Summer & Collin Wallock

There was no smell of frying eggs or sweet waffles this morning, but hardly before the sun came up, activity began to stir in the small house. Summer was up and hanging clothes out on the line to dry, while Collin was filling a watering container for the umpteenth time as he made his rounds and watered the ample number of containers that were sprawled about the place.

Greg had stopped in briefly as well, getting up unusually early and dropping off Innuo before he departed for the Wolf Center. The liger, complacent and laid back as hid kind tended to be, took up a spot on the couch and stretched his dappled hide out until he literally took over the entire piece of furniture. While his mammoth head hung over one arm of the couch, his pale hind paws and scrawny little tail hung over the other end.

Conan*Raimi

After he'd settled Raimi down the night before, Conan had encountered a great deal of difficulty finding rest himself. After tossing a bit in bed and waking up once screaming from the nightmares, which effectively woke up Raimi and poor Summer, whom he'd assured he was fine, he'd rather given it up, opting for sitting up and soothing Raimi back to sleep. It hadn't been until dawn had broken that he dozed off again, the toddler resting on his chest.

The confines of an all too familiar closet greeted him when he awoke, the darkness and the musty smell reawakening so many memories, all of them uneasy and painful in more ways than one. The only unfamiliar thing in this despairingly known place was a small sound... a soft, wet sound, like a leaky water faucet dripping from the tap. As he whirled about himself, looking for the source of the sound, something caught his eye: a glint of silver.

Leaving the locked and bolted closet behind, the teen turned his feet down this new hallway, following that glint of silver and the dripping sound, convincing that this glint of silver was the faucet that had awakened him, and determined to get to it and turn the thing off. But with every turn, the sparkle of metal got further and further ahead, now disappearing in the endless curves and twists of the hallway.

When finally he got to the end, he was back at the closet door, and though both his instincts and his eyes told him that it was bolted, he tried the knob, and it turned easily in his hand. He stepped through the door and out into the rooms of a dim, dilapidated shackfull of broken windows and sagging boards, and still the drip taunted him, drew him onward... he paused in horror at a particular sharded window that still bore the red of crimson torn from his arms... but this shack had been destroyed! There was no way that window...

As it wouldn't for him in real life, the back door opened, and he stepped out into an abandoned backroad, his eyes landing instantly on a small truck, which sported three flat tires. A prone, bloodied form was laying on the frozen ground beside it, and Conan let out a moan of agony. He moved to kneel over the petite, pale form of Summer, checking instinctively for a pulse that he knew he wouldn't find. But as he did so, a branch snapped in the trees.

He whirled again, his pounding heart still not able to drown out the sounds of the dripping, which were the drops of blood sliding down the blades of knives. Among their wielders were Ma, Collin, Greg, Cassidy, Ratri, Raven, Carl, Ben, James, Lanny, Sheryl... and the final two hurt him most: Aralyn and Nadeem. And all of them, in their varying voices and tones, were repeating one thing, over and over in chaos as often as they could draw breath: "Why did you kill him?" asked Nadeem, his voice concerned. "Why, Conan, why?" asked Aralyn's tearful tones. "We wanted to protect him, Conan. Why did you kill him?" Collin's voice added to the chaos. "You murdered him, Conan. Murdered him... murdered him..." That was Ben's voice, tainted with a curve of sly smile.

Bewildered and frightened, Conan turned down to look into Raimi's face, and the toddler's eyes were staring and blank, his pale face coated in trails of crimson, the muscles slack. A look down revealed that his tiny body was a tattered mess of bloodied skin. A sob escaped Conan as he tried to say, 'I'm sorry! Raimi... I couldn't kill Raimi!' but found that his voice was gone. And a tiny voice rose over the tumult of voices and the sound of dripping, drawing Conan's horrified gaze down to his brother's little face. "Why did you kill me, Conan? I loved you... why?" ...

The teen awoke with a start, barely choking back a scream. The toddler, sitting on his feet, playing with his shoelaces and very much alive, cooed concernedly at his elder brother, and the teen reached compulsively to hold Raimi, hugging the little boy tight to himself for a long while before he had calmed enough to put the kid down and get dressed.

Sporting a decent pair of jeans and, after significant doubt, one of the short-sleeved shirts Summer had bought for him, the teen balanced Raimi on his hip and opened the door, stepping out into the living room. He stopped at the door, still quite self-conscious: his forearms and a good deal of his upper arms were exposed in this shirt, showing clearly every mark and mar, from blade slices to needle punctures to burns, that tore over every inch of his skin. But after a moment, he moved into the living room and started outside, wanting the relief of the sunlight to chase away the last of the nightmare.

Summer & Collin Wallock

The very first one to greet the two boys was Innuo, who merely tilted his head and twitched his giant pink nose. The tip of his lanky tail curled upwards once in slow motion before swinging idly back downward to hang limply from the side of the couch. Like most of his kind tended to get, the liger had something of a pouch on him, and despite how often Greg took him out in the mountains for exercise, the big feline's frame showed just how well he ate and didn't like to exercise.

Currently contemplating the swirls of fast-moving gray in the sky, Summer was debating whether or not putting the clothes out was a good idea or not. But mixed in between these dark thunderheads, there were striking patches of bright blue sky, where the sun beamed defiantly through the wake of the coming storm, as if to defy the weather itself. In the end, Summer just shook her head and returned inside, preparing to continue the housework. "Conan! Raimi, good morning to you both." As soon as she stepped inside, a sweeping smile was sent to the brothers, followed by a minor frown at seeing where Innuo had inconveniently settled himself.

Her perceptive gaze had taken in the striking scars that littered across his arms, but they lingered there for no longer than a brief pass, as if instinctively knowing that such things could make one very self conscious, and staring at them would not help. So it was that she made absolutely no remark on them, and continued on with her warm smile, though it was punctuated by an overtone of sympathy and concern when she recalled his episode in the night, "Did you get a good rest?"

Conan*Raimi

Looking up from his study of Innuo as Summer came in the door, a flash of remembered dream crossed his face, recalling clearly her pale and bloodless body sprawled in front of the truck. His face didn't alter, but it did make his soft smile somewhat papery as he nodded his morning greeting and settled himself down on the floor in the living room, this time allowing Raimi to reach up and stroke at Innuo's furry hide, to accompany his coo of "Kitty kitty kitty!"

And the teen looked up at Summer's question, shrugging vaguely in an answer that he hoped wouldn't worry her, without having to admit to the second, still more terrfying nightmare. And his just as perceptive gaze noted her glance at his arms, he looked down uncomfortably, and his hands lifted to sign. My mother was a nurse, and very creative. Always coming up with new treatments for this and that... I was her favorite test subject. This way of describing it came no where close to actually telling her exactly what Rayna had done to him, but it showed a teensy bit of trust growing that he even said that much as he thoughtfully ran his fingers over a long burn mark, which was hollowed where it had burned some muscle away, and hairless, suggesting that it had been caused by acid rather than fire. Around it were numerous raised, jagged knife marks, long since healed over and puckered in spots, and in this shirt, even his infamous body-length scar was partially visible where it vanished into the sleeve to end on his right shoulder.

Summer & Collin Wallock

Under Summer's keen vigilance, Innuo barely stirred when the toddler came towards him and patted at his fur. Greg had always pointed out how the big cat had a lack of hunting drive, or was perhaps just to lazy to try and chase anything that moved faster than a turtle. Instead of batting at Raimi, Innuo merely shifted his weight, rolling onto his back and exposing his creamy-white belly for some petting, as if he were no more than a giant dog.

A very light scowl hit Summer's features when she looked away from the toddler and liger, and back to Conan. This was tempered by a softness that was always harbored in her eyes, showing that her disapproval was not intended for Conan, but for his mother and her obviously questionable actions. "Around here, we take people to the hospital when they are hurt" She pointed out quietly, both to assure him that she was not in any way like Rayna, and to express just how she felt about the other woman's treatment of her offspring.

Conan*Raimi

He was glad that his face was turned away from Summer, because his vision blurred as he watched Raimi rub Innuo's belly, listening to the sounds of the boy's little giggle and allowing it to draw him back from memories, just in time to hear the woman's comment. The face that he turned back to her was calm, offset by a slight tremor of the fingers. Hospitals are worse. A bunch of people hooking up this and that to you, not listening to what you're saying and turning to the one who did the hurting in order to comfort them and get answers. Answers that are always lies. Answers that the doctors always believe, even when test results show that the reason given couldn't have caused the wound. Everyone sees doctors as the good guys... I know better.

Summer & Collin Wallock

A subtle sadness embodied her never faltering smile, instantly overtaking the minor frown that had touched upon her face, "I know you've had an awful start in life, sweety, I know." She wanted to approach him at this point, embrace him in a comforting hug, and tell him that he needn't be afraid when he was in this house. But all of her encounters with him thus far told her that she shouldn't do anything like that yet, and so she remaine where she was, using words to soothe, rather than touch, "There are far too many bad people in this world, but I hope you can see past that and know that there are still many people who are good." The woman paused momentarily, now pushing away the sadness that had been for knowing just what pain and trauma Conan had been forced to endure, "I will never force you to do anything you don't want, and if that means staying away from the hospital... so long as it can be avoided, then you have my word on that. But I will tell you this; as long as I am around, I will let no one treat you wrongly."

Conan*Raimi

He was still listening quietly to her voice, wanting so badly to believe what she was saying, because it offered the only hope, the only light in his increasingly dark outlook. So mch in his life had taught him that hope was a flickering thing, one that shimmered and then died and was a foolish thing to attach yourself to. But out of sheer desperation and because his soul couldn't take anymore fear, Conan clung to her words, riding them up from the depths of his despair to say, I hope, for Raimi's sake, that you are better at keeping your promises than I am. Because if there is one thing I have learned, it is that there is nothing I can do to protect those I care about. All my moves to protect them only endanger them further.

Summer & Collin Wallock

"Don't be hard on yourself Conan; I know by the way you look after your brother that you would do anything and everything for him. And sometimes, no matter how hard you try, that's just not enough." Summer said softly, trying to dismiss the negative feelings and add more of the sorely needed hope to his heart, "That's where family and friends come in. As they say, it's easy to snap twigs, one by one. But if you stick them together, they become much stronger than they ever were on their own." And then, she gave a little chuckle, "That's what my grandfather use to tell me, anyway."

Conan*Raimi

Her first line of words warmed something repressed in him, bringing the fondness back into his eyes as he watched his little brother lavish the cat that was easily five or six times his size with attention. Her words spoke deeply to him: how long since he and Raimi had sat like this, for the sheer purpose of enjoying one another's company, as opposed to fear that if he let him go, the toddler would be torn away from him again? Not since the CS had taken him, certainly, and not for some time before that. As a matter of fact, not since Conan had been told that Aralyn had died. So he slowly began to sign again. Aralyn says... that family is what you make it. That genetics cannot replace a bond. If what you say is true, she is as wise, if not moreso than, I first believed her to be.

And he almost held his breath, then. This was the first tiem he'd ever mentioned Aralyn to Summer, and though he suspected that Nadeem might have told her about his sister, he couldn't be sure. He was waiting to see her reaction to it, gaging her response with a Ben-taught accuracy.

Summer & Collin Wallock

She had not personally met the girl, but Nadeem had gone into length to explain her, and the bond that she had shared with her brother-figure Conan. Up until now, as she did with the other topics, Summer never broached the unknown with the teen, and instead allowed him to move into the topics and give them up at his own pace. "It sounds like Aralyn is a very knowledgeable young lady. I agree full-heartedly with her sentiments on that one; family shouldn't be determined by blood alone, but the bond you share with the people closest to you." Summer looked briefly to Innuo again, and fondly at the young boy who was delighting in the contact with the giant, fluffy creature that was sprawled on the couch above him.

Conan*Raimi

Yes, she has similar reason as I to be knowledgable, and a couple of years on me to build wisdom, his fingers said, flying easily over the words as if they held no emotional import. More than anything, he remembered her face when he and Ben had rescued her from that shack, the same one he'd seen this morning in his dreams. But rather than revisit that horror, he changed the subject. Raimi's going to be two next Thursday.

Summer & Collin Wallock

Nadeem had hinted at Aralyn's past, but respectfully refrained from going into depth about what had happened to her. Hearing Conan relate his trauma to the girl's, Summer had to hold back a despaired sigh that wanted to express itself. Instead of that, it was her eyes that reflected their bottomless wealth of sympathy for the young ones that suffered at the hands of their caregivers. And this was all that she dwelled on the matter, moving on as Conan did to another subject entirely.

"Two?" Summer crouched towards the ground, facing the toddler as she grinned at him, "We'll have to think of something special for this event, won't we, Raimi? Maybe a picnic at the park, and a trip to the ice cream parlor?"

Conan*Raimi

Willingly allowing this topic to distract him from more somber things, Conan turned a soft smile to Raimi, stroking his back as the toddler did Innuo's stomach. And, hearing his name, the little red head peeked up at Summer and offered her a beaming smile and a giggle, pulling back from his petting of the big cat to toddle over to the woman.

He tripped over Conan's knee on the way, stumbling badly and performing a graceless face-plant on the carpet, but the brief alarm that painted his elder brother's face was dispersed when the kid sat up and giggled madly, getting back to his feet and moving from behind to hug Summer's legs, prepared to make a genuine nuisance of himself until he was picked up. And because he was growing more comfortable with letting Raimi be around Summer, Conan didn't follow him, remaining seated on the floor and watching the youngster go, feeling the smallest of smiles growing on his face.

Summer & Collin Wallock

Though she hadn't been close enough to catch him, the woman flinched in response to his tumble. She then had to put a hand to her mouth, forced to cover what wanted to be a look of alarm and a smile at the same time when Raimi proved to everyone that he was none the worse for wear and was even giggling at the incident.

"Well now, Birthday Boy, you'll have me tripping before long." She chided playfully, more than welcoming the little tyke's antics as she reached down to heft him up. "I have just the idea... how would you like to go out for breakfast?" Even as she was saying this to the toddler, Summer quirked a look at Conan, not only to say that he was invited, but more importantly, to seek his permission.

Conan*Raimi

Raimi cooed endlessly when Summer picked him up, patting his little hands on her shoulders and beginning to babble. "Baaaaaaaah meee shoooooof! Tik booga bay!" And then, something more recognizable, "Aaaaaangel dust!"

That made Conan smile more broadly and get up from the floor, nodding his permission to the venture and indicating that he would come along. He'd already tucked a Colt M1911 into the back of his jeans, the same one he'd used to kill Carl. And with this disguised by the loose clothing, he felt fairly confident in his ability to defend all of them, if something should go amiss.

Summer & Collin Wallock

Had she known what Conan was carrying, Summer would have tried her best to talking him out of it. Remaining blissfully unaware of the firearm, the woman had her attention back on the toddler once she was given the ok by his older brother, "You're just full of things, little guy, aren't you." She leaned in with a grin, rubbing noses with Raimi in a show of playful affection before shifting him around to rest more on her hip. Angel dust? Summer hid her surprise at hearing that familiar and unwelcome term, smiling it away as she moved outside, "We'll try the Night Club; they have the best omelets around in the morning. Oh, and I almost forgot..." She carefully opened the door to the old tan truck, "I found a babyseat at last. And for five dollars, can you believe that? It's in good shape too." The woman explained as she worked on getting the toddler situated in the restraint.

Conan*Raimi

And though Conan could not see past the careful disguise, the toddler instantly recognized the woman's discomfort at his words, and stopped speaking, looking her in the eyes keenly for a moment before leaning forward and resting his head on her shoulder, hanging on and cooing peacefully in reassurance.

And it was this that caught Conan's attention, turning his gaze to Summer as she moved to strap the kid into the seat. "Su-mmer?" That was the halting word he produced, his voice not altogether neutral as he spoke to get her attention, waiting for her to turn before letting his fingers finish, Is something wrong?

Summer & Collin Wallock

Hearing him speak out loud was enough to make the woman halt in the process of tightening the straps that pressed securely across the toddler. Her eyes drifted over the signed words, to which she quickly shook her head, "No, but thank you for asking, honey." Whatever had triggered that brief falter in her boundless warmth was pushed away entirely so that it didn't rear up again to mar her expression. "Ah, there we are. Snug as a bug." Switching to random talk, Summer finished tightening the straps, until she was sure that Raimi was as safe as he could be in the seat. She then got in herself, struggling with the ignition while the started sputtered and whined in protest. After three tries, the engine finally roared to life, giving the pale vehicle a hefty shudder.

Conan*Raimi

For the record, Conan didn't believe her. His little brother was a sensitive thing, who keenly felt the pain of others and reacted to it; this, the elder one had always known. So if he attempted to comfort Summer, something was wrong. But he kept to the unspoken rule of not getting too personal, not going too far, and instead simply tweaked the toddler's nose, earning a squeal, and got in the passenger side.