Shattered

thick glasses, and said, “You won't ever leave us, will you?”
        “Leave you? Of course not,” Doyle said. He grabbed the boy under the arms, lifted him and held him tightly.
        “Say you won't leave us!” Colin demanded. Tears streamed down his face. He was shaking so hard that he could not be settled no matter how firmly Doyle held him. “Say it! Say it!”
        “I'll never leave you,” Doyle said, squeezing him even tighter. “Oh, God, Colin, the two of you are all I have now. I've lost everything else now.”
        The boy cried against his neck.
        Carrying Colin, he went out of the kitchen and through the dining room, out to the main steps. “We'll go see how Courtney is,” he told the boy, hoping his voice would calm him.
        It did not.
        They were halfway up the steps toward the second floor when the boy began to shake worse than ever in Doyle's arms. “Are you telling the truth? You really won't leave us?”
        “Truth.” Doyle kissed the boy's tearstained nose.
        “Not ever?”
        “Never. I told you… The two of you are all that's left. I've just lost everything else.”
        Holding the boy against his chest as he went to see about Courtney, Alex thought that one of the things he had lost was the ability to cry as freely as a child. And right now, more than anything, he wanted to cry.

    
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