Chapter 3: The Kids Stop a Break-In
By Erico
Gwen's House
Wednesday, June 2nd, 1993
9:27 A.M.
Ben was happy that his mom and Gwen's mom didn't fight anymore. He was happier that it was summer, because that meant that he didn't have to go to school to play with Gwen, he could just ask if she could come over, or she would ask her mom if he could. But this week, right here, had to be the best week ever. His mommy and daddy were on a trip for daddy's job. They'd wanted him to come along, but they said Gwen couldn't, and he got mad about it. They'd asked him if he wanted to stay with Gwen and her mommy and daddy instead, and that sounded so much better. A whole week staying over at Gwen's house!
They even let him stay in Gwen's room. They'd tried setting up a squishy balloon bed for him on the floor, but it just didn't feel right. After he'd rolled around on it for a while Sunday night and let Gwen have a turn bouncing on it, she'd pulled him up onto her bed, which was lots comfier. Her mom woke them up in the morning and talked to him about sleeping in his own bed, which confused him and then made him angry when Gwen got angry. The next night, he tried to sleep on the balloon bed again and kept wiggling, but he stayed like Aunt Lili wanted. Gwen was smart though. Really smart. She just hopped down and cuddled with him and Furry Freddy until he got sleepy, and the next morning when Aunt Lili tried to argue with them, Gwen got the bossy look on her face and told her mom that Ben did exactly what she'd wanted. Gwen must've won, because last night there hadn't been a balloon bed on the floor, and Aunt Lili tucked them in and didn't say anything.
"Ha!" he cried out, snatching up a puzzle piece from the big pile. He and Gwen were working on a puzzle full of kitties and yarn balls, and she'd been looking for just the right color of green to go with the orange kitty fighting with the green yarn ball in the corner. "Got one, Gwen!"
"Lemme see, lemme see!" She was grabbing at his hand even before he could shove it in front of her, and he flattened his hand out so she could take it from him. She squinted at it and then grinned, moving it over to the puzzle and trying a few spots. Ben went back to the pile and started digging again, and a few seconds later she let out a happy noise. It must've fit.
Ben wasn't as good at puzzles as Gwen was. The ones from preschool hadn't been hard; put the wooden fruits in the wood board. But Gwen's mom didn't have that kind of puzzle, or even one that had 20 pieces, or 30. The puzzle they were working on right now had two-hunnred pieces. And Aunt Lili kept saying that there were puzzles that were even bigger.
He found another piece with green yarn on it and went to put it in, but Gwen grabbed for it. "Hey!" He sputtered, as she took it and slapped it into place. "I was gonna do that one!"
"But I saw'd where it was gonna go." She told him with a frown.
"Did he give you that piece, Gwendolyn, or did you just take it from him without asking?" Aunt Lili said, walking into the room and smiling down at them. They had the puzzle spread out over her daddy's desk and he and Gwen were standing up on top of big, huge books that smelled old and were full of dust to look over the top of it.
Gwen got a pouty look on her face, and her mom sighed. "Gwen. We ask for things. We don't just take them."
"I know. I'm sorry, mommy." Gwen mumbled.
"You didn't take anything from me, Gwendolyn." Her mom said, and then looked over to Ben. "Apologize to Ben."
She turned, still pouting, and Ben just blinked and wondered why it was such a big deal. His feelings were a little hurt, sure, but she was Gwen. Gwen was always bossy. Why didn't Aunt Lili see it? Gwen must've felt bad, because she hugged him. Gwen always gave the best hugs, even better than his mommy and daddy did. Even better than Grandpa did.
"... 'm sorry, Ben." She mumbled into his shoulder, and he hugged her and patted her back like his daddy sometimes did for him.
Gwen's mommy hummed to herself, nodding as she looked at them. Her eyes were all crinkly. "Listen, you two. I have to take something over to Mrs. Jansen's house a few blocks away. You remember Mrs. Jansen, sweetie?"
"With all da wittle dollies?" Gwen said.
"The figurines, yes." Gwen's mom said. "Would you two like to keep working, or would you like to come along? If you want to stay though, there are rules." Aunt Lili always had rules, but Ben was getting used to that. He looked at Gwen and she looked back, and he realized she wanted him to talk.
"Stay? Please?" Ben asked, and Gwen's face brightened up. So. Right choice after all.
"Okay." Aunt Lili ruffled his hair and smiled. "Rules, then. No touching any of daddy's things, Gwen. You know what's his in here and what isn't. You can read from your bookshelf if you want to…" Ben made a face, and she laughed. "Or not. I'll only be gone for 10 minutes or so. If you're thirsty, you can wait until I get back. I'll fix you both a snack and some juice then. So stay out of the kitchen. If you get tired of the puzzle, you can go play in Gwen's room. Okay?"
Ben nodded his head and so did Gwen. He wasn't good at puzzles like Gwen, but he wanted to beat this one. He had a good feeling about it.
Aunt Lili gave them both another hug and kissed their foreheads. Ben grumbled and rubbed at the spot, and Gwen's mom stood up and crossed her arms. "Now. Last things. If someone rings the doorbell…"
"Don't answer, 'cause there's no adult home." Gwen chirped back.
"And if the phone rings?" Aunt Lili added, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't answer it." Ben said, because even his mommy had those two rules.
"Good." Gwen's mommy turned around and left the room. She came back in a second later, sighing. "And I probably don't have to remind you two, but don't go running off to visit Grandpa, all right? He's coming over tomorrow anyways."
Ben didn't say anything, even though he really wanted to yell that he wouldn't, because Aunt Lili and his mommy weren't fighting anymore. And they wouldn't just go now, they'd call first. Grandpa'd made them remem'rize his number, after all.
Gwen's mommy nodded again and left for real this time, and Gwen tugged on his sleeve.
"I need orange for the kitties." She said, and Ben got back to work in digging through the pile.
They got in some more pieces and the house was quiet aside from the two of them, and the tree outside which made noises in the wind and made the light coming in through the window over the couch dance a little. The left side of the puzzle actually was looking like the picture on the box now, and they were looking at the gray kitty with the purple yarn on the right when the doorbell rang.
Ben looked over at Gwen, a little surprised that something else was happening. She seemed dazed for a second or two before she shook her head and got that I know what I'm doing look on her face again. "Doorbell. We don't answer." She said, and Ben nodded. It was a rule, after all. He reached for another puzzle piece and was about to hand it over to Gwen when they heard something else. It sounded like something breaking, even louder and worse than the sound that a water glass he'd dropped had made back home when it hit the kitchen floor. His mom had panicked a little and scooped him up, taking him out of the kitchen while his daddy had gone after a broom.
He didn't realize that he'd frozen up until Gwen's hand grabbed his and squeezed tight. He looked at her and his tummy felt awful, because she was scared. Gwen never got scared, Gwen wasn't afraid of anything!
She was scared now, though. Scared of that noise. Ben was scared of it too.
He got even more scared when they heard someone walking around downstairs, stepping on broken glass that got smushed into the floor.
"Ohh Mrs. Tennyson, come out, come out wherever you are!" A man, a stranger yelled out loudly. Ben heard Gwen suck in a big gulp of air, saw her eyes go wide and he knew that she was getting ready to scream.
Something told him that that was the wrong thing to do. He reached out and covered her mouth with his other hand, stopping her. Her scared eyes jerked towards him, and Ben shook his head. Gwen blinked a lot, and he realized she was starting to cry. But she didn't scream, even when he pulled his hand back. She pressed her lips together tightly and nodded, both of them turning to the open doorway of the upstairs library while the stranger, the bad man kept stomping away downstairs.
Gwen was scared, and Ben was scared, but something burned inside of him and told him that he had to do something. He had to keep Gwen safe. No matter what. She was squeezing his hand so tight that it hurt. He squeezed back to get her attention.
He tried to be brave, and sound brave, but his throat felt funny. He ended up whispering when he told her, "We hafta hide. Be quiet now."
They both jumped when the man downstairs swore loudly and kicked something over. "Hiding upstairs, are we? Fine! Just like every other woman then, always hiding!"
Ben was moving even before the bad man was done talking, and the sound of his loud crashing footsteps helped to cover up the noise of them darting from the library into Gwen's room across the hall. Ben turned to close the door and froze up when the doorknob clicked into place.
The footsteps stopped then too. Gwen had both of her hands over her mouth then, and was shaking in place. Ben was trembling like a leaf, and the sick feeling in his tummy wasn't going away. The burning got even hotter. It told him to keep moving. He grabbed Gwen and tucked her under her bed, jostling it a little as he slipped underneath it too, and Furry Freddy fell off the top of the bed and landed on the floor in front of them. Gwen reached for his hand again and held on tight, even as she clapped her other hand over her mouth. She was making noises like she wanted to cry.
"It'll be okay." Ben whispered to her. He had to protect her. He had to keep her safe.
The bad man was upstairs now. He must've been touching the wall. Hitting it with a fist while he kept on talking.
"It won't do you any good to call the police, Mrs. Tennyson. I cut the phone line. Didn't want anyone interrupting me. See, your husband wasn't a very nice man. He took my wife away from me. Hid her. Isn't right, you know." The bad man in the house said loudly. "A man's wife is his life, after all. And since he took mine away from me, I figure I should take his away from him. He's a lawyer, after all. Seems only fair. Seems like justice, doesn't it?" He was shouting now from out in the hallway.
Don't scream. Don't scream. He'll find you. He'll find Gwen. He'll hurt Gwen.
Gwen was pressed up tight beside him as he lay on his stomach, the both of them hiding underneath her bed and hoping that the bad man wouldn't find them. That the bad man would just go away. She was shaking so bad now, and her head was buried into his side.
"It'll be okay. It'll be okay." He kept whispering, so soft that he didn't think he was talking at all.
A door banged open, and Gwen flinched and hid into his side even tighter.
"You're not going to hide from me forever! I know you're alone, Mrs. Tennyson. I saw your husband driving off to work. Going into work at ten in the morning? Miserable bastard keeping banker's hours while you get to stay home and play happy little homemaker. It's not fair. It's not FAIR!" Another door banged open, closer this time.
The bad man was going to find them. He was going to find them and he was going to hurt them. They couldn't run. Hiding wasn't going to be enough. He wasn't strong enough to stop him. He wasn't strong enough to save Gwen.
Ben started crying too then, with Gwen huddled up tight beside him. He looked out and saw Furry Freddy lying on the floor just in front of them. Furry Freddy always made everything better. He'd hold Furry Freddy at night and the bear kept the monsters away. When Gwen had monsters, she'd borrow it from him.
Ben blinked, realizing something then. Furry Freddy made the monsters at night go away. And Furry Freddy could dance. He'd danced before when they were littler, when he and Gwen held hands and the stars came out.
"Furry Freddy." Ben whispered, and Gwen stopped crying to look at him. He turned his head a little and looked back at her. "Furry Freddy will save us." He squeezed her hand again, and this time, the hurt in his tummy eased off. The burning became a tingle.
He remembered what it felt like when Furry Freddy had been dancing in the air with the blue and green stars all around them that turned purple when they touched. He tried to remember that feeling again as he held on tight to Gwen's hand, and a little bit later, the tingling he remembered started to come back. It wasn't as quick, but it was there.
"Come on, Gwen." He whispered to her. "Furry Freddy will save us." He squeezed her hand again as the first of the green stars poofed around them. A blue star followed it a second later.
Sniffling, shaking, Gwen held onto his hand and didn't let go. "Fur - Furry Freddy'll save us." She said back to him. And she kept saying it, just like he was. It passed between them, until they started saying it together, closing their eyes tight. Furry Freddy Will Save Us. Furry Freddy Will Save Us.
They weren't looking, but Ben felt like he could feel the stuffed bear roll over and stand up. He had his eyes shut tight, but he felt the soft and raggedy arm of the thing brush over his head, and a bit later, he almost felt it touch Gwen's head as well. He didn't let go of Gwen for a second. He didn't stop saying it either. Furry Freddy Will Save Us.
The door to Gwen's bedroom was smashed and swung in with a loud bang as it bounced off of the wall, and Gwen screamed.
Ben heard Furry Freddy turn around and make angry loud bear noises as he moved away from the bed.
He heard the bad man screaming after that, and he still didn't open his eyes. He just held Gwen close and kept thinking about Furry Freddy. He kept thinking hard about their stuffed bear saving them, and he didn't let go of Gwen's hand.
11:08 A.M.
Frank Tennyson had thought that he'd heard the worst thing ever six years ago when he got a phone call from his brother brokenly telling him that his mother's house had burned down and she'd been in it. Then he had thought the worst thing he'd ever heard had been the frantic call from his wife in the spring, telling him that Ben and Gwen were missing.
The call that had forced him to beg the judge for a recess when the hand-written message was delivered by the pale-faced bailiff topped everything, because he couldn't think of anything else aside from getting home.
The police have been trying to reach you. There was a break-in at your home. Your wife asked you to come as soon as you could.
As soon as he could meant excusing himself from the case when the hard-assed judge refused his motion for recess and then passing the rest of it off to the other junior partner he'd been paired with. As soon as he could meant going fifteen miles an hour faster than the speed limit with a police escort that had been parked outside the courthouse and who had volunteered to get him there, sirens wailing. As soon as he could meant that he couldn't stop, couldn't think and couldn't react as the black and white screamed through the quiet streets of a mid-morning Bellwood, blazing through every red light that they could get away with.
Frank Tennyson didn't find himself stopping until the police car pulled up just outside of the cordon of three other cruisers that were on-site along with an ambulance. He stared at the ambulance with its flashing lights and felt his world drop out from underneath him. On wooden legs, he stepped out of the cruiser's passenger seat and stumbled forward, almost falling.
Strong arms were around him and holding him up a second later. "They're okay, Frank. They're all okay."
He shuddered as he placed the voice, and the arms. Those arms had always been so strong.
"D- Dad?" And there was Max Tennyson, wearing another of his gaudy red and white Hawaiian shirts and holding him up, strong and steady as ever.
"They're safe. None of them are in that ambulance."
It all finally caught up to him, and Frank collapsed. His father let out a little noise and held him up until the police officer who'd drove him home could come around and help him up.
"Sir, do you need medical attention?" The policeman asked worriedly. Max shook his head.
"The only thing he needs is to get inside and see that his family is safe." Max ground out, helping him along. "Come on, son. They're in the living room. The police will want to talk to you, but this is more important."
Frank looked up and saw Max's RV sitting down the street, parked in what looked like a rush with the nose half up onto the curb in front of a fire hydrant. "You...you're going to get a ticket." The old man just laughed.
"This is more important." Max said.
"What are you even doing here, dad?" Frank asked in a daze.
Max didn't stop walking him towards the house, and Frank inhaled sharply when he saw the kitchen window smashed in and marked off with yellow police tape.
"I heard it on the police band. Somebody heard the guy screaming. Soon as they said the address...Son, Hell couldn't stop me from getting here quick as I could. But it was all over by the time I got here. The kids are safe. Lili's safe. The guy who did this, he's sitting in that ambulance banged up and bleeding and screaming his fool head off. Least, that's what he looked like when the paramedics wrapped him up and hauled him into it."
"Lili did that to him?" Frank whispered disbelievingly. Max hesitated, and a moment's worth of panic passed through him until Max shook his head of gray hair.
"No. No, Lili wasn't home when the guy broke in. The kids were upstairs. I don't know for sure, I've been out here keeping an eye on the perimeter and waiting for you so I haven't spoken with the kids or with Lili much, but if I had to guess, he did that to himself breaking into the house through the window. Must've been high as a kite." Frank shook his head, not quite believing it. "Frank, there is nothing you could have done." Max told him quietly.
Frank wanted to argue that. There was plenty he could have done to stop this. "A security system. Better windows…"
Max sighed and pulled him along gently to the front door. "That, I can help you with. I know a few guys from my plumbing days who were good with that kind of stuff. But right now, your wife and the kids need you. They need you to hug them and tell them that everything's going to be all right."
Just like Max used to when he was a boy, Frank remembered. When Max would come home from work tired and with a smile that brightened up when he saw mom and him and his brother.
"Okay. I - I'll do that." Frank nodded. "Can you…"
"I'll keep the police back for a while, they can give you a few minutes. I haven't given my witness statement yet anyways, so that'll give them something to chew on."
"Thanks, dad." Frank found himself smiling at the man out of sheer relief. Max paused when they reached the front door, and Frank frowned. "What?"
"...You haven't called me dad in a long time." Max said quietly. That made Frank pause and think and realize that the old man was right. Bitterness from too many days away from home, and too many broken promises as to when he'd be home.
"You're here now." Frank said, finding comfort in that. Max's eyes misted up a little. "Think you could stay for a while? You can park the RV out front if you want, but I think we'd all feel better if you stuck around."
The smile his father gave him was a thin and shaky thing, full of hope and grief all mixed together. "Yes. Absolutely. I was coming over for dinner tomorrow anyways." Frank held out a hand to him, and Max looked at it for a bit before shaking it with a soft laugh. "God. Go on in already, you keep this up I'm going to hug you and you haven't wanted a hug from me in years." He gave Frank a wink and turned around to mosey towards the police at the white picket fence again.
Frank breathed in and out, then stuck his key into the lock of the front door, flipped the deadbolt, and went inside. He found Lili and Gwen and Ben all huddled together on the couch in the living room, his best girl's face so pale that it made her hair shine like dull blood. Ben and Gwen were beside her, hugging Ben's old teddy bear tight between them and not saying much of anything. They all looked up when he came in, and whatever lid they'd had on their emotions flew off when they saw him.
Lili broke out into sobs as he rushed over to them, falling into his arms. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was only gone for ten minutes and…"
"It's okay. We're okay." Frank promised her, holding her tight and looking over her shoulder to Ben and Gwen. They were safe. Just like his father had promised him. The kids were safe. "They're okay. It wasn't your fault."
"I should've taken them with me. I should've..."
Frank kissed her to stop her from blaming herself anymore. "I'm going to tell you what my dad just told me. There was nothing that you could've done. We're going to get through this."
"Oh, god. Carl and Sandra, I - I haven't called them yet."
"I'll call them." Frank told her. Later. When we're all calmed down. He had other things to worry about first, and he was looking at them. "Gwen? Ben? Are you okay?"
Neither one said a word. Gwen just squeezed in closer to Ben, holding the stuffed bear in her arms as she burrowed into her cousin's side, and Ben looked back at him and nodded.
"When the - when the bad guy came in, what happened?"
Gwen squeezed the bear harder and whimpered a little. Ben was trembling himself, but held it together.
"We hid. And Furry Freddy saved us."
Frank let go of Lili then, but only so he could move around to the other side of the couch, putting the kids between them. He and Lili scooped the little ones up and held them tight, and they all cuddled together.
"You - don't you have work? You had a case today." Lili said, a minute's worth of quality cuddling later that, for once, the kids didn't try and wriggle out of.
"I'm right where I need to be." Frank told his wife, and found comfort in the words and the promise in them.
Gwen's House
8:20 P.M.
The kids were upstairs with Lili getting ready for bed, and as exhausted as Frank felt, he should've been up there as well. But the weight of the day and what he'd learned kept him from doing so. He stood out on the front step of his house and stared out into a street that was empty now aside from his father's old RV, properly parked at last. The neighbors had all been prowling around earlier in the day, drawn in by the sight of so many police cruisers and flashing lights. Dealing with the questions that would come from them was something he wasn't looking forward to dealing with. But he'd take the questions over the alternative.
He'd come so close today to losing his daughter. It would have broken him. It would have shattered Lili. And Ben…God. He'd called Carl and Sandra an hour ago, and his brother had been ready to leave the conference early and come haring back. Only the news that their father was there and helping to keep an eye on things had kept Carl from doing something that might've put his career at risk. Not that Frank didn't understand why his brother had almost done it.
He walked out of a court case today. The firm would understand, the senior partners weren't that heartless, especially once he would tell them about the circumstances of it all.
They'd probably be willing to offer their services as prosecutors to the district attorney's office pro bono, for what had happened. His firm looked after their own, or at least that was what Mr. Moreland had said.
Problems for another day. He went back inside the house and paused when he heard his father talking to someone in the kitchen. It was too quiet and muffled for him to pick it out, and he snuck a little closer to listen in.
Max Tennyson was alone, standing by the ruins of what had been the large kitchen window over the countertops with his bag cellular phone in one hand and the receiver with its curly black cord pressed up on the side of his head as he looked at the thick plastic sheeting that covered the wound. Max had hung it up himself earlier in the afternoon before ordering pizzas for them all.
"...Could really use you here." Max said to whoever he was speaking with. "It broke. It wasn't strong enough, they tore right through it. You need to…" He paused and tipped his head back, looking at the ceiling. "Look, I'm not sure how they did it, I'm not the one with the talent for it. All I know is…"
Frank leaned in a little more, and the shifting of his weight caught an errant floorboard that creaked. It was enough to make his old man tense up and spin around with wide eyes, and then just as quickly offer a weak smile as he relaxed. "I'll call you back tomorrow. Frank just walked in. Yeah. Uh-huh. Night." He set the receiver back onto its dock in the bag and closed the velcro flap. "Sorry, son. I thought I was staying quiet there. I didn't wake you up, I hope?"
"Just making a last walk around the house before bed." Frank said to him. He looked down at the bag phone. "Who were you talking to?"
Max paused for a second before speaking. "One of my old buddies. The one that's good with windows. I thought they'd have some ideas on how to fix what got broken, but I guess it's not the kind of problem they can solve in the middle of the night. I'll call them back tomorrow, we'll get it figured out. I should be able to put in a replacement for you by this weekend."
"You don't have to do that, dad. The insurance will cover it, and…"
"And how long would it take them to get someone to send out a claims agent to get an estimate and then authorize a window repair guy?" Max shook his head. "I'll feel better once I know you've got more than a sheet of plastic here keeping out the elements. Let me help you out, Frank."
"All right, all right." Frank held up his hands in surrender, smiling slightly. "If you insist." He yawned, and to his surprise, so did his father. "You're as tired as I am, old man. You sleeping in the house tonight? We've got plenty of blankets and pillows if you want the couch, or I could get the air mattress…"
"No, my bed in the old girl will suit me fine." Max dismissed the offer. "But I'll be right outside, and I'll help you put breakfast together tomorrow. The phone company's sending out a repairman first thing also."
"Good." Frank moved to the kitchen table and sank down onto one of the chairs, sighing. Max took another one and looked at him.
"So. What did the police tell you about the break-in?"
"Enough." Enough to make Frank feel sick all over again. "The bast - the guy who did it, he's the ex-husband of an old client of mine. Abusive, heavy drinker. She got away from him the last time he came after her swinging, filed for divorce while she was still being treated in the emergency room for her broken arm and the lacerations on her head. My firm picked her up as one of our pro-bono cases, and I volunteered to take it on. As part of the divorce proceedings, we were able to argue with the judge that she didn't have to appear in court, that a videotaped statement of intent was enough. Drove her ex right up the wall during the court case, the judge had to have the bailiff haul him out of there. He kept screaming about how it was wrong to take his wife from him, how she was a coward for not coming and looking him in the eye when she said all those things. I didn't think much about him after the fact. He got tossed into jail for contempt of court, the judge signed off on the divorce papers, and the ex-wife went running for the hills. Left the state. I think she was headed for Las Vegas. Not sure if she stayed there. But her ex…"
Frank realized he was rambling, but he didn't stop himself, he couldn't, he realized. And his dad didn't look terrified, didn't ask him to stop. Didn't say the dumb little things most people did to offer hollow reassurance. He just sat there and watched him, and waited for Frank to get it all out on his own time. To talk, or to stop talking.
"Why aren't you stopping me?" Frank whispered. Max pursed his lips.
"Back in...in the Air Force. Sometimes we just needed to talk about the things we'd been through and seen. The base doctors had their way of trying to pick through our heads. We just wanted somebody to listen and not judge us. To let us deal with it in our own time. So that's what I can do for you. Just listen. If you don't want to say anything, you don't have to. If you need to get it all off your chest so you can sleep tonight, then that's what you'll do. I'm here for you either way."
His dad had always been full of life lessons. Lessons about taking responsibility and cleaning up your own messes, about taking pride in your work. From his example, Frank and Carl had learned other lessons about being there for their kids and their spouses like Max never was.
Gwen and Ben were five and a half years old, and Max Tennyson was still teaching him things. So he took a deep breath, drummed his fingers on the table, and kept on talking. Because his dad was right. He'd never sleep tonight if he didn't tell someone, and though he'd share the full story of this mess with Lili later, he couldn't do it tonight. Because neither one of them would sleep then.
"I'm not sure how he found my house. Our address is unlisted. The firm's employment records are kept in a locked file cabinet. The detectives are guessing that he must've gotten the records of the court case and found out my full name and the name of my firm. That he must've...must've waited to see me come out of work or go into work to get the make and model of my car. He could have followed me home some night afterwards, found out where I lived that way." He took several slow breaths. "He...The kids heard him. He was going to hurt Lili. In his mind, I'd taken his wife away from him. So he was going to take mine from me. They found a knife at the bottom of the steps, a broken bottle of chloroform in his pocket. Rope out in his car. He waited until my car left this morning, must have figured I was driving it. But Lili was driving it, her van's in the shop, and..."
The haunted look was back in his eyes, he knew it. "The...There was a hole in the drywall up in Gwen's room from the doorknob. Dad, I need to know. Where were the kids? Lili said that you were already here when she got back. That you were downstairs in the living room with them glued to your sides and calling the police on your phone when she saw the broken window and came running in terrified."
Max closed his eyes and exhaled slowly. "They were in Gwen's room. Hiding under the bed." Frank let out a sob at that. God. That miserable son of a bitch had come so close to hurting his family. His father's hand reached over and settled on top of his fist. "He didn't get to them. He didn't find them. He must've left and fallen down the stairs after, because that's where I found him, banged up and bleeding and screaming his head off before he passed out. They were fine. Something could have happened. But it didn't. And that's what you need to focus on, Frank. The kids are okay. Lili is safe. What we need to do from here to make them safer, we do that. But you can't hover on the might-have-beens, or you'll never be able to function again. Okay?"
"Okay." Frank whispered, wiping at his eyes. "Okay."
Max patted his fist until he relaxed it, and then stood up. "All right, mister. We've done all we can today. You think you can hug your wife and the kids and tell them to sleep? Think you'll be able to sleep tonight?"
"Will you still be here in the morning?" Frank asked him shakily.
Max nodded once. "I have nowhere else to be that's more important than right here."
"Okay." Frank breathed, and gave him another handshake before heading up the stairs.
He passed the study first, looking at the unfinished puzzle of kittens and balls of yarn still sitting on his desk. It made him smile, Lili had said that they'd been working on it all morning until -
Frank walked across the hall to Gwen's bedroom and looked inside, expecting to see the kids huddled up together. Lili had given up trying to keep them apart after yesterday, and after today he expected he'd find them side by side. They'd hardly left each other's sight, or stopped holding hands and that teddy bear of Ben's since. He found her bedroom empty and the lights off, and was worried for a little bit until he heard Lili's voice down the hall from the master bedroom.
To his surprise and relief, he found Lili, wearing a sleeping shirt and some pajama bottoms, helping Gwen to put on her own. Ben was lying on their bed already in his Kangaroo Kommando pajamas, holding his stuffed bear tight. Lili looked up just as she finished lifting Gwen's hair out from the collar of the soft blue cotton shirt and gave him a tight smile.
"The kids asked if they could stay with us tonight. I didn't want to say no."
Frank nodded. "Yeah. I - I think that's okay too." He went over and picked up Gwen, hugging her tightly. "Eskimo kiss?" He asked, and Gwen didn't waste any time in rubbing her nose against his. She giggled after, which put him even more at ease, and he looked over to Ben. "How about you, sport? Want one?"
"Ewwww, noo." Ben made a face and curled in around the bear, getting a laugh out of Lili as she swept over and took Gwen from him before giving Frank an eskimo kiss of her own.
"Go get changed, dear. I'll keep an eye on the little ones until you're done." Frank gave her a nod and grabbed his own nightclothes and stepped into the bathroom, working quickly.
It didn't take him long to get changed for bed, and he dumped his clothes in the hamper before coming back out with three small paper cups of water, one for each of the kids and the third for Lili. They all took them and drank them eagerly, and he tossed the empty cups into the wastebasket by his nightstand before turning the lights off. Only the faint glow of Gwen's blue-green nightlight, recently brought in from her bedroom, gave the room any light.
The kids were still shivering a little, but they were doing better than they had been when he'd first seen them. After a day spent with not only himself and Lili to comfort them, but their grandfather around as well, they were calmer. They'd just refused to stay apart. Or to let go of the bear that they still both had a hand on.
"Are you two sure you want the bear here?" Frank asked them. He took up one side and Lili took the other, and they kept the kids between them. An extra pillow was all it had taken to get the two comfy.
"Furry Freddy saved us." Ben told him stubbornly. "He's gotta stay."
"He did, huh?" Frank said, looking over Ben's head to Lili who smiled and shrugged very gently.
"That's what they told me." She answered him. "Does it bother you?"
"No. Not really." Frank surrendered to the wide-eyed pleading looks that the kids gave him, and sighed when Ben cheered and held up 'Furry Freddy' over his head, making Gwen giggle when he wiggled the bear's arms like it was dancing. Then she pulled it back down and took it from Ben, snuggling it against her chest before she rolled over and lay her head down on top of her cousin's chest.
As the two closed their eyes and finally stopped wiggling, Frank couldn't stop himself from reaching down and tracing the hair on top of Ben's head, or from touching Gwen's little arm. He did it to remind himself that they were both here, that they weren't hurt, and he wasn't at all surprised when Lili did the same and their hands bumped.
"So. The bear saved them." He yawned quietly, looking into her red but finally sleepy eyes. "Max said he's going to stick around for a while. He has some old friends and he offered to help replace the broken window."
"If he wants to help, he's welcome to." Lili blinked. "How did Sandy and Carl take the news?"
"A step short of coming home early until I told them Max was here and keeping an eye on things. That calmed my brother down. But Sandy took the phone from him and told me that we're welcome to stay at their place while they're gone, until...until things get fixed up here."
"Knowing your father, that won't be long at all." Lili hummed. "But I think it might be good for us to get them away from here. For a while, at least." She didn't say that she was as badly shaken up by it all as he was, but then, she didn't have to. Frank knew his wife's tells. "Do you suppose we could take them to visit my parents?"
Frank thought about it. "If you really want to, sure. But we had the Fourth of July trip planned already."
"You're right." Lili sighed. "And it'll be a little easier on Morfar and Mormor if little Ben's not around. He's going to give me gray hairs. He'd make my far's hair fall right out."
Frank laughed at that, and Gwen shifted and mumbled softly with a frown, but settled once he stilled his voice. Frank watched as Lili stroked their daughter's hair, reaching over Ben's head to do so, and the thick lump in his throat came back.
The most important things in the world to him were all here beside him. "I love you." He told Lili, a little desperately, but honestly. She paused and looked at him in the dim light, and her face softened.
"We're okay. I love you too, and we're all okay." He hummed one last time and closed his eyes, taking his wife's hand and giving it a squeeze before resting their arms over the kids huddled up under the sheets and the comforter. Maybe he'd believe that himself tomorrow.
Some time later, he felt a soft touch brush against his arm, like someone was patting it consolingly. He muzzily blinked his eyes open, wondering which one of the kids had thought to do that, and found himself confused when only Furry Freddy's tiny little felt paw could be seen above the covers, resting on the bed next to his arm.
Furry Freddy saved us, Ben had said. Frank blinked again, remembering how his wife had called him in a panic about flashing lights once a year or so ago, how she'd imagined seeing this same stuffed bear floating in the air around all the glowing sparks.
He watched the stuffed bear, hugged to death by Gwen, not moving at all aside from when it shifted with her breathing. Slowly, he closed his eyes again. A bear that moved. A bear that saved the kids. It was ridiculous. A story that the kids told themselves to get over the frightening memory of this morning. Just stories and active imaginations. Stuffed bears didn't do things like that.
Reassured, Frank Tennyson breathed out once more and fell asleep, listening to the sound of his wife and his daughter and his nephew quietly sleeping away. His dreams stayed untroubled by nightmares, real or imagined.
Author's Note
1) This is an AU of the LM-Verse. As such, while there are similarities between Shadows' main stories and my LM Sidestories, this is a beast of its own sort and should be considered SEPARATE from everything else we do that's Ben 10 related.
2) There are no Anodites. There were never any Anodites in the LM-Verse because only the Original Series is canon and everything else we're borrowing or jossing piecemeal. Magic's way better.
3) This story is not one of our main priorities, as cute and cavity-inducing as it is. Shadows is finishing up LM Rebooted before he dives hard into Breaking Point, and I'm never at a loss for a writing project to be working on. Updates are infrequent, because we have plenty of other stories we're working on.