Her mother's grey eyes pierced her, but she didn't care, her mother had lost her respect years ago. Instead she looked down at the lifeless body of her father. She hadn't meant to do it, but in a way, she was glad she had. She couldn't have lasted much longer in the life she was living.
Her head shot up as she heard the sirens of the police car. "I'm not going to lie for you," Her mother hissed at her, venom in her voice, tears falling for the man that had beat her every night. "I never want to see your face again. Go," She said, maybe having some mother instincts having told her eleven year old daughter to run.
Not showing the fright in her, before she ran as her mother said, she kneeled in front of her five year old brother who just had his sister, his hero, kill his father. "I'm sorry I have to leave, I never wanted to, but it's for the best. But you mark my words, I'll be back one day, Freddie, I'll be back one day."
With that Melissa Benson stood up and ran, away from the sirens, away from the police, away from her uncaring mother, and away from all that was her life her brother, with a single promise that she'd be back.
-10 Years Later-
Freddie walked out of the Groovy Smoothie with Sam and Carly laughing as Sam finished retelling a prank she had pulled. "Hey guys, I gotta go home," Sam said, heading across the street.
"Whoa, since when did you go home?" Freddie asked, with raised eyebrows, his statement holding true. Sam usually did crash at Carly's place, especially since it was the summer then.
Sam was about to retaliate when Carly cut in. "Don't start guys. But Freddie does have a point Sam." Carly raised her eyebrows at Sam who shifted uncomfortably.
"I just gotta do something at home," Sam said, crossing her arms, while mumbling the words 'Melanie' and 'home' under her breath. Luckily Freddie didn't hear or a big fight would have broken out, as he still didn't know the truth of the two, but Carly heard it and squealed. Sam elbowed her in the side and nodded her head towards Freddie and Carly instantly shut up.
"OK, I understand, girl stuff, I don't want to know." Freddie said looking away, adding under his breath "This is what I get for hanging out with girls." The girls broke out into laughter and at the point where they separated and they waved good bye to each other, Freddie giving a simple nod of the head, an annoyed look on his face.
"Can you stop laughing now Carls?" Freddie asked and she nodded giving a sheepish smile and they settled into a comfortable silence. Soon though Freddie got the feeling that somebody was following them.
"Did you see that?" Freddie asked Carly spinning around, swearing he just saw a shadow of a person out of the corner of his eye but as he looked there was nothing.
"See what?" Carly asked, looking where he was, a confused expression on her face.
"Nothing," Freddie said, shaking his head as he turned back around slowly. Carly watched him with a look on her face that said he was losing it a.k.a. turning into his mom.
"Let's get back to Bushwell Apartment." Carly said, walking. Freddie could have sworn he saw the shadows move and change when she said that.
When they reached the apartment they found Spencer in the parking lot with a whole bunch of groceries. Carly rushed over quickly to help him as he was about to drop half of them.
"Hey, you guys need help with that?" Freddie asked the two. "No, we got it Freddie. You go and...lay down, you seem tired." Carly said, and Freddie nodded. He needed to clear his head. He had started seeing things, and the last thing he wanted to turn into was his mom.
As he reached his apartment he pushed his key in to open the door. His mother was working night shifts at the hospital so she could spend time with him during the summer. It was torture.
As he entered the apartment a hand immediately went over his mouth and he froze where he stood. All those classes he and his mother took and not a single one was about what to do in an attack. He was pulled into the room and the door was locked behind him. That's when he bit the person's hand.
"Ow." Immediately the person let go as he had hoped, but unlike screaming as he planned he froze. He recognized that voice, even from a single 'ow' he recognized it – he'd recognize it anywhere.
"Mel?" Freddie said into the darkness looking over to where the voice had come from. A light flickered on from the darkness and there in an oversized sweater and sweat pants, brown hair still as long as ever stood his sister Melissa. He just stood there in shock.
"Well, are you going to grab me a band aid?" She asked, showing him the hand that he had bitten was bleeding. Still in shock and not knowing what else to do, Freddie quickly got up to get a band aid. "Whoa, I was joking." She said stopping him.
"You were the one following us." Freddie said sitting down on a kitchen chair, realizing he hadn't been imaging things as she nodded her head while she sat on the counter and wrapped a piece of cloth that she got from who know where around her hand. No wonder his (their) mother hated her, she was everything she disliked – sitting on the counter, not even cleaning the wound.
As Freddie thought of their mother, he thought of the reason he hadn't seen his sister since he was five (she'd been eleven then... that meant she'd be twenty one!) and he looked at her sitting there so calmly, like she didn't have a single worry when she truly had a million. "What are you even doing here?" He hissed jumping up and walking over to her.
"I promised I'd be back," Melissa said, looking up at him, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I never break a promise. Plus, I thought you should know the truth."
"I gave up on ever seeing you again a long time ago. Plus, I know the truth, you killed dad. He's dead because of you, and you broke up our family. I loved you, trusted you, and you killed my father, broke mom's heart, and got her to never let me out of her site." Freddie said harshly, but if it was the only way he could get his sister to go and be saved from the police, then so be it.
"Our family was already broke!" Melissa hissed venom clearly in her voice as she jumped off that counter and starred her brother in the eyes. "You were young Freddie, you don't remember, barely knew to begin with. Don't let what that woman has told you corrupt your memories. I'm not saying what I did was right, but I don't regret it in the least."
Freddie looked at her, his eyes shielded. He remembered all the things his mother had said about his sister, how she claimed her father was the best man ever, and he should be proud to be a spitting image of him. Then he thought of the few memories he had of his sister; it was only ever the two of them, never their parents. She had always looked after him, loved him, and been like a mother to him.
Freddie moved to the side and peeked out the window before closing the curtains. He then turned to Melissa and said, "Explain. Why'd you kill dad? Why do you and mom hate each other so? Everything."
Melissa smiled as she sat down on the kitchen and Freddie sat across from her, arms crossed. She quickly started speaking. "Now, I don't want you to base your full opinion on what happen, but I want you to hear my side of the story. Whatever mother has told – by what you have saying is most likely a lie. But like I said, don't base everything on my words. It would be better if you hadn't been so young and could remember more."
"It all starts with dad. Right from the beginning, he was abusive. He beat mom to no end, me too," Melissa was soon interrupted in the middle of her explanation, even though he promised himself he wouldn't, by Freddie.
"Dad was abusive? No way, I would remember that. Plus, mom wouldn't have stood that, and she'd have told me now if he had been." Freddie continued to shake his head not believing where his sister's tale was so far heading.
"Really? Well, think this. Haven't you ever wondered why our last name is Benson – mom's surname? Dad took hers because he'd already been once accused for abusiveness – it'd been brought to a court of law. I believe he broke his sentence by having a relationship within the two year distance – and marrying to boot. He took her name to hide from the sentence. It surprisingly worked. Unfortunately, the abusiveness wasn't gone."
"As for mom? She was blinded by love," Bitterness entered her voice at that point. "Covered up her bruises and cuts, didn't even see her child getting beaten. And yes, you would have remembered getting beaten, you don't because you didn't. I kept you from him, as long as I kept his attention on me, he totally forgot he had another child, other times I'd just get it worse. Don't you remember all the time we were together, how I acted like your mother? That's because I basically was."
Freddie starred at his hands as he tried to sort it out through his head. What she said all fit in properly with the little he remembered, and what had happened. His mother barely present in his earlier life while she babied him now, that thought found him a loophole in her words.
"Mom doesn't let me out of her site. We've done a million mother son things; she tries to be involved in my life. She's so protective of me, has my sign a million contracts for things to say I'll brush my teeth for two minutes, and stuff. Plus, she has a first aid kid bigger than a suitcase, and trust me she has everything in it." Freddie listed of the things that made him know his mother loved him beyond reason. "Oh, and she only gives me an $8 allowance a month so I won't buy a bus ticket and leave."
Melissa snorted at the last part, before she answered. "You're an identical look alike to dad." That was her simple answer, and Freddie looked at her waiting for me. When she didn't give him anymore, he gave a hand motion to show he wanted more. She rolled her eyes before speaking again.
"Mom wouldn't let a thing happen to him, would have died if he left her. She couldn't do anything when he died. So, she turned to you, his identical look alike, and looked after you even more. Made sure you wouldn't die. I hope she hasn't taken to carrying that first aid kit around, it was bad enough when she brought it out." Melissa said, answering his question and saying she knew about the awful first aid kit.
Freddie slumped in his seat, starring at his sister. He only had one more question left. "How'd it happen?" She knew what he meant.
"He was yelling, like always, I had bruises, old and new, my lip was bleeding. I was angry, angrier than I'd ever been. There was this buzzing noise in my head; I couldn't hear what he was saying. I usually yelled back, but I was sick and tired by then. So instead I pushed, literally. All I did was push. I just expected him to stumble a bit, but because of the way we were standing, he was drunk, and my anger propelling me, he went back, back, and right through the glass door onto the porch. Some might call it accidental, others not. Whatever it was, he was dead. I didn't mean to, but I don't regret it."
Marissa Benson had been let off work early, and hoped to surprise her son when she got home. She walked quietly down the hallway before arriving in front of the door to her apartment. She reached into her purse and started to search for her keys when she heard whispered voices from inside.
Marissa instantly recognized the male voice as her sons, but it took for her to put her ear against the door and the voices to rise for her to recognize the female one that was talking most often. She stifled a gasp before anger came to her face. She had always feared the day would come, after hearing her daughters parting words, but had always thought when she saw her sons face in female form again her hands would be in chains.
Marissa remembered how she had let Melissa go that day, but how she had said she wouldn't lie for her. Her daughter had gotten her childhood out of prison, now that she was an adult it was time she got her sentence for the murder that broke Marissa's heart.
Marissa walked across the hall and quietly knocked on the Shay's door. Spencer answered and was surprised to see her there, as was Carly from the couch.
"May I use your phone?" Marissa asked before Spencer could say anything. He nodded confused and led her to the phone. She walked briskly behind him, a firm look on her face.
"Isn't Freddie home?" Carly asked nervously, remembering how Freddie seemed to have been seeing something behind them on their way home. Maybe he'd been right, maybe somebody had been following them?
Marissa simply gave a brisk nod as she picked up the phone and dialled 911. When Spencer saw the numbers his eyes opened wide, but he didn't say a thing as she was already on the phone.
"You've called 911, what's your emergency?" A cool and collective voice spoke on the other end.
"I have a murderer currently in my apartment with my son. Her name is Melissa Benson, and she's been on the run for 10 years." Marissa said, ignoring the looks on both Spencer and Carly's face.
"How would you know this fact?"
"I think I would know my own daughters voice." Carly and Spencer were both at a loss for words.
"Look Freddie, I'm not telling you to believe me, or trying to turn you against mom. Base what we've both told you off of what you remember when dad was around. You might even mix what we've said together. I just didn't want you to go without hearing all of this," Melissa said, grabbing Freddie's hand and holding it in hers.
Freddie looked up at her and she could tell this was a big blow for him. "I believe you," He said simply. She gave him a small smile; sorry that she'd brought him such an awful past. "And I was always so proud when mom said I looked so much like dad," Freddie said, laying his head back, and closing his eyes.
Melissa pulled him up and gave him a hug. "When'd you get so tall?" She asked, realizing she was looking up at him, and not down as she always had, being six years older and all.
"Well it wasn't over night, it has been ten years, remember. " Freddie said with a sad smile, and Melissa smiled back even sadder.
"You know I'm not going to be able to stay," Melissa said quietly, making the sadness suffocate the room.
"It's the worst part," Was his only reply before pulling his older sister – his protector – closer to him, hugging her tighter, never wanting to let go, but knowing he'd have to in the end.
The door suddenly burst open and police came in by the dozen. Freddie caught a glance of Carly and Spencer standing in their doorway watching with anxious expressions, and his mother stood beside them, before his attention turned back to his sister who was ripped off of him.
"Melissa!" He yelled, reaching his hand out to her, but he was pulled back by policemen. He saw her struggling in their grasps, trying to get back to him, and them having trouble to contain her and get the cuffs on.
"You!" Freddie hissed, his eyes landing on his mother. "You sold out your own daughter! What mother would do that?" He yelled, struggling against the police restraining him.
"Freddie, she killed your father. The man I loved, she killed the man I love. I believe I have the right to sell her out then." Marissa responded stiffly to her sons yell, surprised her son had yelled at her, but remembering how much he had loved her, and waited for her to keep her promise to return.
"The man you loved? Don't you mean the man who beat you!? Dad dies and you sell your daughter out to the police – kick the most important person out of my life. If you died he probably wouldn't have given a shit – he probably would have been the one to do it!" Freddie yelled, realizing after he said it he shouldn't of.
If possible, Marissa's body stiffened even more after Freddie spoke those words. Her eyes flashed to her daughter before she looked coolly at her son again. "Has your sister been spouting her lies again? You mustn't listen to them, your father was a respectable man, and I do not wish you to get bad ideas about him Freddie."
Freddie looked confused as he looked between his mother and his sister. Melissa saw this and spoke up. "Remember what I said Freddie, believe what you want to based on what you remember," She said struggling even more to get to her brother. She didn't want him to base it off of the wrong things.
The police finally got the cuffs on her but that wasn't stopping her. Finally she said, "I'll come quietly if in a court of law – which I am making sure this is brought to – my brother is not brought as a witness. He was only five, he barely remembers a thing, and bases it off what my mother and I have told him – which by the sounds of it is opposite things. Just, leave him out of it, out of it all."
The police were surprised at what it was that Melissa wanted to get her to come quietly, and they looked at Freddie, who had stopped struggling. The two starred into each other's eyes as the policemen just watched. Finally they agreed, and instantly Melissa stopped.
"Mel," Freddie whispered quietly. She gave him a small smile, her eyes filled with sadness.
"It's been ten years, it's about time," She said simply, no fear in her, even at the thought of going to prison.
"But it was an accident, and you had reason, and you should be trialed as a child since you were eleven when you did it, it was just now when you got caught." Freddie rambled on, trying to get her out of the horrible experience.
"If they see it as all that, and believe me, and that should only lower my sentence." Was Melissa's reply, and with one last glance she was led out of the room.
"That was your sister?" Carly was by Freddie's side in an instant, Spencer not far behind. Marissa Benson, uncomfortable from the words before headed off for her room.
"Ya," Freddie replied, picking up the rag she had left on the counter from being wrapped around her hand after he bit her. He ran it through his fingers, looking at it closer and seeing it was once green, most likely from a top. He opened the curtain that he had closed and looked out the window down at the street below.
"And my hero."
A/N - I've seen people write many reasons as to why Freddie seems to have his mothers last name (Fencin' Bensons) and though this really didn't start as an explanation for that, it does have one. I've always imagined Freddie with a sister, don't know why, just have. Here's one of my many ways possible - and this in no way contradicts anything the show has done, it fits in there perfectly, even a reason why she was hidden.