- I do not own Tommy Conlon or any other character used in the movie Warrior, nor do I own the plot lines of Warrior. I only own my OC and my original ideas. I am not making money from this story.
Chapter One - Face Down
A pebble in the water makes a ripple effect, every action in this world will bear a consequence, If you wade around forever, you will surely drown, I see what's going down.
I see the way you go and say you're right again, say you're right again, Heed my lecture.
Do you feel like a man when you push her around? Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground? Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end, as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found - Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Tommy watched his father walk away with mixed emotions. On the one hand he was glad to have caused the old man some pain, but on the other hand he felt like he was no better than the old bastard. It seemed that ever since he had found himself sitting on the front steps of his childhood home, he had been incapable of doing anything other than causing pain. Hell, if he was willing to get serious about it, that was all he had been capable of for most of his life. Too much pain, and no where near enough joy in his life. He knew that was true, but he didn't think it was much of an excuse for his behavior. It was like when Pop would blame it on the bottle, or his war, then he would beat on Mom. There really wasn't a good excuse for hurting someone that was weaker than yourself, and Pop had most definitely become the weaker one over the years. Revenge just didn't taste as sweet as Tommy would have liked.
As he turned back to the slot machine he vehemently threw a quarter at the cheery screen, allowing a small piece of his rage and confusion to exit his body through the action. He sat on that stool staring through the stupid machine, staring through it and into his miserable life. In his mind he watched his mother's final, painful days. He watched her take her last rattling breath, while he held her in his arms, alone in their freezing apartment. He watched his few happy years with the new new family he had found in the Corps, but that segment of his life seemed to fly by at a rather unfair speed. Then, there he was watching people die again. His brother, Manny, and his other friends. He could only wonder why God was so cruel as to make him live when the rest had died. Why was he destined to live his life surrounded by the dead, but all alone?
He was so deeply engrossed in his own tortured mind that he hardly noticed the person that sat down next to him. When he did realize that there was someone sitting on the stool next to his own he was afraid it has his Pop, back for more verbal bashing. But it was instantly obvious that it wasn't Pop. It was, in fact, a rather small woman that was trying to sip a drink with hands that shook like a frail leaf in a hurricane. Tommy immediately thought that she looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place her. She had a pretty profile, though it was marred by the way her lower lip trembled. He couldn't really tell much about her hair; it looked like it had a bad dye job that was washing out, and it was up in a messy bun on top of her head, but it looked long and thick. She was dressed in jeans and a Sparta sweatshirt that was about eight sizes too large for her. In spite of her rather disheveled appearance he had to admit that she was rather attractive, and he briefly considered saying something to her.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere he spotted the stupid mohawk that belonged to Mad Dog Grimes rapidly approaching them, and he knew where he had seen the girl sitting beside him. He had seen her down at the gym on a couple of occasions, always looking lost and scared, always watching Grimes. She had never been affectionate with Grimes when they were at the gym, but Tommy had seen him dragging her around behind him, like a dog might drag a particularly juicy bone. Tommy had assumed that the woman was his girlfriend, and the fact that she was at Sparta only seemed to confirm that.
He was watching the approach of the other fighter with mild interest - it did make for a decent distraction from his own misery - but when the woman beside him realized that Grimes was near them she practically jumped out of her skin. It was not the reaction of a happy girlfriend that had just seen the love of her life coming to her side. She suddenly turned to him, and he saw that the hidden side of her face was one continuous collage of purple. Her right eye was almost completely swollen shut, and there was significant swelling across the entire left side of her face. She fixed him with a pleading stare with her good eye and whispered, "Please, help me."
The same instant that the words reached Tommy's ears Mad Dog reached them. He brutally grabbed the girl by her hair and jerked her from the stool. Tommy was on his feet in that same instant, but Mad Dog got one solid punch to the girl's stomach before Tommy caught his fist on the second swing. The hit that was intended for the small woman's abdomen was hard enough to hurt on Tommy's palm when he caught the swing at the midway point, and Tommy couldn't help but wonder how badly she was hurt from the first hit.
Grimes swung his head around with a snarl, "Stay out of it Riordan! This Dog just needs to teach his little Bitch some manners."
Grimes tried to jerk his hand away, but Tommy held firm, and saw that Colt was rushing over to them, surely headed over to do damage control. Just as Colt reached them Tommy noticed the girl sag limply, only Grimes' hold on her hair keeping her from hitting the floor, and that was when he saw it. There was blood steadily running out of her right ear, and trickling down her thin neck. Tommy knew that that was a pretty serious sign when it happened after you took a hit, and he was pretty sure the girl needed to get to a hospital. Now.
Tommy was shocked by the hoarse and horrified nature of his voice, "Christ, Colt! Get an ambulance here! This chick is gonna die!"
The first time that Caitlin laid eyes on Pete 'Mad Dog' Grimes had been what she thought was the start of her fairy tale, but in truth it was just the happy beginning that lulls you into the worst kind of a nightmare. She had been working at Galahad's, a bar that just happened to be right down the street from Colt's gym. She hadn't chosen to work at that bar because of its location - unlike several of the other waitresses - she had just started working there because it was the first place that had hired her. She only planned to work there until she got a real job. Not that waiting tables wasn't real work, she just hadn't spent the last six years studying herself to death to become a waitress.
Alas, Fate was a villainous lady, and she obviously had other plans when she placed Grimes in Caitlin's section that Thursday night. At first he had been a perfect gentleman, flirting with skill, and even getting her to give him her number. Hell, he had even called her the very next day and asked her out to dinner at a fancy restaurant. He had seemed like a real catch at first, but people can only hide their true nature for so long.
In his case he had hidden it for just shy of a month. That whole time had been a dream for Caitlin, champagne kisses and caviar dreams. He had taken her out to all the nice places that people talked about, he had lavished her with gifts, told her she was smart and beautiful, and had even seemed proud and impressed by her career choice. But then the day came that she got offered that real job, and he had exploded like a barrel of dynamite. That had been the first time that he hit her, in fact, it was the first time that anyone had hit her since she was a Freshman in highschool. He had followed the brutal punch by locking her in a closet for 24 hours. Yes, she knew it was kidnapping, knew it was a felony, but the things that he told her he would do to her - and several other people- kept her from doing anything about it. She had politely declined the job offer.
The next three months had been a lot less Cinderella, and a lot more Hansel and Gretel... or something like that. He wasn't fattening her up so he could eat her, but she sure was locked in a cage, and he seemed a lot more like the Wicked Witch than Prince Charming. There had been times when he would lock her away for days at a time, and other times when he would make her get dressed up, and parade her around in front of his buddies. Always there were the threats hanging in the air over her head.
Then, one day, he had come home, pulled her out of the dark closet that he had left her in that morning, and told her to get ready to leave in the morning; they would be leaving to go to a big fight. He had informed her that this fight would change their world; he was going to win the $5 million purse and then she would never be able to hide from him. In that moment she had prayed that he would be killed in the fight.
Unfortunately, that hadn't been the case, at least not yet. The first day was over and he had not only won both of his fights, but he had walked away virtually unscathed. She had, of course, made some foolish comment - she couldn't even remember what it had been - and he had taken out a little extra anger on her. Well, to be fair, he had taken out a lot of extra anger. The massive discoloration on her face was the least of her problems, and she feared that the damage was worse than it looked.
She had waited until she was certain that he had fallen asleep, and then she had waited some more. She couldn't risk him finding that she was gone until she was long gone. It had been nearly dawn when she had finally fled the hotel room, but she hadn't made it very far before she felt like she couldn't take another step. She had only made it to the casino floor, and then she had been forced to find a place to sit down. She had scanned the machines for a few seconds before she had spotted a large man that was sitting at a slot machine, looking at it like he could somehow make it explode with his eyes. She wasn't sure why the angry man made her feel secure, but he did, and so she had struggled to the seat next to him and ordered a drink from the waitress as she made her rounds.
She had sat there for several minutes, just sipping on her drink, trying to find the strength to run. The large man beside her hadn't even glanced at her in that time, and in a way she was relieved. She didn't really want to try and make small talk. Eventually she did feel his eyes on her though, and she was about to say something to him, when she saw the famous mohawk approaching fast. She knew that he would kill her if he got his hands on her, but she also knew that she didn't have the physical ability to run. So, she did something that she never thought she could do; she turned and asked for help.
She had been terrified when she turned to face the man beside her, and the words had just come out. Then there was a slight flash of hope when she recognized the man, it was the same guy that had beat the crap out of her tormentor only days before they had begun dating. The hope was short lived however, when she felt Mad Dog's fingers digging viciously into her scalp and ripping her from her seat. He landed an incredibly powerful punch to her already pummeled abdomen and she was expecting the second hit that always followed, but it never came. She was aware that there were some words spoken above her, but then she was no longer aware of anything.
It had only been a few seconds before security had arrived and taken Grimes away from him, and less than a minute before the EMT on duty at the hotel had come to try and stabilize the girl, but to Tommy it all felt like an eternity. During that eternity he came to the conclusion that his whole life was based upon people laying in their own blood. His mother, Manny, all the dead and dying that he had seen overseas... yes, it was a definite theme, and he didn't much like it.
He had watched with as little interest as possible when the ambulance workers had arrived. He had tried to ignore the way their faces turned a pale green color, and tried not to hear the words that they whispered to each other as they loaded the girl's limp form. He didn't know why he cared about the frail girl. He couldn't just let that little prick beat her in the middle of the casino, but why did he give a shit about the aftermath? For the first time in weeks he craved some pills, it was almost unbearable in fact.
After the ambulance pulled away he saw Colt walking around with a handful of $100 bills, handing them out to the security workers, the waitress, anybody that he thought had seen the altercation. Mad Dog was at his side when he approached Tommy and the mohawked punk actually had the audacity to growl at him. Colt had better manners of course, and understood the severity of the situation. His response made Tommy think that this was probably not the first time that something like this had happened.
"Thank you Tommy. You averted a potentially bad situation. Miss Caldwell had an accident in the tub, and Pete here was just worried about her." Colt's eyes were full of meaning and Tommy knew that he was pleading with him not to blow the tournament for his boy. The fat stack of bills that Colt shoved into his palm made that point crystal clear. Tommy didn't much want to let this slide, but he knew that he would see Mad Dog in the ring that night, and he could exact vengeance there. He also knew that there was a chance he wouldn't win this thing in the end, and Pilar needed the money. So, he shut his mouth, shoved the money in his pocket, and walked out into the night air.
Tommy wasn't exactly sure how he wound up in the waiting room of the Atlantic Regional Hospital, but there he was. He was sweaty from the three mile run he had just made to get there, but his breathing was steady, and the ghosts in his mind were quiet for the moment at least. He made his way to the reception desk and looked at the middle aged woman manning the station. He knew that he could charm the pants off of women when he wanted to, but at that moment he didn't feel particularly charming. His lying skills weren't the best, he prefered to omit the truth instead of outright changing it, but he felt that the time called for a little white lie. Of course, he couldn't say why it did...
"Excuse me ma'am, my sister, Miss Caldwell, just got brought in from the Resort Hotel downtown... I understand she got into a scuffle down there." He tried to look both concerned and embarrassed for the behaviour of his sister, but based on the look the woman gave him, he only managed to look really mad. His go-to look.
He was oddly lucky though, and she actually looked at the computer. "Yes Sir, your sister is stable, she will be headed into surgery in a few minutes to deal with the bleeding in her brain..." It seemed that the woman realized that he probably wasn't the girl's brother, and she trailed off.
He decided that his time was up, and that it was best to leave it alone. "Ummm... Thanks, I'll be back in a while to check on her." He turned and started to jog out of the lobby. He could hear the woman calling out to him, wanting some ID or some such, but he really didn't want to deal with that. He had no business there in the first place. It wasn't like she was his girlfriend. At that thought he could only wonder where Mad Dog and Colt were, and their absence made him remember all the trips to the hospital he and his brother had made with his mother, and then all the other, different trips, he had made alone with his mother after they left. He really hated hospitals, and he hated facing them alone even more.
Caitlin hurt... oh good God did she hurt. She had remained mercifully unconscious for several hours, but the doctors hadn't felt it necessary to put her in a medicated coma, or anything useful like that. Though she couldn't really find a part of her body that didn't hurt, she was certain that it was her head that hurt the worst. She could remember the beating that she had taken the night before... that and the... rest. She also remembered asking for help, and she knew that the man had showed her some kind of kindness and had most likely saved her life. Though, thinking back to how those dark eyes had looked at her when she had asked, she couldn't be sure about that assumption. The man had not looked overly kind to her cause. But, she was still alive, and in a hospital bed, so that had to say something.
She had only been awake for a minute or two when a nurse briskly entered her room, hardly even acknowledging her conscious presence. The woman walked over to the bed and began noting things on a sheet of paper, shoving a thermometer under Caitlin's tongue without a greeting even. When the nurse seemed satisfied with the readings she finally addressed Caitlin, "Well, it seems you will live to see another day. Your bills have been covered, but it has been suggested that you keep your mouth shut... do you understand?" The nurse stared at her pointedly, and Caitlin understood that Mad Dog had assured that she would receive treatment, but that she had better pretend her lips were stitched shut... or else. She nodded her head in understanding and closed her eyes, she didn't want to know the rest.
Unfortunately, the nurse didn't particularly care about what she wanted. "You made it through surgery pretty well, but you suffered from an arterial bleed in your brain. You're just lucky to be alive." The woman gave her another pointed look, as if she should thank Grimes for not killing her. Caitlin guessed the nurse was either a crazed fan, or she had been paid a hell of a lot of money for her attitude. Her voice down was downright snarky, "A doctor will be by later to test your mental... abilities."
"Thank you... I appreciate the work you all have done for me. Ummm... is there a TV here?" Caitlin most definitely did understand what had been done for her, and what had been done to her. Now she needed to see the rest of the tournament tonight, so she could figure out how bad things really were for her. If Mad Dog won, then she knew that she was screwed, but if he lost then she might be able to get away safely. They couldn't keep her in the hospital for very long on a cash basis.
The starched and pressed woman looked at her like she was a lost cause. "Why yes, the remote is on the desk beside you." She turned and strolled out of the room without another word.
Well folks, I have decided to give into my utter insanity and go ahead and start a new project. Hopefully you all enjoy my latest madness!
I have decided to dedicate this story to my loyal reader/reviewer and fellow Tommy Conlon fan, 26RH. Thanks for the support!
Please review!