A/N: As promised, here is chapter 2. Thank you to Fox Teen for the review on the previous chapter. I hope everyone enjoys the new chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sing or any of the characters, Illumination does.
...
Dad was gone again before Johnny had woken up. At least, that's what he thought, but Johnny could have sworn he heard him leave.
Today was Saturday, so unless something at work changed, Dad wouldn't be gone as long today as he usually was.
At least, that's what the young gorilla hoped.
…
Johnny watched the door to his parents' room, waiting eagerly for it to open. Any minute, his father would go back into the living room and sit in his chair in the far corner as he usually did after he got cleaned up.
It had been a while since he had read his son a story, and Johnny was only too happy to continue the tradition, particularly as the pair hadn't spent any time together in ages.
Not since Mum died...
Johnny shook his head.
No, he didn't want to think about that. He'd rather spend the evening being held and read to by his dad. And then, as was usually the case, he'd drift off lying against Dad's chest like it was a massive furry pillow.
The infant's heart gave a lift when the door opened and his father, now clad in the same sleeveless shirt and pants he always slept in, exited the bedroom.
Marcus didn't seem to see his son as he closed the door behind him and padded down the hall, but that was alright. In the next few moments, Johnny would be settled on his lap and drifting off to the sounds of a story being read.
Clutching the chosen book for the evening to his chest, Johnny eagerly followed his father to the living room.
Marcus had just plopped down into the chair and was leaning back, eyes closed, when Johnny tugged on his pants leg and held up the book, silently asking to be read to.
Marcus knew he hadn't taken part in this particular routine in days. But between everything else, he just didn't have the energy for it. The day had been long and hard, and he could still feel Megan's loss just as keenly as before.
When he didn't take it, Johnny merely sat the book in his lap and began trying to climb up himself.
Marcus put an arm around the child's waist, trying to ignore the way the boy's face lit up before setting him down on his feet again, much to his confusion.
"Listen Johnny," he said, handing the book back to the infant. "I'm not up for readin' tonight."
Johnny looked disappointed, but only for a moment before he smiled once more, set the book aside, and began trying to climb up onto Marcus's lap.
Sure, he would have liked to have a story, but Johnny decided he was fine with just cuddling.
"Johnny," Marcus sighed and raised a hand. "Not now, alright?"
Johnny backed up, not understanding.
"Look, today was pretty rough and I'm tired," his father said, his expression startlingly cool. "Besides, you need to be in bed."
A sick swooping filled Johnny's belly as the infant reluctantly nodded before turning and trudging back to his own room, leaving the book still lying on the coffee table in the living room near Marcus's chair.
...
Lucy frowned as she watched her grandson slowly approach the small piano sitting in the corner.
Little Johnny hadn't touched or so much as even looked at the instrument since his beloved mother's passing.
Megan made her mistakes when it came to parenting her boy, but it could not be said that she didn't love him.
Her husband on the other hand was an entirely different story. He was gone often, longer than he should be, in Lucy's opinion, and it mostly fell to Megan to raise their son.
Mother and daughter had butted heads numerous times over that. And there was no love lost between father-in-law and son-in-law either; George often spoke at Marcus rather than to him, something the latter had more than once taken offense to.
"Mum, I love you, but please understand I love my husband too," Megan had said after one particularly tense argument just a little over a year ago. "You've been at this since I married Marcus. If you and Dad would just give him a chance, I think you lot could really get along well."
"You know how your father feels about him," Lucy had replied with a frown. "For your sake, and Johnny's, we will be nice," Lucy had replied with a frown. "But I can promise you that is as far as it's going."
Megan had sighed and gone to pick her son up from his school, and that seemed to be the end of it.
Then just few months before, Lucy and her husband had invited their daughter and her family over for dinner, and what little bit of an uneasy truce there had been between them and Marcus had significantly waned.
Lucy couldn't even remember what it was that George had said, but whatever it was, it had set Marcus's rather short temper off.
"If you've got somethin' to say to me, why don't you man up and say it to my face?" he growled, glowering at George.
"Marcus," Megan had shot her husband a look of warning and after a few seconds, he let out a snort of annoyance, got up from the table, and headed for the front door.
"I'll be outside then," he called over his shoulder.
From then on, whenever Megan and Johnny came over to visit, Marcus either dropped them off and picked them up after, or he would sit outside in his truck and wait for his wife and son.
At first Lucy had been a bit incensed at the mountain gorilla's rudeness, but George had insisted that at least they could enjoy the visits now.
And they had up until Megan passed.
Suddenly, Lucy was pulled from her thoughts as she heard a soft melody emitting from the piano.
Johnny's small fingers pressed one key after another hesitantly, but after a few notes, which while pitchy were not altogether unpleasant, the toddler quickly pulled his hands away from the piano as though it burned his fingers to touch it and ran down the hall to his room.
When Lucy entered the room, she found Johnny curled up at the foot of his bed, crying softly, his face buried in the coverlet.
"Oh, my sweet boy," the grandmother was immediately overcome with a need to comfort the child and she sat beside him, rubbing his back gently.
For a few moments, the only sounds in the room were of the infant sobbing and his grandmother's soft croons in an attempt to calm him.
"I thought…" Johnny spoke softly as he laid his head in her lap. "I thought it might help…but it just makes it worse…y'know, since she isn't coming back, and she won't get to play it…"
"I know," Lucy murmured, wiping the tears from Johnny's cheeks.
"I just miss her so much…"
"We all do, darling," Lucy replied.
For a few moments, neither spoke as Lucy held the softly weeping boy close to her. And when she looked into those warm, dark brown eyes, she felt almost as if Megan's eyes were staring back at her.
"Have any of us ever told you how much you look like her?" she asked.
Johnny visibly stiffened.
"Is that why Dad won't talk to me?"
"What?" Lucy looked puzzled.
"The past few days, whenever he comes home," the four-year-old sniffled and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "He just comes in, says maybe one or two words and then…then 'e just shrugs me off. Sometimes doesn't even look at me."
"I told you before, he's always been like that," Lucy sighed. "Your mother always tried to find a reason to defend it though. But you don't have to make excuses for him."
"I'm not makin' excuses," Johnny protested. "He didn't act like that before."
"Why don't you go ahead and take a little nap?" Lucy suggested, draping a blanket over her grandson. "You'll feel better after."
Johnny frowned. Did she not hear him?
But he nodded and turned on his side, waiting for his grandmother to close the door.
When she did so, and he heard her footsteps slowly retreating back into the family room, he climbed out of his bed, opened the door as slowly and silently as he could.
As he stepped out into the hall, he was pleased to find his own footsteps did not make a sound as he crept across the hall to his parents' room.
His little heart pounded as he reached the door. Ever since his mother died and his father became distant, Johnny could never bring himself to even step near the room, much less enter it.
But now, as though his feet had a mind of their own, they carried him closer and within minutes, he slipped inside.
…
Stan and Barry exchanged a look behind Marcus's back as they neared his house. Both hadn't really made a habit of hanging around ever since Megan died, but the few times they had kind of waited around while Marcus got ready so the trio could head off to work, or the few times they were nearby afterwards, they had gotten a few glimpses of what had been going on.
Marcus's son Johnny had always been a pretty cheerful kid, but lately the two noticed he was a lot quieter, especially given the way his dad frequently brushed him off whenever he came home.
It bothered both whenever they saw the boy trailing after his father like a small shadow, only to be silently rebuffed, a far cry from before when Marcus would actively speak to him or on the days he actually didn't get too dirty at work, he'd pick him up and toss him in the air.
"Listen, Marcus," Barry spoke up. "You're not the only one hurtin' here. Did you ever stop to think about what this whole mess is doing to Johnny?"
Marcus turned to his brother.
"What did you say?
"You need to look at the big picture 'ere," Barry tried to keep his voice calm and steady. "You didn't just lose your wife; your boy lost his mum."
"I know that!" Marcus snapped.
"Then you need to be reminded!" Barry shot back, now raising his voice to match his brother's. "Johnny doesn't fully understand what 'appened, and he's scared. You need to spend some time with him."
"I do spend time with him!" Marcus replied, defensively.
"You haven't since the funeral," Stan pointed out. "Just barely sayin' two words when you get in at night isn't the same as actually talking to 'im."
"Come off it, both of you!" Marcus growled as they came up to the door. "I already got Megan's parents breathin' down my neck every five minutes, I don't need it from the two of you too!"
"He's your son!" Barry glared. He had never been more afraid of Marcus than he was in that moment, but he was determined to say his piece. "And he needs you!"
"I don't need you tellin' me how to parent!"
That did it.
"Get your arse in there and talk to your son!" Barry snarled, seizing a stunned Marcus by the collar and shoving him into the front door.
Stan watched wide-eyed as Marcus disappeared before turning to Barry.
"You know you're dead when what 'appened there finally registers, right?"
Barry's face paled as the realization set in.
"Which is why I'm puttin' as much of a distance between me and here as possible!"
…
Johnny's steps halted as he crossed the threshold into the room.
He hadn't set foot in this room since before everything had fallen apart.
It snuck up on him quietly and then took him in an instant; every memory played like songs in his head, repeating themselves for what seemed like forever.
The emptiness in his heart, the numbness pounding in his brain, and the sheer weight of it all now took hold of his very soul, threatening to engulf him entirely.
The small gorilla's legs buckled, and he sank to his knees, resting his head against the side of the bed, trying not to cry.
But within seconds, he could feel the salty tears begin to roll down his cheeks, slowly at first but soon they flowed unchecked as he regained his footing before crawling almost instinctively onto the bed. He didn't even realize what he was doing until he was nestled beneath the coverlet, situated in the very center of the bed.
That's when it dawned on the child; the last time he had been in here had been just a few days before Mum died. He had been frightened of the thunderstorm and had spent the remainder of the night safely snuggled between his mother and father, blissfully unaware that it was the last time the three would ever be together like that.
The weight in his chest grew heavier as he squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in the pillows, wishing he could retreat within the confines of the bedding and pillows and never come out to face the cruel new realities of his world.
But he couldn't; he would have to make peace with the fact that Mum would still be gone, and Dad didn't want anything to do with him. Perhaps he believed it was Johnny's fault Mum was gone.
That sent a fresh wave of horror and anguish over the toddler. Was it his fault Mum had died? Did Dad think that? Did everyone else? If so, no wonder Dad didn't want to be around him. He had loved Mum, he would never forgive Johnny for causing her death and taking her from him.
Johnny could still feel the tears trickling down his cheeks even as his eyes closed and the darkness of sleep took him.
...
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I hope you all enjoyed this new chapter, and the next one will be out on Monday, September 14th. Until then, everyone.