26 May 2012 - 3:52 PM
Yay! Reviews!
STILL POSTING HERE UNTIL KICKS ME OFF
All the Small Things belongs to Blink 182
1 October 2012 - 6:36 PM - I'm sorry. I've been gone for way too long. ::hugs::
This chapter is kept to the smallest amount of graphicness as possible. I apologize for anyone feeling incredibly unsettled while reading this.
Chapter 11: All the Small Things
It was Saturday, January 13, 2057.
Arthur was sitting in the waiting room, a can of Pepsi in his hand. One of the nurses, Katyusha Brakinski, was rubbing his back, small circles drawn onto his shirt invisibly.
"Drink, child..." she advised, her thick Ukrainian accent making her roll her R and making her voice sound so musical. Arthur did so, letting the shock that he felt be tempered a bit by the sugar.
"Do... Do you think he'll be all right?" His voice was hoarse somehow, perhaps from the tears that he was holding back. Alfred had to be all right. He had to.
"Yes, I believe so." Arthur read the ID card that was attached to her lanyard. Katya Brakinski. "His oxygen was a bit low, but it has gone up to normal levels. The water in his lungs is being taken out." She hugged him. "Don't worry. Your friend shall be fine. You saved him."
"Thank you." Nurse Katya smiled at him and then stood to attend to other patients, telling him that she would be back soon to check on him as well as Alfred.
He hung his head. It was his fault.
All of the signs of that bitch's abuse had been in front of him. The letter that Alfred had written him, how he was always scared to go home, how he had acted at the church, defending Arthur so boldly and freezing when his mother was mentioned.
Why hadn't he seen it?
Neil and Derek came in and they coddled Arthur for a while, until the Doctor came.
"He has a slight case of pneumonia and he was hit in the head several times." He checked the nurse's clipboard in his hands. "We will have to do a psychological assessment."
Neil nodded, frog in his throat. "That's fine," he whispered.
"An officer is also coming by to ask this boy here some questions." The doctor gestured to Arthur, who nodded.
"Yes, sir."
Arthur and Derek sat next to each other as the policewoman asked questions about what had happened, why he had come to the house and all.
"Do you still have the letter that Alfred wrote to you?" Arthur blinked.
"Will I get it back?"
She smiled at him. "Of course. We can use it as evidence that he was calling out for help... Something that we can use against her in court."
Derek stood and shook her hand. "Thank you, Officer."
"Elizabeta Hedervary." She turned to Arthur, looking him over. He sipped at his Pepsi-Lite, still trying to come down from the shock. Poor boy... "We're going to make sure that she is put away for a long, long time. No one should be hurt like this. Ever."
Derek nodded. "Thank you, Officer Hedervary."
She left and went to report back to her partner. "Roderich..."
Derek turned back to his ward. "Arthur... It's not your fault."
"It is. It is..." Arthur leaned against the man as he was held close. "If I had noticed sooner, then he wouldn't be hurt now."
The man just rocked him back and forth. "You saved him, Arthur. It's all that you were able to do, and that's what matters the most."
Arthur, Neil, and Derek sat in Alfred's room, Arthur holding Alfred's hand, caressing the back of it softly with his thumb. When would he wake up?
Alfred's body suddenly jerked as he coughed. Arthur stood up. "Neil!"
Neil came over to his son, laying a hand on his forehead. "Alfred, it's Dad. Wake up, son."
Arthur felt a bit of jealousy, but so much love still, at that. His father had never done that with him, but in the end, it didn't matter. He watched as Alfred's eyes opened slowly, glazed and looking about the room in a bit of confusion. The heart monitor raced just a bit faster until Alfred managed to catch Arthur's gaze.
"... Artie?"
He let go of the breath he hadn't know he'd been holding. Neil sighed as well in relief. Derek went to get the doctor.
"Good morning, Alfred." Alfred sighed a bit, almost a yawn, but not quite. Neil pet his hair.
"Does your head hurt at all, Alfred?" Alfred turned to his father and shook his head.
"No, Papa."
Neil blinked. "Alfred, are you sure?"
Alfred nodded.
Arthur felt his eyebrows furrow. "Neil?"
The doctor entered. He looked kind and had dark brown hair. When he spoke, it was with an Italian accent, his voice warm and soothing.
"Hello, all. I'm Dr. Roma Vargas." He looked at Alfred, coming forward to shake his hand, a gesture which Alfred returned.
"Alfred, do you remember what happened?"
Alfred nodded. "Mom... Jodie put me in the bathtub... I couldn't breathe." He became quiet again, his bottom lip quivering.
"Can she come here?" Arthur clenched his fist. Alfred sounded oh so very frightened... How was his pain not Arthur's fault?
"No, she can't, Alfred." Dr. Roma looked at his charts for a moment. This boy had had his head held under water multiple times. There was even some scarring - from many months ago, but severe enough to be documented - in a rather intimate place. That woman had hurt him even...
"Is it all right if I speak with Alfred alone for a few moments?"
Neil's eyes widened. "Did something else happen?"
"Something that Alfred needs to clarify for me is all." Dr. Roma watched as Alfred hugged Arthur close, whispering to him soothing words.
Poor boys...
Derek held his head in his hands. He had known Jodie from the time that he meant Neil. How could he have not noticed her personality? Alfred had always been like a son to him... A son that he never could have had, as he was strictly a homosexual, he was rejected numerous times in attempts for adoption, and he was infertile to top it all off. If he had truly believed that God was watching over him, it was the moment when Alfred called him "Uncle Derek" and later when he called him "Dad," he felt his heart jump.
He could be the father he had always wanted to be.
God was merciful to him...
Of course, humans made life difficult, and when he had seen Arthur, his son's lover, with blood on his clothes, injured, and his son with wet hair and a pale face, he choked.
Neil held his husband close as he cried softly.
Arthur sat next to Neil, watching his guardians seek comfort in each other. Would he and Alfred be like that someday?
If Alfred would still want him?
"Excuse me."
The family all lifted their heads to see Dr. Vargas with a sad expression on his face. It looked so unnatural there.
Derek stood, wiping the tears from his face. "What's wrong?"
Vargas sighed and steeled himself.
"This Jodie... Did she rape Alfred?"
Arthur spoke. "Yes... She didn't want him to be gay or anything close and thought that she could change that by having sex with him..." He felt a bit nauseous.
Vargas nodded and wrote something on the chart. The only noise between the four was the scribbling of an ink pen on paper. Neil spoke up.
"What else, doctor?"
Vargas sighed. "There was scarring inside of Alfred... She wasn't just having intercourse with Alfred the 'normal way'-" he said, using air quotes.
"- He has cuts where he shouldn't. She was raping him with a knife as well."
Silence.
And then more tears.
Alfred whimpered a bit as he slept. He was remembering things that he did not want to remember at all.
"Keep praying, Alfred."
He was being torn apart! Why was Jodie doing this?! He didn't like it.
His throat was burning, having screamed so much against the headkerchief that had been stuffed into his mouth.
He kept screaming, though, as the knife went in places that it shouldn't. Jodie was very careful about how she moved the blade, not wanting to harm him more than what was necessary for him to learn his lesson.
God and Jodie were expecting that of him.
Arthur entered Alfred's room. Alfred was sipping water through a bendy straw.
"Hi, Arthur!" Blue eyes looked cheerily at him, pink edging his eyes.
"You were crying."
Alfred nodded slowly, not wanting to lie to Arthur. He loved him too much.
"Dr. Vargas asked me things about Jodie... What she did. I had a nightmare when I was napping."
He watched as Arthur came close, knelt down and laid his head on Alfred's thigh, his face hidden in the hospital linens. His shoulders were shaking.
"Arthur..?"
"I'm sorry..." His voice was small and so repenting.
Alfred lifted up Arthur's head by placing his hand on his cheek and guiding his gaze upwards.
"Arthur..."
"..." Green eyes looked back at his.
"Dr. Vargas said that I'm not okay in the head right now. My talking is all funny, like when I was little. I don't understand some things, but I want you to understand something, okay?"
Arthur nodded slowly. His tears were coming down a bit more slowly, Alfred noticed, as Arthur turned his head a bit to rub his cheek gently against Alfred's hand.
"I forgive you."
Arthur closed his eyes.
"You didn't know how to help me, but you saved me in the end. What ever forgiveness you need, you have it already... Thank you."
Arthur kissed the palm of his hand.
1 October 2012 - 7:51 PM
TITLE) "All the Small Things" was a song I heard when I was in middle school and very much into "Danny Phantom". Whenever I hear that song I feel so happy, and "all the small things" reminds me that they're all that matters in the end. Seeing someone smile, or receiving a hug from someone, those little things can make all the difference.
1) Jodie is a fucking demon.
2) Alfred hit his head while struggling for survival when Jodie was hurting him in chapter 9. It gave him a concussion and it made his personality regress back to the point when everything was better for him; when he was eleven years old, his mother was nicer, his father and Uncle Derek (Daddy) took him outside to play and go to the amusement park, and the boy in his class was nice to him and very cute. His memories are still there, but he is a bit more positive, how he used to be. That fear from his mother is gone, something that he thought would never happen, and he has Arthur to thank for that.
