Brynn was attached to the rabbit.

Not intentionally, of course, but attached nonetheless.

She watched attentively as Brayden checked the bandaged area on the rabbit's little leg. It was one of the first things she'd asked him to do after he'd woken up, knees cracking and neck clicking as he rose from the couch, the second one to do so out of all her brothers.

She hadn't slept all night, continually trekking back and forth from the med room to the kitchen with various different fruits and vegetables for the rabbit to try.

"Is it getting any better?" she asked, moving the bowl of untouched water closer to the animal's face.

Brayden's eyes softened as he looked up from the bandage, "I'm not a vet, sweetheart, I can't tell whether or not there are any major problems. I only know that nothing is broken."

Brynn deflated a little, tapping her fingers on the table apprehensively and frowning down at the still rabbit. She could hear his teeth grinding together.

It was quiet for a moment before Brayden shifted. "Perhaps..." he started, sounding unsure.

Brynn looked up, hopeful, at where he stood. Brayden was still in Christmas pyjamas, as it was only early morning, and for once, his hair was unkempt. He looked to be contending with his own thoughts.

"...we could have him looked at by a professional," he finished.

"A vet?" she asked, hopefully.

The tapping of her fingers halted, then twitched at the unexpected nose nudging into them. She looked down at the rabbit, trying not too smile too much, and brought up a finger to run down the bridge of his nose.

Brayden watched the action, so she fought harder to look neutral. She didn't know how her brothers were able to do it. It was quite strenuous.

She frowned a little, watching as the rabbit chewed a cucumber slice, remembering, "it's the twenty-sixth of December, isn't everywhere closed today?"

It almost sounded like Brayden laughed, but when Brynn looked up from her petting of the rabbit, she watched him take a paper towel from a dispenser on the wall, expression now schooled into one of neutrality that Brynn tried to replicate. "I'm sure we will find somewhere that is open."

Brynn hoped so. Zayne said she couldn't keep him, but she wanted to make sure the bunny was okay before she had to let him go.

Brayden cleaned up the mess the rabbit had made at the corner of the table, throwing the paper towel into the bin and moving over to the sink to wash his hands. He angled his head towards Brynn.

"Why don't you go get ready, sweetheart? We will go now," he said.

Brynn nodded, eager to make sure the rabbit was well as soon as possible. She gave aforementioned rabbit one last stroke, then rushed off upstairs, careful to avoid slipping in her fluffy socks.

She made it through the hardwood corridors upstairs with little to no close calls in slipping, skidding to a stop as she passed Zayne's office.

The double doors were wide open, which was unusual. Zayne didn't leave his office doors open. Ever.

She peered in, seeing Zayne sitting behind his desk, focused on some sheets of paper laid out in front of him.

Brynn tried to keep her face neutral. He wasn't in sleep clothes anymore, but not as fully dressed up in a suit as usual. He had a button-up shirt on, but no tie or blazer.

Brynn watched, uncertain. She stepped on her left foot with her right foot, clasping her hands behind her back. Her eyes trailed across the office, half-expecting Callan to be nearby, sat going through his own pile of papers, much like Zayne.

Relief filled her from her toes to her head upon seeing that Callan was, in fact, not in the office with Zayne.

She didn't want them to work today, or tomorrow, or the day after that. It was the holidays and they deserved to not work.

"Are you working today?" she said, after much deliberating and hesitancy.

She wanted to wince because obviously, he was working right now. He was sat in his office, behind his desk, behind his papers.

He looked up from said papers slowly. His head moved up before his eyeline did and when it found her, Brynn unclasped her hands, choosing instead to rub the material of her pyjama pants between her fingertips.

His stoic face stared at her for a minute. Brynn wasn't good at discerning Zayne's facial expressions, mostly because he didn't show any, but if she was going to guess the one he was currently showing, Brynn would guess contemplation.

Eventually, he shook his head, carefully placing the current paper in his right hand down and standing up from his chair.

He smoothed a hand down the front of his shirt, "not today, zusje," he said, walking around the side of his desk.

Brynn nodded. Perhaps he was only organising his paper piles.

She stepped back as he stepped out, closing both office doors and locking them. Brynn watched his back.

Should she tell him she was going to the vet with Brayden? Did he already know? It was likely Zayne knew.

Brynn decided not to mention it, not wanting to push her luck when it came to the bunny downstairs.

When her eldest brother turned around, they looked at each other silently for a moment. She waited to see if he would say anything else and when he didn't, she took it as her cue to leave.

As she was getting dressed, she checked over her outfit in the wardrobe mirror, making sure she was dressed well enough for the glacial winter weather. A thick jumper was being played with in her hands as she deliberated putting it on over the thinner jumper she was already wearing.

After much consideration, she decided to put it on, frowning when it made her hair go all frizzy.

She took a woolly scarf from one of the drawers, too, running her fingers over the material to make sure it wouldn't be irritating.

Going back downstairs, she passed the living room, spying the still-sleeping figures of Zach, Zaiden, Silas and Ezra. She planned on asking Zach to go with them, Zaiden, Silas and Ezra, too, if they wanted to, but she didn't want to wake him up.

She'd tell him about the vet when she got back.

Stepping out of the room as quietly as she could manage, she crossed the hallway to the med room, smiling when the rabbit's head and ears shot up. "Hello," she said.

Brynn didn't believe her brothers had anything to carry the rabbit in, so she presumed she'd have to hold him herself.

The rabbit's injured leg twitched as she manoeuvred him carefully into the scarf and muttered an apology to him. She wrapped him up snuggly, listening to the soft sounds of his teeth grinding as she carried him out of the med room and into the kitchen, where Brayden and Zayne seemed to be in deep conversation.

They both ceased their conversation and looked up immediately once she entered, holding the bunny to her chest like a lifeline. Brayden's face softened, and Zayne's face remained neutral.

Brayden's eyes roamed over her attire and the rabbit that was basically glued to her chest before he tutted softly. He rounded the island counter, bringing his hands up to disentangle the grey scarf currently around his neck.

Brynn watched as he brought it up and over his head and then over hers, tying the scarf in a secure knot, careful to avoid the bunny's head and ears.

Her mouth twisted in apprehension as she took in the long wool coat and black leather gloves he wore.

"Now you are going to be cold," she said, slightly muffled due to the warm scarf being half over her mouth.

Brayden looked amused, "I will be fine, sweetheart." He adjusted the scarf, ensuring it was secure. "We are just waiting on Callan now."

Brynn looked up from the rabbit at his words. Callan was coming, too. The scarf hid her excited smile well as she nodded, pretending to be preoccupied with making the rabbit more comfortable.

If Brayden caught it, he didn't say anything. He only said, "I will go get your gloves, hold on."

He sent a look in Zayne's direction before he squeezed Brynn's shoulder and left the kitchen to spy for gloves Brynn didn't remember having.

All she heard was Brayden's parting footsteps before the kitchen sank into silence. Brynn was hyperaware of Zayne's eyes on her as she continued to pretend to adjust the scarf holding the rabbit.

The rabbit's brown eyes were almost as intense as she imagined Zayne's to be at this moment. He watched her do everything and nothing to the scarf over and over before he eventually cut through the silence. He placed his hands on the island counter and cleared his throat.

Brynn stopped fiddling with the scarf and looked at Zayne. He didn't scan her like he usually did, perhaps because he already had whilst she was busy with the scarf. Nevertheless, he got straight to the point.

"The vets will provide a hospitable home for the rabbit whilst he recovers." Brynn tried not to frown or feel any more disheartened than she already did. She knew the rabbit couldn't stay.

"Once you have seen that the rabbit will be well-cared for, you can leave him in good conscience," Zayne finished, his word final as it always was.

Her thumb and forefinger gently rubbed one of the rabbit's ears between them as she shuffled on the spot, letting the silence after his words sit heavy on her shoulders. When he said, "Okay, Brynn?" She nodded, albeit reluctantly, and her hand supporting the rabbit flexed.

She'd make sure he was safe before she left him.

Brayden returned before Zayne could say anything more- if he were even going to. He blocked Brynn's line of sight to Zayne as he kneeled in front of her, helping her balance the rabbit as he placed each glove on either hand.

"Now," he said, patting her on the shoulders, "let's go see what's holding up Callan."

Brynn nodded, sharing a brief look with Zayne as she turned around to exit the kitchen with Brayden following closely behind.

They took Callan's car for the drive, or maybe that was just Callan driving. But Brynn took the back seat and didn't pay too much attention to the two in the front. Answering the occasional question from Brayden, she repositioned the bunny to sit comfortably on her lap.

When she felt he was becoming too still, she placed her fingers in front of his twitchy nose to feel for the small puffs of air that signified he was alright. And when he tried, and failed, to clean himself but was unable to stand on his back legs to do so, she gave him as much balance as she could.

The vet's car park was empty, as was the vet itself, bar one room in which Brynn could see the light was on.

There was nobody behind the receptionist counter, so they went straight to the waiting area. Brynn sat between her two brothers and was becoming increasingly concerned at the lack of responsiveness from the rabbit. Like he knew he was at the vet.

Brynn had a thought that this was how most animals felt at the vet, like how she felt at the doctors.

But she couldn't reassure him in a way that he'd understand, so instead, she rubbed behind his ears and watched as a figure appeared behind the blurry window of the room with the light on.

The door opened and a blonde woman smiled. "Mr Verlice?" she called, even though they were the only ones in the waiting room. Brayden helped Brynn up with the rabbit in her arms as Callan greeted her.

The room was a lot brighter inside than the waiting room was. The lady walked around to the other side of a tall metal table, patting the surface lightly. "And who do we have here?" she gestured to the rabbit.

Brynn chewed her bottom lip nervously, stepping toward the table. The lady wanted her to put him down on it, but Brynn wasn't sure how to do that in a way that didn't hurt him.

Nevertheless, she tried. And when she realised that neither Brayden nor Callan were answering the woman, she bravely answered herself.

"He doesn't have a name," she said, lowering him slowly and wincing when he flinched at the coldness of the table. "We found him outside church yesterday, caught in a trap." The vet- her nametag read Jenny- tutted in obvious disapproval.

Jenny helped her unwrap the scarf carefully when Brynn had trouble removing it from under his injured leg.

"His back leg is hurt, but Brayden said it wasn't broken or anything," Jenny was still observing the bandage and Brynn almost face-palmed her own face because this lady didn't know who Brayden was.

Jenny hummed. "Well, I'm going to undo them so I can get a better look if that's okay. Then just do some other small tests, like weighing him."

Brynn nodded, reluctantly taking a few steps away from the table to give her some room. The rabbit turned and watched her back away, only turning back when the vet touched a sore spot on his leg.

He was taken back- to where Brynn didn't know, but her shoulders and chest felt tight from the very second he went out of her sight. She sat stiffly between Callan and Brayden.

Callan nudged her shoulder with his arm, "hey," he whispered. Brynn looked away from the door the vet disappeared down and up at him.

"He'll be okay." Brynn's nail snagged her thumb's hangnail.

She nodded, "okay."

She rubbed away the blood on her thumb, almost jumping at Brayden's hand that came down to encase her own and stop her from pulling the hangnail even more.

Leaning back into the seat, she waited. And waited, and waited, until finally, the vet came back with the rabbit.

Brynn stood, so did Callan and Brayden this time, and went over to the table to where he was placed back down onto the metal table.

His leg had a fresh bandage on it and the vet placed two needles on the edge of the table. Brynn eyed them warily as the rabbit unsteadily hopped over to her and tried to seemingly climb up her.

She stroked him, ready to pick him up again if that's what he wanted, before the vet gently pulled him back.

Brynn pursed her lips as she held him in place, stroking him as she did so so he wouldn't look as trapped. Brynn still kept her lips pursed as she watched the movement.

"All seems well," Jenny said, ignoring his movements to get away, "a tad underweight but nothing a better diet won't fix. I do, however, need to give him some shots. Nothing too serious, just some boosters and pain relief so he can move around on that leg easier."

He started to struggle a bit more and she seemed to have more trouble keeping him still. "I was going to give him them in the back, but I believe I will need a helping hand in holding him still as he is," Brynn's heart clenched as the rabbit tried to hop itself out of its predicament, "quite the little wriggler."

Brynn chewed the inside of her cheek, she didn't want to hold him down.

Luckily, Callan placed a hand on her shoulder, already shrugging off his blazer, "I'll do it."

The vet nodded, finally letting go of the trapped animal, who immediately fled across the table back to where Brynn was standing leaning against it.

Callan rolled his sleeves up and leaned over the table slightly, keeping the rabbit under him. The rabbit realised what was happening when he was manoeuvred closer to the middle of the table, and the vet moved closer with the uncapped needle.

Brynn winced and looked away until they were done completely. It sounded like the rabbit had put up a good fight if Callan's grunts were anything to go by.

After it was finished, he let go of the animal, who had been through more this morning than he probably ever had his entire life, and leaned back. This time when the rabbit came running over, Brynn didn't hesitate in picking him up, letting him burrow himself into her neck.

The vet smiled at the two. "He seems to be quite taken with you," she said.

Brynn's heart clenched even as she gave her a weak smile and said, "thank you."

Callan put his jacket back on then came up behind her with both hands on her shoulders. "Is everything okay then?" he asked, directed towards the lady who had started to type something on a computer.

The latter nodded, "I will give you some pain medication that you will need to insert orally until his leg is fully healed, but other than that you have a healthy rabbit."

Brynn paused her stroking and looked up at Brayden.

Zayne said she couldn't keep him.

Brayden already looked like he was thinking the same thing. "Actually," he started, "he won't be coming home with us. We were hoping to leave him here."

The lady paused typing, her eyes trailing over Brynn and the rabbit before her eyebrow raised.

"You can leave him here," she said slowly. Brynn's heart dropped down to her toes.

Were there other rabbits here to keep him company?

The lady turned back to the computer. "Unfortunately, we are not a shelter so we can only hold him up to one day before he needs to be moved."

Brynn held onto the ball of fluff in her arms tighter. "Moved?" she asked.

The lady clicked a button on the keyboard and something printed off behind her. "To a shelter," she said, getting up to root through the cupboards, she took out a box of medication and stuck whatever she printed off onto it.

"They'll hold him for a week or so, and then..." she trailed off and put the box of medication down onto the table, looking unsure from Brynn to her brothers.

Brynn would've moved forward if Callan's hands didn't prevent her from doing so. "Then..."

"Well, typically the shelter we send them to does euthanisations if nobody claims any of the animals there by New Years."

Brynn wanted to gasp, she did gasp and whipped her head around to Callan who was looking down at her, mouth open and face torn.

After a second, he started shuffling her out of the room. "On second thoughts, we'll consider something else," he said to the vet, who was already handing Brayden the medication.

Back in the car, Brynn huffed, letting the now-calmer rabbit slide down to sit on her thighs.

Brayden was the last one to shut his door and the car was encased in silence as Brynn tended to the poor rabbit.

She made sure he was warm, putting the scarf back over him and ignoring the way Callan hadn't pulled out of his parking space yet. The only sound in the car for Brynn was her own short breaths from how fast she made her way back to the car.

After the adrenaline simmered down and she wasn't breathing so much, she took in the rabbit's face and smiled, "I'm thinking of the name Nudger."

And she ignored Callan and Brayden's dumbfounded looks that they gave on another, and Brayden's subsequent chuckle.

---

Callan made them go out for breakfast since Brynn hadn't eaten anything yet.

They sat in a cafe which Brynn didn't think you were allowed pets in, but Callan said not to worry about it, in a booth with Brynn on one side and her brothers on the other.

She fed Nudger pieces of fruit from the granola she selected from the menu as that was the only thing that had food Nudger could eat. She thinks- she'd have to look it up when she got home.

The rabbit sat in her lap and nudged her ribs when there was too long of an intermission between the previous piece of fruit and the next.

"Finish your breakfast, Brynn," Callan interrupted sternly. Brynn looked up from the rabbit, ignoring his nudge to eat some of the granola herself to appease Callan.

"You realise that Zayne still expects the rabbit to be gone at some point, don't you, zusje?" Brayden asked, eyebrow raised.

Brynn's chewing slowed as she looked up at him, slumping in her seat slightly with a dejected nod. "I know," she muttered.

She played with her spoon in the granola, avoiding eye contact with the two of them even though they were both staring intently at her. It's not like she had convinced herself that the rabbit was hers indefinitely, but she didn't want to think about what Zayne was going to do when they got back and the rabbit was still here.

It crossed her mind that perhaps her attachment to the rabbit was getting stronger as he licked her hand and along her coat sleeve.

She chewed her lip, moving the granola around the fancy bowl.

"A fitting name, however," Callan interrupted the silence. Brynn looked up at him and then down to where he was watching nudge Brynn's arm for attention and she cracked a smile.

Brynn smoothed her hand over his head and continued the movement, even as the waitress came back over, eyeing the rabbit warily like she had been since they first came in.

"Is everything okay with your meals, Mr Verlice?" she addressed Callan and Brayden, who nodded dismissively. Then she turned to Brynn, "Miss Verlice?"

Brynn didn't know how strangers knew their names, or why they always addressed them so formally. She smiled, "yes, thank you."

The waitress nodded, eyeing Nudger once more before going to another table.

Nudger, apparently, grew sick of sitting so still because he shuffled around in Brynn's lap and lifted himself up to place his front paws on her chest. At least the pain medication was working.

Brayden chuckled. "Attention-seeking thing, isn't he?"

Callan hummed. "Maybe he should be called Silas instead," he jested.

Brynn almost choked on the chuckle that bubbled up her throat before she could help it, and then she scanned the cafe just to make sure Silas wasn't there. Brayden had no qualms about laughing.

"Well, I'm certainly not looking forward to giving him that medicine every twelve hours," Brayden said.

Brynn hummed in agreement. She didn't like watching him being held down.

"Do you think we should buy him some proper rabbit food?" she asked, watching Nudger greedily take more fruit from her granola.

Callan nodded, "we'll pick some up on the way home."

When they arrived home, rabbit food and hay in hand (and a couple of toys), Brynn took him upstairs straight away, halting when she got to the hallway Zayne's office was in.

The office doors were wide open and she could hear voices come from inside. She tried to walk past swiftly, with possibly more speed than necessary, but she still heard the dreaded drawl of Zayne's, "Brynn."

She halted halfway across the doorway and turned slowly.

Zayne sat at his desk with his phone held partly away from his ear. He looked at Nudger, who was currently trying to become one with Brynn.

Brynn stilled him with a hand on the back of his neck. She could hear a voice on the other end of Zayne's phone call, but he was ignoring them. Slowly, he raised an eyebrow.

Brynn looked down at Nudger then back at Zayne. "The vet was going to kill him."

Maybe a bit of an over-exaggeration.

Zayne perhaps knew that too because, if possible, his brow went higher.

Brynn stared at him, not sure what else to say. He stared back stone-faced.

Her heart rate steadily increased, or was that Nudger's she could feel? The voice on the other end of Zayne's call was still talking, but Brynn didn't understand the language.

Subtly and carefully, she shifted Nudger to rest more comfortably against her and chewed the inside of her mouth.

At some point, Zayne said something in another language to the person on the phone, then refocused on Brynn.

"I'll see you at lunch, Brynn."

It felt like something extremely and so-very heavy had been powerlifted off of her shoulders. She let out a breath of relief and nodded, already resuming her trek to her room at a faster rate than before.

When she got to her room, she leaned back against her door and sighed loudly as she calmed down.

Eventually, she walked towards the bed and let Nudger down on it. He inspected the area immediately and she watched him.

"This is your room now, too," she said, as he started rubbing his chin over her pillows.

He didn't do a whole lot, Brynn didn't think that rabbits did.

As he was doing nothing, she took the opportunity to take a picture of him and sent it to Aubrey and Penny.

I think I might be able to keep him!! she typed.

Immediately, Penny responded I love him.

Then Aubrey, Name him Aubrey.

Brynn chuckled, placing her phone on the nightstand and sitting on the bed. Nudger was making his way down to the storage box at the end of the bed.

He was sniffing the surface until he stopped suddenly, whipping his head up, ears going up with him. Brynn furrowed her eyebrows and looked to where he was looking- the door.

Then she heard footsteps get closer and a knock. Her face, unlike the rabbit, relaxed.

Zach poked his head inside. "I heard we have a new member of the family." A scoff sounded next to him and the door opened wider as Zaiden let himself in.

"Temporarily," he declared, coming to lie down on the side of the bed Brynn wasn't sat on. He put his hands behind his head, looking down to where Nudger was. They stared at each other for a while. Zaiden furrowed his eyebrows and narrowed his eyes.

"Did he get fatter since yesterday?" Zaiden said.

"No," Brynn said. He was perfect.

Zach sat on the same side Brynn was. "That's just you," he said.

Nudger came back up onto the bed as Zaiden hummed and leaned back, closing his eyes.

Not too long after closing them, they flew open again after a particularly aggressive nudge from Nudger.

Zaiden looked stunned, "the little fucker just pushed me."

Brynn bit her bottom lip and pulled Nudger away from where he looked to be gearing up with another aggressive nudge.

Zach laughed and Zaiden glared.

"I think you're in his spot," Zach chuckled, stroking the rabbit.

"I think I'm gonna turn him into a scarf is what."

---

By the time it was dark outside, a pen had been set up in the corner of Brynn's room for Nudger, filled with the supplies they bought from the pet shop earlier in the day.

He limped on his leg all the way around it, eager to explore it, and then spent the rest of the day tucked up sleeping on one of Brynn's blankets that she put in there. When Brynn went down for lunch, she came back up to find him in the same spot.

She changed his water when she felt it got too lukewarm and filled his food bowl up when he finished the previous portion.

She liked watching him, even when he was doing nothing. She sat at the end of her bed on the floor and watched and fretted when it looked like his leg was giving him trouble. She kept the bathroom door open when she went to the loo so that she could make sure he was okay.

Brynn had never had pets before. Milo certainly wasn't an animal person and her mum just never added that sort of addition to the house.

She'd have to tell Derek about this interesting development. And send more pictures to Penny and Aubrey. Invite them round, perhaps? Could she do that?

All of her brothers had already met Nudger. Zach sat on the floor not too long ago and watched him with her for a while.

Now Brynn was alone, save for the small critter lounging about on his new bed.

Brynn felt quite sad tonight.

She wasn't too sure why because really there was no reason to be. Maybe she was so happy she was crying?

Because there were tears trickling down her face and she didn't know when that had started, but no effort was made to wipe them away.

She could feel her chest become tighter and tighter until it shook with the amount of effort she exerted to keep quiet. Her hands picked and picked at the carpet underneath and the ringing in her ears persisted rather annoyingly, until she had no choice but to close her eyes and lean her had back against the bed.

The headache that was contructing itself stopped when her lids shut, the blackness offering a welcome tranquility if only for a few seconds.

Or minutes, or hours.

When Brynn opened them next, a figure was sat on the floor next to her. She didn't look at them, mostly because she presumed them was Zach.

It was Ezra.

And she knew that just by looking from the corner of her eye. The rest of her vision primarily focused on the tear-blurred picture of the rabbit as he started exploring the room again.

After a minute in which Brynn didn't calm down, Ezra shuffled around a bit and spoke.

"You are missing dinner."

Brynn stared at Nudger as he did a big stretch and slowly nodded.

Another minute.

"What, did the fluff ball pee on your pillow?" Ezra said, matching what Brynn was doing and watching Nudger plod happily to his food bowl.

A laugh bubbled up Brynn's throat, coming out in an odd sort of choked sound. She shook her head, "no."

She watched Nudger munch, alternating between stuffing his cheeks with food and then with hay, and then food again.

Then she furrowed her eyebrows and looked at where her hands were playing in her lap.

"Sometimes I get sad," she said and said nothing else.

She wished she didn't get sad out of nowhere. She wished she didn't get scared out of nowhere, too. But if she had to choose, she believed she would prefer to be scared than sad.

Scared, she could run to Callan. She could run to Brayden, she could run to Zach, Zaiden, Silas, Zayne, Ezra.

Sad, she sat on her bedroom floor and wondered when it would stop. If it would ever stop.

Sad, she felt like she would feel like way forever. Like it couldn't get better, it wouldn't.

Sad, she dwelled on Milo.

A choked gasp came out when she thought about him when she'd tried so hard recently to forget and move on.

Ignoring the nudge she received on her foot, she listened to the sound of jostling next to her, thinking that Ezra was getting up. Instead he just seemed to be adjusting himself.

"That's okay," he said.

Brynn looked up from her hands to her foot, where Nudger sat looking at her.

When she looked up at Ezra, he was looking at the carpet with a crease between his eyebrows. He looked unsure. His mouth kept partly opening like he was going to say something, but he'd close it as soon as.

Eventually, he said, "I get sad sometimes, too."

Brynn frowned, no way.

"When?" she asked.

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Well," he started and it took him a moment to think.

"I get sad when Zayne makes me do paperwork," he said with a serious face.

Brynn's lips pursed.

"I get sad when Zach says something stupid." He gave her the lightest nudge with his arm.

Brynn tried not to smile. With the tears, she probably looked extremely odd.

As she willed her smile to simmer down, Ezra's eyes kept trailing over her face as he adopted that thoughtful look again.

"I get sad when I think about father."

Brynn wasn't expecting that. She wiped her cheek with the palm of her hand as she watched him.

"I get sad when you are sad," he continued and Brynn halted in trying to clean her face because she hadn't anticipated that Ezra would say something like that.

As Brynn had stated previous, she liked to think that she understood a good variety of her brothers' facial expressions and gestures.

She knew Zach's the most and she knew Zayne's the least. Ezra's had never been her forte either, however if she had to take a guess or shot in the dark, she would say that right in this moment, Ezra's eyes were pushing sincere.

He didn't say any more, just leaned his back onto the bed and sat in silence with her once more.

Nudger, discontent with being ignored, had started crawling up Brynn's legs and nudged her hands. Brynn looked down and smiled, stroking him.

She wished she was Nudger. Happy, carefree, if not for the minor leg injury. But that would heal.

Slowly, Brynn leaned her head back again and closed her eyes.

For a moment she was carefree and her mind was quiet. It was nice. Was she moving?

Derek had always told her to imagine a safe place to escape to. Like a golden beach at sunset, waves crashing delicately onto the shore. Or a field, near a lake, with a really big tree.

Although, Brynn had always preferred to imagine nothing. Preferred an inky black backdrop with no noise, a place so dark that not even her own thoughts could see her, find her, grab her.

Though Brynn did try with Derek's suggestions at first. He even suggested her own room, one of the newer established safe spaces for her. Supposedly.

The closet door scared her sometimes, however. The solitude that the room provided could easily be stampeded with one look in the closet door's direction. A sort of black atmosphere surrounded it at times.

It was where Milo liked to manifest himself late at night when she had nothing to do but think and stare and stare at the ajar door, too frightened to get up and close it.

He manifested himself there in her nightmares.

She was imagining it now.

The room was getting smaller, the oxygen was being drained from the room via the closet door and there was nothing she could do about it.

He pounded on the door. Loudly.

He was screaming, he was yelling and the hinges of the closet door looked like they were close to collapsing.

He pounded again, and again, again, again and a gutteral bawl of "Brynn!" made her ears ring. She tried to bring her hands up to her ears to block it out, but there was no room.

She sobbed, watched the cracks on the door increase tenfold as the pounding got louder.

As a final attempt at salvation, she slammed her eyes shut. Although they were already shut, weren't they?

The pounded persisted, except now her arms ached for some reason.

She opened her eyes, only to see no difference in her vision. The darkness persisted. She was somewhere dark.

Her legs were curled up painfully and she was causing the pounding. Her fists hit the roof of something over and over. Where was she?

After hours of hitting, or was it seconds, her arms fell to her sides and she whimpered. Everything felt blurry, or was it just dark? Her head lolled to the side weakly.

After hours, or possibly seconds, she heard voices.

Light entered whatever confined space she was in and she was lifted from it by big arms. She heard voices, some words strung together very loosely.

"...found her!"

She thought she might've been passed to someone else. And then another. Another?

"Brynn? Can you hear me?"

Yes.

Hands were on her face.

"-found her."

"Where?"

"-boot."

The next moment she was laying on something soft, something thick and heavy being draped over her. Snippets of the voices were clear, but she couldn't open her eyes. She was so tired.

"...another nightmare..."

"... hopsital?..."

"-call Derek?"

"...was fine coming down to dinner with Ezra."

"Brynn, sweetheart?"

"Hun?"

"... let- rest-"

"Zusje?"

She felt heavy weights dip down all around whatever surface she was rested on at different times and different hands.

One on her forehead, smoothing back her hair.

And then she was out.

---

When she came to next, she woke up on the couch in the living room.

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Not only from the fact that she was now in the living room when the last thing she could rememebr was sitting with Ezra on her bedroom floor, but also from the fussing Callan gave her when he saw that she was awake.

She tried to push his hands away, to stop him from fretting, but he wouldn't let up. Nor would Brayden.

Her confusion further increased when Zayne kneeled down next to her and asked her what she remembered. What did he mean?

Frowning, she pushed at their hands and turned around in the thick blankets. She didn't like this dream.

Waking up next was a similar affair, causing Brynn to conclude that she wasn't dreaming.

"Are you okay?" she asked Callan because he looked so, so shaken and she didn't like it, didn't understand what caused it. She couldn't remember.

He looked even more shaken by her question, exchanging looks with people in the room. More people than Brynn thought there was but she didn't analyse who. She likely was going to go back to sleep at any moment now. She was tired.

Callan leaned down, smoothing the hair back from her face. "Yes, of course I'm okay, sweetheart," he said, quietly. He looked uncertain about his next words, like he wasn't sure whether he should say it or not.

"Did you have a nightmare last night, baby?" he asked.

Brynn's eyebrows furrowed, she didn't think so.

Context clues, on the other hand, insinuated that yes, she had.

Her hands hurt and her legs and head ached.

More and more, her heart rate increased, yet she still shook her head. "I don't think so."

And it hurt, the pained look in Callan's eyes, so she avoided looking in the direction of Brayden so that she wouldn't have to see his eyes either.

"Brynn, we found you in the boot of Callan's car," Ezra said.

Brynn shot up.

A searing pain split her head down the middle instantly as she looked around the room, ignoring Callan and Brayden's protests and attempts to get her to lie down again.

She spied Carlo at the entryway, looking professional as ever, but even more guarding if that were possible. There was more people behind Carlo, dressed like him, too, speaking seriously in the hallway.

Whilst she was busy trying to analyse the people in the hallway, Callan and Brayden managed to bring her down again.

"It's okay," Callan soothed.

It was not okay.

"It's not okay," she whimpered, grabbing at his arms.

"I don't remember." It should have processed that she was crying in front of all of her brothers and other company, but it didn't.

She let her head fall back. "It's not okay," she cried. Callan's face crumpled.

Vaguely, she felt Callan shift and lie down next to her, shifting her so that she lay completely over him. He turned her head away from the other occupants in the room, to face the back of the couch. "No," he mumbled, "it's not okay."

Small kisses were pressed against her hairline. "But you are okay, Brynn," he muttered. "You are safe, brave girl."

---

On New Year's Eve, Brynn sat alone in the garden.

She could feel Brayden's eyes on her from the kitchen window, but she phased it out. He'd already bundled her up enough that she felt like a giant snowball. And he wasn't the only one watching her from the house, she was sure.

She'd brought Nudger out and he currently sat on her lap, ocassionally venturing to other parts of the bench they were sat on.

Snow fell, but only lightly.

Brynn still felt sad.

She rubbed snow between her gloved fingertips and let it melt in the warmth of her palm.

Fuck Milo.

She sneered to herself, squeezing the snow in her palm tighter. Breathing out deeply, she let go.

Fuck Milo.

The garden was beautiful covered in a thick blanket of snow, it felt tranquil. Brynn would have leant her head back if she wasn't afraid to close her eyes.

Nudger's ears and head perked up before Brynn heard what he did. Footsteps crunching in the snow. Brayden.

"Hey, sweetheart, you don't mind if we join you, do you?"

We.

Brynn looked past where Brayden stood, to see the rest of her brothers either coming out of the patio doors in their winter wear, or putting their coats on in the kitchen.

She shuffled along the bench slightly and Brayden grinned, sitting next to her.

The bench was cramped, but it managed to fit them all. Brynn was impressed with its integrity.

Her brothers didn't speak to her or with one another. Seemingly, the only interaction that took place was between Brynn and Nudger and the strokes he demanded when he realised Brayden wasn't going to give him any right now.

After what felt to be a reasonable amount of time spent in quietude, she leaned up to Brayden's ear, "can I stay in your room tonight, please?" she pleaded.

Brayden's eyes softened, "of course you can, zusje."

---

<3

this is my rabbit



hes my lil fatty.