Chapter 329: 2-2

. . . Grant Lawson POV The love of my life was asleep on the bed next to me, she began stretching out, a small moan released, “Mhmm… baby… are you okay?” she rubbed at her face, squinting in the low light she glanced at the clock, “Did you sleep?” she mumbled. I nodded, but still, “Not really, I was just… I couldn’t shut my mind off,” I sighed. “It’ll be alright,” she said curling up to my side. “It’s not just that, we’ve been here for nearly a month, but I can’t understand what Pat thought he was doing… I mean Julia, he totally abandoned his children for Amelia and Sarah, I know that they miss him, but there isn’t any anxiety from the decision to stay here. He could be here with them, learning just how special these two children are,” I tried to explain the chaos of thoughts that often kept me awake. Julia just listens, her hand on my lower stomach, “You feel guilty?” she whispered, “He’s missing too much and I’m afraid of what happens when we go back. I feel like he’s losing them… I feel like they’ve changed so much – it’s for the better – but when they go back, he’s going to be expecting the two children he lost, but Oakley has grown so much, Ben is actually thriving. I feel like everyone is going to truly be furious with our decisions-” “They weren’t in our position, and we didn’t put ourselves here. Pat would be here if he had done the right thing by sending Amelia and Sarah away, and focused on his daughter. We were in that car because he made Oakley make a decision. You saw that tape Grant; she was so defeated she knew in her heart he wouldn’t be whom she needed,” she paused, lifting her head up, “All we can do is support them here, you see the changes in Oakley because she’s finally letting you in, she has a bad days but there’s finally some balance. She wasn’t in a good situation, she was flourishing academically, but mentally she was falling apart right before our eyes. Emotionally, she couldn’t handle anymore and she physically tried to take her life,” she whispered. Normally we didn’t speak about such things in the house around the kids, especially with their hearing but this conversation I was going to have right now, just about broke me. After attending the gathering the night before, watching Chelsea and Gabriel handle conflicts was mesmerizing, and so out of the norm. Here was this child – and I didn’t mean it in any way demeaning her authority but – probably weighed a hundred and ten pounds wet, seemingly delicate ordering around grown men and women. And not just grown men but I had come to learn that while Marlon appeared to be forty years old, he was nearly three or four times that age. But the respect they gave Chelsea, despite being her elder, was baffling, yet witnessing her last night, how she handled her authority I understood finally. “I’m proud of her now though…” I said by way of answering, Julia’s comment, “Really thought that if she was attacked for any reason, with such high self hate she wouldn’t defend herself, but to hear that she did,” I smiled, my cheeks hurting, as Julia giggled next to me, “I used to think Ben and Oakley were alike but the more I see Oakley with Chelsea,” she chuckled. I sighed, “thank you,” I murmured kissing her forehead; my mind had cleared for a moment. I sat up,  “you know, these early morning runs and working out, have already started to slowly pay off,” she teased as I took my shirt off, shrugging off from the bed to change into my running gear. Chuckling, I don’t take the bait, “Yeah, Chelsea said it would keep his wolf calm, as well as burn energy now since he has so much of it… factor in the sweltering heat that rockets around 9am,” I dressed, getting my shoes on. “Are you going to bring someone with you?” she asked sitting up now against the head, “You know like someone in case he wolfs out on you?” I shake my head. “No, they already said to do it slow and don’t try to make matters worse, just let him handle and deal with the information,” I repeated what Marlon advised. She nodded sadly, “I do think this is the best though, getting ahead of it before it spirals out so bad that both those children end up hurt.” I nodded, “Damn shame what they did with Kieran though, teasing that kid,” I shook my head, chuckling when I remembered last night, both Chelsea and Oakley laughing. The look on Kieran’s face, “What did they do before I got home?” I asked using my chin to point in the direction of Oakley’s room. Julia started laughing, “That poor kid, doesn’t stand a chance, she’s reading to him, joking and he is just staring at her Grant, I mean I can’t read his mind or nothing, but I don’t think he knows what to make of Oakley.” I just smiled back, it had been a while since someone had a good memory of Oakley or laughed happily when mentioning her. “Hey Uncle Grant you ready?” Ben called – awake – on the opposite side of the door, and instantly my heart sank. “Yeah let’s go,” I said back not needing to shout, he could hear me just right. “It’ll be fine,” Julia said encouraging me. Standing I approached our bed, leaning down to kiss her, once, twice, I sighed pulling away and met Ben downstairs. Entering the code, Ben and I left the house, “I thought instead of running we could walk along the beach, and then if you want run back,” I offered nonchalantly. “Sure,” he nodded shrugging. “Thought you’d bring your ball?” I noted even though I knew from Chelsea that Ben had left it there the day before. I watched as the early morning light hitting the sea, shone the light against his face, his neck reddening. He shook his head looking away from me, but before he could do so fully I saw the small frown, “I left it with Kayla…” “Oh… does she like to play?” I asked interested, to see this from Ben’s perspective. He shrugged; “I don’t know… she didn’t know what soccer was yesterday but she played with me… sort of…” he turned back to me with his frown in place.