She walked into her house on Friday night expecting to find things like they normally are when she came home on Fridays. Usually her son was excited and bouncing off the walls. Usually all his homework was done and he was ready for movie night. Unfortunately that is not what she walked into this time. Nate greeted her quickly and looked like he was two seconds away from pulling his hair out. "I don't know what's wrong but he refuses to talk to me about it. We were working on his homework when he just broke down and started crying. He has been switching between anger and tears all afternoon. I didn't want to call you because I knew you were working. I'm sorry sis, I can't figure out what's going on."
"Nate, it's okay. I'm sorry bud, go ahead and go, enjoy your Friday night. I'll take care of this, oh and here's your pay for this week. I love you." She hugged him tightly and walked slowly into the living room where there were things thrown all over the place and followed the mess to her son's room. "Oliver?" She asked in a calm voice. "Baby boy, what's up?" She stepped into his room and found him curled in a ball on his bed with tears coming down his face. She approached him and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Mom, I don't want to talk about it." He said bravely wiping away his tears. "I know it will make you sad."
"It's okay honey, I want to know if it's making you sad, I can handle a little sadness." She said rubbing his back.
"It's not okay mommy." He said growling at her. Her brother was right, he was definitely swinging between anger and sadness. "I don't want to make you sad."
She watched him as he stood up on his bed and kicked his pillow across the room. She had never seen him take his anger out by hitting things but she figured it must be something really bad if he was pushed to do that. She picked him up and held him tight and he started to cry again. What is going on? Suddenly he pushed her away and walked into the living room and screamed loudly scaring the crap out of her. Was he throwing a tantrum? She watched as he picked up a toy and threw it. As he threw it, it crashed into a lamp pushing it on the floor and shattering it. She grabbed him quickly and took him back to his room. "Honey stop!" She said getting his focus. "What is wrong with you?"
"Mommy I'm sorry." He said switching back to sadness. She was going to call the school. She made him lay down and heard frantic banging on her door. Her neighbors no doubt, waiting to tell her to keep it down. She ignored it for a second while she walked to the kitchen to get a broom to sweep her way through the living room so she didn't cut her foot open. The banging continued loudly and she wanted to curse at whoever was on the other side of it.
"Kate! Open up or I'm coming in!" She heard him on the other side of the door. Kiba. She sighed and cracked the door. He looked at her with a worried expression. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," She said not opening the door further.
"Is there something going on? I heard the crash and the scream." Kiba said squinting at her.
"Everything is okay. Oliver is throwing a tantrum but won't tell me why he's upset." She said quietly.
"Let me talk to him." Kiba offered.
"No, absolutely not." She told him. "We don't need your help!"
Kiba heard the crash and the scream and raced upstairs. Sure they had been ignoring each other but the scream sounded like her kid and he was worried about them. What if someone had forced their way in and was now murdering them? When she didn't answer, his panic rose. When she did answer but wouldn't open up he felt like she was hiding something and his hackles rose. He just wanted to be sure there wasn't someone in the house beating them. He'd seen enough domestic violence cases go bad to walk away without checking on her. "This is going to sound crazy but…" Kiba paused, "There's not anyone else in there with you is there?"
"What?" She looked genuinely confused.
"Look, I'm a cop, I just want to make sure there's not anyone controlling you and beating you in there. Please just let me do my cop thing okay? I just want to do a quick check on you and him."
"Seriously? No." She said trying to shut the door but he stopped her.
"I have had a few really bad experiences with domestic violence cases. Please. For my peace of mind just let me make sure." He hated pleading with people but he really was worried about her.
She sighed deeply and backed up, "Fine, but you get 5 minutes to do your thing and there's a broken lamp on the floor so if you get cut it's your fault and don't bleed all over my house."
