Stand By Me

Chapter Four

"Ryan... you can't leave... not now... not yet..."

The older boy paused in his work, looking down silently and, finally, looked over with shockingly blue eyes. His hands, on the bag, stilled very suddenly, a hesitation on his part. There was silence in the night air around them and then, swallowing, he spoke in a breathless whisper. "I can't stay here any more. I can't do it. I just can't, Hockett. I'm sorry but... I have to leave."

"You have to take us with you. Me and Erin."

"I can't." Ignoring the flash of harsh hurt in those deep brown eyes, he twisted away, headed to the jacket laying nearby. "I can't breath any more here, okay? I have to get out of here. I can't stay here anymore."

"But what about us? I mean... Braden's gone... we can go with you, right?" Desperation. Helplessness. Absolute and utter terror that shone from his eyes with painful, raw clarity. Too much for his brother, who's voice, when it returned, was rough with emotion, a ragged edge of anguish.

"Hockett... you're a big boy now."

"No... I'm... I'm not strong enough. I'm not brave like you and strong and... I'm not big enough. I can't protect Erin, Rye."

His movements, slow and careful, were restarted. He laid the last pair of jeans in the bag, zipped it closed in his deliberate movements. He pulled on his jacket and finally looked around at the nine-year old. "Look, you are extremely brave, okay? You and Erin? You two... you two will look out for each other... protect each other... and, one day, I'll come back for you."

"Really?"

"Yes." He nodded, finding his heart easing at the sudden light in the brown eyes. "Yes... I'll come back and I'll get you and Erin out of here and we'll... you and me? We will take over, okay? We will, just... we'll get a wonderful life away from Dad and Mom and all the stench... and Erin will grow up happy and healthy and, one day, we'll walk her down the aisle."

It was absurd, that a simple lie like that could so easily soothe a child that terrified. It wasn't a lie back then, though; he'd planned it all out, but every time, at the last second, he turn back around. It was absurd tha the thought of walking little Erin down the aisle could inspire such excitement. He was only nine and that his big dream... walking Erin down the fucking aisle. What a fucking world.

"You'll come back."

"Yes." He reached out, hesitated and finally dropped his hand with a sigh. "Yes, Jonathon... I will come back."

"Do you promise?"

It wasn't a lie back then. It wasn't. But, sadly, as months stretched into years, it became one... one long awful lie that never ended, never stopped, a lie that preyed on his broken mind in the stillness of the night or when his mind was loosened by a booze-soaked mind... now, years later, he had come to the painful decision that Ryan had just lied.

She ended up spending a good ten minutes in her car, checking her hair over and over again. Finally, though, Maggie forced herself to finish her coffee and pick up the bag from the passenger seat and climbed out of the front seat, smoothing a hand down her denim-clad thigh and trying to ignore the growing pressure in the front of her skull.

She headed toward Bianca's place, marching forward and fighting the shaking in her hands. Reaching the door, she halted, hesitating, before, with a sigh, she knocked as quickly as possible, a sharp rapping of her knuckles. She heard movement from within, a shuffle of something heavy.

The door, opening, revealed an extremely excited Bianca, large dark eyes alight with giddiness. Stepping back, she allowed her to slip in, closing the door behind Maggie and slowly turned to observe the smaller woman, who was gazing around the apartment with an inquiring rise of her eyebrows. "Um... where's the Munchkin?"

"Miranda? Oh... she's been kidnapped by her grandma and great uncle... they have yet to return here to my care."

A frown, and her eyebrow rose higher into her blonde hairline. "Oh... do they realize that it's not even noon yet?"

She laughed, darted past Maggie with a nervous gesture. "Oh, there's no problem with that, really. They love Miranda... I'm personally more worried about that puppy Kendall keeps threatening my place with."

"Dogs are good people, B. No," she laughed at Bianca's snort as the brunette continued to snatch up several toys from the couch that definitely would have hurt like hell to sit on. "No, seriously, Bianca... dogs are, really, doggie."

"That's a scientific fact, huh, Doctor Stone?"

Maggie arched the eyebrow even higher and, blushing, Bianca ducked her head; shaking her head, Maggie set the bag in the chair and settled on the couch, opening her jacket and peeling it off, eyes on Bianca's back as she dropped the toys into the nearby play yard. Turning around, she cocked an eyebrow of her own. "Have you ever had a dog, oh Great Dog Knower?"

"No, but Ames did!" Her eyes focused on the floppy stuffed worm she was apparently focused on, she missed the flinch from Bianca... the brunette crossed her arms over her chest, beating down the rising irritation again. Absently, she listened to Maggie go on about some Labrador Retriever that she and Ames had found when they had been little.

Finally raising her head, Bianca stepped forward and took a seat beside Maggie, instantly regretting how close she sat, feeling the heat from Maggie's thigh against hers... her hand was close enough to hold and her fingers tightened, itching to lace Maggie's. She forced back the instinct to touch Maggie, clearing her throat.

"So... where is Amy now anyway? Is she busy today?"

"Sort of." She grinned, teeth flashing beautifully. "Later, we're going to go shopping for stuff for her next... um, she wants me to show her around town though so, yeah, I guess could say we're going to be busy. Amy and her shopping?" She shook her head, rubbing her forehead and Bianca immediately stiffened.

"What's the matter? Do you have a headache?"

Maggie looked over, looking baffled for a second before shaking her head again, shrugging. "Just a little one… you know me and my inability to release stress. Stress builds and I end up with a migraine."

"I thought you just said it was a little headache?" It was the first time, in a long time, Bianca found herself with the ability to help Maggie and she was surprised at the rush of excitement that brought to her. She moved forward, only slightly aware of the feel of Maggie's leg pressing harder against hers. "Do you want any Tylenol or… or anything?"

Maggie's hands, under her hair and somewhere around the base of her skull, paused in their restless movements, brown eyes met hers warily. "What? No, no… I don't need any. Besides this is starting to work."

"Rubbing your neck is starting to work?" Bianca asked in confusion.

"No… no, uh, pressure points. It's easing up a little." She shrugged again, lightly, and her hands restarted their movements. "Really, it's easing up a bit."

For long moments Bianca watched her, before, with a sudden feeling of courage, she leaned over closer. "Can't I help? I mean… I can help right?" Panic spread across Maggie's face, lit up her gaze and, for a second or two all Maggie could do was stare at her before, in a sudden movement, she snapped her mouth shut.

"Do you know pressure points?" Boy was Maggie direct—and extremely nice-looking—today! Bianca considered her words, rolled them for a moment before taking the chance and speaking quietly. "Well, you can show me right? Plus, I mean… they could always be useful if Kendall gets a headache, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess." More silence and her hands finally dropped, folded in her lap and Bianca suddenly wanted to bang her head against a wall. Just a year or so before, she would have had Maggie's feet up and a bag of frozen peas on her forehead and her fingers massaging her head about two seconds after learning about a headache.

Now, Maggie was looking at her like she was Medusa after a nice trip to the salon, eyes wide, face unreadable and legs and hands locked together. It was absolutely horrible and, with a flare of irritation, Bianca decided to do something about it. Before Maggie could make a single noise of refusal, she had grabbed Maggie's arm and twisted her in the seat, scooting herself behind the smaller woman.

One leg hooked around her hips and, hopping once to get comfortable, she started pressing her fingers into Maggie's skull; she apparently really sucked at this pressure points thing, at least to judge by Maggie's hasty yelp of pain and her jerk between Bianca's legs.

"Sorry." Oh, yeah, Montgomery, like sorry will fix this stupidity! She was about to drop her hands and get away when, with a sigh, Maggie's hands grabbed hers, keeping her pinned for a moment while she yanked them forward to inspect. Fingers altered Bianca, spread them and bent them and, after a pregnant pause, she spoke.

"I can not believe you don't know headache pressure points, Bianca."

"Sorry." Oh, yeah, she sounded real intelligent today, didn't she? This, however, was just a passing thought, what with Maggie's hands on hers.

"Stop saying sorry, huh? Here… no, stop getting all tense, I'm trying to be all Professor Stone… what? Are you cold?" She twisted slightly, frowning at the feel of Bianca's sudden shudder behind her, but all Bianca did was smile back dumbly. Deciding to ignore Bianca's strangeness, she resettled, setting the brunette's palms against the back of her neck. "Just… here… I'll show you where. Stop tensing… good."

Bianca was not in good shape. Trying to rid her mind of the all-too-clear image of Maggie in a school uniform, teaching her, she tried to focus on how the object of her fantasy was trying to settle her hands… finally, she stopped, and Bianca found her fingertips settled just beneath Maggie's ears, right in that hollow. "Right there… feel that hollow? Just, um, that's the spot right there."

It proved to be all-too easy for Bianca to get the feel of what she was supposed to be doing. A part of her was truly worried and wanting to ease Maggie's pain… the other part of her, the part she affectionately termed "No Good Horn-dog" was in full bloom with something as simple as learning pressure points.

Maggie's groan about a minute after she started work didn't help and, finally, Maggie pulled her fingers away, trusting in Bianca to ease the pain in her skull… that groan, definitely a sound that the inner horn-dog had been dying to hear and, boy, was it worth the wait. Definitely a sound she wanted to be hearing regularly. Wonderful, just right… one of the most beautiful noises she'd ever heard.

God, this was just wrong… yet, she didn't stop her work, although she leaned forward at one point to observe Maggie's utterly blank face, the hands that lay in her lap limply. Hey… she wasn't all that bad at this pressure point stuff, huh? Pleased with herself, she turned her fingers slightly and found that Maggie suddenly went completely and totally limp, uttering a single sound of "ugh" very quietly.

She was rapidly devolving to the earliest form of woman, a woman who walked fearlessly in her fur bikini, giving and taking pleasure where she found it… well, there went her mind, right straight back into the Maggie Stone gutter! Images of Maggie in a fur bikini danced merrily through her head, apparently having stolen the sugar plums job.

Still, could anyone blame her? Maggie was literally right there, between her legs, in a state of complete and total relaxation… she was single-handedly responsible for easing Maggie of her migraine… yes, this would be one of their wedding vows… "I swear to ease your migraines, my dear, dear Maggie!" Oh, God, how could she be—

"Bianca!"

Maggie uttered a whispering shriek, leaping to her feet and weaving slightly, eyes glazed over and dulled; Bianca, hands halted in mid-air, continued to move for a few minute as she stared in wide-eyed horror at her mother and uncle… the movement of her fingers stopped… Erica and Jack continued to stare and, hey, damn it, why the hell was Uncle Jack grinning like that?

Maggie spun, looked down at her, blinked twice; she jerked her head towards Erica in a move that resembled that of a parrot before, yes, she literally squawked "Gotta go!" She beamed stupidly at Jack and Erica before leaving, slamming the door after her… there was complete silence as Erica stared at her, one eyebrow raised in amusement.

And, then, like the sweet thing she was, Miranda flung both arms into the air, bounced in jack's hold and cried out, in a full-throated yell, "Da!" And, sadly, all Bianca could do was sit there stupidly and think of Maggie in a fur bikini.

Nova Scotia…

He paused, finger moving across papers, over lines of ink and black and white images. Every so often, he caught a sentence, caught a word and would jot it down in the notebook at his side, sighing. Some of his notes had a small star at the side and he also had noted two names for further inquiry after he exhausted their resources.

Dark eyes caught the next sentence, a hand picked back up the pen thoughtfully before putting it down word for word on the blue lined paper nearby. Surprising how much stuff you could get from Pine Valley newspapers… and all of it he needed, didn't he?

Laying back down the pen, he shifted a large section of paper, studied the grainy face he caught sight of, studied dark hair and the protective stance of the two women nearby… studied the curve of her growing stomach and, with a disgusted noise, snatched up that section and opened it, eyes scanning for words he wanted.

Halfway through he got lucky and began scribbling eagerly, legs shifting with tight energy beneath the library table as his pen flew across paper. He circled the latest notes, underlined them carefully before dropping his pen noisily to the table and grabbing up another section, reassured that he could everything he needed from the old papers.

Time passed, hand son the clock in the corner moving and circling in a dance… his tie was loosened, his jacket was peeled off… college students filed out and still he researched, getting up every few hours to put the old papers away and get himself a new group of information just waiting to be harvested by someone like him.

He could get everything he needed from the papers, and his notebook was proof of that. What had started earlier as a group of quick lines was now a many paged journal, filled with words and nervous scribbles and, now, ten hours after he had come in, he flipped through the papers filled with her fast writing.

He had everything he needed, didn't he?

His nod of self-reassurance went still as he caught the female name written in the first pages, one of the names available to find extra information… he wondered, with sudden intensity, what she looked like and found himself coming to a decision about what he needed.

Maybe not all of it was in the library after all.

AN: Read and review! My reviews for this fic are seriously lacking and I want to know if am affecting you at all here! I know people are reading!