Chapter Text
The silence in the hospital waiting room was loud. Everyone was silent; some were crying as they anxiously awaited the news. Gwen was sleeping in a chair, her head resting on Robin's shoulder. Robin had his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He wasn't sleeping though. In fact, he was wide awake, and anxious. Billy and Griffin were sitting on the floor in front of Robin holding each other tightly as a form of comfort and reassurance. Bruce was sitting next to Gwen, his eyes fixated on the clock as he anxiously counted the minutes. Vance was pacing back and forth, staring at the floor with his arms crossed.
Three years...It had been three years since any of them had gotten news about Finney. The last thing they had heard about him was he had gone missing after staying the night with Gwen at Susie's house. Gwen had told them and the police that he was there when she fell asleep but was gone when she woke up. She rode her bike up and down neighborhood streets all morning trying to find him and had even gotten desperate enough to go back to her father's place to see if he had stopped by to visit; which he hadn't. After so long, the case grew cold and the police stopped looking. There hadn't been any new leads on the case; until today.
After a grueling thirty minutes of waiting, everyone's eyes looked up at the person who had just entered the waiting area. They were all silent and breathing shakily as they looked at the face of their long lost friend. Finney was standing just a few feet from his friends, looking at them with a dull, tired look in his eyes. Robin gently moved Gwen's head off his shoulder so he didn't wake her up and slowly stood up from the chair. He was the first person to move since they saw Finney which seemed to make him flinch a little. He took a few steps forward and let out a heavy breath.
"F-Finn." He stammered quietly.
Finney looked at him with tears in his eyes. "I-I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Robin didn't say anything. He just went up and pulled Finney into a hug. Although taken aback, Finney returned the hug as he finally let the tears flow down his face.
"You're okay. I'm so glad you're okay." Robin sobbed into his shoulder.
Everyone else was still in a state of shock and hadn't moved from where they were. That is, except for Gwen who slowly began to stir before eventually opening her eyes. She looked up slowly and when she saw Finney she immediately flew out of her chair and ran over to him. Robin sensed this pretty quickly and moved out of her way so she could hug her brother.
"Gwen." Finney said slowly as he squeezed his sister tightly.
Gwen gripped onto Finney's shirt tightly as she sobbed into it. At this point, Billy and Griffin had managed to pull themselves off their spot on the floor and Bruce had stood up from the chair he was sitting in. Before long, everyone had joined in on the hug. Finney was now surrounded by his sister and all of his friends who were all grateful for his safe return. And for the first time in three years, Finney finally began to feel safe again. It was such a surreal feeling to him because he had already given up hope that he was ever gonna feel anything other than fear again.
After a few long minutes everyone pulled away from Finney to give him some space and wiped away any stray tears off their faces. Robin gently placed his hand on Finney's shoulder and gave him a small, crooked smile.
"Are you okay?" He said in almost a hushed whisper.
Finney hesitantly nodded his head and placed his hand on Robin's. He gave it a gentle squeeze before wrapping his arms around him again. Robin returned the gesture and rubbed his hand on Finney's back.
"We were all so worried." Griffin finally said.
"You were?" Finney asked, pulling away from Robin.
"Of course we were Finn." Bruce replied.
Finney smiled a little and looked around at his friends.
"Thank you."
"Don't you remember what we told you?" Vance stated bitterly.
Finney looked at him confused before it registered.
"You don't have to-"
"Thank you for caring, I know." Finney finished.
Vance smiled and placed a hand on Finney's shoulder.
"It's good to have you back though."
"Finney?"
Finney looked around at the semi-unrecognizable voice in the room and saw his father entering the waiting area.
"Y-you're here. You're okay. You're actually okay." He stammered as he slowly made his way over to him.
"Dad?" Finney said in disbelief.
"I'm so-I'm so sorry." He said as he gently wrapped his arms around his son. "I promise I'm gonna try and do better. I promise."
Finney, although hesitant, returned the hug; though halfheartedly.
After a moment, his father pulled away and brushed a few stray hairs out of Finney's face. He put his hand on Gwen's shoulder and pulled her closer to Finney so he was looking at both of them.
"I promise I'm gonna do better. Although I'm not expecting forgiveness and I'm not expecting you to come back home. I just wanted you to know that I really am going to try."
Finney looked at Gwen and then down at the ground; seemingly trying to process what his father was saying.
"I would've been here sooner but it was a lot harder to convince my boss to let me leave than I thought. He said I couldn't be gone for longer than an hour so I'm gonna have to get going soon. I just wanted to stop by and see how you were doing and to make sure you're okay." His father continued.
Finney nodded his head but didn't say anything. He just wrapped his arm around Gwen's shoulder and rested his head on top of hers. Their father patted both of them on the shoulder once more before he turned around and left.
"Some father, huh?" Billy said, finally breaking the silence that hovered above the waiting area.
"Yea." Finney stated.
"Come on, let's go home." Robin said as he hooked his arm around around Finney's shoulder.
Finney smiled and hooked his arm around Robin.
"Home." He said in quiet disbelief. "I'm going home."
"Yes you are." Bruce said as he tried to prevent himself from crying again. "You're more than welcome to come with us Gwen. I can't imagine you'd want to go home anyway."
"Uh, duh. I just got my brother back. Of course I'm not going home yet." Gwen replied in her usual snarky tone which made everyone chuckle.
It was nice for Finney to see that his sister still hadn't changed. It actually filled him with relief.
Robin looked at Finney and nudged him a little. "Come on, we've got a lot of stuff to catch you up on."