All the Faint Lights

Chapter Thirty Five
“No!” Caroline growled as she looked at me and then Trisha and then the cop that was standing behind up, “No, no, no, no-“

“Caroline please! This is for your own good!” Trisha said and Caroline shook her head and then looked at me.

“You let her do this! James, I said no-“

“You think I was just going to stand back and pretend that it was all right that you’re father hit you like that- hit you at all for that matter?!” I said and she shook her head and then collapsed onto the couch, ‘…At least she’s not running…’

“I’d like to know what happened?” the officer asked as he looked at us, “I’d like to hear it from the victim.”

“I’m not a vic-“

“Yes you are,” Trisha snapped and the officer walked over towards the defeated Caroline and sat next to her, pulling out a notepad and looking at Caroline patiently.

“Can you tell me what happened?” the officer asked and Caroline looked at me sadly before sighing, “Caroline- May I call you Caroline?” the officer asked and Caroline nodded her head, “This is the right thing to do, your father hit you- He left a very nasty bruise-“

“This needs to be done, Car,” I said and Caroline nodded her head, not looking at anyone, just staring at the ground.

“Ok,” she breathed and I sighed out of relief, “I’d like to do this alone-“

“No, I’m staying-“

“It’s better if I speak to her alone,” the officer said, cutting Trisha off.

“It’s fine,” Sidney said, finally speaking as he gently pulled Trisha out of the living room and down the hall towards their bedroom.

“Let me know if you need anything,” I said and Caroline nodded her head before I headed down the hall, following Trisha and Sidney.

-Caroline-
“And that should be it,” the officer said as he took a few pictures of my cheek at different angles, “I’ll get back to you and explain the process of what we’ll have to go through to bring Mr. Jack Donnelly in.”

“Thanks,” I said sadly.

“I know he’s your father and that you don’t want to do this, but this it really a good thing. If you don’t, then you’re letting him think that hitting you was all right,” he said and I nodded my head, “Now, I’ll have to contact the O’Ryan family to get their witness statement- but I’ll get back to you in a day or two.”

“All right, thank you.”

“Any time, it’s my job, just stay away from him, Caroline.”

“I will,” I said and then walked the officer to the door, tired of answering question after question for the past forty-five minutes.

Once he was gone, I closed the door and leaned against it, letting my forehead hit the wood and sighing loudly.

“Is it finished?” Trisha asked as she walked out and looked at me.

“Yeah,” I muttered as I turned around and walked right past her, Sidney and James and walked into my room collapsing onto my bed. It wasn’t long later that I heard my bedroom door opening, turning my head I saw James walking in, “Go away, you lied to me.”

“I’m sorry, it was for your own good,” he said and I sighed and shook my head.

“No, it wasn’t- I asked you to leave it alone, but you couldn’t-“

“Look how hard he hit you, Car! Your cheek is badly bruised!” he said and I sat up and looked at him sadly, “I’m sorry that you’re hurting for your father, but he had no right to do that- That’s abuse- And he’s getting in trouble for it.”

“Is he going to go to jail?” I asked as I leaned against my wall and brought my knees up to my chest.

“I don’t know,” James said as he sat on the bed next to me and placed his hand on my knee, “I really don’t know, babe.”

“I’ll just be happy with a restraining order- Don’t put him in jail,” I said, “He’s never hit me before- He couldn’t have meant it-“

“Caroline, whether he meant it or not, he did it,” James said and then cupped my chin and turned my head, “Look at your cheek,” he said and then gently poked it and I winced because it hurt, “See! I barely touched it.”

“I don’t know if I can go through with this,” I said and James crawled onto the bed and hugged me.

“It’ll be all right,” he said and then held me as I started to cry on his chest, not knowing if I could handle what was to come.

-Trisha-
“Was this really the best move?” Sidney asked as he sat next to me on the couch and looked at me, “Wouldn’t it have just been better if you let Nealer and I look for your dad and scare him off?”

“Sid, I’m not having you or Nealer get into trouble with the law,” I sighed as I rubbed my face, “She probably hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” Sidney said and I felt his hand on my thigh, “Pissed at you- But she doesn’t hate you, you’re just looking out for your little sister.”

“I need to call Asher and Gordon,” I said as I grabbed my phone and stared at it, “Better yet, I need to see them, better to have this conversation in person.”

“You want me to come with?” Sidney asked and I smiled, leaned over and pressed my lips against his.

“No, but thank you.”

“All right, call if you need anything,” he said and I nodded my head, “You know this might take a while? If you go to court and stuff, couple months maybe.”

“I know, but he deserves everything that is coming to him,” I said as we both stood up and went for our coats, “He basically abandoned us after mom died, plus he even admitted that we were a family after that- Well, he wasn’t part of our family after that.”

“Oh Trish, I’m sorry,” Sidney said as he wrapped his arms around my neck and pulled me into his chest.

-James-
I was woken up feeling someone shaking me; I groaned and opened my eyes to see that Trisha was above me. I yawned and then sat up, looking down to see Caroline curled up in a little ball and leaning against me, still asleep. I looked back up at Trisha, rubbed my eyes and yawned again.

“What’s up?” I managed to get out and then looked past her to see two guys in the room, looking at me a little annoyed, ‘…Older brothers…’ I looked down and saw that I was fully clothed and laying on top of the sheets, I looked back and saw that she was under the sheets, ‘…Looking good for me…’

“Sid called, wanted to see if you were up, you’ve got practice in a half hour,” she said and I cursed and quickly jumped out of bed, I had forgotten, “Figured you forgot,” she giggled and I ran towards the door, turned around and ran back towards Caroline, kissed her forehead and then ran past her brothers and out the door, scrambling to get my shoes on before I was out the door.

I jumped into my car and practically sped out of the parking lot, heading into the city towards the arena. By the time I pulled into the arena parking lot, I had five minutes to spare, and those five minutes were spent making my way to the arena. If I was late to practice, I would have been benched for the next game.

I ran through the door and skidded to a stop in the locker room, bending over to catch my breath because I had ran and almost ran some people over.

“Just in time, Nealer,” I heard and looked up to see the guys partially dressed and Coach standing in the middle of the locker room, “Sleep in?”

“Sorry Coach,” I said as I stood up and walked over towards my locker and started to get dressed. I looked up and over towards Sidney to see him smirking and shaking his head, ‘…He saved my ass…’ Once everyone was dressed, we headed out towards the ice and skated around before practice, waiting for all of the Coaches to come. I made my way over towards Sidney and patted his arm, “I owe you one.”

“You owe me a lot more than one,” he smirked and I snorted and shook my head, “Don’t worry about it, I figured it was a rough night.”

“Yeah, it was, after three hours of crying, I managed to get her to sleep.”

“She pissed at Trish?”

“Maybe not so much now, but she was before,” I said and Sidney sighed and nodded his head.

“I don’t know how this is gunna turn out, so just prepare for the worst,” he said and I nodded my head, “This is going to be a long process and since Caroline was protecting her father before, no doubt she’s going to try and stop this whole thing.”

“But she already spoke to the cop.”

“And was she regretting it?” he asked and I sighed and nodded my head, “Like I said, prepare for the worst. Try to make her see that what her dad did was wrong.”

“How should I do that?”

“I don’t know, never had to deal with something like this,” he said and I sighed, “Try to find someone who has.”

“All right.”