Chapter 10

When Jo suggested that Rocky and his brothers take some time to go to the reservation, he jumped at the chance. His parents didn't know he'd been suspended from school for a week, due to his grandpa intercepting the phone call from the school, and that'd been more than nerve wracking.

Having to pretend that he was leaving to go to school with his brothers while he waited for his mom to leave the house was hard. What made it worse was that he had to promise Colt and Tum-Tum that he'd do any of their chores for the week while they kept it a secret from their mom and dad that he wasn't at school. He still did his homework—Jason and Emily kept him up to date and sent him everything he needed and warned him of the tests at the end of the week (though Jason probably did spend more time texting Rocky out of boredom than anything else)—and took up shifts at work as well as practiced some more baseball to curb his boredom.

But the holidays were coming, baseball season was going to end, and he started to shift over to basketball. The rhythmic sounds of the ball against the asphalt in his driveway, where he only needed to focus on getting the ball into the net, was helpful to ease his mind. He hated being watched, but found his grandfather put-puttering around the yard and stopping to watch him play basketball every now and again to be comforting.

Or else, maybe, it was that he was watching Mori as closely. Watching to see how much time he had left, watching to see if that strength that his grandfather always held was slowly going to slip away before his eyes. Maybe he started to obsess a little. The first day of his suspension, he found himself following his grandfather everywhere, offering to help with every little thing; lift heavy bags of soil, dig holes in the garden, help with grocery shopping. Each time he was waved away with a swat of Mori's hand and a low grunt.

Nevertheless, Rocky knew Mori appreciated his presence. It had to be lonely still; having had moved him from his cabin where he'd lived by himself for years, to a house where everyone was gone to do their jobs for the day.

The same situation, but in a different place.

Same same, but different.

Still, when Jo offered to have the boys on the reservation toward the end of his suspension, and Rocky mentioned it to Mori, Mori had practically shoved him out the door to do so. Colt and Tum-Tum readily jumped at the opportunity…until Tum-Tum—in a moment of surprising clarity—pointed out that they'd need an excuse for all three boys to miss school.

Rocky simply shrugged and took it up on himself to call the front desk and—using his own charm and influence from his father—explained that the Douglases were going away for a weekend bonding trip and were pulling the boys out early. He wasn't surprised it worked, the woman at the front desk always had a soft spot for him and, so far, she hadn't thought any of his requests were too out of the ordinary.

On the Friday they pretended to go to school, waited for their parents to leave, then with a waving send off from Mori, drove to the Tawankan Indian Reservation. Along the way, Rocky ignored the complaints Colt and Tum-Tum shot his way of how much ninja training he'd probably gotten from their grandfather while he'd been out. They were wrong in that aspect; Mori may have bailed him out with their parents, but he wasn't going to reward him with any ninja training. (He didn't even get any euphemisms or weird sayings from his grandpa while they were at home).

Still, the change in scenery was good and the moment Rocky stepped foot on the reservation, he felt his spirits lift. Felt something stir within him that hadn't truly been touched in a while. Peace. He felt at peace on the reservation. Away from the city, from the prying eyes, from the people that watched him everywhere he went.

There was nothing but peace and the Tawankan tribe living out their lives. As soon as they arrived, Jo and Cloud were by their side, greeting them with a hug (Jo) and a nod (Cloud).

"When was the last time you were here?" Jo asked. "It seems like it's been a forever."

"Well, if you'd invited us over more often…" Colt teased.

Jo gave a light eye roll, gently punched him on the arm. "You know an invitation isn't needed. We could always use the excitement around here." She nudged Cloud on the arm, who smiled and nodded back. "Especially after what happened at MedoCal. I keep telling Cloud that things like that aren't normal but he doesn't seem to believe me."

"Your reputation precedes you," Cloud remarked.

Rocky snorted quietly. "We get that a lot."

"Cool, right?" Tum-Tum agreed with a smug smile. Rocky and Colt both rolled their eyes, made tsking sounds, and whacked their little brother on the back of the arms. "Ow! What? Its' not like you weren't thinking it!"

"Well, Emily told me about your suspension," Jo said, fixing her gaze on Rocky. "And I figured it was a good time for you to get some space and to clear your heads for a while." Her gaze shifted over the boys' faces. "Things aren't going to get any easier, and we always enjoy having you around." Her face seemed to darken for a second. Cloud shifted uncomfortably.

Rocky immediately noticed their change. He glanced to Colt, looking to see if it was something he would've already known, and saw nothing but confusion in his brother's eyes. This was something new.

"What is it?" Colt finally asked.

Jo sighed quietly. "Our healer…she hasn't been doing well, lately."

Rocky felt as if he was punched in the stomach. First Mori and now the Tawankan elders were starting to see the effects of a life fully lived. It was something he and the boys had grown used to; they'd attended many funerals of those who were too sick to be cared for once it was revealed how Harding had been poisoning their land. But Rocky always had a soft spot for the elderly woman who had a conversation with him about the flowers and what they did to heal the tribe.

They had some sort of a connecting bond; he'd felt it when she'd simply placed her hand on his head that day. And again, when she'd, later, used that medicine she'd made from the flowers to clean and heal his and his brother's wounds. A sort of, lightning bolt of connection that…well, he wasn't quite sure what it did.

But it was something.

The news hit him harder than he thought it would.

"Is it alright if I go see her?" Rocky asked after a moment of silence. He knew he didn't have to question it, had the feeling it was why Jo had invited him in the first place, extending the offer to Colt and Tum-Tum as well so that they could benefit from taking time away from everything. Wanting to be able to hang out with her friends while on her time away from school.

Jo smiled. "I'm sure she'd be glad to see you." She spread her arms wide. "Our people owe you a lot of what you've done to help us, and that's a debt that'll forever be repaid. Our reservation is as much a home to you as it is to us."

Rocky smiled and nodded. He started to take a step forward then glanced at his brothers with an almost withering glance. "Stay out of trouble," he warned before walking in the direction of the medicine hut.

He ignored the annoyed snickers from his brothers. Stay out of trouble. As if that's possible, Rocky thought. Not just cause of the trouble that always seemed to find them. But because he knew it was a stupid remark to make. He was the one who was suspended for a week for getting in trouble, was the one who could have everything blow up in his face if his brothers decided to hold things over his head for too long. And yet there he was, like usual, moving into that parental role that always seemed to plague him more than anything else did.

When was he going to be able to separate it and be his own person?

Rocky stopped short in surprise when he saw Riley sitting on one of the beds in the hut. She glanced up at him as he came through the door, smirk-smiled in greeting. She gently lifted her hand in a wave before bringing it to her forehead, briefly closing her eyes.

His eyebrows came together. Gaze shifted to the other bed where the medicine woman lay, sleeping quietly. Rocky hesitated for a moment, wonder if they should leave to let her rest. Then again, if she was in the hut as well….

"What are you doing here?" He asked instead, moving closer. Studied her closely, carefully, suddenly unsure of what to do or say. The thought was weird to him, if he were being honest, why he was suddenly so off-kilter. What was the rolling feeling of warmth that hit him; rolling from the top of his head to the tips of his toes before it was gone.

"Jo invited us up," Riley replied. She reached up a hand to brush at her hair that fell over her face. "She thought it would be a good idea, wanted to show us around…" A sheepish lift came to her voice. "And I kinda got up close and personal with a horse…"

It was then Rocky noticed the way Riley was running her hand through her hair. She wasn't. She gently prodded at a spot on her forehead. "Are you okay?" He recognized the light wince from the numerous times he and his brothers had accidentally knocked each other silly, around the head with unlucky punches and kicks. "You might've hit your head."

"Might?" Riley briefly closed her eyes once more. Then they fluttered open, rolled toward him. The side of her mouth turned up; her right eyebrow twitched upward at the same time. "I reckon 'might' is a horrible word, yeah?"

Rocky pointed them out and started over. He side-stepped an older couple who got in his way and stopped short, nearly walking into a girl about his age. "Sorry," he apologized quickly.

"No worries," she replied, checking herself over. Then looked up and smiled at him. "No harm done, mate." Rocky stared at her. Mentally pressing a finger to his chin. She looked familiar to him. Sort of reminded him of Miyo, could see some Asian features in her face. But nothing too strong to prove it, her dark blue eyes proved she wasn't entirely Asian. "Well, if you're going to stare at me, mate, I think it'd be fair to know your name. Just in case I have to press charges later."

Oh. Rocky blinked, took a step back. Around him, he could hear Colt and Tum-Tum snickering. How come the only time they shut up is when I'm making a fool of myself? Rocky though, frustrated. He thought for a moment, trying to figure out what name to introduce himself as.

"I'm Sam—ah," Rocky winced at his hesitation. It sounded weird to him, to refer to himself that way. For Jason to call him that, for any of his father's colleagues who knew him since he was born was normal. For Emily to huff and call him 'Sam' or 'Samuel' when she was annoyed was normal. To hear himself say it…he may as well as referred to someone who was dead. "Rocky." he corrected himself.

"Okay, 'Sam-ah-Rocky'," the girl replied. She smiled wider. "Which is it? Sam or Rocky?"

"Rocky. It's Rocky." He paused, looking at her closer. It took a second. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Why she looked so familiar to him. "You're the girl form the pizza shop," he realized.

The girl smiled and pointed at him. "And you're the boy from the pizza shop," She teased. "Actually, it's Riley," She said, supplying her own name. "Not 'girl from the pizza shop' but you remembered me, so I must've made a good impression."

"I'm sorry," Rocky quickly apologized.

Clearly, she hadn't hit her head hard enough to knock out her teasing…or to forget that they seemed to run into each other in weird ways.

"Does anything hurt?" He asked, stuttering over his words slightly. The pause between her response and his question was awkward. He needed to do something to keep the silence from becoming awkward again. Nevertheless, he cringed, knowing he'd asked was.

She said as much in response of, "Mate, I fell of a horse. Everything hurts."

Rocky smiled to himself. "Well, it at least means you're not dead." His eyes scanned over her face, seeing her freckles and the scar that lined her cheek to the bruise forming on her forehead and the scrapes on her chin. "Are you sure you're okay?"

She studied him for a long second. "Are you going to keep asking me that even if I tell you the truth?"

He ignored her that time. His fingers started to get that pins and needles feeling again. He needed t move. Needed to do something. His eyes flickered toward the medicine woman, who slept soundly on her bed, her form rising and falling with each deep breath. His eyes went back to Riley. "Let me check your eyes."

"They're still there," she said cheekily.

Rocky couldn't help but chuckle. It surprised him how much he needed that. Tension started to ease from his shoulders that he didn't realize had been sitting there. "Let me look."

He reached for her, she leaned out of the way. "What are your credentials?" She asked, looking up at him. "What's the highest degree you've gotten?"

Now he couldn't help but smile. "I'm still working on my high school degree."

Riley squeezed an eye shut, Rocky was unsure if she was trying to be cute or if she was in pain. "I reckon I'll take matters into my own hands then. I'm at least studying to be a doctor, yeah?"

His eyebrows rose. "Yeah?"

"If I get into uni anyway."

"I'm sure you'll get in." With her distracted by the conversation, in a flash he reached out with one hand to hold her head steady, the other he used to press his thumb against her eyelid. "Let me see." He held open an eye and watched it react to the light. Her eyes were a deep, dark blue with darker flecks of brown toward the iris. Not that he noticed. He checked the other, pulled back as soon as he was done. His fingers shook. "I think you'll live." Riley winced, nodding quietly. "Are you dizzy?"

When she opened her eyes, they bounced off him. "No."

She was lying, he knew it. Could understand. His first reaction was to brush off any injuries he had as well, focusing more on…being strong. Being Rocky. Being the one who always had to have everything in control. "How's your head?"

"Like I've beat it against a wall." Riley ran her hands over her face, then shrugged. "Which is normal, considering I live with my brothers, yeah?"

He needed something to do. She needed ice. Rocky started to move on autopilot. "Need to get some ice on it as soon as possible. It'll reduce the swelling of the knot on your head, and if you were knocked out at all, then you'll have to watch for a concussion." He was talking more to himself to fill the space. Worked to keep his hands moving. Knew everything there was to know about healing after spars and any of their adventures. Especially knew it after the training his father had put them through, just to give them a test of the sorts of fitness tests he'd had to go through just to get into the police academy.

He didn't think he'd heard his father laugh so hard in his life.

Rocky moved through the medicine hut, picking up everything he was going to need. Looking over at the elder woman who napped quietly, paused for a second. Then kept moving. He didn't think she'd mind if he'd borrowed her stuff, she'd shown him how to mix a lot of her things anyway.

Still, there was a large amount of respect he held for the medicine woman. Not just for being the catalyst to what showed him the answer to the lesson of the flowers, but for taking the time to listen to all his questions; whether stupid or potentially insensitive. She listened patiently and mulled over each question as she showed him what miraculous things could be made from something as small as grass.

A metaphor or life, sometimes big things could be made from small things. Big changes came from small choices.

As Rocky moved through the medicine hut, he could feel Riley's eyes on him. Watching him as closely as he didn't want to be watched. "Uh, nothing else hurts? Can you move your arms? Wiggle your fingers?" He turned back to her.

"Geez, you're worse than my mum." Riley held up her hands, making Rocky stop in his tracks before he could move any closer to her. That small, amused smile was still on her face. "Mate, I'm fine. It takes a lot more than a fall to knock me down."

Having moved her weight to her heels, Riley used it to allow herself to bring her legs back and drop into a plank position when a security guard swung a punch toward her face. She popped herself back up, expertly pulling off a pop up, as if on a surfboard, and brought herself into a fighting position. She flipped down onto her hand and did a one-handed freeze, bringing her feet over to kick the security guard in the neck. She dropped back to her feet as he hunched over, grasping at the immediate reddening of his neck.

Then, with a backflip, she evaded grab that the security guard tried to catch her with, and struck hard and quick with a kick to the face, chest, and stomach. When her foot connected with the security guard's face, a loud crunching sound emanated from his nose before blood gushed out down his face and soaked to the floor. Howling, the security guard glared at her before working to bring himself up from his knees.

Fwip!

The cloth from his pants got pinned to the ground with an arrow launched from Jo's bow. Riley looked toward Jo with a nod of thanks.

"At least let me get you some ice," he said finally. Riley shrugged and Rocky put everything back to where he found it before going to the fridge. He pulled open the freezer and grabbed cubes of ice that he slid into a towel and wrapped up. He turned, jumping, not noticing how closely Riley had followed behind him.

Had to look down to see her so closely, to not look directly over her head. Had she always been that short—around a flat five feet, maybe taller if he had to guess—or did she act taller? He blinked. She was twice as pretty up close. Rocky hated himself for noticing it. Guilt rocked his stomach as an image of Emily appeared in his mind.

Rocky shook his head and held out the towel. "Here."

Riley looked at him as if he were crazy or as if she'd seen directly through him. Or both. One didn't necessarily negate the other. "Cheers."

"Keep the ice on that," he said, finally looking away from her eyes to look at the knot. "Alternate every few hours…"

Riley made a saluting motion with her fingers. "I will." She turned to leave.

"If you get nauseous or dizzy—"

"I know." A slight edge came to her tone.

Rocky sighed through his nose. Shrugged. Stopped walking and shoved his hands into his pockets, rounded his shoulders forward. Suddenly felt very nervous. Wanted to ask how things were going. How her dad was doing. If she or her family knew any updates to any of the charges that were potentially to be put against them, anything new hanging over their heads. A part of him wanted to apologize. Not just for having gotten her and her siblings wrapped up into the plan of storming MedoCal—though he remembered that seemed to be her idea—but for everything since then, especially for Mr. Jackson getting caught in the crossfire.

Just like everyone around him seemed to do.

Maybe that's what was bothering him.

"Just take it easy," he finally said in response.

The teasing smirk-smile came back to Riley's face. "Yes, dad," she said saucily.

Rocky clamped his lips together. Last thing he wanted was her thinking any sort of fatherly—big brother or even mentor-like—thoughts of him. God knew, his weren't going in that direction. He let out a long breath from his lips, wondering how life managed to jump around so much.

"Thanks."

For a second, Rocky wasn't sure she'd even spoke to him. "For what?" He asked, eyebrows coming together.

Riley smiled and shrugged, motioned to her forehead and the bag of ice that slowly melted in her hand. "For everything," she replied as if it were obvious. "What else?" Maybe it was. "But, am I thanking Rocky or am I thanking Sam?"

Riley held up her hands as if they were a scale and lifted one hand. "On one hand, you're Sam; the boy next door, a gentleman who doesn't like a lot of attention on himself." She eyed him for a moment. "Who cares way too much about what other people think about him, by the way." He smiled. She lifted her other hand. "Then there's Rocky; the natural born leader, the one who runs into danger without thinking about it, the one who's a bit of a showoff,"—he felt a rush of annoyance at the same comment he'd gotten since he was a child—"and has a sense of confidence bordered on arrogance that he doesn't care who sees, and who could probably kill me faster than I could blink." She held her hands up evenly. "I've met Sam and I've met Rocky." She pressed her palms together. "And I'm kind of interested to know what it's like if you were ever able to put both parts of yourself together, yeah?"

"You and me both," Rocky said with a sigh.

Her wide smile kicked him in the gut.

He was so in trouble.

A/N: Well, it took forever and a day for me to come back to this but I hope y'all enjoyed it. I had about three or four different ideas of what I wanted to do with this chapter then this (and the two follow up ones) came to mind and I realized that it was perfect for what I'm trying to do with the story.

So! Anyway, I'm sorry for the wait, I'm glad to be back with this and I, hopefully, will update again soon.