Fragile Heart

Uncle Luke

Luke of course was able to find a new place for his sister and her children to live in Liz's price range. It took the entire weekend to pack up all their stuff and move to the new apartment. He also gave his sister some money to help buy groceries, letting the kids pick out a toy since it's been a crappy couple of days. Being thirteen and growing out of the toy phase, Jess picked out a book while his sister picked out an arena set for her WWE action figures she had been wanting.

For being a kind, sweet kid, Liz never understood the obsession her daughter had with wrestling. WWE was her favorite to watch on TV and was always wanting to wrestle her brother. It did start with Jess, when he taught his little sister to defend herself, especially when Robert had come into the picture. The little girl still backed down in fear, but Jess hoped it would pay off.

The move was finished by Sunday night when Luke had to leave to return to the diner.

After Liz hugged her brother good-bye, thanking him for bailing her out once again, Alex wanted to take a turn, holding her arms up to her uncle.

Kneeling to her level, Luke held his arms out to his niece, who latched on to his neck.

"Thank you, Uncle Luke," she told him from his shoulder.

Luke ran a hand affectionately around the kid's back. "You are very welcome, sweetie." He gave her one last loving squeeze before they broke up the hug.

Just as Luke was about to stand, Alex requested to ask him something. "What's that?"

Alex shyly stared down at the floor between them. "Um..."

He encouraged his niece, she could ask him anything she needed to.

She touched her pointer fingers together, twisting them against each other.

When Alex was taking too long to answer, Liz stepped in and told her she was holding her uncle up who had a long drive home.

Liz assured her brother, they'll call him tomorrow and she could ask then. So Luke left. After he left, Alex went straight to bed.

Thankfully, Luke had found an apartment in the same district as the kids' school. Jess walked his sister to school, making sure she got to her classroom before heading to his homeroom class. On the way, he curiously asked what it was she wanted to ask their uncle. Alex kept watching the sidewalk at her feet and could only shrug.

Besides her big brother, Alex was also somewhat close to their uncle. Since she was too young to remember her father, her uncle was the only good guy she knew and wished he lived closer.

Later, when school dismissed for the day, Alex waited for her brother so they could walk home.

"Jess," she said while they were walking.

Jess looked at her. His gaze immediately landed on the bruise. It was apparent the little girl had been rubbing at the area and wiped some of the make-up Liz had applied to hide the bruise, off.

"You know, Mom's gonna be upset you rubbed your face," he reminded her, motioning his head towards the bruise.

"I couldn't help it. It was bothering me," Alex complained.

Jess dropped his gaze towards the sidewalk for a moment. Things were silent for a moment until he asked, "did anybody ask about it?"

"My tee-cha stared at me, but she didn't say anything to me," she said with a shrug.

"That's good, I guess."

Though Alex's teacher said nothing to Alex, apparently she ended up calling Liz at work to talk to her about it. Liz tried not to show she was upset. It came out that way when she asked Alex why she rubbed off the make-up.