-------
"Joey?" She breathed into the receiver. "Goddess, Joey, please pick up. It's Ro." She prayed to the God that her father was passed out drunk somewhere. She prayed that Joey was still awake. It was three in the morning, after all.
The soft voice that followed made her heart leap. Thank whatever diety was up there. "What's up, Ro?" He hissed.
"Dock. Meet me at the dock. Please." She whispered.
"Yeah. I'll be there in ten."
Why she felt the need to call her twelve year old brother, she didn't know. Maybe she needed someone to keep her from doing something stupid. Maybe she needed someone to just talk to. Maybe she needed someone to tell her it wasn't fault. But was she going to tell Joey, anyway? She wasn't going to put that on him.
Rowenna walked away from the phone booth towards the dock that she and Joey had always gone to before things got bad. The dock she and Joey and Serenity had gone to before her parents divorced, the dock she met Joey at to clean up his wounds, and the dock that she felt was really her home. She sat down on the edge of the wooden planks, her feet not touching the water due to her short height, and sighed. For a moment she laughed, thinking that Joey would probably get water up to his knees if he was sitting beside her, as he was much taller than her now. He had gotten the height from their father's side. She hadn't. Smiling, she even laughed out loud a little before she realized how forced, cracky, and strained it sounded.
The sound of his footsteps coming up quickly behind her brought her back to reality. She hadn't thought that he would run, but realizing how important she'd made it sound, it was stupid of her not to expect him to hurry. He sat down next to her, huffing. "What's up, Ro?" He asked.
She sighed, her breath coming in shakily. She looked down at the water, as if that would come up with an easy way to explain it, and saw the in fact, the water did reach up to the twelve year old's knees. She smirked. "I figured."
"What?"
"Nothin', you're just gettin' tall." Rowenna sighed.
"Okay, you're slippin back inta your Boston accent. What's up?" Damn it, he knew her well. "Ya only ever do that when yer upset."
She sighed. "I..." How was she supposed to explain this to him? She knew Joey. He'd go kick the crap out of their uncle. Rather, he'd try to. Uncle Ed was a big, big man. Joey was a scrawny, tall, twelve year old, who had just barely reached puberty. He pretended to be a tough guy, but the truth was he still couldn't even handle their father. And James Wheeler was smaller, signifigantly, than Edward.
"What is it, Ro? Sumthin happen at Uncle Ed's?"
"Yeah..." She sighed, her voice shaking. Her hands were shaking, too. "He was really drunk...and..."
Joey's chest puffed out, and his voice filled with anger. If this wasn't such a serious conversation, Rowenna would have laughed at him for attempting to look all big and strong. "What did he do?" He growled.
"He.."
"Did he lay a hand on ya?"
"You could say that." She muttered. It took her a minute to understand that she probably wasn't going to be able to tell him flat out. It had happened only hours before hand, and she had been so drunk from her escapades with the gang that she wasn't even sure it had really happened. No, scratch that. She was positive it had happened. It was just...would anyone believe her? Even Joey? Would he honestly believe that she, who was in a gang, and was so...wouldn't bring that type of thing on, deserve it, even?
"Was he like Dad?"
"No."
"Did he..."
She looked at him, and instantly understood what he meant. He knew. She nodded, slowly, swallowing loudly. "I tried to stop him...but he's big...he's..."
"I'm gonna kill 'im." Joey growled. "I'm gonna cut out his throat. I'm gonna-"
"Joey, please, don't." She begged, grabbing his arm. "Don't tell anyone, please don't-"
"Don't tell anyone! Ro! That disgustin'-"
"I know what he did, Joey!" She sobbed. "But I don't want to go through all that. I can't do it, I just can't."
He sighed. "Aiight." He shrugged. "Ya ain't goin' back there, are ya?"
"No. I grabbed everything...I'm never going back there." She showed her backpack to him, stuffed with the four outfits she owned, a few books, and her weaopns from the gang. Those were hidden in the bottom of the bag, far away from his eyes. Joey had yet to know that she was in the gang, and she wasn't about to let him see her two knives and her handful of shurkien.
"Where ya gonna go?"
"I'll find somewhere."
"Where ya gonna go until then?"
"I'm gonna stay in my van."
"Come back home, Ro. Dad'll let-"
"No. I can't stay there."
"But Ro, I-"
"No, Joey. I can't." She sighed and took a deep breath. "I can't live there. Dad won't let me. He won't." She looked at his protesting eyes. "I'm gonna keep going ta school." The accent slipping back into her speech was bothering her. She hadn't been in Boston in years. "I don't want to go back there. I'll keep going to school, and I'll visit you at least once a week, okay?"
"More than that. Twice. Tuesdays and Thursdays, meet me here at midnight."
"You got it." She smiled at him. "We'll go out and get food or something. And I'll buy a cellphone, so you can call me whenever you need me."
"How ya gonna pay for that?"
"I'll get a job."
"How ya gonna do that?" He asked. "You go ta school, and everythin'..."
"Joe, I think I can handle it." She chuckled. "C'mon, I need to get you home." She stood up, helping him up as she did. He was so much taller than her now that she reached just under his chin.
"Are ya gonna be okay, Ro?" Joey asked. He looked seriously concerned.
"Yeah." She nodded. "I'm gonna be okay. It's gonna take me a while. But I'll be okay." He pulled her into a strong hug, gripping her tightly.
"I love ya."
She smiled. "Love you too Joey."
-------
Rowenna woke up with a start. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and looked at the clock. 9 a.m. Well, she'd gotten three hours of sleep this time before she'd had a nightmare that was some sort of repressed memory.
That night had been one of sheer hell for her. She'd gotten past it, though. And she had been living on the streets for a year after that until she had been scouted at her highschool's talent show. The scout had raved about her talent, and when he found out that she had been interested in studying music in the first place, asked her how old she was. When she had told him she was only a junior in highschool, he demanded that she go anyway. She took her GED, got into the college, and had lived in England for a year. Now she was back. And trying to get custody of her younger brother.
It had been almost three weeks since they'd gone to the DSS office. When she'd called the morning before last, they assured her that it sometimes took months to get something through the system, and that they'd let her know as soon as possible. She had promised Joey she would get him out as soon as possible, but nothing was happening. Nothing. They were going to let Joey stay there, and...
Snapped out of her trance, she looked at the phone, which had been rining for a few moments now. "Good lord, you're going crazy." She snickered and ran over to pick up the phone. "Hello?"
"Hey, Rowenna. It's Char."
"Hey Char." Charlene was one of her friends from her new college. They had hit it off right away. Sighing to hear a familiar voice after such a nightmare. "What's up?"
"Not much. Just waiting around for a phone call." Rowenna had yet to tell Charlene that she had any family. Not because she was ashamed of them or anything, but because it had just never come up in conversation. She didn't feel like explaining why she needed custody of Joey, either. She loved having Charlene as a friend, and she didn't want to scare her away. She figured explaining to someone that your father is a drunken abusive bastard who beats the crap out of your little brother on a nightly basis, and you haven't lived with a decent family member since before your parents were divorced was a bit of a way to scare them off.
"Oh. What for?"
"Oh, I'm just waiting for something important."
"Okay." Charlene smiled, leaving it at that. "Do you want to-"
There was a beep, and Rowenna's heart leaped. "Can you hold on a second? I have a beep."
"Yeah."
Rowenna clicked over, breathing heavily. "Hello?" She asked eagerly.
"Hello, Ms. Wheeler?"
"Yes?"
"This is Mr. Hidaka, from the Department of Social Services."
"Hello, Mr. Hidaka." Rowenna greeted. "How may I help you?"
"We'd like you to bring your brother by the offices today. We've reviewed the case, and we have an answer to your request to gain guardianship." Mr. Hidaka's voice was neutral. Not warming, but not upsetting, either. Rowenna had a feeling he was hiding the answer from her for some reason to make sure she wasn't immediately disappointed from his phone call.
"When would you like me to come by?"
"As soon as possible."
"Yes, sir."
"I'll see you when you get here. Please come before noon."
"Yes, sir."
"Good day, Ms. Wheeler."
"Good bye, sir." The line went dead, and Rowenna switched back over to Charlene.
"Char? I have to go. Can I call you when I get home?"
"Yeah. What time will that be?"
"I don't know. Sometime after 12. What did you want to do?"
"There was this talent show thing downtown, and I was wondering if you wanted to preform with me there as a gig thing. We'll get some money for it, and you were talking about how you were short on cash."
"All right. I'll call you when I get home."
"Bai, then."
"Bai."
With that, Rowenna quickly dressed the most appropriately she could manage and grabbed her keys, running out the door, dialing Joey's cellphone number as she got into the car. It rang over and over and over again, and she was afraid that he wouldn't pick up, until his voice drifted into her ear. "Christ, Ro, do you realize what time it is? Mr. Oko almost took away my phone before I told him it was related to a family issue."
"Oh, shit, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were in school. I've lost track of the days. Listen, Joey,they made a decision. They want us to go to the office now."
"Right now?"
"Right now. Can you get dismissed from school?"
"Yeah, I'll explain the situation to Mr. Oko and he'll let me go."
"All right, I'm on my way now. Meet me outside."
)(Heh heh...way to go for a cliffhanger, ne? Yeah. I'm almost done with this, I figured that this was a good enough place to go for it. Well, review if you like it, review if you don't, don't review, whatever. I hope you enjoy. XD
YFFSM,
Pengwinn)(