Home is not a house

Chapter 26

Tw for this chapter: past death, meds, cancer

"She looks pretty." Tommy comments and Phil chuckles softly, nodding.

"She was beautiful." Everyone noticed how Phil said 'was' looking at each other with soft glances. Wilbur hands the photo back to Phil, who stared at it as he held it. "We were together for 12 years." Phil smiled.

Tommy sat back a bit more, Storm was in his lap and she was purring softly. Wilbur sat back as well, but Techno still sat at the edge of his seat. Phil stared at the photo some more before he looked up at his sons.

"I met her when I was 17, she was 16. We started dating after a few months, and we dated for 10 years. On our 10th anniversary I proposed, and we got engaged. We began to plan our wedding, but she got sick. She had cancer, but she got better. She was cancer free and we were celebrating life. We had pushed back the wedding till she got better. Then she went to visit her family, before the wedding. And she got into a car wreck, and I lost her." Phil spoke softly, tears welling in his eyes.

All three of the boys felt upset, they never knew about this side of Phil or his past. Well Techno did a tiny bit, but not really.

Storm must have sensed the sadness coming from them all because she stood up and looked around at them. She then walked over to Phil, pawing at his hands until he placed the picture down to pet her.

"I think she can see that you're sad." Wilbur jokes, looking at Phil, and Phil chuckles, nodding while wiping away his tears. He pet her softly and she climbed into Phil's lap.

"Yeah I think she can." Phil smiles. "I never got to marry her, so it never shows that I was legally married." Phil explains.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Techno asks softly, but he wasn't looking at Phil. Techno was staring down at the ground. Phil glanced over at him with a soft look on his face.

"I don't know. Part of me just felt sad. She wanted kids, we started to attend parenting classes together before she got diagnosis. We thought we would get our license, and take in kids right after the wedding. We opted out of a honeymoon so we could have money for kids. Part of the reason why I took you guys in was for her." Phil explains, looking at all three of them.

"It's okay to feel sad about it, she meant so much to you." Wilbur says, putting his hand on his father's shoulder.

"I know. Part of me also felt bad for you guys. Like deep down part of me thought that if explained who she was that you guys would feel like you didn't get to have a mother, I know it's bad enough that it's just me raising you guys and I'm not always enough but I felt like if I had talked about her you all would see that something was taken from you too." Phil says softly, more tears welling in his eyes as he looked down.

"Dad, you are more than enough for each of us." Wilbur tells him, not moving his hand from his shoulder.

"You are more than enough. You have been with us through everything, and we wouldn't trade you for anything." Techno says, just as softly and Phil nods.

"You are the best dad I've ever had." Tommy speaks up, and Phil looks up at him. Tommy watches as Phil's face goes from looking sad, to looking touched, to looking sad again all in one motion. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you I'm sorry I won't call you it again." Tommy fumbled out.

"No Tommy I'm not upset at you, I'm happy that you called me dad." Phil half sobbed as tears rolled down his face. Phil began to break down and cry, Wilbur bringing his father in for an embrace, causing Storm to jump out of his lap.

Storm wandered over to Techno, who picked her up and began to pet her softly. Techno looked over to Tommy and smiled softly, Tommy didn't smile back but more like a 'trying not to also breakdown moment'