"Welcome to my world. You don't think I've been down this road before? I wanted to save that idiot kid the moment he asked if I wanted him to suck me off when he was all tiny and baby faced. It was creepy and I had to protect him! Why do you think he calls me his dad? Believe it or not, he was worse than he is now and I literally reigned hell on some of the worse people in his life to help but but you take one down and another appears." Of course it was harder for James, Axel was self destructive by nature and he tended to let others rule him for lack of wanting to fight back. That was why Hartley was so important.

"You stand more of a chance than I ever did. He wants to change for you, he wants to actually try. Even if it'll never be perfect, it's still better than it could be and you did that." He tossed the wipe aside and applied some gauze to the worst of it. "The other day he asked me if he should go back to school. All because he didn't want you thinking he wasn't trying."