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"You know it wasn't actually your fault, right? He didn't mean it.”
"I know, I didn't take him seriously, not now."
"Exactly, he's just overwhelmed by all of this and needs someone to take it out on."
"It'd be nice if he found someone else for once."
"Yeah."
And then Jake was gone. Run off to try and figure out the mess Uncle Christian had gotten himself into. It was mean of her, but Tinny half thought that Uncle Jake should leave Christian to figure his own mess out for once.
Everything that's happened in the last 24 hours. Has really put her on edge. Would her grandfather even still want her around now? Would he try to send her back to her mother? And if he did would her mother take her back?
Tinny had only been back in St. John's for 6 months, her mother usually didn't come back for her for 2 or 3 years.
All of that was on top of the stress of almost losing her grandfather, and then Jake drops the bomb about Christian into the mix. If she listened to what Poppy said, then all of it was Jake's fault. She was pretty sure none of it was Jake's fault. It was just bad luck and bad timing. Tinny was sure her uncle hadn’t left Poppy to shovel the driveway alone on purpose.
She was pretty sure Jake had fought with Christian and then gotten drunk and slept in his car the night before. He was probably too hungover to get up early to shovel or even notice the sirens from the ambulance.
It did piss her off a bit that Jake had been unreachable all morning and she'd had to deal with Poppy having a heart attack with just Rose to help. Rose who didn't even like her and definitely wanted her gone.
Jake was usually her closest ally, but this time when she got ditched by her mom her uncle was so caught up in his divorce and the blonde cop, Leslie, that he barely seemed to have time for her. She knew it wasn't fair of her, Jake was having a hard time, but it still sucked.
-
The night of the day Poppy had a heart attack shovelling snow, and Christian was gone and things were rather tense waiting for news on her grandfather. They were waiting to find out how his bypass surgery had gone.
Tinny wasn't sure where Jake had got off to, but he wasn’t at the hospital. He’d gone to execute the plan him and Poppy had come up with to prevent Christian from going to jail and he hadn’t come back. She had expected him to come back. It didn’t matter much anyway now. Rose was insisting everyone went home to sleep, and she was taking her up on it.
When she got home the GTO was in the driveway, so her uncle was home. Inside, Jake was sitting on the couch looking like the world was ending.
"You alright there, b’y?"
"Wha? Oh, Tinny, you're back. Is Dad out of surgery?"
"Ah, no. Des and I weren’t needed there so we decided to go home to sleep."
"Oh."
"Are you good? Are you drunk?"
"Eh, maybe a little."
"Today really sucked, huh?", Tinny said as she flopped on the couch beside Jake.
"Did it ever. Fadder keeps trying to die on us, and Leslie said I was ruining her life. Oh, and my brother is on the run. Fun times all around. Having a pint or 5 did not help like I hoped, and now I'm tellin’ my woes to a kid, so I should probably call it quits for the day.”
"I asked, so tell me whatever you want. I'm not a little kid anymore. I can help. Leslie really said you were ruining her life?"
"She said I got her mixed up and she couldn't think and her career is too important and I'm screwing it up, so she can't be with me. So, the lesson for today is I ruin everything. You probably shouldn't even be talking to me niece, might ruin your life too."
"Jake, come on."
"I'm going to bed, and you should too."
That wasn't how she was expecting a conversation with her uncle to go. It really had been the worst day all around. Hopefully in the morning they'd get good news about Poppy, and everyone would be in a better mood. This was all too depressing for her to deal with anymore.
End