AN: Chapter 5! And again, on time! This chapter, as well as the next chapter, are both flashback chapters! Enjoy! Follow, Favorite, and review!
Chapter Five
It's like a scene out of a movie.
Pouring rain.
Black Umbrellas.
Everyone dressed in black.
A funeral.
It's like a scene out of a movie.
Thirteen-year-old Lukas Ryan Casey stands close to his father, stands into his father's side, very close. He can feel his father's arm wrapped around his shoulders. Lukas' face is buried into his father's side. He can feel himself shaking, shaking uncontrollably.
Why wouldn't he be shaking like this?
His mother is dead. His mother is dead. His mother is dead.
His. Mother. Is. Dead.
He starts to shake even more. No, she can't be dead. His mother can't be dead. No, it's not true. This can't be true. All of this has to be some sort of sick dream, a sick nightmare. His mother can't be dead.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
He can't stand here any longer. He wants to run away. He needs to run away. He can't be here any longer. He can't watch as they lower his mother's body into the ground. He can feel the tears forming in his eyes. He can't cry. He can't cry. He can not cry. He feels his father's arm tighten around his shoulders, keeping him firmly in place. He wants to run away. He needs to run away. He can't run away. His father is keeping him in place, forcing him to stay, forcing him to watch as his mother's coffin, his mother's body is lowered to the ground.
This can't be happening. This shouldn't be happening.
His mother should still be alive. His mother shouldn't be dead. His mother should be alive. His mother shouldn't be dead. His mother should be alive. His mother should be alive. His mother should be alive. HIS. MOTHER. SHOULD. BE. ALIVE.
ALIVE!
The cast on his arm and the stitches on his forehead forever remind him these days of what took his mother's life. He had been with her when she took her final breath. The injuries were too much. As his father later, previously explained to him, in a way a father tries to do when telling his thirteen-year-old son about his mother's death when said thirteen-year-old son asks if there was any chance his mother could have survived. Her injuries were just too much. Her injuries were just too much, Lukas, there wasn't anything anyone could have done. He doesn't remember much after his father had said those words. Apparently, he had fainted. Guess it was a good thing he had still been in the hospital at the time. It had been a car accident. A young woman in her twenties who had been drinking and doing drugs for the past six hours had run a red light, crashing into their car. He had been sitting on the right side of the back seat, escaping with a deep cut on his forehead that required fifteen stitches, and a broken arm. His mother, of course, had been in the driver's seat on the left-hand side and that's where the young woman had struck, killing his mother almost instantly.
He doesn't remember much of the accident, well, he doesn't remember much after the accident. Barely anything. He slightly remembers being in his father's arms, sort of like now, except he apparently had been sitting in his father's lap, a hysterical mess. The only way, from what his father had told him, to get him to calm down was to sit in his father's lap. Lukas is sure that father would not have been anywhere else at the time. His mother had been pronounced dead at the scene. The young woman, Lukas still doesn't know her name, had been arrested at the scene, charged with a DUI, driving under the influence, a DUID, driving under the influence of drugs, and vehicular homicide. Lukas is still unsure if he will have to testify or not.
It's his fault. It's all his fault. His mother is dead because of him. His mother is dead because of him. All because he wanted to go to see his father at work after school. He had begged his mother to take him to see his father that Friday afternoon. He and his mother were supposed to go to the library like they did every Friday after school. But that Friday had been different, he hadn't seen his father in a few days and he really wanted to see his father and tell him about the good grade he had gotten on a project the two of them had been working on. Lukas was so proud to have gotten an A+ on the project he and his father had worked so hard on together. He begged his mother to go to the firehouse and after much begging, his mother had relented.
Lukas wishes she hadn't.
If she hadn't then she would still be alive.
If she hadn't finally relented and had said yes then he and his father and the entire firehouse wouldn't be standing here today, watching with sadness as Hadley Casey is lowered into the ground forever.
It's like a scene out of a movie.
The rain.
The umbrellas.
Everyone dressed in black.
Everyone mourning the loss of Hadley Casey.
Slowly everyone begins to leave.
Soon the only two left are a father and son, close together under a black umbrella. Both just have lost someone they love very much, someone they don't know how they are going to survive without.
People have been in and out of the house all afternoon, coming and going for hours on top of hours. All of it has been a blur. He has heard the same words over and over again, so sorry for your loss. Since the moment they had arrived home, Matt has been keeping a close eye on his son. This, of course, is not normal and Matt isn't entirely sure how his son is taking all of this. He has been pretty quiet all day. He has been pretty quiet since the accident. He knows why of course, but that doesn't make him any less concerned for his child, his son. For the past few days, he has really been considering sending his son to see a therapist. He has been thinking about both of them seeing a therapist. They are both probably going to have to talk to someone, Lukas more than him. He can't even begin to imagine what has been going through his son's head this past week and a half. God, having been with his mother when she died. Matt can't even begin to imagine how witnessing his mother's death is going to affect his child, his son. He knows the effect is not going to be good, probably not anywhere near good. Of course, it won't be good, a thirteen-year-old witnessing his mother's death, watching as his mother took his last breath. It is going to be a lot of therapy. It doesn't matter, though, as long as Lukas talks to somebody, as long as Lukas talks.
Lukas.
Matt can't help but notice that his son has disappeared. He makes a quick scan of the room, of all the rooms downstairs. Lukas isn't in any of the rooms downstairs. He begins to make his way upstairs, first checking the game room and not finding Lukas there, Matt moves on to the next room, Lukas' bedroom, Matt is surprised to not find his son is his own room. He moves onto to the bathroom and doesn't find his son there either. He then moves on to the last room, the master bedroom. He is honestly hoping that his son is in the master bedroom because if Lukas isn't in the master bedroom that means Lukas isn't in the house. He doesn't know what he would do if his son isn't in the house. If his son isn't in the house, that means his son could be anywhere. Anywhere! And just that thought is sending him into a panic.
He opens the master bedroom door and let's a shaky, breaking breath out of his mouth. There, asleep on his mother's side of the bed is Lukas. Thank God. Matt doesn't hesitate to close the bedroom door all the way and make his way to his side of the bed, laying down next to his son. He can see his son clutching the stuffed bunny rabbit his mother had given him for his fifth birthday. Matt wasn't even aware Lukas still had that. He hasn't seen it for a while. Bear the bunny rabbit. Matt remembers when he and Hadley had been shopping for birthday presents for Lukas's fifth birthday. Hadley had spotted it and had instantly known that they needed to buy it. To Matt's surprise, Lukas loved the bunny rabbit. Of course, he thought it was bear at first, hence why the bunny rabbit is named Bear. It was a special gift from a mother to her son. And now the son who has lost his mother is clutching the special gift.
Matt gently lays his hand on his son's head, gently rubbing his fingers through his son's hair, being careful not to touch the stitches on his son's forehead. Matt knows that his son needs this sleep. There is no doubt that ever since his mother's death, Lukas has not been sleeping well. Not at all. Matt hasn't been sleeping well either. He can't sleep well when his son isn't sleeping well and he can't sleep well without his wife next to his side.
That's how Kelly finds the two of them when he comes to check on them after everyone has left and it is just him and Brett left. Father and son sleeping. Lukas in Matt's arms, his head resting against his father's chest. Matt's head resting gently on top of his son's head.
Kelly gently closes the door, leaving the father and son to sleep. He knows they both need it.