Julia was angry. Upset. She didn't know what to do with Victor. At every turn he defied her. At every moment he seemed to hate her. And when a baseball bat flew from his hands, over her daughter's head, and through the sliding glass door, it had been the final straw.

That night, she had gone to bed without seeing Victor. Joel had put him to bed. She couldn't stand to look at him, and that scared her. Julia Braverman was afraid. Afraid of a nine year old. More than that, she was afraid of not earning his love and trust that he kept from her.

The next morning, Sydney was crying when Julia went to wake her for school. She figured the trauma hadn't subsided yet. She placed a comforting hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"You okay, Syd?" Julia asked, softly.

Sydney shook her head. "I feel awful."

"Because of yesterday?"

"Yeah." Sydney's reply was muffled by her pillow.

"I'm sorry that Victor did that." Julia honestly didn't know what to tell Sydney. She couldn't brush off what had happened.

"No, Mommy." was Sydney's firm reply. "I'm sorry." Sydney sat up and faced a confused Julia.

"For what?"

"Yesterday. It was my fault."

"Oh, sweetie. No, it wasn't." Julia moved to comfort her daughter, but Sydney moved away.

"Yes it was."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because I prepoked him."

"You what?"

"I did what you say at work when somebody does something to you before you do something to them."

"Do you mean provoked?" Julia supplied the correct word automatically, though she didn't understand.

"Yes." Sydney nodded. She had had a crisis of conscience some time in the night and knew she had to tell her mom what had really happened.

"What did you say to Victor? I saw you guys talking before the bat thing." Julia didn't know what Sydney was trying to tell her.

"I said that his real mom didn't love him and that he's a bad kid." Sydney admitted, shamefacedly.

"You said that?" Julia was shocked. She knew that Sydney could say some pretty outlandish things, especially out of jealousy, but this was a whole new side to her daughter that Julia really didn't like.

"Yes." Sydney nodded miserably.

"Do you understand how hurtful that is? Sydney, you can't say stuff like that. Especially when it isn't true."

"How do you know it's not true?" Sydney countered, her self righteous side flaring up again.

"Because moms love their kids. Even when they can't take care of them. On some level, they do care about them. And Victor is not a bad kid. And you can't say that he is. Because that isn't the truth."

"I'm sorry I said that, Mommy."

"Okay. But I'm not the one you need to apologize to. You need to apologize to your brother."

"Okay." Sydney got out of bed and went to Victor's room. She tapped on the door. "Victor?"

"What?" came the sharp reply.

"Can you come here so I can apologize to you?"

"What?" Victor couldn't believe his ears.

"I want to apologize to you."

The door to Victor's room snapped open. Victor eyed Sydney with suspicion.

"For what?" he asked.

"I'm sorry for the stuff I said yesterday. About you and your mom."

"Okay."

"I was wrong and I'm sorry."

"Okay."

"Will you please forgive me?"

"Okay."

"And will you please be my big brother?"

This brought a slight smile to Victor's face, the first Julia had seen in what seemed like weeks. She smiled from her corner of the hall.

"Yes." Victor nodded. "I'd like that."

"And I wanted to tell you that your mom does love you. But we do too. Is that okay?" Sydney seemed all grown up, and Julia was so proud of her.

"Yeah. It's okay." Victor smiled, and Julia knew that they would make it. It would be hard, but with a few more miracles it would happen.