Kim left Polly sleeping in their bed and headed downstairs when she heard Angus moving around. She slipped her arms around his neck as he was getting his breakfast. The boy had an appetite and Adam often bemoaned that he had hollow legs and was going to send him broke. Like right now he seemed to be having a bit of a growth spurt and was starting to fill out a little more, he was obviously going to be more Adam's build thankfully than hers. "Hey, Gus. You know we love you right?"
"Mom." He shrugged his shoulders trying to get her to let him go but Kim was hanging on tight, it wouldn't be long until she would need to stand on tiptoes to get her arms around his neck. She knew that while he appeared to hate it and get all squirmy and try and get away, if they hadn't hugged him for a while he would cuddle up to either of them for just a few minutes.
Angus had put his head down and tried hard to make it up to his parents. He knew he had let them down with his grades and they had employed Ava, Antonio's daughter to help him out a couple of hours a week. She was a teacher who was having a few years off while her children were young. When they threatened to take Baseball away from him if his grades didn't improve he finally got the hint and while he still wasn't setting the world on fire with his results he wasn't failing either and that's all Adam and Kim asked for.
"Just tell me that you know we love you and I will let go."
"Yes Mom, you and Dad tell us all the time. We get it." He did smile a little. "I love you too."
"Good boy." She let him go and moved towards the kettle so she could make herself a cup of coffee. She needed something to give her a jolt today because she was running on about three hours sleep. Apart from a few short naps she hadn't really settled back down and was on constant alert for either Polly, who was understandably restless or if Adam called her.
"Is Dad home?"
"Not yet. Gus, he is still with Abbey." Kim didn't know how much to tell him right now, they still didn't know if Abbey was going to make it. He knew something had happened, that Abbey was in trouble that much was obvious and she couldn't hide it from him. Adam had sent her a message about an hour ago saying there was no change and he hoping Abbey's Mom would get there soon. "She took some pills, Abbey took an overdose. Dad took her to the hospital and he is waiting with her until her Mom and Dad arrive." She spoke slowly and deliberately.
"Does she want to die?" He was a bit lost for words and it came out a little harsh. It was not what he expected, he just assumed that when his mom told him that she was in trouble it just meant that he'd had to go pick her up from a cop station somewhere or bail her out.
"I don't think so, that's why she sent Polly a message telling her what she had done. That was asking for help and we are going to help her."
"Okay." He didn't really understand what that meant.
"Polly is taking it really hard so I want you to be nice to her and maybe give her some space today."
Angus nodded as he finished pouring his milk on his cereal. "Sure. Pol's going to be okay though, right?"
"We will make sure."
"And Abbey?"
That was a whole other question. "I really hope so, there is something going on with Abbey that we don't know yet but now she will get the help she needs."
Kim heard Adam's truck pull into the garage and she went and met him at the door. He looked shattered as he pulled his wife into his arms who had burst into tears the moment she saw his face. "Hey Darlin'."
"How's Abbey?"
"Stable. Hopefully she'll wake up soon. She was starting to show some signs just before I left."
"How are you?"
"Tired and hungry and in desperate need to kiss you and hug my kids." He did kiss her softly and it was full of sadness and weariness. "How's Polly?"
"Still asleep in our bed. Go see her, I do believe she could do with a hug from her Dad right now."
"Where's Gus?"
"In the kitchen. He's okay, go and see Polly."
He stopped briefly and talked to Gus. The kid was smart enough to tell his Dad that he loved him and didn't try and shrug out of his hug either, the talk with his Mom had made him realise that it was what his parents needed to hear today.
The instant Adam sat on the edge of the bed Polly's eyes shot open and burst into tears as she flung herself at her Dad. He rubbed her back as he hugged her tightly and they stayed that way for a short while. "It's okay Sweetheart."
His heartbroken baby sobbing in his arms bought down his last wall and the tears ran unchecked down his cheeks. "I'm so sorry Polly."
"Why? Why did she do this?"
Adam kept peppering her hair with kisses as if he was trying to absorb as much of his daughter's pain as he could. "I don't know Polly. Only Abbey knows but she was obviously struggling with something. Do you have any idea?"
"No." Adam had eased himself onto the bed and rested his back on the headboard and had Polly curled up into his side with her head resting on his chest as he held her, he started running his thumb back and forth over her forehead. He often did this to Kim when she was upset and Polly was just like her mother. Even as a baby it was one way that they could get her to sleep. "I think she broke up with Jamie or he stopped calling her or something but she said she was okay because she didn't like him all that much. I think she did though. Maybe that was it?"
"It probably didn't help things but I think there is something more going on."
"Like what?"
"I don't know sweetheart."
"Can I go see her?"
"A little later perhaps, we'll see how she is doing." Adam knew that she would want to see her best friend and while, until the dust settled a little he would have preferred her not to go into the hospital he really couldn't stop her. Polly was involved now, Abbey made sure of that by sending her that message and he had no idea how to deal with it or what the best thing to do was. He was flying blind and there was no manual on how to manage something this emotionally volatile. "Her Mom is with her right now and her Dad will be there soon. Abbey is not awake yet."
Polly was quiet but she wasn't letting go of her Dad and in the silence Adam dozed off. It had been a long night and he'd caught a few catnaps here and there. It wasn't the first time he'd slept in a chair beside a hospital bed but he did always hope it would be the last.
When he woke Polly wasn't with him anymore so he jumped in the shower, hoping against hope it would make him feel a little more human before heading back downstairs. Angus had already hightailed it out of there for the day, he had taken off to a mates place and Kim told him to be home for dinner by five. Angus didn't need to be around right now, he was happy to see his sister was okay and that his Dad was home and that was enough for him.
Adam squeezed Kim's shoulder and kissed Polly on the head as he passed by to make himself a cup of coffee. "You get some sleep?" Kim watched her husband as he nodded and mumbled something. He was tired and stressed, she liked that just by looking at him she could tell but she hated that he was feeling like this.
"Can you call the hospital?" Polly asked. She had begged Kim to call Abbey's Mom but Kim convinced her to wait until Adam was up. That hadn't impressed Polly and she had burst into tears again but Kim managed to calm her down. At one point she was demanding that Kim wake Adam up so that he could call. "Give him a chance Polly, he's been up all night. They will call if there is any change, so no news is good news." Kim had barely talked to Adam about anything and she was just as desperate as Polly to wake him up but he needed a few hours sleep at least. He didn't get that much; barely an hour but it had recharged his batteries a little. He had the ability to run on the smell of an oily rag for a few days but eventually he would crash and burn.
What he really wanted to do, sooner rather than later was sit down with Kim and talk about how they were going to manage this and what to do about Polly. This was far too big a deal to just try and wing it.
"Sure." He grabbed his phone and called. Polly was watching him like a hawk as he sipped his coffee and nodded a few times but not giving anything away. He asked a few questions but generally just listened.
"How's Abbey? Is she awake? Can I go see her?"
"She's awake, her Mom is with her and her Dad just arrived from New York. Let's give them some space for a bit and perhaps we will go in this afternoon if she is still doing okay." Polly looked like she was going to cry again and Adam came and pulled her head in to rest on his hip while he stroked her hair. "I know it's hard Sweetheart but I think we need to let her parents be with her for a while. She is still not well but all the signs are positive. Why don't you go have a shower?" She was still sitting in her pyjamas and in front of her was a half eaten piece of toast and a cold cup of tea and she bit her bottom lip and nodded sadly desperately willing herself not to let the next round of tears fall.
Reluctantly Polly headed upstairs and Adam sat down heavily at the table and patted his knee for Kim to come and sit in his lap. He buried his head into her chest. "Talk to me Adam."
He breathed out slowly as Kim ran one hand through his hair. "I kept thinking this could be my Baby Girl."
"But it wasn't."
"I know."
"I thought Abbey was doing better, I thought that whole sex thing was a one off thing. I feel like we missed something." Adam couldn't shake this and he was stewing over it. Kim knew he would have been awake half the night turning things over and over in his head during those dark lonely hours he sat beside her bed and eventually he would tell her what he was thinking. It was how he coped with stressful situations and while it frustrated Kim sometimes she couldn't rush him, he'd clue her in when he was ready.
"I don't think we did, honestly I have thought about nothing else. Polly says the boyfriend has stopped calling her, maybe that's it."
"That's not it. You know that Kim, it may have been the trigger but something else caused this to happen."
"That's what scares me."
"Do you think Polly knows?"
"I don't, she seems really confused. I am worried that she will start blaming herself though." Kim honestly didn't think Polly had any idea. She kept talking about Abbey splitting up with Jamie and how Abbey was more upset than she let on. Whether Polly was just trying to convince herself that that was the reason Kim had no idea.
"Why?" Kim moved off his lap and started fixing him something for breakfast. Adam leant back in the chair, folded his arms behind his head and watched her move around the kitchen, trying to gauge her mood. When Kim was worried it came across in her willingness to 'take care' of them. She would become the mother hen when things stressed her out, she would worry about everyone else, making sure they were eating and sleeping and had everything they wanted without stopping and taking care of herself too.
So Adam would withdraw and Kim would fuss over everyone else, they were quite the pair but it worked for them. Sure, it was never anything this tumultuous but they would figure it out together.
"Oh I don't know." Kim tried to dismiss the conversation with a hand wave but Adam was having none of it. "A few weeks ago she told me that she was worried that Abbey was jealous of how much time she was spending with Sam and that Abbey thought that Polly had dumped her."
"Great." The thought that Polly may feel guilty did not fill him with any peace and Kim heard him sigh.
"Then she met the boyfriend, Jamie and Polly said she was much happier. I don't know Adam, I am just trying to piece it all together." He jumped up from the table and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder.
"Me too." He kissed her neck. "You and me, we've got this, together."
"What about Sam?"
"What about him?" Adam hadn't really given him much thought. "You don't think he's got anything to do with it do you? I mean I know Polly thought that Abbey was keen on Sam but that was ages ago and they all seemed to get along. I never got the sense that Abbey was jealous of Polly and Sam." Despite what Kim told him about her conversation with Polly Adam had never got any bad hits off it with regards to what was going on between them and their friends. Polly always seemed happy. Nobody ever talked about any jealousy, Polly still spoke to Abbey everyday and they always had a good time when they were together. Then again he was male as Kim often pointed out with regards to his understanding of Polly and her emotions.
Surely he wouldn't have missed this though. He'd known the moment things started going pear shaped with Abbey because of how it affected Polly and lately she'd been back to her usual self. She wasn't good at hiding what was going on because, like her mother she wore her heart on her sleeve.
"Oh I don't know. I'd hope not, but you know that her feelings can change with the wind." That was something that they had become very aware of as Polly's hormones started to wreck havoc on their household when she was thirteen. It had been a few years of hell but they felt they were definitely in calmer waters now. Well until an Abbey shaped iceberg threatened to sink them.
"So do we let Polly see Abbey?" Kim handed him a plate of scrambled eggs on toast.
"I'd love to say no but I don't think we can keep them away from each other. Abbey dragged Polly into this and I am worried if we try and stop Polly seeing her that will just make things worse."
"I agree. If this boyfriend breaking up with her was the catalyst suddenly pulling Polly away from her may do more harm than good."
"For Abbey yes."
"What do you mean by that?"
"For Abbey keeping Polly away from her may not be the best move however…" Adam exhaled slowly. "….Kim my main concern has to be Polly, she's our daughter. I worry about Polly and how she is going to cope with it. I worry if somehow Abbey blames Polly, whether it's because of Sam or some other reason what that would do to her."
"We just need to stick close to her"
"Like glue." He tucked into his breakfast as his stomach started to grumble loudly. Kim wrapped her arms around his neck for a minute tyring to absorb some of his strength and his heartache.
"Did Janice have any ideas?"
Adam shot Kim a strange look. "Ah, I may have gone a little hard at Janice."
"Adam." She sighed.
It wasn't the most pleasant of exchanges. Adam had called her at 130am and she said she was fours hours away so he was expecting her by six or seven at the latest so when she rocked in at eight carrying a bag of food and a coffee Adam lost his shit. He was tired, his back and neck were killing him because he'd sat beside Abbey's bed all night.
"Oh, I didn't expect anyone to be here. You should have gone home."
"And leave Abbey alone?"
"She's sleeping."
"She's not just sleeping she's unconscious. Nice to see you had time to stop and get something to eat."
"I stopped by home and had a shower. I'd been driving for four hours."
"You went home? How fucking nice for you, you know I'd like to be at home with my family, with my daughter who by the way is fucking hysterical ever since your daughter sent her a fucking suicide message at 1230 this morning." If he could have slipped another 'fuck' in there he would have. He was honestly too tired to care.
"What did she say?"
"What does it matter?" he couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth. "Abbey needed help and we helped her. You are her mother; start acting like one. Why are you not out of your fucking mind?" he tapped his temple with one finger.
"This is what she does, she just wants attention."
"Well she's got my attention, she got my attention when she swallowed a bottle of pills and then sent a message to my daughter." Adam grabbed his jacket. "By the way Murray is on his way."
"Why?"
"Ah, because his daughter tried to kill herself and because I told him how Abbey had been acting weird, drinking and screwing around. He's pretty pissed." He noticed the flash of anger in Janice's eyes. "I guess he thinks he deserved to know Abbey was running off the rails."
"Well thanks for that. I think you are being little dramatic, Abbey didn't try and kill herself, and she's just acting out. She just wants to go live in New York and thinks this will get her there."
Adam came and stood inches from Janice's face and even he could feel the anger peeling off him in waves. "She swallowed a whole bottle of pills, trust me another half hour and you'd be planning a funeral. Get your head out of your ass and be a god damn fucking mother to your child."
Kim rubbed his back as he told her what happened. Adam couldn't understand why Janice was so blasé about it. He was out of his mind and even then it was nothing compared to what he would have been had it been either Polly or Angus lying in that bed. He'd never disliked the woman until today. Sure she hadn't been a greatest Mom to Abbey lately but compared to some of the mother's he'd seen she wasn't the worst. A part of him was hoping it was just shock and at some point her maternal instincts would kick in. Kim would have been an inconsolable mess and eating or showering would have been the last thing on her mind. Just breathing would have been a struggle for Kim.
The first thing Polly did when she went up to her room was call Sam and as soon as she heard his voice she burst into tears. "Polly?"
He could barely make out what she was saying "Abbey…oh god…she tried to kill herself."
"Polly, what happened?"
Gradually her voice started to even out and she was able to explain to him what was going on as far as she knew it, which wasn't a lot. Not that she thought her parents were keeping things from her, they had seemed pretty honest and up front and she could generally tell if they were trying to hide things from them because of the way they looked at each other. They had done none of that this morning. All she wanted to do was see Abbey.
When Kim went to check on Polly she could hear her on the phone. She tried not to listen but it was hard. Every little thing with Polly was going to have her on edge at the moment, she did not want to be blindsided by Polly crashing and burning.
"I am going to see her later I hope. My Dad said he would take me in." Kim leant on the wall just outside her door just for a few minutes, just to satisfy the mother in her that Polly was okay. She mumbled a few responses to the other person. "Are you still coming for dinner?" Kim wasn't surprised that she was talking to Sam. He was now a regular visitor to Sunday night dinners and they were certainly really enjoying spending time together. They could both see how close they were getting although she wasn't sure how serious they were yet. "Of course I want you to come. I think I'd really like a hug from you."
A small sob caught in Kim's throat when Polly started crying again.
Her baby girl was growing up and falling in love and seeking comfort from others. It was a bittersweet pill to swallow right now.