Lucy opened the door to her house, holding a can full of nickels from all her hard psychiatrist work for the day. She was all set to put the money in her piggy bank but she was stopped in her tracks at the sight of Rerun sitting on the couch, pouting. She rolled her eyes, wondering what her youngest brother was troubled about.
"Okay, what's up with you?"
Rerun crossed his arms and pouted deeper.
"Linus was mean to me," he mumbled sadly. Lucy raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Explanation, please?" She demanded.
"I was sitting here, playing with my jack's and he comes in with his blanket on top of his head, pulled down over his face. I asked him, what was going on and he went into his room and shut the door. I tried to ask again and he yelled at me to go away." Rerun explained as he sniffled softly. Linus and him never fight so the negative experience with his older brother was definitely taking a toll on him.
Lucy frowned and headed down the hall to her brother's room with Rerun following, as he was curious as to why his calm and insightful brother snapped at him. But when they reached the door, Lucy suddenly stopped.
"Do you hear that?" she asked. Rerun stopped, and his eyes widened. A soft sniffing sound was coming from behind the door. Lucy looked at Rerun and saw her own concern mirrored in his face. She opened the door and looked in. Linus was curled up on the bed with his back to them, clutching his blanket to his face. It wasn't hard to tell that the sniffling was coming from Linus, just as it wasn't hard to see that his usual bright blue blanket was unusually dirty.
As Rerun stood at the door, Lucy slowly walked over. She wanted to leave this for her parents to deal with him but they wouldn't be home for a few hours still. As she touched her brother's shoulder, she felt him tense up. Lucy's frown deepened; something was definitely wrong.
"Linus, what's going on?"
"Nothing," the boy said quickly, his blanket almost covering his face. Lucy narrowed her eyes and turned her head, trying to see under it.
She frowned again, when Linus curled up tighter.
"Just leave me alone," he muttered.
Lucy squinted, then quickly reached over and pulled the blanket down. She could barely hear her horrified gasp over Rerun's.
"What the… What happened?" Lucy asked, shocked. As a self-proclaimed expert of slugging, Lucy definitely knew a beating when she saw one.
Her younger brother just looked away, tears glistening in his eyes.
"Nothing, I'm fine," he mumbled, but the quake in his voice made it clear he was really struggling not to cry. Lucy reached over and turned Linus' bruised face toward her. She heard Rerun gasp.
"Linus, look at me," she said firmly. "Who did this to you?"
Linus gulped and lowered his eyes as his bottom lip started trembling.
"N-no one," he said, his voice shaking. "I… I fell."
Lucy snorted, angrily.
"So, you're telling me the ground split your lip, almost broke your nose, and gave you a black eye?"
Linus turned away again, as if he was still trying to hide it.
"I-it's nothing…"
Lucy climbed on the bed and wrapped her arms tenderly around her younger brother. She felt him tense up again but didn't let go of him.
"Linus, please," she said in a rare soft, gentle tone. "Just tell me what happened."
Sure enough, after a few minutes, the tension began to fade, replaced by trembling. Lucy felt a lump rise in her throat as quiet sobs reached her ears. She felt tears staining her dress as Linus pressed closer to her chest.
"I d-didn't even do anything…" he whimpered, and then broke off, seeming to shrink as he cried.
"Shh…" Lucy soothed. "It's okay, Linus...it's okay."
She looked up at Rerun, who was still watching with wide eyes.
"Rerun, go get some ice or something, please?"
He immediately nodded and hurried off without a word. A few minutes later, he came back in with an icepack and a wet washrag. Lucy thanked him as he placed them in reach and quietly slipped back out. Lucy turned back to Linus and held him until his crying finally slowed and he managed to choke out the story.
Lucy felt a anger rising in her as she listened. She's always angry and crabby, sure, but only once in a great while did she feel intense rage like this. Nevertheless, even she knew that the best thing to do, at least for now, was gulp it down until she could unleash it on the right person. It was more important to tend to her shaken little brother.
"It's okay, it's over." Lucy said. "No one's gonna hurt you now."
Picking up the rag, she uncharacteristically gently wiped it across her brother's face, being careful of his black eye. She then took the icepack and placed it on the eye. Linus winced as he held it.
Lucy frowned, noticing her brother's guilty expression. Lucy rolled her eyes and suppressed a groan of annoyance at her brother's compassion.
"Linus, you know this wasn't your fault, right?"
Linus shifted, and then looked up with sad eyes. "Then why?"
After trying to think for a minute, Lucy finally shook her head.
"I don't know," she said. "There's just people like that. They've got problems and think picking on smaller kids they don't know will make them feel better."
Linus frowned and cocked his head, confused.
"That wouldn't make me feel better."
A proud grin crossed Lucy's face at that, and she ruffled her brother's hair.
"Yeah, I know."
—
Rerun looked up when the door to Linus' room opened and Lucy stepped out.
"How's he doing?" he asked. His sister smiled reassuringly.
"Okay now," she said. "But we should probably leave him alone for a bit."
Rerun looked up at his sister, confused. Lucy rolled her eyes and headed down the hall.
"Look, just don't ask about what happened yet, alright?"
Rerun sighed, and then frowned. "Hey, where are you going?"
Lucy gave him a grin as she opened the front door, her baseball bat in hand.
"Just out, I'll be right back."
Rerun cocked his head, and then shrugged.
After his older sister closed the door, Rerun immediately headed down the hall to Linus' room, but hesitated. Despite what Lucy said, he would most likely end up asking about what happened. He couldn't help it; he was just naturally curious. Finally, he turned and went back to the couch.
Rerun was familiar enough with his older brother's moods to know he'd come out eventually, and he could wait.
He just wondered where Lucy was headed with her baseball bat.
—
Lucy had some considerable struggle with keeping cool and collected, she couldn't help it. Anger was her biggest strength and her biggest weakness. But she knew that she had to remain calm, at least on the outside.
Easier said then done.
There were many reasons for her rising anger, none of which were logical reasons but luckily Lucy soon spotted the despicable person who was at fault: a scruffy looking kid across the park, scowling and kicking cans around.
He matched Linus' description and Lucy couldn't help but recognize him from somewhere. She was fairly sure his name was Thibault. She remembered him from that one baseball game. The memory of that game made Lucy grin slightly.
If Marcie could clobber that guy, so could she.
Taking a deep breath, she marched over to him and leaned against the play equipment, with one of her hands on her hip and the other tightly holding the baseball bat. She just watched and waited. Even though she was thinner than Thibault, she was just a bit taller, so odds were the creep wouldn't go right to fist swinging.
Not that it mattered to Lucy. She would actually like it if he tried something because then she would have even more of an excuse to beat him to a pulp.
Sure enough, Thibault soon noticed his audience and glared.
"What do you want?" he snapped. Lucy smirked at him
"Oh, not much, Mullet head. I just heard you ran into someone today. Looks a bit like me, carries a blue blanket, about yay big?"
She held out a hand at a little lower than her height. She noticed an uneasy look cross the boy's face, but it quickly disappeared.
"Yeah, that whiny little brat, who can't even take a punch without crying like a weak little baby. What's it to you?"
Lucy's eyes narrowed into slits, her fists clenched so hard they shook and she could practically feel steam coming out of her ears. She lowered her voice to a near snarl.
"Actually, it's a lot. Why? Do you wanna pound on me too?"
That uneasy look again, and when Thibault didn't answer Lucy smirked and raised an eyebrow.
"Thought so."
Within a second, Lucy swung her baseball bat with all her might, hitting Thibault in the chest and knocking him back a few feet. She then stomped over to him and slugged him right in the face.
Then Lucy leaned over the injured bully and hissed at him, "Now you listen up, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. Come anywhere near my little brother again, and next time I'll slam your head in. Got it?"
A faint groan answered, and Lucy patted Thibault's head with a grin.
"Good talk, then. See you on the baseball diamond."
With that she turned and strolled back towards home as smiling in satisfaction.
—
Lucy cracked her knuckles when she got to the front door. It had been a while since she put that much effort into a swing, not since her first home run.
Thibault is going to be sporting a black eye and some bruised ribs for quite some time.
She opened the front door and smiled when she saw her younger brothers sitting on the couch. Rerun was apparently in the middle of talking, and Linus was smiling. Both looked up as Lucy stepped inside.
"Hey, where'd you go?" Linus asked.
"Just to to get some baseball pointers from Charlie Brown," she lied. "Feeling better?"
Linus nodded, gently running his hand over his bruised eye. "I'm okay,"
Lucy smiled a rare and genuine one before kissing her brother softly on the forehead. She ruffled Rerun's hair as well before she turned away.
Her brothers looked at her in shock, as Lucy rolled her eyes and headed down the hall to her room. She pulled out her baseball and opened the closet door.
"Ahem…"
Lucy turned to see Linus in the doorway, eyebrows raised.
"Lucy? D-Did you really?" he said, surprised.
Lucy gave him a confident grin. "I just gave him a black eye to match yours. I also may have bruised a few of his ribs as well."
Linus looked shocked for a minute or two but then he smiled.
"I really do appreciate what you did Lucy but you still shouldn't settle violence with violence. What if you get in trouble?"
Lucy shrugged and shoved the baseball bat into her closet.
"Well, if I get in trouble so be it. At least I made sure that jerk won't ever hurt you again. And if a different kid tries, he'll get a similar treatment as the last one." She declared.
Linus was speechless at the fact that his bossy sister was openly showing love and care for him. It was kinda scary because it was so out of character but ultimately it touched his heart.
"Thank you, Lucy"
As she headed back to the hallway, Lucy turned and gave Linus one last genuine smile before continuing on her way.
Linus smiled brightly as well.
—
When Lucy isn't busy being a crabby fussbudget, she can be a pretty good big sister.