More than 1 brain cell at a time

Ch.3. A Chance Of Rain

//Fun fact; I changed the description of the story, it's a small change but it changed the whole story that I wanted to tell you. This is for the best as I didn't like the original story after a while of thinking about it. I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS CHAPTER :D//

When Ethan had woken up it was still night, the storm outside unchanged. One of the only things that had changed was the fire, it had gotten smaller but not enough to cause alarm. His body felt like he had been tramped by a horse and he hadn't been allowed to move for 5 months. The feeling of both being tired and having the need to move didn't go well together, but he knew the feeling in his muscles wouldn't allow him to fall back asleep.

He forced himself to push off the comfortingly warm covers of the homemade bedding and stumbled over to the fireplace again to put more wood onto it. It was only the start of the night but he could tell it was going to be a few hours before he could go back to sleep without any difficulty. Even if the soft and sweet dreams from his sleep beforehand were extremely inviting, the rarity of getting the same dream after being awake for a while. He didn't want to think about the new nightmare he will be getting from his most recent debacle of saving his daughter.

The fire up close felt nice and calming. It helped him warm up to the idea of just staying awake for the rest of the night, it couldn't hurt to do right? He could sleep for the whole day once morning finally came and he would probably not care or he would just have to curse himself later for not taking proper care of himself.

 As that thought ran through his head it slowly turned from his voice to Mia's as back when it was just the two of them living in a house, back when Rose wasn't a part of their everyday life and care. She would always scold him for not taking care of himself and worrying more about her rather than himself. But she did the same to him.

He would accidentally get himself hurt, for example, one night a glass that had shattered onto the floor had cut into his fingertips from trying to pick up the pieces. The sound had unfortunately woken his sleeping wife, and instead of taking it as lightly as he had (he could barely feel it anyway), she panicked. She was about to call Chris over it too, it took a lot of reassuring that he was just fine to make her calm down even just a fraction of the fear he had seen in her eyes from the blood slowly flowing down his torn hands.

 She still festered him and forced him to sit at the dining room table while she got the first aid kit from the bathroom to clean and bandage his small wounds. Mia also swiped and vacuumed up the mess he had accidentally made in the middle of the night, not letting him help with the self-made mess one bit.

It was always his hands that she would focus on, he knew she still had guilt from hurting him, even if she wasn't the one in control at the time. Ethan also had a nasty habit of feeling the same type of guilt each time he had seen a single scar from the ax he had maimed her with. She looked at his hands with nearly the same type of guilt that he had for her.

It hurt, to have the love of his life look at him like that. (Ethan knew the feeling was mutual) He wished that someday he will be able to hold her in his arms again, Rosemary napping peacefully in between them both. (He hoped the feeling was mutual with Mia on this too, wherever she and Rose are now, he just hoped they were both safe from the nightmares of the past again. Expeasly if Chris was going to take care care of them, Ethan knew he could.) He felt heavy and damaging tears drain down his face, Ethan missed the three of them more than ever now.

He missed Rose's happy piping giggles as she was spun in circles by his hands, both of them only stopping when Mia would have to tell him he had to stop as they would both likely puke if they went even only a few seconds more. 

Mia's soft words as they talked to each other over what to make for dinner, he always let her pick, she hadn't been able to for the past 3 years she had been missing. It was one of the things that he could do for her, even if it was small. Even if they had gotten into an argument at the end of it, they would both apologize for their attitude at the dinner table later on. (This was one of the things that made Miranda's switch seem more and more obvious to him, she never apologized for a single thing she said to him, both the small and big arguments, and he hated himself that he didn't catch on with what was happening sooner.)

Chris's jokes and snarky comments were the best in his training, they always made him look at the situations with happy outlines and see the true goal of what the endgame was. (Although he loses this charm with more serious situations or questions, but it will always stick with Ethan how much of a silly personality he will put on whenever Chris was with his baby girl, babying her and being the loosest and most relaxed Ethan had ever seen him.)

A loud popping sound from the fire had pulled him from his memories and thoughts, he rubbed at his eyes and face, black tears he had been crying had smudged across both marbled hands and shadowed face. He looked back at the fireplace, it had gotten smaller and more burned-out ever since he had first just gotten in fount of it. He looked back at the woodpile before just moving over and grabbing 3 more wooden planks and putting them on top of the fire in a way as to not make it fall over and make a mess.

Thunder made him jolt from his crouching in front of the fireplace, he wiped around in instinct to look for threats. He forced himself to calm down once the second lightning strike came around, he finally felt like he could sleep again.

He looked back at the fire before scooting back to the forgotten and now cold couch. He sat down and nearly put himself back under the covers, hands holding the bedding up to allow his feet easy access, before looking down at his feet and realizing that he had been sleeping with his shoes on.

He immediately trough them off of his feet, but Ethan kept the socks on, he didn't want to know how his feet looked at the moment (Even if he could already see the marbled mold peek right from underneath the still soft fabric.) and just put a pin in it for once he needed to take a shower or something. Ethan, tired, would only fall asleep only half an hour after laying down, the sound of rain pouring onto both all of the windows and the walls helping his mind settle. He still thought through the night, memories of the past plagued his mind.

It reminded him of when he used to live in the US. Rainstorms although annoying during the day always made his heart spark with joy when it was happening in the late afternoons. It had always made him calm in a way not many could enjoy it the same way he had, Chris could grasp what it meant for him, but Mia didn't understand one bit. She hated the rain, reminded her too much of storms in Louisiana. 

Rose only liked it when she was out in the rain, but the only time when the three of them could all enjoy it was when it was a light sprinkle, with raincoats, and boots on they would go out and just go on walks around the outside of the house. Down paths that Chris said they were allowed to go down, but they would sometimes break that rule if they didn't want the same familiar feeling and setting that they had gotten used to in Romania.

More lightning basted its roar through the castle, but to Ethan, he could barely feel it. Already used to the anger of mother nature outside. He continues to listen to the storm, his brain had finally found a good time to get to rest. Ethan closed his eyes as sleep pushed and covered his brain with fuzz. Lulling him into his needed sleep.

It didn't hold onto and cover him for long though. (But it was nice and kind to him while it lasted.)