-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- The Happiest Days Of Our Lives -*- Copyright 2004 by Ellen Hayes. Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when used for satirical purposes. This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and possibly sex. If you are legally not allowed to read materials containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading this. I am not responsible. Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish, state, and country. All rights reserved. See the bottom for distribution rights. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives *** As Paul turned on the street, his uncertainty about his navigation evaporated; he could see a large number of teens milling around on a lawn, and he thought he could recognize some of them from this distance. *** George looked up, and saw the principal getting out of the car. "Ohhhh..." he breathed. He wasn't sure what it meant, that Dobson was here, but he didn't like any of the reasons he could think of. *** "Mike, get fresh scrubs out of my car," Bill ordered, handing him the keys. "And start looking around. Find out where he's gonna be when he gets out of surgery." "Yessir," Mike replied instantly as he stood up. *** Sarah stared skeptically at the principal of her son's school. "We don't know what happened yet," he continued, "but we are working on it as hard as possible, and-" "What, you have a blistering memo circ-" "George," Sarah and Mister Dobson warned at the same time. "Look," Sarah said, to cut off the flow of official apologia, "that's all well and good, but what exactly are you going to DO?" He took a deep breath. "Find out what happened, who was responsible for hurting him, and punish them to the fullest extent possible." "Which is?" "We can expel them; you will also have full cooperation if you wish to press criminal charges-" "If?" "Please, Mrs. Tucker," he sighed, and looked down. Sarah was almost interested, through her haze of rage; he actually seemed like he was awake, instead of in the usual bureaucratic stupor. "I know your son; I know some of what he's going through, and-" "Oh you do?!" burst out of her. She stared at the man, as he lifted his eyes and replied, "Yes." "Then," Dan snarled, "why didn't you do something earlier today, when he got chased and had to jump out that window, huh?" "I-" "He WHAT?!" Sarah yelled. "Tell me what happened," she ordered Dan as she found herself a foot away from the boy, who was now backed against one of the porch supports. "Now." "S-someone was chasing him, I'm not sure who-" One of the girls chimed in with, "I think I know who it was." *** Sadly, but not unusually, they didn't have much in the way of internal security in this place; once you got in, you were in, and as long as you didn't get in anyone's way, talk to anyone, or try to pry the door off a drug locker, no one paid any attention to you. So, Mike just kept walking around, keeping a rough map in his head, and looked for post-surgical recovery. It was likely that they would try to deny everyone access if they could stop them at the door; but once they were in with Tucker, they probably wouldn't throw anyone out. And, once the family was around Tucker, they simply wouldn't leave him alone at any point. Because they didn't have much in the way of internal security in this place. *** "Why are you helping?" Bill asked Debbie, when the silence had gone on long enough. "Excuse me?" "You and my son broke off relations some time ago," Bill prefaced. "Now, you're fighting his mother on the subject of his job, and you brought Mike here and broke several laws to do so. Why are you helping?" Debbie sighed and looked down; Bill paid close attention, wishing Sarah was here, because she was far better than he was at reading people. *** Sarah was developing a grudging respect for Dobson. She knew that when she was stressed out, she was not the most pleasant person to deal with, especially in an oppositional role. Yet, he was keeping his cool, and not falling back on bureaucratic platitudes or evasions. But every time she started to relax, she remembered that her son had been attacked. "Because, I asked him, and he WOULD NOT tell me who they were!" Dobson complained, sounding frustrated. "And if he doesn't want to tell me something, he's not going to tell it," he emphasized. "AY-men!" "George!" admonished several people at once; one punched him on the shoulder. "I asked him to today," Dobson repeated, speaking over George's mumbled complaints, "and he wouldn't. There's nothing I can do in a situation like that if the victim won't even tell me who's bothering him." "Bothering?!" Sarah repeated incredulously. "Chasing with apparent intent to assault, alright? Miz Tucker, I am not the one that did it, I am completely against it having happened, and I am trying to help him, and you," the ordering surprising her a bit, "to solve this problem. Please," he asked, softer again. "If I cannot do anything to help, then I can't; but please don't blame me for something that I tried to prevent. That doesn't help anyone." *** Mike nodded as he sat back down in the chair. "Not there yet; I'll check again in a while." "Is there anything I can do?" Debbie asked. Mike looked at Tuck's father. "Who's watching the Parker kids?" "Kim," Debbie replied promptly. "Call her and give her a status report; she's out of the net. Also-" "What net?" "You ever notice how when something happens, it gets spread fast? That's a net of information transmission," Mike explained. "I'm NOT a retard, Mike-" "Knock it off," Bill ordered calmly. *** Brian had secured the house and come back to tell her he'd finished, so Sarah opened the house up to the waiting kids, and went to check if there was any more news. "Damn damn damn damn damn," she cursed softly, trying to keep control of her raging temper. She BADLY wanted to lash out and hit something; but there wasn't anything around that deserved it at the moment. Even the principal had been surprisingly concerned, considering Eugene was only one student out of perhaps a thousand at his school. *** Jody stared at the poster on her wall, of the big eagle over the desert, and tried not to cry any more. *How was I supposed to know he was hurt?* she argued. She'd already canceled her date tonight; she felt too sick to go anywhere or do anything. The shit she'd gotten for doing so, she'd just taken quietly, feeling as though she deserved every bit of it. "Jody?" her mother called from outside her room. "There's a police officer here to see you?" *** "You know that helicopter today at school?" "Yeah, what was-" "Someone tried to kill this kid! I swear, man, I heard it from Dennis, a bunch of like cheerleaders trapped him-" "I wish a buncha cheerleaders would trap ME, man-" "No, seriously, asswipe! They almost killed him or someth-" "Bullshit!" Steve laughed scornfully. "They beat the SHIT out of him! You think they called a helicopter for fun an' grins, man?" *** "We had some complaints about some behavior in the emergency room, after they came in-" "Oh yes," Bill said, nodding. "I heard that an intern hadn't ev-" "He's a resident, Doctor-" "Yes," Bill countered by raising his volume and deepening his voice to something like Sarge's. "And the man hadn't even bothered to check for a pneumothorax, in a patient who had chest injuries and broken ribs; and that my son's friend actually managed to decompress it before my son DIED," he emphasized. "With the help of my son's wife," he added. "Don't worry," he enunciated carefully, though still a bit louder than normal, "I'm VERY thankful to everyone for saving his life. And since my son is alive and out of surgery, I don't think there's any need to pursue legal action against the intern or the hospital." *Call your legal action and raise you a civil malpractice suit.* "Ah, well," the administrator started flustering, and Bill thought, *And he folds. Pot to me.* *** "She had to go to the hospital," Kim shrugged. "I don't know what for, or when she'll be back." "That's really awful," Beth Parker sighed. "You don't know anything about why she had to..." The blonde girl was shaking her head. *** If anything, Tucker looked worse than when he'd gone in, Mike realized, feeling sick. He was still tubed, but now he was wired into a bunch of different things as well; no one had cleaned the blood off his face or anywhere else; and it looked like he'd lost weight in the last six hours, somehow. *** FLASH TOALL UPDATE X EUGENE OUT OF SURGERY X IN POSTSURGERY RECOVERY X STILL UNCONSCIOUS X SIX GUARDING X FOUR EN ROUTE TO HOUSE X DEBBIE CARSTAIRS VALIDATED AS ALLIED X TSIXT END *** Sarah closed her eyes on her tears of relief, before she remembered to call, "Brian! He's out of surgery!" *** "Shit!" Susan cursed as she got caught at the traffic light. *So close...* The wait was agony, but the whole drive had been like that. Finally the light turned green, and she sped through the intersection and turned into the old neighborhood. There were a whole bunch of cars around her house, and when she pulled into the driveway she recognized some of the crowd standing around as her brothers' friends. *** FLASH TOALL UPDATE X ONE HOME X TFIVET END FLASH TOALL UPDATE X FIVE COME TO HOSPITAL X BRING DIGITAL CAMERA AND SUPPLIES FOR LONG STAY X EUGENE WILL MOVE TO RESPIRATORY ICU AFTER SURGICAL RECOVERY X STILL UNCONSCIOUS X TSIXT END *** Susan thumbed the slide release and the slide slammed forward, chambering a round with the familiar sound. She flicked the safety on, then slid the Springfield into the shoulder holster she'd donned, and put on a light jacket. A check in the mirror showed nothing unusual, so she opened the door to her room. "Mom! I'm ready!" she called as she started downstairs. *** "How could you-" "Mom!" Jody sobbed. "_I_ didn't hit him!" "Who did?" the detective asked. *** "Hail hail, the gang's all here," Mike mentioned as Debbie turned onto Tucker's street, exposing a dozen cars clustered around his house and several people outside. *** "Miz Tuck-" "QUIET!" Tucker's mother yelled in that special way of hers, and into the shocked silence she added, "Mike has the latest information, so listen up!" Mike had to breathe for several seconds to calm himself down; Tuck's mom had scared the hell out of him. "Uh... okay," he said, pulling out the notebook. "Worst first. Tuck's got a collapsed lung and some bleeding in his lung cavity; we took care of that before it killed him. He's got a chest tube to drain it, and keep his lung expanded so he can get enough oxygen. There's broken ribs..." He skipped which ones. "Also a concussion and a minor- MINOR," he emphasized, "skull fracture. That's not bothering the ER docs or the surgeons, and there isn't any bleeding into his head so far." Miz Tucker mentioned, "If he had a chest injury, or an asthma attack-" "Both," Mike interrupted. "... he's gonna have pneumonia," Miz Tucker finished with a sigh. Mike nodded; he'd figured that out when he saw Tuck going blue. "Lots of bruises, but they didn't find any other broken bones." He sighed again, and had to wipe his eyes before he continued, "They, they checked him, and he was NOT raped..." That got some gasps, but the force of Miz Tucker's glare was enough to keep anyone from saying anything. He continued, "He's on steroids and diuretics to keep any possible brain swelling down, stuff for his asthma, positive pressure ventilation to keep his lungs fully inflated... He's out of surgical recovery, in respiratory ICU, and not conscious yet. They don't like that." "Neither do I," said Tuck's mom. *** FLASH TOALL UPDATE X FOUR HOME X FIVE ENROUTE X TFIVET END *** "Thanks a lot," Susan mumbled to Sabrina around a mouthful of chips. She apparently had more brains than all of Tucker's Goonies put together, or at least more sense; she'd picked up some food, which hadn't completely disappeared yet. "I had to skip lunch to study for a test..." *Which I won't be taking, because I'm here instead of there,* she realized. *Damnit! If I catch the fuckers that did this to him, I am gonna KILL them!* *** "Yeah, well," Brian said angrily, "he's a shit and everything, sometimes, but, you know, there's lots of shits that are still walkin' around... and he's not the worst of 'em." Billy hooted, "Yeah, Martinez is! Oof!" "Shut the fuck up," Brian stated. "Nobody fucks with my family, home. You gonna stand there and bullshit, or you gonna help?" "Shit, I SAID I'd help, asswipe," Billy complained, holding his stomach. "What do we do?" "If you hear anything, from your family or from other kids, let me know. His laptop's gone too; SOMEONE picked that up," he remembered. "Just find out, casually, whatta-F's going on." "And grab 'em," Keith stated. "No, you let us do that," Brian corrected. "If we need extra help, we'll let you know. Otherwise, anything you don't do or see, you can't go to jail for." *** "Dobson called the cops?" Mike confirmed, and Bridgette nodded. "Oh shit." "What?!" Kelly complained. "Do you think he SHOULDN'T have called them? Tucker got beat up!" *** FLASH TOALL UPDATE X PRINCIPLE DOBSON CALLED COPS X THEY ARE INVESTIGATING INCIDENT X BEWARE X TFOURT END *** "Oh goddamnit that is JUST what I fucking need," Sarah cursed as she dropped the pager onto the passenger seat. "I HATE fucking cops!" And usually they weren't too pleased with her, either. *** "Yeah, well, if they show up we'll talk to them. Mike..." Susan had noticed that he was wearing a jacket, just like she and Brian were. "You might want to change clothes if they get here; it might get a little warm for that outfit." "Wh- Oh, right," he nodded distractedly. She couldn't remember Mike being this reasonable in a long time. "Mike? You okay?" He shook his head. "No. No I'm not." Hesitantly, she put her arms around him, and he sagged against her. "He'll be okay," she whispered into his ear. *** "Bill." He turned around, and it was Dana Treble, still dressed in her office clothes. "How is he?" "Unconscious but he's breathing okay... 'stable', I think they said," he replied as he turned the laptop around to show her the notes he'd taken from the post-surgical briefing. She nodded as she started to read. "Do you know what happened?" He shook his head. "We're working on finding out, but..." He shrugged. "Not sure yet. Someone apparently beat him pretty bad and put him into a cheerleader's outfit; Mike f-" "Whaaat?!" she gasped in surprise as she looked up. "A CHEERL-" "We think that it was put on him, after the first assault," he patiently explained. "When Mike found him, he was having a severe asthma attack and getting beaten by the girls in the locker room, and too bad off to fight back effectively. Mike got a coach to call for a medevac and kept him alive until then... Mike said he was somewhat conscious when they lifted off, but not when he got here..." He shook his head, banking the pain. *** Julia suddenly had a thought. "Has anyone told Jill yet?" "Oh shit," Pam mentioned. "Kathy works too; I bet neither of them know about it." "You take Jill and I'll take Kathy?" she offered, and Pam nodded. "I need to get out of here for a while anyway," she added, and Pam REALLY nodded at that. Before they could leave, though, Mike caught the pair. *** "We're not gonna do a damned thing un-" "WHAT?!" "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Mike raged, and for once, they did. Everyone had, it seemed; even the girls had shut up and were staring at him. He let out a breath, then ordered, "Upstairs." When he had all the guys upstairs, George started again. "What do you mean, we don't do anyth-" "We don't know who started it, who did the first assault," Mike explained. "And Mister Tucker, he won't be real happy if we hit the wrong people, you know? We gotta wait until Tuck wakes up so we can ask HIM what happened." Dan asked, "What if he doesn't wake up?" Mike's body thrashed in pure cellular rejection of the idea. "Then we kill them all," he answered finally, feeling suddenly chilled. Pause. "I'm in," George stated solemnly. Dan and Kelly just nodded. *** "Oh my god," Kathy sighed disgustedly, and Julia eventually nodded. There wasn't much else to say. "Oh," Julia said when the thought occurred to her. "Mike asked if you could do them a favor? You can drive a stick-shift, right?" "Yeah?" "Tuck's car- You know it got trashed recently, when he left it in the parking lot? They just got it repainted and stuff, and..." She jingled a key at Kathy. "Yeah, I can drive it..." She ran her hands through her hair. "Can you shuttle me, to school and then pick me up at Val's house and take me back here?" Julia nodded. "Yeah, I can do it." "Great," Julia said sincerely. "They couldn't think of anyone else who could do it." "Debbie can drive a stick," Kathy half-smiled. "But I guess-" "She took Mike to the hospital," Julia interrupted. "WHAT?!" *** Paul sighed, "I don't KNOW who was chasing him this afternoon." "Do you have any idea at all?" Detective Patton reiterated. *** "But he's alive, right?" Jill asked desperately. "Yeah, he's alive..." Pam trailed off; there was so much she didn't know, that she needed to know; but no one was telling them. Maybe no one knew. "He came out of surgery okay, I know that much. But I don't think he's regained consciousness..." "Mother... fucker," Jill sighed tiredly. *** "You guys might as well go home," Susan sighed as she rubbed her eyes. "We- I gotta get some sleep, anyway. We can call you if there's any change in his status or anything. We know he's out of surgery and alive; my parents are watching him, and when he wakes up we'll have some news, but right now..." She shrugged. "Yeah, we might as well," Debbie agreed. "If you can call me, if anything happens, I can call everyone else, or get that going; Mike'll handle the guys, I guess?" Mike nodded at her, as Susan debated whether to call Debbie for any reason. *Could she have had something to do with it?* she wondered, looking at the younger woman. *** *I can't believe...* Sarah shook her head at the insanity of it all. At least his face was clean, now. "Sarah, it's getting close to closing time," Bill mentioned to her. "Why don't you go and change into something you can stay the night in?" *** "Yeah," Sabrina mentioned, "I've got synagogue tomorrow, so I'll be praying for him." "Tomorrow's a school day, though," Kelly reminded her. "Not for me, it's not," Sabrina corrected. "Yom Kippur, it's a religious holiday for us Jews. Fasting all day too," she sighed. "Man." Kelly was NOT looking forward to having to go back to school. She could handle bears, but having to worry about the people was almost too much for her. "What the-" Kelly turned around, and Tucker's car was pulling into the driveway... But a moment's staring convinced her it wasn't Tucker driving it. *So much for miracles,* rose in her mind, and she almost cried. *** "It's ten o'clock," the nurse recited dully for the second time. "No non-patients are allowed in ICU after ten; you have to leave." "I am NOT leaving-" Sarah started, but just managed to stop herself when Bill put a hand on her shoulder. "Sarah," Dana said calmly as she came back from wherever she'd disappeared to, "get next to him." "This is-" "This is a medical procedure," Dana stated to the charge nurse, and pointed with her chin. "Watch the monitor." "Bill?" He was already messing with the bed railings, and when they swung down on the right side, she was ready to help pull Eugene gently to one side of the bed. When they had, she sat down on the folding stool she'd brought, and gently moved so that her son was cradled against her body. *My son, my son...* She could hear the change, but it was Dana who announced, "Before she got in, his pulse was ninety-two, and now it's dropping past the mid-eighties. His pulse-ox went up a point as well." She paused, but the nurse didn't say anything else. "I'm annotating his chart to read that his family has access to him at all times, and that one or more of them will, not may but WILL, remain within touching distance of him at ALL times. Is that understood, Miz Braxton?" Dana asked pointedly. "He'll be okay, Sarah," her husband murmured into her ear as he handed her a tissue to wipe her eyes dry. "He will. He's safe now." She nodded mutely, unable to take her eyes off her child's face as she rocked him ever so gently in her arms. *** "Well, I hope she's alright," David replied, and Beth nodded absently as she continued brushing her hair. "Is there anything we can do?" "I asked today, and there wasn't; I'll ask again tomorrow," Beth answered. *** "No, we haven't seen Kyle all day. Why? Is he in trouble?" "We just want to ask him a few questions about something that happened at school, that he might have witnessed, Ma'am." *** "Please, God..." Pamela felt a tear slide down, tickling her face. "Don't let the violence win this time. Please let him come back to us." *** "Nothing on the tap yet," Mike sighed as he removed the headphones and carefully got to his feet. Tucker's computer chair was one of those 'orthopedic' kneeler-types, that were great if you were used to them, but a complete bitch to mount and dismount. "Shit..." *** "Whups... this needs to go," Bill told himself as he grabbed the teletypoid print-out and went to the bedroom shredder. Several seconds later, there were a bunch of nice thin ribbons, which he them took to the bathroom and began flushing. *** Paul couldn't go to sleep; he kept drifting off and seeing Eugene's face pleading for help... *** Jill slipped quietly out of her mother's house, dressed in practical clothes, and found Dan's minivan a couple of houses away. "Yeah?" she asked after she'd gotten inside. "Phone taps," Mike said, and Jill sighed. *I want to DO something, not play spy!* "Jill," Mike intoned, reading her mind, "we can NOT hit the wrong target." *** "We need you," Dad told Brian, which was surprising enough that he stopped complaining. "You go to school with a lot of the younger sibs of high school students. You MIGHT hear something." He knew that already, and was about to tell Dad that he did, when Dad added, "Plus, Sarah and I both need to do a lot tomorrow; can you guard him in ICU after school?" "Yeah, I can do that," Brian nodded. "It means skipping soccer pract-" "Fuck soccer practice," slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it. "Good man!" Dad grinned as he slapped Brian affectionately on the shoulder, leaving Brian rather confused. "Just don't say that around your mother." *** "What cops? I didn't do nothin'!" "Don't LIE to me, Kyle!" his father yelled. *** Mike closed his eyelids firmly and held them that way for a fifteen second count. It helped soothe the burning, a bit. "Alright," he said, and he was irritated to notice he was hoarse too. He cleared his throat, and restarted. "Okay, we've got some taps up; we'll save the rest until we have a better idea where to put 'em. We need to sleep, if we can-" "Sleep?" Jill questioned. "Mosta us ain't gettin' outta school tamarrah," George drawled tiredly. "Last thing we need's more trouble fer skippin'." "We did what we could tonight," Mike emphasized. "We wait and see, and let the taps collect intel, and sift it tomorrow." "What about that dance thing?" Jill asked. "Homecoming?" Dan confirmed. Mike couldn't help a slow smile. "We'll think of something... appropriate, for the dance." She smiled back at him. They all did. *** Bill waited until Mike came in, from where he didn't want to know, and locked up the house before returning to bed. *I need more sleep than this... I'm too old to run myself into the ground like I used to.* While he could still stand more irregular hours than Sarah could, he needed some sleep if he was to function tomorrow. Luckily, being a Marine had ripped something in his brain; he could always go to sleep in ten minutes or less, if he could get quiet and a light on. Darkness brought nightmares, if he was stressed. *** "Wait, this can't be right..." She pulled the chart out of its holder and started looking through it. *** "My son..." Sarah whispered as she touched his face. *** *Someth...* *Something...* When it happened a third time, Mike managed to open one eye - the other was crusted shut - and look around. The fourth time, his eye popped open and focused, on the MacinClock which was facing Tuck's bed. *Different...* The tones bleeped out again, but this time he was sure it was the MacinClock. "Oh, fuck..." he sighed. "How'zis work?" *** "You look like shit," Kim felt it necessary to mention. "I feel like shit," Jill admitted. She'd gotten three hours of sleep, and the tiny amount of coffee she'd manage to get down wasn't enough, not yet. Shannon came into the room, skimming the bell as usual, and neither Jill nor Kim said anything. Jill was wondering if she was one of the ones that had hurt Tuck, and how to find out, and what to do if- *No, that's Mike's job,* she told herself firmly. *He's... good at this.* She would have said 'evil' before yesterday, but now she knew better. As Shannon sat down, Jill noticed that she almost missed the seat, and she looked more tense than usual, and had noticeably more makeup on. She must've felt something, because she looked around the room as the bell rang. When she saw Jill and Kim staring at her, she froze. Jill picked up a pencil, keeping her face blank, and snapped it. Shannon flinched violently and almost lurched out of her seat before she could stop herself. *** "I can take Mom's shift," Susan declared, during an unexpected breakfast she'd cooked. "So can I," Dad mentioned, "and I have work I can do there." Susan closed her eyes, but nodded. Of all of them, she hated hospitals the most. "Can you shuttle people around?" Dad asked. "Sarah and I need to trade places, and then Brian relieves me after three or so." "Mike?" Susan asked, looking at him. "Are you taking a shift?" "Not yet," he replied, almost cordially - though that may have been because Dad was keeping close reins on all of them. "This weekend sometime. I have some stuff I have to do after school." "Susan?" Dad pressed gently. "Huh? Oh, yeah, no problem," she answered belatedly. "Oh crap," Mike blurted. "My car's dead. Tires slashed," he mentioned. "When?" Susan asked. "Yesterday..." Mike shrugged, looking pained. "I'll authorize payment for replacements," Dad said. "We need you mobile." "Thanks," Mike said absently. "I can get that done too," Susan offered, though with some distaste. "Looks like I'm the reserve today." "It would be a tremendous help," Dad pushed. Susan just nodded. *** "I dunno, man," Keith said darkly, shaking his head. "Cops were over last night, asking my sister about what happened." "What's she say?" Brian asked, dropping the 'you stupid fuckwit' part. Keith shook his head. "Couldn't hear anything; they made me go to my room, and I couldn't get out to hear anything. But they had a detective over, or some guy in a suit anyway-" "That's a detective," Brian agreed. "Yeah I KNOW that, dork! But I couldn't hear anything." Brian thought for a while. *** "Michael Johansson, you need to go to the principal's office," Mrs. Vangormer smirked. "Omerta, man," Dan offered as Mike got up, grabbing his pack and slinging it. "S'okay," Mike told them before he left. He made a dash through the halls, trusting to speed to get him through trouble zones; it wasn't that crowded after the homeroom bell, and nobody really tried to mess with him. It seemed as though there were a lot of teachers and admin in the halls this morning, though. *** "They canceled the pep rally?" Jill asked Kim, not sure she'd heard right. "Fuck!" Kim confirmed. "They NEVER do that!" Jill looked over at Shannon, who looked slightly guilty and more than slightly upset. "I think someone's pissed at what happened," she commented vaguely. "Yeah, REAL pissed," Kim agreed. *** "You're not in trouble," Paul said as the first thing, and Michael nodded formally at that. "First. Can you," he chose his words carefully, "give me any information on Eugene's condition?" "No," Michael answered quickly but calmly. "Call his father, the emergency contact number. I'm not authorized, and I haven't had an update since last night anyway." "Thank you," Paul nodded. "Second... Will you cooperate with the police-" Michael stiffened up immediately. "Just to tell them what happened Thursday; what you saw, what Tucker told you, and what you did in the gym when you realized Eugene was being assaulted. Will you please do that?" "Why?" "Because I want them PUNISHED!" Paul roared as he slammed a fist on his desk, surprising himself. "Excuse me..." He stared at his desk until he was calm enough to speak again. "I'm sorry. I want the people who did this to be punished, under the law... and your testimony could help." "I'll thin- You haven't said, told them I would yet, have you?" "No." He'd had an inkling that Michael, like Eugene, would be closed-mouthed to the point of lunacy; he'd told the detective the night before that he would ask, but not to count on it nor to bother Eugene's friends independently, that he was more likely to convince them to speak freely than any threat of authority. "Please, Michael, it would-" "I'll consider it," Michael interrupted gravely. "Thank you," Paul sighed, tired and melancholy. "That's all." Curiously, Michael saluted him before turning and leaving. *** "Still not awake," Sarah mentioned softly when Bill saw her. "He's gonna get pneumonia." Bill nodded; it was almost inevitable with the kid, after a bad asthma attack. Dana had postulated that it was buried too deeply in his damaged lungs to ever be truly eradicated. "How's he doing otherwise?" he asked. She shrugged tiredly. "I don't know. His, his stats or whatever, they were alright all night. They want to give him another CAT scan, check his skull fracture, but..." "Damn." *** James felt someone's shin hit his leg, too late to do anything about it, and went sprawling across the floor. His glasses came loose, and he scrambled after them, absorbing more kicks from other people as he tried to get them before someone grabbed them or stepped on them. When he finally had them and put them back on, whoever had done it was indistinguishable from everyone else that was laughing at him. *** Susan was glad to see her mother come out of the elevators, and more glad that she didn't have to go inside to get her. She flashed the car's lights to attract Mom's attention, and sighed in relief at the thought of getting the hell out of here. "Bill said we were going to replace some tires on Mike's car?" Mom asked as she opened the door. "Yeah... I got two of the jackstands from the house, and the big hydraulic jack; they're in the back," Susan waved vaguely at the back seat. "And Mike's SUPPOSED to have one in his trunk." She made a face; while Tucker had cleaned up his room last year, and kept his car similarly uncluttered, Mike... hadn't. *** "I heard your FAG brother got the shit beat out of him yesterday," Darren sneered. "Yeah, and the cops are talkin' to a LOT of people about it," Brian agreed calmly, watching Darren closely. "Heard 'em tell my dad that they've got enough for about half a dozen arrests so far." Darren looked a bit worried at that. "And you know, once they arrest you, they always get a search warrant so they can look through the house... for 'evidence', or whatever else they can find. Lotta people go down 'cause of that; someone else got busted, and the search finds stuff from other people in the same house or whatever." Now he looked REALLY worried. "Ah well, wasn't me that did it, and unless you were hangin' out in the girls' locker room there, it wasn't you either, was it?" Brian grinned as he walked away. *Interesting...* *** "Shit a FUCK..." Susan gasped as she heaved on the tire iron. "Step on it, Susan; use your weight to break the nuts loose," Mom bitched. "And don't curse," she added as she put a foot on one bar of the tire iron and put her weight into it. "Hold it in-" The nut 'cracked' and Mom put her foot down suddenly. "Like that." "Should've brought a pipe," Susan griped. "Mike could have one-" "You go look through that mess; I'm not going to." It had been marginally worse than she'd feared; if there was a spare tire in there, it wasn't visible. *** "It's worth the CAT," Dana told Bill, and he sighed into the phone. "Yeah, I know," she continued to forestall his objections, which she already knew. "But the imagery is really superior, and if they get good news, they shouldn't need to repeat it." "Alright," Bill acquiesced finally. *** "Oh DAMNIT!" Sarah complained when the clerk told her how much three tires - the assholes had missed one for some reason - would cost. "Sorry," she apologized. "That's a lot of money." "You still want 'em?" "Need 'em," she corrected as she nodded. *** "Mister Tucker, this is Paul Dobson, the principal at your son's high school... I talked to Michael Johansson this morning, and he told me to call you to get an update on Eugene's condition." There was silence for several seconds, during which Paul's stomach cramped in the old fear of rejection. "He's stable, but still unconscious and in ICU," Eugene's father said. "He's got a concussion and a punctured lung, some-" "Oh my God," Dobson gasped. *** "Mom, don't be stupid!" Susan barked. "You need SLEEP! I got some last night; I don't think you did." "I slept some-" "I slept six hours, and I can come home and take a nap later if I need to. I know you took off work, but... I can do this, okay? You go home, sleep, hold the fort, and all that. Please, Mom?" Susan pleaded. *** "You need to go to the office," Mrs. Shelley told Mike before he could even sit down. "Okay," he acknowledged, but went to tell Amanda where he was going, before he left the classroom again. *** "I heard your little faggot BOYfriend got beat up yesterday," one of the girls sneered. Kelly flushed, as the rest of the girls laughed, then considered; and before they had stopped laughing, she punched the speaker hard in the stomach, putting her weight into it like her dad had taught her, and turned towards her classroom, only a few yards away. *** "Talk to 'em," Bill ordered. "Tell 'em- You know the drill." "Yessir," Mike confirmed. "Just what I'm asked." Bill nodded, which he realized wouldn't go over the phone. "Right. And, Susan's got tires for your car; talk to Dobson and get permission to be out in the parking lot, help her change 'em. Is your car vandalized like Eugene's was?" "If they did anything like spray-paint it, it'd only improve things," Mike claimed, and they both chuckled. "How's Tuck?" he asked softly. Bill looked at his son again. "Still out, but everyone seems to be happy with the way he's going." He was not; his son shouldn't be here at all. *** "What was up?" Amanda asked Mike as they gathered their books. "Had a call, from Mister Tucker. Tuck's still out but he's getting better," Mike summarized. "I gotta get my car fixed, a couple of other things; then I get to talk to the cops sometime this afternoon." "Why?" Amanda complained. "'Cause I saw Tuck in the locker room; they want to know what happened in there, and I'm the only person that might be able to tell 'em something, until Tuck wakes up." "I'm surprised you're talking to the cops," she said skeptically. "Orders," was Mike's enigmatic reply. *** "Kelly?" Mike said gently but firmly, and she nodded at him without looking up. "As of today, you do NOT go anywhere alone, just like Tuck. How do you get to school?" *** Susan handed Mike the digital camera Mom had left in the car. "Motherrrrrrffff..." "Yeah," Susan agreed, looking around. "Somehow, it looks worse in the photos." Mike continued to look at the photos, taken before Mom had left that morning. "Are these available for general release?" he asked finally. "NO!" she spat reflexively. "Why?!" "Propaganda purposes. I'm not sure," he admitted, handing the camera back. "Something..." He shook his head absently. "Talk to Dad before you get any weird ideas," Susan ordered. "Can we get the tires on?" "Yeah, sorry." *** George snarled, "He's gonna live, we know that; and we can't do anything to influenc that right now. But, what about the future? Is he coming back to school? What the FUCK do we do if he IS?" "Aw, shit," Mike sighed. He hadn't thought that far ahead. *** "Mommmm," Eugene bubbled through his own blood as his hand reached- "SHIT!" Sarah screamed as she convulsed out of her bed. "Oh God," she panted, just managing to raise herself off the floor on her hands and knees. "Oh God..." *** "He's fine, Sarah," Bill repeated gently, checking just to make sure his son hadn't changed into a cucumber or disappeared or something. Eugene lay peacefully in bed, monitors beeping away like normal. *** Mike stated, "Unless we can change our class schedules, NOW," roughly equivalent to reversing the flow of a major river, "he's gonna have vulnerable periods, when we're all too far away to escort him." "You sure about that?" George argued. "There's a LOT of us." He looked around. "I don't know everyone's schedule, or where they are, but..." "Maybe..." Mike admitted. "If I can get those, I can plot 'em over the weekend..." Something else occurred to him. "If he's coming back to school. He's been wanting to get out of here for a long time; this might be enough to get his parents to agree to it. I know Dobson won't raise a fuss about that." "Isn't he one of the G-'n-T students, though?" Pam asked. "Don't they like want to keep those, for the testing? Keep the school average up?" Mike replied, "Yeah, but there's not a lot they can do if his parents agree..." He wondered what about that statement had caused Kim to go into contemplation. "Anyway," he remembered, "it's not just Tuck that's vulnerable. ALL of us might be. Who's been hit today?" he asked again. Kelly, James T, George, and Paul raised their hands. "Yeah, me too. And that's just this morning. We need to set up something where all of us have someone around, someone close to call for help, 'cause it's for damned sure that we can't count on anyone else." That made everyone quiet. Finally, Kim asked, "Aren't you being kind of paranoid?" "Ask Tuck if we're being paranoid ENOUGH." *** *Damnit, I wish I could prove him WRONG, but...* "Kim?" "Oh, yeah, sorry," Kim said, shaking her head. "They're thinking he may not come back... and Dobson's gonna hate that, because he's one of the Gifted And Talented, and the school's scores are low enough as it is. The school-" "Who the h- Wait, you're one too, aren't you?" Debbie asked. "Yeah? So're you!" Kim pointed out. "So what?" "Just thinking of something. Anyway, so what else?" *** "Yeah, I mean, I wonder what the little dork was doing in there anyway?" Debbie asked casually. "I mean, he knows they all hate him, so I can't see him-" "That little fag?" Monica scoffed. "Wearing their clothes! Shit!" "No, if he was into that, he would've been stealing stuff from me, and I know he wasn't," Debbie lied easily. "I think the only way he'd have gotten in there was somebody dragged him." "I mean, that was pretty stupid," Geneva commented. "Dressing up in one of their outfits like that..." Debbie suppressed a sigh and thought for a while, as the conversation flowed. *** "Yes sir, that's what I saw," Mike repeated, and the other detective wrote it down. "You're sure you saw that one, uh-" "Shannon," Mike and the note-taker said at the same time. "Yeah; you're sure you SAW that one hit Eugene?" "Oh yeah, right in the head," Mike nodded. "Okay, so what happened next?" *How many times do I have to go through this?* Mike sighed to himself, but he knew better than to say anything out loud. At least right now. *** "Aw, man," Brian sighed as he spotted his sister's car in the maelstrom. "That stupid dork HADDA get himself beat up..." *** Kim lied, "She's having respiratory problems, that's why she's in the hospital." *That was almost true...* It was hard to breathe when a broken rib had punctured a lung, which is what Mike guessed had happened. "So..." She shrugged. "I don't know when she'll be able to come back." "That's TERRIBLE!" Miz Parker gasped. "Is there anything we can do for her?" Kim shook her head. "Not right now... she just needs the time to rest and, and get better." *** "Hey, Miz Tuck, is it okay if we come over today? Like yesterday?" Sarah sighed, and looked around. "I guess... Did you hear anything today, about who..." "We're working on it," Michael said, and he said it in such a flat tone that she thought he was almost as upset as Bill was. "Believe me, we're working on it." *** "He looks like SHIT!" Brian exclaimed. "We'd noticed," Dad said tiredly. "Can you watch him? You're better for him than anyone else. And you've got my cell, so call if there's a problem, right?" "Right." *Shit, he looks BAD.* Brian and Dad both watched Tucker as Tucker did nothing except breathe, and he wasn't doing that too well either. *Someone's gotta pay for this one,* Brian decided. *** "You know, though," Julia mentioned before she started her car. "I don't know if I want to go over there. Eventually, one of 'em's gonna remember about Tuck, and about Valerie, and if they start asking questions about us and what happened and so on... I don't think I want to be there," she finished. Pam stopped, and then eventually started to nod. "I mean, right now, I don't think so..." "You know at SOME point they're gonna remember-" "Yeah, but would they really-" "Have you seen Tuck's mom?" Julia pointed out. "I REALLY don't think I want her angry at me right now." Pam shook her head in total agreement. "And they were pretty angry, is what I heard..." *** Sarah sighed, "Oh, damnit..." Susan responded, "What, Mom?" She hadn't meant to sigh out loud. "I REALLY don't feel like cooking, but-" "We'll handle it," her daughter assured her. "MIKE!" she yelled back towards the living room. "YOU WANNA EAT? That's the best way to get his attention," she confided, and finished speaking just as Mike appeared. "What? And why is she laughing like that?" *** "Well, I need to get my car fixed, and I need that more." "Oh yeah..." *** "Kyle's not answering his phone," Mike announced as he typed something on the keyboard. "I think that's a bad sign, since he's gonna miss a date if he doesn't call back soon." "Why is that bad?" Kelly asked. "Weren't you helping cook?" Mike complained. *** "Why am I helping cook?" Amanda asked. "Because you're here, for support of Tuck," George told her. "And I'm a better cook than he is," Susan dropped, on her way past with some eggs. "I'll believe that when I see it," Amanda retorted. "Taste it," George said. "What?" *** Jody finally couldn't stand it any more, and found the student directory, looked up the number, and dialed. *** "The fuck?" Mike complained as the phone computer flashed a number and "MARTIN ROSS" at him in big red letters. "Who..." "Jeezus," Mike commented in awe. "You leave him alone for a few hours, and he writes another application." "How's he do that?" Kelly asked. "And why is SHE calling here?" Mike mused. *** Jody put the phone down, not sure who to leave a message to, and not sure this was a good idea after all. *But he's gotta be out of the hospital by now, right? I mean, nobody hit him THAT hard.* *** "I can help!" Kelly insisted, looking stubborn. "TUCK trusts me." *Not that far,* Mike thought, but reconsidered. *She IS taking hits for him, and keeping her mouth shut. One of the best ways to get in with a group now, would be to start blabbing about Tuck, and I haven't heard anything like that.* "Can you get free tonight? Late?" "Like how late?" Kelly shook her head. "Never mind, Dad's outta town and so's Audrey, his girlfriend. S'long as I call him about ten." *** "Nah, no change," Brian said. "I've been taking his vitals down every half hour, like you said... Want me to read 'em-" "No, that's fine," Mom told him. "Any visitors?" "Just nurses and stuff. They said he looks okay, but they wish he'd wake up so they could take him out of ICU, or something like that. He hasn't moved or anything, on his own," Brian mentioned as he felt a twinge. He felt another as Mom sighed. "He'll be okay, Mom," he almost whispered. *** Debbie twirled a pen as she stared at her computer, the one that Tucker had set up for her over a year ago. *Gifted and Talented, Gifted and Talented...* It wasn't quite there yet, but she could feel the idea congealing. Whatever it was. *** "Susan's in the parking garage, top floor near the elevators," Mom said as she let go of Brian. "She cooked, and we made sure to save you a plate." "Are all his friends over there again?" "Yes," she sighed tiredly. "I wish they'd go home... but..." *** Sarah stared at him, before she started taking the photographs with the digital camera. He looked better in some ways - his chest wasn't heaving with the effort of breathing, at least; and in some way she couldn't have explained, he looked more relaxed, as if he was asleep rather than unconscious. On the other hand, the steroids were starting to make his face swell already, and his bruises were turning dark. And there were a LOT of bruises on him. Finally, she was done, and she covered him up hastily, feeling sick and baffled, that someone would do this to her child. She ended up crying silently into his hair, pressing his head gently against her heart. *** "I've been in hospitals," I said. "They take away your pants. Then they hurt you and starve you and expose you to disease. Then they bill you for it. A lot." - 'Ken Taggert' Distribution: No part of this work may be distributed as an original work by another person or group. Permission is given to redistribute this by electronic means, as long as the entirety of the work (from the BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE header to the END PGP SIGNATURE footer) is distributed, and credit is given to the original author, me. And no fee may be charged. Archiving is permitted provided no fee is charged for access. All rights reserved. + @>--,--'----- Ellen Hayes o===[-------- __ vicki .sig + -=[1990]=- \/ virus 12.2 + http://www.barkingduck.net/ehayes PGP key: EFC9 5D55 (1996) + -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBQU0TvHYDebnvyV1VAQHaEAP/SJjSivMM5RuO3nDVga0UOH9QK5zTD+4a FpJYI1s45pC10NJ/qGkZZ98dI+UNx89M5Bj7UdUeLq7eFm240e7kF/wU4iIQEaw0 j18cQlRzkNSPodX3leOpEwErd1ZECcfKq158GIxmADl4bv3mocM4sg0AZQSU+cHd sBiu9gClSrE= =sbNF -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----