 Whilst Flynn understood very little of Danny’s story he knew that any sentence which included tears, Renn, and Henry meant trouble. Inwardly he despaired a little; she had been doing so well lately. He had started to believe that she had maybe finally started to work through it and put it behind her. For her sake Flynn had prayed to Aura that his sister have all the help in the universe to move on with her life. He didn’t want her to have to go through all that pain again. It had nearly torn her apart last time; for a while he had barely even been able to recognise her. Renn had lost Henry and then slowly, very slowly she had begun to lose her grip on herself. Aura damn you, Henry he thought loudly to himself, but the idea lacked any real conviction. Henry was not entirely to blame, and that realisation brought familiar feelings of guilt crashing back in to Flynn’s consciousness. Hadn’t he been the one who had, in anger, told Henry that if he left, he could never come back?
Danny tripped over his words a little, and Flynn had to work hard to extract the knowledge he needed from between the sobs. Renn was crying because Danny had somehow (and miraculously) met Henry (who was alive) on the beach (he would have to address that one later) and Danny had confessed to Renn that he had told Henry about their Dad’s death. Shit. Flynn’s mind kicked into overdrive as he tried to work out how on earth he was going to sort out this ever growing mess. Why did Henry have the ability to create so much chaos single-handedly? Then finally Danny told him that Renn had started to pack a bag in order to go hunting for Henry again; over his dead body. They were not going through all that again.
One problem at a time, Flynn he told himself, taking a steadying breath as he braced himself to wade into the stormy waters.
“It’ll be okay,” he promised Danny, “you haven’t done anything wrong. I’m coming, just hold on a few seconds.” Flynn disappeared back into the guardroom and grabbed a pencil and paper off the table. He scribbled down a note to his Captain explaining what had happened, folded it in half and gave it to his friend who promised to deliver it. That done, Flynn hurried back out into the corridor; one problem down, three to go. Kneeling down on the ground Flynn pulled Danny into a hug and then held him out at arm’s length. When he spoke his voice was calmer and steadier than he felt.
“Now listen to me,” Flynn said, “none of this is your fault, okay? It’s very important that you know that Danny. This is not your mess, it started before you were born. Do you understand me?” He waited for some kind of sign that his brother had accepted what he had told him. “What Renn is going through,” Flynn continued, “is not your fault either. You help Dr. Gupta look after sick people, don’t you? Well, Renn is ill, it’s just not something wrong with her body that you can cure with some herbs and rest, it’s in her mind and sometimes that means that she needs a little more understanding and love from us. I know you care about her so much, and I know you’re scared but if we’re going to help her, we have to be the calm ones, all right? I’m telling you this because I think you deserve to know what’s going on and if you want to talk to Dr. Gupta about it then that’s okay too.” A small smile found its way onto Flynn’s lips, if he knew Danny then the boy would have his head in a book early the next morning. Straightening up Flynn held out his hand for his brother to take, “come on,” he said encouragingly, taking care to sound confident, “let’s go and see what we can do.” Problem two solved? He wondered as he waited for Danny to comply.
 |
|