When Crickets Cry...

He turned to face his father.
"You...." He simply shook his head, turning and walking away, in the house.
He couldn't do this...

Quincy had Quinton watch Jennifer while he followed.
"Baby, just come on and pack, im taking you to your momma's."

"Fine." Hayden said in a monotone voice, throwing things around the room and into his suitcase. He found a picture of himself and both his parents. Each octuplet had one except for Angel. Just the three of them... Hayden's was in a nice frame. He smashed the glass into tiny pieces as he threw it against the wall.

Quincy sighed, bending down to pick up the picture and all the pieces.
His poor babies....
He hated this...He hated her....
He didnt know what to do....
And there was no way he would ever see any of the babies he had with her....
He had named them all because she didnt want them and refused.
Quaid. Shaken so bad his brain raptured, only a month old...
Bodi, drown at the age of one, on his first birthday, in a tub in wish his father bathed him everynight.
And the only girl....Hailey. Quincy thought it was his fault....He had finally snapped and pushed Jennifer, she fell down and the baby died, she said it was his fault but really, that night, she had hurt herself on purpose to kill the child....It was Quincy's punishment and he lived with it forever....
It wasnt worth all this pain....
He would killed her if only he could but evil like her never truly died.

"I'm packed." Hayden muttered. There was clothes and necessities in his bag but all of his photographs lay in pieces, scattered around the room.

Quincy picked up his bags, nodding.
"C'mon."
He stepped from the house, walking back to his...the one his...exlover still lived in...

Hayden refused to look into his father's eyes, silently following his father to his mother's house...

And that was good because Quincy's eyes were watering, clouded with tears that blurred his vision and threatened to fall, mocking him and what his death was turning into.

Tears had been falling down Hayden's cheeks for a while now...
He loved his father so much... he thought his dad loved him too so... why was he screwing everything up? He was with Jennifer to find his other kids and when he did... Hayden and his siblings would be second best. It didn't matter that Hayden had been there for his father when no one else bothered. Nope. Jennifer's kids came first....
And it hurt.

Quincy got to the door and sat the bags down before knocking on the door to his old home.

Zac opened it with a frown.
"What is it...?" He asked with a frown.

"He has to stay here. He can't live with me." Quincy shook his head. "You have to take him."

"Why?" Zac asked, confused.

"Just please take him Zac....I can't....You have too." Quincy drug a hand across his tired face.

"Hayden... sweety... are you-?" Zac started but stopped at the look Hayden gave him. He simply hugged his son. "Okay Quincy. I'll take him." He stroked his son's hair.

Quincy nodded, pulling Hayden to his chest and kissing the top of his head.
"I guess this is it baby...."

"Yeah. Have fun with your other kids when ya find em." He pulled away from his father. He refused to look at him at all. He wouldn't let his dad know how bad he was hurting him...

"Hayden....Baby.....Even if I was not finding them...It wouldnt fix this.....Nothing will...Hate me if you want....Its better that way..."

"Whatever dad..." He shook his head as Zac sighed. He'd never seen Hayden so upset with his father.

Quincy nodded.
"Night Zac, Hayden." He walked off....alone....into the darkness.

Hayden watched the longing in his mother's eyes as he watched Quincy walk away and it only made him cry harder.
He was always strong for daddy.... but now, he held nothing back, letting his mother hold him as he bawled.
Zac said nothing. He knew what was wrong and there were no words to fix it. He simply held him.

By the time he got Back, Jennifer was trying to cook, Quinton was watching her, and his babies were in the other room talking in hushed voices.

"Momma... he's trying to find Jen's kids...." Hayden sighed.
"I know..." Zac nodded.
"It hurts don't it?"
"You won't ever know how much it hurts me." Zac shook his head
"It hurts me too momma... more than any of the other kids..."
"I can tell baby. You were always the biggest daddy's boy."
"This family is a mess and its all his goddamn fault."
"Don't say that sweety..."
"Why'd he have to go and be with that whore!" He snapped.
"Hayden, I ask myself that every day..."

Only an hour later Quinton's home was filled with the loud screams and shouts while Quincy and Jennifer fought. It was never quiet with them, not as long as Jennifer was so bitch and cruel.

Hayden had fallen asleep in his mother's lap, just like when he was a baby, with zac rubbing his hair.