Trouble – Chapter 12 – A little bit of history

Lily's POV

I stared at the house from the safety of Kozik's bike. It seemed like such a long time since I was last there and for a second I almost felt myself agreeing with Alex. Maybe I shouldn't have come back...
"Lil, are you okay?" I felt Kozik's hand on my shoulder and it jerked me back to reality.
"Yeah, just lost in thought." I got off the bike, handed the helmet to Koz and slowly walked up the driveway barely visible under old twigs, leaves and dirt.
The flashbacks of my childhood raced through my head but I kept walking, determined to get through it. As I walked up the steps to the frontdoor, the middle-step still squeaked and it brought a smile to my face.
My old bedroom had been just above those steps and every time Alex had come home late, and forgot about that particular step, I'd woken up feeling safe, knowing that my big-brother was home.

"Do you have the key for this?" Kozik leaned against the door, once again catching my attention from the memories.
"Move over." I said with a small smile and squatted down in front of the dirt-white door, taking out two small tools from the little leather-case hanging from my key-chain and started picking the lock, making Kozik raise his eyebrows.
"You're keeping secrets from me, sweetheart?" He asked in an amused voice, eyebrows raised.
"Not really, you just never thought of asking me." I looked back at him with a teasing smile. I was still angry with Alex and nervous about being back at my childhood-home but that didn't mean I was going to give him crap for it.
"Right, next time I meet a hot bartender I'll remember to ask her if she knows how to pick a lock." He was teasing me again and strangely enough I felt myself relax. I don't know if he meant to or not but it let me know he was there for me.
"You do that, baby, and I guarantee you you'll be seeing stars." I teased back, my eyes focused on what I was doing.
"I don't think she would actually hit me for asking her that."
"No." The door clicked open and I looked up at him with a wicked smile. "But I would."

He stood there for a few seconds after I had walked in, surprised at my words but seemed to push it aside and followed me into the house.

Tig's POV
I threw back another shot of tequila, trying to block out the anger throbbing through my veins and the voices running through my head.
I had gone too far with Lily, I knew that but why couldn't she just listen to me like she used to? I just wanted to do what was best for her, why couldn't she get that through her stubborn head?
Those were the words of the voices rushing about in my head but my anger was for a completely different reason. When Lil had stormed out of the club-house I had ran after her to stop her from making the mistake of going back to that house we once called home, when I saw him running up to her. Reaching for her hand, bringing her to a stop, looking at her for a few seconds before guiding her to his bike, riding off to God only knows where.

What right did he have to speak to my little sister, or even to just look at her? None, that bastard had taken one of my two most important things in life away from me and I was not going to allow him to take the other one as well.
My heart hurt as I thought of Missy, stretched out on the couch next to me, kissing my face happily as I promised her another treat if she did. Kozik had taken my girl away from me, driven the breath from her body and my blood boiled at the thought of her pained whimpers as I rushed her to the clinic, only to discover it was too late. That there was nothing anybody could do to save her...
"Are you okay, man?" Bobby sat down next to me, pouring himself a shot of tequila as he spoke.
"Why do you ask?" I mumbled back, more than a little tipsy from the shots.
"Because that was some loud argument you and Lil had in the kitchen after breakfast." He downed the shot and looked at me with a look that made me want to just go back into my room and lock the door to get away from those investigative eyes.

Don't get me wrong, I was no coward and Bobby may have looked like a hugable hunk of a teddy-bear but he could be just as scary as Happy if he wanted to be.
"Yeah, well she started it." I knew I sounded like a ten year old boy but I decided to blame it on the tequila.
"What do you mean?" He grabbed the bottle and walked behind the bar to put it out of reach for me.
"She wanted the keys to the old house. I mean, how stupid is she? She still wants to go there after what happened all those years ago, sometimes I think she's forgotten all about it the way she acts." I huffed, slightly put out that my seductive lady-friend ms. Tequila had left my company.

"Listen, Tigger." Bobby leaned over the bar-counter and looked me in the eyes with a serious look on his face. "She's been gone for four years, not once having been back here or in that house during that time. And the night of your mother's death you sent her straight to the hospital once that asshole was taken care of, cleared out all of your stuff when she was in there and moved the two of you into the clubhouse once she was discharged."
"So?" I asked impatiently. I knew all of this shit already!
"She never went back to the house to deal with what had happened. She just shut it out and tried to start a new life by getting that scholarship to LA, but things as bloody as this always comes back to haunt you and that's why she needs to go there now. To deal with it and be able to move on for real!"
I looked at the big man in front of me for a few seconds. Had he always been this good with emotional shit? Because he sure as hell could have fooled me... But deep down I knew he was right.

And I knew that the reason I had reacted the way I did was because I felt like she was agreeing to what that son of a bitch had done to our mother five years ago. I felt that she wasn't happy with the choices I had made for her back then and had gone to make her own and it pissed me off.
She wasn't the socially awkward little teenager anymore who always followed me around like an obsessed puppy. I had to remind myself of the fact that she was a grown woman, who had managed on her own for four years without me being there looking over her shoulder.
I was going to try look at her as the woman she had grown up to be and not as the little sister who always admired the very ground I walked on... Although I knew that it was going to be really hard to change!

Lily's POV

The house wasn't really as bad as I had thought it would be. Sure, it was dirty, dusty and in serious need of some paint and maybe some new carpet but it was doable. If I worked hard I could probably get the whole place livable in a couple of weeks, but once I had cleaned up the kitchen, the master-bedroom and the bathroom I could move in.

I turned around and saw Kozik looking around the kitchen, his eyes wandering from the cobwebs in the corners to the five year old dirty dishes still in the sink.
"Charming." He said, his voice dripping with amused sarcasm and I decided to play along.
"Yeah, my brother isn't too keen on doing house-work." I smiled as I walked over to the dinner-table, picking up one of the Jokkmokk-chairs from IKEA on the floor to put it back where it belonged when I saw the dried blood on the pine-wood and suddenly found it hard to breath.

I could see my father, as clearly as if it was yesterday, standing over my struggling mother. Holding her by her hair as he pulled her up and started banging her head against the dinner-table, the blood oozing from her forehead as he let her drop to the floor again.
He started kicking her, harder and harder until she wasn't moving anymore, not even trying to defend herself against the boot-clad foot repeatedly connecting with her battered body.

I found myself pulling out my cellphone, my fingers shaking as they were hitting the numbers hurriedly, breathing hard as I lifted it to my ear. I heard the voice-mail go off in my ear and knew that I couldn't just wait around for Alex to answer my calls and so, with the fear rushing through my veins, I ran down the stairs to try and stop my father.
I hurriedly grabbed the nearest thing I could find and hit him over the head with it. The blood started running down his neck but he hardly seemed fazed by the blow as he grabbed the back of his head and swore.
I was on my knees next to my mom, shaking her, trying to get her to wake up but she was out cold. Her breathing was shallow and even though I was only a 17 years old girl I felt the fury take over me as I left her side and launched myself at the man I called father.
I got in maybe one or two good punches but didn't have a chance against the old man. He hit me, pushed me to the ground and kicked me. I never cried.

He kept kicking me, I could hear my ribs breaking but I never felt it. All I thought about was to get him away from my mother, to stall my father long enough for Alex to come back, or maybe even for one of the neighbors to hear the commotion and call the cops.
I felt him grab my hair and pull me up to face him, his alcohol-reeking breath made me sick and suddenly I felt a boot on the top of my left hand, pressing it hard against the floor as I was forced to look into his killer-blue eyes.
"Did you really think you could run from me?" He asked, his coarse voice sending cold shivers down my spine.
I felt him press harder at my hand and I heard every bone in my hand break, and this time I didn't just hear it. I felt it. Every single fracture his heavy boot caused in my hand made me scream out in pain. I felt my head spinning, the room getting darker with every second and just before I slipped into the darkness I heard a door being kicked open followed by a loud gunshot.

"Lily?" I felt something touch my forehead and tried to move away, only to find I couldn't. "Lil, can you hear me, sweetheart?"
It didn't sound like my father's voice and so I slowly opened my eyes, for a second blinded by the bright light in the room I was in... Where was I? Not in the house, that's for sure. This place smelled clean, almost like a hospital.
"Hey." I felt a hand on my cheek and turned my eyes to the man at my right. It took me a moment to collect my memories before I remembered who he was but no matter how fucked up I was, I could never forget hair like that for more than a couple of seconds.
"Kozik." I felt myself relaxing a little as he stroked his hand softly over my cheek. "Where am I?"
He leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, releasing a relieved sigh.
"St. Thomas."
"What? Why?" Why did I have to be at the hospital? I hated hospitals!
"You fainted." He said, running a hand through his blond hair. "Back at the house, so I brought you here."
"What are you talking about? Why would I faint?" I was utterly confused and if I hadn't been as tired as I was, I would have felt like a complete idiot for it.
"I don't know. We were in the kitchen and you went to do something with a chair, started hyperventilating and when I tried to calm you down you started fighting me, like your life depended on it."
It was first now that I noticed the scratch-marks on his cheek and by the bruising around his left eye, I must have gotten at least one good punch in.

"I'm sorry, Koz. You were just trying to help." I suddenly felt like I was six years old again but Kozik just shrugged with a crooked smile.
"You got a good right cross there, Tinkerbell. You could do some serious damage with that if you just learned to control your temper." I felt myself blushing a little from his praise and grabbed a loose hold of his hand, bringing it to my lips and kissed it.
"Thank you. For everything." He smiled that smile he only ever showed me and was about to say something back when the door to my room was ripped open, revealing a very angry Alex.

"What the hell happened?" His voice was harsh but he wasn't talking to me, he was looking straight at Koz and I felt a slight wave of panic hit me when I saw the murderous look in his eyes.
"You need to calm down, bro..." Koz started but Alex angrily grabbed his collar pulling him closer.
"You've got exactly two seconds to tell me why my baby sister is laying in a hospital-bed and you're not, or I swear you'll end up in the morgue by tomorrow morning." He spat out and we could both tell that he wasn't kidding around.
"Alex, we were at the house and I fainted..." I started but apparently those words weren't exactly the best way to start the explanation with.
"Why the hell were you at the house with her?" My brother was now screaming and I flinched that his raised voice, something he didn't seem to notice.
"I figured she shouldn't be alone up there." Kozik simply said. He wasn't teasing Alex, he was serious and I knew that once the two of them got too serious around each other, this wasn't going to end peacefully.
"Well, you helped a lot, didn't you?" Alex continued screaming. "I'm gonna ask you one more time and if I don't get some answers you'll wish you never came back to Charming! Why the hell are you with my little sister at the hospital?"

"Because you weren't, asshole!"

Okay! Chapter 12 is up! I hope you like it, and if you have read it please follow the R&R-rule, read and review ;)
Last chapter I got no reviews so I really don't know what you thought of it but I hope you let me know this time!
Love Ramadiii!