Trashed and Scattered

I hated seeing my beautiful girl in her condition. I barely slept, barely ate, unable to cope with the self-loathing I had for myself knowing I’d failed as her husband-to-be. I was haunted. Jimmy and Matt were the only ones who really seemed to notice. They usually took turns coming with me to the hospital, knowing it was still too hard for me to be there alone. I needed someone there to help me control what rage I had welling up, worsening each time I saw one of the nurses lift Melissa’s gown to show her bruises. I writhed in anger. My knuckles would turn white, my face would turn red. Jimmy could sympathize with my anger towards my one and only being in her condition. Matt could relate to the pain.
I had gotten up from bed late in the morning. Didn’t sleep well again that night; too many nightmares, too many saddening, crushing thoughts that I couldn’t rid my mind of. All that pain dwelling inside me made me fear for my brothers. The stress of searching for the motherfuckers that still managed to evade the cops was getting to me. The constant hoping that my baby would be fine despite the internal damage Melissa endured. Aside from all this inside-my-head bullshit I still coped with the reality that my house was the first crime scene related to the attack.
On the night stand my phone buzzed. It was a phone call from Jimmy. I’d already missed two calls, one from Matt and one from Zack. About eight or nine texts, too. I barely skimmed over them, my heart becoming frantic when I saw the words I’d been waiting to read for days: we found them. But as I’d promised, I would stay out of it. Still, I answered the phone. “Jimmy?”
“We got them! We got those little cock suckers!”
“Yeah, I just read the texts! What the hell, where were they?” I felt my blood boil.
Jimmy’s end became fuzzy with loads of background noise. I could hear raunchy blows landing, groaning from muffled mouths. My hands shook. I began to sob. Despite all I fantasized about doing to those sick little fucks, I made a promise that I’d have as little to do with the situation as I allowed myself. “We got ‘em sneaking around Zack’s place. They were going after Alyshia and the kids.” Jimmy sounded beside himself too. “Matt’s been landing blows on them for the last hour. He and Zack went to fucking town.” I wondered if Jimmy had been crying too.
Sniffling, I choked back some tears and tried to calm myself before talking again. “We got them. Oh, Christ, we got them.”
“Yeah, we’re in Zack’s garage. Coppers are on their way. Matt’s probably going to face some charges for the damage he’s inflicted, but I suppose you’d do the same.”
“Believe me, they’d be fucking dead. I’m heading to the hospital. Melissa has to know as soon as possible.”
As I heard more blows landing in the background, I could hear Jimmy shuffle and a door open. “I’m on my way over. Not about to let you go make a scene in the hospital again, Brian.”
“Appreciate it, brother. I’ll be waiting.” I hung up and threw a pair of tattered jeans on as well as a black tank top. Topped it off with a leather jacket Melissa gave me and my fedora. Didn’t bother applying pit stick or brushing my teeth. Hands were shaking a little too much. Perhaps Jimmy would drive there. My mind was fucking spinning.
It took Jimmy about ten minutes to rip into my drive. I was waiting outside, arms crossed, antsy as I’d ever been. I climbed into his SUV and let him relax before tearing back out of the drive. His knuckles were cut up and bruised. Eyes red with old tears. Man, I don’t remember ever seeing Rev like this. Could barely imagine what Matt’s hands looked like. Even Vengeance. “Guess Zack was pretty pissed to begin with, huh.” I whispered, lips pursed. I covered my mouth with a clenched fist so as not to break down again. Or at least let Jimmy see.
He was silent. Scarred, I’d say, if I knew him just as well as I thought. He didn’t have a violent bone in his body. Yet if one of our family was attacked, he’d have gone full-psycho. All the energy the man had went to defending his kin. I’d have done the same for him and Jamie. “Jamie and the kids were out back in the garden. I dunno, guess Jamie was showing them how to plant seeds or some shit. Whatever. Zack said he was in the front and saw them jumping the fence. Broad daylight. Awful ballsy, definitely fucking stupid.” Matt was also staying with Zack while his house was taped up. Extra pair of hands, extra damage.
“Jesus.” I sighed. “Jamie and the kids okay?”
“Guess so, yeah. They sped off somewhere. Matt and Zack managed to toss ‘em into the garage. Only found two of them, but with the right amount of brute force, surely the pigs can get some answers about where the other little slime balls are.”
“Still alive though, right?” I had to ask. Didn’t want my boys to go down with murder charges, whether it was defense or not.
“Still alive. Wouldn’t know how much longer though. They didn’t seem too perky when I left. Tacky as fuck, man.”
I clenched my fists. “If I could get my hands on them…”
“I know, Brian, I know. But you know this is for the best. I wouldn’t have even laid a finger on them if not for what they’d done…and were about to do.”
“Did they say anything?”
Jimmy pursed his lips. I could still see him shaking, his hands clenching the wheel with a death grip. Wonder how his heart was doing. “Didn’t say nothing, no. I’d say they’d be talking when the cops drag them in. Would be a shame for them to give Matt that sort of information. Hate to see that man drive his fucking bat through someone’s skull.”
“I fucking wouldn’t mind watching.”
Jimmy dryly snickered. “Figured you wouldn’t.” We were reaching the hospital now. Jimmy found a spot to park in and I was racing into the ICU to blurt the news to Melissa. When I reached the room she was sleeping. I shook her awake, feeling bad, but knew that it couldn’t wait.
She swatted me away at first but came to. I grabbed both her hands and regressed back into my weepy state. “Brian, what’s wrong?” she asked. I could see the sheer concern on her poor face.
I wiped tears away as they fell freely, hardly able to catch my breath long enough to spit the words away. “Matt and Zack caught two of the motherfuckers who did this to you.” Her face flushed and burned red with rage and every sort of emotion she’d been forced to endure since it happened. “Baby, it’s all over now. We got ‘em. We won.”
As I cried, she cried too. As weak as I figured she was, she crawled towards me in her bed and wrapped two arms around my neck, tubes and cords of all sorts and sizes with them. I could feel her relief as her sobs violently escaped her lungs. By that time Jimmy finally caught up to me. He joined our hug, his long lanky arms able to pull us both into his chest. Jimmy began sobbing just as hard as Melissa and I, and with all the commotion I was sure we were causing, I was waiting for some staff to come bounding through the door. Alas, no one came. “They’re releasing me in a few days.” Melissa choked out. She hadn’t released her hold on me. I was shocked at how strong she suddenly became.
Jimmy broke away to answer his phone. He stepped outside and closed the door to leave us alone together. Her soft hand brushed my cheek, tickling the little patch of facial hair I’d always kept on my chin. When her lips met mine it felt like the fire that was starting to die inside her had been refuelled. There was life inside my fiancée again, and although it was mostly pent-up anger that accompanied her suffering, I rejoiced and basked in her glow. In all this time of pain, darkness, and melancholy, there was finally a light seeping through the cloud.
I pressed my nose against her forehead, holding her face in the nape of my neck. Feeling the swelling that persisted across her cheekbones as my chin pressed upon them. It still hurt me to remember her condition but the closure, knowing that the right revenge had been exacted—only on two of them as of late—and no other poor soul would be forced to endure the same. Jimmy came back in a moment later, clutching his cell to his chest. “The cops showed up at Zack’s place with heavy reinforcements. The two they caught were brought to a hospital for their injuries. That was just Johnny. Matt and Zack were brought in by the police. We’ve got no idea if they’re being charged or not.”
“For fuck’s sake.” I blurted out, the volume of my voice at an evidently inappropriate level. “Guess we gotta go bail them out now, huh.”
“Guess so.”
Just as Melissa and I were letting each other go, another commotion came through the hall. A squadron of policemen barged into the room and approached us, pointing weapons in our faces. Melissa tried not to scream, but buried her face in her bed sheets. They cuffed Jimmy against a wall and did the same to me bent over on the bed. “Don’t worry, baby!” I was able to reassure her over one cop loudly reciting the Miranda Rights. “Everything is going to be fine!” As I lied to her, I was dragged from the room without much of a struggle.
Truth was, I had no idea what was going on. I was just as scared as I was when I first got the news. This time, however, I was reassured that she was in good care. After the fact, I knew that from here on out it would be a long, bumpy road.

Notes

Brian's POV, brief chapter, will be paralleled with Matt's POV next chapter.