Author's note- almost done. One more to come after this, and I wanted to thank everyone who sat through this experiment with me. I know how easy it is to dismiss an idea like this without reading it, and I'm grateful so many people stuck with it anyway.
Quick note - more child abuse in this section. Proceed with caution.
If the matter hadn't been more urgent, Yoshi might have worried that the whole thing was a sign he was losing his mind. He was in essence joining forces with his four eleven-year-old children to put a stop to a criminal.
Last he checked he wasn't in a movie. He wasn't part of one of those silly television shows apparently designed for boys Leonardo's age. In the real world, there was a protocol to be followed.
Then again, as far as Yoshi knew he and his boys were the only ones in Rafael's life who hadn't failed him. So perhaps it was fitting that they should be the ones to stop this doctor, this Kelleran.
Still, it was with dubious hope that Yoshi let Don leave to return to the orphanage with his video camera stashed in his small backpack.
Rafael, only making matters less certain, was in trouble at the state home, for some fight or another no doubt, and wasn't there to talk to about it. But Don was solemn enough to fulfill the responsibility of talking to him, and intelligent enough to remember everything that had to be said.
It was a simple enough idea. Rafael bragged often enough of being able to break in and out of any spot in the home that he wished. If he could, he was to get into Kelleran's office and leave the camera positioned to catch what came before his session. He was to tell Don when that session would be, and Don would call Yoshi so he could come in for himself, be stop things before they went too far and hurt Raf worse.
God, it was a horrible plan. Too easy to see the holes in. Too much resting on two young boys. Too much like asking Rafael to let himself be raped again for the sake of a greater good.
The whole thing could fall apart far too easily, and yet. Yet the boys seemed to agree that the simplest idea was the best. That something so vague was, as Leonardo put it, easy to change depending on how things actually went.
And really, in the end, maybe a wild and unreliable plot was the way to go. Appealing to the proper channels had gotten them nowhere, so the opposite might prove successful.
In the end, really, it certainly couldn't do more damage.
Yoshi sent Don back with camera in hand on a Wednesday. On Friday, perhaps two hours before they would have come to his dojo, the call came.
"Master Yoshi? Something's happening!" It was Don, sounding breathless and upset.
Yoshi said a silent prayer of thanks that it had come after his morning class. He stood and looked for his coat. "Be calm, Don. I will be there in a matter of--"
"No, you don't understand!" Don's voice was close, muffled, like he was hiding somewhere making the call.
Yoshi's heart began to pound. What trouble might he have brought upon his boys? "Tell me."
"I talked to Raf, but he said no. He said it was never gonna stop anyway and he didn't want anyone taping it like a pervert. And he said he wouldn't tell me when his sessions were." There was a pause.
Yoshi could hear the hesitation as loud as words. He had enough faith in Don to keep silent and wait.
"I did something…I just didn't want Raf to have to keep going through it, and if I leave when your house is ready before we can catch the guy hurting him than no one will be there to help. So I went to Miss Prentiss."
Damn. "You took her the camera?"
"She said she could help. She took it." Don sounded breathless again just like that. "But she never did tell me what to do, and now Raf's going in right now and I'm worried maybe she didn't get a chance to do anything yet."
Crumbling. All of it. That's what came of shoddy planning. Yoshi knew that, damn it, why did he try to trust his basest instincts this one time, when it was most important…
He shook the thoughts away. "I'll be there in twenty minutes."
"Should I wait for you?"
Yoshi grimaced. Leave Rafael alone with the man or leave himself with no idea where to go when he got there?
"Trust your instinct, Don."
Just the briefest pause, and then a sudden determination firmed Don's voice. "I gotta go."
Yoshi hung the phone up and turned.
Mike and Leo stood in the doorway from downstairs.
"Father? What's going on?"
"Never mind. I've got to go out for a few minutes. You remember the rules when you're here alone?"
"We're coming too."
"You most certainly are not."
Leo's arms folded over his thin chest. "It was our idea, we should be there."
"Leo, this isn't a joke!" Yoshi grabbed his keys from his desk and moved to the door. "This isn't some adventure. We're talking about the safety of--"
"Our brother!" Mike stuck his chin in the air, his hands fists at his side. "And he needs our help."
Yoshi frowned at him, and at Leonardo.
When he passed them to go down the stairs, they thundered down after him. "We're coming, dad!"
"Father, we already know what to expect. We can--"
Yoshi cut Leo off by turning back to them as he pushed the front door open. "Under absolutely no circumstances are you to leave the car when we get there."
They rushed past him without a word in answer.
It was part of his sick routine that the doc liked the play his little games with Rafael and then have an entire sit-down-and-let's-talk-it-out session afterwards. The doc liked to talk down to him, twist his words, make Raf try to think he'd imagined what had just frigging happened.
But Raf thought the real reason was so that when Raf left his office he wouldn't have all that fight still in him.
"I can't decide if you're stubborn or if you just lack common sense."
Raf gasped out a breath as he was shoved down over the side of Kelleran's desk.
Maybe that was the real reason. So the sweat had time to cool and the bruises could fade a little.
He tried to kick behind him, but Kelleran knew what to expect and moved in fast, pinning Raf's smaller legs against the desk using his own.
Kelleran kept talking, as mild as if they were in the middle of a damned session. "You can't accept reality, Rafael. Don't I always tell you that? You know how this reality always ends up, yet you fight it."
Raf jerked and arched, but Kelleran was just too big. Fully grown and big and his round, soft belly was wide enough to press him against the desk, the papers and family pictures and the commendations and everything else they kept giving this liar.
"I'm teaching you a lesson here, Rafael." Kelleran's voice was a murmur now.
Raf shut his eyes, gritting his teeth. He knew the touch was coming a moment before Kelleran's hand came around him and fumbled over his jeans, grabbing at his crotch clumsily through the denim.
Raf reared back - he always fought it, and he always, always would - but Kelleran had him pinned too well. He felt fingers jerking his pants down, and he slammed his eyes shut and wanted to cry. Wanted to sob and beg and plead, but fuck if he would ever beg this man for anything.
The harsh, tin sound of a zipper being pulled down behind him, and Raf shuddered and growled. His hand clawed around the closest picture and he hurled it behind him. It shattered on the ground somewhere, missing its target.
"The more your fight the less they'll ever listen." Kelleran still murmured, hardly bothered by the destruction. "You should listen to me, Rafael. What I'm doing is for your own good."
Raf's eyes were shedding tears without his permission. He wanted to shout but all that came out was a whimper. His body knew what was coming and he braced all over, ready to be split apart.
The door to the office flew open.
Kelleran jerked up and away so fast that Raf stayed on his stomach for a moment in sheer surprise. He looked up.
Yoshi.
Oh, God. It was him.
His face was beat red and twisted in a look so dark and dangerous that Raf was shocked, but it was Yoshi and he slid off the desk and stumbled back, too overwhelmed with relief to speak.
Yoshi was there. Yoshi saw. Yoshi believed.
Behind Yoshi Don came in, scared and scanning the room with those quick gray eyes.
Raf stumbled over the desk chair and dropped into it, and only then did he remember to grab at his jeans and pull them back up.
Don was there in a flash. "Raf! Raf, are you okay? I didn't know what to do and I called but it took him so long to get here and I didn't want to just stand out there while…"
"Who are you?" Kelleran's voice cut Don off, and they both looked over.
Yoshi had Kelleran cornered against the bookcase where all his big heavy important medical books were crammed.
Kelleran sounded mad, but he sounded scared too.
Raf figured if Yoshi was looking at him like that he'd be scared too.
"I am Rafael's father," Yoshi answered in a voice as hissing and cold as dry ice.
Something in Raf's chest caved to hear those words, and he felt moisture dripping down from his eyes again. Yoshi did care. God, he did believe. He was right there. Raf was so used to scorn that he just didn't know how to feel.
Kelleran didn't question the words. He was fumbling at his slacks, trying to cover up all the pale flabby skin he'd had shoved up against Raf. "You don't understand. Just hold on a moment, and I'll--"
"Hold on?" Yoshi's voice filled the room, blasted against the walls and echoed back. "Hold on while you dress yourself? I understand perfectly." With the last word his arms flew out, shoving at Kelleran's hands, keeping him from fastening his pants.
Raf heard footsteps and looked over, and saw Mike and Leo crowded in the doorway, shock in their eyes. Mike was white as a sheet, his eyes on Kelleran. Leo looked from Raf to Yoshi, twitching like he wanted to go in but wasn't sure what to do.
"There can be no one on this earth lower than a man who would harm a child. A troubled child trusted to his care." Yoshi came at Kelleran like a predator, all soft footsteps and still body and unmoving eyes.
"I am a professional," Kelleran answered, almost convincing except for the fear in his eyes and the pants hanging at his knees. "I was putting the boy through an exercise that--"
"You would lie to me?" Yoshi lunged at him, hands slamming against his shoulders and driving him back into the bookcase. "You would deny what I have seen for myself? You think I would believe you over my own child?"
"Rafael has always been a liar," Kelleran fired back. Even with Yoshi holding him against the bookshelf he was reaching down, trying to grab his slacks to pull them up.
Yoshi didn't stand for that. His arm snapped out, elbow planted against Kelleran's chest, holding him straight back. "Stop! You wanted my boy to see your nakedness, you will suffer me to see it as well. You will suffer the police finding you this way when they arrive."
Kelleran's face was getting pastier by the second. "You don't understand," he said again, feeble.
"No." Yoshi was talking through his teeth. "I don't understand why. I don't understand how you could ever come to do something so repulsive to someone so fragile. What I do understand is what I walked in on, and what I would have walked in on had I waited another thirty seconds."
Raf could only see his sensei's profile, but he watched raptly. He memorized.
This was what it looked like to be helped.
"But I do understand what you are. A monster, a depraved, deformed criminal. The worst of humanity."
"Let me go." Kelleran looked past Yoshi at the boys. "Let me go. There are children--"
"Don't speak to me of children!" Yoshi's arm flew back and forward, and his fist buried in Kelleran's gut.
Kelleran whimpered, as pathetic as any kid. His face went from grey to red. He would have doubled over if Yoshi hadn't been holding him to the shelves.
Raf made a faint noise. He wasn't sure what it was - maybe the tears, or maybe just a burst of sheer joy at the sight.
Whatever it was, it made Don's huge eyes come back to him. "Are you okay?"
Raf nodded shakily, not taking his eyes off the two adults.
Yoshi glanced back, drawn by Don's voice. His wild eyes skittered over the two of them, then his two other sons, standing just inside the doorway.
Something of his anger seemed to bubble. "I told you not to come in."
None of them spoke.
Leo and Mike moved, as if drawn by the same thought, to the desk. To Raf in the chair. Leo's hand came out and dropped on Raf's shoulder and they stood around him.
Yoshi's eyes glittered, and he turned back to Kelleran. "My children are present. Cover yourself."
Kelleran grabbed his pants instantly, yanking them up. His hands fumbled, shaking too hard to fasten them. "It was an exercise," he said, stumbling over the words. "I was teaching him. You didn't see enough. You don't understand."
"Enough?" Yoshi growled, looking like he forgot his kids instantly. His arm lifted from Kelleran's chest to his throat.
Kelleran's eyes went wide and round, and tears misted from them. "Wait!"
But Yoshi didn't look like he was pressing too hard. "Enough? Enough to what? Convince police? Convince myself?"
"I have helped hundreds of children through the years. That boy is--" He cut off, maybe remembering that Yoshi actually cared about Raf, instead of every other adult who seemed to hate him.
Yoshi's arm pressed in just a little. Just enough to make Kelleran gasp and go ramrod straight against the bookcase.
"That boy is what?"
Kelleran shook his head, quick and panicked.
Yoshi leaned in more. "What is he?" When Kelleran still didn't answer he raised his voice, almost a shout. "Tell me!"
"Yoshi!"
Raf jerked and turned, and his heart sank. Prentiss.
Prentiss wouldn't believe any of it. She would tell on Yoshi like he was a bad guy. And Raf was dressed again and so was Kelleran and maybe none of this even mattered. Maybe it was still just their word against the doc.
Yoshi, though, if he was thinking any of that, didn't so much as twitch. "Miss Prentiss. I'd assumed you would join us."
"Yoshi, let him go."
"This man is everything my boy has said he is."
"We'll see."
Yoshi hesitated at that, peeling his glare from Kelleran's face. "We'll see?"
Prentiss moved in, not even looking at the four of them at the desk. She went to the shelf in front of the desk and stood on tip-toes, reaching and pulling down--
Raf's eyes shot to Don. "That's yours! I told you--"
Don just shrugged. "It's proof."
Raf's words cut off. His eyes went back to Prentiss.
Kelleran was making a high kind of noise against Yoshi's arm. "Melinda! What is that?"
She regarded him. "This is a video recorder set on a motion timer. It's recorded you whenever you were at that desk since yesterday afternoon, when I put it in here at the request of one of my children."
Raf glanced at Don.
He smiled tentatively.
"You put that here to spy on me!"
She stared at Kelleran. "I put this here to exonerate you! Ted, do you think I for a moment ever believed those stories he told? Do you think I would have let you deal with these kids for another minute if I thought…" She trailed off, her face losing color. She looked down at the camera in her hands. "What's on this tape, Ted?"
"God, Melinda. You don't understand." Kelleran broke down, tears sliding down his face. "It's not something I want to do. It's a sickness."
She looked like she wasn't breathing. "Oh my God."
"It's a disease! It was that boy who started it. He…Melinda, I need help!"
She looked from him to Yoshi.
Yoshi, arm still against Kellerman's throat, only not pushing at him, returned her gaze. "The police have already been called."
She swallowed. "Good."
"Melinda! Wait! You don't unders--"
"Say that one more time, you evil bastard." Yoshi's arm flexed.
Prentiss shook her head and moved to the desk. Without looking at any of them, she set the camera down in front of Raf. She turned back to Yoshi, pale and miserable looking.
"Yoshi. I…"
"Whatever mistakes you made, you can start correcting them now."
She nodded. "I will. But let him go. Whatever he deserves, don't give him leverage to use against you."
Yoshi's eyes went back to Kelleran, as if considering the idea.
"You have these…these four boys to care for." Her voice was weird and pinched, like she was holding her nose or something. "Think of them."
Yoshi stepped back suddenly, releasing Kelleran.
Kelleran slid down with a thump to the floor, still crying all over himself.
Yoshi turned, but when he came to them he moved right past her and to Raf, crouching beside the chair. "Are you alright?"
Raf nodded, wide-eyed as he looked at his sensei. "Thank you," he said, but for some reason his voice broke off and crumbled all over the place, and he started crying as hard as Kelleran.