Marco woke up again in a white room. It was too bright and smelled like ammonia. He carefully turned his head and saw Jimmy, asleep in a chair next to his bed. Exploring his body, he discovered that his ribs were taped up and the gash on his head where he'd been kicked was sewn together, but his hands and head and…everywhere else were still caked in blood so he couldn't have been here that long. Maybe Jimmy didn't know what happened. Marco wanted to keep it that way. No one could know. Especially no one who would tell Spinner. Marco shuddered involuntarily. He looked towards Jimmy again and noticed him start to stir in his chair.

"Jimmy" he whispered, afraid to move his already aching torso. "Jimmy!"a little louder this time.

Jimmy's eyes popped open, looking terrified, but immediately moved to Marco's face and his whole body seemed to relax, obviously relieved.

"Marco, man, I was so worried about you. I'm glad you're awake. I'm going to go get the nurse, they told me it was important to alert them the second you woke up. Your parents are downstairs in the cafeteria, I'll go get them right after the nurse…" babbled Jimmy, getting up to go into the hallway.

"Wait" whispered Marco, panicked now, "my parents are here? How long have I been out?"

"Of course they're here. I called them as soon as we got to the hospital. You woke up on your own right as the ambulance was pulling up but then they gave you something, painkillers I guess, and that knocked you right out. It hasn't been that long though, maybe an hour or two."

As Jimmy left the room to grab the nurses, Marco sighed, Jimmy wasn't acting any different, wasn't treating him like he was fragile, a pane of glass. He figured that was a good sign. Maybe nobody knew the whole story. Ugh, hoped too soon Marco cringed inwardly as three cops followed his nurse into the room. The nurse hurriedly checked his vitals to make sure that he was stable and then exited the room on the cops' request. There were two men and a women, all staring at him nervously as though they expected him to break down at any moment. Well, except the women. She looked calm. Marco locked eyes with her, refusing to take any opportunity to let his guard down, especially since that's what these cops seemed to expect.

"Hey Marco" said the female cop "we just have a few questions for you"

"What if I don't want to talk?"

"Well, there's nothing we can do to make you but we're only here to help. We….we think we have an idea of what happened, there are just a few things that need to be clarified if we want to go forward with the investigation." Marco didn't say anything in return, just averted his gaze and tried to pretend he was somewhere else…he was getting pretty good at that.

One of the male cops sighed and said, rather harshly "Look, kid, we have evidence that you were beaten and raped. The doctors found two sets of fluid. One was, they assume, your own blood, but the other…was semen…there was significant tearing and… we just need to know if you've had any consensual sexual partners in the past 24 hours"

Marco still didn't answer, kept focusing on the pattern of cracks in the ceiling, imagined he was a spider, crawling up through them and away from here.

"Son, son we need you to answer our questions" said the second male cop as he reached out to put his hand gently on Marco's shoulder, trying to be reassuring. But at his touch Marco tensed up and looked ready to jump out of his own skin.

"Don't touch me. Please. I'll answer whatever you want just keep your hands off of me" whispered Marco, still looking at the ceiling.

The female cop's eyes softened at that and she reached out to remove her partner's hand and said "Ok Marco, we just need you to answer that one question. We have most of the other details"

"No. I've never had sex. Or I guess…I never had until tonight. First time for everything right?" Marco made that last remark while laughing bitterly…he sounded too old. It made the female cop shiver.

"Thank you Marco, I know this must be hard for you. Now we're just going to go talk to your parents about the procedure for pressing charges and then we'll bring them up to see you." The cops turned to go but turned around when Marco all but jumped out of his bed yelling "Wait, wait don't go!"

"Yes?"

"Do you have to tell my parents? I mean, if I decide not to press charges, can this just…go away?"

The female cop looked surprised, but she nodded slowly and said "Well…yes. If you decide not to press charges we can keep the evidence of your rape kit around in case you want to press charges later. But the sooner you begin this process, the more likely it is we'll catch the guys who did this to you. We're just trying to help."

Marco was on the verge of tears but managed to choke out "I know, I know. I just…my pop can't know about this. It's bad enough that I was beaten up but…he just can't know. I don't want to press charges"

"But Marco, don't you think you'd feel better knowing that these men are paying for what they did to you?"

Marco just turned away and shrugged. "Maybe, but, it's not worth it."

"Worth what?"

"My dad. Well. I've always been a 'fucking fairy' a 'sissy boy'. He hated it when I couldn't stand up for myself in middle school when all of the other boys would pick on me for not being good at sports and stuff. He always told me I had it coming. I just…I can't hear him tell me I had this coming." The two male cops looked like they were going to protest but the female cop just looked at Marco with a grim face and then nodded.

"Ok Marco. Whatever you say. But remember, we'll have the evidence on hand in case you ever decide to press charges. But do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Go talk to someone about this. You can't keep it to yourself forever. It'll eat you alive. Trust me".

With that the cops all exited the room and Marco was left alone. Finally.