Ishigreensa

Larry nodded. Well, if she was thirteen, and she was just scared, maybe he was being a bit hard and strange to her. Maybe he should back off on checking her all the time. He thought she had wet herself a few times, but then again, she was on the street. It's gotta be harder to fin a toilet when you are stuck on the street. He smiled at her. "Okay, I'll back off on you during the day," he told her. "But I would like to check in the morning, just in case, okay?" He smiled at her. "I would like you to tell me though if you have a mishap, even if it's not something that usually happens, and I'm sorry I was weird about it. I haven't had my own kids yet, and I guess I got a little bit worried you were scared, and I wondered if you did have problems, but I can see, you seen normal. I'm sorry, sweetie." He looked up at to her. Taking her down to the laundry, he helped her load her things with his, into a dryer.

Though I'm not really as interested in intentional wettings like this, this story is a lot of fun to read!

Larry smiled as he saw her eating her food. She was certainly eating like a greedy little girl, even a ten year old, but he didn't mind it at all. It was actually kind of cute. "Of course, sweetheart. There's orange soda in the fridge, remember?" He got up and walked over to get her some pop, and he reached above the sink, got a glass from the cabinet and rinsed it out, and then poured the pop in on his way to the table to sit down again. The baby seems so scared to just let me take care of her, Larry thought to himself. Those fosters did a real number on this child. I'm going to definitely have to find a way to make sure she doesn't go back to them. I will have to report her, eventually. I know it, but I cannot let them just take her back to that abusive place. It would be wrong. She'd just run away again, and she's not too smart about strangers. She went with me so easily. She's lucky I didn't intend to hurt her. But she was starving. You can't blame a person, especially a child for making a stupid mistake that could lead to them getting food. At least she hadn't started stealing yet.... Coming out of his thoughts for a moment, he saw the time. "Honey, come here for a minute," he motioned to her. He wanted to make sure the child hadn't wet her pants before he took her out of the room to go put their clothes in the dryer. He figured having her help him with the clothes would give her confidence that she wasn't going to lose anything in the wash. When she came over, he grabbed her around the waist, and put a hand on the back of her butt to see if she was wet. "You feel dry," he told her. "Try to go to the bathroom, then we need to go down and get our clothes into the dryers, okay?"

"Nonsense, sweetie. You are a child. Children shouldn't be doing their own laundry. I don't care what the foster people did to you before, around Uncle Larry, I am responsible for keeping my little baby niece clean, understand?" He smiled at her. "Now, I would like you to slow down, not because I care if you get your clothes a little messy, or I care about the table. Those things need to be cleaned up anyway even if you don't get a crumb on them. But I don't want my little one choking on the food. You take your time, and don't worry about your clothes, baby. We'll wash them off a little bit after you eat with some warm water and a little soap so you don't need to change right away. Your other things are not dry yet, so you have to either wear those, or be naked." He smiled at her. "Remember, when I got you? I promised you that you that you wouldn't have to be naked in front me, right? I am going to take care of you the best I can, but I won't do anything that's scary for a little child. Understand?" He pushed the rest of pizza towards her after he got a second piece. "I want you to finish as much of that as you can without feeling sick, okay? I don't like that you hadn't had much food in the last few days."

He smiled at the little teen-like adult, fully convinced she was a child. He loved the way she didn't fight about stuff, but he did wonder if her foster family had been more abusive with her, even. He didn't know many kids her age that liked to admit that they were children, let alone be okay with being checked if they are wet without some kind of temper tantrum, but then again given how she was too shy to even ask, it made sense they had probably programmed natural behavior out of her. He also noticed how she tried to pretend not to want to watch Stitch, and how in the end, she landed on that channel as if she was saying "If I must, I must," but it was on that children's show and not a more adult show. He liked that happened though, because that meant one less fight he had to have with her. "Sweetheart, you don't have to be ashamed of liking to watch cartoons. I like to watch them too, and I'm nearly a teacher now." He smiled. "Anyway, you watch this, and when the pizza comes, then we can go sit at the table." His main room had a tiny kitchen like space in the back, though it didn't have a stove or anything for actual cooking. It just had an ice box, a small table, and a sink where he could wash up stuff. He had some cold cereal for breakfast the next morning, and he had things for making sandwiches for lunch to save a bit on the money he had left. He smiled when the pizza arrived. "Baby, go wash your hands for me, and then sit at the table so we can eat," he told her. Then he went to the door to get the pizza.

Seeing the little's cheeks get a little red, and she acted a little squirmy when he checked her pants, he frown and lifted her up to carry her back into the main room. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I know you're a big girl, about twelve or thirteen, but you've been on the street for a while, and by the way you didn't want to talk about how abusive your foster home was to you, I can only imagine the shame, guilt, and problems they gave you over little stuff, and you didn't even tell you had to pee at the bus stop, so.... Well, yeah, I thought they did cause you to wet your pants sometimes with impossible rules and then used that to punish you. I mean, why else would a junior high school girl just sit there at the bus stop wetting herself without telling her uncle she was about to wet her pants, baby?" He hugged her tighter. "I'm not going to hit you or scold you though, baby. Once you realize going potty is a right here, and that I won't be mean about little accidents that obviously you can't help if you are not used to being allowed to talk about your needs, then maybe you can relax and won't feel so scared to tell Uncle Larry if you had an accident." He took her over and sat her in front of the television. "Thirteen is a tricky age," he told her. "Some kids were into watching music videos, some kids still liked cartoons of all kinds, and some kids like sitcoms like adults, so I'll let you use the remote, but if I ask you to turn it when I'm letting you have control of the remote, it means that the show you are watching..., well I'm a little old fashion and don't think kids need to hear or see certain things on TV, okay?" He gave her the remote control. The motel still used a very basic cable system, so they had about forty channels including 6 kids channels, 2 Disney channels, and 6 news channels. They had 4 movie channels as well and 2 Pay Per View channels. "For a while, until I get used to knowing if you understand your rights here, I will check to make sure you are not scared and sitting in wet pants scared to tell Uncle Larry you're wet. You won't be punished for wetting unless you lie about it. I don't like lying and you are old enough to understand what a lie is, okay?"

Larry smiled at her and nodded. "Well, you're my baby niece now," he told her. "And I actually want to be your uncle, so there is no reason to be scared of me, baby." He put an arm around her as he ordered the larger Hawaiian pizza, and then he picked her up carried her into the bathroom. "I'm not saying you are too little to get here on your own," he whispered to her. "But somehow, I'm not sure if you even knew if you had a right to go at that foster home of yours, if you are so used to wetting yourself that you peed at the bus stop without even telling me you had to go, baby." He put her down by the toilet. "I believe you, that you don't feel like you have to go," he touched her nose. "But a lot has happened to you recently, so just to make sure you don't have an accident, sweetheart." He touched her nose again. "I'll go wait on the other side of the door so you have some privacy, but I want you to try to go when I ask you, at least for the night and maybe tomorrow. If you don't have any daytime accidents by tomorrow night, I'll stop worrying about whether you'll wet your pants or not." After he had let her try to go, and then when she came out he felt her bottom to make sure she wasn't wet and he hugged her.

Larry shook his head and patted the baby girl's back. She really didn't understand anything about money. No wonder the little baby wouldn't have had any money left on her even if she had been given anything to start with, which he doubted. Loving people don't just abandon a child like that. "Sweetheart, it doesn't work exactly like that. Most places, we can get a pizza with one or two toppings for minimal price, and extra doesn't really cost that much. I'd rather get you something you like than you waste it because you don't like it. I'm sure you wouldn't waste it though, even if you didn't like it, but I'm not going to force you to eat something you don't like. I don't know what kind of place you came from, but if I have the money to get me what I want, then I have the money to get you something you like." He hugged the little child...? "You are safe now, sweetheart. And I actually like ham and pineapple too. Are you okay if I get green peppers on it, because one large one is a little cheaper than two small ones. Don't say yes, though if you hate green peppers, baby. I'm trying to get you food you want to eat." He shook his head to think that someone would be so cruel to her as to make it seem she would be wasting money to get something she wants to eat. The poor little baby! He went to the phone, and he waited to make sure she told him if she liked green peppers, and he made her look him in the eye and he watched her for any nervous signs that would tell if she really didn't want them. Even though he had just started to take care of her because she was in trouble and on the streets, and it became she was a helpless child on the streets--the child was growing on him, and he was starting to actually care about her as if she was his niece. "After we order the pizza, I want you to go potty," he told her. "I don't want you to get embarrassed, scared, or upset because you are too nervous to realize it, but if you are wet again, just tell Uncle Larry you had an accident. You won't be in trouble, honey."

The poor little girl was so embarrassed to have to have him wash her things. He could see that as clear as day, the way she played with her feet while he loaded the washer, and the way she looked guilty and she fiddled with her thumbs. He couldn't fix the embarrassment. It was hard for anyone to unsee that her pants were peed in, but they will be clean soon enough, and then she could put that behind her. "Well," he smiled at her as he put the coins in the laundry machine to get it started. "Let's go up and order that pizza now. There's nothing embarrassing left to see. Your clothes are just getting cleaned along with mine," he took her by the hand. Being a teenager, she probably didn't want people to see Uncle Larry carrying her out of the laundry room, so he just held her hand as he brought her back to the room. "What do you like on your pizza?" he asked her. "Anything you want. If you choose something I don't like, I'll just get two small ones instead of one large one." He already had orange soda to drink, something he had bought along with the new clothes he would wear on Monday to try to convince the school district to let him substitute for the rest of the year.

He shook his head. "Honey, I didn't mean to accuse you of being a thief," he told her. "But as I told you earlier when we were waiting for the bus, people in your situation often end up stealing because that's all they can do to survive, and I hoped I caught you before you got use to stealing. Certainly, you being so scared that you just peed your pants at the bus stop instead of telling me you had to go gave me some hope that I'd got you before this situation had corrupted you." He sighed. "You just ran away?" he asked her not quite believing that either. "You know what, I think it's safe to say, whatever happened, you don't have a safe place to return to. You are scared of social services because you didn't have a good foster home experience, and now, you are in trouble. I think that sums it up." He stood up and lifted her under her arms and put her in his arms, holding her like she was a little child. "Well, for a little while, you are going to stay with Uncle Larry," he told her. "And since your pants were so wet, I'm guessing you'll be wetting the bed tonight, so don't worry about that. I'll put a bunch of towels under you and let you just sleep in your panties and maybe one of my old shirts for pajamas so we keep your limited supply of clothes clean. I'll get you some bed time diapers when I get paid, but until then, towels under you and my old shirts will have to do." He smiled. "Now, before the mood is ruined for the whole night, how about we order some pizza for now, and then we'll gather up your things and wash them for you." He smiled as he finally put her back down. "And remember, you do something wrong, make a mistake, or have an accident, you don't get spanked unless you lie about it. I might be mad and yell at you, but I don't believe in spanking over mistakes that you didn't mean to happen, like when you were too scared to tell you had to go potty in time at the bus stop." He walked her around got all her clothes together, and then took her to the laundry room to start her wash. "Don't worry, I'm the adult so I'll take care of your laundry. I just wanted you to see what I was doing with your stuff so you didn't get scared you'd lose it, and when I pick it up after it's ready to come back in the room, you can come with me to see your stuff is all there."

The truth sounded more like a lie to Larry than truth did and he pushed up from his lap and lightly swatted her butt. "Enough lying. The one that I don't tolerate, baby, is lying. I don't care that your pants look like you peed in them two or three times or whatever. I don't care if you ran away from home, and I don't care if you are scared of where you will end up and you need me to take care of you until you can find someone that will take care of you, but stop with the lies." He then pulled her back into his lap. "Twenty-three year old women don't just piss themselves without at least telling someone that is helping them that they need to find a toilet before it happens," he told her. "Not even a high school student does that, but a little twelve, thirteen, may...be a fourteen year may, if she's scared." He patted her on her lap again. "Now, let's start over and no more lies, baby. The lying is only going to get you a spanking from your Uncle Larry. Now, you peed your pants, had no way to tell me how bad your situation was until I got you here, and now, you are being unreasonable about your needs, saying that I just need to give you the sofa to sleep, but no food after how many days on the street? There is nothing in everything you've said that could have been invented by an adult. Even an adult knows schools don't abandon kids, baby. Even an adult knows that there is no way caring adults would have left you on the street, so please, stop lying." He frowned at her. "You don't need to steal my wallet tonight," he reached into his pocket and showed her all the money he had. "Once pay to get your clothes and mine, clean, and I pay for dinner, I'll have just a little left. This room is paid up for the next three weeks, and I have enough money to get us food during that time, but if you take my money, it won't last you long at all. That's why I'm hoping to work by Tuesday, otherwise, I'll have to try something else for Tuesday to get some more money." He then stood her up. "If you tell another lie, I will spank. I don't care if you are thirteen or not, I do not believe you let kids lie. Now, do you have a home that you ran away from, or did you get abandoned? You will tell me the truth, little lady." He had a dead serious look in his eye.

What she didn't know, was even if she was 23 and saying this, Larry wouldn't turn her out to the cold. He would have had a harder time though figuring out where to put her to sleep, but since she was a child, he figured she could take the bed while he took the sofa, that was in the same room. She had no privacy, but if she was a child, that wouldn't matter to her as much as being out in the cold. That's what he reasoned. "Well, baby, if your parents didn't abandon you, I don't know how it is the school could have sent you out on the street like that without at least making sure you had money to get the bus home. I don't have bus money for you, baby, but I do have a warm bed. I mean, if you are okay with that. We'll have to share the room, but you can take the bed and I'll sleep on the sofa. I'll just take the warmer blanket since the sofa will be cooler than the bed, and don't worry, we'll turn the heat up a little." He saw the tear run down her face. "Baby, they don't turn children out on the streets," he told her thinking that was a strange tell. "Now, what happened? Did you pee yourself at school and get scared and run away?" he asked her. After all, she did wet herself out in public, and he could imagine a young girl being scared to ask during class, and then having an accident maybe getting scared because of it. The thing is, though, he didn't know of any private boarding schools in town. That was kind of strange, too. "Here's the thing," he patted her lap as she sat in his. "I cannot in good conscience, leave you out on the street, so the way I see my choices, is you need to agree to just call me Uncle for a while and stay with me, or I'll have to turn you over to social services because whatever reason your parents can't come and get you, the streets are not safe for you, baby." He smiled into her teary eyes. "You don't have to decide before we get you something to eat at least," Larry told her. "I don't want you running away or deciding on an empty stomach. That's not fair." He lifted her under her arms and put her on her feet and then went to get her coat, but it smelled from her wearing dirty clothes for so long and having peed her pants, maybe more than once. "This coat needs washed, too," he told her. "So, I don't think we are going anywhere to eat. The best thing we can do, is order delivery. Do you have anything you'd like?" He smiled. "Once we place the order over the phone, we can gather your dirty things together, and then figure out what to do after that. I also hope you don't decide to leave without your phone charged, so you can call for help at least if you need it. If you can't stay with me until Friday, at least tomorrow, we can see about going to get something that we can charge your phone with." Larry shook his head. What could he do with a displaced 13 year old child that should be in school on Monday? He didn't have anyone in town that he could leave her with yet. But he was new to town. Would the school district he was interviewing for believe she was his adopted daughter and let her attend school? He'd have to think about that later on, but he was sure he'd have to ask by Tuesday because he couldn't leave a child home alone all day while he was at work.

When the baby girl came out and greeted him, he smiled and motioned for her to come and sit in the main room for a few minutes so he could talk to her. "Alright, baby, we need to talk. What I'm doing right now is technically kidnapping if you ran away from home for some reason, or even if your parents kicked you out. However, I'm going to do right by you. So we need to talk about what is going on, baby." He reached his arms towards her in gesture. "Come and sit on my lap for a minute so you don't get scared while we talk, sweetheart." "So, tell me how you found yourself on the streets for so long, and should I be sicking social services on someone that abandoned you here, baby? Don't be scared. You're not the one in trouble. It's just really crappy for someone to throw a what, twelve? thirteen? however old a little girl you are on the street. It's not safe, and it's not right." He patted her little lap. "Now, if you are scared of getting anyone in trouble, then we don't have to do that, sweetheart, but why didn't you go to the police? They would have helped you get the right people to get you at least a safe home to be in instead of being on the street like you were." Larry hugged her.

Larry nodded when she said she could make it, but she was already leaking on herself since the bus stop. The bus ride had been several minutes with bumps and three stops, so he actually doubted the little one would wait. He had actually been surprised when her butt didn't feel much wetter from what he saw when the got on the bus. He didn't argue with her when she said she wasn't a baby, so she could wait though. That probably would have been worse for her. As they got into the parking lot of the motel, he heard her crying and turned to see her nearly squat down, the pee all over her legs and a little bit of a trail from where they walked would have been visible, he imagined, if it had been daylight out. He bent down and as she sobbed out that she really tried to make it, he hugged her. "Baby, what did I tell you on the bus," he tried to use the nicest and softest voice he could muster. "It's not good for you to hold it as long as you did, baby. I'm not mad and you are not in trouble and have nothing to be sorry for. I'm glad you didn't pull your pants down in public, not because it's indecent, but because it would be easier for a bad person to do stuff to you. I told you, baby. You had permission to wet your pants, okay?" He decided to pick her up, handing her all the bags again, and he carried her to the motel room and didn't put her down until he had to unlock it. "We'll go inside, and the first thing you will do, sweetheart, is get those gross things off because peed in or not they are dirty from you being on the streets for far too long for a little girl. Keep your panties up though. Your a teenager, and leave your bra on. You can take those off in the bathroom, which is right over there. Sit on the toilet to get anything left out, and then take a shower, sweetheart. Everything you need for a shower is in the bathroom. When you are done, call out to me, and I'll put your clean clothes by the bathroom door so you can grab them, but don't put them on the floor while you dress, because the floor might be wet, and you don't need to be wearing cold clothes if we are going down the block to get you some dinner, okay?" He smiled at her after he had her calm enough and she understood what he wanted her to do. "Okay, sweetheart. Bath time. Don't worry about the wet pants. I'm not mad and you are not in trouble, baby."

Larry saw the girl stand up and then noticed the wetness on her bottom. Yep, the little one was definitely peeing herself, and now, it seemed she was scared to move any further. Maybe she was scared someone would notice and think bad of her, after all, even thirteen year old girls normally didn't wet on purpose, and would be very embarrassed by this. He took her hand and made her walk onto the bus anyway. "Kids, right?" smiled at the bus driver afraid she might be noticed anyway. "She didn't have to go until we were halfway to the bus stop, so what are you going to do?" He put the money in, and then led her back and sat her down in a seat next to him. "Don't worry, sweetheart. You're not the only little lady that has ever wet in public. Accidents can happen sometimes." He got her seated on the bus, and he hugged her once he was seated. "Don't be scared, sweetie. We both know you are too old to be doing this, but we also know you didn't have a lot of safe choices about where to go. I'm sure the Walmart would not have let you go in the way you were, and I wouldn't want my teenage daughter pulling her pants down in the street, and not just because it's indecent, sweetheart." He rubbed her shoulders. "You're going to get a bath when we get home, but someone will be sitting in your seat, so try not to let any out until we get off the bus, if you can help it. I can tell you still need to go, sweetheart." He hugged her again. When the bus finally pulled to the stop, he helped her stand up first felt her butt to see if she had gotten any wetter. "It's not really healthy for you to hold it this long," he whispered to her. "So when we get a few feet from the bus, I'm going to give you permission to wet your pants. We have some clean ones for you anyway, and I'll wash your clothes, okay?" Then he picked her up and carried her, putting all the bags in her hands until he got her off the bus and a few feet into the darkness so no one else would see as he put her down. "You can go ahead and relax, and pee yourself or not, you have permission to just wet if you can't wait, honey." Then he started to walk her towards his door of the simple cheap motel.

Larry suddenly realized when she moved a bit, that she definitely smelled like she was starting to pee her pants. That's what he thought, because that smell became a bit pronounced over her dirty smell as she sat there, wiggling out of nervousness. He didn't know why she was just peeing her pants, and it was dark enough under the cover there, that he had not see it happening, and he had no reason to believe it happened before now, especially since it just now became noticeable, but he didn't want to make things worse for her by drawing attention to her peeing her pants before they could do anything about it, so he chose to try to ignore it and let her just wet herself. The poor baby girl couldn't be older than fourteen though. He had never heard of a woman no matter what, over the age of high schooler, peeing herself, so she had to be a junior high school girl regardless of how deep he thought her voice was. "Well, you know how people really are, not by the way they treat their equals, but by the way they treat the people they think they are over," he told her. I'm not sure if your school has taught you that, when you last attended class, but it's as true today as it was 100 years ago," he couldn't ignore the fact that she had peed her pants. She had to be a child for sure. He couldn't remember the last time or grade he had been in when he last heard someone peed, but that was definitely something a high school student doesn't do. She was probably a seventh or an eighth grader at best. That made it worse that she was stranded out here. "Baby, when we get you to the room, and after you are comfortable, we are going to have another talk that would not be appropriate right here, "he told her. "Don't be scared, it's nothing about having you take your clothes off in front of me. But I need to know who abandoned you out here at your age. This isn't right." He a finger on her lips. "But we'll talk about that in the room, baby. I don't want to draw attention to your age right now or that you are alone. That could cause harm to your safety, sweetheart." He moved his finger from her mouth. "I mean it, baby. I want to keep you safe at least while you are letting me take care of you."

"I'm sorry, I don't even have a phone," Larry told her. "I just use the motel one right now." He sighed and pulled her gently closer to himself. "I know you're nervous and scared. You have every right to be, honey. But I'm worried about you, and I really don't want to send you off before you can get a bath and some food at least." He rubbed her back. "If I had my way, a young girl your age wouldn't be on the streets, but I can't control what other people do." He frowned and looked at her scrutinizing her for a minute. She did start to smell a little bit, to him, but he wasn't sure. She was old enough not to have wet her pants, so it couldn't be that. It was just her dirty state from being on the streets. Maybe she was out there longer than she let on. "I think no matter how old you are, nine, fourteen, twenty, a man that is worth anything would protect you. We are all the children of mankind, and men knew that the world is dangerous for young girls. I'm surprised a motherly woman hadn't even offered you help. This is really a part of me that makes me hate humans so much." He caressed the smelly little girl's back a little bit as he spoke to her. "Gorillas will sometimes take care of each other's babies, but what do humans do? We take advantage of poor lost child. Sometimes, I'm ashamed to be human." He decided if he needed to distract her, then maybe talking to her might help. He couldn't help but notice the longer they now sat in a less breezy area, that she did kind of smell.... He still didn't catch on that he was really smelling pee, though.

Tom nodded. "I hadn't considered that, actually. I might have scared her again. Anyway, she is in her room, hopefully calming down. I think I need to be more careful to ask and make sure she is ready to do something no matter what rush I am in to either help her or if we need to get somewhere. Even if we are late, it's not likely to be worse than making her feel like this isn't a safe place for her." He sighed as she explained about Rebecca. "Remember, hon, Becks is only ten years old. She doesn't really know any better. I think maybe we need to find a moment when things are not too hard on Lani, to play some kind of ice breaking game. Maybe once we get Rebecca to understand that different likes are not too much different than different living styles, maybe she'll give up this notion that she has to fix Lani to like what she likes?" He frowned. "But you are the teacher. What do you think?"

"Don't worry about how long the bus takes, sweetheart," he told her not yet being able to tell she had wet her pants. She still smelled from being on the streets for a while, and winter breeze was pushing some of her smell away, so he couldn't tell that she really smelled that badly anyway. The light in the bus stop area wasn't really bright enough to give her away, and with the time she had been out there, there had been enough time that while crusty from being wet and still damp, it looked more like her pants were just dirty from being on the streets more than anything. "I promise, I will not leave you on the bus. I am responsible for you, now, at least until we figure out what your next move is." He pulled her head to lay it on his shoulder. "Just relax, sweetheart. I don't want you to worry about anything until we can get you a bath so you can think a little more clearly, okay?" It was going to be another ten minutes before the bus even showed up to the bus stop.

Tom decided to let her be. She was obviously upset about something, and she needed some time. He decided to go check in with how Charlotte was doing. He stood at the doorway watching as she had finished sending Rebecca out to the backyard. "Is everything going alright with you two?" he asked her. He knew Charlotte was disappointed because Lani still wasn't comfortable around her yet. "Lani is finally taking a break in her room, I think," he told Charlotte. "Today has been a bit more stressful than I thought an outing would cause. Maybe we should wait to plan anything big for a while. At least anything where Lani has to deal with it. I think she's nervous." He walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulder to try to message any stress out of them. "I think the fair overwhelmed her so bad, she waited too long to have me take her, and wet herself. Of course, she was upset, so even though she was changed, that has been souring her mood all afternoon." He sighed. "I don't think she realizes that she has a right to feel safe, and to be heard," he told her. "I was trying to explain what I do with Rebecca, but she didn't look like she understood me. I apologized to her because I realized I had scared her, and it seemed she thought that's just what happens, and she said it was alright, not in that she forgave me so much as, that's just the way it is, and it's what is supposed to happen," he told her. "I'm telling you, someone has been abusing that child... not physically as I can tell, but definitely emotionally."

Larry sat next to her and put his hand protectively around her so people wouldn't think she was by herself. He knew that she had to be very nervous as it was, and the last thing he wanted, was for her to think he wouldn't protect her while she was in his care. She was a child..., wasn't she? He saw her legs bouncing and figured she was kind of scared. He couldn't blame her. They hardly knew each other. "I'm your Uncle Larry," he eyed over at other passengers, hoping she got the hint to call him uncle so that no one would bother her. "I know you feel weird right now, but I don't want anyone bad thinking you are alone, sweetheart. You are a young girl, and an easy trap for bad people." He rubbed her back a bit. "We should catch up on other stuff in private so bad people don't get the idea that you don't know me, okay?" he whispered to her. His tone, was as if he was talking down to a younger pre-teen, trying to protect her and let her know that her being out her alone like this was dangerous, however it came about that she was stuck like this.

As he put her in his lap and tried to get her interested, he realized that maybe she wasn't just whining and wanted to play. "I'm sorry," he picked up from under her arms and set her down. "I just thought you..., well, I should have asked you, sweetheart. Do you want to go play? Do you want a break from me? You can do anything you want as long as it's in the house and it's not going to hurt you, okay?" He patted her shoulder. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings by ignoring your wants. I just wasn't sure if you were tired. Kids sometimes whine a bit when they are tired because they don't honestly know what they want, and it's because they are sleepy."

"That's fine, sweetheart. You'll be able to get a bath soon, get your clothes changed, and have a nice meal," he said smiling down at her. "And maybe one day, you will take pity on someone you see in the cold that needs extra help." They walked towards the bus stop that was a good couple of blocks away. As they walked, he kept his hand on her shoulder, his other hand holding his own shopping bags, so she had to hold the things he had gotten her. "Hey, honey, there's a cap in there. Why don't you put that on to keep your ears warm?" They walked on towards the bus stop, it taking about seven minutes from where he had picked her up. The bus wasn't due for a few minutes to get to the stop, however.

Rebecca nodded understanding that her mom didn't want her to worry about Lani. She couldn't help it though. She did. She decided to stop talking to mom about it. If mom and dad were going to fix it, then what help would it be to dwell on it? Rebecca couldn't really help her as much as her parents could. She was worried though. Mom might be right, she'd be upset if people worried about how many friends she had, but then, she could handle herself and make friends, so she thought. Little Lani, she was not the kind of person that Rebecca saw a lot of people wanting to talk to. She seemed a little gruff at times, and very withdrawn. It did no good to dwell on that either, though. Finally, trying to find a way to get her mind off of it, she looked up at her mom. "I'm going to go outside for a bit. I promise, I won't go any further than where you can see me on the block, but I need to clear my head. I have too much stuff about Lani in it, stuff that you keep saying I shouldn't care about, and I don't know how to get rid of it, but to maybe take a walk." She waited to make sure she had her mom's permission though. Tom sighed as it seemed to him that Lani was tired. She had had a very hard day, so he couldn't blame her. He wondered if she even took in what he had told her to do about apologies and about it not being okay to hurt her. Well, if she didn't, he could just remind her what he said later. She needed some rest. "Come here, baby," he called her over and picked her up to cradle her. "I think you should take a little nap, okay? So, I'm going to put some of your night time panties on you, so if you have an accident, while you are sleeping, no one will know until you come and get me to change you, okay?" He took her to her bed to help her get her pants and undies off so he could put her in something that would be less embarrassing if she wet herself, and then he pulled her pants back on over it. "That way, Rebecca doesn't have any reason to suspect you change your undies, and you can nap without worrying about wetting, okay?" He then picked her up to carry her down to the living room to read to her until she fell asleep.

He frowned to her. "No, sweetheart, it's not okay," he told her. "This is why there is so much crime. Here, a young person is struggling, can't even take a bath or get something to eat, and no one helps you, and then what do most people in your situation do? They steal, sweetheart. I don't want you to go to jail just because you are stuck in a situation. Even if you caused it, you don't deserve this, little lady." He took her by the hands. "I know it's scary to go with someone you don't know. I do have a few dollars that I can do something like this. Honey, it's embarrassing, but tell your panties size, too. You need to wear clean stuff so you don't get sick." He gave her a light hug. "I promise, you will not regret getting a shower, some food, and some clean clothes on. After that, I'm sure you will find it easier to get into a shelter or something, though it is getting late. I don't know how early you have to be to claim a place at those places." He frowned. He didn't like the idea of sending a little child to a shelter either, but forcing her to stay the night with him would be kidnapping, and wouldn't do any favors for trying to get her to trust him enough for him to help her. He would just have to see what she decided after he had her more comfortable. He so wished he had the money to just get her her own motel room for a few nights, but he didn't. He would have to get the cheapest things he could for her as it was, though at least they would be clean. "Oh, you know what?" he told her as he finished getting her sizes. "They have a small laundry room, and I need to wash my clothes, too, so we could wash some of your things while you are taking a bath and eating dinner." She would have to wear her used bra. He would have stopped short getting her panties, but those were for her cleanliness so she wouldn't get sick. He didn't know she was wet, but still, he knew she needed to change those if she had been wearing the same ones for all the time she had not had a shower. A bra, well, it might be dirty, but he didn't think it would make her sick to wear it. If he could, he'd just take her in to get the stuff herself, but there was no way they'd let her shop there, with her as dirty as she was. It was a wonder they hadn't called the police or social services on a dirty child. He wasn't really sure if he should or not. But he had a little time to decide on that. He went in, and with her sizes, got her some pants, the cheapest ones he could find for her, A longer sleeve shirt, but the cheapest they had. She needed to be warm. He went to the children's area and got her some panties, and her first size, being for adults, was off and he could tell holding them up, that she wouldn't fit the size she told him, so he just winged it with checking how some bigger ones fit into the pants he was getting her, and finally, he was coming towards the front when he saw a stocking cap that could keep her ears warm. He saw it wasn't much, and got that for the little girl, too. He had actually looked at he size of panties and saw some packages of them nearby, the same size, and compared the price. It wasn't too much, so he got her the pack of six pair, with the Pocahantas character on them. Okay, he had things she could wear now. He knew a girl probably needed other things, but he didn't have that kind of money right now. He just hoped she wouldn't need anything more embarrassing until he had some money, hopefully by the end of the next week as he heard substitute teachers got paid weekly, and then shook his head. No, she'd probably be long gone by the evening. This was probably all he'd be able to help her, but hopefully, it was enough. He came back out, and walked over where she was sitting by the bank. "We need to take the bus," he told her as he collected his bags. He didn't know why, but he had trusted the child to watch his things without just running off with them. Perhaps, it was just as foolish he had trusted her with his stuff as she would be to go with him to his room, but the way he saw it, this was her only chance to get something to eat and some clean stuff to wear without stealing. He put a hand on her shoulder as he directed her towards the bus stop, actually treating her sort of like a child since he thought she was one. But even if he thought she was fifteen or sixteen, his touch was more like you'd expect someone to be protecting a child who was ten or younger, his hand on her shoulder, keeping her from walking into the street by accident or into a car that might be driving down an aisle in the parking lot that could hurt a kid not paying attention.