Tracy offered her a smile, bent and sad it may be, but a smile nevertheless. "Then we fix it," he stated simply. That's what you did when something was broken right? You just fixed it and moved on? Tracy was good with fixing things;<span style="font-style: italic">tangible</span>things though, not something like this. How do you go about fixing something you can't even see? He'd figure it out on the way, he supposed. "So.. we need to be honest with each other." Yeah, he was just winging it at this point. "I just... You know what, hang on."<br/><br/>After making quick work of pouring each of them a heft drink, Tracy scooted over the couch until he was purposely as annoyingly close to Cynthia as he could possibly get before offering her drink to her. "Don't just throw that one back, sit with it for a while," he said, taking a sip of his own drink and relishing as the fire slipped across his tongue. It made the words flow easier, at least sometimes. Tracy was generally not in the habit of drinking until he couldn't stop talking, but if that's what it took to save this relationship then goddammit he'd get plastered. "We're just going to drink and get to know each other."<br/><br/>Tracy took another quick drink and set his cup down on the table, staring at it as if it had gotten somehow exponentially more interesting. He'd been avoiding a situation like this almost as vigorously as Cynthia had, although he was slightly less obvious about it. He didn't actively pretend that his family didn't exist or anything; Cynthia knew about his siblings and he kept her up to date whenever his parents called him and begged for them to visit, and things like that. His childhood just wasn't something he talked about, to anybody. It was disgusting and unfortunate and just not the way a child should have to grow up, but he was done talking about it. He had talked to the psychotherapists, he'd taken the pills for a long time, he had watched his uncle from the witness stand when he gave his testimony. He'd done everything to put his childhood behind him, and he<span style="font-style: italic">had.</span>Drudging his life up like this again wouldn't solve anything for him, but if that's what it took to make Cynthia feel at least a<span style="font-style: italic">little</span>better about her own family, fine. So be it.<br/><br/>"When I was five, my uncle came over to my house," Tracy started, shrugging, his eyes following a few stray air bubbles in his drink. He'd rather do that than look anyone in the eye right now. He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees while his hands clasped together with a brief sense of desperation to hold onto something,<span style="font-style: italic">anything.</span>"Not any different from when he came over any other day, he only lived a few blocks down from us. But that day it was just me, and he knew that. That's the reason he came over, to 'spend time with me.'" Another shrug, another drink. "Apparently he'd molested my brothers. My parents knew, nobody ever told me. Nobody told me not to be alone with him, so I didn't know any better, and... Well, that continued on until I was twelve. I was too embarrassed to tell anyone."<br/><br/>On an exaggerated sigh, Tracy threw himself back into the cushions, keeping his eyes on his glass. "The only reason he stopped was because he got arrested. The charges were great," he half-laughed, though his voice was dripping with sarcasm and chagrin. "Murder in the first, kidnapping, solicitation of a minor under the age of 10, rape, desecration of a corpse, and a couple of other charges I can't remember. He<span style="font-style: italic">killed</span>a kid. A kid not too much younger than me." He hated recounting this story. It had been a while since he'd had to say it aloud, but every time it happened he was always reminded that that could have been him. He could be dead right now if he wasn't too old for his uncle. Shaking off those thoughts, Tracy's head lulled to the side to look at Cynthia. "Our families suck, okay? But you don't have to be scared to tell me about them."