Close Behind || Aaron Minyard

25

She tries to move, tries to get up, but suddenly someone is holding her down and she's thrashing and trying to break free so she can get to Neil.

Riko is on stage with him. Riko is on stage. Riko is on stage with Neil. Riko is on stage and Naomi is sitting in the front row.

Once again she tries to break free, and manages to for a split second before begin pulled back against someone's chest. She trips a little and lands in a seated position on someone. A pair of arms around her waist and another suddenly holding her shoulder.

Naomi looks to her left and finds Andrew in a similar predicament. He has Renee sitting in his lap, one leg on the floor so she has leverage, Matt has one of his hands in both wrists and Wymack is holding the other.

She looks down and realizes she's sitting on Aaron, that he's got a death grip around her middle to keep her form moving. The hands holding her shoulders down could be Dan or Abby, probably Dan.

She thrashes again against Aaron's hold. Naomi doesn't get anywhere with the hands on her shoulders. "Let go of me."

"Be quiet," Aaron snaps at her. He looks to his left helplessly.

One hand lets go of her shoulders and comes around the front of her, it pulls Naomi back into Aaron's chest firmly and covers her mouth. It only makes her thrash further, it can't be there, why is it there?

She licks the hand but it doesn't move. There goes her only hope.

Instead she looks at Andrew, he looks over at her with mounting fury in his eyes and she's sure she looks the same. As soon as they're released they'll be dangers to society.

Naomi turns away from him and looks at the stage. She sees people talking, that talk show bitch and the psycho bird. Neil is looking between her and Andrew desperately. She struggles against the people holding her down again but it fails.

"I didn't think it possible for you two to grow apart," talk show bitch is saying.

She can see Kevin trembling where he's sitting.

"A year ago I would have thought it impossible," Riko says. The crowd coos like he's actually sad. "But you have to understand how emotional December was for both of us. The injury was Kevin's to bear but we all felt the weight of it. Some of us couldn't handle the reality of what it meant, myself included. Kevin and I grew up together. We built our lives around our team, around our work. I couldn't believe we'd lost it. Neither could he, so we withdrew from each other."

"For nine months?"

"Perhaps it was for the best. We made Exy the center of our lives, Kathy," Kevin says, it's as close to defiant as he's ever been. "We didn't show you what it cost. Juggling all that pressure. It wore us down, but we refused to admit it. We didn't want to believe we had limits."

"I can't even image the stress, I suppose it had to put strain on your relationship," Kathy says empathetically.

"We are human sometimes. We can't help our differences, can we, Kevin?" Riko says. He's testing Kevin.

"No family is perfect."

Naomi feels herself growing even more furious as the whole thing goes on. Neil is just sitting there, his eyes wide with fear.

She needs to get him off that stage. She needs to at least get to him. He can't be up there alone, not with Riko. If they go down, they'll go down swinging together.

After forcing her body to completely relax for a few seconds, almost sagging in relief, Naomi surges again and tries to break free of the trap she's in.