First Son, Cursed Son

Is fighting in your blood or what

"What's the crying about?" Abel asks Kalli, when Willow walks back in with her on her hip. Kalli looks at him shyly over Willow's shoulder.

"Rai hit me." She says, pouting.

"Did you hit him first?" Willow asks firmly and after a pause, Kalli nods. "4 years old and she's already taking on a 6 year old." Willow huffs. "Is fighting in your blood or what?"

"It was in yours." He teases and she shoots him a deadly look, stirring the tomato soup.

"I'd bet that you had some fight stories." She says harshly and he shrugs.

"Plenty. I can't blame the boys for fighting people that call them white trash. I did the same." He reveals and Willow stirs in silence. She kisses Kalli's head then sets her down.

"Go watch TV with Neva ok? Leave Raimundo alone for a little while." She suggests and Kalli runs off. She straightens up and looks at him thoughtfully, sizing him up. He reclines, unworried. She finds it so hard to reconcile this calm man with the one with a gun in the warehouse. Here, he is just another guy that jokes with her. But the memory of the man he was still makes her uneasy.

"Like what you see?" He says suggestively and she rolls her eyes, turning back to the stove to hide her blush.

"Since you're such a great big brother and chef, you can make the sandwiches. Neva doesn't like crust. Make Kalli's extra cheesy but only put half that amount on Zane's." She lists off and he scrambles to do as told.

They round the kids up for supper a short while later. Willow reigns over the chaos calmly, pouring more juice where it's needed and stopping Zane from taking Neva's last bite of her sandwich. Abel watches, amused.

"At least you won't have to be scared of being a mom." He comments, as she washes dishes and hands them to him to dry.

"Are you kidding me?" She asks, raising an eyebrow. "That's been my biggest fear since I was 14."

"Why? You'd be a great mom." He says and she shrugs.

"Sure, I know how to handle kids and if you made me run a daycare for a day I probably wouldn't stress out, but getting pregnant as a teenager... Different story." She says ruefully.

"Why? I know a couple teen moms and they do great." He says and she nods in acknowledgement.

"Sure, but having a baby is like an anchor that keeps me in Charming. No college, no leaving. No parties when I want, no coffee shop dates to myself in the morning, no more life outside a baby." She points out. "If I had a baby, I would have to stay in Charming forever."

"What's wrong with Charming? Why do you hate it so much?" Abel asks, genuinely curious, and Willow puts the clean dishes away, pondering how to respond.

"It's that it can crawl under your skin and make you crazy from the inside out. I feel like the air makes me angry, the sun is a thousand times stronger, the water tastes like metal, everything just makes your skin crawl. It's like every cell in my body knows I'm here and it hates it just as much as my mind. I hate this place. I hate that it makes me so frustrated, I hate that it makes me feel like a loser. I cannot wait to leave. I need to. Not because I hate some small town or because I want to be a college girl. I need to leave because this town makes me feel like jumping off a bridge or driving full speed into a wall at midnight. Anything to lessen the weight that's crushing my chest." It spills out of her in a wave and she can do nothing to stop it.

"Oh." Abel says and she feels suddenly self-conscious once more. She tells him too much. She doesn't know if because she's so desperate to explain herself to someone that hasn't known her for her entire life or if she just talks too much.