Page 121 of Three to Fall

Chaos sighed. “He was messed up long before you came into his life. It’s not on you.”

Grayson had confirmed it, finding hospital records for Alexander Key, detailing a long history of mental illness, ranging back to when Ice had been committed for the first time at barely twelve years old. We’d found empty bottles of pills in his roomat the clubhouse. Anti-psychotics that hadn’t been refilled in the past few months.

He’d been spiralling for a long time, and none of us had seen it until it was too late.

But it didn’t matter what anyone said.

I’d always hold guilt over it.

That was my cross to bear. One I doubted I’d get over anytime soon.

But I would put it aside, bury it deep, because the people I had here were more important than the dead.

I leaned over and pulled Hayley Jade’s headphones off and grinned at her. “Say elephant.”

“Elephant,” she chirped back happily.

Chaos grinned at the game we’d been playing ever since Hayley Jade had been brought here for observation. Which mostly consisted of us getting her to say random words, just because we were scared she might stop talking if we let her stop for too long. “Say spaghetti.”

She twisted her legs up beneath her and bounced excitedly. “Too easy. Spaghetti.”

I leaned back on my chair and folded my arms. “Say pterodactyls are the best dinosaur.”

She made a face at me, her cute nose scrunching adorably. “But they aren’t. T-Rex is.”

I chuckled, just loving the sound of her voice. “Say Daddy again then.”

She rolled her eyes. “I already said it about one hundred million billion times!”

I leaned in, kissing her soft cheek. “Don’t care. Say it again.”

“Daddy. Daddy. Daddy.” She looked at Chaos and silently signed, “Dad, make him stop.”

I ruffled her hair. “Excuse me, short stuff. I understood that!”

She giggled. “Oops.”

In the space of an instant, in the terror of a moment I wished she’d never had to see, she’d started talking again.

And I’d become Daddy.

Chaos was Dad, though she signed it more than she said it out loud.

Grayson stuck his head around the door, and Hayley Jade’s face lit up. “G-Dog!”

I battled back laughter, and Chaos sniggered.

Grayson came in and high-fived Hayley Jade, but even he chuckled. “I know we said we’d try out G-Dog, but I don’t know if I’m feeling it. I think it might be too cool for me.”

Hayley Jade nodded seriously. “It’sdefinitelytoo cool for you.”

He laughed. “Thanks for agreeing. I think. Maybe we should try something derivative of my first name. Fred, maybe?”

Hayley Jade screwed up her face. “No. Definitely not Fred.” She grinned. “What about Freddie Spaghetti?”

Grayson nodded slowly, pretending to think it over. “That does have quite the ring to it. Let’s try it!” He fist bumped her this time, the two of them dissolving into laughter. He moved his hand around, making her chase it with her wobbly, noodle-like fingers.

We were letting Hayley Jade lead in what she called us. Chaos and I had been given parent titles, but it was clear the way she felt about Grayson, at least for now, was different. They had a fun uncle/niece sort of relationship going on, one that was bringing Hayley Jade a whole lot of fun and happiness while she waited to get out of the hospital. Kara was in another section, taking care of a small burn we hadn’t noticed until we’d got here.

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