𝑭𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝑱𝒖𝒍𝒚 | Hermes

xiv.

"You won't be able to gain his trust or forgiveness if you keep pushing yourself away." Eden muttered. "I'll let it slide for the next few months, because Luke is settling in, but if you use him as an excuse to be a distant father, there will be hell to pay."

"After having talked with you before, Miss Jones, I know that to be true." Hermes grinned once more. "I'll see you around and if you need anything, give me a call."

"I won't." She turned back to the rink, smiling as Luke came skating over to her side.

"So, did you see? Did you see? I managed to skate backwards!" Luke clamoured. "Jasper thinks that I'll be skating really good in no time and that I should join a team."

"Well, Jasper knows best and I'll look into it when I get home." Eden ruffled his hair, as Luke grinned happily and pulled Jasper's old skates off. "We'll get you some nice new skates as well so you're not stuck with Jasper's stinky ones."

"If you think those are bad, you should smell my kit bag." Jasper grinned as he did a hockey stop right in front of them and sprayed Eden with ice.

"I hate you."

"Thanks."

"Are you going to be alright getting home or do you want me to give you a lift?"

"No, I've got training at the gym with some of the other boys." Jasper shrugged, pulling his bag over his shoulder. "But I'll see you next week for Thanksgiving?"

"Course you will." Eden laughed, giving her brother a gentle push, before ushering Luke from the skating rink and listening intently as he rambled onto her about everything that he had done and what he wanted to do.

☾☼☽

"Luke, dinner!" Eden waited for the sound of footsteps, but she heard nothing. "Luke? Come on, dinner's going to get cold."

Still nothing and Eden's eyes went narrowed, before she began up the stairs, looking for her son.

"Luke, where are you?" There was no response, so she quickened her pace, knocking on his door. When she got no response, she carefully peeked her head around the corner of the door, but he wasn't in there. Her eyebrows furrowed, but she caught sight of the study and hurried over. Maybe he had gone to get a book. "Luke?"

Pushing the door open, her eyebrows furrowed when she found that he wasn't in there. Looking around, she tried to find where he could be. Her bag was tipped over on the floor, and Eden sighed, before reaching down to pick it up.

She paused, reaching for the last thing, when she saw the piece of paper on the floor. Turning it over, she saw that it was the one with May's name and address on it.

"Shit." Eden hissed, before hurrying out of the room and downstairs to make sure that Luke's shoes were still in the rack. "Luke? Luke, baby, where are you?"

Eden began to do a quick check of the house, looking in all of the room and even going as far to check the back yard and the garage.

"Luke!" Her voice was frantic now, panic setting in as she wondered where her son had gone. "Luke!"

There was still no response, and Eden took a deep breath, panic settling into her stomach. She began to search the house again, looking for anything that could give her a clue about where Luke was.

"Please, Luke, where are you?"

There was no response again, as Eden took another deep breath and ran her hands through her hair. She didn't want to think of the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Luke had run away. He said that he never did without reason and Hermes was under oath not to pressure him into doing so.

She had thought that Luke was happy here. So where was he?

Rushing past the study again, she paused, seeing Bradley staring at the cupboards as a horrifying thought occurred to her. She remembered a conversation with Luke from a month earlier, where he had told her that if he felt scared or worried, he's hide in a cupboard. But Luke was twelve now, and far too big to fit in any of those cupboards without hurting himself.

She shooed Bradley away, before tapping on the cupboard door.

"Luke?"

There was no response, but Eden could see that the door was partially open, telling her that Luke was in there.

"Luke, can I open the door?"

Silence continued, but Eden cracked the door open anyway, seeing Luke's coloured socks and jeans. How he'd managed to curl himself up tight enough to fit into the cupboard was a mystery to Eden, but she was just glad to see that he was there.

She tilted her head back, letting out a sigh of relief as she saw him there, before carefully opening the other door.

"Please, can you come out of there?" Eden asked softly. "It looks really uncomfortable and I don't want you hurting yourself."

"You were going to send me away." His voice was so soft, cracking around the edges as Eden's eyebrows furrowed.

"What?"

"You were going to send me away. Back to her." He turned, letting her catch sight of his hurt eyes as Eden began to shake her head.

"No, never." She carefully reached out, resting a hand on his arm. "I wasn't going to send you back, Luke. I would never do that."

"Then why do you have her address?"

"I wanted to have it just in case you wanted to see her again, nothing else." Eden shook her head again, before shuffling closer. "I wasn't going to send you away. Why would I do that?"

"I don't know. People always do when it comes to me." Luke hissed, turning away once more.

"I would never do that, Luke." She promised, her eyes wide. "Please, come out from there. I don't want you to get hurt."

"No, cause you're going to send me away." He shook his head, before Eden hooked her hands under his arms and pulled the top half of his body free of the cupboard. "No, no, no."

"Baby." She hummed, pulling him into her arms and pressing a kiss to his head. "Why would I ever send you away, hm? You're stuck with me now, and Bradley."

She clung to him, running her hands through his hair and wiping away his tears. Luke looked like he wanted to protest that statement, but he pulled his legs free of the cupboard and finally wrapped his arms back around her.

"I thought you were going to send me back."

"Never." Eden sighed in relief, clinging to him. "Next time that happens, Luke, please come and talk to me. I was so scared."

"You thought I ran away again." He accused.

"I thought you were out in the cold with no shoes and no coat." Eden spoke softly. "I thought I lost you and I was so worried, especially because you told me monsters could track you. Or you could have been ill or hurt and I was scared."

He fell silent, before digging his chin into her shoulder as she rocked him gently.

"Please, don't do that to me again." She tightened her grip. "I'll tell you everything next time and I'm so sorry that I didn't."

"I thought you were going to get rid of me." Luke's voice grew smaller, tears forming in his eyes again. "I was scared that you would and then you began calling for me and I thought you were angry."

"I was worried that my son was off somewhere, hurt or afraid." Luke tightened his grip at the words. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"I'm alright." His fingers dug into her shirt. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You had every right to be worried." Eden sighed, before pressing a kiss to his head once more.

☾☼☽

Hiya,

Eden and Hermes, and Eden and her brother are very sweet. I just love Luke's enthusiasm, and we had a little bit at the end of the chapter because Luke is just very worried that Eden is going to leave him and run off again.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx