Disclaimer I own nothing much less this T.V show
It had been a few weeks since Cate had met Lux's family. She didn't know what to do. Lux had been getting into trouble at school and she hasn't made any new friends. At all. Bug her boyfriend was very friendly and polite, she had found that he was very intelligent and liked to read books that were a much higher reading level than she would have expected. It was something that she had in common with him. Bug was being to get along with Baze as well; they often worked on cars and motorcycles together.
Natasha she found wasn't as bad as she made her out to be, she wasn't a thief as she first thought especially after the whole ring fiasco. But she had realized that Natasha was just trying to protect Lux from getting hurt.
"Hey Cate! Can Tasha sleepover tonight, her foster parents are drunk again!" yelled Lux from the front door. Cate stuck her head out from the kitchen to see Lux with her arm wrapped around Natasha. She flinched when she saw Natasha face, most of the right side was purple and turning a nasty yellowish green.
"Oh shit Natasha…ok you two didn't hear me say that. Come here Natasha, sit down." Cate moved and grabbed her arm but was surprised when she yelped and pulled away from her, fear clearly shown in her eyes. She jumped and hid behind Lux, peaking over Lux's shoulder at her.
"Cate don't ever just grab one of us…ever. Being grabbed means a beating. Let's go upstairs Natasha you can get changed and lay down. I'll bring you up your favorite cherry pie and green tea, does that sound ok?" Natasha nodded and let herself be led upstairs; Cate could hear some shifting and bustling.
Finally Lux came down stairs, "Cate have you got any Advil and a raw steak?" Cate watched muted as Lux pulled out ingredients for a pie, and watched silently as she cooked a cherry pie.
"You can cook?" she muttered.
"Yea, the guys could only cook simple meals, but Natasha is the best cook." Lux bustled around the kitchen, and put some water to boil with tea bag in it.
"When did we get all this food?"
"I went shopping, I knew Natasha would come over sometime and I figured that Natasha would like something."
"Do you know what…happened to her?"
"Yea her foster parents were drunk and they hit her when she asked where their son was, because she was worried about what happened to him because he is so young. So they hit her and yelled at her for demeaning their parenting skills." Lux looked down, "It not as bad as it has been, I think the worst out of all of us would probably have been me… let's see a broken arm sprained wrist and several scratches down my arms and a black eye."
Cate stared "Why?" she choked out.
"I spoke out of turn. Worst part was he wasn't even drunk." She smiley ruefully, "It was hell, and I lived through it. But Natasha is still in it."
They jumped when they heard the ding from oven signaling that the pie was ready.
"Cate can you take the pie out of the oven, don't burn yourself." Lux walked out of the kitchen to the phone where she called Gavin telling him what had happened and where Natasha was.
Cate had successfully taken the pie out of the oven and was pouring the tea into a black mug that she had never seen before. She stared at it blankly and the shaky words written on the cup that said 'To Mama Love Tasha'. She looked up and saw Natasha standing in the door.
"I made that for my Mom for her birthday when I was little. It the last thing I have from her, the only thing the social workers would let me keep." The girl's hair was a mess and she could see tear stains on her cheeks.
"I-I…what happened to her?"
"My father happened they were yelling and I saw it all, he was drunk and she was weak. It didn't take long before he hit her hard enough to smack her against the wall where a rather large clock fell on her head breaking her skull…it was my sixth birthday." Cate saw Natasha look away, "He was sent to life imprisonment without parole I had no living relatives so they sent me to foster care, where I met Lux and life got a whole lot brighter."
"Natasha…I had no idea."
"I had it bad but I pulled through because I'm strong and because my sister was right there beside me."
"You had a sister?" Cate said shuddering at the idea of two kids going through that ordeal.
"I have a sister, and she is in that hallway right now telling Gavin to calm down and not go murder my foster father."
"Well right now your sister thinks that you should get back upstairs up to bed and have a nice big slice of cherry pie and a hot cup of green tea. " said Lux behind Natasha and nudging her to the stairs.
"Cherry Pie! Ok I'm going!" she bolted upstairs.
Cate stared at Lux then at the spot where the taller girl had stood, "I-I…"
"Save it Cate. You were going to find out anyway. Most likely not from me. She had hell thrown at her and she survived. I had hell thrown at me and I survived. We didn't commit suicide, we didn't join gangs we didn't kill or hold any hatred against anyone, unless in Tasha's case she didn't beg the judge to give him the chair like she could have done."
"Chair?"
"The electric chair."
"…oh…"
"We survived without anyone's help besides our brothers and boyfriends and each other." Lux grabbed a plate cut a huge piece finished up doing the tea and left her mother standing in the room mulling over the tragic past of the four kids.
