A New Chance, A New Start (SWR)

Chapter 13: Comfort in Thunderstorms

Kanan frowned at the obviously suffering child and whispered, "Chopper, you mind if I hold him?"
The wolf opened his eyes and looked at him, as if judging his soul. After a minute of the intense staring, Chop reluctantly lifted his tail and laid down flat across the floor. Having a more clear shot of the child, they could all clearly see Ezra had his knees tucked and was trembling in fright.

Not wanting Chopper to draw back his consent, Kanan rushed forward and gingerly slipped his hands under Ezra's form. Deciding not to sit on the floor anymore, he slowly stood up and paused as the light teen moved in his arms. He lightly smiled as the trembling laid off a bit and instead snuggled into his chest.
But the moment was short lived as thunder and lightning strikes again, reverting Ezra to his original state of trembling, if not worse. Kanan sighed in despair and sat down in the recliner, laying Ezra across his lap. The teen didn't even noticed and instead snuggled farther into his arms as if trying to escape the storm.
The father reached up and tugged the hood made of blanket farther down, making sure he was warm in the dark house. He lightly started patting Ezra's leg like consoling an upset child. He smiled once more when he heard the breath of relief and looking up at the worrying family.
"Well, what do you think we should do? He's obviously not waking up and we have no idea what to do." Kanan admitted.
Everyone stared at him in shock, not expecting him to be blunt of his limited knowledge. Hera, the first to shake off her shock, replied, "We'll stay with him for 10 more minutes then if nothing has happened we're going to have to do something else."
Zeb who was just as worried about his little brother as his parents suggested, "Why don't we call Ezra's friend? The one from the Karaoke bar? He told us they were close friends so..."
Hera took the idea into consideration and nodded, having nothing better to suggest.

The 10 minutes passed by slowly and of course by their bad luck, Ezra condition worsened and his breathing patterns picked up as well as jumping and squirming. Kanan tried his best by rocking coupled by the patting but it can only do so much.
Hera sat up, her own blanket wrapped around her as did everyone else and said, "Ok Zeb, go ahe-"
The ringing of a phone went off and Zeb smiled with mirth, "Wha' a coincidence."
He pulled if from the depths of his baggy gym shorts and answered the black phone, already turning it to speaker.
" 'Ello?" Zeb asked.
"Hey, I figured you would call about now so I went ahead, hope you don't mind." 
The voice was most definitely from the guy at the bar.
"No, we don't and we do need your help. Im not going to explain the situation since you probably already know." Kanan said.
"Hmm, yeah I expected this to happen. It does every time, unfortunately. So tell what he's doing and what your doing." The voice, his name forgotten by them, instructed.
"Well, he keeps moving and is breathing pretty heavy. He was also crying when we found him. Right now, I'm holding him and rocking him. Is this anything else we should do?"
The phone went silent for a moment, everyone glancing at each other.
"What was he like when you found him?"
"He was curled up with Chopper in a blanket, flushed cheeks, and crying as we said before."
"CHOPPER IS THERE?!?"
Said wolf, peeked up at his name from the craftily fireplace before groaning and laying down again.
"Um yeah?"
"Wow, he usually never lets anybody see Chopper. Guess your special. Anyway back to the issue, do any of you know where his MP3 is?"
The family glanced at each other before Zeb remembered what happened earlier that day and started to rummage through his pockets. After a minute, his face lit up and he pulled out the small device with earphones,
"Ok, wha' next?"
"What else would do with an MP3? Put the earphones on him and turn on the music starting from the first song."
Zeb stood up with the device and passed it to the occupied father.
Kanan easily slipped his hands into the blanket hood and put the buds in, chuckling lightly when Ezra tried the move away. He hit play on the device he felt the new teen relax in his arms.
He continued on rocking, Ezra's head starting to loll on his arms and asked a question everyone was wondering, "What is on his MP3 to have this kind of effect?"
The man sighed, "His mom and dad knew they were going to be killed so they made him a playlist of songs from when he was young. They sang them to have a more personal effect as well as an object to remember them by. The music is the only thing that calms him nowadays. So... yeah. I guess I've done my job. Bye."
Silence rang throughout the room before the dial tone was heard. Zeb quickly hung up and sighed, "Man, we jus' keep findin' things out. Is there anythin' else, Kit?"
Kanan chuckled lightly at the question, "Guess only time will tell. But Zeb you mind holding him really quick? I gotta do something." The 17 year old nodded and stood up along with his foster father. Kanan swiftly put Ezra in his arms making the child look 2 times smaller. Zeb sat down just after Ezra snuggled up and waited to see what Kanan was doing.
He knelt down in front of the recliner and grabbed the edge of the blanket. He pulled back both sides and smiled at the curled up teen. Deciding to do his work quickly as Ezra curled up farther with shaking chills, he grabbed Ezra's prothetic left leg and pulled it off. Doing the same with the rubber, he leant the leg against the coffee table and tucked him back up in the fluffy blanket.
"You want me to hold him or are you fine?" Kanan asked Zeb as they started rocking. The big brother smiled and shook his head at his fathers antics. They both quickly traded spots again and all settled down on the couches. Sabine had already passed out, head on the arm of the couch and legs in Hera's lap.

Hera smiled at everyone and watched as Zeb drifted off on his own section of the reclined couch. She glanced over at Kanan to see him staring at the once again hooded figure, smiling.
"You ok, Love?"
Not bothering to look at her he said, "We got our work cut out for us, don't we?"
Hera smiled, "We do but I wouldn't want it any other way."
Kanan sighed and looked up, "I agree but let's focus on getting everyone to bed. They still got school tomorrow."

They firstly put Ezra in his bed under the covers with the blanket and music still playing, Chopper laying right next to him. After waking up both teens and getting them to bed, did they get into their own beds. They smiled at each before Hera turned over and Kanan pulled her to his chest, his arm wrapped around her waist.

Everyone but Ezra came down for breakfast in the morning, worrying everyone in the room. Just as Kanan got up to see what was wrong, the said dressed teen came in wth a growling wolf pushing him. Ezra sighed exasperated, "Chopper! Stop it! I'm here, there's food! It will soon be in my mouth! So stop your fussing!"
The wolf just growled louder and pushed him to a seat. Ezra glared at the defiant animal. He slowly put food on his plate and when there wasn't enough of one thing, Chopper would growl warningly.
The family watched amusedly as they ate their own food and after a few minutes of watching, Ezra said softly, "Oh and sorry about last night. I didn't expect it to be so bad."
They smiled softly at the now shy teen and nodded when Kanan explained, "Its fine, just come to one of us if you need comfort or something, don't keep it to yourself to handle." They could all clearly see Ezra have an internal battle with himself agreeing before nodding reluctantly. They all smiled and continued breakfast, Ezra occasionally slipping Chopper some crispy bacon. Hera decided to ignore him just this once and not fall into his trap but couldn't handle it and said, "Ezra, plate." The teen just smiled and nodded, passing some more bacon off the table. The other two kids laughed whole heartedly and soon the adults were joining.

As they were on their way to school, Zeb quickly explained that he forgot to tell Ezra about football practice today but Ezra just waved it off and said, "That's fine, just come get me out of the art room when your done." He nodded in confirmation and continued driving, making a mental note.

Sorry this took some time, Peeps! And just so you know, the story right now is on a Thursday. And that's it! Bye bye!!☺️☺️

-Momo