dumpster they were behind, and he wasn't quite able to move them from their spot. "Come on, let's get you somewhere far away from here."
The hand grasped at his a bit, its warmth filling him slightly more. The voice that accompanied the movement was weak and weary, but it was one that brought tears to Chrom's eyes when he heard it: "Chrom, i-is that you? W-where am I?"
His friends might not have been the ones to bring Robin back, but their kindness sure played a large part in finding her in the end.
A/N: Happy birthday, Chrom! Have a fic about your friends caring so much about you!