Wow guys, you didn't let me down!
Special thanks must go to a "raeraegreen"
Only because your multiple reviewing and constant name-changing cracked me up
8 more cornflake breakfasts til school!!!
But thanks all for getting me up to 160 and beyond
I really gotta hand it to ya
Thank you loads to:
Carby6, striker20, jlkj, Lispa, Dracula5555, carbytothecore, starbright, hyperpiper91, Carby-Always, Caroline25, loocy, Proffy, Hibbs, jeni, Angel Dust, fiery red-haired girl and missy-maura (who also reviewed c14)
So here's the 17th chapter as promised
It's shorter but then it took a lot outta me
Enjoy! Love LJ xXx
Beyond All Of Everything. Chapter Seventeen. Fly South For Winter
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o SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 16: Eric gets a job. Carter buys Ollie a baseball, bat and glove. It is his 6th birthday and ends, as always, with his parents fighting.
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The fighting goes on in the next room and Ollie pads off to bed.
He only ever wishes for one thing and he tries really hard to be a good boy all year long but somehow – somehow every day ends the same
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"Ollie? Ollie." Abby hisses in the darkened room. "Ollie, honey wake up." Her voice is full of urgency and fear. She flicks on the light in Ollie's bedroom and Ollie sits up blearily. His Mom is pressed up against the bedroom door and someone on the other side is fighting to open it.
"Don't think you can hide from me, Abby!" Richard yells. Abby turns a dry sob into a bitter laugh and forces a smile for Ollie and stares desperately up at the ceiling, her feet slipping on the bedroom carpet and doing all they can to hold the door shut.
"Grab some things, sweetheart, we have to go." Abby instructs Ollie, firmly but trying not to worry him. The banging on the door stops and she holds her breath, dreading what comes next. Ollie sits frozen on his bed and stares in horror at her; one side of her face is red and swollen, one of her sleeves has been completely torn off and she has tears that haven't fully dried on her cheeks. Abby beams at him.
"I'm sorry, honey. Please, we have really gotta go now," she whispers softly. "So Ollie, get some clothes for tomorrow, okay? Can you do that for me, honey?" Ollie nods dumbly and steps cautiously out of bed.
"That's it, just get some things quickly. It'll be alright," Abby encourages him. Then, suddenly, a huge crash makes the door jolt forwards and Abby screams in shock – there's a split running all the way down the wooden door.
"Oh God," Abby gasps, breathing fast. Ollie stops packing, looks at her and starts to cry
"Hey, hey it's okay, baby." But she doesn't sound convinced. Without thinking, she leaves the door and wraps her arms around him.
"Don't cry, Ollie. It's ok," she soothes, using one hand to finish packing for him and the other to stroke his soft brown hair. Richard bursts into the room, brandishing the baseball bat that he had used to break the door. Crying in his mother's arms, Ollie faintly hears his baseball bat thump repeatedly against something but he's safe, here in his Mom's arms he knows he's safe.
Abby grits her teeth, determined not to make a sound as Richard swings the bat against her back and head. She hugs her son tighter; Richard won't touch him. After a while Richard tires and Abby staggers to her feet, picks up Ollie and his bag as she stumbles out the door. Her head spins as she reels down the hall, half-running, half-falling down the stairs in a dazed state. Ollie clings to her and she hangs tightly onto him, ignoring her sprained wrist and fresh injuries that beg her to collapse – she has to get away.
"Where d'you think you're going?" Richard demands, his voice echoes down from the top of the stairwell but Abby is on the ground floor now and she's out the door before he can even begin to come after her.
Her feet pound the grey paving slabs but Abby can't really feel it anymore; the view ahead shimmers and spins as though it is all held above a flame. She has run a few blocks and really can't keep this up – they must've got away by now.
"We're okay," she announces, decidedly and she struggles to catch her breath as she sets Ollie down the on ground, still in his pyjamas. "Are you okay?" Ollie nods but shivers all the same, his bare-feet aren't used to standing on the concrete sidewalk at 11 o'clock. Abby grins despite everything that's happened and gets some shoes from his bag.
"Scared?" she asks. Ollie shakes his head furiously. Abby laughs slightly. "It's okay to be scared. But we're safe now." She lifts him up and sits him on her hip, holding him to keep him warm but his teeth still chatter in her ear. She kisses him. "You can go to sleep if you want."
"Where are we going?" he mumbles sleepily, resting his tear-stained face on her shoulder. Abby shifts him slightly with her left arm to get a better grip; her right arm hangs limp at her side, finally giving in to the pain that keeps randomly surging in it. She prays it isn't broken.
"Somewhere safe," she promises. "And warm," she adds as he shivers slightly. She feels him nod slightly and keeps on walking.
Her white knuckles rap against the door. It is half-past eleven at night and she doesn't exactly know how she'll explain herself, but Ollie's asleep in her arms and the pain has really started to kick into her arm, her head, her back, her ribs…the list goes on. She takes a step back and waits on the front porch. The door rattles and eventually swings open.
"Abby? Oh my god…" The reaction is what she expected; she is, after all, standing battered and bruised on the doorstep in the middle of the night.
"Hey," she greets, cheerfully.
"What happened?"
"It's not your fault or anything," she begins. "But perhaps buying him a baseball bat wasn't the best of plans." Abby smiles weakly at Carter who actually looks like he's going to cry. "Can we stay for a while?"
"Jesus, yes – of course." Carter lets them in, shutting the door behind them.
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