Wildfire Heart – Chapter 04 – ScarsLikeVelvet

Chapter 04

June 30, 1991 – Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA

Later that day, Bridget Walsh met with a detective from the Gettysburg Police Department, and sat down heavily on the chair offered to her in the conference room. She pulled out the paperwork she had completed before coming here from the hospital and sighed.

“That bad?” Detective Roy Akerson asked her while pouring her a cup of freshly brewed black coffee and bringing it over to the table along with sugar and cream so that she could doctor it to her liking.

“Honestly,” she replied. “It’s worse.”

The detective sat down and pulled a legal pad closer, clicking his pen open and getting ready to take notes about what Mrs Walsh was about to tell him.

“The parenting could be called permissive at best,” she admitted. “They allowed their oldest child, the daughter, Madeline Grace Buckley, to do as she pleased as long as she didn’t embarrass the family, though neither child ever explained to me what would embarrass the family, given that there didn’t seem any reasonable boundaries to be established. The middle son, Daniel Owen Buckley, told me that his sister didn’t even accept his bodily autonomy and touched him in his private places despite him repeatedly telling her no. The parents never stepped in despite being aware. He was told she was his older sister, and that had apparently been that. Daniel also mentioned that the youngest Buckley child was conceived and born to act as spare parts for him and as an outright replacement for him should he not survive. There are a lot of issues with the care the children did receive, as you already know from the paperwork that had been buried.”

Detective Akerson stared at her.

“So we need to add sexually-coded abuse to the charges?” he questioned.

“I’m not sure we should or really could, charge a nine-year-old girl for something like that. I think our best bet would be to remand the girl into a family that is willing to establish very firm boundaries with her and takes her to therapy. The other option would be a psychiatric facility, though I am unsure she could be admitted due to her young age. Madeline Buckley is extremely entitled and things no one has the right to tell her no, while she most certainly does. It’s a mess and the half, and the one thing I am sure off, is that whatever happens, Madeline can’t be housed with any member of her family or in the same house as the boys, while the boys most certainly should be housed together. Daniel seems to be the only member of his family that the boy tolerates without any issue. The moment someone tries to hand him to either his parents or sister, he throws rather epic fits. One of the nurses mentioned that her glasses broke in response to his high-pitched screams,” Bridget explained.

“I don’t even know what to say,” Akerson said.

“I don’t know either, but we need to talk to the rest of the Buckley family. The aunts, uncles, and grandparents Daniel said they weren’t allowed to see anymore because they stuck their noses into family business,” Bridget said. “If their evaluations turn out good, they might be able to take in the boys instead of having to put them into the system too. The girl definitely needs it, and I will not force her on anyone who will potentially be involved with the boys,” she told him.

“I can tell you that not one member of the wider Buckley family has a criminal background. The men are veterans and in some cases still active duty military, while the women are teachers, librarians, lawyers, and in one case a judge. All of them are upstanding members of society here in Gettysburg, though they have been avoiding most contact with Phillip and Margaret Buckley because their opinions on matters really differ a lot from their families according to what the family said,” Detective Akerson offered. “From a legal perspective, nothing speaks against them taking the boys in, but that final choice is your department’s, of course.”

“Tell me more about them,” Bridget said, and so Roy gave her a rundown of the whole Buckley family.

— — —

Madeline Grace Buckley woke in an unfamiliar room, feeling sick as a dog and unable to move because her limbs ached so much worse than they had in the days before. Her head felt heavy, and she barely could open her eyes to look around the room.

A soft whine escaped her, and then, suddenly, a cool hand rested on her brow, easing some of her discomfort.

“You’re going to be alright, child,” an unfamiliar voice told her, causing Maddie to shudder in response. She tried to keep herself awake, but she felt so tired, and despite being so sick, she felt safe since no one shouted at her for just lying in bed, not taking care of her brother or her chores, so she drifted off before she could fight to stay awake.

Her foster parents shared a worried look with each other.

“We’ll need to take her to a clinic in the morning, get her checked out if this is really just a cold. Because I don’t think it is. Not with the way she is burning up,” her foster mother murmured as she got calf wraps ready to bring the girl’s temperature down at least a bit.

“I’ll make some calls to see where they can fit us on. No need to sit in the waiting room with a child as sick as she is,” her husband replied and made his way downstairs to do as he said.

— — —

Daniel Owen Buckley rested on his back, breathing slowly with his newborn brother fast asleep on his chest. His hand rested on Evan’s back to stop the newborn from rolling over and falling off his chest. He was half-asleep himself but whenever Nurse Hadley reached out to take Evan out of his arms and settle him back in the cot, the nurses used to transport him from the nursery to the oncology ward, he woke and clung to his little brother as if he were a lifeline.

“No, don’t take him away … don’t take my little brother away,” he muttered.

“Daniel,” Nurse Hadley said gently. “You need to sleep.”

“I will, I promise, just allow Evan to stay with me,” he muttered with tears in his eyes. The thought of being parted from Evan hurt too much, even though he knew that Evan was just a few floors away. The distance between them felt too great.

“You know that a nurse needs to stay with you and Evan if we allow that, Daniel,” Nurse Hadley began.

Daniel sighed.

“I know, I know, you don’t have enough people working the wards to do it,” he mumbled. “I wish Uncle Luke was here to watch.”

Nurse Hadley tilted her head to the side owlishly to figure out who the hell Uncle Luke was because the name had never been mentioned around her before.

“Who is Uncle Luke, Daniel?” she asked softly, trying to get the information out of the child without alerting him to the fact that he had told her something unexpected.

“Uncle Luke is Dad’s big brother … he’s a soldier, I think,” Daniel muttered under his breath, his eyes drifting shut again already.

“Oh,” Nurse Hadley replied. “I didn’t know your family was bigger than the people who came by regularly.”

Daniel sighed again, a lonely tear ran down his cheek.

“They aren’t allowed to see me anymore because they are … nosy and …. ‘pinionated,” he muttered, fully drifting off despite the conversation. Being sick took a lot out of him, and despite his best efforts, he sometimes fell asleep at the drop of a hat.

Nurse Hadley opened the door and motioned for the floor’s charge nurse to come over.

“I need you to call Bridget Walsh from DCFS and let her know that Daniel asked about his Uncle Luke. He hasn’t been allowed to see him since his diagnosis because according to Daniel, he is nosy and opinionated, though I think that is most likely something his parents said. Maybe this information helps in some way,” Maria informed her and Julia Kovac nodded.

“I will reach out and let her know,” she assured the nurse. “You just stay with the boys and keep an eye on them. We’ve got the situation handled. Ever since Evan visits him regularly, Daniel’s vitals are much more stable, and we’d like to keep it that way.”

Nurse Hadley nodded that she understood and slipped back into the room to watch over her young charges. She settled in at the small table by the wall and continued to work on the patient charts she needed to fill out, something she needed to do, anyway.

— — —

Evan woke up curled on Daniel’s chest, just where he had fallen asleep listening to his brother’s heartbeat, something he had never expected to be able to hear. The sound alone was so soothing, and his brother’s calm demeanour added to it.

Ever since Margaret had lost her shit in response to him reacting to her by kicking and screaming his little head off, something in him had settled. The abuse she had shouted about not only him but also her other two children had got her sectioned, something Evan figured his mother had desperately needed for longer than either she or his father wanted to admit.

He had figured out long ago that Margaret had likely laboured under postpartum depression after Maddie’s birth and instead of seeking treatment, something that she thought would make her seem weak in the eyes of others, she had toughed it out and got pregnant again as soon as possible so that the change in her body might help with the issues she had with her mind, and no one had ever challenged her behaviour.

At least, Evan had thought no one had, until Daniel started to talk about the extended Buckley family, which was bigger than Evan had known.

There were their father’s older siblings—Lucas, Gabriel, Matthias and Maria—as well as their spouses—Mary, Anna, Julia, and Michael—as well as their grandparents George and Evalynn, and their mother’s parents Paul and Beatrice Adams.

They also had a number of cousins who were a bit older than them that Evan had never even known about because neither his parents nor Maddie ever talked about them. To learn that there were so many people he could have called family in life, whom he had been cut off from due to his parents not liking that people had actual opinions on their behaviour, and who had apparently called them out on their bullshit was heartbreaking and had caused him to be inconsolable for a while, until his caretaker had taken him back up to Daniel, who had soothed his tears away in a way no one before had ever done.

Evan felt safe in Daniel’s presence in a way he had never experienced before. He was only a few days old, but he already knew he would burn this world down to safe Daniel, and he didn’t care whom he had to kill or what he would have to do to make sure his brother made it out on the other side of this illness.

His tummy felt empty, and as he woke more, he felt that his diaper was wet and heavy at the back. He grimaced and uttered a soft mew of discomfort. Before he could complain more, he felt Daniel’s hand gently rub his back.

“I’ve got you,” Daniel murmured as Nurse Hadley came over and brought the diaper bag with her. She helped Daniel change his diaper, and both of them grimaced at the rather stinky situation he had going on.

“He’s so tiny, how the fudge can his body come up with such a toxic smell?” Daniel asked curiously while wiping Evan’s bum clean with a soft, warm washcloth the nurse handed him.

“If people knew that, they would have likely already found away to prevent it,” Nurse Hadley admitted, but gamely explained how digestion worked.

Daniel listened, and nodded on occasion, while he focused on cleaning and drying Evan up properly before applying the lotion the nurse handed him, and putting a new diaper in place.

Of course, Evan immediately needed to pee as Daniel was about to close the diaper, and only Nurse Hadley’s quick reflexes saved him from getting a face full of pee.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry … I couldn’t hold it,” Evan apologized in a rush, raising his arms in front of his face to hide how ashamed he suddenly felt.

Daniel just chuckled.

“You’re fine. It’s not like you can help it,” he replied in his mind and gamely repeated the cleanup and diaper change without making a fuss.

Once he had Evan back in his onesie, Evan informed him that he was hungry, so Daniel asked if it was time for another bottle yet as he had lost track of time because of their nap. Before Nurse Hadley could respond, the door to the room opened, and the nurse who took care of Evan overnight, stepped into the room with a freshly prepared bottle.

“It’s time for the little hobbit’s afternoon tea,” she said with a smile. She had started to call Evan a hobbit for his habit of eating a lot of his meals around the times a hobbit would in the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ book series.

“We were just talking about Evan being just about ready for a bottle,” Nurse Hadley said as she helped Daniel get into a position where he could feed Evan properly without exhausting himself or accidentally make the baby swallow too much air.

“Well, the hobbit is already on a schedule he likes it seems, so will work with it. He enjoys long stretches of sleep during the night, and we will honor his sleep cycle. Even if it is curious for a newborn to sleep such long stretches during the night, there is nothing wrong with him. That little one is as healthy as an ox and the doctors aren’t worried, even if he expressed displeasure with quite a few people in his surroundings already, which is a bit weird,” the nurse from the nursery said.

Daniel couldn’t help but laugh.

“That comes from Mom … she has a lot of opinions too and she doesn’t like too many people,” he said, startling Evan.

He hadn’t expected that he had anything in common with his egg donor, but it seemed like he did. He pouted, but accepted the nipple of his bottle easily, settling into Daniel’s arms without explaining why he had started to pout. Instead, he enjoyed his milky treat.

Evan had not known that the milk fed to the children actually tasted good to them. The nurses had also snuck him breastmilk from donations, and it tasted different, richer than the canned stuff, but he didn’t mind either even though he was looking forward to being able to eat solids again.

While he enjoyed his smoothies, he preferred solids for at least two of his meals a day. He knew that time would come again, and he was so ready for it, but he knew it would take some time.

Daniel watched him with a soft expression as he drank his bottle down, and a moment later, his brother winded him, causing Evan to let loose a loud burp, that startled him into making a confused expression that caused Daniel to laugh merrily, easing something in Evan that he hadn’t known had been tight

Please be aware that the third chapter took a darker turn than expected, and there are mentions of a child being abused by another with what seems like a sexual component.
While I had most of the relevant tags added from the start, I wanted to let people know about the added incest tag so that they could avoid it if it might trigger them in any way.