A Month Later
"What happened?" Sam says, placing her hand on her son's face to tilt it up so she can see his face better as he walks out of the hockey room.
"I got hurt in the hockey game," he says, pushing past his mother quickly.
"No, you didn't. I know, because I just watched your hockey game," Sam says.
"I told you what happened, mom," the kid says, walking faster.
Sam rushes after him, but Jack grabs onto her elbow.
"Later," he mouths to her.
-0-0-0-
Jack goes into the house, and grabs frozen peas to throw at his son. Ty catches it, and applies it to his blackening eye.
"Why?" Jack asks.
Ty doesn't say anything.
"Did someone hit you, honey?" Sam asks.
"Of course someone hit him! I just want to know why my son got beat up in the locker room," Jack says.
Ty looks down at the floor, "They didn't beat me up."
"Why?" Jack says, lowering himself down on his knees so he is in his son's field of vision.
"They called me a queer," Ty says.
"Give me their names," Sam says.
"No," Ty says.
"Honey, I'm just going to tell the coach."
"Then I'll be a queer tattle tale," Ty moans.
"What were you doing when it happened?" Jack asks.
"It doesn't matter, Jack! There is nothing our son could do that would those kids were justified in beating him up," Sam says glaring at her husband.
"I totally agree. But the only way that we're going to ensure he doesn't get beat up again is to figure out what set them off or quit hockey," Jack says glancing over his shoulder at his wife.
"I don't want to quit hockey," Ty says.
"You're not quitting anything, honey, not even if I have to beat up those pint-sized enemies myself," Sam threatens.
"What happened right before this, son," Jack asks.
"I was putting on hair gel," Ty says.
"Because of the helmet hair," Sam says sadly.
"How about you fix your hair at home from now on?" Jack says, smiling at his son.
Ty nods his head, and Jack gets off his knees. He starts down the hallway.
"What? That's all?" Sam says, running after her husband. She waits until they have made it into their bedroom before she hisses at her husband, "Our son just got beat up and your solution is for him to change?"
"It's going to solve the problem, Sam," Jack says with a shrug, "And it's not like we're asking him to make a big change."
"It is not going to solve the problem!"
"Oh, come on, they're eight! They're going to be onto the next odd thing a kid does in like eight seconds."
"Yeah, well, the next oddball could also be our son! Or one of our daughters! Or someone else's kids! They are bullies, and we have to do something about it."
"Sam," Jack says trying to calm her.
"They hurt my baby," Sam says.
And then he gets it. He pulls her into his arms, "This isn't like when he was a baby."
Sam's body goes ridged in his arms, "It sure as hell is someone beating up my baby again, and I sure as hell am not going to stand by and let it happen again."
"What happened to me when I was a baby?" Ty says.
Sam and Jack turn to him in horror.
He just stares back at him.
"Baby, it was a long time ago," Sam says.
Ty just stares at him.
"Kiddo, when you were a baby your mommy, worked," Jack says.
"And Grandpa took care of me," Ty says with confidence.
"Not when you were a baby, sweetie. Grandpa was still working back then, so I hired someone to take care of you," Sam says.
"Like when Emma 'n me used to go to day care 'cause Grandpa was sick," he offers.
"Right, except this lady just came into the house, and she just took care of you."
"That's pretty special," Ty says with a smile on his face.
"Honey, she hurt you, and she didn't feed you," Sam says, crying a little.
Jack reaches over to rub his wife's back, and almost missed the emotional distress of his son. But Sam doesn't. She rushes forward to scoop him into her arms. "Honey, Mommy is so sorry. I didn't know she was hurting you, and I got you away from her the second that I knew."
"Was I bad?" Ty asks.
"Of course not!" Jack says, maneuvering in the hallway so that he can wrap his arms around both his wife and son. It causes him to be in an incredibly awkward position in the hallway, but he doesn't care.
"But this time I got beat up because I care about what my hair looks like. What did I do then to make her hurt me?"
"Babe, that is not how it works…" Sam begins.
"No, I've got this one. I'm the one who got him confused," Jack says. Sam lowers her son to the floor, and Jack sits down on the floor, and pulls his son onto his lap. "You didn't do anything wrong in the locker room today. And you certainly didn't do anything wrong when you were a little one-year-old getting starved and beaten by a women who was supposed to take care of you. There are bad people in the world. And they don't need a reason to hurt people."
"Did I cry a lot?" Ty asks his father suspiciously.
"Honey, I didn't actually know you then," Jack says.
"I forgot," Ty says.
"Well, I didn't," Jack says sadly.
"I did, honey, and you were a good baby. You were the best baby that I could have hoped for. You cried when you needed something, and you stayed quiet when you didn't need something. Snuggling you was the most amazing thing. You were perfect," she says, sinking down on the floor next to her son.
"Daddy, your Daddy hurt you, didn't he?" Ty asks, turning to look up at his father.
"Yeah, he did once."
Ty thinks a little longer, "But you weren't bad?"
"No, honey, you did nothing to deserve this, and we're going to talk to your coach in the morning. Your mom is right. No-one deserves to be picked on by a bully."
Ty bites his lips, "Dad, it's ok to hurt bad people, right?"
Jack frantically look at his wife for guidance in the answering of the question, but she seems to have no more idea where her son is going with this than he does.
"It's not nice to hurt people," he says, deciding to go with a very simple elementary-school answer.
"But you and Mommy and Grandpa are all soldiers, and you fought bad people in the war," Ty protests.
"Well, that's different," Jack says.
"How come?" Ty asks cheerfully.
"Well, because we weren't the people deciding that they were the bad guys. When one person gets to decide who is good and bad, and punish the bad people, it's too much power for them. It's much better when the power gets spread out among a whole bunch of people. Like with the military: the general tells the other officers what to do, and then they tell the enlisted people, and then they do it. So if one of those people makes the wrong choice, you don't accidently hurt a good person."
"It's the same with cops. They don't hurt the bad guy, they just take them to a prison where judges and lawyers and juries decide if they are good or bad," Sam adds.
"So, will you guys tell me if it's ok to hurt a bully?" Ty asks, looking up at his parents with absolute trust in his little face.
Jack bites his lip, and looks at his wife.
"Jack, we can't tell him to beat up a bully," she says.
"Sam, can you honestly tell me you never took some bully down a peg back when you were in school?" he asks.
"Jack, he's eight, he could get hurt," Sam says, glaring at her husband over her son's head.
"Nuh-uh, Mommy; I can beat them all," he says, puffing out his chest in pride.
"Of course you can," Jack says proudly.
"But honey, don't do anything more to someone than they do to them. If they're only a bully with words, then you fight back with just words. If they fight with their fists, then," Sam says, taking her son's fist in her hand.
"But don't get caught," Jack adds.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure there isn't a school around which shares our policy," Sam adds.
"Ty, I love you so much. I am so proud of you, and I don't want you to be any different than you are. I mean earlier, I was wrong. But even then I just said that, because I wanted you to be safe. It wasn't because there is anything wrong with your hair," Jack says running his fingers through his son's hair.
"Dad," Ty elongates the word, pulling his head away shocked that his father would dare to muss his perfect hairdo.
"And I really wish I'd been there when you were little," Jack says.
"And I just wish your babysitter hadn't been," Sam says.
"It's ok, Mommy, you kept me safe," Ty says, climbing onto his mother's lap.
"I didn't keep you safe. She broke your arm," Sam says, running her hand over her son's arm in a way that reminds Jack of the way she used to do it when he had a nightmare when he was just a little boy. It's not something that Jack wanted to ever see again.
"But my arm's better now," Ty says, pulling it straight.
"Yeah, it is," Sam says, kissing his temple.
Ty pauses as he thinks, "Do you think that the reason I am messed up is because of what happened to me?"
"You're not messed up," Jack says.
"You're perfect, just like you were when you were a baby," Sam agrees.
Ty lets out a contented sigh. It's comforting to have people who think you are perfect. Even when you know that you are not.