Barley will always fix it
Part 2 of the fire story (I’m not sure if it’s possible to link anything, but if anyone knows, please let me know so I can try to connect the stories! Thank you in advance!)
Barley kept his arm around Ian as they returned home from the hospital. After being awoken in the dead of the night to his house burning and then giving his little brother CPR after his heart stopped beating, Barley was exhausted, but unable to sleep.
Ian seemed to be doing okay. He had to take it easy for the next few weeks, but given what could have happened, the entire family was thankful he was alive and well. Their mom gave them both a hug again as they walked in the house. The kitchen, his room and the upstairs was scorched.
Someone had to of done this, but Barley had no idea who. It seemed that being a wizard caused Ian a lot of enemies. Barley hated it with a passion, but there’s nothing he could do about it at this moment. Would he ever be able to let his guard down again?
“Wait,” Ian said, sudden horror filling his eyes as he ran up the stairs.
“Ian, be careful!” their mom called as they followed him. The foundation was still stable at least, but Ian wasn’t in a condition to be running.
Ian darted into his room and when Barley followed him, realization hit him in the face and his heart filled with dread.
The cassette tape with his dad’s voice. Burned up. The player destroyed, too.
“No, no, no, please no,” Ian said as he tried to see if anything was salvageable. Tears were now pouring down the young Lightfoot’s face. He hadn’t cried this whole time, but Barley had enough tears to tonight to last the rest of his life. He still teared up when he thought about pulling Ian out of the fire.
He held his little brother’s lifeless body.
“Oh, sweetheart,” his mom’s words pulled Barley back into reality. Ian sobbed at the sight of his room, his dad’s tape, everything, just like that, gone. All besides his staff, which somehow managed to survive.
Barley picked up the tape, now abandoned on the half-burned desk. He looked up and saw none of the pictures survived either.
He looked back over at his family. Ian was distraught and Barley wished he could take away that pain. Then he looked at his mom. The woman who wanted them to all be okay. Who loved and supported them. He knew all the sacrifices she made for him. He could clearly see the exhaustion on her face as she worked her best to provide for them all those years.
They both looked broken, sitting side by side while Ian had his head on her shoulder and she was playing with his hair.
He had to do something. He loved both of them more than anything in the world. More than life itself and far too much to just sit here and watch them suffer.
“I’ll be back,” Barley said and left without another word.
Ian watched his brother leave without saying anything else. His brother had been unusually silent since Ian woke up. He barely remembered the conversation, but he talked with his dad. But the longer he stayed awake, the more he forgot. He wished he didn’t.
He looked over at the ruined player and felt the tears welt up again. He would never be able to live a normal life. Something targeted him, he heard Barley insist that to Colt in the hospital. His brother had been furious and went off on Colt for not taking him seriously, but around Ian he hardly talked. He held on to his hand or kept an arm around him, but that was about it. Not that it wasn’t comfort, but still. He hated seeing his family in such a state on his behalf.
“It’s going to be okay, honey, we are going to get through this,” his mom said. Why was his mom comforting him? She lost more than he ever did.
Barley came home three hours later with the cassette tape, somehow fixed and then a portable player.
“Barley, how did-?” their mom didn’t finish the sentence, instead she pulled her son into a strong hug.
“I know a guy who fixes these all the time. Good news is the tape itself wasn’t damaged, it just needed a new case,” Barley answered and handed them to Ian. He looked at Barley and wrapped both of his arms around his brother and cries on his chest. He felt Barley hug him tightly and he listened to his brother’s heartbeat.
Mom told him that Barley was the one to get him out of the fire. He didn’t take the credit for it, but he pushed her to safety and then risked his life to save Ian’s. Ian died, but Barley did CPR to revive him. His brother’s hold got a little tighter and he knew he wasn’t the only one thinking about it.
“Thank you, Barley,” he said.
“Always got you, little brother. The rest of this stuff can be replaced later on, but at least Dad’s tape is safe,” Barley responded.
His brother always did fix it somehow.
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