Lone Star Family Values

Chapter 12

Conversation

The following days were stressful, Bailey was slowly beginning to speak more but was still distant at times, however, she did venture out of her room more often than she had been which was promising. TK and Carlos had had numerous conversations about what they should do about her ever-present separation anxiety, a growing concern amongst not only them but also the rest of the 126 and they could see that it Bailey was beginning to get frustrated with it herself. This fact was the final straw that pushed TK and Carlos to finally sit down and have the conversation with her, it was time to talk.

"Bails, can you come down here please?" TK called, standing at the base of the stairs.

"Coming!" Bailey called back from her room.

            Carlos looked up from where he'd been situating himself on the couch. TK hadn't moved from the banister yet, still leaning on it, one leg tucked behind the other.

"Babe, come over here and sit with me. She'll be down in a minute." He said.

            TK looked up the stairs and nodded. He walked into the living room and sat down next to Carlos, why was he having such a hard time with this?

"Are you okay?" Carlos asked.

            TK shrugged.

"Yeah," He said. "At least, I think I am."

            Carlos arched a brow.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yeah," TK said again. "It's just a conversation, one that I've been on the receiving end probably one too many times. I know how this goes."

            Bailey's footsteps sounded through the house as she hopped down the steps. Carlos took a drink of his water as he pondered TK's words. He knew that Owen had had this very conversation with TK numerous times but he also knew that the majority of the times that the conversation occurred, TK ended up at Carlos' doors either in tears or fuming.

"Yeah, that's not comforting." Carlos muttered, shifting in his seat.

            TK looked over at Carlos to ask why but Bailey plopped into the seat adjacent to them, effectively ending the moment for questions.

"What's up?" Bailey asked, tucking her feet up under her as she got comfortable.

            Carlos cleared his throat before beginning.

"We wanted to talk to you about the past couple of weeks. We know that it's been stressful with the move and then the raid so we wanted to check in." He said.

            Bailey nodded, Carlos had noticed how she'd tensed at the mention of the raid, it was still a twitchy subject for her.

"I'm," Bailey hesitated. "Working through it."

"You are," TK said, jumping in. "And we can see that. But we want you to maybe start talking about things, if you're comfortable. It doesn't have to be to us, or even somebody that we know but talking does help."

            Bailey nodded, her eyes dropping to her lap.

"Bails," Carlos said. "Mija, would that be something you'd be willing to do?"

            Bailey bit the inside of her cheek nervously. She knew that she would eventually have to talk to somebody about what happened and she'd be lying if she said that memories and feelings from what happened to her parent's hadn't begun to surface. Bailey gave a small nod before looking up.