Warwick looked at his brother. Dev had carried the responsibility of raising his siblings for years. He’d been the best big brother a child could have. Now that responsibility included his children and all those who carried his blood.
“We will protect her, brother, as you have us. She will be safe always,” he vowed.
“It is a great burden she bears, just as Lilly does,” Dorrie said. “As we all do.”
“Aye,” he and Dev said.
“Lilly is well? She told me she was, but I’m not sure she was truthful with me,” Warwick said.
“She is back to full health.”
The silence settled over them again.
“You could have done nothing to stop me being shot, Dev.”
“I should have tried.”
“How?”
“You are my little brother. I have been responsible for you since you were six.”
“You are not God, brother. Even you could not have known what would happen in the Duck and Goose.”
“Dev, you cannot take the responsibility for this, just as you could not take it for what happened to me,” Dorrie said.
“I hate that any of you suffered,” Dev whispered.
“The suffering is brief, brother,” Warwick said. “But the happiness you have given us, and the life we now live full of love carries on. We could not have had a better person raise us. You were our father, our brother, and the man we could look up to. There is no need for guilt. I am here, just as Dorrie is.”
“We three have died or nearly died,” Dorrie said softly. “We owe Lilly and now Hannah so much. All our family,” she added, “saved us. But it has always been you, Dev, who was there for us from the start.”
Dev’s arms wrapped around them, hugging them close briefly.
“I love you.”
“As we love you,” Dorrie said.
“Merry, do not put that worm in Luke’s hair!” Dev roared.
“D-do you feel strange, Warwick?” Dorrie asked him.
She wasn’t looking at him but her hands, which were pulling out grass.
“As if a heavy weight has settled inside you, when in fact you should be happy you are alive.” Her voice was solemn.
“You never told me you felt like that,” Dev said to his little sister.
“Contrary to what you believe, we do not share everything with you, Dev. We know how much you carry inside you for all of us, and we like to alleviate your worry where we can.”
“I can handle it,” he grunted.
“Did you experience it, Dev?” Warwick asked him.
“It took me a while to feel normal again, but I had Lilly to worry about as she did not recover as quickly then, due to the fact she did not have the strength from all of us to help her heal me when she brought me back from the dead.”
“I talked to Ash about it once, and he told me to come and see you this morning, Warwick, in case you too were suffering in any way,” Dorrie said.
“Yes, I feel it.” But knowing his sister had too, and Dev in some part, relieved him. “It’s like a large weight has settled on my shoulders and inside me, and I’m not sure how to lift it.”
