Ken startled awake. Unsure of what had woken him, he lay there a moment until he heard a rustling of clothes. Rolling over he saw Jess pulling on his jeans.
"What are you doing?"
"I heard something, out back by your workshop," Jess said grabbing his shoes.
"You stay here, I'll go check it out," Ken said, as he sat up in bed. The look of disdain Jess shot him as he walked out the door would have quelled a lesser man.
"Well, crap," Ken said hurriedly getting out of bed. Then raising his voice louder he called out, "Damn it, Jess. Wait!" Ken knew that all Jess was thinking about was protecting what was theirs. When it came to the flight or fight instinct, Jess was all about the fight. A scared, pissed off Jess would lead with fists first. Jess could hold his own with an unarmed intruder, but if the intruder had a gun Ken didn't want to think about what could happen.
Throwing on clothes, Ken raced out the bedroom, down the hall, and out the back door. Seeing the lights on in the workshop, Ken ran to the door. What he saw made him stop.
Jess was towering over a young teen. The teen was trying to tower back, but hadn't yet reached his adult height. The scene resembled a kitten standing up to a pit bull. Ken didn't want to get in between the two posturing for dominance. Recognizing the boy as Kevin from the At Risk group, he relaxed a little.
"You boys going to dance?" he asked hoping to defuse the situation. Jess's body screamed out confusion at Ken's statement. Ken saw Jess's shoulders come down, but his back straightened a bit more. Ken knew that Jess wanted to protect what was theirs and was confused that he was so calm.
Ken took a look at the boy's face and saw the darkening of bruises and dried blood from an altercation that had to have happened earlier in the evening. Kevin's eyes reflected a mix of fear and confusion. Ken knew he needed to project a sense of calm to keep things from spiralling out of control. Aggression would only breed aggression; Jess and Kevin needed an anchor.
"I found him going through your tools! Most likely looking for something to sell," Jess said, gesturing to a small pile of power tools.
Ignoring the accusation and the small pile, Ken turned to the boy. Eyeing the dried blood, the split lower lip, and the swollen nose, he asked, "Your dad do that?"
"I ran into a door," came the sarcastic reply.
Ken didn't expect a straightforward answer, and at the shocked look on Jess's face, Ken thought that Jess hadn't expected the question from him or the answer that was given. Jess running true to form had to return the sarcasm, "Right, and I'm an elf from middle earth."
Ken turned to Jess and simply waited. Once Jess made eye contact with him, all he said was, "Enough." They'd been together long enough that not only could Ken read Jess's feelings with just a look, Jess knew by the tone of his voice when to push and when to stop.
"Come on in the house," he said to Kevin. "And you can tell me about this door, and what happened to piss him off so much. Don't worry about the tools; we'll make sure they go in their proper place."
Once in the house, Ken told Kevin to sit at the table. "We got coffee or water. What'll you have?"
"A beer," Kevin said.
"Water it is," Ken got out a glass from the cupboard and filled it from the kitchen faucet. Beside him, Jess was making a fresh pot of coffee. Ken discreetly ran his hand across Jess's shoulders: a thank you, as he suspected the night would probably be a long one.
Handing Kevin the glass, Ken asked, "What pissed the door off?"
He watched as the teen gulped down the water, and then ran his hands up and down the glass in a nervous motion. Jess seemed just as nervous as he paced the kitchen floor behind the teen.
"Jess, sit down," Ken said quietly. Kevin visibly relaxed once Jess was sitting at the table, no longer feeling that he was a threat to him. "So, what pissed the door off?"
"Doesn't take much to piss em off, especially once they've been through a fifth of cheap whiskey," Kevin mumbled looking only at the glass.
"So you running?" Ken asked.
"Ha," the laugh wasn't from glee. "Not running so much as told to get the hell out. Don't you know, I'm a drain on their money. Either get a job, or get the hell out."
"You stealing my tools to take back or to get out? Thank you," the last Ken directed to Jess as he had gone to get a cup of coffee for him. Ken was thankful that Jess sat again.
Seeing Kevin's face color in shame, Ken felt a moment of relief. The kid still had a conscience, which meant there was some hope for him.
"Just wanted to get enough for a bus ticket. I was gonna pay you back," Kevin defended.
"How? Steal from someone else?" Jess interrupted.
"Jess." Ken said quietly. Jess's eyes darted him a look, then quickly lowered to the table, Ken turned back to Kevin and asked, "Where you going?"
"San Fran," Kevin ignored Jess but answered Ken. "I figured I could get a job there. Maybe in a cabinet shop. You said I was pretty good with wood. And I was gonna pay you back."
"Well, you won't make the bus tonight. Jess, show Kevin where the bathroom is, towels, that kind of stuff." Then he turned back to Kevin, "We don't have a spare toothbrush. Maybe you can just squirt some toothpaste on your finger and swish it around your mouth. That'll get the taste of blood out of your mouth."
Ken knew from his own experiences how, when punched in the nose, the blood went down your throat, into your mouth as well as all over the face. The taste seemed to linger much longer than the actual blood.
Ken sighed and pushed himself up from the table as the two went down the hallway. Taking his phone into the living room, Ken dialled a number he regretfully knew from memory.
"He's in taking a shower. I don't know how much is dried blood or how much is dirt. Once he's clean, we'll patch him up," Jess said coming into the living room just as Ken ended his call. "His dad did that to him?"
"Yeah," Ken said with a sigh. "I've suspected for awhile now. Tried talking to him a few times, but he'd never open up. I think his coming here was his way of telling me, of asking for help."
"Well as much noise as he was making, he had to have known he'd wake you up," Jess said. "I think I surprised him. He didn't expect to see me come in."
"No, I'm sure he didn't. I try to get the boys to talk about their lives; I've only told them the bare bones of my life."
"So, we going to give him the money for a bus ride or we just going to drive him up ourselves?" Jess asked.
Ken's heart melted at Jess's words. Jess was standing loose with his hands free by his side. A sure sign of Jess ready to take action, of wanting to help this boy he'd only met once. The pit bull protecting his territory had turned into a bear wanting to protect his cub.
"With all the labour laws, I'm not sure he can get a job. I'll call around, I know a few people," Jess continued before Ken could answer.
"Jess, I've called Family Services. They'll be here soon."
"What? Why the hell did you call them?" Jess said, advancing toward Ken. "I've heard stories about how they shuffle kids around!"
"Back off, Jess," Ken warned as Jess tried to tower over him. "They will take over from here. Either family counselling or he'll go into foster care. Sometimes the system works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's the best chance this kid has."
"You want to take a fucking chance? On this kid's life? Maybe the streets would be better," Jess had backed off but was gesturing wildly with his arms. Ken knew that Jess was upset at this new turn. As tough as Jess's dad had been, he had in his own warped way wanted the best for his son. Jess couldn't understand the throw away kids, or the parents that threw them away.
Unfortunately, Ken did understand. Unbidden memories of his own childhood came back to him, causing him to snap, "Damn it, Jess! Do you think it's easy? It's not. It's hell to live on the streets! No! I've been there. I know what it's like."
"You were a street kid?" Jess asked shocked.
"Not just a street kid, I was a street rat. But I didn't have much of a choice. My dad was a mean SOB, always trying to prove he was the big man by knocking me around. One day I just had enough, thought I'd stand up to him. I tried to prove to him I was a man," Ken laughed derisively at his younger self. "Here I was a seventeen year old trying to stand up to a drunken man," Ken trailed off, then continued, "After dear old dad beat the shit out of me, I decided that would be the last time. I left without even packing and never looked back."
"Was that your mistake? You said before that you'd made mistakes." At Ken's questioning look, Jess explained, "Saturday, before we went to work with the kids, you said you'd made some monumental mistakes."
"Yeah, I knew trying to stand up to my dad would just egg him on. But I had to push it, push him. I wanted him to see me as a man, a man who could make his own way in the world. Less than a week on the streets, and I knew I'd made the biggest mistake in my life. I was just a kid trying to live as an adult."
"But you made it," Jess said. "You own your own business, you have your own house, hell, you even help out kids."
"Jess, I was damn lucky. And I was seventeen out on the streets. Kevin just turned fifteen. There's a big difference. The system would have just shuffled me around until I turned eighteen. Kevin has three more years. They could get him into a good foster home, and he could have a future." Ken looked at Jess, willing him to understand. "Jess, the streets are ugly, Kevin's really is better off with the system."
Jess looked like he was about to argue, but hearing a door shut quickly had Ken giving Jess a choice, "Jess, this is going to be hard. Kevin's going to be angry and fight this, so you need to either be with me on this or keep quiet."
Ken watched as Jess shoved his hands deep into his front pockets. He knew Jess was uncomfortable; that Jess was dealing with something he had no knowledge of. Ken wanted to reassure Jess that no matter how many times you went through this it never got any easier. Kevin walked in at that same moment, Jess said softly, "I'll stay. I'll back you."
"Kevin, sit down, we need to talk." Ken watched as all the barriers went up in the boy's posture and knew it was best to just come right out and say it. "I called social services."
"What? You fucker! I trusted you," Kevin yelled.
Ken was grateful that Jess had decided to stay as he moved to block the door. "Kevin, I had to call them. You are underage and you're hurt. All of you guys got the speech when you signed on with the At Risk group, I'm a mandated reporter. I explained it clearly to all of you. If I even suspect there's a problem, I have to call."
"Bullshit! You could've just let me leave! No one would've ever known!"
"No he couldn't have," Jess said quietly but firmly. "You know Ken. You knew he would help you, that's why you came here. Ken is the fix it man, the one you go to when there's trouble. Even a kid like you knows that."
"I didn't think he'd call the cops!" Kevin shot back.
"Maybe not, but you did know he'd help you. So let him. It may not be the way you wanted it to be, but hell, if you knew the best way to help yourself, you wouldn't be here."
Ken watched in a bit of shock as Jess, his volatile Jess, calmed down the abused kid. Jess hadn't moved away from the front door, giving the boy plenty of room and talking in a calm tone. He'd have to remember to ask Jess where that calm came from. The knocking at the door had Ken striding over to open it. Jess stepped aside but didn't move forward. If the boy wanted to run, here was his chance.
"Don't do it," Jess said quietly to Kevin. "Let him help you."
Kevin slumped onto the couch as Ken opened the door revealing a middle aged woman and two policemen.
"Hello, I'm Mrs. Lindey, from the Department of Family Services," the woman said holding out an identification card. "You called about a runaway?"
"Hi, I'm Ken O'Dell. And Kevin isn't a runaway. He came here for help, after his father beat him." Ken knew that Kevin would be treated differently as an abused kid rather than a runaway.
"Hi, Kevin. Don't worry you aren't in any trouble. The police are here to document your injuries," Mrs. Lindey's voice softened as she talked to the boy.
Ken stepped closer to Jess, letting Mrs. Lindey and the police do their jobs. He watched and listened as Mrs. Lindey gently questioned Kevin. When the police talked of taking the boy down to the station, Ken took a step closer to Jess, keeping him blocked between a corner of the room and his own big body. All he needed in this mess was for Jess to become aggressive to the police in his misunderstanding of the situation.
Mrs. Lindey noticed the movement, looked over toward them, and said, "It's to document the bruises. Pictures have to be taken either in a hospital or at the station so that there can be no claims of doctoring the photos."
Next to him, as Ken felt Jess relax at the explanation, he knew he'd made the right decision to block Jess in.
"That makes sense," Ken said. He followed the small group as they left the house.
Ken followed the police and Mrs. Lindey out to the patrol car. Speaking out so Kevin could hear him, he said, "I'll see you tomorrow. Just keep your cool."
Ken saw the look of relief in Kevin's eyes as he got in the back seat. Turning to the social worker Ken asked, "Will he be at the group home?"
"Yes. It'll take awhile to get him placed in a foster home," she answered.
"I'll be over to see him in the afternoon."
"I'm not sur.." she started to say.
"Make it happen," Ken interrupted in a flat voice.
Looking at Ken as she got in the front seat, she said, "I'll pull some strings."
Ken stood in the driveway a few minutes after the car had driven off. Turning to go inside, he saw Jess standing on the porch. Ken had been through this a few times. Before it would have brought about nightmares of his own past and the past of others, but tonight he knew it'd be different. He had someone there to hold the monsters at bay. He had Jess.
After doors were locked and lights turned off, Ken turned to Jess, "You were a big help with Kevin tonight."
When Jess turned to him, he was startled at the intensity he saw in Jess's eyes.
"I just followed your lead, and told the truth. The kid knew who to turn to when he was in trouble. You have a strength, a goodness, in you. I envy you that," Jess told him.
"Jess, you have a goodness in you too. I saw it months ago, and I saw it again tonight," Ken said walking to him.
Putting both of his hands on either side of Jess's face, looking deep into his eyes, Ken said again, "There's a goodness in you. No matter how hard you try and hide it, I'll always see it."
Kissing him hungrily, Ken pulled Jess down onto their bed, stripping Jess of his clothes, he proceeded to show Jess how much goodness there was in him. Tomorrow would bring more challenges, but knowing they would be together, Ken knew they'd make it through another day.
TBC
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