Secret Smiles and Three Little Words Pt. 26

"Thanks Uncle Gavin," Nora said looking at her new bandage after he applied a loose gauze around her hand.

"You're welcome, my Princess," Gavin said with a big bow to her. He helped her off the counter and set her down, smiling at his new title.

"If you have some children's Tylenol or something like that, she could probably use it, to take the throb out of it," Gavin said to Livy pulling his gloves off.

"She is going to be ok?" Livy asked him.

"She is going to be just fine," Gavin said with a reassuring squeeze to her hand.

"You're a good man to have in a pinch!" Al laughed with a clap on his shoulder.

"I try to be useful," Gavin deflected the complement.

Alex came to him and kissed him deeply.

"Thank you, our Knight in Shining Armor!" Alex said with a whisper. "I'm going to get the Tylenol for her."

He nodded as he began to clean up the bloody medical supplies.

"You are great with kids," Alex said at the doorway.

"Don't get any ideas," Gavin warned with his back to her. "If you want kids from me, you are going to have to marry me first."

"Waiting on you, Sir," Alex smiled before leaving him in the kitchen.

***

They gathered around the dining room table and said grace. Nora sitting next to Gavin kept Alex from the spot she wanted, instead she sat across from him as her father occupied the other seat next to Gavin at the head of the table.

Livy chided her daughter for taking Alex's spot but Gavin said she had to sit there so he could keep an eye on her cut, which made Nora very happy and beam with her smile.

After helping Nora with food for her plate Gavin looked to Alex to see her looking intently at the way he was caring for her niece. He could see her wheels spinning wildly in her head. He sighed deeply and shook his head. So easy to read.

"So Alex," Ken started after the food was passed around. "Al says you have started teaching?"

Ken was Krista's husband, he worked at the bank and was a Deacon in the church. He was roughly fifteen years older that Krista, more of her parents age than Krista's. He was always pleasant to Alex and she enjoyed that he would always keep her with pleasant conversation. He always paid a price for it but he did it anyway.

The price was always some sort or ridicule from Krista or his mother in law but he was always interested in what Alex was doing. Perhaps it was because he had a crush on her, Alex knew this because he was always looking at her in more than a sisterly way. Then one New Year's Eve shortly after the birth of his son, he had a little too much champagne and kissed her a little longer than appropriate at the stroke of midnight when the family celebrated.

He confessed he liked her more than he should. Alex let him down easy, telling him that could never be. At the time she said she was flattered, did everything she could to keep from bruising his fragile ego, but in reality she was extremely embarrassed for him. She knew he would feel horribly about it later.

Alex said nothing at the time and could tell for a few meetings afterward he feared she would tell Krista which would bring him shame and constant ridicule. He was always thankful after that, for not telling Krista and not making it uncomfortable with them. Pretending that it never happened. In return, he was always pleasant and kind to her. Never joining in when the family attacked and on more than one occasion pulled the dogs off when they barked too much.

"Um, yeah," Alex said with a tilt of her head. "Sort of, I filled in for a maternity leave this year, it lasted until the break, now the teacher will be back so I'm not teaching anymore. I hope to sub more though."

"Where were you teaching?" he asked her.

"South side," Alex admitted slowly.

"I thought the south side of Chicago was the bad part of town?" Ken asked looking to Gavin.

"It can be," Gavin replied for her. "It's like any major city, they have a part of town that has higher crime rates, but that's just economics."

"It's because they have more black people down there!" Brandy teased.

"Skin color has nothing to do with economics," Gavin defended. "Racism has more to do with it than anything else. Why we still judge a person in this day and age by the color of their skin is beyond me!"

"C'mon Gavin," Krista chimed in. "They want to live like that because they are lazy!"

"That's too simplistic an answer," Gavin disagreed. "Statistics prove that socioeconomic factors play more into it, most intelligent people know this."

Alex looked to her plate at the subtle slam, it appeared that only she and her father caught it. Looking to Ken he winked at her and she knew he got it for sure.

"Well," Marylyn started. "I hope, for your sake, that you do find a rich man to take care of you, because I can tell you from experience, teachers never become successful!"

"Yeah, it worked out for Dad!" Brandy laughed. "A terrible pension for all the years of hard work!"

"I'm very proud of what I did for a living," Al said winking at Alex. "I was able to raise four daughters, put food on the table and make a difference in people's lives. I would consider that successful."

"You are one of the few, dear," Marylyn drawled disappointingly with a shake of her head. "Had you taken the insurance job my father offered, we could be enjoying worldwide travel like Terry Newcome is right now! He took the job you turned down! Instead, we are stuck here in Orchard Falls."

"Yeah, not going to get baited into that conversation again!" Al laughed uncomfortably.

"Are you saying that Mr. Lasko isn't successful?" Gavin asked them setting down his fork. Alex looked to him and saw the fire. She danced on the inside.

"We're saying he is not like you, rich, with powerful contacts," Krista pointed out the differences. "You are what everybody deems successful!"

"I'm sorry to disagree with you, sure I have money and I know a certain cross section of powerful people, but one thing I know for sure, money doesn't mean a whole lot in the end," Gavin said putting his elbows on the table and folding his hands in front of his face.

"I have been with very wealthy people at the end of their lives, and I haven't found one who didn't have some sort of regret that had nothing to do with money, it had to do with how they were to be remembered? Ever notice that names like Rockefeller, DuPont and the like all have charitable foundations?" Gavin looked to each one of them before continuing.

"It's because that is the only way we will remember them, by the lives they touch and most don't realize it until they are on their death bed. Granted being a doctor is fulfilling work, and I love doing it, but when I'm gone who is going to remember me beyond my patients? Nobody, maybe those who love me," he looked to Alex and she melted that he thought to look to her when he said it.

"But if I don't have kids, what legacy do I leave behind? What transcends me?" Gavin shrugged his shoulders in opinion.

"Mr. Lasko has touched students and planted seeds of knowledge, something that can never be measured as it never ends! His seeds turn into plants with knowledge who become successful and plant further knowledge. Thus his teaching will continue to reach others, long after he is gone," Gavin said draping his arm around Nora comfortably as she looked up at him as he leaned back in his chair.

"I know all of his students Dr. Steward, none of them will ever amount to much!" Marylyn said coolly, semi glaring at him.

"Really?" Gavin's eyes sharpened as his temper began to rise. The skin on his face warmed and Alex watched on in fascination that he was getting angry, and it wasn't directed at her!

"You can't think of one student who hasn't or won't redistribute his love and knowledge to future generations?" Gavin asked her hard, his face setting angrily.

"No," she said with a soft laugh. "Nobody he taught will amount to much, maybe they will become bagger of the year at the grocery store!" She mocked.

"No one?" Gavin's voice was cold and everybody noticed. It took Marylyn's smile from her. Even little Nora looked up at him sensing his anger.

"No one?" He repeated, gathering in his temper as he waited. "Not even here at this table?" He asked firmly, his finger tapping the table they were at. GAvin waited for Marylyn or one of the sisters to answer, he shook his head when they didn't, meaning they had no clue.

"I mean all Alex did was paint a mural that was seen by over a million people, you mean to tell me that even the one plant he nurtured in this very house, who has now cast a over a million seeds of knowledge and memories, isn't considered making him highly successful?" Gavin asked her sharply. He shook his head at the lack of respect at this table.

"Make no mistake, being a teacher can never be measured, because the knowledge they pass on can't be quantified as they will never know how or when their knowledge will pass on from there," Gavin continued.

Those at the table sat silently as he went on, Alex wanted to do a summersault but instead watched him defend, not only her, but her father. Gavin calmed himself, regaining control of his temper.

"I was walking with him yesterday, at the store, and more than one person came up to say hello to him, former students, all of them. How do you measure what knowledge he passed on to them that they may pass on to someone else, their child perhaps?" Gavin asked them with a shrug as he used the motion to shrug off his anger. "Isn't that deemed successful? To be remembered long after you have left their lives?"

"I saw your daughter do the same this year, I visited her in her classroom, I saw at least twenty kids in her one class who loved her there, that she made a difference in their lives because she cared about them in a world that didn't," Gavin said his temper draining as he realized what was happening.

"She exposed them to something they fell in love with, art, which was taught to her by her father, thus planting his seeds again. Untold millions of people going out and planting her seeds of art, her father's seeds. From the mural, to her care in the class for each student. All from the one plant Mr. Lasko planted that sits at this table with us, and I know she is not the only student he inspired. There were two that came up randomly in the grocery store while we were there, for what?" Gavin paused as he looked to Al. "Ten minutes?" Gavin said blowing out a breath and smiling at Alex.

"If we are lucky, the rest of us will affect a tenth of what they have, I'll be lucky to affect a hundredth of what they have. Some people say I'm rich and successful, but in the end, all I have is money and that is not successful, that was a waste of my God given talent," Gavin shrugged picking up his fork.

"I'm not saying he doesn't consider himself a successes. I'm just saying God gave him an opportunity to provide for his family better, my father offered him a job that would have made him lots of money and that could be passed on to our kids," Marylyn pointed out. "We could have benefited our church more!"

"Let's face it Gavin," Brandy said with a smile. "Teachers aren't respected, but doctors are."

"God loves teachers, probably more so than those who claim to be religious but do not lead by example," Gavin said with a furrowed brow. His temper was raging inside of him but he had to keep it together. For Alex.

"Proverbs 22:6, 'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it," Gavin quoted. His mother coming back to him. It was one of her favorites when he would ask her why he had to obey them when they grounded him for what he thought was an unfair length of time.

"Is that not the essence of teaching? Whether it is your child or not is irrelevant," Gavin asked them. This caused them to blink at him in astonishment that he was quoting scripture to them. "Was Jesus not a teacher himself?"

"Our Lord and Savior was a not a teacher!" Marylyn said angrily. "He is the King of Kings! He was sent to die for our sins so we could be saved from hells bosom!"

"John 13:13, 'You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am'," Gavin said softly causing Alex to gasp in disbelief.

This was so perfect and she chided herself for being childishly happy that her boyfriend was defending her to her family! That he was saying things and not shouting them like she would have. That he could keep his composure and win every point in the argument.

"Jesus said this after washing his disciple's feet, hardly what a king would do, but he did it. Not because he was a king, but because he was a servant and a teacher. For he told his disciples to do the same and they did," Gavin countered finally drawing looks of disbelief from the others at the table.

***

Gavin stood on the front porch, the cool air surrounding him trying to soothe his anger. The girls had gone in to do the dishes, and the guys had gone in to watch the game on TV. He needed some fresh air.

He couldn't fathom how they could belittle their own family like that. Where he was raised people took pride in what they did. It was work! As long as you did your best that was all that was expected from you. One job wasn't more prestigious than the next.

He thought of all Alex had to endure growing up here, the force fed religion, the snide comments about being an artist. Or a teacher, which he thought, was the most noble profession, in the world!

"Thank you for what you said in there," Al said coming out into the night air with him.

"Why do you put up with that?" Gavin asked him as he came to stand next to him and look up at the crisp night sky.

"There was a time I cared, but I realized it wasn't worth the fight to try to convince them that they are wrong. After Alex came along I realized I didn't need to," he replied. "You begin to realize some people can't be convinced of anything if they don't want to be convinced."

Gavin and Al stood there for a moment, Al lit his pipe and tended to the bowl. The sweet smell of cherry tobacco filled the cold air and Gavin smiled. Simple man, Gavin admired silently. Simple pleasures. Teacher, artist and father. Very successful in Gavin's mind.

"You are wrong about one thing though, you have reached out and helped nurture that same plant I started. While I may have planted it, you nurtured it as well. It was just as much your doing with your encouragement. Your love for her, that made her plant her own seeds. So, between the three of us, we will transcend ourselves," Al said to him with a firm head nod.

"No, that little fireball of a plant," Gavin laughed. "Is all yours!"

"Yes, but like any field of crops, it isn't just the farmer who planted that makes the crop successful, it takes a lot of hands, and a lot of love. So when the time comes, you have my blessing, so you don't have to ask," Al countered.

"I'm not sure we are at that point," Gavin cautioned with a gasp at the idea.

"With all due respect, bullshit. I can tell by the way you look at her, and the way she looks at you, that's love and it's all you need. It can weather any storm. I know, because I still look at my wife that way and she hasn't looked back at me that way in years," Al argued.

"Then why stay?" Gavin asked him looking at the man as he stared at the sky.

"Because I do still look at her that way, and I would rather love her alone, than never love at all!" He replied with a tear in his eye.

Alex coming out onto the porch caused the men to stop talking and look to her.

"Sorry," Alex smiled at them. "Am I interrupting man talk?"

"No!" Al laughed. "Just out her trying to get your man to not lecture me on my pipe smoking!" He tapped the bowl of his pipe on the railing of the porch and kissed her on his way by to go inside.

"Sorry about that," Gavin said to her as she leaned into him and he put his arm around her to help her stay warm. "Guess that whole speech about respect last night was not listened to by me!"

"I'm not!" Alex said with a shake of her head.

"Kind of lost my temper there," Gavin explained. "I guess you should know, if you haven't figured it out by now, I have a pretty bad temper, it can get the best of me sometimes."

"I am thankful you said the words, it seems when I lose my temper I lose all manner of speaking as eloquently as you did!" Alex assured him that she wasn't angry at all. That she was thankful he came to their defense.

"If I would have gone off, it would have been a childish tirade filled with obscenities and yelling!" Alex laughed snuggling into him to absorb his warmth and his scent. "You were able to put them in their place without all the swearing and temper tantrum! It's the first time anyone has ever won against the whole family!"

"Hey, that doesn't mean 'go fuck yourselves', wasn't the first thing that popped into my mind!" Gavin laughed.

"Feel very strongly about teaching?" Alex asked him as she enjoyed his embrace.

"Remember, my mother was a teacher," he reminded.

"What did your father do?" she asked him.

"He was a janitor," he smiled proudly. "In the same school."

"They must have been very proud of you becoming a doctor," she smiled thinking of the way he said it.

"My parents would have been proud of whatever I became, the only thing they said I couldn't become was a quitter. I'm the product of hard working parents who taught their child right," Gavin said firmly kissing her head.

***

Gavin looked in on her, Alex was in her old room. Nora laying in her old bed with her princess dress on as she wanted to use it for sleeping, arguing that princesses always wore their dresses to bed.

Alex was reading to her, from one of her old story books. Nora waved to him as he filled the doorframe and he waved back with a wink.

"Mind if I check your bandage?" he asked her. "Before you go to sleep? I mean your mother said you were supposed to be asleep twenty minutes ago, but it looks like your mean aunt is going to keep you up all night!"

Nora sat up and held out her hand as she rubbed her tired eyes. Gavin peeked under and smiled.

"Looks hunky dory," he smiled.

Nora leaned back into Alex and she continued to read. Gavin watched them and would smile at the voices Alex used to change the characters from boring words on a piece of paper to real live characters.

Gavin shook his head and left them. When he passed by later, on the way to the restroom, he looked in and both were asleep. Nora gently held within Alex's loving embrace. He chuckled and tip toed in. Gently stroking Alex's face brought her from her light sleep.

"She is asleep," Gavin told her softly. Alex nodded and kissed her head before gently laying her to the side.

Gavin helped her up from the bed and pulled her close to his body. He kissed her lips, gently pushing his tongue inside her mouth and she accepted it greedily.

"So," he smiled when he broke his kiss. "This is your bedroom!"

"It is," she smiled as she loved the wicked look he was giving her.

"Did this room ever see any heavy kissing?" he asked her.

"Only in my dreams," she whispered.

"Derrick?" Gavin chuckled as he watched her face go pale.

"Damn Jedi!" Alex grumbled that he figured her out so easily.

"Everybody wanted the hot high school quarterback!" Gavin informed her. "Nobody wanted us grumpy hockey players!"

"I would have done anything this hockey player would have wanted!" Alex whispered to him as she nibbled on his chest.

"Is that a fact?" he grinned.

He ran his hand down her face, brushing lightly across her chest causing her to gasp. Pushing her gently against the dresser in the room he looked back to make sure Nora wasn't awake.