Before Perfection
by The Great Red Dragon
Chapter 21
I wasn't sure what I was going to do…Hell, I wasn't sure what I even could do!
When you look at it from a matter of points, I'm running low while the mystery-guy has all the credit. As far as I knew, he had weapons, a good hiding place, and was probably motivated by money (if I believed that I was a bounty)…and I was sitting on Riley's couch, feeling tense, anxious, and even scared.
I sat on the couch, then, in Riley's living room and ran my hand across my head. Rebecca sat next to me and watched cartoons. I noticed then, that sometimes the ignorance of a child can be a blessing: I would've given anything to have just a few minutes of serenity, where I didn't have to worry about who was hunting me and what it might do to those close to me.
I was, however, about to be distracted from my thoughts for a while…because just then, I heard the front door slam.
Lara, who had been out all night (again), had finally returned to grace us with her presence. With my superior sense of smell, I could scent the liquor on her.
I knew that there would be trouble. I heard her stumble into the kitchen, where Riley had been sitting with a cup of coffee (thinking about the problems I had as well).
…There was a minute of silence, in which I anticipated even worse things to come, and then Riley entered the living room. Through his mask of calmness that he held in place for Rebecca, I could see red-hot rage and anger burning in his eyes.
"Rebecca...", he said, approaching us.
"Why don't you and Auron go upstairs for a while, huh?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"No, I want to finish this", she stated stubbornly
Riley took a deep breath, steadying breath; I tensed – do what he says, Rebecca!
"Rebecca", he said in voice more firmly.
"I want you to go upstairs right now and not come back down until I say so."
Yes, that finally got her going without any fight.
At once, the TV was off, and I was being dragged towards the stairs. I gave Riley a questioning look from behind, and he only mouthed;
"Keep her up there."
The smell of trouble was even greater than that of the alcohol.
Rebecca led me into her room, where we began playing a board game. I had left the door slightly ajar, because I too wanted to know what this was about. Rebecca didn't notice anything, but I could hear everything happening downstairs, with my ears strained.
I couldn't really make out much of it, except that Riley and Lara were shouting at each other from behind a closed door.
I leaned my head closer towards the doorway and strained my ears even more.
"-This is the third time you came home this month like this! You smell like the bar, there's no gas in the car, and you're so boozed up you can't even understand me!", I heard Riley shout loudly.
I strained my ears even more, to their maximum.
"What do you care about me, Riley?!", Lara retorted.
"You're so wrapped up with the kid and that blue freak-thing all the time!"
"You keep them out of this! Don't you talk to me what I care about!", Riley yelled, with even more anger in his voice than before.
"I care about my family, and that's obviously more than you do!"
"You care about the family? Where were you when Mom and Dad-"
"SHUT UP ABOUT THEM!"
I didn't need to strain to hear anymore. Their voices carried all the way up to Rebecca's room. The kid was now also aware of their argument. I turned towards her, and her head was up and alert.
…Her eyes were watering. This probably wasn't the first time she had experienced this.
"It's true!", Lara was shouting.
"Where were you when they had the accident?! Where were you, anyway?! Out at your stupid wrestling thing!"
Riley now seemed livid. His voice was no longer his own.
"MOM AND DAD WERE KILLED BY A DRUNK LIKE YOU! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN SIT THERE, AND ACCUSE ME OF NOT BEING THERE FOR MY FAMILY! I HAVE BEEN THERE FOR EVERYBODY WHEN THEY NEEDED ME! IF YOU DON'T NEED ME, OR THIS FAMILY, THEN GET OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT!"
A second later, I heard the door slam, and then Riley's hard, angry breathing. I looked back over at Rebecca...and saw that she was crying.
Her face was in her hands, but she couldn't disguise her sobs from anybody. Large, wet tears dripped through her fingers and onto her muumuu.
And as I looked at her, I realized a small, delicate creature that was stuck in the crossfire of a brother-and-sister battle.
I sat there, not sure what to do. I wasn't an experienced child psychologist, so I wouldn't even know what to logically consider.
In the end, logic went out the window and I did what my heart told me to do. Gently, I walked over to her. She didn't even raise her head as I came close. Very slowly and compassionately, I wrapped my arms around her small, weak body. Only then did I realize how frail she really was.
With one hand resting on her back, and I began to stroke her hair. My clawed finger ran slowly down the length of her silk-like black hair, and back down. Finally, she put her face into my shoulder and put her arms around my neck. Her crying got quieter, but I could feel her warm tears soaking into my fur.
…I noticed then that this was the shoulder that I had received the scar on, from my crash-landing on Earth.
"Shhh...", I cooed in her ear.
I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be alright, that nothing was going to happen to her, but I couldn't. I felt like violating my no-talking rule again...but I reminded myself what it might lead to.
So instead, I gave her a small squeeze and nuzzled her head like a real dog would.
Now Rebecca didn't seem like the annoying nutcase I have always described her to be. She was human, and she felt these emotions. She was a child, and deserved my comfort. She was all alone this room with me...better spend it crying on my shoulder than crying into her hands.
A minute later, Riley came into the room. He looked beat, and emotionally exhausted.
Had his own words hurt himself as much as they had his little sister?
He looked down at the two of us. I wasn't sure what my expression should be, so I kept my face down, close to Rebecca.
"Oh no...", Riley said quietly.
"Oh no...I'm so sorry, Rebecca..."
He came over to us and pulled both of us into a hug. I felt his arms close around me as much as Rebecca, and for some reason, it gave me a strange feeling. It was a feeling that suggested that I belonged here, as an actual member of the family, and not just a friend. I shared an emotion felt by others…in the way that they did. It made me a pert.
As much as I liked this feeling, I would've liked it even more if this wasn't a sad moment.
Rebecca eventually fell asleep of exhaustion. I went downstairs and sat on the sofa while Riley tucked her in. I could hear him singing her a lullaby.
Soon after, I heard him come downstairs. I heard him go into the kitchen, do something, then come towards me. I turned my head as he entered, and he sat down next to me.
For a while, he said nothing, and just stared off into space. I wondered what was going on through his head. What was he thinking about?
Finally, he looked at me. He reminded me of a general that had just surrendered.
"So...", he said quietly.
"You heard?"
I nodded.
Riley sighed and put his face in his hands.
"Lara...she's gotten so insensitive nowadays...really, I don't know why..."
There was silence again. Even if I did know what to say, I'm not sure I'd have gotten it out.
Riley put his hand into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He flipped it open, and searched around until he found a small photograph. He handed it to me, and I had no idea what it was until I held it in my hands.
A woman with strawberry-blonde hair was standing next to powerful-looking man with dark hair, and he had his muscular arm around her. They both showed signs of permanent sunburn and aging, but an overall energetic and young appearance held close to them.
Most noticeably, they were both smiling.
I looked up at Riley.
"Is this...are these your parents?"
Riley nodded.
"Yeah. That's my mom and dad."
He took a steadying breath, perhaps suppressing a sob.
"Dad served a year in Korea. He met Mom on the way back home...and they married soon after."
He took the picture from me and stared at it.
"We moved to Hawaii before Rebecca was born…Dad worked in the air force. I was almost eleven, then, and I didn't even understand why we moved, but I didn't care; I loved it so much. Dad and I would work out in the mornings, and Mom and Lara would be doing their hair in the bathroom."
He brushed a finger over his parents' forever-captured faces.
"Mom was so beautiful...she was the symbol of kindness and honesty, and could bake circles around anybody. I can remember her being in the kitchen, every afternoon: cooking up something that made everybody's mouth water.
"Then, every night when I went to bed, even after I had gotten older, she'd come into my dark bedroom, lean over my bed, and kiss me...and she'd say; 'Goodnight, Riley. I love you'...
He sighed deeply, and his breath shook with tears.
"And Dad...he was the greatest man I ever knew."
Riley sniffed audibly.
"He worked in the cargo center about an hour away from here. He taught me all I know about fighting; he was an expert martial-artist...he taught me to defend myself.
"After each workout, he'd say to me; 'Your abilities are your defense, not your weapons…a black-belt around your waist is only to hold your pants up, nothing more'…
He laughed once around his tears.
"...I wasn't sure what that meant back then, but now I know..."
Now I really thought he was going to start crying, but he held strong with me; keeping his tears back resolutely.
"I can remember...we would all go down to the beach on Saturday, and watch the sun sink into the water", he continued.
"We'd do that every week, even after Rebecca was born."
...I could say nothing.
Riley closed his eyes and clenched his teeth as he remembered something else.
"But then...one night, when I had just started to work in the EWF...they were driving out to watch me, and some guy was drunk at the wheel, and...and..."
Riley leaned over and put face into his palms. I couldn't hear him at all, but I new he was crying.
It hurt me to know that I couldn't ever relate to him, but I could feel the emotional scars in his mind opening back up to plague him, and I knew that he didn't deserve it.
I scooted next to him and put my hand onto his back.
"Hey...", I said quietly.
"It's not your fault. You didn't know."
Riley let loose an audible sob.
"They were coming for me...they were coming because I asked them to come. If I hadn't asked them, they wouldn't have been out that night. They'd still be..."
This time, Riley completely broke. He slipped from the coach onto his knees and started to cry openly.
It was heart-wrenching to see him in such agony.
He didn't deserve it, he didn't deserve it.
I crawled down next to him and helped him back onto the couch, nearly hauling him back up.
"No, Riley", I said to him.
"It's not your fault. Neither you nor your parents did anything wrong. It was that idiot drunk's fault. You did nothing wrong. You did nothing wrong, okay? You did nothing wrong…you couldn't have; it's not your fault."
Riley nodded slowly and wiped his face with a tissue. He blew his nose thourghly before looking back at me.
"I'm just...I'm so scared about losing somebody else. Lara's out at night, drinking...and you...there's somebody after you...and I don't want to lose you, too…"
I pulled Riley close to me and wrapped my arms around him. He did the same, and we held eachother close for a long while.
"I'm not going anywhere", I whispered into his ear, while my head rested on his shoulder.
"I'm not going anywhere just because there's another alien on the planet. You...you're all my family...and I don't plan to leave my family."
Riley let go and sat back up. His eyes gave me an unidentifiable, yet sad and worried expression.
"Auron...", he said.
"I...is there anything that I can do to help you?"
I smiled at him.
"Yeah, there is."
I looked out the window and narrowed my eyes doubtfully.
"I know I can beat this guy...I survived his poison, but I don't think he can survive mine…but what I really could use is a few guns and weapons."
Riley sniffed and gave me a blank expression, and I felt very stupid.
"Honestly", I thought to myself stupidly.
"How would he know where people bunkered firearms?"
"Well, there is a place..."
Oh, he might know just anyway.
"Where?", I asked eagerly, perking up.
Riley stood up and went for the CD deck inside of the sofa and pulled out a road map. He unfolded it and pointed out a place for me.
"There used to be an old military installation about fifteen miles from here", he said, his finger aiming at a tiny, red dot.
"They closed it down a few years ago, but you might be able to find some reserved guns and ammunition there."
I smiled joyously.
"Is that so?", I said gleefully.
"That's where they keep all the goodies?"
"Maybe there won't be any at all", Riley said.
"There just might be...if you wanna check it out, we can go tomorrow; I'll drive you."
"Tomorrow?", I repeated.
"Why waste your daylight when I can grab it all right now?"
Riley looked very surprised.
"Now?", he said in disbelief.
"It's nine in the evening...and how would you even get there?"
"I'll manage", I said assuredly, and then asked direly;
"Can I go?"
Riley nodded slowly...but it was an unsure type of nod.
I gave a whoop of joy (any doubt that I like guns?) and jumped up. I went to go through the window, ready to leave...but then I stopped.
I turned my head and looked back at Riley: worry and concern decorated his face.
I felt a bit guilty about leaving right there.
"Riley...", I said slowly, because I didn't know what else to say…but eventually I managed a smile.
"Come here and gimme a hug."
He came, and before anything, I grabbed him and squeezed him friendlily.
"I'll be back before sunrise, okay?", I told him.
"...Yeah, sure", he said, and I hoped there was more confidence in his spirit.
I smile at him when we let eachother go, and it was somewhat devious.
"I'll be back soon. And when I do, I'm going to kick that guy's ass so hard that Jumba's gonna feel it two thousand light-years away!"
