The Neighbor

The Waiting Game

It was all just some cruel joke, he was sure of it. Why did this have to happen? Everything was going so well until Chuck popped back up in his life. His past was coming back to haunt him, but it was having an effect on his family more than him.

His wife got stabbed. She's currently in surgery. They lost the baby. Chuck is alive. The only thing keeping him grounded his the tiny boy squirming in his arms. Michael was getting antsy, but nurses kept coming over to help Ben out because he looked completely at a loss of what to do with the boy. He knows he misses his mom and probably knows something is wrong by the way his father is reacting.

At one point, Ben begged the staff to let him bring in Marshall, who was being taken care of by the police outside. They reluctantly agreed since Marshall is just a puppy. This was a huge help as Michael was overly fond of the pup and found comfort in being with him. Just an hour later, Ben was watching Michael's sleeping form rise and fall with Marshall's stomach as they both slept in the chair next to him. When Ben tried to lift them both to set them on a pillow, Marshall started getting defensive. He still was not okay with Ben after that day. Ben knew he deserved it.

"Serves you right," someone snootily said behind him after Marshall attempted to snap at Ben's hand. He sighed and turned to Sarah, who was staring at him with red-rimmed eyes and her arms crossed. He extended the pillow out to her and asked, "Will you?" She snatched the pillow from him and was able to get the small bundles on it without waking Michael. Ben placed a blanket over them and kissed Michael's head.

He sat back down with a sigh and said, "Well, let's get it over with. Tell me how horrible of a person I am, how if I touch Cass again, you'll kill me; maybe add the bad father bit in there." Sarah rolled her eyes and sat on the other side of Michael and Marshall's chair. "You are a horrible person," she agreed. "I hate how my sister is giving you another chance and I also blame you for what's happening."

Ben simply shrugged. "I blame me, too. Chuck came to find me, find my weaknesses...and he did. And he tried to destroy me with it, though he did a damn good job of nearly doing that." He put his hand protectingly over Michael's body, thinking about how things could have been a lot worse if he hadn't stopped Chuck from climbing out that window. It's bad enough that Cassie was just barely hanging on by a thread, but there was no way his son would have survived this.

"She was afraid I would hurt the baby if she stayed," he told Sarah, "and yet it feels like I did just that. I feel as if I killed my own fucking child." He sniffled and let his tears fall, as his hand moved down Michael's arm. The tiny hand of his infant son wrapped around one of his large fingers, as he slept. Ben smiled and ran his thumb over Michael's hand.

Sarah watched this with a heavy heart. She wanted to assure him that everything was going to be okay, that he didn't kill his unborn child. But how could she? After all he's done, it just made sense to her.

"I heard you did a number on that guy," she said instead. "They said he has a broken neck, fractured windpipe, a cracked skull, and a broken neck." He didn't show any emotion as she told him this, nor when he responded with, "I should have killed him. I thought I did, but had I known he was still breathing..." He squeezed his free hand on the arm of the chair. He took a deep breath and laid his eyes on Michael. He felt an overwhelming sense of relief wash over him.

Everything about his boy screamed Cassie. The blonde locks that would soon turn into a sandy color, if her childhood pictures proved anything; the only thing he has of Ben's is the eyes and lips. Other than that, Michael was going to look exactly like his mother.

Sarah smoothed her hand over Michael's hair and said, "You scare me, Ben. What you did to that guy...it's scary to think about how a human is even capable of doing that. Now, I'm not saying he didn't deserved it, but--." Ben sighed, "You don't understand. Chuck...he's done things. Horrible things. Unfortunately, those horrible things happened to me when I was twelve."