Jane Wheeler, or El as she was known to many, including her husband, Mike, walked back into the living room of Mike's childhood home with a baby monitor in her hand.
"Well, Jimmy's down, for now," she said as she sat down on the couch next to Mike, who responded with, "He's been pretty good sleeping through the night lately. Hope he does good well here, too."
Karen Wheeler, sitting in the nearby easy chair, normally would have loved talking about her little grandson but, unfortunately, she was rather annoyed about someone else at the moment after checking her watch for the twentieth time that night.
"That sister of yours was supposed to come home right after school. She's been getting back late too much recently and she knew you were coming home tonight. I'll tell you, whenever she shows up, she is in so much trouble!"
Mike looked over at his mother.
"Come on, Mom, give her a break. She's a teenager and I know she's dating that football player, Chip or something? That's a pretty big deal to a girl like her."
"It's Chuck, and I don't like that boy, he's a bad influence. Besides, all week she's been talking about seeing you two and Little Jimmy for the weekend and she's home late tonight of all nights? It doesn't add up."
Within a few seconds, they heard the door open and, knowing it was Holly, Karen went over to confront her, Mike and El shortly behind to try and play damage control.
Holly was facing the wall kicking off her shoes and dropping her bag when Karen started up.
"Well, look who finally decided to grace us with her presence. Holly Margaret, I don't care what excuse you have this time, you are so grounded! For the next three months, the Loch Ness Monster will be seen in this neighborhood more than you!"
Mike was just about to stand up to his mom in his sister's defense when the youngest Wheeler turned around and everyone was shocked into silence at what they saw. A large purple shiner right around Holly's right eye with tears rolling down both cheeks.
"I'm sorry" she croaked out, her voice strained with emotion.
Karen was in too much shock to say anything, so El stepped up, "Holly, what happened?"
Holly started clearing her throat, trying to get words out.
"All the football players' girlfriends stay and watch them practice after school, I told Chuck I couldn't make it today because I wanted to see you guys and Little Jimmy, he didn't like that and...well..."
"He did that to you?" Mike asked trying to hold back the anger in his voice.
"No, he only slapped me twice for that" Holly said, voice still thick with emotion, "He gave me this when I didn't want to join him and his friends for pizza after practice and that apparently made him look bad in front of them" she finished obviously on the verge of another breakdown.
"My poor baby, come here, Holls," Karen said in a loving voice, holding her arms open. Holly quickly ran into them, sobbing her heart out. Karen started leading her towards the kitchen, "come on, we'll get some ice on that eye. El, could you help us?"
El quickly agreed, following the other women into the kitchen, leaving Mike standing in the doorway, he was almost too angry to notice. Women getting beaten up was always a sore subject for him, but, Baby Holly? True, she wasn't a baby anymore, but no matter how old she got she was always gonna be his baby sister in his heart, and this fucker thinks he can make her his punching bag and get away with it? No, Hell no, not on Mike Wheeler's watch. He quickly grabbed his keys and his shoes and headed out the door.
Mike pulled up to Guido's, the only pizza place in town, and walked up to the window. He hadn't actually met Chuck before but he saw three big, obnoxious, mouth-breathing musclehead jocks sitting in a booth and figured he was one of them. Mike let himself in the door and marched over to where they were sitting and stood there with his arms crossed glaring at them until they noticed.
One of them asked, "Can we help you?" in a confused tone.
Mike answered in a stoic voice, "Which one of you is Chuck?"
"Who wants to know?" another jock answered.
"Mike Wheeler, Holly's brother."
The second one raised his hand, to which Mike said, "I need to have a word with you. Outside. Now."
Chuck just looked at his friends with a cocky scoff and gave an insulting look before getting up and heading towards the door, Mike closely behind him. Once they got outside and around the corner, Mike turned and faced him.
"I saw what you did to Holly. That's a really shitty thing to do to a girl, especially my sister" Mike said in the same cold, even tone from before.
Chuck gave the same insulting smile and started acting condescending to Mike, "I don't see how what happens between me and my girlfriend is any of your business."
Now angrier than before, Mike shot back, "You beat up my sister, that makes it my business, shit-eater."
Chuck was annoyed and incredulous now, "Look man, she was being a little bitch to me in front of my friends, and I had to teach her a lesson. That's the way it goes, now come Monday, she'll come crawling back to me like the twerp that she is, I'll let her linger for a while, then I'll take her back and it'll all be fine and she doesn't even need to know about the couple others I got on the line. You know how it is, right, dude?" he finished in a way too cocky tone.
Mike was now shaking with rage. The camel's back was officially broken. Hitting her was bad enough, but this bastard thinks that little of Holly? He's got another thing coming.
"So, are we done now?"
Mike went blind with fury, without even thinking, his right fist made contact with Chuck's face, punching him as hard as he could, knocking the boy back a few paces. Stunned, Chuck just squared up to Mike, ready for a fight, "Oh, that's how this is gonna go, huh? You want a piece of me?!"
Mike was quick enough to give another blow to Chuck's gut, knocking the wind out of him and giving another punch right to the face, this time knocking him down to the sidewalk. Mike leaned down and grabbed Chuck by his shirt collar and said "No, I want the whole thing!" before giving another blow to his pretty-boy face. Mike kept punching him over and over, telling him in between punches, "What's the matter? You can dish it out but you can't take it?! Now you know how they feel!"
Mike must have hit him about ten times before he finally got a good look at his face, large bruises forming, blood coming out of his swollen lip, and decided he had enough. Before letting him go, however, Mike did pull him in close and whispered to him, "This was a warning, from now on, you stay the fuck away from Holly, and if you do anything like that to her or any other girl around here and I hear about it, I'll be back for you and I'll make what I just did look like a paper cut! You got that!?"
Chuck let out a groan, still in a daze from the beating he just got. Mike repeated, "I said, you got-"
"Yeah, yeah, I got it" Chuck responded, wearily.
Mike responded, "Good...if your friends or your parents ask what happened, make something up, say someone jumped you and you didn't see their face, and don't bother calling the cops, my father-in-law is the chief and he will be on my side when I tell him what you did."
Mike dropped the injured boy on the sidewalk before getting up, brushing himself off, and going back to his car.
Mike tried to slink back into the doorway of his childhood home, holding his right hand with a grimace. It must have been the adrenaline wearing off when he noticed how much he hurt his knuckles on that jerk's face. Totally worth it in his mind.
Karen and El came around the corner to see him just getting back. El was the first to speak up.
"Mike, where did you go? You just disappeared."
He held up his hand with visibly injured knuckles, "Where do you think?"
"Oh my god, you killed him!" Karen said, stunned at this.
"No, Mom, he was still alive when I left him. Who do you think you're talking to? Get me some ice, please," Mike responded walking into the kitchen seeing Holly holding an ice pack to her bad eye, he softened up.
"Hey, little big girl, you feeling any better?"
Holly winced a little moving the pack before answering, "A little. Where were you?"
Mike once again held up his hand before applying another ice pack Karen handed him, "I went and had a little talk with your boyfriend."
Holly immediately got worried, "Oh no, Mike, you didn't kill him, did you?"
Mike was starting to get a little annoyed now, "No! Do you guys really think I'm that violent?" he turned to El, "You didn't think I killed him, did you?" to which El waved her hand in a so-so manner before Mike turned back towards his sister.
"Anyway, I really was going to just talk to him but he said some things that kinda set me off, and I kinda snapped."
"What did he say, Michael?" Karen asked.
"Keep in mind, these are his words, not mine, but, he said Holly was "being a little bitch" and he had to "teach her a lesson."
"Good God!" El said, disgusted.
"Well, there's more, he also said she would "come crawling back to him" and that he apparently has a couple other girls "on the line" and that's when I gave him a taste of his own medicine."
Karen quickly turned to her daughter, "Holly, you are not seeing that boy anymore, do you understand?"
"Way ahead of you, Mom. That jerk can eat shit for all I care."
"That's my girl," Mike said in a proud tone, "any guy who treats you like that isn't even a little worth it."
Holly got a warm smile on her face before looking at Mike, "Thanks for sticking up for me. It was a little crazy of you, but, it was also really sweet and brave."
Mike started smiling warmly back, "You're welcome, and if that prick ever gives you trouble again, I want you to call me and I will drop everything, come here, and give him an encore performance."
"And if you have our son with you?" El asked, half-jokingly.
"I'll bring him with, teach him a lesson about why you don't hit girls. They might have big brothers that are sweet, brave, and just a little crazy."
The family night started cheering up again. They all kept talking and catching up with one another and later when Mike and El were heading upstairs for bed, El stopped in front of the door to talk to her husband.
"Hey, I just wanted to tell you, like Holly said, while it was kinda crazy, it was really sweet and brave of you to do that for her."
"She's my little sister, it's a tough world and I'd do anything to protect her."
El beamed, proud of the man she loved.
"Also, the combination of you caring that much for her and being a big tough guy, beating someone up, I'm not gonna lie, it's...kinda hot," she finished with a slightly naughty smirk.
"Really?" Mike answered, getting a wide smile on his own face.
"Yeah," El answered pulling herself up to his face where they both started kissing passionately, roaming their hands over each other before she pulled away again.
"Do you think your Mom would mind if we put Jimmy's crib in her room for the night?"
"Oh, she's crazy about him, I'm sure she would be fine with it."
Karen answered from across the hall, "I can actually hear the both of you, and, no, I won't mind, knock yourselves out. Just try and be quiet with it."
In case anyone's interested(and even if you aren't), yeah, I decided to put in a little Mileven there at the end. Even though the new season is really good, their possible future is making me nervous. I'm gonna be writing some more light stuff, some more Mileven, a few dark ideas, and some funny follow-ups to some of my earlier stories because I still think we need some levity on here. Again, the show's still really good but it's gotten really dark and I want to have hope for all these characters I love(not just Mike and Eleven) that they'll get a happy ending and a good hypothetical future. Hope springs eternal...right?