The Fighter

Chapter Seven

"Asleep, but come with me and I'll make you a cup of coffee," Derek says quietly. "She's okay, don't worry about it."

"I will worry about it," the man says as they disappear into the kitchen. Slowly getting up, I make my way to the entrance of the room only to find Bear with a scowl donning his face. "Why'd you look so shocked to see me? I know that I haven't gotten that ugly since Jackson passed."

"I was expecting Beast," he says lowly with a sigh. "He told Addy that he was going to be here to pick her up in the morning. What changed?"

"He got ahold of Alex," he says without emotion and Derek sighs, his shoulders sagging in defeat as he turns from the coffee machine to Bear. "Not that I blame him, something could have happened to her."

"I know, thank the gods nothing did." Bear raises his mug in salute before taking a long sip ending in a sigh.

"So, how did she take it?"

"What? The fact that Jackson, Jer, and I used to be your bosses," he asks with a guilty look in his eye, "not very well, but I kind of expected that."

"It'll be okay, June Bug is special." He nods while running his hands through his already messy hair. "She hasn't really... said anything to me about it. I think that Jer kind of hurt her with how she found out, he told me that she began to lash out but he could understand why."

Bear stands from his seat and walks over to where Derek stands, leaning against the counter.

"Does she know about you?" Derek nods and so does Bear as he wraps his arms around Derek's waist. "Good, then you won't mind if she walked in on us?"

"Not at all, but what about Addyy?" Bear doesn't answer, he only presses his lips lightly over Derek's who gives a small groan of enjoyment. "You devil."

"I think the term is tease," Bear says with a deep baritone laugh that filled the room no matter how quiet he was trying to be. Derek simply slaps his shoulder in response and I choose this time to walk in but not before messing up my hair more and taking off my glasses. Walking in, I glare at the two, as if they had woken me up.

"Shit, June, I'm so sorry! We didn't mean to wake you." I glare deeper at them with a motion for the coffee and Derek pulls them both to the side. "You don't need caffeine this late, you'll be up all night."

"Caffeinate or die." Derek glares and mine gets harsher. "You woke me."

"And I will not be the reason you stay awake, besides, you were never really asleep." Sighing in defeat, I put my glasses back on and nod. "Now, go put the baseball bat back where it belongs."

"Okay." Bear gives Derek a scared expression before falling back into the nonchalant one from before. "You two are cute together."

"Fuck you." Smiling to myself, I slowly make my way to my room but check on the kids before heading in. Jake is holding onto Addy, who is facing towards him, tightly but so much so that she looks uncomfortable. Smiling at the sight of them, I tap the door frame twice and leave to the next room where I carefully lay down on the twin sized bed, counting the glow in the dark stars that hang above me.

"Let tomorrow be better." Closing my eyes, one thought continuously echos through my mind: Who is Beast?

°°°

"Sis, wake up!" Jolting in bed, I find Jake's blurry figure standing at the door. Reaching toward the bedside table, I am met with a searing pain and it is then that I remember what happened yesterday. Jake hands me my glasses and glares at me. "You're not okay."