CHAPTER 29 - WHY, WHY NOT AND HOW?

BRITIN, OFFICE - TWO DAYS LATER

MEL

"You shredded them?" I repeat, Lindsay nods. Michael is looking smug as having told us that the therapist's office had a fire and all patient information was destroyed, which none of us believed, but, for once, he was telling the truth. 

"Why would you do that?"

"I didn't realise until afterwards." She sighs as sadly as a serial killer. "But as Gus and Justin are on the road to recovery, they're not really needed."

"Seems his bill needs to be settled. I can't see anything here saying it has been." Brian flicks again through the folder he set up for Justin. Despite them talking, reading it and seeing the photos is difficult for Justin.

"Well that's because of me." Michael states. 

"Why?" I keep my tone measured.

"I paid it," he replies. "I've got the bill at home; I can fetch it for you."

"That was very generous of you, Michael." I smile, he looks puzzled. "Why did you and why are we just hearing this?"

"It was one less thing for Justin to worry about." Lindsay replies, patting his hand. I feel everyone's inward retching. 

"How thoughtful." Justin simpers. "So very thoughtful."

"Yes it was, wasn't it?" Michael smirks. "Now, Lindsay, we've got shopping plans, haven't we?"

"Yes. We'll see you guys later."

"Raven!" I holler. He takes a few minutes to come in. "Can you take Michael and Lindsay into town? Which mall is your favourite?"

They grin like hungry sharks. "Tangiers. Let's go there for a change!" Lindsay coos. Michael nods and squeezes her hand.

"Great. So first to your house, Michael, you can give him the bill, he'll drop you off, and then come and collect you." He just about stops his face from plummeting. "Not a problem, is it? You want that money back quickly, don't you?"

"There's no rush." He shrugs, then tilts his head. "What about the interest that I would've earned on that if I hadn't been so generous?"

"Dr Evan Steele, please." Emmett smiles. "Yes, this is Dr Emmett Honeycutt of the Kinnetik Rehabilitation Centre. Yes, I'll hold." 

"You're a doctor?!" Michael gapes, Emmett nods. "I didn't think vets were allowed to call themselves Doctors."

"I'm, to use that colloquialism, the vet." Brian drawls. "Emmett went to medical school so he could deal with the people. Would you like to see his licence? And just because they're getting better, doesn't mean they're over the trauma."

"Dr Steel, hi, yes, I'm that Dr Honeycutt. You've heard of me?" Slowly he begins to stiffen, his eyes narrow, and he stares at the pair of them. "Interesting, very interesting. Well, actually, could you bear with me, I need to take this elsewhere."

THE TRACK - SAME TIME

ETHAN

I've never seen Zeus look so happy. Right now, he's slowing down so that Ariel can keep up, Stitch is very fast and has stamina. Ariel is more of a sprinter than a miler, as my sports coach would say. 

I'm here with Gus and Hunter, they're checking the timing. "Hey, Ethan! Come look at this!" Hunter yells. I head over and look down at where Gus is, peering at something. "Can you get it, G? You need me to come down?"

"What is it?" I demand, joining him. "Gus, no back off, I'll get it." I look in the prickle bush and see something glinting. I put on my heavy-duty gloves and try to gauge the best way to get whatever it is. After four thorns and a lot of swearing, we're staring at a starter's pistol. "Why is this down here?" I frown.

"Dunno, we saw the sun hit it." Gus is a bit grabby, but I know what Justin is like with this, it would be a hard no. "Odin was running by, maybe she dislodged it from where it was?"

"No, I mean why was it here at all? We've not had pistols for nearly two years."

"Huh?" Hunter frowns.

"Your Pop hates them. Let me go show him, you keep timing them. After an hour, take them to the falls for a swim, make sure they don't disturb the dam."

"Okay, Ethan." They amble back, pushing and shoving each other, whilst I head to the house with a disquieting feeling.

OFFICE - TEN MINUTES LATER

EMS

Incandescent! The only reason I've not exploded is that Ethan asked me to wait for him as he wanted to check something in the barn. 

"Sorry about that." He comes in with a case. "So, want me to go first, Ems?"

"No, why didn't you call us?" He's glaring at Michael and Lindsay. "Evan suggested us to you at the time of the accident! He said he wasn't as qualified as us to deal with the trauma - because everyone needed to be healed at the same time! But you insisted on it being him!" I ball my fists. "Why?"

"We thought we were doing a good thing by getting him into therapy as soon as possible!" Lindsay blusters. "We just wanted him healed."

"By someone who said he wasn't qualified to handle it?!" Nancy explodes. "So, in other words, you two played a fucking power game, you kept Justin sicker!"

"What? No! We didn't!" Michael shouts whilst she nods like a ventriloquist dummy. "He didn't want to see a therapist, remember?!" 

"Correction, he didn't want to see someone you knew!" Mel seethes, then rubs Justin's shoulder. "This could've been fixed, but it worked out better."

"See." "How?" They spout.

"Justin wouldn't have been able to handle Brian then, however, he's more than capable of doing that now, and anyone else that needs dealing with." 

"I'm not paying you back!" Justin declares. "No way."

"I didn't want the money back; it was you who suggested it!" 

"No, he didn't. It was you that leapt on it like a grizzly seeing a salmon. You mentioned the interest that your generosity missed out on!" Debs spits. "What else did this Evan guy say, Ems?"

"He remembers Gus very well. Now let me see." I look at my notes. "Yes, at first, he was still troubled, mostly by not being able to see Justin immediately after. This was one thing he craved. Did he tell you that in your talk?" 

"Yes." Justin smiles. "But he was told by the therapist and his Momma that this was a bad idea."

"His momma may have said that, but Evan not so much. He said that you two should see each other as soon as possible. Well, we know how that went, and then he told me something else. About six months after the therapy started, you two stopped going with him. Why the sudden respect for boundaries?"

"Six months, eh? Let me see." Ronald pulls out his phone, Nancy and Debs lean over to check what he's doing. He growl-breathes. "First of their many holidays together, right after Justin threw him out for grounding Handsome."

"He deserved that grounding; he swore at me in the garage. He wasn't going to disrespect me!"

"Gus would never do that!" Ethan declares.

"You weren't here when it happened, Ethan, so you can't comment." Michael snipes.

"I may not have been here, but I know Gus, he wouldn't have done that then. Now definitely and deservedly so." 

"Like he said, you can't comment." Lindsay bites out.

"As a matter of interest, where was this supposed to have happened?" Raven questions, surprising us.

"Here. It was here, it was up by the garage, actually, you were there as I recall." Michael smiles.

Lindsay's eyes go wide. "Yes, yes, you were. I remember Michael coming out following Gus and you were behind Michael."

"Yep, I remember that too."

"So, Justin." Lindsay looks beadily at him. "It is you who needs to apologise to Michael for throwing him out, and you need to punish Gus for lying to you."

"Wait, Gus promised me he didn't swear at him." Justin frowns. "He's never lied to me before, so, why about this?"

"Because he didn't swear. He said damn, which is not a swear word in your book, Justin. Your rule is bloody and damn is fine, all else isn't." Raven glares at Michael's reddening face. "And I know why he said it. He was begging you not to take his Momma on holiday, as she needed to fix the problems at home, and going away will make it damn well worse." 

MICHAEL

I feel like I'm being stabbed with the vicious looks that are being flung my way. "So, the person that needs to apologise, once again, is you!" Ma fumes before taking supposedly calming breaths, though she looks anything but. "So, was that all, Ems?"

"All I wish to disclose in front of him." He replies. "What was it you wanted, Ethan?"

"Gus and Hunter found this down by the track." He opens up a case, which holds a starter pistol. "How did it end up in the prickle bush by the track, Lindsay? I remember you bringing it home and Justin telling you to take it back to yours, but Mel said no to that too."

"When they said I couldn't keep it, I threw it away." She sulks.

"You threw it away!" I gasp. "Since you couldn't keep it, why not give it back to me, you silly sausage?" She looks apologetic, I squeeze her arm. "But I know what you're like, you just wanted to get rid of it trying to avoid a row, right?"

"Avoid a row? How?" Winston asks as he investigates it. 

"I knew them saying I couldn't keep it would upset Michael, as it always does when they deny me his gifts."

"This is completely different!" Mel explains. "That is a gun!"

"That fires blanks," I sneer, thoroughly pissed off with this eating into our alone time. 

"Has it been?" Ben asks.

"What?" Lindsay sighs crossly as she stands, but so does Nancy, which makes Lindsay sit again.

"Fired," Mel states, sounding unreasonably exasperated as it's her friends keeping us 

"No, it hasn't?!" Lindsay explodes.

"So why is it loaded and one bullet short?" Winston asks, and the room goes very, very quiet.