Strength and Weakness

Part I

Family, there is a lot of different meanings that reflected that one word. Family wasn't always blood related, it could be bonds between people from various experiences in their life and it can be the blood relations that are less connected than the ones chosen.

For instance, Danielle couldn't recall what her biological parents looked like or any other of detail about them. It's like her brain was on defense, shutting out any of the horrid memories of her earlier childhood and she was somewhat grateful for that. Occasionally she would get a nightmare here and there but Jack was always close by. Which brought Danielle to her adopted family, the Mercers.

She has four siblings, she happened to be the youngest among her four brothers. Each of them were individuals with their own appearance and personalities but they had all been through the system sometime during their life and were lucky enough to have Evelyn take them in.

She could remember her first day meeting Evelyn's boys, the nerves racking through her body as she stood at the front door. She hadn't like the idea of living with four boys, they were never nice to her at school so what would be the difference in this house? When the door was opened, an older boy stood towering over her small height and she felt her stomach stop at his expression, there was no emotion across his face as he glanced her over before looking across at her case worker. "Bobby, is Evelyn in?"

"In the kitchen." The boy's voice came out deep as he opened the door further allowing them to enter the house. Now, it wasn't Danielle's first time going into foster care but she couldn't help but take in the house in front of her. Compared to the other houses, this one felt cozy with the vase of flowers, photos along the wall and the floor rug underneath her holey runners. She hadn't even realized that her case worker, Kelly had left her side as she looked at the photos, they were filled with the boys, each smiling at the camera without a care of the world.

Bobby leaned against the doorway into the kitchen, he could hear his Ma and Kelly talking in there but his eyes were on the kid in the hallway staring up at the photos with an expression that he couldn't exactly pin point, the kid's eyes showed envy and a little bit of something else. Bobby took another glance at the girl from her dirty blonde hair, pale skin to the tatted runners on her small feet. He was weary of the kid, he could remember his Ma saying that Jack was going to be the last one. When he had confronted Evelyn about it, she merely said - Just one more, trust me Bobby. He did trust her so he let the subject go. Though Bobby was able learn that the kid was from an abusive family, Evelyn didn't get into too much detail about it and simply that kid was the age of eight before leaving the brothers to their thoughts. He looked at her again, seeing the red nose and the nervous twisting of her fingers with her sleeves. "I'm Bobby." He had tried to keep his voice soft but the young girl still jerked in surprise, her big green eyes glancing up at him. "Let's meet the rest of them." He nodded his head in the direction of his brothers in the lounge, he knew they were curious of the new addition to the family.

The young girl pulled the sleeves over her hands, Bobby threw her a smile that eased her somewhat - the boys at school never smiled at her. "I'm Danielle."

"Nice to meet you Danny." She watched in a daze as Bobby walk to the right of them - he had given her a first nickname. He glanced over his shoulder at her and she followed close behind him as three pairs of eyes fired in her direction.

"Danny!?" Her gaze refocused to the present, Jack had called her name from across their room. He had his back against the wall, his guitar in his hand and eyes focused of her. "Are we going out tonight?" Jacks voice was at a whisper so their older brothers' couldn't hear them.

"I don't see why not, Ma will let us see the movie." There was a new action movie that had been released in the cinemas and the two younger Mercers were itching to see it. Danielle didn't see any reason why Evelyn would say no. Yes, she was only sixteen but Jack was eighteen and more than capable of taking care of them. "Just don't tell the others." She had nothing against her older brothers but at times they got on her nerves - Angel, she loved having a chat to him, the only problem recently was the girl Sofi that was glued to his side. Jerry had grown somewhat, she knew he wouldn't agree with her seeing a movie with so much violence. And Bobby, it was simple, he didn't like them traveling by themselves at night. The three of them had all reached their early twenties, in her opinion they hadn't matured just simply become bigger pains in her ass.

As for Jack, they had grown close to one another in no time. With the five bedrooms in the house, Evelyn had her own room as did Bobby because he was the oldest. Angel and Jerry shared together which explained why the two always ended up in harmless fights. That left only one place for her, Jack's room. Evelyn was first unsure about having the both of them share because of their sex but the two were completely fine with the room arrangements. They respected each other's privacy and that only continued as they grew older. Evelyn did offer to get Jerry to move in with Bobby as she had grown into adolescent but she declined the offer, Danielle liked knowing that someone was there if need be. She was independent for things, but dependent on her brothers for a lot as well, they were a large part of her life.

That night Jack and Danielle were able to see the movie, Evelyn had given them the OK and when their older brothers' found out it was too late, their Ma had the final word. The teens were walking back home, it was around ten at night with the street lights shining on either side of the street. Danielle couldn't stop herself from laughing as they recalled parts of the action movie, surprisingly the movie did have some comical parts. She tried to catch her breath as Jack spoke of another scene. "Hey Mercer!" The pair stopped at the shout of their surname, dread automatically filled Danielle's stomach when they saw the three unfamiliar guys crossing the street.

"Jack?" She whispered under her breath, her voice coming out unsteady. Danielle knew how to throw a punch or two, she was a Mercer after all but the two of them couldn't take on the bulky guys coming over to them.

"Keep walking." The teens turned back to the pathway, their footsteps faster than they were a moment ago.

"Mercer, I'm talking to you!" Danielle let out a gasp of surprise as her shoulder was yanked backwards, her back flushed up against the man behind her. The man wrapped his bulky arms around her waist, trapping her arms as the two other guys went for Jack.

Without so much as a warning, the first fist was laid into Jack's stomach making him double over. The third guy grabbed Jack's arms, holding him up as the second guy continued to punch her older brother. "Stop! Let him go!" Danielle tried to strangle but the guy simply tightened his hold.

"This is a message to your brothers." She almost missed the guys whisper in her ear, shivers racked through her body. "Be grateful you're not in his spot." She tried to stop the memories and familiar feelings of being violated.

"Let's go!" She was thrown to the ground, her knees and hand scraping against the cement but she didn't worry about herself. Jack was laid out in front of her, she could hear his heavy breathing as she brushed the bloody hair from his forehead. She wasn't a doctor but Danielle was positive that his nose was broken.

"Come on Jacky." He groaned as she helped him to his feet. She put his arm around her shoulder and wrapped an arm around his waist to keep him up, they slowly made their way back to the house.

Danielle didn't bother knocking, she awkwardly opened the front door not wanting to draw attention. She knew Evelyn would be in bed, she didn't want her Ma seeing Jack like this. She hoped the rest of her brothers were in their bedrooms as well but as she rounded the corner of the hallway to the lounge, Jerry sat in one of the chairs. Out of all her brothers, she was thankful it was Jerry to see them first. "Jer?" Her weak voice made Jerry's eyes snap up from the TV as he took in the sight of his blooded siblings.

"Jesus Christ Danny!" He stepped forward, helping her bring Jack to the couch.

"Shhh...Don't wake Ma." Her voice cracked, catching Jerry's attention.

"Hey, Danny, everything going to be fine." He brushed her dirty blonde fringe from her face. "Go up to the bathroom and get the first aid."

Danielle slowly nodded her head, staring at Jack for a second longer before taking the stairs two at a time to the bathroom. She breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't ran into her other brothers as she opened the draw in the bathroom, pulling out the first aid kit. She quickly left the bathroom and started for the stairs. "Danny?" She freezed a hearing Angel's voice. She slowly turned around on her heels to face him and winced at seeing his eyes fill up with anger.

Angel could feel the rage spiking underneath his skin as he saw the blood covering his sister, he was about to question her when he spotted her glassy eyes. Instead he bit his tongue, not wanting to course her anymore worry. "I'll get Bobby." Before she could say anything, he turned around to get their older brother.

Danielle stood there for a moment, almost surprised that Angel hadn't start raving at her in anger but that was short lived as he headed in the direction of Bobby's room. Not waiting around, she started back down the stairs to the living room where Jerry had a wet cloth in hand.

She sat the first aid box next to Jerry, watching him open it up. "Jer, what can I do?"

"Are you hurt?" He glanced over at the blood smeared over her body, Danielle followed his line of sight to her bloody hands.

"It's not mine." Her voice came out small as she clutched her fingers into a fist to stop them from shaking. Jerry dropped one of the freshly wet face washer in her hands and she started to wipe her brother's blood off her. "Is he awake?"

"Yea-h." Jack answered for himself, his voice cracking somewhat but he kept his eyes closed.

"That's good cause I need answers." Bobby's voice came from the lounge doorway, arms crossed over his chest with Angel beside him. Danielle could tell Bobby was struggling to keep his anger under wraps, she wondered what Angel had said to him.

Saving Jack from having to talk, she spoke up. "They were walking by on the other side of the street, we tried to avoid them." She put her clean hands between her legs to stop them from shaking further. "They said it was a message for you." She stared at her two brothers in the doorway, she had no doubt that the message was for them - Jerry wouldn't have gotten into whatever it was.

"Who was it?"

"Mathew... Craig." Jack let out a shuddering breath as Jerry placed a blanket over the top of him before walking over to the doorway to the brothers.

She sat there, leaning against the couch with her eyes on Jack and listening to her older brothers' talk in low voices. She knew they would get back at those guys, they were Mercers and no body messed with a Mercer. They were each other's strength, forever having each other's back but they also had a weakness, one another.

That night was never mentioned again, Danielle didn't bother asking what happened when Bobby, Angel and Jerry came back the next night with bloodied fists. Jack had ended up with a broken nose, their Ma hadn't said anything but gave them a stern enough look to make the guilt and disappointment settle in them. Evelyn took Jack to the hospital to get checked out, Jack didn't like the idea of going there but he did it for the sake of their Ma. It happened that he also had two cracked ribs which was the reason to Jack breathing so heavy. It took a while for the ribs to heal. By the end of the month Jack was back to his old self, their older brothers though were barely letting the two younger ones from their sight but nothing happened during the next few months - the Mercers had once again sparked fear within the people and set a clear warning.

...

The announced at the dinner table caught Danielle off guard, she couldn't help but stare at her three older brothers like they had grown a second head before turning her eyes to the other head of the table opposite from Bobby, Evelyn. Danielle waited for some kind of response, a simple 'no' to end the conversation but her Ma smiled at them. "I guess it was expected, you can't live with me all your lives."

Danielle brought her eyes back down to her steak, she couldn't look any of them in the eye as she felt her chest tighten, she cursed her emotions- she wasn't going to cry, she was a Mercer God damn it. She felt a kick to the shins and knew that it came from across the table to where Jerry and Angel sat, she didn't dare look over to Angel. She kept her eyes on the plate, pushing the carrots and peas around as she had lost her appetite to stomach anything at that moment. "Ma, could I please leave the table?" When she didn't receive a response, she quickly looked up at Evelyn. As soon as her eyes made contact with the older woman's, Danielle knew that Evelyn could read her every emotion.

"Of course Dear." At the words of dismissal, Danielle wasted no time cleaning her plate before shooting upstairs to her shared bedroom with Jack. Laying on her bed, she faced the wall. Danielle knew she was being childish but she needed time to wrap her mind around the fact that her family was splitting off - what if they never came back?

"You're not going to sulk are you?" Bobby's voice came from the doorway.

"Fuck off!" The words slipped out without her actually thinking, she never really swore. Hell, she had heard her brothers' say many insulting words but she always kept her mouth tight around her brothers'. She glanced over her shoulder hesitantly to see Bobby frowning deeply at her.

"Move over kid." Bobby didn't give her much choice as he pushed her feet off the bed and sat down next to her. She knew Bobby was never one to show great emotion so she wasn't quite sure what to except from the older brother. "What's the problem? It's not like we're dying or anything."

She brought her knees to her chest, her eyes on Jack's bed. She felt like a child again, back to the foster homes and the constant thought of being abandoned. "You'll come back right?"

"You couldn't get rid of us that easy." Angel stepped into the room and took a seat on the other side of her mattress making her move closer to Bobby to make room. Jerry and Jack came in after him, taking up the other mattress.

"And we're only a phone call away." Jerry's voice spoke with honesty as he looked between the two younger siblings. Jack hadn't said anything but he knew the younger brother was thinking along the same lines.

"We're family, ain't no changing that." Bobby put his arm around Danielle's shoulder.

By end of the week, the three guys were ready to leave the house. Bobby and Angel were moving out of Detroit while Jerry was only moving to the other side of town with his steady girlfriend Camille. To say that the goodbyes were short and bitter sweet was an understatement, Evelyn had told all three that they better stay in contact before pulling her boys into hugs. The two youngest followed suit, Jack said goodbyes while Danielle gave hugs refusing to say any form of goodbye because they were going to come back and visit them.

Once the cars had peeled away from the crib, Danielle slowly made her way back inside the house and up the stairs, instead of turning right to her room she continued past the others noticing that Jerry's side of the room was bare while Angel had left some things spread out. She came to the door of the older Mercer, it seemed like Bobby's room was untouched except for the few bits and pieces that her sharp eye noticed had been taken. As she stood there, Danielle could almost pretend that they were all still living under the same roof, the only problem been that the house sounded to quiet.

As the days grew, the disappearance of the three boys were dearly noticed from the tumbling of Jerry and Angel, or Bobby yelling at the latest hockey game and the dinner table only containing three people instead of six.

The news had also spread like wildfire about Angel and Bobby leaving town, Jack and Danielle had to lift their game and put those times their older brothers had taught them to punch to good use. It also meant, phone calls from the school.

Somehow, even with the distance the man still found out about their fights. Danielle suspected that Ma, or even Jerry was feeding the information to him, trying to keep the two younger siblings in line. "You can't just go throwing a punch Danny?!" She knew he didn't want them getting kicked out of school, for some reason education meant something to him. "It's a last resort."

Danielle couldn't help herself, the snort escaped her as she rolled her eyes at her brother - he always used it as a first resort. "Stop being a damn hypocrite Bobby." She hung the phone up, not going to waste anymore of her time listening to something that wasn't going to help.

"That didn't help your situation." Jack stated from the kitchen doorway with his leather jacket on and a smoke between his lips - Ma would have his ass if she found out he was smoking in her house. Danielle's only response was flipping him off before making her way upstairs.

Instead of turning right like she had done for sixteen years, she turned left into what use to be Jerry's and Angel's bedroom. She clenched her jaw as she tried to forget about the sore muscles in her back and laying down on her bed to stare at her ceiling. Danielle wasn't the same teenager she had been two years ago, the absence of her brothers switched her whole life around and she had to step up, show everyone that she was as much as a Mercer as her older brothers'.

Wishing the last couple of days or years to vanish, Danielle slipped off her shoes and clothes. She kept her panties on and grabbed the hockey shirt from the chair, putting it on before getting under the covers.

It felt like deja vu as they sat in the lounge, Evelyn knitting another blanket while Danielle painted her toe nails red. "I want to move to L.A." Danielle's hand jerked, painting nail polish over her toe as she stared at Jack. "The band and I want to get bigger, to do that we need to go to the cities."

"Is that what you want Jack?" Evelyn's voice was soft as she gazed on her youngest son. She had no way of stopping Jack if she wanted too, he was of age to do as he wished.

"It's my dream Ma." His words where directed at his Ma but his eyes were on his sister and the hard line of her mouth.

"Very well." She could only support him as Evelyn had always done. "I'll go check the washing." She glanced between her two younger children before leaving them time to talk.

Danielle didn't quite know what to think, they usually told each other everything. He had mentioned in passing about moving to the city but he never seemed serious about it – guess she was wrong. "You're leaving Detroit?"

"I'll try and visit you." She was glad he hadn't promised anything, she couldn't have Jack lie to her. Her other brothers' had said they would come visit, only one out of the three ever came in the couple of the years.

"If that's what you want." Danielle started to feel numb all over again.

"Yeah." Jack gave her one of his rare smiles.

"I'm going to head off to bed." She gave him a tight smile before leaving the couch. She soon found herself in her bedroom, she slipped on Bobby's hockey shirt and sat at the end of the bed trying to reorganize her thoughts. She wasn't going to tear up like she had a few years ago, don't get her wrong, she felt deeply for Jack but if he truly wanted to do this then she would simply be happy for him.

When the time came around for Danielle at the age of twenty two, the thought had struck her about following her brothers' footsteps but watching the older woman in the kitchen, she couldn't do that to her Ma. If it wasn't for her, Danielle would have no doubt that she would have been driven insane with the quiet house. It wasn't just missing Jerry and Angel tumbling around or Bobby with the TV, there was no Jack to fill the silence with his guitar. The sound of the guitar could usually be heard down in the kitchen but there was nothing. Danielle adapted to turning the radio on to keep the two of them company. No, she didn't think she could ever leave Evelyn but what would Danielle do if the older woman left her?