Shrapnel
show: Young and the Restless
central character: Dylan McAvoy
notes: Because this is my real first Dylan-centric piece and I'm just testing character waters. Hopefully, I am a success.
summary: It wasn't the blast of the bomb that killed. It was always the shrapnel. / Or, in which the truth stayed elusive in the worst way. Drabble.
disclaimer: Nope. Not mine.

Dylan had to come to hate lies so much he was surprised that he didn't break out in hives since Genoa City was crawling with them. His parents weren't his biological parents. Connor wasn't his child. No, he didn't have a child when once upon a time he almost did twice. He was relieved he doesn't have sociopath blood flowing through his veins and came to care for Nikki as his mother. It was still a maze, this new family of his, but Terry and Penny McAvoy raised him. They were the reason he was who he was.

It took a gunshot, an ill-advised liver donation and landing somewhere between here and there to really realize that Paul Williams was his biological father. It was lies on top of lies, surprise on top of surprise. There are some truths that Dylan was learning to live with. Nick was his brother and they were at an okay, decent place. Faith, the first Newman to be nice to him, turned out to be his niece. Then there was Victoria – the one who was his friend before the family connection ever dropped – was his younger sister. She was pregnant and it was nice to be an uncle again. All he wanted was everything to work out for her.

Stitch was the one constant – in terms of the truth. He was the one person Dylan confided in when it's hard for him to trust anyone. But Stitch wasn't that constant anymore and his best friend was a liar too. Dylan's head said that Stitch was a good guy and his heart said he is not a cold-blooded killer that killed his old man for no real apparent reason. But Dylan was human and couldn't help being angry and hurt. This kind of explosion – this kind of lie – hurt deeper than a bomb heard exploding while in combat.

Here is what Dylan knew from his service in the military: it wasn't the blast of a bomb that killed. It was the shrapnel exploding afterwards that did the most, almost always, fatal, damage.

A/N: So, this is just a first timer Dylan-centric piece.

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