This Too Shall Pass

Chapter 5

I sit in my room crying the rest of the day, all night, and into the next day. Signe comes to my room a few times but I don't let her in. Even Sarah went home. The pups sit on either side of me, sleeping against my thighs.

Someone knocks on the door.

"Go away, Signe" I choke out.

"Lemon...?"

"Open the door.... please?"

I know that voice, and only one person in this world calls me lemon. I leap out of bed and see Uncle Mark, Ethan, and Annabelle standing there. I jump up onto Mark as if I haven't seen him in years and pull Ethan into a group hug. I jump off of him and immediately Annabelle and I do our little handshake. Bambi and Bean go nuts at the sight of new faces.

"Why are you here?" I mumble into Mark's shoulder.

"For you. Signe told us you haven't eaten for two days, haven't slept, and you've been crying for a really long time. So we booked the next flight and flew here overnight." Ethan says calmly.

Mark bends down to Bambi and Bean who jump onto his lap and lick his face repeatedly. He laughs his deep laugh.

Normally, Mark's laugh makes me smile. Normally, Mark's voice makes me happy. But right now I just feel numb.

Ethan gives me another long hug and I sob into his shoulder.

I feel Mark join the embrace and he sniffles. Ethan pulls back so he can look at me.

"Jack is going to be fine. If you believe he will be, then he will be, and he loves you too much to not make it out of there alive. He'll be home before you know it." Ethan says in a soothing voice.

We take a few minutes to let me calm down and then I nod slowly and gesture to Mark and Ethan to follow me as I go to find Signe. She is sitting with her head in her hands at the dinner table.

"Signe?"

She looks up at me. I walk over and give her a hug. She immediately starts sobbing and I rub her back.

"I'm sorry... I should just go... I'm not your Mother... I'm just his girlfriend."

"You are my mother. I've never had a female role model until you. You are all I ever wanted. I want you to be my legal mom." I whisper, she freezes and then clutches my shirt and hugs me tighter.

"Claire. We need to tell you something." Mark says from behind me. I let go of Signe and turn to him. Both Ethan and Mark have red, puffy eyes and Signe has the same expression. Annabelle looks torn between two emotions.

"Without Jack, Signe can't afford everything for both of you. So you are going to move in with me. It was in Jack's will...." Mark whispers.

I put my hand over my mouth and turn to Signe for confirmation, she only has tears streaming from her eyes and nods slowly.

"I'm sorry, Claire, please know that I don't want to do this. I love you, so much that I would let Mark take you across the world so you can have a better life." She pleads.

I just push past Mark and Ethan to get to my room. I pull on my headphones and call my friends on Skype. They each pick up.

"Claire, I'm sorry your dad had to go..."

"Its going to be okay."

"We'll always be here..."

"Claire... It's alright, I'm here for you."

"NO, YOU WONT BE HERE FOR ME!" I scream. They are all taken aback "I'm moving to LA." I mumble.

"WHAT!?"

"NO!"

"CLAIRE, WHY?"

Sarah just sits there, crying.

"Please don't leave me..." She whispers.

"I'm sorry, goodbye. I'll be back though. If Daddy comes back, I'll come back, or if Signe gets a stable job that can support both of us I can." I say. "I love you guys. Thank you for everything. Goodbye."

And with that I end the call.

Mark comes in and gives me the biggest hug.

"I'm so sorry, Claire. But... I made a promise to your Father to protect you at all costs. He told me that if something happened to him I was to take you in as my own. It was such an honor to be the person he trusted enough to let me have the most important thing in the world to him." Now he's crying. Annabelle enters as well and sits next to me, she puts her arm around me and rest her head on my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. Annabelle has always been the sister I never had.

Ethan enters and gives me 3 large suitcases and tells me to start packing my things because our plane leaves in 3 days.

"Can Bambi and Bean come too?" I ask, "They're all I have left of Daddy."

"Of course they can, Chica will love them." Mark replies. Annabelle smiles.

He then leaves the room with Annabelle and I start to throw all of my things into the suitcases.

I open up the pocket that daddy gave me just before he left and stare at the two pictures.

One of the day he adopted me, where I jumped at him for a hug, and the other was recent, as I jumped at him for a hug, again.

I smile and clutch it to my chest.

I swear to god I could hear his voice say:

I love you, Claire. You are my life force.