4. Chapter 4

AN: Special thanks to Writer_Rabbit! I used one of their wonderful suggestions in this chapter. I hope you'll be pleased!

That evening, Mirabel was helping to clean up from dinner when Dolores heard her name.

"Dolores… I would like to speak to you alone. If you can hear me, come see me when you can get away."

It was Tío Bruno. He had never addressed her before, she couldn't ignore it now. She slipped into the kitchen, gathering some food to take him as she went.

Mirabel shot her a confused look, but she motioned discreetly with her head in the direction of their Tío, and a look of understanding crossed her face, and she helped Dolores to make a plate for him.

Dolores slipped behind the painting, making her way to Bruno quickly.

She knocked on his door, waiting for him to answer.

It only took a moment before the door was flung open. "Come in, come in." He muttered, waving her in.

"You called me? What's wrong?" She asked, handing him the plate of food.

"Gracias. I see a lot, sobrina, but I didn't see just how badly things were for Mirabel until today." He murmured. "You've been watching out for her? You knew she was thinking of leaving?"

That was all it took, everything came pouring out. Everything that Dolores had found out in the past two days, everything she had reflected on and realized with how their family was treating her prima, all came pouring out to her Tío, who had always been a good listener.

"I don't know… I don't know what else to do without breaking her confidence in me." Dolores admitted. "I think the rest of the family needs to know how badly they have affected her, but she doesn't want that. And what if she changes her mind? What if just me isn't enough for her, if she decides to leave anyway? That would be my fault and-"

"Breathe, mi sobrina." Tío Bruno soothed, taking her hand in his. "Leaving does not really seem like Mirabel's style. Maybe under extreme distress, like the night of Antonio's ceremony," Bruno was more observant than she would have ever given him credit for, especially considering he was living in the walls, "But with you supporting her, I would have a hard time believing that she would leave. Truly. And over time, I think that you will be able to pull the rest of the family in in a way that doesn't require you to share the details of her distress. And it isn't just you anymore - you both have me." He said quietly. "I'm not going anywhere. And eventually… maybe… I'll come out of hiding. But now that you two know I'm here, I'm not going to keep you from visiting, if you would like."

"O-okay." Dolores stuttered. "Okay." She repeated, taking a deep breath and realizing the logic of her Tío's words.

"We will take care of Mira, okay?" He said gently. "We won't let her be treated this way anymore. We won't let it get as far as it got with me, okay?"

Dolores nodded, but was distracted by a conversation from the kitchen, causing her to freeze.

It was loud enough that Bruno was able to hear it as well, causing him to tilt his head, listening.

"You ruin everything!" Isabela was yelling. "You had to go crying to Mama and Papa, and now I'm in trouble for the fact that you weren't at my engagement last night!"

Dolores' breath caught, realizing that Isabela was yelling at Mirabel.

She made to move to go help her prima, but froze again when Abuela spoke, calming Isabela down before turning to Mirabel.

"I am disappointed in you Mirabel. This has to stop. You need to understand that the needs of the family come before what you want. And we needed last night to go perfectly, which it did-"

"Because I wasn't there." Mirabel finished, her voice broken and defeated. "Nothing I do will ever be good enough for you, will it?" She asked. Dolores was moving again, a little surprised to find that Tío Bruno was following her, but she kept listening. "Luisa will never be strong enough for you. Tío Bruno was never enough for you, and that's why he left-"

"Bruno did not care about this family!" Abuela snapped.

"Bruno loves this family," Mirabel stated, her voice bitter. "But that was never enough. We will never be enough! You are the one destroying our family, not me, not Tío Bruno, but you!"

The walls around Dolores started cracking and crumbling at an alarming rate.

"We have to get out of here," Bruno gasped. "The house is going to come down."

"But Mirabel-"

"There's no time!"

The choice was taken away from them, as Casita cracked around them, and practically shoved both of them outside, out the back of the house.

"I can't hear!" Dolores exclaimed, sitting up from where she had just been laying, dazed. "I can't-" She stopped, her eyes welling with tears of relief as she finally had a semblance of silence, and of fear, because she had lost her gift.

But it still wasn't completely silent. She could hear her family, faintly yelling for Mirabel, which spurred Dolores and Bruno into action.

Without her enhanced hearing, Dolores was disoriented, which was the only reason she could have possibly slammed straight into Mirabel, who was covered in dirt and scratches, and was sobbing, running away from the ruins of what used to be Casita.

Both girls fell to the ground, startled, and Bruno knelt down besides them. "Are you two okay?" He asked.

Mirabel burst into tears again, recovering from running into Dolores, and threw herself at Bruno, burying her head in his chest. Dolores sat up, taking in his dazed expression, and wrapped Mirabel in a hug as well, allowing her to cry.

Dolores could faintly hear their family, searching through the wreckage of the house and calling out for both Mirabel and Dolores, having realized that Dolores wasn't with them either.

"Everyone is looking for you two," Bruno said gently after a while. Evidently, he could hear it too.

"I don't care." Mirabel murmured. She had stopped crying, but hadn't moved from the position they had evolved into, where she was sitting on the ground between Bruno and Dolores.

Dolores looked at Bruno and shrugged. Eventually someone would stumble upon them - they weren't that far from the house. And Mirabel had bent to their wishes more often than anyone else, trying to gain acceptance. If she chose this once to be selfish, to have some distance - who was Dolores to blame her for that?

It wasn't until they heard Tía Julieta's voice, very close now, that Mirabel moved.

"Mama." She whispered, standing up. Her mother's voice had jolted her out of the state of shock she had been in. "Mama!" She called louder, moving towards the voice.

Dolores and Bruno stood up, Dolores following close behind, with Bruno hanging back considerably.

Dolores watched as Mirabel threw herself into Julieta's arms. Julieta was crying. "We couldn't find you." She whispered. "We were so worried."

Julieta spotted Dolores next, and relaxed. "Oh sobrina," She beckoned Dolores over into the hug as well. "Your Mama and Papa are going out of their minds with worry." She kissed the side of Dolores' head. "Thank you for looking after my mija." She whispered.

Mirabel pulled back, and looked at her Mama. "I'm so sorry," She said. "I didn't mean to worry you."

Julieta kissed the top of Mirabel's head. "I'm just happy that you're okay." She froze, her eyes fixed on something behind Mirabel now, and Mirabel pulled away, glancing back.

Bruno was standing there, frozen, watching the scene in front of him.

Julieta moved forward, almost hesitantly.

"Bruno?" She asked, gently, softly. "You're - you're here?"

Wordless, Bruno nodded, and found himself in Julieta's arms in seconds. He hesitantly returned the hug, resting his head on his sister's shoulder, and silently starting to cry.

After a moment, Julieta pulled back and held her hermano's face in her hands. "You are never allowed to leave us again, understand?" She sobbed. "I won't have it."

"I've missed you too, hermana," He sighed in response, sounding more relaxed than the girls had seen him yet. "I'm not going anywhere again," He promised quietly.

Dolores could still hear the rest of the family calling for them, and Julieta apparently could too, because she looped her arm with Bruno's and said, "Let's go let everyone know that I've found all of you." She murmured, reaching out and taking Mirabel's hand. Mirabel grabbed Dolores, and they allowed Julieta to lead them around to what used to be the front of the house.

"Dolores!" Her Mama and Papa ran towards her, and Dolores broke away from the group to run into their arms, reveling in their hugs. Any other day, she may have thought she was too old to be treated this way by her parents, but not after everything that had happened over not just the afternoon, but the past two days. Dolores pulled back after a moment and took her mother's hand.

"Mama, come see." She whispered, and led Pepa over to where Bruno was, though he was so short you couldn't quite tell it was him from their angle.

"Mija, what-" Pepa froze, catching a glimpse as Bruno moved next to Tía Julieta. "Brunito?" She breathed out.

Bruno's head shot up at her voice, and uncertainty covered his face. Pepa moved forward.

"How dare you," She was sobbing, "How dare you leave us," She hit his arm before pulling him into her arms.

Tío Bruno's arms were stuck out almost comically, not sure how to respond to his sister, before he returned the hug, holding on to her as she continued to yell at him for leaving.

"Hermana, let him breathe," Julieta reminded her gently, tugging at Pepa. "And stop yelling at him unless you want to scare him away again," This didn't have the reaction that Julieta had anticipated, and Pepa just started sobbing harder, though she pulled Julieta into their hug, making it the first hug the three had shared in over a decade.

"Where did you find your Tío Bruno?" Papa asked her quietly, regarding the three with a fond smile.

"That's a long story." Dolores shifted uncomfortably. "And it isn't mine to tell." She admitted.

He just nodded, not pushing her for more information. Her parents had tried to be good about not pushing her for information that she heard that she shouldn't have. There were times it was unavoidable, but they did well overall.

The story did come out though. All of the other kids gathered around, greeting Bruno in their own way.

Antonio was fearless, launching himself at his Tío, startling him with his acceptance.

Camilo was calmer than Antonio, but a little nervous to greet the man that he had few memories of, due to his age when he left.

Luisa was shy, but gave him a big hug, and Isabela hung back, greeting him quietly but not making a move to get near him.

Abuela came over to see what the fuss was about, and Bruno froze when he saw her.

"Brunito," She breathed, stepping forward. Bruno flinched slightly as she got close, and she hugged him. "I'm so sorry," She whispered, surprising everyone, including Bruno. Dolores used to be able to hear everything, and she had never heard her grandmother say those words with the same conviction that she did now.

With everyone around, Bruno told his story, keeping the spotlight off of Mirabel, who was wedged between Dolores and Antonio, who had broken down when they couldn't find Mirabel earlier. He was practically sitting in her lap instead of next to her, but Mirabel didn't seem to mind, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

He didn't share much about his reasons for leaving, outside of the fact that he didn't feel like his gift was helping the family. He left Mirabel out of it, which Dolores was grateful for.

"Where did you go?" Julieta asked, and Bruno shrugged, uncomfortable with the attention, mumbling in response.

"What was that?" Julieta asked, though she was sitting right next to him.

"I didn't… actually leave. I've been living in the walls, keeping an eye on everyone." He said, a little louder. "I… I love you guys. I didn't actually want to leave." He admitted, and found himself smashed into another hug between his sisters.

"No wonder you're so thin," Pepa commented, regarding Bruno's incredibly frail frame.

"Mirabel and Dolores didn't seem that shocked to see you though, when I found the three of you." Julieta said quietly.

Bruno paused, glancing at the the two, and Dolores spoke for the first time in a while. "When we were trying to figure out what was wrong with the magic, Mirabel and I went to Bruno's vision cave and found his last vision." She admitted. "We couldn't figure out what it meant. I've known that Bruno was still in Casita since the day he disappeared, and I knew how to get to him, so we went and found him."

Pepa whirled to face her daughter. "You knew?" Her voice was hurt. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Peace, hermana." Bruno said gently. "Your daughter was respecting my privacy and my wishes. Don't fault her. I'm sure it was a heavy enough burden as it was."

"I figured he had his reasons." Dolores answered quietly. "I agonized over the decision, but decided that he must had left for a reason and it wasn't my place to say anything."

"She took good care of me though. She would leave a plate of food for me whenever she could." Bruno winked at her and she grinned back.

Pepa let out a sigh. "Sorry, mija. Of course I understand why you didn't say anything." She said gently.

A group from the village wandered up then, pulling the attention away from their conversation. Julieta and Abuela went over and greeted them, having a quiet conversation.

Dolores got up, moving to go sit with her Mama and Tío. She was halfway there when she heard Antonio's frantic voice from behind her.

"Mira? Mira?"

She whirled around, only to see Mirabel slumped over and Antonio was standing up and turned around, shaking her and saying her name.

"Mira, wake up." He was still shaking her, and Dolores somehow found herself next to them, but she seemed to be the only other one that had noticed. Everyone else was involved in their own tasks and conversations.

"Help!" Someone was screaming. "Someone help!" Later, Dolores would realize that she was the one screaming

Suddenly, they were surrounded by family members. Tía Julieta was there, pulling Mirabel's eyelids back and assessing her, her own hands shaking.

Pepa had picked up Antonio, moving him out of the way so that Julieta could look at Mirabel, and Tío Bruno and Tío Agustín were helping.

Someone had pulled Dolores away, but her eyes were glued to the scene in front of her.

"Dolores." A voice said gently in her ear. "Come on, why don't we sit down?"

Someone was gripping her face and forcing her to look away. When her eyes refocused, she found she was looking into the eyes of her hermano.

"Come on, let's sit down. Papa's getting you something to drink." Camilo was gentle, but insistent, as he led her a little ways away to sit down.

Papa appeared from the side, providing Dolores with a glass of water. He smoothed her hair back from her forehead. "Your Tía and Tíos are taking good care of Mirabel, mija. Let us take care of you.

Dolores nodded numbly, leaning into her Papa as she watched. For once, she couldn't hear what was going on, and it was killing her not to know.

"I'm not an actual doctor." Julieta snapped, loudly and suddenly, the first thing Dolores had been able to make out.

"Luisa's gone to get the doctor." Isabela said, her voice shaking "She should be back soon.

Dolores hadn't seen her, but her oldest prima was hanging back, watching with concern.

Julieta's food would heal physical injuries, but the village did have a doctor because her food didn't typically heal sicknesses.

When the adults finally sat back from Mirabel, Dolores still didn't have an answer to what was going on, but Antonio beat her to asking.

"What's wrong with her?" He asked, his voice shaking.

Julieta shook her head, and Dolores could see how scared she was, even from where she was sitting. "I don't know, mi sobrino. She's breathing, her heart is beating, but she's not waking up. And I'm not a doctor."

"I can see Luisa," Isabela, who had been standing vigil, anxiously watching for her sister, yelled. "Dr. Gonzales is with her. He'll know what to do."

"I hope so." Julieta said, tears filling her eyes. "I hope so, mija. Because I don't."

AN: This was the chapter I was stuck writing, but I actually ended up very happy with it. I hope everyone else enjoyed it too!