The Animal's Daughter

Chapter 10

*Alex's POV*

I sat on the couch with Graydon as we watched a movie. Victor left a while ago to go somewhere. Since it's Saturday and we've had a long boring week of school, we were glad to be able to relax.

I kept my promise to Wyatt. I stayed here a week. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. Despite having been punished once or twice, its kinda cool having a family. Yeah me and Graydon fight a bit and get in trouble for it, but its fun here. Even if Victor is strict.

We were pretty bored and wanted something to do. We decided to go play pool when the phone rang.
"Hello?" Graydon said as he answered it.
"Hey, kid. Where's Victor?" Logan asked from the other end.
"Not here."
"Shit... Send Alex over here."
"Ok." He said and hung up.
"What do you think he wants?" He asked me. I just shrugged my shoulders and got up.

Within a second or two I was back at the mansion. I walked in and was immediately tackled by Wyatt.
"You're back!"
"Yeah. Now get off." I told her.
"You can talk!" I rolled my eyes and pushed her off. She grabbed my hand and pulled me to the Professor's office. We went in to see Charles, Logan and some little kid.
"Hello, Alex. How are you?" Professor asked.
"Good, I guess. So why am I here?" I asked getting to the point. He chuckled and looked at the kid. I caught her scent and I knew.
"This is Gracie. She's 5 and-"
"My sister" I said interrupting him.
"Yes. I wanted to talk to Victor about her but since he was not at home I thought you could get her and tell him later." He said. I just nodded. Damn, how many kids does Victor have?

The kid was pretty small for her age. She had dirty blonde hair like me and brown eyes like Graydon.
"She's the sweetest little girl ever! Maybe she'll rub off on you." Wyatt said nudging me.
"Whatever. Come on, kid." She got up and grabbed her bag which I took from her and carried it. We walked out and before I knew it Gracie grabbed my hand and held it. I shook her off but she did it again. Wyatt elbowed me on the ribs.
"Let her hold your hand!"
"Why? It's weird!" She glared at me so I just gave in.

We got outside and I picked Gracie up and held her.
"Might want to close your eyes." I told her. I said bye to Wyatt and took off.
"You can open them now."
"Wow! How'd we get here so quick?" She said in amazement.
"I'm fast." I said setting her down. She grabbed my hand again as we went inside. We came in to see a pissed Victor.
"Where the hell were you? And where's Graydon?" He growled.
"Logan called and asked for me to come to the school to pick her up so I've been there and he was here when I left so I don't know." I explained. He looked at her and sighed.
"Dammit." He mumbled under his breath.

I lead her over to the couch. We sat down and he sat in his recliner.
"What's your name?" He asked. He was still a little mad and it scared her and he knows it.
"Gracie." She mumbled and tried to hide behind me. He sighed and went into the kitchen.
"Don't worry. He's not so bad once you get use to him. You just have to watch out when he's mad." I whispered. She gave me a small smile.
"Who's Graydon?" She asked.
"Our loser of an older brother." We talked for a while until Graydon finally showed up an hour later.
"Graydon get in here!" Victor yelled from the kitchen. I laughed a little and kept watching cartoons with Gracie as I listened to him getting in trouble. After getting yelled at for running off with no say so, he came and sat with us and talked to Gracie. She played with my hands which kinda scared me. I didn't want to hurt her.

After a while Victor came back and sat down in his chair. He kept looking over at me and Gracie. She didn't really notice it cause her eyes were glued to the TV. I don't even know what we are watching. No one really said anything until Victor's phone started ringing. He went outside but I could still hear the conversation.

He came back in and sat back down.
"I'm leaving late tonight for a mission. I'll be back early Monday morning." He said.
"Watch it be another mission where Alex killed everybody and they want her dead." Graydon laughed.
"Shut up. The last one was thr only time there were survivors." I told him. Gracie looked up at me kinda confused.
"No, we're going on a rescue mission." Victor said.

"Hey come on let's play some pool." Graydon said headed downstairs.
"I'm gonna beat your ass again." I said following him with Gracie by my side.
"You better watch your mouth!" Victor yelled. I just rolled my eyes since he couldn't see me.

I broke and the game was on. Gracie sat on a stool and watched us.
"Come here, kid. I'll show you how to play. I bet you could beat Graydon too." I said picking her up. He stuck his tongue out at us. I helped her line up and hit it. She pocketed it and another one.

Victor came down after a while and watched me and Gracie beat Graydon. After that Victor took the cue from him. I set the balls back up. He broke.It was a short and close game, but of course I won.

"How'd you get so good?" He asked setting them back up.
"Like I said before. The guards let us out sometimes. They taught me to play pool, poker, chess and other stuff. Well until Armstrong found out."
"Well, y'all play one more game then come upstairs for lunch." Victor said before he left. He's being cool today. Probably just because he doesn't want to scare Gracie anymore. I turned around to find her passed out on the couch clutching a toy bear. Graydon and I played again and he lost again. He pouted and went upstairs. I woke Gracie up and carried her to the kitchen. I set her down in a chair and she grabbed her a piece of pizza. I got a drink and was about to walk out but Victor wrapped his arm around my waist and picked me. He set me down near the island.
"You've hardly eaten all week and you look like a bean pole. Eat."
I gave in and grabbed some food.

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and getting Gracie more comfortable around us. Victor still scares her a little bit, but she'll actually go near him now. She even sat in his lap as we watched some movie. Well, until she fell asleep. He took her upstairs to my room. I said I would sleep on the couch until we cleared out the attic so I can can turn it into my room. Victor brought me a pillow and blanket when he came back down. He let us stay up late since it was the weekend but he's leaving soon so he told us to go to bed.

Graydon went upstairs and I went into the downstairs bathroom and changed into a tank top and a pair of shorts. I went and sat down on the couch and Victor was still in his chair.

"Why haven't you been sleeping?" He asked. I looked over at him with a questioning look.
"I know you haven't slept since you've been here. It's obvious." He told me. I just shrugged my shoulders and looked down. Back at the base, if I ever woke up the guards due to me screaming because of a nightmare, I got the hell beat out of me. I know Victor won't treat me like they did since I've read his mind, but I still don't want to talk about it.
"I don't know." I mumbled but, of course, he heard me. He sighed and looked at me while I kept my eyes on the floor. After a minute or so of silence he figured it out.

"You have nightmares, don't you?" I nodded. He got up and came and sat down next to me. He leaned forward so he could try to look me in the face but i kept my head down.
"It's ok. I use to have nightmares whenever I got out of a war. I still have them every once in a while. I know it's scary, but you can't just go on without sleeping." He said.

"I could try." I mumbled. I really don't want to talk about this. He laughed a little and tried to get me to look at him.

"No. You need to get some sleep. If you have a nightmare and rip the couch to shreds, it's ok. I want to help you, but I can only do that if you let me.... I'll tell you what, I'm going to call Stryker and tell him I'm going to skip this mission and I'm gonna stay here with you guys. So, get some sleep and if you have a nightmare, I'll wake you up. Alright?" I hesitated but I eventually nodded my head.

He rubbed my shoulder and went outside to call Stryker. He came back in a few minutes later. Stryker didn't seem to happy about him skipping the mission, but he said he understood that Victor wanted to be here. Victor went around and cut most of the lights off except for a small lamp on the table next to the stairs.

He said goodnight and went upstairs. I sighed and laid down. I wrapped the blanket around me but I couldn't get comfortable. I moved off the couch and laid on the ground. It felt better than the couch. I guess it's just because I'm use to sleeping on the floor. I curled up and closed my eyes and started to drift off to sleep. I hope Victor will remember what he said and wake me up.