Jeremiah

Little Jackie. He may not be little anymore, but when he first came to Evelyn, he was as skinny as a twig. In fact, he would barely eat and reached probably up to about the middle of my chest. Just about every little noise made Jack jump, which in turn made it difficult for any one of us to get around our own home. Evelyn was very patient with him, but we can't all be saints. I tried my best to make the kid comfortable with us, but it was like taking half a baby step every time. Right off the bat, I could tell that it was going to be a long process to get him to feel safe. But Bobby made it five times harder. Whenever Bobby was home and not working, poor Jack would nearly have a heart attack. I realized that it wasn't intentional, but the way Bobby acted- and always has acted- caused more stress to Jack than was needed. Since Bobby was constantly working on his 'career' in hockey, he always had a loud hockey game on, which would cause Jack to hide in his room for basically the rest of the night. That is, until Evelyn would call him down for dinner. But even then, I could tell that all Jack wanted to do was run away. Hell, the poor kid was shaking the entire time.

The first night Jack stayed with us, I woke up at around two in the morning to loud screaming. I ran down the hall and peered around the corner into Jack's room, seeing mom rocking him back and forth on the bed, smoothing his hair while he cried into her. I almost started crying myself. I knew the kid came from a messed up background, but I hadn't realized it was that bad. After about a week of waking up in the middle of the night, everyone was starting to get a little testy; especially Bobby. One day when Angel and I came home from school, Bobby was laying on the couch with a hockey game blasting. You could tell he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and I honestly wondered if he'd just killed Jack by the look on his face.

"I am so sick of that kid screaming in the middle of the night", Bobby commented suddenly.

"He's having nightmares, Bobby. Have a little simpathy", I advised.

"What could he possibly be having nightmares about? He's eleven-fucking-years-old"

"Did you ever think he might be having nightmares about his old life?"

"Oh, please. I never had nightmares about that. And even if I did, I wouldn't wake up screaming. Along with annoying the hell out of everyone else in the house"

"Like Ma said, he's just scared and is going to have a hard time adjusting. He's just a little kid"

"Right, Jerry. A little kid", we didn't say anything more after that, but I still felt bad for Jack.

Dinner that night was actually pretty awkward, especially considering no one spoke for the longest time. Jack- as usual- wouldn't really eat, Bobby sat at the end of the table fuming, and Angel and I were just there. Mom tried to start a conversation at one point, but not much really happened. It just made everything even more awkward. I could tell Jack didn't like the silence since he couldn't stay still, but it probably didn't help that he most likely knew that the silence was due to him. After a full thirty minutes of just straight silence, mom seemed to get sick of it.

"Now I know it's difficult to make conversation sometimes, but this is just rediculous", she started, then stopped to look at each of us before continuing, "Boys, we aren't just going to sit here and stare off into space. If someone doesn't start talking soon, you're all going upstairs to your rooms for the rest of the night", it was never good when mom proposed a threat, but when she did, you had to take her seriously. Even though I wanted to say something myself, no one did.

"Well, if you're not going to talk, then go upstairs", Ma directed, causing everyone to get up and leave; Bobby being the first. As I rounded the corner to leave the dining room, I over-heard mom talking to Jack, "Honey, you stay here. I'm not mad at you", it was then that I wished I had said something. If I had, then Ma wouldn't have had to raise her voice, and Jack wouldn't be scared.

As I expected, it did take a long time for Jack to get used to everything in Evelyn's house. But eventually he did, and him and Bobby became very close. In fact, all of us considered him to be our brother. After six months with us, Evelyn officially adopted Jack and made him family. He was really starting to come out of his shell; he would even play some hockey with us in the winter, showing everyone on the rink that he could keep up with us. Bobby of course showed him almost everything he knew, but Jack had some skills of his own. People even started calling him 'Mini Bobby' when he was on the ice. Even though Jack could kick some serious ass in hockey, his true love was music. More than that, his guitar. On his twelfth birthday, Bobby gave Jack his old guitar that he never used. He figured if he wasn't going to use it, he might as well give it to Jack and see if he likes it. And the thing was, he really did. In fact, every time I came home from school, Jack would be upstairs playing his guitar. He was a natural. By the time he was thirteen, Jack would even sing. He was a natural at that too, which made me a little jelious. I never personally had a natural talent, but I was glad that Jack had something to occupy his time. It really made him happy. Especially if Bobby was going too far with his jokes, Jack always found playing his guitar to be an outlet.

"So Jack, you ever planning on having a band?" I decided to ask one day after school.

"I don't know, maybe. It'd be cool", he sounded disintrested, but I knew that someday he would. That night, Bobby made us go to a pick-up game with him. It was an important game for Bobby since we would be playing against a few guys who weren't exactly Bobby's biggest fans. Angel was supposed to be out with some girl, but Bobby literally forced him into coming to play. Jack was excited, but Bobby almost didn't let him go. Ever since Jack came to Bobby after a nightmare when he was eleven, Bobby had been over-protective of him.

When we got to the rink, the guys we would be playing were already there. I recognized some of them from the high school, but a few others I didn't know. Since Jack was still smaller than us and obviously younger, they laughed as soon as they saw him. He was a little tall for his age, but you would still be able to tell that he definately wasn't in high school yet.

"So I see you brought a little kid with you, huh, Mercer?" the tallest- John Malone- asked mockingly.

"He's not a little kid. And that's my brother you're talking about", Bobby answered, gritting his teeth. He always hated when someone made fun of Jack. He could do it himself, but if it was someone outside the family, he got pissed very easily.

"Let's play some damn hockey", Bobby finished, skating out onto the ice.

"Let's just see if he can take it", John commented silently, clearly refering to Jack. I knew Jack could handle himself just fine, but Bobby was a different story. He would no doubt try to keep Jack from getting too into it, but Jack had a tendancy to go his own way when he really wanted to.

About twenty minutes into the game, we had a total of ten points while the other guys had a total of three. That was actually mostly do to Jack. Every chance he got, Jack would push someone out of the way and score a point. He definately got his agressivness from Bobby, and used it to his advantage. In the final few minutes of the game, Jack was skating towards our goal while Bobby handled the puck. When Bobby was about to pass it to him for the score, I watched as Jack accidentally ran into one of the other guys. I heard him screaming, obviously in pain. Bobby, Angel, and I skated over to him as fast as we could. When we got there, there was blood everywhere and Jack had a huge gash across his cheek from the corner of his eye and down to his chin. I connected the dots, looking over at the other guys' skate, which had blood dripping from it. Bobby followed my gaze, letting go of Jack's head for a second to confront the guy.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he yelled.

"The kid ran into me!" he was lucky we didn't know who he was, otherwise Bobby would be relentless in school. If someone messed with a Mercer brother, they'd never hear the end of it. No matter how long ago it was, Bobby always got his revenge for some problem one of us had. They continued to argue until Jack wouldn't stop bleeding as profusely as he was.

"Bobby, we have to get him to a hospital. Now!" I interupted. Bobby- being Bobby- kicked the guy in the stomach and then helped Angel and I with Jack. We got him up and out to Bobby's car after taking his skates off. On our way to the hospital, I was franitcally trying to get the blood flow to decrease, but was having a hard time doing so.

"Could you drive a little faster?" Angel complained.

"I'm driving as fast as I fucking can, Angel!" Bobby yelled, nearly ramming into another car.

"Watch out!" I yelled, holding up Jack's head in the back seat.

"Shut up, Jerry!" Bobby yelled back, swerving into on-coming traffic. By the time we got there, there were a million people in the parking lot, so Bobby stopped right in front of the hospital entrance and opened the back door. I offered to help him with Jack, but he acted as if he never even heard me and dragged Jack out of the car. He had his arm around Jack's waiste and we all walked inside. As soon as I opened the door, Bobby started yelling.

"Someone get a fucking doctor!" everyone in the waiting area looked up at him, but he didn't care. The only thing on his mind was getting Jack to a doctor. A nurse came up to us, no sign of worry on her face. That made me kind of mad, for some reason.

"Please, sir. Take a seat and a doctor will be right with you", she told Bobby as calmly as she could. I almost started yelling myself.

"Are you fucking blind? My brother's bleeding to death here! Get a fucking doctor!" instead of waiting for a reply, Bobby started walking past her, "You know what, fuck it. I'll get one myself", Bobby seemed to block out the nurses warning as he continued down a random hall. Angel and I ran after him, laughing to ourselves. That was typical Bobby.

When we got home, Jack had thirty stitches and he looked like something from a scary movie.

"Do you have any idea how close that blade came to your eye?" Bobby asked, taking a seat on the couch.

"Yes, I'm aware. But I'm fine", Jack replied.

"Yeah, real fine. Just look at your face! God, Ma's gonna kill me..." and was he right; if looks could kill...

"Robert Mercer, what did I tell you about putting your brother into dangerous situations?" Ma started yelling as soon as she saw Jack's face and got the story.

"It wasn't a dangerous situation! At least it wasn't supposed to be"

"I don't care. The point is that he did get hurt and he shouldn't have!"

"Mom, it's just a scratch. Big deal"

"Big deal? Big deal! It is a big deal, Bobby! And that is not just a scratch. You're... you're grounded! All of you!" after that day, it took a long time before Bobby let Jack back on the ice. And an even longer time for his face to heal.