I Think I'm in Trouble {Reimagined}

XCIII.

"My poor mom..." Shannon sighed as she sniffled.

After crying for so many hours, she felt sick---like she had a nasty head cold coming on.

"I feel really bad, Shannon. I wasn't supposed to say anything, but I wasn't gonna be able to look you in the eyes and hide it..." Damon explained, rubbing her back as they laid in bed.

"D, it's okay... Honestly, it's better this way. For me at least, anyway."

He shrugged.

"Maybe I can break it to my mom..."

"An officer is gonna be around tomorrow to tell the family..." he sighed. "I'm not sure what time but they try to send officers out within the first forty-eight hours."

She arched her brow, unsure of how well that sort of thing would go.

For the sake of everybody, she was thinking harder than ever; she knew her dad was on his way and she wasn't sure if she was supposed to call him, she didn't know if she was supposed to be waking her mother to tell her, if she was supposed to be letting Kristen know she didn't have to pick him up---she had no idea what to do with all the things that swarmed her head.

"If you don't tell them tomorrow, at least maybe you can be there when the officer comes. I just shouldn't be there because I don't want the officer to know I may have said something."

She sighed.

"Jeffrey was one of my best friends and he treated me like a brother... Well, we were," he trailed, thinking that they were army brothers. "I'm just so sorry for all of you, y'know?"

"I'm sorry too," she whispered, her tears on the verge of falling as the thought of her brother haunted her. "Ay, Jeffrey, what are we supposed to do?" she mumbled, resting her head on Damon's chest ask she stared blankly at the ceiling.

He squeezed her a little tighter as they tried to come up with a plan about what the right thing to do was.

After boot camp, a first deployment and a second, not one thing had trained their emotional state to prepare for the loss of a fallen brother or sister. They had been prepared to possibly go through some very traumatic things, but not something like an accident on base in the mid morning.

He was equally traumatized however.

"I'm worried about both of my parents, but my mom..." she mumbled, trailing off. "She's gonna be the one to suffer worse. I have to somehow break it to her before a stranger comes to the house to tell her."

"I support you, no matter what... Whatever you decide will most likely be a better choice," he assured.

Damon didn't really care what Shannon did, he hoped whatever her decision was would somehow lessen the pain the Walker family was surely going to feel, but he didn't know if anything could.

She sighed to herself, allowing more tears to engulf her as she buried her head into his chest---unsure of how to control herself in such a dire time.

___

Stevie flew forward from her rest and she settled a hand to her chest, suddenly wide awake from a deep sleep.

"Are you alright?" Lindsey asked, putting his attention on her the moment she was spooked.

Taking a deep breath, she collected her thoughts before saying anything.

"Steph..." he lingered, reaching over to lay his hand on hers.

She pulled it away a bit aggressively only because she was feeling overwhelmed.

When she had awoken, it wasn't from a nightmare, but it was the feeling of pure agony that woke her so abruptly. Unbeknownst to her, it was the pain her daughter was suffering from afar, unfortunately due to the loss in the family.