[ discovering you ] - sequel to camp discovery || a tayvis story.

chapter two.

JUNE 30, 2013

4:26 PM

"Do you have any past police reports or documents about your parents or this Jake person?" Andy asked Taylor as the boys moved her and Michael's things from her car into the other three vehicles. 

"Yes, sir," Taylor said to Andy as she looked in the backseat for her lock box that held all of her and Michael's important documents. Kylie handed her the box, and she opened it, pulling out a brown envelope that was folded slightly to fit inside the box. "So there's paperwork from when Michael broke his arm, and DCFS questioned Jake about it, from when he almost..." Taylor paused for a second. She didn't want to say the words. Even though Michael was helping the boys, she still didn't want to let those words come from her lips near him. "Yeah... and I think there are some papers from when my parents called the police on me, but I'm not completely sure." Taylor handed the envelope to Andy. 

"I am just going to run into the station and make some quick copies of these and give you your originals back," Taylor just nodded, and Andy proceeded to walk away. 

"Michael broke his arm?" Kylie asked from the back seat as Taylor closed the lockbox.

"Yeah, he was five?" Talyor replied. "I think Jake did it on purpose, but there was no proof. He made it sound like it was an accident, and they believed him over what Michael said. I don't know exactly what Michael told them, but if it was anything like he told me, Jake 100% did it." Taylor said, remembering that night. Remembering every word that her five-year-old told her about what happened while she was out of the room when he "fell and twisted his arm."  Taylor let out a sigh. "And I know I put Michael in more danger because I didn't leave Jake then, but I didn't have anywhere to go, and Blake was still living with her parents at the time and..."

"Taylor, Taylor, Taylor." The tears were starting to roll down Taylor's cheeks as she recalled those moments. "You don't have to explain yourself," Tree told her. "We know that you wouldn't do anything to hurt your baby. Life dealt you a bad hand. You did the best you could. You're out of that now, and you're never going back to it." Taylor tried to calm herself down, fanning her eyes, trying to stop the tears from continuing to fall. Taylor felt Kylie's hand reaching from the backseat, gently touching her shoulder and giving it a light squeeze as a comfort. 

 "Mommy!" Taylor quickly wiped her eyes, and looked out the window at her son, who was pulling on the door handle, trying to open the door. 

"Don't do that. You might break it." Taylor told him, unlocking the door and opening it for him. Michael. 

"Sorry," Michael said, climbing into her lap. "I didn't mean to." He said, closing the door. 

"It's okay. You have to remember, you can't be rough with other people's things." Taylor told her son, wrapping her arms around his little body. Michael reached for Taylor's face, wiping her lingering tears away with a slight frown on her face. He made sure his little fingers wiped around the scars on her face, careful not to touch them directly.  He rests his head on her shoulder, cuddling into her. Michael's ability to read her emotions was both good and bad. He fed off of her emotions. He had been up under her so much in life; it was almost a curse that he just knew when she needed comfort. 

"Mommy?" Michael whispered, 

"What-y?" Taylor answered back. 

"How do we know everything is going to be okay?" He asked softly. This was new for him. These were new people. He knew who they were, sure, but they were still new faces to him. Everything he knew was back in Tennessee. 

"We just have to trust that it will be. We're going to a new place with people Mommy has known and trusted her whole life. As long as we've got them, everything should be okay." Taylor felt Michael's hands attach to pieces of her hair again. His little fingers tugged gently at the strains, just like he had done when he was a baby. She knew the little gears in his head were spinning a million miles a second. That was just how Michael was, just like her. Give them time to think, and every question on the face of the Earth would come to them to ask.