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Chapter 18: History

March 15th 2022

"Logan! Get your butt of out that bed now!" Woke Gabi up that morning and she rolled over to see the other side of the bed fully made and many of the suitcases that were huddled in the corner last night, missing. Gabi grunted and rolled back over completely forgetting what the day had to bring.

A mere 10 minutes later a clean and shaved man appeared in Gabi's face, she opened her eyes and nearly screamed before the figure spoke "Come on, get up - I need your help!". She gave a confused look to the man she had now assured herself was her husband. "Today gabs." Troy yet again got another confused look before the covers were abruptly pulled over her head and in the process knocking him in the nose. Troy was having none of this and after a slight rub of his nose he pulled the covers from his cocooned wife and picked her up.

"Put me down!" She demanded as he made his way over the room to the bathroom. "Troy..." she whimpered "Me want's to sleep, and it's only 3am!" Troy dumped her on the chair in the bathroom and turned the shower on - all while Gabi gave him the sourest look she could at this hour of the morning.

"Babe, today your husband, parents in law and kids fly back home for the reunion tomorrow. Remember" Gabi grunted and made her memory clear to Troy. He nodded, kissed her on the check and walked out to prepare the sleepy kids to leave for the airport.

Troy walked up the steps to the 3rd floor and barged into Freddie's room. "Come on bud, time to get dress and all of that stuff." Troy heard the exact same groan from Freddie that he had heard from his wife just moments ago, as he walked around the room opening the curtains and getting his clothes out from the drawers. "I'll be back in 2 minutes and I want you in the bathroom getting ready!" He said holding 2 fingers up and walking out the room. Next on his to-do-list was his sleeper, Logan.

"Lo. I called you 10 minutes and it looks like you haven't budged for 8 hours. Come on - were going to stay with Abuelita in Albuquerque." Logan rolled back over and Troy took this opportunity to rip the covers from the 10 year old.

"DAD!" Logan screamed as the coldness of her room hit her and she shivered.

"If you want to get warm, you have to get dressed!" He pointed at the drawers and walked out still holding her duvet. He passed Freddie's room and heard the shower running so he bypassed walking into his room and he made his way down the stairs to place Logan's duvet in the master bedroom.

Troy got within an arms length of the handle when he came to a sudden stop. Pushing against him was a tiny child in lollipop snuggly pyjamas "Oh hey Madi. Is Hetty awake?" He asked the tired 5 year old.

Madi shook her head "No. Mommy told me never to wake her - just walk out the room quietly. So here I am." She chirped. Troy nodded, with Hetty they wanted her to sleep as long as possible in the mornings. "Why she still seep though? We leaving." Madi questioned her father. This question tugged at his heart and threatened to present a tear to form in his eye.

"Hetty and Mommy aren't coming with us remember. They are going to stay here have fun while we have fun with Abuelita in daddy's home town ok?" Madi seemed to accept that answer and Troy was out of the woods while she merrily skipped over to Ella and Maebh's room.

He was just about to open the door when she asked another question, "Daddy, but why they staying here?" Troy was not out of the woods - he rattled his brain trying to think of something to tell a 5 year old.

"Well urm.." He paused "Do you remember mommy and daddy going out with Hetty a lot around Christmas time?" Madi nodded "We were visiting the hospital" He stalled again, but there was no way he was going to get away with not saying anything more "Hetty isn't very well at the moment, ok baby? But she will get better!" He added before the tears he knew were mounting in both of their eyes would manifest. "You go now into the room and wake them up ok?" Troy gestured to Ella and Maebh's room with his head. Madi nodded and turned around allowing Troy to gain his composure and open the bedroom door.

"Good tack-tick, babe." Gabi praised as she walked out the bathroom in her fluffy dressing gown and saw him holding Logan's duet. She was about to kiss him when she saw the terror look in his eyes. "What's up?" She asked, taking the duvet from him and motioning for them to sit on the bed.

It took a while before Troy could feel that he could speak without breaking down. He took and deep breath and started "Bumped into Madi when I was walking in here and asked if Hetty was still asleep." Gabi nodded dreading that she knew what he was going to say next. Troy continued "She asked why Hetty isn't getting up like everyone else and I reminded her that you and Hetty were going to stay here and hang out around the house." Gabi now was positive that she knew what was coming - "at 1st she accepted it and before I could get in here, she asked why you are staying. So I had to tell her, Gabs." Tears were forming in Gabi's eyes and Troy was about to break down but he still continued "She remembers that we went out a lot around Christmas with Hetty and I told her that we went to the hospital and that Hetty is sick. We have to tell them all." Gabi's tear drowned face looked up with horror.

"Why? It will make it harder." She cried into Troy's side.

"They deserve to know and it will make it easier on us not to make up excuses over why we often leave with her or why she doesn't go to pre-school."

"Why?" Gabi sobbed.

"I've just said baby." Troy stated while dropping a small kiss on her head.

"No! Why did this have to happen to us! We were perfect and all this mystery is too much to bear." Her latest remark made them both break down and they just sat there tightly squeezing each other for comfort.

"I don't know baby, I don't know." Troy managed to say between sobs. After what seemed like an eternity the bedroom door opened and there stood Troy's mom. Troy looked up and nodded at the question he knew his mother had. Lucille dropped her head and sighed.

"I'll go and get the rest ready, whose up?"

"Urm. Freddie, Logan and ... Madi has gone to wake up the other 2 from the quads." Lucille nodded and turned to walk out the door "Oh mom?" She whipped around at the sound of her son's broken voice "Don't go into Hetty's room ok?" She nodded and with that she closed the bedroom door and called Jack up to help.

"What do you want?" Asked an emerging Jack.

"Help with getting the remaining kids up. It's just all the six need to wake up and the 3 of the quads need to get dressed."

Jack nodded and made his way over to the boys' bedroom. "Troy not helping?" He asked while pointing to the closed door.

Lucille shook her head "They're broken Jack, all this stuff with Hetty has finally got to them." Jack nodded and breathed deeply - he never wanted his son to go through this torture of having a sick child, he thought about how it would impact the couple like the death of Grace did for him and Lucille all those years ago. "What are you thinking about?" Lucille asked bringing Jack out of his deep thoughts.

"I urm ... I was just thinking about ... Hetty. And what's going on."

Lucille shook her head "You thinking about Grace?"

"I can't help it. To not think about her everyday is impossible, her smile, the way she would beg for ice-cream." Jack let out a muffled laugh while Lucille moved closer to her husband and put her hand into his "The way she would laugh when Troy picked her up and spun her around." Jack took another deep breath. "I don't want them to go through the same ordeal we went through - I know it will hit Troy like a bus because we both know how he got to sleep for many years after she died!"

"I know, I remember I could barely listen to the cries - it made me want to break down even more. But they are both strong and Hetty is a little fighter, it will be ok!" Lucille reassured him before kissing his check and walking into the sextuplet girls' room.

"Girls up!" Lucille demanded while clapping her hands. All 3 girl made a huge groaning sound in unison "My god girls, you should make a band." She joked and one by one ripped the duvets of the girls in their separate beds.

"NANA!" All the girls shouted and then one by one they curled into tiny bean shapes - trying to get themselves warm again.

"No. No. No." Lucille picked up Annabelle and pushed her into the bathroom while she found Breelan's music player and turned the volume up. "Guys, don't you want to go to the hot south, where you can sunbathe get a tan and be the envy of your friends?" Lucille shouted - the two remaining girls thought about this before jumping up and racing each other to the bathroom.

"Hey, Kenna move it trying to brush teeth here!"

"Get out the room, I'm having a shower."

Lucille laughed at the girls arguing as she walked out the room. She was just about to go and prepare Madi, Ella and Maebh for the day when the master bedroom door opened and emerged and tired Gabi. "Oh Gabs, come here." Lucille pulled Gabi into a tight embrace "Everything will be ok. This is God's plan and he won't put you through anything you can't handle, ok sweetpea?" Gabi nodded into Lucille 's chest, but then she slightly pulled away.

"Was it this hard for you?"

Lucille thought for a moment before answering "Don't take this the wrong way..." Gabi looked up "Yes, but I think more so. You see you found out relativity early and there are loads of doctors able to help and save her life." Lucille paused for a moment "We found out and she was given 2 weeks left to live, yes she made it to a month but still, nothing could have been done for her - all three of us watched her slowly fade away."

Gabi tightened her grip on her mother in law, "How old was Troy?"

"He was 15, Grace was 4." Lucille breathed in loudly "Can I tell you something?" Gabi nodded and lead Lucille downstairs into the small playroom cluttered with toys. Once in the room Lucille nodded and Gabi took a seat next to her. "I doubt Troy has told you this and I know you wouldn't have heard it from Chad."

"From Chad?" Gabi asked confused.

Lucille nodded "After, Chad was the only one Troy would talk to - he wouldn't even talk to us. He told Chad everything and Chad listened and vowed never to break his trust." Gabi nodded, she now had just realised how emotionally connected Troy was with Chad. "Well going back ... He, Troy would never have told you because every single time he thought about it, it would change him slightly." Gabi nodded preparing herself for what she was going to hear. "Well on February 16th 2005 Grace got up around 10pm saying her belly hurt. By this time we were counting down the days but a stomach bug had gone around in the past week, I didn't think anything of her complaint so I just suggested that we cuddle until she falls asleep. Immediately she shook her head and said 'No, I want to cuddle with Troy'. I wasn't about to argue with her so I picked her up and walked into Troy's bedroom - fortunately he was still awake so I explained that her belly hurt and she wanted to cuddle. I placed her in his arms and left the room." Still listening intensely Gabi wondered what her mother in law could be getting at. "I checked on them before I went to bed and they were both sound asleep, I took a picture - I carry that picture around everywhere it's always in my bag. So I went to bed all assured that they were good." By now Lucille started to sound choked up but she continued for the sake of her daughter in law and granddaughter, "Early the next morning around 3 or 4am I woke up to Troy screaming his head off and shouting for me and Jack to go to his room. I jumped out of bed not even putting a dressing gown on and made my way to his room, we opened the door and saw Troy sat up in bed cuddling and kissing his sister - at 1st we thought what was going on? Did he have a nightmare. We both walked more into the room and I made my way around the bed first, I made it to the nightstand below the framed picture of Troy at his 1st game." Gabi nodded as she remembered exactly where Lucille was talking about. "I looked over the bed and stood in horror. My baby was gone! She was lifeless, just gone." Both Gabi and Lucille stayed silent. "Troy was inconsolable, Grace died in his arms and he has never forgiven himself that he wasn't able to give up his life to save her that night and I don't think he ever will - she was 4 years old and there she was on his bed like a baby doll" Lucille let a few tears slip before Gabi grabbed her and pulled her into a tight embrace.

A/N: Grace is Troy's little sister who died of cancer when she was 5 (Made up by us) and she's the inspiration for Ella-Grace's name.