An authors note...I was hoping to post this sooner, but just couldn't find the time to finish it. Better late than never, I suppose. This one is a bit heavy on the emotion, but was something I had planned on writing from the beginning. This story and this family are both very precious to me, as I hope they are to you. Thank you all for your continued support(especially you, Megan;) Enjoy!

Let It Be

Winter slowly thawed into spring, though early spring in western Ohio was usually unpredictable at best. For example, the high temperature for the day was being predicted at close to seventy degrees, while the day before it struggled to reach fifty, and still fell short.

The boys were on their second day of spring break and already they were at each others throats. Or more precisely, Andy was at Artie's.

Luckily for Alicia, Art had taken the day off. The family planned a trip to the zoo and invited Alicia's sisters to meet them there with their kids. It was going to be like a mini family reunion, even if the families did already see each other most every weekend.

Artie was in charge of keeping Abbey occupied while his parents packed things up. The two were currently playing a game of peek-a-boo in the living room.

Mimicking her brother's actions, Abbey lifted her chubby little hands to her eyes, then quickly pulled them away. "Boo," they said in unison, Abbey dissolving into a fit of giggles each time. The toddler now had a vocabulary of over twenty words and it was growing everyday, though some words were used synonymously...like "boo" for instance, was used for that particular scare tactic and also the color blue. Artie was secretly amused that Abbey somehow always left the "d" off of Andy's name, which ended up sounding like "Annie", but had no problem enunciating the sound when it came to calling him "Ah-da" or Art, "Dada".

"You wanna play again, Abbey?" Artie asked when he noticed the baby's attention waning.

"Mama," she replied in askance.

"Mommy's in the kitchen getting ready," he returned, pushing over to the bin of toys across the room. "Should we read a book?" When he didn't receive an answer, Artie quickly glanced over both shoulders before calling out, "Mom? I think Abbey's coming in there to find you."

As he moved to turn his chair, Artie felt the slight resistance before hearing the pained cry behind him. It was then he realized his baby sister had never left the room.

"Oh my gosh, Abbey. I'm so sorry I knocked you down...," the apology was out of his mouth before he was even able to twist around to properly survey the damage. He was not prepared for what he found when he peered to his left. Abbey was on her knees behind his chair, her tiny hand somehow caught between the spokes of his wheel.

Trying not to panic, Artie began to move his chair forward thinking that would release Abbey's hand from the spokes since he'd been reversing when she got caught in the first place. Unfortunately, that only succeeded in throwing her off balance and wedging her hand even further.

"What's going on?" Andy asked, running down after hearing the muffled cries from his bedroom upstairs.

"Abbey's hand's stuck in my chair. Go get Mom," Artie managed to order, though he was quickly loosing his calm, "she's in the kitchen making sandwiches."

Viewing the scene in front of him, the boy listened to his brother and took off for the kitchen; only to return seconds later, alone. "She's not there," Andy gasped breathlessly.

Feeling his heart beating in his throat, Artie swallowed thickly. "Maybe she's in the garage helping Dad pack the van," was all he was able to get out before the tears began to flow. "Go Andy, hurry!"

Artie knew it wouldn't take much, simply move the chair in the proper direction and Abbey would be free. But he couldn't do that without transferring out of his chair, and he couldn't safely do that without setting his brake, and his brake was dangerously close to precious little baby fingers. So all Artie was forced to do was sit there and wait for help to come...and listen as his sobs mixed with his sister's.

"Mom, Dad come quick," Andy shouted as he threw open the garage door. "Abbey's hand is stuck in Artie's chair."

"What?" Alicia asked, staring at her son in disbelief.

"Abbey's hand got stuck in Artie's wheel."

"Andrew Thomas, this better not be another one of your April fools jokes."

"It's not, I swear," he assured his mother as he motioned both of his parents to follow.

As soon as she stepped inside, Alicia could hear the crying and knew instantly that this was no joking matter. Within seconds, she was by her children's side.

"Mom I'm so sorry, I didn't mean too," Artie immediately began to apologize through his sobs. "I didn't know she was behind me. I thought she was in the kitchen with you. I tried to move, but when I went forward she got even more tangled, and I..."

"Artie, Sweetheart...it's okay. It was just an accident," Alicia tried to soothe, even though her own emotions were quickly building from seeing her two children in such distress.

Art got there a second after his wife, and just as Artie suspected, Abbey was immediately freed.

"See, that's all," Alicia cooed as she lightly bounced and swayed her baby girl.

"Is she okay?" Artie asked urgently.

"She's fine, see?" Alicia assured him, forcing a smile for not just Artie's benefit. "Already starting to calm down." And Abbey was, her sobs dissipating into tiny little sniffles.

Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Artie's. "I didn't mean to hurt her, Mom," he cried even harder.

"Oh Honey, I know that," she began, but was cut short with Art's return from the kitchen.

Armed with a pacifier and a child friendly ice pack, he gently placed the latter on Abbey's grossly swollen and purpling hand. "We should probably go get this checked out," he whispered into his wife's ear. In all the excitement of getting her free and calmed, Alicia completely forgot to so much as look at her daughter's hand.

"I think so too," Alicia replied softly. She mentally added the angry red line running across both sides of the hand from the pressure of being caught between the spokes to the list of injuries, and turned to leave. "I'll take her," she offered a beat later, "You stay here with the boys."

"Where are you taking her?" Artie cried out of concern.

"Just to the doctor, Sweetie," was Alicia's placating reply.

"The emergency room?" he guessed by reading the concern on both his parents faces. "Do you think it's broken?"

Alicia almost couldn't handle the grief emanating from her son, and her eyes filled with tears. She knelt beside him, her hand covering the twisted fists clenched in his lap. "I don't know, Sweetheart," and as soon as the words left her mouth, his wracking sobs returned. "Babies bones are still pretty soft at this age, and she's moving her fingers just fine," Alicia pointed out, to no avail. "But even if Abbey's hand is broken, they'll be able to fix it no problem, and she'll never even remember it happened."

"But I will," Artie shot back angrily. "And I'll always be the reason she got hurt."

...

It took some convincing, but Art finally got Alicia to leave with Abbey after Artie's storm out. He let his son stew for as long as he could, before calling the boys to lunch; and while Artie refused to eat, citing he wasn't hungry, at least Art finally got him to leave the confines of his locked office.

Art found his oldest son lying on the couch, staring blankly at the tv, about an hour later. "Mom just called," he began as crossed into the room, "Abbey's hand is fine, no broken bones, just some bruising and swelling." His chest clenched as he watched Artie's chin tremble and his blank expression turn to that which was a mixture of guilt and relief. Art was very familiar with that particular emotion.

"They're on their way home," he continued, pausing only to right the wheelchair that seemed to be a little too forcefully pushed aside following the transfer. "Abbey got a taste of her first Popsicle today. They gave her one after they took the x-rays. Seems she likes cherry, just like her big brother."

Artie tried to stop the tears from falling, but just couldn't.

Art sat down on the edge of the couch next to Artie's hip. "Everything's okay now, Ace," he stated, a comforting hand brushing through his son's hair. "Abbey's going to be just fine."

"I know," Artie replied, sniffling. "I just...I never meant to hurt her, Dad."

"I know that," Art returned reassuringly. "This wasn't your fault." He was hoping for a different reaction than what he got; a grief stricken frown. "You said yourself it was an accident..."

"It was," Artie defended.

"And don't you hate it when people blame themselves for something they had no control over?"

The boy was just about to argue that he should have had control over the situation since it was his chair that hurt Abbey, when he realized the reference his father was actually trying to make, and could do nothing but nod solemnly. "Now you need to work on getting past this."

Artie looked down, defeated. "But what if Mom is so mad at me that she never lets me watch Abbey again?"

"Your Mom is not mad at you, Kiddo."

"No she's not," Alicia reiterated from the doorway.

Artie felt his eyes well up again. "But what if she's scared of me now...or my stupid chair?"

At the sound of her brother's voice, Abbey's head popped up from where it rested on her mother's shoulder and she squealed in delight. "I don't think you have to worry about that at all," Alicia couldn't help but chuckle. Fearing the drowsy baby might launch herself from her arms, Alicia quickly stepped over to the couch, where she took the spot that Art had just vacated.

Abbey crawled on top of her brother and quickly nestled into his side, letting out a giggled sigh of contentment as she laid down on top of his chest. Artie protectively wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so sorry, Abbey," he whispered into her blond curls, "I didn't mean to hurt you."

Alicia's fragile heart was breaking into a million pieces for her little boy, all over again. She knew what it was like to live with that sort of guilt, and while she was slowly learning to make peace with it, she didn't want this for her son. "We saw a specialist and he said she's going to be just fine, no lasting damage, just a little sore and bruised for a while," she explained after first sniffling back her emotions and clearing her throat.

Artie nodded as he unconsciously continued to rub comforting circles into Abbey's back; a mannerism Alicia recognized as one of her own. She smiled.

"Now that she's so mobile, and more than a little curious...if not slightly sneaky," Alicia paused when that elicited a small chuckle from Artie, and her grin intensified, "we're just going to have to watch her a little more closely to ensure something like this doesn't happen again."

Artie nodded solemnly again as he pressed his lips to the top of his sister's head and whispered, "I promise I'll do my best to never let anything hurt you ever again. I love you Abbey."

There was no other response from the now dozing baby besides a tiny bruised fist tightly clenching around the section of her brother's t-shirt...right over his heart.