“Maddy...Oh Maddy...” Her sister came forward and clung to her, and they both sobbed their hearts out. “I thought it would be best to wait, until you got here,” Carly choked. “He's gone Maddy… Dad died… two hours ago.”
They held each other up. She didn't know how, but they managed to get inside and seated in the living room. She vaguely heard Aden introducing himself to Jackie in the background. Her manners had slid away for a moment, understandably.
Danny gave her a toy train of his to hold and she looked at it blindly through a veil of tears. They were all alone now. Apart from their two remaining grandparents who were in ill health and lived in Australia. Aden sat at her side, took her hand, and gave it a comforting squeeze. She sank against him and buried her head in his broad chest as her sobs came again. He hugged her close, stroking her head. No one should have to lose their parents like this. It wasn't fair, she thought. God had a lot of explaining to do, to her mind.
“Can't I go and see them?” she croaked, her voice breaking.
“No, not until the undertaker has prepared them,” Carly explained.
They sat drinking coffee, trying to calm down and comfort each other over the next few hours. Finally Aden spoke up.
“Show me around outside, hmmm? It'll take your mind off things for a little while. Won't it?” He stood, picked up her hand and pulled her up. She took a long shaky breath.
“Okay. Just for a few minutes. I need some air anyway.” She left the room, and the small crowd of grieving people filling it, for a short respite. As soon as they were out of the back door, he wasted no time.
“We need to find you somewhere safe. For full moon. How secure is the garage?”
“Not very. It's got a glass door connecting it to the entryway and I don't think the metal front door's gonna hold back a raging werewolf, to be honest.”
“Anywhere else that might do?”
“Not that I know of.”
“We could search around here and find somewhere, but the best choice is to come back to Heart. Just for a few days. There's not much you can do here for a while, is there? It'll be over a week until the funerals Maddy. They take a while to arrange.”
“But I need to help arrange them, don't I?” she asked, tearing up again and choking it back.
“Offer to do what you can tomorrow. Then don't come back until after full moon and carry on then. You can do things on the phone from there just as well. Anything you need to come back here for, I'll bring you myself. It's three hours, that's all. We'll get through this first full moon and then things will be simpler, won't they?”
“Okay. I suppose it makes sense. Let's have a walk, shall we? I feel better now that I'm outside. It was really heavy going in there.” She took his hand and led him down the little paddock through the long grass.
At Jackie and Carly's insistence, they left that evening. There was nothing she could do, they said. Her mother's and father's autopsies were due in the next two days, and until then the bodies couldn't be released to the undertaker. Jackie had lost her husband a year ago, and she assured them that her parents wouldn't be buried for at least seven or perhaps as long as ten days from now. Carly and her boyfriend offered to deal with undertaker, as Carly was the senior daughter and it was right she should take on that responsibility. Maddy offered to arrange their floral attributes, the after funeral reception at their home, and to make the phone calls to their friends and other relations.
Fully prepared for their tasks, they left her parents' home late that day and all returned, broken hearted and completely overwhelmed and tearful, to their lives.
As they left Calgary behind for a week, and headed down the Trans Canada Highway, she felt so grateful to him for being there with her.
“Thanks for coming with me. I don't know how I'd have coped without you,” she said quietly, looking at his weary face, and spilling over with love for him. His hair was a mess and he looked like he hadn't shaved for days. Male werewolf facial hair seemed to grow very fast. He was extremely sexy when scruffy, not that she should be thinking things like that just now, but she desperately needed a diversion from her dark miserable thoughts.
“You don't need to thank me Maddy. I wanted to do it. We're together? Aren't we?”
“How together are we exactly?” she asked without really thinking.
“Now's not the time for discussing things like that. You've got a head full of grief to deal with.”
“Aden, I need to know where I stand with you,” she pushed.
He put on turn signal blinker and pulled over, into a diner parking lot, and turned off the engine.
“I need some food, so let's go and have something to eat and discuss it there, shall we? I can't think on an empty stomach and I haven't eaten since breakfast.”