6 years ago ...
*Wham!* Mike doubled over as his father Simon delivered a crushing blow to his abdomen. His throat ejected blood. He spat it out bitterly.
"Stay down!" his father growled.
"Fuck you!" Mike grunted. He was hurt, exhausted, beaten. But he looked up at his father with loathing as he forced his wobbly legs to lift him up to his feet. He felt his head spin.
Simon kicked Mike's legs out from under him just as he got to his feet.
Mike dropped face first to the ground. He hadn't expected to be tripped, and his face hit the ground hard. He bit his tongue when his jaw hit the floor. He looked at his father's feet.
Simon kicked him in the ribs. "Beg me to stop," he roared. He kicked him again. "All you have to do is beg."
Something happened then that Mike couldn't explain. There he was, bleeding from the mouth, one eye nearly swollen shut, nose bleeding. One of his ribs was almost certainly broken. He could barely stand on his own.
And he started to laugh.
It started out as a chuckle, but to his father's fury, he began to howl with powerful fits of laughter. Simon kicked him again and again and again, somehow making Mike laugh harder and harder with each kick.
Mike felt his father lift him by the scruff of the neck, setting him up for a kick in the head.
Mike looked up at his father. Even as with laughter, his hatred showed in every line of his face. To his surprise, Simon let go.
"Psycho ..." his father muttered, shaking his head as he closed the front door behind him, taking off in his car.
Mike's laughter slowly died down to chuckles.
Rachael heard everything from her closet. She cried through most of it. She knew this was her fault. Her father caught her kissing a boy on the back porch and had a fit. Well, she almost kissed him. The poor guy barely made it out of the house alive. Mike showed up in time to keep Simon from killing the both of them.
She cautiously peeked around the corner, and saw her twin brother lying there on the floor.
He was truly a sight to behold. On the brink of manhood, he was strong, but not yet physically able to contend with his father, a forty year old ex marine who kept in shape working as a police detective.
But he tried to fight. He always lost, but he always tried.
Rachael knelt down next to her poor brother.
"Rachael," he groaned.
"Hey BB," she said, smiling down at him sweetly.
"Check it out! I showed him who's boss!" he cackled.
Rachael wasn't amused.
"Want me to get you something?" she asked him. She hadn't realized it, but she'd been holding his hand ... which suddenly started to sweat.
"Sure, aspirin, bandages, an ice pack ..."
"The usual," she said. She knew the drill.
Their father had only ever hit her once, years ago. It was another drunken night just like this one. She yelled at her father about his temper and he hit her, hard. The incident landed her in the hospital, and Mike hit his father over the head with a metal baseball bat as retribution.
Their father was wearing his high school class ring when he hit her, and it just nailed her perfectly. Since that day, two years ago, Mike made sure that his father never laid a finger on Rachael again. His father hated him, so it wasn't that hard, aside from the obvious physical toll.
"Mike?" Rachael came back with an armful of everything; a pillow, water, aspirin, a bowl for spitting blood, and some bandages and ice. She used cotton to stop his nose bleed, and iced his forehead. She put a pillow under his head and started running her fingers through his hair. "Mike, are you okay?"
No response.
"Mike?"
Still no response. He wasn't moving. Immediately the worst came to her mind.
"Oh my god! Mike! Mike!"
Rachael picked up her cell phone and called 911.
...
...
It was a long trip to the hospital. The paramedics let her come along for the ride, but nearly had to restrain her to keep her from hovering over her brother for the entire trip. One of the paramedics told her he's lost a lot of blood and needs a transfusion.
One of the doctors had a lot of questions. Questions she wasn't sure she could answer. She told him Mike was all beaten up by the time he got home. The doctor wasn't buying it.
"I think you have something to tell us," he said. "What happened to him?"
"He..." she began, when she saw her father stride down the hallway with a concerned look on his face. The Doctor's face went pale.
"Doctor Norman. I want to know why you're interrogating my daughter."
"Detective..." he stuttered. "Begging your pardon. I never had the pleasure of meeting her before."
Simon patted Dr. Norman on the back. "It's understandable," he said. "I'm a reasonable man. I know when to look the other way." He said, pointedly. "Are you a reasonable man doctor?"
"Yes sir! I..."
"So tell me doc... how's my son?"
Dr. Norman took a deep breath and calmed himself. This question he could answer without much trouble.
"Detective, your son was beaten quite savagely. He has a concussion for sure. At least one broken rib, and it appears he's lost a good amount of blood as well. We've already re-set his nose and have him on an IV. His sister gave him a transfusion when he went into shock.
"That's all?"
"He can go home tomorrow if you wish it. He should stay the night so we can monitor him. His sister did the right thing calling us. He could've died from the amount of blood he lost internally. He'll take several weeks to fully recover. The ribs will take longer."
"Thank you doctor. I'd like to see my son now if it's all the same to you."
...
...
Everything was a haze. Mike couldn't see anything. He couldn't move. He just heard noises.
His sister yelling his name over and over. He heard some woman saying "he's going into Hypovolemic shock. He needs blood." He wondered distantly who needed blood, and what they were doing in his living room while he was trying to sleep.
Then he heard his sister's voice again. "BB? Are you awake?"
He wanted to respond, but it seemed so far away, almost as if he'd just thought the words, or remembered them.
"BB?" This time more present. Rachael was here. Now.
"BB I need you to wake up okay?"
Mike opened his eyes.
Rachael was sitting at the foot of his bed, crying into her hands.
"Chin up gorgeous. What's got you so blue?"
"BB oh my god!"
She hugged him painfully, and told him she loved him.
"Where's father?"
"Gone to sleep it off I suppose."
"Why aren't you?"
