By the time they'd reached the apartment, Joshua still hadn't said a word, and Olivia's worry grew even more when Joshua immediately went to his room and lay down on his stomach on the bed, burying his head in his pillow.

She followed him and perched on the side of Joshua's bed, gently rubbing his back. He flinched when her hand came into contact with his skin, and she stopped for a moment, puzzled. Had he thought she was going to hurt him? No, he'd been with her for three years and she had never raised a hand to him in all that time. And he'd been in trouble before, at school, at home, when he'd lied to her or been disrespectful, but he was generally a good kid, and he'd never before done something like this. Yes, that was it. He was afraid.

"I would never, ever hurt you, Josh," she whispered, kissing her son's cheek. "You know that. I'm just worried about you, honey. I need you to tell me what happened."

Joshua finally raised his head. "You're not – you're going to punish me?"

Olivia tried not to show him how relieved she was that he'd finally said something. "First, I need you to tell me what happened. But I need you to understand something, Joshua. If I decide that you did something wrong and you deserve a consequence, I won't hurt you. I might tell you that you can't watch television or I might take away one of your stuffed animals, but I will never hit you. Do you understand that?"

He seemed to be mulling this over, but after a few moments, he nodded.

"So sweetie, can you tell me what happened?"

Joshua burst into tears and crawled onto Olivia's lap. She sighed and wrapped her arms around her son. He hadn't done this in weeks, not since Alex had left, and before then, he'd been crying less and less too. Saying she was worried was an understatement.

"I hit Matteo," he managed to choke out through his tears. "I hurt him."

Olivia nodded, accepting this. "But why did you do it?"

"He was making fun of me because I have two mommies instead of a mommy and a daddy."

Olivia's heart constricted and she gently stroked her son's hair. "Oh, honey."

But Joshua wasn't done. "He said – you remember the article about Alex in the newspaper a few weeks ago? It said Alex was dead, but she's not, but he thought she was." When Olivia nodded, he continued, "Matteo said Alex was going to burn in hell and that was where she belonged. He called her a dyke." He looked up at Olivia. "What does that mean?"

"It's a bad word for when two women love each other instead of a man and a woman, Josh. We don't use that word."

He nodded. "I knew it was a bad word and he just kept saying it and I told him not to say that about Alex but he wouldn't stop, so I hit him." He burst into a fresh round of sobbing. "I'm sorry, Olivia! I'm sorry."

Olivia held him tightly. She didn't know what to say. Under the circumstances, she was pretty sure – no, she was positive – that she would have done the same thing. No one insulted Alex and got away with it. She knew it probably wasn't very good parenting, but she was proud of her son. Not because he'd given another eight-year-old a black eye, but because he'd stood up for Alex, and she couldn't fault him for that. Kids could be cruel, and she'd known that as Joshua got older he would encounter some of this, and they would just have to take it as it came.

"It's okay, baby," she murmured, kissing his forehead. "It's okay. I'm glad that you stood up for Alex, and what Matteo said was very wrong, and he shouldn't have said it. But when you get angry or when other people are being mean to you, it still isn't okay to hit them, no matter what they say. If another kid says something nasty to you, you should never hit them. Instead, you should tell a teacher."

"What if the teacher doesn't listen?"

Olivia was caught off guard. "Is that what happened today?"

Joshua lowered his eyes and nodded. "I told Ms. Dwyer but she told me I had to work it out myself and to stop tattling."

That made Olivia angry. She made a mental note to have a long talk with the school tomorrow. She really hoped it was just stupidity instead of discrimination, because that was just one more problem they didn't need right now. She didn't want to have to start looking for another school for Joshua. "Well, Josh, here's the deal. I'm going to have a talk with your teacher tomorrow, and if you tell her someone's bothering you and she still doesn't do anything, you go to the office and you call me, and I'll deal with it. Okay?"

Joshua nodded, his eyes wide. "Okay," he said softly. "Are you going to punish me?"

"No, honey. You made a mistake, but I know you didn't mean to hurt Matteo and you're not going to do it again. What are you going to do if Matteo ever picks on you again?"

"I'm going to tell a teacher and if she doesn't listen then I'm going to call you," he replied, wiping his eyes.

"That's right," approved Olivia, kissing her son's head.

Joshua sniffled and wrapped his arms around Olivia.

Olivia smiled wanly and picked up Joshua's teddy bear, which was pretty tattered by now, but he still slept with it every night. She stroked Joshua's cheek with the teddy bear's arm, a calming gesture that she'd learned years ago. Sure enough, it worked, and he started to relax.

"I have an idea," she said. "Do you want to go out for dinner? We can go to Chuck E Cheese." That was Joshua's favorite place to eat, not because he liked the food, but because he loved the arcade.

He grinned and nodded enthusiastically. He kissed Olivia's cheek. "Thank you, Olivia."

She smiled and gave him a hug.

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