heart like yours (jennifer jareau)

3. twenty six

AN: hey guys! happy monday! <3

we have some family bonding today to cheer everybody up a little bit after the past few chapters :)

TWs:
descriptions of injuries
mentions of murder
mentions of abuse
mentions of drug addiction

i hope you guys enjoy! <3

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" 'am i my brother's keeper?' asks his brother's murderer. aren't we indeed the keepers of our dead?" - valzhyna mort

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The immediate aftermath of any trauma is never as eventful as the months following, or the months prior. It was always how it went with Delilah. She was numb for the first few weeks, stumbling through the days in a blind haze, like she wasn't really there, and then it would all hit her.

She would fall apart.

Until then, the days trickled by.

The first night back in Virginia, Dave had taken them to the apartment and then went back out to check out some houses for them. Liv had barely managed to get Ziggy on the sofa before he was fast asleep, and Delilah wasn't too far behind him. The dumb dog was curled up at the end of the sofa, gentle snores filling the room.

They slept through the rest of the day, and the night, and most of the next day. They woke up for periodic doses of pain medication and wound cleanses and, every time, more and more of the apartment was packed up into boxes. The dog stayed in the same spot, as close to Ziggy as he could get.

They'd gotten back to Virginia on the first of November, the same day Ziggy and Delilah had been found, and, by the fourth, all they'd done was sleep. Liv relocated them to their beds, or to her bed so she could keep an eye on them, but they'd just slept.

They truly didn't have the energy to do much else.

When they did wake up after their three day hibernation, it was to a spread of pasta and pizza that Dave had cooked up, and Liv was packing up the family photos in bubblewrap so they didn't smash.

"You find somewhere, then?" Delilah asked, picking the pepperoni off her slice of pizza so she could nibble at it.

Ziggy was already four slices in, pizza sauce and cheese smeared over his face. Dave was almost as messy. The dog, who Ziggy had yet to rename, sat at Ziggy's feet with his head tilted to the side. The three adults all pretended they couldn't see Ziggy feeding the dog meatballs under the table.

"I did," Dave said. "The papers will be in my name by Friday, and then we can officially move in by Monday. I'm having decorators come over during the weekend. I'm going to need you guys to pick colours for your rooms."

"I'm gonna paint Ziggy's room. Just do a white base coat," Liv said.

"You got it," Dave nodded. "Lilah?"

"Uh, anything," Delilah murmured. "I'm barely home, anyway."

"Oh, that reminds me," Liv said. "Jace said he'll meet with you in a week. He's waiting for me to confirm the infection is gone."

"Is it gone?" Delilah asked, having felt Liv cleaning it several times while she was in and out of sleep.

"Almost," Liv said. "It's healing well."

Delilah nodded, chewing on her pepperoni. She flicked a piece of pizza under the table to the dog, Ziggy giggling as the dog caught it in his mouth and ate it in two bites.