veiledndarkness: (Bobby & Jack)
[personal profile] veiledndarkness
Title: Another Life 9/?

Author: veiledndarkness

Rating: R

Pairing: None

Summary: You can change your name, but you can't change who you are.

Disclaimer: Not mine, no harm intended, no profit made.

Four Brothers/Death Sentence Cross-over

For [livejournal.com profile] littlewitch34 cause she's all kinds of awesome.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8



XX

Bobby yawned as he climbed the stairs. “Fuckin’ Bones, fat fucker,” he muttered, “Runnin’ scared now.”

He pushed his bedroom door open with one foot. He stripped his sweater off, shivering a little in the cool room. He tugged an undershirt on and made for his bed. He paused when he heard a barely audible sniffle.

Bobby stood still, listening and gauging where the noise was coming from. Another quiet sniffle confirmed his suspicions. He crouched down, checking under his bed. Nothing but dust and a few dirty skin magazines. He frowned again. With a start, he looked over at the closet.

He crossed the room and tugged the door open. “Knew it…”

Billy lay on the closet floor, his knees to his chest. His eyes were glazed over. He didn’t stir at the discovery. Bobby sighed and sat down in the doorway to the closet, rubbing two fingers along his temples.

“Billy…Billy, c’mon, look at me,” he whispered.

No response. Billy, if he’d heard anything at all, didn’t move. He sniffled, his body beginning to rock a little. “Be good,” he said, his voice a rough whisper. “Be good…he’ll let ya out soon, be good, I’m good, an’ I’m a good boy.”

Bobby tilted his head to the side, at a complete loss for words. “Billy…? It’s me, Bobby. Look at me, ok?”

Billy let out a small whimper. He rocked faster on his side. “I wanna stay, please, please don’ make me go.”

“No, you’re not goin’ anywhere,” Bobby bit his lip. He considered calling for Evelyn‘s help and then discarded the idea. She needed to sleep; she’d been scraping by on less sleep in the previous weeks.

He leaned in more, scooping Billy up awkwardly. He pulled him into his lap, settling him against his chest. Billy lay there limply, tremors running through him. Bobby hummed under his breath, rocking him slowly.

“You gotta snap outta this,” he murmured. “You’re safe with me, I fucking swear nothin’s gonna happen, I won’t let him hurt you.”

Billy moved his hand, biting down on his thumb. “I’ll be good,” he vowed, some awareness trickling back into his eyes. “…B-Bobby?”

“Yeah,” Bobby exhaled, relief flooding him. “You scared me, kid. Don’t space like that, huh?”

“Sorry…I don’t mean t’, honest,” Billy swallowed hard. “Bones…I heard you guys talkin’ about him. He’s gone, ain’t he?”

Bobby nodded. “Yeah, he’s not in the old places. They cleared out.”

“Bobby, he’s gonna find me. Ya don’t know him like I do. He’s gonna take me back there, I k-know it.”

“Over my dead body,” Bobby vowed. “You’re with us and that’s that.”

Billy shivered. “Don’t say that. He wants me back, he’s gonna punish me for leavin’.”

“That life’s over now,” Bobby hugged him closer. “This is a new one, an’ you can start over.”

Billy chewed on his lip. He glanced at Bobby. “Like startin’ over fresh?” he asked cautiously.

“Exactly,” Bobby smiled a little. “You can be anythin’, do anythin’, so don’t blow the chance, yeah? We don’t always get second chances.”

“We’re the lucky ones, ain’t we?”

Bobby nodded. “Yeah, we really are.”

Billy fidgeted a little. Bobby’s skin was warm and it was making him drowsy. He yawned, rubbing at his eyes. He curled up more, tucking his head under Bobby’s chin.

“You need to get to bed,” Bobby nudged him. “You’re gonna be draggin’ your ass come tomorrow if you don’t get enough sleep.”

“Nag,” Billy grinned up at him.

“I nag outta love, just like Ma,” Bobby lifted Billy up, “Now, back to your own room.”

Billy smiled and got up. He glanced back at Bobby shyly. He’d said love…Billy couldn’t hold back the hope that Bobby loved him the way he loved his brothers.

XX

Jack sighed as he ignored the pointed stares at him. Word had fast spread about Billy’s freak out and now the other kids were staring at him something fierce. His suspension was up but they were watching him, waiting to see if he’d freak like Billy had.

He flicked his pencil across the desk, his shoulders hunched. Damn Billy…He gritted his teeth. He wanted to hate him, wanted to despise him for coming home and ruining everything. And yet…He sighed again. He couldn’t, he simply couldn’t hate him. He understood where Billy was coming from, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch Billy hog Bobby away from him.

He narrowed his eyes, flicking the pencil faster. Bobby had taken a shine to Billy, he sure had, he thought with a bitter twist of his lips. Billy knew about weapons, about cars. He smoked, drank, did drugs, hurt people and talked like a gutter rat. In so many ways, he was like a younger version of Bobby, or so Evelyn had told them.

Jack grabbed the pencil and ground it into the desk, the black smears covering the beige surface. He hated that Bobby wanted to spend so much time with Billy. He ground his teeth, hot, angry tears gathering under his eyelids.

It wasn’t fair, not one fucking bit. Bobby was supposed to spend time with him, to read with him at night, to steal smokes from and talk about sports and cars. He gripped the pencil until it creaked.

“Mr. Mercer, would you care to tell me why you’re attempting to destroy school property?”

Jack looked up, his eyes wide and rimmed with red. “Huh?”

The teacher strode across the room and slapped a hand on his desk. “This lovely design, is it abstract or something entirely different?”

Jack blushed, the giggles and snorts from his classmates echoing in his ears. “Umm…”

“Stay after class, Mr. Mercer, you’ll need a lot of soap and water to get that clean.”

“Yes sir,” he said through clenched teeth.

God, he wanted to hate Billy. He wanted to hate Bobby for forgetting about him. He put his head down on his crossed arms on the desk, hiding the stray tears that leaked out.

XX

Billy gripped his pencil and stared down at the long list of words before him. His homework consisted of writing out all the words on the list. The words were printed out for him and his task was to transfer the printed words to cursive writing. He glared at the list, the length of it mocking him.

“Stupid bullshit,” he muttered, gripping the pencil tighter. “Waste o’ time.”

“It’s not a waste,” Evelyn remarked from the doorway. “It’s important to know how to write properly.”

Billy snorted and doodled in the margins of his notebook. “I don’t know nobody who writes like this shit.”

Evelyn crossed the room to him and placed a tray down on his desk. “May I?” she gestured to the pencil.

“Uh huh,” he nodded.

Evelyn picked up the pencil and wrote on a scrap piece of paper. Billy watched her; envious of how easily the words formed when she moved the pencil.

She smiled. “There, Evelyn Mercer, see? Now you give it a try.” She passed the pencil back to him. “Write your name out.”

Billy bit his lip, concentrating hard. He dragged the pencil over the paper, the words sloppy and uneven. He hissed out a breath and scratched the words out furiously. “I can’t do nothin' fucking right!”

Evelyn closed her hand around Billy’s, holding the pencil with him. “Language, please, Billy,” she chided him gently. With her hand over his, she wrote Billy’s name several times. “See? Just like that, go slow. There’s no need to rush when you write.”

Billy watched, fascinated by the words as they emerged on the paper. “Lemme try!”

She smiled again and stepped back. He gripped the pencil, mimicking her movements until the words became more clear and legible. “Damn…it worked!”

Evelyn patted his shoulder. “I knew you could. It takes practice, but you’ll get the hang of it.”

“Yeah, I practiced lots with my knife till I got real good at usin’ it.” Billy wrote out a word from the list, his hand moving slowly. “I guess this is kinda the same.”

Evelyn’s smile faded a little. “Yes…Billy, do you understand why I won’t let Bobby give you the knife back?”

Billy made a face at his homework. “He said I’m not old ‘nough t’ carry it yet. That’s stupid cause Bones said I got to have as soon as I proved m’self t’ him. He was kinda proud…I think. Hard t’ say with him.”

“Billy…” Evelyn sat on the edge of the bed, her hands neatly folded on her lap. “I know that you look up to your father because of your upbringing, but someone like Bones isn’t to be admired.”

He looked over at her, a deep frown marring his forehead. “He’s…Bones runs our end an’ no one, no one ever fucks with him. He’s got guns an’ money like crazy! I helped him with the labs an’ bullets…” he trailed off, paling a bit.

Evelyn nodded. “A life lived like that, maybe it seems exciting in a dangerous sort of way, but it’s not something you should want for yourself. I happen to think you deserve more.”

Billy pushed his chair back, his chest hitching uneasily. “It…It’s all I know,” he whispered. “I can’t…it’s…someday I gotta do all that. An’ I need t’ learn, I should go,” he rambled, on the verge of a full out panic attack.

“Sit down, please, Billy.”

He shook his head, breathing fast and hard. “He’s good, I mean, he’s tough an’ mean cause he’s gotta be. He loves me, he does, I know…I know he does, an’ I never shoulda left…”

Evelyn touched Billy’s hand, stroking his palm. “Shh, look at me, Billy. It’s ok; we don’t have to talk about your father.”

She tugged him closer, bringing him onto her lap with little resistance. Billy tucked his head down against her chest, breathing in her lilac scented perfume. He sighed, holding onto her. She was so warm, soft and sweet smelling. He didn’t want to let go of her.

“We can talk when you’re ready to,” she whispered. “It doesn’t have to be today. Now, I brought you a sandwich to hold you over until dinner.”

Billy sniffed and nodded. “Thanks,” he mumbled, slipping off her lap. He sat back down on his chair, nibbling on the sandwich half heartedly. He wasn’t hungry, but he’d never turn down the opportunity to eat. Some habits die hard, he figured.

Evelyn leaned in and patted his hair. “It’ll come easier if you keep practicing.”

He darted a glance at her, nodding while he ate. “Uh huh…”

Once she left the room, Billy picked up his pencil. With careful strokes, he wrote his name again. He frowned and scribbled out the word ‘Darley’. He hesitated and then added ‘Mercer’. Heat flooded his face.

“You’re an idiot,” he whispered. “Don’t even think about it.”

XX

“Ya got anythin’?” Bones stomped into the room, his hairline dark with sweat. He exhaled heavily, his eyes magnified by the thick glasses that were perched on his nose.

“Naw,” Eddie shook his head. “They’re tearin’ the buildings apart but they ain’t gonna find much.”

Bones grunted and sat down on the chair by the desk, the metal creaking under his girth. His makeshift office was a mess, boxes and garbage bags scattered across the room of the warehouse. “Cops…”

Eddie lit a cigarette, his large frame blocking the sunshine that crept into the room from one window. “Uh huh, an’ I got a lil’ somethin’ for ya.” He flicked the lighter shut, inhaling deeply on the cigarette.

“What?” he glared at him, mopping the sweat off his forehead with a dusty rag.

“This,” Eddie took an envelope from his pocket and dropped it on the desk. “Frisks said he saw Billy hitchhiking outta Boston few days after he ran. Some ol’ man picked him up in a van by the highway. Frisks followed for a few miles, an’ he thinks Billy headed west.”

Bones ripped the envelope open, names, numbers written on cards. “The fuck is all this?”

“Everyone who seen a glimpse of Billy since he left. I contacted our guys in Chicago, Detroit an’ Jersey, jus’ to be sure. Boss, I think he’s gone t’ Detroit by the looks of it.”

“The fuck’s he doin’ there?” Bones dropped the cards. “I swear, I’m gonna beat the livin’ hell outta him when I find him. Teach that lil’ faggot his place.”

Eddie inhaled again, the smoke trailing above him. “I dunno. I don’t think he’s cut out for this shit. He’s still a kid, Boss.”

“Ain’t no such thing as bein’ a kid in this business.” Bones sat back in the chair, the metal creaking loudly. “No coddlin’ him, he needs t’ learn the proper way. An’ he’s all I got. Who knows if I got enough time t’ have another, raise it, train it, I could be dead by then.”

“Yeah…” Eddie flicked his cigarette. “Sometimes I get the feelin’ that Billy ain’t right for this.”

“I’ll make him right,” Bones smirked and pushed his glasses further up his nose. “Kids are…fuckin’ resilient an’ I can mold the little shit until he does what I want, when I want it.”

Eddie looked the other way, hiding the flicker of disgust in his eyes. “Yessir.”

XX

Date: 2009-03-20 02:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] britt6mclean9.livejournal.com
aww i sorta feel bad for little Jackie since he thinks he's losing Bobby to Billy, but then im glad that Billy has Bobby too. lol.

great update!

Date: 2009-03-27 01:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] veiledndarkness.livejournal.com
Thanks! Poor Jack...I make him suffer so, lol.

Did you ever notice in the bar scene, and only during that part of the movie, Jack has his hair slicked back like Bobby's?

Lol I always found that so damned cute, like he was imitating his brother.

Date: 2009-03-20 06:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] l0ve-in-300ks.livejournal.com
Wow, fantastic chapter. I totally felt Billy's fear. It was very convincing and well written. I enjoy this story very much, thanks for writing about all the things I love!

Date: 2009-03-27 01:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] veiledndarkness.livejournal.com
Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.

Date: 2009-03-26 11:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] littlewitch34.livejournal.com
I totally thought I reviewed this already! Poor Billy. I feel so bad... he needs to understand that he can be Billy Mercer, and that he can stay there forever.

I'm just waiting for the confrontation between Bobby and Bones.

Date: 2009-03-27 12:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] veiledndarkness.livejournal.com
Oh, it will be epic ;)

Yes, yes he can. And thank you for indulging me in my neurosis.

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