Sorry for the wait I've been busy with color guard and I need to finish my school work since I'm starting school tomorrow. Lesson for life don't procrastinate ugh. Also I have Alex's fan cast, Hayden Panettiere, if you haven't guessed from the story's picture. She actually is how I pictured Alex to look like. Anyways here's chapter two.

Update 9/27/17

As stated in the author's notes at the end of the first chapter I am reopening this story after five years, but I won't be editing chapters 1-3. Chapter 4 and beyond will be new ones. I hope you enjoy and I'd love to hear your thoughts so leave a review!

Chapter Two

Alex sat on the front porch steps of her uncle's house holding her stuffed rabbit in her hands, Jennifer lying next to her with her head on her paws, as she stared at the street in front of her. Every now and then a car would drive by and a smile would spread across her face, only to diminish as the cars kept on driving away. She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, an hour, maybe two, but she didn't want to go back in yet in case they came. Earlier that day she had gone across the street to go see the Mercers, wanting to play with Jack and possibly his brothers. But when she had rang the doorbell no one answered so she went back across the street to her house and sat on the front porch steps awaiting their return home. She stared at the house across the street, with her head in her hands propped up by her knees, as if it was her job.

She thought about going back inside when a car pulled up into the Mercer's drive way. Immediately she leapt from the steps and ran across the street just as the family was getting out of the car with a few groceries in their hands.

"Hello, Evelyn," Alex greeted the woman. Bobby and Jerry laughed when they saw Angel jump when Alex popped out of nowhere.

Evelyn smiled at the little girl. "Hello, Alex. How are you?" she asked, pulling out some more groceries from the back seat.

"I'm fine, how are you? Would you like some help?" Alex asked, seeing Bobby open up the trunk of the car revealing even more groceries.

"Why thank you, Alex. I'd love your help," Evelyn said, her smile growing.

Alex smiled and walked over to Bobby, almost skipping to him. She smiled up at the oldest Mercer brother. "Hello."

Bobby smiled down at her. "Hey, Cinderella, what's up? Come to lend a hand?" Alex nodded her head in reply. "Alright," he said, gesturing to the bags of groceries. "Pick a bag, any bag."

Alex grabbed one of the first bags she saw and followed Jerry and Angel into the kitchen where she found Jack helping Evelyn putting away the food items in the fridge and pantry.

"Jack!" Alex said happily.

Jack turned around, a frightened look on his face when he heard his name. He saw Alex skip over to him with a large smile on her face. He backed away quickly hiding behind Evelyn's legs.

Alex gave him an upset look as Bobby walked in with the rest of the groceries. He looked down at Alex then looked over at Jack.

"Hey, Jack, why don't you, me, and Alex go play outside?" he suggested, making Alex's face light up.

"You'll play with us? Really?" she said excitedly.

"Sure, why not?" Bobby said, smiling down at her as he placed the bags onto the kitchen counter. "We can even get Jerry and Angel to join."

"Yay!" Alex said jumping up and down. She turned to Jack who was being ushered by Evelyn to move out from behind her legs. "Want to play with us, Jack?"

Jack looked from the girl in front of him, to Bobby, then up to his mother, who smiled at him.

"Go have fun sweetie," his mother said.

Jack slowly walked over to Alex, whose smile grew bigger.

"Let's go outside!" Alex said, holding out her hand for him to take. She frowned when he didn't, but shrugged it off as he followed her outside. "Are you coming, Bobby?" she asked the seventeen year old.

"I'll meet you two out there. You get Jerry and Angel to play though, they're outside already," he replied.

"Okie dokie!"

Evelyn smiled as her new son followed the little girl out the door. She turned to her oldest son. "Bobby, will you… What's wrong?" she asked seeing the scowl on his face.

"I don't get how anyone could have treated such a small kid so badly. He hasn't even said one word since he's joined the family, it's been almost a month," Bobby said, his voice getting louder and louder.

"I know, Bobby, but at least he's now with us where he'll be safe and loved," was the reply he got from his mother.

"I think Alex might break him out of his shell," he said with a smile.

"I think so too," she said. "Why don't you go outside and play with them, I'll finish putting the groceries away."

"Alright," Bobby said as he went out the door.

ooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOoo

Bobby sat in the living room watching TV, flipping through channels while the two six year olds played outside. Angel had gone to see some friends while Evelyn and Jerry went back to the store to get some food they forgot to buy earlier. He finally settled on something to watching, having found a hockey game, when Jack came running into the room with a terrified look on his face.

Bobby sat up in his seat. "What's wrong, Jackie?" A thought came to mind as he asked that. "Where's Alex?" Bobby practically jumped out of his seat as he ran out the door, Jack following as fast as his little legs could carry him, and found Alex sitting on the driveway crying while holding her knee. "What happened?"

"I-I tr-tripped and fell," she sobbed.

Bobby moved her hands from her knee and saw that it had been scuffed up and bleeding. "Oh boy, that looks bad. Come on," he said, picking her up and carrying her into the kitchen, setting her down on the counter. He started to look around for a towel to wet to clean her knee when he saw Jack shuffle into the room, looking down at his feet. "Hey, it's alright, Jackie. Alex is going to be okay. You did the right thing and got me," he said with a soft smile. Jack looked up at him with sad, scared eyes and nodded his head slightly in understanding.

After cleaning the blood off, disinfecting the wound, and bandaging Alex's knee Bobby lifted her off the counter with her still sniffling. "Hey, don't be sad. You're all better. You're strong for your age," he said with a smile.

"R-really?" Alex asked, rubbing her eyes of excess tears.

"Yeah," Bobby said with a chuckle. "How about some ice cream?"

"Ice cream?" Alex said, her eyes lighting up just a tad at the thought of the sweet, cold treat.

"Why not? I think we could all use some," Bobby said. He turned to Jack who was sitting in the dining and had been observing Bobby take care of Alex. "How about you, Jackie? Do you want some ice cream?"

Jack looked up at his eldest brother with curious eyes. He nodded his head slightly, uncertain if 'yes' was the correct answer.

Bobby smiled. "Alright, you two just sit where Jack is already, and I'll fix us up some bowls of ice cream."

After five minutes Bobby brought three bowls of vanilla ice cream out to the dining room where the two six year olds sat quietly awaiting their treat. The three ate in silence, the only sound being the spoons clanging against the bowls. Bobby would look from Alex to Jack smiling at how the little girl would smile with each bite and Jack would try to hide his smile as he ate his. There had to be some way to get his younger brother to speak.

"Thank you for the ice cream, Bobby," Alex said cheerfully just as Evelyn came in with Jerry, along with Angel having just picked him up on their way home, groceries in hand yet again.

"Bobby, did you open up the carton of ice cream I just bought?" Evelyn scolded her son as she walked into the dining room having heard what Alex just said along with seeing the now empty bowls of ice cream.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Bobby said, sliding his bowl behind his back with a smile.

Evelyn rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Honestly Bobby," she said as Jerry and Angel laughed.

Alex got up and walked into the kitchen, bowl in hand. "Where do you want me to put this?" she asked Angel.

Angel looked down with a chuckle. "I'll take it for you," he answered.

"Thank you!"

Angel took the bowl, as he did he noticed the band aid on her knee. "What happened to your knee, Alex?"

The question caught Evelyn's attention and she immediately came over to the little girl. She narrowed her eyes at the band aid with some blood stained on the cushioned part. "Bobby! What happened?"

"Calm down, Ma. Alex just scraped her knee is all," Bobby replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

"How did it happen?"

"She fell."

She pursed her lips when she heard cheering coming from the living room. She walked into the little room to find that the hockey game Bobby had been watching earlier was never turned off. "Were you watching a hockey game instead of watching Alex and Jack?" she said nearly shouting.

Bobby sighed. "Yes. Sorry, Ma," Bobby said. "I didn't think anything would happen."

"Well obviously you thought wrong," she said with a stern voice. She looked at the clock on the oven. "Alex, do you want to stay for dinner?"

"Thank you, but I wanted to have dinner with Uncle Marvin," she said with a happy grin. "He said we were going to have pizza tonight!"

Bobby, Jerry, and Angel laughed as Evelyn smiled. "Alright sweetie, it was nice seeing you today. Will one of you boys walk Alex across the street?"

"I'll do it, Ma," Bobby said, hoping it would somewhat redeem his mistake of not watching the kids. "Want to come with, Jack?"

Jack looked at Bobby then at Alex. He slowly got up from his seat in the dining room, which he had yet to leave, and walked over to Bobby.

The three walked across the street, the street lamps starting to flicker on down the street as the sky got darker by the minute. Alex walked up the steps of her porch and turned around to face the two brothers before opening the door.

"Thank you for playing with me today! I had fun!" Alex said, waving energetically.

"No problem. I had fun too," Bobby said with a chuckle.

Jack waved at Alex with a smile clear on his face as the little girl walked into her house.

Well, I hope you enjoyed chapter two. I had fun writing it along with the fact that I was singing along to the Tangled soundtrack as I wrote the first half. Sorry if it seems short, like I said I have to finish my summer work and it's already eleven at night here. I promise I'll update sooner next time I have so many ideas in my head for this story along with other things I'm writing. I hope you stick around 'til the end. Leave a review.