Walking through the courtyard my thoughts wander back to years before, to a time before I hurt her, before I left her all alone, to a time when she still loved me. I can still feel her lips on mine, the way her breath so warm and sweet felt against my skin moments before our lips would meet. I never should have left her, it was a mistake and I clearly see that now. Aiden is the only reason I'm happy I left. I may not have the type of relationship with him that I want but it's more than I had with my father. I regret allowing my ever-present feelings for Rose allow Tasha to leave not me but our son. She left a broken six-year-old behind, all because I couldn't convince myself that I could and did love her. "You can't beat me Blaze. Do you not remember earlier in the week?" Yells a voice off in the woods, changing direction I walk into the woods. Turning the corner I watch as Alex stares at the kid from earlier in the week, her fist clenched.

His hand twitches as he balls it up, "You got lucky Hathaway." Her jaw tightens and I almost miss seeing her punch, it's thrown that fast. Her stance and movements are still sloppy and I shake my head and move forward just as Blaze throws a punch hitting her in the eye. The anger inside her intensifies; her fist connects with his nose. His blood flies everywhere just as I move in to break it up she lands a blow to his stomach.

"I do not get lucky Blaze. I can just kick your butt." My hand lands around her arm as I pull her back before she can kick him again. I look down at Blaze and wince, the kid is pretty messed up.

"Blaze" His eyes meet mine when I say his name. "You have two options; the first is I can report this incident and you both will receive punishment. The second option entitles no one else finding out about this. Which option do you prefer?"

"The…the first one." Alex laughs as he stammers out his answer. I jerk my head telling him to leave while tightening my hold on Alex, not to the point of hurting her though. He jumps up and runs out the woods,

"Let go of me!" She jerks away from my hold and stares at me. She's a little Rose. No matter how many times I'm faced with this realization I can't help but still be taken aback.

"Do you want to tell me how much trouble you are in?"

A smile lights her face as she stares at me. I can see the wheels turning in her head as she looks up at me. "I don't know. How much did you see?" I shake my head and grab her hand.

"Let's go."

"Go where?"

"Gym"

She tries to snatch away but I'm expecting it this time. "I'm not going to the gym. I don't care who you are. I'm going to eat."

I stay silent and practically drag her to the gym. Once we reach the track I let go of her. "Run."

"No"

"Now Hathaway or I'll have you expelled from this school so fast you won't know what happened. Do you understand me?" She doesn't answer but instead starts to jog. "I said run not jog. Full speed until I say otherwise." She speeds up but she still isn't full speed. The farther around the track she goes, the slower she is.

Once she reaches me she stops. "I…can't…do…this." She stammers out between breaths.

"Come on Hathaway. You sound out of breath. You mom never said 'can't'." She glares at me.

"No I've got more." With that she's off again. I watch her and this time she gets further before slowing down.

She runs a couple more laps before I yell for her, "Alright Mini you can stop now. That's enough for today." She shakes her head and I watch in amazement as she starts another lap. "Don't shake your head at me Hathaway, I said stop. You're going to hurt yourself."

She slows down and stops in front of me. "It's not like you care. You only act like you do because you like my mom." I shake my head at her.

"I do care Alex. If I didn't care then I never would have volunteered to help you. Do you think I would waste my time trying to help someone I didn't care about?"

"You just want my mom back. It shouldn't be hard to win her over. You don't have to act like you care about me, she loves you."

I kneel infront of her hoping it'll get my point across better. "I care about you Alex, not because you're a mini Hathaway. I want to help you because I believe you could be a great guardian one day. I want to help you because I think you have talent, it just needs to be controlled. I'm helping you because I don't want you to have the past your mom does."

"Okay." I almost shake my head at her simple answer but I refrain knowing Rose was exactly the same way. "Can I go eat now? I'm starving."

I laugh and shake my head, watching her walk off in the direction of the cafeteria. She most definitely is the daughter of Rose Hathaway. She runs for an entire practice and all she's worried about is food.