Heavily Broken (Chapter Forty Nine)
May. 1st, 2007 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missmara13Title: Heavily Broken (Chapter Forty Nine)
Author: Mara
Rating: R
Warnings: Sex, mentions of rape, violence. Language.
Summary: Ryan didn't call Sandy after Dawn kicked him out, but he still finds his way to the Cohen family.
Notes:
Chapter Forty Nine
Many thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chrissydechagny for the most excellent banner!
When Jimmy opened the door of his apartment, he was surprised to see both Kirsten and Julie there, anger and disgust written on their faces. "What's going on?" he asked as they both walked in.
"You weren't just screwing male prostitutes but underage male prostitutes?" Julie asked.
Jimmy immediately went pale. "I... I don't know what you're..."
"Ryan told me," Kirsten said. "About how you were one of his johns when he was 15 and trying to survive. Don't even try to deny it Jimmy, because I trust Ryan more than you, especially after Julie told me that she knew about the prostitutes."
"I didn't know how old he was..." Jimmy tried.
"It's not that hard to figure out that's underage, Jimmy!" Kirsten said. "He's a child and you took advantage of him being scared and alone!"
"I didn't force him to take that 30 bucks!" Jimmy countered. "I may have been the first one to pay him, but that kid was more than experienced!"
"SO you not only paid a child for sex, but one who you could tell had already been sexually abused?" Julie asked. "You are so not helping yourself right now."
"He's just a whore!" Jimmy said. No sooner did the words leave his mouth than he found himself on the floor, staring up in shock at Kirsten, who'd just decked him.
"If I ever find out you have talked to either of my sons, you will pay," Kirsten said.
"I won't tell the girls, for now," Julie added. "But all it's going to take is one little inkling about you going near that child, and I will tell them what kind of father they have."
As the two women left, Julie looked over at Kirsten. "Very nice right hook."
"No one hurts my children," Kirsten replied. "My father's lucky I didn't hit him."
"What did Cal do?" Julie asked.
"Besides going to see Ryan in the poolhouse and calling him trash?" Kirsten replied. "Besides tracking down Ryan's drunk, junkie, abusive, mother and bribing her into going into rehab so that he could get rid of Ryan?"
"Kirsten, I swear, I didn't know any of that," Julie said. "I... I met the kid for 30 seconds at a party, but if you're decking Jimmy and this angry at Cal, there must be something about him."
"There is," Kirsten said. "If Dad had just given him a chance, I think they would have gotten along." She shook her head sadly. "God, Julie... he grew up in a house where his brother had to steal to get them food, and where he got hit, but he's so polite and quiet, and..."
"He made quite an impression on Kaitlin last night," Julie said with a smile. "When I got home, she couldn't stop talking about Marissa's friend Ryan who helped them both with their math and who didn't treat her like an annoying little kid and who told her she was pretty smart. And Marissa said he didn't judge her for even a minute or look at her like she's going to break the way everyone else at school does... I guess now I know why. After what he's deal with, he's probably not that far from his own breakdown."
"Which is why we have him seeing a therapist," Kirsten agreed, though her face showed how real the fear still was.
"You're not like me, Kirsten," Julie said. "You actually pay attention to you kids before they reach crisis level. He'll be okay because he has you and Sandy."
~~~
When Julie dropped Kirsten off before going to run her errands, Kirsten walked in to find the couch empty, and followed the sounds of Sophie and Sandy's voices to the kitchen. "Where's Ryan?" she asked.
"Downstairs guest room," Sandy said. "His ribs were killing him, so we figured this was a good compromise between him being inside with us and him being in bed. Last I checked he was napping." He paused for a moment, watching as Kirsten got an ice pack for her hand. "How'd things go with Julie?"
"We had a little talk with Jimmy," Kirsten said. "Told him that if he ever went near Ryan again, he would regret it."
"And your fist?" Sophie asked, inspecting the red knuckles.
"I haven't totally forgotten the self defense classes I took a few years back," Kirsten said.
"You hit him?" Sandy asked, unable to help the spark of pride.
"He hurt one of my boys," Kirsten replied. "Speaking of which, I'm going to check on Ryan, then check on Seth."
"Seth knows," Sandy said. "He was on the stairs and heard about what Ryan was doing and what Jimmy did."
"How'd he react?" Kirsten asked.
"He was... upset. He feels worse about how he treated Ryan."
"He should," Sophie said.
Kirsten nodded and headed for the guest room, slowly opening the door to find Ryan fast asleep, curled up on his good side. She smiled sadly and grabbed the blankets that were folded back, quickly covering him so he wouldn't get cold. When he stirred, she brushed her hand over his hair. "Shhh, it's okay, honey, go back to sleep."
"Kirsten?" he asked, opening his eyes.
"Yeah, Ryan, it's me," she said.
"Where'd you go?"
"I went to make sure Jimmy knew that if he ever came near you again, he'd regret it," Kirsten said. She lifted her hand. "Then I decked him," she added with a slight smile.
Ryan's eyes widened as he looked at her hand. "You did?"
"He hurt you, and he made you feel like you were still that person who was scared and alone, and I wasn't going to let him get away with that," Kirsten said, smoothing his hair again. "No one hurts one of my boys and gets away with it."
"Ma wouldn't have cared," Ryan mumbled.
"Well, I don't want to say anything bad about her, but I don't especially think much of your mother," Kirsten said. "And if she tries to take you away from us, we're going to fight her."
"Good," Ryan said with a small smile as he looked up at her. "I don't really wanna go, even if I thought I did before..."
"Well, we are not letting you go that easy," Kirsten said. She leaned forward to kiss his temple. "Go back to sleep, okay? We'll wake you up for dinner."
"Okay," Ryan agreed, already drifting off again thanks to the sleeping pills.
~~~
"What exactly did you say to Ryan?" Julie asked as she walked into Caleb's house after dropping Kirsten off and checking on the girls.
"I just called him what he is," Caleb replied. "Trash."
"And what am I, Cal?" Julie countered. "My old neighborhood is not that different from his old neighborhood."
"But you made better of yourself," Caleb said.
"And until I did, I was just like him," Julie said. "So was I trash? And if so, why can't you give him the chance to be better than trash?"
"His kind doesn't belong in my family," Caleb said. "You've already worked to better yourself, Juju..."
"Don't call me by that stupid nickname," Julie said.
"What are you going to do, Julie?" Caleb asked, stressing her name. "Call off the wedding?"
"We both know I'll do what's best for me and my girls," Julie replied. "But if you have any sense, Caleb, you'll start playing nice with that child, because Kirsten will chose him over you if you push her."
"No, she wouldn't."
"You wanna bet?" Julie said. "Today we were talking and she called him her son. So if you don't want to destroy your relationship with your daughter, you sure as hell better stop being a pompous ass and start making nice."
"My daughter would not chose some trash over me."
"I guess we'll see," Julie said with a shrug before she turned and left the office.
~~~
Ryan ended up only managing to choke down a few bites of food before he had to push his plate away miserably, saying he couldn't eat anymore.
"Do you want to go back to bed?" Kirsten asked gently.
"Can I get my sketchbooks from the poolhouse and sketch for a little while?" Ryan asked softly.
"If you tell me where they are, I'll get them," Kirsten said. "I don't want you outside in the cool air quite yet."
"In the nightstand on the right side," Ryan replied.
"You go ahead to bed, I'll bring them in," Kirsten said, getting up.
Ryan nodded and got up, heading back to the guest room and burrowing under the covers, feeling cold even though he knew it was warm outside. When Kirsten came in with his sketchbooks, and he smiled shakily and took them. "Thanks."
"We'll come check on you in a little bit, okay? And I'll bring you some toast or crackers, something that'll be easy on your stomach."
"Okay," Ryan said, flipping open one of the sketchbooks as Kirsten left, and looking down at the picture there of him and Trey when they were younger. He closed his eyes and imagined Trey's reaction to what had happened with Jimmy, then snapped his eyes open and shook his head as he realized his brother would have killed the man without a second thought.
He flipped to a blank page and starting sketching, Sophie's face slowly forming, a gentle smile but a tension around the eyes, like she'd had while trying to reassure him earlier in the day. He was a little angry that she told them about Jimmy, breaking their deal, but at the same time he really did understand why she did it, and he knew she was right. It didn't make him feel any less betrayed, though.
As he finished with her portrait, he flipped the page and turned the book sideways, starting on a sketch of Marissa's face, friendly and kind on one half, then moving to other half for Kaitlin's face, happy and radiating a certain bounciness. He didn't want to hurt the sisters, he didn't want them to hate him, but he knew it might only be a matter of time, and he just hoped neither of them would spread the truth around about him. He wasn't sure he could take that.
~~~
"We usually don't allow visitors this late, Mr. Nichols," a doctor said as he led Caleb through the rehab hospital.
"So it was very kind of you to make an exception," Caleb said, knowing that it was the money he'd given the man that made the exception.
"Here we are," the doctor said, knocking and opening the door to reveal Dawn. "You have a visitor, Ms. Atwood."
Dawn was surprised to see Caleb, and scrambled to her feet as the doctor left them alone. "Mr. Nichols, what's going on?" she said.
"I want you to get your son away from my daughter as soon as you're out of here," Caleb said.
"That might not be so easy," Dawn said. "Ryan said he wants to keep going to that fancy private school for the rest of the year, even though he'll have to switch next year, and it sounded important to him, but the gas money alone would..."
"I'll just give you some extra money," Caleb said with a smile. "It's just a few days until you're out now, Dawn. I've already found you an acceptable apartment, so why don't you ask Ryan to go out to dinner with you on your first night out, and you can convince him to move in. I'm sure you can convince him."
Dawn gnawed on her lip, but nodded. "Sure, no problem," she said.
"Good girl," Caleb said condescendingly.
To Be Continued...
Next chapter (Which I'm so excited about I'll probably post tomorrow instead of waiting because now the words are totally flowing quickly... lol) is gonna be a doozy... especially the end of it... the first scene is kinda slow, but then... oh boy... Let's just say Chino!Ryan totally makes an appearance... lol
Author: Mara
Rating: R
Warnings: Sex, mentions of rape, violence. Language.
Summary: Ryan didn't call Sandy after Dawn kicked him out, but he still finds his way to the Cohen family.
Notes:
Chapter Forty Nine
Many thanks to
chrissydechagny for the most excellent banner!When Jimmy opened the door of his apartment, he was surprised to see both Kirsten and Julie there, anger and disgust written on their faces. "What's going on?" he asked as they both walked in.
"You weren't just screwing male prostitutes but underage male prostitutes?" Julie asked.
Jimmy immediately went pale. "I... I don't know what you're..."
"Ryan told me," Kirsten said. "About how you were one of his johns when he was 15 and trying to survive. Don't even try to deny it Jimmy, because I trust Ryan more than you, especially after Julie told me that she knew about the prostitutes."
"I didn't know how old he was..." Jimmy tried.
"It's not that hard to figure out that's underage, Jimmy!" Kirsten said. "He's a child and you took advantage of him being scared and alone!"
"I didn't force him to take that 30 bucks!" Jimmy countered. "I may have been the first one to pay him, but that kid was more than experienced!"
"SO you not only paid a child for sex, but one who you could tell had already been sexually abused?" Julie asked. "You are so not helping yourself right now."
"He's just a whore!" Jimmy said. No sooner did the words leave his mouth than he found himself on the floor, staring up in shock at Kirsten, who'd just decked him.
"If I ever find out you have talked to either of my sons, you will pay," Kirsten said.
"I won't tell the girls, for now," Julie added. "But all it's going to take is one little inkling about you going near that child, and I will tell them what kind of father they have."
As the two women left, Julie looked over at Kirsten. "Very nice right hook."
"No one hurts my children," Kirsten replied. "My father's lucky I didn't hit him."
"What did Cal do?" Julie asked.
"Besides going to see Ryan in the poolhouse and calling him trash?" Kirsten replied. "Besides tracking down Ryan's drunk, junkie, abusive, mother and bribing her into going into rehab so that he could get rid of Ryan?"
"Kirsten, I swear, I didn't know any of that," Julie said. "I... I met the kid for 30 seconds at a party, but if you're decking Jimmy and this angry at Cal, there must be something about him."
"There is," Kirsten said. "If Dad had just given him a chance, I think they would have gotten along." She shook her head sadly. "God, Julie... he grew up in a house where his brother had to steal to get them food, and where he got hit, but he's so polite and quiet, and..."
"He made quite an impression on Kaitlin last night," Julie said with a smile. "When I got home, she couldn't stop talking about Marissa's friend Ryan who helped them both with their math and who didn't treat her like an annoying little kid and who told her she was pretty smart. And Marissa said he didn't judge her for even a minute or look at her like she's going to break the way everyone else at school does... I guess now I know why. After what he's deal with, he's probably not that far from his own breakdown."
"Which is why we have him seeing a therapist," Kirsten agreed, though her face showed how real the fear still was.
"You're not like me, Kirsten," Julie said. "You actually pay attention to you kids before they reach crisis level. He'll be okay because he has you and Sandy."
~~~
When Julie dropped Kirsten off before going to run her errands, Kirsten walked in to find the couch empty, and followed the sounds of Sophie and Sandy's voices to the kitchen. "Where's Ryan?" she asked.
"Downstairs guest room," Sandy said. "His ribs were killing him, so we figured this was a good compromise between him being inside with us and him being in bed. Last I checked he was napping." He paused for a moment, watching as Kirsten got an ice pack for her hand. "How'd things go with Julie?"
"We had a little talk with Jimmy," Kirsten said. "Told him that if he ever went near Ryan again, he would regret it."
"And your fist?" Sophie asked, inspecting the red knuckles.
"I haven't totally forgotten the self defense classes I took a few years back," Kirsten said.
"You hit him?" Sandy asked, unable to help the spark of pride.
"He hurt one of my boys," Kirsten replied. "Speaking of which, I'm going to check on Ryan, then check on Seth."
"Seth knows," Sandy said. "He was on the stairs and heard about what Ryan was doing and what Jimmy did."
"How'd he react?" Kirsten asked.
"He was... upset. He feels worse about how he treated Ryan."
"He should," Sophie said.
Kirsten nodded and headed for the guest room, slowly opening the door to find Ryan fast asleep, curled up on his good side. She smiled sadly and grabbed the blankets that were folded back, quickly covering him so he wouldn't get cold. When he stirred, she brushed her hand over his hair. "Shhh, it's okay, honey, go back to sleep."
"Kirsten?" he asked, opening his eyes.
"Yeah, Ryan, it's me," she said.
"Where'd you go?"
"I went to make sure Jimmy knew that if he ever came near you again, he'd regret it," Kirsten said. She lifted her hand. "Then I decked him," she added with a slight smile.
Ryan's eyes widened as he looked at her hand. "You did?"
"He hurt you, and he made you feel like you were still that person who was scared and alone, and I wasn't going to let him get away with that," Kirsten said, smoothing his hair again. "No one hurts one of my boys and gets away with it."
"Ma wouldn't have cared," Ryan mumbled.
"Well, I don't want to say anything bad about her, but I don't especially think much of your mother," Kirsten said. "And if she tries to take you away from us, we're going to fight her."
"Good," Ryan said with a small smile as he looked up at her. "I don't really wanna go, even if I thought I did before..."
"Well, we are not letting you go that easy," Kirsten said. She leaned forward to kiss his temple. "Go back to sleep, okay? We'll wake you up for dinner."
"Okay," Ryan agreed, already drifting off again thanks to the sleeping pills.
~~~
"What exactly did you say to Ryan?" Julie asked as she walked into Caleb's house after dropping Kirsten off and checking on the girls.
"I just called him what he is," Caleb replied. "Trash."
"And what am I, Cal?" Julie countered. "My old neighborhood is not that different from his old neighborhood."
"But you made better of yourself," Caleb said.
"And until I did, I was just like him," Julie said. "So was I trash? And if so, why can't you give him the chance to be better than trash?"
"His kind doesn't belong in my family," Caleb said. "You've already worked to better yourself, Juju..."
"Don't call me by that stupid nickname," Julie said.
"What are you going to do, Julie?" Caleb asked, stressing her name. "Call off the wedding?"
"We both know I'll do what's best for me and my girls," Julie replied. "But if you have any sense, Caleb, you'll start playing nice with that child, because Kirsten will chose him over you if you push her."
"No, she wouldn't."
"You wanna bet?" Julie said. "Today we were talking and she called him her son. So if you don't want to destroy your relationship with your daughter, you sure as hell better stop being a pompous ass and start making nice."
"My daughter would not chose some trash over me."
"I guess we'll see," Julie said with a shrug before she turned and left the office.
~~~
Ryan ended up only managing to choke down a few bites of food before he had to push his plate away miserably, saying he couldn't eat anymore.
"Do you want to go back to bed?" Kirsten asked gently.
"Can I get my sketchbooks from the poolhouse and sketch for a little while?" Ryan asked softly.
"If you tell me where they are, I'll get them," Kirsten said. "I don't want you outside in the cool air quite yet."
"In the nightstand on the right side," Ryan replied.
"You go ahead to bed, I'll bring them in," Kirsten said, getting up.
Ryan nodded and got up, heading back to the guest room and burrowing under the covers, feeling cold even though he knew it was warm outside. When Kirsten came in with his sketchbooks, and he smiled shakily and took them. "Thanks."
"We'll come check on you in a little bit, okay? And I'll bring you some toast or crackers, something that'll be easy on your stomach."
"Okay," Ryan said, flipping open one of the sketchbooks as Kirsten left, and looking down at the picture there of him and Trey when they were younger. He closed his eyes and imagined Trey's reaction to what had happened with Jimmy, then snapped his eyes open and shook his head as he realized his brother would have killed the man without a second thought.
He flipped to a blank page and starting sketching, Sophie's face slowly forming, a gentle smile but a tension around the eyes, like she'd had while trying to reassure him earlier in the day. He was a little angry that she told them about Jimmy, breaking their deal, but at the same time he really did understand why she did it, and he knew she was right. It didn't make him feel any less betrayed, though.
As he finished with her portrait, he flipped the page and turned the book sideways, starting on a sketch of Marissa's face, friendly and kind on one half, then moving to other half for Kaitlin's face, happy and radiating a certain bounciness. He didn't want to hurt the sisters, he didn't want them to hate him, but he knew it might only be a matter of time, and he just hoped neither of them would spread the truth around about him. He wasn't sure he could take that.
~~~
"We usually don't allow visitors this late, Mr. Nichols," a doctor said as he led Caleb through the rehab hospital.
"So it was very kind of you to make an exception," Caleb said, knowing that it was the money he'd given the man that made the exception.
"Here we are," the doctor said, knocking and opening the door to reveal Dawn. "You have a visitor, Ms. Atwood."
Dawn was surprised to see Caleb, and scrambled to her feet as the doctor left them alone. "Mr. Nichols, what's going on?" she said.
"I want you to get your son away from my daughter as soon as you're out of here," Caleb said.
"That might not be so easy," Dawn said. "Ryan said he wants to keep going to that fancy private school for the rest of the year, even though he'll have to switch next year, and it sounded important to him, but the gas money alone would..."
"I'll just give you some extra money," Caleb said with a smile. "It's just a few days until you're out now, Dawn. I've already found you an acceptable apartment, so why don't you ask Ryan to go out to dinner with you on your first night out, and you can convince him to move in. I'm sure you can convince him."
Dawn gnawed on her lip, but nodded. "Sure, no problem," she said.
"Good girl," Caleb said condescendingly.
To Be Continued...
Next chapter (Which I'm so excited about I'll probably post tomorrow instead of waiting because now the words are totally flowing quickly... lol) is gonna be a doozy... especially the end of it... the first scene is kinda slow, but then... oh boy... Let's just say Chino!Ryan totally makes an appearance... lol
