Elusive // The Weasley Twins

50. Handle with Care

Cosette shut the door to her dad's bedroom slowly even though with all of the Sleeping Draught in his system, she could have slammed the door and he wouldn't have stirred an inch.

"What did the Healers say?" Nick asked her, stepping out of his bedroom. He had cleaned himself up a bit in the time she had taken Harris to St. Mungo's but he still looked as restless as before.

"To monitor him," Cosette leaned back against the wall and crossed her arms. "He has no other health concerns at the moment and they have hopes that this memory slip will go away after 24 hours. They said if it gets any worse or if he starts to show other symptoms then we should bring him in again."

"Monitor him?" Nick repeated with a harsh tone of disbelief. "Did you tell them that he didn't even recognize his own son? Or- or how about that he was asking about mom who he hasn't seen in nearly nineteen years."

"Nick, take a breath," Cosette extended her hand out, watching as he started to get himself worked up. "You've been here with him the last three years. You, out of everyone, knows that it's probably just an episode and he'll be okay."

"But it's never been like this," He ran his fingers through his hair, pulling at the ends of it as he shook his head. "His memory has never been this bad. Did they look into those muggle illnesses?"

"It's not dementia and it's not Alzheimer's either," she told him, which only left him feeling more frustrated.

"And they don't know what it is?"

"They've never known," Cosette shrugged her shoulders and even though she wanted to give Nick more answers, she could only tell him what the Healers told her after sitting in the horribly cold waiting room for two hours.

Nick's eyes wandered to the closed bedroom door and she could see the defeat plastered on his face. She didn't know whether to give him a hug or to keep repeating that everything was going to be okay.

But they've never been close so an embrace would be awkward for both of them and Cosette figured it was best to move on from this conversation for now. Their dad was asleep and neither one of them had any more input on his health.

She noticed the Falcon's logo stitched into the upper corner of his shirt, "Do you have practice today?"

"I already told Coach I needed to take a leave," Nick waved it off without really answering her question and Cosette pushed herself off the wall.

"Nick, go to practice," she said, trying to sound as strict as possible. "Just because his life is on hold doesn't mean yours has to be.

"And what about you?" He turned it around Cosette. "Let me guess? You called your boss and told him you weren't going to be at the studio for the next few days?"

He wasn't wrong. Cosette had phoned her boss when she arrived at St. Mungo's because she was scheduled for a shift this afternoon.

"That's different," Cosette sighed. "You asked me to be here because you know he's not going to listen to you. Now you can either sit around the house and feel sorry for yourself and the situation we're in, or you can get your ass out the door and go to practice because you have a team who relies on you and we both know damn well that dad wouldn't want you to miss anything because of him."

Nick held his stare for a minute, clenching his jaw as he debated listening to Cosette's words. She cocked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to say something in response.

"You know," he started off smugly, "I'm older than you."

"And I'm still right. Go to practice." she retorted, taking another step forward. She pushed on his arm and sent him stumbling back into his room before she turned to the left and reached for the door to her childhood bedroom.