Author's Note: Hey all. For all the "The Gaze of a Stranger" readers out there, don't worry, I'm still working on TGS. I came up with this concept one night, and it wouldn't leave me alone, so I am compelled to work on it immediately, until it is finished. This story will be pretty short, but I like it anyway.
I hope everyone enjoys the story!
Disclaimer: Insert generic disclaimer from every other fic in this category.
Shouldn't Haves
Chapter 1
It shouldn't have been like this.
He shouldn't have been so careless with that photo.
He shouldn't have lost it.
He shouldn't have let himself get so attached to it in the first place.
He shouldn't have allowed his memories, his love, for his mother to revolve around a crinkled photo and an ancient, scrawled "I love you."
And he definitely shouldn't have complained and sulked about the loss of said photo to such an irritating extent that his family was moved to ambush him and tape his mouth shut.
But he had. And now all of those "shouldn't haves" that he should have stopped, but didn't in favor of sullen misery, had opened up a whole new realm of "shouldn'ts".
For instance, he shouldn't be awake at this hellish hour.
He shouldn't be so distracted that he was only now hearing the pleading "Donnie, please talk to me!" that his father had already uttered three times.
He shouldn't be unable to see for the unshed tears that clouded his vision and burned his eyes.
And he shouldn't, under any circumstances, be sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair in the emergency room of Cherry Cross Memorial Hospital, waiting to find out if his little brother would make it through the night.