"So what does this mean Bobby?"

We followed him inside and I watched as Jack and Bobby took their jackets off and walked into the kitchen.

"This means that that shooting wasn't just a robbery."

"Why would someone want to kill the sweetest God damn woman in the world?" Jack spread his hands, unsure.

"Man I guess I should have stayed around longer, made a man out of you Jackie."

Jack glared at him and Bobby continued.

"Look, sometimes shooters will cover up a killing with something like a robbery."

I walked up to them, crossing my arms, and leaned on the doorway, listening to them as Bobby continued to explain the way some hired guns worked.

"What the hell was that back there Bobby?" He looked over at me and sighed.

"I got carried away, I'm sorry."

"I could care less if you're sorry Bobby. We're searching for Miss Evelyn's killers, not becoming killers ourselves okay. That was a little outta control, even for you." I was angry, angry that he was just going to kill some random kid for lights turning off two minutes late. And Jack seemed to be a little shaken up from it, he still didn't like confrontations like that and Bobby should have known that. Jack didn't like confrontations with anyone, it was a result from all the foster homes he'd been in that had mentally hurt him.

Bobby nodded and I sighed, shaking my head, and walked upstairs and into my room. I closed the door to my room behind me and picked up my guitar case, opening it and pulling out my guitar, it was old, something that Miss Evelyn had gotten me for my thirteenth birthday it'd been signed by all the bands the bands that I'd gotten to see.

Rain on my Parade's signatures stood out, they had put their names in a little cloud, all using different colors unlike every other band that had used black sharpies. The lead singer Aries sort of reminded me of myself, with the exception of a abusive mother that walked out on her. Aries strove to get whatever she wanted and that was exactly what I wanted to be.

"Hey Danny, can I come in?"

I turned and opened the door, allowing Jack into my room. He looked at the guitar on my bed and smiled, picking it up to look at some of the signatures.

"My Chemical Romance?"

I looked at the name he pointed to and smiled, "Yeah, I caught them right as they were leaving a club in LA. It was amazing, they took me and some friends out for drinks."

"Jesus, you had drinks with My Chemical Romance, I am officially jealous." He sat the guitar back down and sat on my bed. I followed his example and leaned on him. I was tired, it had been a long day and I had a headache from all the whiskey that I had drank tonight.

"You okay?" He looked down at where my head rested on his shoulder.

"Yeah, just annoyed, Bobby's going to take this too far. That kid was disrespectful, but he went too far."

Jack nodded, "Yeah, but that's Bobby."

"It really isn't. That was too far even for him."

Jack shrugged and I lifted my head off his shoulders. We could hear Angel and Sofi talking next door and I rolled my eyes.

"Can I stay in your room again Jackie, I don't feel like listening to whatever they're about to do tonight."

He laughed and stood up, grabbing my hand and pulling me off the bed and into his room. His light was off, but neither of us bothered to turn it on as we sunk onto his bed.

I stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. My mom and I had just had a big blowout and my black eye had really set Bobby off. The twenty year old man had walked to my mother's house and yelled at her.

I could still see the expressions of the neighbors as Bobby yelled at her, not letting my mother getting a word in. I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face, I wasn't going to be going home for a while, my mom was furious, way more furious than normal and I didn't want to be in her proximity for a while.

I turned on my side and listened to the quiet outside, fidgeting a little. Everything was too quiet, it was unnerving…until a soft sob came from the room beside mine.

I stood up and tiptoed out of my room moving to Jack's, the door was opened and Bobby was leaning over him, about the shake him awake.

"Bobby don't." he turned to look at me.

"What the hell do you want me to do then Danny? He's freaking out."

"I'll do it. He probably won't like it if you touch him right now, it'll make it worse."

I gave Bobby a shove and looked down at the eleven year old boy. His back was turned to me and he was shaking from whatever nightmare he was experiencing right then.

"Hey Jackie." I placed my hand on his shoulder and shook him slightly, "Jackie, it's just a bad dream."

He sat up quickly when I touched him, his startled blue eyes finding mine in the darkness. Bobby stood in the doorway, watching as I sat down on his bed and hugged him. Jack was still crying, still trying to control himself in front of his older brother and me.

"Is there something I can do Danny?"

I shook my head, "No Bobby, just try and go back to sleep please, I doubt there's much you can do right now."

Bobby nodded and walked back to his own room, leaving Jack to sob into my shoulder, I was a lot smaller than him height wise, and Jack really had to lean down to get to my shoulder.

"Sh, Jack, everything's okay. You're safe now."

I kept whispering the same thing, repeatedly, waiting patiently for him to calm down. I had no idea what it felt like to have to go through something like what Jack had, having someone who was supposed to take care of you violate you in such a way that you didn't feel fit to be among normal people. Sometimes when I saw him I could still see the scared eight year old trying to hide behind Miss Evelyn and seem as small as possible. And he probably would have stayed that way for much longer if my mom hadn't started to get worse with her drinking. When I had hurt my hand, he'd gotten closer to me, just like the other two brothers after Bobby. They were afraid to get close to anyone until they noticed a little girl with everything to lose being abused by her mother, and they couldn't do anything about it, so they chose to get close to one another, trying to help when I was going through something that could turn my whole world upside down.

"Jackie, it's going to be okay."

His sobs died down slightly, "I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry Jackie, its okay."

I stroked his hair as another wave of sobs rocked through him. I was glad that I wasn't tired, because I didn't think I could just leave Jack here, whatever he had been dreaming about had really scared him. I was curious about his dream, but I didn't want to ask, I didn't want to make him relive it for a third time.

"It's okay Jack."

"I d-don't want to g-go t-through it a-again…"

I bit my lip and ran my hand on his hair again, "Sweetie you don't have to."

Jack looked up at me then, surprised that I had called him sweetie. I was surprised to, I didn't mean that to come out either, but it was something Miss Evelyn had done for me when I was having a bad day, it was a reflex, something that came out without me thinking it through.

"I…sorry, Miss Evelyn used to say that to me, I didn't mean-"

"It's okay."

He gave me an extremely weak smile and wiped some tears of his face. He was trying to get a hold of himself, he was still a bit scared looking, his eyes holding a worse hurt than normal. I didn't think Jack liked the idea of me seeing him cry, but I think he was glad that I got Bobby out of here.

I grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Are you gonna be alright?"

He looked down at our hands and I went to let his go, thinking he was uncomfortable, but as I went to pull away, he gripped mine tighter.

"I don't know right now."

He sighed and looked away and I bit my lip again.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Jack shook his head and I gave him a small smile before standing up.

"Hey, are you alright?"

I looked back at him, "I-what do you mean?"

"You're eye…and you seemed pretty upset after you and Bobby got back from your mom's house."

I sighed, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"What happened?"

"I fell."

"What really happened?"

I went to walk away, shaking my head, but Jack pulled me back onto the bed, looking at me curiously.

"My mom got upset. She and her boyfriend just had a big blow out and he just left. So she started drinking earlier than usual."

"So she hit you in the eye?" Jack seemed annoyed, a Bobby-ish look came onto his face and I had to keep myself from laughing.

"That's not the reason exactly. She was accusing me of stealing something from her, which I didn't, and I didn't feel like being accused for something I didn't do, which was stupid. I talked back to her, and she wasn't in the mood to be talked back to."

I shrugged, it didn't really matter and I suddenly felt exhausted.

"That doesn't mean she should have hit you." Jack looked annoyed again and I bit my lip.

"It wasn't her fault. When she drinks she just gets angry…and I mean, it's just…"

I didn't know how to explain it to him, how to make him understand what I was saying. He just didn't get it and as I sat there, trying to explain it to him, I realized that maybe I didn't quite understand it myself. It was just what I'd been doing for so long. Everyone in this family was always asking why I didn't tell anyone, and I realized, then and there, that I didn't know myself, but I knew that I wasn't going to stop lying about it either.

"It's just what you're used to?" Jack finished for me.

I looked at him and he returned my gaze as we sat silently.

"Yeah, I guess that's part of the reason I put up with it."

I looked down then, staring at the hand Jack was holding. His hands were calloused from playing guitar, and his nails bit down to the quick just like mine were.

"I need to go to sleep. I have a feeling Bobby's going to walk us to school tomorrow to, he's pretty angry and my mom's not above trying to pick me up from school early."

Jack nodded and let my hand go, "Sorry for waking you up."

"I wasn't asleep anyway." I smiled at him and stood up again, walking back to my room and falling onto my bed.

"Hey Danny, wake up." I sat up and yawned as Jack put his hand on my shoulder.

Jack's blankets fell off me as I stood up, "What's going on?"

"Nothing Bobby told me to wake you up."

I rolled my eyes, "I'm going to kick his ass."

He laughed and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of his room before I could go lay down again and dragged me down the stairs where Bobby was sitting, watching some hockey game.

"What the hell do you want Bobby?" I yawned again and flopped down beside Jack, I leaned into him closing my eyes. I wanted to sleep, we'd gotten back at eleven last night and it was too early to be awake right now.

Bobby stayed quiet until a commercial, "Well, I actually just thought that maybe you should wake up. I was thinking we could all go out to breakfast."

"It's too early in the morning." I complained, I kept my eyes closed and tried to lean even closer into Jack, soaking up his warmth.

"It's ten in the morning Danny, that's not early."

I opened my eyes and flicked him off, "Way too early for me."

I could practically hear Bobby roll his eyes and I closed my own again, laying my head on Jack's shoulder and grabbing his arm.

"Danny, wake the fuck up."

I grabbed the pillow before it hit me, knowing where the projectile was being aimed and threw the pillow back.

"Stop being an asshole Bobby." I sat up and rolled my eyes before standing up and walking into the kitchen and pouring myself a cup of coffee.

"Good morning fellow Mercers." Angel walked into the living room and sat down next to Jack again handing him a coffee cup and listening as Angel happily relayed some of last night's events to us.

"Man, I do not want to hear what you did with Sofi last night got that. I had to stay in Jack's room so I didn't have to listen to it." I cut in through his explanation, "You guys gotta remember there is a woman in this house."

Angel rolled his eyes, "Sorry, sorry."

"When are we meeting Jerry?" I asked, watching as some player punched another in the face.

We watched as the fight escalated and had to be stopped by the refs.

"We're meeting him at twelve thirty."

I nodded and laid my head down on Jack's shoulder again.

"Danny, come on wake up!"

Jack was shaking me, Bobby yelling behind him. I sat up quickly, thinking that something was wrong for a moment before I saw the balloons in Bobby's hands and sighed.

"It may be my birthday guys, but I would enjoy sleeping." I complained, laying back down and covering my head from the light.

The blankets were pulled off me and I rolled my eyes, "You guys suck."

"You're turning twelve Danny, that's big." Bobby nodded and grinned.

I rolled my eyes at him, "No, it'll be big when I turn thirteen because I'll be a teenager, turning twelve is nothing."

Bobby let the balloons go and I watched as they floated to the top of the ceiling, I rolled my eyes again, pushing past them to go downstairs.

"No hug Danny? And I came home specifically for this." Bobby yelled after me.

I turned, "Bobby, you woke me up, it's like eight in the morning, it's Saturday."

Bobby grinned again and I smiled, his grin was infectious, even to Jack who still didn't like to smile much.

"I missed you Bobby."

We hugged, "I missed you to kiddo."

He and Jack led me downstairs where the living room was decorated haphazardly with birthday decorations that had been put up, hanging in the windows.

I laughed, "Can I go back to sleep now?"

"No, you're going to stay down here and celebrate your twelfth birthday with us now." Bobby pushed me onto the couch and threw an unwrapped box into my hands. The white box was plain, no bow, and no tag to tell me that it was from him. But I smiled at him and opened the box, seeing a guitar pick. It was clear with Mercer written on it in large block letters.

I smiled, "Thanks Bobby…but I don't have a guitar."

"Then this gift'll be ten times better."

Jerry handed me a large box that was almost as tall as me, it was wrapped and an intricate looking bow was wrapped around it. I tore the ribbon and the paper off, opening the box and smiling at the purple and black guitar laying inside it.

"Oh my god." I took it out of the box, cradling it like a baby.

It wasn't the best guitar in the world, certainly not a Gibson, but it was beautiful.

"This is amazing."

"It was Jackie's idea, the kid said you were pretty good."

I laughed nervously, Jack had caught me about a month ago playing his guitar. I'd thought he'd have been mad about it, but instead he laughed and told me that I'd hit the wrong note when he'd come into his room, startling me. It's not that I was trying to make him mad, it's just that I had been taught by my older friend Kevin had taught me how to play, my mom just wouldn't 'waste her money' on buying me one. And Jack's was right there, while he was at a friend's house I was home alone and I decided, maybe he wouldn't notice.

…Okay, maybe it wasn't my best idea.

"This is amazing, thank you guys." I smiled again and felt happy that I did have a family that cared, even if they weren't my biological family, they went out of their way to take care of me.

And that's exactly what I needed.

- - -
"Sir, are you the man that owns the store?" Bobby called to an older man that was walking toward the convenience store.

The man nodded, "We're Evelyn Mercer's children, we were hoping that you could show us the tape. We're just trying to figure out what exactly happened."

He led us inside and started the security tape, we watched helplessly as Miss Evelyn spoke to Darnel about stealing a piece of candy. And then, after he left, she walked over to the turkeys…and that's when everything went wrong. The two shooters raised their guns, Miss Evelyn backing up in fear…and then…they just shot her.

Jack turned, tears in his eyes and I hugged him, looking away myself. Those assholes had killed in cold blood, for no fucking reason. Bobby spoke to the store clerk again and I led Jack outside into the cold air. He needed to clear his head, he was probably trying to keep himself from freaking out, trying to be strong like his brothers.

"Jackie?" I bit my lip, watching him as he tried to collect himself.

"I'm fine." His voice was gruff and held the choking sound that he was trying to hold back tears.

I hugged him again, looking up into his eyes, "Sweetie, I know you. You're a bad liar."

He laughed, the sound vibrating his chest, "So what."

"You can't lie to me." I poked him in the chest and he smiled.

"Let's go you two. That wasn't just some robbery that was a fucking execution." Bobby came out and we ran toward the gym, all of us surprised that Jerry was coming with us.

"What're we going to do?" Jerry asked him as we walked inside the gym where a basketball game was going on.

"We're gonna get killed." Jack commented as we stopped at the edge of the court.

Angel turned around, "What do you mean we, white boy?"

"Bobby, what are you going to do?" Jerry asked again.

Bobby shrugged, "I dunno, we're winging it."

"We're always winging it."

I kept quiet, keeping my eyes on the crowd, Bobby's winging it wasn't always a good thing, but no one else had a plan, that was for sure.

Bobby walked away then, onto the middle of the court, grabbing the ball from a kid as he did so, "I've got the rock now."

He bounced the ball, trying to piss people off and then got attacked by one of the players, he punched the kid before everyone else jumped in to help their team mate. Bobby pulled out his gun, making everyone back up then, people were yelling in the bleachers and Jerry ran onto the field, going to help Bobby before he got himself killed.

"All I wanted to do was ask a few questions. Now, a few of you probably knew my mother, Evelyn Mercer, she was shot a week ago in cold blood, and I want to know who the hell did it. We know someone here knows a person who could help us find these guys and if you help us, we'll allow you all to return to your game."

Jack and I looked around, trying to see anyone who fit the bill of what the store clerk had explained to Bobby, Jerry, and Angel; a guy with an afro that never wore a coat. There were a few people here that could fit that description, but then, both Jack and I noticed as one kid stood up, looking a bit scared and we turned to Angel, showing him the kid and the three of us ran off, Angel going outside the gym. Jack and I ran after him, unable to keep up with him for a moment.

"Hey kid! No. Running. In. The. Halls!" Jack yelled, sucking in a breath as he sped up to catch him.

The kid ran into a door and Jack caught him as he rebounded off the door that Angel blocked. Angel walked in through the door, grabbing the kid from Jack as we ran back to the gym where we alerted Bobby.

"Thank you, you've all been a wonderful help. Asa lama lakum." He threw the basketball behind him and started making his way toward us, Jerry following close behind.

"Alright now kid I want you to answer some questions. Obviously you know the guy we're looking for." Bobby pinned the kid against the wall, the rest of us crowding around him so he couldn't run off.

"Yeah he's my brother."

Bobby laughed, "He's your brother? Well shit, these are my brothers, and the girl here is my little sister."

"No, no. He's my real brother." The kid looked at us, taking it all in, trying not to panic.

Bobby scoffed, "Yeah, these are my real brothers too. I'm Bobby, that's Angel, Jack, Jeremiah, and little Danielle here."

I scowled at the 'little' part, I was almost taller than him, but whatever, we were focusing on the kid.

"Now, where's your brother?"

"I ain't tellin' you a damn thing man." The kid struggled, trying to get away from Bobby.

Jack took his backpack and he and I shuffled through it, "Hey, I got it."

I pulled out a piece of paper, handing it to Bobby.

He nodded, "Alright, we'll be leaving now, thanks for the help."

"Nice grades, stay in school kid." Jack held up a piece of paper filled with math equations and dropped the bag on the ground as Jerry and Angel inspected the kid's horrible attempt at bling.

"What is this aluminum?" Jerry grabbed it, practically laughing at the kid.

He handed it to Jack, the kid looking frightful at us as we laughed at him, "Shit doesn't even spin."

We walked away then, leaving the scared kid behind as we followed Bobby out of the building, into the cold frigid air of Detroit and into his car.