Fosters: Blackhawk (32 page)

Three days 

Cloud

I'm working with the kids for the first
time.  CJ has the 'happy's', I have the others.  I pull
Jeremy to the front and show what the sequence I just taught them
was for.  I hold him in front of me by his arm and tell him to
use the sequence to defend against me and get himself free from the
threat.  He nods and takes a breath.  I give his arm a
light squeeze and he moves so fuckin fast I'm surprised and have to
jump to get the next move in.  He defends and flips to the
side making me laugh.  He's a fuckin Master if I ever saw
one.  The kids laugh and clap.  I tell him I want to try
another.  He nods with a smile.  Little Badass moves in
front of me with confidence making me proud.  I use a sequence
I did last week.  He defends every move but I catch him when I
add a move at the end.  He slides his feet over, twists away
and flips right the fuck over me.  I look back amazed and
shocked.  CJ claps for him.  "He fuckin flipped over me."
 I tell her.  

She nods smiling.  "He did good, I saw him.
 He's got skillz."  She laughs.  

I look back at the kids.  Little Ben and
Darren are watching with shocked looks, the littler guys are
smiling.  He fuckin flipped over me.  I look over at the
camera telling Digs I want him to send that to me.  

Jeremy stays with CJ and I pull each kid up and
have them defend against me.  The little guys are really
good.  The older boys are quicker and stronger and have no
problem with the first sequence.  I'm proud of them and tell
them.  I ask if they have questions. 

Little Ben says yeah.  "Will you teach us
other things too?  Like shooting and using what's available as
a weapon?"  

Fuck.  I didn't expect this so soon. 
Jeremy runs from the other side of the room.  Jumping on the
barrel and up to the top of lockers against the wall he steps to an
open locker door and flips down to the bench flipping again to
stand facing us.  He's like a fuckin stunt man.  I laugh.
 "Little ninja here will work with us on that."  I look
at the kids, they're smiling and nodding.  "As for shooting I
think some of you are certainly old enough and disciplined enough
to learn.  That is not my call to make, I'll ask your
fathers'.  If I get a yes I will teach you what I know of
guns, arrows, knives, sticks and hatchets."  

Little Ben nods then smiles, "hatchets?"
 

I laugh and shrug, "I'm Indian."  They
crack up.  "Jeremy go up to the meeting room and give a
demonstration of using what's around you to get away.  Little
Ben ask your father and Rich to try and grab him."  They run
out of the room with the rest of us following.  CJ is cracking
up.  I carry Joey and get to the meeting room to see Jeremy
reenacting a fuckin Jackie Chan movie.  Steve and Rich are
fuckin laughing more than they're trying to catch him.  Danny
comes in and closes the door.  He catches Jeremy by the back
of his shirt and holds him up.  Jeremy puts his arms up and
slides out of the shirt going between his legs.  He uses Steve
to bounce to the table and runs.  At the end of the table he
turns around and smiles at us.  "Suffice it to say training
Jeremy for defensive moves is a little below his level of ability."
 I tell them.  I look at the kids.  "Do we have
anyone else that has this ability?"  Jacob, Ally, Alex and
Victor step forward in a straight line and flip onto the table.
 "Do the little ones have this?"  They look at Jeremy,
Ally looks back at me.  "Devan and Brenna will."  She
says and signs.  "The twins are different, they will be all."
 I look at Danny.  

He looks at Jeremy, "Why is Jacob in this
group?"  

Jacob answers, "I am his."  

I ask, "What does that mean you are his?"
 Jacob looks at Jeremy.  This conversation seems like
it’s out of a science fiction movie.

Christian walks to Jeremy and puts his hand out.
 Jeremy takes it and sits in the chair Christian pulled out.
 Christian sits beside him the kids follow and sit.  I
look at the adults and we sit.  "Jacob is him, his, he can
talk and give Jeremy the peace so he gets stronger."  

"When did this Master ability start?"  I
ask looking at Jeremy.  He smiles at me.  

Christian answers.  "When you came to the
house.  You are strength, honor and discipline, I use you're
strength, your focus, the spirits.  Before I only had mom, she
is love, protection.  I couldn't fly and come back.  You
showed me how to come back.  Tess shows me how to hear with
control.  Steve shows me how to defend.  Danny, how to
anticipate the next.  Rich how to see all.  Ben is the
beginning.  Everyone here gives to me.  I take all for
the next."  

"You use what you see in our mind to pull what
you need from each of us?" 

"I don't know.  You are and I learn that.
 Little Ben can help you understand.  Jessie, Darren, the
boys who come before.  They know, they saw.  I just
am." 

Danny looks over.  "What do you need from
us to be who you will become?" 

"Knowledge.  People to teach.  Love to
grow."  He's getting antsy.  

I lift my hand to stop Danny.  "Jeremy do
you need to go away?" 

He looks at me his face drawn.  "Daddy."
 I go to him and lift him putting his head on my shoulder.
 

"The questions are for the rest of you.  We
can wait if you don't have the answers."  They nod.  I
look at Danny.  

"Who leads you?"  He asks. 

Christian smiles and answers.  "Little Ben,
Darren and Jessie."  He looks at them and I can see the love
he has for them.  "The three before them Ben, Steve and you."
 

CJ sits up straight, "Is three an important
number to you?"  

"Yes."  Comes from Little Ben.  "Like
the system of checks and balances.  The vision, the
discipline, the logic.  Three is important to you too. 
Lead, teach, enforce.  It's everything, we learned it from
you." 

Rich clears his throat.  "Are there
specific things you need us to teach you?" 

"Yes but they're yours to give."  Jessie
says signing for Darren. 

Ours to give.  I look at Danny he's doing
the same thing.  "We need to have the plan or agenda and
you'll learn from that?" 

He smiles, like we're finally getting it.
 "Yes."  

"Fuckin kids and their cryptic messages."
 CJ says making us all laugh.  The kids put their hands
out.  I throw them a buck.  "Why didn't you just tell
us?"  

"We can only work from the beginning. 
Teach what we learn; give what we've been given.  We don't
know what we don't know."  Jessie says trying to make us
understand.  

Danny smiles and looks at me.  I nod for
him to go ahead.  "We want you to learn all you need to be
more; stronger, faster, logical and loving.  We want
fierceness in your passion and mercy in your judgements. 
Honor in your hearts and discipline in your mind."  

He looks at Rich.  "Honor, integrity,
loyalty, commitment, patience, respect."  He looks at
Steve.

"Unconditional love."  He says shocking us
all.

He looks at CJ.  "Protection,
compassion." 

She looks at me.  "These are the things we
want you to learn, these are the traits that make us proud of who
we are.  We want you to learn these traits and live with
confidence in those lessons that our belief of a better more
harmonious world can exist and is ours to shape.  We have the
power to live and show that belief to others, teaching them along
the way."  

Danny jumps in, "With that goes the enforcing
that you spoke about Little Ben.  We have to protect that
belief, for our Brothers and the innocents that can't defend
themselves.  We take care of our own has to mean that. 
We learn to defend, and when needed attack to protect what is
ours.  We don't go out looking for a fight, we fight to
defend.  Always to defend what is ours." Little Ben nods.
 

"We need time to learn that.  We've learned
and will keep learning the lessons of our fathers but defending is
more, it's harder.  We need those lessons.  Jeremy sees
threats to us, he sees you defending, he can learn from what you
give him but we need the lessons."  He says with confidence
and no embarrassment.  I'm proud of him.  

"He is, and we all are, proud of you too. 
You are the teachers."  Christian says.  

Steve stands.  "Enough for today. 
We'll keep teachin.  You keep learnin.  We defend us
together."  

Little Ben smiles, "together."  The rest of
the kids say it too.  I'm so fuckin proud of them. 

"Come on guys we'll stop at the cone on the way.
 Do you think we can squish you all into the van?"  

Joey yells yeah and the kids run out the
door.  Danny carries her so she'll get a seat, I follow with
Jeremy.  At the van the kids wait for Joey, Brantley takes
Jeremy.  CJ pulls me down for a kiss telling me she’ll meet me
at home later.  I love this woman.  I kiss her head and
thank her.

Danny follows me back in, he's talking to Pres,
telling him he's needed in the meeting room.  Rich is already
pulling the feed so we can watch it when Pres, Tiny, Doc, and Bob,
get here.  

One
month

CJ 

We get to Rachel's in record time. 
Christian said I needed Little Ben so I brought him with me. 
Friggin kids. Three kids are outside, I’m glad to see them playing
with the toys and bikes from the garage safe room. I can hear the
yelling inside.  Dear Lord the neighbors are going to throw us
out.  I walk in calm and follow the voices up into the boys
room.  Ricky is screaming at Carmen, Carmen yells
back. 

I walk into the room and yell, "Enough!"
 They stop.  Rachel smiles and nods her head at Little
Ben.  "I'm going to talk to Rachel, then Carmen then you
Ricky.  You are not allowed to speak until I get to you. 
You are not allowed to interrupt.  You will get your chance to
speak and you can add after everyone speaks but only if you follow
the rule.  Does everyone understand?"  I hide my smile
while they nod.  "Rachel what is going on?"

"The school called, Ricky got suspended for
fighting.  When I went in I found out he was fighting because
a boy has been messing with Carmen.  I had words with the
principal about him getting suspended at home while the boy that
messed with Carmen got in school suspension.  Ricky threw the
first punch so he bore the brunt of it.  Carmen is angry
because Ricky got suspended again so she came in here to talk to
him.  The fight followed but neither will give an inch and
neither will listen to reason."  She's smiling.  She's
not at all upset that he was suspended.  

"Carmen, tell me why you’re so upset that you
are screaming at the top of your lungs at Ricky." 

"He's so stupid!"  She stomps her foot, I
raise an eyebrow.  Her shoulders slump.  "The boy won't
leave me alone, he keeps following me, talking to me, calling me
names, he's rude and says nasty thing about my chest."  She
looks down red faced.  "Ricky saw him in the lunch room and
told him to leave me alone.  When the kid laughed Ricky hit
him then they were fighting and Ricky already got a warning he knew
he was getting suspended this time.  He should have left it
alone."  She doesn't look at us or say any more.  I hope
Ricky beat the crap out of the kid.  

"Ricky what happened?"  

"That ff..friggin as..jerk touched her.  I
told her to tell so the teachers would watch her but she
wouldn't.  Like being embarrassed is the worst thing in the
world.  I told him to leave her alone he put his arm around
her and touched her boob.  I hit him, what's he going to do
next?  She won't tell any ff..."friggin one what's going on!"
 He's pissed but changed the swears before they came
out.  Good for him.  

"Ricky I think you did what you needed to. We
take care of our own and protect our girls at all costs.  You
did that.  You probably could have told a teacher or Rachel
what was happening and avoided all this but you protected
her.  The thing with protecting people is you have to be smart
about it.  That boy is going to keep messing with Carmen and
now you.  He knows every time he messes with her he can get
you suspended.  He forces that and Rachel won't be protected
because you're not there to protect her."  Little Ben is
friggin awesome.  

He looks at Carmen.  "Carmen you should
have told someone about the boy before all this happened. 
Ricky is right, embarrassing things happen to us all through our
lives.  A little embarrassment would have stopped Ricky from
being suspended but more importantly it would have shown that boy
that you respect yourself enough to stand up for yourself.  If
you told the first time the boy wouldn't be getting more daring to
see how far he can go with you.  You need to see that it's up
to you what happens in your life.  If you allow him to
disrespect you, more boys will follow and treat you the same
way.  You are a Little Sister.  Little Sisters are
respected and protected.  We need to talk to Kate about making
sure you know what that means.  I don't think you're mad at
Ricky.  I think you're mad at yourself for it getting this
far.  You can't yell at him that you can handle the boy if you
never showed him you could.  You showed him the opposite, so
he handled it.  Granted he could have thought it through and
had the boy suspended for at least a week for sexual harassment but
he handled it the best way he could think at that moment."  He
walks to her and lifts her chin so she looks at him.  "I think
what you're trying to say with all this yelling is thank you. 
He protected you when you couldn't."  

She cries and nods her head.  He pulls her
to his chest holding her head.  He looks at Ricky and smiles.
 "You did good Ricky but we need to work on strategy with
you.  We'll do that at Little Brothers this week.  This
is an important tool in protecting what's ours.  If you need
that, I bet there are others that need it too.  Yeah?"