I heard muffled growling through a door. I blinked and sat up. I looked around and saw I was on the couch at the house. I looked around and saw everyone outside.
I went to the door. "What were you thinking, Iron Hide? You scaring her is just making this worse!" Dr. Ratchet scolded. "I am disappointed in you, Iron Hide." I shook my head and appeared in the doorway.
"Get back to-" "Thank you, Ron." I said, surprising everyone. Ron looked away from me and nodded. "How long were you there?" Will asked. I looked at him.
"Long enough." They all tensed. "Look, whatever I wasn't supposed to hear, it won't be repeated." I said, turning into the house.
I looked at the time. 2:00. I sighed as Will came in. "Can you call Lindsey and tell her I can't make it?" Will studied me and nodded. I nodded and paused at the steps as he cleared his throat.
"Lou....what did you hear?" I looked at him. "Iron Hide. I walked in as you guys were scolding him. Don't do that, Will. If anything, you should thank him." I said gently.
I looked out the window at him. He was leaning against his truck, in a relaxed yet alert state, looking over the vast emptiness of the hills. His eyes seemed far away, in another galaxy almost as he looked over the hills. The light seemed to dance over his skin, highlighting his chiseled arms and chest over his tight shirt. It made his hair glisten and slightly move on the gently breeze.
"He saved me, Will. He saved me and stuck up for me to Lilliana. Don't send him away for that. He may not like me, but think about what he did today." I turned to the stair well and stopped on the second stair.
"I will have to go home and get my belongings next week. Then I will have to attend the funeral. I have also picked out dresses for Anna. They are with the groceries." I said softly, ascending the stairs.
"Chloe, you need to let go of him. Of Kyle." I looked at Will. "I am trying. It's easier said than done." I said, going to my room.
I shut the door and went to my memory box. I grabbed every picture and memory of Kyle and put it in the box. I grabbed the ultra sound pictures and shoved them into my pocket for later. I set the box on the rocking chair and went to the bed. I closed my eyes and went to sleep, hoping for a better dream.
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I jerked awake again. I clenched my eyes shut. It was just a dream...just a dream. I kept chanting to myself.
I got ready and snuck out the door after grabbing everything I needed. I snuck outside and went towards the garage. I grabbed the lighter fluid and matches.
I walked out and saw the monster truck. I eyed it and shrugged off the feeling of being watched. Just paranoid. I shuddered. I grabbed the hose.
I walked to an open hill and dropped the hose. I set the box down and grabbed a handful of sticks around my area and put them into a pile. I doused them with lighter fluid and dropped a lit match onto it. It went up in flames.
Sitting near the box, I opened it. I grabbed a handful of pictures. I scoffed at them.
My shoulder length honey blonde hair was curled and silky. Kyle's was blonde. Bleached blonde. His sunglasses sat on his head and he had on a grin. Fake or real, no one will ever know. I had on a true smile. A love struck smile. I threw it into the fire.
I went through a lot of pictures. Maybe about a hundred? I threw them all into the fire. I could slowly feel the pain leaking away through small cracks of my heart.
I threw everything into the fire that was now a nice sized flaming mound. I nodded in approval. I pulled out the ultra sound pictures and held them in front of me.
"Hey." I heard Ron say, unsure if I'd let him be near me. I nodded and he sat a little ways away from me. He stared into the fire. I could see him trying to make out the pictures that were charred now.
After a little bit, he cleared his throat. "I......Will said you solved the case of me staying or leaving." I dipped my head in acknowledgement.
"Thank you." I nodded again and let my hands slid over the picture. I inhaled shakily.
"Ron?" He looked over at me. "Have you ever had a child? You're wife?" He shook his head. "I have had neither." I looked away from him. "I'm sorry." He glanced at me.
"It's not your fault." I closed my eyes. "It's not that... You're a nice guy. Yet you have no one." I looked at the pictures. "I'm still looking." I nodded. "You'll find her." I said, softly.
"Chloe?" I glanced at him. "Can I ask what happened?" I went stiff and my eyes hardened. I could feel him studying me. He got up, thinking he asked at the wrong time, and started walking away.
"I met him at the county fair." He stopped and turned his head towards my direction.
"You could see the stars that night for the first time in three months. The smell of deep fried food filled the air and laughter. Screams came from the rides as they spun around and went upside down. The sound of registers opening and being slammed shut. People chattered about the most useless things. I had went to get an ice cream cone and we toppled into each other. His coffee and my ice cream went all over my History Report. That's when it started. He helped me rewrite it. 'Let me help you.' He said. I agreed." Ron sat closer to me as I put more sticks into the fire.
"We were Juniors in High School. I had barely any friends. He was the preppy kind of kid. Hanging with the snobby crowd. I knew how to fight and he was the brainiac. I knew how to shot a gun and he knew how to cut someone with just a sentence. We had each others backs when one fell. We became friends immediately when I kicked Lilliana's ass when she shoved him into the mud. We were inseparable. Twins joined at the hips. We did everything together. One day, I got really sick and stayed in bed for two weeks. He visited me the whole time. He skipped work to be with me. Will did his best to make me better since our parents died a year earlier. It was my greatest weakness. I loved my parents. Everyone did. I just took it the hardest. Again, he said to let him help. I clung to him the whole time, fearing to lose someone close to me again." I kicked a stick into the fire.
"Senior year came and like always, we fought the preppy kids. He gave up the preppy category to be with me. On my 17th birthday, he asked me out. I agreed. We dated until I turned 19. He took me out to Olive Garden. He proposed and I thought he was the greatest, said yes. But the one rule was, to give up fighting. Guns and all. I gave them to Will, knowing he'd need them. That's when the beatings began. He'd say he was sorry, he didn't mean to. Being the sucker I was, I always forgave him. Eventually, I found that I couldn't fight like I used to from being out of practice. I never rose a hand to him but once. He cursed Will out and I lost it. No one insult my brother without me going after them for blood." I growled. Ron was soaking up my words, listening and not talking.
"It had been two years I had dealt with the beatings and... Unauthorized sexual happenings. He didn't care. He knew that my parents were my weakness. He talked down to me about them, saying that they didn't love me and I should be thankful for what he was doing. He said he was saving me. I was already broken down and built back up the wrong way. I had the same treatment from his family. Anyways, as I said, it had been two years. I knew something was going on inside my body. I could feel it. I set up a doctors appointment and went to it the next week while he was at work. The doctor told me I was pregnant. He knew that I was being abused. He was my old doctor. I begged him not to talk to the police. It'd make it worse. I was so happy, it was like getting my Christmas wish twice in one day. A rocket launcher." I stared off, dreamily. I could see a smile on his face.
"Seeing the explosions, you know how you get all excited?" He nodded and smiled. "That's how I felt. To have a little one dependent on me that wouldn't hurt me like that man. It made me forget about the beatings. I waited another four months to get a gender. When they said it was a baby boy, the explosions and the smell of burnt wood and gunpowder hit me." He leaned back on his palms and watched me.
"I walked in the door and he was already waiting with a baseball bat. I heard the doctors voice in the background. A female doctor. Not my original doctor. He....he kept hitting me until I lost him. When he saw the blood, he proceeded to drag me to the stairs. 'Just to make sure it's dead.' And he tossed me into the basement. He kept me down there for a week." I was crying into my arms that laid across my knees.
I felt him next to me. "I made a wish as I looked out the basement window. 'Bestow upon him for what he has done to an innocent life.' Two days later, we got into the accident. He died on impact. I want to scream in happiness that the monster was gone, but I deserved to know why he didn't want a baby." I sobbed.
I felt him gently grab my shoulders and hold me against him. I could feel his hesitation.
"He's broken me down to the point that I cower in the presence if men! I want to be myself again! Is that so hard to ask for!?" I nearly yelled.
He held me tighter. "Chloe. No man will hurt you like that slagger did. Rest assured, he is gone." I nodded against him. "I know he is, but I....I still feel like he's haunting me." He sighed and lifted me into his lap.
"Will and I. Will and his friends would never let anyone hurt you like he did to you. When you arrived here....when he found out what that boy did to you, he went to the shooting range with pictures of this, Kyle and incinerated his pictures. Literally. We all know not to test Will when he's upset. One of our...less intelligent soldiers went up to him and Will took him out in less than five seconds. The soldier didn't know what hit him. He learned pretty quick to not mess with Colonel Lennox." Ron chuckled but sighed.
"Your brother thinks this is his fault. He thought this boy was able to take care of you and Will let you go. He blames himself." I shook my head. "I thought the same. Kyle deceived us both. I fell head over heels for him and was burned for it. It never was and never will be Will's fault." I said, quietly, rubbing the last two pictures I had of Scott. My little boy.
"What was to be his des-name? The babies name?" I smiled softly. "Scott William Lennox. I had thought if I was pregnant that he would change. Guess not." I frowned.
"May I see the photos?" He asked curiously. I held them up so he could see. He took them and tilted them into the fire light.
"Where is it puctured?" I placed a hand where he would grow. "Right here." I said. "See here?" I pointed to two places. He hummed. "That's his itty bitty feet. They're smaller than your pinky. These are his hands. There's his little heart beat." I said, smiling.
"I remember at three and a half months I could feel him moving. It really did feel like bubbles and popcorn fluttering in my stomach. A month later, the kicks and punches were more active." I smiled at the memory.
I shivered and he started moving around. He lifted me and put his jacket around me. It was really warm. "Thanks." He grunted.
"Hey Ron?" He hummed. "I know I really wasn't supposed to hear it...but... Who's Iron Hide?" He tensed but relaxed after a few minutes.
"Do you recall the war in mission City and Egypt?" I nodded. "They were... Really alien robots." He exhaled. I hummed. "Iron Hide is one of them?" I looked up. "My truck is Iron Hide. He is the protector of the Lennox house hold." He said, tensing again.
Wait....so I had been spilling my guts to an Alien robot the whole time I was here!? I've heard grunts, but I thought it was just settling....or did I?
I eyed Ron. He was shifting a lot. "What? Waiting for me to scream and run away? Faint?" He cleared his throat and nodded. I scoffed.
"He has made no notion of hurting me or my family. If Will can work with him then I trust him enough to give him a chance." I said, seriously. No lies in my words. He relaxed and his shoulders fell.
"Explains the heat and grunts." I huffed. He chuckled. "What kind of weapons does he have?" I asked, curiously. "Cannons and-" I gasped. "He has cannons!" Ron smiled broadly. "He does. On both arms." I groaned. "I have to see those!" I whined. Ron laughed. "I'll ask him." I nodded.
We sat there, soaking in the heat from the fire. I was staring at the picture of Scott. I sighed and threw it into the fire. Ron shifted.
"There's nothing that can bring him back. I can't mope around anymore. It's harsh to say it, but I can't do that anymore." I sadly.
"I do not mean anything rude, but I believe it was for the best. If he would have been born, he would have faced that boy the same way you were. As young as he would have been, he would have learned from the violence and would copy the boy. He would use it against you." I nodded, knowing he was right.
I yawned. I looked up at the stars. "I know I'll see him again. In another life." I smiled, knowingly. Ron hummed, asking how. "When you die and enter the gates of heaven, they say that you will be able to see your loved ones again. Knowing Kyle, he's rotting in hell." I growled. "Anyways. The innocent children, lost at a young age, always go to heaven. Like Scott. He was to young to know the difference from right and wrong." Ron hummed.
I leaned into Ron. I felt his muscles move as he shifted. It felt like he had metal muscles....literally! I could hear his heart as my ear rested on his chest. I closed my eyes and listened to it.
I heard him humming to a foreign song I have never heard before. It was calming and helped me relax.
"Thanks for letting me talk, Ron." I said sleepily. "Anytime, Chloe." I smiled and leaned into him, letting sleep overtake my thoughts.
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