Prison Blues

14 - Aftermath

He had to go through a humiliating medical exam, which naturally included a rape kit. He'd weakly protested, explaining that only Blake had been at him, and that he'd pulled out or used a condom. Didn't matter, he was told. They were still able to get DNA to process for evidence. In fact, they'd explained, there was actually enough sperm in pre-ejaculate to impregnate a woman. Adam had not known that. He wasn't sure what to think about it. Blake had pulled out in order to prevent giving him diseases, but that may not have mattered. Well, there wasn't anything he could do about it now, was there? If Adam ended up with an STD, he'd deal with it.

Meanwhile, they'd swabbed, taken pictures, drawn blood, and given him prophylactic antibiotics. They'd measured and photographed every bruise and the marks on his wrists from being bound. They'd taken multiple photographs, complete with measurements, of the bruises on Adam's hips, the marks of his lover's hands. And they'd been very concerned over the bruises on Adam's throat. Adam had managed to forget about those. Now he had to explain how Blake had choked him to force the other inmates to leave him with Blake.

Being reminded of the bruises on his throat had reinforced to Adam the fact that Blake, not Adam, would be left in prison to deal with the consequences of his actions. All he'd done to try to protect Adam would come back and haunt Blake now. And whatever happened now, it would be Blake who would suffer the most for it. Blake had a plan. He'd told Adam what to do, what to say.

Adam did as he was told.

His father took him home, both of his brothers stopping in to eat supper, check up on Adam. Both of his former stepmothers showed up as well, with Adam's half-brothers and sisters. Dinners with family had always been difficult. Now it was even more so. Adam felt on display. No one knew what to say to him, how to act. Finally Joy, his father's youngest ex-wife, threw down her fork. "Alright, I'm just going to come out and say it," she announced. "Marlon, this whole thing is all your fault!"

Uproar. Yelling, voices accusing Marlon, voices defending him. Adam leaned forward, rested his face in his hands with his elbows on the table and let the din wash over him.

"ENOUGH!" Benjamin, shouting everyone down. Silence fell as Benjamin got up, moving around the table to Adam. "Adam?" he began. "We're a fucked-up family. We've been a fucked-up family for a long time, and a lot of that has fallen on you. It took me three years of AA and a shitload of therapy to realize that, but you have been the punching bag of this family for pretty much your entire life, especially with me and Levi and dad!"

"Unless Marlon was married, that was," Penny, his father's oldest ex-wife, called.

"You're right," Benjamin announced, surprising everyone. "When dad had a wife, that took a lot of the pressure off of Adam. But as soon as they were gone, it was right back to him. Nothing you did was ever good enough, Adam. And the end result was you taking that job in the prison, getting caught up in that riot!"

"Because you insisted he take it, Marlon!" Joy insisted. "I said the moment I heard about it that Adam wasn't cut out to be a corrections officer. Now look at what happened!"

"What did happen, Adam?" Benjamin's voice was surprisingly soft. "I know, in the past, we let you down. We were never there for you the way a family should be. But Adam, since the riot happened, and I found out you'd been taken? Well, I wasn't at the press conference because I was getting everyone together. And that's how we've been since - together. Because at the end of the day, no matter what, we're still family. It's about damned time that meant something!"

Adam looked up in surprise.

"Benny's right, Adam," Marlon said softly. "This is about family. We came way too close these past few days to losing one of our own. Now, I've been sitting here, hoping Benny would say it, or Levi, or Joy, or, hell, anyone else besides me. But it's past time I stopped being a coward. Adam, look at me?"