45.

😇

A lopsided grin slipped onto Dakota's lips as he pulled into the driveway, sticking Baker's truck behind his own car.

And scene.

He just about had a heart attack the whole ride home, but he fucking did it.

And damn, if he wasn't proud.

He parked the car, turned it off, then hopped out, being considerate enough to not slam the door shut as his copilot had fallen asleep on the job.

His sister was such a slacker.

By the time he rounded the front of the car and was opening up the passenger door, Hayes was somewhat aware of her surroundings, but Dakota didn't want to waste anymore time outside.

"Hop on," Dakota said, turning around so she could climb on his back for a piggyback ride. He heard the familiar click of the buckle being released and then the seatbelt leather zooming back to its original hook.

Then little hands touched his shoulder before more confidently wrapping around his neck. Hayes leaned her weight against Dakota before fully trusting him and anchoring her legs to his side. She laid her head on his shoulder, the tip of her nose touching his skin.

Dakota reached back and supported her by linking his arms together underneath her butt so then her legs could just dangle freely. Deciding to just grab her backpack later, he strolled up to the front door and was able to successfully single-handedly unlock the door in 0.73 seconds.

"Where do you want to go?" Dakota asked, standing aimlessly in the foyer. He happened to glance down and took the initiative to kick the hazardous pile of shoes towards the wall. The memo never seemed to stick with any of them that the sneakers belonged inside the shoe-bin, not beside it.

"Glen," Hayes instantly answered, the word tickled against his neck.

Duh, he should of expected that.

Taking a wild guess that his little brother was still holed up in his bedroom, Dakota carefully climbed up the stairs two at a time.

Didn't want his little sister to fall off his back or anything.

Dakota rounded the banister at the top and veered to the left. This time his destination was the second door on the right.

He gently eased the bedroom door open with his knee, a smirk forming when he remembered how Hayes gave the door a hearty kick this morning.

The smirk quickly disappeared when he replayed the rest of the morning's events.

The room was still considerably dark without the fan light on, though he was able to see fine with the sunlight that managed to filter in through the window blinds.

Both beds were empty, but there were signs that Glen had definitely been here from the laptop left open on top of his comforter and the phone abandoned next to his pillow.

But where was the boy?

Dakota glanced around, his sight catching the bathroom door that was ajar.

"Smiley?" He called out as he strolled over to the kid's bed. Dakota turned around, depositing Hayes safely onto the mattress. "You okay?"

There was a coughing fit in response before the brother could verbally answer. "Hold on," Glen replied weakly.

That was a good sign, his brother was still alive.

In the bathroom, Glen picked his head up from where he had been resting it against the ledge of the tub. He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting there but it was probably a while. He had to use the bathroom earlier and got dizzy, never making it back to his bed.

Stuck without his cell phone, he accepted his fate on the bathroom floor and fell asleep at some point against the coolness of porcelain tub.

In the span of seconds, Glen had another coughing spell, his chest rising and falling fast afterwards with the effort. Why did coughing have to hurt so bad?

"Glen?" Dakota's black, scuffed-up work boots appeared in the doorway and then he blinked and the boots were right by his side. Glen tilted his head back the best he could manage without making his head hurt and looked up at his brother.

"I think I'm sick," Glen quickly tried to cover his mouth in his elbow as he coughed again.

"No shit," Dakota replied, his hands suddenly reaching out to catch Hayes when she stumbled into the bathroom right behind him. He had heard her coming a mile away, not so nimble as a ninja when she was zapped of energy.

She wordlessly moved forward, out of his embrace, and sunk down to her knees beside Glen.

"Thought you went to school?" Glen's hoarse voice questioned his sister. He was very surprised to see her in front of him. Last thing he really remembered was her and Fran yelling at each other about something, then his memory was a blur.

So pretty much he remembered nothing besides a haze.

Hayes shrugged, "I did."

And now she's home.

Glen frowned as he took in her disheveled appearance. Her face was lacking healthy color and her eyes were red-rimmed. Dull blue without an ounce of her sparkle. Not to mention her ponytail was barely doing anything with all the loose strands everywhere. "You look worse than me."

"Rude," Hayes gave his shoulder a puny punch.

Glen still winced.

Dakota noticed. He squatted down to Glen's level, the back of his hand landing on the kid's forehead. "You're still warm," Dakota muttered, more-so to himself. "How long have you been in here?"

"I don't know," Glen admitted as he tried to think. Time was an illusion though, it could have been after 3pm already and he wouldn't even know. But something with the way Hayes was presenting herself, made him think otherwise.

Plus he didn't think Baker stopped by yet and that meant it wasn't lunch time. But he could have slept through it. But he didn't think he did. So with that reasoning... now his head hurt.

"Let's get you up," Dakota stated, "Watch out, Hayes." The girl obediently rose to her feet and moved out of the way, back towards the sink so Dakota had some room to work. The master bathroom suddenly didn't feel so mastery when her giant brothers were taking up space. Gripping Glen's arm with one hand, his other hand braced around Glen's back before Dakota easily heaved the lanky boy up to his feet.

"Woah," Glen squeezed his eyes shut when the room spun for a second. When the feeling of nausea passed, he cautiously peeked out of his right eye before opening his left eye, too. He had to squint to see though. The bathroom lights were never turned on but boy, oh mighty, the room felt awfully bright.

"You okay?" Dakota held him securely upright. Hayes took this as safe to approach, and migrated to Glen's other side, ducking under his arm so it rested on her shoulders and grabbing his sweaty t-shirt tight in her fist to help support him walking.

"Just... dizzy," Glen managed to say. He sucked in a breath through his mouth since his nose was clogged up. "I'm okay."

Dakota had to give him credit. Time and time again, Glen didn't give in to being weak. He was just as strong, if not more, than the rest of the brothers.

"We'll move slowly," Dakota told him, taking the first step forward. He waited for Glen to swing his leg into motion, which was delayed but eventually happened. Then as slow as molasses, the three siblings left the bathroom, taking the scenic route back to his bed.

Contrasting his normal roughness, Dakota gingerly helped Glen sit down on the bed before reaching over and grabbing the thermometer off his nightstand. Next to it was the yellow gatorade that Glen didn't appear to have touched, which was probably lukewarm after a couple hours. Probably tasted like piss now too.

Hayes ran back into the bathroom to get another washcloth, copying Francis' good deed from the morning. She wet it in the sink, making sure to squeeze out the extra water so it wouldn't soak the bed. When she finished, she jumped onto the bed next to Glen and nearly smacked him in the face with the cloth.

Before Dakota could tell her off for not being careful enough, he heard her tell-tale giggle of mischief and witnessed Glen pinch her on the arm in rebuke.

Then Hayes laid the washcloth properly on the back of Glen's neck, providing him some relief from the stickiness of his sweat.

Two seconds together and the both of them were already feeling and acting loads better than two minutes prior.

Great.

It made Dakota very wary of their sudden burst of energy. He didn't sign up to babysit fucking energizer bunnies.

Dakota tapped the thermometer against the palm of his hand, an anxious tick. "Go get another gatorade, Hayes," he requested, tacking on a "please" at the end when he saw her face of opposition.

Hayes and Glen exchanged a glance that Dakota was unable to interpret. But he could see she very obviously hesitated to leave until Glen nodded his head.

"Fine," Hayes receded, sliding off the edge of the bed. She flapped her arms so the extra-long sweatshirt sleeves slipped over her hands, hiding her fists. With one last unsure glance, she left her two brothers alone in the bedroom.

When the ruckus of their sister tumbling down the stairs grew distant, Glen's gaze darted up to Dakota in alarm.

"Why is she home?" Glen asked, the panic forcing him to take shallow breaths. His thoughts switched to racecar speed. "I thought Austin said no. Did I get her sick? Is she in trouble?"

Dakota shook his head, sticking the thermometer in Glen's mouth.

"Hayes, in trouble? Never," He joked, narrowing his eyebrows in silent warning when Glen went to speak. He needed to keep his mouth closed for the stupid thing to work. "She's fine, dude. Chill."

Glen didn't agree, giving Dakota a look of disbelief. They apparently had very different versions of what 'fine' meant when it came to their sister.

But Dakota was just trying to keep his last bit of sanity here. He was well aware that Hayes wasn't feeling her absolute best right now no matter current appearances. It was very common for the little girl to get a second wind of adrenaline and then eventually crash for real.

He just needed to tell himself that she was fine in order to not lose his handle on the situation. Taking care of two baby siblings was not part of his everyday skill set, especially not two sickies.

Not to mention his own problems; his brain was still fired up and running on adrenaline from the car-ride, so he was doing his very best to not set himself off.

He was still evidently very jittery.

The last thing Glen and Hayes needed was to have Dakota flip out at them.

The brothers had a stare-off in silence, with Glen only breaking eye-contact once to rub his drooping eyelids. It was truly broken the second time by sound of the thermometer beeping in rapid succession.

"101.3," Dakota read, taking the thermometer back and tossing it onto the nightstand. "Still sick."

"No shit," Glen cheekily repeated Dakota's earlier smartass remark. He clumsily pushed the laptop aside so he could lie back down. His head was feeling to heavy to hold up any longer. He had to pause halfway, clearing his lungs with several coughs.

The coughing was a double whammy for the kid. Made both his chest and his throat hurt at the same time.

And his head.

A triple whammy.

Dakota crossed his arms, concerned, as he watched Glen struggle to get comfortable before helping him pull the comforter over his body. He also picked up the laptop, which he recognized as Colton's, and moved it to the nightstand so it wouldn't get broken accidentally.

"Kota, please tell me the truth," Glen's throat felt like sandpaper. "What did Hayes do?"

Dakota had to avert his gaze. His instinct made him feel unsure on if or what he should tell Glen before he recognized how unfair that was. He fully respected Austin, he owed his life to him, but Dakota did not agree with some of the filters he put up around the kids.

The truth hurt sometimes, but that was life. Their family was better off when everyone was on the same playing field.

The pot calling the kettle black... especially because Dakota had his own secrets from the kids... but this whole thing about Hayes revolved around Glen anyways.

And Glen was the one currently laying on his death bed, not Dakota. So he deserved to know what happened to their little sister.

Good shit, no need to wonder where Hayes got her messed-up dark sense of humor from. Her and Dakota's defense mechanisms were similar as much as they were different. Two peas in a pod, the brother and sister were. It was actually a bit scary.

"She, ahhh." Dakota had to suck it up and overcome his hesitation. "Hayes had a really bad anxiety attack at school, we think that's what it was anyways. Scared the shit out of Francis. But I don't know, I wasn't there obviously. I was just the driver." Dakota shrugged, busying himself with pulling an imaginary lint off his work shirt.

Glen groaned, taking in this information. He was well-versed in Hayes' anxiety attacks and how bad they could be. He rolled onto his right side, facing the wall as he pinched his eyes shut. He grumbled, "I should of been there to help. This is my fault."

If he hadn't gotten sick, then Hayes wouldn't have gone to school by herself today, and then none of this would have happened. And if his suspicions were correct, then they never should have gone bowling to celebrate his birthday because that's where he caught the death cold. They should have just stayed home and watched a movie or something. He did it to himself and now Hayes had to pay the price.

Dakota didn't bother replying, knowing Glen wouldn't listen to his dispute anyways. The boy was very apparently hating himself, as evident by his rigid posture.

Stubborn meet Stubborn meet Stubborn.

And no, Dakota wasn't included in the stubbornness category because it was either his way or he didn't give a flying fuck.

"There weren't any gatorades," Hayes announced, dragging her feet along the carpet as she returned to the room. She had ditched her school shoes somewhere along the way, leaving her colorful mismatched socks for everyone to see.

At least she had socks on. Francis went through a phase in middle school where he never wore socks with his shoes, and his feet smelled like complete ass.

Dakota swung around at the same time as Glen rolled back over, both looking at their sister. Dakota was confused but Glen showed understanding.

It really was too bad that Dakota didn't recognize what was conveyed in the conversation that passed between the kids. He knew it would come back around to bite him in the ass.

"What do you mean?" Dakota's gaze flickered to the gatorade on the nightstand. Austin had no problem finding one in the fridge that morning. He should know, Dakota was there.

The drink was a staple in their home with all the sports outings they took part in. The refrigerator was always fully stocked with water and gatorades; if not in the house, then the mini fridge that was in the garage. Speaking of, "Did you check the garage?"

"Uh huh," Hayes fibbed through her teeth. She didn't even bother, knowing what she'd find.

Dakota squinted his eyes at her lie. "That's impossible."

"Well," Hayes shrugged, already moving on from the topic. She awkwardly crawled onto Glen's bed and over his legs using her only free hand. A pillow was tucked under the other arm with a blanket tightly clutched in her fingers, both items having been retrieved from her own bedroom.

She made herself at home, putting her pillow next to Glen's as she took over the inside portion of the bed. Now she was back to looking like the little girl that Dakota picked up from school. She was ready to crash.

Situated against the wall, if she was any smaller, she'd have fallen straight through the crack.

"Just say you didn't look, but no need to fucking lie." He was already strung out with worry, so it didn't take much to make Dakota peeved no matter how many times he reminded himself to calm the fuck down.

The little girl mumbled something under her breath, too quiet for Dakota's ears to pick up on, thankfully for her sake. But when he caught Glen elbow her in a silent warning, Dakota's self-control barely hung on by a thread.

His eyes narrowed dangerously at her sass. "What did you just say?"

Hayes instinctually curled into Glen's back. She ducked her head against the middle of his shoulder blades. So much for her bravery.

"Nothing," Glen quickly covered for her.

"I didn't pick you up from school for fucking nothing," Dakota retorted. He roughly ran his hands through his hair, frustrated with himself at how easily annoyed he became over nothing.

Fuck, he told his brothers he was the worst person to handle this. Why didn't they listen to him?

Glen sounded like a two packs-a-day smoker from all his hacking. "Don't yell at her."

"I'm not," Dakota snapped into the void. How he said it certainly contradicted what he said. Taking a physical step back from the bed, he took a deep breath, and then another one. It was a grounding technique, one that he obviously needed more work on. After the third deep breath, Dakota cleared his throat, managing to lower his voice to a much more appropriate level. "I didn't mean to yell at you."

Dakota watched Hayes peek over Glen's shoulder, like a little hermit crab taking a look around. Apparently she didn't deem it safe to come out of her shell, instead mumbling something in Glen's ear before hiding again. She even pulled the blanket over her head for extra protection.

Dakota frowned. "What did she say now?"

"Errr," Glen twisted his lips, "she said she did look and that there were only yellow gatorades."

Dakota flung his arms up in the air, now stumped. That was what he sent her for in the first place! "Then why didn't she get one?"

Glen's eyes tracked around the room before landing back on Dakota's piercing glare.

"I don't like the yellow?" he finally admitted, the lilt at the end making it sound more like a question.

That gave Dakota a pause.

"What?" He cocked his head to the side. "Since when?" Dakota backpedaled, " Wait, wait, wait. Why the hell didn't you say something earlier, when you got that one?" He pointed at said bottle.

"Because they were just trying to help me," Glen smushed his face against the pillow, flustered from Dakota's attention.

"Dude, if you don't like yellow, then just fucking say it. It's not a big deal."

"I did," Glen's voice was muffled.

"Yeah, now," Dakota huffed, fishing his phone out of his pocket. "Jesus Christ. I'll tell Baker to bring some when he comes. What color do you want?"

"Blue," Hayes replied knowingly from under the blanket. Her blonde strands of hair gave away her hiding spot.

Dakota glanced at the hump on the bed before flickering back to Glen who nodded his approval.

"Blue it is," Dakota clucked his tongue. "You like blue, too, Sunshine?" He now felt the necessity to get back into her good graces.

Definitely didn't want to be shunned like Austin was.

"Red," Glen had that answer for him.

Dakota grunted in acknowledgement. Awesome, the brothers still knew absolutely nothing about their baby siblings.

The blanket rustled as blue eyes emerged from the cocoon. Dakota's thumbs halted from texting as he stared at her. His eyebrows rose in anticipation, waiting for what she had to say.

Hayes just had that look on her face.

"Cookies."

"Huh?" Dakota asked, his eyebrows now scrunched in confusion.

"Tell Baker to bring chocolate chip cookies," Hayes clarified, with a teensy tiny mischievous grin at the end. It was like she already knew Dakota would do as she requested, as he was just begging for her forgiveness.

Maybe she was the devil child.

Dakota huffed, but nonetheless passed the girl's message on to their older brother.

Copy that. 👍🏻👍🏻

"He said fine," Dakota relayed back to the blonde babies. He suddenly felt extremely awkward and even more way out of his depth than before as he stood in front of them. Dakota crossed his arms against his chest. "Do you need anything else?"

The babies shook their heads no.

"K, cool. I'm going to go take a quick shower then. Don't, you know, die or something. Call me if you need me." He rushed out, running a hand through his tousled hair, messing it up some more. He scrutinized both siblings before giving a single nod. "Yeah, okay." Before Dakota could prolong this uncomfortableness any longer, he abruptly walked out of the room.

He did leave the bedroom door open though so hopefully he would hear them calling his name if they needed him.

On that note, hopefully they didn't need him because he wouldn't know what the hell to do anyways.

As soon as Dakota escaped, all the tension seemingly went with him.

Hayes wiggled around some, readjusting the blanket to cover her feet just right. It was a tricky operation to perfect.

Glen patiently waited for her to stop moving while at the same time holding off the threat of sleep.

Sleep was beginning to win.

"That went well," he yawned, rubbing his cheek against the pillow. The pillowcase had gotten cold from his lack of body heat when he was in the bathroom and now it felt good against his warm skin.

"Shut up," Hayes nudged him in the back with a snort. He and her both were clear on the understanding that that went in the complete opposite direction of what one would classify as 'well'.

Glen shushed her, ready for his pounding headache to settle back down after all that excitement. But before he could drift back off into z-land, he had one more thing to say. "HayHay?"

"Glennard?" she immediately whispered back, rubbing her nose with the blanket.

"Dakota told me you had a panic attack. Sorry I wasn't there, but I'm happy you came back home."

Hayes felt a tinge of embarrassment over that and turned onto her side, back to back with her sick brother so he couldn't see her rosy cheeks. She brought her knees up, snuggling her blanket right under her chin. The words were murmured peacefully before the kids succumbed to their sleepy dreams.

"Us against the world, G."

She was happy to be home, too.

————

The heels of Austin's dress shoes clicked rhythmically against the tile.

He stopped in the main foyer of the house beside the staircase, feeling like something was missing. He didn't have to think hard as his little sister and brother both had unmistakable presences in the house.

By now, the whole house, hell, the whole neighborhood, should have heard her call out his name in greeting, followed with what felt like a miniature truck hitting his stomach. Her petite body was very deceptive for the force behind her.

Then depending on his mood, Glen would pile on and tackle them both, purposefully smothering Hayes to get on her nerves in a way that only big brothers can do. And if it wasn't Glen, then it was Francis. He loved the chaos that came along with making Sissy sandwiches.

Welcome home, Austin.

Congratulations, you fucked everything up.

He should have heard his siblings eating dinner at the dinner table, as he had arrived home from work late. There was additional traffic on the interstate this evening, not to mention he had to commute an extra 20 minutes for the pointless meetings that turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. It was already 7:30 at night, and usually his brothers came hollering about hunger by 7pm the latest.

With a depressed sigh, Austin continued walking through the house. He picked up on the sound of utensils cluttering against dishes coming from the direction of the kitchen, but not enough noise to account for all his siblings.

He crossed through the living room and into his office where he dropped his backpack on the floor. Austin didn't deem himself old enough to use a briefcase yet. He unzipped his bag and removed his laptop, putting it on the desk for safe keeping.

He extended his fingers, palms down on the desk and bent his head. There was so much tension that had built in his neck and shoulders during the day. It didn't help that in between meetings, he was trying to think of how to fix things on the home-front.

Austin rubbed the back of his stiff neck.

He came up with nothing.

He wasn't good at this.

Austin sighed again. Leaving the den, he mindlessly undid his tie as he walked to the kitchen through the living room passage. Leaving the ends of the tie hanging around his neck, he knocked his knuckles against the top of the chair that Francis was sitting on.

"Hey Francis," Austin pressed a kiss to the top of his brother's head.

Francis turned around to look at his eldest brother, an indecisive glint in his eyes. It was evident that he wasn't totally happy with Austin. "Hey," he mumbled around a mouthful of cereal.

Fruity pebbles, of course.

"Decided on breakfast for dinner," Colton spoke. He was the only other occupant at the breakfast nook. "Since it was only me and Fran eating, didn't want to waste the lasagna."

Austin nodded, his hands wringing around the top bar of Francis' chair. "Where's Dakota?"

"Went over to Baker's."

"Oh." Austin wasn't aware of that. "Is he planning on coming home tonight?"

"Don't know," Colton replied, taking a drink from his glass of water. He eyed his brother, noticing the wear and tear job the day had done on him. "You okay?"

"No," Austin answered honestly, finally dropping his hands and stuffing them in his pockets. "Where are they?"

They.

His kids.

His heart outside his body.

"In there," Francis lazily held up his hand with the spoon in it, milk dripping on to the table as he pointed in the direction of the family room.

Austin lightly smacked Francis in the back of the head before making his way over to the kitchen sink. Above the sink was a window into the family room that slid open if need be.

When they had first moved into their home, Francis and Emerson abused the window privilege so much, standing on the couch and constantly sticking their heads through the opening, demanding their brothers to get them this snack or that so they didn't have to pause their video games.

At one point, Baker got so annoyed by it and taped the window closed for a whole day and an ensuing riot broke out. It ended with the young boys doing a ton of burpees but it was all in the name of fun. Austin only wished that Glen and Hayes had been causing trouble right there with them.

Austin spied his youngest siblings sprawled on the couch. It seemed someone had enforced his suggestion of migrating the kids into the family room for a change of scenery and some fresh air compared to the stale bedroom. The couch cushions were covered with extra bed sheets gathered from the linen closest. That way he could wash them tonight and try to minimize the germ infestation.

Austin turned around, leaning his back on the counter. He started unbuttoning his dress shirt, revealing his white undershirt underneath. "Francis." He addressed his teen brother.

"Hmm?" Francis picked his head up from where he was quietly texting Emerson on his phone.

"Thank you for helping Hayes today."

Francis shrugged. "Sure, no problemo."

"How did your math test go?" Austin asked. The teen had the class after lunch, so Austin hoped the day's events didn't distract Francis from putting forth his best effort.

Francis shrugged again. "It happened," he mumbled, not really wanting to have a conversation with his eldest brother at the moment.

"What does that mean?" Austin pressed on.  He saw peace-keeper Colton shake his head no, whether to sway off his questioning or Francis' responses, was still a mystery.

"Nothing," Francis grunted.

Austin took a second to just observe him, as Francis moved the spoon around in the bowl. "If you're angry with me, just tell me."

Join the club.

Francis halted his movement, letting the spoon slip from his hand and into the colorful-stained milk. He looked up, his jaw tense. Austin couldn't remember the last time Francis was like this, so Dakota-like. The teen normally didn't have an angry bone in his body.

"Angry?" Francis repeated.

"Fran," Colton was definitely warning off Francis now. "Stop it."

Francis seemed to listen, scooting his chair back and standing up to take his exit. He gathered the bowl and glass in his hand and walked to the sink to put the dishes in there. He stood right next to Austin, and turned his head, somehow finding the guts to look him in dead straight in the eye.

"After everything that happened this morning between you and her," Francis spoke unusually low, making Austin realize just how vexed Francis really was. "She still cried for you at school. And you never showed. And you ask if I'm angry?" Francis scoffed, shaking his head as he backed away and then out of the room.

Austin didn't have a response to that. He continued to blankly stare at the empty hallway that Francis disappeared down, off to go seek solitude upstairs and most likely facetime Emerson.

"He shouldn't have said that," Colton said, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed. His right ankle rested on top of his left knee. "I already handled it."

"Is he right, though?"

Nobody told him that Hayes had cried for him. Cried. He felt like the biggest asshole on the planet.

Austin took Colton's silence as affirmative.

"Well that's wonderful. Let's just keep the tallies coming." That was too harsh. Austin waved his hand in front of him, brushing his own sarcasm away. "Anyways it doesn't even matter. It was my poor judgement that got us in this mess. Dakota is MIA so he's obviously pissed at me too. Which again, I completely deserve." Austin groaned as he rubbed his face. "Can this day get any worse?"

"Don't say that," Colton advised, "we don't want to invite any more trouble into this house."

"You're right, you're right," Austin sighed, scratching the back of his head before squeezing his shoulders close to his neck. He bit down on his bottom lip, only postponing the inevitable. He had to go check on the kids now. No time like the present.

"I'm always right," Colton said to lighten the mood, making Austin roll his eyes. He appreciated his brother.

"How's Glen feeling?" Austin asked, using his lower back to push off the counter. "Any better?"

"Not doing so hot," Colton replied, his foot flicking back and forth in the air. "Haven't gotten him to eat anything. But he's had two bottles of Gatorade since Baker dropped in. And his fever is still about the same. 101."

Austin nodded. At least the boy was still drinking. That was a huge thing to keep an eye on, according to the doctor when Austin called the pediatrician's office today. But if his fever didn't break by morning, Glen would be going for a doctor's visit.

Another battle to deal with when they made it through the night.

If they made it.

No, don't do that self-sabotage shit.

When.

"And Hayes?"

Colton gave him a sad smile. "She'll come around. If you could convince her to shower, that'll be a great start."

"I don't think she'll be inclined to listen to anything I have to say."

Colton raised his hands as he shrugged. "It can't hurt."

With that, Austin left the kitchen and went towards the family room. The sliding glass panel was partially closed. Shut enough to be a barrier to the excess noise from the rest of the home, but the sliver of space was enough for sound to escape in case they were to call for help.

Before he pushed the panel open more so he could walk in, he stopped, hearing their bantering voices.

Leaning his forehead gently against the wall, Austin couldn't help but listen in. He had missed his kids and didn't think they'd be talkative once they saw him.

He could listen to their sweet voices all day long, it was like music to his ears, even though Glen sounded like a raspy old man right now.

Maybe he could convince him to at least take a cough drop.

But talking with any one of his siblings whether it be about their day or just shooting the breeze or Dakota asking for a sandwich and then being forced into conversation while Austin made it for him; it made Austin's whole mood light up.

Because his siblings were what created his home.

"Are you seriously crying right now?" Glen and his stuffy nose, sounded like he couldn't even breathe.

"No," Hayes sniffed. "... Maybe."

"You knew the dog was going to die," Glen reminded her. "You've seen this movie before."

"Spoiler alert!"

Glen laughed, that quickly broke off into a coughing spell. He still teased her, "Come on, Hay Hay. Marley wasn't going to live forever."

"You don't know that." The girl must have covered her mouth with something because the words became more muffled. "I want the world's worst dog." Austin didn't miss the whine of yearning.

Whatever Glen's response was died out when it sounded like he was hacking up a lung. Poor kid.

Austin took this as his cue to enter, slipping deftly into the family room. He took in the whole room with a single glance, dimly lit with the television playing a movie, before focusing in on his siblings.

"Ew."

"Sorry, loogie." Glen sat hunched over, feet planted on the ground with a small trash can in his hands.

Hayes was curled up in her classic spot, squished in the corner of the couch, a blanket hugged around her. She had a grossed-out look on her face as she stared at Glen.

The fourth step he took finally gained their attention when he accidentally kicked an empty Gatorade bottle into the coffee table leg.

"Sorry," his kid brother jumped straight to an apology for leaving the bottle on the floor. They all knew Austin wasn't a fan of clutter.

"Don't worry about it," Austin waved him off. "Hey Smiley, Sunshine."

Really Austin?

Couldn't come up with anything better?

"Hey," Glen returned the simple greeting.

Hayes kept mute, her lips pressed together in a thin line. She still was very much acting like a deer, one wrong move and she'd dart away to never be seen again.

"What'cha watching?" Austin tried to break the ice, his hands fumbling with undoing his cufflinks.

Glen glanced at Hayes to check if she was going to answer.

Nope.

"Marley and Me." Glen supplied.

Somewhat random movie for them to pick, but alright. Nothing new, he'd roll with it.

"Tired of Family Feud already?" Austin joked.

"Dakota blocked it," Hayes had a quiet bitterness to her words as she pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. "Said he was sick of hearing it."

That sounded a lot like their brother.

"I'm sure we can undo that for you," Austin assured his sister, more than happy to do anything for her as long as she kept talking to him.

Baby steps, Austin.

"How are you feeling, Bud?" Austin bent over and picked up the bottle, setting it on the coffee table so he'd remember to take it on his way out.

Trash day was on Wednesdays which was tomorrow anyways.

Glen groaned, "dead man walking."

Austin frowned sympathetically and took a seat next to his sickly boy. He protectively laid his hand against Glen's forehead and then the back of his neck checking for a fever.

It felt similar to this morning, but still burning up.

"Is Dr. Sunshine doing a good job?" Austin playfully asked, scratching the boy's scalp. He could see in his periphery that Hayes was twiddling her fingers, her cheek twitched fleetingly in mild amusement. Then her face went straight back to nothing.

Tough crowd.

"Yeah huh," Glen thought so. His three minute burst of energy dissipated and now left feeling drowsy, he sort of just toppled over against Austin's side. "Hey Austin, wanna know a secret?"

"Sure," Austin humored him.

Glen used his remaining arm strength to push himself back up so he could whisper loudly in Austin's ear. "She's my best friend."

Just in case Austin didn't know who he was talking about, Glen made a dabbing motion in Hayes' direction. And because he was in a sick stupor, his hand-eye coordination was off and super exaggerated so Glen fell off-balance again. But this time, Austin was ready for him.

Austin covered his chuckle with a swift kiss to the top of Glen's head. Who would of thought, Glen's unfiltered thoughts revealed themselves during rage and times of illness.

Add in sleep deprivation and you got Hayes.

"Is that so?"

"Uh huh," Glen nodded his head against Austin's arm. "She's the bestest best. Bestestest bestest. Super bestest..." He started coughing.

Austin hoped the kids remained thick as thieves forever.

"I get it, buddy" Austin patted his brother's back trying to give him some relief. "Take it easy."

"My head hurts," Glen complained as he rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand. His other hand massaged his chest. "My chest hurts, my soul hurts. Everything hurts. Austin, I'm dying."

The boy's dramatic sense of humor didn't seem to take a hit at all.

"You're not dying." Not on my watch.

Austin switched to rubbing his brother's upper back. "But depending on how you feel tomorrow when you wake up, we might have to take a trip to the doctors." Austin added that in as smoothly as he could.

"Noooo," Glen groaned, leaning away from Austin's embrace and flopped over to his right side, closer to Hayes. "I'm busy."

Austin smiled. "Busy doing what?"

"Dying... at school."

"Hate to break it to you, Smiley, but there's no school tomorrow." Austin further explained before Hayes panicked, "no school for any of you or Francis. It's a teacher planning day which means free day for you but Colton has meetings so I'm going to stay home with you."

Austin felt Hayes staring at him and glanced over at her. She quickly avoided his eyes, finding the loose blanket strings more interesting to pay attention to.

Austin didn't drop his gaze as sadness overwhelming him. He wanted to right his wrongs so badly. "Hayes, baby," he spoke with such tenderness, "I'm really sorry."

The simple apology wouldn't be magical, but Austin needed her to know how much regret he had. He made a mistake, he was human. But the cost of it was killing him.

Austin knew she heard him from seeing her shoulders stiffen, but Hayes didn't look up at him.

Glen suddenly shot back up, incidentally blocking Austin's view of their little sister. His hand whacked Austin's knee a couple times to get his attention.

When Austin tilted his head down to look at him, Glen brought his hand up to shield his mouth from Hayes reading his lips. But the boy failed miserably at whispering, saying the words loud and clear.

"I think she's mad at you."

No shit, Smiley.

————

Hayes couldn't sleep for some reason.

She tried and tried, but nothing was working. Not even the old trick of counting the beers on the wall.

It also didn't help that Glen was noisily sleeping in her bed right next to her. Since his nose was all clogged up, he was mouth breathing and the sound was super irritating to her ears. He had passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow so she never even had the opportunity to fall asleep before him.

If she didn't love her brother so much, Hayes would have shoved a pillow over his face by now.

Hayes moaned and flipped over to her other side, her hand slipping underneath the pillow to press against her ear.

Shut up, Glen.

She just wanted to sleep.

Was this karma because she took an hour long nap today? Her and naps never did get along.

Stop kidding yourself.

Hayes pouted. She knew exactly why she wasn't falling asleep.

Frustrated, Hayes tossed the covers over to Glen's side, creating a mountain on top of him. Hopefully he won't mind.

She slid her legs off the bed and sat up, admiring her socks for a second. Just kidding, it was pitch dark in her bedroom and she couldn't even see a darn thing.

Basically blind, Hayes shimmied forward until she could feel her feet touch the carpet floor before standing up. Using her memory, she had her arms outstretched to avoid bumping painfully into any furniture as she tried to leave her room.

The kids had decided to bunk in Hayes' room together while Francis took Emerson's bed in Dakota's room so the shared master bedroom could be sprayed with Lysol.

The goal was to prevent the whole household from getting sick with whatever Glen had caught. The brothers didn't have much luck on that front from past experience and it would only take a day or two to determine if they succeeded. It would be iffy to guess at the moment, because Hayes heard someone sneezing a while ago and it wasn't her or Glen.

Honestly, Hayes was surprised she hadn't fallen sick yet, but so far so good.

Sucks to suck, Glennard, look who has the better immune system now.

Survival of the fittest.

Girls rule and boys drool.

Hayes' feet lead her to Austin's bedroom door that was wide open. Meaning, the eldest brother wasn't in his room yet for the night.

Hayes yawned as she wondered what time it even was. There was still no clock in her room and she had no stinking idea where her phone ran off to.

Yawning once more, now she was already a third of the way down the staircase before she realized it. Her hand was holding tightly on to the banister as she descended one single step at a time.

When she had two feet back on solid ground, Hayes just stood there. Her lips twisted to the side in a scowl.

Now what?

Where's Austin-Waldo?

Hayes don't know.

She didn't have to wonder for long though as her eldest brother's sixth sense must have alerted him of her presence. Within seconds, he popped his head out from Colton's room, a bit startled to see the little girl just standing there.

If Hayes had been more conscious than not, she would've heard their baritone voices giving away their location way in advance.

"Sunshine, what's wrong?" Austin stepped fully out of the room, Colton hanging back a few steps behind him. Austin glanced at him over his shoulder, the two of them sharing identical looks of concern.

The kids had gone upstairs to get ready for bed pretty much right after Austin said hello to them and the older brothers hadn't heard so much of a peep until now.

Austin and Colton briefly wondered if the girl was sleep-walking but thought otherwise since she'd never done that before.

Without a word, Hayes began walking towards her brothers and didn't stop until she bulldozed into Austin's chest. Her skinny arms wrapped around his waist as she buried her head into his cotton t-shirt.

She liked the feel of his shirt, hence why she always stole his shirts to use as pajamas, not any different from tonight.

Austin automatically returned the hug, laying his cheek on top of her head. He breathed in her clean shampoo scent as she decided to wash her hair when she took a shower.

They had Glen to thank for that accomplishment.

When Austin had brought it up as Colton had asked him to, Hayes shook her head no and sunk further in between the cushions on the couch.

But then Glen told her she smelled like a dead fish floating in a toilet and well, she kicked him in the stomach before marching upstairs.

Glen took a moment to recover from the hit before scurrying upstairs with a gatorade in his hand.

Even when her target was sick, Hayes had no mercy.

Austin tightened his arms, wanting the embrace to last forever. He missed her hugs, unable to remember if he even got a single one today. He felt Hayes rub her forehead against his stomach like she always did. The motion was soothing to her.

Now he understood what was happening.

His hugs were a part of her bedtime routine. So while the two of them hadn't reconciled yet, Hayes was struggling with the break in her nightly habit.

It was just the hope Austin needed to keep on pushing. Because at the end of the day, Hayes relied on her brother just as much as he needed his sister. They would get past this.

Austin just had to give it time.

Eventually which was too soon, Hayes released her eldest brother from her strong hold of a hug and scampered back upstairs, the two not exchanging a single word aloud the entire time.

A silent bliss.

But that was okay.

Because sometimes, actions were all one needed.

"That little girl loves you, bro." Austin had almost forgotten Colton was standing there. "The grudge won't last long."

Austin faintly smiled as he raked a hand through his bed-ready hair.

He didn't know about the latter part, Hayes knew how to hold a grudge.

But the former, yeah. That he agreed with.

And he loved her too.

~~~~~

I take it back. There's definitely potentially more than 4 chapters left now soooooo false alarm. But because I can't reasonably predict how many chapters since sometimes my fingers just keep typing... the ending might just suddenly slap you in the face without warning.

🤷🏼‍♀️ which one is better, I do not know.

Next chapter in two weeks or so.