Beautiful things - jaylor story (peace book 4)

lean on me

** sunday april 20th 2036** 

-ellie pov- 

My dad and Viviane come into the room where we are laughing and by the look on their face, I know that this is bad. "Hi what's going on" I say and bite my lip. "They know who the shooter is. Its Rebecca's brother. Well, her biological brother. She is adopted aperently but he stayed with their biological parents. We don't know much more, but we know who it is" my dad says, and my eyes widen. She is adopted? And it was her brother? Shit. 

Alex and I look at one another. She has been mean to me since kindergarten, but of course I don't wish any harm on her in that way. "Is she okay?" I ask and bite my lip "we don't know. I saw her mom in the hospital, so she is probably hurt too" Viviane says. 

I rest my head on Alex's chest and take in what they are telling us. "Alex" I whimper and start to hear the shots in my head and my body starts to shake. My mind is starting to space out, but someone is rubbing my back, and someone is lightly shaking me "sweetie, its daddy. You're okay" I hear my dads voice. 

It takes a while, but I don't fade completely this time, then I burst out crying and burrow my head in Alex's neck. I can feel his body shaking a bit too, he is clearly crying as well. His arms are tightly wrapped around me, and I have mine around him too. 

I can hear both my dad and Viviane's voices but it's hard to focus on anything right now. All I can do is cling to Alex just like we did in that classroom. 

"Ellie" he whimpers, and I pull away enough so we can look at one another. Both of our checks have tearstains, and our lips are trembling. My dad is rubbing my back, I'm starting to feel that now, and Viviane is next to Alex rubbing his arm. 

Alex shifts his position, so he is laying on his back and I snuggle into his side. I don't care that our parents are here, I need the closeness. Right now, the closeness is the only thing keeping me from completely falling apart. Him and my parents are the only things keeping me together. "don't let go of me" I whimper, and he is trembling too. "I will never let go of you" he whispers to me, but everyone can probably hear it. 

-joes pov- 

Seeing them wrapped together like this is usually uncomfortable, but right now it's heartbreaking because I can see how scared they both are. They went through a nightmare together and clearly are in desperate need to know that the other is okay. They were shot while they were wrapped together, so I can understand their need to be close. 

I continue to rub her back and exchange looks with Alex's mom. We are trying to give our children what they need after this tragedy, but it's hard to know what we are supposed to do. Ellie has been through a lot of hard stuff in her life, and this adds to the top of everything else. There is no rulebook on how to help your child through something like this sadly. All we can do is trying to meet them with the needs they are expressing. 

**

I get home to see Taylor and the girls, but when I get through the door the nanny is downstairs with kenzie and aurora and Taylor is nowhere to be seen. This makes me really worried, so I go upstairs to our bedroom, and as I stand outside the door, I hear her sobs. 

I go into the bedroom and see her curled up on our bed crying hard and I go over to her, climb into bed and warp my arms around her from behind to keep her close to me. I'm spooning her and holding her as tightly as I can while she clings to the arms I've wrapped around her body. 

"My love takes deep breaths. I'm right here" I whisper to her and kiss the back of her head several times. "joe" she sobs and I'm trying hard to fight back the tears myself. There hasn't really been much time to process what's been going on because the children have needed us constantly, but clearly, she has reached her breaking point.