Closer 2

145.

Brett saw Ray come in with Elise holding his hand. It was still very obvious that Ray had gotten a beating to the nose and seeing it made him frustrated again. She knew not to hit anyone!

"Come on, baby, what did you want to ask baba?" Ray prompted Elise who were trying to hide behind him, only barely peeking out to look baba.

"C... Can I have... Sharkie... please?" she asked quietly with a tremble on her voice. Brett sighed, and took off his glasses to rub his face. He was still so frustrated with her, still pretty angry though his anger had shifted towards himself because clearly he was doing something wrong. Kids don't just turn bad on their own.

"Did you apologize to uncle Ray for hitting him?" Brett asked, firmly but not angry like his tone had been before. Unfortunately that was all that was needed for Elise to start crying again. He sighed with frustration just as Eddy came back into the living room after checking on Aiden.

Ray squatted down to Elise's height again and carefully reached out to wipe her tears.
"Shh, babygirl, that's nothing to cry about," he said softly, and Emise walked into him for a hug which he let her do. "Baba just wants you to say 'I'm sorry' because you were hitting before. Because you know hitting is not allowed, don't you?"

Elise nodded a bit as she cried into uncle Ray's shoulder. She knew that wasn't allowed, but she didn't understand what they wanted her to do. At least not until uncle explained.

"Can you say 'I'm sorry for hitting', then?" Ray asked her again, stroking her back a bit. He felt bad for the distraught little girl.

"I'm s... sorry," Elise sobbed, hugging uncle Ray like he'd disappear if she let go. Brett quietly walked over and grabbed the shark he had tossed sway earlier off the floor. He was relieved she ended up actually apologizing.

"It's okay, baby, let's just not do that anymore, hm?" Ray said with a smile, wiping her tears.

Elise nodded, sniffled a bit, and turned to see baba with Sharkie in his hand. She didn't want to ask again, worried what he would say, so she just looked up at uncle as he stood up in the hope he would ask for her. Turned out it wasn't necessary, though.

"Here, Li-Li, you can have Sharkie back," baba said softly, squatting down and offering it to her. She hesitated before letting uncle go to go get it. "Can baba have a hug too?"

Elise didn't really want a hug from baba, but because she didn't want him to yell at her again she gave him a hug anyway. She pulled away as soon as possible, taking Sharkie with her and retreated back to the safety of uncle's side.

"You ready to go to the park now?" uncle asked, picking his favourite little princess up in his arms and kissing her cheek to make her giggle. It worked.

"Yeahhh!" she grinned, hugging uncle and Sharkie from her safe position on his arm.