AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to everyone continuing to support this story with reading and especially to Bonnie Sveen Fan and Braxton54 for reviewing, it's truly appreciated!
Towards the top of the beach Heath is setting up for an outdoor gym class when he glances down the beach and sees his two little brothers being attacked by a group of teens.
He sees Kyle get violently tossed into the water and Casey being punched repeatedly.
Heath quickly turns towards Xavier, who is in training to help at the gym.
"Mate, I need you to set up this class. Just get them warmed up, and onto those runs, there's something I need to do!" Heath orders and makes a quick dash down the beach.
Reaching his youngest brother first, Heath grabs the scuff of the neck of Trent and Zeke and yanks them off and away from Casey.
Finally being released, Casey weakens and collapses in the sand; rubbing his throbbing and bleeding face as tears flow down and he hears his older brother yelling at Trent and Zeke.
"Who the hell do you two punks think you are beating up my little brother? I had better not ever see your faces near him again, or anywhere here, or I am going to become your worst nightmare. Is that understood?" Heath bellows and shakes both Trent and Zeke by the scuff of their necks.
"Yes Sir," both Zeke and Trent mutter.
"Scram!" Heath yells and gives both bullies a hard shove, causing them to stumble and almost fall over in the sand.
Zeke and Trent rush off out of harm's way.
Heath places a firm hand on Casey's shoulder.
"You alright?" Heath asks as he briefly gauges his brother's injuries.
Heath doesn't wait for a response when he notices Kyle still struggling to surface and swim properly in the water.
"I'll be right back," Heath assures Casey and runs towards the water; tossing his gym shirt off as he runs.
Heath briefly notices the four teens who tossed Kyle into the water and wanting nothing more than to give them a piece of his mind, Heath knows his priority is to rescue Kyle first.
Diving into the water, Heath swims fast to reach Kyle who is continually being knocked about by the waves.
Heath manages to reach Kyle in quick time and grabs a hold of him, as Kyle gurgles on the water and flails his arms.
"I got you little bro; hang on!" Heath reassures and swims back to the shore, all the while supporting Kyle's body.
As Heath pulls Kyle onto the sand and towards where Casey is sitting, John comes running down the beach after having been alerted by Xavier who he'd seen teaching Heath's class.
"What on earth happened down here?" John demands.
Heath glares at the older man.
"Where the hell were you, old man?" Heath accuses as he continues to assess Kyle for injuries and make sure his little brother is breathing properly.
John frowns at Heath's comment.
"Now there is no need to be rude; what happened?"
"My little brothers just got bullied by some little shits that's what happened! Why weren't you here keeping an eye? I mean aren't you some fancy life guard? Had I not seen from setting up my class who knows what the hell would have happened to them?" Heath snaps and waves his hand in the air in frustration.
John by now is checking Kyle over.
"Yes...well I was helping others," John stutters.
"My brothers needed help!" Heath snaps and stares over at the teenagers who were gathered further up the beach.
"Just make yourself useful Palmer and keep an eye on them for a moment while I sort something; can I trust you to do that?" Heath orders before storming off.
"Wait: where are you going?" John asks but keeps his attention to the traumatised boys.
Heath storms towards the group, feeling ready to crack some skulls together.
By now Trent and Zeke have caught up with the remaining four and they shudder as Heath closes in.
"Let's get out of here," Zeke stammers, not taking his eyes off Heath as he starts to move away.
The other friends, completely confused, begin to shift.
"Hold it all you gutless little rats. Move one muscle and I'll catch you faster than you can blink and string you up like coats in a wardrobe!" Heath warns.
Trent and Zeke reflectively stand back.
"I saw what you four did to my brother! You could have killed him throwing him in the water like that and boy then this would be a whole different story!" Heath bellows and points his finger at Ashton, Becca, Haley, and Damien.
"We don't want any trouble; we were just messing with them," Ashton stutters, glancing up at the muscular, bulky man in front of him.
"Too late you got trouble!" Heath spits and grips Ashton by the back of the neck, along with Damien and pulls them forward, dragging their feet in the sand.
"Not so fun being grabbed around is it?" Heath threatens.
The other bullies look on with concern; all except Haley, who couldn't care less.
"Now I told these two boof-heads to never touch my littlest brother again and that goes for you four too with Kyle. I see any of you touching or even thinking about hurting my brother again and I'll make sure you live to regret it for the rest of your life!" Heath threatens.
Haley scoffs and Heath releases his hold on the boys and shoves them away as he glares at Haley.
"You think I'm kidding?" Heath barks.
Haley shrugs in response.
"How gutless does that make you girls picking on a male? In my day that meant a girl had a crush, so I can only assume you girls have the hots for Kyle?" Heath suggests.
Haley and Becca instantly reply in disgust.
"Eww!"
However, Becca looks away as her cheeks blush.
"No way, Becs, you can't be serious: he's a loser!" Haley exclaims.
"Watch what you say about my brother!" Heath threatens.
Haley rolls her eyes and focuses her attention on her best friend.
"Hey, I can't help it, I think he's good looking; at least a little," Becca sheepishly admits.
"Pfft, well you can forget any chance with him because Kyle would never go with someone who was as heartless as you!" Heath informs harshly.
"Now you all have three seconds to get out of my sight before I give you some more consequences!" Heath warns, however none of the teens move.
"I'm not kidding; one!" Heath begins, as he flexes his fists.
Heath's warning and movement finally triggers the teens to flee, and they make a run for it, darting up the sand.
Heath returns back to where Kyle and Casey are.
"Move away, Palmer!" Heath demands.
John huffs but moves out of Heath's way.
Heath kneels down and checks on Kyle.
"You alright now, Ky?"
Kyle shakes and nods but rubs his eyes.
Heath pulls his hands away.
"Don't rub your eyes, it will make the salt water worse. We'll wash them when we get up to the gym," Heath says.
Heath then turns his attention onto Casey and fully assesses his bruised cheek and eye, and abdomen; much to Casey's reluctance.
"Guess we'll clean you up too when we get back to the gym and get a good look at that abdomen," Heath informs and grabs both boys by their arm and yanks them up to stand.
"You two are coming with me where I can be sure you will be kept an eye on," Heath states and glares hard over at John.
"Besides you've done enough of this rubbish cleaning, which is what I can assume old Palmer made you do?"
"Now just wait one minute: I resent that! Just because the beaches fill up with garbage does not mean that was the reason I got them to help. In fact it was that older brother of yours that told them to be here and informed me to give them things to do and that I did!" John explains.
"Well it's not happening anymore and you can forget about my little brothers helping you out with anything like this again," Heath says firmly.
Kyle and Casey briefly glance at each other from either side of Heath and faintly smile, both delighted by the proposition of not having to do tasks for John anymore.
John huffs and walks back along the beach.
"Come on now," Heath instructs and starts to pull Kyle and Casey along.
"I can't; I'm all gritty from having sand thrown all down my shorts and shirt. I'm going to go for a swim," Casey says and pulls away, but not without stumbling slightly.
"Hold it, Case. You've just copped a hard blow to the face and abdomen; I don't want you going out in the water," Heath orders.
Casey grumbles.
"I just want a quick swim."
Heath shakes his head.
"Not in the state you're in," Heath remains stern and wraps his arm around Casey's neck.
"Why do you care anyway?" Casey grumbles.
"Because I'm your brother and I care," Heath says sternly and rubs his hand through Casey's hair, being well aware that Casey was only being his usual grumpy self because of his injuries, so is quick to brush his comments off.
"I just want to get the sand off me," Casey mumbles.
Heath was ready to continue remaining firm, but he notices Kyle shivering madly beside him.
Heath pulls Kyle into his side and wraps his arm firmly around him to provide Kyle with some body heat.
Realising he has bigger priorities; Heath relents with Casey's whining.
"Fine, you can have a quick swim but you are not to place your head under water with that injury to your cheek nor are you to go further than your waist, I don't wish to be rescuing another brother from the surf today because you blackout in the water from possible concussion," Heath orders.
Casey rolls his eyes and takes off down the beach towards the water and walks in; washing and shaking out the excess sand in his shirt and shorts, as Heath watches on closely with Kyle hugged tight to his side, still soaking and shivering.
When Casey returns, Heath grabs him around the shoulders and proceeds to guide both teens up the beach, towards the gym.
They pass Xavier along the way and Heath momentarily stops to give Xavier an approving head nod for his efforts in taking over Heath's training class that is almost finishing up.
Kyle briefly shifts his eyes towards Xavier, before hanging his head in avoidance: from his almost drowning ordeal making him miserable and still feeling embarrassed knowing Xavier had seen him be punished.
"Hey, are you two okay?" Xavier asks with concern.
Casey, not bothering to look up, grunts out a sarcastic 'what does it look like?'; to which Heath gives Casey's shoulder a squeeze to simmer down his temper.
Kyle glances back up at Xavier with a pitiful look as he shivers, and Xavier gives him a comforting sympathetic smile.
Kyle blinks and weakly smiles back, feeling grateful that Xavier was genuinely concerned for his wellbeing.
Heath takes Kyle and Casey into the main office of the gym and pushes them down to sit on adjacent chairs.
"Wait here and I'll be back with some towels and some first aid supplies," Heath instructs.
As he leaves, Heath clicks on the air conditioner in the office to heating to help Kyle and Casey to stay warm.
A few minutes later, Heath returns with a wad of gym towels and hands them to each of his brothers.
Casey takes two and starts to vigorously rub his body, scraping away any remnants of sand on his legs and arms.
Kyle grabs the remaining four and attempts to wrap two around his body, and one around his legs, while he continues to screw up his stinging, now slightly red eyes.
He reaches up ready to rub at his eyes again to alleviate the discomfort, but Heath is quick to stop him.
"I told you don't touch Kyle; I'll rinse those eyes for you now and Casey, I want you to put this icepack onto your cheek and don't take it off until I tell you; understand?" Heath instructs both boys firmly.
Casey takes the icepack wrapped in a thin towel and groans.
"I mean it Case; you hear me," Heath says more sternly.
"Yes," Casey mumbles and places the icepack on his cheek, flinching at the coolness as it stung his sore cheek.
Heath grabs the container of saline drops from the first aid kit and some soft gauze to catch the flush.
"Okay Kyle, tilt your head back and keep your eyes open," Heath instructs.
Heath places a hand with the gauze resting on Kyle's right cheek and leans over with the saline solution in his right hand.
Heath gives a generous squeeze of the saline bottle, so it manages to thoroughly soak Kyle's eye and Kyle fidgets with discomfort.
"Ow!" he complains and shifts back in his seat to get away.
"Hold still Kyle, almost done with one side."
Heath flushes the right eye again and Kyle whimpers.
Heath wipes over the eye gently then does the same with Kyle's left eye.
Kyle sulks in his seat once Heath was finished.
"You did good," Heath praises and rubs Kyle's shoulder; handing him the remaining towel he had taken.
"Dry off some of your hair now."
Kyle takes the final towel and scrubs at his wet hair.
Heath turns his attention to Casey and takes a hold of his hand.
"Okay Case, you can take that off now and let me have a look."
Heath holds Casey's face in his hand and inspects the damage.
"That's pretty nasty but the ice should have helped with the swelling. Now lift up your shirt and give me another look at your abdomen," Heath orders.
Casey huffs and rests back in his seat, folding his arms over his chest, as Heath tries to force Casey's shirt up.
"Don't make this easy now; will you, Case?" Heath says sarcastically at the stubborn teen.
"Now tell me if any of this really hurts," Heath instructs and goes to gently press on Casey's abdomen.
"Ow!" Casey shouts and Heath frowns at him.
"I haven't even touched you yet; stop being such a sook," Heath grumbles.
"Well, you're not a doctor," Casey moans.
"Do you want me to get you a doctor?" Heath asks sternly, being well aware Casey isn't a fan of being seen by doctors.
Casey slumps back down, allowing Heath to gently feel around his abdomen.
Casey tenses at the touch.
"Ouch it hurts, stop poking me," he whines.
Heath huffs and stands up.
"It doesn't feel like anything serious, but if Brax decides you need further seeing to, then that's his call," Heath states.
"I don't want to go to a doctor," Casey grumbles.
"Tough: not your decision. Now more to the point: do you two want to tell me what that was all about down there, and who all those jerks were?" Heath questions as he looks to both his brothers.
Kyle and Casey don't say a word, so Heath prompts again.
"I'm not asking for my health Bubs, and baby bro," Heath says, only this time crossing his arms over his chest.
"Three of them were kids from my advanced classes at school, who pick on me sometimes and bully Casey. The others I've never seen before," Kyle mumbles.
"Alright that's a start, but I need names of the ones you know," Heath prompts.
"Why; what are you going to do? You can't stop them," Casey grumbles.
"Never you mind, baby bro. So who are they?" The ones from school are Damien, Haley, and Zeke," Kyle replies.
"Do these kids have surnames?" Heath implies.
Kyle furrows his brow as he looks up at Heath.
"Henderson, Regan, and Carter," Kyle mumbles, "but why do you need to know?"
"Because, I'm going to call Bianca and tell her to give these jerks a warning, despite my warnings I want to make sure they adhere to it at school too," Heath replies.
"Like that's going to make them change," Casey grumbles.
"No-one is allowed to pick on my little brothers, but me," Heath states.
"How comforting," Casey grumbles again.
"Stop with the negativity, you," Heath says and runs his hand through both Casey and Kyle's hair.
Kyle pulls his towels closer around his body and glances up at Heath.
"Thank you for saving me," Kyle whispers.
Heath smiles and pats Kyle on the shoulder.
"No sweat, Bubs; wouldn't hesitate for a second," Heath assures.
Casey flicks his eyes towards Heath.
"Yeah, thanks I guess," he whispers.
"You're welcome too, Case. Now you two stay here and keep warm; I'll take you both home once my shift is finished in about an hour or so. If you boys need anything, just holler."
Kyle and Casey nod and Heath walks out of the office, closing the door behind him and immediately pulling out his phone from under the counter he dials Brax's number.