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Things Falling In Place

When silence fell around him, Luke came back to earth, his gaze fixing with clarity on Kate, watching her with her hands covering her mouth in shock. For a moment, he was stunned to see her grown up once more when he'd been picturing her so clearly as that little girl, and unbidden a thought came to him that had he known the things he would do to her as an adult and the way he would think about her, he would have let Graham shoot him.

"Will knocked him out? And that killed him?" she whispered, lowering her hands.

"He would have shot me, for all Will knew." Luke said dully, "He probably couldn't think of anything much--he was so much bigger, Graham was—than either of us..."

"I know, of course he couldn't." her voice was filled with shock and tears, and her mouth was covered with her hands. She lowered them, "Poor Will." And then she looked at Luke, grimacing as if imagining the gun pressed to his forehead all over again.

"But," Mark interjected, "last I checked, not everyone dies from a head injury, especially that inflicted by a weak child."

"That's the thing," Luke murmured, "We found out not long after that Graham Smith had suffered from a bleeding disorder than he'd never told his friends about—it was why he got so many nosebleeds. When Will...well, the trauma caused him to bleed into his brain."

Kate's mouth dropped open in horror, and she stared at Luke, horrified, "But he would have killed Luke," Kate mumbled to herself, "He would have killed Luke."

"That's the thing, Kate," Luke whispered, giving her a dark, humorless smile, "When the police found Graham, they found his gun right next to him...and it was empty. It hadn't had any bullets in it in the first place."

Luke watched the mixture of horror, of realization and grief passing over her face, and his heart ached for her. He had thought about the scenario himself multiple times, pictured how things would have worked out had they reacted differently, whether there had been any hint in Graham's cruel expression that he had just been playing with them and had no intention of harming them—whether Graham, himself, in his drug induced haze had known the gun he carried was out of bullets. He had learnt to give it a rest because the thoughts had only made him restless, but he knew Will lived it every day, not only for what he had inadvertently done but for what he had lost because of it. For so long they had protected Kate just because the truth had been so ugly. But now she knew, and it would be her cross to bear as well.

"He couldn't have known, of course." Luke defended softly, "For all he knew Graham was pointing a fully loaded gun at my temple."

Kate looked at Luke, tears spilling down her cheek. She wiped them with her palm. "I know," she swallowed, her voice choked, "I would have done the same thing." She looked imploringly at Luke, "Why didn't he tell me?"

Luke looked away, "He was...He couldn't bear the thought of telling you that the big brother you looked up to so much had just beat up—and effectively killed—another boy. And that the cops might come to find him any day and... You were so little and innocent. And you were so...trusting. He couldn't tell you he had murdered someone."

"It was self-defense." Kate said thickly.

Luke nodded, "I know. But he did die." Luke added grimly "That it was self-defense doesn't make him less dead. It...took a toll on Will, to go through that."

Tears were flowing freely down Kate's face, "And the adoption?" She choked.

Luke glanced at John, who gave him a humourless smile.

"The headmistress had already approached Will about their interest in adopting both of you." Luke said tonelessly, "When he realized that the cops might be coming for him, he felt he had to let you go. He didn't want you to see that. He thought he was awaiting capital punishment."

"I wish he had told me." She repeated, her voice heavy with grief, "Did they..." she took a deep breath, and Luke could see her struggling for composure, "Did they come him? Did they find out?"

"Of course." Luke said bitterly, "Soon after you left. His fingerprints were all over the baseball bat. They took us away."

Kate sucked in a pained breath, "But it was self defense. Surely it wasn't held against him? He thought he was protecting your life!"

Luke continued, his mind far away, remembering the events, "Graham Smith. His parents had been filthy rich. They were convinced their son had been murdered, a revenge of some sort exacted out of jealousy. There were two of us and one of him, and our friends confirmed that we had had a few drinks that night. And everyone by then knew that his girlfriend had dumped him to..." he grimaced, looking at Kate "to come to me. They were determined to punish us, they hired their best lawyers. A little slip of their money, and the surveillance tapes were effectively nonexistent as well, even the cashier at the toy store wouldn't speak for us, although I wonder what they threatened him with to accomplish that."

Kate let out a cry of outrage, "They did that?"

"They were determined to have someone punished for their son's death. They couldn't detain me due the lack of evidence, but Will's finger prints on that baseball bat were incriminating enough. Their lawyer put up a bitter fight and Will ended in jail. Hell," Luke laughed humorlessly, "he would still be there if your father hadn't investigated shortly after the adoption and found out why Will had been so eager to let you get adopted in the first place."

"It just seemed incongruous with his obvious love for his sister that he'd want her to be sent away." John murmured thoughtfully, "I knew something was up immediately."

Luke shot John a rueful look of agreement.

"What do you mean, he would still be in jail?" Kate whispered through her choked throat.

"John funded a lawyer to help Will--"

"The pup tried to refuse." John recalled with a scoff, "Proud one, isn't he? Years later I even discovered a cheque from him returning the lawyer's bills, to repay the 'debt'"

"Runs in the family." Luke said dryly, looking at Kate, but she wasn't capable of sharing his humor right then. Studying her tense face, he added softly, "John's lawyer was good, Kate—he even manage to scrounge some footage from the building across the road that the Smiths had paid off as well. The owner had kept a copy of the video just in case he got a better deal, which he did. John's lawyer made a case for self-defense, and eventually, he won. Free of all charges."

There was some silence.

"How long?" Kate whispered, Luke flinched, knowing what was coming, "How long was he...in juvie, Luke?"

Luke gave her a bracing look. He knew how this information would devastate her. Will had been trying to keep her from it for years, for this very reason.

"Four years."