Broken Lullaby ▷ Tony Stark | ✓

18 - HEALING PROCESS

"WHAT'S GOING ON WITH MY MOM?"

Remy glared up at Jayne who had picked him up from school, the woman sighed as she simply told him to buckle up before taking him to her house where Tony and Brad would watch over him while she was with Birdie.

"I don't know," she whispered, sounding so broken and so drained, her weariness evident on her entire person.

It had been days since Thanksgiving and Remy hadn't seen his mother since. Wilma had pulled Jayne aside and explained everything the next day, and the blonde, loyal to a fault, promised to watch over Birdie until she was okay. Despite Tony's fierce insistence, neither woman explained to him the situation, because not even Jayne knew the whole story.

Birdie herself couldn't even remember.

So Remy was forced to move into his godmother's house temporarily, Tony offering to take him up to stay with him at the facility. Jayne had argued against it, saying Birdie would feel better soon, but as the days went on she was starting to think it would be best for Remy to distract himself rather than brood in his guest room; Brad couldn't go to work because of it, and that wasn't good for them either.

She was broken out of her thoughts by the sound of sniffling. Glancing over, she found Remy crying in his seat, wiping his eyes with the sleeves of his shirt. Her heart ached for the boy; his mother was all he had, and for her to shut him out even more, it must have been devastating. She more than anyone knew how that felt.

"She'll be back to normal in no time," she whispered, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder.

"Has she done this before?" Remy asked, and Jayne thought for a moment.

Maybe she had. There were times when Birdie had just fallen off the face of the earth for a few days bordering on almost two weeks at most, before returning, seeming to be okay for the most part. Wilma had always been there for her at that time, once going to Jayne and explaining that while she couldn't tell her, what was occurring had nothing to do with her and was solely something Birdie had gone through.

"Yeah," she whispered, "But she's gonna be okay."

"I don't remember her doing anything like this," he said, but even he sounded uncertain. If it was what Jayne thought it was, then all those times Birdie had to go to Mark's for the holidays seemed to be part of the reason.

Forcing herself to push away the thoughts, she continued along their way home, or to her home, rather, where Tony was waiting. She wanted to get back to Birdie's as soon as possible, as she had left the woman to eat, but wanted to make sure she actually did and didn't just hide the food.

She pulled into her driveway and looked towards Remy who simply nodded and got out of the car. Before he closed the door, he paused to look at her, pulling his sleeve away from where he was rubbing his eye.

"Tell her I say hi. Please."

º º º

Birdie shivered underneath her blankets, but the room wasn't cold. Well, not any colder than she was used to, but she just couldn't seem to get warm despite the pile of blankets on top of her, enveloping her into a hug that just didn't seem quite right.

She shouldn't be doing this. She shouldn't, but she just couldn't find it in herself to get up and Wilma hadn't done much to help her do anything but lie in bed. Of course, Jayne had been the one taking care of her, but she didn't really want her to. 

She just wanted to sleep.

"You didn't eat."

She sighed as she opened her eyes and found Jayne standing next to her, pointing to the untouched bowl of soup on her nightstand. She avoided her gaze, knowing that the blonde was looking down at her, concerned and disappointed.