A Broken Crew

Chapter 27

Roman steps between them, face set, pulling Laura's hand off of Dakota and shielding his friend. "That's it." He growls, and it begins to rain as his anger grows. "Leave. You do not belong here, you never will. This is a safe haven, and I will not let you ruin it!" The rain begins to pour, Roman's eyes flash with fury. "GO!" Grey, sensing what's about to happen, goes to Dakota and pulls him back, away from the door as Roman's anger continues to build.

Laura looked almost angry for a moment, her tail wildly flicking, her ears pressed back. In that moment, she looked almost exactly like Dakota. Her eyes glowed Scarlet, and for a moment her hands were consumed with fire. But it soon disappeared. "Fine." she said. "Goodbye, Dakota. I do really love you." She set some papers down."Those are for Dakota." She turned and left.

Roman stares after her for a few minutes, then picks up the papers and goes inside. The rain dies down as Roman calms. He looks at Dakota and offers the papers. "Here."

"I don't want to look at them." he said. "Just put them somewhere. Mom- I mean Maggie can look at them when she gets back." He was quiet again. "I'm going to have some quiet time." He moved slowly up the stairs and disappeared into one of the bedrooms, calling back, "Let me know when Mom is home."

Roman sighs softly and puts the papers on the table, then smiles at the sight of Kacey sleeping there. He gently picks up his small friend as one would a sleeping child and carries him out. Meeting Grey in the hall, Roman gently herds his exhausted friend back to the room he's sharing with Kacey, making sure Grey gets back in bed and is comfortable, then he lays Kacey beside Grey, smiling fondly as he watches Grey fall asleep on his side, Kacey beside him. "Goodnight, my friends." Roman whispers, pulling a blanket over them gently. He then goes to the room he's staying in with Mikko and checks on the small mouse, chuckling when he finds him curled up in a ball on Roman's bed. "Silly Meeks." Roman sighs fondly and covers Mikko with a blanket before grabbing his hoodie, phone, and charger and going back downstairs to the living room. Might as well do some work since I'm up anyway.

Maggie came into the house. "Hello? Who is home? Is everything okay?"

Roman looks up from typing. "Hi Ms Maggie." He calls quietly, getting off the couch and walking over to greet her with a smile. "Dakota is home. Everything... Is OK now? Dakota's mother showed up a little while ago." 

"Oh." Maggie's voice was quiet. "Where is Dakota? Is he okay?"

"He went upstairs. He's pretty upset." Roman hands Maggie the papers. "She left these, but he won't look at them."

"I see." She flipped through them. "Some of these are legal documents, about his name, other stuff like that..." She trailed off. "She wrote him a letter." she said. "It's no wonder he doesn't want to read it though. I'll save it anyway." She put the stuff away. "I'm going to go talk to him. How did she find the house, did she say? We've always been very careful to protect Dakota's privacy so this must have shaken him up. I understand how he feels about his mother, and what she did is unforgivable. He doesn't want to talk to her, so we've always been careful to keep any information from getting out. Did she say anything about how she found him?"

Roman shakes his head. "Not that I know of. I woke up and came down in the middle of their.. dscussion. All I know is that she wouldn't leave, I had to ummmm.." He stops for a moment, hesitating. "I uhh may have threatened her to get her to leave? Not that I would have done anything! " He actually feels bad about threatening her, even though he was kinda half-awake and angry at the time. "But from what I can remember, I didn't hear her say how she found him."

She patted his hands. "It's all right, dear." she said. "You were tired and confused. She's not even supposed to be seeing him if he doesn't want to talk to her, so she was trespassing. She's not really on very good terms with anybody." She headed upstairs. "I'm going to talk to him, okay? Why don't you call August and let him know. He's Dakota's closest confidant, and it's important that he know these things."

Roman nods. "Alright." I have to call Mamí as well he thought as he pulls out his phone and types in August's number, then hitting call. "August?"

August answered his phone. "Hey Roman! what's up?" "A lot actually, but main thing is that Dakota's mom showed up."

"What? Laura? How did she find the house? What did she say? Is Dakota okay?"

"I don't know how she found the house. She was trying to get Dakota to talk to her, and left some documents. Your mom just went to check on him."

"Okay. Man, I wish I could be there." He sighed. "I hope he's going to be okay, he's been under a lot of stress lately."

"I hope so too." Roman leans against the wall. "It's been crazy here tonight."

"Hasn't it." August lay back in his bed, getting his blood drawn. "Mom will handle it. She found him one time before this, and Mom took care of it. Is she with Dakota? Can I talk to him? When did she even come, it's barely 9 am right now."

"Yeah, she's with Dakota. She got here not long before I called you. " Roman doesn't think to mention that he's already helped Dakota some, completely forgetting. He sighs tiredly. "Yeah, I bet you could probably call him." He watches absently out the window, not really paying attention to anything. "Hey August? It's probably not a good idea to mention Dakota's mom... Though you probably already know that.." He runs a hand through his thick hair, eyes halfway shut.

"Yeah, I know. It's a painful topic for him. I remember the day she left. When he came to school he was more angry than usual, but as soon as we were alone he cried in my arms. It was the first time he was ever really vulnerable with me. I'll never forget it. It was a few weeks later than I even found out that the reason he cried was because his mom left him. It's sad."

Roman nods, then remembers August can't see him and answers. "I can imagine. Well, I should probably hang up so you can call Dakota, I have to call Cassidy and my mom anyway."

Okay. I'll talk to you later Roman." August said. He hung up, but set the phone down. He'd let his Mom talk to Dakota first and then call later. Besides, he was tired.