Chapter Text
“Hey old man, what’cha thinking about?” Alex murmured, climbing on the bar stool next to Harvey.
He had his hand on a cool beer but looked glum, almost melancholic. “Nothing… just the good old times… I stumbled over an old casefile earlier, one of the last ones I worked with your father…”
Alex remained silent. Her father had died in the line of duty when she’d been young. She could barely even remember him, only from stories her family or Harvey had told her.
“I used to come to your house a lot back then, you know… it was an hour long drive in good weather, but…” he shrugged.
“Tell me about it!” Alex prompted.
“I remember that one time… you were about 2…
+++
The Brooks family had invited for one of their famous Summer BBQs at their house and Harvey, as usual, was their guest of honor. Guest of honor meaning he was the only one not related to them by blood who was invited. He had gladly taken on the drive for the sake of Maren’s cooking; and of course, seeing his little girl.
The Brooks house was always a bustle, and no wonder with 6 kids, 1 dog and 4 cats living there.
John Jr. or JJ as he insisted to be called these days, came down the stairs and waved a disinterested hand at his fathers’ partner. He was the oldest of the bunch and utterly uninterested in any social interaction with old people as he’d started referring to anyone over the age of 20. He usually devoured a mountain of food in record time before running off to hang out with his friends.
Harvey stepped inside and took off his hat. He was in one of his perfectly fitting shirts, topmost buttons open, the sleeves casually rolled up to his elbows. His shaggy brown hair, full and without a single gray strand, was styled in a fashionable mullet. His body lithe and full of life….
+++
Alex’s chuckle interrupted him. “Please stop talking about yourself like that!”
“Shush! Let me tell my story!”
+++
His lithe body, full of life, didn’t even show the beginnings of a beer belly. He was a man in his prime.
“Harvey! We’ve been waiting for you!” Maren, John’s wife, came to welcome him. She gave him a hasty hug before retreating to the kitchen again.
“John’s outside, take this with you,” she said, pushing a huge bowl of her famous potato salad into his hand and a can of beer into his chest pocket.
Harvey was at the house often enough to know his way around. He also knew not to distract Maren when she was cooking so he quickly went outside to join his partner.
Martha and Jasper, number 4 and 5 of the Brooks kids were playing in the garden laughing and screaming in the spray of a lawn sprinkler, Cookie, the dog barking and jumping around with them as he tried to catch the jets of water. The weather was perfect, the summer sun shining down on them. One could almost forget the woes of Gotham city life out here. Harvey understood why John had chosen to move his family here.
He set down the potato salad and opened his beer as he sat down in one of the lawn chairs in the shade of the big sun umbrella. The smell of sizzling meat made his mouth water.
“That life you’re living, brother… I almost envy you…” Harvey admitted.
John laughed. “Glad to hear that, Harv. You know you’re always welcome.” He wore his stained ‘kiss the cook’ apron, so Harvey did just that, kissing the older man on top of his rapidly greying head in friendly greeting.
Inside, Maren shouted for the children to come outside for dinner. The table was all set already and one by one the older kids came outside, carrying bowls with salad and baskets with rolls.
Karen, the second oldest carried a pigtailed little Alex on one arm and a bottle of soda in the other. In the Brooks house, everyone had to do their part.
Alex was gargling on about something in her unintelligible toddler language. A smile bright like the midwinter sun appeared on her face and she beamed with joy when she spotted Harvey. She whined and struggled in Karen’s arms and demanded very noisily to be let down.
+++
“Now don’t overdo it!” Alex interrupted him, smiling a toned down version of her children’s beam.
“I swear I’m not. Ask your mother. I bet she has a picture of that somewhere.”
+++
“Stop… stop struggling!” Karen muttered, carefully setting her little sister on the ground. Ever the good child, she went back inside to help her mother carry out the last of the food.
“Unci Har!” Alex craned, opening up her arms and racing towards him as fast as her stubby little legs could carry her.
“She talks?!” Harvey exclaimed, looking at John and crouching down to catch his little girl.
“Started last week and hasn’t stopped ever since,” John laughed, plating up the first of the burgers. “Guess what her first word was.”
“Come here, Chou!” Harvey exclaimed, reaching out to catch her lest she fall.
She ran towards him, jumping the last short distance, fully trusting he’d catch her.
“Did you miss me, little girl?” Harvey got to his feet and moved her so she could comfortably sit on his arm. “What did she say?”
As if she wanted to answer his question herself, Alex started babbling something neither of them could understand, her hands fumbling around in his hair and beard, kissing him on the cheek every so often.
“She was trying to eat a piece of soap and when Maren took it from her, she said ‘smell good’.” John said to Harvey’s great amusement.
Harvey laughed. “You’re a smart one, huh? All your siblings started talking much later,” he cooed at her.
The playing Martha and Jasper were still very much occupied with their water games and only quieted down, when Dina, number 3 of the kids turned off the hose and took each of them by their hands. She was mature for her age, as one ought to be with so many little siblings to look after.
Dinner was a noisy affair as usual. By the time everyone was settled, JJ had already finished and ran off, grabbing another burger to go straight from the BBQ.
“Bye Uncle Harv!” he called before running off.
The other kids quickly finished too and each of them ran off to do their thing again, all but Alex. She had been sitting on Harvey’s knee all during dinner, refusing to let anyone but him feed her, scattering more food on his pants than she actually managed to get into her mouth and seeming awfully proud to do so.
Harvey awkwardly ate around her, careful not to drop too much of his own food on top of her.
She tensed, when she felt a piece of meat land on top of her hair, reaching up with her chubby little arm. “Unci no!” she scolded when Harvey picked the meat from her hair.
“Sorry, little one. Won’t happen again.” He noisily stuffed the dropped piece into his mouth.
Alex roared with laughter.
---
“Don’t tell the others, but…. that one is my favorite.” Harvey admitted to John on his way out. Alex had fallen asleep on his lap soon after they’d finished eating and was still hanging against him limply.
The two men carefully maneuvered the sleeping child between them, careful not to wake her.
“I think you’re her favorite too. She’s asking me about her unci Harv almost every day,” John said, voice low.
+++
“Oh come on… did that really happen?” Alex murmured, grinning into her beer sheepishly.
“I remember it like it was yesterday.” Harvey said thoughtfully. “My little girl. Look how big you’ve gotten!” He reached over and tousled her hair.
“What! Stop that! Don’t touch the hair, old man!” she slapped him away, making a hissing noise.
“Some things never change,” he said, raising one finger to underline his words.
“Yea, I know… remember that one time when I was like 15? You helped JJ build that shed at our house and spent every free hour with us for a month or so.”
“How could I forget about that… I still got that scar from the nailgun on my foot.”
+++
“Uncle Harvey?” Alex grinned broadly.
“What do you want?”
“Can you buy us some beer?”
“You know I’m a Cop, right?” Harvey raised an eyebrow at her.
“Yea, so?”
“You’re still a minor.”
“Yea, but I also was a minor last week and you bought me beer then too,” she grinned a toothy grin at him, knowing full well he wouldn’t be able to say no to her.
---
They went to the store and quickly got a sixpack for Alex and her ‘friend’ Luke who was already waiting for her outside.
“Thank you! You’re the best!” she hugged Harvey and pressed a quick kiss on his cheek. “I’ll be home… sometime before morning…” she shouted, as she ran off.
“Take care, Chou!” Harvey shouted after her, but she barely even heard him anymore.
---
2 Hours later, most of the beer was gone. Alex and Luke were on the back seat of his car, making out and doing some under the shirt stuff. She had recently found out she could get boys to do almost anything if she promised to let them under her shirt. When his hand went to her pants, she stopped him though. “Don’t,” she whispered.
“Come on, don’t be like that! Tyler said you let him into your pants too!” Luke protested, his hand wandering back to her pants.
“Well, Tyler is a big fat liar!” Alex said, slapping his hand away. She climbed out from under him and scooched away as far as the car would allow it, crossing her arms in front of her defensively.
“Don’t be such a prude!”
“I’m not a prude! I’m just… not ready yet,” she protested, pressing herself against the door when he came closer again.
“When will you be ready then?” He reached out for her and clumsily tried stroking her face.
“I don’t know! I’ll tell you, okay?” She pushed his hand away. “Take me home.”
“I don’t think so!” Luke said, coming closer and putting his arm around her again. His hand wandered to her breasts as he tried kissing her once more.
“Let…” she pushed his hand away again, “…me go!”
“I thought you loved me, Alex!” Luke feigned hurt.
“Yea, I thought you loved me too…” she reached behind her back and opened the door, almost falling out of the car as it opened.
“What are you doing?” He climbed out of the car as well, reaching for her arm.
“Going home. Let me GO!” She broke free of his grip and angrily started walking into the darkness.
“Fucking bitch!” he shouted, tossing an empty bottle after her.
Alex stumbled, trying to avoid being hit. She fell over her own feet and hissed as her hands and knees scraped over the rough gravel. “Oww!”
Luke didn’t even hear her. He had gotten into the drivers’ seat and started the engine. “I’ll tell everyone what a fucking whore you are!” he shouted through the rolled down window as he drove past her, hitting the gas just right so the wheels sprayed a shower of gravel at her.
“Oww! Fucking asshole!” Alex shouted, protecting her face with her arms.
Luke had driven them to a forest track a few minutes out of town. She knew how to get home. It wasn’t even that far, still she was scared. It was late at night and she was all alone in the middle of the forest. Alex looked after the quickly fading backlights and started walking.
---
It didn’t take her long to get back into town but the closer she got to her house, the slower she walked. Her mum had always been a bit of a weirdo. What had started as an adorable kind of weird, was more and more turning into outright lunacy. According to her siblings, it was getting worse with each year that passed, ever since their father had died.
Last time Alex had come home drunk, her mum had completely freaked out, shouted at her for almost 30 minutes and then ran off out of the house and not come back before the next afternoon. Today, Alex was bleeding on top of having drunk… she couldn’t bear the thought of having that same drama again.
The lights in the living room were off but the TV flared brightly with some show her mum was watching. Alex tiptoed around the house, the soft grass muffling her steps. If the back door was still open, she could sneak upstairs.
The back porch light was out, but the light in the kitchen was on and shone brightly through the window. Harvey sat in the half dark, drinking.
“Home already, Chou?” Harvey said, taking a deep swig of his beer.
“Shhh…” Alex whispered. “Mum can’t see me…”
“Why not? She’ll be happy you’re home early.” Harvey lowered his voice as well.
“I… “
“Did anything happen?” The old wooden bench creaked, as Harvey got up.
“No… yes… I...” Despite desperately wanting to just go to bed and never come back out again, she found herself sitting down on the stairs to the porch.
“What did that imbecile do? I’m going to kill him!” Harvey growled.
“Nothing…” Alex whispered. Hastily she wiped away the single tear that ran down her cheek.
Harvey sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder.
She sunk down into herself now that she was home safely. “He… he… he tried to… “ She couldn’t say it. And she didn’t need to.
“Let me get my gun…” Harvey moved to get up, reaching for the banister. He wasn’t in his prime anymore.
+++
“That was uncalled for!” Harvey interjected.
Alex shrugged. “It’s not a lie though.”
+++
“No! He didn’t do anything…” Alex grabbed his hand, holding him back, forcing him to sit back down. This must be what it felt like to have a father, she realized.
“I should make a necklace out of his balls for even trying…”
Or maybe this was even better than having a father. Alex chuckled through her tears. “You said balls.”
Harvey snorted. “Sometimes I forget how young you still are.”
“Everyone is young, compared to you,” she teased.
“That’s no way to talk to your elders!” he scolded, tousling her hair.
“Nooo! Don’t touch the hair!” she slapped his hand away.
+++
“See! You should know by now how I hate when you do that!” Alex said, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Of course I know you hate it.” Harvey shrugged. “That’s why I enjoy doing it.”
“It’s so unfair, how you know all my weaknesses.”
“It’s what happens when someone practically raises you.”
“Did I ever thank you for that, by the way?” Alex looked at him earnestly.
“No need to thank me. I couldn’t well leave you with your whackjob of a mother,” he shrugged.
“Well… thanks anyways… I mean…”
“Don’t you go all soft on me now.”
“I’m not going soft… I just wanted to try to be nice for a change. If you don’t like it, I can go back to being a brat,” she stuck her tongue out at him to underline her words.
“Suits you much better,” he quickly snapped a picture of her beauty and grace. “Jim is going to love that!”
“No! Don’t show him that… He can’t… He’ll never like me if you show him that.”
“Sometimes you make me wonder how someone as bright as you can be so blind at the same time…”
“Well, I’ve learned from the best.”