Learning To Trust Again

After taking Todd to the hospital and waiting two hours until he was given the all clear, Rebecca’s finally felt relief. She had been shocked to see the extent of the bruising to his body but was relieved that none of his injuries, including the one to his head, had caused any major damage. Now that her concern over his well being had been alleviated, she wanted answers and she wasn’t going to let the matter rest until she got them. So instead of driving him back to his unit that was overflowing with hung over males she drove him back to her apartment. Unlocking the door she stepped back and let him enter ahead of her. Neither of them had spoken since leaving the hospital and the mood was tense.

Almost falling onto the couch Todd lay his head back and closed his eyes. His head was killing him and the rest of his body didn’t feel much better now he was fully awake. The poking and prodding he’d been subjected to at the hospital hadn’t helped much either. He desperately wanted to go back to bed and sleep off the worst hangover he’d even known. He knew the rest of him would still hurt for some time to come but at least he’d feel human again. However he could see Rebecca wasn’t going to let him get anywhere near a bed anytime soon so he just lay there and enjoyed the peace while it lasted.

Rebecca stood with her arms crossed and regarded her little brother for a minute in silence. She knew he was feeling terrible but she couldn’t let that side track her, she needed to know what was going on. So with as much calm as she could muster she said ‘Todd, I think you owe me an explanation.’

Groaning as the sound of her voice started his head hurting again, Todd slowly opened his eyes and looked at his big sister ‘okay Becs, just sit down will you. You’re making me nervous standing over me like that. I’ll tell you what I know.’

As unimpressed with his cavalier attitude now as Jake had been the night before, Rebecca frowned but took a seat. She looked over at him with an air of expectation and waited.

Todd sighed. ‘Firstly I know I didn’t ring Jake this morning’ Todd said ‘but I still say he shouldn’t have told you. It’s none of his damn business.’

Despite her own anger with Jake’s action she couldn’t let Todd get away with that. ‘You made it his business, when you asked him for help’ she said. Her anger was bubbling not far below the surface. This whole situation infuriated her. ‘Just tell me what’s going on.’

‘Okay calm down will you. It’s no big deal.’

‘Todd’ she exclaimed with disbelief ‘Jake found you beaten unconscious in a lane way. I saw your injuries, remember. This is a big deal.’

‘Yeah well I didn’t exactly mean the beating was no big deal, I’d rather not go through that again in a hurry’ Todd said with half a smile ‘I meant the reason it happened was no big deal.’

‘So Jake was right, you do know who did it?’ Rebecca said, a shocked look on her face.

‘How the hell would Jake know that?’ Todd yelled and sat up forgetting about his head for a minute. Easing back, he rubbed his temple with his fingers, trying to stop the pain.

‘He’s a cop Todd’ Rebecca said more calmly. ‘He deals with this stuff every day. It’s what he does. Plus he’s not stupid.’

Exhaling, Todd looked away. He hated that Jake had already worked out more than he wanted anyone to know.