"Is Ana...alright?" she asked awkwardly after a while, finally acknowledging what she had witnessed several days before. After she had calmed down (as a result of her spying, but, she wasn't about to mention that) she had become concerned for the young girl and her sudden change in mood.
"She's fine...she just, well, remembers," he shrugged, before catching her confused look and sighed deeply. "She doesn't take yelling very well, and some things, some phrases or actions, even when not done in anger, make her just, well, remember..."
Rae hesitated for a long moment, unsure of whether or not she should press on or mind her manners and mind her business. Then, she remembered she lacked manners, and decided prodding a bit more wouldn't hurt. "Remembering what?"
"Back home," he replied simply, taking a long while before he decided to elaborate. "My father wasn't a soft man...voice or otherwise, and Ana was small and, to him, weak. He found it offensive or something, I don't understand how his mind worked, and he tended to go after her quite a bit." As vague as he had been, he already felt he had said too much, though, part of him didn't mind speaking to her about it. He found it oddly therapeutic to have someone his age to talk to.
Taking a deep breath, he squinted his eyes against the sun, looking toward his siblings as they played a game of tag in the distance. "Not so much until after Georgia died, though, we tended to protect Georgia a lot. She was always sick and never would have been able to take the way my father treated the rest of us, so we just...took it ourselves. When she left us, though, he turned more towards Ana and we couldn't always turn our dad's attention. See, Ana wasn't sick, she was just small, so my dad saw her as lazy. He kind of saw us each as something...I was defiant, North was loose, but that's another story, Lee was...well, nevermind."
Rae realized she was heading into touchy territory and decided, for now, to drop the subject of his father and his life down south. She could, at least, understand why. After all, she still had a bit of a problem speaking to anyone about Cap and her own childhood, and hers wasn't even all bad. She never had anyone "go after" her or speak to her harshly. Looking out toward the little ones, following his gaze and hiding a giggle as Ginny tackled Jackson before screaming that he was it.
"Not fair Ginny!" Jackson yelled back, Beau smirking and shaking his head. Hey, if it got out of hand he would step in, but, until then, they could talk it out amongst themselves.
"They're quite a handful," Rae said, remembering back when her and her friends would fight the same way, pulling and shoving each other until Cap came by and broke them up, sending them off in opposite directions in hopes that they would keep out of trouble for all of five minutes.
Chuckling, he replied, almost proudly, "Yes, they are, especially now. They're not used to being cooped up indoors, so coming to the park they just...let loose." He smiled faded somewhat as Jackson reached up at slapped Ginny in the face, screaming back at her, "NOW YOU'RE IT!"
"Really let loose," He said, though looked a great deal less entertained as he called out, "Jackson! Ginny!" waiting patiently as the little ones, still arguing and occasionally pushing each other before they stood in front of their oldest brother. "Jackson, apologize to your sister. Now," he commanded, Jackson making a face and shaking his head adamantly. "Jackson. Now," he said, pushing once more, crossing his arms and sending the boy a look.
"Aww! But Beau! She started it!" he complained loudly, Beau looking unmoved as Ginny continued to pout, her face a bit pink from the hit.
"And I'll end it at home if you'd like," Beau warned, Jackson getting the hint and quickly apologizing before booking it before Beau could decide to take him home. As Beau shook his head and opened his mouth to speak gently to Ginny, Rae giggled slightly, putting her hand over her mouth. tanding upright, he smirked in her direction and asked, amused, "What are you laughing at?" sending Ginny on her way without much more than a "Behave."
"You just remind me of someone, is all," she said after a while with a shrug, his soft blue eyes causing her to smile once more. Even his looks reminded her of Cap, the way he would scold her without a word and with the smallest smile could lighten her mood considerably.
"And who would that be?" he asked, taking a seat beside her once more, Rae noticeably eased at the idea of sharing a seat with him, whether she actually realized it or not. He crossed his arms again in much the same way he had when speaking to his siblings, however, there was an amusement to it now, as obvious when he arched his eyebrow and grinned.
"The man that raised me," she said, looking down for a moment and then toward the children, who were being given instructions on a new game from Johnny. "He could give me that same look and, well, I'll be honest, sometimes I didn't pay attention, but you just reminded me of it."
"And you remind me a little of Ginny," he said, Rae, in turn, arching her eyebrow back at him. "I've known you for all of two weeks and you're proving to be more of a handful than I ever thought possible," he finished, teasing her lightly.
"Yeah, well, trouble just found me a lot," she said innocently, her auburn hair falling in front of her face, somehow, giving her an even more impish look than before. Yeah, he was sure that was the case. About as sure as he was that Jackson and Ginny would grow wings and a halo.
"It found you, huh?" he asked her in the same we he might as his siblings, entertained at how she was adamant about her innocence despite the obvious lack of it she had.
"Well, yeah...in the form of several boys...Not like that," she finished quickly, rolling her eyes which caused him to chuckle. "See, I lived with this man...They called him Cap, and so, well, so did I, and he lived and helped run a newsboy lodging house. A lot of orphans and runaways, boys no one else seemed to want kind of ended up there, and they were my friends...and the cause for a lot of the trouble that found me."
He opened his mouth to respond before catching sight of his siblings, Johnny seemingly bossing them around and the youngest two having, temporarily, joined forces to battle the evil that was their older brother. "Speaking of trouble..." Beau started, calling out a simple, "Hey!" Johnny sighed and noticeably lowered his voice a bit, relaxing his shoulders. "They're a handful..."
"They're...not so bad. They have their good moments," she replied with a shrug, still unsure of the little mongrels. After all, these were the ones that had given her a monster sized headache only a few days before.
"They're better than what you saw, they're just, well, I think Johnny is having a hard time adjusting. He's the sixth...well, fifth of us, but he sometimes acts older than he is. He's a good kid, always has been, but I think he feels out of place here and it's getting to him. Really, what you saw of him...that's not what he's really like," Beau informed her, hoping she didn't have too bad an impression.
"And the other two? Are they-" she started, before Beau shook his head, answering her before she even had to finish.
"No, that's what they're like. Jackson and Ginny have always been a handful, and I have a feeling it's not just a phase. See, Jackson is...and Ginny is...well, they're not bad, but they're enough to make me run myself ragged," he replied with a sigh, shaking his head.
Rae laughed to herself, remembering herself at Ginny's age and how Cap would have, most likely, described her in very much the same fashion, if not word for word. Laughing a bit at the memories that came with such thoughts, she shook them off within a minute and focused on simply trying to relax...these Waynes were more trouble than they seemed.