On The Rocks

Sixteen

A/N: Hello everyone! I've been trying to avoid notes in the chapters, I just want to tell this story, but I just wanted to say a quick thank you! This is the first story I've written with a non fantasy plot and I didn't expect it to go so well. I really appreciate all of you reading it and I hope you're enjoying it so far. Again, thank you so much!! 

The rest of the week seemed to go by quickly. Orion went to school every day, even if Kimber worried about Travis trying anything else, but she knew that the school wouldn't release her son to his father. She had reported the incident to her lawyer and the older man had assured her that it would only help to get the restraining order put into place faster. The court date for that was only a week out and she was hoping that it would fly by since she was finally able to go back to work. Though she had enjoyed the extra time with Orion she was more than ready to get back to the office; she missed her coworkers and the feeling that she was actually accomplishing something, even if it was just little things like organizing files and setting up appointments.

With the weekend starting tomorrow Kimber had spent the day making sure all of the housework was done so that she wouldn't have to worry about it and could use that time to do some fun stuff with her son. They had been pretty cooped up since she didn't want to go out in public with the bruise on her face and Orion had been a champ about it, so she was going to make sure he was able to have a lot of fun now that she looked normal. Her thoughts were going through the list of possibilities as she loaded the dishwasher, her last task before everything was finished and they could start their fun. Whiskey had offered to meet the bus since she refused to let him help clean and she looked out the window just in time to see the large vehicle drive off, the two were high-fiving over something before they turned to head toward the house.

"Mom! Mom! Guess what?!" Orion shouted as he ran through the door, Whiskey following shortly behind him as they entered the kitchen.

Kimber closed and started the dishwasher quickly before turning to her son, "What?"

"I got all of the answers right on my spelling test!" He told her with a bright smile before rummaging through his backpack to pull a paper out.

She took it from him and wrapped him in a big hug, "That's awesome, buddy!" After setting him down she looked over the paper, the words were three letters long and though it didn't seem like much, he had problems with words. Numbers were more his thing. "You know what this means, right?" The question was asked as she crossed the kitchen to hang the test on the fridge.

"Ice cream?" Orion asked as he zipped his backpack up.

"Nope. Something even better."

Whiskey stood silently in the entryway watching the mother and son as they spoke. He knew that Kimber would be proud, she was at almost everything her boy did, but they had been practicing for this spelling test every day since he'd been staying there and he knew how some of the sounds of the words confused Orion. "What could be better than ice cream?" He asked confused, knowing that he could list a few himself, but nothing appropriate for a kid.

"Pizza and video games!" Orion shouted, "Duh, Luca." His tone was as exasperated as a six year old could get.

"Watch that tone, young man." Kimber gave him a disapproving look, "Why don't you go put your stuff up and as long as you don't pull an attitude like that again we'll go out for dinner."

Orion nodded slightly, before turning to look at Whiskey. "Sorry." he told the man before leaving for his room.

With a shake of his head Whiskey watched until Orion was in his room before looking across the kitchen, "You know that's the same tone you get when people ask you stupid questions." he told her with a grin. It wasn't long after he began staying with them that the kid had started calling him by his real name, something that made the man happy. The list of people that didn't use his road name was short, but he didn't mind adding the boy to it.