And I'm back with another chapter of this story. Luckily my beta has some nice friends. I hope you get well soon, my dear. Thanks so much for everything you do for me. You're amazing.

Disclaimer: I don't own CSI Miami, Ryan Wolfe, jewish or Bang Bang. I own Daniel, the family and the gang.

Chapter 6

I hit the ground , bang bang
That awful sound, bang bang (Nancy Sinatra – Bang Bang)

The next morning, Ryan breathed out when he left house for school. He had managed to live through yesterday evening and breakfast this morning without anybody noticing the pain he was in. By now breathing, coughing and laughing all hurt like hell. He knew the rib wasn't broken; he had checked it. But that didn't mean it was all completely painless. Luckily, neither his mother nor his father had noticed. He checked for the third time if the door was locked, then started walking to the bus station. Luckily he had boxing training today. Okay, it wouldn't be much fun, with his ribs aching, but it was better than to be at home the whole day. It was his father's day off, and the more time Ryan spent at home, the more he could do wrong and make his father angry. He had to smile a bit. Now, did that sound like one happy family or not? A son who feared to stay at home and rather increase his pain in a boxing game?

He was so completely in his thoughts that he didn't notice somebody standing in his way and consequently bumped into him. When he raised his head, he had to suppress a moan, "Vince. You don't live around here, so, what are you doing here?"

Vince leaned against the wall, "Well, to be honest, Wolfe, I want to talk to you. No, that might be wrong. I want you to go to the police today and take your statement back."

Ryan grinned, "Yeah, right. As if I'm gonna do that. You guys can be happy that you scared the girl so much, or else you would be facing much bigger charges."

"Wolfe, I don't think you understand the situation." Vince came closer. "The police were at my place yesterday. And not only at my place, but I know they also visited Darren. I want you to go to the police and tell them you imagined the whole thing. If not…" He left the threat unspoken.

But Ryan shook his head, "You should've thought of that before. I won't do any of that. You can't scare me. You had it coming."

"That your last word, Wolfe?"

"My last word."

Now, Vince started grinning, "You might wanna think of some new last words soon, Wolfe…" He clicked his fingers, and suddenly, there were more of them. Ryan recognized the guys. They were the same as the day before. And Darren Douglas. "Now, Wolfe, I'll give you one last chance. Go to the police, change your statement, and we let you live. If you don't, you'll wish you'd never been born."

Ryan felt his guts churn. Six against One. He could never win that one. He could be happy if he got out of this without too many broken bones. The choice Vince had given him was easy enough, but Ryan wouldn't accept. He hadn't spent the last few years trying to get rid of these bullies just to cave in because they threatened him. So he swallowed, raised his head which he had lowered during the process of thinking and said, "Then you might wanna hurry up, or else you'll be late for school. And I'd hate it for you to miss something that could actually brighten your small mind."

Vince laughed, "You amuse me."

Two of the gang marched towards Ryan. He tried to defend himself and managed to actually shove one away before he could touch him. But the other one got close enough and smashed him hard against the wall. Ryan moaned as his ribs protested against the rough treatment. That moment of pain was enough for Vince's men to grab both of his arms and lock them behind his back. A kick to his ribs made him double over, but they dragged him back up.

Vince had in the meantime taken off his jacket and pulled the sleeves of his shirt up, "Now, Wolfe, since I am a nice person, I'll ask you again, now that you've got a bit of a taste of what's to come. Will you do as I ask?"

Ryan breathed in and raised his head so that he looked right into Vince's eyes, "Go to hell."

"Wrong answer." Vince slapped him. "You can stop this at any moment, Wolfe, just so you know." Slap. "You know, during these last few years, you haven't been much fun." Slap. "But this is gonna be so much more amusing than I could've possibly had in these last years." Slap. "Any new decisions you've taken lately?"

Ryan shook his head, "You gotta give a bit more if you really mean this."

Vince looked down at his feet, "A shame, Wolfe, really. I really hate to mess up your… how do you guys call it? Shana punim (1), right? Although… It looks kinda messed up already, so I guess it won't make much of a difference." His hand made a fist. "Maybe I can at least make it symmetrical again." With that, he landed a hard punch on Ryan's uninjured eye. "See, that's way better." he said when Ryan's second eye started swelling. "Although, that was stupid. Such things lose so much of their appeal when a victim can't see it coming. But oh well, damage is done." His second punch landed on the exact same spot. "Got anything to say?"

Ryan tried to ignore the throbbing in his eyes and cheek, "Thank you. At least now I don't have to look at your mieseh punim (1)…." Yeah, that's probably the right thing to do, Ryan. Just provoke him more.

"You think I have an ugly face? Well, believe me; your own mom will not recognize yours tonight."

The next punch was harder than the ones before. Ryan felt blood flowing from his nose. It bothered him that he couldn't wipe it away. It would stain his shirt. He'd never get rid of these stains again. Vince's next punch hit his stomach. He would have doubled over, but the guys that held his arms kept him up. He couldn't even bow down to shield himself as Vince landed the next few punches in his lower stomach and ribs. He bit his lip, trying to at least mentally be prepared for the pain.

Vince grabbed his neck, "Any news?"

"Go to hell." Ryan's voice was as steady as in the beginning.

"Shame." Vince brought his knee up and rammed it into Ryan's ribcage. Once, twice, thrice… "Now?" As he got no answer, he delivered a few more kicks. Ryan did his best not to scream. "This will only get worse. You can stop it. Just say you will do what I ask."

"I won't." Ryan said through clenched teeth. "And you cannot beat me up enough to change that."

"We'll see about that. Bring him down."

The guy to the left of Ryan kicked him in the ribs so hard that he went down. They let him fall this time. He hit the ground hard. Vince knelt down next to him and laid a hand on his throat. He squeezed it. "Ryan, I really don't wanna do this… It's just that I have to cover my ass."

Ryan suddenly found breathing so much harder. Come on, he's not gonna kill me, right? Well, he tried to rape a girl… He clenched his fist. I'm so not gonna let him… And in one swift movement, with the last of his remaining strength, he brought it up and hammered it onto Vince's nose. He felt it breaking.

Vince jumped up and howled in pain. "You little bastard! Oh, you will pay for this." He turned away, "Trash him."

The other four formed a circle around him while Darren took a closer look at Vince's nose. Ryan glanced one last time at Vince, savouring the image, and then closed his eyes when the gang started kicking him.

When Ryan woke up again, they were gone. It took him awhile to focus again. But when he was focused, he felt the pain rushing through his entire body. He moaned and tried to get up. His whole body was in pain. Excruciating pain. The ground underneath his head had been was blood stained. He brought a hand up to his face and felt dried blood under his nose, over his eye and on his lips. That simple movement sent a wave of pain through his arm. He balanced himself into a sitting position and looked down at himself. His shirt was a goner: blood smeared, torn, and dirty from the ground. He moaned again. Good lord, how was he to explain that at home? Well, he didn't have to. He would skip school today and ask Daniel to write a note. The guy was great at forging signatures. Nobody would notice. And since both his parents were working, he could get himself cleaned up and pretend the second black eye had also happened during a boxing match. He just had to get up before either of the two, or worse, his sister, came home. Come on, Ryan, get up. On your feet. Ignore the pain. At home, you'll take a pill and the pain will be gone. It's not far. Come on, get up. He bit his lip as the pain rushed to his every limb when he tried to get up. But he managed. Limping, he made his way home. He opened the door with trembling fingers, closed it behind himself and sank down again. Christ, this hurts. He breathed in, breathed out, then got up again steadying himself on the door. He would go to the bathroom, clean himself up, discard the shirt and pretend to his mother he had hit a door or something. Everything would be okay…

Just when he had made his way up to the bathroom, the door to his father's office opened. Ryan stopped dead in his tracks. Shit, I forgot. It's his day off.

Duke looked at him, "What are you doing here, shouldn't you be at school?"

Ryan moved out of the shadow cast by the huge cupboard in the hall so that his father could see him. "I had a little… problem outside…"

Duke came closer and took another look at Ryan's injuries. "How did that happen?"

Ryan told him the whole story. "And now he wants me to tell the police he didn't do a thing. That's why he beat me up."

"I see. Go back to school."

"What?" Ryan exclaimed, trying to hide the pain it caused him to just stand. "I can't go to school like this. Look at me…"

"So what, you have two black eyes and a swollen nose. That's nothing. Go back to school." Ryan shook his head. That proved to be a mistake. "You're shaking your head at me?" Duke grabbed him by the arm and dragged him down the stairs. There he opened the front door and shoved Ryan out. "Go to school!" He slammed the door shut.

Ryan hammered against it, flinching every time when his ribs protested, "Please, can I just clean myself up?"

"You can do that at school."

"But people in the bus will look!"

"That's your problem. Now go, before I drag you there!"

Ryan heard steps moving away from the door. He sank down against it. This had to be a bad joke. He couldn't go to school like this. He had no idea what he looked like but judging from the blood that had accumulated under him when he had been unconscious, he guessed his face looked like a pummelled beetroot. His father couldn't seriously… He could. He does. He will drag you to school if you don't go now. And you don't want the other kids at school to see that… He got up from his knees again and made his way to the bus stop.

After school, when he got home, he immediately locked himself up in the bathroom. Gosh, that certainly had been one of the worst days of his life. He had managed to clean himself up in the school toilet, luckily, before anybody had seen him. Well, at least his face. The stains on the shirt he couldn't clean. And of course, the black eyes and the swollen nose were hard to hide. Every single person on the bus had looked at him; some had even asked if he was alright. He had nodded, shrugged them off, but he had hated the looks of pity. And the teachers were even worse. Every single one of them had taken him aside after lesson, had asked him if this had happened at school, and if they could help him in any way. Ryan had only shaken his head and turned his back on them. He had only confided in Daniel, who would have attacked Vince with battery acid if Ryan hadn't stopped him. Well, at least he had threatened to do that. But then again Daniel couldn't tell Battery Acid from regular tap water. Ryan had stopped him anyways; no need to provoke these guys any further. Even if he hated their snarky comments on how red really was his colour. Now, he stood in front of the mirror, looking at his face. Or, at least, he tried to.

Before he could take a closer look to check if his nose needed medical attention (although Daniel had calmed him enough to convince him that it was not broken), his father knocked on the door. "Ryan, get out of there."

Ryan sighed with annoyance, "I'm actually cleaning myself up, can you give me a minute?"

"Get out, now. I'll see you outside in ten seconds."

"Why?"

"Because I said so. I have a special workout for you."

"What?"

The voice became more menacing, "Did I tell you to ask questions? Get outside."

Ryan, who did feel a bit too safe behind the bathroom door, said, "I don't know if you've noticed, but I was beaten silly today, and punched around yesterday. I cannot possibly do a workout today."

"You can, and you will. Now, get out!"

Ryan was close to telling him he couldn't make him get out, but then again… The faster I start, the faster I'm done with it… He opened the door and under his father's cold gaze, walked downstairs and to the backyard. Duke followed him slowly, menacingly. Ryan didn't know what his father had planned for him, but he knew not to expect any pity.

It was already dark outside when he fell down on his bed. His body was shaking from exhaustion, his ribs aching like they were on fire. His father had made him run a few miles, then he had to do sit ups and push ups. Normally, this work out would've been exhausting, but easy enough. They had done it before; he had always been tired after it. But with his body being in the shape it was, it had been pure torture. He was sure he had screamed out in pain a few times. But his father hadn't cared. He had screamed at him to go on. Like that guy in the Richard Gere movie. Or any other drill sergeant in any other army movie. He breathed in, shallowly, because his ribs wouldn't let him take deep breaths. As he was lying on his bed, facing the ceiling, he wondered why his father had done this. Duke was hard, yes, but normally not that much. There had even been days, when Ryan had been injured at boxing, or Karate, where Duke had even allowed him to go to bed earlier. But today? What had gotten in his father's mind? The answer to that was anyone's guess.

Ryan suspected it had to do with the fact that he had misbehaved this morning when he had shaken his head at his father's order. Or maybe because he had wanted to stay at home after having had the shit kicked out of him, and thereby showing weakness. That's probably it. He again thanked God that his father hadn't seen him puking his guts out over the thing with Douglas. He knew his father only meant well, but… from time to time… is that really a good thing? What he does? He swallowed. Who cares? The only thing Ryan had to do was to make his dad proud of him. And he would. Next time, and he was sure there would be a next time, when those bullies would try to hurt him, he would fight back, as hard as he could, and if things went down, he wouldn't complain. He would show his father that he had learned something from today's lesson. That he would never ever again show a weakness like he had today. Next time somebody hit him, he would take a licking and keep on ticking, not showing any pain, not letting anybody know he was hurting. Maybe then Duke would finally appreciate it. Maybe he would even say 'That was really good, Ryan. I'm really proud of you'. And that was the only thing Ryan wanted to hear.

(1)Shana punim is Jewish for pretty face. Mieseh punim is Jewish for ugly face. Or at least the world's most famous search engine says that. I apologize to any Jewish guys and ladies if I used it in a completely wrong context.

So, our boy has been trashed by the gang. Is that the end, or will they come back? Will something good happen to Ryan soon? Or something really bad? Mh.