Chapter 115

Once in the car, Richie let out a deep sigh. It'd been a long night, in more than one way. As he turned the car on, the dashboard lights came on, revealing the time to him. A few minutes past 6 am. He'd been home for about 12 hours and already felt as if it had been an eternity. He had to get home before Sarah woke up and would notice something was wrong.

"Call Jon." He said to the car, feeling a tad weird to be talking to a vehicle but the technology was definitely useful as he started backing out of his parking spot.
"Calling Jon." The car responded in a robotic voice, a moment later he could hear the familiar tones.

"Hey man, how's it going?" Jon asked right away as he answered the call.
"I'm just leaving the hospital, just trying to figure out where the exit to this parkade is."
"You're driving?" Jon asked, sounding slightly surprised but a little excited as well. "Me too, just dropped everyone off for their last day of school before Christmas break. You better be using hands-free."
Richie shook his head, way to change the subject. "Same for you."
"Always, I'm a very safe driver." He chuckled for a second before turning back to their serious conversation. "So what happened?"
"They're making him stay for a few days," Richie sighed, "Noah didn't like the sound of that but it's mandatory and I think that's a good idea."
"You think so?"
"Sure, he didn't like it but they want to do a psych evaluation and I think that's probably a good thing after last night."
Jon took a moment to reply. "Yeah, I guess that would be. Figure out what happened and why."
"Exactly. I don't get why he would ever do something like that though." Richie sighed deeply again.
Jon copied him and sighed as well. "I don't think anyone ever understands. It's all in his head."
"Which is why it's good they're making him stay there."
"Mhhmm" Was all Jon mustered.
As he took the next right turn, Richie groaned. "How the fuck do I tell Sarah this?"
"I don't know. Just tell her straight forward, be blunt, I suppose. There's no point in stalling, you just have to tell her."
He groaned again, not wanting to be the bearer of bad news.
"Better from you than a receptionist at the hospital." Jon added on.
"True." Richie sighed, he knew Jon was right about that, at least the bad news would come from him instead of a stranger. He'd be able to provide more comfort than a person over the phone would.

They both went quiet as they continued their ways home.

Richie had mixed feelings when he took the highway exit, only a few more minutes and he'd be home. What was he supposed to do?

"I'm almost home." He said to Jon.
"Alright." Jon replied. "Just tell her straight up, you wouldn't want anyone to be beating around the bush if you had to get news like that."
He supposed Jon was right about that when he slowed down the car to turn into the drive way. "True."
"And you can call me again when you need to."
"I probably will." Richie said, shifting the car into park. "Guess I'll go inside and tell her."
"Call me if you need to." Jon repeated quickly, knowing their conversation was ending. "Just looking out for you man."
He let out one last sigh before agreeing. "I probably will. See ya." He heard Jon say bye before disconnecting the call and turning the car off.

This time he did the opposite and took a deep breath before getting out of the car. It was 6.30 by now, Sarah would most likely get up soon, as she did every morning to make sure everyone was on their way to school, besides that, Daniel was always an early riser when they were home. He felt exhausted.

He tried his best to be quiet as he opened the front door but as he closed it and could see into the kitchen, he realized it was useless to do so. Sarah was standing in the kitchen, dressed in her pajamas as she pressed down the lever on the toaster.

She turned around as soon as he walked into the kitchen. "There you are." She sounded relieved, leaving her toast to toast, she walked across the kitchen and wrapped her arms around him, then looked up at him. "I woke up and I couldn't find you. Where did you go?"
"I'm sorry." He just said, not wanting to tell her right away. "Are you making breakfast?"
"I was just about to start it for Noah and Ava."
Richie simply nodded and walked into the kitchen, to the island where he could sit down for a moment.
"You look tired sweetie." Sarah said as she stood in front of him, reading his face. "Were you not able to sleep?"
He shook his head. "I couldn't sleep."
"Do you want some coffee?"
He shook his head again. "No." He reached for her hands and gently pulled her a little closer. "Come sit with me for a minute." He let go so Sarah could get onto the bar stool.
She frowned as she watched him, he looked tired and exhausted but also sad. "What's wrong?" His behavior was starting to make her worried about him.
Richie took a deep breath before he started. "I couldn't sleep last night so I got up to get some snacks 'cause I was hungry, then I heard Noah down the hallway." He told his story quickly, but wanted to make sure she got all the details she would need about their son. "He finally went to sleep so I came home so I could tell you what happened." The look of shock on Sarah's face hurt him so much. He never wanted to give her any kind of bad news and this was very bad news. It hurt to be the person to tell her this. "I'm sorry." He stood up from his bar stool and pulled her into an embrace, holding her close as he could feel her start to sob.

He held her as she cried against his shoulder, before he knew it, he was sniffling himself. It had been a long and scary night and he finally felt the aftermath of it now that he had retold the entire night to his wife. As he felt Sarah pull away, he quickly reached up to wipe at his own eyes.

"I have to go see him." Sarah said urgently as she looked up at her husband.
"He's asleep." Richie reminded her. "He probably won't even wake up til noon."
"I don't care." Sarah slid off her chair and started walking out of the kitchen, toast long forgotten. "I've got to see him." She walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

"Sarah." He said as he followed her into the bedroom and Sarah went straight to the closet to get dressed. "We can go see him together this afternoon once he's awake."
"No." She said unyielding. "I'm going now. You need to go to sleep." She told him sternly once he had followed her into the closet. She traded her pajamas for a pair of jeans and a sweater.
He wasn't going to argue, he'd gotten the message. "Okay." He said, accepting Sarah's need. "I'll watch Daniel."
"Thank you." She quickly kissed him before heading out of the closet again.

Richie walked out of the closet, he watched Sarah walk out of the bedroom at the same time. She had to go, he knew that. He would feel the same way if he hadn't been able to be with one of their children during a crisis moment. With a sigh he sat down on the bed. He was more than ready to sleep but wasn't sure if he even could right now. Not to forget Daniel and Ava were still around.

A short knock came from the bedroom door, then squeaked as it opened. "Papa?"
He smiled when he heard her voice, it was always comforting. "Come here princess." He said, watching his daughter walk into the room, she joined him on the bed.
Her face turned to worry and question as soon as she did. "What's wrong?" She asked him.
Richie padded the bed next to him, urging her to come closer. "Come here." He pulled her into a hug once she was close enough to do so. "I don't think you're going to school." He referred to the school uniform she was already wearing, ready for the last day of school before Christmas break.

He released her from his hold as he started telling her what had happened last night, he tried to be as open as he could be and tell her everything she needed to know but also still wanted to protect her from the reality of it even though she was hardly that much younger than Noah. 16, 17 how much could their issues really differ at that age?

"We'll join Sarah later to go see him, okay?" He asked of her.
Ava nodded shortly, unsure of what else to do. "I can watch Daniel when he wakes if you want." She offered, at least she'd be helpful to her dad.
"That'd be nice." He admitted, all he wanted to do right now was sleep.
"Can I stay here?" Ava asked as she pulled away and moved over on the bed.
"Of course." He answered, some company would be nice after all.
Ava reached for the TV remote and turned it on, switching it to Netflix as soon as it turned on. "We can watch Friends since you missed it last night."
He chuckled a little and smiled. "Sure, otherwise I won't be able to follow tonight's episodes." He agreed, they had already watched every episode together before at least once. He wouldn't be watching for long now but also knew Ava just wanted to comfort him.

The room was bright when he opened his eyes, he could feel a weight on his legs and looked down to spot a black cat curled up in a ball on top of him. "Good morning Sirius." The cat looked up briefly then put its head back down. "We have to get up." He continued as if the cat would care what he said. Carefully he tried to sit up, wanting to move the cat but before he could even do so, it jumped off of his lap and walked away. "You could have slept on the bed." Richie pointed out to him.

Shaking his head, he followed the cat out of the room and sneaked into Daniel's room. When he found the boy's room empty, he continued down the hall to Ava's room. He quickly knocked  before pushing the door open and walking in. Ava sat on her bed, Daniel on the floor with some toys.

"Morning." Richie said as he walked over to the bed and sat down with Ava. "Thanks for watching Daniel."
"No problem." Ava smiled at him. "He woke up a while ago so I made him some toast and then he wanted to play."
"Thanks." He said again, glad he had been able to get some sleep. "I don't suppose Sarah has texted you or anything?" He said as he pulled his own phone from his pocket, not expecting anything.
"No."
He frowned when he didn't see anything on his phone either, a little disappointed.
"Are we going to the hospital too?" Ava asked, looking up expectantly at him.
Richie nodded quickly, if only he wasn't hungry. "We will. Let's have lunch and we'll go, okay?" He noticed how Daniel looked up at him as soon as he heard the word lunch. The boy must be hungry as well.

In the kitchen he made them a quick lunch, not wanting to take all that long. As he made the food, he sent Sarah a text asking for an update but waiting for a reply turned out to be of no use.

After lunch, he kept his word and they were off to the hospital.

Once he got out of the parked car, he opened the back door to get Daniel out of his car seat. Holding him, he headed into the hospital, Ava following him as he remembered the way to the room he had left Noah in this morning.

He was happy to see Sarah as soon as he walked into the room. Letting Daniel down from his hold, he embraced Sarah with a hug instead. Immediately he forgot about the texts she never responded to, from the change in her it was obvious compared to how worried she had been this morning. The same went for Noah, if he hadn't known, nothing seemed wrong with him at all.

That made him feel slightly worried as he joined Sarah and Noah in the TV show they were watching together. Conversation was kept fairly light and his mind wandered to the night before. The contrast between the middle of the night and twelve hours later seemed so surreal.

Last night Noah had been in serious distress and looking at him now, everything seemed fine. If he hadn't experienced the night first hand, he might not have believed it compared to how he saw Noah now.

Now, Richie realized how easy it could be to not notice the mental health issues people were going through. Had Noah consciously hidden this from him and Sarah or had they simply just not noticed what they should have? Had Noah given him plenty of signs that he didn't notice or might have waved off?

Could noticing Noah's signs, if he ever gave him any, have prevented all of this?