Thanks for reading and let me know what you think :)
Still don't own, still make no money.
Chapter 6: Busted
He watched close while the kid took a bite of the sandwich. Yeah, he could see that look on his face now, that look that Bobby could have sworn had been gone for a few days. It hadn't been gone; it had been hiding in the living room, on the couch. It had been masked by distance and too many other worries on the man's mind. The kid was better than he'd given him credit for, he was a little sneak, and now that led to more questions. How much had he eaten over the past few days? Was he sleeping at all? Bobby had checked on him each night before he went to bed, and while he wasn't positive the kid was asleep each time, he'd appeared to be relaxed, and calm, hadn't he? He didn't have the dark circles under his eyes like before, and he wasn't freaking out every time they turned around, so the pills were doing at least part of their job, right?
Hell, now he had to wonder why the pills weren't working the way the doctor had said they would, and that meant only one thing, the kid wasn't taking them like he should. But Bobby had been watching him, every single time he handed him the pills he'd watched him drink something down, usually milk or juice. But if he was taking them, the kid wouldn't be hiding shit from him. If he was hiding shit, then there was a problem, and he was going to find out here and now if there was a problem. He didn't like wondering about it. He didn't like the kid sneaking around behind his back, and he damn sure didn't like being lied to. He wanted to be able to trust him; hell it would make it easier to be able to trust him. He had too many other problems to deal with; he didn't think he still had this one, it was supposed to be fixed.
Okay, he wasn't so stupid that he thought Craig's problems could be fixed with one bullet, but the source of his problems had been eliminated, and he'd hoped the kid was dealing better. He thought that by now his youngest brother would come to him if he needed to. Hadn't they done all they could to get him through the shit that had rained down on all of them? So why, if he was still having problems, didn't he come to him, or any of his brothers and say something? 'You dumbass, if he ain't takin' his pills then ain't thinking straight himself.' His mind's voice chastised. He shook his head and almost let a tired sigh slip out. If he was taking his pills, but he had been supervising that part of the whole fucking process. 'Yeah, well, you watched him to in the front door earlier too, that didn't stop him from walking out the back.' His mind's voice seemed to hold a mocking tone to it, and he hated the sound of it. Shit, he sounded like an asshole even to him. He had to laugh at that thought.
Jack and Angel both looked at him. "What's so funny?" Angel chewed the words out over a mouth full of salad.
Bobby looked over at Craig. "I just realized that for the past three fucking days, I ain't been focused on everything, that's all." He took a bite of his own salad and shook his head while he chewed and swallowed. "I've been worried about the cops, and the insurance, and the money."
"We all have." Angel looked at him. "Don't kick yourself in the fucking ass over it. I didn't notice shit until last night." He smiled at him. "I watched the little shit sit and stare at one page for almost an hour, and he didn't move, or make a sound the whole time."
Bobby noticed when Craig looked at Angel, his attention drawn to the conversation. His eyes shifted to Bobby, and then he let them fall to take in the meal in front of him. He looked worried, or nervous, Bobby wasn't sure which.
Bobby smiled. "Yeah, but you noticed." He drew in a deep breath and let his fork fall into his salad. He turned his full attention to Craig. "You want to say somethin'?"
Craig looked at him and shook his head slowly.
Bobby wasn't sure if he should push it right now, or wait until after the kid had choked down the meal in front of him. He was gonna make sure he ate, and he was sure it would be easier to get the food down him before he started this conversation, but hell, he just didn't have the patience to wait. He had never been known for his patience. "You sure you ain't got something to say? You look like you got somethin' to say."
Craig shook his head again and picked up his fork. He poked around at the lettuce in the bowl and sucked in a deep breath. Yep, he looked worried.
Bobby sat back in his chair. "You know I seen your ass outside earlier. You got somethin' to say about that?"
He was sure the kid held his breath for a long second before letting it out, but he didn't say a word.
"What the fuck did you think you were doing?" Bobby asked.
Craig didn't look at him. Bobby could see the muscles in his jaw tighten, and was sure he wanted to say something.
There was quiet now, complete silence, no sounds of forks hitting dishes, or glasses clinking against the table. He looked at Jack and Angel; both had their gazed glued to the teen. He couldn't hold in the laugh. "Hell, you both think he's got somethin' to say, don't you?" He forced the wide grin to hold on his face and turned back to Craig. "Answer my question." He kept his voice cheerful. "What did you think you were doing out there?"
"You never said I couldn't come out." Craig muttered quietly.
"You know better than that. If I'd wanted you to hear our private conversation, then we would have come in the house." Bobby could feel his blood quicken as it rushed through his veins to his forehead to start the dull thud of a headache.
"You never said…" Craig started to argue, his eyes still fixed on the sandwich lying on the paper towel in front of him.
"I don't have to say it. You know better. That's something that comes with being treated like a fucking teenager; you don't have to be told everything to know what you need to do." Bobby leaned forward as his voice picked up pitch. He could feel his own tone changing as his patience, what little bit he was holding onto, dissolved. "You know by now when we are having a conversation not meant for you, and you know what to do when have one of those."
"But you never told me you wanted to talk and that I had to stay in the house." Craig still used the same lame defense.
"If you really thought that way at the time, then why did you sneak around the house and hide?" Bobby asked. "Why not just come out the front door where were the whole fucking world could see you?"
"Because…" Craig's words cut off as he was trying to think, still not looking up from his food to look his older brother in the eyes.
"Oh shut up." Bobby smacked the table hard with his hand. The action caused the teen to flinch slightly. The parent part inside of Bobby felt a little guilt at the sight of fear in the boy's eyes, but the big brother that made up the rest of him was satisfied that he had his full attention. "Stop saying stupid shit, it makes you look and sound stupid." He shook his head and sat back in the chair again. His mind was running through the last few days, and he was trying to decide where to start. "Go get the school assignments you've been working so hard on." He held his left arm out and pointed towards the living room behind him. "I want to see them."
Craig didn't look at him, and he didn't get up from the table. His eyes seemed to flicker, and he looked worried.
Bobby smiled after a few long moments. "You've been playin' games with me?" He asked.
Craig's eyes shifted from his food to his hands, and then to the chair at the opposite end of the table, where their mother had once sat for meals.
Bobby reached out and smacked the table, harder than the last time. "You look at me when I'm talking to you." He didn't yell, but he wanted to, God, did he want to. He was starting to think he'd been played by a fourteen year old, and he didn't like it. He was older, he had dealt with lying kids before, hell, he had three other younger brothers, all of whom had lied to him over the years, but none of which had gotten away with it, at least not until they got older, a whole lot older.
Craig slowly shifted his gaze back towards his oldest brother, and Bobby thought for sure he seen a flash of tears behind his eyes, but that was only for an instant. The threat of tears was replaced with something else. The man wasn't sure he could place it at the moment, but if he didn't know better he'd say the kid was pissed.
"Answer my question; have you been playin' games with me?" Bobby kept his hard look on the boy. He wanted the kid to admit it. If he admitted it he could deal with it. All he had to do was tell him what the hell was going through his head and he'd do what he could to make it right, but the lying and sneaking was pissing him off. His brain was trying to figure out how much the kid had been deceiving him. The idea that he would lie to him was the worst. He wanted to understand it and make it right. Somehow he felt he'd failed Craig by missing signs that were right in front of him.
"No." Craig let his eyes meet Bobby's and his voice was steady. Calm seemed to drive him, but there was a slight quiver at the end of that single word that told Bobby he was lying to him now.
"You little liar, you are lyin' to me now." Bobby stood and grabbed the kid's arm. "Stand up and say that to me again." He pulled him to his feet. "I dare you."
Now the tears were back. They pooled in the boy's eyes and that's what Bobby wanted to see. As terrible as that would sound if he said it out loud, it showed him the Craig he thought he knew was still in there somewhere, and this lying, sneaking version of him wasn't normal. It almost gave him a sense of relief. "Now, you want to tell me what the hell has been goin' on behind my back? You got school work to show me?"
"No." Craig muttered, shifting his eyes away from the man, trying to find something to focus on.
Bobby gave him a slight shake to get his attention again. It worked and and brought his gaze back to him. "Why ain't you got any lessons for me to look at? You've been studying, ain't you?" He asked.
Craig swallowed hard and Bobby could see the tension bite down on the young shoulders.
"Have you been doin' your schoolwork Craig?" Bobby let his voice rise slightly. "Because if you haven't been studying, then you got some explaining to do to me, don't you?"
Craig reached up with his free hand and wiped at tears that were slipping free and falling down his cheeks. He opened his mouth and Bobby waited for a moment, not sure if he was going to hear another lie or if the kid was ready to break and be honest with him.
"I can't." Craig barely got the words out.
"You can't what?" Bobby asked. He didn't understand what the kid was trying to say to him.
"I can't do it by myself. No one will help me." Craig looked down again, away from Bobby's hard glare.
"Did you ask?" Angel spoke up from the table.
Craig looked at him. "This morning, you…" He started to respond.
"We were getting ready to leave. You never said a word about needing help before that and you know it. Now don't bullshit us." Angel sat back in his chair, crossing his arms at his chest, almost as if he was daring the kid to contradict him.
"But I did ask you this morning, and you …" Yep, the kid was gonna burry himself deeper, Bobby could see it coming.
"You ain't bothered to ask one single time over the past few days for any help with that shit." Angel stood quickly. "If you're gonna be honest, then admit that. While we're at it, maybe we should mention that not talking to anyone thing that I brought up this morning. You know what I'm talking about? You've been hiding behind those books, avoiding everyone. When we do try to talk to you, you leave the room, don't you, little boy? Hell, you didn't need help with your school work; you weren't trying to do it to start with. It was an act to avoid talking to us."
Craig would have backed away from Angel if Bobby hadn't been holding onto his arm. The man felt him pull slightly.
"Why don't you both just leave him alone?" Jack finally spoke up. "Ganging up on him is not gonna help." He picked up his sandwich and took bite.
"No one is ganging up on him." Angel looked down at Jack for a long moment. He turned back to Craig. "Look, I tried to talk to you this morning, and you got up and left the room, do you remember that?"
Bobby looked at Angel. "Sit down Angel, nibble on your lettuce and let me handle this." He could feel the kid tensing up under his hold. Angel was trying to help, but he was doing the opposite.
Angel sucked in a deep breath and was about to say something more.
"Look, I got this, okay? Let me deal with it." Bobby spoke quickly before Angel had the chance to get another word out. "He's mine." He wasn't sure exactly what he meant when he added that last part. The kid was his. He was his to deal with, he was his responsibility. He was his. He was the parent, not Angel.
Now Bobby could relate to how his mother felt every time he butted his nose into her business with her sons, always thinking he knew better than she did. Hell, he must have given her a lot of headaches, arguing with her over stupid shit about his brothers. He'd tried to be helpful, tried to be the good big brother, but she always told him she had it under control, that she was the parent. Hell, he finally understood that.
Angel dropped back down in his chair. "Well then deal with it and quit playing games here, it's ruining my appetite." He obviously didn't like being shut up like that. Hell, Bobby would have to pull him off to the side later and explain to him how the kid was. He wasn't good with feeling crowded in, that was something he'd learned a long time ago. He was better one on one.
Craig had gotten used to Bobby taking charge, and he had a feeling that was part of the problem. Bobby had fucked up, he'd let the kid drift for a few days and he should have known better. He hadn't meant to, he hadn't realized it, and he was going to have to figure out how to fix it. It was his to fix and no one else.
Bobby turned his attention back to the boy in front of him. The look of desperation was hiding under a false, stony expression. "You remember, just after Ma's funeral, how things were? We hardly talked. We didn't really understand each other then, did we?" He kept his voice quiet. "We understand each other now, don't we? I thought we did anyway. Hell, I understand you a damn sight better now. I know more about you, and I think you know more about me. You know I love the hell out of you, right? You know you can come to me and talk when you need to? You know that?" Bobby asked. He stopped and tried to wrap his brain around what he wanted to say to the kid.
Craig nodded his head, but looked away from him, back down to the floor.
"Then why don't you tell me what you've been doing the past couple of days?" Bobby asked him.
Craig didn't look up at him, or say a word. He looked nervous.
"You scared I'm gonna be pissed?" Bobby asked. "I won't, okay?"
The expression that crossed the boy's face gave Bobby a sick feeling in his gut and he wondered if he'd chosen the wrong words. Maybe he should have told him that he wouldn't get too pissed. He was wondering if he could clarify his meaning when Craig shook his head slowly.
"I've been trying to catch up on school." Craig muttered and kept his eyes from making contact with his older brother. "I can't do it." He flicked a quick peak up to Bobby, but only for a second, before he dropped his eyes back to the floor.
Bobby could see it in the way the kid was holding himself, the tension in his shoulders, the set jaw and frown embedded deep in his eyes. He was lying to him. He was saying what was easiest to say, and that was all. He wasn't telling him the truth.
What the hell was he supposed to do, challenge him or let him hang himself and get busted in the lie? He sucked in a deep breath, trying to remember in his mind what his mother's favorite approach was. Hell, she never used the same method; it depended on the son and the situation. Jeremiah usually 'fessed up pretty quick, but Bobby was one who had to get busted, most of the time before he'd admit it. Angel was too good of a liar, so she would flat out tell him she'd wait him out until she could catch him. Jack was a different story. He couldn't lie, but he tried. He usually went on and on and on with a stupid story until no one could bear to hear it any longer before finally admitting he was lying.
Craig was a lousy liar too, but he wasn't making shit up, he was just denying it, "You sure about that?" Bobby challenged him, hoping he'd crack, just like Jack used to.
Craig nodded his head slowly. "I'm sure. Can I eat now?" He looked as if he were opting for one form of torture over another. He didn't want the food, but it was better than being held there in front of his brother, being questioned.
"There's nothing you need to let me know about right now? Like I said, I'll stay calm. No yelling, I promise." He tried once more. He wanted to be able to trust the kid.
"There's nothing." Craig muttered.
Bobby let go of his arm. "Okay, sit down and eat. No picking at your food. You eat every last bite, and then you can take your pills and lay down for a little while." He kept his voice smooth and calm, despite the fact that he wanted to grab the kid and shake him hard enough to knock the stubbornness loose from him.
Craig finally looked up at him, and for a second Bobby thought he was going to say something, but that second passed and the teen pulled himself back down into his chair.
Bobby watched him the rest of the meal. He ate, but he looked as he was being forced to swallow nails. He wondered why the hell he hadn't seen any of this before. Hell, he should have known better. If the kid wasn't eating, then the medicine wasn't working like it was supposed to. If the pills weren't working, it meant the boy probably wasn't sleeping to great either. He was hiding the same crap he'd been hiding before, only he was getting better at it. That made it worse because if he was getting good at it, he was getting comfortable with it. Bobby knew what it meant to get comfortable with something not healthy. He had got comfortable with a lot of not so healthy things over the years and one bad habit always led to another, more destructive one.
The meal dragged out forever. Bobby watched as Jack and Angel take their time eating. Both seemed to be watching Craig, glancing at Bobby from time to time as if they were waiting for what might happen next. Angel looked irritated, as if he were holding back on some kind of complaint. Hell, Bobby knew he was busting a gut trying not to bitch at him for letting the kid off so easy with the school work questions. Bobby wasn't an idiot, he knew the kid was bullshitting him, but he couldn't very well say that to Angel right there in front of the kid. He knew there was more, but he couldn't say that to Angel either. He had to let the kid trip himself up, catch him in more bullshit and then push him. He was going to put all he could out there in front of him to make certain he tripped, but he couldn't tip his own hand.
Jack on the other hand looked confused; as if he was surprised Bobby had let the kid off the hook so easy. Hell, he almost looked pleased with the way Bobby was dealing with Craig. It was a different tactic than he would have used a month ago, and it was the kind of shit that Jack ate up like cake and ice cream. Sweet and sugary, that's how Jack liked to see shit. What the hell was he gonna do if they put cuffs on him and dragged him off to jail? Hell, the kid was no stranger to jail, but he'd never been faced with charges as serious as murder, and that's what Harris was pushing for, Bobby could feel it deep in his gut, like a hot ball of wax, melting away at his insides.
Shit, he had to stop thinking about all of that, at least for the moment. It had been eating away at his brain cells for days now, and until he heard from Jerry, he had to focus on what was in front of him.
Craig finished his salad and sandwich, finally. Bobby had finished long before and sat there watching. Angel and Jack seemed to have paced themselves to purposely end their meal at the same moment as Craig.
"I'll bring his pills in." Angel stood and started gathering up dished.
Jack followed his lead. "I'll bring you another glass of milk, Craig." He forced a smile, grabbed Craig's empty glass and followed Angel into the kitchen.
Bobby bit at the inside of his mouth while he waited for Jack and Angel to return. Craig had his eyes focused downward, at his hands which he'd let drop to his lap. He looked void of any emotion or thought, and that idea scared Bobby. At least if he'd been pissed about something it would have made it easier to deal with. Bobby could deal with pissed, or scared, but he could see nothing in his little brother at that moment and that was worse than any amount of anger or fear.
Angel and Jack both returned, Jack carrying Craig's milk, and Angel's hands full of pill bottles. Bobby took the bottles and started laying out the assortment of prescribed drugs on the table, a routine that was becoming more than familiar, it had turned into a way of life that Bobby despised. He didn't like the fact that Craig needed so many pills. The doctor had said it wouldn't be forever, but that after the trauma he'd suffered, both emotional and physical, that the pills would help him adjust. Hell, the kid had been pumped full of drugs to make it easier to manipulate his mind warp his reality. The prescriptions were the one thing that helped him keep his head on straight, at least until now.
Okay it was becoming less likely that the kid was really taking the pills the more Bobby thought about it. He didn't understand how he was doing it. Hell, Bobby gave him the pills himself, and made him take them in front of him. He was going to figure it out though, and then the kid wouldn't be able to deny the shit any more.
Bobby used his hand to slide the pills across the table. "Take these and then you can go lie down." He stated the obvious. It was a line he was used to reciting now.
Craig picked the first pill up and put it in his mouth. He took a drink of milk, and repeated the action for each one. Five of them in all went into the mouth, and Craig had the milk drained with the final pill. He set the glass down and stood, ready to walk out of the room. Bobby had seen it this time though. He'd seen the odd movement of the boy's jaw after each pill was slipped in. He fought down the urge to grab hold of him and force his mouth open to look.
"Sit your ass back down, I ain't done with you quite yet." Bobby managed to keep his voice quiet. He tried to force calm into his words, but it came out sounding pathetically satirical.
Craig hesitated for a moment, and then sat in the chair.
Bobby wondered how long the kid could sit there with the pills under his tongue before he finally broke and spit them out.