A Broken Crew

Chapter 11

"Thank you." August's voice is quiet. He headed upstairs. The shower was still running, but Dakota was already out and dressed, staring dully at the bed. "Dakota, you forgot to turn off the shower." No response. August shut off the shower himself. "Come on, you need to sleep, Kotes." Dakota keeps on staring, his eyes are lost. His mouth is moving in inarticulate whispers. August sighed. "Come on, just move to the bed, okay? Dakota?" Dakota starts to cry. August tried to reach and hand but abruptly Dakota moved, crashing into a bookshelf and knocking things everywhere, creating huge thumps on the floor. "Don't touch me!" he snapped. "Don't..." August sighed again, then tried to smile. "It's okay, Kota, I'm not going to hurt you." Dakota's head swung from side to side, lost in a memory." "Don't... I don't want that!" He pushed away imaginary bottles and pills, fought imaginary adversaries.

This was the affects of Dakota's childhood. He was having flashbacks. The encounter with Grey and his father had given him some serious PTSD. He was no longer tough. He was scared and easily tricked. Very submissive. He returned to being 7. August gently wrapped his arms around Dakota. "Hey, it's okay." he said. Dakota hissed and scratched at him. August ignored it, still trying to soothe him. "You're okay." After much scratching and crying, Dakota calmed down and fell asleep. August was bleeding from several places on his face and arms. He pulled Dakota over to the bed and threw the covers over him. "Rest, Kotes." he said. Then he left downstairs to get some bandaids for his bleeding face.

By the time August comes back, two small boys have joined Grey on the couch, both carefully curled up where they can both touch him. Kacey looks up at August and his eyes go wide when he sees the cuts and scratches. "What happened? Are you OK? " Mikko looks over then huddles close to Grey, who runs a gentle hand over Mikko's head to calm him. "Is Dakota alright?" Grey asks, a different way to ask, *"Did he do that?"* *Great, August is hurt now and it's my fault for forgetting to buy groceries. If I hadn't, he never would have called me home and beat me and Dakota would never have gotten drunk to save my sorry self..* Mikko softly pats Grey's cheek as if sensing his sadness.

August just smiles. "I'm fine." He cleans up his face. "Dakota is fine too. He's just a little tired and confused." He waved at the two smaller boys. "Hey guys." Just then, November stepped in, waving a paper that said, Hi I let myself in! But he dropped it when he saw August, moving over to touch his face. Then he picked up his notebook and wrote, "Are you okay? Dakota?" August smiled. "Yes, I'm fine Nova. Do you need me to take your things upstairs?" November looked concerned for a moment, but then shook his head. He picks up his bags and moves them upstairs. "It's not your fault." August's voice is casual, as if it wasn't anything unusual or meaningful. But he makes direct eye contact with Grey, giving him a single nod. Then he smiles.

Grey smiles back hesitantly, yet still feels the guilt. Mikko looks around then taps Grey's hand in a pattern. Grey looks at his friend. "What?" Mikko repeats the pattern."Oh. Same thing as usual." Kacey puts his hands on his hips. "Yeah right, Grey. One of them didn't get you, or else it wouldn't be this bad!" Grey and Mikko are surprised by Kacey's unusually firm tone. "You really need to think about what Cass keeps asking you!" Kace continues to scold Grey. "G, if he did this then your house-" Grey interrupts."Is still my house, Kacey. I'm not legally allowed to move out for another two years, you know that." Kacey pouts and turns away. Mikko frowns and pats Kacey's cheek, then pats it again. When he doesn't get a response he sighs, takes a breath, and the room seems to hush as he speaks, voice low and sweet but rusty and shy. "Kacey." Kacey turns to look at Mikko, eyes wide. "Yeah..?" Mikko frown at him and Kacey gets the point. He looks at Grey. "Sorry Grey.. I'm just really really worried.." Grey sighs softly, fondly and reaches over to muss Kacey's hair. "I know."

August sat down on the couch. "It's sad isn't it?" he said. "When someone you love is stuck in a harmful position, and there's nothing anybody can do." He smiled. "But don't worry, it always gets better. My mom is going to come back and take care of him and fix him all up." He heard a lot of noise from upstairs. "Uh oh." he said, looking tired. "I'd better go-" November came down the stairs, looking sad. "Dakota's awake." he wrote. "He came out of the room and I think he got scared seeing me." August nodded. "Okay, I'll go talk to him." He pushed himself off the couch and headed upstairs. There was a little bit more noise, then silence, and August came back down the stairs. "He'll be fine." he said. "He needs to sleep off the flashbacks." November hugged August. August patted his head. "I think we could all use some rest." he said. "I'll put on a movie. Does anyone want popcorn?"