Voices (A Sawyer Fredericks Fanfic)[sequel to A Gentle Touch]

Chapter Twelve

Sawyer's POV

I couldn't believe everything that had happened in a span of one day. Sure I had gotten Violet back, but she wasn't the same. She was broken, sick, scared, everything.

When my parents got to the hospital, Violet already had a room. She was having various tests done, but because I was a minor, I wasn't allowed in the room. I was forced to listen to her pained screams as I waited in the hallway.

When the nurse waked out of the room, she was alone. I was told Violet was being taken to surgery, due to the presence of various infections and a mix of both internal and external wounds. Violet had told a social worker everything that had happened to her.

As soon as my family arrived, the social worker had sat us down and explained what had happened with Violet. It was a small room with two couches, and three chairs.  The social worker turned out to be Dr. Holland, our therapist. She and my brothers each took a chair, my parents took the couch. I sat alone on the remaining couch.

With each new statement, more and more tears began to form in my eyes. Dr. Holland had written down everything Violet had told her and was reading it to us word by word. The tears in my eyes started to fall as the description of her beatings became more and more detailed. However, I didn't move. Nor did I make a sound. It was unbelievable how much she had suffered. The fact that she was still alive was surprising. I wiped away the tears with my hand but more took their place so I gave up and let them fall.

Soon Dr. Holland was at the end of her paper. That's when she said the words I didn't want to hear. My baby girl was raped. Seven times that bastard had invaded her.

Dr. Holland told us she would come and get us all from the room once Violet was out of surgery. She got up to leave and as soon as she shut the door, a quiet sob escaped my lips. My brothers looked over at me and I closed my eyes.

Dr. Holland walked back in a moment later and asked to speak to my parents. She told my brothers and I that they would be back in about half an hour and with that they left.

I didn't want to cry in front of my brothers but I new I was going to whether I wanted to or not. Before I could make another noise, Aric stood up and walked over to me. He sat down on the arm of the couch and I buried my face in my hands. That's when the sobs came. As my lungs contracted, my chest became tighter and tighter until it was becoming hard to breathe. Aric shifted over so he was sitting next to me and started to rub my back.

Aric's POV

I started to rub Sawyer's back. My poor brother was going through too much. So was Violet. My baby sister has been tortured for too long and it was killing my little brother. I felt a few of my own tears slide down my face and I could hear Skyler sniffling in the corner. I motioned for him to come over and he stood up. We both knew Sawyer was going to take this the hardest out of all of us and we didn't want him to do anything stupid. Unfortunately I knew it was too late when I saw a drop of blood fall onto his jeans.

I slowly pulled his hands away from his face and saw the bite marks. He had ended up drawing blood and there was a trace of it on his lips. His lowered his head in shame and his sobs came even louder. The poor child was shaking violently and his breathing was coming in short gasps.

I pulled him into me and he curled up into a tight ball. He was cradling his bleeding hand to his chest as he cried into mine. Skyler sat down on the couch beside us and started running hushed lines into his ear.

"It's ok Sawyer. Just let it out. Aric and I are right here. You're safe and so is Violet." Skyler whispered to him. He started to run his fingers through Sawyer's hair which by this point was nothing but teased knots.

I had never seen his hair so tangled before. It was just this huge rat's nest of blonde snarls. Skyler began to work it out but each time he reached a point where it was just too tangled, his hair would pull and Sawyer would let out a small yelp of pain. Each time it happened I pulled him in tighter.

With the worry and sympathy towards Violet, and the pain he was feeling with his hair, my baby brother was having a breakdown and we needed to stop it before he made himself sick. He was starting to turn green and I didn't want him to throw up.

Suddenly Skyler stopped with his hair. He had managed to get out a few snarls but not a lot. He walked over and came back with his phone. He went to his music library and started to play some Langhorne Slim. We both knew Sawyer enjoyed that music and it tended to calm him down in rough situations.

We gave Sawyer a few moments to catch his breath as he listened to the music. He sort of froze as his eyes widened and started to dart back and forth. As he curled up even more, he did become less tense and his breathing started to thin out. I rubbed small circles into his back as he began to calm down a little bit. As much as his fans kept saying he was growing up, and looking and sounding older, he hadn't stopped looking like a child to Skyler and I. He was our little brother and that wasn't going to change. He never looked younger or more vulnerable than in this moment. As mature as he was, he was still just a kid and he deserved to be comforted rather than pushed.

The tears continued to pour out of his blue irises, but his sobs had ceased. No sounds escaped his lips other than the quiet hiccups crawling out of his throat.

I nodded to Skyler and he went back to Sawyer's hair. As he got to the tighter knots, a few whimpers came from Sawyer but I just held him closer to me. I was a bit taken aback when he wrapped his arms around my waist but I went with it. He needed comfort.

The whimpering continued until every snarl was out. Skyler dropped the last strand and let his long locks fall, covering my arms in the process. Sawyer shook his head so his hair fell over him rather than me and pulled it to one side. I just held on to him. By this point he had calmed down completely. I looked down at him. He had his eyes closed.

"Sawyer can you look at me?" I asked quietly.

He let out a muffled no.

He never seemed more like a little kid than right now. I knew I'd need to be a bit more gentle than usual.

I rested my hand on his head and started to stroke his hair.

"Please Sawyer?"

He curled even tighter.

"Sawyer, I know it's hard right now. I know you probably don't feel good either. You're tired physically, and emotionally, but it's ok."

He didn't budge.

"Sawyer..."

"I'm a mess. I hate myself right now." He whispered.

That's when it clicked. He was embarrassed.

"Don't hate yourself. Sawyer we all need to break down sometimes and it's fine. Skyler and I, we don't mind. We're both here for you, and you'd be here for us, but Violet needs you right now."

He removed his arms from my waist and untangled himself from my grasp. He then sat up, hugging his knees to his chest. His eyes focused on the fraying carpet on the wooden floors.

I pinched his chin and tilted his head towards mine so that we were making eye contact.

"Aric, I'm scared." He whispered.

I took in his face. His eyes were as wide as saucers, the blue irises sparkling with unshed tears. His eyelashes were soaked, sticking to him. He wiped his nose with his sleeve as it continued to run and I stood up to grab the tissue box across from us. Once I handed it to him he graciously accepted one. After blowing his nose, he looked back at me.

"I know you're scared, and that's ok. Just take some deep breaths ok?"

So he did.