Thanks to those who have read and faved! I have the story finished actually. I just need to do some editing and pick a day to post the last chapter! If you like what you read, leave a note at the end and let me know!
After hearing from the Edelstein's about Vash's condition, Lily's mood began to immediately improve. For the first few days, she spoke even less than usual, and her teacher sent a note home out of concern. Alfred and Arthur tried to help her in the ways they could-letting her pick what was for dinner, letting her stay up an extra hour-but little seemed to help. Peter distracted her as best he could which would capture her attention for a while until something reminded her of the stoic older boy and she fell silent again.
When she heard Vash was awake, she immediately wanted to go visit, but was resigned to the fact that they would need to wait for both the doctor's and the family's okay before doing so.
Although they anticipated being able to visit the day after Vash woke up, between the head injury and the morphine, he was barely conscious and struggled to hold a conversation. After a discussion between Roderich and Arthur, they decided it would be best for Lily to visit when Vash was a little more active, both for his health and her sake.
Meanwhile, Peter had been more or less left to his own devices. Although the boy could be loud and obnoxious when he wasn't getting attention, he seemed to realize that Lily needed their parents more than he did. He would do anything for her, even share the limited attention their parents had to go around with their demanding schedules.
Peter sat on the couch, pulling on his shin guards and cleats so he would be all ready for soccer practice. Alfred had taken Lily to the park for some much needed air and Arthur was working on yet another job application before he needed to take his son to soccer.
After pressing send, Arthur stood and went to check that Peter was ready to go. "Oh, please don't wear those dirty cleats in the house," Arthur sighed. "I just swept."
"Fine," Peter mumbled with an eye roll and took them off.
"Do you have your water bottle?"
"Yes."
"A snack?"
"Yes."
"Your shin guards?"
"Arthur!" Peter whined, drawing out the last syllable into a long, high pitch. "I'm wearing them. I'm good to go!"
Arthur smiled a little and sat down on the couch next to him. "Good. Well we still have a few minutes before we have to leave." He paused and studied the boy who was fiddling with the top of his knee socks. "How are you doing?"
Peter shrugged. "I dunno. Good. Why?"
"Well, with Lily taking much of our focus lately, I know we've sort of left you to it," Arthur replied. "You're good at taking care of yourself, and Alfred and I appreciate that. But we want to make sure you're doing alright."
Peter shrugged again. "I'm good. I'm used to being on my own." He quickly realized that could be taken negatively and quickly added, "But I don't feel alone here. You and Alfred are great, even now."
Arthur chuckled and pat his back, taking no offence to the boy's words. "Good. You're never alone, remember that."
"I will." The two stood to leave and headed out the door. They began walking down the street, the warm evening air hitting their arms. The weather had finally warmed up and they no longer needed jackets except in the rain and on the odd cool day. Summer was just around the corner.
"Arthur? What were your parents like?" Peter asked suddenly. Arthur was a little taken aback by the question, but smiled.
"Well, they were kind," Arthur said, conjuring up memories of his folks. "Mother was a school teacher and father worked in a factory nearby. My father left when I was around your age and I never heard from him again until I received part of his will in the mail. Mother died a short while later."
Peter nodded. "My father died in an accident and my mom and I moved to America. She died after that and she didn't have any other family and I had to go to a home." Arthur nodded. Peter had never talked about his life before he was adopted, besides how he met Lily.
"Where are you from?" Arthur asked.
"Manningtree. It's in England." Peter replied. "It's a really small town, I bet you don't know it."
Arthur, however, found himself in a bit of shock. Peter noticed the pause in conversation and looked up at his guardian. "I'm sorry, Peter," Arthur finally said with a nervous laugh. "I'm from Manningtree as well. The coincidence caught me off guard."
"Really?" Peter asked, bewildered. "Wow!"
"Yes, I moved to America for school. That's where I met Alfred," Arthur said and sighed. "I figured in such a small town, with two deceased parents, I might as well go elsewhere and find my own way. I miss the town, but I'm glad to be here."
Peter nodded. "I don't remember it much," he admitted. "But I like it here too." Arthur smiled as they reached the soccer field. The boy could be grating and irritating as hell, but having this small connection to each other would help them become closer. As he watched Peter run off to the field, he shook his head, still surprised by the fact that they were from the same small town in England.
"Arthur!" A familiar voice called from a few feet away. He turned to see Rachael running towards him. She stopped out of breath and smiled brightly.
"Rachael. What a pleasure seeing you here!" Arthur said and shook the woman's hand. "Are you playing soccer?" He joked. She laughed and shook her head.
"No, I was just going for a run in the park when I saw you!" she said. "I was going to call you tomorrow-I got you an interview in the English department. They're looking for an Introduction to College Writing instructor and have it open to grad students in any department!"
"What, really?" Arthur asked, with a surprised blink. "How did you do it?"
"My roommate's friend is an English major and I asked her to put a word in for you. They can meet you tomorrow if it's not too short notice," Rachael said. "Otherwise, next week would work!"
"I can do tomorrow," Arthur stammered out. "This is great, Rachael, really. Thank you so much."
"Hey, it's not a problem," she said. "You helped me survive Doctor Robert's class, so I kind of owe you one. So, does 11 work for you tomorrow?"
"Perfect," Arthur replied. "Really, thank you again. Even if it doesn't work out, I really appreciate you going this far to help me and my family."
Rachael shrugged. "It's the absolute least I can do." She leaned against the fence and watched the kids chase and black and white checkered ball around the field for a moment. Arthur fell silent with her and followed Peter up and down the field.
"Well, I better get going," she said, standing up straight and untangling her headphones. "Gotta make supper."
Arthur nodded. "Thank you again, Rachael. I'll let you know how it goes."
The two waved goodbye to each other and Arthur was left standing on the ends of the soccer field, smiling widely to himself. If he could just get this job, he could go back to clinicals and finish up school that summer. Then, he could start looking for real work. And, if he could make connections in the English department, he had his foot in another door that could be a career option someday.
Yes, he thought as he watched Peter knock the ball back from his team's goal. Things were starting to look up.
The next day, Alfred got the call that Vash was finally up to having visitors and told Roderich they would bring Lily by after school. He then left for work shortly after Arthur had left with the kids.
Arthur went to his interview with passages from some of what he was writing as well as an excerpt from a published journal article he had contributed to a year before. The panel was very impressed and suggested he take on a small group of medical-majored students and instruct them in a course on how to write specifically for their chosen field. Arthur was over the moon and was immediately able to re-enroll in the university. By one that afternoon, he was both a professor (though technically a Graduate Assistant) and a final semester med student. He made a mental note to buy a very nice gift for Rachael when his first paycheck came in.
However, he wasn't able to celebrate long. When he brought the kids home from school, he found Alfred at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. "Go start your homework in your room," Arthur told the kids and shooed them off to their bedroom. "We'll get going once you've gotten at least some of it done," he told them.
The kids did as they were told and Arthur went to his husband. He pulled up a chair next to the larger man and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Alfred? Love? What's the matter?" he asked cautiously, feeling a dreadful ache in the pit of his stomach. Whatever the answer the usually happy and cheery man was about to give him would not be good.
Alfred mumbled something into his hands, his face turning red. Arthur frowned, but didn't say anything. The silence told Alfred that his husband had no idea what was said. "I got fired." Alfred said quietly. Arthur nodded, stunned, but not completely shocked. Alfred was home early and looked upset. It hadn't taken much to put two and two together.
"What? What happened?"
"They found out about the job search. I submitted a resume to a firm whose owner was friends with Murphy's kid, John. He told the boss-man since he wanted my job. Murph decided I wasn't committed enough and told me to get out." Alfred groaned and returned his head to his hands. "I'm so stupid."
"It's okay…" Arthur began, but Alfred violently shook his head.
"No it's not. I'm never going to get a good recommendation now," he said dryly. "And if I put them on my resume, I'll get laughed out of an interview. If I don't, I can't show I have any experience. I'm screwed, Artie!" He huffed and sighed in exasperation and harshly stroked his hair back, all but his stubborn cowlick staying up.
"We'll figure it out," Arthur responded, upset, but not wanting to show it. "We always do."
"But we always figure it out with at least one of us working full time!" the other man replied, an uncharacteristic pessimism taking him over. "But you haven't found a job yet and now I don't have one. We're living paycheck to paycheck! We're going to go into debt and lose the apartment!"
"Shh," Arthur hissed, harsher than he meant to. "Alfred, we're going to be fine. I just got back from my interview at the university. I got the job. It's not nearly what you made, but if we cut back, we can still make it."
Alfred looked at his husband and hugged him, though not as tightly as usual. "I'm so happy for you, Artie! But, what could we possibly cut back on?"
Arthur sighed. Between the hospital bill, rent, and food, there really wasn't much. It was at times like these that Arthur wished they smoke or drank so they had something else to cut out. As it stood, they were able to buy enough food each week to last, but even then they sometimes went without eating towards the end of the week so that the kids could.
"Well…" Arthur thought, trying to grasp at straws. "I'm on a college campus, there has to be free food somewhere. I'll scout out what I can. I can sell some of my old books, and we can sell old clothes to Goodwill." Alfred looked at him skeptically. "Look. We just have to make it a few months. By then, you'll have likely found something and I'll be working full time at a real job in my field."
"You know, it's weird when you're the one with the bright side." Alfred said coyly, feeling only slightly better than before.
Arthur lightly smacked him on the shoulder. "Oh, shut up." He said, but in a joking, loving tone. "It's what I have to do when you go mental. We'll be alright. Now get ready to go and stop moping around!" Alfred smiled. There was his husband, and he couldn't be more thankful for the smack and scolding. It meant normalcy. It meant home.
Both Lily and Peter had heard everything their parents had discussed-the walls weren't very thick in the apartment-but because Alfred and Arthur were acting normal, so were they. Both were silently nervous, since neither had been adopted long enough to believe that they wouldn't somehow be taken away from their parents. This was irrational, of course, but they were young and they knew no other life except one filled with uncertainty.
Lily sat on a chair in the waiting room in between Peter and Alfred. She stared at the door she knew would lead her to Vash and her feet clicked against the metal of the support under the chair.
After what felt like an eternity to the girl, but was actually only a few minutes, a nurse came back and said that Lily could come in. Alfred went with her, leaving Arthur and Peter in the waiting room and Elizabetha came out, looking much more rested than she had in the days before. Roderich had finally convinced her to go home, shower, and sleep. She smiled brightly at the two left in the waiting room and launched into a talkative, thankful conversation.
Alfred opened the door to the hospital room that looked much like the one Lily had been in just a few weeks before. Roderich stood at the window, looking at something on his phone. When the door opened, he looked up and nodded towards the man and his daughter. "Good of you to come," He said, glancing back at his phone for a moment before locking the screen and putting it in his pocket.
Lily took a step and peered around the corner to the bed where Vash was. He was awake and staring back at her. There was no smile on his lips, but his eyes showed thankfulness and happiness at seeing his sister. There were not nearly as many wires as in the days before. Vash was now left with an IV for morphine in case he needed it, a tube under his nose for oxygen, and a bandage covering what was left of the wound from the falling board.
The young man gave a small wave which was invitation enough for Lily to hurry over and throw her arms around him. The force of the hug ached a little, but Vash didn't mind. He was just happy to see her. He hugged her as tightly as his weakened arms would allow and pat her hair.
"I'm so glad you're okay!" Lily said, wiping away a few tears that had sprung up. Vash nodded in an obvious agreement.
"Have you been doing well in your math?" he asked her and she smiled brightly.
"I got a ninety-five on my last quiz! I'm going to try to get a hundred on the test next week." She said proudly and Vash let a small smile grace his face.
Alfred smiled and stood next to Roderich. "How's he doing?" he asked as the Lily started chatting to Vash about life and school.
"Good," Roderich said, watching the kids. "He should be out by the end of the week. The pain medication kept him down a bit, but now that the pain has gone down, he doesn't need them so much. Other than that, he'll need to have some oxygen on hand just in case, but it's unlikely he'll use it as long as he takes it easy."
"That's great, man!" Alfred smiled widely. "There's no better feeling than taking your kid home from the hospital and they're A-Okay!"
"Yes, but he is very behind in school, and with only a week left, we're a little worried." Roderich commented.
"Oh, they can't keep him back for missing a week or two of his senior yet because he was in the hospital. He's already accepted to college, right? He should be good to go." Alfred assured. Roderich nodded silently.
They fell silent from their own chat just as Lily was leaning against Vash's ear. "Papa lost his job today," she whispered. She believed it was quiet enough that Roderich and Alfred couldn't hear them across the room and continued telling Vash that she was nervous, but sure everything would be alright.
Alfred, knowing Roderich had heard, turned red and stared out the window. The Austrian man looked over at him and studied the man silently before turning back to his phone for a moment.
"I'm sure everything will be okay," Vash said, slightly shocked at the news, but trying not to show it. Lily nodded and the subject was changed back to plans for the summer.
Vash thought for a moment of telling Lily that he was her real brother then, but felt kind of exhausted by the visitors and figured it might be a better to wait until he could talk to her privately, one-on-one. Besides, the family was obviously going through something right now and he didn't want to add to that by dropping such a bombshell on the little girl.
Soon, Vash's eyelids got heavy, and Alfred noticed that he had fallen nearly silent. "Lily, why don't we let Vash rest? We need to get home anyway since you gotta get to school tomorrow." he suggested. Lily was not keen on the suggestion, but knew that her father was right. Either way, she was thankful for the chance to see her friend for the first time in a week.
"Get better soon!" She beamed and hopped off the chair. "Thank you," she said politely to Roderich. With a wave, she headed out the door. Alfred was close behind her, put felt a hand pull him back. Before he could ask what was up, a card was shoved in his face.
"Give my secretary a call tomorrow," Roderich said, his tone suggesting disinterest, but his eyes showing earnest.
"Oh, uh. Okay," Alfred sputtered out. He was about to ask why, exactly, but the dark haired man walked over to the bed and sat down next to his son. With lingering confusion, Alfred followed his daughter out of the hospital room.