Charred Promises

6 : Too Raw.. Too Much.. Too Soon..

More than twenty minutes had passed when Dr. Shaw had confirmed Juno her worst fear had become a reality. She was numb, too shocked to move, too deranged to understand what was she supposed to do now? She looked around and all the familiar faces looked at her with sympathy, some of them tried to hug her and console her but not a single tear came. She wanted to scream and yell and cry. The light of her life was charred. All her dreams perished. She couldn't breathe, she wanted to get out of the house, but everywhere she looked there were more people pouring in, drowning her with concern and condolences.

But the fact also remained that her mother died of a broken heart. She had died because Noah left, Juno had started blaming Noah for every wrong in their life and everything went down in from that moment on. Beatrice started getting a panic attack and started to palpitate and then she fainted. Juno had called 911 and help arrived but before they came her mother was unresponsive. They tried to retrieve her, but nothing happened. She had been long gone, Dr. Charley Shaw had come along with the ambulance and he had called time of death. Everything had gone numb for Juno from then on. She saw people pouring in and asking her what had happened but she couldn't get the words out of her mouth, could she really blame Noah for what had happened for she felt she was equally responsible for what happened

At that moment the door opened and Noah stood scrutinizing through the faces till he found the one he was looking for.

"Juno!" Noah's voice had brought her back to reality. He was really standing in their house calling her name. and that was all that mattered at that moment. She ran and hugged him.

Juno didn't want to think about all the wrong things that had been said to Noah during the past week. He had left and Juno swore that she wouldn't stop him nor call him back and she hadn't, the fact that Noah came on his own and that was not something she was about to take for granted. In the midst of all the people who loved and adored her mother, she wanted to be someone who shared the same bloodline as her.

If Juno was glad to see Noah at any point of her life, this was the moment, he walked towards her and she ran towards him and he carried her into a hug. At that moment Juno broke into a million pieces. Not a single word was said but their affection to one another spoke volume.

Whispers and hushed talks prevailed as they hugged. No one recognized Noah except Dr. Shaw. Noah could feel people's hawk stares boring into him, but at that moment he knew exactly how she felt and she felt safe in his arms.

"I don't know what am I supposed to do, I have to prepare for the funeral, I need your help Noah." Juno said wiping her tears and sniffing. She looked at Noah and he opened his mouth to say something but he couldn't form them into eligible sentence so he nodded his head, wiping his own tears. An elderly woman came to Juno and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Honey, lets get you inside, you haven't eaten anything from morning." the woman said. Juno looked at Noah and he nodded.

"I don't think I have seen you before, I'm the next door neighbour Elda Fletcher." the woman said to Noah.

"He's Noah, my legal guardian. He will be around for some time." Juno answered before Noah spoke. Noah hid his shock, he had not figured out why he chose to come back to them, how long was he going to stay, he had not expected to come back to this, seeing his sister's lifeless body and almost lifeless niece was not something he had anticipated when he cancelled his trip and stayed back.

Nevertheless Noah Summer was not going to run away again. He was going to stand by his little niece whether she wanted him or not, at this point more than anything Noah wanted to be with Juno for the sake of his sanity. His heart ached when Juno had not said that he was her uncle rather than her legal guardian, and to know that Juno thought that he was going to leave her and go was not making this easier. All this was too much.. Too soon!