Avos'

𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐞

𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞!!

THIS VISIT IS LONG OVERDUE.

Tommy sucks in a sharp breath as he lets himself into Grissy and Alfie's Margate home. Truthfully, he's been meaning to come by sooner, but things have just kept getting in the way.

It's been more than a week since he's seen his sister- the day they atrociously painted Levi's nursery- and it's the longest it's been since they've gotten together. In between Charlie, the Russians, Churchill, and Oksana, there hasn't been enough time.

However, what's most troubling, is that Grissy hasn't made any effort to get in touch with him either.

Normally, if he goes more than a few days without calling her, she'll reach out. She'll be insistent about seeing them, guilt him into visiting, and use their twin-like connection until he comes crawling back to her. It's not a nuisance, per se because he loves his sister, and her absence has been noticed.

Especially because Alfie's dying.

She never had to say it. Not the day she came barging in and demanded a day with Oksana, not the night they revealed Oksana's identity and not the morning of Ada's arrival. He felt it all. He felt the way her heart cracked from kilometers away, he felt her pain and her despair, and he promised himself that he would help her through it.

He's been a terrible brother because he hasn't.

So, after leaving Oksana in bed today with a note beside her, he made a point to drive all the way to Margate to have a long overdue chat.

It's well past noon, so he's surprised to not see Grissy and Alfie in the living room or kitchen like they'd normally be. He furrows his eyebrows as he checks the ground floor, no signs of the twins or Shayna, and decides to make his way upstairs. Normally, he wouldn't be as bold as to go into the personal space- especially in fear of what traumatizing event he might see- but the silence in the house is disconcerting.

He's nearly halfway down the hallway, about to turn around and check the third floor until he hears a low grunt coming from the farthest room.

Alfie and Grissy's bedroom.

He automatically wants to turn around and run right out of the house, but a disgusting cough that comes from the same room stops him. With a deep breath and some regret, he inches closer to their bedroom until he's right at the door, and it's cracked enough that he can see inside.

What he finds is the opposite of and exactly what he expected. It's not Grissy and Alfie caught in another gross display of affection, and the cough all but determined the sight in front of him.

Alfie is hunched over the bed, shirtless and panting, sweat trickling down his forehead as Grissy tosses his soaked shirt away. Alfie looks fucking terrible. Tommy's only seen him shirtless once or twice, once when Adelina threw up on his shirt, and the other when he saw him and Finn returning from a swim in the ocean. He looks nothing like he did back then. He's thin, his ribs bleeding through his skin, sagging against his arms and hollow near his stomach.

Even with her humongous stomach, Grissy kneels in front of Alfie- trying to take off his pants- but the wet stain blossoming from the crotch and down his leg shows it's in no way sexual.

"Alfie, please. Stay still," Grissy begs, fighting against a stubborn Alfie as she goes for his waist. "I ran a bath. Let's get you cleaned up."

"No," Alfie grunts, letting out another series of coughs as he swats her hands away. "I can do it myself."