1. 𝕻𝖆𝖕𝖊𝖗 𝖂𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 • bbc merlin

𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔴𝔢𝔫𝔱𝔶

[trigger warning: death]

📍 Dallas, Texas

⏳ June, 2006

"Where mommy?!" a wailing three-year-old Astraea Aphelion asked the blonde nurse who was currently changing the bandages on her stitched-up abdomen. Everyone who was working at the hospital that night agreed that it was a miracle that the young child had survived the car accident, though she was not without injury. A large cut ran diagonally across her tummy, which had been caused by a broken-off piece of metal from the car door; and she had a concussion and a broken arm, along with other minor bruises and cuts. Thankfully, none of the damage was bad enough to require surgery. Only a cast, stitches, and a bunch of medicines. 

"She's not here right now, dear," the nurse replied softly as she finished her task. The little girl frowned, dark green eyes squinting as the light above her caused her head to hurt. "Where daddy?!" she asked again. "Go to sleep, hun," the young adult continued to evade the question, not knowing how to break the news to a disoriented three-year-old. 

Astraea cried for a long time, partly due to the pain and the shock from being injured and having a needle stuck in her arm, but mostly because she hadn't seen her parents since she'd woken up three hours prior, and nobody was telling her anything. Finally, she fell asleep from pure exhaustion and nurse Layla was able to leave the room – slightly regretting her choice to become a paediatrician. 

It wasn't too long before Gustab Aphelion and his wife, Kelly, arrived at the hospital. They had heard the news some four hours after the car had been found thanks to a doctor who had the decency to prioritise checking Stefano and Halley's expedients for anyone they could contact – not only to give them the news of the couple's passing, but also to let them know that their daughter had survived and was in relatively good shape, though now orphaned. 

"Where is she?!" Gustab asked the first nurse he came across upon entering the building, his hazel eyes wide in distress. "Sir?" the startled red-head questioned. "Astraea Aphelion. I'm her uncle," the man clarified, running a hand through his curly brown hair. The nurse gave him a sympathetic look as she learned that this was the brother of the recently deceased man. "Right this way," she instructed. 

"Honey, there's someone here to see ya'," nurse Gemma woke the child up by placing a gentle hand on her arm. The young brunette rubbed her eyes and silently prayed it was either of her parents before sitting up to look at the door, where her uncle stood. 

"Unca Gustab?" she asked sleepily and slightly disappointed. "Hey, Astra. How are ya' feelin'?" the tall man asked the child, gently stroking her messy hair. "Where mommy and daddy?" she ignored his question, yearning to know where her parents were. 

Gustab's pained eyes looked towards the doorway, where Kelly now stood watching the scene. 

"There has been an accident, my dear girl..." the dark-skinned woman began hesitantly. "Where mommy and daddy!?" Astra asked again, raising her voice as tears streamed from her forest-coloured eyes. "They...they were called up to heaven," the woman explained, figuring that an explanation like that would be easier on the child. The brunette pounded on the bed, desperate. "No! Why?!" she asked. Why would her parents leave her when she was hurt? "God needed the help of two of his best angels, little one," Gustab backed his wife in a gentle tone, his voice breaking from the grief he was also experiencing. "When come back?!" Astraea asked, looking helplessly between the couple. The man simply pulled her to his chest and let her cry, trying not to do the same as he silently mourned the loss of his little brother.