Grown (Lumax) COMPLETE

Can I Handle This?

TW// Mentions of sexual abuse

Sue and Lukas stood in the bathroom in temporary silence. Although they were starting to read each other's minds. Sue was cursing Max while pressing ice against her son's bruising eye, and Lukas was defending her innocence.

"She didn't mean-" Lukas didn't get to finish.

"Save the excuses." Sue didn't want to hear them.

That didn't stop Lukas from continuing. "It's my fault. She was panicking and I triggered her, it wasn't her fault." Lukas kept insisting.

"Lukas, I don't care why she hit you. If you hit her like that, you'd already be arrested." Sue moved the ice and examined his eye again. "She REALLY hit you Lukas. You need to swing with intention to bruise someone like that."

"She..." Lukas knew he had a weak argument. "I know, I know it's a problem...but she will get better."

"I don't care how better she gets, she has to go." Sue took the safety of her family seriously.

"Mom, come on. You know she is traumatized, this is part of it. You can't just heal people with hugs, and time. Max has bad episodes like this RARELY. She's never hit me before, even when she's really upset. I assure you, it's MY fault. I crossed her boundaries." Lukas was still putting up a fight for Max, maybe he should've been a lawyer.

"Lukas..." Sue looked at him stern. "It's not okay for people to hit you just because you crossed a boundary. Imagine if I hit your father everytime he did something I didn't like?"

"It's different..." Lukas knew he'd need to air out some of Max's darkest secrets to justify this. "She has been severely abused by her stepdad. Physically, emotionally, and sexually. The abuse was so bad that certain words and actions still trigger her, and she immediately goes into fight mode..."

"Lukas..." Sue was now both angry and empathetic. "She hit you."

"Her stepfather got her pregnant a few years ago, and she had a miscarriage...mom, trust me. She didn't want to hit me, it's a trauma response." Lukas hated sharing Max's secrets, but he thought it would be okay in this context.

"Oh good God..." Sue winced at the thought and stepped away from Lukas.

"I know it's an explanation and not an excuse..." Lukas admitted and held the ice against his own eye. "I won't let it go, I'll make sure she gets back into therapy to manage it...but I'm still going to love her, okay? I need your support."

Sue let out an exhausted motherly sigh. "One more time, Lukas. If she hits you one more time, it's done."

"I agree, thank you." Lukas hugged his mom, appreciating her willingness to give Max another chance.

-

Nobody's night was without anxiety, but Lukas' was probably the worst. He stayed in his room, alone. Originally him and Max were going to share, but his mom protested them sharing a room. At least for now, while everyone was getting over the incident. He could only imagine how Max felt, dealing with the guilt. They still haven't talked about it, but it was the first thing Lukas planned on doing in the morning.

Lukas tossed and turned, not knowing what to do with himself. He loved Max more than he loved himself, she was the center of his future. Now, he had to have a lot of serious thoughts. Was Max going to be too much to handle in the future? Would she fully recover? Would she hit him again if she felt threatened? Would therapy be enough? Would he have to leave her behind? This incident really did open Lukas' eyes to the fact that, Max would never be completely healed. It was a one day at a time deal. She could easily go back to square one if someone set her off, and it could be unpredictable.