Marjoreece - Date Night

The Siblings Past

Reece still hadn't answered Autumn after she'd spoken to him. She looked at Marjorie. "Something's definitely not right. He's crying. My brother doesn't do that. When we were children, if Reece cried, our father would beat him because 'men aren't supposed to do that. It shows weakness'."
Marjorie and Carly looked horrified. Mia piped up at this point and said, "That's true, I was there one day when we were children, and Reece had fallen off his bike. A really bad fall, he dislocated his shoulder and broke his arm. I think anyone would have cried at that pain. Roger hit him and said,'Man up boy, stop being such a disappointment'. Reece told me later that it wasn't an isolated incident."
"Right, we need to get him inside before anything else." Autumn said, trying to take charge of the situation. "REECE!!!"
She shouted at him in a way only she could, while also kicking him in the shins for good measure. She crouched down next to him in the hope that would be enough to shake him out of the trance like state he was in. He lifted his eyes, and they met hers. "Aut? You're OK? I'm so sorry I didn't protect you, I didn't think I could bring you back, I thought I'd lost you. It's all my fault. " All the words fell out of his mouth in a jumble as he threw himself towards her and pulled her into a hug. Autumn looked incredibly uncomfortable at the hug but was willing to deal with it if it would help her brother out of whatever this was. She managed to get him to let go of her and stand up before convincing him to go inside to the office with the rest of them. She sat him down in one of the chairs, Marjorie sat next to him and held his hand while Autumn perched on Marjories desk. Mia, Charlotte, and Carly all hovered at the back of the room. Carly was being hugged by Charlotte as she was in tears, she wasn't sure she wanted to know what caused all of this, but Reece was like a dad to her, and had helped her so much she felt she needed to stay to make sure he was OK.
"Reece, my love." Marjorie whispered, "Do you think you can tell us what's going on?"
At that moment, Reece realised where he was and who he was with. He tried to brush it all off, "Nothing's going on. I'm fine. I need to get to my nursery, though, so I'd best get a move on, I'm already late. Bye gorgeous, little sis." He said as he kissed Marjorie and turned towards the door. As he did, he finally realised Mia, Char, and Carly were between him and the exit. Carly looked terrified, Char concerned, and Mia was just glaring at him.
"Reecey, don't you dare. Sit your arse back down and start talking, or I will. Hasn't the last few months shown you that secrets don't do anyone any good? If nothing else, Autumn deserves to know what really happened that day."
Autumn looked from Mia to her brother and back again. "Stop talking in riddles, Mia, and one of you tell me what's going on before I do a hell of a lot more than kick you in the shins!!"
"Right, Reece, if you're not going to start, I will. Autumn, do you remember the time you woke up in the hospital and didn't know what had happened?"
"You mean when I fell down the stairs?" The younger woman asked.
"That's what Roger told you happened, but that's not the full story, is it?" Mia asked pointedly, staring at Reece, who just looked at the floor. She sighed at his lack of response, so she decided to continue. "I'd come back to yours with Reece to do homework after he'd had rugby training. When we walked in the door, Roger was yelling at you Autumn about some test he thought you should have scored better in. Reece ran to try and get between you, as he always did, but he was too late. Roger hit you. You fell back and smashed your head on the stairs. Reece pushed Rog away from you, and he walked out of the house telling me and Reece to deal with it. I called the ambulance and was relaying the questions they asked back to Reece as he checked on you." She glared at Reece again at this point. "Jumping in anytime soon, Reecey?" The only movement he made was to bury his face in his hands. "You weren't breathing, and we couldn't find a pulse Autumn. 11 year old Reecey here had to do CPR on his baby sister while being talked through it by an operator on the phone because of what daddy dearest had done. You started breathing again before the paramedics arrived, so you must have had a pulse that we couldn't find because we didn't know what we were doing at that age. When they arrived, Roger came back in and took control. He said we'd come home and found you. You must have fallen down the stairs, and he came home while we were on the phone to 999 seconds before the paramedics turned up. Reece always blamed himself, and we were both too scared to contradict your dad. By the sounds of it, that little girl out there looked just like 9 year old Autumn and brought it all back from wherever he'd buried it for the last 27 years."
Autumn looked at her brother and felt like she was about to cry herself. "Reece, why was any of that your fault? I don't understand."
He sighed and looked up at her, leaning back in the chair. "Because I was meant to protect you. You'd already lost your mum because of me, then it was my fault you almost lost your life."
Marjorie looked over at him, "Reece, none of that is your fault. Why would you think it is?"
"I couldn't protect mum from him, and as dad never tired of telling me, I was their biggest disappointment. He always said if it wasn't for me, she'd have stayed. Then I wasn't there to protect Aut from him either. I couldn't bring Mum back. The least I could do was be there for Aut, and I failed at that, too. Also, I always knew I'd get out and survive Aut as long as I had you, and that day, I really thought I'd lost you."
Marjorie fought back the tears as she put her hand on Reeces shoulder and said, "Reece, your mum didn't leave because of you."
"Yea, she left because she was a selfish bitch." Mia piped up.
"Amelia Roberts!!!"
"Don't you full name me Char, you're a mother. What else would you call a person who abandons her 2 children with a monster she knows will hurt them?"
Charlotte didn't have an answer to that. "Reece from everything I've heard from Mia, it does sound much more likely she left because of Roger, not you, regardless of what he's told you."
"I should have protected her Char, I tried so hard to put myself between him and her, between him and Aut, and I still failed."
"Reece, you were a child! It wasn't your job to protect everyone. It was his. He failed, not you."
Reece looked at Charlotte as she said this, and it almost looked like he might start to believe it, maybe not now, but one day.