Foster Forest (7): Here We Go Again (Jackson Arrives)

A sob caught in Lizzie's throat as she came back down the stairs. She'd changed her clothes, and although she was still wearing panties, the skirt she wore now wasn't as tight on her backside as the jeans she'd had on before. She still felt hot and sore and bruised, and there was a tingling sensation of intense resentment for Peter Grisson that she couldn't deny or cover up. What made the situation worse for the little ten year old was the fact that she wasn't really sure why she'd gotten the last spanking. He'd grabbed her, and the tall blonde-haired man was frightening as he towered over her. She didn't really know what he'd wanted from her, and she'd panicked, and reacted to her panic.

So many things hurt in those moments. Her bottom was bruised and aching, still throbbing from the spanking. Her heart hurt because she felt that Peter had rejected her and treated her cruelly. She hurt because Becky hadn't said a word to her except to point her upstairs to wash her face and change her clothes. All the anger had drained out of her, and she was left feeling lonely, hurt, and scared. Ms. Becky had said something about somebody coming. It didn't make any sense at all to Lizzie, but as she reached the bottom of the stairs she stood stock still when she heard voices out in the Great Room.

"I'm sorry for bringing you an emergency case, Ms. Thomas," an unfamiliar female voice was saying. "I don't usually deal with the emergencies, but this is a special situation. He was in foster care for eight months while his parents went through the system. He'd only been home for a month when the crash happened. I don't think he really understands what's going on, and he's scared," the soft, caring voice of the woman went on.

Elizabeth closed her eyes. For a moment she allowed herself to simply soak up that tone of voice, the tone that she thought of as love. Peter had been so hard, and Becky hadn't stood in his way. If anything, Lizzie felt as though her female guardian had passed her off as soon as she had found out that another person was going to be coming to the forest. She'd been so happy that her only observation of Lizzie's misery had been to send her to her room to change her clothes and to tell her to wash her face.

That had stung. She'd been sure that at least Ms. Becky would understand the unfairness of the whole thing. She wasn't even totally sure why Peter had spanked her either of the times he'd gotten on her that day. It hurt her feelings that he'd practically launched himself at her with almost no explanation at all. She'd been upset at first, then really scared. While she was mature enough to understand that it was probably her outburst that had gotten her into trouble at his house, she'd been so scared then. Just the memory of school made Elizabeth freeze and feel a surge of distrust. The teachers had condemned her instead of rescuing her, and it was not something she would easily forget. Peter himself elicited a similar distrust, especially after the day they'd spent together.

"We're happy to give him somewhere to stay," Becky was saying when Elizabeth opened her eyes and began to listen again. There were few words spoken after that, and she soon heard the front door open and then close. Once again their "family" was alone, except that there was one more member in it.

Although she'd only been at the Forest a little bit over a month, Lizzie had been under the impression that she would know when another child was being brought into the home. She'd never thought that she'd be given a choice in the matter, but it had also never occurred to her that it might happen so quickly. She'd expected to be prepared to face whatever was coming. This was not a pleasant surprise for the insecure ten year-old.

The little girl sniffled. She was too upset to care if the two adults and the new arrival saw that she was crying. She didn't care if her eyes were puffy and red as she finally finished coming all the way down the stairs. It didn't matter to her at all if they felt bad that they'd left her out of the decision. In fact, she would relish the expression on their faces as they turned to look at her and see just how upset she was. She would feel a great deal of satisfaction as Peter realized how much he'd hurt her, and when Becky understood that she'd really let her down.

Instead, they didn't even turn toward her. Between them there was a chubby little boy who was probably a few years younger than Lizzie. He had brown hair that stuck up and out everywhere in little clumps. Other than that, she couldn't see anything except that he was thickly built, and that it wasn't mostly muscle. Lizzie could see that the boy was crying from the way that his shoulders kept heaving, but it was a silent kind of crying. She could tell, immediately, that he was only looking for attention and sympathy. That had been her game.

Rolling her eyes behind the boy's back, Elizabeth quietly crept up behind the trio and slid her hand into Becky's palm.

The effect was immediate, and not what Lizzie expected. Becky jerked, pulling her hand away as though she'd been stung. It was clear that she hadn't expected Elizabeth to interrupt whatever was going on. Surprised, and hurt, Lizzie also jumped back, her brown eyes widening and moving to scan the faces around her. The little boy's head was still down, and he didn't look at her, though Peter gave her a stern expression. Her first instinct was to take off for the library, but she didn't want him to be angry with her for reading before the chores he'd told her to do were done. He'd made very clear what his expectations were, and she was sure that she wouldn't make the same mistake again, at least not with regards to chores.

"Didn't I tell you to go to your room, Elizabeth?" Becky asked, her voice colder than the little girl expected.

Lizzie felt her mouth go dry, even as fresh tears sprang to her eyes. She took a step back and shook her head from side to side. "N-no ma'am," she said, her voice breaking as the fear caught up with her. She'd already had two spankings that day and suddenly she was certain that a third could not be avoided.

"Peter and I had a talk while we were waiting for Jackson to get here," Becky said, regarding Elizabeth with a gaze that seemed to be studying her very, very carefully. "I don't want to hear another word about you giving him any kind of attitude, young lady. I'm going to be here tonight to get him settled in," she said, indicating the little boy, "but otherwise you know that on my nights off, Peter is fully in charge of you. If he tells you to do something, you are not to argue with him. You are to do what he says. Period. Do you understand me?"

The knot of fear in Lizzie's stomach nearly made her double over. She thought for a moment that she might be sick, and she spun on her heels to rush for the bathroom. Becky's voice called her back. "I'm still talking to you, young lady!" the woman called, and Lizzie stopped short, turning around slowly and nodding her head.

It wasn't obedience that she had a problem with. Elizabeth was having a difficult time settling in, and she was more distant than either of her guardians truly appreciated. But when all was said and done, the distance came from an incredible fear that had been planted within her by a former foster father. He'd been terrible. He had touched her in ways that made her face heat up with the feeling of shame even two years later. He had always told her that it was important to obey him no matter what. And if she didn't, there were consequences. The sick feeling returned, and the little girl finally turned and fled up the stairs and into her bedroom, where she slammed the door behind her and threw herself on the bed, sobbing.

***

"Wow..." Peter said, blinking in surprise as Elizabeth took off. "What on earth was that all about?" As little as Becky knew about the child's past, Peter knew even less. At least the file on Jackson had felt thick. Perhaps there would be enough information.

"I don't know," Becky said after a moment. "But I've learned it's best to just let her cool off," she added quickly. "I'll talk to her about it after supper. For now I think that I should show Jackson to his room." She picked up the file and stored it in a (locked) filing cabinet to deal with later. It was too busy a period of time to have to focus on what was going on with Elizabeth. That was the way with families, and even more so with foster care. Sometimes the needs of one had to come before the needs of another, and Becky had no qualms about taking care of the new little boy before dealing with what she saw as further misbehavior from Elizabeth. They could both do with some cooling off time, anyway.

Peter wasn't the "cooling off" type. If there was something wrong with Elizabeth, he wanted to know what it was. He was becoming agitated with being left in the dark about things like her expulsion. He was her guardian for goodness sake! Wasn't this critical information? He'd been the one to make the mistake; he could see that now. He should have known about what had happened at school, and Becky should have told him. Of course he didn't have all the details, but he did understand that it had something to do with not getting along with one of her teachers very well. Or something like that. Though it was easy to imagine the ten year old not getting along with someone, and he could see how the solution might have made sense for the private school, he also had to admit that he felt a pang of sympathy.

His mind full of what he was about to do, and trying to decide how he should proceed, Peter headed up the stairs. He imagined that Becky would be busy for quite some time, which left him responsible for dealing with Elizabeth. However much he believed that it was the woman's responsibility to talk to the child who obviously trusted her, he definitely wasn't equipped to handle settling Jackson into his new room. Besides, crying boys were harder for Peter to handle than crying little girls, and Becky would be much more apt to offer him the comfort that he needed.

Outside Lizzie's door, Peter paused, his hand raised to knock. After a brief speculation, he thought better of it and instead put his hand on the knob and pushed the door open. Lizzie was still on the bed, where she'd thrown herself. Her entire body was shaking with the force of her sobs, and Peter felt a twinge in his heart that he hadn't expected. Had he really been the one to cause her physical pain only a few hours ago? The thought itself was entirely foreign to the man. He went to pull the chair out from by her desk, dragging it over to beside the bed, and then sat down in it.

"Please don't touch me, don't touch me, don't touch me," the little girl was murmuring over and over. Her head was buried in her pillow and she was shaking it back and forth. Her arms had been drawn up to her chest as though she was trying to make herself as small as possible.

Peter recognized fear when he saw it. He didn't like the reaction the child was having to him, and he didn't understand its origins nearly well enough. Although he didn't touch her, Peter did lean forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands loosely folded. "Elizabeth," he said in a calm, neutral voice. "I want to talk to you about what happened earlier. But first I want to know why you're so upset."

"I hate you," the muffled voice of the ten year-old little girl said.

Peter nodded his head solemnly. "I can understand why you would feel that way right now," he said seriously. "Sometimes I hated my mother after she gave me a spanking. Especially if I thought I didn't deserve it, and I'm guessing that you think you didn't deserve the ones I gave you. Would I be right?"

The little girl made no answer except that her sobs became heavier as she clutched her pillow to her.

Closing his eyes, Peter thought for a moment. "Okay," he said slowly and deliberately. "What happened downstairs? Why are you so upset with Ms. Becky?"

"Don' wanna talk about it," came the muffled response.

Peter sat back and blew out a slow breath. "Okay," he said after a long moment of silence. "I'm not going to make you talk about it. But I would like to try to make you feel better, and I have something to say to you. But I'm not going to say it to the back of your head," he added quickly. He didn't like talking to the child while she was turned away from him, and he certainly wanted her full attention for what he wanted to say next.

After a moment, the little girl slowly rolled onto her side. She didn't prop herself up, but her puffy, red eyes were looking at Peter. She waved her hand in an "on with it" motion that made Peter grit his teeth. They were going to have to work on attitude and respect later on, he decided. It was best to get one problem dealt with at a time, rather than trying to focus on too many. He didn't want to confuse the issues, and although Lizzie was hardly a very young child (old enough to know better), she was very vulnerable.

"I'm sorry," Peter said when he was sure that he had her full attention. "I'm sorry that I lost my temper with you at my house. I'm sorry that I spanked you when I did. I shouldn't have. You didn't deserve that. I was pushing you too far and I can understand why you got angry, and if you were scared, I can understand that too," he said, leaning back in his chair and watching as one emotion after another passed over Lizzie's face.

When Peter was finished speaking, the little girl let out a choked sob and turned back into her pillow, wrapping her arms under herself again. Peter observed that she had no plush animals or anything to provide added comfort if she needed it, and he felt a twinge of sympathy for her. He still had the teddy bear that had comforted him so many times after spankings when he'd been growing up, and she had nothing, and right now, nobody. Even Peter had been surprised by Becky's abrupt rejection of the girl, and his heart hurt for her.

"Come on," Peter said, pushing up out of his chair. He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Let's go downstairs and start working on something for supper. I think Becky has a note up on the fridge what the menu is for each night, so I bet we can manage it. You know she hates to cook, and she'll be busy with Jackson for a little while. What do you say?" He wasn't telling her: he was legitimately asking her whether or not she was willing to help. Perhaps a different approach would help the situation a bit.

After a moment of consideration, Lizzie slowly pushed herself off of her bed. "Okay," she said, her voice very low. Peter had to resist the urge to put his hand on her shoulder to provide some comfort, but she'd asked him not to touch her and he wasn't going to. Instead he balled his hand into a fist and allowed the ten year-old to lead him out of the room. He followed her down the stairs and into the kitchen. Since Becky and Jackson were nowhere to be found, Peter understood that the young woman was still comforting the little boy and helping him to settle in.

Peter went to the fridge and saw that Becky was planning on serving fried chicken with green beans and potato salad. It seemed easy enough to Peter, who knew how to fix all of that. He went to the fridge and pulled out the chicken and, surprised to find them there, the breadcrumbs as well. He reached in for the eggs, trying to decide what he could have Lizzie do to help. She was standing near the table, and he realized that she wasn't going to be comfortable sitting for at least a couple of days. He'd have to try to find an inconspicuous way to get a pillow onto her seat so that Jackson wouldn't notice and potentially make fun of her.

"Okay," Peter said, gesturing for her to come over and join him. "Have you ever beaten eggs before?"

***

Half an hour later, the dinner was done and there was a pillow sitting on Elizabeth's seat. Peter expected Becky to come down at any moment, as he'd called up to her five minutes before. Lizzie still seemed to be hesitant to sit down, in spite of the cushioning, but during the preparations for the meal she'd spoken up a bit, and Peter thought that they might have bonded over the question of why Becky was so angry with her. Neither of them could understand why the redhead seemed to be in such a temper, especially after she'd been so excited to find out that Jackson was going to be coming their way. Lizzie had shed some tears, and Peter had given her some space, and everything had worked out in the end.

When Becky and Jackson finally came down the stairs, Lizzie was settled on her cushion. Although it was clear that she was still uncomfortable, Peter knew that she felt a lot better on the cushion than she would have on the bare, hard wood of the chair. He was satisfied that he'd done his best for her, but he instantly had second thoughts when he noticed the gleam in Jackson's eyes when he noticed the cushion. "Somebody got a spanking!" he said, then grinned hugely.

Peter and Becky exchanged looks. This wasn't a situation they'd talked about, or been prepared for. "Jackie, that isn't nice," Becky said, her tone gentle as she reached across the little boy to dish some green beans onto his plate. "You wouldn't want anyone to point out if you had gotten a spanking, would you?"

Considering the matter closed, Peter passed the plate of chicken to Lizzie. But clearly the matter was not closed. He caught her tear filled eyes and sighed, shaking his head. As he glanced back to Jackson, the little boy had his mouth open to make another comment. "What did you do?" he was asking Elizabeth.

The little girl pressed her lips together and passed the plate of chicken over to Becky.

"Elizabeth Moore, you didn't have any lunch, and by golly you're going to have yourself some supper," Peter said sternly, taking the plate back from Becky and putting a single strip of fried chicken breast on Lizzie's plate. "I know you don't want to have any more trouble today, so how about you just finish your supper and we won't have to have another talk."

"S-sorry," Lizzie choked, then took the green beans and dished a few onto her own plate. She didn't look up, didn't meet anybody's eyes. She didn't want to talk about why she had gotten a spanking.

"I said, 'What'd you do?'" Jackson asked, a bit more insistently now.

"Jackson, that is enough," Peter said, more forcefully than Becky had done. "What Lizzie did is between her and me and it is none of your business."

After waiting for Becky to say a prayer over the meal, Peter began to wolf his food as was typical for him. He wasn't the best cook in the world, but he did enjoy fried chicken. He thought that maybe he'd get a grill and they could have a backyard barbeque one of these days over the summer. He was lost in his own thoughts until the seven year-old boy said, "I bet you get spankin's all the time."

Peter's teeth set on edge, and he was surprised by the cool tone in Becky's voice. "You were told the rules upstairs, Jackson, so you know what you are and are not allowed to do. I'm telling you one last time to drop the subject."

"But why?" the little boy whined. "I just wanna know what she did. What's the big deal?"

With gritted teeth Becky said, "Okay. That's enough. Jackson, you can go and stand in the corner by the refrigerator while the rest of us eat. We'll talk about this after the rest of us have had supper. Then you can eat and go to bed."

"I told Lizzie she could stay up an hour later to read since she helped me with supper," Peter interjected quickly, even before Jackson could get up from the table. There were two shocked faces pointed up at him, and he shrugged. "Nobody said that books couldn't be used as a reward." He turned his head slightly to where the little boy still hadn't gotten down out of his chair to go to the corner as instructed. "Right now Jackson Seeber.

"Thanks," Lizzie whispered under her breath, her voice full of emotion. She didn't look up from her plate, but she did eat with a bit more enthusiasm as the seven year-old finally hopped down out of his chair and went to stand in the corner.

***

Lizzie was in the library with her book before Becky was ready to deal with Jackson. Even after the troubles with Lizzie she was shocked that the boy would disregard so many warnings. She'd been doing her best to avoid having to give him a spanking on his first day in his new home. In fact, she still regretted having done the same to Lizzie when she'd first arrived, and that spanking had been filled with the heat of anger. She was still kicking herself over that situation, but at least now she was calm as she called Jackson out of the corner. She wasn't sure where Peter was, but she hoped that he'd tucked himself up in his apartment so that he wouldn't need to be part of this as well. She wasn't sure what he did with his free time -- other than pain, of course -- but it would be good for all of them if he was out of the way, so Jackson wouldn't wind up any more embarrassed by the entire scene than he needed to be.

With Jackson in front of her, Becky pulled him gently between her legs. With both hands she began to work on the buttons on his jeans. She had a small wooden spoon already placed on the table, ready to do the job that was so unfortunately necessary. As she pushed his jeans down to his knees, Becky caught the little boy's blue-eyed gaze with her own intense green gaze. "I told you the rules when we were upstairs, young man. And you will remember that one of those rules is 'Always do as you are told.' I had hoped I wouldn't need to point out that little children shouldn't make fun of others who are being punished, but unfortunately it seems that I must point that out to you now. Lizzie's punishment was over, and you made her feel very, very bad. That was a very naughty thing you did, and much worse because Mr. Peter and I told you to stop, but you didn't. Do you understand what you did wrong?"

The little boy shrugged. "I woulda told her, 'specially if she was new," he said. There was no real sign of emotion here now, and Becky had the feeling that Jackson was very used to spankings. She hadn't had a chance to go through his file yet, but that would come later. For right now discipline needed to be meted out. It surprised her that he'd cried more upon his arrival than he was with an impending spanking, but she would get to the bottom of this -- literally, as it happened.

"Well, in this house you keep those kinds of things to yourself. It's nobody's business but between you and the person who's punishing you. Understand?"

Again Jackson shrugged. "I guess so," he said, as Becky pushed his briefs to his knees along with his jeans. Without waiting to be instructed or for much help, Jackson scrambled up over Becky's lap and helped her get him into a good position.

Surprised, Becky shook her head. He didn't have any idea what to expect; that much Becky was sure of. She spanked hard, and fast, and generally very long. She didn't know about Peter, except that Lizzie was absolutely miserable and she'd never seen the ten year-old quite like that before. It seemed to her that Jackson was in a very unfamiliar situation, and he was as cool as a cucumber.

"Jackson Theodore Seeber, you know that this is going to be a real spanking. It's going to hurt, and I make sure that my spankings hurt a lot," Becky said, as though introducing the child to the concept of spankings. But when Jackson only shrugged his shoulders, the young redhead felt the heat of anger flush beneath the surface and cause her face to redden.

"Alright," she said after a moment, reaching across herself to pick up the spoon that she'd placed there. For a moment she wondered if she shouldn't have used the hairbrush, a heavier implement. Instantly she thought better of getting up to go and get it, and she secured Jackson, her hand lightly on his back, the spoon resting against his bottom. She wasn't going to pin him down unless he showed her that he needed to be, and her expectation was that he'd be stoic throughout the punishment, as he'd been in preparing to receive it.

Without any further ado, Becky landed a hard smack of the spoon down on Jackson's right cheek. Instantly she realized that she'd made a mistake. The husky little boy rolled right off her lap, squealing in surprise and pain. His hands were on his backside, clutching the spot where he'd just received the first hard pop from the wooden spoon, and already there were tears in his eyes.

Becky reached her hand down to gently help the child to his feet. He scrambled up, still rubbing furiously as though he expected the whole ordeal to be over. But she wasn't done yet, and not by a long shot. "We aren't done," Becky said, firmly pulling the child back to her and guiding him back up and over her lap. This time she secured his legs behind her right thigh, his bottom high up over her left. She tucked her left hand around his side, because although he was thickly built, the little boy was still very young. She didn't put a lot of pressure on him yet, but she would as the spanking went on and the heat in his backside built and built.

Once she had him in place, Becky brought the spoon down again, this time on his left cheek, focusing very carefully on his sit spots. She'd thought, at first, that she would need to get his entire bottom right down to his knees covered in red splotches before he would be ready to submit to the spanking, but now she had a better idea of how weakened and emotional the little boy was. She was still going to get the job done, and make an impression on Jackson that he was never to make Lizzie feel that way again. But she would do so with less heat and anger in her stance.

"Okay," Becky said, not that she was sure she had him plenty secure. "Now you are going to get a real spanking, young man. It's obvious you've been spanked before, but I somehow doubt that anybody's really done the job that needed doing, or you probably wouldn't have been making fun of Lizzie the way that you did. As I said before, this is really going to hurt."

With that, she began spanking in earnest, using the little wooden spoon to smack down with a flick of her wrist on first one cheek, then the other, focusing intently on his sit spots. She didn't talk a lot, but she did occasionally pause to punctuate the spanking with a word or two of her own. "You really hurt Lizzie's feelings," she said the first time. Right afterward, she delivered six especially hard and slow spanks right to the tops of the boy's thighs before moving back to his sit spots.

The spanking went on for what seemed like a long time, even for Becky. But when she glanced at the clock, it had only lasted a little over four minutes. She finished up with a rapid fire application of ten fast, very hard spanks to the backs of Jackson's thighs, and then she stopped. Placing the spoon on the table, Becky put her hand on Jackson's hot backside, which seemed to be radiating heat from everywhere. His body was totally limp over her lap, and the little boy was sobbing, tears and snot running down his face in streams.

"What you did, Jackson Seeber, was very mean to Lizzie. Tomorrow morning you're going to apologize to her. For now, you're going to sit down in your seat and eat your supper. I'll heat it up for you."

She helped the little boy off of her lap and settled his clothing, pulling his briefs and then his jeans up over his hot, enflamed bottom. She was sure there would be a couple of little bruises the next day, and the mere thought made her wince. She'd probably gone too hard on him, but deliberate disobedience had been a recent big problem in the children's home, and she didn't want to see it become persistent. Sighing, Becky gave the child a very quick hug, and then gestured to a chair. "Sit down, I'll heat your supper up. When you're finished, you can go to bed early and we'll have a better day tomorrow, hmmm?" she asked, giving him a sad smile as she took his plate to the microwave.

Neither of them said anything as Jackson sniffled through his meal, shifting uncomfortably from one side to the other as he tried to take his weight off his bottom.