When You Killed Him

Night One

"Alright guys. It's getting late. You should go to bed soon."

Most of the children either nodded at America or ignored him. Nobody felt like talking. At that point, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had left the house. They'd been outside ever since the family meeting ended, around supper time, and now it was about 10:00 at night. Obviously America wanted everyone in bed after what had happened. Maybe when they woke up everything would be normal again? But he'd thought that before, and it didn't happen. His wife was still gone.

America walked back to the upstairs living room, away from where everyone else was sitting downstairs, to find Ontario and British Canada were already in the room. Ontario was crying, and British Canada, who seemed unaffected by his brother's death, was trying to calm him down. America went over to help, and eventually Ontario just cried himself to sleep. It was at that point that America decided to try and talk to Brit.

"Hey, Brit?" America stood up and spoke, catching his brother's attention.

"Hm?" British Canada stood up and picked up Ontario. "Is it about Nova Scotia and New Brunswick? Don't worry about them. I called them, and they said they were heading home soon."

"No. It's about you, actually."

"What about me?" Brit raised an eyebrow. "Is something wrong, Ame?"

"Are you alright?" Ame asked. "All evening you've been... I don't know... Acting the same as always, I guess. I can never tell what you're feeling anymore."

Brit sighed. "Of course I'm not alright, Ame. Our brother just died, how can I be alright after that? I'm just good at wearing a mask."

"Good at wearing a mask... You're used to seeing the people you love die..." America echoed softly.

"Being in the military does that to you." Brit forced a small, sad smile. "I really tried, you know... To save him... I tried to save all of them."

"I know you did, Brit. We all know you did." America nodded slightly as he said it. "We should get the kids to bed soon, then if you want we can continue this conversation."

"I'd rather not continue it at the moment, but thank you for offering." Brit replied. "I'll go and find New Brunswick and Nova Scotia as soon as I put Ontario to bed."

"Alright, sounds good. I'll work on getting the others ready, and I'll make sure that Quebec is okay. I know that out of all of them, she and Terry were always the closest to Nada."

"I wish they all could've been that way." Brit added before carrying Ontario out of the room and upstairs.

America sighed and walked downstairs. This was not an easy night for him. He kept wishing he'd known what would happen. He would've come over to visit, or asked Canada to go and have a coffee at Tim Hortons with him, or something. But now it was too late.

"I'm sorry Maple Leaf..." He whispered softly as he walked downstairs to tell everyone that it was time for bed.

A half an hour later, almost everyone was asleep. The only ones who were still up being America, British Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, who had just gotten home from their walk, and Quebec.

America walked into Quebec's room, where she was reading something on her phone and crying. She quickly put her phone away when she noticed that her uncle was in the room, succeeding only in making him more curious.

"Hey Becca." America walked over to Quebec and crouched down beside her bed. "Are you alright?"

Quebec shook her head, and put her phone on her nightstand, plugging it into its charger.