Being Lucas' family member meant many things, and one of the benefits to that was knowing when someone was lying to her—or at least skirting the truth. Rae watched his expression, noting that there was something different about it. She didn't claim to have memorized everything about him, no, but there was a difference to his face when he was being genuine and honest and when he wasn't. This was the latter.
Quietly, she wheeled EJ's stroller over to where she left the teething ring, and handed it to him, before locking the brakes and leaning down to kiss him on the head. "Go ahead, sweetie. All yours," she said, watching with a tiny smile as he immediately put the object in his mouth.
Setting his meds down. She frowned and looked at the floor. "Oh." It wasn't a direct claim that she knew he was lying because really, she didn't know it for a fact. The last thing she wanted was for him to think that he didn't have faith in him. She didn't want to believe that he'd fallen back into his own habits, but she couldn't ignore the signals she was getting either. What do I do? she asked herself. "Yeah, that... that can't be comfortable..." she stumbled, her eyes on the floor. He was acting so strange, and it was worrying her. Making her uncomfortable around him for the first time since she'd met him.
Honestly, the thing that was bothering her the most, shockingly, wasn't that he was having issues again. It was that he wasn't telling her. She wanted to help him, and she would never, could never, leave him when he needed her help. No, she wasn't exactly happy about it, and yeah, she'd tell him that if he ever came clean and told her, but it wasn't in her to leave someone when they needed her the most. She smoothed a hand through her hair and raised her eyes to look at him when he spoke up again.
"Lucas isn't home right now," she told him quietly. "I told you that he was going to be out and about today, remember?" she asked. Cover a lie with a lie. That was such a vicious spiral. Please just tell me the truth, she thought. I want to help you, but I can't if you don't tell me the truth... she looked down at EJ, eager for a distraction, and watched as he reached up for her finger with the hand not holding onto his teething ring.
What was she supposed to do, other than call him on it? "If you wanted to get away from me for a little while, you could have told me," she told him. "I'd have understood." Not for the reason he had, if she was right at all, but she didn't know. So she couldn't say. God, the worst part of this was trying not to be accusatory.
Maybe that was it. Maybe she was imagining this whole relapse thing, and maybe he was tired of being around her. He'd been around her for a month now, straight through. Maybe... maybe that was too much. Maybe it had shown him that she wasn't worth the effort. She chewed her lip. "I mean, I've probably been crowding you lately, right?" she asked. "Too much exposure, and everything..." she sat on a box beside EJ's stroller and watched as he abandoned the teething ring in favor of her index finger. "Probably tired of me or something, right?"
She couldn't shake the feeling that he was lying to her, though. She didn't claim to know everything about him—they'd even discussed a few times how they still had a lot to learn about each other—but she could tell, just the hunch of someone who loved someone else, that he was hiding something from her.
"Oh," she nodded at EJ with a sad smile as she looked up at him. "I forgot EJ's teething ring, and he started getting fussy on my way back from the kitchen. I should've knocked, I guess..."
After a beat, she looked up at him and asked, "are you sure you're okay? I mean... I can't shake this feeling. There's something..." she swallowed nervously. "There's something you're not telling me. I just..." she trailed off.