Gleekforever12345: Yeah, YAY. I love Barole too. And honestly I can't see how anyone cannot love those two. Hmmm… yeah, for my readers' sake I really need to stop putting Finn's death into stories like that don't I? Hahaha. Well, we'll see, we'll see. 'hugs' I hope it's not making you too sad. Here comes chapter twenty one. I hope you like it.Thank you for reading and reviewing.
X snow-pony x: Aw. Thank you. I'm glad you liked it. And how Burt is there for Carole is just too adorable isn't it? Thank you for reading and reviewing.
THE RANDOM FACT IN THE BOTTOM A/N IS IMPORTANT IN CASE YOU'D EVER BE IN A SITUATION ALIKE WITH THE STORYLINE. I'D SUGGEST YOU ALL READ IT AND SOMEWHAT MEMORIZE WHAT IT SAYS.
So, if you have sent in characters you know that I have been asking for syoc characters for this chapter. And here are the characters names, ages, cla's and who created them. They all have polyvores put in a collection I have called 'A to Z' either for their characters, their outfits, or one of each. The links on the profiles aren't working but if you go on google and search for 'linneagbffn polyvore' you should find my profile on polyvore and can go on there and from there you can find the collection.
The Bailey's (Rachel from glee and my character Theo)
Finn Bailey, 13, portrayed by Ty Simpkins- Localmusicxjellybeanx
Trevor Bailey, 9, portrayed by Davis Cleveland- GleeJunkie007
Olivia Bailey, 3, portrayed by Aubrey Anderson-Emmons (Adopted)- Ballet fairy
The Lopez- Pierce's (And Morgan) (Brittany and Santana)
Morgan Riley, 13, portrayed by Jared Gilmore (Fostered)- wall with a fez
Isabella Lopez- Pierce, 12, portrayed by Rowan Blanchard (biologically Santana's)- my character
Kristina Lopez- Pierce, 7, portrayed by Mia Talerico (Adopted)- Ember411
Carlie- Snow Lopez- Pierce, 5, portrayed by Elle Donoghue (adopted)- my character
Zachary Lopez- Pierce, 4, portrayed by Finn Donoghue (biologically Brittany's)- My character
The Puckerman's (Quinn and Puck)
Chloe Puckerman, 8, portrayed by Mia Hays- x snow- pony x
Jennifer 'Jen' Puckerman, 4, portrayed by Gracie Whitton- Gleekforever12345
The Chang's (Mike and Tina)
Thomas Chang- 9- portrayed by Forrest Wheeler- x snow- pony x
(It's told from Theo's point of view)
U is for USA
"Hey guys." Just as I stepped out of the car and turned to lift Liv out from her car chair Brittany and Santana came walking up and I could see the Puckerman- family's car pull over and Puck's annoyed expression while he tried to find a parking space. Which wasn't the easiest thing to do at eleven a.m. the fourth of July.
"Come here Liv." I lifted my daughter out of her car seat and took her hand. "Now, until I say you can let go you need to hold onto my hand because there are loads of cars here today." Olivia suddenly stopped and looked up at me. "What are you thinking darlin'?" She laid her head to the side and looked up at me.
"Can I have a ride on your shoulders daddy?" I suppressed a sigh- I had a sore shoulder after giving in to play tennis with Finn- but damn it! I wasn't twenty anymore! "Then no cars will be able to hit me." I suppressed another sigh and lifted her up. I knew that she would always win so why did I even try? Still I grimaced slightly when I felt the pain shoot through my shoulder in the move to lift her up. Even though it got better once I lowered my right hand right after getting her up there.
"And you must be Morgan?"
The Lopez- Pierce's had fostered and adopted two girls during the winter and spring, and just a few weeks ago a young teenage boy as well. And even though we would take every chance we got to meet up with Rachel's old friends from the new directions. I hadn't gotten the chance to meet him until now. And actually not really now neither since he stood with his hands shoved in his pockets, headphones in his ears and didn't seem to hear me at all. Santana sighed and shook his shoulder, which caused him to rip the headphone and rudely look back at her.
"What?"
"He's trying to talk to you. Do you remember we told you about our friend Theo? The British one?" I couldn't help but giving a short chuckle- to my defense fifteen years in America had caused me to shake most of my London accent away for people to even be able to understand me in some moments. "Well this is him, and he was asking you something." Morgan glared up at me. But I ignored it and held my hand out and he slightly touched it with his hand.
"My name is Theo. And I'm a friend of Santana and Brittany's. You might have met Rachel Bailey- she's my wife." I interrupted myself when I saw the look on Morgan's face again and realized Morgan was not amused by me at all. "Oh well… Do you want to introduce yourself maybe?" I smiled and pulled a hand through my hair.
"My name is Morgan Riley. And I don't care about you a single bit."
Without another word Morgan pushed himself up from leaning against his foster mums' car and walked down towards the park where at least a hundred different children and adults were having picnics this Fourth of July.
"He wasn't very nice daddy." I scolded Olivia for talking like that. Come on! He had been in foster care for like a month- no one would expect him to be happy as a lark and nice to everybody. And while Quinn, Puck and their two daughters came up to me and my family as well as Santana and Brittany coming up with their other children we started walking down towards a nice spot that we could all see underneath a big tree in a corner of the park.
"No, no, no, no." Finn's more and more panicked toned voice had me looking up from putting out the picnic blankets and the food that we had brought. And right away I spotted Finn trying to push away a Golden retriever jumping at him and I ran over, pulled away Finn and tried to push away the dog. "Get away from me you dumb dog." Finn had been bitten by a dog when we were in this very same park when he was barely two and had feared them ever since. "Get away from me. "
By now Finn was more or less climbing up on me, and with both that and Olivia still on my shoulders it caused the pain to shoot through my shoulder while I almost lost my balance and for a split moment was sure I'd fall on top of all of my three children, but somehow managed to stay on my feet in the end.
"We're sorry, we're sorry." Out of nowhere two children, around Isabella's and Finn's age came running with one empty leash, and one leash with a cat in it (!) "Rob's really nice. You don't need to be afraid. He'd never bite anyone. Rob come here. Come here boy." Finn was still clinging onto me. And the dog didn't move away from us, while I think that my friends were mostly trying to force themselves not to laugh. And the children let go of the cat and pulled the leashes around her wrist and they had to pull Rob away and lost sight on the cat.
"HEY." Suddenly I noticed where the cat was. "Don't let the cat go over to…" Trevor sneezed. "…Trevor." The children apologized again, and before I'd have the time to say anything else they had pulled away with their cat and their dog and their leashes, talking in some language that I couldn't understand while I sighed. "Please don't let this day go after Murphy 's Law. It's USA's day for God's sake."
"Get down from me. Both of you." Finn crawled down from clinging on my shoulders and lifted Olivia, whining about that she hadn't done anything wrong and wanted to stay. And at last Rachel came and lifted her off instead since Finn couldn't get her to listen to him.
"I wanted to stay on daddy's shoulders." Olivia crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. I suppressed a sigh, if Olivia nagged me to lift her back or looked at me with puppy eyes for it I would never be able to tell her no. So quickly before she had started I turned to the others, and first thing I saw was Brittany and Santana's just adopted daughter Kristina dancing in front of all of the adults except for me.
"And up." She ended the choreography with raising on her tippy toes and reaching her arms up into the air, making herself as tall as possible. And I and the other adults and some of the children clapped our hands. "Thank you, thank you." Kristina bowed to us and then sat down in front of me at the same time as I felt someone tugging my shirt from behind and turning around I was about a hundred and fifty percent sure it would be Olivia nagging me to lift her onto my shoulders again. So the split second it took me to turn around I thought of yet one random excuse or argument towards her after the other until I saw it was Trevor.
"Dad, can we buy ice cream?" Trevor gestured towards a guy standing with a food wagon with special Fourth of July ice creams in white, red and blue. I hesitated and looked around the blankets where we had just put out everything and all the kinds of food and snacks we had brought here for ourselves. But I could say no to Trevor's puppy eyes just as much as Olivia's so I just pulled up my wallet out of my pocket and handed him the bill.
"Check how many of the others of you kids want too." I handed him it and he quickly gave me a hug before he checked with the others, and then all of the children except Isabella and Zachary went off to buy some. "Don't you want ice cream too?" I sat down next to the Lopez- Pierce's. "Zach are you okay?"
Zach laid in his mami's arms, he had his face turned into her shirt but between the shirt and the blonde, short hair I could spot him being very pale and obviously half- asleep in Santana's grip. And without any further do I felt a gust of worry. Zach was always full of energy, quite annoying sometimes but… he was always full of energy and the boy in Santana's arms now. I just didn't recognize in his drowsy state.
"I'm sure he's fine." Isabella stated without looking up from her phone. "He refused to quit watching his silly TV shows half of the night. And now he's paying for it." She sighed. "And when he pays for it everybody else have to pay for it too because he's such a baby!"
"Bella don't be jealous!" Isabella just glared at her mami at that statement. Even though we all knew how true it was. "You go with the others and get an ice cream you too?"
"I don't want a freaking ice cream." Bella only seemed grumpier by every second. "I want to go home. And if it was Zach who wanted to go home it wouldn't be a minute before you two had gathered everybody and we were back in the van going home." Santana sighed, and looked down at Zach. I think she was trying to decide whether they just went home or not. But Zach understood what was going on. And he didn't want to go, so he crawled down onto the ground and took the soccer ball lying by the side of the blanket and then looked to Isabella.
"Can you come play with me?"
Santana sent Isabella a meaning glare, and with that the younger Latina (still with a grumpy expression) stood up and grabbed the ball from her brother's hands and went up on an empty bit of grass and tried to teach him how to kick the ball in the 'right' way. Just as Olivia and the others came walking back and Olivia gave me her ice cream as she hadn't liked it.
"Hello guys." I looked up from helping Olivia to open a bottle of apple juice and spotted that the Chang's- our friends Tina and Mike and their son Thomas had come over to us. And somehow managed to make their way over to us. Thomas was on crutches and for him the way over the grass and having to cross between people and picnic blankets could not have had an easy task.
"What happened to you?" Tom looked down on his foot, which was in a big cast and shrugged. His mum, Tina didn't seem so glad though. And here came sneaky Theo. "What? What happened? What did you do Tom?"
"And that is why we don't dance on tables." Mike stated at last and Tom just laughed. Well, how on earth were children going to learn things without doing them? And Tom still had his usual, happy sparkle in his eyes and actually didn't seem to mind. If I knew him right he thought it was pretty exciting to have crutches and everybody asking what happen.
"Is it okay if we sit with you here?" Tina's question. "It's kind of crowded and… yeah."
"Oh… sit!" I gestured to the blankets we had put out. "You don't need to ask about that. The more the merrier." They all smiled and Tom came jumping over and sat down on the opposite side of Olivia from me. "And we've got hotdogs and crackers and sandwiches and God knows everything so you just take whatever you want there's more than enough for everybody."
"Have I ever told you that it's kind of awesome that you've got an Asian kid?" I just chuckled at Mike's statement that he must have told me a million times. Even though we both knew it was just half a joke. "I know she's actually you're niece and so."
"No." I mumbled. "No, Olivia came to us when she was three months old. She's as much my daughter as Trevor and Finn are my sons. And that's a fact." Mike only smiled and stole a sip of juice from Olivia's bottle. "Oh, hello love." Rachel moved places and came to sit and lean against me. And while I held her I could see her fingering with her necklace. One silver heart, and one small golden. Somehow she had the explanation that one was for me, and one was for Finn (Hudson, not our son.)
"It's weird." She almost whispered to me. "When Finn died… I never thought I'd be able to love again and… here we are. Here I am with you and with our Finn and Trevor and Olivia and our friends and I… I'm so happy." I smiled- her and the children being happy was the only thing that I needed to be happy myself. And afterwards. I would be happy that right there and then, I didn't know how abruptly that was going to change.
"Mami, mami. Something's wrong with Zach!"
Isabella's shout and the panicked tone in it caused us all, including me to look up and turn my head in the direction where she shouted from and I was, as far as I could notice the first one to jump onto my feet and sprint over to Zach's trembling and seizing figure.
"It's okay Zach." I reassured him while I pulled my hoodie off, folded it and put it under Zach's head so he wouldn't hurt himself towards the hard ground. "It's okay, it will be over soon." It was at least ten years ago since I had seen anyone having a seizure last, but that time passing hadn't made it any less scary and I made sure Zach's shirt wasn't too tight around his neck while I had to pull him onto his side so he wouldn't choke if he threw up.
The full- blown seizure didn't last for long. Probably not more than ninety seconds or so. But it felt like ages before Zach's muscles finally relaxed while his two mums, older sister and friends- as siblings as friends as their parents stood around and I could barely catch that someone was calling for an ambulance while more and more people from the park where gathering around us.
"Rachel, Mike, Tina." I turned to my wife and my friends. "Can you try and make people go away. With them around this experience will only be even more traumatic for Zach." The three of them nodded and I turned back to Zach, carefully wrapped my arms around him and lifted him up from the ground and up towards my chest while he started twisting and turning again and opened his eyes. "Hello there li'l buddy. It's okay. You had something that's called a sei… Whoa." When Zach gurgled and choked I quickly but carefully turned him around. So he mostly hung with my arms around his chest and threw up onto the ground instead of all over me. "It's okay li'l buddy. Chuck it all up. You will be just fine."
Zach finished throwing up and I got more comfortable and sat down on the ground and put Zach in my lap. Zach was crying. But silently now, and we could all hear the sirens of the ambulance coming closer and closer until the people around the yard of the park moved to the side while Finn ran before them to show the way.
I didn't let my embrace around Zach fade until Santana had sat down on the ambulance stretcher and Brittany had gotten into the front seat. Then I put the young blonde in the arms of his mami and backed away for the paramedics to do their jobs. While Santana gave Puck her car key and I heard her telling him to take the van and take Bella, Carlie, Kristina and Morgan home
"I kept on feeling like I'd forgotten something but you know… My little sister. The youngest- Aurora. The youngest of the triplets… well… Rory as we call her but never mind. She used to have seizures when she was younger. She had this kind of epilepsy that occurs before the teenage years and grows away usually before the age of fifteen. With her there was one more thing and it was to take of her glasses. But Zach doesn't wear glasses so we didn't need to mind about that point. It's just that… I keep on having the feeling I'd forgotten something." Rachel patted my arm and more or less pulled away one of my hands from the steering wheel before she took it.
We were in the car, I and Rachel in the front. And Finn, Olivia and Trevor in the back. Just like it usually was. Except it was never this quiet. And I had just had to break the silence with anything.
"You did everything you could have done Theo."
I forced a slight smile towards my wife and then quickly turned my vision back towards the road. An idea quickly flashed by in my head and it had quickly grown into something more and I had almost decided that it was going to become reality. While Rachel took the children into the house to put on some movie or something I pulled up my phone and dialed Santana's number to check if it was going to work out.
"I don't know Theo." Santana sounded tired, given up and somewhat annoyed on the phone when I checked if my idea would work. "I don't think Zach is really up for a surprise right now. He's mostly sleeping and when he's awake he's just really tired, achy and wants to be held… I'm not so sure about this."
"At least give it a try." I tried. "And it's not anything big or anything. If you don't want too much fuss about it I'll be the only one who comes into the hospital and I'll carry him to see it. Please San. I really think Zach would like it and the children were all really scared for Zach and I think it will be good for them to feel like they're doing something. I really think this idea will work out."
I waited and crossed my fingers towards my leg. "Okay then, fine. But if this makes it even worse for Zach. I'll kill you. Okay?" It might have been the wrong time to do it but I boxed happily in the air. "And do it tomorrow. I think Zach is too worn out and probably will stay so for a bit. So don't come here until tomorrow. And nothing like stay strong or keep fighting. I think he's still too little and no feeding all of the kids junk food. There's enough junk food with all of the hospital food that Zach will be getting once he can eat." I just agreed to everything Santana told me. "And… Will you let the children stay at yours? I don't want them to stay home on their own. Then we might find the house in ruins, if it's even there when we come back from the hospital and Theo?" I nodded towards the phone, even though she couldn't see me. "Don't try to hard and wear yourself out. Okay?" I nodded towards the phone again and stood up and started searching for my car keys. "Okay. See you!"
I hung up before waiting for an answer and jogged out to the car. It wouldn't change how Zach was feeling right now. But I was actually feeling a ray of happiness, maybe because I had an idea on how we would do at least something and before picking up the kids of Santana and Brittany's. I drove to the store and bought as much junk food as I could find and new the children liked.
Santana could say whatever she wanted, children needed junk food. And especially when they were down and needed something to keep their mind of things. And that's why I also got Pringles, candy and Cheetos. And all kinds of breakfast food for the morning after today.
"Hey kids." Barely ten minutes later when I came into the house of Santana and Brittany's and the kids' in the middle of the forest somewhere all of the kids sat around the kitchen table. And I had never seen them as quiet and as calm as now. "Hey… I have an idea. We are all going to come together and make a surprise for your li'l brother. Okay? So all you guys need to do is to gather a change of clothes or two in each school bag or whatever you have. And then you'll be coming over to mine and Rachel's for the night and we'll fix it and then tomorrow we will go to the hospital okay?"
"Bug off." Morgan seemed about as happy as he did earlier and to be honest- Bella seemed just about the same. I thought for a minute, shoved one hand in my pocket and played with the other in my hand as I always did when I wondered about something. Then I lowered the one in my hair and pulled the one in my pocket up. Trod over to the teenager and more or less lifted him out onto the floor.
"Get up, pack a bag. Get in the car. Now!"
I was rarely able to be strict at all. On the other hand when I was everybody (Well except for Olivia) listened. Angry I was even more rarely. And I hated getting angry so I hoped that they'd listen to me while I was 'only' being strict. And even if it was with each glare from Morgan and Bella. They all moved out of the kitchen and towards their rooms. While I just moved around without much of a goal and called Puck about taking his girls with him and coming over. And later Mike and asked him to bring Tom and Tina.
It took a while before everyone were there, and we had everything we need it. And then for the adults and older kids to move away the furniture so we wouldn't get paint everywhere. And even more time before every child (Or the youngest ones at least) had one of my shirts pulled over their clothes to protect their clothes. Even though, the paint could be washed out of fabric. And that all while Chloe and Trevor sat on the floor with a long sheet of paper and drew letters. That anyone could fill in with the paints, glitters or stickers that we had tons more than we'd ever have the use for.
"So." I said at last when the banner, paint, stickers and glitter- cans stood sprawled around the kitchen floor. "Thomas, you do the last letter. The H… Can you sit on the side of the banner so there's a bit more place for… Carlie. Why don't you do the C? Same letter as your name starts with isn't it and…"
"I want to do the C!"
I suppressed a sigh when I realized this with choosing who would do what letter on the banner wasn't going to be as easy as I'd hoped for. But still, I could see the hurt look on Carlie's expression when she looked to me if she might not get to do her very favorite letter.
"Let Carlie do the C." Chloe pouted. But before she could put her anger into actions I spoke again. "There's an L in Chloe too. So why don't you do the L?" Chloe didn't say anything else. But stomped over the floor and sat down by the second word on the banner. "Olivia. You do the O. Morgan. You do the W, but do like Thomas and sit down on the side to make some space…"
It went on, all until I realized that with all the children having each letter to fill in. There were still three ones left, and it wasn't hard to figure out that if only three of the children could do two letters. There would be fighting and we really didn't need that now. So at last it was decided that when the children were done, I and Rachel would fill in one letter, Quinn and Puck another, and Tina and Mike the third. And at last we had the banner all done.
The work was done during chattering and God knows how much giggling and laughing. But still there was something hanging in the air. And it wasn't hard to figure out what. No matter how we managed to push the thought and memories away, it was still haunting all of us that we had no idea how Zach was doing.
"Zach haven't got a brain tumor." Hours later I walked into the living room where everyone were sitting, with a text from Santana up on my phone. "No bleeding, and no fractures. So that's the most dangerous and harmful things crossed. Which is very good." I breathed out. But still couldn't really be all relived since still. None of us knew what was going on. And all we could do was wait.
And I guess that with how slow everything worked in the health care and the very most serious things were out of the world. We were going to do a whole lot of waiting for the next few days, weeks, months, years who'd know?
"I really like your blanket" I stepped over to Carlie who was wrapped in a teddy- fabric blanket printed like the American flag after being upstairs and rested for a minute. "Did your daddy give that to you?" Carlie nodded. I knew her real dad had been in the army. She was put into care when he was killed and her mum couldn't take care of the four kids she had. And one and one they were split up and sent to different care homes and foster homes.
"It's especially important for me to celebrate fourth of July and memorial day. I need to show that I'm a proud American." I nodded, and wasn't so sure how to take a five- year old talking about being a proud American and all of that jazz. "But you aren't American actually are you?" I shook my head. "Where are you from?"
"I'm from Great Britain. England, London. Do you know where London is?" Carlie shook her head and I got up a world map on Google in my phone. "See? This is the whole world. And we're in Lima Ohio which is here." I pointed. "And I'm from London in England which is all the way over…. There." I let the tip of my thumb run along the phone's screen to show her exactly how far it was. "And that's where I grew up. Me and my mum and my dad and my seven younger sisters and brothers."
"Did any of them die too? Like my daddy did?"
I looked down on Carlie, it was a question asked in the pure innocence and curiosity of a child. But that didn't stop me from going into some sort of flashback of what happened the night when I and three- months- old Olivia sat in the back seat of my brother and his wife's car. They were fighting as usual, and I tried to break it up because it was dark and rainy and slippery on the road so I wanted Lucas to concentrate on driving. Then he made some angry flinch towards me, turned the wheel and suddenly we were on the wrong side of the road with a meeting truck. Lucas and Ling (My brother's wife) were both killed instantly. I got out with a broken arm, a broken leg and bruised ribs. While as of a miracle Olivia got out without a scratch.
"Did they?"
I patted Carlie's shoulder and decided to not answer this question until she was a bit older. And not to have to answer this now I put her down into the sofa to continue watching whatever movie Rachel had put on and went into the kitchen to fix for the evening snack. I should have known someone would follow me though. That was more rule than anything else when there were ten children and six adults together in one single house.
"Is it true that you have seven sisters and brothers? That is many!"
"Yes it's true." I smiled down at Chloe Puckerman. "I have two sisters and five brothers. One of my brothers is Olivia's real dad. But he died and then I was something that you call a Godfather and I and Rachel adopted her." Chloe was eight years old and old enough to know about these things. "I didn't see your sister in the living room. Was she there?" Chloe shook her head. "Can you go and find her and then I'll take the snack into the living room." Chloe hesitated.
"I am always the one that have to go and look for her. Can't somebody else take her this time?" I suppressed a laugh. And even though I probably shouldn't have given in, Chloe did have a good argument and everybody knew that I had a hard time saying no, or keep on arguing for my sake when they did.
"Okay then. FINN" My son almost right away appeared in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. "Can you go and find Jen, and if there's anyone else who isn't in the living room find them too?" Finn nodded and disappeared out of my sight. While I pulled up four more slices of toasted out of the toaster and pushed down four new ones as a last round while I carried out plates with all kinds of things for sandwiches and put them on the table while Jen came into the room and sat down still a bit by herself on the fatboy in the corner.
I usually said it that it was easy to lose faith in humanity when you saw three, four year olds with their own phones and iPad's and got knows all new technique that children would get as soon as they were born instead of silver spoons, story books and clothes. But when I walked out into the living room with Rachel not ten minutes later and saw that the children had decided themselves to turn the movie on pause while they ate. And sat children and adults all around the living room eating, talking and not least laughing. Damn it- it was just one of those moments when your heart is filled with happiness and pride for all of it and finally some hope for the future.
And of course. I did have to pull up my phone and shoot a picture of it before I sat down on the floor by the sofa and reached for toast, peanut butter and strawberry jam. I also borrowed Olivia's usual bottle with apple juice and took a few sips from it before I handed it back to her and she glared at me for taking too much from her drink. And actually… I got even happier when I saw even Jen had moved the fatboy from that corner and now sat by the table happily chewing on her Nutella sandwich. Wow! It seemed like that girl was just a tiny bit in love with the taste of Nutella!
"But why can't I come with you? He's my brother. I know him better than any of you."
Pulling over the car in front of the hospital the next day I knew it was all too good to last long. All of the children (and adults) had fallen asleep around the living room. In fatboys, chairs, sofas and on the floor. I was stiff and achy after my place on the floor and everyone seemed more or less grumpy after being woken up by Carlie when she had nightmares at four in the morning.
And grumpiest of them all was Isabella!
"Because." I answered and tried to hide a grimace. "It was your mami's condition on doing this. She doesn't want you in the hospital and it's not because of you. It's for Finn. He's probably still tired after what happened yesterday and needs peace and quiet and not ten children at once coming to run into the hospital. So you." I looked around and spotted Santana waving in a window. "Wait here with this. And I'll go up and find them." With that I turned around and jogged, then walked into the hospital, up the stairs and through a hallway until I could see through the windows in the walls Zach sitting on a bed and his mums sitting right by.
"Hey Zach. How are you feeling? Oh you're going home today."
Zach only smiled up at me and nodded. And I walked over and carefully lifted him up. Even though his mami was fussing all over him and acting like he was made of glass. Which probably annoyed Zach more than what it annoyed me while I carried him out into the hallway on my hip and down to the window where we could see the others holding up a banner they made for him and how they all cheered and jumped when they could spot us in the window.
"Can you read that? What it says on the banner?"
"W- We…" Zach had just learned to read, only shorter words and I waited patiently while he read it. "L- o-ve… we love. Y-o. We love you Z- a- ch. We love you Zach." It took a second before he realized what it had said. "They all love me." I couldn't help to smile at the way Zach spoke with his playful naïve personality.
Just like it should be! And as Santana showed me I could, as they were going home now anyway. Zachary happily waved at the nurses and doctors in the hallway, and everyone we me in the stairs while babbling happily about a nurse he seemed to more or less have fallen in love with. And there was no sign of him knowing that from now on more tests would be done and they might find something he had to live with either for ten, fifteen years until he grew out of it. Or maybe, for the rest of his life.
"Can we celebrate USA's birthday now when we come home instead?" Zach's question woke me up from my thinking. "Since I Got ill when we celebrated it yesterday can't we do it today now when I'm feeling better?"
I couldn't help but smile, he had just had a seizure that he had no idea what it was about and been in hospital. And I decided to take his example with worry about nothing else than if he'd ever marry Nurse Jessica again. And if we after all could let everyone celebrate after everything that had happened. When nothing would happen
(Well, hopefully.)
Murphy's law is mentioned in the chapter and if anyone doesn't know about it, it's basically 'anything that can go wrong will go wrong in the worst possible ways. And if you find four things that can go wrong and prevent them, then it will for certain turn up a fifth way to go wrong anyway' or something like that.
Olivia's biological parents are portrayed by Jing Lusi and James Anderson (one random fact- they actually played a couple in holby city)
I kept on wanting to call Zach 'Finn' so if you see any parts with Zach where he's called Finn, it's an honest mistake of my behalf. But I hope I've gotten it all right.
THIS RANDOM FACT IS QUITE IMPORTANT IF YOU'D EVER WITNESS A PERSON HAVE A SEIZURE. PLEASE READ IT
Random fact
What Theo does when Zachary have a seizure isn't just for the story. It's the real first aid in a situation when someone has a seizure. He puts something soft (OBSERVATE- IF IT'S A SHIRT IT SHOULD NOT HAVE A ZIPPER OR BUTTONS. IT MIGHT MAKE MORE HARM THEN HELP AT THAT POINT) under Zach's head, makes sure the shirt isn't too tight around his neck (IF THE SHIRT HAS BUTTONS YOU SHOULD UNBUTTON THE TOP ONES) pulls him onto his side and talks comforting to him both during and after the seizure. And tells someone to get away sneaky people that are standing around watching. Somebody calls an ambulance since Zach have never had a seizure before and they don't know what's going on. And also wants to get him away from people. And later it's also mentioned that glasses should be taken off. IN SITUATION OF A SEIZURE THIS IS WHAT SHOULD BE DONE AS FIRST AID.