Shallow Valley

53.Someone Who Cares

53.

What the seasons will bring you ?
Where tomorrow will leave you ?
You can be sure there's someone who cares
(Richie Furay-Someone Who Cares)

Lincoln entered Ethan's room, finding Clarke checking on him.

"Hey." she greeted him, smiling widely.

"Hey." he said back. "How is he?". Clarke gazed at the sleepy boy and tenderly caressed his hair.

"He's doing better, but his parents are impossible to find. Social workers talked to his brother, but he told them that he doesn't want to take care of him. They don't know what to do, he is turning 18 in less than a year." she explained, lowering her voice in order for Ethan not to wake up and hear her.

"Can he do it? I mean, can his brother refuse to take care of him?" Lincoln asked, incredulous. Clarke shrugged and sat down next to Ethan's bed.

"Apparently." she answered, concern in her voice. She knew Ethan's family well and she had always thought that the Hardys didn't deserve a boy like him. Ethan was considered to be a troubled boy, but the truth was different. He was just a boy forced to grow up alone. And it wasn't fair, at all. She looked at him once again, keeping caressing his hair. She tucked him in and sighed. She turned to Lincoln and glanced at him.

"I know that gaze, it's the same I have every time I look at Madi and Aden. You care about him, Linc."

"Sometimes I wonder what could have happened to me if Nyko didn't take Anya and me with him. I have never realized how much I took for granted that he cared and cares about us. The fact that Ethan has never experienced someone looking after him is so unfair." Lincoln said. Clarke stood up off the chair, stepping forward him. She patted his shoulder, softly smiling at him.

"Do what you feel, Linc, but be aware of the fact that Nyko is your uncle. You and Ethan aren't related and you aren't forced to do anything at all."

"And so what should I do? Abandon him? I can't Clarke. I can't do it.". The doctor put a hand on his shoulder and forced him to look at her in the eye.

"I didn't say so. I just want you to do something because you feel it, Linc. You have a big and golden heart, you know that, right?". The man blushed, a bit embarrassed by that compliments. "And she will notice it, sooner or later.". Lincoln shrugged, pensive. Lately thinking about Octavia made him so upset. He couldn't stop remembering the happiness in her eyes and in her voice when Atom had phoned her. He knew that she should have let her go, but he couldn't. It was too difficult.

"Now I have to go back to work. Don't hesitate calling me if there are some problems." Clarke advised him, bringing him back to reality. He nodded and watched her leaving the room. He sat down on the chair next to Ethan and took a book off his backpack. He started reading, occasionally looking at the boy.

"I didn't know that people like you could read.". Lincoln chuckled and moved forward the bed.

"During my senior year I wanted to go study literature at college." he said. Ethan widened his eyes, not fully able to believe his ears.

"What?"

"I love Eliot's poems and I read Moby Dick four times. Melville was a genius." Lincoln explained.

"Reading is so boring. I'm happy you changed your mind." Ethan claimed.

"I had to. I used to play football and my only chance to enter college was winning a scholarship, but I hurt my leg and I spent all my last high school year watching games in the stands. I didn't have good grades in subjects like maths, so a merit scholarship was off the table and my uncle couldn't pay for college. So I ended up graduating to an online course and opening a gym.". Ethan was staring at Lincoln, his mouth opened and totally unable to speak. "Do you want to go to college?" the man suddenly asked, causing the boy to gasp. He didn't expect such a question, at all.