So, I finally updated. And you're in for a surprise. I was reading this story today and suddenly got inspired again. I got inspired to do something else as well. This fic is now a crossover with Four Brothers!
It had been a while since she had been back to this place. About two years now. She had only spent a few weeks here, at this tiny little apartment on the bad side of town, but for some reason, this place was where she felt the most connection. Maybe it was because this place was where she had gained her freedom from her fiancé or maybe it was because this had been the place where she had come to the conclusion that her life had fallen apart and that she needed to piece it back together.
Either way, she was back for good now. She was determined to make it work here. There really wasn't another option. She couldn't ask her mom for any more money and there was no way she was going to get a good enough job that would pay for a better apartment. She had tainted her clean criminal record with a charge of drunken disorder and conflict. There weren't many high paying jobs that were going to take a woman with a criminal record.
She was resigned and she didn't mind it. She didn't need anything fancy, nothing expensive. As long as the dead bolt on her door worked she was going to be fine. She was going to make it work.
After her encounter with her ex-fiance and her next door neighbor, she had made her decision. It hadn't been quick or easy but she had made it. It had taken her another couple of days to get up the courage to go visit her mother. She had been a mess, her clothes all stuck to her, no winter coat, hair greasy and messy. But her mother was still her mother. She had agreed to pay for Harry's time in rehab and a cab to get her there. So she had given her mother a hug, gotten in the cab with nothing but the clothes on her back and had gone to rehab, a tiny little place on the outskirts of Detroti that was worth more than it should have been but got the job done. She had been there, at rehab, for almost a year. And there she had met quite a few characters.
The most memorable and the most loving had been Jack. He was a few years younger than her but had come from much the same background. The only difference was that Jack had been an orphan for most of his youth. He had been beaten and abused for seven years before he had been taken in by one Evelyn Mercer, Detroit's saint. His past, however, had caught up with him at an older age as he started to remember everything that had happened to him before he had come to Evelyn's. And he had done everything to drown out those memories again. He had tried every drug under the sun and every kind of alcohol. He hid it well but as soon as his older brothers and Evelyn had found out, they had pooled their resources and sent him promptly to rehab.
It had been there that the two had met and learned everything about each other. It was there they formed a sibling bond that neither of them every wanted broken. Jack's friendship had made the year go by quick and had made recovery easier as well. It was Jack that was there for her when they had finally given Harry the privilege of seeing visitors and the first one that had shown up was Eliot, her ex-fiance. It was Jack that told her she didn't have to go back to him, didn't have to listen to a thing she said. It was through Jack that Harry met her second family, the Mercers.
Somehow, Jack had swung a deal with a nurse so that Harry could come with him to the visitors' room when his family came to visit. For the first few months, it had been all of Jack's family that had come, his three older brothers (all adopted) and his mother Evelyn but as the year went on, his three brothers all left home to find their own lives. His eldest brother Bobby left for Boston to do what no one was sure of. He only said that he needed to get out of Detroit for a while. His second eldest brother Angel had left for the military, saying that there had to be more to life than the slums and back streets of Detroit. It was Jack's other brother Jerry that settled down in Detroit with a girlfriend that he eventually proposed to.
Jack's face had fallen more and more with each visit. It was rough on him, not being able to give his brothers a proper goodbye when each of them left him and Harry was there for him. She dried his tears when he wondered if any of them cared for her and she gave him hope.
When it came down to it, Harry was scheduled to be released before Jack. The two, however, could not bear to be parted so quickly. It was then that Jack convinced his mother to let Harry move in with them for a while, just until she got her feet back. Evelyn had welcomed the young girl with open arms and treated her just like the rest of the family. And Harry had slept in Jack's bed at the Mercer household until Jack had also come home from rehab.
When he arrived back at the house, there was a surprise party waiting for him (without alcohol). And it was to Jack's surprise that all three of his brothers had come back to congratulate him on making it through the program. It had been the least Harry could do. She had called all three of them, the toughest guys to get a hold of, and had begged them to come back. Bobby had been the hardest to get back but eventually he agreed under the pretense that he really didn't know the next time he was going to get to see his little "fairy" again.
The welcome home party had been a wondrous occasion, a time when Harry really did feel like part of their family. It had been a time when a connection was made between all of them, a connection that was not going to be easily broken.
In the morning, the family had hugged and said their goodbyes, and Harry and Jack watched as the other three left home again. Angel back to base camp, Bobby back to Boston, and Jerry backed to his apartment with his fiancé.
Harry had stayed with the Mercers, Jack and Evelyn, for six more months after that.
And then Jack had decided to leave home as well, to chase his dreams of being a rock star.
But Harry just didn't have the heart to go with him, to leave Detroit. And that's when she made the decision to return to Stokley Hall.
"Yeah ready, girl?"
She turned to look at Jerry who was carrying one of the bigger boxes of the stuff they had packed for her. She nodded slowly before pulling her key out of her pocket and heading for the two front doors of the apartment building.
"I really wish you wouldn't stay here," Jerry continued, "This place is seedy as hell." She watched as Jerry looked the building up and down and then turned to look down the street. She had to agree with them. Stockley was in one of the seediest neighborhoods of Detroit. She had realized this when she had first rented the place out. She also had to admit now that its seediness was what drew her in the first place.
"It's fine, Jerry. I'll make it by for now. I promise and as soon as I get enough money I'll find a better place to live." She smiled at him and pulled the door open. The smell of urine and weed filled her nostrils and made her nose itch.
"Damn!" Jerry exclaimed as he walked in. He immediately began inspecting the graffiti on the walls and shook his head. "You know you don't have to live here. Mama don't mind you staying with her at all. She likes having someone in the house with her."
"I know, Jerry, but I need to get out on my own. I need to make sure I can handle the sober life. I can't stay in the protective cocoon Evelyn creates no matter how much I like it." She started up the steps, looking behind her every once in a while to make sure Jerry was still following.
"Bobby would shit if he saw this place," Jerry continued. Harry realized that was all she was going to hear out of him for the next five minutes. All he was going to talk about was how bad this place was and how she should move back in with Evelyn. He would probably say anything he could think of to persuade her to change her mind.
"Well, Bobby's not here." She couldn't help but sound a little bitter about it either. Bobby was…different than the other brothers in a way she just couldn't explain. Jack would always be her favorite, that was true, but Bobby was important in a different way.
"I promise to call and check in, like I said. I'll call you and Evelyn every week. I just really need this Jerry. I need to know I can stand on my own two feet again." She stopped and turned to Jerry. She really wanted him to see the hope and need in her eyes. She really wanted him to just stop talking about how crappy her new apartment building was.
"Alright," he agreed with a sigh and a nod.
Harry gave him a small smile before she continued up one more flight of stairs. "It's just down this hallway," she called back to Jerry. They were two doors down from hers when they both heard a loud thump and then muffled screaming. It only took a few seconds for the screaming to get louder because the source of the screaming had just swung open the apartment door right next to Harry's.
A tall, bald man stood in the doorway, almost too large for the frame. Harry recognized him as once, even without hearing his voice.
"I told you to get down to the fucking corner. How many fucking times do I have to repeat myself, you good for nothing piece of shit?" He was on the phone, but the conversation didn't last for long. After a few more curse words and unfriendly pieces of advice, the man snapped his cell phone closed and turned to slam his door behind him.
Harry could feel Jerry pressing protectively against her back as the large stranger turned to walk down the hallway. When he saw Harry and Jerry, he paused in his steps and gave them both a once over.
It lasted a few seconds before the stranger sniff, turned up his nose and continued down the hallway again.
"Doesn't know who he's fuckin' with," Jerry muttered after him. Harry almost smiled. What stopped her was the fact that the Mercer brothers were past their time of rule. This younger, taller looking man that lived beside her had probably never heard of them before. It had been years since the Mercer brothers were all together and causing havoc and mayhem on the streets of Detroit. It had been a different neighborhood, too. The Mercer brothers had grown up on the West side and this was the south side. The south side was a whole different kind of trouble. Where the west side had more mafia, the south side had more gangs and territory battles. This place wasn't what the Mercer brothers were used to but that wasn't saying the Mercer brothers couldn't handle either.
"It's fine, Jerry. As long as I don't bug him, he won't bug me. It's not the first run in I've had with the guy."
All she got from Jerry was a raised eyebrow and snort.
A few hours later found Harry alone in her apartment unpacking her last box. Most of what now graced her apartment had come from Evelyn. They were either hand-me-downs or brand new things that Evelyn had gotten her. Evelyn had done a lot for her since Harry had met Jack, almost too much. But each time, Evelyn said she was only giving Harry what she deserved for all the things Harry had gone through in life. That's what made Evelyn the Saint of Detroit.