Consumed Pt. 04

After they emerged from the shower, they found that the kids had already woken up and were downstairs.

"Do you suppose they heard us?" Liam asked.

"Don't know, but there's not much we can do about it now." Jack replied.

"Yeah, I suppose not. I need to get downstairs and call my mom to find out what time we need to be at the funeral home." Liam said, as he got dressed, gave Jack one last kiss, and then headed downstairs.

After Liam got off the phone, he went into the kitchen and found Jack and the kids sitting quietly at the table. The kids were eating cereal for breakfast and Jack was having his usual cup of coffee while reading the paper.

"Well, mom says that we'll be leaving the funeral home for the church at ten thirty, so we'll need to be there about ten. We'll follow the procession to the church, where we'll have the services. After the services, the procession will head to the cemetery for the burial services. After that, we'll head back over to the church for the luncheon. It's going to be a busy day." Liam said.

The day did, indeed turn out to be busy. Liam gave a heartfelt eulogy. He tried not to cry, but couldn't hold back. Not that it mattered, because there really wasn't a dry eye in the church. There were other people who also stepped forward to say a few words. There was a large turnout, which included a lot of city and county officials.

Rick, Stacey and Mitch were there too, as was Laura. During the luncheon, Liam took the chance to introduce Jack to Rick, Stacey and Mitch.

"Hey guys, I want you to meet Jack. Jack, this is Stacey, Mitch and Rick. Stacey and Rick were real lifesavers while you were gone. They are the ones that worked to pool together all the stuff for Cassie and Chris. Stacey even took me shopping. I don't know what I would have done if they weren't here to help." Liam said, and then turning to Mitch, he said. "And Mitch is the detective who's working on the arson case."

"Well, it's nice to meet you all and thank you for coming forward and helping Liam out. I wish I could have been here for him. It was really hard being so far away and not being able to be with him when he needed me." Jack said, shaking everyone's hand.

"Hey, it was our pleasure. They are really great kids." Rick said.

When they got home that night, everyone was exhausted. All the tears they had shed had left them all feeling numb. Liam's heart was literally aching and again, he didn't try to put the kids in their own rooms. Tonight was another night that he just wanted them close by.

The rest of the week went by pretty quickly. On Thursday Liam met with the lawyers and finalized the guardianship paperwork. It would probably be another sixty to ninety days before they finalized the rest of the will, but the lawyers made sure that there was a small amount of funds available if Liam needed anything until then.

On Friday, he, Chris and Cassie, met Stacey, her kids, and Rick for lunch. It was a good visit and the kids had a lot of fun. After lunch, Liam dropped the kids off at his parents while he went to meet with a client.

Then, on Saturday Liam dropped the kids off for a play date with Stacey's kids while he, Jack and his parent's went to Michelle's memorial service. Actually, it was a joint memorial service for Michelle, Jason, and Abigail. It was pretty tough seeing the coffins lined up like that, especially the little one for Abby. Laura wasn't doing so well and Liam's mom spent a lot of time tending to her.

After the service, they took Laura home and Rebecca gave her some medication to help her sleep, and then put her to bed, promising to be back later that night.

They picked up the kids and headed back to Liam's parents for dinner. After dinner, as they were getting ready to head out, Liam's mom gave him a box.

"Laura asked me to give these to you. I think they are mostly pictures that Michelle had of Julie, Adam and the kids. She figured since the kids lost so much in the fire, that these pictures would be nice to have. There's even a package of pictures that were still in Michelle's mailbox. Anyway, she wanted you to have them." She said.

"Thanks mom, I'll go through the pictures and maybe we'll put some up in the kid's bedrooms. "I'm sure they would like that." Liam said, taking the box from her.

Liam put the box in the trunk of the car and they all headed home after another exhausting day.

Sunday was also pretty busy. Since the kids were starting back at school on Monday, Liam took them shopping. Cassie didn't need much, since she was in preschool, but Chris needed all of his school supplies and they both needed more clothes.

Two other problems seemed to crop up during the week.

First, much to Jack's continued frustration and complaints, Liam and Jack had yet to have the bed to themselves. They usually started out alone, but ended up with at least one, and sometimes both of the kids in bed with them. Liam just didn't have the heart to turn them away. At least, not yet.

Secondly, Liam was really struggling with how Jack treated the kids. Although he was never out right mean to them, he would just pretend that they didn't exist. He rarely said two words to them and had yet to help Liam with anything directly related to the kids. It was like Liam existed in two different worlds at the same time and he didn't know how to bring those two worlds together. He was hoping that with time Jack would become more comfortable with the kids and things would get better.