'Babee' Brian

A Way

LeAnn looked at her parents fight outside. They always fought outside because they didn’t want her to hear, but what they didn’t know was that she could hear them clearly threw the double glazed French doors. Being a four year old was hard enough but watching your parents fight nearly every day was harder.

She was so used to the fights, she could tell what was coming next. When the climax of the fight ended her daddy would try to say sorry and make it all better, her mommy would then hit him on the face and storm up to her room not acknowledged her daughters presence. Her daddy on the other hand would walk inside and pick her up, telling her that everything was going to be okay that mommy was just sad.

And tonight was no different then any other night for little LeAnn Marie Way.

“It’s okay baby girl, mommy is just a little sad. But everything is gonna be okay, I promise. No more fights for mommy and daddy, ever okay?” He always promised her the same thing every night. LeAnn always believed him until they started fighting the next day.

“Whys is mommy sad?” This was new to Gerard, his daughter never asked anything after he had a fight with his wife.

“Because daddy got a little angry, but everything is okay.” Because the young Way was exposed to her parents fighting non stop for nearly two years, she had understood a lot more than any other four year old should. She wondered should she believe her daddy any more. “How about we go to uncle Mikey’s tomorrow, huh? Would you like that?”

She nodded and said no more to her father that night until he tucked her into bed. Where she slept until that awful nightmare disrupted her dreams of happiness and love. She started to cry when she awoke, she knew better than to disturb her parents, they would only tell her to go back to sleep anyway.

Instead LeAnn grabbed her teddy that she cried into most nights before exiting her room to look into her parents. She opened her parents room door, teddy clutched under her arm, and quietly made her way to the bed to see if her mommy and daddy were still there. She smiled when she saw her mother asleep. The other side of the bed was empty, which meant daddy was on the sofa or gone off.

She silently made her way down the huge staircase to find her daddy. She looked on the sofa and didn’t find him, then she went to his favorite place in the house. His Den. To LeAnn her daddy was a big child with all his toys in his den. She found him in his big black chair slumped over on his desk asleep. She was satisfied that she knew her parents where okay and trotted back upstairs to a room her parents refuse to look at anymore.

The room was black because of the open curtains letting the night sky flood the room. She cautiously walked across the room and climbed on a chair that was once in her room. Sometimes when her parents though she was taking a nap she would sneak into the room and look around without being given out to.

She looked to the crib, which was also once hers, and then to the photo of her family above it. Even though she was small when the photo had been taken she remembered that her family was happy, her parents weren’t fighting at all and most of all her mommy actually acknowledged her daughter.

She wanted her old mommy back, the mommy that was fun and loving. The mommy who would give her sweets when daddy said she wasn’t allowed until she ate her dinner. The mommy that loved daddy. The mommy that brought her to see uncle Jimmy and her band. But everything changed for the little girl when she was two years old.

LeAnn slowly climbed off the rocking chair and walked over to the open cot to inspect everything. She made sure the teddy in the corner was looking out before setting her own teddy down as well. She smiled and patted the two teddy’s head’s before walking to sit in the middle of the room to stare at the cot.

She remembered that day so clearly when her life had changed.

She only remembered because she relived it every night.

The car crashed into the Way’s car.

She cried for mommy and daddy, she was scarred. If you were two and had been in accident you would have been to. Mommy slowly sat up, telling her daughter that it was okay, everything was going to be okay. Daddy, however did not move an inch, but mommy didn’t seem to notice she was trying to see if her new born was okay.

Lyn-z had tried her best to maneuver in her seat to check that her knew born child was alright. Surely, she thought to herself, he should be crying. She hadn’t seen which side of the car was hit but realized it was her husbands. That’s when she began screaming at the top of her lungs, making her daughter cry harder.

LeAnn thought her daddy would wake up at mommy’s screams but he stayed the same. Mommy couldn’t stop screaming and she couldn’t get out of her seat. A few seconds later LeAnn was pulled into a paramedics strong armed and wrapped in a tin foiled blanket, but this didn’t stop her from crying at the top of her lungs for her mama and dada.

She remembered mommy getting out of the car next trying to get in and get her men out, but she was restrained and she was given to mommy. Mommy was happy that her little girl was okay but now she wanted the rest of her family to be okay.

“Babee,” LeAnn had given a cry for her sibling. Her mommy’s heart broke a little when her daughter called her other child. Daddy was taken out next and was rushed away in an ambulance, she remembered that auntie Alicia had come and tried to clam mommy down as the little girl was passed to her uncle.

Lyn-z had ran to the firemen and paramedics when her youngest was pulled out from the wreckage, he was whisked away with mommy and auntie Alicia. Then she was brought away with uncle Mikey to the hospital, she still cried for her parents. But no one was bringing them to her. Not even uncle Mikey.

She found her daddy after she awoke form a forced sleep by the nurse. He was in a hospital bed with a bandage around his head and a cast on his bad leg. She stopped crying and stayed with her daddy who repeatedly asked uncle Mikey where his wife and other child where. LeAnn could see her daddy was scared, even though he tried hard not to show it he was, she had seen this look once before and it was when mommy went to sleep for three days.

When her daddy did find mommy, she was crying and rocking herself back and forth. When mommy saw him she cried harder repeating ‘He’s gone, my baby is gone.’ That was the first time she had ever saw her daddy cry, but her grandma son brought her out of the room.

“Babee, gaga?” The second those words hit her grandma's ears, she saw her grandma cry. LeAnn was to young to understand. She’s seen her mommy, she’s seen her daddy, now it was time to see the baby. But he never appeared to her. “Babee?” she repeated for hours, she couldn’t understand, she wasn’t able to understand that her baby brother was gone.


The young Way realized after a while that her brother wasn’t coming back, she still didn’t grasp the term dead yet.

That’s when mommy began to cry all the time and stop looking out for her little baby girl. Soon the tears of hurt turned into anger, which she took out on her husband. LeAnn heard it in every argument that it was daddy’s fault, she never knew what mommy meant but it hurt daddy every time it was said.

LeAnn stood up and walked back over to the cot and picked her teddy back up. She looked at the tiny little outfit that had been laid on the bed by her mother after the baby was gone. She kissed the hat of the cream outfit. Then she made her way to the dresser to stretch up and reach a picture. When she managed to grasp it she kissed the baby in the picture. Before she could put the picture back up, the light was turned on.

“LeAnn what are you doing in here?” Her daddy rushed over and snatched the frame off his daughter. “You know you shouldn’t be in here Lee. How many times do we have to tell you? You know mommy gets very upset when you come in here.” He settled the photo in its rightful place and waited for an answer. “Lee?”

She looked up to her father sheepishly. “I sayin’ night to Babee, daddy.” She told him truthfully. She saw tears build up in her fathers eyes. “Is you here to say night to Babee, daddy?” she only asked this because sometimes when she went to see if her parents were in bed, she would sometimes find her daddy in the room on the rocking chair crying.

“Oh shit Lee,” he gasped under his breath. “No, I’m not sweetheart.” He forced a smile but he could see she was confused. “I’ll say goodnight to Baby Brian later okay? Just go to your room and back to sleep for me okay? I love you Lee.” He ruffled her hair.

“I luff you daddy.” With that she turned to leave her brothers room, but stopped to ask a question. “Daddy? Does mommy luff me and you and Babee?” Her daddy nearly broke down when he was asked the question.

“Yeah mommy loves you and Brian.” Happy with the answer she left her daddy and went to her own room. “But daddy’s not so sure if she really does love anyone but him anymore.”