Hey! So first chapter is up!! Sorry if anybody's out of character in later chapters but criticism is welcomed! There won't be any Sweeney for a while, but you will be seeing some of Ben's childhood... Enjoy! And review please!
Disclaimer: I own nothing other then Aby and Thomas... life's sad is it not?
Chapter one- Do you love me?
"Abygail Susanna Hart! What did you do!?" Aby's eyes widened in alarm, she quickly dropped the piece of charcoal she was drawing with and hurried out to see her brother, Thomas. He was looking at the small pasture by the barn, a very empty small pasture. Putting on her best innocent face (the one where she made her ice-blue eyes as big as ponds and looked through her lashes), the child skipped up to her fretting brother who merely pointed to the empty pasture and watched his 4 year-old sister pale noticeably.
"Tommy, he's gone! My lamb Henry's gone! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it, promise! I just-"
"No! I've 'ad it Abygail!" he yelled, "Because o' you we lost our best lamb! It's all your fault, Aby! Why are you so damn careless?! Mum would've never let that happen but she ain't 'ere 'cause o' you!"
Aby's eyes prickled and as she looked up at Tom tears began to silently slip down her freckled cheeks, she whispered an apology before sprinting into the barn.
As Thomas Hart watched his little sister scramble into the barn he couldn't help but feel guilty, a gentle hand on his shoulder told him that his father had seen the whole thing.
"She's just a child Thomas," the older man said sagely, "she knows nothing other then that fact that her mother is dead because she is alive. She's just an innocent child."
Tommy nodded and made his way over to the barn, hoping that he could console his despairing sibling.
XxXxXxXxX
Anger. Sadness. Acceptance. Self-Pity. Selflessness. Independence. Grief.
Most four year-olds didn't know the meanings of half of those words. Yet Abygail knew them. She knew them because she would feel each of the afore mentioned emotions at least once a day. Most children saw the world in black and white at her age but Abygail knew that the world had many colors, some bright, some dark and it was impossible to just split the world in two. As soon as she could walk, Aby had made herself comfortable on the top rafters in the barn whenever she needed to think or wallow in some sort of despairing emotion. She had come to this "safe haven" many times in her life already, and it was where she was sitting down when her brother came to cheer her up.
She heard his soft voice float through the barn and tried to muffle her sobs in her sleeve, but it was no use. Abygail soon saw Tom's wild black hair moving around and felt the rafters shake as her brother climbed up the old ladder.
"Aby?" he said softly, "Sis, I didn't mean it any o' it. I'm sorry Abs, really I didn't-"
"Out." she muttered while pointing with a tiny finger. Her brother didn't heed her order however, Tommy simply climbed up next to his little sister and held her small body against his, she didn't complain.
"C'mon sis, I didn't mean it… it's not your fault. Mum's death wasn't your fault."
Aby looked at him through tear ridden lashes and choked out a sentence through her uncontrollable sobs, "B-but it is my f-fault, Tommy! I-it's all 'cause o' m-me! B-because I was borned she's g-gone!"
Thomas cradled the 4 year-old in his arms. "Hush, Peppers. She's not gone, she'll always be with us. She's protectin' us up there. "
Abygail smiled a little at the mention of the pet name her brother had given her, "how was mum, Tommy? Wot did she look like?" She sniffed.
Thomas smiled softly, "she 'ad raven 'air like you an' brown eyes like me, she was the nicest mother anybody could ask fer an' she really loved father."
Aby wriggled in her brother's arms until she sat on his lap looking up at him, "Tommy" she asked softly, "D'you love me?"
Tom couldn't believe his ears, he hugged his sibling closer to his chest near the point of suffocation. "Aye. 'Course I love you, you're my Aby! An' one day, when you're older, I bet that some nice man is going to sweep you off your feet and love you just as much as I do."
Abygail shyly shook her head, "No." She said quietly.
"No? Why in the world not?!"
"Because, Thomas. Boys don't like me! That's wot Natalie Summers tolds me. She says that boys don't like hair like coal and girls wif dots on their faces, an' y'know wot else she says?" Aby whispered while playing with a button on Tommy's shirt.
"Wot?" He answered in equal tones.
She put her little mouth close to her brothers ear, "murderers. She says that boys don' like girls that kill their parents."
Tommy lifted her chin, "You didn't kill mum, Peppers. No one can ever blame you fer that. She died in childbirth, Aby. Of naturalcauses, not murder. D'you hear me?" Aby nodded. "Good. An' as fer Natalie Summers, she don't know a thing. Lots of boys like black hair an' freckles, 'specially me."
Aby smiled, "Thanks Tommy."
Hope you liked!
- Lex