AN: I decided to drag this all out into a unrelated series on Jack. Thank you: StormShadow, TeacherTam, AbbyMercer, No Longer Malicious and pwrhungryjr for all of your kind reviews! This idea just happend to come to me while driving home so I hope you guys enjoy. And please review. Many thanks.

Bring Your Parent To School Day
Jack never really called her mother. He just stood there. Hovering in the doorway. She always marveled at how quiet he was. He could be somewhere for hours and not make a sound. He could be hungry for days and never open his mouth for food. He had been hurting for so long and he never once even brought it up. He just kind of went with the flow. He had drifted into the Mercer household like a ghost. That's really the only word that would properly describe the pale-faced child. He hovered over the rooms occasionally. He would sometimes walk into Bobby's room -as Evelyn had been eagerly informed- randomly and just stand there. He wouldn't speak. Just stand. And Bobby- even being the seventeen year old prick he was known to be- never would turn him away. Sometimes Jack would stand up and watch the whole of whatever tv program Bobby had on. Just stand there. Never once sitting down on the ground or bed. Just stand.

Angel liked playing around with Jack. Football. Baseball. Racing. Tag with the neighborhood kids. He had purposely let Jack win a race once. He threw the baseball just that much slower when Jack was on the receiving end.

Jack never talked about what happened before. Although Evelyn had to drive to his fourth grade classroom numerous times because he had broken down for no apparent reason. There was a reason though. See, apparent would be the operative in that sentence. Evelyn could guess what happened to him. It had taken him a year and a half before he had begun wearing short sleeve shirts. Two years before he would play tackle football with the boys. In fact, it had been two years before he would go outside. For the first week or two he cried anytime anyone attempted to touch him. Had a full on panic attack. She had, had to explain to his kind-faced fourth grade teacher why, while Jack sat outside, huffing and puffing, clenched fists and all. He tried to seem tough. Clenching his fists so tight that his knuckles would turn white and then he would look at her. His blue eyes were widened and vulnerable...as usual.

At first she wasn't sure he would make it. When Bobby had come to her he punched several holes in various walls around the house. When Jerry had gotten to her he would steal food and hoard it in his room for the longest time. Angel refused to talk to anyone for the first month of being in the Mercer household. They had eventually come around though. That mattered. Jack though...she wasn't certain he would come around.

For one thing, he had never called Evelyn mother. He didn't acknowledge that he may've had parents before. That his parents had left him and pushed him into the hands of various people. He never even asked about them. It was almost as if he wanted Evelyn to be his real mother so he didn't have to face the fact that his parents had indeed left him. He never said it though. He never really addressed her in fact. They all could just assume that anytime Jack opened his mouth it was meant for Evelyn, because it was. He had never really called her mother. He just kind of stood there. A ghost in the kitchen doorway. "Hi jack," she pulled two eggs from the fridge and he dropped his backpack, letting it fall into the wall, "I was just starting to make a cake. Chocolate. You wanna help?"

He nodded absently although he remained standing there. She figured although he hadn't advanced to help...he hadn't backed away either...which counted for something. "There's this thing," she could never understand how Jack's voice could be so small. So young. She forgot sometimes how young he really was, "bring your parent's to school day. To talk about their work," he didn't exactly ask. He just said that. His eyes glued to her as if she were preparing to discover the cure to cancer.

"Well then," she placed both hands on her hips. An index finger on her chin, "I guess I'll just have to clear my calender Jackie boy, won't I?"

He kind of smiled before he left. Just like that. He had just turned around and left as if he hadn't even been there at all. He was a ghost. A ghost that had lived in her house for two and a half years already without even once calling her mother. "Guess we gotta start somewhere, huh, Jack?" she questioned herself, cracking one egg and dropping it into her bowl. Even if he didn't call her mother just yet...this was a start. A slow one...but a start nonetheless.

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