((Author's note: It appears that I have been spelling Youske wrong…it's actually spelled Yousuke. My bad.))

Heartshield 01

Chapter 10 - Damaged Goods

Homer Fitzgerald

* * * Flashback * * *

I always knew Maria was Jeremy's little sister, but I didn't take much notice of her until her twelfth birthday. Normally girls her age would celebrate with a close clique of girls, but instead of going into the Apollo household and finding her giggling about things girls her age should be talking about I found her in the strong grip of a drunk Coach Apollo as he hit her repeatedly for not sweeping the floor correctly. Shockingly, she wasn't crying. Her face was blank of all expression even though she was bleeding when he was done. He even took the care to burn her in the arm with a cigarette.

"Why can't you do anything right?" He screamed at her. She did not speak. "You're the reason why your mother left."

"No, you're the reason why my mother left." She blurted. She slipped through his grip and he grabbed for her again. She dodged with impressive agility and grabbed a beer bottle that had been sitting on the counter.

"You little bitch! You're going to get it." Apollo hissed. She cracked the bottle off the side of the counter and pointed at him, as she climbed on top of the counter to escape the broken glass. He smacked the bottle from her hand and it flew across the kitchen, smashing on the floor. He grabbed her by the hair and slapped her hard across the face. "Why can't you be a good little girl, Maria?" He started to sob and he clenched the girl paralyzed with fear to his chest. "Why can't you be more like your brother?"

I felt a hand come down on my shoulder from the place where I spectated. Jeremy pulled me back into the laundry room. "You can't tell anyone what you just saw." He begged.

"Is that why she's home schooled?" I asked. I had always wondered why Jeremy could go to public school, but Maria wasn't allowed. "So your dad can beat the shit out of her and no one would find out?"

"Don't say anything, Fitz. I don't have anywhere else to go."

I told him I promised I wouldn't…unless Maria was hit that badly again. I seen her later that day in the woods back behind the Apollo household. She stood in a very high tree and looked down. She closed her eyes and stepped a foot out. She was going to jump from the tree and try to kill herself.

"Don't." I said, not loud enough to scare her out of losing balance, but stern enough to get her to step her foot back and look down at me curiously.

"Homer!" She said, gripping the side of the tree.

"Just sit down for a sec. I'm going to come up there and talk to you, okay?" I took the rough bark of the willow tree in the side of my hand, then jumped up to grab a sturdy branch. I pulled myself up onto it until I was eventually high up and sitting on the thick branch next to her. It wasn't until then I realized how tiny she was. She was only a year younger than me and I was a whole head taller than she. "I saw what happened earlier." I said.

"No, you didn't." She said sternly.

"Yeah, I did. You saying I didn't isn't going to change anything." I snorted. "First off, you need to learn how to defend yourself. You cracking that beer bottle against the counter was a good start, but you need to back it up."

"He played for the NFL. He's strong, fast, determined. No amount of your help is going to change that." "We're just going to have to see. Follow me." I climbed down the tree and she followed behind. I grabbed her arm and lead her up to the house where Apollo sat on the couch staring into nowhere. "Coach." I said sternly. He looked up at me, then noticed I had Maria next to me.

"Maria, I told you to stay away from my players. Get upstairs and we'll talk about it later." He said sweetly.

"No you won't 'talk about it later'. You're going to beat the living shit out of her." I said. I then unzipped the hooded sweatshirt she was wearing and threw it to the floor. I had never seen someone so scared in their life. I saw the welts and bruises and burns and suddenly became more infuriated. It was worse that I thought. "You monster." I pulled him up by the collar of his shirt, adrenaline racing. "You touch her ever again and I'll make sure your life is the worst hell imaginable."

"Homer…" Maria whispered.

I dropped that piece of trash coach on the ground and that was the last that I ever heard of him laying a hand on her. We became closer and closer her last year in America.

* * * End flashback * * *

I hadn't planned to see Maria just yet, but when I caught a glimpse of her sitting in that coffee shop, her face full of concentration and flecks of rainbow copic marker colors on her hands I just had to go see her. She wasn't the "purple haired ruffian who was going to grow up to be the baby mama of a gang member (as claimed by Apollo)", instead she was a beautiful and talented young lady. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail with a black ribbon and she wore a beige sweater, a dark gray satin ruffle skirt and high black socks.

Across from her sat Yoichi Hiruma, the Deimon Devil Bat's quarterback. He typed busily on his laptop as she designed what seemed to be a portrait of the team on a large piece of paper. Next to it sat a napkin sketch that had been done by Hiruma…and it didn't look that bad.

He began to speak to her and she looked up from her work with a look on her face that made my stomach lurch. Her green eyes were full of admiration and love. Her glossy lips upturned into a shy smile and her cheeks flared a rose color. She nervously twirled her hair around her finger and turned in the other direction as she spoke. I watched him reach across the table, take her chin his hand and turn it towards him. She turned even redder and stood up. The demonic quarterback pointed back down to the seat and she immediately sat back down, apologizing profusely. She then said something that actually made Hiruma of all people blush. It was only for a brief second though, and Maria didn't catch it.

"Why don't we go in and order something?" I heard someone say in my ear. I jumped and turned to see Panther and Jeremy standing there with their arms crossed and sniggering. "Don't tell me you're still in love with her after all of this time." Jeremy teased.

I guess after all this time, I was still really in love with Maria Apollo (Even if she was Damaged Goods)…but she was cast under the spell of Yoichi Hiruma, and there was nothing I could do about it. I had to keep a realistic head. She lived all the way here in Japan, and I lived in America. The Pacific ocean stood in between us, while she was inches from Hiruma at all times. He may have beat me to her heart, but I'd show him I was the better quarterback.