If Not For You

Chapter 34

Jenna looked at Ben.  There was blood all over his shirt.  Lucas had gone to get him another shirt to wear.  He pulled off the bloody one and Jenna gasped.  His whole body was covered with bruises.  She now noticed the red hand prints that went around his neck.  There was a six inch cut down the left of his stomach.  The same perfect body from last night was now beaten and broken.  Ben noticed Jenna's reaction and quickly pulled the shirt Lucas had handed him over his head.  Ben's eyes met Jenna's, "sorry kid.  That was not what I wanted you to see."

After seeing her brother in law's injuries she looked over her husband.  Lucas seemed to have fared much better.  He had a small cut above his eye and bruising around his wrists.  "What happened after the cops came?"  Jackie asked and Jenna was grateful because she wanted to know also.

Ben laughed.  "Well Lucas got arrested."  Jenna realized that the bruising around Lucas' wrists had come from handcuffs.

"You got arrested?"  Jackie didn't find it amusing.

"No."  Lucas said.  "I got handcuffed.  They didn't arrest me."

"Well why did they handcuff you?"  Jackie was becoming impatient.

"I got handcuffed for assaulting a cop."  Lucas and Ben looked at each other and laughed.

"Why is that funny?"  Jackie said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.  She was becoming impatient.

"I didn't mean to hit the cop.  We were all in the basement trying to get dad off Ben, when all of a sudden David and I feel arms pulling us off dad.  We didn't know who they were.  So we started swinging."  Lucas shook his head.  "They handcuffed David and I, and tried pulling us out of the house. Nobody was telling us what was happening.  It seemed like forever and we still didn't see Ben come out of the house.  All we could hear was mom screaming 'get off of him'.  We thought Ben was dead.  We tried to get back into the house."  They slammed us against the hoods of their cars.  And then threw us in the back of the squad car.  My bruises didn't even come from dad.  It came from the cops."  Lucas held Jackie's hand as she sat there with her mouth wide open.  "Police brutality."  He laughed.  "It was all very confusing.  As soon as we saw Ben come out we calmed down.  They let David and I out of the car.  We all knew it was just a misunderstanding."

With a sadness in his eyes Jenna had never seen before Ben spoke.  "I was going in and out of consciousness but I remember one thing, when mom was yelling, she wasn't yelling for dad to get off of me.  She was yelling for the cops to get off of him."

"Well where is your mom?  Did they arrest you mom?"  Jenna didn't understand.

Lucas spoke, "David and mom went to get a hotel room for the night.  Dad is in jail.  Tomorrow mom has to go back to the police station.  If she doesn't press charges against dad they are going to press charges against her and dad."

Jackie spoke next.  "She will never do that.  She would rather die than be without him."

"Well David is taking her tomorrow at 11.00 a.m.  You can call his cell and see if mom wants you to go with her.  I told mom that if she refuses to press charges then she is no longer a part of my life.  I mean it too.  We are better than this Jackie.  This is not going to be our life.  The baby is not going to ever see any of that."

"What baby?"  Ben looked up and met his brother's gaze.  "You guys are having a baby?"  Ben stared at Jackie.  "How long have you known about this?"

Jackie blushed, "I'm only a little more than two months along.  We just wanted to make sure that nothing happened this time before we told anyone."  Jackie had gotten pregnant on more than one occasion before she was 16.  One had been her stepfather's and the other one of her mother's boyfriend's.  Although it went against everything she believed in she knew that she couldn't bring them into her world.  She did the hardest thing and let them go.  After she and Lucas got together, she became pregnant again at 17.  Neither one of them was ready, but they were happy.  They lost the baby.  Because of the abortions the doctors told her it would be hard for her to get pregnant.  She had several miscarriages after that.  Lucas always tried to comfort her by telling her it was God's way of saying the time wasn't right.