csi_sanders1129 | Fic: better days (Comfortember) (Reply)

Title: better days
Chapters: 1/1
Author:

csi_sanders1129
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Family.
Ratings: T
Word Count: 1207
Pairings/Characters: Frank Castle/David Lieberman, Leo.
Synopsis: In which David gives Frank some devastating news.
Comments: Written for Comfortember 2020, Prompt: Crying. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!

Frank's asleep when the phone rings, which in and of itself is enough of an alarm to tell him something is wrong. No one calls him. The list of people who could call him is quite short. Instantly awake and alert, he answers the call from an unknown number with a cautious, "yeah?"

"Frank," comes the voice on the other end of the line, shattered and broken, "I need you."

"Tell me where," he answers, already out of bed and halfway through getting dressed. "I'll be there."

"I'll text you the address," David manages to say, before the call ends, the beginnings of a choked off sob coming through before the connection breaks. A few seconds later, the phone beeps and Frank knows what's at the location provided: a hospital.

Twenty minutes later, he's rushing into the emergency room, looking around for any sign of David, but he can't find the man anywhere. 'Here,' he texts, and just a moment later he gets a response with directions to the surgical waiting room on the third floor of the hospital. He weaves his way through the maze of hospital corridors until he finds it, finds David sitting in one of the chairs there, his head in his hands.

"David," he says, and the other man is instantly on his feet, crossing the few steps between them to tackle Frank in a desperate hug. He still doesn't know what's happening, but whatever it is he's sure it's not good and if this is what David needs from him right now he's willing to give it. He wraps his arms around David's back, holds on as the man sobs into his shoulder.

He doesn't know how long it takes for David to finally get it together enough to tell him anything, but by that point, Frank's sunk them both down to the floor. "Sarah and Zach," he manages, through the tears that won't stop, "they – they're dead."

Frank feels his heart stop. "What? Who-" he starts, sure that somehow, someone got to them, made them pay for the things he and David did, but David stops him before he the rage can fully form.

"It was a car accident," he says, wiping his eyes as he sits up a little straighter. "Sarah was taking the kids to school. They were late, fighting over breakfast and Zach spilled orange juice on Leo and some old lady had a heart attack or something and t-boned the car at an intersection."

"Shit," Frank says, gets to his feet and puts a fist through the wall because there's nothing else he can do. He'd loved David's family, too, and now they're gone. Now David's in the same boat he is, alone and lost. But something catches in his mind, David had said Sarah and Zach, but not… "Leo?"

"In surgery, still," he says, which makes sense given where they presently are. "They're not sure if she'll make it, either. It didn't sound good." David sighs, heavy and tired and looks to Frank, "Look, I know it wasn't fair of me to call you, to put this on you after everything you've had to deal with, but I couldn't-" he cuts himself off, searching for impossible words, "You're the only one who knows what this feels like and-"

"It's fine," Frank says, even though absolutely nothing about this is fine. David only just got his family back and now his wife is dead, his son is dead and his daughter might not make it either. "I'm here. Whatever you need, as long as you need me," he promises, "I'm here."

It's another three hours before anyone comes out to talk to David about Leo's condition. By then, the two of them have migrated to actual chairs, huddled in close together and anxiously awaiting word. They both jolt to their feet when they see the doctor approach.

"It looks like she's through the worst of it," the doctor tells them, rattling off the lengthy list of injuries she'd endured and all that had been done to fix them, how close things had been to going wrong. "It'll be a long road, but she should be okay."

Frank mumbles out a thank you while David collapses back into the chair, shaking with relief that he still has his daughter. That he didn't lose everyone.

"Someone will take you to her room as soon as she's settled in," the doctor promises before they take their leave.

An hour later, the two of them have claimed their places at Leo's bedside. Frank makes periodic runs for shitty cafeteria coffee or shitty cafeteria food. He helps David deal with arrangements for Sarah and Zach as much as he can as the day passes by.

It's late at night, the two of them just barely on the edges of sleep, David leaned heavily against his shoulder, when movement from the hospital bed draws Frank's attention. A gentle nudge to David's arm has him alert, too, and they both look over to see Leo blinking up at them, confused and scared.

"Dad?" the little girl croaks out, reaching for a hand to hold.

David's breath hitches as he surges forward and pulls his daughter into a careful hug, presses a kiss to her forehead. When he pulls away, still desperately clutching her hand in his, they're both teary eyed.

Frank considers leaving the room, letting the two of them grieve without him there as an outsider. But David reaches out to him before he can and Frank doesn't hesitate to catch his hand, holding tight for whatever comes next.

"Mom… and Zach… they didn't make it, did they?" Leo asks, but Frank would guess she already knows the answer. She cries out, harsh hiccoughing sobs that can't be good for her so soon after surgery, not with everything that needed fixing. But there's nothing they can say, nothing they can do, except be there for her.

Frank vows to be there for both of them, no matter that he refused to let anyone be there for him.

A year out and Frank's still there, still firmly entrenched in what's left of the Lieberman family, with no plans to leave. He'd promised to stay as long as David needed him to, but at some point needing him there had changed to wanting him there and Frank had obliged, had fallen into David's bed as well as every other aspect of his life.

So, he'd helped David and Leo move into a new house, this one not so quite so haunted by ghosts and memories, and he'd joined them there. He'd helped both of them battle nightmares and panic attacks, fought through his own to be there for them. He'd talked both of them into therapy, even promised to go too if it meant they would agree. There are bad days, for all of them, and better days.

And the loss is still there, always will be, the grief and the pain and the memories, but slowly, they start to move on. Slowly, the good days start to outnumber the bad and the three of them start to form their own little family, with their own habits, their own traditions, their own memories.

Together.