In Waves | ✔️

72 | selfless

I gently nudge him. "Tell me."

He idly plays with the jello, scraping the sides of the cup and mashing it around. "If you don't remember, then I don't want to remind you."

"Rob," I whine. "You can't say something like that and expect me to drop it."

A look of defeat crosses him as he lowers his cup, hesitantly meeting my eyes. "Their fights got so bad in those last months, sometimes I thought they might kill each other. Mom would throw dishes, Dad would punch walls... the house felt like it could collapse at any second. I remember the first time I woke up with these big blue eyes staring at me. You climbed up our bunk beds and scared the crap out of me." He gives a fleeting smile, a heavy air settling over him. "But you were so afraid. Begged me to make them stop. That became a habit for you, Lia. Every night. They'd fight, and you'd beg. And I tried, but I couldn't. So I tried distracting you instead. Playing games, reading stories, watching movies. Nothing worked. And then I remembered this one time when we were at the mall, there was a piano player there and you got so zoned out watching them, so that's what I tried next. I put on some random piano playlist, and you loved it. But I could blast that music and you'd still hear them, so I bought noise-cancelling headphones with the money I had from shoveling snow. Worked like a charm. Every time they started up, I'd slap on those headphones and you'd zone out and fall asleep. You were really crazy about this one song. You'd get me to play it on a loop. Something about a rose... I still hear you playing it sometimes."

"To a Wild Rose," I instantly say, my voice cracking.

"Yeah, that's the one." He snaps his fingers. "You must have listened to it every night, because their fights got to that point, Lia. It was constant, and it didn't let up until he left."

I stare at him through my brain fog, piecing together fragments of blurry images I can't quite line up. "I remember so much from that time. Why don't I remember that?"

"Maybe you didn't want to remember. I sure as hell wouldn't."

I watch him drop his chin, quietly going back to his jello. The pieces are blurry, but they look familiar. And comforting. The piano, and that melody soothing me, and Rob lowering headphones onto my ears, pinching my nose to make me smile. Enduring the fighting while I slept right through it.

"It's kind of crazy when you think about it," he remarks. "You love the piano so much that it actually ended up saving you from that shitty time."

"No, it didn't, Rob," I say with new clarity. "You did."

His brow dips into a rut, and I can tell he's never seen it that way before. He never knew he was protecting me, or being selfless, or being the big brother I needed so desperately.

I nestle my head on his shoulder, thanking my lucky stars that we were placed together in this life. In every life, because there's just no way I could exist in any universe without Roberto DeMarco as my flesh and blood.

〰️〰️〰️

On Christmas day, I follow through with what I told Rob, and I bring Christmas to him. Of course, it helps to have Dawn on the inside, pulling strings and being more than willing to bend hospital rules for us.

Once Clara has been given the go-ahead to take Rob outside in a wheelchair for some fresh air, Rachel and I decorate his room with red and green tinsel, boughs of holly, and a small potted Christmas tree on his bedside table. Mom and Derek arrive with the presents, along with containers full of the dinner I cooked in the early hours of the morning. Honey-glazed ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and peppermint fudge for dessert.

The look on his face is better than I could have hoped for, made even better when Clara wheels him under the mistletoe I hung for them, planting a kiss on his cheek. And so we successfully pull off our little surprise Christmas, with Clara documenting the day on her camera.

When wrapping paper is strewn and plates are clean, Rachel and Clara go home to their own festivities, and the four of us talk and eat peppermint fudge into the late hours. Until Rob can't keep his eyes open, and we leave him in a deep, rumbling sleep.

Even in a hospital with nurses coming to check on him throughout the night, it was still one of the best Christmases we've ever had. 

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"To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time." - Clara Ortega 

a/n: that's just a quote I love and I think it really suits Lia and Rob's relationship. I know this chapter was different without Nate or Matt, but Lia did say she needed to be with her family right now, so that's what she did :)

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