Chapter Text
One night when Jeremy was 4 years old he was woken up by his door creaking open. He kept his eyes closed and kept his breath even so his parents wouldn't suspect he was awake. He heard quiet footsteps, his dads, getting closer. When he spoke it was barely even a whisper.
“Jeremy, mon lapin” his dad paused, taking a deep breath. “I'm sorry but I can't stay here anymore. There are people who want to hurt me… which is normal, but these fools have made it clear they are willing to hurt you to get what they want.'' Jeremy was tempted to open one of his eyes a bit to see his dad. He sounded so sad. He wanted to ask when he would be back. Would he be back in time to take him to that baseball game he promised he would?
His dad answered his unvoiced question unaware it was even being asked.
“I know I promised to take you to that game and I wish I could stay at least that long but I have no time. I must leave tonight. I have put this off for far too long" Jeremy heard his dad stand up and his quiet footsteps getting farther away.
“Goodbye Jeremy. I will always love you” his dad said before closing the door.
Jeremy finally opened his eyes and whispered to his empty room.
“I love you too Dad”
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The next morning when Jeremy woke up he started looking for his dad. Maybe he hasn't left yet. After all, he had a lot of brothers he had to say goodbye to. He peeked into each one of his brothers' rooms, careful to not wake any of them but he didn't see his dad in any of them.
He eventually decided to go downstairs to look there but he got stopped by his mom in the living room, tears in her eyes.
“Jeremy my baby come here,” she said, grabbing him in a tight hug as soon as he got close.
“What happened?”
“Your father…” she said before her voice hitched into a sob burying her face into his shoulder.
“MA ARE YOU OK” he heard one of his older brothers, jack, shout from upstairs. It didn't take long after that for the two of them to be surrounded by his brothers all trying to comfort their mom.
Eventually, she had calmed down enough to speak.
“Your father… he got in a car accident last night. He, he didn't make it” she said trailing off at the end. The entire room was blanketed in silence.
“Didn't make it to where?” Jeremy asked. Maybe she knew where his dad went. Did he get lost?
The entire room turned to look at him and the tense silence continued for a few moments before his oldest brother Henry spoke up.
“Hey Remy, how about you come take a walk with me? This is going to be a boring adult conversation you don't want to hear it." Henry stood up and held out his hand for Jeremy to grab, he felt it shaking slightly when he did.
Jeremy thought that the conversation had been more confusing than boring but he wasn't going to turn down an opportunity to go with his brother.
“Can we go to the park?”
“Yeah, we can do that,” Henry said looking at him with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.