Me & Mine

24. Supergirls Don't Cry

[A/N] You know how everything was going so well for our lovely bunch here? Well, brace yourselves. This chapter will be violent. And it will change everything.

I run back as fast as I can, the bulldozers following closely behind. I lock eyes with Amory and the scared look on my face instinctively sends him running towards me. Max is quick to follow, crashing his body into two of the bulldozers, sending them all falling to the ground. I stop in my tracks and turn around. Amory is throwing punches at the two others and Max crawls on top of one of the bulldozers he took down. The other bulldozer drags himself up and stumbles towards Max. I run over and crash into him, throwing him off balance and onto all fours again. I regain the ground under my feet and knee him in the head. Max is getting to his feet as well, leaving another bulldozer laying still on the floor.

"Fay!" Ann screams and I turn around to her. She's pointing at Amory, who is still fighting the two others. They try to retreat but Amory won't let them out of his range. I speed towards him and throw myself against him. We fall to the ground and I try to keep his hands at bay. His bloodshot eyes don't focus on my face. He doesn't see me. He only sees his rage. So I do the only thing I can. I let myself fall against him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pushing my face and shoulders against his face, letting him strike blow after blow on my back. Thump! Another one hits my ribs and I scream internally. Tears well up in my eyes and I can't fight through the pain. Thump! The dull sound echoes through my bones, followed by another wave of pain. I cry out and tighten my embrace.

"Come back to me Amory," I whisper, my voice broken by the punches landing on my back, "come back to me, please!"

I close my eyes and realize the shallowness of my breath, the fatigue in my legs and the thunderous aching of my back. I tense all my muscles to keep them from hurting too much but even pinned down Amory is so much stronger than me. I wait it out until he recognizes my scent, my breathing, my voice. His breathing stucks in his throat and he relaxes his body. His arm fall to the ground and his breathing gets shallower, faster, more uncontrollable. "I'm sorry," his voice shakes, his words caught in the quiet bubble of our tangled bodies. "I'm so sorry."

I relax my back, embracing the pain as an old friend. With every breath I take the hurting comes back to me. It hurts to breath, to tense my muscles, to stretch my arms, but finally I am able to push myself off my brother.

Max stares at me. His eyes wide and furious, his chest pounding up and down with rage. He glances over at Amory. He lays silently next to me, his eyes closed and tears streaming down his face. The bulldozers are gone. Richie embraces the trembling bodies of Harley and Ann. They all stare at me and I don't want to deal with that now.

Max snaps out of his fury and rushes over to me, carefully pulling me up my feet again. "Are you okay?" He asks, studying my face. I clench my jaw and look away from him. "I'm fine," I say. But I am far from okay. My body hurts and my mind is in a place I never want to be again. Knives are twisting inside me and stabbing me over and over again. The physical punches hurt, yes, but this was way worse. What I feel is the kind of pain you feel when it's family who hurts you. A familiar pain that paralyses me and transports me back to being a hopeless, lifeless, fragile little girl.

"Fay?" Max takes my head in his hands and forces me to look at him. "Love?"

I fight away the tears and let myself fall against him. He embraces me, wraps his arms carefully around my back, and kisses my forehead. "Thank you," I say softly, "for coming to my rescue."

"Always," he says, resting his head against mine. I close my eyes and let his warmth guide me back to the moment. To the present. To here. The pain ebbs away and I turn my head towards Amory. He's still laying on the ground.