hurt | luke hemmings

21

Twenty One

"Mom, this is Kenzie and Alex," Luke introduced us to the older woman who stood in our doorway. "Kenzie, Alex, this is my mom, Liz," he said. I already knew most things about her. To calm my anxiety Luke told me about her. Her name was Liz, she loved photography and did that for a living, and Luke said she was his rock. He obviously cared about her a lot, and that was a good thing in my opinion.

"It's nice to meet you both," Liz smiled and Alex grinned happily.

"Does that mean you're our grandma since your dad's mom?" Alex chirped and Liz smiled.

"If you would like to call me grandma you can," she grinned at Alex and Alex nodded happily, rushing over and tackling her in a hug.

"Would you like to see my cars?" he asked.

"I would love to," she exclaimed with excitement. And with that, Alex was pulling her into the next room which was a relief to me. As they sat in the living room, Alex showing her every single car, I sat at the island drinking my third cup of coffee. It was still pretty early, but honestly I didn't feel like trying to look or feel nice today. I wore baggy gray sweatpants, a white and brown striped baby tee, and kept my hair pulled into a low bun.

"Doing ok?" Calum whispered and I nodded. He kissed the top of my head then sat down next to me. "Ashton said you watched X-Men yesterday, what did you think?" He changed the topic.

"I liked it," I answered.

"Favorite character?"

"Rogue or wolverine, how about you?"

"Wolverine for sure," he said and I nodded.

"Have you seen Avengers?" he questioned and I shook my head. "Then we're watching that next, it's amazing,"

"Alright," I nodded in agreement. For the rest of the morning Calum continued to talk to me, getting my mind off of having someone else here.

Luke

"She hates me, doesn't she?" mom questioned as we sat in my room later as I helped her bring her suitcase up.

"No, she just gets nervous around adults," I explained, "it has nothing to do with you. There is a lot going on it her mind, like court tomorrow,"

"Are you ready to be a parent?" she changed the topic. To that, I lightly smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I think I am,"

"They really love you Luke, and Alex is such a sweetheart," she told me and I chuckled.

"He is the sweetest kid ever, I call him my cuddle bug," I said, making her smile. "And Kenzie is the kindest kid ever, so selfless and creative. I hope you'll get to see that side of her before you leave,"

"I hope I do too, but we have our whole lives to see that," she added and I nodded.

"You can stay in my room, I'll stay on the couch or with Alex or Kenzie,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," I nodded quickly. "I'll let you get settled in," I said and she nodded. I left the room and automatically went over to Kenzie's and knocked on the door. She told me to come in, so I entered and saw her reading in her bean bag chair. "Doing alright?"

"Yeah, just trying to ease my mind," she answered and I nodded as I sat down on her bed. She moved off of the beanbag and sat down next to me, leaning against me after putting her book down.

I put my arm around her and kissed the top of her head, "I love you, Kenzie bug,"

"I love you too," she lightly smiled.

"Everything is going to work out tomorrow, and if it doesn't I won't stop until it is," I promised her and she nodded. I know she has heard that a million times, but it was the truth. I wasn't going to stop until I knew that her and Alex were safe and better, I loved these two more than anything in the world. No one would stop me from protecting them.