A/N: Song by Culture Club, a classic. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 7- For the First time

or:

"Karma Chameleon"

June 1986

It was finally done.

The end of June, where the slight chill of the breeze of May would be replaced by hot steam of the sun, was when the tree house finally finished. The Go siblings couldn't have been more thankful. It was something. Their dad knew about the tree house, and he did grumble about it for a while, but he did not know what the main purpose of the tree house was for.

"Thank you again," Henry said earnestly to Amber Carmichael's dad. "Really, we appreciate it."

Mr. Carmichael waved it off. "It's not a problem. Let us know if you have any issues with it."

It was professional and to the point. Sheila, Melvin, and Henry watched Mr. Carmichael walk away. When he was gone, Sheila genuinely smiled, a broad one. She was about to go check it out while her brothers were standing there staring at it. She couldn't help but laugh. "Come on! You're going to come up, aren't you?" It had a small built in ladder on the tree trunk to get into the tiny house. The ladder was perfect and easy to climb. She looked down to see her brothers still standing there. She smirked at them from above. "You're not scared of heights, are you?" She added cheekily.

"No way," Henry said. "I'm just... hoping it doesn't collapse," he said this in a quieter voice than usual. Melvin also looked pretty spooked and nodded. Sheila could not believe at what she was hearing, her brothers were such chickens.

Sheila rolled her eyes at him. "It's not going to collapse. Amber's dad said it could hold up to fifteen hundred pounds. I don't think the five of us are even near four hundred pounds put together."

Melvin and Henry exchanged a look of doubt, but they weren't going to let their little sister mock them. Carefully, the two brothers made their way up the ladder. Sheila really couldn't believe what she was seeing. Were they that afraid? It wasn't met without some bickering from the two brothers.

"Can you watch your foot?" Melvin snapped irritably. "You almost kicked me twice!"

"Forgive me for being careful!"

"Try moving faster!"

"Oh I'd like to see you move faster..."

"I can't because you're in the way!"

"If you were in front of me you'd be slower!"

"No if I was in front we would've been up there by now!"

Sheila couldn't help but snicker.

And that's how they immediately turned on her.

"What are you laughing at?" Henry asked, pouting like he was a child.

"Yeah, what's your damage?" Melvin sneered, agreeing with Henry.

Sheila continued to laugh. "You guys are really afraid of heights..." That's how Henry charged up the ladder without thinking, just to prove his sister wrong. Melvin also followed suit. Sheila's laughing stopped, but she couldn't hide her smirk. "There that's more like it! Now let's go inside." She practically skipped into the house. Melvin looked down to see how far he was from the ground and suppressed a shudder.

Henry tugged his hair in distress and sighed. "You're really pushing things..." Nonetheless, the two brothers went inside the tree house with Sheila. It had a very cozy feel to it. They noticed that Mr. Carmichael had added five wooden chairs in it, something that wasn't included in the payment. Amber had told her that it was complimentary, for being a good friend.

Sheila's heart warmed up at that. She really owed Amber later. She probably would end up doing her summer packet homework like last year, which she technically pawned half of it over to Melvin, but still. There was a small wooden table there as well in the middle of the chairs. Henry sat down in one of them. "This is nice," he said, rather awkwardly.

"It really is," agreed Sheila, also sitting in one of them. Melvin looked like he wanted to lean against the wall, but was frightened that it would suddenly fall apart. He bit his lip uncomfortably. Sheila sighed and face palmed. "Melvin, you're built like a freaking pencil. You can lean on the wall." Melvin looked over at Henry for some sort of confirmation, but he looked just as clueless and shrugged.

"I mean, you can go for it," provided Henry.

Sheila stood up from the chair and stalked over to Melvin's position. "This is ridiculous..." She leaned against the wall with all of her body weight, getting a collective gasp from her brothers. She intentionally started to push it. The tree house wouldn't budge. Thus, she sat back down in one of the chairs. "I probably weigh more than you Melvin. You've always been lanky. You can lean on the wall, for god's sake."

Melvin slowly leaned his body against the wall, flinching slightly at the sound he may perceive as a creak. Once he felt it stopped, he leaned with ease. "This tree house is great... except there's one problem." Sheila and Henry looked over in his direction, waiting for him to continue. "How are we going to get the twins up here?"

Oh shit.

Henry was at a loss for words. Sheila, however, looked like she was cooking up something in her head. Because someone had to be focused here.

Henry beat her to it, surprisingly, since he found his voice. "I mean... the twins are only two. Come to think of it, do they really need protection right now? They'll eventually learn to climb the tree house. Right now, dad wouldn't—"

"Yes he would," Melvin interrupted in a cold tone that put two of his siblings on edge. "The twins are going to turn three in less than a month. That's when it happened with me. I won't let it happen to them. So how are we going to get them up here?"

Sheila finally came to a conclusion, though it wasn't a safe one. "Henry's strong. He could take two trips to carry each of them on his back. I could be behind Henry and whoever he's carrying, while Melvin is up in the front ready to take whoever it is."

"It's still dangerous," argued Henry.

"What do you suggest we do?" Sheila said hotly, narrowing her eyes. "Since you seem to know everything?"

"That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that your suggestion is dangerous!"

"You know what's also dangerous? The twins being left alone with dad," retorted Sheila. "Pick which option you would like to see happen."

There was no argument against that.

"Right," Sheila said, knowing she had won. "Would you like to test it out?"

"Now?" Henry said incredulously, his eyes wide. "That's an awful idea."

"Okay, so let's do it when we're actually in danger, and we'll have no freaking clue on how to get the twins up here because we haven't tested this out," Melvin sneered. Henry looked over, surprised that his younger brother was to make that remark. Melvin wasn't having it though. "What? It's true. We can't just randomly do this out of the blue. We need to test it."

Henry huffed that it was a case of two against one. It always was. "Fine," he said reluctantly. He got out of the tree house and made his way down faster this time. "I'm not worried about myself. I know I can carry them up here. But you two better take care of them."

"We've been taking care of them for almost three years now," Sheila said grimly. "I think we can handle it." She went down the tree house as well to get the twins. Seconds later, she returned with each of them holding one of her hands.

"What are we doing?" Wes babbled excitedly. Henry felt butterflies in his stomach. Now he had to be sure that he could carry Wes and Wen on his back. Sure, Sheila was right behind him if anything were to happen, but still. It would be traumatizing.

"Wes, here's what you're going to do," Henry said with false enthusiasm. "I'm going to give you a piggyback ride!"

Wes' brown eyes went wide with excitement. "Really?"

"Yes," Henry said, glad that he was on board with the idea. "But you have to hold on really tightly. Don't let go, no matter what. Got it?"

Wes nodded and appeared impatient. "Got it!" He hopped onto Henry's back with ease and wrapped his legs around him. Henry sighed and slowly but carefully climbed up the tree house. He and Melvin had been exaggerating earlier, it wasn't that hard to climb and it wasn't that high up. Still, he could tell that Sheila and Melvin were very, very nervous watching him. Eventually, however, he made it, and Melvin grabbed Wes quickly and placed him into the tree house.

Sheila let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god. See? See how this works?"

"It was still terrifying," Henry said, shaking his head. "We've got to teach them to climb that eventually."

"They'll learn over the summer," said Sheila. "We'll teach them. They're always moving around anyway. They'll be dying to learn how to climb the ladder."

Henry shook his head. "They're too young, Shelly."

"Are they? Have you taken them to the playground?" Sheila countered. "I've seen them climb over everything there. Trust me, they'll learn. They're about to turn three."

Henry was about to open his mouth to close it but decided to shut it last minute instead. He let out a frustrated sigh and said: "You better be right."

Sheila smiled and batted her eyes in a cheeky manner. "I know I'm right." She paused and looked over at Wen who was shyly smiling. Her heart warmed up immediately. "I bet you'd love to go up with your brothers in the tree house, wouldn't you Wen?" she cooed. Wen's little smile got bigger and he nodded excitedly. Sheila couldn't help but smirk in Henry's direction. "Ready to make another trip?"

Henry groaned.

They have been up in the tree house for at least two hours. An hour into their time in the tree house, Melvin had gotten bored and decided to make a second trip and get the chess board up to play with Henry. Sheila was teaching her little brothers how to play Jacks. Every now and then, Melvin or Sheila would challenge Henry to a game of chess just for laughs. Henry was horrendously bad at it. Sheila looked over to see that Melvin was wiping the floor with Henry and snickered.

"Hey instead of laughing maybe you can help me!" Henry exclaimed in annoyance.

Melvin snorted in amusement and faced Sheila. "No, don't help him."

"I would help but I'm teaching Wen and Wes how to play Jacks." Sheila used this as an excuse and snickered some more. "You'll get there Henry."

"They're just watching you throw the ball in the air and catch a jack because they find it so interesting," Henry said with a roll of his eyes. He grumbled irritably made another move.

However, it wasn't the right one. Melvin made his next move and grinned at Henry. "Checkmate."

"Damn it," Henry said in defeat. He rubbed his forehead. "I swear I get worse every time I play."

"You do," Sheila said, without looking up. She threw the ball in the air and failed to catch the three jacks in a row in time. "Crap."

"That's what you get," Henry said with a satisfied smirk. "There's one game I always do well in that you two don't." He frowned, however, when he saw the size of the Jacks. "Make sure you don't let the weasels put the jacks in their mouths."

"They're not brain dead, Henry," Sheila said with a scowl.

"Just keep an eye on them," reminded Henry. "I guess the tree house is basically the gaming room now."

Melvin blinked. He never thought of it that way. "I mean, it could be." Then, a smell that wasn't very common around them came from their house. All of them noticed it immediately and Melvin commented on it first. "What is that? What..." Then he realized what was going on. A smile took over his features. "Is mom cooking chicken?" At the speed that would make a cheetah proud, Melvin climbed down the steps of the tree house and ran into their home.

"No way..." Henry said, his eyes wide with excitement. "We haven't had chicken for dinner in almost a year!"

Sheila sighed. "Since Melvin decided to completely abandon us in favor of chicken, let me go down first so you can carry the twins down." She walked down the ladder with ease and landed gracefully. Henry carried Wes first and Sheila took Wes from him so Henry could make a second trip to get Wen. The same actions were repeated. "That does smell like chicken. We're having chicken?!" Sheila picked up Wes and ran with him into the house while Henry did the same for Wen.

To their surprise and their joy, their mother was in the kitchen cooking chicken.

Sheila and Henry looked over to see that Melvin was patiently waiting in his seat at the table with a smile on his face. Sheila scowled and made her way to sit next to him at the table. She lightly slapped him on his shoulder. "Thanks for abandoning us you dolt!"

"Hey only I can call people dolts!" Melvin emphasized with a cross of his arms. "Besides who doesn't like chicken?"

"I'm wondering how we're managing to have chicken in the first place," said Henry, turning around and seeing their mother carry a plate of chicken legs. "Mom what's up? How did you..."

"Well," their mother started off with a warm smile. "I was going to wait until you all have finished eating, but..." she paused, her smile became wider. "I had gotten a raise at work." Henry, Sheila, and Melvin instantly looked up from the table with expressions of glee.

"Mom that's great!" Melvin exclaimed, rushing over to give her a huge hug before returning back to his seat, getting ready to dig into the chicken. "I'm so proud of you." Henry nodded encouragingly and smiled at their mother as well, showing how proud he was. Sheila however, her mind was somewhere else. What was going on? What was this random change? Their mother was actually stepping up for once?

"What about dad?" Sheila asked aloud, resulting in the rest of the family to look at her in annoyance. "What? We're eating dinner without him. I was just curious. I can't be curious?"

"Uh..." the fear on their mother's face was evident. "Your father said he's working late. I'm saving his meal for him." The family sat there in awkward silence for a minute. She didn't look at her daughter, and instead opted to change the topic. "So how do you all like the tree house?"

"We love it," Melvin said, eager and thankful that the topic was changed. He glared at Sheila menacingly over her comment before he turned back to his mother with softened eyes. "Henry said we can make it a game room. We played Jacks and chess in there. We could start playing card games too." Although food on the table was the most common worry in the Go home, everyone knew that Melvin had his eyes on a deck of cards as well as a Rubix cube. He had seen many of his classmates try to figure out the puzzle at lunch, and by watching some of the brain dead classmates attempt to do it, he thinks he might be able to solve the cube better than them. This raise was a good sign that he might just get that. "Henry's bad at chess."

"You're bad at Jacks," retorted Henry, with a smirk. "You can't even get past the first level of one jack at a time."

"You can't even knock more than two chess pieces out."

Sheila normally didn't wolf down her food, but this time she had to make an exception. When she was done, she got up from her chair. "I'm going back up to the tree house," she said. Henry shot an agitated look in her direction. He still didn't forget the comment she made about dad. She put her plate away and went outside, slamming the door behind her. The rest of the family sat there in total silence once more. Their mother looked at Henry as if trying to understand what her problem was, but he had no idea. But he was going to find out.

Henry also stood up from the table. "I'm gonna go talk to her."

Their mother looked at his near full plate. "But Henry, you've barely eaten..."

"I'll save it for later," he insisted. He stormed outside and instead of slamming the door he gently shut it. He found Sheila to be climbing the ladder already. He crossed his arms at her in disapproval. "What are you doing? What was that in there? Why would you bring up dad?"

Sheila was thankful her back was turned so Henry couldn't snap at her for rolling her eyes at him. "It's just a question. Don't have a cow." She made it up the ladder and to the tree house. Henry began climbing the ladder to follow her, much to the younger sister's annoyance. "I don't get why you're so upset and–"

"Everything was great and then you had to mention dad," Henry cut in sharply. "I wanna know why." He managed to get up there quickly but his sister turned her back on him. Not even wanting to look at him. "Sheila–"

"I'm curious on what her game is here," Sheila interrupted. She spun around, unsurprised to see Henry's face of shock and anger. Good, she felt the same exact way. Two can play at that game. "Suddenly she's acting all happy and responsible. I don't trust her, Henry!"

"You should be happy that she's trying!" Henry exclaimed in a fury. "You know, you always talk about how mom is hardly there for us but as soon as she shows that she cares you brush it off or say that she has some motive!"

"She's done this before!" Sheila snapped irritably. "She's left us in the dust before. I can't keep falling for it this time."

"When are you going to realize that not everyone is out to get you?" Henry asked. "No really, I'm curious. Because you hold this idea that everyone wants to attack you and it's not mentally healthy at all!"

"Mentally healthy?" Sheila echoed his words in disbelief, resisting the urge to slap him across the face in a fit of rage. "You're saying I'm not mentally healthy?"

"I didn't say you weren't mentally healthy, I'm saying your actions weren't."

"Oh yeah, that makes it so much better! What about mom, huh? She's not healthy because she keeps pulling the same shit over and over!"

"Watch your mouth," warned Henry.

Shego couldn't roll her eyes any harder if she tried. "Oh put a sock in it!" She sat in one of the chairs in the tree house. "Just go away. Leave me alone." Henry was fuming too much to deal with this right now. Instead of responding with a witty remark, he made his way down the ladder and Sheila faintly heard the door being slammed shut. She was sure that he was gone now. An angry tear slipped out from her right eye. They were going to fall for it once more and she couldn't save them. Forget them, she thought. They would find out the hard way.

When it came to the incident that happened a month ago, when Lindsay was incredibly intoxicated and was strung out from cocaine and had to stay at Henry's house, the Go family had dodged a bullet. Lindsay just so happened to be fortunate that she woke up earlier - and extremely hungover - and made her way back home without telling Henry. He was worried at first because he thought Lindsay was missing, but then showed up at school the next day like nothing had happened the day before. Her face was completely made up, and she looked beautiful was always. Henry didn't know how she did it.

It was a blissful Saturday and Henry had a day off from work. Right now during this lovely summer, Henry was at Lindsay's home in her backyard. Her parents weren't home, so they had the lovely home to themselves. Leaving two sixteen year olds alone by themselves was asking for trouble. However, for once, Lindsay didn't have this wild side with her today as she kissed Henry. It was slow, romantic, and relaxing. Henry loved this side of Lindsay just as much as he loved her wild side, if not more. She was the wild card. Her calm side could be as calm as her crazy side was crazy.

As they kissed, Lindsay's boombox was playing Whitney Houston's, "You Give Good Love." It was incredibly cheesy, yes, but it really set the mood. Besides, Henry liked cheesy. He found it incredibly endearing. As Lindsay's lips moved to Henry's neck, his mind wandered off and wondered if anyone else knew this side of her besides him. To Henry's knowledge, they had been together for almost six months, which was the longest relationship Lindsay had with someone. For Henry, this was his first real relationship as well. Was Lindsay okay with this? Was Lindsay okay with him? A lot of people said that Lindsay was out of Henry's league - rumors weren't kind to him, even if he was considered popular - and he did have insecurities about it.

At first, he just thought she was a hot girl that he could mess around with. As horrible as it sounded, he would look back and realize he was a sixteen year old, and most guys his age thought the same way. But over the course of the few weeks they were together, Henry found that he actually liked Lindsay. He didn't want to mess this up. Lindsay was smarter in a way that he wasn't as experienced in. She was a lot more street smart than he was, and he considered himself to be more street smart than anyone else in his life besides Nathan. And Henry was street smart, just not on the level of Lindsay.

God, he was supposed to be making out with his really, really, hot and beautiful girlfriend and he was ignoring her! Goodness... Back to Lindsay. He felt relieved as she leaned closer to him, warming up to him, as her lips gently tugged against his. Henry's thoughts were no longer filled with worry. His eyes closed in bliss as he kissed her back. She looked good. She always looked good. He imagined her pretty - no, her beautiful face, that same face that would light up the entire room. She grabbed the attention of everyone around her, she absolutely rocked at everything she did. She was amazing, and Henry was convinced he was in love.

However, Henry's moment of peace was shattered with one question.

"How come I never met your parents?"

The romance that filled the air had vanished once that seemingly innocent question escaped from her lips. Henry's face fell significantly, and Henry wasn't one to easily hide his emotions, so it was safe to say that Lindsay noticed his expression go sour. "Wh-what?" He even stammered, for Pete's sake. He cleared this throat and tried to rephrase. "What do you mean?"

Lindsay turned off the boombox on the table and wrapped her arms around his neck. She was sitting on his lap while her head laid down on his shoulder. "I don't know... when we were dating for three months you had met my parents. Why haven't I met yours? In fact..." She paused so she could sit up, looking her boyfriend in the eyes as she continued. "You hardly mention your parents." Henry was about to start sweating. Surely by now Lindsay noticed the wave of panic that was spread all over his face. There was no way that he could hide it from her. And by the way that he didn't answer her question immediately, Lindsay definitely figured out that he had to be hiding something. "Henry?"

"I didn't think it was important," Henry said as an excuse. "It never crossed my mind."

"Are you ashamed of me?" Lindsay asked with a hint of fear in her voice.

"No! No!" Henry quickly exclaimed in a fright, taking her hands in hers. He looked her right in those blue eyes that made him melt. "I could never be ashamed of you. You make my world shine bright. You make my world exciting and interesting... you make my world beautiful." He sounded so sappy right now but he didn't give a damn. "Lindsay, you know I love you."

Lindsay's eyes grew wide at those words. It took a while to process this. Those were big words that he had said to her. "I love you too," she finally said, with a light smile on her face. "I love you so much that I want to meet your parents. I want to meet the people who raised you."

"No you don't," Henry said, his tone changing completely. His panic was replaced with a dismissive attitude. "Trust me Linds, you don't."

Lindsay stood up with her arms crossed, clearly hurt. "But why? Isn't this what couples do? I'm not the most conventional person out there, but I'm pretty sure that's what couples do after dating a while."

"You wouldn't understand." He didn't yell, but his voice was raised.

"You're not even giving me a chance to!" Lindsay said, also raising her voice. She ran a hand through her hair and looked at him with vulnerability. "Please. I will try to understand, I promise."

Henry bit his lip. There was conflict written all over his features and mind. How was he going to approach this? To trust or not to trust? They did say they loved each other... that was proof enough, wasn't it? If he was able to see this gentle side of Lindsay, maybe she could understand him. But he would be a total hypocrite at the same time. The rule that he established with his younger siblings was to not tell anyone about their home situation, no matter what.

By doing this, by telling Lindsay, he would be breaking his own oath. Was it a worthy risk to take?

After thinking about it long and hard, he decided it was. "I need you to keep a secret, Linds," he said earnestly. In return, she nodded quickly, her eyes boring into his with interest and love. However Henry shook his head at this. "I mean it. This isn't all bright and rainbows and all that. You cannot tell anyone. Not even Nathan knows, alright? And he's my best friend. No one will know." He couldn't believe he was doing this.

Lindsay takes his hand and points his finger onto her chest and does a motion with it. "Cross my heart." She put his hand down.

"Okay," he stated softly. He cleared his throat, preparing the litany to come. "When we went out and you were... intoxicated, you said your parents couldn't see you like this. So I took you over to my house. You slept on the couch and my little sister slept on the chair beside you. My house was small. My brothers and I share a room. Sheila usually takes the couch. We're broke, Linds. Not near the state of homelessness, but there are days where we have to have Hamburger Helper for dinner."

"...Wait a second," Lindsay started off, frowning. "What does this have to do with your parents?"

"My dad isn't a good man. My mom isn't... the most stable minded of people..."

"Why isn't your dad a good man?"

This was so damn hard, but Henry promised himself that he would go through with it. He sighed deeply. "Lindsay, you cannot tell anyone this."

Lindsay's eyes go wide with fear. "I promise."

"He drinks and hits us." Henry ignored the gasp coming from Lindsay and continued. "Yeah, it was a huge risk having you over but you insisted. But do you understand why I can't have you meet them? It's really bad, Linds."

"I'm sorry..." Lindsay muttered quietly.

"I'm the one that watches over them," Henry went on like he hadn't heard her apology. "So that's why you hear me say that I can't come over as much because of my siblings. Because my parents aren't exactly the best parents. Mom's been trying lately, though. But it isn't enough. And we can't go to the authorities or anything like that, or else..."

"They'll split you guys up," Lindsay said knowingly and he nodded at this sadly. She sat back on his lap and stroked his hair calmly while he stared straight ahead, still processing the fact that he had just revealed the biggest family secret to his girlfriend, despite the fact that he taught Sheila and Melvin to not do that, and that it was the number one rule in their house. "I love you, Henry," she said seriously. "I love you so much, it's okay. I'm here."

Henry blinked back the tears.

Henry had stayed with Lindsay for a few hours until the sky began to grow dark. They had talked for a little bit, but for the most part they had held each other in silence. At roughly nine at night was when Henry decided that it was time to go home. He was lucky that Lindsay lived nearby so it wasn't a painfully long walk. On the way home, however, his mind wandered with the events that had occurred over the past few days.

First was the fact that they finally had the tree house. He hadn't seen Sheila so happy, but at the same time, she was still such an angry little girl. More importantly, she was frightened. She didn't want to be betrayed again. On the other hand, Melvin was so happy and eagerly welcomed their mother back. He was so loyal to her. Henry knew that he himself was in the middle of the spectrum.

As for the twins, they didn't understand.

He still couldn't believe he told Lindsay about his family. After speaking to her for a bit - the little they had spoken - Henry came to the conclusion that Lindsay was the loveliest person that he had ever met. She was free of judgment and was carefree. She was absolutely perfect, absolutely understanding, and she was most certainly absolutely beautiful. Henry was convinced she was the most beautiful girl in the world, both inside and out. It even scared him a little.

"Henry, you're home," marveled their mother, who was washing the dishes. Henry smiled weakly at her. She frowned at this. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," he said absentmindedly. "I'm just pretty tired." He paused, glancing around the living room. He saw that his siblings weren't here. "Where...?"

"They're in your room," she interrupted with an answer, knowing what the question was. "They're getting ready to put the twins to bed. Sheila was singing to them earlier. That John Lennon song, forgot what it was called." Beautiful Boy, Henry added mentally. Sheila made her own rendition of the song, changing some of the lyrics to say "your sister's here" instead of "your daddy's here." And instead of saying "Beautiful Boy," she made it plural.

His mother's voice seemed shaky, on edge, that much Henry noticed. "Are you okay?" She did not look at him. Instead she scrubbed her dishes even faster. Henry naturally did not take this as a good sign. "Mom-"

"Your father called two minutes ago from the bar," she said shortly, still not looking. "He should be home in a few minutes." She sighed at this, putting another dish away. "He sounded drunk and angry."

Henry's eyes grew wide. He fled into his room to see that Melvin and Sheila were putting the twins out of their cribs. "Take them back out," he ordered sharply.

Sheila and Melvin stared at Henry like he was crazy. His eyes go to Sheila's. "Remember when you told me that we needed to prepare in case dad were to come home drunk?" She nodded, not understanding at first, but then it hit her like a ton of bricks a second later. Her eyes go to Melvin's, who looked just as frightened. "Right, so we're on the same page now."

Sheila and Melvin immediately took them out of their cribs. "When is he getting home?"

"In about two minutes so we need to hurry," Henry answered Melvin. He picked up Wes while Sheila picked up Wen. Melvin was charging toward the tree house so he would get up first to pick up the twins later for when Henry carried them. Henry carried Wes up there first. Melvin quickly picked up Wes from Henry and set him in the tree house. Henry went back down and repeated the same action with Wen. All who was left was Sheila to get up to the tree house.

She gasped at the sight of her father staggering over to her. Her brothers looked on with horror. "Get away from her!" Melvin screamed at his father, getting ready to climb back down but Henry yanked him back in. "Henry what the-"

"Are you crazy?" Henry articulated, his eyes wide with anger.

"He's going to-"

"She's going to make it," Henry insisted, his tone on edge, glaring at his younger brother. "Never endanger yourself like that again."

Sheila's adrenaline took over and ran past her father. She climbed up the ladder and made it up just in time as her father weakly tried to pull her off it, but he missed. Once she got to the top she was breathing heavily from the adrenaline and fear. She collapsed in Henry's arms, hugging him tightly as she tried to watch her father attempt to climb the ladder, but Henry kept trying to get her to look away and put her face in his chest. "Don't look, Shelly. You're safe. It's okay, it's okay. Don't look. You're safe," he said softly.

"I'm sorry," Sheila sobbed, burying his face into his chest. "I'm so sorry."

He knew that she was apologizing for the other day. "It's okay, it's okay. Don't worry about it. You're safe. Shh..." Sheila's sobs subsided slightly as Henry continued to comfort her to the best of his ability. Henry saw that the twins were crying at the sound of his father's drunken shouting. Melvin was doing his best to console them as well. While holding Sheila, he gave orders to Melvin. "Cover their ears. Make them cover their ears." Melvin nodded and told the twins to do just that. Wes and Wen complied and put their hands over their ears, their eyes tightly shut in pain. They leaned closer to Melvin, seeking more comfort, and their older brother complied, hugging them close. Melvin and Henry at the same time were watching their father attempt to climb up the ladder, but he was stumbling around and kept falling.

"Is he almost up here?" Sheila dared to ask.

"He's not gonna get up here," reassured Henry. "He can't even climb up here, he keeps falling." Sheila dared to peek at the sight at their father struggling to get up into the tree house, and she instantly felt better. "He's tiring out already. He can't even walk straight." They were going to have some peace after all. Henry, Melvin, and Sheila saw their mother come outside, and they tried to motion for her to go back into the house, but she wouldn't budge. After a good five minutes of waiting in apprehension, their father passed out in front of them. Slowly their mother approached their father and began to drag him into the house.

"When do we go back inside?" Melvin asked Henry.

"Wait a bit," Henry told him. "We have to wait until we're absolutely sure. If we hear nothing but silence for the next five minutes, then we can go down."

He was too drunk to climb the ladder.

He was too drunk to climb the ladder.

That repeated in Sheila's head, over and over, like the beat of a drum.

They were safe for the very first time.