Chapter Fifteen
“Oh shit!”
JJ shielded his face from the intense heat that suddenly pummeled into him. His eyes were momentarily blinded by smoke.
With no time to recover, he threw himself back into the room and started to shake the bed frame.
“Woofy, go wake moms!” he said, then louder when Woofy continued to look at him unsurely, “MOMS!”
Woofy sped off and JJ covered his mouth and nose while putting his hand on Kayden.
“Kayden, wake up! Wake up! NOW!”
Kayden woke up gruffly and held his head up.
“What’s going on?”
And then he saw the smoke.
JJ yanked him clean off the bed.
“Come on, we gotta get the girls!”
He ran back out to the hallway and stumbled back at the force of the thick, black smoke pummeling through the air. He peered over the railings and could see flames licking the floor below. Holding his arm over his mouth again, he barreled through the smoke towards the girls’ room.
“Emily, Lily, wake up!” he shouted as he came and rattled their beds, “Robyn, get up, get up!”
The girls all woke up and rubbed their eyes. JJ swooped both Lily and Emily up in either arm like he would when he was pretending to use them as weights to make them giggle. No one was giggling now.
“There’s a fire. We gotta get out of here!”
“Dumb joke,” Robyn started to grumble and turn over in bed but then she smelled the smoke that had come in when JJ barreled through the door.
Robyn looked at JJ with deep, scared eyes.
“JJ?”
“Come on, kid,” JJ said quickly, “We have to get out of here NOW!”
Robyn quickly nodded and almost tripped over her feet trying to get up.
“Everyone cover your mouths!” JJ instructed and the girls all pulled their pajama tops over their faces.
Even Lily was too scared to speak.
JJ hurried everyone back into the hallway just as Willow and Tara were running from their room.
“Kids!” Willow spluttered and coughed as she grabbed onto each of them.
“Where’s Kayden?” Tara asked, her eyes roaming desperately to see through the smoke.
JJ looked around in confusion.
“He was…he was with me…”
Tara gulped. She pushed JJ’s back.
“Go, get your sisters out, go!” she instructed, then picked Robyn up for Willow to hold, “Take Robyn, I have to find Kayden!”
“Tara,” Willow looked at her, afraid.
But there was no time.
“Willow, go!”
Tara turned on her heels, covered her mouth, and ran back down the hallway.
“Kayden!” she called, able to physically hear the flames now as they burned the place to the ground fiber by fiber, “Kayden!”
From the floor where JJ had accidentally deposited him, Kayden’s head rose and his eyes narrowed, hazy and confused.
“…Mom?”
Tara burst into the boys’ room and found Kayden on the floor. She bent down and tried to help him up.
“Come on, love. We have to get out of here.”
She hurried him up. He tried to move his arm and his head reeled back with pain.
“OW!”
Tara looked at him with fretful concern.
“Come on, honey,” she insisted and pushed him all the way to the narrow staircase, “Go, go, go!”
Jaded and still a little confused, Kayden got down the stairs as quickly as he could.
The sight below promptly sobered him.
Everything was ensconced in flames and the smell of burning was so pungent it made him gag. The smoke was even thicker and even blacker down there and that prompted Kayden to run as fast as he could out of the front door, swinging on its hinges.
“Kayden!” Willow screamed with relief and threw her hands around him as he ran over to where they were all gathered.
Everyone was out there now, not just Willow and JJ and the girls, but the inhabitants of the houses either side, all standing feet away from the burning house in their pajamas, shocked.
Kayden got that pain in his arm again but he didn’t object to Willow hugging him.
“Momma,” he breathed, wondering how he had never realized before how fresh clean air felt.
Willow rubbed his back for a second, then two. Then her breath started to become ragged.
“Where’s Tara?”
Kayden spun around in alarm.
“She was…she was right behind me.”
JJ suddenly stood to his full height.
“Mom?” he called, which swiftly turned into a screech, “MOM!”
“MOM!” Kayden screamed, tears pricking his eyes.
Both he and Kayden took a step forward at the same time and both Jesse and Xander anticipated this and grabbed them each around the middle from behind before they could go running back into that burning building on the brink of collapse.
Thankfully, nobody thought to grab Willow.
“TARA!” she screamed as she ran back into the house, watching as the flames crept up the stairs they’d all run down moments before but now were nothing but a death trap, “TARA!”
She covered her mouth and tried to look around but the smoke was so thick.
“TARA,” she screamed again, muffled but there was no answer.
It was so hot Willow could feel her sweat evaporate as soon as it formed. Each breath singed her esophagus.
Panic rising in her throat, she made a step toward the stairs in case Tara was trapped up there.
And that’s when she saw her.
Tara, lying unprotected and unconscious at the base of the stairs with the handrail from the staircase pinning her down.
Willow dropped to her knees and tried to lift the handrail off, but it only served to burn her hands. She rolled her sleeves down over them and tried again but it just wouldn’t budge.
It was too heavy.
Willow couldn't push her nor pull her nor drag her nor save her.
Tears stung her hot cheeks as she wondered whether to abandon Tara and run back outside or abandon her children and lay down right there to die with her love.
Instead, she just kept on trying to lift the rail.
That was her answer, she supposed.
And then, by some force of god, the handrail lifted. Willow looked up sharply and saw that that force of god was Alexander Lavelle Harris The First.
“You grab her head, I’ve got her legs,” Xander called through the haze, “One, two, three!”
Willow cradled her precious wife’s head and together she and Xander ran out of the building with Tara swinging between them.
As Willow stepped over the threshold, the whole place rattled and then the second floor crackled and sagged into the first, leaving a pile of burning rubble right at the spot that the stairs met the floor.
Right where they’d been moments before.
“MOM!” both Kayden and JJ were still screaming and rushed over when Xander and Willow brought her over to a safe spot on the grass.
“Is she okay?” JJ panted.
Willow held her hands up helplessly.
Anya marched up and started smacking Xander on the chest.
“You big stupid, stinking idiot!” she screeched, pummeling him in the chest, then throwing herself around him, “My hero.”
Willow had fallen onto her butt beside Tara, her hair singed and black marks against her cheeks. She sought Tara’s hand and tried to catch her breath.
She could hear sirens somewhere behind the rushing of her own blood but then suddenly there was a fresh tussle of commotion in the ground.
“Where’s Woofy?!” Robyn exclaimed, the breath catching in her throat, “WOOFY!”
“Woofy!!” the twins called out and then everyone was joining in.
“C’mon boy!” JJ called and did their special whistle.
Willow couldn’t bring herself to tell them how it looked in there. She closed her eyes and new tears formed.
Then there was a cheer.
Willow opened her eyes again and saw Aurey barreling toward them, holding Woofy by the scruff of his neck in her mouth. The white of his markings looked a little ashy but he was otherwise unharmed.
“Good GIRL!” Jesse said with a thick lump of emotion in his tone as he bent down to pet Aurey, “You’re the best girl!”
Robyn dropped to hold Woofy close to her and only let go when the others demanded a turn.
The sirens got closer and Willow finally saw the flashing lights of an ambulance coming up the road. Moments later she had to move over so the paramedics could load Tara onto the stretcher and then there was a hand on her shoulder and another paramedic was asking if she was okay.
Finally, she snapped to it.
“My children,” she said croakily and coughed to clear her throat, “My children.”
She jumped up and walked back to them. She grabbed Emily.
“She has asthma,” she looked over to Kayden, who was holding his arm limply over his chest, “He hurt his arm.”
The paramedic nodded.
“Everybody who was in that building needs to be checked over. But I’ll take these two in with me.”
Emily looked up at Willow and burst into overdue tears.
“Momma,” she wailed quietly.
Lily was still stuck in shock, her mouth open but no words coming out. Robyn and JJ both looked queasy.
“Was it the fairies?” Emily cried, rubbing her eyes with her hand, “Did I do something wrong? Was I bad?”
“No, Emmy…” Willow replied as her head dropped into her hands helplessly.
Kayden looked around quickly. Tara was halfway down the road in an ambulance; the other adults were all consoling their own scared children or in Becky and Brian’s case, guiding the fire truck in.
JJ usually took over big brother mode at this point but he seemed to be in shock. So it was Kayden’s turn to step up.
“No Emily. It’s not your fault.”
Emily looked up with glassy eyes and sought reassurance.
“Was it an evil fairy?”
Kayden shook his head.
“I don’t think so, Em. It wasn’t anybody’s fault.”
Emily looked away and Kayden felt like he’d failed.
“And the fairies, they helped us all get out,” he suggested with a quick nod.
Emily looked back at him slowly.
“They did?”
Kayden nodded.
“Yeah, they told Woofy to wake us and helped Aurey find him when he got lost.”
“Really?” Emily asked, her tears drying up.
“Of course,” Kayden replied as if it was obvious, “Dogs and fairies can speak to each other.”
Emily looked over at Woofy, who was licking Robyn’s face. She smiled as if there wasn’t still a burning building crumbling into nothingness behind her.
The fire brigade got there and instructed them all to move away so Willow quickly organized who was going to bring JJ, Robyn, and Lily to the hospital while she rode in with Emily and Kayden on the second ambulance. But then Lily found her voice and flat out refused to be separated from Emily so she came with them too.
“Let your brother sit down,” Willow instructed as she moved Lily from the collapsible seat over to the gurney with Emily.
Willow had to stand at the back and hold onto some spine boards to stay steady. The paramedic looked over everyone but didn’t seem too concerned.
“This will need an x-ray,” he said, nodding at Kayden’s arm, “But there’s no symptoms of dangerous smoke inhalation. What about you? How long were you in there?”
“I had to go back in,” Willow swallowed, her voice trembling, “But I feel fine. My hands just sting a little.”
The paramedic indicated for her to turn them over. She did.
Even Willow was shocked by how bad they looked. Raw and cut up and singed red and black. Deep blisters forming.
They didn’t even hurt.
Kayden’s face scrunched when he saw her and he physically blocked her from Lily or Emily’s view.
Willow swallowed and turned them back over while the paramedic wrapped them up in gauze.
Lily giggled when she saw them.
“You have lobster hands, Momma!”
“Yeah, kiddo,” Willow smiled weakly, “How’s everyone doing?”
“That was scary,” Emily said quietly and Lily agreed with a heavy nod.
“It was very scary,” Willow replied, swallowing again.
“Is Mommy going to be okay?” Lily asked with an anxious twist in her voice.
Willow just nodded and the girls started to yawn, their disruption of sleep starting to catch up with them. They ended up curled up together on the gurney and the paramedic was kind enough to lift them into a shared wheelchair which he pushed into the ER when it was apparent neither Willow nor Kayden could.
They were all brought right in and the girls were transferred to a bed together. Thankfully, as a regional ER, it wasn’t all that busy and there was a three-bed room free for them all to wait in. Willow used her lobster hands to pull back all of the curtains so it was open for them all.
She stopped in front of Kayden’s bed and put her gauze claws on Kayden’s cheeks.
“Are you okay?”
Kayden looked down, then up again and nodded.
“You were very brave,” Willow said gently and Kayden’s eyes filled up with tears.
“I-If it wasn’t for me…”
Willow tilted his head up and looked into his eyes softly.
“If it wasn’t for you, we never would have known that our family wasn’t complete yet.”
Kayden’s eyes spilled with tears and Willow held him to her chest.
She was starting to feel the pain in her hands now but hid it well.
“Is Mom here?” Kayden asked meekly.
Willow looked over her shoulder as if Tara might just appear. She gulped.
“I think so. I’ll go—”
Just then a woman in a lab coat came in and looked between Kayden and Willow and then the sleeping girls quickly.
“Okay. I’m Dr. Garcia. Let’s get you all seen to.”
Willow started walking toward the door.
“I just need to go find my—”
“Oh, no, ma’am you need to stay right here,” the doctor replied with a resolute shake of her head, “I need to tend to those burns and get you hooked up to an IV right away.”
Willow reluctantly let herself be led back to the middle bed.
“My son hurt his arm and my daughter has asthma,” she said quietly.
The doctor nodded toward each of the other beds.
“I’ll check them over right away.”
“Do you know if my wife came in?” Willow asked, trying to keep the tremble of fear out of her voice for Kayden’s sake, “We were all in the fire but she was in it the longest, and she got knocked out.”
Dr. Garcia had Willow lie back so she could put a line in.
“I haven’t seen her. She may have been taken straight up to the burns unit.”
Willow closed her eyes.
“Heart rate’s going up,” Dr. Garcia muttered to herself as she placed the pulse oximeter on Willow’s finger.
“I’m just worried about my family, okay?” Willow replied and tensed her jaw as new pain throbbed in her hands.
The doctor nodded understandingly.
“I’m going to get some pain meds for you and your son and I’ll be back to check you all over, make sure you haven’t inhaled any dangerous amounts of smoke.”
She went out again and returned with an emesis basin. An orderly pushing a wheelchair accompanied her. She left the dish on the table between Willow and Kayden’s bed and handed Kayden two pills and then a plastic cup of water for him to swallow them.
“Mr. Jackson here is going to take you to x-ray,” she said with a smile as the orderly came over with the chair.
Kayden looked apprehensive.
“It’s okay,” Willow reassured, “It only takes a second and doesn’t hurt a bit.”
Kayden nodded slowly. He knew that; it wasn’t his first trip to the ER. But it was the first one where he wasn’t afraid to go home after.
The orderly brought him away while the doctor pushed a syringe into Willow’s IV to deliver her some pain medication.
“Rate your pain from 1 to 10?”
“Six,” Willow answered, swallowing to keep some moisture in her mouth, “But I got shot through the heart once so I have a pretty high threshold.”
Dr. Garcia arched an eyebrow.
“Literally or figuratively?”
“Literally,” Willow nodded as she held her palms out to be looked at, “Though technically it missed the heart by a few millimeters.”
“I should think so,” Dr. Garcia replied, shaking her head, “You’ve got some nice second-degree burns here. Any medical conditions I should know about? Any other parts of your body shot up?”
Willow shook her head.
“Okay, then,” Dr. Garcia replied evenly, “I’m going to redress these and then have a little look at your chest. Those pain meds should be kicking in.”
Willow nodded slowly.
“Yes. Pain easing…so sleepy.”
Dr. Garcia lay Willow down.
“Just let me make sure you haven’t inhaled too much smoke. Any coughing or shortness of breath? Tightness, headache?”
Willow blinked heavily and shook her head.
“No, I feel fine.”
The doctor checked Willow’s eyes, nose, and throat and listened to her chest. She nodded in satisfaction.
“Your hands will take a few weeks to heal but they should recover with limited damage. I hope you have someone to be your hands until then.”
Willow was suddenly very awake.
“Tara!”
“Your wife?” Dr. Garcia guessed and Willow nodded, worried, “I’ll see if I can get a status update once I’m done here.”
She put her stethoscope back around her neck.
“I need to wake your little girls again and check them over. Especially the one with asthma. Was she given her inhaler at the scene?”
Willow shook her head helplessly.
“No, all our stuff…”
The doctor nodded sympathetically.
“Of course. But nothing in the ambulance?”
Willow looked ashen.
“They said she was okay. I-I didn’t…I didn’t think…”
The doctor stepped back so Willow could go to them.
Willow instinctively went to touch them and had to pull back awkwardly.
“Lily, Emily,” she called gently, “We’re in the hospital. The nice doctor lady here is going to make sure you’re both okay. Wake up, good girls.”
As they roused, Kayden was wheeled back into the room. His arm was in a sling now.
Willow came over and again went to hold his face, but couldn’t.
“My poor boy,” she sympathized instead.
“It doesn’t even hurt that bad since I took the painkillers,” Kayden shrugged softly and looked down to hide blushing cheeks at the attention.
Dr. Garcia caught Willow’s eye and brought her to the corner.
“I’m going to put her on a nebulizer to be safe. We don’t take any chances with kids.”
Willow’s mouth hung open in surprise and her eyes cast furtively toward Emily, who was playing Pattycake with Lily. They were both sleepy but seemed fine.
“Is she—”
“Has no signs of distress,” Dr. Garcia reassured, “But her oxygenation isn’t where I’d like it to be. I just want to exercise caution.”
Willow just nodded quickly.
“Of course.”
“Has she used one before?” Dr. Garcia questioned.
Willow held one hand up but saw her bandages and dropped it again, feeling silly.
“Not since she was tiny. They were premature, they spent some time in the NICU. Emily was on a ventilator.”
Dr. Garcia nodded quickly.
“I’ll be right back.”
Willow took a second to compose herself, then went to perch on the edge of the bed the twins were sitting on.
“Em, the doctor’s going to come back with a little machine. It’s just going to make sure your lungs are nice and clean. It won’t hurt a bit, I promise.”
Dr. Garcia came back with the nebulizer and showed it to Emily, who eyed it hesitantly.
“Sometimes the mask can seem scary,” Dr. Garcia said, holding it against her own mouth, “But it’s just plastic, see?”
She cleaned it with an alcohol wipe and let Emily have a good look at it as she adjusted the bed so Emily would sit upright.
Willow dropped a kiss on top of Emily’s head.
“Momma’s here, baby.”
Kayden wheeled himself over with one hand.
“I’m here too, Emily.”
“Me too!” Lily said, patting herself in the chest with both hands, “See, I’m right here, right beside you like we’re those twins who are stuck together!”
“Siamese,” Kayden supplied.
“Yeah, salamis!” Lily exclaimed eagerly, “We’re salami twins!”
She put her hand in Emily’s and held on tight. Emily looked between all of them and then at the doctor as the mask was placed over her mouth.
“Take slow, deep breaths,” Dr. Garcia encouraged, “Good girl.”
“You’re so brave sweetheart,” Willow said softly, doing her best to physically comfort Emily with her body while her hands were out of action.
“You look cool, Emmy, like a soupy diver!” Lily said keenly, “Like you’re gonna go ‘splore all the oceans and find lotsa fish, even the super scary ones that live at the bottom and are all slimy and ugly and…”
Sometimes that chatter had Willow begging for reprieve but right then she was happy that Lily always seemed to know exactly what Emily needed to not feel scared. It had been that way since before they could even speak when they put Lily in with Emily while trying to get her off the ventilator. After that, they would put Lily in bed with Emily when she wouldn’t settle and she calmed each and every time.
As Emily went through her treatment with slow, even breaths that Willow silently guided her in by sitting behind her and doing them too, the doctor retrieved Kayden’s x-rays and put them under the viewer.
“That’s a clean break you’ve got there, mister.”
Willow glanced up furtively.
“He plays guitar…”
Kayden seemed surprised by Willow’s concern and frowned at himself.
“And he will again,” Dr. Garcia said, whipping the x-rays down again, “In six weeks when his cast comes off. I’ll get Reggie to take him down.”
She hurried off again and Willow envied whatever put that pep in her step.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Willow asked Kayden softly.
Kayden did, honestly, but he didn’t
need her too. Not like Emily needed her right now.
“No,” he shook his head softly, “It’s just a cast. I’ve had one before.”
Willow’s eyes grew pained. There was a lot of Kayden’s past she’d asked Tara not to tell her. Now she felt like to wanted to know it all, needed to know it all, just like she did the medical history of all of her children.
“We love you, Kayden.”
Kayden’s mouth open but it got stuck there.
The orderly from earlier returned and Kayden blinked at him slowly, remembering the doctor’s words.
“Is your name really Reggie Jackson?”
“JJ LOVES Reggie Jackson,” Lily briefly dropped her talk of bottom feeders to interject that fact, then returned to an imitation of a sea cucumber as if she never had stopped at all.
The orderly was an older gentleman and clicked his tongue as he fixed his hands around the arms of Kayden’s wheelchair.
“Now, I’ll tell you, I’ve been RJ many more decades than Mr. NBA Superstar,” he said in a low, earthy drawl, “I earned my own name, don’t you think?”
Willow fell back into a breathing pattern with Emily and before long Dr. Garcia came back to finish off Emily’s treatment. She had to cough up all of her secretions into a tissue and Willow wished she could rub her daughter’s back.
But then Lily was doing it without needing to be asked and Willow couldn’t have been prouder.
“I love you girls so much. You’re both being so brave.”
“Where’s Mommy?” Lily asked and started to look weary again now that Emily was OK again.
“Um…” Willow started but before she could say anything else, the door to the room opened and Robyn and JJ were standing there, looking utterly forlorn.
“Jake, Robbie,” Willow gasped and strode over to them.
“Aunt Becky brought us,” JJ explained as Willow put her arms around both of them, which was difficult given the height difference.
JJ looked startled at Willow’s bandages.
“Momma, your hands.”
“They’ll heal,” Willow reassured calmly.
JJ’s eyes were sunken and skittish as he looked around the room.
“Where’s Mom? Where’s Kayden?”
“Kayden is getting a cast put on,” Willow said, keeping that nice low tone.
“He’s with Reggie Jackson,” Lily added helpfully.
JJ’s eyes squinted.
“What?”
“The orderly,” Willow explained quickly.
“What’s wrong with him?” Robyn asked, her bottom lip quivering in the most vulnerable display of emotion she’d exhibited in years.
“He broke his arm,” Willow explained and both Robyn and JJ looked stricken, “It will heal. We will all heal, okay? Everybody is okay.”
JJ suddenly looked around desperately.
“Wait…where’s Mom?”
“Where’s Mom?!” Robyn added immediately through a gasping breath.
“The doctors are treating her,” Willow said, finding it in her to keep the calm despite wanting to know the answer to their question just as much, “You two need to get the once-over too. Come sit down.”
She brought them over to the other beds and a nurse came in to do vitals and take blood before the doctor, who seemed to be their personal concierge at this point, checked both of them thoroughly and came back to Willow as she swung her stethoscope back around her neck.
“Any more children to come out of the woodwork?” she asked with a smile and appreciated that Willow tried to smile back, “Everybody is fine. You’re all very lucky.”
Willow exhaled slowly in relief.
“You’ve been so kind and helpful and I hate to—”
Dr. Garcia put her hand on Willow’s upper arm.
“I’ll go find out what I can about your wife.”
Willow almost burst into tears from the kindness.
“Thank you.”
She slunk back to the kids and checked over Robyn and JJ herself just to be sure. Neither of them would look at her.
Kayden was wheeled back in with a fresh cast on his arm and on his heels, Dr. Garcia returned and took Willow aside.
“Your wife was not brought to the burns unit. Her burns are superficial,” she said with her own little relieved puff of breath, “She’s cut and bruised. She’s in CT right now to see if her ribs are bruised or broken but she’s going to be okay with time and rest.”
Willow’s bandaged hands flapped about as she tried and failed to clutch her heart.
“Can I see her? Is she awake?”
Dr. Garcia nodded quickly.
“The pain medication has her in and out but I’ll come to find you when she’s back.”
She left and Willow stood in the middle of the room to reassure all of the kids that Tara would be okay. Just as she was starting to settle everyone down, the door opened again and a new bed was wheeled in.
Tara was lying in it, asleep with cuts on her chin and cheeks, bruising on her neck, and soot across her forehead.
“Tara,” Willow gasped.
“Mom,” JJ jumped up and Robyn scrambled to follow him while Kayden shot out of the wheelchair.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Dr. Garcia said from behind the orderly pushing Tara in, “I’m letting her come in here because I’m trusting you all to follow instructions.”
She stood importantly in front of everybody as the beds in the room were moved closer together to accommodate the fourth.
“She has a lot of bruising and she needs a lot of rest. You can all stay since at least three of you need ongoing attention and it’s a three-bed room but no touching or climbing or anything like that, capiche?
“Understood,” Willow replied solemnly, “Thank you so much.”
Everyone naturally gravitated toward Tara and stood around her bed, just staring.
“Momma?” Emily whispered quietly.
“Yeah?” Willow replied, just as quiet.
Emily looked down and stuffed her hand into the pocket of her footy pajamas.
“I kept some of the dust the fairies left in my pocket,” she looked up at Willow earnestly, “Should I sprinkle it on Mommy?”
Willow swallowed.
“Sure, honey. Go ahead. Just don’t touch mommy, okay?”
Emily pulled her fist out of her pocket but she didn’t have the height to reach over Tara’s body, so JJ lifted her and she sprinkled the tiny bit of glitter Tara had left on the windowsill as proof of the fairies visit.
Almost immediately, Tara twitched.
“It’s working!” Emily said in delight, “The fairy dust is working! The fairies still like us! They’re waking Mommy up!”
Willow felt her heart speed up.
“Don’t touch, remember. Mommy’s got lots of big owies.”
Everyone held their breath as Tara’s eyes started to sluggishly open.
“Hey, Tara,” Willow greeted softly, going back to her calm tone, “Everyone is here.”
Tara’s eyes darted in alarm
“No, no, everything is okay,” Willow reassured quickly, “You’re okay, we’re all okay. Everything’s going to be okay.”
She put her arm gently over Tara’s waist. She met Tara’s eye and though it was clouded, she knew they connected so she poured all of her reassurance into that look.
“Don’t try and move. You’re all busted up. Nothing some time and rest won’t cure. Sleep, baby. We’re all here for the night. Everyone is okay. Everyone is okay.”
Tara drifted back off to sleep and Willow took in a long, slow breath.
“Everyone needs some more sleep,” she announced, “Lil, Em, come on. You can share the bed again.”
She got them settled as best she could without hands and moved onto the next bed.
“Kayden, sweetie. You need to keep that arm safe. Come sleep here.”
Kayden looked between all of them.
“Um, there’s not enough beds.”
“I’m taking a chair bro,” JJ said gruffly, “I’m not hurt. Take the bed, man.”
“Kayden, honey, we’re all tired, can you please take the bed?” Willow asked, her tiredness starting to come out in her voice.
Kayden lay down on the bed and using his good hand to pull the blanket around himself.
“Look at us, one hand and none,” Willow smiled tenderly and kissed his forehead.
She moved to the last bed.
“Okay, Robbie, up you get.”
Robyn was a stark white color.
“No, Momma, I can’t.”
Willow frowned.
“What do you mean you can’t?”
Robyn’s breath caught.
“I just want to sleep on the chair okay? You sleep in the bed.”
“Robyn, don’t be silly,” Willow said and folded her arms by her hips, “I am your mother. You’re sleeping in the bed.”
Robyn swallowed nervously. She got onto the bed and tucked herself up tight.
“I’m little, see? You can fit too.”
Willow assessed the bed.
“Well, if I can fit, JJ can fit.”
“Naw, maw,” JJ shook his head quickly, “You made me eat all my vegetables. I’m a big, strong boy. Won’t fit.”
He sat down in the none-too-comfortable hospital chair and kicked his legs up on Lily and Emily’s bed.
“I’m good.”
“It’d be really cool if everyone shut up so we can sleep,” a voice piped up.
“Robyn,” Willow automatically chastised.
“It wasn’t me,” Robyn whispered.
Willow looked over her shoulder.
“Lily,” she said in the same tone and sighed, “Okay. Let’s get some sleep everyone.”
She gently got herself onto the bed with Robyn, keeping her arms straight down so her hands were safely over her torso.
“JJ, can you…?”
JJ flicked the light off and as the sun started to rise outside the hospital, inside the Rosenberg-Maclay family got some much-needed rest.
Willow woke first, or rather she was woken to have her bandages changed.
The nurse was kind, and quiet to allow the others to keep sleeping. They had the rare privilege of having a ‘suite’ to themselves and they could all use the last few precious minutes of sleep before they’d have to wake and be checked over again before discharge.
As the nurse carefully redid Willow’s bandages, she started to wonder how they were going to manage. Willow wasn’t going to be able to drive and Tara wouldn’t for a while either, even if her ribs were only bruised and not broken.
JJ would have to get them home.
And home…who was going to cook and clean?
And suddenly all of that seemed trivial as Willow felt a morning call of nature and she realized she wasn’t even going to be able to do that by herself. She looked at the nurse, stricken.
“H-How do I go to the bathroom with these things?”
The nurse turned Willow’s hand gently.
“When you’re discharged, the bandages you’ll have on will give you some freedom to move your fingers. These parts up here that aren’t burned. You should have enough dexterity to wipe. You’ll want to wear skirts and dresses. I hope you’re visiting from somewhere warm.”
Willow frowned, glum.
“Buffalo.”
The nurse looked sympathetic.
“Um, what about now? While I’m bandaged up like this?” Willow asked with a light blush.
The nurse smiled kindly.
“I can assist you.”
Willow nodded slowly.
“Well, I’d definitely rather you than one of my children.”
Willow carefully stood so as not to wake Robyn and walked with the nurse across the floor to the bathroom. She did what needed to be done with appropriate assistance and thanked the nurse.
“Do you think I could get some more painkillers? I’m starting to feel the throbbing again.”
The nurse brought Willow straight to the station to have the pain relief authorized and used a syringe to send it straight into Willow’s veins.
Just before she wandered back to the room, Dr. Garcia passed her.
“I’m going off shift but I’ve recommended discharge for all of your children. You can go too once we’ve given you instructions on how to care for your burns.”
“What about my wife?” Willow asked with concern.
“Once she’s been signed off by the neuro team, she can go too. But she won’t be up for much for a while,” Dr. Garcia advised, “Those ribs are nicely bruised.”
Willow nodded.
“I’ll take care of her…somehow. You’ve been really kind. Thank you.”
Dr. Garcia nodded tiredly. It was always nice to hear that at the end of a long shift.
Willow went back to the room and the kids had all woken up, but just. Emily was still rubbing her eyes. Willow flicked on the light and it flickered annoyingly. Kayden used his cast to shield his eyes.
“Sorry, guys,” Willow apologized, “But it’s time to get up anyway. The doctor says we can all go soon. How’s everyone feeling?”
JJ stood up and stretched his back out with a groan. Robyn rolled over and went back to sleep and the twins both sat up bright and bushy-tailed like they’d had a full night’s sleep.
A nurse came around to do the last round of vitals and Willow noticed Tara starting to wake during hers. She came and sat next to Tara’s bed and rested her bandage claw over her wife’s arm.
Tara’s hand twitched and then automatically bent at the elbow and reached up to caress Willow’s arm.
“Hi, baby,” Willow said softly, “We’re still in the hospital. Everybody is still okay. We can all go home soon.”
Tara’s eyes flicked open heavily and it took a moment for them to adjust to the bright lights and white walls.
Willow’s words registered and she tried to sit up sharply. She fell back down against the bed with a moan of pain.
JJ stepped forward in alarm but Willow put a hand up and glanced at him to say it was okay.
“No, baby,” Willow soothed softly, “You’ve bruised your ribs up pretty bad. Nice easy breaths and slow movements.”
Tara took in some soft breaths and opened her eyes again. Willow was smiling at her.
“Everyone is okay.”
Tara swallowed and coughed, wincing again.
“Kayden…”
“I-I’m here,” Kayden’s voice piped up from his bed, “Mom.”
“Broke his arm but now he just has a cool cast to get signed by all the, uh,” Willow added and shook her head, “Anyway, you’re okay right honey?”
“I’m totally fine,” Kayden confirmed.
“Can I hear a chorus of ‘fines’ here please?” Willow requested.
Everyone called off that they were fine and Tara’s shoulders gently slumped with relief. She felt around for Willow’s hand but frowned when she couldn’t find fingers.
She looked over and after blinking to let her eyes focus, saw what Willow’s hands were encased in. Her eyes shot up to find Willow’s.
“Like my new look?” Willow joked with a soft smile, “They just got a little burned on the stairs. Doc says they’ll heal right up and I only have to wear these things until we leave the hospital. Which will be today! The kids can leave now and we’ll be able to leave in a few hours.”
Tara’s eyes were pained and she reached out weakly to take Willow’s claw tenderly between her hands.
Willow leaned in and kissed Tara’s dry lips.
“Everything is okay,” she breathed into Tara’s mouth and kissed the corner.
As she pulled away to smile reassuringly at Tara, she saw the door opening from her peripherals. When she looked over, she spotted Xander walking in with tired eyes but an ever-present smile on his face.
“Hey. How’s everyone doing in here? Wanted to check in before my ride gets here.”
In one fell stride, Willow pushed back her chair, stood up, and all but ran at Xander, throwing herself around him as she tried to hold on to his back with her claws. She kissed Xander’s cheek three times in quick succession before her weak grip made her plant her feet back firmly on the ground.
She held Xander’s face and looked as deeply into his eye as she’d only ever looked at Tara before.
“Thank. You.”
Xander swallowed deeply and wrapped his arms around Willow. When they pulled away, Willow swiped at her eyes with her bandages and returned to Tara, whose brow was creased in confusion.
“Xander saved you,” Willow explained, her eyes filling with fresh tears but a smile staying prominent on her face, “You were knocked out and I ran back in but I couldn’t get you out from under the piece of wood that had fallen on you. He ran in after me and lifted it off you so we could carry you out.”
Tara’s head turned toward Xander and her eyes filled as well.
“Thank you,” she said in an echoing tone, her voice raw from the ordeal and it being her first chance to speak properly, “Are you hurt?”
Xander held up his index finger.
“One splinter,” he said with a grin, “Hurt myself more sitting in one of those little plastic chairs waiting to be seen.”
There was a sudden pained sob from somewhere in the room and it took everybody a moment to realize it was JJ because he was trying to hide it.
“JJ…” Tara said with concern, sitting up and suppressing her pain.
“Hey man,” Xander clapped an arm around JJ’s shoulders, “We all know you would have gone in there to save your mom if we’d let you.”
JJ rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hand.
“It’s all my fault!”
“No, honey…” Tara started to reply.
“Yes!” JJ cut her off, “I knocked over the grill!”
Everyone paused for a moment.
“What?” Willow asked.
JJ wiped the corner of his eye with his sleeve.
“The signal inside the house was so bad,” he said, shame-faced, “So I sneaked out when you guys were cleaning up to call Cleo but by the time I got back the house was all dark. I couldn’t see anything and I knocked into the grill and it was still warm!”
He looked away.
“I was just going to blame a raccoon or something but the coals must have started the fire! It’s all my fault!”
“No, it’s not!” Robyn suddenly blurted and buried her face into her hands as she sat on top of her bed, “It’s my fault! I just wanted to try one of my Tofurkey dogs that nobody would cook so I came downstairs when I thought everyone was asleep to microwave one. But then I heard a crash so I ran back up to my room and I left the microwave on! It’s me, it was all me.”
Willow stood up.
“Stop it, both of you,” she instructed, holding a claw out toward JJ, “You. You didn’t start the fire. That grill was on the other side of the yard. At worst, you singed some grass.”
JJ seemed shocked and was completely still.
“And you,” Willow pointed her other claw at her daughter, “Robyn, that microwave was flakier than a tub of nutritional yeast.”
Robyn smiled softly at the reference as Willow continued.
“It wouldn’t stay on for more than 30 seconds any time I tried the whole weekend. There’s no way you turbo-nuked your tofu dog into burning the house down. We would have smelled it before we noticed any smoke.”
Robyn and JJ both closed their eyes with relief.
“I-It was me.”
Willow spun around at her wife’s voice.
“Tara?”
Tara blinked up at Willow.
“I set a fire. And I forgot to put the spark guard up when I went to bed.”
Willow slowly sank back into her chair. Even paler than before, she looked up at Xander.
“Xander, are you heading back? Can you get someone to drive our minivan in to collect the kids?”
Xander nodded.
“Of course.”
“Kids, give your Uncle Xander a hug,” Willow instructed and they were all quite happy to swarm him with hugs.
There were lots of ‘thanks Uncle Xander!’ and ‘we love you Uncle Xander!’ as Xander basked in some well-deserved love and Willow and Tara looked at each other, fraught.
Outside, Jesse pulled in his SUV and turned off the ignition. His head turned and fell back onto the headrest. He smiled languidly at the person in the passenger seat.
“Somehow after the night we’ve all had, you still look beautiful.”
Alice’s cheeks tinged pink and she glanced away.
“I’m no Margot Robbie.”
“Wouldn’t want you to be,” Jesse drawled easily, “Margot Robbie isn’t the mother of my child.”
Alice slowly looked back up, her brow creased.
“What are we doing, Jess?” she asked in a shaken tone, “This back and forth? I was enjoying it, getting close to you again but I don’t know where I stand. And maybe I don’t deserve—”
Suddenly Alice was cut off as Jesse leaned across the car and pressed his lips to her.
Electricity buzzed between them; both of them feeling a crackle as Jesse pulled away again.
“All I know is that when I was watching that house burn down, it was you and Ella I wanted to know was safe.”
Alice blinked several times and slowly smiled.
“Why does it always take someone we love going into the hospital to get our act together?”
“Let’s keep it together this time,” Jesse suggested with an affectionate crease of his eyes.
Alice reached across to grip Jesse’s arm.
“Move back home. I know it’s quick but—”
“No,” Jesse replied easily, and for a moment, Alice was crushed, “I want somewhere new. A fresh start. Somewhere you can throw a housewarming party with wine and cheese and a basement where I can have a man cave hidden away and you won’t ever have to clean up empty beer bottles.”
Alice’s grin almost broke off of her face.
“Screw the wine and cheese. Pop me a tab on a Bud light and put the game on.”
“No can do,” Jesse shook his head with the same grin, “No woman of mine can have that awful a taste in beer.”
They came together again in numerous kisses with laughter breaking out between them.
Then there was a knock on the window and Xander stumbled back, startled as he saw what was going on inside.
“Whoa there,” he said as Jesse opened the door and jumped out, “Am I interrupting?”
“My man,” Jesse said, swinging his arm to pat Xander’s back and bring him in for a hug.
“Xander,” Alice said, stepping out on her side and looking out over the car, “Anya has been beside herself. We said we’d watch the kids so she could come in but they were scared, they needed their mom.”
Xander smiled wearily.
“I could use their mom right about now too.”
Jesse slapped Xander’s back again.
“Let’s get you back there, buddy.”
“Hero,” Alice called with a twinkling smile.
Back in the hospital room, Willow and Tara were trying to figure out who could do what tasks to get the kids ready to leave. Tara had to do everything that needed a signature and Willow had to bring the kids out to be collected by Becky. Willow then returned to Tara, who was quietly crying.
“Darling,” Willow said softly as she quickly came over to sit next to her wife, “You weren’t the only one there. I didn’t put the guard up either.”
Tara wiped her eyes on the corner of her gown and Willow wished she could be the one to do it.
“They’re going to sue us, Willow,” Tara cried softly, “That could bankrupt us!”
“Ssh,” Willow comforted gently, “It doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is everyone is okay.”
She rubbed her claw on Tara’s arm.
“What have we learned in therapy?” she asked and made sure Tara had her gaze, “We can’t worry about the things we can’t control.”
Tara closed her eyes and blinked away her tears.
She placed hands on Willow’s claws.
“Your poor hands,” she said with a gulping echo, “You ran back for me?”
Willow leaned her head in close to Tara’s; resting their foreheads together.
“Of course I did, Tara.”
Tara exhaled softly and then they inhaled together.
Just breathing.
A new nurse then had helped Willow earlier came into the room and asked Willow to sit on a bed for vitals.
“Who will be tending to the bandages going forward?”
“Me, of course,” Tara replied without hesitation.
“Baby, you’re pretty busted up,” Willow said with a frown.
“I can do it,” Tara insisted, “I don’t need to use my ribs for that.”
“Baby…” Willow replied, touched but also concerned.
“It only hurts to breathe,” Tara said softly, “But I always breathe easier with you.”
Her breath caught.
“Without you, I wouldn’t breathe at all.”
Tears filled her eyes but she fought hard to stop them from falling so she could prove she was up for the job. Very slowly she got out of bed and used her IV pole for leverage to walk over and learn how to wrap Willow’s hands.
Willow went to help several times but Tara was insistent that she was okay. She felt bruised from the inside out but Willow had literally run through fire for her, so this was the least she could do.
The nurse unwound one of Willow’s claws and Tara took a painfully sharp breath in when she saw the angry blistering.
“Oh, Willow,” she said softly and looked up sincerely, “I’ll be your hands.”
Willow was in some pain but managed to smile.
“I know.”
She kept Tara’s gaze.
“And I know you’ll do a good job. Because you’re already my heart. And my heart has been full since the moment I met you.”