Always.

Operation

A nest was on a high branch, sounds of tweeting were heard as he peered over a baby chick. "When I was small, I always thought I was alone in the world." The bird raised his beak high in the air as he wiggled his wings and tweeted. "Yes, I had friends. I had a family, too. A loving one at that." To Charles, Lucy was acting  more like her age now; mature and not child-like. That only made him all the more confused as he listened to the girl intently. 

"But, it just wasn't enough." An adult bird, probably his mother, flew towards the nest and gave the little one a worm. It gulped the worm greedily as it tried to wiggle itself free. "It seemed like I was just repeating a process over and over." The adult bird shook his head like a typical bird and spread his left wing and pecked over it before perching on the nest comfortably.

"You know, I had a fight with a  friend one day," The bird looked around as he waited for his child to finish eating. "Because of the fight... we didn't talk for days. I felt alone. It made me regret my words. I really wanted to be friends with her again. But... I just didn't know how." A tear slipped from Lucy's eye as she wiped it diligently. She sniffed and Charles placed his hand on her shoulder. Had she been crying all this time?

"My... uh, mother," She sniffed. "told me to apologize," She whimpered and her shoulders slumped. "But... Being a child, I was far too proud, and I..." She seemed to laugh at her memories. "didn't do  as I was told. After a while, I thought about just acting normal and pretending nothing happened." Lucy stayed silent for a while so Charles asked, "Did it work?"

Lucy laughed a little. "It did." She laughed again, but her voice seemed so weak that Charles thought she would break down if she said it a little bit louder. "But you know, I don't forget about things easily. For my... uh, friend, it was fine. But it always seemed to weigh in my heart and I kept thinking about it."

"My father noticed my weird behavior. Even though he didn't know about our fight, he still noticed me. My mom didn't, but I couldn't blame her." She rested her hands on her lap, fiddling with her hospital clothes. "He asked me what was wrong so I told him about everything-- about the fight and the supposed make-up between us and  how it didn't satisfy me. Do you know what he did?"