Author's Notes: (For those trying to save on time, just skip on down past the horizontal line break, then come back after you've finished the chapter). For those left…

Hello my little chickadees! (Wait, do I have any chickadudes reading too? If so, hello to you too). Welcome back to "As the Supermarket Turns". Last time!

Bobby disarmed a thermonuclear device.

Bobby wipes his brow. "Phew. Good thing I took that bomb disarming course at Cass Technical!"

Grey couldn't find baking soda.

"Noooo! Where is it?"She twirls in a circle, screaming in anguish.

Jack had an epiphany.

Jack, holding an advanced copy of the next chapter, slams it down. "She's going to do WHAT?"

And Caleb revealed something startling.

"Cain… I'm pregnant."

Cain faints.

All right, it's official, my author's notes have become long, cumbersome, and more than a little wack. And now we return you to our current chapter in, "As the Supermarket Turns".

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Chapter Seven:

This wasn't exactly how he'd pictured this night.

He had not planned on having a gun pointed at him, being held hostage, or being used as a pawn in mind games against his brother. He had sort of expected the ringing in his ears from the hard smack Isaac had given him for his outspoken words over the intercom.

The grip on his neck tightened, and he could feel Isaac's fingernails dig into his skin. He winced, but it was hardly the worst sensation he'd experienced that night. Jack was starting to wish for his concussion-like symptoms from earlier. The half-aware daze took the edge off of reality. Right now the pistol digging into his ribs was making its presence far too known.

As each second passed, he could feel the gunman growing tenser. Behind them, Caleb had resumed his mutterings as he kept an eye on the frightened hostages and Terrell groaned loudly as he came to. Cain remained silent, stoically keeping an eye out for their expected visitor.

The barrel in Jack's ribs dug in further as the stocky figure of his brother emerged from the frozen food section. Bobby had his arms raised high with his hands resting on the back of his head. He marched in their direction slowly, as if he was trying to project the image of submissiveness.

It didn't really work on him. All Jack could read from his brother's stance was that he was pissed, but he was refraining from knocking anyone's heads together at the present moment. Isaac's fingernails scraped the skin on his neck as they sought for purchase. They eventually sunk into a particularly fleshy part of Jack's neck, and he had to control the urge to wince. He could tell Bobby was barely controlling himself at the moment.

"On your knees!" Isaac barked.

Bobby complied, never moving his gaze from his opponent's. He continued to stare as Cain moved forward and patted the elder Mercer down. His stare never wavered as Cain extracted the gun that Bobby had taken earlier, or as the large man jammed the barrel of his gun into Bobby's temple.

Isaac tried not to acknowledge that a small bead of sweat had started to trace down his cheek. There was something decidedly unnatural about the man's gaze, which seemed to cut through all of the bluster that he projected. Isaac finally, thankfully, broke their staring contest as he flicked his gaze to Cain.

"Anything else?"

Cain shook his head.

Isaac let out a breath slowly, reminding himself that he was the one in control here, not some stunted white son of a bitch.

"All right, put him with the others."

Cain roughly shuffled Bobby to the rest of the hostages. To Isaac's discomfort, the man never broke his hardened gaze. Caleb had briefly, hysterically, tried to convince Isaac that the man in front of him wasn't human, and that messing with him was not a good idea. He'd dismissed the notion, because really, when had Caleb ever been serious? As he stared into the soulless, unblinking gaze, Isaac started to wonder if maybe he should have given the insane ramblings some credence.

Isaac marched himself and the kid closer to Mercer, willing the pounding of his heart to settle. He swallowed past the lump in his throat, eyes still unable to move away from the glare burning a hole through him. To Isaac's surprise, his voice remained steady. "You try anything else; don't think I won't be aiming for your brother here."

The eyes begged to differ, and Isaac quickly shoved the kid to his knees to join the group. He spun on his heels, making a show of checking the front of the store as he tried to gather the remnants of his nerves. Who the hell was this guy?

Bobby watched as Isaac retreated for the door to regain composure. He couldn't keep the satisfied grin from creeping across his face. It felt good to rattle his opponent, at least emotionally, since he couldn't physically rail against the man for trying to make him believe that Jack had been shot.

Now that he finally had his brother at his side, Bobby finally let his gaze drift from the leader of this sorry excuse for a holdup gang. He eyed his little brother, quickly taking stock of every scratch, bruise and blemish. He felt his jaw clench as he saw the bright array of colors decorating Jack's jaw.

Unheeding of the scrutiny from the robbers he took Jack's face in his hand and gently tilted the teen's face as he tried to get a better look at the bruising. Jack tried to pull away, but Bobby just tightened his grip. "Knock it off. Let me see."

"It's nothing," Jack mumbled.

"Like hell it is," Bobby's voice practically vibrated with suppressed rage. "Now shut up and let me see what they did to you."

Although his gaze promised retribution to each of the abusive bastards standing in front of him, he continued with his examination. His hand stilled in their probing as Jack sucked in a quick breath. His fingers brushed across against a sizeable goose egg on the back of Jack's head and what suspiciously felt like dried blood. Bobby pressed his lips into a thin line as he glared at each man standing in front of them. Maybe they didn't know it yet, but they were all dead men.

"Which one?" He whispered quietly to his brother.

Jack refused to look him in the eye, something Bobby didn't quite understand at the moment. With no help from his brother, he carefully eyed each man in front of him. The twitchy man who had refused to meet Bobby's gaze since his arrival may have seemed a likely candidate, but Bobby noticed that he had the safety on his gun. He wasn't a bad ass, just a pretender. He looked next to the man that he had knocked out earlier. He was still trying to catch his breath and figure out what happened. If he had knocked Jack around, he certainly didn't remember it.

Bobby flicked his gaze to the behemoth of a man that watched them like a guard dog. He took in the security guard uniform, not understanding the significance, nor caring to. The man met his gaze unflinchingly. His gaze was fierce, but held no actual malice against any of the people kneeling on the ground. Bobby made a mental note to keep an eye on him and turned to look at the final member of the gang.

Isaac briefly met his gaze before looking elsewhere. The eldest Mercer narrowed his gaze, watching as the leader of the gunmen refused to meet his gaze. Without a doubt, he knew exactly who had knocked his little brother around.

When Isaac finally met his gaze again, he could see recognition enter the other man's eyes. He understood that not only that Bobby knew what he had done, but that Bobby had no intention of letting Isaac go without proper retribution.

"How much time now?" Caleb tittered nervously from his corner.

Thankful for the excuse to break the staring contest, Isaac turned to answer him. "Fifteen minutes."

Bobby turned his attention back to Jack who stared listlessly ahead. He hadn't expected Jack to hail him like a conquering hero, but he thought his little brother would be happier for his presence. He nudged the kid in the shoulder.

"Hey," he kept his voice quiet, mostly because he didn't feel like advertising their conversation for everyone to hear, "what's wrong?"

Jack just shook his head and stared ahead.

"Did they do anything else to you?"

Jack shivered for a moment, remembering the moment he thought that the gun had been fired at him; or when Cain had pretended like he was going to shoot Abel when Jack wouldn't tell them about Bobby. Finally he shook his head, softly so as to not agitate his injuries. "No."

Bobby didn't believe that for once second, as it was plain that Jack was lying. Instead of calling him out on it Bobby wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulders. Jack stiffened and pulled away. Bobby frowned, now knowing something was definitely wrong.

"Jack?"

Jack clenched his jaw, a painful action at the moment, but one that helped him focus. Turning to look into his brother's concerned face, he felt his resolve crumble. Rather than let himself break down in front of the bastards that had turned this shopping trip into a nightmare, he let himself relax into his older brother's protective embrace.

Bobby tightened his grip as Jack's eyes closed, whether in pain from his injuries or from the emotional toll of the night, he wasn't sure. Bobby pretended not to notice as the shoulders underneath his arm started to shake ever so slightly. In his many years as the older brother, Bobby had learned that there were times when he was allowed to pick on his brothers and make jokes at their expense, and times he needed to just be there and be quiet. Right now, he didn't find anything about their situation particularly funny.

If he had anything to say about it, these guys wouldn't be walking out of here without wheelchairs. That is, if he let them get out at all.

oOoOoOo

The silence that had descended after they had managed to grab the final holdout came to an abrupt end after five minutes.

"Would it kill you to give the kid some Tylenol?"

"Bobby," Jack mumbled in protest.

"Shut up, Jack. If they're going to crack your jaw open the least they can do is let you have something to take the edge off."

"M' fine."

"I said shut up," the older brother muttered to the younger.

"We've only got ten minutes left," Isaac shot back.

"Does it look like I care what you shitheads have planned?"

"You don't seem to care about much," Isaac shifted his eyes from Bobby to Jack, letting the obstinate man know that he knew exactly what Bobby cared about.

"Ma says it's all part of my charm." Bobby's tone was light, but his eyes narrowed ever so slightly, just enough to remind the gunman that he knew who had given his baby brother all of those bruises.

"Your mother and I have different definitions on charm."

"I have the feeling she and you have different definitions on a lot of things."

"The answer is no, he can just wait."

"Oh come on, I'm sure your buddy there wouldn't mind a few himself. That is if he can swallow anything after our little wrestling match."

Terrell glared at Bobby as he rubbed his sore throat. The thought of swallowing something seemed pretty low on his list, but something that might numb the pain in his throat wasn't altogether unappealing.

"He should've been more careful."

Isaac ignored the death glare that bored into his back.

"Now c'mon, Boogie, that's no way to treat a brother."

Isaac bristled at the slur. He just about had it up to here with both Mercers. He briefly considered using the kid to force his older brother to behave. One look at the grip Bobby had on the teen let him know how suicidal a move that would be.

"I have to ask, is the payout worth all of this?"

Isaac tried to ignore him.

"Exactly how much cash do you think they keep on hand?" Bobby pressed on. "I would ask the assistant manager, but he seems a little quiet since you shot him."

Isaac's teeth gritted together.

"You don't seriously think they wouldn't make a cash drop, do you?" Bobby pressed on. "I mean look at the place you decided to rob! You think you're going to make more than a few thousand? Is that really worth it, I mean, after you split it up with your partners here?"

Isaac tried willing his eye stop twitching.

"You were going to share with them, weren't you? Not just use them until you guys got out of here and give them the same payment your snitch got?" Bobby had heard the comment about the inside man over the intercom, and had quickly pieced together what had happened.

"Maybe I ought to break your jaw too," Isaac shot back.

"Well, I don't think Jack's jaw is broken. If that's what you were aiming for, you did a piss poor job at that too."

Jack, for his part, felt like sinking through the floor at the moment. He wasn't comfortable with people shouting at each other, even more so when it was about him. Bobby hadn't worked his way up to shouting, but oh, he'd get there. Just like he'd get himself shot if he didn't shut up.

"Stop," Jack muttered to his brother.

Bobby ignored him, finding it far more satisfying to push Isaac's buttons. "You know, a smart guy would've just left after the first snafu. Which one are you on now? Twenty?"

Isaac snapped his gun up. "I could lower it down to nineteen without much of a problem."

"Like you're not going to already."

Jack's eyes bugged out of his head as Bobby spoke what all of the hostages had been fearing.

"I mean face it, had you thought this out more you would've covered all of your faces. I guess that's what those hoods were for, but you didn't work real hard at keeping them up."

Isaac snorted in disgust.

"Maybe you hoped that you could just threaten us into silence by acting like you'd visit us at our homes and finish the job."

Jack stared at his older brother as if he had sprouted an extra head. What the hell was he doing?

"Of course, I guess you hadn't been planning on shooting your inside boy, at least not in front of so many people."

"Bobby—"

"You just think he's just going to forget that he left several witnesses that not only saw him pull the trigger, but could pick him out of a line up easily?"

Jack didn't think that at all, but he certainly didn't see how reminding the psycho with the gun was going to help things.

"Thing I'm wondering is," Bobby continued on, "is if the rest of your boys are as stone cold as you. None of them have shot anyone, hell, I doubt any of them have done more than point their guns around. Nervous guy back there hasn't even taken the safety off his piece."

Isaac glanced over at Caleb, and glared. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Caleb dropped his gaze to the ground and took the safety off his gun.

"Of course your boys know that if you do kill all of us, that certainly won't go over well when the cops walk in and find a massacre. There'll be a media circus. Which means the cops won't be able to stop until they've found each one of you."

"You shut your mouth right now!" Isaac finally snapped.

"Make me," Bobby grinned.

Isaac sneered back and started to move his pistol in Jack's direction. With a snarl Bobby shoved his brother out of the way with one hand, grabbing a hold of the gun with his other. The two began wrestling for control as everyone, including the remaining robbers, watched the proceedings with wide eyes.

The two scrapping opponents listed to the side as Bobby tried to force Isaac to his knees and to more even ground. Isaac kicked out savagely, catching his opponent in the ribs. Bobby flew back, losing his grip on the gun. The lack of resistance caused Isaac's arm to swing wildly, just as a round exploded from the gun.


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Next time on "As the Supermarket Turns"… oh wait, we already did this joke. Well this is probably my favorite chapter of all the ones I've written. I'm a sucker for brotherly fluff. As you can see, it was short-lived. Darn that Bobby. I'd smack him with a rolling pin again, but he hid it. It's all right, I plan on getting my revenge on him with my Christmas Carol fic.

I mean—CLIFFHANGER! GASP! SUSPENSE!

I need sleep.

Catch you boys and girls on the flip-side!