c h a p t e r. 46

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"Nobody should be in a position where they are suffering abuse at the hands of another, and if this is the case for you, stopping the abuse by leaving the situation is the only course of action to take."
― Theresa Jackson

You guys were yelling at me about the cliffhanger (and my sister gave me a meanie pants look) so like, here's the second update today...

chapter 46

There's a burning amount of pain.

Bar always thought that when he died it would be painless. That it would be a freeing feeling, a warm one. Like a tortured soul finally leaving it's hellish body.

But he was cold.

And aching

He slowly took a deep breath, his rib cage screaming in agony and making him flinch, slow fingers moving up to grab his ribs.

He knew that feeling all too well. Broken. He had broken ribs.

He felt heavy.

He couldn't move one arm.

It hurt to breathe and to swallow.

His head felt like it was stuffed with cotton balls and each one had cactus needles in them.

His whole body felt like an eye that someone just poked-- completely unpleasant.

Definitely not dead.

Bar opened his dark eyes slowly, an odd beeping just registering in his ear-- it was annoying as hell-- and the brightness made him squint, trying to get his bearings together to see where he was.

Not his room. Not Clementine's. Not one of his best friends and not in Maddie's house either.

He blinked.

Once, twice, three times.

He was in the hospital.

Why the fuck was he in the hospital?

"Shit," Bar said to himself, voice croaky and harsh, a headache pulsing behind his eyes and he pushed himself to sit up, legs over the side of the bed.

He ripped off the thing attached to his index finger, making the annoying beeping go into a continuous noise.

That shit was hurting his head and ears.

Through blurry eyesight, he noticed that he was only in a pair of his boxers, scars exposed but that was the last of his worries.

"Oh!" Someone abruptly spoke from the doorway. "Mr. Red, you're awake--"

"Fuck!" Bar stood up, legs weak under him but he braces himself on the wall that was, thankfully, right next to the bed. "You scared me. Why the hell am I in here? What happened?"

"I'll explain everything, please just sit down," The middle-aged woman who Bar assumed was the doctor rushed over to him, not touching him but making hurried gestures towards the bed, turning off the beeping machine. "You're going to upset your injuries."

"I'm fine," Bar stopped himself from glaring at her, not remembering anything. Not knowing why he was there.

The last thing he remembered he was cuddling with the little goddess.

The little goddess.

Bar snapped his dark eyes to the woman's, sitting down on the edge of the bed as he blurted out, "Clementine Astoria, is she okay? Did she get admitted too?"

They were together, Clementine was with him, did she get hurt too?

Did they get into an accident or something?

No, no. Bar clutched his head. That's not right.

They were at the conference, they were there and they ran into each other. Talmai talked to her, he talked to the little goddess.

Flashes and emotions and memories floated in Bar's mind and he was able to piece together what happened well enough, he remembered bits and pieces but not enough.

He didn't know if Clementine was okay.

He didn't know why he was at the hospital or why he woke up alone.

"Mr. Red," The-- presumably-- doctor began. "My name's Quinn and I'm your nurse, you're at Saint Parker's Hospital. A bit of amnesia is common, you did suffer a couple blows to the head and have a concussion. Please take it easy."

"Okay, great," Bar said, not giving much thought to his injuries. He's been hurt enough not to care at this point. "You didn't answer my question. Is she okay?"

"Ms. Astoria, your fiance?" Quinn said and then continued when Bar nodded. "She didn't get hurt although I noticed that she was extremely worried every time I came in to check on your condition. Your brothers had to drag her out of here to eat right before you woke up."

Bar sighed out a breath of relief and then frowned.

Fiance? Brothers?

"Did my other friends stop by?" Bar asked, subtly wanting to find out why they lied to the nurse about who they were to him.

Quinn shook her head, "No, honey, I'm sorry. Family only."

"Okay," He nodded and then winced at all the sharp stings and aches that coursed through his body. "And my dad?"

"The nurse looked uneasy as she answered, "He's at the police station. They're holding him in custody and that lovely fiance of yours said a lawyer will be stopping by later to see if you want to press charges for the abuse?"

Bar went blank, his face dropping into a look of neutrality, "Abuse?"

"There were multiple witnesses to the attack and when you first came in, we saw the evidence all over your body and in the x-ray scans." Then Quinn's eyes widened. "Oh, dear! I always talk so much and get distracted, I'm sorry! I need to make sure your vitals are stable and to go over the extent of your injuries."

"It's fine," Bar scowls. "Let's just get it over with so I can see my babygirl."

"Right okay," Quinn said and then proceeded to do her job. When she was close to done and put everything down into his record, she asked, "Do you want some pain meds now? I can't imagine how bad you must feel."

Bar looked down at himself and all the bruises and cuts that ran along his body and then gave a half-assed shrug, "I already said that I feel fine."

Quinn stopped and stared at him for a second, looking bewildered as she spoke.

"You have five cracked ribs, a massive amount of bruised bones and bruises in general, a concussion, a torn muscle in your calf, and multiple lacerations on your chest and face. A chip fracture on your wrist and two metacarpals are broken. Yet you say you're fine?"

"Yeah." Bar gruffed out, sitting up and taking notice of his body again. He felt slow-- both mentally and physically.

He missed stuff he'd normally notice immediately.

His right hand had a dark gray splint on it, his ribs were wrapped, and there wasn't five inches of space on his body that didn't have a bruise besides his legs-- but even he had some dark spots on his thighs and calves where his father had kicked him.

Huh.

Not his worst beating.

A thought suddenly popped into Bar's head and he asked the bewildered-looking nurse, "My neck, can you see where Dad choked me?"

Just the thought of being choked had Bar's anxiety going up.

He had been scared.

He had truly been scared that he was going to die.

"Yeah," Quinn nodded awkwardly, probably not used to having patients like him every day-- so nonchalant about his pain. "Most of your neck and behind your ears are bruised and your eyes are bloodshot. A lot of times after strangulation, people feel dizzy or heavy. So if you are throwing up, unable to see correctly, or have a seizure after we release you, you need to come back to the hospital immediately. Especially with your concussion."

"Three weeks no strenuous activities and rest for the first seven days after for concussions," Bar recited easily. "I know, I did my research."

"You've had a concussion before?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I have to ask even if this isn't any of my business," Quinn sighs out, her motherly features frowning. "Why didn't you tell anyone? The amount of damage done to your bones and your scar tissue... it's one of the worst cases of abuse I've ever seen. That couldn't have been easy to live with."

Bar really doesn't know how to handle a situation like this.

For eighteen years, he kept the abuse a secret.

But now random strangers and probably the whole school at this point-- gossip spreads fast-- knows about it?

It's a change and he doesn't know how to process it.

"I, uh," Bar didn't know what to say. "I did tell someone, once. They didn't believe me and when Dad found out." He chuckles without humor, motioning down to a large scar going across his abdomen. "It wasn't pretty so I stopped trying."

"Why didn't they believe you?"

"I have a sister and her mom, Maddie, she just won most of the custody but everyone thought she was crazy." Bar said. "And my dad's a cop and an asshole. Everyone believed him. Not me."

"That wasn't okay--"

"Oly!" A shriek comes from the door and then a small body is barging past the poor nurse and is wrapping Bar into an extremely gentle hug. "You're awake, oh my God, how a-are you feeling. I, I was so worried and, and I didn't want to leave you b-but Law made me eat and--"

"Baby," Bar pulled away, wiping the tears that was now going down her cheeks, noticing a bruise on her cheekbone "I'm okay. I'm okay. Please don't cry, you know I hate it when you cry."

Clementine bit her lip as a whole new wave of tears came, "I, I was so scared, Oly. So scared. I thought t-that you were going to die and I couldn't, I couldn't have handled that. I just g-got you back."

"No, babygirl, I'm not going anywhere." Bar hugged her back fully too, tears of his own pricking his eyes. "You're not going to lose me, okay? Never. I'm so sorry you had to see that, sweetheart."

"It's okay," The little goddess sniffled. "I don't like y-you getting hurt."

"I know, baby, I know." Bar kissed her forehead, chuckling painfully when she kissed his tears away in return. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"And I love you both!" Gus announced. "And I'm sorry about interrupting the cute moment but I was worried as fuck too! You okay, daddy?"

Then the goof was crossing the room in long strides, Law by his side and both best friends began to hug Bar, in the process hugging Clementine too.

"It's nothing I haven't gone through before, dipshits." Bar said. "I'll be okay."

"Good." Law said, going over to sit on one of the chairs.

"Phew." Gus pulled away, sloppily kissing Bar on the cheek making the brute scrunch up his nose in disgust. "I was worried as shit when Potato Queen called us and said to meet at the hospital. And then your little punk ass had to stay asleep a whole two days!"

"I slept for two days?" Bar said, and then glares. "I aint a punk, you annoying little bitch."

"I'm not annoying. I'm fab-u-lous," Gus snaps his fingers. "Learn the difference."

"Gus, man," Law called out. "You're a dork."

"I'm not a whale penis!"

"What?"

While Law and Gus argued, Bar turned back to Clementine, noticed that the nurse left.

He situated them both on the bed, grateful that it accommodated someone of his height and stature easily and let Clementine rest next to him too.

Unfortunately, she couldn't be on top of him like how she always was when they cuddled because of his ribs but spooning face to face was just as pleasant.

"Babygirl?" Bar said. "Why do got have a bruise on your cheek?"

The little goddess froze, wet eyelashes making her minty eyes seem brighter as they locked onto Bar's darker ones.

"Uh, I-I... I got between your father and you, when uh, when you passed out. I thought he was going to k-kill you, Oly. He was kicking you really hard and they were trying to hold him back but c-couldn't."

"Never put yourself in danger like that again, okay?" Bar said, frowning at her as his uninjured hand lightly traced her beautiful features and scar. "I care about you too much to let you get hurt because if me. But thank you, babygirl, for caring enough about me to do that, too."

"I'd die for you, y'know." She quietly murmurs.

"I'd never ask that of you," Bar replied, enjoying the feeling of her warm hands playing with his hair. "How hard did he hit you?"

The bruise covered her entire cheekbone and went behind her hairline, it was dark in color and slightly black and the skin around it a bright red.

It looked painful and Bar knew from personal experience that bruises like that were more aching than stings.

"I kicked h-his legs out from under him and he elbowed me," Clementine brought a hand up to her face, a pout on her lips. "But that, that was okay. It let Fen's dad get him into a-a hold."

"Fen's dad?"

"Oakley, Chief of p-police?" Clementine said. "He was trying t-to help."

"Oh." Bar said. "Does Fen know about the abuse?"

Clementine was silent for a moment before she said, "Videos of it a-are going around the school, it shows that bastard--"

"You swore." Bar said, unable to stop the words from coming out. "I've never heard you swear before besides when we're having sex."

Clementine flushed a bright red, "Talmai just m-makes me really angry."

"I can tell," Bar said. He'd smirk if his face didn't hurt so much. "Sorry, I interrupted, continue."

"A kid recorded the, the whole thing," The little goddess told him sadly. "Everyone k-knows that your dad hits you."

"Fuck," Bar groans. "Gwen's friends have siblings in our grade. If they saw it, she saw it. Have you heard from her or Maddie?"

Clementine nods, "I c-called Maddie after I called Auggie and Law on the way to, to the hospital. Gwen visited the first day and yesterday but she had to go to school today."

"You're missing school to be here?"

"Of course," Clementine frowns. "I h-hate missing class but I hate not being by you more."

"Thank you for being here, baby." Bar says, eyes feeling heavy. He sighs and pulls the little goddess as close as he dares-- not wanting to disturb his wounds. "How does your face feel?"

"Fine. Are you m-mad that I got hurt?" Clementine asked.

He gently kissed her head, "Furious."

"I'm sorry."

"No need for apologizes."

"Okay, and Oly, I um..." Clementine looks down at her fingers. "I talked to my brother... He's a lawyer and he's married to a, a CPS worker. He says that there's enough ev-evidence against Talmai for him to lose all custody and to go to jail for, for a very long time. And Michelle, his wife, already opened an i-inv-investigation again him for child endangerment. I just... I thought you should know."

"What does that mean?" Bar frowns.

"That means that even if you d-don't press charges, you and Gwen are safe."

Bar just lays back and lets tears of relief flow down his face, not even giving a reply as he just cries, his little goddess holding him.

Finally, his sister can live without fear.

Finally, this nightmare is over.

Finally, he'll get justice for all that was done to him.

Finally, finally, after eighteen goddamn years, he's safe.

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