Almost Shattered Chapter 6: Revealed, a speed racer fanfic

Chapter 6: Revealed

Speed stared up at the TV with complete and utter fear in his eyes.

"Speed! What's wrong!" Trixie cried out as her eyes soon followed his to the television.

On the TV was Speed tied to the tree - being beaten by the look alike. Blood was running down his face and onto his shirt as the look alike ruthlessly continued to strike him over and over.

Feeling sick to her stomach, Trixie hated the news for showing the horrible scene on TV. There was absolutely no reason for all to see it again. In a panic she looked around for the remote control but couldn't find it. Because she couldn't reach the TV that was up high on the wall, she jumped up swinging her hand. With that one swing she had been able to pull the plug of the television clear out of the wall, and then she heard Speed breathing loudly as if he was reliving the whole beating.

Quickly she ran to the side of his bed to see that his eyes were still wide and full of terror. "Please," she said as her eyes began to water. "Speed. You have to calm down or you're going to make yourself worse."

She saw the disturbed look on his face and the tears fill his eyes as he continued to breathe heavily.

"No!" Trixie demanded as tears ran down her face. "Don't let him do this to you again!"

The tears started to roll out of his own eyes as he stared at the now blank TV, not appearing to calm down at all. Over his loud breathing, he finally heard Trixie's voice, insistent on getting through to him.

"Please, Speed. I can't live without you," she said begging him to acknowledge her because she wanted him to stop reliving that awful day.

Trixie's words, I can't live without you, suddenly began to run through his mind over and over making the scenes of the beating start to disappear. He slowly turned his face towards hers to see her tears as she knelt on the chair on the side of his bed, leaning very close to him.

Seeing his eyes on her, she put her hand on his face and leaned her forehead on to his. Closing her eyes, she whispered very emotional, "I can't lose you. I just can't."

The monitor's beeping began to slow down as did Speed's heart rate. He felt her tears falling on to his face mixing with his own. He ignored the fear and pain he was in as he gripped the sheets tightly with his hands. It was as if he was reminding himself that he was safe in the hospital room. Feeling the sweet female's breath on his face, he started to feel something else rather than the pain and horrible remembrance of the beating. His emotions seemed to be out of his control as he started to focus on his new feelings, which had been developing for Trixie. Thank Goodness those feelings were more powerful than his memory of the torture.

After a few seconds, Trixie backed away to look at Speed as she wiped her tears away. This day had been the first time she had seen tears run down his face since Rex had disappeared. She knew there had been a number of reasons for Speed being so upset now. The obvious one was that he didn't like seeing himself being tortured. Seeing the look alike too was enough to throw him into his panic as well since that horrible day all came back to him. She also guessed he didn't like the thought of everyone else seeing him being beaten and not fighting back.

Rapidly, Dr. Larsen suddenly ran into the room with a couple of nurses. Some of the monitors had alarmed the nurse's station that something was wrong.

After Speed was thoroughly checked over, Dr. Larsen gave him a small lecture on staying calm. The doctor didn't actually know what had set Speed off but knew it was better for his patient's health if he stayed calm no matter what.

A few minutes later Speed was left alone once again with Trixie.

Feeling like a coward, Speed stared up at the ceiling and whispered, "Now I know everyone saw the beating on TV."

Leaning closer to him, Trixie took his hand as he continued to stare away from her. "Listen to me" she said in a strong voice. "What happened to you was out of your control." Being his rock, she said in an even stronger voice, "Forget your damn pride. There was nothing you could do to defend yourself after that truck almost killed you. Don't you realize how many people wouldn't have even survived all that that jerk did to you?"

Speed looked at her in amazement. Once again she had read his mind knowing he had felt like less of a man since he hadn't been able to fight back.

Trixie had a strong determination in her eyes as she said, "If that fight would have been fair, you, me and everyone else knows that you would have knocked him to hell and back."

Speed watched as a tear of anger rolled out of one of her green eyes. He had never felt closer to anyone else than he did to her at that very moment. Her words had honestly made him feel better since what she thought meant so much to him. Lifting his hand to her face, he then wiped her tear away. "Thank you," he whispered, his hand still on her face.

"You don't need to thank me. It's the truth," she said honestly as she covered his hand with hers.

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Two weeks later, Speed was looking much better. Unfortunately the pain from his ribs didn't seem to hurt him much less. Because of Dr. Larsen's orders, Speed had very carefully managed to walk around a bit; preparing to go home. There wasn't a medical reason why he couldn't recuperate with his family.

In Speed's room, both Sparky and Trixie were talking to him a few days before he was to go home. "With that bandage off your nose you look much better," Sparky said raising his eyebrows to the female in the room. "Trixie. Don't you think Speed looks...fine?"

Trixie gave Sparky an unpleasant look before she turned to Speed and said, "Yes. His nose looks fine."

"That's all I meant," their mechanic friend said because of the look Trixie had given him. "I can't even tell that his nose had been broken."

Speed didn't know that Trixie wanted to slap Sparky at that moment. He also didn't know how badly Sparky had teased Trixie before the attack by drilling her on whether she was crazy about Speed or not.

"I'm just glad that my whole face feels better," Speed said not missing that aching feeling. "Now if I could just get my ribs to feel better."

"That reminds me," Trixie said in a serious voice. "We have to do your breathing exercises some time today."

"Don't remind me," Speed said not liking the exercise.

"Sorry," she said glad that she could hear his voice so clearly again.

"Well…I have to be going," Sparky said knowing there was somewhere else he should be. "Pops and I are going to have the Mach 5 in better shape than ever."

Not saying anything, Speed didn't care about anything to do with racing at the moment.

Later on that day, Racer X walked in on Speed who was doing his breathing exercises. He had a pillow supporting his chest as Trixie told him when to take a deep breath.

When the door to the room first opened, Speed had to control himself from jumping. He just couldn't shake that nervous feeling of the look alike getting past the guard and into the room. "Good" he said relieved to see Racer X. "I need a break."

"You did great, Speed," Trixie said as she helped him lay back down.

"I see you're getting better," Racer X said smiling at his brother.

"Is that what this is?" Speed asked not feeling any better at the moment.

"You'll be better before you know it," the Masked Racer said sitting down in a chair on the side of Speed's bed.

"I have to talk to you," Speed said seriously as he looked at Racer X.

Wanting to give them some privacy, Trixie said, "I'll leave you two alone."

"No, Trix," Speed said looking at her. "I want you to hear this. You two are the only ones that I can tell this to right now because I can't bring myself to tell Pops and Mom just yet."

"Alright. I'll stay," she said sitting down on the other side of the bed from Racer X.

There was a pause and then Speed began to speak. "I hate to say this and I hope that I am wrong, but I think I might know who did this to me."

"Who?" both Trixie and Racer X asked at the same time.

"In my heart, I find it hard to believe that he would have done this. I really do. It's just that, maybe he went out of his mind or something."

"Who?" both Trixe and the Masked Racer asked again.

Speed paused again and his lips quivered a bit as he said, "I...think...I think my brother, Rex, did this to me."

Both Trixie and Racer X were speechless.

"Why would you think that?" Racer X finally asked.

"His size, but especially the resemblance," Speed said wishing he was wrong.

"Speed," Racer X said almost sounding aggravated. "That could have been some sort of mask or even make up."

"Are you going to help me or not?" Speed asked so scared. "Believe me. I don't want to believe that it was him."

Racer X then rubbed the back of his head with his hand and said "Why do you think your older brother would want to hurt you this way?"

Trixie noticed the hurt in Racer X's voice and wondered why it was there. And deep down she didn't think the Rex she knew could ever hurt Speed.

Sounding upset, Speed said, "I know this will sound crazy too, but you never know what is in someone's mind. Maybe Rex is upset that Pops let me race."

Folding his arms, the Masked Racer said "There's more to that story than you know."

"Speed," Trixie said sounding confused. "You have always spoken so highly of Rex. Are you sure it could have been him?"

"I don't want to believe it, Trixie," he said looking at her with frustration written all over his face. He then turned to Racer X and said, "More to that story? How would you know what went on between my father and Rex?"

"Just listen to me," the Masked Racer said now putting his hands on his knees. "Your brother would never hurt you. Believe me."

"I never thought he would before but who else looks somewhat like me?" Speed asked wishing Racer X had the answers.

"Just know that it couldn't have been your brother." the Masked Racer said hating this conversation.

"Then who did this to me?" Speed said raising his voice and causing himself pain in the process.

Trixie put a hand on his shoulder and said calmly, "Speed. You have got to calm down."

Meanwhile Racer X stood up and walked over to the door shocking Speed that he was just going to leave. However, to Speed's surprise, the Masked Racer wasn't leaving but locking the door.

He then turned around and said, "Speed. I know it wasn't your brother who did this to you because…"

Speed and Trixie watched as Racer X very slowly pulled his mask off. "I would never hurt you, Speed."

Trixie's eyes grew wide as she just barely whispered, "Racer X is your brother."

Rex looked like a much older Speed but not exactly like Speed, like the look alike had.

"Rex," Speed whispered in disbelief as he blinked his eyes to make sure that he wasn't seeing things.

"It's really me, Speed," Rex said with a smile - feeling as if a load had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Is it really you," Speed whispered staring at him.

"Yes," Rex said with a smile.

Trixie had both of her hands on her face as she said, "That's why you insisted on the doctors checking to see if your blood was a match to Speed's."

"Yes, Trixie. You're right," Rex answered, then added, "I already knew we had the same blood type"

Trixie couldn't get over how weird it was to hear Racer X's voice coming out of Rex's mouth. She was quite small when Rex had disappeared so she didn't remember his voice.

"I...I can't believe it," Speed said feeling almost betrayed and somewhat foolish. There were times that he had thought Racer X was Rex, but Racer X always convinced him that it wasn't so.

Rex heard the tension in Speed's voice so he said, "I'm sorry. My disappearance had nothing at all to do with you. It was between Pops and me. You are the only reason I didn't want to leave."

"But...you did," Speed said sounding disappointed.

"I'll explain to you another time why I had to," Rex said. "But please know that as soon as I became Racer X, I continued to watch over you. You were and are always my top priority."

Speed knew he could have been very upset at Rex but memories of all the times Racer X had saved him came into his mind. The last memory was of Racer X stopping the look alike from killing him.

"Please forgive me, Speed," Rex said. "But I do have my reasons for what I have done and for why I will continue."

Trixie was totally speechless for the first time in her entire life. She felt that she had no right to say anything at all as she stared in shock at Rex.

Finally after a very long silence, Speed said to Rex, "You should know that I'm proud to have you, Racer X, as my brother."

"You do forgive me then?" Rex asked looking relieved.

"If you forgive me for thinking that you could have done this to me," Speed said staring at his big brother.

"I think it was the drugs talking," Rex joked as he held his hand out to Speed. He would have liked to hug his brother but in Speed's condition it would be better if they just shook hands for now.

Trixie's eyes watered as she watched the two brothers reunite.

Rex then smiled at both Speed and Trixie and said, "Now this is to stay between us. I'm really depending on you two to keep my secret."

"I will," Speed said even though down deep he would love to cheer Mom and Pops up with the news.

"I will too," Trixie said smiling at Rex.

"I know you will, Trixie," Rex said putting his mask back on. "Speed couldn't ask for a better friend than you."

"Thanks," Trixie said hoping that Speed and she would one day be much more.

"I should be going now," Rex said standing up.

"Okay," both Speed and Trixie said at the same time. When Rex left and the door closed behind him, they both looked at each other.

"I can't believe it," Speed said astonished.

"I know," Trixie said still surprised. "We were little when he disappeared but I recognized him right away."

The next day Trixie caught Speed in deep thought. She whispered to him with a smile on her face, "Are you still thinking about Racer X being you brother?"

"I did that all last night," he said now not sounding happy.

"What's wrong, Speed?"

"Believe me. I am thrilled that Racer X is my brother, but now I'm back to square one on not knowing who did this to me."

It was obvious to Trixie that Speed was scared as she took his hand to make him look back at her. "He's long gone. Just concentrate on getting better. You'll be home in a few days."

"I'm glad you have been here for me," Speed said seriously. "I think I might have gone even more out of my mind than I have if you wouldn't have been here for me."

"Someone had to be here for you," she said like it was no big deal.

"I didn't see any other girls here," he said very seriously as he looked into her eyes. "They're always at the races but when it came to me almost dying, you were the only one here."

Speed and Trixie hadn't seen Spritle standing by the door listening to their conversation. Suddenly, the young child jumped on to the chair next to Speed and said, "Aren't best friends supposed to be there for one another like you two are?"

At Spritle's words, Speed and Trixie just looked at each other.

Speed wondered if Trixie was only helping him as a best friend. Maybe she didn't feel more than that for him.

Trixie too feared that Speed felt nothing more than friendship for her.