Titre: Redefining Life

Characters: Link, Corny, cast (not slash !)

Disclaimer : Characters are not mine, they belong to their creators

Summary: Link's dad is violent and Velma put Corny under pressure for better performance on the show. What happens when Link just can't go on ?

Warning : Deal with child abuse…

Chapter 1

As soon as Link Larkin opened the front door, he knew he was in trouble. Not only was he able to smell the odor of alcohol, he had also perfectly conscience of being really late. Lately, the repetitions for the show tended to last long than usual, mainly because of all the pressure Velma Von Tussle was putting on Corny, always expecting a better quality. Normally, even then, he was able to catch the last bus but, tonight, he had been too late for that and he had to make his way home of foot, which mean he was a good hour late. God, he father was going to be mad!

He wasn't wrong, unfortunately. The door had barely time to close behind him before his father bellowed for him to come. Even aware of what was going to happen, Link dutifully obeyed and went to the living room. It would be worse if his father had to come to get him; he had learnt that lesson the hard way once he had thought his father too drunk to be able to come and fetch him upstairs. It had been the one and only time he had ever tried to escape a punishment.

Head bowed, he walked up to his father, stopping once he was standing in front of him. His mind registered the open bottle of Vodka and the glass still half-filled with the transparent liquid. He didn't have any hope that it was the first glass the man had drunk that night.

"You're late," the man stated, slowing putting himself on his feet.

"I'm sorry, dad. The repetition lasted longer than usual," he attempted to defend himself, knowing full well that it wouldn't be a good enough excuse for his father.

"Don't look for an excuse, boy. You should know better. You would have told that Corny Collins of yours that you had to go home."

To be fair, Link had thought of doing that, for all of three seconds but he had seen how stressed out the man was and how he was on nerve, driving them harder than he ever had. It was actually very strange; Corny was usually infinitely patient, he didn't get mad even after twentieth times someone made a wrong move. For him, you had to both enjoy yourself and learn. It wasn't the case anymore, not since a few weeks at least.

Corny didn't let anything like that pass anymore and Link hadn't wanted to attempt telling him he had to go home before the end of the repetition corny was just about the only real father figure, or brother equivalent he had – not that the man knew that – and he really didn't want him to tell yell at him. He preferred to let that role to his own father. It wasn't as if it was anything new for him.

"Yes, dad," he answered. "I'm sorry."



He was almost shaking with anticipation, waiting for the first blow to come. He just hoped that his father wasn't going to go on and on for too long. He was exhausted after the repetition of today and wanted nothing more than going to bed, especially since there was another repetition the day after.

He wasn't disappointed. When his father's fist first collided with his stomach, he didn't made a move to protect himself, didn't try to defend himself either. He knew that it would probably just make things worse for him anyway. The only time he ever did try something like that what when his father was too drunk to remember not to his face. He didn't want anyone to guess what was going on at home, so he couldn't afford to have bruises on his face when he showed up at school or on the show.

A few minutes later, his father, who hadn't stopped drinking just because he was beating the shit out of his son, began to sway slightly and had some difficulty regaining his balance. He went to put down the bottle on the table and turned around to go back to his son, who was on the ground, breathing hard with a lot of difficulty. However, he probably turned too quickly and finally passed out from his high consumption of alcohol.

Link sighed in relief before getting up, hissing when he felt his ribs give a painful twinge. He walked to his father and took his pulse, assuring himself that he was still breathing, before going to his room.

Once there, he had some pain getting out of his clothes, his members sore, but he still managed; he always did. He then looked at himself into the mirror, making sure that he wasn't bleeding. He was relieved to see that it wasn't the case and went to bed, totally wiped out. He still managed to remember to put on the alarm clock earlier than usual; the last thing he wanted was to get detention because he was late at school and he was certain to have some difficulty to get ready the following morning. In had been quite a while since he had taken a beating that bad. On the other hand, it had also been a long time since he had done anything to 'deserve' it.

It took him quite a bit of time before he was able to find in position in which he was comfortable enough to fall asleep. But once he found it, he was out like a light and didn't wake up again until the following morning, when his alarm clock rang.

Link was far from surprised when his first move nearly brought tears to his eyes. He was feeling so awful that, for once second, the idea of not going to school that day crossed his mind. Of course, the thought of what his father would do if he was to learn by a phone call from the principal that he had skipped school was more than enough to make him forget it as quickly as it came and force him out of the house.

He found some pain killers in his bathroom, took two pills and put the rest of the box in his pocket, assessing that he would probably need more during the day, then he went out. When he arrived to school, he was still hurting pretty badly but, thankfully, the medicine had begun to act. Plus, it was hardly the first time he had gone to classes the day following a beating so he just put on a smile on his face and readied himself for the day to come, playing the 'perfect kid' charade.

The school day was, as he had predicted it the night before, terrible. He would even venture to say that it was hell, at least in Link's opinion. He was hurting more and more with each passing minutes and had to go take more painkillers at three reprises at least. It did help a bit but not nearly as much as usual and never enough for the pain to go away completely, not even for a little while. All in all, he found it worrisome.



Link knew that it was hardly the first time he took a beating – hell, in the last few years it had certainly be a common occurrence – but it had never been like that. The pain was supposed to recess, especially considering he wasn't doing anything that required some kind of physical effort, but, instead, it was growing steadily.

His mind wasn't on the lesson at all but, thankfully, he was questioned by their teacher that day. The most difficult was the moments when he had to talk to his friends, to Tracy, Amber and the others. He had to be very careful with what he was doing and how he did it, to make sure that they wouldn't see the difference with every other day.

If it worked on most, it didn't stop Amber to see that something was off. She had known him for a very long time, longer than anyone else, and she was more sensitive to the little change of attitude in him. Nevertheless, he had already been able to fool her more than once before, there was no reason for it to be different. She still seemed a bit suspicious but let it go. He could however feel her eyes on him and, if he didn't know the truth, he would have thought that she was crushing on him.

Of course, seeing how it had begun, there was no chance for the day to end up well; it could only grow worse and worse.

After school, they directly went on set, not having too much time to repeat the day's moves until the beginning of the show. They had about an hour and, because of that, Corny was even harder on them. Link couldn't blame him, though. His job was Corny's life and that was exactly what Velma was threatening.

Of course, no matter how much Link had wanted to do well, he just wasn't able to. He was hurting too much to be able to do the moves. He was under the impression to have constant stomach cramps, only ten times stronger and he was beginning to have difficulties to breath. After a final mistake, nearly managing to fall down, he just had to stop dancing altogether.

"Link!" Corny exclaimed, irritated, before walking up to him. "What do you think you're going? You've done nothing but mess up every step of the choreography and now you think you can afford not to do anything!"

The others were petrified. That wasn't like Corny at all. Sure, the man had been stricter recently, but he had never been that cruel. They couldn't speak up even though some of them wanted to defend their friends, but they knew they would probably only make things worse. They just stopped their dancing and kept their much shut, watching the scene in a religious silence.

Link, on the other hand, shrank on himself. It was too much like facing his father for him to be comfortable with the situation but, at least, he knew that Corny would never hit him. He ducked his head, picture of penance, trying to hide his pain from outside eyes, particularly the man in front of him. He hated the fact that he had forced Corny to yell at him, he hated the fact that his father was able to mess up every aspect of his life, including those he shouldn't have been able to touch.

"I'm sorry, Corny," he managed to say between the stabs of pain that were becoming more and more frequent. "It's just that I…"



"I don't care! Look, just go home for today and come back tomorrow with your head cleared, alright?"

"Yes Corny," Link whispered.

Even though his pain was making him almost light-headed, he walked away quickly. Never once did he look up to see the worried looks that the other dancers were sending him as he made his way, first beside the host, and the out of the stage. Tears sprung in his eyes but it was very easy to convince himself that it was from the blinding pain and not the fact that the one person he considered as his family was mad at him for the first time he could recall.

Corny watched him leave, frowning. He was feeling a bit guilty for yelling at the boy when it was obvious that something was wrong, but there really was nothing he could do about it now. Still, he had looked so sad. For now, though, he had to go one with the flow and assure his dancers' readiness for the show that day.

After leaving the studio, his bag on the back, Link slowly made his way through the street. He didn't have anymore medication and he could feel his chest throbbing. He was almost suffocating because of the suffering breathing brought and, after having walked a few minutes, he just had to stop. He tried to get his breath back but it only made his pain worse and tears began to leak, from physical aching this time around. His sight began to blur, darkening slowly, before he heard the blood rushing in his ear and, finally, the darkness overtook him and he collapsed, in the middle of the street, unaware of the people running to see if he was okay.