room // malum au [in progress]

january 17th, 2021

it's been seven days since calum and tucker escaped. a full week since they've been in the hospital. and calum still refused to let anyone into the hospital room other then his family, the hospital staff and officer jones. just because calum wouldn't let anyone else in didn't mean he hadn't seen them. it just so happened that calum and tucker's room had the perfect view of the hospital entrance.

calum could see the reporters waiting outside across the street hoping to catch a glimpse of any of his friends or family. he could see his family come and go getting escorted by police so the same reporters couldn't get to them. he could even see him coming and going.

"daddy what are you doing?" calum looked away from the window and towards the bed where tucker was supposed to be sleeping. it was around ten in the morning but calum wanted the little boy to sleep all he could.

"why are you awake bud?" tucker shrugged.

"i don't like sleeping without you." calum gave him a small smile.

"you wanna come sit with me?" tucker nodded and tottered to where calum was sitting against the wall, on the floor by the window. the five year old climbed into calum's lap and snuggled into his chest.

"what are you looking at?" tucker whispered.

"nothing specific. just looking at things."

"is mali here yet?"

"you like her a lot don't you?"

"yeah she's really nice." tucker stated. "so is she here yet?"

"i don't know bud." calum chuckled. "do you want to take a shower now or later before bed?"

"later."

"alright let's just look out the window then until mali shows up." tucker nodded and both of them turned their attention back to the outside world. occasionally tucker would point to something and ask what it was but other than that the two were sitting in the most comfortable silence.

"you can't force him to do anything!" both boys turned their heads to see a very frustrated mali walk into the room followed by calum's parents.

"force who to do what?" calum asked standing up with tucker still in his arms.

"force you to let other people up here before you're ready." mali huffed. "i'm not letting them make you uncomfortable."

"all three of them have been sitting down there every single day waiting for calum to give the okay to let them up!" joy exclaimed. "i think they've waited long enough."

"if he's not ready then they aren't coming up. simple as that." mali spat. joy and mali continued bickering until calum had enough. tucker had begun to whimper and tremble because of the loud noises and calum didn't want him to go back to being afraid.

"will you guys stop?" he shouted. "you're scaring tucker!" everyone fell silent and looked at calum. mali's gaze fell on tucker, who's face was buried in calum's neck, and her face dropped.

"fuck i'm so sorry calum." mali muttered. she took a step forward and held her arms out to tucker. "c'mere bud." tucker let out a small whimper and refused to move.

"i'm sorry." calum sighed.

"it's not your fault." mali mumbled. she walked over and sat on the bed while calum stayed over by the window. david and joy on the other hand were still standing by the door talking amongst themselves. calum sat back down on the floor and began to try and soothe tucker.

"i think we all need to talk about this reasonably." david said loud enough for everyone to hear. calum looked up to see his dad walk over to the bed and sit down next to mali and then turned his attention back to tucker.