InsaneJournal

Thomas Julian Kemp (asterismos) wrote in nevermore_logs, @ 2016-01-30 02:31:00

Current mood:

sad

WHO: Thomas and Charlotte Kemp
WHAT: Just some siblings being wonderful
WHEN: Friday evening
WHERE: Thomas' house
WARNINGS: Discussion of past domestic violence and Huntington's Disease



With Lena out drinking with her friends from nursing school, Thomas was taking the opportunity to do rather a lot of work on his essay. He didn't like hiding himself away to work on it when he would rather spend time with his insanely hot wife, so when she was out was his studying time. He had created a little work space of his bed, surrounding himself with books and papers, his laptop in his lap. He had made amazing progress and was actually on a paragraph concerning the different colours of stars, when the bedroom door opened.

A shock of red hair announced Charlotte's presence as she simply let herself in. "Hey," she said, her voice devoid of any kind of emotion.

"Char, you're lucky I'm wearing clothes, Jesus," Thomas joked, but Charlotte's demeanor had him worried. He immediately set aside his computer and cleared his books away so she could have a spot to sit. Instead, Charlotte wandered over and dropped down to the mattress, curling up into a shocking small ball. "Hey, Red-" Thomas' voice was gentle and loving as he turned to rest a hand on her back. "You okay?"

"I let myself in," she said, not really answering his question. Thomas and Lena had given her a key to the duplex months ago, and Thomas had already put that much together. "Bad day. I keep shaking and it's- It's just bad, Tommy. I'm dying and it's bad."

There wasn't really much Thomas could say to his little sister, considering she was correct. Instead, he leaned down a dropped a kiss on her hair. "I love you."

"Can I just curl up here and sleep?" It reminded Thomas of the years when she would stop by his house and claim that her husband was out of town and she didn't want to be alone, when really her husband had severely hurt her and she had escaped the situation for a few days. When she finally left Lane she had spent months living with Jamie and Thomas, just to be safe. The night she finally showed up at his door, more battered and bruised than he had ever seen anyone, and finally admitted Lane had been hurting her for years, Thomas had refused to let her out of his eyesight for weeks. She was his little sister and absolutely precious to him and she was literally being taken from him, right in front of his eyes and in excruciating slow-motion. To add insult to injury, he was going to start deteriorating in the same way some day, and it was horrible.

"Come here," Thomas leaned down and opened his arms, and immediately Charlotte was curled up into them. He held her there, stroking her hair and listening to her breathing become slow and even as she fell asleep. Only then did he start to cry, though he did so silently, so as not to wake her. Some day soon, they would lose their father to Huntington's. Then it would claim Charlotte, followed by Thomas and their younger sister, Lil. There was absolutely no justice in the world.

When Lena arrived home, head buzzing and cheeks pink from the cold night, she found the both of them there, sleeping soundly. Instead of disturbing them she covered them with a blanket and slipped out to the living room to sleep on the sofa.

If anyone deserved all the time they still had together, it was Thomas and Charlotte.