Chapter Twenty-Three: Bonding
Alicia fearfully threw the men the keys as she crouched down by Chris's unconscious side. The pig from earlier laughed, "You sure you ladies won't join us?"
Martina glared at the man hatefully as gripped her bat harder and swung it lowly, "Don't take another step, destruiré tus malditas cojones, cabrón!"
The dark-skinned male eyes Martina and her abdomen, before rounding on his companion, "Man leave 'em alone. Come on, let's go, fucking geeks are crawling everywhere. Get this kid outta the way." the man stated as he headed for the driver's seat.
The second all of the men were in the car she quickly helped Alicia drag Chris towards her SUV before the soldiers peeled out of the garage. As soon as the men where out of her sight she dropped the bat and cradled Chris to her chest. Alicia looked like she was close to hyperventilating not only form the encounter with the men but for every second longer that Chris remained knocked out. When Alicia's breaths started coming out more haggard Martina placed a hand on the younger girl's arm comfortingly.
"Breathe Alicia. In and Out." Martina commanded softly before softly tapping Chris's uninjured cheek, "Wake up, come on, Chris. Up, get up buddy."
Chris let out a small groan but his eyes remained shut.
"I-I can't bre-breathe." Alicia gasped out as she shut her eyes.
"Alicia touch your fingers to your thumb and count them out loud for me." Martina instructed as she continued to gently shake Chris, "Chris, Chris. Wake up, Chris."
"Wh-at is countin' gonna do?" Alicia breathily shrieked under her breath.
"Just do it, Alicia." Martina stated firmly before encouraging, "Come on: one, two, three..."
Alicia breathed in shakily as she started counting on her own. With every number slipping from her lips her breath deepened and evened out until the younger girl was no longer hyperventilating on the floor. With one teenager cared for, Martina turned her attention to the one still unconscious in her arms.
"Christopher something Manawa!" Martina whisper shouted in his ear as she tapped his face, "Get up!"
Chris stiffened in her arms as a groan escaped from his lips before he began blinking rapidly up at her. His mocha skin-colored slightly as he gaped up at her. A wide grateful smile bloomed on Martina's face.
"There we go!" she praised.
"I-I wha-what happened?" he asked before sitting up and grabbing his forehead in pain before seemingly remembering all at once, "Shit, those assholes! Are they gone?"
"Yeah," Martina reassured him, "they took the SUV. Are you feeling better Alicia?"
The female teen had stopped counting when Chris sat up and was now just watching them quietly, "Yeah." she whispered almost hoarsely.
"Good." Martina stated before pulling the younger teens into her arms for a hug, ignoring the two squeaks of surprise, "Thank God, you're both okay! Scared the shit out of me when those pigs dragged you out of the car." She let them pull out of the hug before helping them both onto their feat and gesturing to her car, "Come on, let's get into my car, we'll be safer inside."
"I-Is there enough space?" Alicia whispered.
"We'll make space." she stated firmly before opening the back door, blocking Pingu from getting out before turning to look at the teens, "Who wants to sit next to the dog, or up in the front?"
"Shotgun!" both teenagers blurted out before Alicia rolled her eyes and conceded as she shoved Pingu over and sat down.
Chris cheered softly as he ran around the car and sat in the passenger's seat while Martina bent down and grabbed her bat before getting in the car as well and locking the doors. Lukas had thankfully slept through the whole ordeal and barely stirred despite the new passengers joining them in the car. Alicia was busying herself by petting Pingu while Chris burrowed into his seat and rubbed his forehead tiredly.
"Sooo," Chris started, "Um, was it true? You, know, what you said? To the soldiers."
Martina observed the teens now staring at her curiously, "Which part?"
"The part of you being pregnant." Alicia piped up.
"Ah, that part."
"Yes." Chris emphasized while rolling his eyes.
"Yeah."
Alicia gasped, "Wait so you are?"
"Twelve weeks now." Martina offered, "I'm terrified. Until recently, only Nick knew, but when the soldiers came... They wanted to take me because she thought I had a stomach bug, it was only morning sickness so they allowed me to stay."
"Who's the dad?" Chris asked in blunt curiosity.
Even Alicia leaned forward in her seat, "Man you two really like to gossip." Martina teased.
"Well, cable's gone so..." Alicia retorted sarcastically as she shrugged her shoulders.
Martina snorted, "True. Guess?"
"No fucking way!" Chris gasped lowly, "Nick!? You and Nick."
"Wait, what?" Alicia mumbled, "Does he know?"
"Nick, yeah he does. Here's a lesson for you two, make sure you 'wrap it before you tap it' because sometimes birth control can and will fail."
"Oh my God." Alicia moaned in disgust, "I did not need to know that much about my brother's sex life."
"Wow..." Chris whispered, "No offense, but what on earth do you see in Nick?"
Martina laughed softly, "I don't know if you want to hear it, it's kinda- no it's pretty corny."
"Well, now I need to know." Chris turned towards her completely.
"Yeah." Alicia agreed, "I mean it's weird because it's my brother, but we've already established that there's no cable so..."
A sigh escaped from her lips, at least none of them were scared anymore with the nice distraction she had provided, "Because he's Nick." the two of them groaned, "I told you it was corny."
"Come on..." Chris whined.
"Alright, alright." Martina giggled before becoming more serious, "Did you guys know that I had a twin brother? Marcos. He was fifteen minutes older than me, so of course, he was always lording it over me. Saying that he was best big brother in the world and that I was the cutest baby sister in existence."
A sad chuckle escaped from Martina, "He wasn't exactly wrong, he was the best big brother. When we were thirteen, my papi was driving us back home from the campgrounds... it was drizzling, but it wasn't too bad when this man drunk off his ass t-boned us. Marcos, he, um was on the left side of the car and he must have seen the truck coming because in the last second he threw himself over me. I don't really remember the impact too much, but I do remember what happened afterward. My papi died on impact, he was lucky."
The car was silent baring Lukas' peaceful snores and the soft panting of Pingu. "I don't know how long we were there before help arrived, Marcos was in so much pain before he died. He died before ambulances were even on the scene..." Martina whispered grief and pain evident in her voice, "After that... it was so hard to pretend I was just a normal teen. My mom moved us away from my childhood home, said it was too hard to live in a house filled with ghosts. But it didn't really help, neither of us really. The kids at the middle school already knew my dad and brother died in a car accident before I even got there and they treated me weird..."
A small wistful sigh escaped from her lips, "Nick always treated me like I was normal... And then your dad died Alicia, and they started treating Nick the same way they'd been treating me. He told me, that I was the only one who treated him normally. And I guess we just clicked. I love my papi, and I miss him every day but Marcos, he was my everything. My best friend and my brother rolled up into one perfect person. Losing him was devastating. Nick made me feel like myself again, like, I hadn't died with my brother. When we were together I felt alive."
"I- I never knew you had a brother." Alicia murmured in a soft voice, "Or that you lost him and your dad in a car accident."
"We've never really been close, Alicia." Martina grinned, "Nick told me once that he didn't want to share me with his family. Said something really stupid like, 'Marty, you're my best friend. If I introduce you to my family, you'll like them more than me, so that's never gonna happen.' Stupid goof." she snorted, "I think that was when you started getting straight A's in school Alicia, and since I love to read and anything academic-related he was afraid I'd like to hang out with you instead. Man, boys are dumb."
Alicia snorted while Chris let out an offended, "Hey!"
"I can't argue with that." Alicia mumbled with amusement, "But you know that didn't really tell me why you like my brother."
"I don't know how to explain it Alicia, but I've loved your brother for a very long time and I think I will always love him. He makes me feel safe, always has, and like I'll never be alone even when he's not physically there."
"But how does that work?" Chris asked, "I mean wasn't he always, I don't know, shooting up?"
Martina hid a yawn, "Not always, only when it got too painful. He spent a lot of time crashing at my apartment. A lot. Honestly, I tried getting him to call home, but he always threatened to disappear if I made contact with you guys. He's always been so afraid of disappointing you guys, which would then fuel his irrational fears and send him spiraling back to drugs. It was pretty hard putting him together after he got expelled from that community college, hell, I try not to ever mention it. Always, sends him spiraling into a fury of self-hatred."
"Why?" Alicia asked strongly, "He's never talked about any of these things with us before. We didn't even know he was struggling in school until he got expelled."
She hesitated for a moment, "If I tell you Alicia, Chris, it can never get out of this car."
Alicia nodded, "Alright."
"Yeah, um, I promise." Chris murmured.
"He caught one of his teacher's doing something to one of his classmates. A drugged, underage, non-consenting classmate." Martina admitted, the two teens gasped in horror, "His teacher started trying to blackmail him, especially after the girl refused to believe that it happened. It really messed Nick up, he started falling behind in school and Madison started dating Travis, plus he told me that your mom was comparing your grades again," she referred to Alicia, "and he told me that it made him feel stupid and worthless. I wasn't really able to go visit him often, I was working a lot and taking care of Lukas since my mother wasn't doing well... so Nick spiraled and went back to doing drugs to numb it all out."
"Shit. That's so fucked up!" Alicia hissed as she quietly raged, "Why didn't he ever say anything? We would have helped him!"
Martina shrugged, "Nick didn't think anyone would believe him."
"But he told you." Chris whispered.
"Yeah." Martina agreed, "He told me, but only after everything went down and he was coming apart. Stupid idiot said he didn't want to burden me with his shit on top of everything else I had going on. Idiot."
"Thank you." Alicia whispered tearfully after a moment.
"For what?" Martina asked in confusion as she turned to stare at the youngest Clark.
"For always being there for my brother."
It was quiet for a moment before Martina whispered softly, "It's always my pleasure."
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