"What are you doing?" Sam opened one eye and gave Polly a sleepy smile. He'd felt her come back to bed a little while ago and he'd lifted his arm and draped it over her hip, kissed her shoulder and went back to sleep. How quickly they had fallen into a groove and got comfortable sharing a bed.
"Waking you up."
"Why?" He grabbed hold of her hips and held her steady as she wiggled on top of him. "Easy Tiger, don't tease me. It's not fair." Despite being allowed to stay with her for the past couple of nights Sam was too scared to actually do anything. The first night he had barely slept, it wasn't what he expected and Polly was pretty restless. The past two nights had been much more settled and he really loved being here. Even with his past girlfriend he had never spent the whole night with her, his parents didn't like her and they were happy when Sam broke it off. They would have never let her stay overnight.
The very fact of he was woken up early that morning by Adam standing over them still freaked him out and it had taken him ages to fall back to sleep. That man had some serious stealthy moves and guns, he never forgot about the guns probably because Adam liked to remind him constantly.
"No one is home."
"Where is everyone?"
"Dad's just left, he was going back to the hospital." Polly knew he was just going to have a shower and get changed, probably make a coffee and head back to the hospital.
"Hospital, Holy fuck Polly what happened? I thought they were just going to pick Gus up?"
"Way too wasted apparently, he's been in hospital all night heaving his guts up. Dad is pissed and Mom is freaking out no doubt." Polly was kissing his neck and as she leant forward she repositioned herself so that Sam had no option but to respond. His body wasn't listening to his head.
"So your Dad is pissed and you want to do this." His resolve was weakening with every touch.
"Yes, I want to do this. I want to forget about everything else for a little while. I know you can make me do that; it's what you are good at. Just for a little bit Sam, please?" Polly sat up suddenly and pulled her tank top off, tossing it aside and that was the end of his resistance. It had been futile and feeble at best. He was a male after all, they were home alone, in bed and barely wearing anything and as soon as his very hot girlfriend started making a move on him it was game over. Who could resist?
By the time Adam and Kim finally bought Angus home they were both up and dressed like they hadn't just spent the past hour or so having sex. It had made Polly feel good and forget about things for a while which was exactly what she wanted and Sam would do anything to make her happy right now. Adam and Kim both noticed their wet hair and had a fair idea what had gone on here but they had bigger things to worry about and Polly looked a tiny bit happier so there was that.
Adam was back to his 'hear no evil, see no evil' approach after the bed breaking incident. Sam had avoided them for a good two weeks after that, the dinner conversation scared him and he decided to lay low for a while. The day he come back Adam walked in from work, un-holstered his gun and put in the in the safe watching Sam the whole time. "I see the boyfriend has showed his face again." He called out to Kim as he headed upstairs. By the time dinner came round Kim had told him to pull his head in, Polly had cracked it with him and eventually things returned to normal and 'the boyfriend' disappeared and Sam came back.
Kim took Angus up to his room and he looked like death warmed up and struggled to put one foot after another. The vomiting had stopped but he was pretty wrecked and even the thought of food made him gag. Adam did want to make him sit up all day and 'tough it out' but had been swiftly overruled, it was a pity he didn't get the same leeway when he had a hangover and if he didn't think it would end very badly for him he would have pointed that out.
"So do I need to talk to you about underage binge drinking?" He looked at them sitting on the couch watching a movie and they both shook their heads. To date neither of them had ever come home smelling or looking like they'd been drinking and Sam was quite often driving and he never drank when he was driving. He was no angel, they knew that but he had his head screwed on right and when he did drink it was never a lot.
"Good." Adam disappeared upstairs. He needed a few hours sleep and to not deal with this shit for a bit. Sometimes you just need to close the door on things for an hour or two and reset yourself. He heard Kim come in briefly and grab a shower and then she slipped back out quickly and left him alone. She could do with a sleep but while Adam was sleeping she needed to stay up in case Gus needed one of them.
Kim gave him a couple of hours before she went back in with a coffee. She sat on the edge of the bed and waited until he opened his eyes. "Lie down with me." He patted the bed.
"I can't. I just wanted to see if you were okay?"
"I am. How's Gus?" Kim was glad that Adam seemed less pissed off with him now although how he faired later was yet to be seen.
"Sleeping, he hasn't moved."
"Where's the other two?"
"Sam took her out for a bit. I think they are going to have lunch." Kim literally pushed them out the door. "She looked a little better this morning."
"That was probably the shower sex." Adam mumbled. He wasn't blind or stupid and thinking back he would have done exactly the same thing if he were a teenager. Hell he wasn't a teenager anymore and still loved getting Kim up against a wall in the shower on a regular basis. He'd be more worried that Sam was an idiot if he didn't at least try.
Kim slipped her hand under his shirt and stroked his chest. "Well it always makes me feel better."
"Are you hitting on me?"
"You wish." Kim chuckled and bent down kissed him softly, resting her forehead on his. "I love you so much Adam. I'm hate that our kids are a mess."
"Yeah so do I, but I am glad they are our mess."
Sam's parents had bought over something for them for lunch considering the night they'd had and the rollercoaster of the last few days. Kim appreciated it because cooking was the last thing she felt like doing. She'd had a few hours sleep at the hospital but it wasn't nearly enough so unless it was take out nobody was eating anything until Sam's parents Jolene and Phil turned up with Lasagne. Sam and Polly had stopped by his house on their way out for lunch and filled them in on last nights' dramas so his Mom wanted to do something to help. Adam tried to get her to have a sleep but she refused and Adam wasn't surprised, she wanted to be there when Gus needed her.
"You know Sam wasn't always this easy." Phil accepted Adam's offer for a beer outside. Polly and Sam were still out and Gus hadn't surfaced yet. They had got on well, Sam's parents had invited Kim and Adam for dinner once everyone realised that the two kids were getting pretty serious. Polly had been reluctant just because she was worried her Dad was such a loose cannon and she had no idea what he would do or say and she'd spent most of the night mortified by her Dad, even though Sam told her he wasn't that bad and that his parents thought he was hilarious and that her Mom was really sweet.
"No?"
"He was so close to running off the rails it wasn't funny."
"Not sure I want to know."
"I don't think Sam was the problem though. His girlfriend at the time was a little wild and the more we tried to keep him away from her the more he dug his heels in. I think once he realised the family were psycho and they got raided and had more than a few drug charges coming down he finally cut her loose."
"At least he was smart enough not to get involved."
Phil took a mouthful of beer. "And then he starts on about this new girl. His mate told us that no-one would have a bar of her because her father was a cop and we thought 'here we go again' and we were nervous, I can tell you."
Adam threw his head back and laughed. "I always wondered why she didn't have boys beating down our door?"
"I thought she'd be a rebel." Phil laughed along with Adam. "Polly's a sweet girl, we really like having her around. She's been good for Sam."
"Your kids got some balls though. He hasn't backed down one bit with all the shit that's gone on." Adam hadn't made things a walk in the park for Sam, he wasn't mean or nasty but he felt he at least had to keep him on his toes. "He's a good kid, when he's not breaking furniture." Phil had heard that story from his son when they'd wondered why suddenly him and Polly started spending more time at their place. That was when Sam was too scared to show his face around here.
"I don't think I need to tell you he's done it tough but we are pretty proud of him for not dumping and running on Polly because of everything that's happened. He had plenty of other girls throwing themselves at him and he just wasn't interested." Adam could hear the pride in his father's voice. "He's pretty happy with Polly and he loves being here."
"The first we heard of Sam was right when things first turned to shit with Abbey, Polly was hysterical and started ranting about this boy and talking about sex and then suddenly she's asking to go on a date with him. I'm thinking what the hell, there was no way that was happening but she just looked some damn happy when she talked about him so I could hardly stop her. We feel like we've got lucky."
"Same." Phil had to agree, they loved Polly and really enjoyed having her around. Her laugh often filled their house and now that their older kids weren't around much it had filled a bit of a hole. "How's Gus?"
"Nursing the mother of all hangovers." Adam snorted a little bit. "He's going to love going to school tomorrow. There is no way he's over this by then."
They hadn't had the conversation with Angus yet, although he was home was still pretty out of it. Kim was fussing over him but Adam thought he should be left alone to wallow in his own misery. As long as he wasn't vomiting he was pretty safe but again that had fallen on deaf ears. Mother Hen was in her element.
"I think Sam should go home tonight." Adam and Phil agreed on that. They weren't sure that Polly and Sam would but at some point they needed to get back to reality and that reality was that these were still kids, neither of them were quite 18 although Sam was only a few weeks away from his birthday and Polly had a couple of months to go. They were also sending Polly back to school tomorrow, exams were coming and they were both in their last few weeks of High school. She'd missed enough school in the last few months although she had worked hard lately to make sure she had caught up. Life had to go on, the longer they waited the harder it would get. "I never thought I would be happy or ready to let him sleepover but Polly just wasn't functioning on any level and Sam was the only person she coped with and would listen to and all I cared about was doing whatever I needed to do to help her."
"We are happy to let Sam help, whatever Polly needs."
As expected Polly cried when Sam went home. He promised to come back and have breakfast with her and take her to school in the morning.
"You're father wants to talk to you." Kim stuck her head in on Angus once they dealt with Polly's epic meltdown over them sending Sam home. She wasn't angry with them; she just didn't want to let Sam go. Although they now had some big decisions to make with regards to letting him stay occasionally, now that the cat was out of the bag so to speak.
"Can he come up here?"
"What do you think?" He'd slept all afternoon and it was now time to face the music.
Angus hauled himself downstairs, not at a pace that impressed Adam so by the time he dropped himself onto the couch in front of his parents in a scene reminiscent of all those months ago when Polly first started hitting a wall and Adam was close to exploding.
"I don't think I need to tell you how disappointed we are right now but lucky for you your mother has the some amazing ability to keep me from losing my shit." Adam struggled to actually keep his voice level. "And I promised her that would give you a chance to explain." He held his hands out wide. "So?"
"I'm sorry."
"Yep, got that." Adam nodded curtly. "Not good enough Angus." Kim instantly noticed the use of his full name again. Adam could see his teenage self staring back at him from the couch and it was that same wilful stubbornness that drove his own parents to distraction. No wonder his parents just about pulled their hair out dealing with him.
"I didn't think I'd had that much."
"Not that much?" Adam almost laughed. "Your Blood Alcohol Level was 0.19, that's insane Angus, not to mention dangerous and incredibly stupid."
"How much did you drink that day you couldn't go to work?"
"Excuse me?" Kim cringed a little knowing full well that Angus had just pressed Adam's final button. She had no idea how she was going to keep him in control now. "What the hell does that have to do with anything? I am an adult; you are fourteen years old. Fourteen! Apart from the fact it is illegal for you to be drinking do you think we liked sitting there watching you vomiting and barely conscious?" His voice hitched in his throat and Kim thought he was about to lose it completely. "Do you think I enjoyed getting a phone call from work telling me that you had been at an out of control party and were on your way to hospital? Do you think I liked telling your mother..." he pointed at Kim who had been silent so far, "...that you were blind drunk and in hospital with alcohol poisoning? How do you think we felt walking into that hospital room seeing you barely conscious? Do you think any of this has been fun for us?"
"No."
"Do you think we needed this right now?" Angus shook his head. "So, explain to me why."
"It's just been really hard."
Adam softened just a little. "Angus, I know this has been tough lately but come on Bud, this isn't you."
With every tick of the clock Adam felt his blood pressure rise as his son remained defiantly silent. "I'm waiting Angus." He seethed.
"I was scared, okay? I'm scared." He eventually spat it out. "Everything is shit, Polly is going to end up like Abbey." He had tears streaming down his face. "Someone challenged me to do some shots. I thought it would make people like me."
"What?" Kim felt like she'd been hit between the eyes. "What do you mean? What about Polly?" She looked from her son to her husband and got a feeling that Adam knew exactly what Angus was talking about. She leapt up from her seat and sat next to him, Adam was surprised she had lasted this long. She was in full on mother mode and if anyone was going to end up in the dog house it was likely to be Adam, especially now.
Adam ignored her. "First of all Polly is not going to end up like Abbey, she's actually worried about you thinking like that and wants you to know that she's okay. Gus, Polly's not going anywhere; we are stuck with her."
"What the hell is going on?" Kim hissed at her husband.
"Kim, not now." Adam snapped. He wasn't getting side tracked right now. This was about Angus and what he did. "What do you mean you wanted people to like you?"
"Some people think I am a goody two shoes because you are a cop and I am to much of a pussy to do anything because of you."
Kim held up her hand to stop Adam because she knew he was about to say something completely unhelpful, like that he should be scared of him. She actually didn't want him to speak at all. "Gus, how long has this been going on?"
"What?"
"This nonsense about people challenging you?"
"It was just this one guy and he was having a go at me." He stared at the floor unable to meet either of his parent's eyes. "He was teasing me because I like Olive and he was hanging around her and she seemed to like it and he said she likes boys who like to have fun."
"Oh for Fuck's sake. Are you fucking kidding me?" Kim was unimpressed by Adam's outburst judging by the filthy look she sent his way that made his toes curl slightly. The hole he was in was pretty deep so at this point he didn't really care. His hands were clenched tightly on top of his head and he was just about to wear a hole in the rug if he kept pacing the way that he did. He just wasn't ready to deal with more teenage angst.
"I'm sorry Dad. It was stupid." He knew it was his Dad that he had to convince he was sorry and his voice was teetering on the edge.
"Gus, come on Bud. You have a hundred girls who would do anything to get your attention. If this one girl doesn't like you it's not because of you, it's because of her."
"You don't understand Dad." Kim was rubbing his back lightly. He was struggling big time and they always thought he had too much Adam in him but it seemed that he just didn't have that same level of self-confidence when it came to girls.
"Gus, I do understand. You know I didn't just appear fully formed as your father, I was sitting exactly where you were one day." He paused briefly. "I remember this one chick, Jennifer Miles. I thought she was smokin' hot but she didn't even know I existed. I was crushed when she started dating this other guy and I was mortified when she figured out that I had left her a secret valentine and it was all over school the next day and they all just laughed at me. I skipped school for a week before my Mom found out and her and my Dad kicked me from here until Christmas. So I do understand."
"What did you do?"
"Got myself a hotter girlfriend." He shrugged. Kim wasn't quite sure how helpful this conversation was right now but she didn't really have much else to add either. How anyone couldn't like her boy was beyond her and she wanted to give this little minx a piece of her mind and perhaps even throw a set of cuffs on this smart-assed boy who goaded Angus into drinking.
While Kim's mind was swaying a little off course, Adam was clearly focussed on the Polly issue he'd bought up. That was far more pressing as far as he was concerned. "One thing I want to make very clear. All this with Polly, if you feel like it's getting too much for you I want you to tell me and we will help you, okay?" Adam was at his wits end. He had worried incessantly over how they had dealt with all. Had they done the right thing with Polly? Had he spent enough time with Gus? What about Kim, was he neglecting her? Was it wrong not to tell her? It was getting on top of him and Kim was scared that he was going to go too hard at Angus just because it was the final straw. "All you have to say is Dad I need help and buddy I'll help you, no questions asked." His voice was so shaky.
Gus nodded as Adam took a breath to steady himself. "Now, you have school tomorrow and for the next two weeks there is no going out, no parties or friends over. No sitting in your room playing computer games. Your mother and I will have a list of jobs that you need to do by tomorrow and we expect them to be done, no whinging or complaining. This cannot happen again Gus, I mean it."
He'd gotten off lightly, this time. Adam's overriding fear was that this was stemming from his concern about Polly more than anything else and it made him more worried than angry.
"Do you have something to tell me?" Kim barely waited for Gus to disappear back upstairs to bed. She had said goodnight to him so sweetly but as she turned back to face her husband her eyes were like ice.
"Gus is worried that Polly is going to die like Abbey." There was no spin that Adam could put on this to make it sound better.
"What?" Kim was horrified. "Since when? Why the hell am I just hearing about this now?"
"Since the day Abbey died. Kim he begged me not to tell you and I made the decision to honour that. If I broke his trust you think he was going to come to me if he was struggling? I wanted him to trust me." He pointed upstairs. "I didn't know this was going to happen?"
"I can't believe you didn't tell me. Fucking hell Adam, this is bigger than some bro code."
"Don't you think I know that Kim?" He waved his hands in the air angrily. "So go ahead blame me, I know you fucking want too. It's always my fault isn't it? You don't care that I was trying to help Gus, trying to get him to trust me. You wouldn't have been able to help yourself; you know it. Even if I told you what he said and asked you to keep it to yourself you wouldn't have been able to stop yourself and then do you think Gus would have told me anything ever again?"
"Have a little bit of faith in me."
"I am just trying to do my best. I'm trying Kim. It's fucking hard; every single day I have no idea what's going to happen. Do you know what it's like to hear your son sobbing in your arms because he's worried his sister is going to kill herself?" It was bitter and blunt and Adam's anguish stunned Kim a little. "I couldn't tell you, I don't want you to worry about that." Her anger dissipated the more she watched her husband fall apart. "I had Polly downstairs a complete and utter mess and then I had Gus in my arms breaking my heart." Tears were spilling down his cheeks.
"Adam." Kim leapt up from the couch and placed both her hands on his cheeks and made him stand still. He hadn't stopped pacing; he was agitated and he was slowly losing control. "Let me help you. That's too big a burden for you to carry alone."
"No it's not. Not if it protects you. I hate seeing you worry about them like this."
"Baby. Don't, they are our children, ours. You don't have to do this alone."
"I do, I don't want to let you down, and I don't want to let them down."
"Adam. You have never let me down. Never." Kim stood on her tiptoes and kissed his wet cheeks. "You've never let them down. They are lucky to have you; I am lucky to have you. I thank my lucky stars everyday that I chose you. We don't work without you." Finally she felt him relax as the tension left his body and Kim staggered a little as he collapsed against her, but she held him up, she wasn't letting him fall.
They had two great kids, they had always counted their blessings at how little trouble they were. They had never been really sick or in trouble to any great degree, they were sweet and caring but also funny. Now suddenly everything had turned on its head. The last few months had been hard, harder than they every imagined. Sure, it could be worse, so much worse but this felt like such a heavy burden. They worried about them daily, more so than usual.
Their beautiful bright funny daughter was barely keeping her head above water. At a time in her life when she should have been enjoying her first boyfriend and feeling that innocent love she was reeling from hit after hit. How fortunate had they been that Sam had stood by her and it terrified them what would happen if and when they went their separate ways? It was bound to happen eventually and while they didn't want Polly to get too serious too quickly Sam had won them over.
Now Angus was buckling right before their eyes and they found it hard to not hold on too tight and push him further away when he was obviously crying out for help.
Then there was them, this was all pulling them in different directions almost daily and sometimes all they had was a few minutes alone to hang on to each other for dear life. And hang on they did but right now Adam didn't know if he had the strength to continue.
Kim could sense it, so she gave him all of hers. It was her turn to hold him up.