Writer's ramblings: This chapter is for MegDBrew as they reminded me about this story ? Thanks MegDBrew!
Len ran. His side hurt and his legs were screaming at him to stop and take a break but his heart and brain knew he had to get home, he just had to. As he rounded the corner he stopped. There was a police car parked by his house. The policeman that came with the car were no where to be seen but he front door was open and even from the end of the drive Len could hear shouting. He walked straight up to the door, the Legends could see the split second hesitation as he stepped through the threshold.
"I remember this" Lisa said, head cocked to the side taking the scene in, Len dismissed it with a wave of his hand.
"There isn't much to remember really" he said
"What do you mean not much to remember!" Jax said, his voice showed his total disbelief, "there is a police car in front of your house man!" It struck Len, Lisa and Mick then that of course most of the Legends would find that unusual and worrying but for the 3 delinquents it was a common occurrence.
"Happened all the time kid. Dad's a cop so they were round a lot anyway to play poker" Lisa stated, she kept a hand on Len's shoulder as she said "but this one, was slightly different. Do you remember it Len, with Miller and Barker" her voice trailed off at the end. Lisa watched as the look of shock and disgust passed over Len's face, he remembered why this visit from the cops was especially memorable. Next to her she felt Mick bristle and knew he remembered too. Just by looking at the Legends she could see they were worried about what this memory would reveal.
While they had been talking the scene had unfolded more. Little Len was now inside of the house watching curiously as 2 police officers talked to his father in the garden. They watched as he sneaked through the house first checking most of the downstairs rooms he could without being spotted by the officers or his dad. He then slowly made his way upstairs. He went instantly to a door that had a simple sign saying laundry. He knocked quietly four times, waited then knocked again. The sound of a lock turning made the Legends curious, who would put a lock on the inside of a laundry closet. The door swung open to reveal a little girl with long brown hair curled up under a blanket, grasping desperately at a teddy bear.
"Hey kiddo, can I come in?" Lisa answered by grabbing her big brother by the front of his shirt and pulling him in safely looking the door behind him. The room wasn't big, barely even a closet but the 2 children squeeze in amongst the brooms and boxes. "What happened? I didn't recognise the car, their not dad's friends are they" Lisa shook her head, her hair sticking to her wet, red cheeks.
"This was my first experience with police coming over that dad didn't already know" Lisa explained, she couldn't take her eyes off the little version of herself, so naive and vulnerable, so purely innocent.
A gun shot erupted and broke the silent moment the siblings were sharing in their little hiding space. Little Len held Lisa as the tears streamed down her face again.
"I need to go and see what that was Lis" the little girl had her arms tightly wrapped around her brother's skinny frame and didn't seem like she was going to let go at any point. "Lis please I need to check what that was" big Len remembered hoping that perhaps one of the cops had shot his dad and he could walk down there with his sisters in his arms and the officers could take them away to a better place. How wrong he was.
Little Len pried his sister from him giving her strict instruction to lock the door after him. He snuck out, his heart pounding as he heard shouting and threats coming from downstairs. He closed the door and stood there pressing his ear to the door until he heard it lock. Len snuck down the stairs he made it to the bottom step before another shot rang out. Peering over the banister he saw his father, blood spattered on his clothes and 2 dead cops at his feet. His father barely looked at the bodies, as if they weren't even there. Len, however, couldn't take his eyes off of them.
The Legends all felt their hearts beat faster and fear seep in at the horrific scene in front of them. They knew Lewis was violent but he had just killed 2 cops, that was a whole other level of evil. Len froze, standing at the bottom of the stairs just staring at his father. Lewis got his phone from his pocket and started calling some as he stalked into the house he noticed Len immediately.
Ray gasped and did all he could not to shout at the young boy to run, he knew it wouldn't change anything but he couldn't bare to see the boy just stand there as the monster of a man stalked towards him. Lewis stripped off his shirt giving whoever was on the phone a gruff 'hey get over here, need a clean-up' before hanging up. He threw the blood-spattered shirt at his son with instructions to get it clean. The little boy just stood there holding it, tears threatening to spill as he looked horrified at his father. Lewis' reaction came harsh and swift, a punch to the stomach and a slap to the face. He knelt down in front of his son as he coughed and spluttered from the violent attack.
"You do not cry in front of me boy! You should know that by now. Get that shirt clean and wait for more instructions" Lewis stomped up the stairs as his son picked himself up off the floor grimacing. He made his way to the kitchen. He stood in front of the sink scrubbing the shirt with soap swiping at tears that threatened to fall. He got the shirt as clean as he could before throwing it into the machine. He knew from previous experience it looked suspicious to have 1 item in the machine so on instinct he gathered other clothes and put them in too. Now on auto pilot, without a tear in sight, the boy went about cleaning the house. Anything the cops could have touched was wiped down and every beer bottled cleaned away.
"How can he have no sympathy" it was posed like a question but Sara said it as a statement. She knew how harsh people could be and how heartless but she had never seen family members hurt each other in such a way, especially a father to a son so young. She thought about how her own father had treated her and her sister with such love, yet she can still remember herself screaming, I hate you from her bedroom, never realising how luck she was to have a father that cared. Ray put a comforting arm around her shoulders. None of the Legends had gone to comfort Len or Lisa because they didn't know how, the siblings seemed unaffected by the memories that unfolded and if there was any comfort to be needed they knew Mick would provide it. The three of the them truly had a bond that none of the Legends could even come close to understanding.
Turning back to the memory Len saw his little self-staring at the bodies. He daren't tell the Legends that it wasn't his first time seeing a dead body, he knew that it would break their hearts but he remembered thinking that those were the first bodies that seemed to be blaming him. That seemed to still have enough life in them to point an accusing finger at him and to stare at him with blank eyes. He shivered at the memory and the emotions that came with it. 2 men walked through the door, little Len visibly tensed as did grown up Len. One of the men ruffled Len's hair as they walked through to the back garden. Within minutes the bodies were gone and all trace of the men gone. Len walked to the door to see the two men get into another police car, one that he recognised as his father's poker friends'. As little as Len was when he witnessed this repulsive act he knew that it was all going to be ok and his father's friends had just ensure that for his father. He understood that his father was police and that meant he had a lot of powerful friends but he still believed his father should pay for his sins in the same way that the criminals his father put away suffered for their crimes. Len also understood that he had helped his father get away with killing two cops, that was information that Lewis could use against him and he would. Not that he needed any more ammunition to use against him, he had Lisa and that was all he needed. All Lewis had to do was mention Lisa and Len fell in line.
Len ran up stairs to check on his little sister. He knocked quietly on the door knowing his father was up here somewhere. Lisa opened the door and snuck out as Len beckoned to her.
"Grab your go bag" Lisa ran into her room and came out with a big hello kitty backpack that was almost the same size as her. They went into Len's room, he crawled under the bed and grabbed his own bag. Quietly they snuck out of the window and on to the roof, it saddened Sara to see how easily both siblings did that, it was obviously a common occurrence. The children walked down the path and crossed the round, they both visibly relaxed when they rounded the corner, out of view from their house.
"What happened?" Lisa asked, her hand tightly holding her brother's.
"Dad did something bad" Len answered not looking at his sister
"Will he go to jail?" Lisa looked up at her big brother with big eyes filled with hope, he hated that she was hopeful for their father going away.
"No he won't his friends helped him to cover it up" Lisa looked so upset and disheartened, the Legends just looked at the older siblings, both with stern faces, no emotion being shown. They had been broken so many times they didn't show emotion like that anymore, not even to each other.
"You came to my home, didn't you" Mick commented, he had barely looked at the older siblings, just staring at the memory.
"Yeah if you can call it a home" Lisa smirked, Mick looked truly offended and turned to face her
"Hey! It was a good house!" He crossed his arms over his chest and scowled
"Mick it was an abandoned studio flat that smelt like death and had rats. The only reason you liked it was because it has an open fire place"
"But it was home" Len smiled at the two of them, Mick looked proud while Lisa just raised an eyebrow. Mick nodded triumphantly.
The Legends thought to their homes and the places they had grown up and suddenly felt guilty for ever taking it for granted or ever complaining about going home.