Chapter 5

Baby Brother

Jack started to scream bloody murder, scratching at his face, drawing blood. His eyes were still shut and he was suddenly out of no where sweating profusely. Bobby went up to the bed and tried to grab Jack by the arm so he could wake Jack up. Jack's eyes shot open and he shot a foot out and caught Bobby off guard right to the gut. Bobby doubled over and gasped. Jack realized what he had just done to Bobby and he started crying, and saying he was sorry over and over again, all the while rocking himself back and forth. His breathing was out of control and Evelyn thought he might go into a state of shock.

"Jack honey, its okay you didn't do anything wrong." Evelyn cooed softly. "Just try to calm down and tell me what's wrong."

Jack kept up his anxiety for about 30 minutes before he calmed down enough to talk. Bobby was sitting against the wall on the other side of the room and Angel and Jerry were standing in the door with confused looks on their faces.

"What happened Jackie?" she encouraged.

Jack backed himself in the corner of his bed as far as he could before he answered.

"N-nothing, I'm f-fine." Jack said threw small sobs.

"You are not fine little man. Just tell us what happened? Are you in pain? Did you have a nightmare?" Bobby said in a concerned voice.

"Was it a nightmare?" Evelyn tried to confirm.

Jack hesitated before shaking his head yes, silent tears still streaming.

"Come here honey; let's get your face cleaned up. I don't know if you remember or not, but you scratched it pretty hard and your bleeding. Can I help you clean it?"

Jack shook his head in agreement, but refused to move off his bed as long as the boys were still around. Evelyn noticed how his eyes flickered to each of the boys.

"Boys, do you mind going back to your rooms?"

Angel and Jerry did as they were told. They were too tired to put up an argument. Bobby on the other hand was quite up for the fight. "Ma, I'm not leaving. I'll keep my distance, but until he is ready to sleep again and isn't bleeding threw his face, I'm going to stay."

"Is that okay with you Jack?"

"Yeah." he said in a whisper.

Evelyn led Jack out of the room and into the bathroom. The whole time Jack sobbed silently, blood dripping from his face.

"Here sit on the toilet seat and I'll wet a wash clothe okay?" Evelyn said softly.

Bobby stood in the door way, watching Jack get lost in his head again. Well he thought Jack was lost in head, until he noticed Jack looking at his feet out of the very corner of his eye. The kid really didn't trust him. That hurt Bobby's feelings a little that Jack just thought of him as another monster, but he knew the kid went through a lot so he tried not to take it so personally.

"This might sting a little, okay?" Evelyn said.

Jack nodded and when Evelyn dabbed the wet wash clothe with peroxide on it, the sting of pain didn't even touch his eyes. Bobby looked at how the kid reacted to this and figured that for him to wince and cry in pain must have meant that it was real hardcore pain.

When Jack's face stopped bleeding and the cuts were stuffed with Neosporin, Bobby backed away from the door and let Jack and his Ma pass. When Jack was tucked in and Evelyn went back to bed, Bobby slowly walked in to the room and stood about 10 feet away from Jack's bed. As he figured Jack's eyes were wide open and they were still terror filled.

"Hey, Jackie. You wanna tell me what you were dreaming about?"

Jack didn't answer.

"Look I don't guess you're gonna tell me, but I want you to understand that no one in this house would even think of hurting you. No one else will either. Not while we're around." Bobby looked straight in to Jack's eyes. He didn't blink or even look like he heard what Bobby had said. Bobby knew that he had and with that he left the room and saw that his mother was standing to the side of the door with a manila file in hand.

"Come down stairs. We can look at it down there."

Bobby looked over the file at the kitchen table with Evelyn. Bobby had to control every ounce fury in him to keep from finding the people who had hurt his baby brother and killing them.

"Wow." Evelyn said exasperated. "He's been through hell. Physical, emotional, and sexual abuse."

Evelyn flipped to the last of the paper work and they had no trouble figuring out why Jack hated drugs so much. Jack's father had been forcing both him and his mother to take drugs. Jack had been knocked out from a previous drug when daddy dearest decided to make Jack's mother overdose. When Jack woke up his father was gone and his mother was dead on the living room floor with her panties lying on the floor next to her. Jack was found four days after his mother's homicide. The landlord was complaining about rent and the cops came to forcefully throw him out because the landlord was too scarred to do so himself. They entered the room and found Jack sitting in the farthest corner of the room staring at his mother.

"Shit, no wonder." Bobby hissed angrily. They had never found the bastard dad that killed Jack's mother.

"Okay well at least we know what we're dealing with now." Evelyn said.

"Yeah, but do you know how to deal with this."

"No, not really, but we'll just have to try our hardest. I think he just needs to feel safe and loved."

Bobby agreed and after sitting there in silence for a while they both went to bed with thoughts that they didn't want to think about.

The next morning Bobby went downstairs at 4:00 in the morning. He hadn't been able to sleep. He didn't know how Jack was able to sleep.

As Bobby went over again for the millionth time that night/day he saw Jack opening the front door.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Bobby said irritably.

Jack jumped like thirty feet in the air and whipped around already breathing heavy again.

Bobby put his hands in his pockets and stopped where he was at the bottom of the stairs. "I'm not mad; I just wanna know what you're doing?"

Jack stared at the ground not answering. Bobby tried to take another slow step forward. Jack's eyes grew big and he flew out of the door. "Shit!" Bobby said as he sprinted after him.

Jack already half way down the street before some guy ran out from an alley right into Jack. They both flew backwards. Jack seemed un-phased by the run in and he was getting up to run again, when he suddenly stopped dead. Bobby ran on in confusion to what made Jack stop abruptly. The other guy was still on the ground staring at the alley in horror. Bobby was getting closer and in no time he was standing next to Jack who was shaking immensely.

"Well if it isn't Bobby Mercer." A familiar voice called out from the alley.

The nameless voice stepped into the light and was revealed holding a gun.

"Jimmy." Bobby said grudgingly. "What are you doing?"

"This guy owes me money and he thought he was gonna run. Then he ran into this nice piece of merchandize. I know a lot of people that would pay good money to get their hands on this kid."

"No." Bobby said firmly, taking note of the fact that some of Jimmy's people were forming a threatening circle around them.

Jimmy sent a questioning look at Bobby. "Oh and why not? Is this cutie here yours?"

"No he's my baby brother."

Jimmy pointed the gun to Bobby. "Well he's about to be my property." One of Jimmy's guys grabbed Jack's arm that wasn't in a cast and yanked him over so that they could take Jack. Jack's eyes grew wild and he slammed his casted arm into the guys head. The guys head starting bleeding and he let go of Jack letting out a scream of pain. Jack lunged himself at Bobby and wrapped his terrified arms around him. Bobby kept his eyes on Jimmy and watched as his attention went off Bobby and toward the guy on the ground. Bobby took the opportunity to draw his own gun and point it at Jimmy.

Jimmy looked up and saw his predicament. "Shit Bobby I'm never gonna win with you am I."

"Not when it involves my family." Booby replied flatly.

Jimmy lowered his gun to the man Jack had run into. "Fine Bobby you win. You and your brother can go and no one will touch you." Jimmy assured.

"If you ever get near my brother again with those same thoughts…I will gut you." Bobby said venomously.

"Okay, okay I hear you." Jimmy said with a smile.

"Come one Jack." Bobby put a gently hand on the Jack's back and directed him out of the circle of Jimmy's men.

Once Bobby and Jack were safely in the house Jack broke down just inside the doorway and cried on Bobby's Jacket. Bobby lifted Jack and sat him on his lap on the living room couch. He rocked Jack back and forth as the boy shook violently and let out hard sobs.

"Is everything okay?" Evelyn asked standing with Jerry and Angel in the doorway of the kitchen.

"We ran in to Jimmy." Bobby said still rocking Jack.

Jerry and Angel's faces went white and then red with rage. Jerry and Angel were very well aware of Jimmy's business. Drugs and boys were what he supplied. The cops had tried to bust Jimmy before, but the guy was a sneaky bastard and was never caught red handed.

Evelyn saw the looks that her three oldest exchanged and looked at them confused. "Who's Jimmy?"

"An old friend Ma, nothing to worry about." Jerry assured her.

"Yeah, hey Ma, me and Jerry got to go take care of something so were gonna ditch. 'Kay?" Angel said.

"I hate it when you boys do that. Just be careful please?" Evelyn pleaded.

Jerry and Angel both left the house. Bobby knew they were gonna go find some of Jimmy's guys and beat the living shit outa them. Jimmy couldn't be touched easily so to send the message a little more clearly they would go after his messengers. The one who did the handling and dealing for him.

"Is he okay Bobby?"

Jack had a death grip on him and was vibrating with fear and cries. "I don't know. He's not hurt or anything, but he's scarred shitless."

Evelyn sat on the couch next to Bobby and put a gentle hand on Jack's head. "Shhh…calm down baby, Bobby and I got you. Nothing's gonna happen to you."

Jack released his grip on Bobby and his sobs and shakes calmed down a little, but he was still clearly upset.

Bobby set Jack on the couch in between him and Evelyn. "Jack you're not in trouble. But why were you trying to leave the house?" Bobby asked quietly.

Jack continued his crying and he stared at the floor. "I'm sor-r-ry." He choked out.

Evelyn placed an arm around Jack and hugged him. "Jack I'm not angry that you tried to leave. Bobby tried to leave home a million times when he first got here. Can you just tell me why you wanted to leave?" she coaxed.

"I…" He hesitated. "I can't stay."

They looked at him with concerned curiosity. "Why can't you stay?" Bobby prompted.

Jack didn't know if he should tell them or not.

"You can trust us Jack its okay."

He broke out in hard sobs again. "He said I c-c-an't. I-I d-d-don't deserve to be h-h-happy."

Bobby clenched his fists. "Who told you that?" Bobby said through gritted teeth.

"H-he did."

"Who is 'he'?" Evelyn asked.

Jack looked her in the eye for the first time. "M-m-my father."