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Sounds in the Air

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Summary: Detroit may be a hard, violence-ridden place to live, but someone has to call the cops during a gunfight, right? Well, someone did, and the cops arrive in time to break up a fight that might still claim the life of Jack Mercer.

*Note*: I made up any and all information with the Senator. I remember in the movie there being the implication/mention of Sweet having ties to Washington, so I wanted to cover that as well. I imagine no one here cares more about the legal stuff than the Jack stuff, though, so I gave myself permission to wing it. I hope it flows okay.

A HUGE thank you to all of the reviewers. You guys are (almost?) as awesome as Jack's hair. *winks*

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Chapter Three: Seeing is Believing

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"Victor Sweet was arrested last night, along with more people than we'd thought would be involved with a power-mad jackass like him." Green said, sighing heavily. "Cops, some judges, a few officials in land permits and stuff like that. They've even got some charges on the Senator. The FBI has taken over the case."

The three took that in. Jerry leaned back in his chair next to Jack's bed and ran his hand down his face. He couldn't believe that Sweet had gone down. Guys like that, with that much power over fucking everything? It had seemed like he'd be untouchable forever. He and Camille had been talking about getting out of Detroit, even though they'd both always lived there and believe whole-heartedly that it could be saved. Now? He wasn't so sure that leaving was the way to go, especially since his brothers were finally home.

They'd been in the hospital with Jack for four days. Camille and Sofi had shown up on day two, begging them to take things in shifts. The brothers weren't having it. They all stayed, leaving only long enough to shower and run to the cafeteria, though Angel and Bobby had sent him home to see his girls for a few hours the day before. Still, they were stronger together, they always had been, and they weren't going to take that strength away from Jack now that he needed it the most.

Especially considering that the doctor had begun to lower his dosage of the medication that was keeping him asleep. All three had been eagerly watching Jack for any sign that he was going to wake up, but it had been over sixteen hours since the doctor had promised Jack would begin to show signs of consciousness and they were all growing more and more desperate by the minute.

Jerry glanced over a Jack and saw the same thing that he'd seen for the last four days. His little brother, all of eight years old again, newly adopted and terrified. It had taken everything Evelyn had to break her son out of the abuse inflicted prison he'd built up in his own mind to separate himself from the pain. It had taken everything his brothers had to make him feel safe around them, to laugh and to just live.

It couldn't be for nothing. Jack hadn't survived his hell in foster care just to die ten years later. Jerry turned away, feeling his throat start to close up. He willed his brothers to ask Green for more information, because if he opened his mouth, it wouldn't be to speak.

Angel seemed to hear him and stared hard at Green, "What are the chances that he gets out of this somehow?"

"Zero," Green immediately answered, "Senator Michaels might not go down, but they'll nail everyone up to him just to make an example. You know how that shit goes."

"He should get the death penalty." Bobby said, glancing at Jack.

Green followed Bobby's eyes for the first time. He'd grown up with the older Mercers, but he knew Jack too. Hell, he'd arrested Jack when the kid had been fifteen and he had been a rookie. Jerry appreciated the way that Green's eyes softened when he really looked at Jack for the first time. Even at their home after the shooting, Green had looked like he'd been genuinely sad to see the kid lying in the snow, bleeding in his brothers' arms.

Glancing between Jack and Bobby, it was clear that he could see how Bobby could want Victor Sweet's blood, but that wasn't going to happen. "He won't, most likely. Don't ask for more trouble, Bobby."

"He asked for trouble first." Bobby quietly asserted.

Jerry jumped out of the chair. "You got anything else to tell us, Green?" He asked.

Green shook his head and looked grateful as Jerry led him to the door.

"Got any reason why you just rushed him out the door? Or was that cop smell buggin' you too?" Bobby asked, but his eyes showed that it wasn't a joke.

"You know exactly why I want Green gone. I don't want to hear you start in on revenge." Jerry returned angrily. They'd been dancing around the initial conversation since the first time they'd been let into Jack's room. Between them, Angel watched the brothers closely.

Bobby leaned back in his chair, one hand still in Jack's. "When have we ever let someone walk away from hurting one of our own?"

"This ain't a teenage brawl, Bobby!" Jerry said. He didn't sit back down, he couldn't. This wasn't a civilized conversation, this was one brother begging another to do the right thing. Not for the first time, Jerry wondered if Bobby would ever jump to something other than violence. Once, he'd even decided that the abuse that Bobby'd been dealt, before Evelyn, had ruined him, but the second he'd had the thought he'd hated himself. If there was one thing that Evelyn had made them believe, it was that their pasts didn't dominate them, didn't control their futures. Maybe Bobby had always been destined to be one intense motherfucker.

"No, this is the most important enemy we've ever had. He's the strongest, and he's taken the most from us." Bobby retorted. "He goes to jail, fine. He can be some guy's bitch, great."

"And if he gets off?" Angel asked, speaking for the first time.

Jerry couldn't take it. Angel starred at Bobby as if his answer would set their path. "Then you take Jack and get the fuck out of Detroit." He answered, before Bobby could.

"Run away?" Bobby asked, eyebrow raised.

"Be smart." Jerry countered, "Heal Jack, find love, raise kids, honor Mom for real… Live."

Bobby yanked his hand out of Jack's and clenched his fists. "You wanna talk about honoring Mom? You, the asshole who wouldn't even bang on some doors to find out who killed her?"

"It's never just bangin' on doors with you, Bobby!" Jerry almost yelled. Even in the most serious fight he'd had with Bobby in years, he was mindful of the fact that if they raised their voices, they'd get kicked out of Jack's room. "It's always one more step, going just a little further and further, until there's suddenly guns and we've got to shoot back."

"Isn't Ma worth that?" Bobby questioned, standing up. When he stood, Angel did too, tense and ready to step in if either brother made a move around Jack's bed.

Jerry made a move almost like he was going to punch a wall. He wished he could, or at least bash Bobby's head against it. "Don't you play that fucking game, Bobby."

"What game?"

"You're like a head game. You play it with Angel too. With Jack!" Jerry said, gesturing to their little brother, who slept on even though his brothers had spent the last day eyeing him for any sign that he could be coming back to them. "Saying things about how we owe her to look into it, pulling on their hearts because yours is hurtin'."

"Don't you talk about what I feel for Mom or for Jack and Angel." Bobby growled. "We'd all be dead without her, there isn't a thing wrong with making the ones that took her pay for it, avenging her."

"There is it you get Jack killed doing it!" Jerry yelled, "Tell me Bobby, if Sweet gets off you gonna go after him again? 'Cause Angel's still breathing on his own, maybe you want to get him shot up in Ma's name too!"

"Excuse me!"

The nurse opened the door to Jack's room with a scandalized expression. The minute she interrupted, Jerry felt the fight leave him. He turned to face the wall, unable to look at his brothers another second. Behind him, Angel addressed the nurse. "We're real sorry, ma'am. We were just having a disagreement, we won't shout again."

"If you do, I'll call security." The nurse threatened. The nursing staff had all been lenient with the Mercer brothers, knowing just a little of what had happened to them, but they knew that the sympathy wouldn't translate into free reign in the ICU ward.

"We understand ma'am, thank you." Angel said, and Jerry pictured him smiling at her. Angel could always be counted on to flirt his way out of a situation. Whatever he did worked, because the door closed and they could all hear her walking away. How could they not, when there was no noise in the room other than the steady beep that told them that Jack was still alive?

For several long moments, no one spoke. Finally, Jerry pulled in a shuddering breath and turned to face Bobby and Angel. Bobby was looking at the ceiling and Angel was looking at Bobby.

"I didn't meant it." Jerry whispered. "I know you'd never want anything to hurt Jack."

Bobby didn't say anything still, but he sat back down and picked Jack's hand up.

"We're all wrung out, sitting here waiting for Jack to wake up. I'm sorry, Bobby. I didn't mean it." Jerry repeated.

"You did." Bobby said, pulling his eyes away from Jack to look at Jerry. His eyes looked watery and Jerry felt a stab of guilt in his gut for saying anything that could make Bobby cry. "But that's okay."

Jerry felt his face fall, "No, it's not."

Shrugging, Bobby said, "Jack wouldn't have gotten into this on his own." He glanced at Angel, who still stood tense, "Angel might'a, but you've always been better at talking him down than me."

"I'm less of a dumbass." Angel quipped, almost hesitantly.

None of them laughed, but Bobby might have smiled. "I want him to pay." He admitted.

"He will." Jeremiah promised, staring at the brother he loved. "Why does death have to be the only punishment?"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore. We all know where we stand." Bobby said with finality, again. Something about being an older brother gave him some sort of gavel he could magically slam down and the others would follow his wish.

Jerry didn't want to, but he also didn't want to blurt out something else that would possibly change things between them. He wasn't sure if what he'd already said had done that. He didn't need to talk about Sweet anymore, but there was still something he had to know. "We good, Bobby?"

"You're my brother." Bobby returned, locking eyes with him. That was all he needed to say.

Angel cursed, "What about me, man?"

Jerry quietly chuckled, "What about you, jarhead?"

"You just implied that all I do is follow Bobby's ass around." Angel griped.

"No, you follow Loca's ass around." Bobby said, "Fucking idiot."

Angel looked like he wanted to shove Bobby, but didn't dare for fear of the nurse returning. "Man…"

"Shut up, Angel. I know it, Loca knows it, Loca's mami knows it, Jacqueline here knows it." Bobby said, gesturing to Jack, who would have been pissed if he were actually, finally, conscious.

Jerry shook his head at them. Camille had observed many a Mercer fight before loudly asking Evelyn if they were always at each other's throats one minute and teasing the next. Evelyn had responded, I won't complain if they can't stay mad at each other long, except towards the end of hockey season. Sweetheart, never go to a hockey game with more than two of them or Bobby at all.

God, he missed his mother. She'd talk sense into Bobby, she'd know what to say to wake Jack up. Every moment that she'd been their mother, it had seemed like she could do no wrong, that she always knew what to do. He envied her. At least, he reasoned, he there would be no way he'd come up short in an argument with Amelia and Daniela. No way could his sweet girls be more pigheaded than Uncle Bobby, even if they took after Camille.

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Between the even beeping of the machine hooked to Jack's pulse and Bobby's soft but rhythmic snoring, Jerry was sure he was going insane. Angel had reluctantly left for a chance of clothes and a shower about an hour earlier, while Bobby had settled in the chair opposite his to sleep. Jerry couldn't though, not after what had been said earlier.

He hoped Bobby wouldn't hold it against him, but he knew that it had torn at Bobby's heart a little.

"What do you think, Jack?" Jerry said quietly, talking to Jack's still form. The doctors had encouraged talking to him and so the brothers had done it without fuss. If Jerry knew the magic words to wake Jack up, he'd say them a thousand times, but he didn't and Jack kept sleeping, even though the doctors said he should have woken up. Be patient, they said at first. We have no reason to believe that something is wrong yet, they said later on. Now they were shooing Jack's brothers from his side for longer periods of time to check him out and Jerry could tell that they were getting concerned.

Jerry was too, but that wasn't anything new. "You need to wake up now, Jack." He said, running his hand through Jack's hair. "We're at each other's throats out here, we need you."

Not that Jack had ever been loads of help in breaking fights up. He didn't really like violence, although he'd long since learned that his older brothers meant each other no real harm. "You probably hated that, didn't you?" He asked, remembering a younger Jack's foolproof tactic, accidentally discovered, for getting his brothers to stop when he sometimes couldn't take the arguing. He'd just shut down right in front of them, or go upstairs to get away. Jerry had always marveled at how quickly a simple action from Jack could turn their attention so drastically – but then, Jack had always had them wrapped around his little finger, though Jerry would never put that to words in front of Bobby (or Jack).

Jerry scrubbed his hand over his eyes. "Tell me what you're holdin' out for, Jackie, 'cause I'll do it, get it for you, say it, whatever. I just want you awake. It's safe to wake up, Jack."

He leaned in close to Jack and whispered, "Please…"

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More to come! Let me know what you thought about this chapter, please!