Chapter Three-Hundred-Eighty
Aaron chased Josh all through out the air vents going through tunnel after tunnel through the hospital vents back to the Orphanage again for some time, until suddenly Elenore came running out from around a corner nearly causing a head on collision with the six-year-old. Both children screamed and stopped abruptly and Angel who had been hot on Elenore’s trail stopped to avoid crashing into her. Aaron however, wasn’t so lucky and bumped right into Josh only to fall backward and land on his ass with an ‘oomph’.
Elenore and Josh realizing much too late that they were surrounded by a wall and Angel blocking the way Elenore came while Aaron blocked the way Josh had come locked eyes with each other. Elenore silently asked ‘what do we do’ with her eyes, and Josh gave her a look and Elenore comprehended instantly without words. Both of them got to their knees then and before either twin (who had gotten to their feet with their heads hunched down slightly as to not bump them on the ceiling) could grab them, they flew past each other quickly. Elenore tucked and rolled under Aaron’s legs and Josh did the same with Angel just barely missing her clutches as she went for his feet.
“What the…” Aaron muttered as he watched Elenore run off behind him and he had a look on his face as if he doesn’t understand what just happened.
“Crazy Ninja Loving kids…” he said, and then whirled around and ran after her and Angel did the same with Josh.
“Come on Ellie, you have to let up sometime! We could go at this all night, these tunnels are never ending!” Aaron called after the quick five-year-old and the only response he got out of her were the echo of her giggles as she rounded the corner before he even got there. “There’s no point of this chase anymore, you know! You don’t have a fugitive to protect anymore, Kota has been caught” he informed as he rounded the corner just on time to see her go around the next one. “Jesus Christ kid…” he muttered quietly to himself. “How fast are you? Not even Josh gave me such a hard time.”
“You’re lying!” he heard her echo a couple of tunnels away.
“Oh yeah? Have you run into her at all since you separated?” Aaron challenged, only to be met by utter silence. He rounded another corner only to stop abruptly as she sat a few feet ahead of him contemplating his last words. “Ashley found her and has probably talked her into going down to Nick. Infact, I know she has. Ashley knows her stuff when it comes to Dakota.”
“So?” Elenore challenged. “What of it?”
“So the whole point of this cat and mouse chase was to protect her and now that she’s down there facing the wrath of my very angry brother I think its high time you save your own behind. You are going to be in a lot of trouble too you know, or do I need to remind you that there is an unhappy Kevin down there?”
“All the more reason for me to stays up here.”
“I’m afraid you are only delaying the inevitable my dear.”
“Fine by me,” Elenore insisted and she began to round the corner again.
“Its better to face it now then later, isn’t it? What are you going to do when you are the only one left up here? Are you going to hide up here forever? Won’t you get lonely? Won’t you eventually miss everybody?”
“I’ll be perfectly fine because I am free of Summer here. Nobody can hurts me.”
“Oh you think so huh?”
“I knows so.”
“What is to say that a skinny thing like her won’t decide to come up here after you herself, huh? When you are all alone with nobody here to protect you? What will you do then?” Elenore was silent for a few moments as she thought about that. He has a point.
“…I wont be alone,” She insisted after a few moments. “Linda will be here…an’ anyways Marcus won’t let her in the building.”
“Right…your imaginary friend,” Aaron replied.
“She’s not imaginary.”
“Oh yeah small fry? Then why is it that no one else but you can see her?”
“Because she doesn’t likes to be seen. Duh.”
“Real people don’t have the ability to make themselves invisible to other people…even though that would be really cool…and useful at times, they just don’t.”
“Lindy-a…does.” Aaron raised his eyebrow.
“Which one is it Ellie? Linda or Lindy?”
“Linda. I meant Linda.”
“You sure about that?”
“Mhm.” Aaron stared at her curiously for a couple of moments in silence.
“So Ellie, I’m curious…buddy to buddy here…” he began. “Why did this friend Linda of yours decide she wanted to be your imag—your friend?”
“She says she’s here to help my-me.”
“Help you with what?” Aaron asked suspiciously. He hadn’t missed her little correction that she made.
“That is between Linda and me mister so you just butts out.” Aaron narrowed his eyes at her but didn’t let the conversation go any further deciding he needs to put his entire concentration on getting her out of these vents. But he made a mental note in the back of his head to inform Kevin of this little conversation later. He has a feeling he needs to have a little talk with Ellie about this imaginary friend of hers and find out more about her.
“Anyway the point is, Linda is not going to have the ability to protect you from Summer if she has to, so I think you need to come back down out of these vents where your grandmother and everybody else can.”
“You haves no idea,” Elenore giggled, thinking about the time when Lindy had scared Summer shitless by nearly getting her run over by a car. Four cars to be exact. Aaron once again narrowed his eyes at the young child – a habit he’s gotten himself in during the last five minutes but like before he let it slide for now and went on with his coaxing as if she hadn’t said a word.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Meanwhile, when Ashley found the air vent to hers and Nick’s room again she opened it up and crawled out. When she was on her feet on the floor, she turned and looked up at Dakota who remained cowering just inside the door to the vent.
“Come on honey, it will be easier if you just get it over with.”
“But what if he gets so mad at me that he hurts me?” Dakota asked softly. “I really did it this time…”
“Well that you did,” Nick’s voice spoke from behind Ashley and Ashley whirled around to see him standing in the doorway with his arms crossed and that stern fatherly look that he doesn’t have to use very often – and doesn’t like to use. “But I can’t believe you even have to ask that question Dakota Ann.” Dakota looked down at Abbie in her arms and did everything she could to avoid eye contact with him.
“Look at me right now young lady,” He ordered sternly and after a long moment she did as her eyes filled with tears. “You know me better then that. Have I raised a hand to you ever in your life? No I have not. I’ve never even spanked you before Dakota Ann. You got pretty lucky with that because a lot of fathers do. You have it very easy kid so it hurts me that you would even ask that question.”
“She’s on insecure overdrive right now…we had an emotional moment up there.” Nick gazed at Dakota for a long moment in silence before speaking again.
“Come down here Dakota right now. Marcus is waiting out in the hall he is going to walk you to the car where you two are going to wait for us to come out. We’re going home now.” Dakota rubbed at here eyes and sniffled before climbing out of the vent so she was standing on the dresser. She reached for Ashley who gently lifted her up and sat her so her feet were on the ground and she walked past Nick wanting nothing more then to get away from his disappointed gaze right now. He waited until she was out in the hall and he watched as Marcus took her hand and led her down the hall to the elevator. When she was completely gone he turned his attention on Ashley.
“What happened up there? Why is my daughter terrified of me?”
“Not of you persay…” Ashley insisted gently and she closed the little space between them and slid her arms around him as he did the same. “When I found her she was wandering around the vents cautiously by herself and I think without thinking about it, she led herself right to the basement vent. She was so frightened,” Ashley explained, and she went on with telling him exactly what happened when she approached her.
~*~*~*~*~
“This is kind of neat,” Howie announced conversationally, as he and Lindsey walked outside to the front of the library and he noticed for the first time the cement ground. In each square there is someone’s name in it – in some of them there are several names in one.
“That was Rick’s idea,” Lindsey replied with a small smile as she gazed down at all of the names too. “To have people buy a square and put their names in it. We put Ryan and Laila’s name in one,” she explained while walking over to a square and Howie followed her and sure enough there were their names. “Ryan thinks its something special. He likes to look at it everytime we come here.” Howie silently stood there and watched her as she had her memory and after a couple of moments when she snapped out of it, she walked over to the fountain and sat down on the cemented bench that surrounds it. Howie stayed where he was at keeping his distance as he can tell that she still isn’t real pleased to be in his presence at the moment.
“So what did you want to talk to me about?” She asked after a long moment as she fiddled with her fingernails.
“Well I would like to talk about that argument we had in there,” Howie shrugged. “And get it over with and settled…unless you want to go on fighting forever.”
“What’s the point? We’ll just be in the middle of another fight tomorrow because that’s just what we do. It’s always a constant battle with you.” Howie narrowed his eyes.
“A constant battle with me?” He asked incredulously. “Try the other way around.” It was then Lindsey’s turn to narrow her eyes. “Don’t you look at me like that! You know its true. I can’t even offer to make you a plate at dinner without having an argument with you. You’re stubborn and hard headed and everything always has to go your way.”
“I am not stubborn and—“
“--You are so, that is exactly what you are.”
“Well you are a rude and inconsiderate asshole and I don’t know why they allowed you to take me in!”
“Excuse me? Rude and inconsiderate?”
“Yes the way you talk to me most of the time is unbelievable.”
“Oh I’m sorry that I tend to get all fired up when I see that boy in there suffering!” Howie snapped while pointing toward the building that Ryan was currently in. “I’ve only cared for him and Laila all this time, gave them a safe place to live, loved them and sheltered them and helped them go through stuff that children shouldn’t have to go through! Yes I am a real jackass aren’t I?” Before Lindsey could even muster up the words to reply, Howie went on. “And I’ve only made it possible for you to be apart of your children’s life again, took you in and provided you a good home, I’m only doing everything I can to help you get your life back together again. I can see how that would make me a monster.”
“Well you know what? You can take it ALL back because I don’t want ANYTHING to do with you if you are going to have this attitude with me!” Lindsey informed as tears formed in her eyes, and she got to her feet, walked a few steps away from him, and turned her back on him as she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Well that’s too bad because you are stuck with me until your doctors see fit. Unless you would rather go back in that hospital and lose your children again. Is that what you want?”
“What I want is for you to stop talking to me the way you do. All I WANT is to be respected just a little bit is that too much to ask for? Everytime I think we’re getting somewhere and that maybe I can rely on you, you start acting like this and I can’t take it! I’ve suffered through enough, I don’t need this too!” Howie sighed heavily and raked his fingers through his hair as he looked away from her and thought about her words. He knows she’s right but how can he tell her that he is only doing it because he does respect her? That wouldn’t make any sense at all to her, but it does to him in his heart and in his mind. He’s afraid to let her get too close to him because she just lost her husband and she’s hurt and vulnerable right now and it would just be completely wrong. How can he tell her that he wants to get close to her more then she knows when she is still grieving over her husband? And then there is her personality – that stubborn personality of hers. He doesn’t always mean to start fights with her…it just sort of happens that way without him even thinking about it until its happened. She’s right – it is what they do. They fight and sometimes he even enjoys making her angry because she is so damn beautiful when she is. But making her cry is not his favorite thing to do. Didn’t he come out here to make things better? How the hell did it get this bad?
“I do respect you Lindsey…more then you know,” Howie insisted after a long moment when he knew his head was clear again.
“You have an odd way of showing it.”
“I really didn’t come out here to pick an even worse fight with you then we were already in I promise,” Howie replied, ignoring her comment. If he responds to it he’ll say too much and he really can’t go there right now.
“My fault right? Since I’m stubborn and hard headed and all that…”
“No its not your fault,” Howie insisted and he moved behind her and gently enveloped her in his arms from behind for a hug. Despite how furious she is at him and despite the fact that she wants nothing more then to turn around and smack him as hard as she can across the face right now, she couldn’t help but lean back into his embrace. It just…feels right. “You’re right I am being an asshole,” he admitted softly before lowering his face down into her curls and taking in the faint smell of her perfume. When he realized he was letting her cloud his judgement again, he pulled back and she finally turned around to face him but she looked down at the ground carefully avoiding eye contact. Howie gazed at her in silence for a few moments, and then reached over and gently tilted her chin back with his forefinger and thumb so that their eyes meet. “I let my jealousy…and other emotions get to the better of me…and I’m sorry.”
“Jealousy?” Lindsey asked quietly. “What could you possibly be jealous of me for? I’m an emotional wreck who just tried to kill myself. I was just released from a psychiatrics hospital, my daughter doesn’t fully trust me, and you’ve been helping my children through all of the things that I should’ve been helping them through, but since I’m a horrible parent I haven’t been able to. You know more about my kids then I do. If anybody should be jealous of anyone, it should be me of you.”
“I’m jealous because I’ve been here for Ryan and Laila for everything these past few months while you were away…and I didn’t realize how much I really loved them until you walked back into their lives again and took over,” Howie explained gently. “When you got on me about yelling at Ryan…something in me just snapped. I don’t know I guess I just got a little territorial…which is ridiculous because they’re your kids and you have every right to tell me what’s what when it comes to them. Its just that I love them…more then I realized and the thought of you coming in the picture and taking over…it terrifies me a little bit.”
“Because you think I will become stable enough that I won’t need you anymore and that I will try to take them away from you?”
“I don’t know…maybe,” Howie shrugged and he looked away from her.
“That’s not going to happen Howie,” Lindsey reassured and she placed her hand to his cheek and carefully made him look at her. “I promise. Ryan and Laila love you so much…I could never do that to them. You’ve done more for them then I ever could…especially right now when I’m such a wreck myself, and I want you to know that I am very thankful for that okay?” Howie nodded quietly. “You will always be apart of their life – always. I want them to always feel like they can come to you for anything. God knows they need a man in their life…especially Ryan. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes of course it is,” Howie insisted before rubbing at his watery eyes. The two of them were silent for a few moments, and then Howie spoke up. “What about their mother?”
“What about me?”
“Will you be apart of my life too? Do you feel like you can come to me for anything?” he asked sincerely.
“I would like to be…and I would really love to feel that way.”
“But?”
“But I feel like everytime I try to get close to you, you put a wall up and I don’t know why that is. You’re always sending me mixed signals and I really don’t need that right now with all that I am going through.”
“Don’t give up on me just yet…please,” Howie begged. “I know I was being an asshole earlier…just give me a chance to turn it all around. I don’t want you to go anywhere.”
“Seeing as how I really don’t have much of a choice…I am as you put it…’stuck with you’, I’ll give you one more chance. But the second you start talking to me the way you have been, I’ll figure out a way to get them to let me leave you…I’ll demand for someone else.”
“I’ll work on it I promise. I’m really not the asshole I’ve been making myself out to be, you can ask anybody.”
“I have,” Lindsey replied and she couldn’t help but smile slightly. “Kevin and Nick both seem to have a very high opinion of you…they seem to always have really great things to say about you whenever I bring you up.”
“And Brian and AJ?” Howie asked grinning a little himself.
“Well I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to Brian much yet, he seems to be rather busy with Kevin and Jerald at the moment, but I don’t even have to ask AJ, he gives me his opinion of you every time I see him.”
“Well, you see, Alex is the best friend so his opinions of me might be a little biased.” Lindsey laughed a little.
“Well, I think they all might be pretty biased…but it’s a good thing that I was a very big Backstreet Boys fan before I met you, so I know they aren’t lying.”
“A Backstreet Boys fan huh? Wow…I didn’t see that one coming.”
“Mhm. The pictures and posters pinned up on every single wall in the house, going to every single concert I could, and owning every single CD or Merchandise with your faces on it that I could get kind of fan. Thing is, I never even imagined you would end up being my children’s foster parent. I hear every fan has their moment, but that’s a pretty big one.”
“Well I’ll say,” Howie agreed. “How did your husband feel about you being that big of a fan? Did he really let you hang posters and pin-ups on every wall in your house?” he asked in slight disbelief.
“Well, okay, not every wall I was exaggerating a lot” Lindsey admitted. “He let me have an entire wall dedicated to my stuff though.”
“I see,” Howie chuckled.
“He was very supportive of me though, he was an amazing husband. He accepted that having me be apart of his life meant having to deal with my being a fan. Our first date was actually to your concert.”
“That’s cool,” Howie replied sincerely. “He sounds like he was a really great guy the way you and Ryan talk about him. I wish I would’ve had the honor to meet him.”
“Me too,” Lindsey smiled. “He would’ve liked to meet you too…but of course, I still have yet to meet the Sweet D side of you that I’ve always fantasized about…I know he is in there somewhere with the way everybody else goes on about it.”
“He is,” Howie promised as he took her hand into his and gently squeezed it as they now sit on the fountain again. The two of them sat in silence for a few moments, until Howie thought of something else to say.
“I’m sorry your visit to the library wasn’t the way you expected it to be.”
“Its all right,” Lindsey insisted. “I’m still glad we came. I got to talk to Jan earlier…she says they would love to have me working here in the library. They said if I’m ready for it I can start tomorrow.”
“That’s great,” Howie grinned.
“Is it okay if I do it?”
“If you feel like you need to, then go for it. It’s your decision honey, I’m just here to make sure you get your life back on the right track again and so far you’re doing great.”
“Thank-you,” Lindsey replied softly and he squeezed her hand gently once more.
“What do you say we start over huh? Why don’t we go in there as if we just got here and check out the library together? I promise you I won’t leave you this time.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Lindsey smiled and Howie got to his feet, helped her up, and the two of them headed back inside.
Author's Chapter Notes:
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