Broken (Jason Todd x OC)

3. The Past

=--Alison---=  -=Time Skip=-

My time here has been great so far, I have been here for a little over a month which means I have about another month left.

The kids have gotten better at chores, and often times help cook meals. 

Kids have been going to bed earlier, picking fewer fights, doing better in school.

they have been changing. For the better.

So when I went to bed last night, I fell asleep faster than usual, something that had been happening a lot.

Unfortunately, this morning isn't looking as great.

All I hears was a splash and suddenly I am covered in water.

"What the hell?" I yelled once I realized that this, in fact, wasn't a dream. And I did, in fact, have water poured on me.

"SHHH! You were shaking and whimpering and I didn't know what to do! You wouldn't wake up!" A very distressed Alex yells crouching down beside me. His eyes hold worry as he hands me a water.

Looking down I realize that my skin is sticky and covered in uncomfortable sweat. I try to control my breathing remembering the nightmare I just had. Sometimes it takes me a minute to even realize I have nightmares nowadays. I guess I got used to waking up covered in sweat and shaking. But the memories, or the nightmares, whatever you want to call them, always hit me harder when I am awake and remember them. 

"And now the Flying Graysons will perform their newest act!" I smile at the crowd like I was taught to as the ringmaster announces us. 

I look over at my rother across the platform and nod before jumping on my trapeze and Dick doing the same. We both rock back and forth to gain some momentum until we reach the correct height, then we swing forward and let go. We each perform the same trick at the same time. I turn and let myself twist sideways then tuck my feet and reach out my hands. 

I grab my trapeze and swing forward. Once I get towards the end I hoist myself up a little and let go, doing a 360-degree turn and catching the bar again.

We gain momentum then when the bars get close to each other again we each jump and reach out our hands. We grab hands and flip together twisting and turning in sync. Last minute the bars come back and we each reach out grabbing the bars in one hand and clasping wrists with the other.

We hold that position for a minute while the crowd cheers before tugging on our wrists to gain distance and moving again. At the same time we each turn and put our feet back kicking off each other and going back to our respective bars. 

When I get near the platform I turn and let go of the bar doing a 360 then grabbing back onto my bar and heading back towards Dick. I get to my mark and jump off the bar with my eyes closed. I do a series of flips twists and turns before I open my eyes and make a final turn and open my arms to my rescue. Just as I start doubting myself and panicking I see Dick coming towards me. I reach up my hands and barely manage to grab his ankles as he soars past me. We go back and forth a couple times before the bar stills in the middle.

He hoists himself up halfway, so the bar is resting at his waist, and looks at me for approval. When I give him a nod, he swings his legs back, then forward. While he does this I do a few different small tricks, like a split, pretending I am walking on air, and pretending to e sitting Indian style. We do this a couple times until we gained more momentum, until finally when he brings his legs forward again, he also brings his knees up to his chest and kicks his legs out in front of him, so they are diagonal and facing downward. When he does that, I push off his legs slightly and grab the bar. 

I stand on top of the bar and jump up, holding onto the chains for support. I hold onto the chains tightly, while Dick hoists himself up so he is sitting on the bar, he puts his arms around either chains and nods, giving me the signal. I let go of the chains and fall back, doing a backflip. I catch Dicks and position myself so his feet are under my armpits, and I am holding his legs.

I start to swing my body back and forth, at first not doing much, but soon making the trapeze move again. Soon enough the trapeze is in full motion, and when Dick moves his legs up and down a little. Once I felt the motion, I swung forward one more time, allowing this one to be a little longer, before swinging back once again. I feel hands grab my ankles and let go of the waist, flying backward. My dad holds my ankles all the way back to the platform, before throwing me up. I instinctively do a backflip, so I land on the platform next to my mother.

I move to the side and soon enough my brother gets thrown up here too, and he does a back tuck before landing. He messes up the landing so mom grabs him and steadies him before my dad joins us on the platform as well. 

We all smile and wave at the crowd, letting them cheer for us. But in a matter of seconds, the applause and cheers turn into gunshots and screams.

Just remembering that night makes my breathing become hard again. I blink back my tears and see Alex walking towards me with more water. Once he is within reach I grab the water and drink it down.

"Sorry Alex. I know I wake you up a lot." I slightly laugh at how pathetic I am. The nightmares have gone down but I still have them most nights.

"Hey, It's not your fault. I have mostly gotten used to it by now anyway." He rubs my back and hugs me. "It is almost five anyway, we could start breakfast and decide what to do today. School is out for this week anyway because of the break." He tells me helping me up off the ground, I notice he is already dressed and ready for the day.

"I will be down in giving minutes. You can get started." I tell him grabbing some clothes from the duffle bag and heading to the bathroom. I hear him whisper-shout an okay while running to the kitchen. 

Once I shower and get ready for the day I go to the kitchen. I hear a bunch of clatter and noise on the way in and see everyone is about waking up at this time. When Sam saw me he ran up to me and jumped on me. I made an 'umph" sound and rested him on my hip. I walked with the rest of the kids down to the kitchen. 

"Allison, we made breakfast!" One of the 10-year-olds named Kyle yelled pulling on my sleeve. I laughed thinking that this is why Alex was up so early. 

"Lead the way, Sir." I joked while going to Kyle. He laughed and started jogging ahead of me making me speed walk to keep up. I watched as Sam started to fall back asleep in my arms so I tried to be more careful.

Once I got to the kitchen I saw a bunch of pancakes and fruits set out for everyone. I smiled slightly when I saw everyone was lined up to get them but were waiting. 

"Guys you all go first, I will have leftovers," I told them passing Sam to Charlotte. She put him on her hip and bounced him a little to make sure he stayed asleep.

Sam had finished eating first and immediately came back into my arms. I carried him around and said my good mornings to everyone. 

I was almost done checking in with everyone when there was some knocking on the door. Everyone looked towards me and I shushed them with my finger and walked towards the front door. On the way to the door whoever was there knocked again which just annoyed me. I opened the door to see three men in suites.

The second I saw them my stomach dropped. I may not know why they are here but I don't have a very good experience with men in suites.

But I still have hope that these men in suits will be different.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Sooo this chapter was more so you can understand how her life has been. 

It took forever for me to write the flashback because I have no idea how the trapeze work. I had to watch almost a hundred videos.