A/N: Have I told ya'll how much I love ya'll? Like for real! Thank you for all the reviews and comments on the last two chapters!
Tobias wakes up and the first thing he realizes is that his arms are still wrapped around Tris. He takes in the smell of her curly hair. She had cried herself to sleep. She seemed to still be deeply asleep and Tobias quietly untangles himself from her. It was just after 6 am, he sent Amar a message letting him know he was going to be taking the day off. He gets up and throws on a pair of sweatpants and a shirt, hoping to take Pharaoh out for a walk and be back before Tris wakes up. He did a good bit of thinking while he was walking Pharoah. Tobias nods, he was hurt last night at first but he realized that this was really her first experience with dating he knew he needed to give her some grace. He knew he had to learn to communicate in his relationships and it took him several failed relationships before Lauren to realize that. He hadn't really learned how to open fully until he and Lauren were married. He remembered all those early years of dating in high school and college where he would have never talked to a girl about what he felt about his family life or his real dreams or aspirations. Tris had to trust that he wouldn't hurt her and he had to help her gain that trust by his actions. Being angry at her right now would only push her away and encourage her not to be open with him. When he gets back and gives Pharaoh a fresh bowl of food and water he makes his way back upstairs to find Tris still sleeping. He takes a quick shower and slides back into bed with her and she instinctively rolls over and snuggles against him laying on his chest. He smiles to himself as he strokes her hair. He wakes up again a few hours later and reaches for his phone. He had checked the fridge when he got up earlier and was definitely in need of groceries. He tries to maneuver without waking Tris but she starts to stir anyway.
"Good Morning Beautiful" He whispers planting a kiss on her forehead.
Tris smiles at the sound of Tobias's deep voice and the warm feeling of his naked chest beneath her and his arms around her pulling her closer to him. As she becomes more alert, her eyes snap open.
"Oh God" Tris groans as the memories of last night flood back. Her eyes were still burning from all the tears she had cried. She rolls over and puts her hands over her face. Tobias sits up and scoots to where his back is resting on the headboard. He brings a hand to her hair and gently strokes it as she moves the finger covering her left eye to sneak a look at him which causes him to chuckle.
"Do you hate me?" she asks quietly lowering her hands and letting out a deep breath. He scoots over and urges her to sit up so he can cradle her against him.
"Baby, no I don't hate you, We have somethings we need to work through and talk about but it's nothing I don't think we can fix"
"I made a complete fool of myself last night" She groans out wincing as she remembers trying to have sex with him.
"No, you didn't. Last night was an emotional night and I'd rather be having this conversation than you or I feeling guilty or uncomfortable because we wanted a distraction"
"I'm sorry for getting angry with you when you were trying to be a gentleman and do the right thing," Tris says quietly but Tobias can still tell there is a little hurt in her voice.
"I meant what I said last night, I care about you too much to treat you that way, I want to be special the first time we make love."
That does make her smile.
"Do you feel like you want to sleep some more or eat breakfast?"
"Oh shit, you have to go to work, I wasn't thinking when I showed up last night" Tris sits up pinching her nose with her fingers. Everything about last night had her mind jumbled unsure of what she was doing.
"I already told Amar I was taking the day off before you woke up, so we have the entire day to relax"
"I'm sorry Tobias, this is just one big fucking mess and now I'm messing with your work"
"Tris, seriously, stop overthinking. One of the perks of being a co-owner of a business is I can take off whenever I want. Amar already let me know he's got everything handled for today. And if I need to take off tomorrow I will too. You are a priority for me Tris, I mean that."
Tris feels like she might start to cry again and he pulls her so she straddles his lap and puts his arms around her. Tris lets her body relax against him and they sit there quietly for a few minutes.
"Thank you, I don't deserve you"
"Yes, you do Bumblebee" He teases as she tickles her side where he had come to figure out where she was ticklish causing her to erupt into a fit of giggles.
"No, No, Don't you dare call me that!" she eeks out between laughs as he continues his assault on her side.
"Alright, I won't call you Bumblebee" He concedes. "How about you take a shower and relax a bit and I'll order us some breakfast on Door Dash and then we can talk."
She smiles and kisses him on the cheek before untangling herself from him. Pharaoh had been quietly laying on the floor near the bedroom door. He wags his tail exactly greeting Tris for the first time that morning, rolling over so she could rub his belly. Tobias grabs a t-shirt and some boxers for her since they were planning to lay around the house all day. Pharaoh eagerly follows Tobias as they head back down the stairs.
Tris fishes out her toiletries and brush that she threw in her bag. While she's in the shower she lets the hot water run over her. She bends her head over in the shower to wet her hair some, just enough to be able to work with it better. Sleeping without platting it down the night before had it in a bit of a mess. When she gets out of the shower she manages to pull it up into a curly bun. She places his t-shirt on and it's baggy but she loves it because it smells like him. She tries to roll up his shorts but they keep falling down so she throws on the same pair of sweat pants she had on the night before and a pair of socks. She also grabs the gallon ziplock bag that she had thrown all of her medications in and the pamphlets that she had grabbed from the Heart Center at the hospital.
Before she goes downstairs she sees a string of messages from Rose, Christina, Zeke, Shauna, and Uriah. She sighs. She knows they would probably be having a family meeting to deal with all the drama of the night before, that's how her father, aunt, and uncles dealt with something that affected all of them. She couldn't even wrap her head around Caleb right now. She just wanted to focus on her and Tobias. She sends a quick message to the group saying she was fine, where she was and that she would check in later. Tobias had made her a cup of tea and Pharaoh makes himself comfortable up underneath her. When the food arrives they sit down at the table and Tris decides to go ahead and address the elephant in the room.
"So I should have told you about my transplant a long time ago but, I was, I don't know afraid that you would treat me differently," she says with a sigh as she sets down her tea and picks up the glass of water down on the table and fishes out several medication bottles from her bag and sets them on the table.
He joins her, sitting next to her at the table looking at each bottle after she takes pills out of the bottle and takes them with a swig of water, and passes him the bottles. He reads over the labels not sure what he is looking at and hands them back to her. She turns and folds one leg under her on the chair a deep breath and pulls his fingertips to the top of her chest.
"It's been about a year and a half since I had the transplant," she says quietly watching his face for his reaction.
Tobias smiles squeezing her hand. "Baby, I want to try and understand why didn't you tell me, are you okay now?"
"Yes, I'm okay now. I'll have to take this medication for the rest of my life but other than that the doctors say I'm doing great. I guess I was afraid of how you would react, before I met you, all those blind dates I would go on, they looked at me like I was broken, like I was a kicked puppy or something. But you aren't looking at me like that" she says with a small smile.
"You're not a kicked puppy Tris, you are incredibly strong, and I'm so happy that I found you. You inspire me every day. You didn't look at me like a kicked puppy when you found out I was a widower. This is one more thing that makes you so amazing in my eyes"
Tris feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders hearing his words. They finish eating and curl up on the couch together under a blanket. She gives him the pamphlets and explains how she had been working up the courage to tell him but kept getting distracted or interrupted.
"I will take full responsibility for you not telling me the last few weeks" he admits knowing he had been more concerned about kissing her senseless as soon as they made it to his house vaguely remembering her saying that she wanted to tell him something as he hoisted her up against the door as soon as it was closed.
She chuckles in response.
"So when you told me your dad had been sick and didn't like to talk about it, that was really you?"
Tris sighs, picking at the blanket covering her legs. "Yeah, that's why I have never traveled or dated or…" she trails off at the last part.
"Was I your first kiss?" he asks with a grin on his face.
"No" she replies and sticks her tongue out at him before laughing covering her face remembering slapping him before she kissed him on their first date. He howls with laughter when she tells him the story of her punching Peter Hayes for kissing her in the 9th grade.
"Aw man, does that mean you really didn't have a sex dream about me before our first date?"
She reaches behind her a hits him with a throw pillow. "I told you I didn't" she giggles.
"Seriously though, I struggled the first year with all these feelings about being grateful for my heart and what I was going to do with my new chance at life. It frustrated me that people saw me as fragile or broken and I was so unsure about how much to share or not share and not scare you off since I've never done this before. I hate that everything went to hell this weekend before I could tell you myself."
He thinks about it a bit more before he responds. It wasn't as though she was hiding something major that affected them both. Her heart transplant didn't have any bearing on him. So being upset with her for keeping it from him just didn't seem right. He wanted to reassure her that she could trust him. That was his main concern.
"I hope you know you can trust me, Tris, I understand why it was hard for you to tell me. But we have to trust each other if this is going to work. I want you to trust me, and that doesn't mean that you have to tell me everything especially if it doesn't involve me but I don't want you to think that you can't come to me with anything."
"Thank you for being willing to understand, I know my rationale for why I had a hard time telling you doesn't make sense to everyone. It took me over a year to mail a thank you letter to the donor family because I was worried that it wasn't enough just to send a note, like I was selfish or not appreciative enough"
"I got a thank you letter from one of the recipients from Lauren's organ donation and it meant a lot to me, it helped me move on actually. So even though you think it wasn't enough, I'm sure it touched that family too"
She crawls over to lay close to him. They spend the next few hours talking about her illness and the hospitalizations and how hard it had been on the family since her mother died of heart disease too. Tobias orders a pizza for lunch and Tris checks her phone again when Tobias takes Pharoh out for a walk. She knows she will have to deal with her brother at some point but she just wasn't ready. So she decided to text Zeke.
Tris: Have you talked to him?
Zeke: Naw, I feel like I might go off again if I do.
Tris: Yeah me too.
Zeke: You and T. good?
Tris: Yeah we are no thanks to my brother
Zeke: You know the parentals are going to make us have a family meeting
Tris: I know, ugh…. I just can't deal with that right now. The things he said to T. and me...
Zeke: Yeah I know, Rose, Chris, and Uri and pissed too.
Tris: I wish this hadn't happened, but thank you for standing up for me.
Zeke: Love you Bumblebee. Things will be okay.
Tris: Love you too Ezekeiel
She chuckles after reading Zeke's last text and the bee emoji he used. She loved her family so much, they had been through so much together. It made Caleb's actions the day before hurt even more. Tris feels herself getting angry again when Tobias calling her name breaks her out of her thoughts.
"Sorry, I was texting Zeke"
"Have you talked to your dad?"
"No, but we do this thing when something big happens where we all have a sit down for a family meeting. Zeke and I are pretty sure this will warrant one"
"I'm really sorry about losing it like that. I shouldn't have hit your brother"
Tris scoffs in response. "Tobias you have nothing to be sorry for, Caleb deserved more than what you gave him. He didn't have any right to say those things… Not knowing about what you went through..." She trails off.
"He had no right to say what he said about you either Baby" Tobias sits down and pulls her to him.
"I'm angry at him, he has barely spoken to me or called me since I first went into the hospital before my transplant. He and Zeke already had words right after my surgery"
"Wait a minute, you were literally a week away from dying and he didn't even come to…"
"Say goodbye? No" Tris crosses her arms in front of her as she finishes his sentence. Tobias shakes his head, he pulls her close to him on the couch and Tris wraps the blanket around her.
"How about we watch a movie? What do you want? Something fun?" Tobias suggests wanting to change the mood.
"The Princess and the Frog? " she asks with a grin.
"Princess Tiana it is," Tobias agrees picking up the remote to happily watch her favorite Disney movie with her.
Andrew, Hana, Harrison, and Max sit together at the dining room table of Hana's home. Each had a cup of coffee in front of them that had gone cold. The weight of the night before was thick in the air. None of them had gotten a good night's rest after Caleb lashing out at Tris and the fight between him and Zeke and then Tobias. Harrison and Hana had gotten a little out of him the night before, he ended up breaking down and crying himself to sleep in Hana's lap on his bed. Andrew felt even worse when Tris had stormed out saying she was going to see Tobias. Andrew didn't expect her back that night knowing that even if he was upset, he would take care of her.
The men had all made their way to Hana's house that morning. Andrew had left Caleb sound asleep in his room. Dealing with all of the loss and death in their tight-knit family had always involved the four of them, five when Stephanie was alive, and co-parenting all the children together. It had taken a good bit of stress off of Andrew and Hana with the five friends trying to run a restaurant and raise six kids with little money in the beginning. All the kids saw them as equal authority figures. There were many nights when they had to rotate childcare responsibilities while the others worked at the restaurant. All of the kids had a special relationship with one of the adults which helped their little village. Zeke and Max had always been close. Tris had been closest with Hana and Harrison. Andrew had been the first adult Uriah and Christina came to when they found out Christina was pregnant. Caleb and Rose listened to Hana and Stephanie more. When Zeke and Caleb grew old enough to help out at the restaurant or look after their younger siblings it made things easier but the adults kept the same approach. Hana and Stephanie were there to help do hair, while Max, Harrison, and Andrew helped guide the boys. It was crazy and hectic but it worked for all of them.
"I don't know how we didn't see he was hurting so much" Max finally says to break the silence. "I thought we had done a good job of helping all of them manage their grief"
Harrison puts his elbows on the table and places his face in his hands.
"I should have realized what was going on when he pulled away from us" Andrew sighs.
"It's not your fault Andrew, we've all tried to keep him connected, especially Zeke, Uriah, and Tris. We can't help it that he didn't let us in"
"So what do we do now? Is he facing any charges?" Harrison asks. In the middle of his rage, Caleb told Harrison and Hana that he had been fired from his job at the medical research laboratory he had been working six months ago due to stealing prescription pain medication used for research study participants. He had used the last of his money to buy a bus ticket home after being evicted from his apartment for not paying rent.
"I don't think so but I think we still don't know much other than the basics" Hana replies. "Should we look at some kind of rehab program for him?"
"Can we gather up enough money for it? Aren't those programs expensive?" Harrison points out with Andrew and Hana nodding their heads.
"We need to get him to agree to go first" Max adds as Andrew shakes his head in agreement.
"Was he on something last night?" Max asks.
"Yeah, but he swears that was the last of it" Hana replies as she shakes her head. Andrew closed his eyes for a few minutes. How had things gotten so bad? Natalie would be heartbroken if she was here. How had he missed that his own son was abusing prescription drugs? How long had this been going on? He had so many questions.
"Have you talked to Bumblebee this morning Andrew?" Hana asks.
"No, I wanted to give her and Tobias time alone. They have some tough conversations to have" he responds.
"I agree, I'm sure Shauna and Zeke have talked to Rose, Chris, and Uri. We still need to have a family meeting but I'm nervous another fight will breakout right now" Max says getting up to get a fresh cup of coffee.
"Yeah, I don't think putting Zeke and Caleb in a room together this soon is a good idea," Andrew says passing his coffee cup to Max. "And Uri is on duty until Wednesday afternoon, we need to think about what to do with the grandkids too"
The four sit together and go through possible scenarios that would work involving all the kids. Their family had been through so much together but never had there been a situation like this.
Tris calls her father that evening to let him know she's okay and with Tobias. He doesn't push her to come home and he doesn't tell her about Caleb yet.
"Sweetheart, We are going to have a family meeting on Wednesday afternoon."
"You're closing the restaurant Wednesday?"
"Yes, this is important and we have to deal with it"
Tris sighs as much as she didn't want to be around Caleb, a request to be at a family meeting really wasn't a request, they all knew it, no matter how old they were.
"Okay, I'll see you Wednesday"
"Are you okay Baby Girl?"
"Yes Daddy, It's just been a lot"
"I know sweetie, I know." Andrew soothes before he and Tris hang up.
On Tuesday Tobias needs to go into the office to handle a few things after a client specifically requests Tobias for a consultation. He hated having to leave Tris alone but he needed to get this taken care of.
"Do you mind if Christina comes over? Justin and Jalen are in school so she'll just have Jada" Tris didn't want to seem so needy that he couldn't go to work. Monday had been really good but she did want to see Christina and talk.
"Sure, I don't care, you two have fun, I"m hoping this won't take all day but I need to stop by the construction site downtown too. It might be after 5 before I get back because of traffic" Tobias tells her as he takes his house key off his key ring to give to her just in case she wanted to go anywhere.
"Pharaoh and I will be fine, Won't we boy?" Tris coos as she rubs Pharaoh behind his ears and he wags his tail eagerly before Tris sends Tobias off with a kiss.
Christina comes over a few hours later. Jada practically jumps into Tris's arms excited to see her.
"Hi, there my girl" Tris coos, and Jada babbles away like she's telling Tris all about her morning.
Tris sets Jada on a blanket in the living room with a few toys and Pharaoh continues to sniff around her. Christina had been hesitant about letting Jada on the floor with the dog. She was crawling and almost ready to take her first steps so she was getting into things too.
"He's a big baby, he won't hurt her" Tris assures her. Sure enough, Pharaoh turns into the dutiful dad with Jada as she giggles and pulls on him trying to stand up on her own.
"Poor Dog, He's just letting her beat up on him" Christina observes.
Tris thought it was adorable. Jada had pulled out one of her baby books from her bag and was babbling in baby talk like she was reading to Pharoah who just huffed and let her snuggle up to him.
"So this is pretty bad isn't it?" Christina asks after Tris fixes them a cup of tea.
"Yeah, I talked to Daddy. If they are closing the restaurant because they want to talk to us before Sunday, I can guess they are pretty pissed"
"Yeah Rose is going to be on video chat"
"What? Is it really that serious that Caleb and Zeke and then Tobias got into a fight? Are they going to ground all of us?" Tris rolls her eyes thinking about the time that she, Rose, Christina, and Uriah had gotten in trouble when they were 14 and Rose was 11 for playing hooky from the summer camp at the community center and taking the bus to the skating rink. Tris could only sit and watch but the parents had been furious.
"I talked to Shauna and she told me how bad it was. Daddy called Zeke last night and she said Zeke thinks Caleb is in some kind of trouble with the police in New York based on the questions he was asking" Christina relays as she looks over to see Jada happily playing on the floor still next to the dog. Tris raises her eyebrows in shock. Not Caleb, her straight-laced brother who always had his head in a book.
"You still pissed at him?"
"Oh most definitely" Tris replies with a roll of her eyes.
"How are things with you and T? I'm assuming okay since you're still here and you look pretty comfortable" Christina gestures with her hand waving it in the air. Tris snorts at her assumption.
"Good, we talked all day yesterday, he took it better than I thought, he wants us to work on communicating" Christina nods her head. She had been worried when Shauna called her telling her everything that happened on Sunday night. Tobias really was a good guy and she knows he would have probably been more upset about the fight than anything.
"Can you do me a favor?" Tris asks looking at the time on her phone before putting her mug down. Christina of course agrees and Tris grabs her coat and they head out the door.
Christina takes Tris to the grocery store. Tobias had been ordering out for everything and Tris wanted to make him a nice meal. She picked up some extra things for breakfast for him for the rest of the week and somethings to make him lunch too. Tris tells Christina thank you when she drops her back off at the brownstone with the groceries.
Tris busies herself with putting the groceries away and cooking dinner. She picked up some chicken to make jerk chicken with peas and rice and plantains. She was singing along to Always Be My Baby by Mariah Carey through the speakers Tobias had in the kitchen when she hears Pharaoh get up and a few minutes later Tobias comes through the door.
"It smells so good in here!" Tobias praise as he sets his work bag down. He stands there for a few minutes smiling as he watches Tris move around the kitchen. Lauren was a great cook and she worked such long hours they usually only used the kitchen for reheating things. He loved the feeling of coming home to her like his. The sound of her singing as she added spices to the skillet she was working with. After a minute he comes over to wrap his arms around her waist and kiss her neck while she stood in front of the stove string the plantains in the skillet.
"I could get used to this" he murmurs in her ear.
She smiles from ear to ear. She liked this feeling. It wasn't anything super exciting just normal.
Tris walks into the restaurant on Wednesday afternoon after her doctor's appointment. Shauna and Zeke had just arrived and Shauna was going to keep the kids upstairs while the rest of the family talked. Even though Shauna was a part of the family and Zeke protested, she agreed that it made the most sense for her to watch Jalen, Justin, and Jada during the meeting. Tris doesn't speak to Caleb when he enters the room and sits down at an empty table. She sits in between Zeke and Christina as Andrew, Harrison, Max, and Hana sit in four chairs in front of them. The tension is thick in the air. Even Rose can tell and she's on video from New Orleans.
"Caleb, Why don't you start by saying what you have to say" Andrew begins.
Caleb sighs and uncrosses his arms that hand been folded in front of his chest before speaking. "I'm sorry for the way I acted on Sunday. I shouldn't have lashed out at you like that Beatrice"
"Will you stop calling me that" Tris snaps, annoyed that he refused to call her Tris even though everyone had told him that was what she liked to be called now. She definitely didn't feel like Beatrice anymore and she wasn't going to let Caleb feel like that broken fragile girl anymore. Tobias had given her so much confidence, especially the past two days.
"Tris, let him finish please" Andrew chastizes.
"Zeke I shouldn't have pushed you either" Caleb continues.
"Do you plan on apologizing to Tobias too?" Tris asks crossing her arms.
Tris can see Caleb clench his jaw and it makes her blood boil that she can tell he feels that he shouldn't have to.
"I plan on doing that. I realize I was out of line for the things I said to him and I didn't know his wife passed away"
"Thank you" Tris replies. Christina shoots her a side-eye and Tris shifts in her seat focusing in on Caleb. His whole apology felt forced and unauthentic. Tris could hear it in his tone. The look Christina gave her told her she felt the same thing.
"The reason we have asked everyone to meet today is that Caleb has a decision to make and he is going to need everyone here's support to get through this" Harrison explains.
Zeke furrows his eyebrows and looks between his mother and his uncles and then to Caleb.
"I'm not here on vacation. I was fired from my job six months ago for stealing prescription pills. I've been doing it for about three years and I got caught"
"You what?!" Uriah practically screeches out.
"Let him finish" Max reminds everyone else.
"I started buying them in college and once I realized I had an endless supply at the lab for the research participants I started stealing them" Caleb continues with his confession. "After talking with Dad, Aunite Hanna, Uncle Max, and Uncle Harrison, I've decided to enter a rehab program to see if I can get my life back on track."
"For how long?" Christina asks sitting up her eyes wide. She glances over at the tablet and sees Rose has the same look on her face. They all knew Caleb was different but this, drugs, rehab, this was nothing like they had gone through. Sure, Uriah and Zeke were usually the ring leaders in getting them into a little trouble but it was never anything major.
"The program is 30 days but he will need to attend counseling and AA after he gets out" Max explains.
"Caleb, were you using on Sunday when you lashed out at everybody?" Zeke asks and Caleb nods his head in response.
Tris is numb, she's not even sure how to process what was happening. All this time she didn't understand why Caleb pushed her away, why he didn't even try when they all had tried with him. If there was nothing left their family always had each other.
"Why?" Rose pipes up from the computer "Why Caleb? This isn't like you". Rose was probably the closest to Caleb in the bunch and even she hadn't been able to get through to him the past few years.
"I don't know Rose, I just felt so tired of being angry and sad all time it helped me escape and then I couldn't stop. It really hit me after Auntie Stephanie died and it got worse" he replies looking down at the floor as he rested his elbows on his knees.
"I get being sad, but why are you angry," Tris asks.
"It was hard dealing with everything, Bea...Um I mean Tris was sick and everyone was doting on her and it just pissed me off"
"So it's my fault because I was born with a heart condition, what was I supposed to do die so you could get some attention?" Tris yells and then rolls her eyes and huffs in my response as Caleb glares at her.
"No one is saying that anything is your fault Baby Girl" Andrew reassures her.
"Oh my God, ya'll can't help yourself, this why no one cares what I do" Caleb barks out.
"What are you talking about? Do you think we are all sitting here because we want to gang up on you?" Zeke who had been quiet the entire time adds. "You want to make this about how everyone is neglecting you when that's never been the case"
"Oh whatever, it was all about my sister and her doctor's appointments, Uriah and Christina had a whole baby because all of you were too occupied with Beatrice to notice"
"Caleb" Hana almost yells.
"What the fuck did you just say?" Uriah practically growls standing up and moving slowly toward Caleb.
"Uriah, Calm down" Andrew warns.
"You don't get to sit here and disrespect my wife and my kids, Caleb, I don't give a damn about what you feeling or what you might be on" Uriah threatens as Zeke has now gotten up.
"We did not bring everyone here to fight," Max says sternly. "Uriah, Zeke sit down, Now!" The boom of Max's voice lets Zeke and Uriah know he was serious and they go and sit back down.
Christina wipes a tear from her eye as Uriah pulls her closer to him. Caleb and Rose got along better than she and he did. Rose liked reading and studying too. Their mom would always take Caleb and Rose to the library to check out new books, it was their thing. But Caleb had never lashed out at Christina.
"We want Caleb to get well and we are going to help him through this" Hana states wiping a tear from her eye trying to get everyone back on track.
"I want to get better" Caleb promises "I really do". Christina throws Tris another look a gives a slight shake of her head. Tris nods in response knowing what she was saying. Tris looks at her brother but there's something deep inside her that doesn't believe him.
