Just The Baby Father

Pain is One Hell of a Drug

Sean and I got to Jace's house pretty fast but of course his car wasn't parked outside in the garage. Henry wasn't even outside waiting to greet us. Sean knocks on the door and Henry starts barking from inside. The door opens and Henry jumps on Sean.

"Bud, you are not as light as you used to be." Sean says lightly but nonetheless gives Henry the same amount of love he would give him when he was younger. I smile at them and see Glory opened the door.

"Thanks G." I say and she shrugs.

"Now tell me. Niece or nephew ?" She pulls me inside and walks toward the kitchen. Trust Glory to always know when I'm hungry.

"Where's Xander ? I wanna tell you guys at the same time ." I look around as we're walking but find him nowhere. Glory rolls her eyes and opens the fridge door.

"Trying to convince Jason to come home." She says with a bit of edge in her voice. I take a deep breath.

"Has he talked to anyone about what happened?" I ask slowly. She pulls a few things out and slams the fridge door shut. She turns back towards me with a smile.

"No, he's trying to act like nothing happened. Like it's totally normal for him to stay here without you." She talks through her teeth. She may be smiling but she is not happy at all.

"I'm sorry." I say and she shakes her head.

"My brother has his ways but being stupid at the wrong moments has always been his downfall. He gets stuck sometimes in the past and he forgets he's already moved on and made progress. Anxiety is one thing but I always thought he liked the pain it causes him." Glory explains. I watch her make me a Chicken  Cordon Bleu Panini. That's literally my favorite sandwich.

"It's not that he likes the pain. He's spent so many years with it that he reverts back sometimes." Sean startles me. Glory remains unfazed and keeps cooking.

"Sean, I don't care what it is. He's not 16 anymore, he can't always shrink back just because of one little hiccup." Glory's tone becomes as sharp as the knife she's using to cut my sandwich with. She takes it to the panini press and begins the magic.

"Glory," Sean starts off mockingly , " he doesn't choose to. You know it's something he can't necessarily control. He can cope with it but this has become a defense for him. That's why it was such a problem. That's why it is such a problem. Your brother has a small mental issue and that's okay." Sean calmly lightens the mood, or at least I think so. Glory slams her fist on the table.

"So it's just gonna be like this for the rest of his life ? Hiding from his wife and kids instead of talking things out ? Inconveniencing his family, giving Mom and Dad a scare just because he's too much of a p-" in the middle of Glory's rant the panini press beeps. She just sighs and washes her hands before putting my sandwich on a plate and handing it to me.

"Thank you." She just nods at me and takes a deep breath.

"I want him to move forward. I know I seem hard on him but I lived a good portion of my childhood in fear and my younger brothers always had to protect me. They wasted time protecting frail and helpless me. The only way I know to repay them is make sure they live their lives and not be afraid. Jace has a really good thing going, I don't want this to keep happening to you and put strain on your relationship." Glory apologizes. Glory doesn't come outright and say she's sorry because often times she's not.

She does always provide an explanation to her feelings but she told me once that she spent everyday being sorry for her feelings, actions and words. In order to combat that she learned to just say what she means to say and leave it at that. All the Norman siblings wear their hearts on their sleeves' and while it's beautiful, you can see that life wasn't always nice to them. I feel like even more shit for saying such a degrading insult to Jace.