Chapter 6
It was Booker's birthday. Andy wanted it to be awesome. Joe wanted it to be filled with all that Booker loved books, sweets and cakes. Nicky wanted it to be the day that Sebastien would finally realise that he was valued. Nile and Quynh just wanted their family to be whole. So when they heard an anguished scream, they were shocked.
None of them expected Booker to be awake. None of them expected the amount of distress in the wordless cry that they heard.
Nicky dropped the bags that he was holding and ran through the door. Right behind it, was Booker, curled into a ball, tears streaming down his face. He flinched hard when Nicky put his hand on his back.
Booker was mumbling in French, but Nicky was so close to him, that he was able to hear his words. He was cursing himself. Saying that he should have agreed to live with them even though they didn't want him. That he should have enjoyed what they were giving him without trying to push them away.
"Sebastien. I'm here. Whatever you do, how much ever you try to push me, us away, we aren't going to leave. You can try whatever you want. You can even betray us again, we will not leave you. You know why? Because we love you, Sebastien. Please believe me. Please." By the time Nicky finished speaking, he had tears running down his face. His voice was cracking.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please don't leave me. Please never leave me. I need you more than I need air. I can't survive. I can't breathe without you. I'm so scared. Please don't leave me."
"We won't. Booker, I promise. You have my word. We are family and we are not meant to be alone. We were wrong to isolate you. To make you pay for something that wasn't your fault. We weren't to know, but we should have asked. We are the ones who need your forgiveness. Please forgive us." Andy took Booker's face in her hands and made him look her in the eyes begged him to see the sincerity in her eyes and hear the honesty in her words.
"I'm tired. I wanna sleep. I don't wanna keep checking if your here. I wanna sleep."
"Okay, Bastien. Come on, let's go up." Nicky and Yusuf led him into their room and laid him down in the middle of the bed. They laid down beside and held him in an embrace.
For the first time in two centuries, Sebastian slept in peace. Not once did he wake up screaming from a nightmare. Not once did he wake to check if he was alone.
Booker woke to the sound of Nicky and Joe talking about him.
"How could we have failed so badly, Joe? How could we make him think that he couldn't speak to us?"
"We were too absorbed in ourself. Blind to his pain. And Andy's too. We could have never understood this pain and so we ignored it."
"And this is the result."
"Where did he get the idea that we would resent him?"
"My love, Nicky, we will have to ask him."
The lapsed in silence and after deliberating for a few minutes Booker said, "Paris. After the death of my son. I asked you to stay with me and you agreed. I overheard a conversation, between you two. You wanted to leave and go to Malta, but you stayed because of me. I don't want you to stay because you feel like you have to."
A ripple of shock rushed through their bodies. Unconsciously, both of them stiffen. This caused Booker to curl into himself.
"Sebastien...I do not remember the exact words that I spoke or even the gist of what I said. What I do recall is the love and concern that I felt for you. That I still feel. I was worried. Scared. We never wanted to leave you alone, but the way you kept pushing us away, we thought you were happier alone. It was difficult to imagine that you were even more miserable without us. I'm sorry we were so blind to you. To how much you were hurting. Please believe me."
For the first time in centuries, he wanted to believe. He wanted to trust what they said.
Things got better after that. Booker started to be more receptive and the rest started to understand his tells of when he was craving to be held.
One night he laughed. The joke was trivial, but for the life of him, he could not remember a funnier quip. It was the kind of laugh that none of them had heard coming from him before. Deep and loud. So they couldn't help but laugh alongside him.
Months passed and things got better. They got happier.
They were sitting down for a movie one night when the house filled with gas, knocking them all out.