The Help~(Completed♡)

Damaged Kids

Damon's P.O.V.

I heard Meg and Kiara on the porch.

"Sweetie, you know them. And I swear this is a safe place.", Meg said softly.

"What if it ends up the same? They-They were nice but so were my dads until I made them mad."

"It won't. Damon and Asher have loved and raised so many kids and they have never hurt one. I'm a firm believer that good situations and good people can fix anyone and they will fix you. You can always call me if you need to."

"Promise?"

"I promise." The door opened as I got off the living room floor from where I helped Lily read,

"Hey.", I said hugging Meg before looking to Kiara, "Welcome back kiddo. C'mon, I'll show you to your room."

~~~~

"Dad!", Zuri called coming into the kitchen, "I'm leaving." I walked over, kissing her head,

"Be careful. Text me when you get there. And every time you stop."

"I will.", she laughed, hugging me. She was going a few hours away to visit a college she really liked.

"I love you. Have fun."

"I love you too." She left as Kiara came in,

"Can I help with anything?"

"You could... talk to me. That would help a lot." She looked down. "Kiddo, I won't make you do something you're not ready for, ever. But you've been here for almost two weeks and it's worrying me. I would never tell anyone your secrets and I really think you'd benefit from talking about stuff." She paused briefly,

"I was in two other homes before I met my dads. Both seemed fine until I messed up, then things changed and I got hurt. I was with my dads for almost two months before they adopted me and when they did, things changed. I'm sorry I haven't talked to you, I want to, really. I'm just waiting for things to change."

"They won't here. Talk to any of our kids, they'll say the same. They all waited and waited for things to flip and go bad, but they never did. And they never will. Ash and I never considered fostering. We thought it would be too hard. And we never wanted a big family either. But... then things happened and now we have seven kids."

"Seven?"

"When you live here, you're our kid until further notice. I could never imagine introducing someone as my foster son or daughter. Whether it's for a week or two years or forever, you're our kid." She smiled a little,

"It-It's different here."

"What'd you mean?"

"I never thought anything was wrong with my dads. They were really nice and caring, I was just overly cautious. And then they adopted me and got meaner and everything I did was never right or good. I just thought it was normal. Then I-I came here, just for dinner, and I-I broke that glass and expected you to freak and yell at me or-or at least get angry and you didn't. And it was weird for me to do something stupid and someone not get angry with me. Then I started overthinking it. I-I ended up bringing it up to my dad and telling him our family wasn't normal and he hit me. A few times. It-It had never escalated to that."

"I'm sorry love. Ash and I both went through a lot of shit with our parents so our biggest goal in life is to try to understand our kids. If there's a problem, we fix it as a family. Always. We don't get angry, we don't yell, and we've never hit our kids like that and never would. I can't imagine laying a hand on any of my kids in an abusive manner. People make mistakes and sometimes adults assume they're worse because you're kids but that's not true. Ash and I make mistakes too. Becoming an adult doesn't make you perfect. Sometimes you think your situation is okay and normal until you see something better and that can be even scarier. It's scary to trust people because you have to just hope they won't hurt you. You have to hope the situation doesn't turn into something terrible like in the past. But, you will learn soon enough that it won't. There's always one moment with the kids where they realize we're serious and this is how we always act. We're not pretending or just being nice, this is who we are. We just want to help you. When you're one of our kids, we will love and support you and be by your side through anything and everything and do our absolute best to help and understand. That never stops." She hesitated before stepping forward a little, hugging me tightly,

"Thank you."

~~~~

When Kiara first showed up, I noticed she slept with her light on, door closed, clutching a small bear. Slowly, that changed and the bear sat on her shelf. Then her closet light came on instead. Then off. And finally, her door opened. She still didn't completely trust us, but I was glad old habits were being broken. It had been almost two months, a month without her sleeping habits, when I noticed them return one night. The morning after, we were the first ones awake.

"Good morning.", I said as Kiara came out on the back deck with a bowl of cereal. She sat across from me,

"Morning."

"How'd you sleep?"

"Okay." I paused,

"Listen, I got up to check on you guys last night and I noticed your light was on. So I knocked and opened your door, but you were asleep... with your bear..." I paused, "Is something going on?" She froze,

"I'm-"

"Don't apologize. I know that's something that makes you feel a little safer and that's fine, I just need to know why it went away for a long time and suddenly came back."

"I-I did a dumb thing and you're gonna be mad."

"You've been here for two months, have you ever seen me get mad about anything?"

"I-I guess not."

"Exactly. Just tell me and we'll talk about it kiddo." She took a deep breath,

"I-I um- it's a lot."

"No one else is gonna be up for awhile. We have time."

"So I-I started dating this boy a few weeks ago. Things... escalated a little. I-I lied to you the other night. I said I went to the movies but I went on a date and then he took me to his house and w-we- um-"

"Got it. Did you guys use protection?" She nodded,

"Yesterday he told a bunch of people and said I was a slut and dumped me and people started sending me death threats and threatening to beat me up. I'm sorry I lied to you but I'm scared."

"Thank you for telling me kid. I'm not happy you lied to me but that was a hard thing to come forward about and I'm proud of you. We aren't gonna let you get hurt, at all. Give me names of the people and I'll handle it. We're gonna keep you safe. If you're scared or you can't sleep because of this, come get me. You can stay in our room or we can talk until you feel better. We're here to take care of you baby." She got up and moved to the other side of the table, sitting next to me and hugging me tightly,

"I think this is my moment D."

"D for Damon or for dad?" She hesitated,

"D-Dad."