Moving Forward

A Caring Heart

North's POV

Instead of the talk we had planned to have with Victor and Luke when we returned to the house, we ended up asking them questions about the Home and the children. While our team has always helped to reclaim houses and repairing them for new families, provided Holiday meals and even shared dinner with one neighborhood. It didn't seem like we were doing enough after seeing what Luke, Victor and Raschel was doing for so many children. Victor and the Ericsons weren't throwing their money around, they were physically helping them. Victor visited several sororities and was able to get the Home on several charity lists. Raschel was able to get the Home registered at the Historical society, it was one of the first hotels built in the area and the outside was unchanged from the original building; providing it with funds for building upkeep. Luke went to local businesses and got many to donate to the Home and kids, as he did at the toy store. That wasn't counting the personal time they spent with the kids. Seeing all that, it made me want to help others in the same position. I intended to ask Mr. Blackbourne if we could adopt a Children's Home and do the same for them. Even without Victor and Luke our team was considered large and could manage it with ease. I know Uncle would help, maybe even Erica, Tilly and Charly. I am sure other teams would join us; we only needed to ask.

The kids, they had been great and some of the little ones had been cute little buggers. One little boy would mimic our expressions; I couldn't stop myself from laughing when he imitated my scowl. What made it so funny for me was because he looked like a mini Luke, the same blonde hair and brown eyes. Only the sparkle of mischief was missing from his eyes. It upset me to learn that he was only there while his mother was in rehab for crack addiction. That he would be given back to her once she was declared clean, but would return to the Home in a few years while she went back to rehab.

Luke had told us that he and Victor were meant to come to Boston that their team was meant to find St. Mary Magdalena's Children Home. That they were meant to help the nuns and the children. How were we supposed to argue against that? We couldn't, not when we saw how much it meant to the kids. We would have sounded small-minded and egocentric if we had tried. Hell, I was tempted to quit the team and join Luke in helping them. Silas and Doc would be right beside me. Silas was a big teddy bear when it came to little kids and Doc adored babies and little kids. Only problem was Doc wouldn't want to give them back.

I didn't want to say anything to the others, but I was sure Luke and Vic were here to stay. It wasn't just school and their new team holding them here, they were building a life here. I wouldn't put it past Uncle on having arranged for it to happen, at least for Luke. Being truthful with myself, I have never seen Luke this happy before. The kids depended on him; they looked up to him, even the ones that were the same age as him. That was heady stuff.

My thoughts turned to Raschel Ericson. I couldn't figure out which brother she was dating, it almost seemed like she was dating both of them. Then again, it could just seem like it because I wasn't familiar with mixed teams. I knew Foxy was married to Shan, but she was really close to Sven and Colt. To strangers, it would look like she was dating all three of them. Something I knew wasn't true.

I was a bit envious of the relationship between father and daughter. I wasn't sure that I could explain it, even to myself. Watching them together, it was a beautiful thing. While I didn't know why, having so many people around seemed to bother her. When we overwhelmed her, she would snuggle at her father's side and seemed to draw strength from him. He always seemed to know what she needed and never hesitated to give her the support she required. What was strange, I saw Luke and Victor doing the same. It wasn't all one sided though. She was constantly doing things for them in return. I wouldn't say she was perfect, far from it actually. She wasn't a flirt and the kids at the Home had demanded to know why she wasn't with us yesterday. Therefore, that meant she spent time with them as well. The Toma Team acted as if they had spent a lot of time with her. Hell, she wasn't afraid of Raven when many were. I couldn't blame her for not trusting me, I really screwed up when I attacked her at Ashley Waters. What really got me was they were a family, a true family. It blew my mind that Sven had only been fourteen when she was born. That he raised her with the help of his family and his team. That had to be hard. What did a teenage boy know about being a father? Sven didn't seem to regret it or act like she was a mistake. Why couldn't mine and Luke's father been more like Sven? Then I realized that our father was Sven's equal, Uncle was our father and no one had better forget it. He may not seem like much to some, but he was exactly what we needed. He had our back through thick and thin. If one of us needed him, he was there with no questions asked. I know that we drove him nuts at times, but he didn't turn his back on us. He let us know when we went too far without saying a word. It finally struck home. Uncle hadn't been required to take us in, he chose to. Luke had been a baby and Uncle had taken him in when Luke's mother didn't want him. He could have just as easily refused and Luke would have ended up in the system, I would have never met him. Then there was me, I was no blood relation. I was just some dumb kid that ended up with a legal connection to them because Luke's father married my mother when she was pregnant with me. Uncle could have ignored my existence, but he chose not to. He took me in and gave me a family. He sent the Ericsons to find me and bring me home. That the Ericsons had done it for Uncle said that they held a lot of respect for him. I know it hadn't been easy. Shit, they had to track down my mother and then my father to have them sign custody over to Uncle. Then there was me, I wouldn't budge until they agreed to bring Silas and his family to the States with me. They hadn't given up. They had promised Uncle and kept their word to him. Why had it taken me so long to figure it out?

It made me question myself. I often dreamed of going back to Germany or Greece, to travel Europe as I had done with my father. I was fucking stupid. That had been my past, why would I be stupid enough to revisit it. Over there, I was nobody. Here I had a family who cared about me and I had friends. I didn't need to sleep in a ramshackle trailer, I had a bedroom of my own in a house I refused to sleep in. I kept myself apart when there was no need to. Uncle would never hit me, just as he would never hurt Luke. We were his boys, an important part of himself. Yes, he had a temper, but he would just yell at us and then stomp off. Never once lifting a hand against us or stating the wish that we had never came into his life. The Diner, it allowed Uncle to support us. When he first started planning it, he made it clear that the three of us would own it together. He had taken our suggestions seriously. While Luke tended to be a dreamer, I was the doomsayer. Uncle managed to weed through our predictions and make it work, a happy medium.

After meeting the kids at the Children's Home, I understood how lucky I truly was. While we would never be considered normal, I had a family and I wasn't talking about the team.

My team would always be my brothers, but I would no longer let the team take over my life. I didn't want to live and breathe missions anymore, I wanted time for other things as well. Yes, I was good with cars, but I could be a great Mechanical Engineer as well. The only one who could define me was me, I could be anything I wanted and I intended to change the world one small bit at a time. It didn't take money or fame, the ones who changed the world did it by an act of kindness. It wasn't 'Family First', it was kindness first.