For my partner in crime Vermi, because I know she'll appreciate this one ;)

...

After Cooper and Natalya took off with James, I grabbed my idiot brother and dragged him back to his hotel room, too disgusted with him to even say a word to him. He mumbled a whole bunch of shit under his breath but I hadn't understood a word of it. I just really hated dealing with him when he was drunk. He was not only a bigger idiot when he was like that, but he was more annoying too. I put up with a lot of shit from him when he was sober and the alcohol only made it worse.

When we got to the hotel room, I let him drink until he passed out because he wasn't too far from that anyway and then I went to bed with Phil. He had been pretty quiet through this whole thing and it wasn't until I was about to fall asleep that he finally spoke up.

"Why did he do it?"

I blinked, kind of taken aback by that question. "Why did who do what?"

"Mark. Why did he do that shit with Michelle? I thought things were good with him and James."

I sighed and shook my head, reminding myself that Phil was relatively new to the whole James/Mark saga. "Mark is an idiot," I stated. That pretty much summed everything up in a nutshell. "You may not be aware of this, but on occasion, my dear older brother tends to be even more stupid than Connor is."

Phil frowned and snuggled up closer to me, his eyes showing just how much his brain was working to sort all this shit out. You see, he sees my brother and James's relationship as most of the world sees it. They see it as a dysfunctional relationship that has been going on since the Stone Age and Mark's the grouchy pants stick in the mud and James is the out of the box, obnoxious and charming in his own serial killer way. They balance each other out. The ying and yang and all that other kind of bullshit. There are very very few of us that understand the truth of the situation. When it is good, it's very very good. It's everything most people think it is. But when it's bad, it's this destructive force that is very very toxic. "Maybe it was just the alcohol. I mean, that shit-"

"No," I said firmly. "No way. Mark's fucked her sober so that's not it. All the alcohol did was make him stupid enough to not hide his tracks properly.

Phil gave me an odd look. "How do you know that he's fucked her sober?"

I smirked. "I'm his brother. I know shit people only dream about knowing."

"But when-"

"Back in 2007 was the first time it happened. Mark used her to get back at Sara for some stupid fight or something like that." Mark had always been vague at best when it came to the exact reasoning for the first time he and Michelle hooked up. All the other times it had been clear that he wanted one thing and one thing only. "Sara found out and finally divorced him. They had been separated for awhile because he got bored with her and "committed" himself to James and-"

"Wait wait wait," Phil said, cutting me off with a shake of his head. "He left her for James-"

"Actually he saw James throughout their whole marriage."

"What? Why didn't she leave him before then?"

I shrugged. "Mark always hooks up with the stubborn ones who put up with his shit."

"But that's retarded! She should have left him or he should have had at least had the decency to divorce him before he ran around with-wait, why are you laughing?" He looked at me like I had just smacked a child. "That is completely inappropriate!"

I just continued to laugh and shake my head at my poor naïve lover. "Philly, let me tell you something about my brother. He thrives on hurting and pushing away the people that love him. He won't ever admit it but I know he does. It gives him power." It was my personal belief that that was his reasoning behind his actions. I didn't know how else to explain them. I really don't. It's not like he's ever really loved any of his wives or his mistresses. Hell, he rarely LIKED any of them. The only person he's ever really given a damn about is James. I know he loves him…at least I think I know that. At this point, I really don't fucking know anymore.

It's pathetic really. It's all really pathetic. Mark's too old to be playing this game. If he loves James then he just needs to be with him and stop with the cheating bullshit. And if he doesn't love James, then he just needs to leave him and put him out of his misery. Normally I'm all for James suffering and getting hurt because I hate him with every fiber of my being but even I find this getting extremely old. James fucking loves my idiot brother and its pathetic. He's pathetic for taking this shit. If Phil ever put me through even just a little bit of what Mark's done to James over the years, I would fucking send him to hell and not look back.

Then again, I guess that's easy for me to say. I'm not Lawson. Lawson is pretty emotionally dependent on Mark. He always has been. Even when he had Annabelle he was like that, but once she died it got worse. And I know Mark hated sharing him with her but even I realized that James needed her. If he had only had Mark and not her, there's no telling how he would have turned out. Mark hated it but she did things for James that he could never do. And he hated for her and I know he always kind of resented James for it. Jealousy is an ugly thing and my brother has always had it in spades.

"Fuck…" Phil shook his head and then rested it on my chest. "If I didn't hate him so much I would feel kind of bad. He looked like Mark just killed back there."

I nodded along. Pure contempt from the bottom of my heart made me feel no real sympathy for James. That was the last thing he would ever get out of me. I didn't even feel that bad for him when Annabelle died and if there was ever a time that I could have felt bad for him, that would have been it. People forget that he not only turned me into the "Crispy Critter" but he killed my mother and then pretty much fucking flaunted that shit in my face ever since. And now he fucking torments my boyfriend and nobody does a damn thing about it. Everyone fucking loves him and expects me to suck it up and take it. Well fuck them and fuck him especially.

"Mark could have at least done better," Phil said, talking more to himself than to me. "I mean Michelle…really? Really? Out of all the girls around us he picked her?"

I chuckled. I had always hated Michelle. I hated anyone who slept their way to the top and bypassed the dozens of people who worked their asses off and were more deserving of the spot she got. The thought of anyone touching her made me want to claw my own eyes out and vomit at the same time and having my own brother do it just really disgusted me. "She fits the usual profile of his type of woman," I said carelessly. "She's breathing, she's blonde, she's bony, she's willing to fuck him…I mean really, what more does he need?" I shook my head and tilted his head up so I could kiss him. I was tired of talking about this bullshit. It was retarded and I was just done with it. This soap opera had been going on for too long. Way way too fucking long and if it didn't end (or at least get the fuck away from me) I was going to end both Mark and James.

Permanently.

…

The next morning after I showered and ate with Phil I went into Mark's room and found him awake and nursing his hangover. "How you feeling big brother?" I asked, smirking at the murderous glare he sent me.

"Go…away," he ordered.

I snorted. Yeah, like that was going to send me packing. "You remember what you did last night? Or am I going to have to remind you?"

He grunted and I knew that he remembered. I leaned back against the wall and waited for him to say something. When he didn't, I shook my head in disgust. "You're a fucking idiot, you know that?"

"Shut up," he ordered He got up and started to head over to the little mini-bar that was in the room.

"Oh yes, drink some more," I said sarcastically. "Because that will solve your problems."

He whirled around and gave me a nasty look. "Would you just shut up? I need to think-"

"Think? Mark if you ever thought about anything, you wouldn't do the stupid shit you do."

He didn't appreciate that comment and for a moment, it seemed like he would come after me for that statement. He chickened out though at the last second and settled for whining like a child instead. "Why are you attacking me? I've got enough problems as it is without you being up my ass."

"Well who's fault is that?" I asked. I wasn't going to cut him any slack just because he had chosen to act like an idiot. He was the one who had gotten caught cheating yet again and I had no sympathy for him. I told him over and over again to knock that shit off but did he listen to me? No. I was the idiot who had no idea what I was talking about. Well fuck him. Fucking prick…I don't ever know why I bother with him sometimes. I'm his own flesh and blood and he's ALWAYS picked James over me. He fucking allowed that killer to murder our parents and burn me and never once did he really really care. If he cared, he would have cut off James's head and put it on a platter but he didn't. He fucking "loves" James…yeah right. My ass he loves him. Mark wouldn't know what love was if it smacked him in the face with a shovel. You don't constantly cheat on the people you love. Not in my world anyway. I live in the land of the sane and the faithful, thank you very much.

Mark grunted again and poured himself a drink. "If you're going to nag just leave me alone. I've got work to do."

"Oh what, you're going to cook up a lie for dear old James to believe?" I asked with a shake of my head. "You going to win him back again?"

"I just have to explain-"

"Explain? Oh fuck, just stop with that Mark. You are fucking pathetic."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me! All you do is fucking push Lawson away when you claim to love him and it's fucking annoying! I've been watching this drama unfold for fucking years and its fucking disgusting and annoying and I'm sick of it! If you fucking love him so much, man up and be with him! You're fucking old Mark. This game isn't amusing anymore."

"Why do you even care? You hate James-"

"I know I do but I don't care. I always have to watch this drama unfold-"

"So look somewhere else."

I narrowed my eyes and got right in his face. I was just tired with it. I had no sympathy for him or Lawson. I really didn't James didn't deserve any from me and Mark brought all of his problems on himself. Its his own fault he's an idiot. "Or maybe you should just end this one way or another. Because if you don't, I'll help you out and believe me, you won't like it." With that vague threat, I pushed him away and stormed out, slamming the door shut behind me so hard that it just about broke it.