When Happily Ever After Fails

Alex asked questions that made Ricky want to wince, but he held his stoic mask with a firm line for his mouth. It was obvious that Alex was becoming frustrated with Ricky's lack of cooperation when he slammed a file full of Ricky's childhood photo's down in front of him.

"You should really have your obsession with that little boy looked at. It's rather unhealthy," Ricky said with a smirk. The men who had joined them earlier hadn't said much for the duration of the interview. He wasn't sure if they were holding back in favor of allowing Alex to conduct the interview, or if they were merely some form of scare tactic. Either way, Ricky was determined to keep the nervous fluttering of his stomach and heart to himself.

As Alex started in on another set of questions, Ricky rocked his chair onto it's back legs and crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. Flashes of anger danced in the corners of Alex's eyes as Ricky stared blankly at him with a challenging grin tugging on the corners of his lips. His eyes had long since turned dark and unreadable, so Alex had no choice but to accept the only thing on his opponent's face.

"Could you gentlemen leave us alone for a moment?" Alex said with a small smile. The door clicked shut behind them and his demeanor instantly snapped back to the pleasant, flirtatious Alex that Ricky had met earlier in the evening. Alex muttered something to himself as he clicked off the tape recorder. "I really just want us to get along, Ricky. I want to help you, but in order to do that, I need you to trust me."

"Trust you? You're interrogating me, and you want me yo trust you? As if..."

Alex watched Ricky's indifference switching to indignation with severe amusement. His cheeks flushed and his eyes lit up at the scent of a fight. Slowly, and with an ever widening grin on his face, Alex started to move around to where Ricky sat. Ricky tried his best not to allow his discomfort to show, but when he felt his hands turn clammy and his eyes shifted to every spot in the room except to Alex, he knew that he had failed.

"You know, I really hate seeing you in this position," his voice had dropped to such a low key that it made Ricky uncomfortable to hear it. A hand was placed very gently on his shoulder and Ricky flinched as warm breath hit the back of his neck. "There are plenty of better positions we could have a lot more fun with," he purred into his ear slowly.

Ricky couldn't help it, he gulped.

His chair was spun around by Alex so that he had no other option but to look him in the eyes. The scent of his perspiration and deodorant mingled in the air and tortured his nostrils. Memories that he had managed to block for two years flooded his mind in an instant as Alex slid his hand down to Ricky`s side.

Ricky could feel the back of his eyes burning and so he dropped his head so that his hair hid the disgraceful tears gathering on his bottom lashes. The last time that he had been in a position such as this, it hadn`t gone too well for him. As he recalled, he had wound up covered in bruises, bawling on his father`s bedroom floor.

He started to shake with the memory that had put him on that floor. Some strangely cheerful tune popped into his head and he couldn`t help but start to to chuckle as he hummed along to it. Alex quickly pulled his hand off of the boy as he started to rock back and forth ever so gently.

"Ricky, are you okay?" Alex asked as he started to grow genuinely concerned about Ricky's sudden change in behavior. Sick of the fear that Alex had been planting in the pit of his stomach since the moment that they had met, Ricky locked dark, angry eyes with his apprehensive blue ones.

His eyeliner had smudged and was running down any natural lines ion his face. Between the murky gray tears highlighting the shadows on his face, and the dim club lighting, he looked like a demon thirsting for blood. His continued humming made Alex's skin crawl. When he got closer, he could make out the words.

"And then you stumble on tomorrow, and trip over today. Would you be happier if you were someone together? Would the sun shine brighter if you played a bigger part? Would you be wonderful if it wasn't for the weather? You're gonna be just fine."

"That sounds like a very lovely song, Ricky. Do you want to tell me who it's by?"

Ricky couldn't ignore the fact that Alex was speaking to him in a tone that was nothing short of condescending; like he was speaking to either a five year old child or a mental patient. All the same, the words that Alex was murmuring soothed him; which also served to further irritate him.

"It's by The Corrs," he replied in a hoarse, scratchy voice. At the sound of his voice, Alex smiled in relief at what appeared to be Ricky's regained sanity. Ricky pulled himself out of the chair and Alex watched him cautiously. Slowly, he made his way to a corner in the room and proceeded to sit on the floor with his back to the wall and his head in his hands. As Alex approached, he could see that Ricky was still shaking slightly.

"Ricky, are you alrigh-"

"I can't go can't go back," Ricky cut him off. If it hadn't been for the pleading note in his voice, Alex would have smiled in victory. It took a moment or two for the idea to become concrete in his mind, but Alex finally sat next to Ricky with a hint of reluctance. Before long, Ricky was sobbing on his shoulder and there was nothing he could think to say by means of comfort.

"Ricky, I want to help you,"

"Then don't do this!" He cried in reply as he raised his head. The amount of emotion in eyes that had minutes ago been dead terrified Alex. In an instant, Ricky had gone from defiant to defeated, and he hadn't the slightest idea how to go about figuring out why.

"What happened there?" Alex asked quietly. Cautiously, Alex slid his arm around Ricky's shoulders and held his breath in anticipation for the rebuff that would surely follow. Contrary to the cold nature he had shown, the boy gratefully leaned against his side and Alex muttered a thankful prayer that Ricky had opted to use him as a support as opposed to a punching bag.

As Ricky struggled to breathe between hiccups and sobs, Alex made the mistake of beginning to rub his back gently in an attempt to console him. He knew that this was a sever blunder at almost the exact second that he started because Ricky froze

"I'm sure that it can't be that bad," Alex murmured into his ear.

Ricky sighed as he woke up to a white tiled ceiling yet again. It was impossible to tell how many times he had been in the hospital in the last week and a half. As far as he could tell, he had slept in a hospital bed more than his own in the last ten days.

"Mr. Bofante, I need to talk to you about the scarring..."

"As far as you need to know, it doesn't exist."

"I can't just ignore the fact that you've been raped! Or that you have cuts and bruises all over your body! Or that half of your bones have been shattered in your lifetime! Most people don't accomplish that in eighty years, never mind fourteen! As a doctor, I took an oath to help people. You're one of my patients, so that includes you."

"Maybe I need a new doctor, then," Ricky replied with a hint of a threat in his voice. The doctor didn't say a word in response, only scribbled down a few lines on his clipboard in a haphazard fashion before proceeding to flip through a half dozen pages. A slight smile graced his lips which succeeded in driving Ricky up the wall with curiosity. "Why are you smiling?" He snarled.

"Just confirmed some suspicions."

"Of?" Ricky hissed impatiently.

"Apparently I was right. One of the only bones you have left to break is that thick skull of yours," the doctor said. His attempt at humor and a smile turned into a sorrowful grimace. "Maybe when someone finally manages to break through that, you'll be able to distinguish between those who genuinely want to help you, and those who want to harm you."