I'll Be There For You.

When I woke up in the morning, I opened my eyes to find Meghan staring at me with frightened eyes. As soon as she saw that I was awake, she shut her eyes and didn’t move.
“Morning Meghan.” I said, but she didn’t budge. I lightly poked her side and she jumped, but did nothing else. I tickled her side and watched as a small smile crossed her face.
“I know you’re awake.” I told her with a grin and she slowly opened her eyes.
“I like yours and Jimmy’s fort.”
“All gone.” She replied and I nodded.
“It fell down.” I told her.
“Immy funny.” Meghan said with a grin.
“He is.”
“Immy home?” She asked.
“Yes, he probably went home, let’s go and see if anyone stayed though.” I replied sitting up.
We walked downstairs and found Zack asleep on the couch, his mouth hanging open.
“Okay,” I whispered. “When I say three we’re going to scream Zacky.” Meghan grinned at me and nodded.
“One, two, three-ZACKY!” We yelled.
“What the fuck?” He yelled falling off the couch, scaring Meghan. She started to cry and I picked her up.
“Look,” I told her softly. “He’s alright, we just surprised him.” I poked Zack in the stomach with my foot. Meghan wiped her eyes as I set her down. Zacky grinned at her.
“Were you trying to wake me up?” He asked her and she nodded. “You scared me.” She nodded again with a smile.
“Oh, you think it was funny?”
“Uh huh, you fall.” Meghan told him with a giggle. Zacky reached out and pulled her to him. She squealed as he began to tickle her and I shook my head, grinning at them.
“Meghan, can you stay here with Zack while I go have a shower?” I asked. She looked up at me, then at Zacky and back at me. Slowly she nodded and Zack grinned.
“Let’s go and get you changed first.” I told her.
When she was dressed, I brought her back downstairs.
“I won’t be too long.” I said to Zack and he nodded.
“You stay where Zacky can see alright?” I told Meghan and left them alone.

After I had showered, I made my way into the bedroom and got dressed in a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt. I threw my towel in the laundry basket and began picking up the blankets that Jimmy and Meghan had used for their fort. I was just about finished when Zack burst into my room, looking panicked.
“Man, where’s Meghan?” I asked frowning.
“She ran on me!” Not again, I thought groaning.
“What did you do?”
“I was smoking and Meghan started going towards the woods, so I told her to come back and she just bolted.” He explained.
“Let’s go and find her then.” I replied and followed Zacky downstairs and outside.

I found Meghan after about twenty minutes of looking, in the corner of the garage. She was curled up in a ball sleeping, with tear tracks down her face and a runny nose. I knelt down in front of her and placed my hand on her arm.
“Hey sweetie, wake up.” I said gently, not wanting to startle her. She slowly opened her eyes and I saw fear flash across her face.
“Sowwy.” Meghan stammered.
“You wanna tell me what happened?” I asked wiping the tears from her cheeks.
“Burn.”
“What do you mean?” I asked with a slight frown.
“Acky burn.” She replied.
“I don’t understand what you mean honey.”
“Acky burn me.” Meghan said quietly trying to string her words together. My frown deepened.
“Zacky tried to burn you?” I questioned in disbelief. She shook her head. “Then what?”
“I bad, Acky say come here. Burn me.” She explained her body shaking. “I’m sowwy.” I thought for a moment before it clicked.
“Oh baby, Zacky wasn’t going to burn you. Honey he would never hurt you.” I told her gently, picking her up as I stood.
“Hide.”
“You didn’t have to hide sweetheart, when you're scared you can come to me honey.” I said walked from the garage into the house.
“Thank god you found her!” Zacky exclaimed as I walked into the living room.
“She was in the garage.” I explained setting Meghan down.
“Why’d you run baby?” Zacky asked kneeling in front of her.
“You scare me.” She told him.
“I’m sorry that I scared you.” He replied and gave her a hug.

“Meghan,” I told her that night while I was tucking her into bed. “You have to go back to stay with Caroline tomorrow.”
“No,” She replied shaking her head. “Stay.”
“I want you to stay too honey, but you have to go back.”
“Why?” Meghan asked, her bottom lip starting to tremble and her eyes tear over.
“Do you remember when I came to pick you up, we said that you were coming to stay with me just for the weekend.” I explained running my hand down the side of her face.
“No, stay w-with you.” She stammered, beginning to cry. I pulled her on to my knee and wrapped me arms around her.
“I wish you could stay with me too baby. It’ll be alright; I'll come and see you.” I reassured as she continued to cry into my chest.
I rocked her side to side as I tried to soothe her, running my hand up and down her back. It killed me to see her like this, so confused and upset. I wished more than anything that Meghan could be mine that tomorrow was just another day, not the day she had to leave. I held her until she was sound asleep; reluctantly I placed her gently on her bed and pulled the blankets up. I leaned down kissing her forehead, then stood and left the room shutting the light off. I walked into my room and grabbed the phone.
“Hello,” Jimmy said answering the third ring.
“Hey man.” I replied quietly.
“What’s the matter dude?” He asked sounding concerned.
“What the hell am I going to do?” I sighed rubbing the back of my neck.
“About what?”
“Meghan,” I replied. “She has to leave tomorrow, I just told her and she had a meltdown.”
“Shit man, poor kid probably doesn’t even realize what’s going on.”
“She doesn’t, she was so confused as to why she couldn’t stay. What the hell am I going to do?”
“Everything will turn out just fine.” Jimmy said.
“And what if it doesn’t? What if they think it’s not suitable for her to be here?”
“Man, they’ll take one look at her and see how much she loves you and they won’t deny you anything.” He replied and a small smile spread across my face.
“Thanks Jim, you wanna come see her before she leaves tomorrow?” I asked.
“Of course, I'll be there around twelve-thirty.”
“I'll see you then, I should let you go.” I replied.
“Don’t worry too much Matt, I’ll see you.”
“Thanks.” I said and hung up.
I sighed and set the phone down just as the doorbell rang. Shit, I thought running down the stairs. That better not wake up Meghan. I got to the door and swung it open. I frowned when I saw Brian on the other side.
“What do you want now, I'm not in the mood for your bullshit tonight.” I grumbled.
“Look I’m sorry, alright?” He replied.
“Come in then.” I said and shut the door behind him as he stepped in.
“No offence, but you look like shit.” He told me. “Where’s the kid?”
“Thanks,” I replied sarcastically. “And Megan is sleeping.” I walked into the living room followed by Brian and sat down on the couch with a sigh.
“So, what do you want?” I asked running a hand through my short hair.
“Just wanted to come and see you and apologize for being a major asshole.” He replied.
“You were an asshole.” I replied nonchalantly.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. I don’t know what my problem was.”
“What made you change your mind?” I asked.
“The other night, I saw how much you and the guys cared for the little girl and it got me thinking that it wouldn’t be so bad to be an uncle.” Brian answered and I nodded.
“She leaves tomorrow.” I told him.
“She does, why?” He replied looking surprised.
“Because she was only here for the weekend, it was basically a trail run.” I explained.
“She’s going to come back though, right?” I shrugged.
“It depends, hopefully.”
“Shit dude, no wonder you look so down.” He said.
“Yeah,” I shrugged. “Well what can you do? Would you like to meet her tomorrow?”
“That would be sweet.” Brian replied just as Meghan began crying from upstairs.
“I’ll be right back.” I sighed as I stood and left the room.
Meghan was sitting up in her bed, crying as I walked in. She looked up startled and held her hands out for me to take her. I moved to her side and lifted her up. She wrapped her arms around my neck and laid her head on my shoulder.
“What’s the matter Meg?” I asked rubbing her back.
“Me no go, stay with you.” She sobbed into my shirt.
Sighing I walked from her room and downstairs to the living room. Brian gave me a worried glance as I sat down on the couch with Meghan in my arms.
“Honey, this is Brian.” I told her softly, she quickly glanced at him and began shaking her head.
“No, no, no, me stay!” She sobbed. “He no take me.”
“Meghan, honey he’s not here to take you, this is my friend Brian.” I explained trying to calm her down.
“Hi Meghan.” Brian said gently smiling at her; she hid her face in my neck and continued to cry.
“Shit man,” He said quietly. “Maybe I should go.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I replied nodding as we both stood. Meghan’s arms wrapped tighter around my neck.
“Alright, hope you have a good night.” Brian said as he left the house. I shut the door behind him and locked it.
I walked upstairs to my room and laid down on the bed with Meghan still holding on to me.
Please let everything turn out right.