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[ CHAPTER 1 ]
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"End of statement." Said Jon as he shuffled through the loose papers of the statement, the feeling of fear still heavy in his chest, it almost felt like the fear the statement giver felt was transferred to Jon when he read it.
As he was about to say his last thoughts on the statement his phone rang, startling the lanky man causing him to jump and snap his head to look at his phone that was on his desk, the number that popped up wasn't a number he recognized but did know the area code.
Picking up his phone he answers, "This is Jonathan Sims." He said as he stood up to put the papers in their correct place.
"Jonathan Sims? Oh… you changed to that, ok." Said a nasally voice on the other end of the phone, the voice made Jon pull a disgusted look on his face.
"Hello Petunia, so nice to hear from you, it's been so long." Jon said keeping his voice leveled to keep the dislike from his voice.
A huff was heard through the phone "Yes, it has but I haven't called for small talk."
Jon rolled his eyes as he started organizing the statements into some piles on his desk, one to read for later, one to give his assistants to research and one full of ones that didn't give him the intense fear like the others.
"I called to tell you I can't handle him anymore." Said Petunia with a sniff
The words made Jon stop his organization, he knew who she was talking about, Lilly's little boy, the one who Jon only saw a handful of times before she went into hiding, something about some stalker?
Jon put the papers down sitting back into his rolling chair.
"What do you mean?" He asked in a steady voice but his leg started bouncing with nerves.
A shrill cry was heard in the background of Petunia's phone and her voice in a babying tone "Its ok duddykins, mummy just needs to be on the phone for a few more minutes then mummy's all yours!"
Jon rolled his eyes at her voice, "What do you mean you can't handle Harry anymore?" He asked, his tone irritated.
"I don't want it here anymore, I didn't want it in the first place and it's being…just like her." Petunia hissed
Jon's stomach dropped at how she talked about Harry and Lilly, she wouldn't even say her own sister's name and was calling her nephew an 'it', Jon knew Lilly and Petunia didn't have a good relationship but to take it out on her dead sister's son was a new low.
"What do you want, Petunia?" Jon asked, letting his dislike of her seep into his voice.
"I need you to get it and keep it." Petunia sniffed
Jon closed his eyes feeling a headache start to develop behind them, leaning back in his chair he rubs at his face, Jon thinks of the pros and cons on taking Harry in and how he'd put Harry into school on his archivist wages.
"Hello?" Petunia huffs the tapping of her foot can be heard through the phone.
Jon sighs knowing what he needs to do. "I'll come get him as soon as I leave work."
"You better, if you're not here by seven thirty we will be taking it to the firehouse and leaving it there!" Petunia snapped before hanging up the phone.
The dial tone was the only sound Jon could hear, the headache that started small at the beginning of the phone call grew into a full blown migraine, setting his phone down Jon took some Tylenol with some of the left over tea that Martin had given him that had went cold, Jon puts the mug down before resting his elbows on his legs and hold his head in his hands. Jon doesn't know how to interact with a child much less know how to raise one. A knock on the office door snaps Jon out of his thoughts.
"Jon, Are you ok? We heard you having an argument." Said Sasha, her voice sounding muffled through the wooden door. Jon lets out a sigh before getting out of his seat, going to the door and opening it, showing Sasha with a startled look on her face, her hair now sporting purple streaks and her glasses heart shaped.
Sasha was shocked that Jon opened the door, looking at him she saw his long hair was messy in a way that told her he was running his hand through it and his eyes look even more tired than usual.
"Are you ok?" Asked Sasha, her voice soft with concern.
Jon gives a sigh, "I've been better, just got off the phone with my aunt and….it didn't end how i'd expected it to." Jon slides past her, walking past Tim and Martin as they sit at their desks actually doing the work that Jon gave them.
Both Tim and Martin looked up at Jon's words and watched him go into the break room. Tim raises his eyebrows in surprise at Jon even knowing where the break room is since he's never seen Jon take a break since he became the new archivist. Marin gave Jon's back a sympathetic look since Martin also knew what it was like having difficult family members.
Jon walks into the break room and starts a pot of coffee, his head still throbbing from the migraine Petunia gave him. As he watches the coffee pour into the pot he just keeps thinking about Harry and all the ways Jon could fail at raising him, Jon only had his grandmother as a reference on how to raise a child but Jon now knew how she raised him wasn't the best and how she treated him like an inconvenience then the child of her beloved son.
The coffee maker clicks off making Jon pull away from his thoughts and he pours himself a cup of coffee, the cup he was using is actually a mug that Tim got him on his first day as archivist that said 'World's Okayest Boss'.
Jon puts some sugar and some coffee creamer into his coffee and stirs it, taking a sip he sighs at the hot liquid warming his body up, he hadn't realized how chilly he's gotten. Jon hears someone walk into the break room with him, he turns around and sees Tim.
"Hey boss, you're looking more tired than normal." The taller man said as he walked up to the coffee maker, he grabbed a mug from the cabinet above it and picked out his favorite mug which was a mug that had little frogs with little cowboy hats on their little heads.
Jon sighs as Tim pours himself a cup of coffee, he watches Tim put in way too much sugar and coffee creamer to be healthy before taking a sip.
Tim turns to Jon and leans against the table that holds the coffee maker and electric kettle.
"Ok, tell your favorite assistant what's wrong." Tim says with a grin.
Jon feels his eye twitch and his migraine pinch the back of his eyes.
"My aunt just called and decided to be an awful person." Jon says reluctantly.
Jon didn't want to talk about his family troubles but he does realize he might need some help with deciding on what to do with Harry.
Tim tilted his head to the side a bit, he could see that Jon didn't want to talk about his troubles but was doing it anyways. He watches Jon a bit and sees that the shorter man can't seem to stay still, Jon was tapping his fingers on his mug and keeps changing his weight from one foot to the other, seeing all of this tells Tim that Jon is really agitated and nervous so he's going to have to really listen to the dark skinned man.
Tim looked at Jon with concern in his dark brown eyes.
"What's she doing?" He asked, Tim takes a sip of his overly sweet coffee waiting for Jon to talk.
Jon runs the hand that wasn't holding his cup of coffee through his long hair and groans.
"My aunt has decided she can't raise my nephew anymore and wants me to take him in." Jon says, his voice low so only Tim could hear.
Tim's eyes widened in shock.
"Huh?" Gasps Tim, he places his cup of coffee down on the table behind him and keeps leaning against it.
"She can't raise her son anymore?" Tim asked "Like is she going through money problems?"
Jon shakes his head. "Not her son, her sister's son." He corrected
"Her sister died a few years ago and she's been raising him but she decided she no longer wants him since he's acting too much like her sister." Jon explaineds, his voice bitter at Petunia's words.
Tim leans back a bit at Jon's words, he was shocked at someone just giving a child they raised away because they started acting like their dead parent.
Tim crosses his arms as he watches Jon take a sip of his coffee before asking some more questions.
"Did she not have a good relationship with her sister?" He ask, wanting to know if maybe Jon's aunt's sister wasn't a good person.
Jon shrugged his shoulders. "They had a good relationship when they were children but it got worse the older they got." Jon said as he sits down in one of the chairs in the break room.
"Petunia was always very jealous of Lilly when they were growing up since Lilly got accepted into an elite school when she was eleven." Jon sighed, still not believing how his day was going.
Tim nods trying to understand everything, he now knows the names of Jon's aunt's, how one got into a fancy school when she was younger and how her sister became jealous because of that.
"Why would she be jealous of some fancy school?" Tim asked, knowing that fancy schools are still schools but with a pretty bow on them.
Jon shakes his head, his dark hair with graying streaks running through it falling into his face making him brush it out of his eyes.
"She always thought she was seen as second best and that Lilly was 'abnormal' so Petunia thought she should be seen as better than her younger sister." Jon says with a shrug of his shoulders and takes a sip of his cooling coffee.
"It got even worse when Lilly married a young lord that she met at the school, not only that but at Lilly's wedding her new husband thought it would be funny to prank some of the guests and Petunia was one of the guests that was hit."
Tim lets out an understanding noise while nodding his head now, understanding why Jon didn't like his aunt and why she's now throwing a child at Jon.
"She definitely sounds like a bitch now." Said Tim, as he walks over to where Jon was sitting and taking a seat across from him.
"Oh, she definitely is." Said Jon with a bitter laugh. "Petunia was always tattling on me and Lilly when we were younger and getting us in trouble."
Tim laughed "what did she need to tell on you about? Reading too much?"
Jon laughed "No, actually. She found out I was traveling to their house without my grandmother's permission."
Tim lets out a surprised whistle at Jon's words.
"How old were you?" He asked "eleven? Twelve?"
Jon shook his head "I was a couple of years younger than Lilly so I was eight when she tattled on me to my grandmother."
"That young?!"
"Yeah, was grounded for a month because of that stunt."
"I would expect."
Tim shook his head with a laugh. "An eight year old Jon, sneaking out and walking to his aunt's to play."
Jon nods "yeah, not the best idea I ever had." He said with a chuckle.
Tim leans back in his chair and looks at Jon, he sees that the lanky man is no longer as agitated as he was before. Jon seemed more relaxed and seemed happy to reminisce about his time with his aunt's. Tim sighs knowing he's going to have to remind Jon about him taking in his cousins child.
"Do you have a plan for your nephew when you get him whenever?" Tim asked, he sees Jon almost curl into himself and how he looks into his empty coffee mug.
Jon sighs and shakes his head.
"No, not really." Jon admits almost shamefully. "Petunia told me I had till seven thirty to get him before she left him at a firehouse."
Tim was angry at what Jon said, he couldn't believe someone could be so awful to abandon their dead sisters son at a firehouse.
"What a fucking bitch." Tim hissed
Jon sighs "I don't know what I'm going to do Tim."
Tim can see Jon looking at him, Jon's dark brown eyes begging for him to have answers to what to do and Tim sadly doesn't have the answers.
"What do you want to do?"
Jon looks at him as he says those words, Jon thinks about how much he loved spending time with Lilly and how he saw how much of her in her son when he saw little Harry when he was just born. Jon thinks about how he knows Petunia probably made her jealousy of her sister her nephews problem and how he didn't want Harry to think anything that she said was his fault. Jon looks into Tim's dark eyes and sees that Tim just wants Jon's actual thoughts and he finally comes up with an answer to his question.
"I want to take him in." Jon says softly, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders.
Tim nods at Jon's answer. "Ok, do you think you'll need help?"
Jon laughs shakily. "I think I'll need a lot of help."
Tim grins at Jon, his eyes squinting with his big smile.
"Then I'll help as much as I can." Tim says making Jon smile at him.
"Thank you, Tim."
Tim shakes his head. "Thank me when Harry's off to college." He jokes.
Jon looks at his watch and sees that it's six fifteen making Jon's eyes widen.
"I need to get going if I want to make it to Petunia's to get Harry." He said standing up.
Tim stands also and follows Jon out of the break room passing Sasha and Martin looking at them in confusion.
"What's going on?" Asks Sasha as Tim passes her desk.
"I'll tell you later." Tim says as he walks into Jon's office.
Tim sees Jon going around the office picking up all the things he needs to take home, he sees Jon working himself up again.
"I can drive you so you don't have to wait for the train." Tim says as he keeps watching the shorter man walking around the office.
Jon sighs with relief. "That would be great, Tim" he says to the Hawaiian shirt wearing man.
Tim nods and walks out of the office to pick up his stuff.
Tim sees Sasha looking at him with concern on her face as he picks up his jean jacket that's covered in pins and grabbing his keys.
"Is everything alright?" The dark skinned woman asked, wondering what was happening.
Tim nods "Everything is fine, just need to take Jon somewhere." Tim says as he starts gathering his things into his bag.
Martin also watching Tim grab his bag with concern, "Is Jon ok?"
Tim pulls his back up and puts the strap over his shoulder and standing straight again.
"Jon's fine, he's just needing a ride to a family members house." Tim says as he starts walking to Jon office again.
"His aunt's?" Asked Sasha
Tim turns around so he's walking backwards and looking at Sasha.
"I'll explain everything later" Tim says and turns back around. As Tim was about to walk into Jon's office, Jon walks out.
Jon looks Tim up and down and sees he's got his bag with him.
"You've got everything you need?" Jon asks, as he starts walking to the stairs leading up to the rest of the institute.
Tim nods and starts walking with Jon. "Yes boss, even rememberd to grab my wallet"
Before they walk up the stairs Jon turns to Martin and Sasha sitting at their desks.
"Since me and Tim will be away for the rest of the day you two can go home early if you both want too." Jon says to the two assistants.
Sasha can see the stress on Jon's face and doesn't want to keep him from whatever he was doing.
"I'll finish up my work before I go home." She says with a soft smile, Martin nods.
"Same with me." The ginger haired man says with a smile.
Jon gives them a nod and turns back around and starts walking up the stairs.
Tim gives Martin and Sasha two thumbs up with a grin before walking up the stairs with Jon.
Sasha snorts at Tim's goofy thumbs up and continues her work.
……
Tim and Jon start heading to Elias' office, Tim actually having to walk even faster to keep up with Jon because of how fast the long hair man is walking.
"So why are we going to see double boss?" asked Tim
"I have to let him know that I'll be out for the rest of the day so I'll won't be able to take any statements today." Jon explains, quickening his pace.
Tim keeps quiet as he tries to keep pace with Jon, he was surprised at how fast he can walk when Tim's never seen the man walk faster than a brisk walk.
The two men make it to Elias' office door, Jon goes to knock but is interrupted by Elias' voice through the dark oak door.
"Come in."
Jon stops his fist from making contact with the wooden door and reaches for the golden doorknob.
Tim shivers at Elias' voice "I hate it when he does that." Tim whispers so only Jon could hear.
Jon opens the door and walks in with Tim following behind him.
Elias was sitting behind his desk, his hands clasped together on top of his desk, his blue eyes almost staring through the two men making Tim want to shiver again.
Elias looks at the two men in front of him, his gray hair slick back perfectly and his suit without a speck of dust on it, he gives Jon and Tim a smile that makes the hair on Tims arms stand on end.
"What can I help you two with?" Asks Elias, his voice smooth.
Jon takes the lead and explains to Elias that he has a family emergency and he's leaving work early.
Elias nods in sympathy.
"Of course you can leave early, Jonathan." Says Elias, his hands staying clasped together on his desk. "If you need anything be sure to call me."
Jon gives Elias a relieved smile. "Thank you Elias, I'll let you know if anything else happens."
"Good, now you and Timothy go and take care of that family emergency of yours."
Jon nods and walks out of the office, Tim was a bit slower since he didn't remember Jon telling Elias he was going with him, Tim could've been coming to ask a totally different question and happened to walk with Jon. Tim shakes his head and starts picking up his pace so he can keep up with Jon.
The two men walk out of the building and into the parking lot, Jon practically sprints to Tim's car, he starts pulling on the handle before Tim could unlock the door.
"Boss, you're gonna have to let me unlock the car first." Tim says as he pulls his keys out of his pocket.
Jon waits till he hears the car unlock, opens the door and jumps in. Tim walks over to the driver's side and gets in, both men buckle their seatbelts and Tim drives out of the parking lot.
"Where to boss?" asks Tim as he drives down the road.
Jon looks up his aunt's address and tells Tim where to go. Tim nods and keeps driving, it's a quiet drive since Jon was too nervous to start a conversation, his knee bouncing as he starts making a list of things to get Harry on the drive back to his apartment. Tim glances his way from time to time almost to make sure Jon doesn't try to jump out of the car.
Jon's breath catches in his throat as Tim pulls into Petunia's driveway, the cookie cut house's freak Tim out a bit. Jon gets out of the car and before Tim can unbuckle his seatbelt Jon gestures for him to stop.
"Stay here for a bit." Jon says "I don't want to overwhelm Harry right now"
Tim nods in understanding. "Ok, but if anything happens just shout and I'll come get both of you."
Jon gives him a thankful smile and shuts the car door. Jon walks up to the front door and gives it a knock, he stands there and waits for someone to open the door.
Jon turns back to Tim's car, he sees the asian man tapping on his steering wheel a nervous habit he does but when Tim sees Jon looking at him he stops his tapping and gives him an encouraging grin. Jon gives him a small smile back before turning back to the door, as soon as he turns his head the door opens up and shows a skinny pale skinned woman, her hair a dull blond and her neck a bit too long.
"Petunia." Jon greeted in a stern voice.
Petunia curls her lip in disgust as she looks Jon up and down.
"Sims." she greeted him back, her using his surname makes Jon almost roll his eyes but keeps his irritation in check.
"I'm here for Harry."
Petunia sniffs at his words. "Of course you are, I wouldn't let you come otherwise."
Petunia steps back so Jon can step into her house, Jon can see a few things that were left to her after her parents died, as Jon looked around he noticed that all the pictures held Petunia, her husband and her son but none of Harry, the implication of specially keeping him out of the pictures makes a pit in Jon's stomach grow.
Petunia leads Jon to her living room where her son was playing with toys, the blond eight year old looked a bit too big to be healthy for a child his age, the child was smashing small cars around and Jon watches him as the eight year old breaks the door on one of them before throwing it to the side. The child doesn't acknowledge Jon and Petunia doesn't introduce him to Jon.
"Stay here and don't touch anything." Petunia practically hissed at Jon before turning around and walking towards the stairs.
Jon rolls his eyes at Petunia's back before watching her thinking she was going to go up the stairs to get Harry but to his horror he sees the horrid woman open the show cupboard underneath the stairs and pulling a skinny eight year old child out.
Petunia practically dragged the boy to Jon, the child smaller than children his age, his glasses cracked with only tape holding them together at the bridge of his nose, Jon can see a few bruises on his arms from someone grabbing the boy's arms. Jon was sickened as Petunia shoves the child so he was standing in front of Jon.
The boy looks up at Jon, his eyes a bright green and Jon instantly knew who the boy was, it was Harry, Lilly's son and he didn't look like the chubby happy baby Jon once saw, he was now scared skinny eight year old who probably didn't know who Jon was.
"Here it is," said Petunia in a strict tone, "Take it and leave."
Jon opens his mouth in shock.
"H-how could you do this to Lilly's son?" Jon asks just wanting answers.
Petunia rolls her eyes "I didn't want it in the first place."
Jon knew he wouldn't get anywhere with Petunia so he put his attention back to Harry who was shuffling his feet nervously, Jon takes note of the baggy clothes hanging off the child's skinny body, the clothes had some holes here and there and a shitty patch job holding the bigger holes closed. Jon crutches down to Harry's height and gives him a shaky smile.
"Hello, I'm Jonathan but you can call me Jon," Jon says softly trying to keep Harry calm, "I'm your cousin."
Harry's eyes widened, "But, you're older than me."
Harry's words make Jon chuckle.
"Yes, I'm a distant cousin so we have a bit of an age gap." Jon says
Harry tilts his head a bit looking confused but doesn't ask Jon any questions, Jon clears his throat before talking.
"I have an apartment that's big enough for two people and was wondering if you'd be interested in living with me instead of your aunt Petunia?" Jon asks Harry.
Harry's eyes seem to grow even larger as he looks at Jon, Harry looks behind him at Petunia and she just curls her lip at him, Harry turns back to Jon and leans a bit closer to him.
"Yes please." Harry whispers to Jon making him drop his shoulders with relief.
Jon smiles at Harry and nods, "Ok, we'll just grab your things and get out of here."
Jon stands back up and looks at Petunia.
"Are Harry's things also in the…" Jon's words drift off as he looks towards the cupboard under the stairs.
Petunia huffs at Jon before walking to the cupboard and taking some things out, Jon sees her grabbing a baby blanket that he seen Lilly have Harry wrapped in when he last saw them. Petunia walks back over to Jon and shoves the stuff into his arms, he looks down and sees only a few clothes, a few broken crayons, the baby blanket and three broken army men. The sight breaks Jon's heart but he tries really hard to keep the anger and sadness off his face.
Jon looks down at Harry and moves the stuff around so he has one hand free, he reaches down and holds his hand out for Harry to take.
"Are you ready to leave?" Jon asks
Harry silently nods and grabs Jon's hand, Jon starts to lead Harry towards the front door but before Jon could get to it Harry stops and turns around and looks at Petunia.
"Goodbye aunt Petunia." Harry says in a soft tone.
Jon looks back just in time to see Petunia's eyes shift a bit like she saw someone else in front of her instead of Harry before her eyes turned cold again.
"Get going"
Harry looks at her for a few more seconds before turning back to the front door and letting Jon lead him to it again.
...