Broken Rules

by Jade Buchanan

  "Is it because he's your brother?"

  "No... I don't know. It's just that when I was working out of Toronto, I saw so many battered people, so I just don't know how to reconcile that with someone who wants it. Gets off on it. Whatever. Fuck." He tilted his head down and ran his fngers through his hair. "He's my baby brother and I can't help but see it as abuse. I can't tell him that, though. He feels bad enough already."

  Jonah shook his head. "But, it's not abuse. I mean, I can see why you think that and I have to admit that from a social worker point of view, I see a lot of battered folks too. But, Dominance and submission is not about abuse. It's not the same as what you're talking about. It's all about trust, and being in an honest and safe relationship. There's nothing wrong with what David wanted. He just went about it in a very unsafe manner. If you want to be mad, be mad about the man who took advantage of him and hurt him. If he'd had access to more resources, he could have done that same thing in a very safe place. And not gotten hurt."

  Neil looked like he wanted to argue but Jonah just wanted him to think about it. He wasn't about to debate the issue. It wasn't what was most important anyway. David needed to heal right now, inside and out, and being antagonistic wasn't going to help him.

  They were silent for a while. Neil pulled on Jonah's arm, getting him to shift over until they were cuddled closer together. Jonah sighed, falling into Neil's body and letting him hold him. What a couple of days.

  A low murmur was audible from upstairs. Jonah hoped their parents were taking this okay but he couldn't hear David's side of the conversation. He wondered if Neil was trying to listen in and see if he could catch what David was saying to them.

  After awhile, David went silent upstairs. Jonah listened for the door opening but David must have wanted to stay up there alone because he didn't come out.

  The phone rang, interrupting Jonah's thoughts.

  "I've got it," David yelled.

  "Well, I hope things went well," Jonah commented.

  Neil shrugged. "I don't know what to do with him. Hopefully mom talked some sense into him."

  "Hey, Jonah. Someone named Ball Sac is on the phone for you." David came down the stairs holding the portable phone in his hand.

  "Who? Hold on. I'll get it." Jonah stood up, grabbing for the phone. "Hello? Hey Billy, what's up?" Running up the stairs, he listened to his friend. He'd managed to hand his sessions today over to Billy and Carol, so he hoped nothing was wrong at work.

  chAPteR twenty

  Neil turned to David. "Ball Sac? Seriously?"

  "Hey, that's what he said. I even asked him to repeat his name. Freaking weird, if you ask me. Think that's an Alberta thing? Either that or Jonah needs to get some new friends, cause they're odd."

  Neil grimaced. "So, did you talk to mom and dad?"

  David hung his head. "Yeah."

  "You okay?"

  "Yeah."

  "Do I need to get out the thumb screws?"

  David giggled, lightening something in Neil's chest. Oh, thank God, the brat could still fnd his sense of humor. Sure, the giggle looked atrocious because of David's poor battered face, but damn it sounded nice.

  "They were upset. Mom cried. They want me to come home but they said I could stay as long as you're here. Mom wants you to call her tonight. She said she needed time to talk to Dad about everything and then they wanted to talk to you. I told her you'd call."

  Neil sighed. Great, he could just picture the coming conversation. His mom was going to tear a strip off him. Never mind that he couldn't do anything about David's actions, but she would need to yell at someone. Since David was hurt, he was out of the running. It wouldn't be fair to take it out on any of the other brothers, so Neil was most likely it.

  Jonah came back into the room, looking over at the two of them and rolling his eyes. "He didn't say Ball Sac, he said Balzac. You know, like Balzac Billy—the gopher."

  Neil wrinkled his nose. "Eh?"

  "Billy's actually from Balzac, just north of Calgary. It's a running joke. You know, like Wiarton Willy? Punxsutawney Phil?"

  "David's right. Your friends are weird."

  Jonah punched him in the arm. "Guess that means you're weird."

  "Well, whatever. Your friend sounded a little testy." David snickered.

  Jonah raised a single brow. Neil just shook his head.

  "Get it? Testy? Testicle. Ball sac. Come on, work with me here."

  "When's he leaving again?" Jonah asked, grinning to show he was joking.

  Neil smiled in return. "Soon. I promise. If Mom had just drowned him at birth like we all voted for, you wouldn't have to put up with him. I'd blame her."

  "Okay, so that one didn't work. Huh. What about this one. What kind of Ninja Turtle is green and bumpy?"

  Neil shook his head again. "They all are."

  "No, no. You're supposed to say which one." David huffed.

  "Which one?" Jonah asked.

  Neil swatted him. "Don't encourage him. He's like a pigeon. If you keep feeding him he'll just keep coming back for more."

  "Shut up, douchebag. You're ruining my joke."

  "Sorry, brat. Which Ninja Turtle is green and bumpy?"

  "Pickle-angelo."

  Neil snorted at that one. He hated to encourage David but the brat was funny sometimes.

  "Thank you, I'll be here all night folks." David snickered. "Can I go check your computer, Jonah? I should email my buddies and let them know I'm okay and not to call me for a few days. I don't want to use my cell and it might be best for them not to call home if Mom's in a mood."

  "Yeah, go ahead. It's the frst door to the left of the staircase."

  "Thanks." David gingerly walked upstairs.

  Neil winced at the stiff movements. David might want to take a bath later to soak out some of that tenseness. He'd shown Neil all the bruises, even the ones on his legs and ass that David had blushed and stammered through. Neil felt better now that he'd seen everything and wasn't fearing the worst. It was pretty bad, though. It would take a while for all the bruising to go down.

  Neil waited a beat. "So, what did ball sac want?"

  Jonah mock-glared back at him. "Don't call him that! Great, now I'm not going to be able to see him without thinking of that."

  Neil snickered, unrepentant.

  "He wanted to know if I wanted to go to Ranchman's tomorrow night. I told him I had company so didn't think so."

  "What's Ranchman's?"

  "It's a bar. Cowboy bar, actually. Pretty cool, since it's got a real relaxed atmosphere and you don't have all the eighteen year olds clamoring all over the place."

  "Sounds like fun."

  "You think you'll still be here?"

  "I got a few days off work to deal with whatever I need to do, so I might still be here. Depends on whether Mom and Dad want David home tomorrow. We're not here on vacation."

  "Yeah, that's what I thought." Jonah wrinkled his nose.

  "Hey, next time I'm here we can go. Right?"

  Neil wasn't sure what to do with himself now that he was here with David and Jonah. They wouldn't be able to get a fight home right away and he still needed to talk to his parents anyway. Man, he really didn't want to talk to his mom. He was being a baby about it, but he wasn't afraid to say it. She was scary when she went into protective mom mode.

  The rest of the day was spent quietly. Neil and Jonah ended up sprawling in the living room and watching TV while they chatted comfortably. David spent most of the day upstairs locked in the computer room.

  "Pizza for dinner?" Jonah fnally asked when they reached comatose state and lapsed into silence.

  "Sure. I'll eat it with everything and so will the pest so get whatever you want. I'll pay."

  "You don't have to do that."

  "Yeah, I do. You're letting us crash your pad, after all." He paused. "Um, I didn't ask, but am I staying here?"

  Jonah frowned. "Of course. Where else would you stay?"

  "With you? Am I staying with you?"<
br />
  "Do you want to? With David here? I mean, I have one guest room, but we can throw a sleeping bag on the foor in the computer room if you really want to. I wouldn't mind if you stayed in my room, though. I'd like that. I just don't know if you want to do that with David in the house."

  "I'd like to sleep with you. I mean... sleep. Nothing else. It'd be weird with David. Is that okay?"

  Jonah smiled. "It's fne. Let me order the pizza, okay?"

  Neil nodded. When Jonah came back they spent a lazy half hour watching TV before the doorbell rang. Minutes later, Jonah was putting the pizza on the kitchen table and Neil was yelling up the stairs for David.

  "Who was at the door?" David came skipping down the stairs.

  Neil grinned evilly. "Mental Health. They said you could stay another night but we'd have to take you back to the home tomorrow."

  "Ha ha."

  "Hey, I thought it was funny."

  Jonah just shook his head, smiling at the two of them.  

  Jonah twitched in place, feeling odd. Someone was watching him, he could feel it. Jerking awake, he swung his head around to spy David standing beside the bed on Neil's side.

  "Is someone dying?" Neil groused.

  Jonah startled again. He hadn't known Neil was awake.

  David shrugged. "No, I just wanted to—"

  "Is someone going to die?" Neil asked in a low whisper.

  "Uh… me, if I keep talking?"

  "Right-o. Out, pest."

  "Fine. I'm going. Tom wouldn't have kicked me out!"

  "Tom also wouldn't have drowned you at birth, but I'm starting to wonder why mom didn't."

  David hissed before breaking out into giggles. "Good night."

  "Good night, brat."

  Jonah snuggled back into Neil's hold. "Okay, I see what you mean now."

  "Hmm."

  "Are you sure he's okay? Shouldn't you have talked to him?"

  "It can wait until the morning. He would have said something if it was really important. I'm guessing he just wanted something familiar. Trust me."

  "Okay." He didn't know how Neil knew the difference, but it was his brother so Jonah was willing to give him the beneft of the doubt.

  "Just be thankful you never grew up with brothers."

  Actually, the more Jonah thought about it, the more he wished he had had that growing up. Seeing Neil with his brothers was something he admired. "I wish I did, sometimes."

  Neil tightened his arm, pulling Jonah closer to him. "You can share mine."

  "Promise?"

  "Promise."

  Later that day, Jonah was still thinking about that promise when he was at work. Jonah wasn't sure what he was supposed to be feeling. A part of him wondered if they weren't moving too fast, but then he'd look into Neil's eyes and wonder why they weren't moving faster. He was turned around and didn't know what his next move was supposed to be.

  Neil had managed to talk to his parents last night and they'd agreed to fy home today. Neil had to get back to work anyway, so they were fying together to Toronto and then David was fying up to North Bay where his parents were going to be waiting to pick him up at the airport. Jonah knew the kid wasn't looking forward to it but he'd been a lot quieter after talking to them. Jonah was glad. He didn't know what he would do if their family had a break in it. The Brogans were what he thought of when he pictured a big happy family. If something happened to ruin that dynamic, he wasn't sure what he would do about it.

  Especially after Neil's sweet offer to share them. Jonah wanted to hold onto that offer with both hands and never let go. Was it too good to be true?

  "Jonah, can you run to the corner store for me?"

  Jonah lifted his head with a smile as Carol walked into the offce they all shared. "Sure what do you need?"

  Carol pursed her lips. "Let me put it this way. The tomato truck dropped off a package and I'm all out if those handy quicker picker uppers."

  Frowning, Jonah tried to fgure out what she meant. "You want paper towels?"

  "Feminine hygiene products."

  Jonah recoiled. "What? Oh. Oh! Oh no, I can't do that. I don't even have sisters."

  "Yeah, and I have a program in fve."

  "I'll take it. I'll cover your program," he said in a rush.

  Carol laughed, slapping her thigh. "Man that was easy. Thanks, kid." Sauntering back out, she waved over her shoulder.

  Jonah frowned. He had the feeling he'd just been played. Damn it. Maybe he should try and get his mind off Neil and his family. If he didn't get into shape now, the kids were going to mercilessly abuse him in his next program.

  chAPteR twenty one

  This was starting to become a habit. Neil grinned widely at Jonah as he walked toward him. "Hello, stranger. Haven't seen you in what… two weeks?"

  Jonah smiled back, reaching out to hug Neil close. "Missed you."

  "I missed you too, baby. It's not the same just talking on the phone." And wasn't that the truth. Neil wasn't sure what to do but something was going to have to change at some point or he was liable to go crazy.

  "Still want to go out tonight?"

  "Of course. You already told Billy we'd be there, didn't you?"

  "Oui, but he said if you were tired we could beg off."

  "Nah, I want to go. It'll be fun."

  Later that night his frst opinion of Ranchman's was that they truly took the country theme and ran with it. The outside of the bar was all wooden siding and antler decorations, with a few big and burly bouncers manning the front door.

  Inside, fve separate bars were spread out through the place with more antlers, photos and cowboy paraphernalia thrown around for fun. There was a massive dance area in front of a stage that a band was currently performing on. The lead singer had a distinctive twang in his voice and seemed to be a fan favorite judging from the number of people two-stepping on the dance foor. A mechanical bull completed the décor, with a long line-up of crazy folk waiting their turn to see if they could last eight seconds.

  Even more insane than the inside of the bar was Jonah's friend, Billy. The man was dressed pretty simply in a pair of jeans and a white button up shirt, but it was his feet that were currently capturing Neil's attention.

  "Seriously?" he asked Jonah for what must have been the ffth time.

  "Seriously," Jonah laughed. "He wears them all the time. Wait until he goes up to get them shined by the shoe shine guy."

  Wait, there was a shoe shine guy inside the bar? Huh. Moving on. "They're pink."

  "And the best part is the white athletic socks. I don't think they would be as bad if he wasn't wearing thick white socks."

  Billy—aka Balzac—was sporting the ugliest pair of cowboy boots Neil had ever seen. They weren't even boots. They were cowboy shoes. Pink cowboy shoes. In some kind of alligator pattern. Neil shook his head and spotted Billy coming back to their table with a few bottles of beer. He passed them out and gave a round of cheers.

  "So, my girlfriend is back in town. She's hanging out with the girls tonight but they may end up coming over here too, so you'll fnally get to meet her, Jonah."

  Jonah grinned. "Can't wait. She sounds like a hoot."

  "Oh, man. She really is." Billy faced Neil. "She was in Hong Kong for the past two weeks so I'm pretty stoked to see her again. I barely had any time with her this afternoon. Oh, wait until you hear what happened to her on the plane, though."

  Neil grinned. "What?"

  "She was in the last row, right? It was something like a ten hour fight and about halfway through, the fight attendants come back carrying this big garbage bag. Guess what was inside?"

  "No clue."

  "A body."

  What? "Holy shit. Really?"

  Jonah started to laugh. Neil glanced over at him and couldn't help but join in.

  Billy nodded exuberantly. "About ten minutes later they came back and asked her if she wanted to sit in frst class. Darla fgured the guy must have died in that seat but it was better than sitting beside h
im for another fve hours."

  "Hell, why would you put a body in one of the seats? That must have been awful for her." Neil shuddered.

  "Well where would you have put it?" Jonah asked.

  "I don't know. In the bathroom."