Chapter Text
The day that Wednesday Addams is shipped off to private school is a day that her dear Father Gomez had always known was coming.
That day he'll wave at her one last time before she leaves for 5 whole months, the longest she's ever been away from home. Gomez is standing in front of his large mansion, it's early enough that he's still clad in his favorite maroon smoking jacket. He watches Morticia take Wednesday's hands in her own, turning both of them over to give her palms one last look, running her eyes along the long winding path of Wednesday's life line.
"You'll do beautifully my dear, you'll make an impression like no other, of that I am sure" Wednesday's tall and imposing mother says as she looks down at her, dressed in her long winter coat, two rolling luggage bags at her side.
Gomez watches Lurch put his dearest daughter's bags in the trunk and lumber around to the passenger side of the sleek, black 70s 4 door hearse, opening the back door and beckoning Wednesday into the car with one large, bony hand. Wednesday turns back around and looks at her father and hugs him after Gomez insists, lets him wrap his girthy arms around her small frame, squeezing her tighter than necessary to his broad chest.
"My wonderfully cunning daughter. I will miss you very much. Make sure to write to us often please. Tell us of all the horrible things you are doing and all the terrible things you are learning."
Wednesday nods as her father releases her from the hug she so kindly tolerated. Crushed to his chest she had inhaled the scent of her father's body odor, but also the mellowed sour smell of spirits on his breath.
"Isn't it rather early for father to be drinking?" She had thought as he held her.
Wednesday and her father had never been physically close but naturally this extended to the rest of the family as well, save for Pugsly who Wednesday had quite a good time wrestling with. And not to forget Thing, who she sometimes permitted to ride on her shoulder, or in her coat pocket when she was out and about buying groceries or causing night time mischief.
Gomez Addams stands in the gravel driveway and watches the hearse containing his most beloved and only daughter, drive slowly around the last long curve of their driveway, out of sight down the road. Right as he loses sight of the car to the shimmering, blinding whiteness of the freshly fallen snow, something begins to happen.
Something begins to shrink inside Gomez's chest, slowly at first but then all at once as if the air has been sucked from his lungs by some hell sent force. He begins to sway on his slipper clad feet, breaking into a stagger as he tries to steady himself.
"Our baby bird has finally left the nest…"
When he hears Morticia beside him it's as if the entire motion of the world begins to slow around him, her statement distorted into otherworldly elongation and Gomez looks at the ground and immediately develops a piercing headache.
That baby bird, that stark black Raven with sharp shining talons, jet black feathers, and eyes that seemed to shine like jade, full of cunning, full of mystery, full of blood and bone. That "baby bird" he had named Wednesday.
The vice-like grip around his heart that had begun as a whimper is now wrenched so tightly that Gomez feels like a wooden soldier, his limbs set on basic hinges. Maybe he's shrinking. Maybe now that Wednesday is gone he's going to grow smaller and smaller until he disappears entirely, what a thought…
"Well darling." Morticia says from beside him, making him start, his knees locking as he rights himself. If Morticia notices er husband's abrupt reaction, she says nothing. It's not like an Addams to call out odd behavior.
"I think I shall go change the linens on Wednesday's bed sheets." Morticia says, sounding a little strained.
"That way her bedroom will be clean and ready when she comes back for break."
"Ahh yes…" Gomez replies to anyone but her, still sounding rather lost. Morticia assumed he was feeling as she was, both melancholy but also overwhelmingly proud that their daughter had aced her entrance exams and gotten into such a prestigious school.
"Then...I will go and get the guest bedroom ready for Fester." Gomez mumbles beside her and turns rather quickly towards the house, keeping pace with Morticia by only the sheer, impressive will of his being.
*******
'That's right' Gomez tells himself. 'Wednesday will be back!'
So why is he sweating so much? Why does he suddenly feel like he's boiling alive in his weather appropriate outfit? And why exactly does he feel like he's been bitten into, an expansive amount of flesh torn away from him leaving behind nothing but a jagged hole from which pours all of his organs and blood, right out onto the floor. This feeling is foreign to him in its denial of what could only be called a basic necessity that he up until this time, seemed to have been taking for granted.
Wednesday will be back in 4 short months and the family will be together again. In the meantime why is he fretting? His beautiful and talented daughter would surely make the best of her situation and come back full of new knowledge and thrilling tales to tell. So why were his waking moments filled with a dread that threatened to cripple this once proud patriarch? Gomez continued to tidy the guest room even as his thoughts dwell again and again on the loss and it's meaning. Uncle Fester, Gomez's brother, was going to arrive soon so everything must be in order. He had offered to come by the house and stay for a while. He had told them that he wanted to help them out a bit now that there was one less person to clean the massive 3 story mansion their family lived in. Wednesday had always been dutiful in her chores and it was because of this that her parents had trusted her with so much responsibility. It built character and resilience, that...