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Andrew and Neil were in the middle of their training when Coach Richard opened the court door and gestured for the team to stop.
“Andrew, Neil, come here, please…” his expression was unsure and Neil traded a fearful look with Andrew, both quickly moving towards the man. “I received a call from Luke…”
Neil froze and Andrew’s expression darkened. They had told Luke repeatedly to call them if something ever happened, but if they were in the middle of practice and incapable of answering the phone, since they would be in their lockers, to call one of the coaches or directly the stadium.
“I don’t really know what happened, but Luke got involved in a fight… He asked for you to get him from school…” Coach Richard informed, already moving away to let his players out of court. “Don’t worry about practice, just make sure the kid is alright…”
Neil and Andrew moved like synchronized hurricanes, shedding sweaty clothes and ignoring the showers to get to Luke as fast as they could. Andrew ignored 90% of the traffic laws and in any other day, Neil would have something to say, but not today. Today, if he could, Neil would have flown towards Luke’s school. A new text while Andrew drove, let Neil know that Luke would be in the school infirmary.
When they reached the parking lot, in the middle of clouds of smoke and burned rubber, they ran into the school, ignoring one of the teachers that tried to stop them. Neil knew the layout of the school, the habit of knowing the environment still ingrained in him, even after all these years, and he made sure that Luke also knew all the emergency exits and how to leave the school in case of danger.
As soon as they found the infirmary, Neil shouldered the door, and both of them entered, freezing in the doorway.
Luke was being treated by the school nurse, his hoodie down, revealing his black eyes, scratches in his cheeks and other bruises surrounding his mouth, including a split lip. Neil’s eyes widened, his mind traveling years back, to all his days on the run and then his weeks in Evermore… The nurse had Abby’s face and Luke had red hair and a four on his cheek…
Beside Neil, Andrew was frozen, his eyes glued to Luke’s bloodied fingers, his face paler that normal. His hazel eyes held a fury and rage that could murder someone with just a look. Sensing Andrew’s mind far away, Neil shook himself from his memories and left Andrew in the doorway, moving towards Luke.
“Hey, Squirt…” Neil said softly, kneeling in front of Luke.
“Hey, dad…” Luke grumbled under his breath. “I didn’t want to call you, but Nurse Ratchet here made me do it…”
The nurse pursed her lips at the nickname and looked at Neil, waiting for him to admonish his kid.
“Luke, Nurse… Lia… made the right choice… We would want to be informed of this… Now, can you tell me what happened?” Neil asked, and felt the approving look of the nurse. Neil smiled inwardly, he had too much experience dealing with overprotective nurses. His hand jumped to Luke’s knee, afraid of hurting him if he tried to mess his hair and Luke physically relaxed, letting his frame fall forward just a bit to be closer to Neil.
“Who the fuck hurt you?” Andrew asked, the poison falling from every word.
Luke looked at Andrew’s face, surprised at the killer instinct in there. He was no naïve little boy, he knew figments of his parents’ pasts, he knew how ruthless they could be, Luke was pretty good at eavesdropping not only Andrew and Neil's conversations but the rest of the Foxes' too. But, seeing it for the first time, was shocking. Obviously he knew the rage was not directed at him, but exactly because of that, for the first time, he felt pity for the people that ever crossed his old man’s path.
“They were talking about your team… stupid stuff and then… they said some things about you two and… I tried, politely to make them shut up…” Luke said, and he sighed in relieve when he saw Andrew’s lips move into a light smirk.
“Politely…” Andrew repeated.
“I might have said, those are my parents, you fucking assholes…” Luke admitted and Neil chuckled under his breath. “And then, yeah… You can see what happened… But I swear I didn’t throw the first punch… I was even doing that calming crap aunt Renee taught me…”
“Honestly…” the nurse gasped at Luke’s words. “You shouldn’t swear like that…”
“Where are those fucking morons?” Andrew asked, clearly showing what he thought about the nurse’s opinion.
Luke pointed at the closed divisions next to his and Andrew opened them at the same time. Neil rose to peak at the kids and his eyes widen.
Damn, their kid was strong. Two against one and he still looked the better part…
“I was thinking of ripping your legs and arms, but my kid already did good…” Andrew scoffed at the two frightened bullies. They were bigger and stronger than Luke, but sported more injuries and looked more affected by the whole ordeal. Andrew closed the curtains again and let the kids tremble in fear behind them.
“Can we go?” Andrew asked, touching Luke’s ear softly.
The nurse looked between the two homicidal men and nodded nervously. Luke jumped from the makeshift bed and followed his parents.
"But the director will want to talk with you two about Luke's behavior!" the nurse tried to say, but neither looked back at her.
"Tell him to call us on Monday, he surely has our numbers..." Andrew said and closed the infirmary door without wasting another second.
When they entered the car, Luke peaked into the rear-view mirror and winced.
“Jeez… Aunt Allison will kill me for ruining this master piece…” he waved his hand around his face and Neil snickered at his antics.
“Seriously, why the hell do I put up with both of you?” Andrew asked, starting the car.
“Because we are cooler and more handsome than you…” Luke replied immediately.
“It’s good to see you back to normal, kiddo…” Neil said, turning around to look at Luke.
“Yeah…” Luke’s expression fell. “I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have done that, but they were stupid assholes, sputtering cruel thing about you and I tried to control myself, but they wouldn’t stop…” Luke bit his lower lip and winced at it being split.
“It’s okay, Luke… Next time just try not to look like a Dalmatian, okay?” Neil requested and then froze. Hum… maybe that wasn’t the best fatherly advice he could give… Yeah, not very good…
“Stop it! The kid needs to know how to defend himself!” Andrew said, pulling Neil out of his thoughts. “Maybe we should up his knife training…”
“NO!” Neil exclaimed and both Andrew and Luke knew to stop that line of conversation. It was rare for Neil to use that tone, but when he did, yeah, you better do what he says…
"Do you think I will get a harsh punishment?" Luke wondered out loud and Neil turned around again.
"We will talk with your school's director and make him understand that you were only defending yourself... Maybe you will have to stay after hours or clean the school, but it won't be much harder than that..."
Luke nodded and a minute later was already talking a mile a minute about the movie he was planning on seeing on the weekend.
When they reached home, Luke sighed. That night was reserved to be with friends, in their Foxes biannual dinner and the boy knew just how much his uncles and aunts were going to be overprotective mother hens.
“Change clothes, the blood is not really helping…” Neil said softly and Luke grumbled under his breathe about stupid bullies. “Hey, do you need help? Is your thorax and abdomen alright?”
“I’m not a child, I can change by myself!” Luke’s affronted voice made Andrew scoff.
“You are only eleven! You are a child!”
Since Allison was the last one to arrive, she stopped in the middle of the back yard and looked around at her friends.
“Is anyone else feeling like dejá-vu?” she asked, pointing at Luke’s bruised face. “Why are you so much like your dad?” and started roaming in her big bag until she found what she was looking for. “Come here, Luke… I’m going to make you pretty again…”
“I never stopped being pretty, that’s just impossible…” Luke replied and everyone laughed.
“Maybe not so much like his dad…” Nicky commented, while he was taking care of the barbecue. “Who wants German sausages? Much better than Americans…” and he started giggling, making Aaron groan and hit the back of his head.
Matt was taking the drinks from the fridge and bringing them into the table in the yard, while Kevin perused around the kitchen, making sure everything had the right amount of vitamins. Dan tried to shoo him away, but only when her daughter started kicking his shins he admitted defeat and joined Neil in his water drinking.
A few minutes later, Allison and Luke reappeared with the youngster looking much more his usual way. Andrew followed them.
“Andrew knows how to hide all those marks, come Monday, so everyone doesn’t think he is some kind of Rocky Balboa…” Allison told Neil and the redhead nodded with a small smile.
“Thank you, you’re the best, Allison…” the woman smiled and tried to look bashful for a second, failing miserably.
“Renee, you need to keep teaching Luke calming techniques…” Matt said and she nodded.
“After dinner we are going to get right at it, right?” Renee forcefully suggested and Luke groaned, but nodded anyway. She smiled blessedly at him.
When everyone sat around the table, they started dividing hamburgers, sausages, salad, and for Kevin’s chagrin lots of fries. Nicky was elbowing Luke to tell them again the story of hoe he messed up with Andrew and Neil’s team the first time they found about their little clan.
“Yeah, somehow I don’t remember saying we like to do unspeakable things when we are alone… But it wasn’t like I was there or anything…”Andrew scoffed at his son’s wild new parts of the story, while Neil blushed to the tip of his ears, and everyone, except Andrew and Aaron, roared with laughter at his embarrassment.
“Pay up! It gets better every time!” Allison said, and extended her hand in front of Dan’s nose.
“Damn it, Luke! Couldn’t you have said they kissed in the middle of the court… Your wild stories are failing me!” Dan accused in a merry tone and Luke smiled openly at her, extending his hand in front of Allison, that gave him part of the money. Dan looked bewildered for a moment and then sputtered. “You told her what you were going to say this time! That’s inside trade! I demand a trial by combat!”
Matt was trying to keep from falling, while having his daughter in his lap, and was failing, when quickly Aaron grabbed the girl and let the bigger man fall and roll around in the ground, laughing like a mad man.
“Sorry, Aunt Dan… Aunt Allison pleads a hard bargain…”
“Pleads a hard bargain…” Nicky repeated. “Andrew, what the hell are you teaching this kid? He talks better than me!”
“That’s not really hard, is it?”
“You wound me, cousin, you really do!”
“You are such a bunch of lunatics…” Aaron sighed. “And people wonder why the kid is nuts...”
“I know I’m your favorite, Uncle Aaron…”
Luke smiled proudly at his uncle and even Aaron lost the battle of keeping a big smile from appearing at his nephew’s antics.