A Broken Crew

Chapter 18

He was wearing his hoodie still, but his other hand was clutched to his ribs. "Oh, Kota..." Dakota sighed. "I told you, it's not as bad as it looks. There's just a lot of blood. Head and scalp wounds bleed easily and I'm bleeding from a few different places. That's all." August pulled him into the kitchen. "Let's get the first aid kit and take care of it." Dakota nodded. "You're limping." Dakota blew some bangs out of his face. "It's nothing." he said. "Just some bad bruising, I'm pretty sure. He was drinking. I'm kicked out for the next two days, so that's good." He limped into the kitchen.

Mikko looks up when he hears Dakota coming in, holding his finger to his lips once Dakota is in, pointing to Grey, who is sleeping, albeit lightly. Kacey gives August a look then follows Dakota into the kitchen.

Dakota leans over the sink and let's go of the shirt. Right away, blood starts dripping from his head. It also seems like he's bleeding from his nose. Their voices lower to a whisper for sake of Grey. Dakota wipes his head carefully. Maggie comes into the kitchen. "Oh dear..." She moves quickly and quietly over to Dakota, wiping away blood. "It's not serious Mom," he says. "Just a flesh wound." She still sighs and wipes away more blood. "oh, honey... Let's bandage that up right away." She carefully wraps his head, the blood soaking through. "It'll be fine." he says. "You guys look so worried. I told you it's nothing." Maggie sighs. "I know you think so honey. You're ribs alright?" Dakota shrugged. "It's nothing I can't handle." he replied. It's all just bruises. Same for my leg. Just some bad bruising on my knee. He kicked my pretty good, so it keeps buckling." Maggie hugged him for a moment. "I'm fine, honest." he said. "I just need a couple minutes rest. And a couple more bandages. These are gonna soak through in the next 5 minutes."

Kacey quickly makes himself useful here, keeping the blood contained to the sink, grabbing whatever was needed and giving it to Maggie. Mikko watches, storing the information he's gathering away for later. He is still by Grey's side, making sure he stays asleep.

Dakota sat down at the table. "Have we formulated any plan for Grey?" he asked August. August shook his head. "No, not yet. I'm not sure what we can do." He glanced at Grey. "He can't go back there in this state." he said. Dakota nodded in agreement. "But I'm going to try and keep his father's trust," he said. "It could be useful. If anything, we'll wait longer and I'll just say I got extra wasted. At least until we can come up with some sort of plan to get him out of there."

Mikko suddenly perks up and reaches carefully into Grey's pocket, pulling out his phone and wallet. He comes up to August and Dakota and opens the wallet, showing them the mass amount of money inside- money Grey has been hoarding for something like this. Mikko taps the wallet rapidly, trying to tell them something. Kacey looks over and gets what he's saying. "Oh! Grey carries a stash of money, it's a LOT."

August considered it. "We could pay for more hours, but it'd be just helping him." Dakota sighed. "I know you want to fix this, August." he said. "You're a kind person. But sometimes, for people like us, there's no instant cure. You know that. Paying for hours is a way to keep him safe, if only for a little while. I wonder..." He stood up. "I could pull money out of the bank. And if we borrow from Alsephina..." Dakota looked up. "I was thinking... maybe we could buy him off... for good?"

Mikko nods and pulls out a bank card, handing it to August. Grey has a bank account that he and Cassidy have been putting every spare cent into.

"Do you know how much is on the card?" Dakota asked. "I need to know how much more I need to get."

Mikko shrugs, then made a 'big' motion with his hands. All he knows is that Grey has a lot of money from his years with his dad. He taps his nose then opens Grey's phone, swiping through a couple apps before showing them the wallet app, which show exactly how much money Grey has.