And We're All Falling

Silence Is Never Golden

"Why did you call me again?!"

...

"I don't care. I will never approve of that!"

...

"Everything was fine before you came along. Just go. Don't ruin anything else."

...

"W-what?"

...

"How could you say that about me?"

...

"No, that wasn't because--"

...

"Yes, I understand. Goodbye."

...

        York silently listened to the conversation. Carolina thought he was asleep and took that oppertunity to answer the phone call from her. It didn't go very well. He eventually woke up and stayed still, hoping to get some pieces to the puzzle of Caroline Church.

"W-why did you have to go? W-why did you leave us here?"

He held his breath, listening to her shaky voice. 

I don't cry

Was that a lie?

        Bravely and carefully, he turned onto his side and spotted Carolina. She was by the windows of his living room, staring out into the sunrise. She'd tossed her phone onto the chair that held York's workout bag. Shoulders shook ever so slightly, causing her hair to flow like lava. So she did lie. She was capable of crying.

        York had two options. Option number one: Go up behind her and hold her so she had no choice but to cry and confess her problems. Option number two: Pretend like nothing happened. Of course, he wanted to go with option one, but her had no idea how bad it was going to break her. Would she be a sobbing mess for the rest of the day? Would it be fifteen minutes of crying and then that be it? Would it be a days on end thing like South?

        He didn't know. But, to be honest, he didn't really care. Carolina was tired, not physically neccessarily, but mentally. He'd known that for months. But now, with that little phone call, it was like she was on the edge of a cliff. Something could push her over and she'd be gone.

        He got up silently and padded over until he was inches behind her. He could hear her little sobs and gasps for air. It made him want to cry too. He never liked to see Carolina in pain or upset. Whoever this woman was, he was going to make sure that she paid for making Carolina cry.

"Lina, I'm right here," he said softly, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder.

"No," she cried, fingers trying to pry his hands away. "I'm fine."

"Shh," he soothed, rocking back and forth gently.

        For awhile, it was just Carolina choking back sob after sob. York hummed some slow love song he'd heard on the radio and didn't let her go. After a while, however, she broke.

"It's her, York," she sobbed, practically collapsing in his grasp.

He moved her carefully to sit on the floor, not letting her go as he did so.

"Tell me everything. I'm listening," he said softly, lacing one of her hands with his.

"When I was little, my mom died one day. Out of the blue, no one saw it coming. My dad was devastated. Until I left for college, he was in this cycle of pushing me to be better and better. Then, after I left, he couldn't do that as well. So he looked for other hobbies. Other interests. He found her a few months ago. Her name is Beth. I've met her once and, York, I hate her. She's horrible and now he wants to propose to her soon and I don't want another mom. I want my mom. Allison, her name was Allison but my dad called her Tex because she came from Texas. Now Beth is from Texas too and he's starting to call her Beta Tex. It's not fair to me. He's erasing my mom from my life and from his life!" she sobbed/explained. "I want her gone, York. Make her leave, please?"

By now, she was practically hyperventilating while trying to explain to him what happened.

"Hold on, Lina. Breathe, please," he said softly, cupping her face with his hands.

After a few minutes, she was still crying, but it was silent.

"Why does she keep calling you?" he asked.

"She wants me to like her, but I can't. She says...it's my fault why my dad's unhappy. It's not, right? I didn't ruin his life, right?" she choked out.

"No, you didn't ruin anything, I promise," he assured. "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I-I-I thought I could convince her to leave," she sniffled. "But instead, I've convinced myself that I've ruined my family's life."

"Okay...here's what we're going to do, okay? We don't have to work today anyway. So today, you can cry, you can scream, you can do whatever you want. But Lina, it's okay to cry," he said, rubbing circles on her hands with his thumbs.

"Dad always said if we cried, it showed that we let it get to us," she hiccuped.

"It doesn't show anything besides the fact that you are human. So what do you want to do first?" he corrected softly.

"I wanna cry," she said quietly.

York pulled her into his arms and then onto the couch.

"Then cry. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere."

And so, the Unbreakable cried.

And cried.

And cried.

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(Disclaimer: I do not own the characters from Red VS Blue, they are owned by the lovely people at RoosterTeeth :))