Patience Is A Virtue

Tori ran out of the house and jumped into the truck parked in the driveway. She sped down the road and in five minutes, just like she said, she pulled into Brooke's driveway where Brooke was found waiting on her front step.

She was clutching a glass bottle in one hand and the baby carrier in the other. Tori turned the car off and walked up to the front step where Brooke looked up at her, eyes red.

"Hey Tori." She said, struggling to speak.

"Brooke, are you drunk?"

"No, just had a few beers." Brooke grinned.

"How many is a few?" Tori asked as she went for the baby.

Brooke saw this move and pushed Tori back, making her fall onto her butt and scrape her hands. Tori glared at Brooke with watery eyes. She grabbed the baby but not before Brooke slapped her in the arm, hard, and Tori fled the house without Brooke.

Tori backed out furiously. Her memories flooded back into her head.

"You are so ungrateful." He muttered as he turned his hand into a fist.

"I'm sorry!" She cried, trying to get through to him. "I didn't mean to do anything, it's not my fault."

"So it's my fault?" He asked, stumbling with his balance.

"Of course not." Tori whispered.

It was the night just a few days before he killed himself. She remembered trying to prove to someone he was beating on her but that someone wasn't listening. That someone now listened to everything she said.

"Drunk, are you sure this is the same Blake we know?" Dustin asked.

"Of course, he's just stressed and stuff." Tori answered.

"No way, Blake would never do this." Hunter argued.

"As much as you don't want to believe it bro, there's proof, even if he is your brother and you think he would never do anything like that, people change." Shane retorted.

Tori sped away from Brooke's house, letting a few tears fall from her hurting eyes. Blake hung in the kitchen a year ago, dead from what was supposed to be her noose. It was all burned into her head. That horror always got to her, she hated seeing him like that. It was not the way he should've died, he should've died valiantly at old age.

Tori wiped her eyes once more before getting out of the truck. She picked up the six-month-old and almost ran into the house. The door was unlocked so she just whipped it open, set the baby on the couch next to Hunter and dashed for her room.

He could hear her sobs and stood up slowly. She was crying into a pillow when he stepped into the room.

"Didn't go to well?" Hunter asked.

Tori rolled over, taking her head out of the pillow. Her face was soaking wet from the tears and Hunter sat beside her.

Someone outside the door heard her wince and rushed to her side. It was the one person who did not believe she was abused. Tori sat up and looked at Hunter.

"Not exactly the way I thought you'd prove it to me." He tried to joke but the mood in the room would not allow it.

"Is he...?"

"Yeah."

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat beside Hunter. He was not looking at her but she was watching his every move.

"It's not your fault you know." Tori stated.

"I'm sorry."

Tori looked around the room, watching for any differences from that night. She found one, Hunter was a different person.

"I went to get her and when I got out of the truck, she had a beer in one hand and Kimmy in the other." Tori started.

"Did she hurt you?" Hunter asked immediately.