~~
Reece
~~
The four of us made our way down together with slow, sad steps. It was like we all were so listless and lifeless. By the time that we all got to the doors to join our family in the royal tower's dining room, I literally felt like we were all walking to a funeral rather than a meal. That wasn't the mood we needed to enter the room with.
"Hey guys, look at me for a moment." I crouched down and called out to them and had them turn to face me. I could see that they were close to tears, but they weren't fully crying. "I know we're all sad and miss Mommy. We want her to wake up soon, but we have to be patient. However, I think Mommy would like it if we were all just a little more upbeat. She wouldn't want to see us so sad right now. We need to stay strong so that we can make sure everyone else is strong. That is what Mommy would want from us. So come on, let's put some smiles on those faces and do our best. For Mommy's sake, right."
I didn't know how they would react to what I said, but thankfully, they were all three smiling with light grins when they looked back at me right now.
"Do you guys think you can manage that? For me and for Mommy?" They were all nodding and giving me looks filled with a little more confidence than they had before. "OK, good. Now let's go have a nice dinner with our family and then you can play with your cousins afterwards."
I stood then and opened the door to the dining room. Everyone was already seated around the table and waiting for us.
"Sorry for keeping you all waiting. We had some things that we needed to discuss." I smiled at them as I started to move around the room. I had all of my Little Bunny's family here as well as my mom who was here with her new husband, Little Bunny's grandfather.
I could see that everyone was waiting for the explanation, the reason why they were all here. Their eyes were curious and their faces were tense.
"Reece, where is Trinity? Why isn't she here yet?" Eve asked as I went to sit down after greeting them all.
"She isn't coming to dinner today. Let's just eat and we will talk about things afterwards. I am sure that the kids are eager to play together when we're done with the meal."
I knew that they understood the subtle little things that I was saying. Trinity isn't coming and now isn't the time to talk about it. Let's eat and talk in private later. That didn't make any of them feel any better at all. Actually, they all looked more tense, but none of them said a word.
We all enjoyed the meal as best as we could. There was some talk about how the kids had been and new developments in their lives, but aside from that, nothing was mentioned about Trinity. That was good, I was glad that they all followed along so easily.
After the final dish was cleared away, Reagan, Rika, and Talia stood instantly and started to call the kids to their respective rooms. The large group of children left the dining room as they followed after them. Now it was time for me to get to work.
"Come on everyone, let us go to a sitting room and talk things over." They didn't say anything at that moment. They all just stood and followed me into the other room where we could sit and relax. However, the moment that they were seated, the first question was thrown at me.
"Reece, where is my sister?" Carter asked me with a little bit of anger in his voice.
"Where is Trinity? Come on Reece's Pieces, I want to see my best friend."
"How come Trinity didn't come to dinner?" Eve asked next.
"Reece, what is going on here?" Wesley sounded concerned.
"Tell us Reece, where is my granddaughter?" Samuel looked as stern as ever.
"Son, what is going on?" Mom was next.
"Yeah, I agree. I want to know where my Astro is." Paul piped up.
"Give him time to breathe and time to answer." Cedar came to my aid a little. "We all want to know but you're not giving him the time to answer.
"Cedar is right, you guys. Reece needs time to answer all of our questions." Acacia added for her husband.
"Thank you." I nodded at Cedar and Acacia to show them my thanks.
"Oh, it's not just for your benefit." Cedar gave me a stern look. "I just want to speed this up so I can find out what happened to Trinity."
"Yeah, and if we find out that you did something to her, we will make you pay." Carter was so protective of Trinity. He always had been.
"Calm down." Noah snapped at him. "He didn't do anything."
"You know what happened and didn't tell us?!" That seemed to make Carter even angrier.
"How could you keep this to yourself?" Wesley sounded hurt.
"I asked him to. We needed to figure some things out. So, if you would all give me some of your time, I will explain it all now."
They didn't say anything but all of them settled into their chairs and turned to look at me. They were ready for the explanation.
I gave it to them. I made sure to tell them everything from the moment that I got the call about her being found in the hall and up until today when I had seen her last. She was still laying there, as still as could be. She was pale and not moving. It was like she was asleep, since I could still hear her heart beating and see her breathing.
I had also had Griffin hook her up to the equipment that monitored her condition. She was given a feeding tube to make sure that she was still getting nourishment and the triplets could grow and thrive.
"How could this be?" Eve was the first to ask in a low wail as she held her face in her hands.
"What happened to her?" Carter looked like he was close to tears.
The others added their questions too. Almost all at once.
"What happened to my best friend?"
"Wake her up already. Kiss her like it's a fairy tale."
"This is impossible."
The outbursts went on for a while. They were upset and I knew that they would. I had to try my best to explain things to them while I told them what I was doing to wake her up and fix this situation.
They all went from anger to sadness, back to anger, and finally settling on heartbreak. Some of them were in a state of denial that Noah and I had to work hard to break through. It was a tough night, but I finally managed to make it through and have them all understand what had happened.. Finally, they knew and I didn't have to feel like I was doing something wrong by keeping it from them.
