Warnings: Strong language and violence.

I realized that I have forgotten to put this in anywhere, so: Disclaimer: I own nothing but Ella. She is all mine and I love her dearly. (it's a wonder I don't treat her nicer...)

Previously:

"Then you take care of me and I'll take care of you. I think our moms and you dad would like that."

Daniel had to blink away some rare and unexpected tears before he could reply. "I think they would."

They went back to their books. Nothing more needed to be said.

The Other Shoe

When it all fell apart, it was a much bigger surprise than it should have been. Brian left Daniel and Ella alone for a long time. Of course, there were still the times the Daniel came home to Ella crying over something that Brian had said to her. And Brian and his friends would occasionally gang up on Daniel in the school hallways, pushing him around, scaring himand tossing his schoolbooks and paperseverywhere. But there were no major physical fights. Relative peace reigned in the house. Daniel's fears about Ella's closet and its lock slipped to the back of his mind.

Until summer. Without school to distract him, Brian started to get meaner. The younger children began to tiptoe around the house knowing that if they could just stay out of trouble for a little bit longer, Brian would be leaving to work as a camp counselor (something that Daniel privately found both ridiculous and frightening.)

It happened the day before Brian was leaving, two weeks before Daniel's 15th birthday. Brian was 17 now, and had grown in the past year. Unfortunately, Daniel had not. The Greersons were out shopping and Brian was hanging out with his friends. Daniel and Ella were in the living room watching television. Standing in front of the mantle piece mirror, Ella was trying in vain to make her hair look like the actress on TV. That was when Brian came home.

Daniel instantly picked up on the aggression in Brian's stance at the same time his nose registered a slight whiff of alcohol. Mentally, Daniel ordered Ella to get to her room right now but it seemed that her ESP was not working any better than his own. Ella was frozen, caught in the act of having her defenses down. Her eyes were locked with Brian's in the mirror's reflection.

"Well," he drawled. "What's going on? Trying to make yourself pretty, loser-girl? You'd do better just shaving off that ratty ass hair and buying a wig. And, hey Sponge, what's your plan? Figure if you pretend she's cute she'll let you prove you're not a faggot?"

Hairbrush in hand, Ella whipped around. "Shut the fuck up Brian!" The brush flew out of her hand and smacked Brian across the face, leaving a nasty scratch. For a moment, everyone froze in shock.

The hell broke loose. Brian came roaring towards Ella who ducked under his arm and ran for the stairs. Brian raced after her with Daniel right behind him, yelling at Brian to stop. At the bedroom doorway, Brian grabbed a fistful of Ella's long red hair, bringing her to a screaming stop. Daniel threw himself on Brian, knocking Ella free. She made a mad dash to her closet. Brian righted himself just in time to hear the lock clunk home inside Ella's closet.

The larger boy turned and faced Daniel who felt pinioned by a strange feeling of inevitability. The blow-up that he had been dreading for most of the year was about to happen and there was a strange feeling of relief. Just as he thought to run, Brian grabbed him and slammed him into the closet door.

"All right, you little bitch. If this is the way you want it." Brian hollored. Using one hand to keep Daniel shoved into the door, Brian started to punch him. Daniel tried to defend himself, but the blows kept coming. Daniel could hear Ella screaming from inside the closet, begging Brian to stop. She pushed on the door from inside, but Brian was leaning into it with so much weight, she was trapped.

Daniel had been beaten up before. As an awkward kid with too many brains and who was often younger than his classmates, Daniel knew how to take a punch. But never before had anyone attacked him with the ruthlessness that Brian demonstrated that day. First he punched Daniel in the face, making his glasses fly across the room. The he slammed his fist into Daniel's stomach following up with a knee to the groin. As Daniel began to fall down, Brian thrust him into the wall again. Ella continued to scream frantically from inside her self-made prison.

The beating went on. Brian stomped on Daniel's feet and punched him in the ribs over and over again. For the final blow, Brian spun Daniel around by his hair and slapped his face into the doorframe. After a punishing blow to the kidneys, Brian let Daniel sag to the ground. He spat on the younger boy and strutted out of the room.

Daniel did not know how long he stayed on the floor, drifting in and out of consciousness. His whole being was wrapped up in pain. After some time, he became aware of a new sensation. He opened up his good eye and saw Ella leaning over him with a washcloth, a bowl of ice and a bowl of water at her side. Tears were streaming down her face but she tried not to make any noise.

"Ella," Daniel asked, as clearly as he could, "what's wrong?"

The damn burst and she started to sob, "Oh my god Daniel, I am so sorry. I tried to get out! I swear I did, but he had you pressed into the door so hard that I couldn't open it. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to throw the hairbrush. It just flew out of my hand. I thought he was going to kill you and this was all my fault. God, I am so sorry Daniel. I swear I'll never make him that mad again." Ella's words tumbled over themselves as she wiped blood off of Daniel's face.

His brain was too fogged with pain to follow everything that she said, but he was able to understand her point. "This wasn't - " Daniel went to sit up but had to stop when his stomach muscles clenched in a nausea inducing cramp " – your fault." He closed his eyes and focused on breathing for a few minutes. "Face it, - he was going to – blow – sooner or later."

"I though he was going to kill you."

So did I. "But he didn't." Daniel prayed that his stomach would stop churning and that the world would stop spinning. "Ella – I think I'm gonna – oh god - " Unable to sit up, Daniel could barely roll himself onto his side before he threw up. Once he was done, Ella left the room for paper towels and a cup of water. She cleaned up the mess and then sat by his head, holding ice to his face and stroking his hair. In his pain-filled haze, Daniel began to muse that it was his mother taking care of him as she had when he was young and sick. Comforted by the hallucination, Daniel passed out.

When he came to again, the room was dark. His pain had gone down a few notches and his mind was incrementally clearer. He groaned as he tried to sit up.

"Daniel? Are you okay?" Ella's voice came out of the darkness.

"Yeah, I'm alive." Ella clicked on the overhead light. The sudden illumination felt likeknives in Daniel's brain. "Gagh! Turn that off!"

"Oh, sorry!" She turned off the overhead and switched on her softer bed lamp. She sat on her bed to talk to him. "No one's home. Mr.and Mrs. Greerson called to check in. They're gonna' be late. I don't know where Brian is. I told them that you were busy with a project." She watched him struggle to his feet. "Is there anything I can get you?"

"An aspirin would be nice," he replied.

Ella scurried downstairs while he staggered into the bathroom. Good god, he thought, catching his reflection in the mirror, no wonder Ella looks so scared. His right eye was swollen shut, his lips were scabbing over and his cheek was a solid bruise. Hoping that nothing was actually broken, Daniel carefully shrugged off his clothes and stepped into the shower.

Washing up took all of his remaining energy. When he went back to his room, he found Ella waiting for him there with his aspirin and more ice. He was too tired to do more than swallow the pills and press the ice to the side of his face. Lying down, hesquinted up at his friend.

"Brian leaves in the morning. I'll make sure he doesn't get in here before then," she said.

Slipping into sleep, Daniel found it hard to form words. "Ella, I'll be fine…" His voice trailed off as he lost his train of thought.

"Go to sleep, Daniel," Ella went and sat sentry by the door.

He wanted to tell her that she didn't have to be there. He tried to tell her that he would be fine and all of this would be okay. But it hurt to much tothink and he passed out again.

Sun was pouring into his room when he opened his eyes. His clock read 11:59 AM. That's impossible, he thought. I never sleep that late. He moved to get up and the memories of last night rushed over him.

"You're awake," there was a strong undercurrent of relief in Ella's voice. She walked over from where she had been reading. Before he could ask, she handed him two aspirin, a glass of water and his glasses.

"I guess I am," he swallowed the medicine. "Where is everyone?"

"They are driving Brian to camp today. They left hours ago and said they would not be back until tonight. I told them you had thrown up last night and were not feeling good today so that they would leave you alone. I figured it was close enough to the truth."

Daniel took a long look at his friend. The young girl was as white as paper and had deep circles under her eyes."Did you get any sleep last night?"

"I saw a show once where a person with a head injury had to be woken up a lot so he didn't die. I had to keep waking you up. I was worried. And I was afraid of what Brian might do when he came home. So I stayed here and woke you up every hour."

Now that he thought about it, he had vague memories of hearing his name called and being shaken several times during the night. "Thanks. I'm sorry that you didn't get any sleep, though. I'm up now, so why don't you get some rest?" When she just looked more worried Daniel assured her, "I'll be fine."

"But it was really hard to wake you up. I think you should see a doctor."

"I'll be okay. Please Ella, stop worrying."

She gave him a long skeptical look, one eyebrow raised. But her adult façade was shattered by a huge yawn that practically dislocated her jaw. With a deep sigh, she acquiesced. "Alright. But just for a minute. And if you need anything, come and get me."

"Agreed." Dragging her feet, Ella disappeared into her room as Daniel got out of bed. He struggled into shorts and a tee shirt and limped downstairs, flinching every time he put weight on his right foot, the one Brian stomped on. When he got to the kitchen, he was pathetically grateful that there was still coffee in the pot. Everyone told him that he was too young for it, but he loved the stuff. He walked out to the back porch and started to mull over the last night.

Sitting in the quiet sunshine, Daniel felt deeply humiliated. He had promised to take care of Ella, but he couldn't even take care of himself. He was almost 15 for god's sake and the traumatized little 12 year old was nurse-maiding him. He felt absolutely miserable. Brian was gone for now, but what would happen when he came back? Was Daniel always going to be someone's punching bag? He put serious thought into asking his case manager to move him to a different house, but he was scared to leave Ella here. His manager had no say over where Ella went. They had promised to take care of each other. Thinking about the way her face looked this morning, all pinched and fatigued, Daniel realized how truly awful it must have been for her last night. He would have gone insane if he had had to listen to Ella get beat up and had not been able to help. And she must have had to face Brian this morning when everyone was leaving. Daniel was not sure that he could have done that. No wonder she was trying so hard to help him. She really did think this was her fault. One way or the other, Daniel would help Ella stay safe. She was more than just a friend by now. She was his family. After spending a little more time indulging in self-pity and another mental round of "How Would Things Be Different If My Parents Hadn't Died?" Daniel came to the conclusion that however stupid and sore he might feel right now, he was still glad that it was he and not Ella that had gotten beat up. She was smaller and younger than he was. He would be fine.

He noticed a newspaper sitting on the porch next to him. Leafing aimlessly through it, he found something that surprised him out of his mood. The local museum was getting a traveling exhibit of rare Mayan artifacts. A prominent part of the tour was Nick's Crystal Skull that normally resided in either the Smithsonian or in Nick's laboratories for tests. The exhibit opened the same week as Daniel's birthday. It did not surprise Daniel that his grandfather would not think to mention this to him.

Daniel knew that Ella's birthday fell in August. As foster children, neither of them really looked forward to birthdays. They had once had a long, hilarious conversation about the various "gifts" that social services had deigned to toss their way. Maybe a trip to the museum would be a nice way to celebrate both of their birthdays and get over the last terrible 24 hours? Hoping that Ella was still asleep, he decided to reserve the tickets now and tell her about it later. His parents had left him some money in a bank account that he never touched. He could afford the tickets and a nice meal. Whatever it took, Daniel decided that both of them would have happy birthdays for a change.

TBC.