August 13th

City Of Vale

9:14 AM

"Mmm...Oz?" Cristal murmured as he brushed his fingers over her forehead while she slowly awoke. "I just need a few more minutes…"

"That's what you always tell me," Ozpin reminded her, helping her sit up before leaning her into his arms. "And every time you end up over sleeping."

"I have a good reason this time," Cristal told him sleepily though she knew that she had no real excuse. "Oh alright...fine...I stay up too late working but last night it was your fault too! You didn't have to -"

"Chrissy…" Ozpin said gently, running a finger over her cheek. "You know how special you are, right?"

Cristal groaned though she looked up at him lovingly. "Stop it...you distract me too much sometimes and then I turn into...what was it my brother said...a total nightmare?"

Ozpin laughed and kissed her softly. "Cristal, you aren't ever that horrible. Really. You can be a little much for people to handle, but you aren't a bitch."

"Am I too much for you to handle?" Cristal asked, smirking as she pulled him down into another kiss. "I love you...but am I too much?"

"Of course not," Ozpin assured her. "You're never too difficult for me to handle…the Valerian Council on the other hand..."

Cristal sighed. "I know some of them are...reconsidering having made you headmaster of Beacon...but, for the most part, you've carried the mantle well."

"The council would disagree with you on that assessment," Ozpin told her darkly, and she shook her head as she reached for her glasses. "Some of the members have been looking for a case for my removal since I was instated."

Pulling herself out of their bed before wrapping her arms around his neck as best she could, Cristal sighed. "Oz, you're not going to get removed. And, even if you do, you have a wife and child...with a second one on the way."

Ozpin smiled and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. "I know."

Cristal sighed heavily before curling into him. "I just don't know where...where any of this is going to cause us to end up. What if something happens to Carleigh, or Oliver? Oz, maybe I'm just stressed, or overtired, or overworked, or even just six months pregnant and paranoid about my baby, but what if Qrow...what if what Rose says is true? That I only harm everything I touch? That I'm a miserable, a -"

"No," Ozpin said, worriedly rubbing her back. "You have your faults, Chrissy, but everyone, including myself, does. More to the point -"

"A part of me can see her point, though!" Cristal exclaimed, tears forming in her eyes against her will. "If not because -"

"Chrissy, stop it," Ozpin murmured. "Please don't do this."

Cristal was silent for a moment before she sniffed and let herself stop to cry. "I should know better, but I don't. It...not understanding and assuming I'm always the one at fault…with..."

Ozpin gently wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Chrissy, I just want you to be able to move on because I think that you'd be happier. Your parents aren't going to hurt you anymore, they can't."

Cristal shifted to look at him. "Oz, what's going to happen to us? You don't think that she'll…"

"Cristal..." Ozpin murmured, trying to comfort her. "Nothing's going to happen to us and I'm sure as hell not going to let this fight stand between us or our family."

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Cristal nodded weakly before her eyes went wide in fear. "What if she has you killed? What if she kills you? Or if my...my sister does?"

Kissing her gently, Ozpin cupped her face in his hands. "None of them are going to hurt us, I promise."

Cristal bit back tears. " I can't bear the thought of losing you…"

"I don't want to lose you either," Ozpin told her. "I will do everything in my power to be perfectly alright, even if I have to fight Cinder Fall, or Ashlynn Schnee, or whatever she wants to be called. I promise. You and our family come first. They always will."

"Okay…" Cristal murmured. "I love you…"

Ozpin held her close, hoping anything he could do would comfort her. "I love you too."

August 20th

Atlesian General Hospital

City Of Atlas

United Kingdom Of Atlas

Downtown

10:14 AM

The younger of the two doctors in the room looked grimly at Spencer and Karissa as they entered her tiny office with their three kids. Percival was the only one asleep in his mother's arms, while Matt and Natalie were both bubbling in the stroller. Spencer pushed it just next to him before he and Karissa sat down and the nurse shut the door behind her on the way out of the room. The pediatrician was flipping through the information he had taken on his clipboard for all three of the kids while the younger blonde doctor who had been both Spencer and Karissa's general practitioner for the last several years pushed a new prescription bottle towards him. He hesitated in taking it, seeing the wary look his wife gave it and remembering the raucous argument she had with their doctor about it just an hour earlier. He hated the way the woman had spoken to his wife - insisting she was worried about nothing, that there was no addiction, and that it wasn't just a painkiller (although Spencer doubted, alongside Karissa, that it had helped much with the trauma he still carried from being shot) - but they had both backed down. After all, she was a professional of fifteen years.

"I took a look at your children's growth stats, etc, myself after Dr. Scott took them today," She finally said, setting down her pen with a frown. "I'm not a pediatrician, but I do concur with him that there is reason for concern about the health of your younger twin...Percival Spencer Ciel, yes?"

Karissa nodded shortly and Spencer placed a hand comfortingly on her shoulder while she drew their sleeping son closer to her.

"He hasn't grown as much as he should have by his age," Dr. Scott began, setting down the clipboard on the page he had soley for little Percival. "Matthew is exactly where he should be - a little above, even - for being just three months shy of a year old, but Percival has fallen behind. You mentioned, too, that he has had recurrent nosebleeds, slow healing, and has shown fatigue and weakness at things his brother has far more endurance for such as crawling and walking. From the last check-up, he's also lost a pound which, for his age, is quite a bit."

Spencer tensed, squeezing his wife's shoulder.

"But is he alright?" Karissa pressed. "Dr. Scott, I don't think I should have to impress upon you how worried we are."

He sighed. "I hate saying this to such a young family, but I want to run tests to see if he has acute leukemia or similar."

"What?" Spencer stood up suddenly and swayed on the spot. "You think my not even year old son has leukemia?"

"I said I think he could," Dr. Scott said, looking rather dejected. "It has been known to happen, however uncommonly, and it is in your family history. Your wife's too, if I'm not mistaken."

Karissa said nothing and willed herself not to cry while memories of her grandmother flooded back.

"No!" Spencer exclaimed. "Percy can't, he just -"

"Mister Ciel, please, sit down," Dr. Scott said. "He may not have it. It's also possible your son has a severe allergy to something we don't know about, or that he has a digestive defect that is harming his immune system. I am only doing my job and playing it on the safe side."

"He's just a little boy," Karissa said softly, brushing her hand lightly over her sleeping son's forehead. "He…"

"I know," Dr. Scott said gently. "I'm sorry I have to even suggest it but I need your authorization to perform the tests."

He set down the paperwork in front of them and Spencer shakily sat down, burying his face in his hands and starting to cry. Karissa rubbed his back for a moment but then did in fact sign the authorization.

"I have one stipulation," She said as she handed the clipboard back to Dr. Scott. "We do this today, and I am with my son while you take the blood sample."

"Of course," Dr. Scott said, motioning for her to follow him which she hesitantly did. "It's the least I can do."

The door closed quietly behind them and, after a minute, Spencer looked over to his other two children, neither of whom knew what was going on and were still happy for the time being.

"If you need more Oxy early, tell me," Dr. Richards told him, starting to pace. "I'm more than happy to keep your prescription current...it seems the PTSD has been hitting you harder than expected and then this...I'm so sorry."

Her words rung in his ears for the rest of the day but, what she would never know, was how he had broke down in his wife's arms later that night, terrified for their youngest child and horrified by what the Oxy and the heroin he had taken in the times he had no pills were doing to them.

September 1st

Beacon CCTS Tower

Beacon Academy

City Of Vale

Vale

6:31 PM

"You are so improper it's not even funny," Rose told him, pulling her sleeves down to cover most of her fingers. "Did your mother drop you on your ass a time too many as a child or are you just so drunk that it's a miracle you're able to function at all?"

"That was unnecessary, Rose," Cristal disdainfully told her. "I thought that you had said that you're working on holding your tongue like the rest of us have to?"

"I hold my tongue if it suits me," Rose informed her snottily with her ringed fingers beating against the Ozpin's desk in a harsh rhythm. "Okay, and if I feel like speaking my mind then I will. So please fuck off about it."

"Rose," Ozpin shook his head while he rested his head in his hands. "Please try to be less of a -"

"Less of a what?" Rose demanded. "Less of an excellent leader? Less of a -"

"At least she's not Elizabeth Morell," Qrow said bitterly, "Did you know that Elizabeth Morell is involved with Tai?"

Emmeline looked shocked. "Wait, Elizabeth's is in a relationship with Tai?"

"That's what I just said," Qrow told her with his arms folded lightly across his chest. "And yeah, she's been around the house and the island so much recently - for the last year, even - that I'm shocked Tai hasn't asked her to marry him." Shuddering at the thought, Qrow added. "Gods, that would be horrible."

Emmett shook his head. "Qrow, you're joking. The last person that Elizabeth Morell would want to be with is Tai. She'll, if she has her wits about her, go after wealth, political power, and fame which, frankly, Tai doesn't exactly exemplify."

"Did you just call us poor?" Qrow demanded and Emmett sighed. "Well did you?"

"That's not how I meant it," Emmett insisted. "Really, that's -"

"I'm pretty sure that exactly how you meant that," Qrow told him while Emmeline glared. "Seriously, you've got yourself, your beautiful wife, you're a father…" Shaking his head and fighting back tears as he thought of Summer and the secret they were keeping, Qrow sighed. "It's a hell of a lot more complicated for me..."

Emmett narrowed his eyes at the younger man. "Qrow, honestly, I know you help raise your niece but you aren't her father."

Shaking slightly as he moved towards Emmett in anger, Qrow found himself thinking about Summer and their unborn child just before Emmett let himself go from around his wife. Though he was shorter, Emmett stood in front of Qrow and met his gaze without even reaching for his sword. Almost as soon as Emmett stopped moving, Qrow felt his fists clench and, looking into the younger man's pale blue eyes, an angry punch hit Emmett in the centre of his face. His glasses flew off his face and onto the ground, shattering on impact. Through his blurred vision, Emmett saw the tears at the corners of Qrow's eyes and he reached down to try and take his broken glasses in hand though he had forgotten how much his vision had faded in the last few years. Qrow glared as he regained his composure and ignored the look he knew he had to be getting from Ozpin. Watching Emmeline place a hand on Emmett's shoulder, Qrow felt a surge of jealousy that spurred him on again.

"You don't know anything about my life, Schnee." Qrow promised him. "And I hope it stays that way. You're a selfish son of a bitch, aren't you?"

"I...I...I -" Emmett stopped as he realized that was partially true. "Qrow, you may know what the rest of you make my life out to be but, even if your sister is a cynical bitch, at least your sister isn't a killer. That's what Ashlynn is now that she's Cinder Fall. A psychopathic killer."

"How do you my sister isn't a killer?" Qrow demanded. "What do you even know about the Branwen tribe?"

"That it rules part of Mistral, practically -" Emmett snapped.

Qrow scoffed though he knew it was true. "You have all the money in the world, you have a perfect family -"

"Things aren't perfect for us in the slightest," Emmeline hissed. "Or did you not know that?"

"Oh, I know," Qrow said, putting his hands up. "But that doesn't mean your lives aren't a damn sight better than mine. You two have the world's greatest luck and the same can be said for Glynda and James."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Glynda said, swinging her crop. "Have you lost your damn mind?"

"Maybe," Qrow shrugged and pulled out his flask. "Maybe."

"Put the drink away," Glynda told him with a glare.

Qrow laughed. "Why should I?"

"You don't need to be any more drunk than you already are." She snapped.

"I have my reasons," Qrow said darkly. "Believe me, I have reasons for all of this even if I don't share them with the rest of you."

Cristal snorted. "Then how can you expect us to trust you?"

Qrow crossed his arms and turned to her angrily. "I don't trust you, Cristal. I don't give a damn that you're Ozpin's wife, I don't give a damn that you're a young, hot-shot Atlesian prosecutor, and I don't give a damn that you're a mother. You're just as - if not more - selfish than your brother and the rest of your fucking family, so why don't you -"

"Qrow!" Ozpin sent him a dark look. "If you think this is productive -"

"I trust you, Oz," He reminded him, then jabbing a finger towards Cristal. "But it's going to take a hell of a lot more than you loving Cristal to make me trust her too."

September 10th

City Of Atlas

United Kingdom Of Atlas

Downtown

11:47 PM

Looking at his daughter who was curled up on the couch, wrapped snugly in a blanket, and sleeping peacefully, Emmett sighed and set his thin blue glasses aside. Burying his face in his hands, he didn't fight with the tears that were steadily streaming down his face. Though he had been reading reports of various happenings in the kingdom of Atlas, per necessity as he was still a huntsman as well as huntsman, he had found himself struggling to concentrate in his tired, foggy state of mind which was why he had let himself fall asleep for several hours before Sam woke him up after her own nap and began tugging at his long, white waves.

He had let her sleep in his and Emmeline's room because his wife was still at work, and he awoke to his little girl bouncing wildly and nearly scaring him half to death when he saw her crawling on the floor near him. She was almost a year, and adventurous because of it. He couldn't believe he had fallen asleep on the small couch, and he was terrified when he realized she had managed to climb onto and off of the couch, albeit with a lot of effort from her tiny legs. He had woken up groggily at first, though, while her little hands continued to pull on his hair until his eyes opened and he quickly swooped his baby girl up.

Once she was securely in his arms, though, he had probed his forehead; there was a lingering headache drumming against his skull. That had been hours and hours before. He had lost track of time, and Sam was peacefully asleep still on the low hanging couch with pillows all around it on the floor. He had been trying to do work, but there was no focus, not right now. There was the group to think about, there was his baby girl, and his pregnant wife. There was work, and bills, and a lingering fear of what could happen to all of them. It was all too much, and it made it impossible for him to get anything done. So, as soon as he stopped crying, he had started drinking. About an hour later, half a bottle of wine was gone.

"Emmett?"

He glanced up, bleary eyed, upon feeling his wife's warm, soft hand touch his shoulder.

"When'd you get home?" He mumbled.

"Not too long ago," She replied, helping him up. "I had to see the doctor for my check-up after work, remember?"

Panic seized him for a moment and he stumbled into their bed. Emmeline was still for just a second before she was by his side. She noticed the wine on his desk and sighed, half-laying down in sheer exhaustion. After a moment, he shakily managed to lay down beside her and his head all but fell against her chest.

"The baby…" He choked out, weakly folding into her. "Is…"

"Shh…" Emmeline said, brushing her fingers through his hair. "The baby's fine, Emmett, see?"

She took one of his hands and rested it over her curve. Even if he didn't have the place of mind to realize it, she knew he was beyond simply drunk. A few minutes passed in silence, but Emmett's face lit up for a moment when he felt the baby kick.

"Don't hurt your mother…." He whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to his wife's curve. "Okay, baby? Don't hurt her, please..."

"She's not hurting me…" Emmeline murmured.

"She?" Emmett repeated.

"Yes," Emmeline said gently. "We've talked about this before, Emmett. Remember?"

"Sam's going to…" Emmett awkwardly forced himself up and stumbled over towards the couch and sat down next to their sleeping daughter. "She's going to love her baby sister."

"I know she will," Emmeline said tiredly, coming over to them and bringing Sam into her arms. "Emmett, are you okay?"

"I..." Emmett looked at her blurry figure for a moment, wiping the tears away and reaching for his glasses. He trailed off for a moment, shoving them onto his face and waiting for the room to come back into focus. "I...Emmy, this isn't...none of...it's not fair to you...or...the...girls...for me...for me to be like this…"

"I'm just worried about you," Emmeline said, then shaking her head. "Why isn't that fair? What's wrong with you worrying so much about us and being emotional -"

"Because it makes me a terrible father!" Emmett shouted though he regretted it once he saw her flinch and their daughter wake up and immediately start to cry. Softening his tone and lowering his voice while Emmeline tried to soothe her, Emmett looked at them both with tears in his eyes again. "Case in point…"

"Sammie, it's okay, shh…" Emmeline began to pace, rubbing the little girl's back until she stopped crying and started to fall asleep again. "Shh…"

"Emmy, I -" Emmett started, tripping as he tried to stand up.

"Emmett, you're really drunk," She said softly, loosely guiding him back to their bed with Sam tightly in her arms. "You aren't thinking clearly, you're not -"

"I haven't had that much," He mumbled again, coughing for a moment. "Just half a bottle, I think."

Emmeline sighed. "I'll be right back, I just need to get Sam down."

Emmett hazily watched her step out of the room, still soothing their daughter. His thoughts were a jumbled mess, and he felt nauseated at best. Briefly, he knew she was right that he had too much to drink and he feared for a second that he might have a problem but he quickly pushed that aside. His mind was a racing current at the moment and it didn't seem he could hold much focus for long. He wasn't sure what time it was, or even the date. All he knew in that moment was he had upset his wife and daughter, and that he was going to have two little girls in late January. It could have been an hour to him, but, in truth, ten minutes later Emmeline came back and delicately shut the squeaky door to their room. He barely noticed her quickly slipping into her pyjamas from her military uniform, and he felt numb until she laid down beside him and let him rest his head on her chest once more.

"We'll talk about this tomorrow," She said quietly, kissing his forehead affectionately. "But please don't do this, Emmett. What's…"

"I'm an awful parent…" He groggily said, setting his glasses haphazardly aside. She reached over and grabbed them, setting them on the nightstand. "Probably an awful husband too…"

"No, you're not," Emmeline calmly replied. "You're drunk and not thinking straight."

Emmett fell silent for a long time but he shifted upon feeling the baby kick again under his hand.

"I thought we talked about this…" He murmured, gently rubbing his wife's curve. "No hurting Emmy. She's your mother, and she's...she's great…"

Emmeline bit back the slight urge to cry and instead stroked his hair.

"She loves you…" Emmett went on. "I do too. You're my baby too. You were a surprise, but a happy one. Okay, baby?"

He mumbled on for a little while but he eventually fell asleep beside her with a hand resting protectively over her curve. His wedding ring glistened slightly in the low light when she moved his hand so she could shift onto her side and sleep herself. It took some time but, by morning, she was rested enough but never more grateful - for both of their sakes - that it was a national day of remembrance and, because of the impact it had directly on their family just a few years prior, neither of them had to go to work.