Chapter Text
Families were difficult. Marcy knew that. This was extra true for her family since as long as she knew. She was an affair baby. Marcy knew that her half-siblings knew that her aunts and uncles knew that, and in fact most of her town knew that. It meant, that even though the whole thing had very little to do with her, it still somehow became her fault. Like it hadn’t started before she was born. Either way, it meant there was a reason her father had left his first wife and packed his very pregnant girlfriend and driven them all the way to Minnesota.
The distant still somehow didn’t matter when it ended up with his first wife and two other children on his lawn screaming at him when Marcy was five years old. Starting kindergarten had not been fun.
So, while her half-brother Mathew had eventually realized that she in fact had 0 involvement with the affair, her oldest sister Margaret had never seemed to get the memo. It was fine. It didn’t bother her at all. It shouldn’t bother her. Margaret was already 20 when she was born, after all. But that was neither here nor there and her older sister’s maturity level meant very little to her.
Not being invited to her life events meant very little to Marcy. So, what if her wedding invitation was only address to the father of the bride, begrudgingly. So, what if she only found out about her niece and nephew through relatives. It shouldn’t matter. It didn’t.
What did it matter that Margaret only even met Phillip because Marcy was best friends with his little sister? What did it matter that Marcy never cut her off and always invited her to every big or small event in her life? What did it matter that Marcy desperately wanted that connection, to talk to her big sister about her high school sweetheart Bobby and how she thinks she’ll marry him one day? What did it matter when Matt gives her a call begging her to get her blood work and bone marrow tested? Margaret would never ask, would never set down her pride to ask Marcy for help, which was stupid. Danny was 4, was just a little kid, if Marcy was a match she’d gladly give anything to help. That’s what family did!
Not that she could. No, all the blood work did was tell the nearly twenty-one-year-old that she was in fact pregnant.
Marcy hadn’t known what was worse, the morning sickness or demand to have her unborn baby tested to. Margaret never responded after she told her a firm no way in hell was, she is putting her baby through that. She never sent news about Daniel, seeming ignored the birth announcement, the sad letter explain no Marcy wasn’t compatible, nor the wedding invitation.
No, Matt had walked her down the aisle, with dad and mom sitting on the bride’s side with baby Robbie in their arms. Phillip little sister Robin as her maid of honor. She had no other family on her dad’s side there, just a scattering few aunts and cousins from her mom’s dotted throughout the celebration.
What did it matter that she didn’t share her first pregnancy with her sister, the following two she lost, or the birth of her beautiful baby girl? What did it matter?
Families were difficult. They were messy. They could hurt you in unimaginable ways.
…
They can hurt in unimaginable ways.
It was just after Robbie’s sixth birthday, a bright sunny day in the middle of March when the phone call came in.
Chuckling fondly, Bobby lifted both children from the back of the car and beginning the trek inside. Marcy couldn’t hold back a smile, when Bobby met her eyes, tilting his head to indicate their now six-year-old trying to muffle little giggles as he pretended to sleep. Grabbing the cookie tray stacked high with leftovers courtesy of Nash matriarch, she followed close behind.
They had recently moved into a house, just fifteen minutes from Bobby’s mom’s place, and twenty from his brothers. It was directly in-between the elementary school the children were enrolled in, and Bobby’s new permeant fire station. It was a two-story cookie cutter, Bobby had mutter, having poked and probed every corner of the house after they lost their apartment more than a year ago due to an accidental fire.
It had three bedrooms, so Robbie and Brook could have their own rooms. Bobby had talked about finishing the half-furnished basement and making a guest room and the other half a playroom. She wasn’t sure how long it would take him to do any of that because the real seller of the house, possibly the only reason Bobby said yes was the updated kitchen. His “playroom” she had joking teased, watching him nearly spin around in glee as he took in the full thing. He still hasn’t unpacked all of his kitchen things, from their many, many boxes.
It made Marcy wonder if she should surprise him, if she got him too much kitchen stuff as it was her go to for his birthday and Christmas. She always knew what new kitchen device he was eyeing, so it had been an easy go to.
They still had a few boxes scattered throughout the house. One in the living room filled with her mom’s old throw blankets she wanted to throw in the wash before putting them out. Robbie’s books were in a box underneath another filled with his art supplies. While Brook had an entire box just too stuffed animals dressed as first responders that needed to find a space.
So, when she walked in and saw Bobby half up the stairs stop when the house phone rang out, she put the food on the boxes of summer clothes that hadn’t made the way up stairs yet and ran to the kitchen to grab the phone. She still had a fond smile on her face, still felt the giddy joy of knowing how much Robbie had loved his party.
“Hello, Nash residence.” She fumbled, having put the phone to her ear before checking the caller Id.
“Is this Marcy Johnstone Nash?”
A chill rolled down her spine. Turning quickly, she walked towards the stairs to get an eye on Bobby. The voice was gruff but kind, but the question and seriousness of the tone made her queasy, if Bobby wasn’t in front of her, she’d have assumed it was the call.
“It is.”
“Hello, Mrs. Nash, this is the Child protective Services of Pennsylvania, I’m calling about your niece and nephews.”
“Oh God.” She whispered, her heart ponding in her ears. “Is- are Margaret and-“
“Your sister and her husband are fine.” He cut her off gently, “But they are being charged with child endangerment, neglect, falsifying documents, and abuse.”
“Oh God that’s so much worse.”
“Would you be able to come to Dauphin County children and youth department?”
“I- they moved away from Lancaster. I know, it’s no problem, I can book a flight and can be there tomorrow. Are the kids- are Maddie and Danny, okay?”
“Maddie is with a temporary placement and has been since the beginning of the week, it took us a bit to track you down Mrs. Nash, both Danny and Evan are in being seen at Penn State.”
“…Evan?”
Bobby was packing one of his work duffle bags for her up in their bedrooms. She had left the task to him while she booted up their office computer, waiting impatiently so she could start looking up last minute flight to the Harrisburg airport, the closet airport according to the Agent.
She had been on the phone since the initial call. Calling her brother first to demand answers that she already knew he didn’t have. Being hundreds of miles away on a Navy base was a big excuse. That call alone had taken over an hour, having to argue about a family emergency with so many men that were probably significantly bigger than her and were getting more and more pissed off at her yelling at them to let her talk to her brother now. She had swiftly called her Robin’s phone only seconds after hanging up with the Navy after only ten minutes on the phone with Matthew. But she had gotten the same disheartening answer- no one knew about Evan.
Now she was on her last call, her parents. She could hear her father's muffled response from besides her mother, breathing heavily and whispered prayers between the two as she told them the situation.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” she said over the phone, having called her mother right after, “I don’t know what Margaret did, but I’m going to check on the kids.” Taking a deep breath, and wincing at the ticket prices from last minutes flights, “I need you to ask dad if he knows anything about Evan.”
She clicked the mouse fast, willing it to print faster, to work faster.
“No, mom I already called Matthew, and he called Laruen. No one, and I mean no one seemed to have known they had a third baby.”
Marcy wanted to throw up. She had no idea what was going on, what Margaret had done, and it seemed no one else did either. Robin and her parents also didn’t know about the baby or the move, so for the first time ever it wasn’t a Marcy thing.
“He’s about a year younger than Brook that’s all they told me.”
“What are you going to do?”
She stared at her packed bag in front of her, feeling like the entire floor was gone from under her.
“I don’t know. Matthew is overseas and still has a year in his contract. Robin shares an apartment with those friends from Hawkins. Dads to old and Lauren might be their grandmother, but she already said she can only take one of them. She doesn’t have the room or money for three children.”
It not her mom that speaks next but Bobby, putting a hand on her shoulder and drawing her close.
“I’ll call Charlie and some of the guys, we can set the basement up as some bedrooms up for Maddie and Danny. It’s only been a few days so I’m sure Brook won’t mind sharing again, put Evan in with her. It’ll be tight.” He admitted with a shrug, “But it can get done. We can do this.”
Tears slipped down her face. Carefully he dried her eyes before taking the phone from her.
“Hi, Sarah, it’s okay, you don’t have to make the drive out to us right now. I’ll call my captain in the morning and take some time off to get downstairs ready. We got this. Now, her flight is in a few hours, so I’m going to need the phone to make some calls before we head to the airport. I’ll give you a call back tomorrow, okay? Marcy will give you a call to. Yes, have a good night.”
“Okay,” he exhaled, after hanging up, staring at her dripping with concern. “That was a lot.”
“A lot? Bobby, she hid a whole baby from everyone! She- I’m so scared of what she did to him. You remember what she asked us to do to Robbie.” She whimpered, unable to stop herself as the tears seemed to spill over and cloud her vision.
“I know.” Speaking softly, he reached forward and drew her in, tucking her head under his chin.
“We know now. We can help now.” He promised.
The next night Bobby picked up the phone, the gut instinct his father and grandfather always praised him for already letting him know what ever would come from this call wouldn't be good. So, he waited patiently with mounting dread as his wife cried over the line before she could choke out.
“Bobby it is so much worse than we thought.”