Title: In the End
Author: Girl with Issues
E-Mail: Buffy38841@aol.com or AngieMcKendrick@aol.com
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own Dave's family…I made them up allll by myself…
Timeline: After "Rampage"
Summary: Dave goes too far in avenging the abused.
Author's Notes: Yup…Dave's past is gonna be revealed in this chapter. Well, my version at least. Read on…and remember to review. Oh, chapter title's from a song on the second Dawson's Creek soundtrack. I know, I know…you're saying, "Girl with Issues, how COULD you?" Deal with it...and enjoy the fic.
*~*
Chapter 7: Broken Boy
Dave sat up in bed and glanced at the tableside clock. The red numbers showed that it was 9:15 at night. Who was ringing the buzzer at 9:15 at night?
With a curse, Dave leapt out of bed. It was a date, he knew it! Question was…which one?
The buzzer was rung again, startling Dave into action. Frantically, he grabbed his trashcan from the bathroom and tore back into the bedroom, where he stuffed the beer cans and sleeping pill bottles into the garbage. The clothes were tossed into various drawers, with the exception of one huge mound, which Dave shoved into the closet. The mail was tossed into the nightstand drawer.
Giving the room a critical once-over, Dave decided that it would have to do. As the buzzer rang a third time, Dave left the bedroom, and headed for the door. He skidded to a stop in front of the hallway mirror.
He couldn't have a date now, he looked like crap! (A/N: You know, as well as I do, that our Dr. Dave can never and will never look like crap, but work with me here, okay?).
His hair was matted and unkempt, there were bags under his eyes from lack of sleep, and on top of that, Dave observed, looking down at his clad-only-in-boxers-form, he was almost naked.
So not the way to make a good impression.
Wait a second, why bother with clothes? They'll be coming off pretty quickly…so who cares? Dave reasoned. After a second glance in the mirror, Dave grabbed a throw from the sofa and wrapped it around himself. Better safe than sorry.
With a sigh, Dave raked a hand through his hair and pulled open the door.
*~*
"Dave?"
Oh my God. It's Jing-Mei. Say something you idiot. Make sure you don't drool all over the floor when ya open your mouth.
"Um…hey!" Dave tried sounding relaxed and casual, but his dream date was standing at his door, gaping at him in his boxers and a woven throw rug.
Witty comment, witty comment! "So I see you've finally come to senses and decided to visit Dave Malucci's 'Shack of Love'," Dave said, tossing in a quirky grin for good measure.
"Actually," Jing-Mei replied, "I came to see how you were doing, but since the Dave Malucci," she made little quotes with her fingers, " 'Shack of Love' is up and running, I guess you're fine. So I'll go…"
"Or," Dave said, gently taking her by the elbow and leading her into the apartment, "You can hang for a while."
Jing-Mei freed her arm and looked at Dave suspiciously. Dave put up his hands, "I'll be a perfect gentleman, I swear."
This earned him another Look from Jing-Mei, but then, she nodded, "Perfect gentleman, huh?"
Dave drew an X over his heart with his fingers, the classic 'Cross-my-heart' sign.
Jing-Mei stepped further into the apartment and Dave shut the door behind her.
*~*
A little while later, Dave and Jing-Mei were in Dave's room (at Dave's insistence that the couch was infested with "these big, black, furry ant-things..not very pretty…") sitting on the bed together, talking. Dave had cleaned himself up a little bit and was now attired in baggy black sweatpants and a white wife-beater.
At a lull in the conversation, Dave asked if Jing-Mei wanted anything to eat or drink. Jing-Mei, surprised at his manners, asked for some water.
While Dave left to get the requested drink, Jing-Mei took the opportunity to snoop…err…to admire Dave's room. While…admiring the inside of the nightstand drawers, Jing-Mei discovered, among other things, an empty bottle of sleeping pills.
Hearing Dave returning, Jing-Mei dropped the bottle into her pocket and closed the drawer.
Dave entered the room, handed Jing-Mei her water, and sat back down next to her. After taking a few sips of the water, Jing-Mei questioned, "So since I've answered all your questions about everybody at the hospital, how've you been doing, Dave?"
Jing-Mei noticed that Dave didn't meet her gaze as he answered, "I'm fine, still looking for a job though."
Jing-Mei nodded, knowing that there was something Dave was keeping from her. She decided to try a different tact, "Have you been sleeping alright?"
This time, Dave met her gaze, "Why wouldn't I be?"
With a sigh, she decided to come clean, and took the bottle from her pocket, "I found this in your drawer," Dave started to protest, but she stopped him, "I know that I have no right digging through your personal things." She thought quickly and added, "But I wanted to see the inner-workings of the Dave Malucci 'Shack of Love.'"
This caused Dave to smirk slightly, but he lost the smirk when Jing-Mei started to question him again, "Why do you need sleeping pills?"
"I wanted to sleep," Dave said.
"And have they been working?" Jing-Mei pressed, knowing that Dave wasn't giving her the whole truth.
Dave sighed. This was just what he tried to prevent: someone from getting too close to him. Close enough to hurt him. Again. He also realized that he didn't like people being able to see the pain he'd been put through. To everyone, he was just a man, sometimes stupid, sometimes vulgar, sometimes pig-headed, egotistical, and crass, but a man none-the-less. But to anyone who got close, they'd soon find out that there was a little boy, a hurt boy, a broken boy, inside this man. And Dave just didn't know if he could deal.
He thought some more. He couldn't hide from his past forever. He knew it would eventually catch up to him. And it looked like it just had.
*~*
Jing-Mei saw Dave's expression change as she questioned him. It wasn't anger…it was something else. Pain. He'd been hurt before and didn't want it to happen again.
While Jing-Mei was curious about Dave (to her, he was almost as mysterious as most of the patients she treated), she didn't want to push him away even further.
"Dave?" she said softly, bringing him from his thoughts. "If you don't want to talk about it, I'll understand."
Dave shook his head, "That's just it," he said, sadly. "No one understands."
"Understands what, Dave?" She was treading softly; she knew she had to be careful.
Dave again met her gaze, but this time his eyes weren't twinkling with normal, flirtatious mischief. No, this time, his eyes were clouded over with pain, "What it's like to have had a life like mine."
*~*
Jing-Mei was now positive that the rumors that had been circulating the ER, the ones about Dave being abused by a child, were true. But if wanted to tell her, he'd do it on his own time.
Dave was watching Jing-Mei. She looked worried, genuinely worried. He didn't see a lot of that with most of the women he was interested in. Of course, most of the women he was interested were more worried about how well they hold up in bed, that in comforting Dave.
Jing-Mei was someone who cared, he could see that.
So he decided to level with her.
*~*
Dave's POV:
"I was born in Brooklyn, New York. I lived with my mom and dad in an apartment. It wasn't big or fancy, but it was nice, and suited our needs. My dad worked in a bakery, and my mom was unemployed. I remember every week, my dad tried to bring home a loaf of bread. It was almost always warm and it was so good.
Those were happy times. My family was perfect. Until one day, when I was six. My dad wasn't home yet and it was getting pretty late. He was always a pretty punctual guy, so this was freaking my mom out a little bit. I was just hoping to see Dad before I went to bed and wanted to see if he'd bring home some bread.
But it got even later, and even though I threw a fit, my mom put me to bed. I tried staying awake to wait for Dad but I guess I fell asleep. I remember my mom waking me the next day. She was crying. She never cried. She told me that there'd been an accident. My dad was on his way home, biking, as usual. He was crossing a busy road, and the cops said he'd looked both ways, but the car had come around the corner so fast-
They said it was quick and painless. For his sake, and my mother's, I hope so.
After that, my mother was…different. She started having my friend's parents drive me to and from school. And she left the house at night, sometimes not coming back until the next day. I didn't know where she went or what she did, until one day, she brought home a guy.
Pretty soon, they got hitched. At first, I liked Nick. For a stepfather, he was pretty cool. But he could never take the place of my dad. And he never did.
When I was nine, I brought home a report card. It wasn't great. My mom was supportive and said she'd help me work harder. Nick didn't say much, until that night. That was when he came into my room, "to teach me a lesson," he said. He didn't want a "retard" as a stepson. He slapped me around a little bit, then told me if I went crying to my mom, I get it 10 times worse the next time.
I always hoped that there wouldn't be a next time, but there was. The beatings got more violent, and more frequent. I was whipped a belt, chairs, and one time a baseball bat.
He broke a few ribs with the bat, and brought me to the hospital saying it's been hit while playing baseball in the park. When I looked at my chest that night, it was one huge bruise.
I started telling my mom, but she never really listened. She'd tell me to be a good boy, and not get into trouble. But by that time, I was getting hit for coughing to loudly.
It didn't occur to me until much later that she'd went through about the same stuff I had, and just didn't know what to do. She dealt by trying to ignore it all.
In my teens, I started doing drugs, putting on a 'tough guy' routine at school, and making it look like no one could ever hurt me.
At home, that wasn't the case.
Around junior year, I decided that I wanted to be a doctor. I'd been in ER's so much that they were kind of like my second home. But in this home, I felt safe and liked. I wanted to help people.
I somehow got into NYU, but pissed it all away with drugs, and partying.
By the end of college, only the med. school at Grenada would take me. But it was far away from home, so it was fine with me.
In the middle of that, I got letter from New York. My mom had died a month before. Nick sent me a letter that late so I wouldn't "fuck up" my mother's funeral. The one good thing about my mother's dying was that I wouldn't have to worry about Nick hurting her anymore, although I suspected he'd played a part in her death.
After Grenada, I started my residency in New York, then was transferred here, to Chicago.
And that's my story."
*~*
A/N: Sorry so long. Oh, and did ya hear? NBC's trying to ditch my Dave. Go to ErikOnline and Vanessa (the webmistress) has this petition set up and a few other ways on how you can keep Dave on the show. My sister's about to beat me down for the computer…chapter 8 will be posted soon! Review! 'Night all!
Oh and P.S: The She Devil~ kindly told me that I'd screwed up on a few of the Linkin Park lyrics in chapter 6. I got them off the top of my head. Sorry, my bad. See ya!