Chapter 16

Laura and I decided to put everything into school, well as much as we could in between training and me fixing cars. By the time January came around, we were full fledged high school graduates. We'd barely turned 14 a few months before. While the others were at school, we were either training, filling out college apps, or off in our own little worlds. I'd be working on the cars and Laura would either be in the library, or working on her computers.

One day in February, we were in the back practicing our self defense stuff with Caleb when dad walked into the yard. Caleb hadn't told him that we'd graduated school already, so he wasn't expecting us to be there. He asked Caleb why we weren't in school and Laura told him that we'd finished. We were just hanging out till college started in the fall. Dad pulled Caleb off to the side to talk to him for a minute, so Laura and I went back to practice.

After several minutes, we realized that they were standing there watching us. I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I asked dad if he wanted to join in. He looked at me kinda strange and then said sure. We messed around for a few minutes and then dad said he wanted to get serious. He wanted to see what we could do in a real fight.

Laura backed out, said she didn't wanna hurt dad. I jumped at the chance. I just hoped I wouldn't go into a blackout. It hadn't happened since we left Kansas, but given my feelings toward my father, it was entirely possible. Laura begged me not to do it cause she was worried about the same thing, but I promised her that I wouldn't hurt him too bad. Dean would have been upset with me if I did.

We squared off, me and the old man. He took a swing at me that I dodged easily. I could tell right away that he was pulling his punches. After a few more swings I called him on it. I told him not too worry about hurting me, he couldn't do any worse than he already had.

We really went at it after that. I was fast enough and small enough that I dodged almost everything he threw at me. I think he landed a total of 3 punches. He wasn't so lucky. Two years of Karate in Kansas added to what Caleb had taught us gave me the advantage.

He wasn't gonna back down and neither was I. I think the whole thing lasted 30minutes. When I heard one of his ribs crack, I tried to stop it, but he kept going. He'd decided that I needed to learn a lesson and thought this was the only way he could teach it to me. I started to just side step him, but not swing back. I kept telling him he was hurt, but he didn't care.

I went from side stepping him to just taking his feet from him and dropping him to the ground. That just seemed to make him madder. He just jump right up and go after me again. He wanted me to see how tough he was, wanted me to stop treating him like he was nothing to me. All he was doing was showing me how dumb he could get.

Caleb said something and when I turned to ask him what he'd said, dad clocked me right in my temple. I'd finally decided I'd had enough and just nailed him as hard as I could right to his jaw. Dad hit the ground and he didn't get up. Caleb asked me if he was ok and I reached down to make sure dad was still breathing. I told Caleb he was gonna be fine and went to my room.

I found Laura there filling out the last of her college applications. At some point she'd decided she didn't wanna see me beat up our dad, so she just came up here. She asked me if he was ok and I told her exactly what happened. Laura said it was my own fault for doing it in the first place. She knew one of us was gonna take things to far, she just didn't expect it to be dad. I just shrugged and buried my nose in a book.

Caleb came upstairs a few minutes later and said that dad wanted to talk to me. I was a little tentative at first, but decided things would be ok. I didn't think the old man wanted another beating. I found him lying on a couch in the garden room. He didn't have a shirt on cause Caleb had taped his ribs. He was also holding an icepack to his jaw.

I sat the couch on the other side of the room. I wanted some distance between us in case he said something that made me want to knock him out again. He laid there staring at the ceiling for a second before he said anything. When he finally did speak it almost sounded as if he was trying not to cry. He wanted to know what he had to do to fix things between us.

I sat there staring at him for a second. I wasn't expecting him to say that. When he asked me a second time I told him that I wasn't sure he ever could., but a start would be to take Laura home to Dean and her Sam. He asked if I wanted to go too and I said no. When he asked why not, I gave him the only answer I could. Dean.