As Fury turned over the letter to read the next one Dr. Banner raised his hand and said,
"Sorry I need a moment… I don't know how to process... that." He gestured forcefully at the letter they just read with a nauseous look on his face.
"Which part?" Natasha asked.
"I don't know. All of it? It's just.." He looked down frustrated and red in the face. He looked up after a moment to find everyone looking at him. He rolled his eyes and said simply,
"It's just wrong on so many levels. Levels I don't think I can even name. I don't know how Charlie, at fourteen, could deal with..witnessing that like he did. Both incidents!" He sighed and shook his head, apparently giving up on speech all together. Tony took up the slack,
"I'm with the Green Giant on this one. What was it the kid said. That the boy who hit his sister just stood up to his bully... and that it makes sense! How can he be so.. So.."
"Understanding of both sides?" The Doctor chimed in with a small smile.
"Both sides? This guy hit her. He had so many options of how to deal with her unfair demands and he chose to hit his girlfriend. There aren't any other sides." Sam said with vehemence. Most of the room, especially the Captain, nodded. In fact the Captain had more to bring to the subject,
"What about what she did after. She was just yelling at him and insulting him, but he hits her and suddenly she feels better about him as a person and the relationship as a whole. So much so that she feels safe and secure enough in the relationship to have sex with him a few days later. And GET MAD AT CHARLIE FOR INTERRUPTING!" He said all of this while hardly taking a breath. His voice steadily rising as his anger became more apparent and his face turned maroon, until by the end of his rant he was yelling and breathing hard.
Everyone was shocked by his outburst. Most of them, with the exception of Tony, had never heard him raise his voice before. And even Tony had never seen him this mad before. In battle he was calm and calculated, his moral compass and military training making him confident in his decisions on the battlefield without much room for other more careless emotions. So this was really a first for him.
John was the only one to answer,
"As a doctor I have seen many cases of abuse. Abuse takes all forms and while it might not make sense to us, the idea that the person you are with is strong enough to put you in your place when you deserve it is actually a comfort. It's a twisted way of thinking that is most often conditioned in someone throughout their life." He shrugged looking sad. Sherlock looked at him in bewilderment. Sherlock had been listening throughout the last few letters trying to detect any detail that might indicate why this boy is so important to saving the world. He wasn't having much luck.
Even though he wasn't being vocal about it he didn't think it was right for Charlie's sister to be hit. Or for Charlie to be hit by his father. But all in all it's not as though it's never been done before. So far so boring.
But these people were acting like they had never in their lives before this moment knew that domestic abuse existed. He wanted to roll his eyes at their reactions but thought better of it and just listened to the conversation, until John said something astonishing. Astonishing because he, Sherlock, for once, did not understand.
"What do you mean conditioned?" He questioned looking at John intensely. John seemed to fluster for a moment under the look but replied easily enough,
"Well most people, women especially, fall into the trap of domestic abuse because of low self-esteem. They don't feel like they deserve to be happy or they don't think they are worth much or some such non-sense. So they find someone to treat them that way. But how do you get low self esteem in the first place, hm?" He looked at them all and continued when everyone else seemed at a loss. Even the Doctor was looking at with an interest to learn something new.
"Someone somewhere along the line told you as much, most likely repeatedly. That's called verbal abuse. Other situations over the years seem to point in the direction of being your fault or they gave credence to your poor self image. Maybe someone said so or you just know, maybe sometimes it is your fault but it all adds up to the same thing. You take all the experiences and heartbreaks and circumstances and negative words you've accumulated over the years and before you even know it you have been conditioned to being attracted to the same kind abusive personality it seems you've always known. In one form or another."
Complete silence. Everyone was pensively thinking over their lives and relationships. John didn't need to though. He realized halfway through that he was partly talking about himself, not just things he noticed with patients. His speech reminded John of a similar one Sherlock gave about him when he found out about Mary's previous life. Is it really any wonder that the woman you fell in love with would conform to that pattern?
"When put like that I suppose it does make sense." Sherlock said objectively. "Based on the previous scenes mentioned about Charlie's family there is some evidence to support a theory that Charlie's Father was physically abusive or verbally abusive. The scene where he slapped Charlie certainly painted him as having a controlling personality of an abuser."
"Or maybe she witnessed something with her Aunt." Dean added. Sam looked at him in surprise. Shrugging he continued, "I mean it was hinted very heavily that their Aunt Helen lived with them for the last few years of her life because of an abusive relationship of some sort. All that talk about some people having it worse. Maybe it runs in the family." Dean glanced at Sam with some hidden meaning behind the look that no one else understood. Sam nodded and look down, thinking. Fury interrupted everyone's thoughts when he said sarcastically,
"That's great. Glad we sorted that out. Can I keep going?"
Everyone nodded sheepishly embarrassed.
September 18, 1991
Dear Friend,
I never told you that I am in shop class, did I? Well, I am in shop class, and it is my favorite class next to Bill's advanced english class. I wrote the essay for To Kill a Mockingbird last night, and I handed it in to Bill this morning. We are supposed to talk about it tomorrow during lunch period.
Most of the room ignored this mention of the teacher although a few did note it as odd.
The point, though, is that there is a guy in shop class named "Nothing." I'm not kidding. His name is "Nothing." And he is hilarious.
"Better be with a name like Nothing!" Tony broke the still somber mood from before.
"Nothing" got his name when kids used to tease him in middle school. I think he's a senior now. The kids started calling him Patty when his real name is Patrick. And "Nothing" told these kids, "Listen, you either call me Patrick, or you call me nothing."
So, the kids started calling him "Nothing." And the name just stuck. He was a new kid in the school district at the time because his dad married a new woman in this area. I think I will stop putting quotation marks around Nothing's name because it is annoying and disrupting my flow. I hope you do not find this difficult to follow. I will make sure to differentiate if something comes up.
The Doctor started to laugh a little at that. By way of explanation he said, "It's like I was saying before. This boy is just such an understanding and considerate kid! It's funny how sweet he is." His mood was light but when his chuckling died down so did his enthusiasm. When Fury started reading again The Doctor had a deep, concentrated look on his face. For those looking closely, they might have been able to detect a hint of worry.
So, in shop class Nothing started to do a very funny impersonation of our teacher, Mr. Callahan. He even painted in the mutton-chop sideburns with a grease pencil. Hilarious. When Mr. Callahan found Nothing doing this near the belt sander, he actually laughed because Nothing wasn't doing the impersonation mean or anything. It was just funny. I wish you could have been there because it was the hardest I've laughed since my brother left. My brother used to tell Polish jokes, which I know is wrong, but I just blocked out the Polish part and listened to the jokes. Hilarious.
"Bit racist, that." John said with more than a little, but not quite a lot of, judgment.
Oh, incidentally, my sister asked for her "Autumn Leaves" mix tape back. She listens to it all the time now.
Love Always,
Charlie
The room, which had finally started to lighten up, fell into tense silence. All of them thinking about John's words from before.