After the Rain

Chapter Five

     Sauli and Natalie came home around ten o' clock that night, exhausted and high-strung. Jarrett was working the night shift, watching over Ellie as she slept. Tommy sat in the living room with Adam as he tuned one of his guitars. Adam hugged Natalie as she walked in.
     "Hey, how's my beautiful girl?" Adam and Sauli had adopted Natalie two years after they married. She was older than most of the kids at the adoption agency-most couples wanted babies-and they were finding it harder to find her a good home. Natalie had come into their lives by complete luck it seemed, what with most agencies rejecting Adam and Sauli for being a same-sex couple. With low hopes, they'd tried that agency as their last resort. If they would've gotten rejected, they would most likely have given up. But there Natalie was, an adorable, shy and quiet ten-year-old that they had finally been blessed with. At the age of eighteen now, she worked with Sauli part-time at the hospital as an intern for college preparation.
     Natalie managed a tired smile. "I'm good, Dad." She flopped down on the couch next to Tommy and plucked one of the guitar's strings. "You seem kinda down, kitty. What's up?"
     Tommy mentally cringed at the sound of his nickname, the one Terri would frequently use, but physically didn't blink. "I'm fine," he lied, and Adam sat down, abruptly changing the subject.
     "How was work?" he asked. "You guys are home late."
     "Same as always," Sauli replied, looking through Ellie's file report from that day.
     "Except for a small mishap," Natalie chimed in quietly.
     "Mishap?" Adam echoed, anxious now. "What kind of mishap?"
     "Calm down, Adam," Sauli said, seeming way too calm. "She was just pushed a little too far."
    Adam wasn't convinced. He leaned foward and snatched the papers from his husband's hands, flipping through them and skimming the pages. "She flipped a table? Locked the doors?" He turned a page over and gaped at it. "She levitated Natalie and dropped her?!"
     "Dad, I'm fine," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "She's harmless."
     "Doesn't sound so harmless to me." Tommy mumbled.
     "What's that supposed to mean?" Sauli asked.
     Tommy spoke up. "I don't think she sounds so harmless if she's locking doors and hurling Natalie around."
     "How would you know?" Sauli asked, taking the papers back from Adam. "You've never even met her."
     "I don't need to, I know enough about her to have enough sense to stay away." Tommy snapped. "She's been in an institution for a good third of her life."
     "It's not an insane asylum as you seem to think it is," Sauli retorted, defensive. "It's a hospital and it's my job to make her better."
     "It's been three years, Sauli!" Tommy suddenly yelled, standing up, his guitar thumping onto the carpet from the force. "Don't you think if you could've cured her by now, you would've? She's almost killed you several times! Maybe you should realize how dangerous she is and consider putting her to sleep."
     Sauli glared at him, his eyes cold and hard as stone. "She is not an animal!" he yelled back. "She can't be "put down." And she's never come close to killing me or hardly injuring me. What the hell is your problem, anyway? She's just a little girl!"
     Tommy fell silent. He wouldn't admit he was terrified of losing another person he cared about to that girl. If he did, they'd surely connect Terri's death to Ellie, and he didn't want that. So, Tommy grabbed his guitar by its neck and stomped up the steps. Sauli sighed, running his fingers through his hair, sitting back down.
    "What's with him?" Natalie asked.
     "I don't know," Adam sighed. "He came home looking wrecked. He was soaked. Went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of brandy on his way in."
     "He's drinking again?" Sauli said. "God, that's not good."
Natalie remembered the last time Tommy had been drinking—and Sauli was right, it hadn't been good. Adam had gotten a call from a waitress from a bar from Tommy's cell phone saying he was sick and they had called an ambulance.
     They'd arrived at the bar minutes later, a small, rundown shabby place, and found Tommy slumped over the bar, barely alive and foaming at the mouth. Natalie had cried the whole way to the hospital and sat at Tommy's beside while they pumped his stomach and had to put him on life support. For the next hour, Tommy had only woken up to vomit then fall back into unconsciousness. When he'd finally woken up, Natalie had hugged him tight and cried until she lost her voice, begging him to never do that again.
     Adam and Sauli reminded him of what had happened to his father. His dad had drank himself until he was hospitalized, and passed away after agonizing months of hell. He'd started to show signs of recovery from an infection in his liver, but then it had slowly stopped and gotten worse.
     Adam could recall the night Tommy's dad passed away with vivid clarity. They had been just about to go on stage for a performance when Adam had gone to see some fans, leaving Tommy in the dressing room. Isaac, the band's former drummer, had come in holding a phone pressed against his shoulder.
     "Tommy," he had said. "There's a woman on the phone. She won't let me go until she talks to you." Confused, Tommy had taken the phone. His mother's sobbing voice had filled the line, saying his father had died earlier that night. The phone clattering into the cold tiled floor was all his mom had heard from the other end, and Tommy had crumpled to his knees.
     He hardly heard Isaac's pleading cries asking him what was wrong and for him to answer him.
     Tommy numbly had gotten to his feet and ran. Just ran. Adam was standing on a small ramp branching off the stage where he greeted fans and signed autographs. He remembered Tommy shoving through the crowd, ignoring the people who shouted his name or asked for a picture, stumbling over his own feet and smacking into Adam, hugging him tight and crying hard into his chest. The action was so unusual for Tommy's behavior, and at first Adam hadn't known how to react.
     Looking back on it now, he realized Tommy had just needed someone, anyone, and came in search for his best friend. The small crowd of fans had fallen silent around them, and Adam, knowing it wouldn't be good for anyone to see Tommy like this and cause rumors to surface, he eventually coaxed Tommy backstage.
     Terri had been the one to take Tommy home that night, and Adam had found a temporary guitarist to take over while he was away. They flew out to Florida so he could be with his family.
     "Tommy's had a sad life," Terri had said softly to Adam once. She was right, and her death had only added to the heavy depression.
      Natalie's voice brought Adam back. "Maybe it won't be like last time," she suggested half-heartedly.
     "He always drinks around the time Terri died." Adam pointed out.
     "Yeah," Sauli softly said.
     "He's really hurting," Natalie whispered. "I don't know if he'll ever be over Terri."