Thanks to Justice237 for reviewing.
Hey guys. I came up with an idea. That means there are two chapters left of this story. This one and then an epilogue. I know I'm liking the idea, even though I'm a bit nervous because I don't want to be seeming like I'm just dragging on. But I think I have something and I think it's good.
This chapter is told from Gabriel's point of view
I finished "Break, broke, broken trust" last night. So it's only this story left of those that are finishing. Did you know that first planning it I actually thought it would end up in between five and ten chapters. And well, I blew that didn't I? But I quite think this story ended up well. I hope you think so too.
February 14th, 2018
"That's it then." I pulled the hand breaks stopping outside my house and looked to my side and at Mike Milligan, then back at Isabel. "Let's go give him the best birthday present of this year… Although I think he might be asleep."
I showed the two to be quiet, I had just gotten them at the bus station. And like I had said- best birthday present ever!
Since he left I had often heard Gabe talking on the phone to Isabel, and he met Meri as often as ever. But then meeting Isabel too would be something else. Even though she couldn't go across the country and bring Mike too…
We tip- toed into the house, through the hallway and into the living room. And just as I had expected Gabe was asleep on the couch, on his back, and lying on his chest his little sister Emmalee.
"As long as she was in hospital he was with her from early morning to late night. Of course Liv lost a lot of blood and had some other complications, and then went into a post- partum depression… He hasn't left Emmalee for one second longer than he had to… She slept in our room at first, but Gabe came coming in at night, we put her bed in the hallway. And if there wasn't that rule about girls and boys sharing we would have put the cot in his room. He's always up first when she starts screaming… And she's got a lot of tummy aches at night so she screams a lot."
Sure whispering like this was nice, especially as Gabe didn't move an inch, and neither did Emmalee. But it wouldn't get us anywhere, so I smirked at Mike and Isabel and then tip- toed over to the couch.
"Gabe?" I shook my oldest son's shoulder, he stirred and rubbed his eyes before his eyes fluttered open. "Happy birthday."
The look on his face when I gestured towards Mike and Isabel was indescribable…
"Hey guys." He said hoarsely, I lifted his little sister from his chest so he could sit up. "hey, Isabel… don't be a stranger. Come and give me a hug. It's okay Emmie. You'll just go to be with your dad for a bit."
Emmalee mumbled slightly in her sleep but didn't stir meanwhile Gabe put her in my arms and then hugged his friend tight.
"What are you doing here? How did you get here? What are you… you should be in school, shouldn't you?"
"I would. But… Mike and Gabriel came up with a birthday present for you and now we're here and happy birthday."
"Yeah…" Mike and Gabe gave each other one quick hug too and Mike handed him one wrapped gift. I laid Emmalee in her cot in a corner of the room and showed them to wait while I got the huge plastic bag that I had put all of Gabe's birthday gifts in. Or at least the ones from earlier years.
"You asked to get these ones for your birthday instead of opening them as soon as you got here. Just like you opened your Christmas gifts on Christmas and…." I took the one that I'd wrapped for when he was born "Just like them, some of these are a bit out of date."
Gabe was just unwrapping a plush, Mickey Mouse rattle that would probably suit his sister more than himself.
"I know but…" He smirked a bit. "Maybe I can keep all of them anyway… At least for right now."
"Of course. They are your things. You can throw them in the trash for all I care- you decide what to do with them. Although I wouldn't be too happy if you threw them away then…"
I looked up and Gabe was interrupted while he was opening his very first Christmas (a baby mobil with dolphins) when the door to the house opened and his little brother came rushing in.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BROTHER." Logan shouted at the top of his lungs when he came running into the living room, still wearing his warm winter jacket, beanie and mittens when he pulled a wrapped gift up from his pocket. "Here, I got you a present. And I bought it all with my own money."
I sent a quick glance towards my dad with a raised eyebrow while unwrapping it. And dad nodded- thought I could understand where Logan got all his own money from. And pulling up a plastic item, that I could hold in my palm and spin in between my fingers I couldn't quite recognize it as anything I had seen before…
"What is this?"
"It's a pen holder." Logan explained happily. "And it looks like a butt. And it even farts too!"
Gabe nodded and ruffled in his little brother's hair with a smile. He then smiled up at Olivia who came after Logan, the given up look on her face, the dark circles under her eyes and her hands shoved deep down in her cardigan- pockets with it tightly wrapped around her she looked as miserable as ever.
"Here." I got up from my chair. "You can take this chair. I have to take out the cake anyway."
Olivia sat down, she didn't smile and nothing else while sitting down. Seeing her like this broke my heart. When Logan was born it had just been nothing but happiness and… sleepless nights and changing diapers and everything one expected to go through having their first child.
To hide the tears that had risen in my eyes I walked into the living room to check on Emmalee in her cot. And for the first time in a while I wished that she would wake up so I would have something else to do. More than greeting my parents and Alistair and the twins when they came walking in the house without knocking.
Why would they be knocking? They knew very well they could walk in and out of this house like they wanted to…
"And you're just in time for cake." I told them, mainly Michael when I showed them into the kitchen and pulled out chairs and got the one that was in the hallway and hoped there would be enough for everyone to sit. "They had some quite interesting cakes at the café I went to get this… And at last I decided on a one with orange, strawberry and coconut. So…" I put the cake on a plate, then when I turned around with it in my hand I saw the look on Gabe's face. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Well, I hate to disappoint you. But I can't eat that cake and neither can Isabel."
For a moment I froze. Then I suddenly had a memory popping up into my mind. Of the one night at the hospital when Gabe had had appendicitis. And the question about what allergies he had…
"No. Sorry, I'm… Gosh… I should have remembered."
What kind of dad doesn't remember his own son's allergies? And here I was trying to be the best dad ever after not knowing my son for fifteen years.
"It doesn't matter. I can eat it anyway. Although not Isabel… Haha. Do you remember the first day at the dumping ground when you tasted of Candi- Rose's milkshake in the morning?"
"Don't remind me." Isabel moaned. "I threw up about everywhere." At first she held her head lowered and then she looked up. "And now I mentioned that and no one's going to be able to eat because they're so disgusted."
"Don't worry about that honey." I couldn't help but smirk. "I and Rufus, we have one son and two grandson. There's nothing like that that could disgust us so to the point we can't have cake…"
"Cake!" Dad seemed childishly happy. "I like cake."
Although, if one of us couldn't even eat the cake and another one could but with a reaction afterwards what were we supposed to do?
"I can go and get another cake." Alistair got up without me having to ask him. "There's a store only five minutes' drive from here that makes the best."
"It doesn't matter." "Gabe tried to protest. "We've still got candy and stuff."
"No worries. It will be my birthday present for you. I will just be a little while."
"I can come with you."
Alistair sent me a meaning look when Meri didn't even ask. Yet she had come back after being gone, she had been unusually clingy to Alistair and not wanting to ever want to let him out of her sight. And at school she spent all her time with Michael.
And then the day the Maynard's had gone to see Angela at the hospital and Meredith had absolutely freaked out.
I couldn't ever forgive Angela Jacobs from hurting her daughter- whom I loved as much as if she was mine own until the point she sat at her dad's lap with her face pressed into his shirt instead of only watching her mum. And then Angela trying to defend what she had done.
"She should have done what I told her to."
"She's fine now, isn't she?"
"She just wanted you."
Michael had been clingier than before too. He had gotten better but he hated worse than ever to have fights with people and always made sure to say goodbye properly. Even if it only was for going to school in the morning.
"We can go with him outside." I left the cake on the table for anyone that would still want to try it and got up too. "There's something in the driveway that I want to show you…." I walked after Alistair and Meri and showed Gabe to follow me, also the rest of the people here came after us. "There is one thing that every father needs to teach his son… Well, there are a lot of things you and I have done or need to catch up on but I just thought. I think you told me at some point you never learnt how to ride a bike." Gabe blushed. "No, don't worry. It's not your fault you never got the chance. But… I thought that now finally, when we're together finally." I took a bike helmet from the shelf in the hallway. "Take this on."
Gabe rolled his eyes jokingly and pulled the helmet on. Then pulled the ribbon around his chin and got his jacket before he followed me out into the chilly February- air.
"Is that mine?" Gabe stopped still standing at the porch, my old, ragged bike who stood in the driveway and I nodded. "Cool. Thanks dad."
He got off the porch and jogged over to it, ran a hand over the light- purple frame and tried to bell. Then tried the grip on the black handles while I walked down to him.
"It's not a new one." I told him. "This took me many miles. But I was thinking that while you learn a hand- me- down might be enough. And if you then come to the conclusion that you like bike- riding then we can get you your own, new one."
"It's perfect…" Gabe ran a hand over the frame again. "I don't mind that it's yours- the opposite actually. But… maybe we can wait until there are not so many people watching us until we try it, yeah?"
"Yeah." I looked up towards the porch and at my parents, Mike, Michael and Logan. Then felt as if someone had punched me in the gut when I realized Liv hadn't moved from her spot in the kitchen. "And it's going to be even more ragged after the thousand times you will have to fall so that's probably good. Come on now, it's freezing here."
When we walked inside we could hear Emmalee start screaming and it soon escalated to screaming on the top of her lungs. That such loud noises could come from such a small body.
I looked into the kitchen and found it empty in difference from Liv sitting here when we walked outside, then I heard her voice by Emmalee's cot and the tones from a lullaby. Then when Liv came into the hallway there was something in her eyes I hadn't seen for so long.
Gabe was on his way to get Emmalee but hesitated when he found Liv with her.
"Don't worry about her now." Liv said softly. "You just go with the others… and happy birthday."
I sent Liv a smile before I, with the others (except or Meredith and Alistair) walked back into the kitchen where my dad was the first one to try the cake I had bought.
"Geez." I just had to comment when Alistair came back with a large cake box. "You couldn't find a bigger one?"
Alistair stuck his tongue out at me, then took out another plate from a cupboard and carefully opened the box and lifted out the cake.
"It is chocolate… mostly chocolate."
"You don't say?"
Gabe's eyes had grown big, looking at the, to say at least, large cake that had four layers, each of them brown in different shades. And topped with whipped cream, something that looked like vanilla cream, other creams and then a pink marzipan rose on the top.
"I think that's a wedding cake."
What my dad said was probably the most obvious thing I had ever heard him say.
But I couldn't neither be quite impressed by the cake Alistair had gotten.
"I want to try it." Logan almost shouted. "Can I try it first."
He reached over the table but I took the cake server and handed it to Gabe.
"Soon Logan. Be patient."
Logan pouted, and so did my dad at the thought of not being the first ones to get to try out the massive cake. Instead Gabe got to take the first piece as the birthday boy he was, and he then handed the server to Mike who put up pieces for himself and Isabel before he handed the server to dad…
"Aren't you going to try the cake?" I had to ask when Gabe hadn't touched the piece while all of us others had tried it. "Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm fine… I just… For the moment I was just happy with only watching this and… well, it could only get better by one thing… and this cake tastes amazing."
Silence fell over the table while all of us got lost in the eating, silenced by chewing and wanting to eat it all.
"I'm so full." At last Gabe leaned back with his hands on his stomach. "I couldn't eat a piece more no matter how well it tasted. Thank you so much for getting it Alistair."
"Don't mention it." Alistair leaned down and took up a wrapped present that had been lying on the floor. "Here's a gift from us. We hope you'll get some use for it."
Gabe looked more like a five-year-old opening presents. There was something about knowing very well that Gabe couldn't remember ever having a birthday celebration like this.
"Awesome." He unwrapped a leather messenger bag of the well-quality, expensive kind. "If I'm going to have some use for it? I sure will. Thank you so much."
"I was thinking, if I'm going to do like I said and give you those ballet lessons you'd need something to carry your things in back and forth." Gabe smirked- he had told us he was an about as good dancer as I was but he watched Alistair with Logan, Meri and Michael and he wanted to try and that was it. "But… I know there's one more gift that that bag will carry and it will be more suiting for that than clothes…" Alistair glanced towards my parents.
"Oh, more gifts." My dad had gotten up one more gift and handed to him. "Now what may this be? Wow." Gabe got out a box under the wrapping paper, holding a brand-new laptop. "This is awesome. Thanks nana… pops…. Wow."
Gabe still wasn't much of a hugger- well, that was except for with his grandma who wrapped him tightly in her arms in that tender way only she could and kissed his cheek.
"This is new…" Gabe started and he suddenly seemed insecure. "I mean… how much did this thing cost?"
"Don't worry about that honey." Mum leaned back and let dad come close enough to pat Gabe's shoulder and laid his arm around his shoulders. "We haven't gotten the chance to spoil you before and that's the main task as a grandparent. It's also not only for fun, Gabriel's told us about school for you so you're going to need that one."
Gabe was twisting and turning the box and reading what it said on the box as if he was afraid that if he didn't see every single little detail it would disappear or someone would be here to take it from him.
"Is there a school nearby?" I suddenly heard Mike mumble next to me, and I realized that even if he wasn't the care worker for my son anymore. Giving Gabe had moved across the country, he would still like to be kept updated. "We're in the middle of the school year so how are you planning to do this?"
"There's quite enough happening right now without new classmates, teachers and homework." I smirked slightly. "No… He's missed school when on the run. Now, we've decided and talked to the school and the social services. And we've decided he will get the rest of this year off. Then, from the fall, he will read in all of the grades he's missed- in one year… It will be tough, but it will mean that the year after that he can get back to those his own age. And he's a smart kid- if anyone can make it it's him."
Mike nodded agreeing. And I could see his smile growing bigger while he watched Gabe looking at the gifts he had gotten.
"You know…" Mike spoke quietly for only me to hear. "There are kids out there who wouldn't ever be happy with the few gifts he had gotten today. Or with anything really… Gabe is… he just seems so grateful. And that is true admirable for someone who's gone through the things he have."
It was my turn to nod agreeing. Then I and Mike looked to each other, we both knew very well there was one gift, and the very best and biggest of them that no one had spoken about yet. And with a glance to my mum I caught her attention and then nodded at her to go on. She did and turned towards Isabel…
"I know we don't know each other Isabel. But you see… After meeting Gabe and getting to know him I and Rufus were talking a bit, and we talked back and forth about how we were going to do this and… we've sort of decided that our house has been way too quiet ever since Gabriel moved out. And… we're a little bit in contact with the social services since our son and grandson's story but… we were thinking, that if you would like it…"
During a few, very long and very silent. Both Gabe and Isabel's chins had dropped and they were staring at my mum with big eyes as if they didn't dare to believe what she was obviously saying.
"…That if you would like it and we could get the social services with us. Then maybe you could come here and live with us."
A few seconds passed again and I looked around to see the kids' reactions. Gabe had wrapped his fingers in his hair, looking as if he couldn't quite believe what was happening. And the half- Asian on the other side of the table had tears rolling down her cheeks.
It was probably those tears that made my mum speak again.
"We do get it if you don't want to. We won't force you into anything. But Gabe told us all about how you and him and Meredith May found each other and how he took care of you. So if you want to…"
"More than anything else."
Isabel's words were barely more than a whisper, only just loud enough to be able to interrupt my mum…
Then the tears came streaming down her cheeks and she looked downwards to (unsuccessfully) hide them. Gabe leaned towards her and embraced her while still staring at his grandparents.
"Well… Maybe you would like to come with us home." Mum asked Isabel. "We were thinking you'll have Gabriel's old room. Lord knows that room needs a makeover. And it's only down the street from here."
"Can I?" Isabel looked hopefully to Mike, who hesitated, then nodded. "Can you come too Gabe?"
"I…"
"Actually." Mike interrupted and Gabe, who had looked like he wanted to come too. "I think we should go, only I and you Isabel and then you two. This whole fostering will take months and I'm not a social worker. But it for sure wouldn't harm if we could get some time for all of us four and I could talk you through it. Does that sound good?"
Isabel agreed, but still looked longingly after Gabe when they exited the room.
"Maybe we can all get our happily ever after." Meredith said smiling, she had been very quiet during the last while along with her dad and brother. "You and uncle Gabriel, and Isabel with Rufus and Hope."
"And then us." Alistair said kissing the top of Meri's hair. "You and I and Michael… Perfectly happily ever after… But… I think we should get home now. And each of us will get to our own… Happy birthday Gabe. And thanks for letting us come here."
"Of course."
All of the Maynard's stood up, Gabe hugged Meredith before he started helping me clear off the table and put the cutlery and plates in the dishwasher.
There was something in his eyes when he looked at or even thought about Meredith or Isabel. Something that was only there too when he was with Emmalee. And after everything we had gone through, I was pretty sure that if Liv had never gotten ill. Maybe she would have never been here to see the look on Gabe's face. And maybe Emmalee would never get to remember her parents being together.
I could have done without that scare though. For a while we had all thought both Liv and Emmalee had been taken from us in an instant.
From the living room we could suddenly hear Emmalee starting to scream bloody murder again, and then Liv's breaking voice trying to calm her down.
"Sch, sch Emmie. Sch, it's okay. I'm right here, it's okay."
"I'll go help her." Gabe wiped his hands on a kitchen towel. "Kind of scream number two, she's hungry." I heard his footsteps when he disappeared out of my sight. "Do you want to breastfeed her or should I get the bottle?"
Every day I would think that there was no way I could love my children or feel prouder than what I already did.
And every day I was proved wrong. Even the small things was enough to prove me wrong. Like the way I knew Gabe would hear Emmalee screaming and just know somehow what it meant. Then seeing him while Liv went to bed and holding onto his sister with one hand, he took a bottle, water and formula and heated it up in the microwave to just the right heat.
Other fifteen year old boys might have cringed at the thought of having to take care of a baby sibling, but Gabe seemed to enjoy every moment of it. Even as she spit up all over his shoulder and new shirt, and when he had to change her diaper and then rock her for two hours more before she finally went to sleep enough for him to be able to put her down in her cot without her waking up again.
"Hey guys." Mike and Isabel had returned earlier during the afternoon from my parents' house when Gabe finally came into the kitchen again. "I'm sorry about that… she started screaming bloody murder as soon as I changed my position. So whether I would have been here or not I couldn't exactly follow a conversation."
"I and Isabel will get going." Mike said, and Isabel's eyes were shining in some way when she stood up and then hugged who was as good as her older brother. "We can't stay here obviously because of the rules of the social services' but we'll take in at a hotel and I already booked a room. So, see you tomorrow." He patted Isabel's shoulder. "Soon enough it will be Libby and Gabe and MiniMay once again kid. And this time there won't be anything to split you up again, will there?"
Isabel shook her head, Mike seemed to remember something when he looked up on Gabe and then at me.
"I'll come and drive you to the train station tomorrow." I promised him. "But right now I think it's way past bedtime for a certain mister."
There had been so much around Gabe's birthday I had almost forgotten. But Logan hadn't even managed to stay up but fallen asleep on the couch so I had to But when I couldn't find him I walked upstairs and then found him in his room, sitting on his bed and surrounded by all the gifts I had gotten for him, just finished sorting them and then unwrapped the gift for his first birthday. A wall plaque with led lights and text.
"Shoot for the moon… Even if you miss you'll land among the stars."
He was looking down on the Led board. But I could see a small smile forming on his lips and remembering the day that had been I knew it had been perfect and that made me happier than anything else ever could.
Gabe moved onto the next present, the gift for his second Christmas and then went on and on and on. A pencil case that looked like a frog for his sixth, the first Harry Potter book for his eleventh…
And then at last the camera I had once showed Alistair for his birthday last year. It was after that Gabe and I had finally gotten in contact with each other. And as for last Christmas two months ago I had already given it to him.
Gabe had acted gratefully all day, he always was as if what I or we or somebody else had given him was a treasure. But then, all of a sudden as he got up to move all the gifts from his bed so he could sleep he suddenly didn't look so grateful anymore. More like disappointment and sad for something.
It couldn't be about the things though…
"Penny for your thoughts." I said at last, a bit scared if the answer I would get was one of that I hadn't done enough. "Was there anything that you thought was in there or wished for that wasn't in that whole pile of presents?"
"Oh no. No, absolutely not." Gabe promised. "I'm so happy for everything and it's all so nice things. But .. I was just… remembering the day that I ran away. The day I decided that I was going to find you… It feels like it has to be a whole lifetime ago. Like it was a whole other person than me doing it but… it wasn't."
"I hope you understand Gabe. That if I could I would take away all memories of those terrible things you have been through, gladly take it myself. But…" I wasn't so sure what to say. "I can't. Everything I, and you, and everybody else can do is to get on with our lives and make it as good for everyone as it possibly can. And today was something good, wasn't it?"
"It was." Gabe agreed. "It was the best. And… that Isabel will be coming here too… Just that would have been more than enough."
I moved a wrapped gift in my hands, it was long and slim and round and held just one more…
"I actually have one more gift for you…" Gabe looked as if he'd already had enough but I ignored it and handed him the wrapped present. "…Here you go."
He slowly unwrapped hit, as if he did it too fast it would disappear out of his hands. And at last sat there, with a bunch of wrapping paper and pieces of sticky tape around him and in his hands a rolled up poster.
"Look here." I rolled it up. "As you can see it's a world map. But, I already got some…" I pulled up some thumbtacks that I had had in my pocket. "Point at where I should hang it up on the wall. Anyway, this is a special map. Because this color on every country is only the top layer. And then you can scratch it off every country you've been too. So… Well, you can scrape off the top layer on Norway so you can see what color is under." I pointed to the country across the ocean from us. "And… about that… There's something more I would like to show you. But since it's dark outside now there's no point with going there now."
Gabe nodded and took a coin from his wallet and started scraping on the area of Norway on the map.
"There is more to this. But I'll tell you about that tomorrow. We can drive Isabel and Mike back to the train station and then there's something I have to show you." Gabe nodded, then yawned. "Now get to bed. And so will I."
I didn't have to tell him twice, even though Gabe was now fifteen years old I was still his parent. Although I couldn't force him into something like going to bed I could advise him to do it when his eyelids seemed to be closing by themselves- like now when Gabe collapsed on his bed with all clothes on.
"Dad?" I turned when I heard him call my name just as I was in the door. "I… ehrm… I just wanted to say… ehrm. I just wanted to tell you that I love you… and thank you… for everything."
"Don't mention it. It's what a parent does… should do." I felt my heart beating strong and couldn't help the tears burning behind my eyes.
All of these years I had wished for nothing more than to hear him say that.
"I love you too son."
Random fact
I've only heard about those scratch off maps, where you scratch off the top layer of the country you've been. I think they look really cool. I'd get one for myself if it wasn't for the fact that I don't like travelling much since I'm so desperately afraid of flying.
Those who review will get a shoutout. See you for the next chapter, that will be the last.