~*~*~

Luke shook his head as he exited the room; he had just made it outside when his breakfast revisited him. He leaned heavily against the stonewall and emptied his stomach into the nearby bush, hot tears rolling down his cheeks.

Scott and Lance, making their way downstairs, entered the room just in time to see the tail end of what was happening, Luke leaving and Nikki curled up against the wall. They gave each other a look. "I'll go see if Luke's okay, you look after him." Lance said to Scott, and then followed the distressed wolf boy.

Lance stood behind Luke, giving the other boy some space. "Hey, uh.. you okay?" He asked quietly.

Luke straightened up, wiping his mouth off with the sleeve of his shirt, "Don't know." He muttered glaring at the nearby tree.

"Wanna talk about it?" He asked, not pushing it

Shrugging, Luke wiped at the tears streaming down his face. He hated feeling so vulnerable.

 "Life's a bitch." He grunted.

 Lance sighed and sat on the step. "Got that right," He said, "But it can either just be a bitch, or it can be YOUR bitch." He smiled at the lame joke. "Pressing it down's not gonna make it go away you know. You've got a lot of pressure on your shoulders; I've seen the way you look out for that kid. But you don't have to be the strong one all the time, okay. You need to just let it go sometimes."

Luke glared at Lance over his shoulder, fresh tears running down his cheeks. For once his tough guy act was faltering, he ran a shaky hand through his hair.

 "It's just," His voice cracked with pent up emotion, "So much has happened..."

Lance, unsure of whether or not the other boy would want physical contact at that moment, stayed where he was. The best thing to do was let Luke have the power and tell him what he wanted. "It's cool." he said, "I've got time to listen."

Luke turned around and sat down on the stonewall, cradling his head in his hands.

 "This bastard, Alex, at the asylum... he," He squeezed his eyes shut, "he raped us both... And I couldn't do a fucking thing."

Lance whispered, in shock. "Shit." He looked over at Luke. "Dude, I'm sorry. Really... you shouldn't beat yourself up about it. It was that bastard's fault and no one else's okay. You couldn't have made him stop." Lance's thoughts whirled. He didn't know what to say.

Luke snorted, "I promised to protect Nikki since he was eight years old... don't think I can do it," He lifted his head, "I don't know if... if I can handle it anymore."

Lance shook his head. "Luke, Nikki has some problems. That much is obvious. No one here's gonna expect you to look after him on your own, okay. If you need help man, ask. I know you have a thing with him, and its okay. But you don't need to be his brother and his father AND his friend alone okay? Not even many PARENTS do what you do everyday. Like I said... you can't be the strong one all the time."

"I need help," Luke whispered, his voice uneven, he swallowed thickly, "I can't deal with the nightmares anymore... I love that kid to much to... to bring 'im down with all my problems, he's got to many already."

Lance cautiously walked over and put his hand on Luke's shoulder. "Hey, its okay. You can talk to me okay? Or to the prof if you want to. And Scott's in there talking to Nikki, and they seem to be doing alright. It's all right, you can talk to me. I'm always ready to help out."

Luke nodded lifting his head to look up at Lance. His eyes red and puffy from crying, fresh tears ran down his cheeks.

 "Man, I'm a mess." He scowled turning away.

Lance laughed, offering Luke a tissue from one of his jeans pockets. "Don't worry about it, we've all been there." He said. "Besides, there's no use trying to impress me, I'm taken." he grinned half-heartedly.

Luke looked back up at Lance, "What?" He asked accepting the tissue.

"The face thing?" He laughed. "Sorry, lame joke. You know me and Scott are an item yea? Please say you do."

Luke snorted, "Yea, I know." He smiled warily.

Lance looked at him. "Besides... I don't think you're too worried about trying to impress ME anyway.. " He smiled evilly.

"What do you mean by that?" Luke asked furrowing his eyebrows.

Lance laughed lightly. "Come on. I've seen you looking at him sometimes. You've got a thing for that kid. And he likes you to, don't tell me you don't see it..."

Luke blinked and looked away.

Lance gaped. "Wow. You didn't know?" He bit his lip. "Damn... I owe Scott money..."

Luke glared at him then shook his head, "Oh man..."

 "What?" Lance asked innocently

 "Nothing... I just need to leave..."

Lance bit his lip. "Hey, I didn't mean to..." He trailed off

Luke shook his head as he walked off and disappeared around the corner of the mansion.

~*~*~