This chapter takes place two days after the last one.

I also wrote this chapter to a Phasmo stream, and because I was watching a Phasmo stream there is Phasmophobia in this chapter

CWs/TWs: PPD (post-partum depression), mentioned death, mentioned sh/suicide, panic attacks, meltdowns,

.•°*°•.

Lizzie refused to eat the morning after she and Joel got home from the hospital, and she refused to shower or change her clothes or even get out of bed.

"Liz, I know it's hard," Joel whispered, sitting next to her on their bed as she faced the opposite direction, "but we have so many other chances to have kids. Hell, we're twenty-two years old. We have at the very least ten years to try."

Lizzie sniffled. "What's the point?" she mumbled, and Joel frowned. "First, I lost my mother. Then I lost Father. I don't have any grandparents or aunts and uncles or cousins. Now I've lost my baby-" She cut herself off to sob. "Jimmy's hurting himself, which means he could take his own life whenever he wants to. Grian could die from cancer. You could overwork and exhaust yourself to death-" She cried again. "I'm going to lose everyone."

Joel sighed. "I know how that feels," he said quietly. "I watched as both of my parents died and I was left all alone to fend for myself. I, well obviously, never had a miscarriage, but..." He took a deep breath. "I know what it feels like to think I might lose everybody I love. But guess what? I still have you. And I still have Grian and Jimmy and Scar and Mumbo. I still have my family, and you still have us. Even if one day we do all disappear, we have each other now in this moment. Isn't that what matters?"

Lizzie turned to face him, tears pouring down her cheeks. "Joel..." She paused, then tossed herself at him, slamming him against the bed in a tight hug. "I love you so much," she wailed. "I love you, I love you, I love you-"

Joel smiled as she babbled on and on about how much she loved him, sobbing into his shoulder. I love you more, Lizzie, he thought. More than you could ever imagine.

.•°*°•.

Jimmy yawned as he walked down the stairs, half expecting to smell breakfast. He guessed a part of him still thought Daniel was alive. Or maybe hoped he was.

The kitchen was pretty empty since he'd gotten rid of the table and chairs so he could get new ones. He didn't like the idea of being stuck with memories of his father every time he sat down to eat. He did want to remember his dad, but he didn't want to cry all the time either.

He'd already sold most of the furniture since he wanted to completely renovate the house. He liked the homey feel of how it looked before but he wanted to have more of a blank slate for Scott to be creative and do what they wanted with the decorations. Jimmy wasn't the best at decorating anyway.

He grabbed a box of cereal from the cupboard and went into the living room, sitting on the sofa and turning on the TV. He was exhausted from watching over Scar and Grian the last couple of days (those two were basically giant toddlers if they weren't kept in check by Joel), and he needed some time to relax and recharge his battery. So he turned on Mean Girls. It was one of Scott's favourite movies and they'd been trying for forever to get him to watch it.

No better time than when he needed lazy entertainment.

.•°*°•.

Scott was wreck.

They didn't know why, but they could not get a grip on themselves long enough to just breathe normally. He was having panic attack after panic attack after panic attack, and it was terrifying. They were exhausted and shaking and they could hardly breathe as they sat huddled in the corner of their bedroom, squeezing a pillow tightly in attempt to ground himself but it wasn't exactly working.

He had no idea why this was happening to him and he wanted it to stop. He didn't think he could physically take another panic attack.

Scott tried eliminating possible causes of the panic attacks by sitting down and putting in his noise-canceling earbuds, but nothing seemed to help and everything Dr. Pix taught him only made things worse.

They sobbed as another wave of panic washed over them and they began to shake again, squeezing their eyes shut and tightening their grip on the pillow again. Their breathing seemed to start and stop at random, hardly allowing them the oxygen they needed. Every muscle in their body ached from being so tense and they thought they might pass out afterward.

"Scott, honey, are you alright?"

Hearing Amanda's voice immediately brought Scott out of it, and he could finally just breathe.

"Can you unlock the door, please, sweetie?" Amanda asked softly. "I just want to make sure you're okay. I've been hearing you crying for quite a while now."

As Scott gradually slowed his breathing down, he found himself too exhausted to move at all. "Can't," he said hoarsely, then started to cry again. "I can't, I'm sorry-"

"That's okay," Amanda said. "I just want to know that you're alright." She paused. "Are you alright?"

"No," Scott sobbed, flopping over to lean completely against the wall. "I'm not okay, I'm not-" They hiccuped and continued to cry quietly.

"I'm going to go get the emergency key, okay? I'll be back in just a minute," she said, making them relax a little bit more. She was back in what felt like two seconds, and she immediately rushed to their side, ready to comfort them or leave them alone if need be. "Hey, honey," she said softly, sitting next to him. "What's going on?"

Scott hiccuped. "Can't-" He took a shaky breath. "Can't move, t-too sore... Tired..."

"You're sore and tired?" Amanda echoed, and Scott hummed confirmation. "Why? Did you have a panic attack?"

"Like, seven."

Amanda looked taken aback. "Seven? In a row?"

Scott buried his face in the pillow and began to cry harder. "Hurts so much- W-want to s-sleep-"

"Okay." Amanda rubbed their arm, which helped them relax more. "Come on, I'll help you onto your bed so you can take a nap." She stood up and gently pulled then up to their feet, catching them when they stumbled. "Careful, careful." She helped him wobble over to his bed and giggled when he went limp on it as soon as they reached it. "Come on, we've gotta get you under the covers so you're nice and cozy. There we go..." She leaned over and kissed their forehead. "Better?"

Scott nodded. "Better."

"Do you want me to stay with you?"

"Please."

Amanda smiled gently and pulled up a chair. "Right, I'll be just next to you if you need me," she said. "Just relax and go to sleep. I won't let anything hurt you."

Scott smiled a bit as his eyes slipped closed. He tried to thank her and tell her 'I love you', but sleepiness had other ideas when he could barely make a coherent sound as he peacefully drifted off to sleep.

.•°*°•.
[To avoid confusion, in this scene Skizz, Impulse, Scar, and Grian are playing Phasmophobia and are in separate places so they're using the in-game voice chat]

Grian shrieked as he watched a plate fly by him on the screen, jumping back from his computer. "I hate this game!" he squealed, making Scar, Skizz, and Impulse laugh. "Horror games suck."

"It's not that bad," Impulse said, which Grian ignored. The brunette sighed after a few moments of silence and refocused on his game, his character walking away from Grian's.

"Come on, Grian, you can go watch the camera in the truck," Skizz said, his avatar coming up to Grian, and the latter was quickly hopping back onto his laptop. "You could also watch our sanity and let us know when there's a hunt."

"Oh, that's a good i-" Grian stopped when the door slammed in front of him just before he exited the house. "Oh god."

Scar gasped. "You guys I saw the ghost!" he said over the radio despite being in the same room. "It's in the li-" He was cut off as Grian watched his character twist into several impossible positions before falling.

"Welp, Scar's dead," Skizz said with a laugh, then moved past Grian to open the door. "Man, that was a quick hunt. Come on, G."

Grian followed Skizz out of the house and into the van, snickering when he saw the EMF go all the way to ten, followed by Impulse shouting into the radio and getting cut off halfway through.

Skizz laughed and turned to Grian. "I think there's another hunt," he whispered, making Grian giggle.

"I think so, too," Grian whispered back, and the two of them laughed. He looked at the sanity monitor and grimaced. "Should we take the sanity pills?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah, yeah," Skizz said. "Yeah, pill up. Then I'll go back in for the spirit box."

Grian gasped. "Wait, I didn't mark my evidence," he whined. "What did we get again?"

Skizz hummed. "We got freezing temps," he began, "and ghost orbs, which could be fake if it's a Mimic. We should check for fingerprints as well as the spirit box just to see. It be Hantu, Onryo, or Mimic."

Grian blinked, hardly able to absorb any of that information. "Right..."

"I'm going back in, pray for me."

Grian snickered. "Okay? Good luck."

Skizz did, in fact, die and Grian gave up.

"Ugh, I have to go study for finals," Scar groaned, his character throwing its head back. "Sorry, guys."

"Aww, bye, Scar," Skizz and Impulse said in unison, the two of them giggling.

"Bye, Scar," Grian said tiredly, and Scar let out a single syllable before cutting himself off. "Hm?"

"Bye," Scar said quickly, then left the lobby.

"I'm confused," Grian said, and Skizz snickered.

"I think he found the way you said that really hot," he said.

Grian blushed. "All I did was say bye," he said.

"Yeah, but your voice was all low and stuff," Impulse said, and Grian sighed. "Or... maybe not." He paused. "G, can you hop on Discord? I need to talk to you."

Grian furrowed his brows and shrugged. "Sure, whatever."

"That's probably my cue to leave," Skizz said with a nervous chuckle. "See ya'." His character disappeared as he also left the lobby, and Impulse and Grian followed.

Grian felt nervous as he opened Discord, Impulse calling him as soon as the app loaded. He took a deep breath before answering.

"Why are you being a dick to me?" Impulse asked immediately, making Grian confused.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been ignoring me this entire time," Impulse continued. "And you've been sighing and huffing whenever I make a suggestion. It's kind of rude."

Grian felt awkward. "Okay."

Impulse scoffed. "'Okay?'" he echoed. "Is that all you have to say? 'Okay?'"

"I don't know what else you want me to say," Grian murmured, leaning back in his seat.

"Maybe I want an apology," Impulse huffed. "I'm pretty sure when we made up you said you'd stop being rude to me like that."

"I'm not trying to be rude."

"But you are, though."

There was a moment of silence, Grian chewing on his lip as Impulse broke the quietness with a sigh.

"Listen," he said, "I just want to know why you're acting like this, because if you're still mad about me leaving-"

"You left me all by myself with people who wanted me dead," Grian blurted. "Mum took every chance she could to hurt me and make my life Hell. Dad left because I was a mistake. You leaving was the worst decision you've ever made and I hate you for it."

Impulse was quiet for a moment. "I know, and I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I never meant to make things worse for you."

"But you did make it worse."

There was silence again.

"Why can't you forgive me?"

Grian wanted to cry. He felt so guilty for still being mad after so many years, but everything would've been different if he never left. The amount of times he was close to death was absurd and it could've been prevented by Impulse being there to protect him.

"Grian, you there?"

"I don't know why I can't," Grian said. "I want to, but you hurt me."

Impulse sighed. "Maybe we shouldn't talk to each other anymore-"

"No! No, no, no, I-" Grian paused. "I can forgive you. I can, just give me a bit."

"I gave you three years," Impulse said. "I don't think you can forgive me."

Grian sniffled. "I want to, though. You're my brother. I love you."

As a third moment of silence filled the call, Grian thought about it. If he really wanted to forgive him and he genuinely cared about and loved him... hadn't he already forgiven him? He just never let himself forget.

Impulse sighed again, breaking the silence. "I have to go, Zed is calling me," he murmured. "We can talk later."

"Wait, Impulse, I-" Grian blinked when Impulse left the call. "-forgive you..."