Baby Brother||WROEF fanfiction (Warning: child’s death)
Gus Finch wasn’t much of a happy kid. His parents never stopped arguing, his older sister, Dawn, was annoying and he didn’t have any friends at school. It was rare to see him smiling or laughing or being happy in general.
When Kay and Sam told the two siblings that they’re going to have another baby, it was a surprise to see Gus smiling from ear to ear, jumping in excitement and crying of happiness. Dawn didn’t like the idea of “sharing a room with two babies”, but Gus didn’t care.
“You do realize he’s going to die at some point, just like everyone in this family, right?” Dawn asked Gus one day as she watched her younger brother flying his kite.
“Don’t worry, Dawn,” Gus said. “I’m going to look after him.”
“That’s also what grandma said about Aunt Molly, Aunt Barbara, Uncle Calvin... and they all died,” she said.
“She wasn’t there when any of them died.” Gus said.
“Exactly,” Dawn said. “As soon as you look away, he’s going to be in danger.”
Both of them knew about the family course, and about the deaths in their family- From Ingeborg and Johan to Odin, to grandpa Sven and to their uncles.
They both knew that they might be the next in line, and talked about it a lot. They didn’t really care about the course, but when Dawn told Gus that their new brother might die, Gus felt... scared.
Dawn, realizing that Gus was anxious, apologized immediately and left him alone with his kite.
When Gregory was born, Gus sat next to his mother’s hospital bed, looking at his sleeping newborn brother.
“What’s his name?” Dawn asked, leaning against the wall.
“Gregory.” Kay said, smiling at the new human being that she held.
“He’s beautiful.” Gus said, smiling and fighting his tears.
As soon as Gregory opened his eyes, he held Gus’s finger with his tiny hand, looked at him with his ocean-blue eyes and smiled. Gus almost cried at that moment.
“He seems to like you, Gus.” Kay said, giggling.
“I must protect him.” Gus whispered to himself, which caused the rest of his family to laugh.
“Did you kids found him any toys?” Sam asked.
“Well...” Gus said. “While my nerdy sister was busy doing her homework, Grandma and I bought him a lot of toys. Most of them are sea creatures themed, but I guess they’re cool enough.”
“Don’t call me a nerd, weirdo.” Dawn said angrily.
“Let’s not fight in front of Gregory, nerd.” Gus said.
Gregory laughed a little, which made Gus feel like his heart is melting.
“See?” he told her. “He also thinks that you’re a nerd, Dawn.”
His sister rolled her eyes as Sam giggled.
Gus became happier with Gregory around.
Every time he came back crying from school or feeling anxious, he picked up Gregory and played with him, or just laid on his bed and hugging the little baby.
One time, when Edie heard sounds coming from the kitchen, she found Gus messing up the kitchen only to warm up a bottle of milk for Gregory. She taught him how to do that and helped him clean up the mess. It reminded her of the days when Barbara took care of baby Walter.
Every night, Gus took Gregory to the laundry room, only to look at the night sky with him through the celling’s windows until the small child fell asleep in his arms.
“I promise I’ll always be there for you, Greg.” Gus told him every day. “I promise I’ll protect you. I promise that I won’t let anything bad happen to you.” Gregory always responded to him with babies' noises, such as “Ba” or “Ga” or “plrft”.
Dawn didn’t want to get too attached to him. She still believed that he’s going to die someday, just like the rest of the family. She thought Gus was Naive, which is pretty normal for a seven-year-old kid to be.
One day, as Gus was doing his homework (and by “doing his homework” we mean “Copied his homework from Dawn’s old notebooks), and Dawn was at her friend’s house, Kay was bathing Gregory.
Sometimes she left the bathroom to talk and argue with Sam on the phone for a few minutes, leaving Gregory in the bathtub with his toys.
After Gus finished his homework and played a little bit of “Final Fantasy VII” on his computer, he noticed that his mother has been arguing with his father for long and Gregory was alone for a long time. He decided to head to the pink bathroom to check on his baby brother, and as soon as he entered the room, he felt like his world was falling apart.
Gregory’s dead body floating in the bathtub, still holding his toy frog, with the rest of his toys floating around him.
He screamed and cried, calling out his little brother’s name knowing he won’t get any response.
Kay went into the bathroom to see what’s wrong, only to see her baby dead and her older son crying. She also began to cry and called her husband to tell him what happened.
Edie, who also heard the screaming and went to see what’s wrong, said that she’s going to bring Dawn back home and tell her what happened.
As soon as Sam came home, along with Edie and Dawn, he went to check on Kay as Edie called 911. Dawn went to check on Gus, who was already outside, flying his kite and crying.
“You were right, Dawn.” He said as soon as he saw her sitting next to him. “I couldn’t protect him.”
She hugged him, allowing him to cry loudly on her shoulder.
“I couldn’t keep my promises.” he sobbed, not even trying to fight his tears.
Dawn also began to cry. She had many reasons to cry.
She cried because she didn’t spend much time with Gregory,
She cried because of Kay wasn’t able to look him without leaving the room for so long,
She cried because Gregory died,
She cried because Sam didn’t know that his calls caused it,
She cried because Edie was busy cooking dinner instead of looking after him,
She cried because Gus had to watch his little brother, who was his only reason to smile, floating lifelessly in the bathtub, knowing he cannot help him.
“He was too young for the family course.” she said in a broken voice.
Both of them just sat there, mourning their baby brother.
Dawn moved on very quick, considering the fact that it was her brother who died, but Gus?
He’d go out every morning to visit Gregory’s grave, Flying his kite in the noon, watch the stars through the laundry room’s celling’s windows at twilight while humming the lullaby Kay used to sing to Gregory and cried himself to sleep every night.
When Kay and Sam divorced, he begged his mother to stay, but she said that she couldn’t. That the memories of Gregory are everywhere in the house and she couldn’t take it.
“It’s my fault he’s dead.” she said.
“No, it’s not, mom!” Gus said. “It was dad’s fault! He was the one who called you every time! He’s the one who made you go out of the bathroom, leaving Gregory alone! It was HIS fault!”
“It was also mine as well...” he said.
“Gus, It wasn’t your fault.” she said.
“Yes, it is!” he cried. “I promised Gregory that I won’t let anything bad happen to him, but I didn’t look after him in the shower, and when I came to check on him it was already too late!”
Kay hugged him, kissing him on his forehead.
“Gus, I can’t imagine how hard it is for you,” she said. “I wish I could stay to help you, but I can’t help you if I can’t help myself.”
“I’m going to miss you, mom.” he said.
“I’m going to miss you too, sweety.” she said.
She took her suitcase, went to the front door, looked back at Gus, smiled a little bit and left the house, leaving Gus with his broken world.
Of course, it wasn’t her last time at the house, but this is for another story.
