Tina Bender followed Mike to his police cruiser, and appeared to be very twitchy. "Can I smoke in here?" Mike replied, "If you roll down the window, I don't care."

Mike was content to drive, but apparently Tina was not content with the silence. "I love Johnny, don't think I don't. I know what people say, but it just ain't like that. Joe, well he wasn't always like this; I got pregnant really young, you know, at prom. I'm not from here or anything… but I had an aunt who lived here and my parent's shipped me down. Oh god! Johnny doesn't know Joe ain't his dad. It ain't for you to tell him neither, alright?" She was quiet for a moment, picking at her chipped nail polish.

Mike quietly said, "Mrs. Bender, you don't have to tell me anything."

She cried out in some kind of frustration, "but I oughta, I oughta tell someone… I just ain't ever had the courage, Joe said he picked me up from nothing and he'd kill me if I left and well I couldn't leave Johnny there… that's his real dad's name, Johnny… he was an alright kid, I wish my parent's hadn't whisked me off to this nowhere place." Mike wasn't sure how such a little bird like woman, who was chain smoking, managed all that talking without seeming to take a breath.

Tina Bender turned towards Mike, "John's gonna be ok, right? I thought he was staying with friends or something, since Joe lost his job last year things have been pretty tense. I mean it's hard, but Johnny was putting food on the table for us even if he never really ate anything thing. And he, he… I mean Johnny, he can fix anything with a motor like a genius or something… so someone beat him bad? That's what you said…"

Mike didn't answer for a moment, "look, I signed the paperwork so he could go back into surgery – no one was certain what kind of reception we'd receive at your house. I hope that's ok."

Tina started to cry, quite dramatically, "Thank you, thank you for looking after my boy."

Mike pulled up to the hospital and slid into a 'no parking" spot with his cruiser. He hopped out and came around to help Mrs. Bender. It was nearly 4am and the place looked pretty deserted, she got out of the car and swung her purse onto her shoulder, but waited for Mike to lead the way.

Mike walked up to the courtesy desk, "We're looking for John Bender, is he out of surgery?" Tina spoke up, "I'm his mother, please.."

The nurse searched through some paper work, walked into the back to speak to someone and returned with a doctor, "Mrs. Bender?"

Tina nodded, "that's me, tell me what's going on with Johnny."

The doctor took a deep breath, "The surgery went fairly well; we had to put pins in his hand to stabilize the bones, and well one of his ribs punctured a lung. We got it all taken care of, but the ribs had a lot of calcium deposits, have they been broken before?" Tina looked like a deer in the headlights who could do nothing but nod. The doctor noted this and continued, "His kidneys were bruised pretty severely and we're going to have to keep a watch on them. He's damn lucky his back wasn't broken. Once he's out of recovery we'll put him in the room Mr. Standish requested, the one with Miss Dearing, if that's ok with you, Mrs. Bender." She had gotten very pale, "put him wherever he needs to be for you to take care of him. You know we don't have any insurance or anything right?" She sounded very nervous.

Mike shook his head, "Mrs. Bender you don't have to worry about that right now"; he thought he'd had enough bad news to last a lifetime. The doctor seemed to remember something, "Oh, officer, you need to hear the latest on the Dearing case as well."

Mike spun around, "What latest, last I knew she was sleeping peacefully in her room."

The young doctor shook his head, "she's a determined woman. Somehow she managed to get from her room to the critical recovery room John Bender was in. We found her nearly unconscious and bleeding again; she was sitting next to the young man's bed rocking and crying that it was all her fault. She only let us anesthetize he,r in order to find where she was bleeding, once we promised to put Bender in her room. It was quite a circus there for a minute since the Standishs came in while we were trying to talk Miss Dearing into letting us help her." The young doctor received a page, "I have to go, but they should both be back in their room shortly.

Mike took Tina by the arm and led her to the recovery room so she could see her son was indeed going to pull through. What they found was John asleep on the bed, with Claire Standish curled up at the bottom near his feet with her head on his thigh. Tina stared for a minute, "That his girl? She's prettier than most of the girls I've seen him with."

Mike didn't care enough to reply. He was so tired, and was beginning to feel more than sorry for John Bender even if he did have Claire Standish on his side.

Before long a couple of nurses entered. A small man in green scrubs said "We're taking him to his room now if you want to meet us there." The other nurse, a large man in blue scrubs said, "I don't think the girl will add much weight, and she looks like she needs the sleep." At a look from the first nurse the one in blue replied, "really whose gonna care if we are breaking a rule or two at this hour, especially for the comfort of the patient." So it was that John Bender was transferred to the same room which held a very anesthetized Sarah Dearing and a very tired looking Robert Standish.

Mr. Standish stood as they wheeled the bed into place, "I was wondering where Claire had gotten to," he chuckled. None of the movement, talking of the nurses, or hooking John up to various IVs and devices woke the sleeping kids up. Tina Bender approached her son's bed once the technicians left; she brushed his hair away from his face. She turned to look around the room at the two men, and two women… "These ladies and you…you gentleman …you all care about my Johnny?"

Robert moved towards her and laid a hand on her shoulder, from which she flinched. It made him very sad, but before he could say anything Sarah briefly woke up and heard the question, she answered, "I certainly do. He's a good boy with a lot of potential." Robert Standish looked a little bashful, "To be honest, I don't know him that well, but my little girl is crazy about him, and since I want her happy it seems the boy's well being is in my best interests." Mike shrugged, "He reminds me a bit of me at that age. I would like to talk to you at some point about all the scars he has, but I promise you Mrs. Bender, he's not alone."

Tina nodded, "that's all I needed to know, that my boy is loved by someone." She moved up to the head of his bed and stared quietly for a while. After perhaps thirty minutes she whispered – "God above forgive me sweetheart, I am so sorry. I know someday you'll understand." She kissed his forehead and slipped unnoticed out of the room with tears in her eyes.

Mike had set himself down next to Robert Standish. "I think we could probably head home, catch a few hours sleep, maybe even a shower for me before getting back here. It's possible they'll be asleep that long." Robert sighed and pinched his nose, "while you were gone Mrs. Strickler showed up, her boy was finally seen and there was nothing but a few contusions, a broken nose, and a black eye. Course you would have thought he was dying for all the screaming she was doing. Jason was taken into custody and taken downtown." Mike Talmand nodded saying nothing in response.

The sun was beginning to rise over the buildings of Shermer. Robert Standish walked over to the window and leaned his head against it. "I'm thinking about asking my wife for a divorce, Mike. I tried calling her to let her know what was happening with Claire and all I got was her pissed at me for ruining her good weekend. I just don't like her anymore, hell I wonder if I ever did."

Mike shook his head, "I ain't never been married and I like it that way. So I am probably not the best one to ask about these kinds of situations. Shit, I have to go to the station and write up a bunch of reports. Damn it's been a long day, and I don't even know where the hell my rooky partner went. However, I am going to take my own advice and go home for some shut eye. I am not technically on duty tomorrow so I can do the reports then. I also want to make sure that if Strickler makes bail there is someone watching this door."

Robert Standish looked at him and said, "You're a good cop, and I am glad to have you on our side. I will make sure Adam hears that from me too. Strickler is rich as Midas and so will likely make bail, so I'd be obliged if you set up that security detail before you hit the sack for the day." Mike had to laugh Standish referring to Strickler as rich as Midas, hell he was pretty sure the Standishs were richer.

The two men left the room closing the door as quietly as possible. "Did you see where Tina got off to?" Mike asked.

Robert replied, "Tina? Tina who?"

Mike shook his head, "Bender's mother, she was there, then she wasn't."

Robert shook his head, "Sorry, I didn't notice, perhaps I really do need some sleep. I think I'll call the car service to be on the safe side."

Each man went their separate ways, neither aware that Tina Bender had gotten on a bus home with the intentions of ending the abuse of her son for good.

John laid awake for a little while, considering that just yesterday he was trying to figure out how to get Claire out to the bleachers, and now she was curled up on him like she really did like him. He sighed and fell back asleep.

Shortly after full sunrise none of the breakfast club members, their parents, teacher, or the officers involved knew of the report of gunshots heard from the Bender residence. The two officers who arrived almost an hour later were shocked. One man gagged at the smell and the other walked out and threw up in the bushes; the smell of blood was overwhelming. What they found was Joe Bender lying on his bed with the back of head blown out from a small hole in his forehead. On the other side of the room they found Tina Bender on the floor with a gun in her hand and a hole in her chest. There was an envelope on the dresser addressed: To my beloved son John. The officer put it in his pocket and called the coroner.