Crys And Gabe

by J. A. Hornbuckle

  It was just him, Ben and Crys in the shop. He could see Crys working on the deposit as he walked back into the big room.

  "Need to talk with you, Benny," he said, leaning up against the long, two-tiered counter.

  "Yeah?" Benny said, closing down the different panes on the computer.

  "Overheard Trish on her phone today," Dex began. Shit, this wasn't going to be good. While Dex never ran from a fight, he sure as shit didn't like starting them. And he knew that this information was going to start one.

  "I don't think she knew I was there or, if she did, she didn't care," Dex said slowly. "Don't know who she was talking to either. But she was talking pretty bad, Ben."

  For once, Benny was quiet and still as he watched Dex.

  Dex cut his glance towards Crys, but she was all caught up in the bank shit.

  "What'd you hear, Dex?" Benny asked, standing up and planting himself.

  Aw, fuck, Dex thought. He's fucking diggin' in.

  "I'm not going to quote verbatim. But basically it was about how she was going to do everything she could to get Gabe back, how we were all a bunch of hillbillies and that you're a lot stupider than Gabe made you out to be," Dex said, rushing through it, trying to get it all out in one piece.

  You can't deal with shit you don't know and Dex was determined Benny was going to know what was being said by this girl he held in so much esteem.

  Who didn't, at least in Dex's mind, deserve the time of day.

  Dex again cut his eyes to Crys. Her head was still down, but she was no longer writing.

  "Why're you lying, Dex?" Benny breathed and Dex saw the vein appear on Benny's forehead.

  Uh-oh. Meltdown time.

  "I'm not lying, Ben," Dex said softly. "I wouldn't lie about this shit."

  "You have no fucking business in this. None!" Benny yelled. "You're even worse than she is!" His hand swept out and pointed at Crys.

  "Hey!" she yelled. "What the fuck did I do?"

  "You! You're the reason Gabe can't own up!" Benny bellowed. "What'd you do to my son, Crys, huh? You swallow? Is that it?"

  Dex couldn't believe this shit. Couldn't Benny see it, the connection that Crys and Gabe had? The fucking connection they'd always had.

  "What?" she breathed.

  "I know you've been spreading for Gabe, sniffing around him since you were little," Benny said, his eyes narrowing, breathing fire.

  "I never…I mean, we never…"

  "Bullshit! You've wanted to get your hooks in my boy for years, you fucking slut. Well, you can't have him. No family, can't even fucking read and you think you're good enough for my kid? Oh, fuck, no," Benny was practically screaming as he stepped towards Crys. "Even your fucking Mother didn't want you!"

  She scrambled from around the desk, twisting her chair away from the words and the man who was spewing them. The chair, released from her weight was pushed back as she quickly moved away from it, slamming itself into Benny's legs.

  Dex grabbed her and pulled her behind him, feeling her grab onto the back of his shirt.

  "Get a fucking grip, man!" he yelled.

  What the fuck was going on?

  Benny had been like a second Dad to Crys.

  Slut? Spreading for Gabe? What the fuck?

  "It's either her or me, Dex," Benny yelled and Dex could see that he was trying to get a handle on his fury. But Dex couldn't tell what was causing that fury to begin with.

  "Choose? You want me to choose, motherfucker?" Dex's own anger was kicking in. "No worries, Ben. I choose Crys."

  Ben stopped, not even breathing.

  "Yeah, that's right, Ben," Dex said, his heart thumping. "You want me to choose? Right? Then I choose her."

  They stared at, glared at each other, chests heaving, fists clenched.

  "You are such a dick, Dex," Benny said slowly. "You'll regret this."

  "Maybe so," Dex said, taking a step back slowly, feeling Crys move with him. "But, Ben, this isn't working and you know it."

  "There's only been a problem since she's been here," Benny breathed. "And you fucking know it. You've been complaining about her for months."

  Dex couldn't deny it. He had been complaining about Crys.

  Crys was just whacky.

  But Ben, the man he'd known for years, this version of Ben was fucking scary.

  "You doin' Crys, too, then, Dex?" Ben yelled, his eyes wild. "She's done just about everyone else in town. She get to you, too, man?"

  What the fuck?

  "You're talking out of your ass, Ben," Dex said slowly, inching his way back away from the big man, his mind reeling as he saw a side of his friend that he'd never seen before. "Why don't we both go home and sleep on it? We can talk about it again tomorrow."

  "Ain't coming in tomorrow, Dex. You chose, you deal," Benny said, stomping away from the desk towards the door.

  Dex turned and felt Crys turn with him as he watched what used to be his best friend slam out of the shop.

  He waited until he heard Ben's truck squeal out of the parking lot before he moved, disconnecting Crys from his back to lock the front door.

  "You okay, Baby Girl?" he asked as he went behind the desk to turn off the neon signs.

  Crys was still standing where he left her, her eyes huge in her pale face.

  Oh, God.

  Dex snagged his phone from his back pocket, scrolling through his list of contacts before selecting a number.

  "Back at the shop, Gabe, now!" Dex instructed before disconnecting and shoving the phone back in his pocket.

  He didn't know what to do but hug her until Gabe arrived.

  It was the first time he'd ever watched someone's heart break.

  And his heart broke, too, just seeing it go down.

  *.*.*.*.*

  "What happened?" Gabe said looking at Dex who had unlocked the door.

  "Your dad happened, Gabe," Dex said softly looking like someone had beat him up.

  Crys was standing in the middle of the reception area, her eyes unfocused, shut down in a way Gabe had never seen her.

  Gabe went straight to her.

  "Kitten?" he called softly, gathering her up in his arms. "Crys?"

  He was holding her but she wasn't responding. No arms around his waist, no movement at all.

  "Dex?" he asked, looking over her shoulder. "What the fuck, man?"

  He saw Dex drag his fingers through his hair as he breathed deep.

  "I overheard Trish talking on her phone in the parking lot earlier and what I heard wasn't good."

  "I can imagine," Gabe said slowly. "She's really good at talking shit."

  Dex grinned. "That's putting it mildly."

  Gabe shrugged.

  "She was telling someone not to worry, that she'd get you back," Dex said.

  "Figures. The girl can't take 'no' for an answer," Gabe breathed, continuing to rub Crys's back but still not getting a response.

  "Yeah. Well. She said that we were a bunch of stupid hillbillies that didn't suspect a thing," Dex continued.

  Gabe smiled. "Used to hear her call me that a lot in the beginning. Thought it was cute at first." He felt his face harden as he remembered the tone of voice she used there at the end, at each of the endings, when she'd hatefully flung it in his face. "Not so cute anymore, though."

  "She told the person on the other end of the phone that Benny is a lot stupider than even you made him out to be," Dex finished.

  "What?" Gabe sputtered. "I never said my dad was stupid. He may get on my last fucking nerve, but stupid? Nope. I know I never said that."

  The shop was quiet, with only the last of Gabe's words hanging over them.

  "What about my girl, Dex?" Gabe asked softly pulling her in tighter and finally, fucking finally, getting a response out of her with her hands moving to grab the sides of his shirt.

  "He said some stuff, Gabe. Bad shit. Twisted, even," Dex said, unable to meet Gabe's eyes. "Something is really wrong with Benny, Gabe. Don't know what it is but, brother, we've go
t to get this shit sorted."

  Gabe stiffened. Something was wrong with his Dad and couldn't be explained away with a blood test.

  "Was it about Crys?" Gabe was almost whispering, his heart and voice tight.

  "Yeah, Gabe," Dex said, regret heavy in his voice, unable to meet Gabe's eyes. "Fucking awful."

  Gabe twisted his head up to the ceiling. So, Dex saw the same corrosive shit that he'd seen when he'd barged in on his dad and the cream puff.

  "He gave me a choice tonight, a choice between him and Crys," Dex almost shuddered as he remembered the look in Benny's eyes. "I chose Crys."

  He felt Crys's fingers flex and grip tighter onto his shirt.

  "Aw, fuck," Gabe moaned, at a loss on what to do. His dad was out of control and Gabe was out of his element on how to handle this.

  "Get your girl home, Gabe," Dex suggested. "We'll figure something out tomorrow, alright?"

  Gabe just stared at him, completely out of his depth with all that was going on.

  He nodded at his friend, the friend of his father and realized that this conversation was costing both of them a lot in the areas of their heart that held Ben.

  "Yeah, okay. You think her Jeep's going to be okay in the parking lot?" he asked, reaching to snag Crys's purse Dex was holding out to him.

  Dex snorted. "Buddy, at this point in tonight's program, I'm not sure of anything."

  Gabe got his girl bundled into his truck and made his silent way home.

  She wasn't just shut down.

  She was absent.

  Completely not there.

  He got her into the house but didn't know what to do, how to help her.

  Standing behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her back to him. There may be hell to pay tomorrow but, at the moment, there was no help for it.

  He took her back to his room and slowly undressed her, trying to keep a lid on what his cock was begging to do, drooling to do as her creamy flesh was revealed. But, he covered it up with one of his t-shirts and tucked her into his bed.

  He didn't know what had happened, but it had been bad. Bad enough to scare Dex and Dex didn't scare easily.

  Gabe went back and made sure the door was locked before he turned off all the lights and made his way back to the bedroom.

  Crys was in the same position he left her in, her eyes closed. But he knew she wasn't sleeping.

  Shut down, yeah.

  Asleep, no.

  He removed his clothes and went to the other side of the bed to slide in behind her.

  Yeah, his cock was hard. Hard enough to break, but this wasn't the time for him to worry about what his body wanted. What his body needed, yearned to do.

  He wrapped his arm around her and tucked up tightly against her back.

  "Sleep, Kitten," he murmured against the back of her neck, against her new hair.

  There was no response.

  Gabe pressed himself against her, wishing his body could protect her heart, a heart that was like an old piece of porcelain, yellowed and cracked, but still held together with love, with hope.

  "My dad's sick, Crys," he whispered softly against her. "I don't know what's wrong with him, but he's not the Dad I used to have."

  He was quiet, remembering Benny from when he was younger. Sure, they'd had their problems but his dad had always been in his corner, always been his safety net even at the worst of the shit storms Gabe was feeling.

  This man now, though, was like the complete opposite of who his heart knew.

  "Think I'm gonna have to get Grandpa Pete involved," he continued.

  His gramps might know what to do, how to handle this. To him, Peter Mykalson, was a loving, wise man. To the rest of the world, his gramps was a bad ass to the nth degree. The kind of man that used to make other men turn tail and run rather than deal with him.

  Gabe had heard the stories but they were just that, stories, because he couldn't see it in his mind.

  "Princess? He's my dad, and I love him but if he hurt you," Gabe sighed heavily, before swallowing thickly. "If he hurt you, Crys, I'll just…"

  "You'll what, Gabe?" she said softly, her voice deep, like it was being pulled out of her. "He's your dad, Gabe. Your dad."

  Gabe remembered that same tone, those same words from so long ago.

  *.*.*.*.*

  "Gay-Abe, wait up!"

  He stopped and turned, watching as Crys ran to him, her little legs, in her favorite overalls with the duck on the bib, pumping. When she made it to him, she stopped and looked up at him, moving her bright blonde hair out of her eyes, out of her deep, blue eyes.

  "You run too fast, Gabe," she admonished in her alto voice, a voice she'd had since he first remember her making noise.

  "Sorry, Crys," he said.

  "You mad, Gabe?"

  He deliberately turned his gaze away from her.

  So she couldn't see his face when he spoke next.

  "No." But Gabe knew that he lied, was lying to his very best friend. "She's not worth being mad about."

  Those words, which he meant with all his heart, were so untrue it was like lying about the sun or the moon. Things that were a part of your everyday life, the parts you take for granted.

  "But," he heard her beautiful voice say on a whisper. "She's your mom, Gabe. She's your mom."

  He got it.

  He knew what she was saying.

  From her vantage point having a Mom, any Mom, was a bonus.

  But she was only seven.

  And she was a girl.

  And her mom took off three years ago without a word to anyone.

  Creating a scar on Crys's heart that might not ever heal.

  His mom was dying.

  And his eight year old brain couldn't grasp it, couldn't wrap his head around how his beautiful, laughing mother could be fine one day and then the next be dying.

  Dying from something he didn't understand, that didn't make sense.

  His parent's had tried to explain it to him. Oh-var-e-an Can-sir.

  How it was a disease that hurt you bad and the doctors were trying to fix, back in the time when his family had hope.

  But now they'd said that his mom, his precious, beautiful mother was gonna die.

  That what was killing her wasn't something his father could fix.

  And his dad could fix anything, everyone knew that.

  So, if his dad couldn't fix it then it was something she could've done to fix it.

  But she didn't.

  She couldn't.

  In fact, now she was so weak that she couldn't do much but shuffle from the screened in porch, where Dad had set up her bed, to the kitchen chair.

  And if Dad couldn't fix it, and she couldn't fix, then it meant that Gabe couldn't fix it.

  And if something couldn't be fixed, then you had no choice but to be mad at it.

  He was mad.

  He was mad at everything and everyone.

  Why her?

  She never did anything to anybody.

  She was a good person and good people can't die.

  Good people help balance out the crap of the world and make it a better place.

  He was glad he wasn't alone.

  But he was angry he wasn't alone.

  Gabe looked away from Crys, trying to find the creek in the shadows of the trees that populated their tiny corner of Colorado. At least that was how he was playing it off, giving him time to wipe his eyes.

  He wouldn't cry.

  But, when he glanced at Crys's upturned face, a face that he knew as well as his own, he saw the tears that he tried to hide, mirrored hers.

  Streaming down her downy cheeks to catch at her jaw.

  "She's your mom, Gabe," she whispered again, catching his hand and burying her face in the front of his Ninja Turtle t-shirt.

  "Yeah, Crys," he sighed. He ran his hand up her back and pressed her little white-blond head close. "She is."

  And they stood there, the two of them, in the shadow of each other.
/>   Holding tight, since their connection gave each of them strength.

  He had tried pushing her away, and she had, in fact, stepped away from him.

  But never so far that he couldn't reach out and be with her.

  She was his.

  Just as she had been from the first moment she had grabbed hold of his pant leg to pull herself up and given him that sideways grin of hers.

  A grin that spoke to his heart as much then as now.

  He swallowed thickly.

  His dad said that he needed to tell his mom goodbye while she was still awake and in their house in the deep Colorado woods.

  They'd sung to her earlier. Actually, his mom had started singing. "I Will Remember You", or what she called 'the Champion Song'.

  But she couldn't sing it like she used to, so he and Crys had helped her.

  It was his mom's most favorite song in the whole world.

  And she was never going to be able to sing it again.

  Grandpa Pete said they were fixing to put her in the hospital and she probably wouldn't be coming back.

  But Gabe couldn't do it.

  He couldn't face it.

  And because he couldn't, he ran.

  And ran.

  And kept running until Crys asked him to wait up.

  But he still couldn't do it.

  Still couldn't tell his mom, goodbye.

  "We'll go together, Gabe, 'kay?" she whispered, her head still crooked in her special place between his neck and shoulder.

  "I ca-can't, Crys," Gabe said, his voice breaking.

  Crys peeled her head away from his shirt and tilted her chin up.

  "You gotta chance that I didn't get, Gabe."

  He knew what she meant. The last words she heard from her mother were, 'have a good time' or some such.

  Gabe had a chance to talk with his mom that he knew was leaving him.

  And, if what she said was to be believed, wouldn't ever leave him if she had a choice.

  "What do I say?" he asked bending his head down to rest against her hair.