A/N: It was so completely obvious that Lamb was abused as a kid. Remember in that episode when Veronica and Duncan broke into the Mannings' house? Yeah. He made it pretty clear. Anyhoo, spoiler alert for that episode in season two. Although, if you haven't seen the show and you're reading the fanfiction anyway, no offense, but you're kind of dumb. So the joke's on you. Ha. Freaking. Ha.
The Little Lamb Kid
He can hear the belt crack as it makes contact with his arm. The pain doesn't register until a few seconds later, and even when it does, it's just a slight thrum, as though his body is saying, Oh, not this again.
Don can hear his mother and sister downstairs in the kitchen, cooking dinner. Laughing. They both know perfectly well what's happening. They don't care. They never have. If someone were to enter the house at this very moment, they never would have guessed what was going on upstairs. No, as far as anyone was concerned, the Lambs were a nice, normal, nearly-Disney Channel-worthy-upper-middle-class family. Peter and Lori, they perfect parents. Pediatricians, in fact. And their two healthy kids. The youngest might be a little odd, sure, but he got good grades. And Sarah was, of course, a prize. She fully made up for her brother.
The belt has by now left Don's arm and moved to his back. Now this hurt. Don can't resist the urge to cry out. As punishment, he is punched in the face. And still the laughter goes on.
Even the family dog, Arnold, sits silently and watches.
Growing up, Don was taught that his family was all he needed. That beating the children was what all mothers and fathers did; there was no need for him to tell anyone about it. Once, Don worked up the nerve to ask why they didn't hit Sarah, if it was so normal. He received an extra beating that night.
His mother bought him long-sleeved shirts. Turtlenecks, t-shirts, sweaters. When Don got to middle school, they found a way to keep him out of gym so that he wouldn't change with the other boys. No one could see the marks. When he was older, his father said that if Don ever showed the marks to another adult, he would kill both Don and the person he told.
Don never had friends. How could he? He kept to himself, never wanting to put anyone else in danger. Besides, he was a freak. All the kids thought so.
The minute he turned eighteen, Don moved out of the house to his maternal grandparents'. They'd had no idea what was going on all those years, and they were the only people in the world who liked him better than Sarah. For the first time in his life, Don knew he would be allowed to eat regularly each day. That he could shower every day. At school, he came out of his shell a little and made friends.
He let Veronica and the Kane kid out of the car because they were trying to do what someone should've done for Don all those years before. The fact that they were born twelve years too late doesn't mean another kid shouldn't be saved.