Heya~ who's ready for another chapter of cute fun and feels. cause I can't stick with just one emotion a chapter any more lmao X'D though speaking of. I have kinda swapped from frequent shorter chapters [between 3-4k words] To less frequent longer chapters [between 6-9k words] Is that a change you guys are enjoying or should I try and go back to shorter more frequent updates? let me know what you think.
Song Suggestion: Stay by The Kid LAROI Ft Justin Bieber [Look I don't like the guy as much as the next person but the song is still bop]
Disclaimer: I own nothing~ CapCom please don't sue. However, if you're hiring, hit me up. I can fix your timeline.
August second arrived quickly much to the couple's dismay. there was plenty of confusion regarding what to do about Rose's birthday. She was technically one year old but she acted like she was a little bit older than two and a half. so did they just round up and say she was three and go with that? what were they going to do about school? she was going to be the equivalent of a 4-year-old soon. Homeschooling wasn't an option, neither Chris nor Emma were qualified to teach. Did they just have birthdays every four months and have her advance a grade? she'd fall behind like that. They don't cover everything in 4 months.
For now, they had agreed she was one, even if she didn't look or act like it. Chris and Emma woke up and got ready for the day ahead of them. "Can you get her while I work on breakfast?" Emma asks as Chris was on his way to the bathroom to shower.
"Yeah, I'll get her after I finish washing up," Chris agrees.
"Thanks," Emma replies before heading downstairs. Birthdays at least called for a nice warm breakfast.
Chris took a few minutes to wash up and dry off before changing into his usual office get-up of an under armor shirt and slacks. With that out of the way, he walks down the hall to go into Rose's room. Normally Emma took care of this. he wasn't sure what to do. He walked over to the bed and gave her a gentle nudge. "Hey tiny terror, Time to wake up." He says with a half attempt at a whisper.
"No, I sleep here," Rose replies as she rolls over.
"Rosemary," Chris says with a slight frown. "Come on, wake up." he nudges her again earning another grumble. "Emma's making breakfast for your birthday."
"Birthday?" she asks as she peaks an eye open then sits up. "Wassat?"
"It's a day that happens once a year where you celebrate getting older," he explained with a slight frown. why did he feel guilty that she didn't know what a birthday was? most kids learn this way right?
the smell of bacon finally registered and Rose got out of bed and hurried down the stairs in her pajamas. Chris follows her as well ready to spring into action if the stairs proved to be a problem even if she hadn't really had an issue with them in a while. as rose walked around to the open living room, dining room, kitchen area of the house she gave a small gasp as colorfully wrapped boxes waiting on the living room coffee table got her attention.
"Presents?" Rose asks amazed as she made her way over to look at the small stack of five or so gifts.
"Yep, you can open them later," Chris say as he takes a seat and watches rose continue to stare at the pile on the living room coffee table. "Once we get home for the day."
"But I wanna open um nooow" Rose dramatically whined while resting her chin on the table. Oh to be a toddler and have to wait. The world wasn't fair.
"Ah ah, none of that," Emma says shaking her head as she puts food on Rose's plate. "Whining that turns into crying makes presents smaller," She warned.
"What?" Rose asks horrified as she looks over to the table where the two adults were waiting for her.
"Of course! How else would Santa know if you've been naughty or nice come Christmas? It sticks in the air," Emma explains with a slight smile.
Chris tries not to snicker at that. Certainly provided an incentive for the child to behave for the next few months.
"Wat's sanna?" Rose asks curiously as she makes her way over to the table and works her way into her seat. sitting on her plate were cut-up pieces of waffle and bacon with some scrambled eggs.
"If you're good he brings presents close to the end of the year," Emma explains. "But if you're bad he brings you rocks."
"Wocks?" Rose parrots back shocked. "Idon want wocks I is good."
"Well if you're good then you get presents," Emma affirms causing Rose to smile.
"I wike presents" She confirms which causes Chris and Emma to chuckle.
"I see, well eat your breakfast," Emma encourages, "You have lots to look forward to. there are kids coming over after you get home."
"Kids?" she asks in confused wonder as she looks between Chris and Emma. "wike me?" she asks in utter amazement. She never saw another kid before except on tv.
She quickly ate her food, the sooner the day went by the better in her mind. she wanted to open present and meet other kids. that sounded amazing! this was the best day EVER. Emma helped her get dressed for the day and put her quickly growing hair into pigtails before sending her off with Chris for the day. Pretty much every person that entered Chris's office that day got the exact same greeting from Rose.
"Hiiyee" Rose replies as she excitedly pats her desk. "Is muh Bifday. an- and water I get's to open presents and there's gonna be kids. Wike me!" she'd happily explain this to anyone that would listen. She was more than happy telling the same thing to each member of hound wolf squad as they showed up for training. It was exciting to her that each time she mentioned it she'd generally get the same response of a very excited 'happy birthday' and even a pat on the head or an offer for a hug. This day just kept getting better. she was getting so much attention.
By the end of the day she was pulling on Chris's hand hoping to make it back to the car quicker. "Come ooon" she coached hoping he'd move a bit faster.
"Alright alright," he says with a laugh. "Easy now. You might be a bit too wound up for cake later."
"There's CAKE?" She asks all the more excited.
"Not if you're bouncing off the walls when we get home, you got to calm down," Chris says as a condition for the soft spongey treat.
The condition was accepted and Rose forced a neutral expression and stopped pulling on his hand and tried to match Chris's pace instead with an occasional jump to get some energy out. "I's calm"
"Okay, good," He says in return and looked at her with an amused smile that slowly faded away before clearing his throat. "Now, let's get you in your seat."
"Otay," she agreed and hops her way into the car and into her seat.
The two made their way home and Rose noticed a car parked outside. "They're hwere" she cheered excitedly even if she didn't really have a way to confirm that.
turns out she was right though. Sitting in the house with Emma was Chel and jack who were happily catching up while the 3 girls played and ran around as they explored the new house. Summer, Maurie and Annie were still 9, 7 and 3 respectively.
"God that's absolutely crazy!" Chel says stunned as Emma got her caught up on what all she went through over the last few months. The woman moved to hug Emma. "The poor baby too... You should have told me sooner. I get why you didn't but that is way too much to go through without having someone to talk to. Are you doing okay?" she asks concerned.
Emma nods. "Yeah, it was a bit rough but we're making due," she says before shaking her head with a chuckle. "Hey I mean potty training only took like 3 weeks so that's a plus."
"Ugh if only," Jack replied as he shook his head and gave Emma a pat on the back. "If you need any help though let us know okay?" he offers. "We're not exactly super spies or nothing but we know a thing or two."
"Thanks," Emma replies feeling some of the mountain of stress washing away from her as she got to spend time with the people she called family.
"We're home!" Chris calls from the door to the garage and tiny excited footsteps could be heard.
"Uncle Chris!" Summer says and hurries over while the other two followed behind her making similar cheers. the three stopped as they noticed Rose.
suddenly all of her excitement shifted to nervousness. staring back at her were three kids. Two of them were bigger than her but one was about the same size. What does she do? what if they don't like her? Rose moved to hide behind Chris's leg.
"Hi! I'm Summer," Summer says as she walks over to peek behind Chris as Rose retreats further. "What's your name?"
"...Rwose." Rose answers cautiously while moving to hide behind Chris's other leg.
"You're my new friend now okay?" Summer says with a confident nod and offers a hand to Rose.
"Fwriend?" Rose asks a bit surprised and confused.
"Yeah!" Summer confirms and waits for the hand to be accepted.
"I'm Maurie" Marie says as she moves to stand by Summer "you can be my friend too."
"I'm Annie!" Annie says as she picked up on the introductions. While Annie was technically 3 she was closer to a 4-year-old now so she was getting better with annunciating.
"Hwello," Rose says shily to the three. she stayed by Chris for a little bit longer before reaching out to take the offered hand. She wasn't completely sure what friends were but it sounded nice.
Summer smiles "Come on, let's go play." she says while leading the newly formed pack back to the living room to play.
Chris watched from the doorway as a hint of his smile from before returned. Maybe this wasn't so bad. He was still a bit antsy about the fact they haven't seen anything regarding Rose's abilities yet but so far she was doing okay. Since it seemed like everything was going well enough he made his way into the living room to join the others. Emma got up and joined him on the other couch.
While the kids were distracted Chel took the time to angrily pointed at him, "I get why you did it, but make my friend lie to me again and I'm sicking Jack on you."
"Uh-huh," Jack says shaking his head no. "Honey I appreciate your vote of confidence but I would not stand a chance against a trained military professional. So if you want your kids to have a living father you might want to retract that statement." He says while holding hands up to signal he wanted no part in this.
"Eh, I wouldn't kill you," Chris says with a shrug. He'd give the guy a fighting chance if it came down to it before knocking him out.
"Aw, thanks man," Jack replies with a laugh.
"Don't do it again," Chel insists before letting it go.
The kids ran around playing tag and laughing when Summer eventually broke off from the group to Peek over the arm of the couch at Chris. "Psst" she says trying to get his attention.
"hm?" he replies in return.
"It's okay, I know you tried," Summer says which causes a very confused expression to cross Chris's face.
"What?" he asks to voice his confusion.
"I wanted a brother," Summer points out which causes Chris to pause. Uh, no. No, he really didn't try in that case. He had zero say in the fact that Rose was Rose. Not that he could or wanted to explain that. He just went with a thumbs up instead and called it good.
Summer giggled at that and hurried off to rejoin the others. Emma was clearly trying not to laugh by covering her mouth and avoiding eye contact.
"You got something to add?" he asks and she shakes her head.
"Nope, nothing," She says still amused.
The two wait as the kids eventually start to slow down. "Okay do we want to start with Dinner or Present?"
"PRESENTS!" Rose happily cheered and hurried over to the pile that was waiting for her on the table.
"This one's from us" Summer says as she points to a new package that was added to the table.
Naturally, Rose went for that one first and opened it to find a doll made of soft velvet fabric labeled Sleepy Time Princess. the doll was wearing a long white nightgown and had soft fabric hair that was sewn to look like it was pulled back into a braid.
"So Prwetty!" Rose says happily before toddling over to Chris to nudge him with the box. "Kris can you owpen it pwease?"
This was going to be his job for the day, wasn't it? He accepts the box and gets to work on trying to get the doll out for her as she toddles back over to the pile of gifts. Toys and games filled the remaining boxes until only one was left. Rose was happily giggling as each surprise left her surrounded by more shreds of colorful paper.
"Oh wow! A tricycle!" Maurie says as Rose opens the last box.
"Wow," Rose says with starry eyes. she'd seen kids ride bikes like this before on the TV. another happy excited giggle escaped her before she hurried over to get onto the couch with Chris and Emma and give each of them a hug.
A dinner of Spaghetti, followed by cake and more playing made for a very tired Rose. The tiny Tot Yawned as the clock showed 8:30 PM.
"I'm thinking we should probably head out," Jack says as he notices that Summer, Maurie and Annie were looking pretty tired too. "It's still a school night after all.
"Dad can you carry me?" Summer asks with a pout. "I'm sleepy."
Rose watches the two curiously... Dad. Huh. that's a weird name. Everyone else called him Jack though...
"You can make it sweetie, Come on, let's get to the car," Jack says as he moves to get up. Chel does the same and gathers up Maurie and Annie.
"It was good to see you guys, we'll have to do this again soon," Chel says with a smile.
"Yeah, that would be nice." Emma agrees. "Okay Rose, say bye bye for now."
"Bhye," Rose says with a sad tone. she didn't want her friends to leave yet... but she was tired.
Emma helps the family out to the car leaving Chris to help with Rose. "Ready for bed?" He asks curiously. Rose hurries to pick up her new fabric doll before nodding. "Alright. let's get you changed and tucked in." He says as he walks with her up to her room. She changes into her pajamas and Chris helped her get her hair out of their pigtails. eventually, she crawls into bed with her sleepy-time friend.
Chris makes sure the blanket is covering her properly. "Get some sleep."
"Otay" Rose replies with a yawn before snuggling into bed a bit. This really was the best day ever.
'*'*'*'*'
A few weeks passed since then and Thursday came around before long. Things definitely felt like they were getting better which was a relief. Emma was Currently taking Duke out for his after-work walk while waiting for Chris and Rose to get home.
"youhou," Called an all too annoying voice for someone she only talked to once.
However, now that she and Chris finally agreed on what to tell other civilians about Rose, she finally felt comfortable stopping rather than continuing to run and pretend she didn't hear the woman. Emma Looked over and sure enough Karen Blight was on her way over, very speedily walking as she seemed to expect Emma to run for it like usual.
"There you are, you're a difficult person to catch up with," Karen says with a laugh.
That was on purpose. "Sorry about that, I've been pretty busy." Emma says with an attempt at a smile.
"I see, Well, I couldnt help but notice," Karen started.
Here we go, Emma thought while bracing herself for what ever the woman was about to say.
"That you've been letting your pupper here, Outside without a leash," Karen says with a chuckle.
Oh. not what she was expecting. "Ah. Well usually just in the back yard since it's mostly fenced off. aside from a bit by the walls of the house." Emma says in return.
"Right yeah well, town ordinance says that you're supposed to keep any dogs on a leash unless it's a fully enclosed area." Karen says in return. "Just wanted to make sure you were aware since you moved in a few months ago now." she says with a hit of annoyance in her tone.
"Right," Emma replied while holding back similar annoyance. Could this woman please just mind her own damn business?
"You know, while we're talking, the other Monthly Mommy girls and I were wondering where Miya went, We haven't seen her around in a while, but it looks like her little girl is still staying with you and the mister," Karen asks curiously as she started digging for gossip.
Now that's what Emma was expecting. "Right. you mean Mia?"
"Yes, of course, Silly me," Karen says with her usual plastic smile. "I'm just awful with names."
"It happens," Emma says in return, Be nice. They only met a few times and that was months ago. "Mia is no longer around. She was deemed unfit to raise a child by the courts so Chris and I have stepped in to raise Rose." Emma says while making sure to use each person's name to help Karen remember for the future.
"Gracious the courts?" Karen says as she places a hand over her heart. "The law had to get involved?"
"It was a bit of a mess, I'm not comfortable talking about it," Emma explains and Karen nods.
"Of course, of course. I can imagine it must be hard for you to raise a child when you haven't had one of your own," Karen says sympathetically.
"Not at all," Emma replies resisting the urge to start a fight. Lord help this woman. With the four years of self-defense training that Chris has given her, Emma would mop the floor. "It may have been a bit sudden but Rose is by all accounts my daughter now." Sort of. Technically only Chris was listed as her Legal Guardian.
Nanny.
"Well, I suppose that's fair. You should start coming to the Monthly Mommy Meetings then," Karen offers. "We meet at my place and have tea in the back garden once a month on the first Sunday at 2 pm."
"Sure that sounds great," Emma agrees to Karen's surprise. While she didn't exactly like the woman, this did seem like a good opportunity to meet the other neighbors and clear up any misunderstandings. It would probably suck but it would ultimately help in the long run.
"I'll let the others know to expect you come September then," Karen says in return.
"See you then," Emma says in parting as she heads back home with Duke. Once inside she lets Duke off his leash and hangs that up. "Wow I'm glad it's Thursday," She says as she rigidly walks to the kitchen and washes her hands so she could get started making food for the small family.
Chris and Rose made their way home and joined her for dinner. "How was your day?" Chris asks as they ate.
"Fine," Emma says with a slight frown. "A bit frustrating but overall not too bad. Are we still good to do training tonight?" She asks hopefully.
"Yeah," He confirms with a nod.
"I go too?" Rose asks with a smile before munching on another bite of food.
Emma chuckles a bit at that. "Yes Rosey goes too,"
"Ye~" She says with a content smile.
"How was your day?" Emma asks in return and Chris bobs his head.
"Rose, do you want to tell Emma what you did today?" Chris asks and Rose curls up a bit in an attempt to shrink and hide.
"Did you get into trouble?" Emma asks and Rose shakes her head no. "Are you sure?" Emma asks. Rose pauses to think it over and shakes her head no again. When in doubt. Deny.
"She threw her food during lunch today," Chris says while Rose continued to try and slide out of her chair to hide.
"No wonder you're so hungry," Emma says as she looks to the now empty chair. "Rosemary, please get back in your seat."
"No," she says from under the table.
"Rose, you're going to be in more trouble if you don't listen," Emma warns earning a few frustrated whines and grumbles in response. Eventually, the child crawls back into their chair as they remember that whining made presents shrink. She didn't want that to happen. She avoids eye contact while picking at her food. "Rose did you learn your lesson?" Emma asks "Are you going to throw your food again?"
Rose shakes her head no.
"Okay, then you're not in trouble. You had to go without lunch because of it so that's punishment enough," Emma says and Chris nods in agreement. "If you do it again that means you didn't learn so you'll get in trouble then. Okay?"
Rose nods and goes back to eating her food. The family continued to talk about their day as they finished their meal. Dishes were cleared and washed before the Trio made their way down to the basement. A punching bag now hung from the support beam that ran along the ceiling of the basement. As much as it was useful for Chris to gauge Emma's progress by having her target him, she was actually getting to where she had a decent amount of power behind her blows. Not enough to break a bone or anything drastic but she'd leave some bruises if she got into a scrap. At this point, it would be a hindrance to have her keep targeting him because she'd start holding back. If she started holding back she wouldn't make more progress.
"Kick. Punch, High kick, Kick. Punch." He instructs and Emma does as she's told.
Rose watches the two from the side while exploring the basement. before long Emma moves to take a break and get a drink of water. While Emma does this, Rose toddles over to get a look at the punching bag with a determined expression and smacks it in an attempt to imitate what Emma had been doing.
Emma tries not to choke on her water as she starts to laugh and Chris joins in the laughter.
"Good job Rose," Chris praises.
"You showed it whose boss," Emma says with a smile as she wiped some stray water from the corners of her mouth.
Rose smiled widely as she received the praise for smacking the punching bag. they were happy with her. The determined expression set in as she moved to shove the bag this time only for it to swing just enough to Come back and smack her in the face and knock her over.
she stared stunned for a moment while Chris and Emma winced in sympathy and waited to see if she was going to cry or not. Sure enough, tears started to form in the corners of her eyes as she processed what happened. THAT HURT! as that thought came to mind she started to openly sob.
"Oh baby no," Emma says as she put her water bottle down and walked over. Rose held her arms up in a silent request to be held and Emma obliged and coddled the child. "Did that hurt?" Emma asks.
"Yeaah," Rose says through sobs.
"Let me see it," she says and gently shifts so she was supporting the more of Rose's weight on her hip so she could hold the child with one arm and used the free hand to move rose's hands away from her face. It was probably going to bruise but there was no blood. she'd probably be okay.
"Is she okay?" Chris asks as he joins Emma to check on the kid.
"Doesn't look too serious," Emma replies while Rose continued to cry crocodile tears. She gives the girl a peck on the nose "There all better."
Rose Pouts while tears continue to Roll down her cheeks before making a grabbing motion for Chris to hold her and do the same.
Chris frowns slightly and instead moves to ruffle her hair. "You got this tiny terror, you're a trooper. Are you okay now?" he asks and she nods while still pouting.
Since she was okay Emma moved to put her down. Rose gave the punching bag a wide birth as she walked around it to avoid getting smacked by it again. She went back to exploring the basement while Chris and Emma continued training on the mats.
Pin, break. Hold, break. Pin, break. Hold, break. Pin.
Rose continued to watch her guardians play fight with some level of curiosity. She wanted to play too... she toddled back over to them and started to climb onto Chris's back.
"Rose what are you doing," Chris asks while trying not to laugh as she pulled on his shirt and stepped on Emma's arm in her attempt to climb onto his back. It took a moment but eventually, she sat squarely on his back.
"I win!" Rose cheers happily while wiggling her feet.
At this point, both Chris and Emma start laughing again. "Rose get off or you're going to fall," Chris says "I need to get up."
Rose responds by clinging to his back instead.
Emma chuckles and shakes her head before giving Chris's chest a pat to get his attention. "Let me scoot out and I'll get her off you."
"Easier said than done," Chris replies though his own chuckling as the two tried to figure out how to get Emma free from the pin without chucking the baby.
Rose definitely saw it as a game as she laughed and clung onto Chris to keep from falling off but eventually Emma was able to get out and stand up. She picked up Rose who was still happily giggling. "Okay you, I think it's time for someone to go upstairs and get the giggles out before bed."
Rose continued to laugh and nods in return.
"We'll just have to pick up on training again after she is A-S-L-E-E-P" Emma says as she looks to Chris.
"Sounds good, I was worried we were going to have another Punching bag incident," He admits as he Follows the two back up the stairs.
A movie later and It was eventually time for Rose to get some sleep. She changed into her pajamas and was tucked in with her sleepy time princess doll before peacefully drifting off to sleep.
Chris and Emma finished up training before going through their own nightly routines as well and calling it a night. Or. So they tried to as after a good 2 hours. right, when they managed to fall asleep. Rose woke up.
The little girl gave a shriek as she clung to her doll and quickly crawled out of bed with it, dragging it along sider her while crying and hurried over to Chris and Emma's room through the, luckily, open door.
Chris jolted a bit as he heard the crying get louder. He looked around to find Rose pulling at the bedsheets. "What's wrong?" he asks groggily.
garbled sobbing toddler talk was all he heard in response.
"You had a nightmare?" Emma asks as she rolls over a bit and sits up so she could see Rose.
"Mhm" she replies with a nod. "A big scwary fish tried to e-eat meee," Rose explained through her sobs.
"No more little mermaid before bed," Chris quietly grumbles and Emma nods in agreement.
"I sweep wif you guys?" Rose requests through her sobs "I's scared." she admits with a pout.
"... Just this once," Chris agrees as he shifts to lean over and help the kid crawl into the bed. Rose nustled her way under the comforter since the weighted blankets were too heavy for her to move and snugged into place between the two with her doll.
Eventually, the sobbing stopped and hiccups took their place. Rose looked between her two protectors. "... I has another bedtime story?" she requested.
"Go to bed," Chris replies sleepily.
"otay," she says quietly and eventually falls asleep again feeling much safer.
'*'*'*'*'
A week passed since then Chris was sitting in the living room while Emma was busy putting Rose to bed for the night. Throughout the day and into the evening his mind kept wandering to two text messages he received earlier that day. Once more he takes out his phone to read the messages over.
Wednesday August 25th, 9:15pm
[Umber Eye] Thought you ought to know. They got Ethan's grave set up.
[Umber Eye is sharing a Google Map location with you]
Chris frowns a bit at that before shaking his head and putting the phone away. His silent spacy behavior wasn't lost on Emma who made her way back downstairs and over to Chris after putting the child to bed.
"Hey... Are you doing okay?" she asks with quiet concern as she took a seat next to him. "You've been kinda out of it today."
"yeah... it's been a day," he admits with an attempt at a neutral expression. "Found out they finally got Ethan's headstone setup."
"Oh..." Emma replies with an understanding nod. "I understand if you don't want to but. Maybe you should pay a visit..." She suggests.
"I dunno," he replies with a tired sigh as he shifts to rest his elbows on his legs and support his head while thinking the suggestion over. It wasn't like he didn't want to visit but... Did he have any right to do so?
"Getting some closure could help," she says as she moves to gently run her hand along his back. "For me, visiting Tanner and just, talking as if he was there helped a lot," Emma explains her reasoning. "It doesn't have to be now or honestly, ever... but, if you do want to, when you're ready I can watch Rose. She doesn't need to know about this yet."
He thinks it over a bit more and eventually nods. It was worth a try at least, and if it wasn't helping he could just leave. "Alright... I'll give it a try over the weekend." he agrees.
Emma shifts to give him a kiss on the side of his temple. "I'm a text away if you need me. I can just bring Rose with me and come get you."
He gives have a chuckle and waves off that offer. "you're worrying too much, I'll be fine." he replies in return as he moves to sit back and put an arm around her so he could hold her a bit closer. "Let's try and get some rest though..."
"Okay," she says with a nod and heads up stair with him to try and catch up on sleep.
Thursday and Friday passed by and faded into Saturday. Chris packed a bag and slung that over his shoulder. "I'll be back in an hour or two,"
"Take your time, we'll be here," Emma says in return with a gentle smile.
Chris nods in return before heading out to the car and getting in. He put the bag in the passenger seat and got a cigarette ready before heading on his way. As much as this was something he did want to do, it was stressful. The Cigarette helped pass the time as he made his way to the graveyard. He found a parking spot and waited a few minutes as he tapped his thumb against the steering wheel. Come on. just get out of the car.
He takes a deep breath before grabbing the bag from the passenger seat and gets out of the car. The walk to the grave didn't take too long and eventually, he found himself staring at a well-cut and polished piece of granite, or maybe it was marble? he didn't know.
In Loving Memory
of
ETHAN WINTERS
A kind husband and loving father
who put family before all else.
He stares down at the message, it was accurate. A quiet sigh passed his lips as he moved to take a seat on the ground next to the headstone so he could start digging through the bag. a soft clink was heard as he takes a glass from the bag and places that on the stone slab that propped up the headstone. He took out a second glass after that and a bottle of gin. After filling each glass he put the bottle away and picked up one of the two to sip at it.
It took a few minutes of simply sitting there staring at the carved stone while sipping at his drink before words started to form. "Guess it's too late now but... Sorry I fucked up." He says quietly before taking another sip. what all was he supposed to say?
For me, visiting Tanner and just, talking as if he was there helped a lot
What would Ethan want to talk about if he was here... "Suppose I should let you know how the family is doing," he says as it didn't take long to answer his own question. "Not really an easy way to say it so I guess I'll just spit it out, Mia got arrested..." Chris says with a slight frown. "You always were a trusting guy. always saw the best in everyone... even if it wasn't there to begin with." He says quietly before taking another sit. "Rose is doing okay though... I'm trying to do what you asked. I hope, it's okay but. I ended up taking the role of her legal guardian after Mia was deemed unfit to care for her. I didn't really see any other way to keep that promise to you otherwise."
He frowns slightly. "She's certainly showing some interesting health problems... I'm sure you remember Evaline from all those years ago. back in Louisianna. Turns out Rose has a similar aging problem." Chris explains. "Mia was giving her some sort of medicine before. It's apparently similar to what they were feeding Evaline before to fix her aging problem. So that messed with her a bit. Rose will probably be closer to a 3-year-old by next month." Chris explains to his empty surroundings. "The BSAA has been burying things left and right. So, I kept a few of those pills locked away in my office in case I need to unbury this. I know I could probably get a lab to synthesize more of it, and give it to her to slow her aging back down but we don't really know what it is and how exactly it works. figuring that out would mean testing on Rose and I know that's not what you would have wanted." He takes another swig of his drink "but at the same time we can't help her without answers."
Everything surrounding this kid was a duality. It was good and bad. It would help and hurt her. There wasn't just a right choice. "Ethan... I don't know what I'm doing..." he admits quietly. "I always said you were a shit operative but, a good husband," he mentioned quietly. "And she a good kid. a lot like you. You're the good dad, I'm the good soldier. She needs you... not me," he admits as a frown creates creases at the corners of his lips.
"Yet, somehow you ended up being the soldier you never were," He says before taking another swig that burned the back of his throat before a tired sigh passed his lips. "and now I have to figure out how to be something I'm not," Chris says with a hint of frustration in his voice.
"Emma is pretty sure that Rose shouldn't know what happened in the village until she's older... It makes sense, that shit was traumatic even for me," Chris admits before pressing his lips together. "But, I don't know how comfortable I am with having that kid think I'm her father when she was rob of a real one. A good one. because I messed up... I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I can BE that for her..." the agent says as he feels himself getting a bit misty-eyed. "There are times that I catch glimpses of it when she smiles and laughs. She looking at me thinking I'm her dad when she should be looking at you. It was a remote detonator, why couldn't you just come with us?"
You're going to wait until you're grave at this rate
"You weren't supposed to jump into the grave for me," Chris says under his breath as he remembered past conversations with his lost friend.
He looks down at his now mostly empty glass before downing the last of it. "You're not really here and I get that. You're gone. But. Given how kind you always were... Is there any chance that you were willing to forgive me in the end?" the agent requests and receives no response from the silent, empty grave. There was no body to bury after all.
Even with the lack of a reply. He felt lighter. He waiting a few minutes in silence and just enjoyed the serene peace of the area around him before reaching over for the second glass and pouring the content out on the grave.
"It's going to hurt, for all of us, but, once she's matured. She will know you. She'll know my mistake and what it cost her." Chris says before packing up the bag. That would be his repentance.
All the cuteness and feels! and the return of summer hehe it's good to have that cutie back in the character pool =v=. The next chapter is going to be fun with the Monthly Mommy Meeting. what other interesting shenanigans await~ see you guys next time ^u^/ and make sure to let me know if you prefer smaller frequent updates or larger less frequent updates. it will help a lot with gauging how to pace the plot of the story.