We Can Love Again

The Turquoise Earrings

"So... What do you want to do until uncle Will gets here?" Henry asked, catching a mischievous glint in his brother's eyes. "Let's not do anything that could wake Caroline up."

Roland hummed in thought. "Can we take her downstairs to play with us?"

"She's asleep," the twelve year old argued, "we can't just wake her up."

Just as he said those words, a soft cry came from the nursery, causing his little brother to grin. "Now she's up."

He started down the hallway towards her room, leaving Henry with a confused look on his face. Of course, he assisted in getting his crying sister out of the crib, making sure Roland had a good enough hold on her before allowing him to carry her all the way downstairs.

"Are you going to tell me what you want with her?" Henry asked, watching him set Caroline down on a blanket. She was still upset; her tiny hands were clenched tightly as she emitted small cries.

"It's... A secret." Roland replied smugly, lying down on his stomach and beginning to wipe her tears.

Henry was astonished by his brother's actions- he never kept secrets from him. They had many secrets they kept from their parents, but never ones they kept to themselves.

"You can tell me, I won't tell Mom or Dad."

The boy had his hands on the baby's small tummy, gently rocking her to calm her down.

"I can't, Henry, it's top secret." He said, beginning to inspect his sister from head to toe.

The fact that Henry was being shut out by a five year old made him irritated. "Fine, whatever. I'm getting some snacks."

It was fairly easy to loose himself in a turkey sandwich left in the fridge for the next ten minutes. The next thing he knew, the front door opened, and his uncle came into the house.

"Hi Will," he said, in the middle of putting away all his sandwich evidence, "why were you over at Ruby's for so long?"

When Henry glanced towards him, Will was holding tightly to a green glass bottle, starting for the living room where Caroline and Roland were.

"Are... You okay?" He asked cautiously, seeing a thin layer of sweat covering his face and an anguished look in his eyes.

The man sat down on the couch and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah... I'm just fine." He replied, in a voice that didn't quite match his actions.

"Are you sure you're not sick or something? Because, well... You don't look very well."

Roland seemed caught off guard by his uncle's actions as well. Neither of them had seen him like that before.

"I said I'm fine," he repeated, more distinctly that time. The boy noticed his hands were shaking slightly.

"Well Mom said you would feed her," Henry began, "but I can do it if you want."

Will stared down at the baby for a moment. "Sure, you do that," he said, drawing out his words, "Robin still has his wine storage somewhere around here, right?"

For a second or two, Henry debated answering him. Seeing him like that made him somewhat uneasy inside- he knew his mother wouldn't like the idea at all.

"Yeah, it's in the corner cabinet," he admitted, getting out a package of formula out of the fridge and getting a bottle for Caroline. Almost instantly, Will set his empty bottle down and set off towards the small stash of wine.

Sticking the bottle in the microwave, Henry watched his uncle uncork one of the bottles and pour the red liquid into a glass. Even though he had never actually fed his sister himself before, Henry had seen his parents do it enough to know how it worked. He got Roland to leave her alone so he could pick her up in his arms; the two of them took a seat down on the couch, and Henry tilted her head in the crook of his arm so she could start on drinking down the warm milk. He still had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach- his parents were going to be mad, he was sure of it.