"We can pick this up next time." Elizabeth said.
Nathan hadn't calmed down in the past hour. Nicola was whining about being tired.
"Yeah. Nice meeting you, Elizabeth." Damian said, standing up, holding Nathan still.
The McGinty kids walked outside and into the car.
"Are you getting sick?" Damian asked, his little brothers.
Nathan looked really pale, paler then he usually did. Coner was wiping his running nose on the wrist of his jacket.
Damian felt their foreheads.
"I'm taking you two to the doctor tomorrow." He said.
Nicola sneezed.
"You too, Cola." He said, looking at the few red dots on her face.
Nicola nodded.
Damian sat down in the front seat and looked at Bridgett in the passenger seat.
"You might as well go too," he said, pushing her bangs out of her eyes.
Coner went straight up to his bed once they got home. Bridgett took Nathan upstairs and didn't come back down.
"Dame-o? Will you play with me?" Nicola asked, pulling a box out of the closet.
"Sure." Damian said, loosening his tie.
Nicola smiled and put the box down on the coffee table.
"Checkers?" Damian asked, pulling his shoes off.
Nicola nodded and looked up at Damian with her big brown eyes.
"Fine." Damian said, sliding off the couch and onto the floor.
Nicola fell asleep on the floor two hours later. Damian picked her up and carried her up to bed. He carefully changed her into her pajamas and covered her up.
"Night, Nicola." He said, kissing her forehead.
He walked out of her room and pulled the door closed behind him. He ran his fingers through his hair and walked to his room. He put his pajamas on and tossed his clothes down the laundry shoot.
He tried his hardest to fall asleep, but he kept tossing and turning, flipping his pillow to the cold side, trying to think about anything but the kids being taken away from him.
Finally around two o'clock in the morning he gave up and kicked his covers off. He pulled a hoodie over his head and walked down the dark hallway. He flipped the light on and peeked into Nathan's bedroom. Nathan lay quietly in his bed, snoring softly. Damian smiled and looked in the room across the hall, Nicola's. She was lying on his stomach with her but in the air.
Damian laughed and continued on. Bridgett was tangled in her sheets, one arm handing off the bed. Damian looked in the room across from his, Coner's. Coner wasn't in his bed. Damian groaned, wondering where his little brother was.
He looked in the guest room, just to see if Coner was there. The bed was perfectly made up and empty.
Damian sighed and looked the door at the other end of the hallway, right at the top of the front stairs. It was his parents' room and the door was slightly ajar.
The door hadn't been opened since Damian went in there to get his parents' clothes for their funeral.
He walked down the hall and stood in front of the door. He slowly put his hand on the door and pushed the door open. He was met with the familiar smell of his mom's flowery perfume, his dad's spicy cologne, and his dad's pipe.
Damian swallowed hard; it had been almost a month since he smelt that. He walked into the room and looked around. His dad's big leather chair was still sitting in the corner, the small table beside it. The dark wooden pipe sat on the table. His mom's pink chair was beside his dad's, a book sat on her table and a knitted blanket was draped over the chair.
In the far corner of the bedroom sat his mom's dressing table. Damian walked over and ran his fingers over the old wood of the table. His mother's makeup was still sitting all over the table. He looked in the mirror and sat his mother in the reflection. Her blue eyes sparkled, her wavy brown hair hung loose and down to her shoulders. The necklace that Damian had given her for her birthday two years ago still hung around her neck.
Tears stung the back of his eyes; he shook his head and spun around.
Coner was lying in the middle of the bed, wrapped in one of the blankets his mom knitted.
"Coner, you awake?" Damian asked, standing at the edge of the bed.
"…No." Coner muttered into the pillow.
Damian laid down by Coner and crawled under the blanket next to Coner. He reached out and pulled his little brother close.
"I hate this, Dame. I miss 'em." Coner said, burying his face in Damian's shirt.