Thanks to everyone who voted for the new Clew story. The poll is now down, and the winner is The Way She Smiles When She Sees Me. It was super, super close however, the winning story edged out by 2 votes. And there for You Ought to Have Me on Your Mind which came in second will replace The Way She Smiles when She Sees Me when that ends. And All at Once You Come Alive & Feel Connected will replace You Ought to Have Me on Your Mind when that ends.
Ch. 57 Let's Forget You Better Still
(FITZ)
"Your mom owes me some money, and she says I can get it from you," my captor informs me as he flicks out a knife. He's maybe ten years older than me, thin and wiry. He has bleach blond hair that was cut short and is beginning to grow long again, and so is sticking out in many directions. He's got small sharp eyes, a long nose and very thin lips which disappear when he grins wickedly, like he's doing right now. Wearing a long brown trench coat, black shirt, dirty jeans and heavy boots.
I'm trying to decide if I can take him, and how much luck I'd have with him holding the knife. I'm not sure how good he is at fighting, looking him over he doesn't seem to be high or drunk. He's a little older and a little taller, by my estimation we're pretty evenly matched, seeing as he has the knife.
"I don't know what she told you, but I don't have any money," I reply. I keep my voice even, I know better than to show fear with this kind of guy.
"I hope for your sake you're wrong," he says tracing the knife just under my jaw. "Take out your wallet," he demands holding the knife near my jugular. If I try to fight him now and his hand slips I'm dead or at least seriously injured, even if I don't die right away I'm likely to bleed out before I can get help. I pull out my wallet and hand it to him, he flips it open and sees the $10 in it. "This is it? Where's the rest? Your mom said you'd have all of it," the guy growls dropping the wallet on the ground.
"I told you she's lying, I got nothing," I reply.
His eyes narrow and his face starts to turn red in anger, I see in his eyes that he's deciding whether or not to kill me. This might be the only chance I have to fight back, if I'm going to die then I'm going to do it fighting. He looks away for a second and I grab his wrist, shoving at him and thus the knife away from me. He swings the knife at me, but I duck, I punch him in the stomach, it phases him for a moment, it's not long enough for me to get away. He comes at me with the knife again, this time he gets me, just a graze to the arm. Just as he's about to swing the knife at me again Owen appears out of nowhere and kicks the guy in the side. He stumbles back and suddenly the entire Ice Hounds team is on him, one gets the knife several hold him down. J.T. gets out his cell and I believe he's calling 911.
"You okay?" Owen questions.
"Yeah, lucky for me you guys were here," I respond looking at my arm.
"Training, Coach ordered it, or we wouldn't be out here on a Sunday," Owen comments lifting my sleeve to look at the cut. "We'd better get you to the hospital," he says and gets out his phone. "I'll call Sean, Jeff you should call Clare."
"NO," Jeff and I say at the same time.
"She's going to find out, and when she finds out the three of us were here and none of us told her she's going to be pissed. I don't know about you two, but I don't want to deal with a pissed Clare. Dallas see if you can stop Fitz's bleeding, Fitz call your brother, I'm calling Clare," Owen tells us. I hate to admit it but he's right about Clare.
While Dallas uses his bandana as a temporary bandage I get my cell out and call Sean. I tell him mom sent someone to get money from me, I tell him where I am, and he says he and Emma are on their way. I hear sirens now, cops and an ambulance too, my attacker is still on the ground under a dog pile of Ice Hounds. The cops show up first, among them Officer Turner, I'm starting to think he has the station alert him whenever one of us is in trouble. While Turner is looking at my arm the ambulance pulls up, and the Ice Hounds get off my attacker so the cops can arrest him. The EMTs look at my arm, I convince them I don't need an ambulance to take me to the hospital, so they're bandaging my arm just as Sean and Emma pull up. Sean hugs me tightly and tells the EMTs he'll take me straight to the hospital, Turner says he'll follow us. I know Owen's coming, and as I'm also sure that Clare will be at the hospital I'm sure that Jeff is coming. Owen says he'll take my car home and then they'll meet us at the hospital. I tell him thanks and give him my keys.
"Tell me everything that happened," Sean says as he begins driving to the hospital.
"I went for a run, he pulled me behind the fish cleaning shack and said Mom told him I'd have money, money she owes him."
"We spoke with the lawyer, he's going to help us get the house out of their names. I'm cutting Mom out completely, a restraining order against her for the three of us, and until we know that she's totally gone and whatever drug connections she has are not coming after any of us we all be careful. That means no more jogging alone at the docks," Sean says from the driver seat.
"Yeah, don't worry, I won't be doing that one again," I reply.
Sean takes me to the hospital, even though I didn't come in by ambulance it's not that busy and they take me back to an exam room. Sean and Emma stay in the waiting room to fill out paper work. A nurse comes in to take my blood pressure and other vitals, and as soon as she leaves Clare comes in the room. She runs over throwing her arms around my neck, I hug her with my one good arm around her waist.
"I'm okay," I try to assure her.
"You could have been killed Mark, your own mother sent someone to kill you," Clare says in a lecturing tone that's laced with fear. As she spoke she moved so that she no longer had both arms around my neck, she's got one hand on her hip and the other on my shoulder. My good hand sits on other hip still, and I see her biting her lip and fighting back the tears and thoughts in her head.
"She told him I had money, she didn't send him to kill me," I argue.
"She told her drug dealer you had his money, she painted a target on your back Mark, and what were you thinking going for a run by yourself in such an isolated part of town?"
"I d…" I begin to argue but Clare keeps talking.
"Knowing your mother was out there and strung out, that she came to you for money just the other day and you thought running alone at the docks was a good idea. What if the Ice Hounds hadn't been exercising down there? He was going to kill you Mark, if you…" Clare does stop talking when the door opens, and Sean comes in. He looks surprised to see Clare, guess she didn't come in the front.
"How did you get in here?" Sean questions.
"Are you kidding? All the times one of us has been in here I memorized all the ways in and out a long time ago," Clare replies.
"Okay, well they're going to come and sew up his arm in a minute you should go out to the waiting room," Sean tells her. He's using his authoritative voice that even I generally listen to. Clare just shoots him a look, says nothing with her mouth but her expression clearly says she's not going anywhere. It's pretty funny how the petite girl of just over five feet and weighing maybe 110 pounds can scare my big brother with just a look. "Or you could stay in here," Sean says and Clare's face relaxes.
The door opens again but this time it's the doctor. "I'm Doctor Cipes, let's take a look at that arm," the young male doctor comments. I have a feeling he's an emergency room intern. Clare moves out of the way and stands near Sean. "Luckily this looks pretty superficial, we'll do a couple stitches and some butterfly bandages. First though we'll clean it out, I understand the police have the knife and a police report is being filed?"
"Yeah, Officer Turner has the knife, he's taking a statement from our friends that were there. He'll get Fitz's statement once you release him," Sean informs the doctor.
"Good, we'll give you a short course of general antibiotics to be safe because we don't know where the knife has been. And we'll draw some blood to run some general tests as a precaution. I'll have a nurse come in to clean and get butterfly bandages on, then I'll be in to stitch."
"Thanks Doc," Sean smiles at him. The doctor nods before leaving the room.
"I'm going to let everyone in the waiting room know what the doctor said. I'll be back in a few minutes. Clare, I assume you're staying here," Sean comments and she nods.
Sean leaves the room and after a few minutes a nurse comes in with a tray. She flushes out the cut and uses disinfectant, while she's putting on butterfly bandages Sean comes back in the room. She finishes the bandages and has me hold on some gauze on the cut for a few minutes until the doctor returns. He uses a local anesthetic and then I get five stitches. The nurse comes back to take some blood and gives me a prescription for antibiotics.
"Alright, little bro let's get you home, we'll pick up your prescription on the way. Clare you sh…"
"I'm going wi…" Clare begins cutting off my brother.
"Going home," I interject, "you should go home with Jeff. If something else happens one of us will call you, I promise."
She twists her mouth with displeasure, but sighs and I know she's given in. We walk out to the waiting room, Sean says he's taking me home and Turner can get my statement from there. Everyone else says goodbye and to heal up fast. Clare reluctantly says goodbye and leaves with Jeff. Turner says he'll meet us at the house, we get my prescription on the way home and when we get home I lie on the sofa. All I can think about is the fact that my mom sent someone to kill me to pay her drug debt.
Officer Turner shows up after a few moments, I give him a full statement from the moment I left my house. Turner takes it all down and finds out from Sean and Em about their meeting with the lawyer today. When Turner leaves Sean orders pizza for dinner. I spend most of the evening on the sofa trying to forget that my mom tried to have me killed. In fact, I fall asleep on the sofa in front of the TV.
"Fitz, gotta get up, you have school today," Sean says shaking my foot Monday morning. I groan but get up, I want a shower, but I can't get the stitches wet and I don't want to wrap it right now. I settle for washing my face before changing into fresh clothes. "Here's your antibiotics, make sure you take them at lunch. And if your arm hurts or you do something stupid and pop the stitches call me right away," Sean says handing my pills to me.
"I'll be fine," I assure my brother.
"Be careful," Sean replies.
"I will."
"I mean it, nothing stupid and that means no wrestling. Don't make me call Clare and tell her to watch you," Sean threatens.
"I'm pretty sure she'll do that anyway," I reply and Sean chuckles.
I grab my backpack with my good arm and go out to my car. I drive to school and the first people I see when I go in are the Mason kids and Bianca. They're sitting on the foyer steps, Drew is the first to see me since everyone is sitting with their backs somewhat to the door.
"How's the arm?" Drew asks, and the others turn to look at me.
"A bit painful, but not too bad. I gotta go talk to Coach though, can't wrestle until the stitches dissolve," I tell them.
"Paige's birthday is tonight, Spin is cooking, and Paige wants you guys to be there," Drew tells me.
"I'll be there, I'm sure Sean and Em will too if they can make it."
I leave the Masons and go talk to Coach, he says I should still be at practices since I'm Captain. I can work out with the team still for some things and help out until the stitches dissolve and I can wrestle again. In first period we watch a movie for part of class which is nice and then I have a spare, which I spend mostly in the weight room since I don't have any homework yet. I eat lunch with the gang and I remember to take my pill. In drama Miss Dawes breaks us into groups to memorize a small scene, it's all the same scene, but each group is preforming it in a different way. In English she has us reading, and then writing about what we read. I didn't quite understand what I read but I know I shouldn't be in university track English. Clare used to help me but now it's usually Emma or Bianca sometimes. I am happy when the last bell rings and the school day is over. I stash my backpack and go to the boy's locker room to change for wrestling. The basketball team is in here as well of course, so Drew, K.C. and I get lockers near each other.
"How's the arm?" K.C. questions as we begin changing.
"Hurts, but it's not too bad. I'm not supposed to use it though and not being able to wrestle until the stitches dissolve is going to suck."
"It'll go by quickly, you're lucky you didn't get stabbed like Lucas," Drew remarks.
"Yeah, thank goodness. If Owen and the others hadn't been there I might have, but the guy is in jail now. What time is Paige's dinner tonight?" I ask Drew.
"Spin says six so that everyone can be there," Drew replies.
"Cool, I'll head over after practice then."
I finish changing and join the wrestling team, I can do all of the warmup except the pushups and weightlifting. I can't practice either because I would have to use my arms too much. I just stand on the sidelines and help Coach. I didn't do much in practice, so I don't need to shower after. I just change, grab my backpack, get in my car and drive to the Mason's. Spin's car is here he must have had the day off, Bianca's car is already here and Johnny's. Lucas probably has work and I doubt he'll be able to make it. I don't knock, just walk in, I don't think I've ever knocked on their front door.
"Hey Fitz," Adam and Bianca say simultaneously from the sofa.
"Hi Fitz, want a beer?" Spinner asks poking his head out from the kitchen. Johnny comes out of the kitchen and nods to me.
"Thanks," I reply following them back into the kitchen. I grab a beer from the fridge and go out to the living room, Adam and Bianca are watching TV.
"She's taking a nap," Adam says just as I wonder why I haven't seen Clare yet.
"I didn't ask," I shrug trying to be aloof.
"I saw you looking, you can go in she's alone," Adam replies. I'd argue but I want to go in and see her, Adam knows it.
I set down my beer and go back to Clare's room, she's asleep on her bed, still in her clothes but her shoes are off. I sit on the bed and her eyes open.
"How do you feel?" She questions.
"I'm fine, I told you I would be," I smile.
"Any news on your mom?" She asks.
"No, nothing. She sent some guy to kill me, I hope I never see her again."
"I'm sorry Mark, I wish it was different," she says sitting up and kissing my cheek.
"Other people will be here soon, you should get up," I tell her before standing and leaving her room.
I return to the living room, sit next to Adam and pick up my beer again. Clare emerges from the back of the house a few minutes later and sits down by Bianca. Drew, Owen, K.C. and Jenna all come within a couple minutes of each other. Sean, Emma and Paige arrive a moment later, we say happy birthday to Paige and Spinner tells us dinner is ready. The dining room table barely fits the whole group, but we don't mind being crammed in together. Dinner is great, Paige is happy, Spinner even made her a cake.
With school and work tomorrow, we leave the Mason's just after eight, I haven't even begun on my homework. I follow Sean and Emma home, it's one of the rare nights that Emma doesn't work. I park on the street and I'm the first out of the car, so I unlock the door. As soon as I'm in I see a light on in Sean and Em's room. At first, I think one of them left it on, but then I hear a noise. Emma's approaching the door, I put my arm up to keep her from coming in, I hold my finger to my lips to silence her and she looks back at Sean.
"What's wrong?" Sean whispers as he comes up.
"Someone's inside," I reply nodding inside. I make sure to keep my voice quiet and low.
"Em, stay out here and call the cops," Sean tells her. He goes out to his car and gets a tire iron from his trunk. "Fitz stay behind me, grab a weapon if you want, but stay behind me you're already hurt," Sean instructs.
Sean enters quietly, I go in just behind him and grab a large knife from the block in the kitchen. We hear someone in the bedroom going through things, tossing things about, we're both thinking we're being robbed, though why anyone would rob this place is beyond me. Sean goes up to the doorway, stiffens up a little and gets a better grip on the tire iron. Slowly and carefully peeking around the doorway, Sean suddenly sighs, and his posture relaxes.
"MOM, what are you doing here?" Sean barks. I sigh and start walking to the kitchen to put away the knife.
"Where is it?" Mom screeches.
"Where is what?" Sean asks as I slide the knife back in the block. I turn around and walk back to the room to stand near Sean.
"The money, I need the money," Mom says while pulling at her hair, her voice kind of gurgles and screams.
"Mom, we don't have any money here and I'm not giving you any," Sean replies.
"THERE IS MONEY HERE," Mom screams and then runs at Sean still screaming.
She has no weapon, she's skinny now and Sean is twice her size and still holding the tire iron. Sean just reaches out and pushes her away before she gets to him, she stumbles back and falls halfway on the bed. It doesn't faze her, she bounces back up screaming again, and lunging at Sean once more as if he will produce money if she manages to strike him. This time Sean grabs her arm and twists it behind her back, I hear sirens coming now and I hear Emma coming in.
"We don't have money here Mom, even if we did I wouldn't give you any. You are not getting anything from us any longer. We took care of you for far too long, and when you should have been taking care of us. No more. You are not a part of this family. You are not to come anywhere near me, Fitz or Emma ever again," Sean says as Emma joins us.
"The cops are here," Emma announces.
"Good they can take her," Sean replies.
"What the hell are the cops going to arrest me for?" Mom asks.
"We'll start with breaking and entering," Sean responds.
"This is my house, I broke into my house," Mom screeches again.
"Not anymore, I'm taking your name and Dad's off the house. I have more than enough legal ground," Sean tells her.
"You can let go of her, we'll take it from here," a cop says as he and his partner approach us.
"YOU CAN'T ARREST ME THIS IS MY FUCKING HOUSE," Mom screams.
"I'm pressing charges, all the charges I can. Get her out of here," Sean tells the officers.
"You'll need to come down and make a statement," one of the cops tells us as they're hauling our mom out.
"Yeah, we'll follow you down," Sean nods.
We all get into Sean's car and go down to the police station. We each make a statement and they tell us they're holding Mom overnight, but she'll probably get released tomorrow. After some more talk Sean manages to have Mom committed to rehab when she's released tomorrow. I hope she stays in this time, and if she does leave I hope she goes far away because I never want to see her again.
(CLARE)
"I'm so glad you guys could come, I didn't want Owen to be at my party and not know anyone," Vanessa smiles as she gets into the passenger seat of the borrowed van.
It's Saturday morning and we're all on our way to Guelph for the weekend. That is me, Adam, Johnny, Owen, Jeff, Anya, Samantha and Vanessa are on our way to Guelph. Next Wednesday is Vanessa's birthday, but she didn't want a party in Toronto she wanted it with most of her friends in Guelph. So, her party is tonight at her parent's house. Dallas is also going to Guelph for the weekend, in his own car, he has Rocky for the weekend. The rest of us borrowed Mrs. Milligan's van and Owen is driving us to Guelph. He'll be staying with Vanessa this weekend and the six of us will stay at Sam & Jeff's parents. Girls in one room and boys in the other of course.
"No problem, our parents are happy we're coming down for the weekend," Sam replies.
"And my parents were cool with letting me stay at my aunt and uncle's," Anya grins.
"Yeah, Spin already let me come for the weekend and Adam wasn't even with me that time," I reply.
"I had no one to ask," Johnny shrugs.
"And my parents are cool," Owen grins.
"I'm still glad you could all come," Vanessa smiles.
"I wouldn't miss your birthday," Owen grins taking Vanessa's hand and kissing the back of it.
The drive to Guelph doesn't take very long, we talk the whole way. When we get into Guelph Jeff instructs Owen how to get to his house. Owen pulls up out front, Linda and Thomas come out of the house to greet us. Sam introduces her parents to Owen and Vanessa, they talk a few minutes while we get our bags from the back of the van, wave goodbye to Owen and Vanessa and go inside.
"It'll be a little crowded, but it's just for tonight, and you have a party to go to. Boys I've put the larger air mattress in Jeff's room, I hope you boys don't mind sharing, it is a double," Linda tells the guys.
"No problem, I've slept at Adam's a lot," Johnny responds.
"Now girls the trundle is in Sam's room and the smaller air mattress," Linda says.
"We'll be fine Mom," Sam tells her.
We go inside and up to the rooms, setting our bags down and going out to the living room. We talk with Jeff and Samantha's parents for a little while. Actually, they spend a lot of the time talking to Anya, but she is their niece, and they did ask me and Johnny a lot of questions when we visited last month. We have lunch together and go for a walk before returning to the house, Sam helps her mom make dinner while the rest of us watch TV in the living room. Adam and I both offer to help with dinner, but Linda and Sam both insist they don't need it. After dinner we squeeze into Linda's car and go to Vanessa's party, there's already a lot of cars here. Jeff parks and we get out, walking to the front door. We're about to knock when the front door opens, Owen is standing there with a grin.
"Saw you guys walking up, come on in," Owen says stepping aside. "This is the living room, party is mostly in here or through the kitchen out to the back. Drinks and food in the kitchen," Owen tells us.
"You thirsty?" Jeff asks, and I nod. "I'll get us some drinks," Jeff says kissing my cheek.
He takes my hand and we go into the kitchen, Adam and Anya follow while Johnny and Sam stay with Owen. Vanessa's parents aren't chaperoning, but there's no alcohol at this party anyway. We each get a pop and then join Owen, Sam and Johnny again. Owen takes us to Vanessa and we say happy birthday, she introduces us to a few of her friends. I recognize a few of them from Joey's party, which we attended the last time we were in Guelph. Jeff knows several of the people here and quickly finds someone to talk to. I stay for a moment before wandering away as my mind wanders to home. I find my way outside and not so surprisingly Adam finds me.
"You know you could call him," Adam tells me.
"It's Saturday night, he's probably doing something."
"Fitz is probably watching TV or hanging with his brother and if you're worried call him," Adam says before walking off.
I sigh but I know he's right, only I can't bring myself to call Fitz. It feels wrong somehow, to be so worried about my ex and be at a party with my current boyfriend. I also don't feel like I should be checking up on my ex, if there was something for me to know someone would tell me. Still I'll feel better if I know for sure, so I call Jay.
"You okay?" He asks upon answering.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Is M…have y…"
"Fitz is fine, their mom is still in rehab. You could have called him, he's out with Lucas and Sean."
"I couldn't, I know I shouldn't be this worried."
"If you're worried you're worried Clare but he's okay. Paige and Spin are here you want to talk to them?"
"No, I'll see them tomorrow. Thanks Jay." He says goodnight and I slip my phone back into my purse.
"There you are, just needed some air?" Jeff questions coming up behind me and wrapping me in his arms.
"Yeah," I nod.
"I was thinking that we'd get some time to ourselves tomorrow. I can take one of the cars, we could go hiking with a picnic," Jeff suggests.
"That sounds great," I smile turning in his arms and looping my arms around his neck. He grins, and our lips crush together.
We stay outside for a few minutes before going back in, Jeff does know other people at this party and he spends a lot of time talking to them. I try to stay with him, but he's talking mostly about sports, something I have no interest in, so I go find my brother. I don't actually find Adam, but I do find Johnny.
"Where's Jeff?"
"Talking sports with some friends. Where's Sam?"
"She's talking about Europe to some girls she went to school with. I wandered off when she started talking about all the guys she met over there, I didn't want to hear it. Where's Adam and Owen?"
"I'm fairly certain Adam and Anya snuck away to make out. Owen, I don't know about, but I'm pretty sure Owen is wherever Vanessa is."
"Bored with the party?"
"Kind of, I do know some of the kids here, just not in the party mood I guess," I shrug.
"Yeah, a couple of them were at Joey's party but you knew more of the people there. And you were in a better mood, have you called Fitz?"
"No, but I called Jay and he said Fitz was fine. It's not just that."
"You want to talk about it?" Johnny asks.
"No, I think I want to go find Owen and Vanessa it is her party," I reply.
Johnny comes with me and we easily find Owen and Vanessa, it's easy to find them they're in the kitchen. They're sitting at the table, Vanessa in his lap and Owen is telling a group of her friends about the time he, Johnny, Lucas and Drew broke into the theatre after hours for Lucas' birthday. They never did get caught.
"You're such a bad boy, I always fall for the bad boy," Vanessa laughs.
"Hey, I'm not that bad and Clare really falls for the bad boy. You know when she was fourteen she…" Owen pauses quickly, "won a writing award. She's a terrific writer don't you agree Jeff?"
"A fantastic one," Jeff grins wrapping his arms around me. I realize now why Owen so quickly changed his story.
Samantha finds Johnny and kisses him, then whispers something to him. We stay at the party until it begins to break up just after midnight. Squeezing back into Jeff's car to get home, I want a shower but there's only one shared washroom up here. Adam gets ready for bed first, the three of us girls get ready for bed together. We don't fall asleep right away we talk for a while before falling asleep. I must sleep late because when I wake up Sam and Anya are gone. I get up with a yawn and stretch, the door opens, and Jeff is standing there.
"Shouldn't you knock?" I scowl at him.
"Like I haven't seen all of you before," Jeff grins and I keep scowling at him. He comes over and kisses me to release my scowl. "Everyone else went to breakfast, I have our picnic ready do you still want to go on our hike?"
"Yes, just let me get dressed and maybe some coffee?"
"I'll make the coffee, you get dressed and I'll meet you downstairs."
Update soon picking up with a steamy picnic and possibly (if I make it there) Jane coming hom. Next to be updated is Live in My House, I'll be Your Shelter.