A Tale of Love and War

Summary: Six-year-old Charlie Rivera is abused by his father. When lawyer, Wilson West gets involved in the case, will old feelings resurface for the fifth time? This epic tale tells the story of a broken family and reunited teenage lovers.

Rating: PG-13 for suggestive themes, harsh language, and mentions of child abuse.

Disclaimer: I own no characters that you recognize, I only own those you do not, and the plot they are partaking in.

Chapter One: You're on Speaker

"Dad," Billy told his father. "You've gotta help him. His dad beats him!"

Wilson West sighed and leaned back in his desk chair.

"Look Billy, I'll do what I can, but we don't even know who his mother is, more or less where she could be."

"She went to Florida." Billy told his father. "Charlie says his dad told him that's where she went to get away from him. He said that's where she always went to get away from anyone."

Wilson groaned. He had a bad feeling. He didn't know where it came from, but it was definitely there.

------

"Go away!" Carlos bellowed at the front door. "We ain't buyin anything!"

The man at the door sighed and turned to the man next to him, who opened the door.

"WHAT THE HELL! Get the fuck out of my house!" Carlos yelled.

"Officer Jordan Williams, Buffalo Police Department." the shorter man said. "Carlos Rivera, you are under arrest for child abuse and illegal drug usage."

Carlos groaned and stared at the other man.

"And I suppose you're some minister guy comin to tell my son everything is okay?"

"No, I'm Wilson West." Wilson told Carlos. "I'm a lawyer, and the father of your son's tutor. The tutor he wouldn't need if you had actually cared about him. Now what is your wife's name?"

Carlos gulped and looked down.

"Mary." he said. "Mary Camden. But you'll never find her. Not that she'd be any better a parent to Charlie than I was. She's a bitch. A dirty rotten b-"

"NO SHE'S NOT!" Wilson screamed, shoving his briefcase into Officer William's hands. "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ABOUT MARY! Look dude, Mary may be a little off her rocker, but she's the sweetest woman in the world. She's been there for me since my son was an infant! She's helped me get through rough times, and I've helped her through even more."

Wilson pushed Carlos down to the floor and pinned him there.

-----

"Eric? Annie? I don't know if you know anything about this, or if you even remember me. It's Wilson, Wilson West. Mary's old boyfriend. I know you probably don't know where Mary is, but I'm hoping you might have some clue. And no, before you ask, I'm not calling for leisure. I'm calling on business. Pure urgent business. It's very important that I find Mary as soon as possible. You can call me back at my office. The number is

1-866-555-1209."

Annie's mouth dropped open as she heard the message from Wilson. He was calling for Mary on business. This was most likely very bad. And he did say it was urgent.

"Buffalo Child Law Affairs, Wilson West speaking."

"Wilson?" Annie asked. "It's me, Annie Camden. Is everything okay? Is Mary in trouble? Did you hear anything from her? Why are you calling on business? What's so urgent about it?"

Wilson sighed. "Look Annie, all questions will be answered in time, but first, I think I should tell you what's going on. Billy enrolled in a student tutor organization, and he ended up tutoring a first grader, who, coincidentally, happens to be your grandson, Charlie Rivera. The thing is, Charlie and Billy got to talking, and Charlie revealed something about Carlos."

"Charlie? Carlos?" Annie squealed. "Oh, I miss Carlos so much, we always loved him, and he was such a sweet man."

Wilson almost choked on his tears as he heard this. "Annie, look, I'm really sorry, but I don't think any of you are going to love Carlos after I tell you this, but um, is anyone else there?"

"Yes." Annie said. "Ruthie, Lucy, Simon, and Eric. Two family friends, Mac and Martin, and Lucy's husband Kevin, and Matt and Sarah, and Simon's wife Rose. And there's Sam and David of course. Basically we have the whole family here."

"Okay, well um, If there's anyway I could talk to you, Eric, Lucy and Matt that would be great. And I guess Simon and Ruthie could hear this too, but I don't think I should be saying this to Sam and David. I don't want to worry them. So if you could have the others leave, and put me on speaker phone I would appreciate it. I only want to have to say this but one time. I've already had to file a case report, and that was hard enough after finding out that Mary was involved."

Annie silently nodded and turned to the family.

"Kevin, Sarah, Rose, Martin, Mac, Sam, and David; I'm sorry, but could you all leave for a few minutes?"

The aforementioned party left the room, and Annie put Wilson on speaker phone.

"Wilson? Are you there?"

Wilson sighed. "Yeah, I'm still here."

"Wilson?" Lucy asked. "Oh my gosh! We haven't heard from you in ages! How is everything? How's Billy? How're you? How's-"

"Luce," Wilson said. "I'm sorry, but this is pretty important. Look, I don't want to be the one to tell you this, in fact, I don't even want to be involved in this in the way that I am, but it turns out that we have a legal matter on our hands. If any of you have any information about Mary, I need it now. Apparently Carlos has been abusing Charlie ever since Mary left. I know this is hard for you to hear, but we have Charlie staying with the Colonel and Ruth, so he should be okay. They know everything already. I was assigned to carry the case because I brought it to attention. But when I agreed to take it, I didn't know that Mary was his mother. So I'm asking for any help you can give me. If you want me to fly out there and hold the trial I could, and Charlie could stay with you. But nothing can happen until we locate Mary."

Annie sobbed into her husband's shoulder as Lucy spoke up. "Where's Carlos? I'm not sure whether or not it would be safe to bring him all the way out here. Wait, I'll be right back. KEVIN!" she yelled up the stairs. "GET DOWN HERE! IT'S IMPORTANT!"

"Yeah Luce?" Kevin asked, coming down the stairs. "What's up?"

"Lucy?" came Wilson's voice over the phone. "Who's that?"

"Oh, sorry Wilson, I should've asked first. Kevin's my husband, and a cop. That's why I asked him to come down here. Look, Kevin do you think a convicted criminal could come from Buffalo to Glen Oak for a trial?"

Kevin raised his eyebrows at Lucy. "Um, Wilson, right? Look, what exactly did this person do?"

"Well, um, Kevin, I think you might know this person, but I'm not quite sure. His name is Carlos, Carlos Rivera. I don't know how long you and Lucy have been married, but Mary, Lucy's sister, was married to him. He abused their child after Mary left them, and now he's still doing it, and is drunk to top it all off."

Kevin groaned. "Um, I'll come out there and supervise the way over if you want. Or better yet, contact the police department in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, ask for Sergeant Richardson. She's a wonderful girl; she'll do anything for the Camdens. And as for Mary, I'll try and do a background check on her. I've wanted to do one for a couple of years now, but I'm not permitted to without a legal reason."

"ROXANNE!" Lucy squealed. "Kevin, you know where she is? Why didn't you tell me! I thought she was in Iraq!"

"Luce, she just got back to the states last week. She wanted to surprise you, but I think she'll understand. Oh, and, well, no, I think I'll let her tell you. But let's just say she gained some insight while in Iraq."

Kevin turned off the speakerphone and lifted up the receiver, walking upstairs.

"Actually, ask for Sergeant Hampton. She's not married yet, but she'll get a huge kick out of it. Trust me, especially because I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. So I'll talk to you later when I get permission for that background check.