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[soldier_singled]

Something's definitely up. Something's been up for a while; Joe knows Trisha well enough by now to know that she's keeping something from him, and he's going to find out what it is. He's been baking already this morning, and there's a fresh batch of cookies (chocolate chip, of course) on a plate on the dresser and Joe's laid out everything he's

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[ihearttomgordon]

Trisha took a second to lick the chocolate off her fingers before she hopped up on the chair and scooted back, long skinning legs dangling over the edge of it. Her hair was clean and mostly brushed, but like all little girl's hair, it tended to tangle when you weren't looking.

"You're really going to curl it like Shirley Temple?" she asked. It was the first afternoon she'd spent any great amount of time one on one with Joe since the big party. There had been class of course and she saw him most days because she was always coming by to bother someone from Easy, but it was just the two of them today.

[soldier_singled]

"Said I would, didn't I?"

Hell, he'd searched for days for a picture of the kid, and now he's found one he's got it tacked to the corner of the mirror where he can see it.

"I'm gonna cut it first though," he says, reaching for scissors and comb. "Just at trim. You sure you're comfortable there, little bit?"

[ihearttomgordon]

She nodded. He had said so, and he hadn't broken a promise to her yet.

The chair was a little long in the seat for her, but not bad. "I'm good. Just gonna cut a little right?" she asked with the natural fear that little girls with long hair all have.

[soldier_singled]

Joe clicks his tongue against his teeth and shakes his head mournfully.

"You don't trust me yet, little bit?" He fans her hair out against his fingers, working out how much he needs to take off. "Don't worry, Trish. I got sisters, so I know exactly how much girls like their hair. I ain't gonna ruin it."

He selects a length, sectioning it with his fingers and making his first cut.

"Everything okay with you?"

[ihearttomgordon]

She tipped her head back too look up at him and then remembered that she shouldn't and tilted it back forward. "I trust you plenty Joe," she said grinning. "But it's my hair," she pointed out.

She kept her head straight as he ran the comb through her hair and stilled almost completely when she heard the sound of the scissors snip.

"I'm good, but some of my classes are real hard, Joe. It's sort of fun to take them with grownups. I like Scott's writing class," she answered as if he had asked her 'how's school'. She reached up to fiddle idly with the talisman Lloyd had given her, a bear carved on a smooth wood poker chip set on a string.

[soldier_singled]

"I'll be real careful with your hair, sweetheart," he promises, and he means it utterly. There's not a hair on Trisha's hair that he'd hurt.

She reels off a lot of stuff about school, but Joe knows about school. He teaches her, and, besides that, she's never had a problem with telling him about school.

"You know you can tell me if something's up, right, Trish?"

[ihearttomgordon]

She twisted the cord around her neck, spinning the little disk, and then let it go so that the tension spun it back the other way. "Sure, Joe," she piped in her waterless-cookware voice. "Like when I get nightmares and stuff? I haven't been getting as many, y'know."

[soldier_singled]

"Not just nightmares, kiddo," says Joe, carefully feathering Trisha's fine hair as he cut it.

"Webster...told me that you guys had a little chat."

[ihearttomgordon]

"Yeah," she said after a moment. "He said something kinda weird... at the party. I didn't really understand," she said, although she had understood what he'd meant, just not how to wrap her brain around it. People who did that were bad people, but Joe and Web were good people, or at least she thought so.

[soldier_singled]

Aha. Web had mentioned it, but it had never occurred to Joe, not really, that that might have been eating at Trisha. She was so little, after all. What could it matter to her?

Carefully, he ruffled his fingers through her hair, eyes fixed on her face in the mirror tacked to the wall.

"About me and him?"

[ihearttomgordon]

"Uh-huh," she said, eyes avoiding his in the mirror, hardly even seeming to see it in front of her in fact. She fidgeting, clasping her hands together, crossing her ankles one way and then the other.

"Dad said it's bad," she said softly without looking at him, almost mumbling it. Larry McFarland had been pretty vocal on the subject on occasion, and Mom had just told her never to use the word. Any of them.

[soldier_singled]

Yeah, Joe's dad would have probably said that too. He lets Trisha's hair sift through his fingers before he tucks his scissors into his back pocket and moves around the chair, crouching down in front of the chair with a hand on each arm.

"Look, little bit. You love me, right?"

[ihearttomgordon]

"Yeah, I do Joe," she answered honestly, looking into his face now that he's right in front of her. It's hard not to with his eyes on hers. She didn't think she's seen him so serious since she'd met him. She pulls her knees up onto the chair, holding them close.

[soldier_singled]

"I love you, too, little bit," he says, leaning forward until he can press a kiss to her forehead. "Which means I don't want you to come up against anything that's bad for you, right?"

He smoothes her hair.

"It ain't bad, little bit. It's just something your Pops didn't understand. You see me letting anything come near you that could hurt you or be bad for you?"

[ihearttomgordon]

She nodded. She didn't pull away as he kissed her forehead, touched her hair, and tried to explain. She was old enough to know that Dad didn't know everything, that he wasn't always right. Mom had said a lot about that when she hadn't thought Trisha was listening. Dad, who sometimes drank too much beer even though Trisha didn't like it, could be wrong, but she still felt funny about it.

She shakes her head. "No... but they call," she stops face screwing up. People like him, Trisha? "They only use bad words for people," she stopped again, looking like she was going to cry. She didn't think Joe or Webster were bad. She didn't want to think that they were bad. She didn't want to think about it at all. But Joe was in front of her and he was so nice. He lied to you. Didn't tell you.

[soldier_singled]

"Oh, baby," says Joe, getting up and perching in the chair with her. It's a big chair and it's big enough for both of them. He curls one arm around her shoulder and cradles her close against him.

"Baby, I know all the words they got for people like me. Hell, I used a couple of 'em myself." He thinks about it for a moment, his hand stroking against her arm. "You know what? I think people can be stupid and wrong about things that scare them a bit. I think I was stupid and wrong about it, too. And then Webster found me anyway, and it's okay." He kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you myself, little bit. I just wanted to be Joe to you, y'know? Your buddy Joe, and I didn't want you worryin' about none of the rest of it."