Who: Erin Jugson and Will Jugson
What: D:
Where: Ministry
When: Tuesday night
Erin rolled the ball back across the short area to Milo, who missed it and crawled over to retrieve it from the corner. This was probably the fiftieth time the red rubber ball had rolled into the opposite wall, but she wasn't growing tired of it. You'd have to actually know what you were doing to be tired of something, and right now a tornado could sweep this section of the Ministry up and over the rainbow, and she would not take notice.
"Thank you, Milo," she murmured as he pushed the ball back to her. Milo sat back up and spread his legs apart to create a goal for the ball. Erin gently pushed it back and he shrieked in delight as he caught it. "Good boy."
Her lack of emotion had come after the news broke at the end of Will's wedding, where she finally got over the initial and painful shock and went to---got to work. It would be a lie to say that Erin had wanted to disapparate away and never come back, but a deep, burning desire to
fight back caused her to burst into the office and beg Avis to let her onto the scene.
Probably the worst decision of her life, entering the McKinnon house, but...Erin knew that she would always regret not doing what she could to help, and the fact that she and Avis
had found something?
Well. That made things a bit easier to swallow.
Not much, but it sure as hell felt
good.
The door to their room opened and Erin turned quickly to spot her brother in the doorway. Milo reacted immediately; he let out a squeak and hurriedly started toward his uncle. Will squatted down and lifted the boy up from under his arms and let his head droop on his shoulder when he stood.
"They said he can be released tonight," Will said, stretching is neck back to get a look at Milo's face. Erin continued staring up at the two, a nod given with a slight drop of her chin. "What are you going to do?"
"I--" she let out, but stopped, feeling immediately guilty at what was about to spill from her mouth.
I don't know, she didn't
know what to do with a baby, she'd only ever watched a kid for more than twelve hours...once! How was she supposed to take custody of Milo and have it be okay? Rafe certainly didn't have a job that fit the lifestyle of a
father. Who knew if he actually wanted to do this, anyway? They'd only just gotten engaged, they hadn't set a date, let alone start planning when kids should enter their plan.
"I can't do this, Erin," Will said quickly, noticing her hesitation, "I can't take him--"
"Why not!" she blurted, wincing greatly before her eyes shot down to the ground. She was a horrid godmother for this, she should never have such thoughts, "You just got married, it--your life is figured out, I--"
"I'm a--an auror!" he let out, shifting Milo in his arms, "I go out there everyday and, and you know how it's getting, Erin, I
can't take him!"
"That's not
fair," she let out, jumping to her feet, "Nate's an auror and he has
two kids, you can't say that!" Oh, God, she couldn't stop herself from begging her brother to take on the baby, she was just---
terrified, she was terrified of not doing a good job, of making Deidra
mad at her and--"You can do it, Will, you're the--you
can."
"I
can't, there's---you can't possibly---I'm a--" Will rambled, his voice sounding desperate. His eyes flickered between Milo and herself and his cheeks puffed for a moment before he finally dropped his chin, "Anneliese is pregnant."
"
What!"
Erin's mouth fell open wide, and for a second she was ready to scold her brother for the lie, but Will's face had paled so badly that she thought he was going to pass out from lack of blood to the brain.
"Really?"
He nodded, cheeks sucked in as if getting ready to be sick. Erin put a hand to her forehead, a skull-splitting pain suddenly hitting hard. Maybe it was her mind telling her to get over the fear of taking in Milo, maybe she needed a
jolt like this to get used to the idea of being a--mother.
A mum. Erin stared hard at Milo, who had fallen asleep on Will's shoulder. Her throat was suddenly quite tight as her eyes watered, the idea of being this boy's
mother completely overwhelming. She felt absolutely horrible for even thinking about taking that honor away from Deidra, but---but she remembered, her sister had
said she'd rather Erin take care of Milo than anyone else.
It was because she was the funniest, the most fun, Deidra had said.
Erin choked out a laugh and reached out for the boy, nodding silently to the agreement of taking him in. She had to, there was really no other option, and now at least she was okay with it. Will transfered Milo over into her arms and Erin buried her nose into his hair.
"I dunno if I can do this, Will," she whispered hoarsely, the tears now streaming down her face at the thought of her sister. Erin didn't know if she'd ever be able to stop crying over Deidra, it certainly felt like something she wouldn't have the strength to get over. Will let out a breath and put his hand to the back of his neck,
"You're not--alone, we're all going to help," his eyes took on a fiery determination, "I'm not going to let them hurt my family again."
She believed him, fully, and didn't hesitate in pressing forward and sandwiching herself and Milo into Will's only semi-reluctant embrace. It was going to be terribly hard, but--they could do this if they stuck together, she was sure.
