The Sound of You: Chapter 12

Author's note: Please excuse all the errors. I've tried to catch them, but I'm sure I've missed a few. Thank you to those who've stayed after me to get this posted. I hope it was worth the wait.

APOV

I didn't feel right standing there gawking at Elliott as he explained to Grace what she had overheard, so I hugged him, gathered Henry and went back inside.

I didn't know what to do with this information that Elliott had told me. I knew I couldn't tell anyone else, even Christian because it wasn't my story to tell, but part of me wished I could. Not because I wanted to gossip about it, but because I kept thinking if I told him then that would be one less person that Elliott would have to tell. One less time he'd have to relive the whole thing over and over again to each person who loved him and deserved to be able to be there for him.

Henry ran inside ahead of me heading straight for Christian, plopping down at his feet. The scene that met me was surreal. Everyone was right where we had left them when we stepped outside. It was like time had stood still even though it had to have been at least half an hour that we were out there.

Looking around the table I took in the reactions of those waiting to figure out what was going on. Nana and Theodore along with Carrick were all anxiously watching out the back door as Grace took my place at Elliott's side. Kate and Mia were sitting beside one another, softly chatting about what I couldn't tell and then there was Christian. Sweet, wonderful Christian. He looked at me like I was the best thing he'd seen in a long time. His smile made his eyes twinkle, his cheeks had a slight blush to them and his lips were a perfect shade of pink. Everything about him screamed to come to him and I found myself instantly drawn to his side.

Taking my seat and pulling it as close as possible to him, I carefully wrapped my arms around him so as not to hurt his badly bruised ribs and buried my face against his chest. He smelled so good, like bath soap, cool sheets and just man.

His arms cuddled me close and in that moment I was so thankful that I had him to lean on. The weight of Elliott's confession to me was suddenly feeling like a boulder sitting on my shoulders.

It seemed like only a few minutes had passed before Christian was pushing me back and directing my attention to a furious Grace that was racing into the room with Elliott close on her heels.

I couldn't read the look he gave me as he passed by with Carrick swiftly following after his wife and son, but from the frantic way everyone was moving about it was clear that I was missing out on the conversation.

Christian's POV

I was miserable sitting there picking at my food while Ana was outside with Elliott. I don't know how many times I had looked outside to see what was going on, but each time it seemed like Ana was touching Elliott in a new way. Inside I knew my brother would never make a move on a girl I was interested in and so I knew there was nothing to it, but part of me couldn't help but wish she were in my arms holding me that way.

It wasn't until she and Henry had come back inside and I saw that she had obviously been crying that I knew the scenario was actually not something I would have wanted to be part of. I never want to be the cause of Ana crying to the extent she obviously had been. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was heavily tousled from running her hands through it too much, her nose was bright red from wiping it, and her eyes were puffy from crying. I couldn't help but think she was still beautiful, but I wanted so badly to go to her and pull her into my arms to make it all better. Had I not had this damned broken leg I would have done just that, bruised ribs be damned.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long for her to come to me instead and when she snuggled close to me I did the only thing I knew I could do and that was to hold her.

Mom had gone out only a couple of minutes before Ana had come back in to see what she could do to help Elliott, who to all of us indoors could tell was clearly devastated over something. We expected the scene we watched as she wrapped her arms around her little boy, much like she has always tried to do for me and Mia whenever we were hurt or upset. What we didn't expect to see next though was for her to come storming into the room soon after that hug, slamming doors, deliberately making her way to dad's den.

Ana couldn't tell what was going on and I honestly had no idea how to explain to her that it seemed like everyone in the house was yelling. I motioned over to Kate to join us and asked her to explain to Ana what was going on as I gingerly got up to get my crutches.

Nana and Gramps had both run from their chairs towards the den where as I slowly got closer and closer I could hear my mom's pain-filled wails as she argued with Nana and dad.

"I brought that monster into this house, Carrick. I allowed that bitch to get her hands on my child. I am going to fuck her up so badly no one will ever recognize her."

There was a great deal of shifting of items in the room before I was finally able to reach the door only to see my father pull mom into his arms as she crumbled to the floor. There were papers scattered everywhere from my father's desk and the security door to the gun rack was open.

I couldn't seem to do anything other than to stand there wide-eyed at the scene before me. My mom sobbed openly, begging my dad to kill the rancid woman who hurt her baby, while Nana was consoling an equally upset Elliott.

"She deserves to pay for what she did to him, Carrick. That's why he stopped letting us throw him birthday parties after his 16th. That's why he never left Christian alone whenever she came into the house after that. It all makes so much sense now. I let him down. I didn't protect him. She hurt my baby boy. She hurt my baby boy."

You could barely make out her words as she spoke while sobbing and gasping for breath. I had never seen my mother in such a frantic and destroyed state. She was on the verge of hyperventilating, she was sobbing so hard.

"Love, if you don't calm down you are going to pass out. You have to breathe baby."

My father was never much for "pet names" for my mother, but in that instance I think that was perhaps the only thing that was reaching her mentally.

"Theo, Addy, please take Elliott to his room and stay with him till I can get there. He doesn't need to see this," dad asked as he held my mother's wailing form in his arms.

I moved slowly out of the way as Nana and Grandpa held Elliott up as he passed me heading upstairs to his bedroom.

Before he left the room though he turned back to dad, "I'm so sorry dad. I'm so very sorry."

"You did nothing wrong son. Don't you dare blame yourself, I'll fix this don't you worry."

It was then that dad must have noticed me standing there, "Son, would you mind just giving your mother and me a moment alone please."

He saw my questioning look towards mom. None of us kids could ever stand to see our beloved mother upset. She was the corner stone to our family and to see her so shattered tore at my core. But I did as he asked, slowly closing the door and backing away so as not to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Making my way slowly back to the kitchen, Kate was signing faster than I had ever seen before pointing towards me to indicate to Ana my return. She quickly rose from her seat and walked towards me, wrapping her arms around my waist.

Gently pushing her back so that I was certain I had her attention I asked, "What's going on Ana? You know don't you? Please tell me," I begged. At this point I wasn't beyond begging to know what was devastating my family so deeply. I may be a young man, but I was good at problem solving, but I had to know the problem before I could set about correcting it.

Ana slowly shook her head as huge tears formed and slipped down her cheeks.

It's not my story to tell and I can't betray your brother's trust in me, even to you. I'm so sorry. She signed as Kate spoke what she was signing.

Gently wrapping my hand around Ana's neck I brought her head back to my chest thus bringing her body flush against mine. I didn't hold any ill will towards Ana, in fact I admired her for keeping my brother's confidence even if I wanted, no needed to know what was tearing my family apart right now.

I was getting very tired standing for so long, something Ana seemed to pick up on.

"Let's move you to the couch before you fall over," she said as she pulled away allowing me to maneuver with my crutches to the sofa.

It took some maneuvering, but eventually I was able to lower myself comfortably to the couch and Ana raised my broken leg to rest on some pillows. Looking around me, I wasn't sure what to do at this point. Throughout the house there seemed to be scenarios occurring that I couldn't explain because I was only picking up snippets of what was going on. Mom and Dad's room had finally gone quiet, but upstairs Elliott's old room seemed to be just starting up. I could hear banging and things falling as though he were tearing his old room apart.

Mia, Kate, Ana and I were all seemingly bystanders watching everything going on around us, helpless to intervene.

It felt like hours had passed but actually it was only a few minutes before I heard the soft click made from the shutting of a bedroom door. Henry's head rose in anticipation of the person, watching as my father walked from the hall to the living room.

He looked like he had aged twenty years. His hair was a mess from having run his hands through it, there were splotches of wet on his shoulder from where mom had obviously been crying, and he looked like he was physically in pain.

I made to get up but he motioned for me to stay in my seat instead he perched on the coffee table in front of me. He took a long deep breath that seemed to drag his shoulders down as he released it before speaking, "son, I've got something I need to speak to you about. It's very important that you listen to me completely before you say anything."

I looked down when I saw that Ana's hand had come to rest on my forearm, her other was grasped tightly in mine. I loosened my fingers a little but didn't let her go. I was not going to like this and I had a feeling she wanted to be there for me anyway by the way she curled up to my side.

Taking a deep breath, "okay."

It took fifteen minutes for him to get the whole way through the story that my mom had told him about what had happened to Elliott when we were kids. It took fifteen minutes for him to explain that my big brother, the guy who had been for years a rock and protector for me, had been attacked by a woman who was seen as a family friend.

I found it difficult to breathe but in short small pants. All of the sound from the room had disappeared and all I could hear was my own brain pounding in my ears. I could feel Ana's hand on my back as she attempted to comfort me. Kate and Mia stood across the room from us softly crying, their arms wrapped around each other.

My father's lips were moving.

After a moment I finally found my voice, "What are we going to do about this?"

"I don't know what we can do son, the law isn't exactly on our side." The look of pain on my father's face was hard to see. He was one of the best prosecutors in the entire state, there had to be something we could do. This bitch was not going to get off scot-free.

"On our side. What the fuck does that mean?" I was trying hard not to be angry with my father, it wasn't his fault that the law was the way it was, and he was just the receiver of my anger at the moment.

"Washington State doesn't have unlimited punishment deadlines for sex offences. They typically expire on the victims 28th birthday. There is new legislation that they are trying to pass to extend it till 30, but it won't be retroactive."

"Well what the hell are we waiting for? Elliott won't turn 28 for two more years. Let's nail this bitch to the fucking wall." I felt renewed, like I had a purpose. The blanket of darkness that had engulfed my family tonight finally had pinpricks of hope shining through.

Reaching for my phone, I pulled up my contacts list to call Walsh, my IT specialist so that he could begin the process of gathering all of the information on Elena Pedophile Lincoln. But my father stopped me before I could hit send on the call.

Carrick's POV

"We don't know if your brother is going to want to prosecute this yet or not son. We can't jump to making plans until we can talk all of this over with Elliott."

"Not want to prosecute?" Mia said as she wiped her eyes and nose with a tissue. "Why would he not want to prosecute that evil witch that did this to him daddy?"

How do you explain to your children why a victim wouldn't want to prosecute a case like this? I had seen one too many cases similar to this where the victim refused to prosecute because it would turn into a case of he said/she said. They just couldn't handle the months of being torn apart on the stand by both sides trying to win the case.

In my head I was desperately trying to push aside the royal indignation that this had happened to my child to try to explain this from a prosecutor's perspective and not that of a father's. As a father I completely agreed with them. I wanted to race out and find Elena and wrap my hands around her throat until I squeezed the last breath from her body. If I hadn't of gotten to her quickly, I completely believe that Grace would have had that gun down and loaded that she was racing for in the den. The parent in men understood her rage, the prosecutor side of me was attempting to find some sort of legal loophole I could destroy her with instead.

Gently taking Mia's hand, I pulled her down beside me on the coffee table. I motioned for Kate to take the seat beside Ana on the couch. "Sweetheart, if we had found this out when Elliott was a minor then it would have essentially been up to us to pursue prosecution. Elliott is a grown man. He's been dealing with this for a decade in silence. He may not want anyone to know that this happened to him. Had she not been here tonight and triggered his reaction, who's to say it would have come out at all? There is a huge stigma attached to rape and molestation when it happens to children, much less when it happens to young men."

"But that's just stupid. He didn't ask for his to happen. It's not his fault that that evil bitch preyed on him." Mia was quickly becoming highly agitated at the idea of her brother being attacked for seeking justice for himself.

"I agree. But society judges men differently about these sorts of things. We teach boys not to hit girls because they are the weaker sex. Boys are taught to be kinder to women because boys are built with tougher material than women. Think about it, whenever there is a domestic abuse call, the police almost always assume it is the man who is the aggressor. A man that allows a woman to do this to him, in the eyes of society at least, may be made out to be less of a man. Do we really want that for Elliott?"

"It sounds like you just want Elliott to let it go," said Christian a look of anger filling his face.

Squaring my shoulders, I looked my son straight into his eyes before speaking, "I love you kids with my whole heart. I first want Elliott to get help so that he can deal with that fact that this is all out in the open, at least to his family. I want him to be able to talk to someone objective, because none of us want to do anything other than to rip Elena Lincoln to shreds. Then, and only then, when he's ready, if he wants to prosecute her, I'll come after her with the full force of the state of Washington on our side. And God help her when I get done with her, because she won't know the shit-storm that is about to be rained down on her."

The stairs gave a slight creak of the wood to indicate that someone was there. His eyes were rimmed red, his shirt was untucked from his jeans and his hear was a mess, but Elliott looked more forceful and more sure than I had seen him in a long while.

"When do we start?"

Author's note.

Thank you to everyone that has been emailing and reviewing for this story. I've greatly appreciate the interest and the encouragement to continue this story. I can't fully explain why this chapter took so long. I've had health issues, schools come to an end and is getting ready to restart, VBS happened etc. etc. etc…and as my mom would say, "I ran out of peanut butter". You know, one excuse is just as good as another. I am however going to be trying to get another chapter up before Monday. I'm going to do a very slight time jump just to progress the story a long a little bit. But no worries, it won't be much.

Thank you again for those reading and for those who care enough to encourage me to keep going. It means a great deal to me.