Chapter 3 The Dragon Awakens

Two years earlier

Brody went to the bars that night after cashing his check, feeling like he just hit the jackpot. He couldn't believe someone would pay him 2,500 a week to keep Gigi away from Rex. He couldn't understand it; he saw that Rex guy once and couldn't see the appeal. He didn't have to understand it to reap the benefits of free booze money. Anything and everything to keep the demons that were chasing him away. The war had changed him. He felt more on edge than ever, and those faces that haunted his dreams were too much to bear at times. Those innocent lives destroyed by his hands. The sweet golden liquor helped him forget, if only for a second, he would gladly welcome that second time and time again. He came back to Gigi's new place and passed out on the couch.

There were explosions all around him as shots were fired. Brody saw the solider to his left fall to the ground. He went to him but he was dead. The bullet went straight through his neck. He looked up when he heard the person next to him yell "Bomb." Brody reacted on instinct and fired at the figure walking towards them. His aim was accurate at the person fell to the ground dead he had a chance to detonate the bomb. When it was clear Brody ran to him and saw that it was a small boy no more than twelve years old, give or take a few years. "I killed a child," he whispered to himself. His comrades tried to assure him that it was either the boy or the platoon; but it never did sit well with him. He was walking back to his platoon when he felt someone grab him from behind.

Brody woke up in a cold sweat as he felt hands on his shoulder shaking him. He reacted on instinct as he grabbed their wrist and pulled their arm behind their back. In an instant Brody went from on his back with his attacker next to him with his attacker pinned to the floor screaming in pain. As he started to awaken from his dream he noticed that he was not in the desert and this person definitely was not the man he thought he was attacking.

"Brody!" she screamed, "You're hurting me!"

As he was about to release her from his hold, they heard a snap and Gigi screaming in agony. He had broken her wrist. He quickly got off of her, "I'm so sorry Gigi," Brody said.

"You've been sorry a lot lately," she replied back to him sarcastically as she held onto her injured left wrist. She said Brody move towards her, "Don't you dare touch me!" she hissed, "You are never to touch me again!"

Brody was at a loss for words. It wasn't like he meant for this to happen. He could already see the bruised cheek from last night and the black eye forming under her right eye from when he forcefully threw her to the floor. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead he got to his feet and retrieved his whiskey bottle from last night. He opened it and took a long drink.

"You disgust me!" she said, "You're not the Brody I knew ten years ago!"

"Tell me something I don't already know," he snapped back at her as he took another long drink.

"I want you out of this house!" she said in a stern voice as she got up off the ground, she was being very careful not to move her wrist she knew was probably broken. "I want you away from me and away from Shane!"

"He thinks I'm his father," Brody said, "He'll be pissed if you run me off."

"I'll tell him the truth. I will sit Rex and Shane down together and apologize," Gigi said, "I'll do whatever it takes to protect my son from you. Even it that means he'll never speak to me again. Because his father, his real father is three times the man you will ever be! You will never come near us again Brody!"

Brody took another drink as he processed her words, if he wasn't here, Adriana wouldn't pay him anymore. He needed that money to keep him numb. She did order him to do "whatever it takes."

"If I see you near us again so help me God…"

Gigi never had the chance to finish her statement. In a blink of an eye he went from being five feet away from her to slamming her against the wall with his hands around her throat as he tightened his grip a little to deny some of the oxygen from getting into her lungs. "Now you pay close attention to me," he said in a deadly voice, "You will do no such thing. This is my family, not Rex Balsom's do you understand me?" He waited for her reply, when she didn't give him any indication that she was agreeing with him he pulled her out from the wall to slam her hard into again. His fingers tightened around her throat as he watched the terror increase in her eyes. "Do you understand me?"

Gigi couldn't speak; she could only nod in agreement with him.

"And if you think about saying anything about this to Rex, the cops, anyone," Brody said as the threat rang clear in his voice, "I will hunt Shane down and gut him like a fish. There is nothing you can do to protect that boy. I will kill him dead if you breathe a word of this to anyone."

Gigi was feeling light headed due to the lack of oxygen to her system. The tears flew freely from her eyes as she cried for her own pain and the danger she caused her son by not telling him the truth when she saw Rex again after ten years in that diner in Paris, Texas.

"Rex Balsom will never know the truth and neither will Shane. You keep you mouth shut or your son's life will end. Do we have an agreement?" Brody asked, "Your life for his?"

Gigi nodded again and he released her. She felt to the floor and cried out in pain when she landed on her injured wrist. She was taking deep breaths to get oxygen back into her lungs.

"Mom!" Shane yelled as he ran into the living room with Rex closely behind him.

"What is he doing here?" Brody asked gesturing to Rex.

"Rex picked me up from softball practice," Shane explained, "What happened to Mom?"

"Gigi is on the floor in pain and you're more concerned about why I am here?" Rex said in disbelief as he ran to Gigi. His voice was louder, drowning out Shane's explanation.

"She fell down the stairs and I was about to take her to the emergency room when Shane came in," Brody said. He was already getting annoyed with Rex. The tender way he would look at her and check out her injuries. He scowled back at Rex as he glared back at Brody.

Rex looked at the stairs next to him and Gigi's fallen form on the other side of the room, "How did she fall down the stairs but land way over here," He gestured to Gigi next to him. His voice soften has he took her wrist into his hands, "Does this hurt?" he asked, she immediately hissed in pain, "I would take that as a yes. What else hurts?"

"Everything," she whispered in a horse voice from being strangled just moment before.

"Is it hard to speak?" Rex asked, as she nodded, "That doesn't make sense if you had fallen down the stairs. What happened Gigi? Tell me?" He gently as possible stroked her cheek with his hand. He wanted to comfort her with his touch as well as his words.

"She fell down the stairs," Brody said as he walked next to Shane and set a hand on the back of Shane's neck. To anyone who was not Gigi it would look like a comforting gesture, but to Gigi it was warning. "She had a sore throat this morning that is why her voice is scratchy. And to answer your previous question Mr. Know-It-All I thought the car was in back so we started back there. Gigi corrected me and I left her there to get the car."

"On the ground instead of the couch just two feet away," Rex said, his tone implied he did not believe his story, "In your underwear as well?"

"I was going to change first," Brody said, "I was a little preoccupied with Gigi to remember my state of dress…"

"It's true," Gigi whispered, the tears that were falling were of the new lies her life was about to become. She just wanted to stop the arguing so someone would take her to the hospital. "I told him that I would make it to the couch, you know me, have to do everything myself." She laughed briefly before she realized how much it hurt. She felt Rex's comforting hands on her back. "I fell down when Brody got a few feet from me. That's when Shane and you came in."

"Can you get up?" Rex asked.

Gigi with Rex's help tried to stand up, but her back and body would not agree with her. She leaned against Rex as he kept her from falling again. "I can't," she whispered in frustration, "It hurts too much."

"I want you to tell me if this hurts," Rex said as he gently lifted her in his arms, "You okay?" She nodded yes and snuggled her head in the crook of his neck. "Shane can you get the door."

"I can take it from here," Brody said blocking Rex's path to the door.

"I don't want to risk hurting her anymore, she's fine right here," Rex said trying to walk about him. When Brody reached for her, he turned his body so he could not grab her from him, "I said I can take care of it."

"I can do it."

"I don't care," Rex said, "I'm here and I'm handling it." He started to head the back way would when Brody went around him. He turned around before Brody could reach for her again.

"This is my family!" Brody nearly growled at him. Adriana will kill him if he lets Rex take Gigi to the hospital.

"I don't care," he said, "I care about this woman and frankly I don't think you're doing a good enough job taking care of her!" he growled back at Brody. His facial features and tone softened when he said, "Shane the door please, and open the passenger side door of my car and hop in back."

"This is my family! You have to right or claim to them," Brody said, "I can take care of her fine. She fell. I had no control over that!"

If Rex wasn't so focused of Brody he might have noticed that Gigi's body tensed up when Brody said he had no control over her injuries. She subconsciously snuggled in closer to Rex and hoped to wake up from his nightmare soon.

As Brody scrambled around the living room looking for the clothes he wore last night, Rex carried Gigi to his car and Shane was waiting with the car door open. Rex gently placed her on the seat and buckled her in. He locked the door manually before closing it as gently as possible. He motioned for Shane to get in. He stood at the door waiting for him to buckle up and locked that door as well. He also put on the child safety lock in case Shane would open the door for Brody. Rex was rounding the car when Brody came out of the house, having changed into his clothes. Rex jumped into his car and turned on the engine has Brody reached Gigi's door. He tried to open it but founded it locked as well as Shane's. Shane tried to open the door fro his father but was unsuccessful. Rex backed out of the driveway leaving Brody cursing at him as he ran back into the house for Gigi's car keys.

"Why did you leave my dad behind?" Shane asked.

"You're mom's in a lot of pain buddy," Rex said, "I couldn't wait any longer to argue with your dad. She needs to go to a hospital."

"But he was right there," Shane said.

"Do you trust me buddy?"

"Yeah," Shane said without hesitation.

"Then trust me that I know what's best for right now," Rex said looking at Shane through his rear view mirror. "And know that I will always be here for you and your mom. I know you have your dad back in all, but I will always be there for you. I'm not going anywhere. If you ever need me, call me, it doesn't matter what day or time it is. If you need me, I'll be there in a heartbeat." Rex didn't know why he needed Shane to know that, but deep in his heart he knew that someday they would need him for something and it was very important that boy knew that he would always be there for him.

"I know Rex," Shane said, "Me and my mom are very lucky to have you in our lives."

"You got that wrong kid," Rex said, "I'm the lucky here."

Present Time

Rex sat outside Shane's room looking in at the boy as the doctor's worked on him. He remembered that day like he was yesterday. He wished he would have picked up on the clues back then. Maybe then today never would have happened. He remembered how angry Brody was when he got to the hospital, but he shook it off as taking Brody being angry that he was taking care of what Brody called 'his family.' Rex never knew that it was really his own family that Brody was terrorizing and his wife…no ex-wife funded this living nightmare. Rex felt a sense of shame that this was happening right under his nose. He can still picture Gigi's face when Brody took showed up and stayed by her side at all times. The way she tensed up whenever Brody would touch her. Gigi left the hospital with a broken wrist, bruised ribs and face. She was terrified of him and he chastised himself for not seeing it at the time. But if he had to be grateful for one thing in this world, it was the Shane remembered Rex's promise and called him. Unfortunately it was two years too late. If that was the first incident of his abuse on Gigi…God only knows how long his son had been abused by that monster. He felt like a failure as a father for not protecting his son and as angry as he was at Gigi for not telling him the truth when he asked her; he knew he failured her too. A father is suppose to protect his family, not leave it in the hands of a dragon ready to devour them. He would make it up to them, but first then needed to get through this ordeal. Rex watched the doctor's work on his son. His heart sank to his stomach when he heart Shane's heart monitor flat line and Michael screaming for a crash cart. "Oh dear God," Rex whispered, "Please don't take my son from me."