Cracker Jack

Author's Note: Woo! Reviews! In response to a few of them…Jack's not going to die, and…well that's about it. He's not going to die….I think….sometimes it isn't up to me. Anyways, this story has kind of been up in the air with my classes and all. I saw the movie for the fifth (and then sixth) time, and used the excuse that it would help with this story. Ha!

Chapter Four

Bobby Mercer sat stiffly in the orange plastic chair. Hospitals always made him nervous, and the chair wasn't helping. He never had luck in hospitals, not that they were meant for that, but it never seemed to end well. The last time he was in there, he had been called over to identify the body of his murdered mother.

Thankfully, Jack was not dead. At least, not yet. Doctors were never sure at that point, and if they were, they sure as hell weren't going to tell Bobby anything. Sophie had gone out the front door to catch Jack, and found him laying face down in the snow. By the time Bobby had gotten outside after hearing her scream, he was under the impression that she was attempting a make out session with his younger brother, but was actually performing CPR.

He was beginning to wonder why bad things happen to good people.

" Hey Bobby" he glanced up to see Jerry standing over him. He stood up, and exchanged a manly, brotherly hug. " How's he doing?".

Bobby shrugged, " he's still out cold, but they don't think there's anymore brain damage than there was before".

Jerry snarled, indicating that Bobby should lay off the comments while in the current situation. " What happened?".

" Seizure. Can you believe it? Twenty-year-olds can have seizures".

" The kid hasn't ever had more than a cold, what the hell could have caused this?".

Bobby Mercer was never the sensible one, " something scared him, I don't know. You've seen how rattled he's been since Mom died. Besides, he doesn't have the best memories to fall back on".

Late into the evening, Bobby stayed seated at Jack's hospital bedside. He had been allowed in a few hours earlier, yet there was no change. As he had been watching Jack sleep, he noticed that even in a comatose expression, he still looked scared. Scared to sleep. And eventually, that made Bobby afraid to sleep, thinking Jack would wake up, and he wanted to be there. But the nurse had assured him at one point that it'd be at least another twelve hours before he awoke. Still, he chose to stay, and slowly drifted off before midnight.

He wasn't sure whether it was traces of sleep in his mind, or someone was really walking around the hospital room. Gently lifting one eye open, Bobby caught the glimpse of another person, who was not a nurse.

She was dressed in jeans and a long sweater. Her wavy blonde hair laid over her shoulders. Defiantly too young (and attractive while he was staring at her) to be a nurse. She stood at the end of Jack's bed, gazing at his motionless body.

He leaned forward in the chair, " Jack never mentioned having a girlfriend".

The young woman's eyes darted in his direction, stunned, " Oh" she sighed, " I'm not his girlfriend".

" So you traveled all the way from, what was it, Atlantic City, just to see him?".

She continued glaring at him, knowing he wasn't going to get anywhere close to who she really was. " No, actually, we just met earlier today" pausing, " I'm Evelyn, I'm Jack's therapist. You must be one of his brothers".

It didn't cross his mind how such an attractive young woman became a therapist, " oh, yeah, I'm Bobby. Sorry, I wasn't expecting his shrink to show up". Or his shrink to look that, but hopefully that topic wouldn't slip out.

" Well, considering his situation, by law, if he turns up in the hospital, my office is suppose to be contacted. Coming to see him was my own choice though, he didn't look to well when he left earlier. I suppose this is confirmation".

Bobby felt the corner of his mouth tweak, " ' his situation', you mean that he killed a guy, right?".

Evelyn nodded, " yeah".

" I was thinking he was going to get some old bat that had a staring contest with him for an hour, but now I'm sure he took one look at you and now you know everything from his shoe size to his favorite flavor of ice cream".

She shook her head, " not even close. In fact, I cut our session early to give him a break. I only found out a few things. It wasn't much, but I can't repeat any of it".

" There's nothing you can tell me about that kid that I don't already know, trust me".

Evelyn wasn't looking too much at Bobby, but more at Jack's sleeping body. Every so often, a limb would twitch, and he'd slightly shift position on the bed. " I'm not too worried about it. I saw his medical record since he was fourteen, I can try to wing it".

Bobby assumed they were on to the same thing, " yeah, you always hear about girls, well, women, being abused like that. Then you hear it happens to guys too, and its suddenly very unfamiliar".

Turns out they weren't. She glared at him, " what?".

" Shit" he grunted, stalling…stalling, " you, uh, don't know, do you?" Evelyn remained motionless, " about when he was in foster homes?".

She shrugged, " not in detail, his file only lists the one he was in before your mom adopted him" she still wasn't catching on to his expressive hinting, " the Rilen family, I belive".

Bobby's eyebrows flared against his forehead, " yeah, that's the one you need to concentrate on".

" Why?".

She could have worn she saw him smirking, " if you can't tell me, why should I be able to tell you?".

What is he? Seven? " I'm so sorry, I was under the impression that you wanted to help your brother, I guess I was wrong".

Bobby smirked, taking a liking to an attitude that did not fight back to his. " You're right, I'm sorry, its an automatic reaction, I don't take intimidation very well".

" I wasn't looking to intimidate anyone. Maybe I can get a boost on what's going on with him. It's cheating in a way, but, you don't want your little brother to go to jail, right?".

He softly shook his head, " no, at least not for what he did this time. He deserves a fucking medal, not…this". Pausing, Bobby waited for her indication that she really wanted to hear what he had to say next. When she refused to look away from him, he figured it was good enough. " He wasn't even sixteen yet, when my mom finally got a hold of him. She had known him for awhile, placing him in foster homes since he was a kid. He took a liking to her, and since she pretty much loved everyone, the feeling was mutual. Jack had it rough, I remember Mom telling me about him when she first brought him home. Well, she told my older brother, I just listened in. But…..Jack".

Evelyn turned around to follow his gazing path to the bed. Slowly and weakly, Jack was looking back at the two of them. It looked as thought he didn't like the idea that his therapist was standing in his hospital room, or maybe that was just what the drugs did.

Bobby brushed past her to his side, " hey buddy" he said quietly, " its good to see you awake".

Leaning over, she caught a quick glimpse of his tired eyes before the blue irises rolled back up into his eyelids. A long, loud alarm began ringing, startling both her and Bobby.

" That's the heart monitor! Fuck! Get the nurse!".