Archive of Our Own

Innocent giggling caused the last cobwebs in Aaron’s sleep-heavy mind to be swept away as he fully woke up. He had been having the best dream about Haley going under the bleachers with him after football games when they were in high school and Haley allowing him to show her exactly how much he lov –

Aaron quickly sat up when he heard more giggles coming from his left. He turned that direction only to be surprised when nothing was there. The bright clock light on his nightstand still only read seven o’clock and he debated going back to bed for a few minutes seeing as it was Saturday and could he not sleep in just once? Before realizing that the giggles had stopped.

Knowing that nothing good could ever come from silence in his house -especially this early in the morning- he swung his sweatpant-covered legs over the edge of his bed. Quickly stopping the movement when he saw what was there he changed direction and set his feet beside the small body that had set up residence beside his comforter covered-bed.

Two adorable hazel eyes met his own before a smile lit up the boy’s face. This was quickly replaced by a frown when he realized that he had woken the older boy and that Aaron still looked tired.

“I’m sorry,” began the nine-year old boy sincerely, “I didn’t mean to wake you up. I was just reading and it was funny.”

The boy shrugged his shoulders apologetically before glancing at the page number and closing the large book that seemed to be thicker than he was. As he did this Aaron knelt down beside the young child and picked up the heavy book he was reading before guiding him to sit beside him on the bed.

“It’s okay, Spencer,” Aaron gently reassured, “Could you tell me why you’re up so early?”

“I just couldn’t sleep,” Spencer said, looking down at his feet.

“Are you sure it wasn’t anything else?” The older boy asked, already knowing that there was more bothering his charge than Spencer was telling him.

“Well…”

“Mhmm” The younger boy was beginning to crack so Aaron just began to quietly wait him out.

A few minutes later the child softly admitted, “Nightmares.”

The boy’s brother wasn’t surprised. He had expected as much, even though the nightmares had been all but gone after the past seven months, the incident yesterday had lead him to suspect that the night wouldn’t be restful for the young child.

As much as he wanted to ask why the lovable boy didn’t come and find him after the nightmare, Aaron instead decided to ask, “Want to talk about it?”

Spencer looked frightened for a minute but the hand his older brother had put on his back gave him the courage to begin.

“Well we were all at the park -you and me and Morgan and Garcia and Emily and JJ and Uncle Rossi. We were playing and it was fun until suddenly I looked around and you weren’t there and Morgan wasn’t-wasn’t there and-and-“

Spencer had finally given in and begun to cry. Aaron scooped him up and set him on his lap, rocking them both whispering soothing words and humming snatches of songs until Spencer began to calm down again. He wondered how long the child had been sitting there before he had woken up; it couldn’t have been too long to still get this potent of a reaction.

Soon after he had met the boy, Aaron had noticed the child’s deep-rooted abandonment issues but he had thought that Spencer had gotten better since he had come to live with them just over two years ago. Evidently the last couple of months had been just as rough on the youngest of the family as Aaron himself, regardless of how much he had tried to shelter him.

Finally, the young child grew quiet and the two sat in companionable silence as the sun slowly rose outside the window and the birds began to really make their presence known. This seemed to draw out the few early risers and both boys basked in the quiet and calm as they watched the few people go by, no words necessary between them.

After quite a while Spencer began to wiggle and slid swiftly out of Aaron’s grasp before standing in front of him.  The young boy wiped the last vestiges of tears from his eyes, took a deep breath and stood up as straight as he could.

His brother, realizing that whatever Spencer had to say must be important if he had to work up his courage like this, straightened himself up as well and looked his charge in the eye. He was just preparing himself to explain how the child’s nightmares were never going to be true when Spencer- in true Spencer form- threw the conversation in an entirely different direction

“Aaron…are Morgan and Garcia really in trouble? Because-“

Aaron cut the child off remembering the incident from the day before. With Spencer’s high IQ and awkward tendencies, the child was bullied and picked on constantly. Having people know that he was Morgan and Garcia’s brother was often enough to stop the bullying but, from what he had heard, it hadn’t been enough yesterday. Aaron had been so frustrated the night before that he had sent his two siblings and charges to bed without supper after they had all gotten into an argument over what had happened. Clearly this had upset the youngest of their group, as he had suspected it might, before he had gotten distracted with other things. The elder was shamed to admit that he should have talked to the younger but had put it off due to how hard the day had been.

Aaron thought carefully before continuing saying, “Listen Spencer, what they did wasn’t right, regardless of why they did it. Besides that, I sent them away so that no one would say anything that they would regret. I would like to hear your point of view before I talk to them if you would be willing.”

“Okay,” Spencer swallowed hard. He knew Aaron wouldn’t be mad at him but he was nervous all the same. “It was just before school was ending,” The boy suddenly realized that his brother knew that as he had had to come pick them up, but summoned his courage and continued anyway, “And these three guys came up behind me when I was at my locker. One of them knocked my books out of my hands and another grabbed my backpack. The third grabbed me and picked me up…“

Spencer stopped as he saw the older boy’s calm and caring mask slip for a moment to reveal a very angry older brother. While he knew that Aaron wouldn’t hurt him, it was always a little disconcerting to see his brother angry and upset because he almost never visibly was around his younger siblings. They knew he felt things deeply but didn’t often have the opportunity to see it as he always tried to stay calm for them. Even after Gideon- Spencer cut that thought off quickly and focused back on what was going on.

Aaron was upset and although he had known this is what had happened, hearing it come from his youngest brother who sounded completely clinically about it, like this was normal and he was just recounting what had happened in class that day, caused every protective instinct he had to flare up. What they had done was unacceptable and he wanted nothing more than to find those boys and make them pay for hurting his tiny less-than-sixty-pounds-soaking-wet little brother, but he knew that wouldn’t solve anything. After taking a calming breath, he motioned for Spencer to continue his story.

With a slight pause to make sure that Aaron was indeed alright and listening, the young child continued his story, “I don’t know exactly what he was going to do but, because we always meet at my locker at the end of the day, Derek and Penny saw what they were doing.

“Derek jumped on the guy holding me and pushed me out of the way while punching him. The guy fought back too, but Derek got in a lot more hits and got hit a lot less. I guess it’s not really surprising considering where Derek grew up. Did you know that the statistics-“

A smile flashed across Aaron’s face before he swiftly replaced it with a calm and impartial look once again.

“Focus, kiddo,” he told the child.

“Right, so anyway Penelope took on the guy who took my books and started hitting him with her pocketbook and he didn’t even have a chance to consider hitting her. The third guy ran away, straight into Emily and JJ who had come over from the high school to meet up with us. They stopped him and that’s when the teachers came and broke it up.

“So, see,” Spencer continued after a pause to let Aaron digest what he had said, “They were just protecting me and if anyone should be in trouble it should be the bullies, but Derek and Penny shouldn’t be punished because of me!”

By the end of his narrative the younger’s voice had begun to sound shrill and desperate, highlighting for the older boy just how upset the idea of conflict within his family had made him.

Realizing that he would have to be careful of how he phrased what he said next the eldest began commenting, “First, this was not your fault.”

He carefully gripped the younger boy’s shoulders and forced him to look him in the eyes when he saw doubt start to line the child’s countenance.

“Listen to me Spencer, I promise that this was not your fault. It was those boy’s choice to try to bully you and Derek and Garcia’s choice to come and help you. Okay?”

A small nod was the reward for his efforts and he knew that, while the message probably hadn’t been received yet, that one day his persistence would pay off. Hopefully.

“Second, I’m not mad at Derek and Garcia,” Aaron clarified. “I am upset and disappointed with them,” the eighteen-year old held up a hand when the younger boy looked like he would protest, “Regardless of why they got in that fight, there were better ways to handle the situation. For that I’m going to ground them and give them a long talk on how to deal with these types of things.”

The eldest paused to see how the younger was taking this news and, when it appeared that the younger was mollified with this reasoning, he continued, “Third, I don’t know about you but I’m hungry so let’s go make breakfast.”

The older boy swiftly stood up and grabbed the younger one, carrying him over his shoulder, listening to the trail of laughter the boy was leaving behind. The noise was enough to plaster a smile on the young man’s face and brought with it the thought that maybe everything would turn out alright for once.

OoO

Everything had officially gone wrong and there was no fixing it. There couldn’t possibly be a way to fix this much of a mess and if Aaron was honest with himself he would say that he was probably the cause of most of it. However, seeing as he was the only sane one in the kitchen he decided that self incrimination could wait as he surveyed the room.

The first thing he noticed was that Spencer was curled up in the corner with JJ trying to calm him down. Ignoring the looks she was shooting his way while clearly thinking Fix this Aaron or so help me he looked to the middle of the room where a shouting match was going down between Emily, Derek, and Garcia.

As though it couldn’t get any louder, the smoke alarm was going off telling him that breakfast was on fire and JJ had just joined the yelling, ironically trying to get the others to stop.

After surveying the kitchen, he quickly ran over and turned off the stove, putting a lid on the pan to smother the small fire that had started. He then walked over to Spencer and picked him up. The boy wrapped his arms and legs around him like an octopus and shoved his head into the groove where his head met his shoulder. The young boy was shaking, but Aaron didn’t really have time to worry about that now, he would put it high on his priority list for later.

Walking over to JJ he wordlessly pulled her away from the argument -thank goodness she was too surprised to protest- and handed her the young boy who was clinging to him before pausing and running a hand through said boy’s slept on looking hair. Turning to the argument he quickly got in the middle of the three participants.

Once they saw his face, full of barely contained anger and frustration, they quickly quieted down. Once all was silent save for the fire alarm he silently pointed them towards the living room and waited until they obeyed.

Getting himself under control once again, he flashed a quick, insincere smile at Spencer and JJ with the intent of making them feel a little bit better. He doubted that it worked. Regardless he quietly told JJ to go meet him in the family room as he went by her to turn off the smoke alarm.

Going into the hall and turning off the smoke alarm was something he was an old hand at and doing so gave Aaron the chance to step back, calm down, and figure this out. Just a few minutes ago, he and Spencer were happily cooking breakfast before there was a stampede of teenagers, bolting into the kitchen and beginning to yell at each other loud enough that he was almost positive that the astronauts in space could have heard it.

Having fixed the alarm, he walked to the living room and surveyed his finally silent family. Garcia and Derek were sharing the couch with Emily in a chair to their left and JJ holding Spencer in her lap on a chair to the right.

He mentally began writing his obituary as he strode into the room and all eyes flew to him. He kept his mask of cool and calm collectiveness firmly up and stood into the centre of the room facing his family.

He let them stew for just long enough that they became uncomfortable before opening his mouth to begin.

“What was that?” he asked calmly. When no answers greeted his question, he asked again, “What was that in there?”

Again no one answered.

“Maybe someone would like to explain this to me, because I was completely unaware that it was acceptable to act like that.” Turning specifically towards Emily, Derek, and Penelope he continued, “You three know better than this. You should be old enough to know that this is not okay and that you were going to scare Spencer.”

The room turned to stare at Spencer who had tear tracks seemingly carved into his cheeks as he stared at the three arguers as though they had lost their minds before turning and hiding his face in JJ’s shoulder in embarrassment.

“I don’t care what excuses you have for that atrocious behaviour but you had better think long and hard before telling me just what that was in there.”

With that Aaron waited. He waited until Derek tentatively looked up at him, silently asking for permission to speak.

“Go ahead, Derek,” he nodded to the teen, letting his mask fall just enough to see that he wasn’t going to yell anytime soon.

“Well, Emily was mad at Garcia and I, so she started to yell at us.”

Aaron was sure that the issue was more complicated than that and waited for the inevitable protests that were likely to come from his other siblings. When no protests came, he was surprised and could only hope that they had all taken his impromptu and cobbled together lecture to heart.

Despite how much of a shock the lack of comments was, the eldest realized that he needed to continue.

He turned to Emily, “What were you upset about?”

Emily quickly went from a blank and controlled front to an explosion of emotion, “They shouldn’t have just jumped in that fight like that! They could have gotten suspended or expelled! We don’t need that right now; especially with the whole thing with Gideon. They’re just making everything harder for everyone.”

Emily leaned back and crossed her arms, making it clear that she had said her piece and no more would be forthcoming. Aaron knew that sometimes- usually when she was being watched carefully by people that she didn’t know, as she had been lately- the sixteen-year old became very concerned with public appearances. It was easy to draw the conclusion that the issue came from when she lived with her mother, the Ambassador. She had begun to ease up after having stayed with them for a year, but, like Spencer, was now regressing again.

Aaron ran a hand up his face and through his dark hair. He really needed to deal with this thing with Gideon before it got anymore out of hand but he knew that now was not the time. Instead he turned so he could see everyone in the room and decided to address the real, underlying issue that had caused what happened yesterday.

“Listen to me guys,” he sounded weary and like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. “I’m going to make sure CPS doesn’t try to take anyone of you.”

The eldest could see the skepticism on the faces in front of him. All of them had been in the system, some for longer than others, and he supposed they had a right to be wary.

“Seriously, because Gideon adopted all of us before he-“ Aaron stopped and took a deep breath before continuing, “It’s really hard for them to take you from me. Besides, we have means of providing for ourselves and there isn’t anything they can penalize us on, okay?”

The young man who seemed to have the world on his shoulders straightened up once more and looked all of his siblings in the eyes. He could only hope that he got his point across.

“Now, Emily I appreciate you giving your input but in the future, I would like it if you left things like that to me.” Aaron flashed a glance towards Emily and saw that while she wasn’t happy, she was keeping quiet for the moment.

“As for you two,” he focused his gaze at the two teens resting on the couch, “What you did was wrong. I’m glad that you stood up for Spencer, I am, but that was not the way to go about it. Both of you know much better ways to solve things like this and I’m very disappointed that you didn’t use that knowledge.”

Garcia was looking down at the floor, clearly trying not to cry while Derek was staring at him challengingly. All that the eldest boy wished for in that moment was not to have to punish them and hurt them even more. Both of the teens did what they did for a good cause and Aaron could only hope that he was handling this right. He was so new to this and he didn’t think anything that he was doing had been having an impact. At this point hoping was all he seemed to be able to do properly.

“You are both grounded for at least a week depending on how you act while you’re grounded.”

Aaron saw Morgan swiftly close his mouth and was a little optimistic that the protests that he thought would be forthcoming may be held off for at least a little while.

“We will be having a discussion as a family later tonight so everyone needs to be here. Emily, I need you to come to the grocery store with me today.”

While she may not have agreed, she didn’t say no, which Aaron took as a positive sign.

“Derek, Penny, you will both be coming as well.”

With that statement, both of them were off on long rants of protest that their older brother swiftly cut off with his next words.

“I promised JJ quiet while she studies for her SAT’s. I was going to kick everyone out of the house anyway but seeing as your grounded you will have to come with me.”

When more protests made themselves known along the lines of ‘We’ll be quiet’ and ‘I’m never loud” Aaron fought the urge to groan and looked towards his other siblings for help. All of them seemed willing to let him deal with the issue which was just great and there was nothing he wanted more than to deal with this alone. Sometimes being the eldest seriously sucked.

“Stop,” he stated sternly, “This is non-negotiable and it sucks but we’ll just have to deal with it. Now, I’m going to get breakfast started again and you are all going to go get ready and then come down and eat before we leave. Are we clear?”

A round of “Yes sir” came from the figures seated in front of him. Before he turned to leave, he remembered a question that had been posed to him last night that he had put off answering due to how taxing last night had been. Best not to leave the poor girl waiting then.

“JJ,” the girl perked up when she heard her name mentioned, “If you finish studying in time then yes you can take the car and go see Will tonight. You’ll-“ he was cut off by a squeal and a slim blonde throwing herself at him. He barely managed to steady her before she was running up stairs with a huge smile. Aaron was just glad that he had managed to make someone happy today.

With his news pretty much delivered he set off to the kitchen to begin breakfast again, leaving behind four unhappy charges who he now needed to take shopping. Just great.

OoO

With extreme effort on his part, almost two hours later, he was pulling into the grocery store parking lot. All of his charges, excluding the youngest, seemed to want to make life as difficult as possible for him.

He had managed to feed them all breakfast and get some food into JJ before he left, which he counted as something he had done right. Unfortunately, all of his good intentions had stopped working at that point.

Emily, Derek, and Penelope had managed to put together normal outfits. He glanced at Penny, and amended that statement to outfits that they would normally wear, before looking at Spencer. It was mid-February and the child had a huge puffy winter coat on, socks that didn’t match (not that that was unusual for Spencer), and the blandest outfit he could find on underneath. When he had first seen the brown on tan on even more brown outfit, he had been tempted to ask Spencer if he was sure that he wanted to wear those clothes, but instead had swallowed his words and just rolled with it. Normally the kid put some colour into his wardrobe but lately he had been wearing the blandest outfits he could find. In a fit of wisdom Penelope had commented that maybe Spencer just wasn’t feeling colourful and had left it at that.

Due to the shear number of arguments that had run rampant in the family lately, adding another one to the list had been on his ‘Avoid at All Costs’ list. He belatedly wondered if having all of these weird lists didn’t just scream how out of control his life had gotten before pushing that useless thought out of his head. Now was not the time.

He had caved before they left and let Spencer bring the book he had been reading earlier that morning. He had also let Garcia bring her I-pad, but only to read on as he had – hopefully – managed to set it up so that if she ever left the reading app then the I-pad would make a loud and obnoxious noise and he would know. Derek and Emily had both declined needing things to do which he decided was going to lead to his dying of stress later, of that he was sure.

Derek and Emily were still both mad at him, which he wasn’t surprised at. Garcia was more resigned, which -thank goodness- because he didn’t think he could handle three angry teens at once. Spencer was nervous, but Aaron had managed to belay his fears a little which caused the ‘List of Things He Had Gotten Right for Once’ to go up to two. Oh joy.

With everyone out of the van, Aaron guided Spencer into the store and stopped himself from checking to make sure the others were following. It was hard to tell as the usually boisterous group he was with was withdrawn and quiet, just as they had been in the car on the ride there.

What a ride that had been. The awkward silence and tension contained in the van had been the stuff of nightmares. Never again would he regret the loud, boisterous, annoying van rides that he was usually subjected to.

Grabbing a cart, Aaron used the chance to glance around and make sure that everyone was following him. While they certainly didn’t appear happy, they were still all there; small victories.

The air conditioned, and slightly cold, store brought him back to his senses.

The group began to meander through the produce aisles, dodging other shoppers and families. The eldest sent Emily to pick up enough apples for the next week and he himself turned to the bananas.

As he examined the fruit he pondered their monetary problems. Gideon’s -his mind choked on the name- departure had left the family in dire straits for the first couple of months. With so much scrutiny due to his loss, along with making sure everyone was functioning and healthy during the rough time, he had almost stopped and just thrown in the towel; but the knowledge of the sad, confused, and lonely faces at home had convinced him to step up. Besides all of these worries about CPS, his own abilities, his job, and trying to start college there were now financial worries. His part-time job had barely been enough for food, let alone bills and such.

Yet just when the bills where piling up, and the funds were getting low, money had appeared in his account. It was enough for the bills and that was it. Aaron quickly realized that his job would have to be enough to pay for food, but that Gideon still seemed to be watching out for them. His absence hurt, but the betrayal he felt over the whole incident wasn’t enough to stop him from taking the money. It gave his pride a blow, and he never explicitly told any of the others, but he was sure they knew. They were all smart-some of them crazy smart-

His thoughts immediately stopped as he didn’t catch sight of the young child he was thinking of. Emily was back, putting the apples in the cart a little more harshly then she probably should have. That’s one accounted for. Penny was staring intently at her I-pad and completely oblivious to the outside world; he could only hope she was reading. That’s two. Derek was staring angrily at the bags of avocados piled beside the bananas. That’s three.

Where could his youngest charge have possibly gotten to? Seriously though. The worry he felt in spades was momentarily tempered with a flash of frustration. He realized that the youngest was just a magnet for trouble but this was ridiculous. It had literally been two minutes. Two minutes. It had to have been a new record for losing the kid.

He suddenly spotted the boy over beside the papayas with his nose buried in a book that he was sure weighted more than the kid himself. Aaron told the others to stay put and hoped they would when none of then acknowledged him. He hurried over to the youngest and scooped him up into his arms.

Ignoring the younger’s gasp of surprise, he threw out, “Spencer you need to pay more attention, please. You almost got lost again.”

This shopping trip was already a disaster, but that just seemed to be the fate of the day. Could nothing go right today? He would be content with one thing going even just sub-par rather than full-on Defcon one disaster levels, just one.

Reaching the cart once again, he plunked the nine-year old into the bottom basket area, careful not to hit any of the food they had gathered thus far. 

“Aaron I can walk,” Was the first protest heard.

“No,” was the first stubborn reply.

“I won’t get lost like last time!”

“No.”

“I promise.”

“No.”

“But Aaron only 122 000 kids get lost in grocery stores a year, and almost all of them are returned to their families unharmed.”

“No.”

“But-”

“No means no, Spencer,” he glanced down at the child who was now seated in the cart, “You already got separated from us and we’ve been here no more than 10 minutes total. I’m not risking it.”

Snickering broke out from the three behind him and Derek came up beside the cart. Aaron kept one ear open as he told Emily to go get some broccoli and saw Penny still reading on her device.

“Seriously, Pretty Boy, already?” The snickering continued.

“Shut up, Derek, I was not lost,” A petulant expression made itself across Spencer’s face.

There was a pause before the dark-skinned boy smiled, leaned in, and whispered something into his younger brother’s ear. A matching smile slid firmly into place on the younger boy’s face before he nodded firmly and went back to reading his book.

It was at this point; Aaron knew he messed up. He had underestimated the anger and creativeness of the teens in his family, and the occasional deviance of the youngest. He could only pray that he would make it through this shopping trip.

OoO

One hour, seven aisles, and over half a list later, Aaron finally admitted to himself that he might have been overreacting just a little bit. They had been fine up until that point and it was entirely possible that they would be fine for the rest of the trip.

He felt hope swell within him for a minute before it was quickly crushed by humming. Derek was humming with an innocent expression on his face which just made Aaron more suspicious.

He had just gotten used to it and was trying to figure out what song was being hummed -he could have sworn he knew it- when another voice joined in.

Penny still had her head buried in her I-pad but had now joined in the humming. Without any further ado, Emily joined in as well, with Spencer right on her heals.

After picking up cereal and going down aisle eight the singing started.  

“This is the song that never ends, it will go on and on my friends! Some people started singing it not knowing what it was and they’ll continue singing it forever just because…”

Unfortunately for Aaron this continued – loudly and obnoxiously as only teenagers seem to be able to – all the way through aisles eight and nine. Finally deciding that enough was enough, he stopped the cart, ignoring the many looks being shot their way by finicky old ladies and busy middle aged people.

“This needs to stop,” He hissed to his charges, “You are not five.”

He had purposefully kept his voice low, allowing it to carry only to the people he wanted to hear it.

“Come on, man,” Derek started with a smirk on his face.

“No,” Aaron firmly put his foot down, “You are here because you are grounded. This is not a time to play and unless you want to be grounded any longer than you already are then I suggest you stop immediately.”

He supposed it really went to show how serious he was when Emily and Spencer didn’t even comment on the fact that they weren’t grounded yet. Maybe, finally, he could get a moments peace from this exasperating morning; although with his luck he certainly wasn’t betting on it.

Continuing through the store he kept a watchful eye on his four trouble making family members. So far, this day had been a complete and utter disaster and he really didn’t want it to get worse. All he wanted to do was go home and collapse but he still needed to talk to everyone about the whole Gideon thing because clearly, they weren’t coping as well as he thought they were and everything was falling apart and he didn’t know what to do and –

He really needed to calm down. One thing at a time; focus on one thing at a time. He could do this; he was sure of it.

It was then that he noticed that he had stopped paying attention to his charges.

He glanced around catching sight of sugary cereals and thankfully everyone else too. For once they were just calmly walking along beside him, Penny with her eyes focused on her tablet, Morgan and Emily reading all of the names of the cereals, and Spencer with his face focused firmly on his book.

This was the last aisle; they could do this; Aaron was sure of it. He could see the checkout at the other end of the aisle and he began walking a little faster so he could just end this horrible trip and maybe take a quick break before dealing with everything again. What he wouldn’t give to check out of his life instead of being planted firmly in reality for once.

Unfortunately, that couldn’t happen. There were people depending on him to focus and man up for this one; regardless of whether he wanted to or not.

All of his thoughts flew by the wayside when he saw the casual toss of a sugary cereal – that was definitely not on the list – that fell in the cart, barely managing to miss hitting Spencer.

Aaron whipped his head up to glance at the innocent look on Emily’s face and, with a completely straight face, said, “Emily we aren’t getting that food, put it back please.”

She looked slightly disappointed but more like she was trying to be a disturber of the very tentative peace that had fallen on the group. He watched as she plucked the cereal box from the car and caught Derek in the corner of his eye trying to slink away.

Just as he was about to call him back Spencer stood up in the cart, angry at Emily who had thrown another box of cereal in and seemingly hit him. Spencer and balance had never exactly been friends but it surprised even him when, before he had even fully stood up, he was tipping over, flying out of the cart and towards the hard ground, a comical look on his face.

The harsh smack that followed made Aaron spring to action, running to help Spencer, who was sitting on the ground in shock.

Another smack and a quick cry of pain caused him to pause and see that Penelope had been so absorbed in her tablet that she had run into one of the square columns that were placed haphazardly through the grocery store.

While kneeling beside Spencer, Aaron called, “Penelope are you okay? You have to watch where you’re going.”

She stood there looking around in a slight daze but unfortunately Aaron didn’t have time to wait for an answer as he had another charge to sort out. He poked and prodded Spencer making sure he was fine to slight protests from the young boy.

When he had assured for himself that Spencer was alright, he pulled him to his feet and glanced around expecting to see his other three charges. Now that he thought about it though, normally they would have rushed up to make sure Spencer was fine too. So why hadn’t they…

There was no one else in the aisle.

Aaron took a minute to rant internally and think about those stupid kids – because they certainly weren’t acting old enough to be teens… He had literally given them one job, seriously! He should have just left with Haley when she had asked, then he wouldn’t have to deal with all this sh –

He cut off that thought before it could fully form because although he was going to kill them when he found them, he wouldn’t have it any other way. At least that’s what he told himself.

Focusing back on his situation and the little boy staring up at him worriedly, he stood up and straightened his shoulders, preparing himself for the next task.

“Emily where are you? Derek? Penelope?” he began, knowing it was a long shot, especially with the morning he had just had.

“Seriously, I am not in the mood,” he continued. Aaron hoped desperately that this would not end with him having to do a grocery wide man hunt. After the way his day had been going however, he expected nothing less.

When there was no response, he put Spencer back in the cart, explaining firmly that he couldn’t risk losing another charge right now – Spencer please will you just drop it –  and walked the cart back to the end of the aisle. He circled the store, going from the first aisle, the one they had been in, to the frozen section at the far end of the store. Without seeing anything down that aisle, and with a now content Spencer back to reading his book, Aaron retraced his steps all the way back to the produce and bakery section.

Having not seen his charges there either, Aaron stopped to think. It had almost been ten minutes, should he tell one of the workers and ask for help? What was he going to do? Aaron knew he was unqualified but he didn’t know he was this bad. He had literally just lost his sort of children at the grocery store and if that didn’t make him the worst sort of parent ever he didn’t know what did.

He was missing something he just knew it. Alright, what other parts does this grocery store have? The older boy began to glance around, trying to see what he missed, before spotting Spencer.

Of course. He could have smacked himself with his own blindness.

“Spencer, where do you think they went?”

Spencer glanced up, thought for a quick second, and decisively claimed, “It is quite possible that they went to the bulk section.”

The bulk section was an almost hidden section that had containers of foods like nuts, baking goods and some candies that people could scoop out to choose their own amounts. For kids, and likely teens as well, its most important part was the circular pixie stick station. The station had over ten flavours of pure sugar that made any reasonable parent want to cry and to top it all off they had a jumbo stick. This new nightmare had been concocted by some brilliant person who really should just go jump off a cliff because it was a foot and a half long and almost two pinky fingers thick. The amount of sugar that could fit in it was enough to keep kids going for hours, long after they should have crashed and was the child equivalent of ten caffeine patches.

Aaron quickly spun the cart around and took off at an almost run, trying desperately to stop the inevitable. All he could do was hope as he dashed around other people who were unaware of the crisis approaching.

He skidded to a stop, expecting to see chaos and mayhem, but all was calm. Instantly suspicious, he scanned the area for his missing charges, spotting them in the corner, about to go to town on the jumbo sticks.

At the same instant, he noted the sale clerk’s (because the bulk food section had a separate check out) look at his charges with thinly veiled pity for whatever parent was tasked the monumental problem of dealing with them. That lead him to a moment of relief – thank goodness they paid for them – before being consumed by dread.

He sped up again and got to them before any of them had finished their pixie sticks. Aaron tore the mostly empty container out of Penelope’s hand to a slight objection. He then turned to Emily, who put up a slight fight so she wouldn’t have to give up her stick of pure sugar, before relinquishing it to his glare.

The oldest turned to the last of his charges and saw that the dark-skinned boy had handed his to Spencer, who had downed the rest of whatever had been in the pixie stick before.

He had been prepared to deal with three hyperactive teens, not three hyperactive teens and one boy genius who was still young enough to actually be bouncing off the walls and not just silly.

Knowing the damage was done and that now was not the time to deal with it, Aaron grabbed the now empty pixie stick, turned the cart around started walking, checking periodically to make sure his charges were following, not even needing to say a word for them to know they were in for it now.

As he passed the garbage, he threw out the death sticks (read pixie sticks) and called Derek back from wandering off.

“Just,” Aaron sighed, “Hold onto the cart please.”

“But –“

“No Derek now.”

For once the teen did as he was asked and held onto the cart while Penny had her head buried in her tablet again, giggling. Emily was starting to disappear around the corner so all was…

“Sh- “ He cut himself off, “Emily get back here or so help me you will be grounded along with these two.”

As she drifted back he could see the sugar starting to kick in and sped up, trying to get through the checkouts and out of the store before they completely succumbed to the effects of the sugar sticks of death.

He sped into an almost empty check out line, guiding his charges into the lane and putting the grocery items on the conveyer belt.

A steady mantra of, “Emily come back and don’t wander off please you are sixteen not five. Derek put that back and just hold onto the cart please. Spencer sit down you don’t want to fall out again do you? Penny watch where you’re going or you’ll-“ there was a crash and Aaron winced, “You okay, Penny?”

After confirmation that, yes Penny was indeed alright, he turned towards the cashier who was scanning his items frantically, realizing that he just wanted to get out of the store. The kindly looking middle-aged cashier looked up when she saw him looking.

“It’s hard isn’t it dear?”

With those six words, Aaron was ready to cry because yes it was hard and why should he have to do this alone? Why had no one else noticed how hard it was?

Quickly he sucked it up and gave the woman a strained smile, “Yes, ma’am it is.”

Looking back, he could see that the teens were almost at their peak. The sugar was hitting them hard and they were about to hit sugar rush levels.

Forget what he said earlier about his day hitting Defcon-one levels, this was Mr. President-there-is-an-asteroid-headed-to-Earth-about-to-kill-us-all levels. Once this hit, he needed to be out of the grocery store.

Already Penny and Derek were giggling, heads close together and Emily was going into full out brood mode. Spencer was trying really hard to focus on his book but that was basically a lost cause at this point.

Thanking the cashier, he quickly threw the bags in the cart, being careful with the more breakable items, and sped out of the store his charges following along like ducklings.

He got them in the van, unloaded the groceries, returned the cart, and headed back to the van himself, to face the inevitable.  

OoO

“Did you know that banging your head against a wall burns a hundred and fifty calories an hour? That’s a lot for just doing that but it isn’t really a fun thing to do. Hey! Cherophobia is the fear of fun so that would be a good thing for those people to do.”

Aaron nodded along to Spencer’s spiel, which was slowly speeding up as he continued to drive. Forget what he had said this morning; what he wouldn’t give for a quiet and calm car ride right now. At least there was nothing for them to throw, right?

The facts that the boy genius was throwing out had slowly devolved and were now less like his normal lectures and more like random thoughts with no organization.

In the back, Penny and Derek were talking and giggling, slowly getting louder and louder, and Emily was simply quiet, not nearly as affected by the sugar as the others. She had also eaten less than the others but really none of them should have eaten it at all and now he was slowly going insane from all the chatter in the car.

“Human saliva has a boiling point at three times that of water you know. Guess what?” Spencer didn’t wait for an answer, “Billy goats urinate on their own heads so they can smell attractive to females-“

Derek cut him off, “Seriously, dude, no way that’s disgusting!”

“Yes it is true! They-“

This got all four of them into a debate, Emily even turning around to participate from the passenger’s seat, on how that was possible and all of the strange things involving the animal kingdom that Aaron had never wanted to know.

He pulled up to a stop light and suddenly realized that they could not go home. JJ was still studying as it was only noon and he had promised her quiet. He was sure she would understand but then she wouldn’t be able to go out with Will tonight and he knew how much she had been looking forward to that.

              Where could they go? They could go to the park but he had perishables in the back and they would have to eat lunch eventually. He ran through his list of people in his head but no one stood out as willing to take them.

Aaron guessed he would just have to take them back home and hope that he could keep them quiet for JJ.

He tuned back into the conversation going on around him, his mind made up and already preparing a warning to be quiet when they got home when Spencer unknowingly solved all his problems.

“-and when hippos are upset their sweat turns red. Uncle Rossi told me-“

Rossi’s house was less than a ten-minute drive from their house and he had always had a soft spot for them so while he might not be happy exactly, he would let them in.

The loud and rambunctious conversation continued until about two minutes after they passed the turn to get home. At that point Emily looked up and around before looking confused for a second.

“We missed the turn to get home.”

She sounded so confused that Aaron barely managed to choke back a laugh before calmly saying, “Yes, we did.”

“Are we, are we going where I think we are?”

Even high on sugar, Spencer managed to catch on first.

“Yes, Spencer but he doesn’t know so you have to be good okay?”

“Okay Aaron. Did you know that the phrase ‘be good’ came from-“

Aaron hummed and nodded in all the right places, just barely listening, while continually glancing at the teens in the back who were very focused and whispering to each other just quietly enough that he couldn’t hear them over Spencer.

He figured he would ignore their scheming for now and deal with it once they got inside, as he pulled into Uncle Rossi’s driveway.

He turned off the car and stepped into the afternoon sun, basking in the quiet for less than a second before the rambunctious and loud teens stampeded past him and towards the front door.

After making sure that they had swept Spencer up into their mix and watching as they ushered him carefully to the door, listening to him all the while, Aaron went to the back of the van and opened the trunk, taking out the perishables to take to the house.

When he next pulled his head out of the trunk, he saw Uncle Rossi walking toward him. The Italian’s first name was actually Dave, but since he had been Gideon’s best friend, he had become part of their family and their honourary uncle. Gideon, however, had rarely called him Dave when Aaron had first met him and had called him Rossi. That lead to Aaron calling him Uncle Rossi instead and the younger kids just took his lead from there, even as Gideon had begun to call him Dave and not Rossi.

The man walked up and looked Aaron up and down with a raised eyebrow before saying, “You gave them sugar?”

“No,” the younger replied, “They managed that all on their own.”

“Ahh,” the Italian man nodded, “And my house?”

“JJ’s studying and I promised she would have quiet and they’re…not.”

Aaron looked down at the ground, slightly embarrassed that he couldn’t even control three teens and a child, but Rossi just bent down and picked up two of the bags, leading Aaron to the kitchen.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call first Uncle Rossi, I just didn’t know where else to go and you said anytime so I assumed-“ Aaron suddenly burst out to be cut off by Rossi.

“When I say something, kid, I mean it.” Rossi told him and left it at that.

After they had put away the groceries, the younger was finally asked, “So what exactly happened?”

Aaron described the events that had occurred the day before and then this morning, ending with finally making it to Rossi’s house.

Rossi gave a low whistle and said, “You don’t do things by half do you?”

Aaron’s shoulders dropped and he suddenly looked world-weary and worn.

“Unfortunately not.”

The two men sat and just listened to the shouts and screams of joy and laughter coming from the living room. Occasionally feet would pound down the hall and up the stairs before pounding down the stairs and through the hall again.

Even with the symphony of noises in the background, the kitchen was like an oasis of calm. Aaron and Rossi sat there for almost an hour when, seemingly out of the blue, Aaron blurted out, “Am I doing the right thing, Uncle Rossi? I’m trying but I’m pretty sure that they hate me after everything and the past two days have been… and I was blind enough to have missed the fact that they aren’t doing well with Gideon’s…disappearance and-“

“First, Gideon left. He was wrong but he left and it was his choice okay, remember that. None of this is your or anyone else’s fault, this all rests on Gideon. As for them,” with that he gestured towards the rest of the house and the people in it, “they are doing extremely well under the circumstances and you being there for them and trying to keep everything normal is at the root of that. You are doing good; they don’t hate you but they are testing you because you are their father figure now and that’s just how it goes. No parent is perfect, kid, Gideon certainly wasn’t and with the role models you had it’s a wonder you’re doing so well. I’m impressed with you to be honest.”

Aaron’s shoulders were shuddering with sobs and he was finally breaking down from the weight of it all after months of holding it together.

“Just, why did he have to leave? Was I not good enough? He didn’t even mention anyone outside of Spencer in his letter and I can’t fix myself if I don’t know what is broken.”

With that he broke down again, the only sign of his crying his hiccupping breath and shaking body. Rossi sat surprised for a minute before grabbing the younger man – for he was just that: young – and pulling him into a hug, just rocking him until the wave passed.

Before this, Rossi would never have even considered dealing with something like this. There was a reason he never had kids and then, later, that was Gideon’s job. Like it or not, though, it was nice to feel needed and if anyone needed help it was these poor kids. At that moment, he decided that he would help more and take some of the weight off, even if that meant making dinners or driving kids to activities.

As Aaron started to wind down, Rossi realized that the younger man was exhausted and that was probably the only reason for his breakdown, knowing how stubborn and independent the other could be.

Once the crying had stopped completely, Rossi handed the other a box of Kleenex before pulling him up to a look of confusion. He guided the tired young man down the hall and up the stairs to the continued sound of sugar high teens and their younger brother, although that was slowly dying down too.

Moving into the first guest bedroom he saw, Rossi gently pushed Aaron towards the bed, taking the Kleenex box from him, and said, “Sleep Aaron.”

When Aaron looked like he was about to object, the older man continued, “I will watch them and I will wake you up for supper.”

“But JJ-“ came the half-hearted protest.

“I will call her and inform her of the change in plans and if she wants I will send Emily over to get her and they can exchange the car that way. Now sleep.”

With that Rossi left the room so no more protests could be voiced and listened to the sound of Aaron giving up and climbing into bed. He stood outside the closed door until he was sure the exhausted young man was asleep before heading downstairs to wrangle the rest of his crazy family.

OoO

Aaron was woken much the same as he was earlier that morning but with two sets of snickers instead of one. He opened his eyes just as he was pounced on by the two figures, one much smaller than the other.

“Oomph,” all of the air shot out of the older boy’s lungs and he lay there for a minute trying to catch his breath, with the two weights on him hindering that process significantly.

When he had finally gotten enough air he gasped out, “Get off you two! I swear you weight a ton.”

Two beaming smiles were shot at him before they slid off the bed to opposite sides.

“Supper’s ready,” Derek threw out, before turning and dashing out the door, presumably to run downstairs and get some.

“I could have probably guessed that,” said Aaron dryly, before he looked down at Spencer, “Let’s go eat, kiddo, what did Uncle Rossi make?”

“Umm,” the youth hesitated, “Pasta Al Forno I think.”

The name rolled heavily off of his tongue and Aaron wasn’t surprised at Spencer’s accurate pronunciation of the word.

They began to head down the stairs, both content in the silence as the sounds of pleasant conversation between family members began to get louder as the boys got closer.

Aaron stepped off the stairs a second behind Spencer and casually glanced in each room as he walked by.

When he reached the living room he peered in the door expecting to see it relatively clean. A quick glance completely blew that theory out of the water.

There were pillows everywhere, even the couch cushions had been pulled off the couch and thrown seemingly haphazardly over the floor. There were a few random feathers floating around in between all the pillows although not enough for a pillow to have been completely decimated. Small favours, right? There were blankets everywhere being held up by other, extra pillows, almost like a very short fort. All of the breakables, the pictures and vases and lamps that normally adorned the room, had mysteriously disappeared, and he could only assume that that had been for the safety of everyone involved.

“Are you done staring, Aaron, because I’m getting really hungry?” a small voice piped up, making him snap back to reality.

“Yes, Spencer, sorry,” there was a loud growl from the boy’s stomach and Aaron smiled, “Let’s go then, it sounds like you’re not going to make it.”

Aaron didn’t even bother asking about the room and decided to simply ignore it until someone else brought it up again. At this point, he was washing his hands clean and decided that it was not his problem this time.

The rest of the short trek to the dining room was filled with Spencer’s chatter telling him in no uncertain times that No, he was not going to die and It takes at least 25 days to die of starvation so There was absolutely no way he could be dying because he had eaten lunch 5 hours and 18 minutes ago.

Spencer was still going at it when they both stepped in the dining room and into the two seats open for them. Talk at the table hadn’t even stopped as they walked in and only quick glances were given before they dived back into their conversations.

Rossi, at the head of the table and serving the baked pasta dish, gave him a smile as Aaron sat down on his left. Spencer plopped down, still excitedly talking on, though he had moved on to discussing the life of people who live in the desert, beside the older boy. Across the table, Aaron could hear Derek and Penny debating some topic that he had never heard of and towards the other end of the table JJ and Emily were talking to each other. They were volleying points back and forth across the table and Aaron watched them for a second, head turning back and forth like he was watching a tennis match, hearing a brief exchange about Will cancelling and about the unreliability of men – which explained why JJ was here and not with Will at the moment – before he turned back to his now full plate.

As he ate his full of the amazingly good food, the dark-haired young man occasionally added in his opinion but mainly just listened, soaking up the good food, family and atmosphere that had been so missing recently.

Eventually, supper drew to a close and everyone had had their full, meaning that the dishes were taken into the kitchen and began to be done with good hearted banter and teasing flying between the workers.

“Can you even reach the sink, shorty?”

“I can too, Derek. Are you blind? Because it’s extremely obvious.”

“Seriously JJ can you even walk, you’ve managed to hit me like twenty times!”

“That couldn’t possibly be an exaggeration.”

“Of course not, what do you take me for? I can count better than Penny.”

“Okay, that was once and it wasn’t even my fault!”

And so it continued until the dishes had been done and put away, and Rossi began to usher them into the living room once again.

No one bothered to pick anything up, instead flopping wherever they wanted. Spencer curled up to Aaron’s side as he leaned against one of the chairs in the room and the elder wrapped his arm around the younger, both watching as Rossi rescued one of the couch cushions from the floor and proceeded to sit on the couch the best way he could. The others all claimed a spot on the floor, sprawling across each other, pillows and blankets alike.

The gentle chatter continued as it had since they had left the kitchen. Within the calm and comforting feeling that the living room created, shielding them from the harsh realities of the outside world, Aaron decided that he really did need to bring up Gideon and that it might be best to A: get it over with and B: do it in a safe place. The fact that everyone was here made it an almost perfect time to do so, loathe as he was to destroy the happy comradery that had just started up again recently.  

Finally, after a moment of deciding whether to break the mood or not, Aaron cleared his throat. 

The talking died down as the rest of the room paused their conversations and turned towards him.

He dove right into it, knowing that sugar-coating it wouldn’t help, “I think we need to talk about Gideon.”

As expected, everyone besides Rossi and Spencer began to protest.  Spencer simply burrowed his head into Aaron’s shoulder, and he was quickly gripped tighter. The eighteen-year-old let them go on for a minute, focusing more on the expression on Rossi’s face, encouraging him that he was doing the right thing finally.

Once he decided they had said enough, he held up a hand and waited a few seconds until they quieted down again.

“Team,” he started, using the nickname Gideon had given their family years ago, “It’s been almost a year and we are all having issues; even me,” he admitted.

There were shocked looks exchanged by the remaining teens. Clearly he had done a much better job at hiding his feelings than he had originally thought.

“Yes, it has been really hard and,” when it looked like Derek was going to speak up he quickly added, “Let me finish please; completely before you comment and then we can talk, okay?”

He got scattered nods and decided it was safe to continue, “I want to start by saying that I know it’s been hard, I really do. But I also need you all to know that I am incredibly proud of you all.”

He looked carefully at each of his charges and when he looked down at Spencer, gave the young boy a quick squeeze and quick smile.

“You have all been doing so well and helping me so much, I could never have done this without you and I am absolutely serious about that. I know I haven’t been around to talk to all that much lately, but I’m going to do my best to change that. I’ve been impatient lately and I want you to know that, while I’m trying my best, I don’t know if I’m doing well enough.”

It was clear that everyone there wanted to object to that but Aaron didn’t give them the opportunity. Now that he had finished with the easy stuff – he almost gave a strangled laugh at the thought; easy – it was time to tackle the hard things that really needed to be said.

“I need you all to know that this wasn’t your fault. None of you,” Aaron thought he heard Rossi muttering about hypocrites under his breath but the young man pressed on, “This was Gideon’s choice and it was wrong. He never should have left and he certainly shouldn’t have left the way he had. And look at us now,” he gestured with one hand around the room, “We’re doing good. We are going to be okay, I promise.”

Aaron had never lied to them, so to the teens and young boy sitting, enraptured by their new guardian, the words he said must be true. There was simply no other option.

“If you have any problems or need help with anything, even it’s something simple like not wanting to eat,” he searched for a common food, “spaghetti, tell me. I’m going to do my best to listen and help, no matter what. It doesn’t even matter what it is.”

With that he paused and let everyone digest what had been said. It hadn’t been much, but it was important to say and remind them, something that he hadn’t done nearly enough of lately.

It was silent, with only the rough sounds of breathing and the shifting of positions for a while after he stopped. As Aaron tried to decide what to say next, he felt the little body next to him shift so that the boy was looking up at him.

“You aren’t going to leave us, are you?”

The innocent question cut through the air like a knife and Aaron turned, wrapping both arms around this innocent little boy that had been placed in his care and hurt more than anyone should. All of them had been, he noted as he looked around the room to see broken-hearted expressions. He was sure his expression mirrored theirs, because his heart had certainly felt like it just shattered.

He steeled himself and said, “Of course not Spencer, I love you all too much for that. And without you all, how would I even remember to eat.”

He smiled at the boy ensconced in his arms as he let the inside joke break through some of the tension that had sprung up with the asking of the boy’s question.

“Gideon said he loved us too,” the quiet voice responded, seeming to ring through the room even though it was almost whispered.

That stopped Aaron in his tracks and he scrambled for a good response.

“And that’s still true,” he finally decided on, serious once again, “He did and always will love us, in his own way. It might not be the same way we love each other, but I have no doubts that he does love us very much and his leaving didn’t change that at all.”

He paused for a moment before continuing, “But lucky for you,” he directed his comment to Spencer but made sure his other charges knew it was directed towards them as well, “nobody loves little boys named Spencer more than me and I couldn’t possibly leave.”

He waited for the inevitable, “Why not?” before he continued.

“Because I’m not him and I would die if I left any of you.”

The answer was said clearly and sincerely, but there was an underlying tone of vulnerability beneath it, leaving no questions as to whether he was telling the truth or not.

Derek was the next to pipe in, after the surprise of the revealing answer wore off, and crawled over to the other side of Spencer, hugging him from behind so he was being squished by his two older brothers.

“C’mon Pretty Boy, you should know you’re not getting rid of us that easily.”

“Darn right you’re not,” Penelope agreed, joining the small group and attaching herself firmly to both Derek and Spencer after Aaron let go so as to make room for her.

JJ not to be left out, suddenly appeared beside them and kissed Spencer on the forehead, before wrapping her arms tightly around the whole group and squeezing to good-hearted complaints of being squished to death.

JJ then laughed and let go, making her way over to Aaron and reaching around him to pull him firmly into a hug. He clung to her for dear life for a minute, showing just how much this had actually affected him, before letting go and gesturing Emily over.

Emily, gently shook her head and stayed where she was. The three youngest looked at each other before determining that that would not be allowed. They sprang up and dove at her, laughing madly, adding her to their hug whether she wanted to or not.

Aaron gently let go of JJ and pushed her towards the group, giving her the small excuse she needed to run over and add herself to the pile.

The young man watched his family contentedly, until he felt a presence come up beside him. He turned questioning eyes up at his uncle, who slowly lowered himself to sit beside the younger.

“I told you,” he said as they watched the teens roughhouse, being careful not to hurt the young boy among them, “They’re going to be okay.”

“You all are,” he added, smiling at Aaron.

Aaron was a lot more confident in this simple fact then he had been earlier that day, but he knew that regardless of whether it was true or not, it would be a long road ahead of them, but that was something that he wouldn’t change for the world.

He and Rossi got deep into a lighthearted conversation as the noises of rough-housing across the room slowly got quieter and quieter. They were so into their conversation that they didn’t notice the absence of sounds until long after it stopped and JJ and Emily came up and sat to Aaron’s right, against another chair that was a foot or so from the chair he was leaning on.

When the two men looked up, they were met with an adorable sight. Derek was laying on the bottom, with Penny pulled into his side, her head resting on his shoulder. On top of them both lay Spencer, with limbs sprawled everywhere. His head was laying on Derek’s other shoulder and his body curved so that his long and gangly legs could drape across Penny’s hip.

All the four did for a few minutes was watch the gentle rise and fall of the three’s chests. It was the most peace and calm Aaron had felt in a long time and all he wanted was to live in this moment forever, as per usual, however, that simply could not be the case.

“Aaron?” this inquiry came from Emily.

“Hmm,” Aaron tore his gaze from his three youngest and turned toward the teen.

“Whatever happened to Haley?”

The question froze Aaron for a second and he tensed before relaxing. He had said that they could come to him with anything and he should have known that the questions were never going to be easy ones. No point in starting off easy was there? Why ease yourself in when you could start with a full on frontal assault?

“She wasn’t prepared for me not being able to spend every extra minute I had with her. She was upset that she wasn’t my first priority.”

That was the simple version but saying that Haley had wanted him to give up his charges and run away with her made her into a ‘bad guy’, and that was something that Aaron didn’t want. He never wanted to complain about people and unload about their faults to the teens and child that were in his care. They had every right to form their own opinions about people and he refused to cloud their perceptions. Yes, she had been selfish and yes, he was upset that she could ever suggest something that cruel but he refused to let that cloud how they thought of her. That was between them and only them.

Luckily that answer seemed to satisfy Emily, although JJ did give him a look that said she didn’t exactly buy that.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before some silent cue had him and Rossi getting up and going to the kitchen to finish their conversation and pack up some leftovers to take home along with the groceries that he had originally brought in.

Eventually, the conversation stopped and everything had been packed and was ready to go. Aaron walked in and stopped in the doorway to the living room, seeing that JJ and Emily had added themselves to each side of the pile and were now fast asleep as well.

Standing in the door to the living room with Uncle Rossi’s arm around his shoulders, looking in at the haphazard pile of his charges from JJ all the way down to Spencer, he basked in the feeling of his family just being here together and thinking that maybe, just maybe, Rossi was right; they would be okay.

Quick Bonus:

As Aaron pulled into the driveway he could only hope that it was going to be easier getting his charges out of the van then it was getting them into it.

JJ was awake beside him in the passenger seat and he nodded to her, knowing she would get the girls out, leaving him with the two boys. Aaron stepped out of the car into the chilly night air and opened the door behind the driver’s seat carefully, ready to catch Spencer should he fall out. Luckily the boy was leaning the opposite way and had toppled himself on Derek.

The eldest reached around the sleeping nine-year-old to undo his seat belt. Once that was done, he gently picked up the boy, an act made much harder by Derek’s sleepy insistence that Spencer was his and that he didn’t want to give the boy up.

Aaron stifled a laugh as he adjusted the gangly child in his arms so he was holding the boneless boy across his front, with one arm under his butt as the sleeping boy certainly couldn’t hold himself up it seemed. He was so dead to the world that he hadn’t stirred through the whole process. 

Derek, on the other hand, was looking around blearily, and Aaron only had to offer him a helping hand as he stepped out of the car. The dark-skinned teen was so tired as to be almost unable to hold himself up and the eldest, with one charge occupying either arm, somehow managed to close the door and make their way inside.

A quick glance at JJ showed that she had the girls well in hand and Aaron turned to begin the odd procession into the house. He led the boys upstairs and stepped into the shared room of both boys. When they had had the option, they had declined splitting up and had continued to live with one twin bed on either side of the room and the bed on the left was where he took his sleeping charge.

By this time, Derek had woken up enough to take care of himself, and the oldest busied himself with changing the youngest into a pair of pyjamas as he listened to the sounds of the teen behind him doing the same.

Once he had the young boy tucked in, he turned to Derek to make sure he was still okay. He was, thankfully, and Aaron said that he would be back in a second before leaving the room, confident that the teen could continue himself from here on out.

He heard muted talking coming from behind the girl’s closed door, assuring him that things were alright with all of his charges.

He continued back down the stairs and out the front door, getting the groceries out of the car and locking it once he was done.

As he entered the kitchen and began to put the groceries away, he thought about the day. It really had turned out well and he was confident that, while there would be bumps in the road, that everything would be alright.

Exhausted himself, he put most of the groceries away without thinking much else and headed upstairs. He passed the girl’s room, – the biggest room in the house and really it had to be to fit three girls – the boy’s room, and the bathroom, all of which were quiet, before arriving in his room.

He changed quickly and walked down the hall to check on his charges before giving in to sleep himself.

He opened the door to the girl’s room and almost had a panic attack when he saw all of the beds empty. He rushed down the hall to check on the boys, freaking out silently as he didn’t want to wake them either.

All of the scenarios and plans running through his head ceased when he opened the door.

Derek had joined Spencer on the left bed and the girls had claimed the other. It seemed that the bed hadn’t been big enough for all of them though, because JJ was scrunched into a ball at the end, with a pillow and no blanket. Penny and Emily were cuddled up together under the covers and had their own legs pulled up, giving JJ enough room to lay at the bottom.

On the other bed, Spencer had pushed himself as close to Derek as he could, lying almost on top of him and leaving a third of the bed free.

Aaron gave an indulgent smile and went to his room, grabbing a pillow and the comforter off his bed. He dragged them both down the hall and entered the boy’s room with them.

He gently laid the blanket on JJ, who promptly pulled it closer and shifted her body so she was lying more on her front than her side and leaving no chance of stealing the blanket back.

Aaron stifled a surprised laugh and just stood in the centre of the room, looking around at his family.

They had needed this, he realized. This close companionship that claimed they would always be there, that they needed each other, that they loved each other.

He knew they hated Gideon’s leaving, he had hated it to. Even at the time, though, he had known that if they could brave it, then he could brave it for them too. No one deserved that more than them.

Gideon couldn’t destroy this, even if it seemed like he had. This existed outside of him, it was bigger than him, draping the people who engaged in it within its embrace and never letting them go. It dwarfed him and made him feel small, the knowledge that this was what was going to get them through, and that this was something private. A secret that only they were privy to. It filled him with an indescribable joy as he collected himself and finally wandered over to the boy’s bed. Lifting Spencer enough that he could slip under the boy and share the bed with Derek on one side and him on the other, letting Spencer rest in the comfort of their embrace.

As he drifted off to sleep, surrounded by warmth and his unconquerable family, he finally felt like he, himself, was going to be okay and that he would be content to bare the brunt of life’s storms for the precious family he had. They would keep him going strong, like they always had before.