Just as I Begin to Fade

Forty Eight. Shock

Bobby was seated in a plastic chair, off to the side of the bed; depressed, disappointed in himself and in utter shock about what happened to her. He sat, rubbing his still very raw knuckled hands together firmly, not really paying attention to the pain they were in.

"What happened?" Lindsey asked as soon as he entered Gwen's room, searching for the answer from Bobby while he swiped the girl's dark hair back. "What happened to you?" when he glanced at his hands.

"Some bastards I know, they raped her," he mumbled low, standing from the chair. "I beat the crap out of all of them when I got in the room and I brought her here. I called the police on them, I knew all of them unfortunately."

He sighed, thinking he had had a bad feeling but then he proceeded to get drunk and high involuntarily.

"How's her mom?" the teen then wondered.

"She's going to be okay, but I haven't seen her since I left and I came straight here. Did they give her something?"

"She was really anxious, so they had to, but that was a while ago."

He nodded. "What happened? How did this happen to her?"

"There was this guy messing with her, his name is Clay. He kept touching her inappropriately, she was upset, as she should have. I came over to stop him and he left her alone, but then Derek happened to stop in so she of course left to go and talk to him. They talked for awhile that I had thought she left and I was getting ready to go, so I left and went to the restroom. I came back and the dorm room was locked, I thought it was jammed..." he paused, thinking about Derek, overly angered about his running away. "I got in there and I seen what was happening... Four guys total... I beat the hell out of all of them."

"Did they... Did all of them--"

"She said they took turns..."

Lindsey was disgusted.

"She said she doesn't know what happened after she passed out," he dropped down to the seat. "I left her for a minute to go to the restroom and not even a few minutes later, she was locked in the dorm, stuck with those idiots," he sighed, wanting to actually cry about the situation.

"Bobby, it's not your fault," he dropped his hand to his shoulder, rubbing it firmly. "There's nothing you could have done."

Just before he could answer, Gwen shifted in bed uncomfortably and she panicked since she had never felt such pain before and she didn't know who was touching her.

"Hey, it's okay... It's just us," Lindsey swiped her hair again, trying to be comforting.

She shuddered, her tears percolating immediately. "I wanna go home."

"The doctor said you can go home tonight," Bobby took her hand, kissing the back of it as his tears formed.

Her lip trembled and she dropped her head back into the pillows, looking up at the ceiling. "It hurts so bad."

"I'm so sorry this happened to you, kiddo, I will put those kids and their parents through hell," he stepped forward and he kissed her head

She sort of cringed at first, but then relaxed because it was just Lindsey, the man she looked up to like a father.

He took noticed, so he took a step back, not wanting to make her uncomfortable.

"Where's my mom?" she wondered.

Bobby glanced back at Lindsey, not knowing who was going to say so.

"Lindsey?" she practically begged.