Hope's Heart

Chapter Three Part Two

About fifteen minutes later, they pulled up in front of the Stone home, and Mal threw Riley back over his shoulder and carried him into the house.

When Art saw them coming up the walk, he entered the guest bath and filled the tub with cold water. Mal dumped Riley, clothes, and all into the tub. Riley jolted awake and came up sputtering, cursing, and swinging. Art grabbed him by the dog collar and got nose to nose with him, “Shut your mouth before I shut it for you, you beagan crom. You have caused enough trouble for this family, and to pull your s**t today of all days is unforgivable. I know Kole, and I know he tried to tell you what was happening, or if you listened to a single one of your voicemails your mother told you, but you decided to make it hard instead of just coming home to be here where she needs you most. We had been telling you this was coming for over a year, and Drogoth told you how hard this would be for her if you were apart. I won’t tolerate any more bullshit from you, Riley. Now get out of the tub, clean up all this water, and make yourself look normal.” He let him go and turned to his brother-in-law, “Mal, take him upstairs, and stay with him while he gets shower and changes. He smells like something that just crawled out of a dumpster. Make sure he puts real clothes on and removes all that metal from his face. He isn’t to leave this house again until we leave.”

“Leave; what do you mean leave? My twin is having a mental breakdown, so we’ll uproot our lives and leave?” Riley turned and glared at Inara, standing outside the bathroom, “I hope you’re happy; you’re ruining my life. I am so sick of everything being about you.” He stepped out of the tub and started to walk towards Inara with utter hatred in his eyes. Before he got too far, Mal stepped in front of him, and Wulf and Kole were in front of Inara, acting as shields, crouched and ready to pounce.

Mal turned slightly, looked at Inara, gave a slight bow, “Forgive me bhana-phrionnsa, mo nighean gaoil,” and reared back and socked Riley in the stomach, and grabbed him by the shirt, lifted him until they were nose to nose, “We are going home and so are you whether you like it or not. Now you will apologize to my, uàrd, you, beagan crom, and you will do it now.”

Riley gasped for air and choked out, “Go to hell.” Mal dropped him, and as his Doc Martins hit the wet floor, he fell on his ass, and Mal was about to smack him upside the head when Art stopped him.

“No, he is doing it intentionally so Inara will get hurt.”

Mal growled at him, pulled him to his feet, and pushed him towards the linen closet. “Clean up the mess.” When Riley finished cleaning the water, Mal drags him up the stairs.

Once Mal and Riley were out of sight, everyone turned to find Inara doubled over in her mother’s arm, holding her stomach, gasping for air, and crying. She was already heartbroken at his state when they brought him home, but him intentionally pushing the guys, knowing she would also get hurt, added insult to injury. Sara looked at all of them with tears in her eyes that were a mixture of rage and sadness. “I don’t understand it, Art. What happened to our baby boy? He was such a sweet little boy. He got everything in life he wanted, just like Kole and Inara did. We even tolerated his drug use and goth look. He never wanted for anything. For gods sake, we even bought him a brand-new Harley for his eighteenth birthday. What went wrong? Why did he change? Was it me? Did I raise him wrong? Did we favor Inara over him? I always tried so hard to treat all three of them equally.” Art was quickly there, pulling his wife into his arms, and Kole was on his knees in front of his sister, holding her while she cried. Sara let out a little scream of anger into Art's chest and looked into her husband’s eyes, “How did our sweet little boy turn into such a selfish little asshole, Art?”

For a moment, everyone just looked at Sara in shock. None of them ever imagined she could call her own child an asshole. When Sara realized everyone was silent, she looked up from Art's chest, saw them all looking at her, and buried her face in his chest again to hide her blush. Then everyone started laughing when Inara said between deep breaths, “Mama language.”

Still shocked, Kole turned back to his sister, “Cac, Inara, I am so sorry. We all hoped he would come peacefully, but he gave us no choice. He knew damned well you would get hurt. Gods, how can you ever forgive us, honey?”

Inara looked at Kole and gave him a sad smile, “It’s not your fault, Kole. Our link has strengthened, and I heard everything he said to you in The Dragon’s Lair. If I had been there, I would have done the same. He is upstairs now, trying to piss Uncle Mal off enough to hit him again. He is punishing me and getting sadistic pleasure from it. Hell, I think the jerk is getting off on it. No matter how hard I try, I can’t stop loving him. As much as I know I should, I can’t give up on him.” Before Inara finished what she was saying, Steve and Wulf were up the stairs and standing at Riley’s bedroom door.

“Riley, knock off your s**t before we tie you to a chair and gag you to get you shut up. We can’t keep Kole and Wulf from losing their tempers much longer. You may not give a s**t how much you hurt this family, especially your sister, but the rest of us do. Every man in this house, but you, would die for her. Hell, you could learn from her example. Even after all you have done to her, she still loves you and hopes she can get through to you.” Steve was towering over Riley, fighting to control his temper, “Now take off that black s**t, get those damned rings out of your ears, put on some real clothes, and get your ass downstairs. You have twenty minutes, or I will be back up here to do it myself, and I won’t be gentle about taking out your piercings. I will rip out every single one of them, every single one.” Steve gestured to the ones they knew he had in his p***s, and Riley cringed slightly at the thought of them being ripped out.

“Yeah, well, I have had her shoved down my throat for as long as I can remember! Everything is always about Inara! Inara is so precious. Inara must be protected. Inara is everything! I’m f*****g sick of it all, so f*****g what, she has a stupid f*****g birthmark. Why the f**k is she so f*****g special!” Wulf started to step forward, wanting to beat the hell out of Riley, but his father stopped him.

“You know damned well why she is so special, Riley. She is our people's only hope for salvation and survival. She was chosen the day you two were born.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sick of it all. f**k you, f**k this world I don’t even know and have only seen a handful of times, and most of all f**k HER! I am not letting her f**k up my life anymore, and I am sick of living in her f*****g shadow!” Wulf’s eyes flashed at Riley’s harsh words towards Inara, and he growled and clenched his fists at his side, wanting to beat Riley half to death. Riley looked at Wulf and snorted, “As I said in the bar, f**k you, Wulf. Why do you care so much about her all of a sudden? She has been pretty much invisible to you since we turned sixteen. What’s changed?” Everyone else in the room realized Riley was right but pushed that aside. They would have to look closer at that, but not right now. They needed to get her home and keep her safe.

“Just change your damned clothes and shut the hell up.” Steve turned and looked at his son briefly. He saw a slight glowing in Wulf’s eyes but dismissed it for now, and he and Wulf left the room.

Riley sneered at his Uncle, “Do you like seeing me naked, you son of a b***h?”

“Shut up, take a shower, and get dressed.” Mal watched unphased, trying not to laugh at Riley's childish behavior. He was a twenty-yearold man pouting and throwing a tantrum like a two-year-old.

About twenty minutes later, Riley and Mal came downstairs. Riley, of course, hadn’t listened; the piercings were still in place, and he wore black jeans and a black t-shirt. On the upside, the makeup was gone, his hair was washed, and the smell of the bar and the excessive amount of s*x were gone, and he wasn’t wearing his Doc Martins; in fact, he was barefoot. Mal pushed a sulking Riley into the chair next to his father. “Now, use your damn brain for once and keep your mouth shut.” Riley looked over and saw everyone gathered around Inara, comforting and soothing her, and it made his hackles go up. Seeing his mother and Beth hovering over Kole, Wulf, and the other guys bandaging their wounds also pissed him off. The longer he watched, the madder he got. Just out of sheer meanness, he slammed the back of his barefoot as hard as he could against the leg of the chair he was sitting in. He smiled in satisfaction at Inara’s cry of pain.

In one swift moment, Wulf was across the room, lifting Riley from the chair by the front of his shirt. Lifting him until his feet were dangling off the floor and they were nose to nose. Wulf growled low in his throat, hissing through clenched teeth, “I swear to the gods, if you hurt her again in any way, you little prick, I will find a way to hurt you without hurting her, and I WILL f*****g END YOU!”

Wulf felt a gentle hand on his bicep, “Wulf, mo dhìonadair, put him down, please. He can’t help that he is a selfish asshole. Please let me try to talk to him. Let me see if I can get through his thick skull.” Wulf looked down at Inara, and she saw his eyes glowing silver. They were filled with love and tenderness the moment he looked at her, and then it was gone. “Cac, Inara, I am so sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me today.” He gently put Riley down, taking care not to hurt her, turned, and stalked out the back door.

Inara started to follow him, but Kole stopped her, “No, Inara let him go.” Kole watched as this man, like a brother to him, walked out fighting with some enter demon he didn’t understand. “Wulf is battling something none of us, especially him, can identify or understand.”

She looked up at her brother and pointed towards the back door where Wulf had disappeared. “It’s him, Kole. It was those glowing silver eyes we all saw just now as he threatened Riley; I saw this morning in the angelic face. The figure I saw when I blacked out was Wulf. He is my companach anam. But I don’t understand how Wulf and I want anything to do with each other. As Riley said, I have been invisible to him since we turned sixteen. There have been times, especially since then, that I……… Never mind, forget I said that last part. But it’s him, Kole, I am sure of it.” Kole looked at his sister at a loss for words, and then he, Mal, Gary, and Paxen followed Wulf to the backyard.

Inara looked at Riley and sat cross-legged in front of him. Riley looked away, and she grabbed his chin and made him look at her. “Ri, look at me.”

Riley looked at her, and the hatred in his eyes began to soften. “You haven’t called me Ri in a long time.”

“Ri, what happened to us? We were thick as thieves until we turned thirteen. I could always count on you to be my rock. I could always come to you if I needed help. Ri, I love you, and I always will. I don’t know what is happening to me or what this is all about, but I need you by my side. If I’m right, Wulf is the other half of my soul, but you are my twin. We are both a part of the same thing. I don’t know what this birthmark on my hip means; no one has told me yet, but I know it means something for both of us. Ri, please tell me what I can do to fix us. Tell me how I can get my brother back. Please, Ri, I’m begging you to tell me what I can do. I know you still love me.”

Inara looked at him and saw he wanted to say something but was holding back. “Just go away and leave me alone. The last thing I want right now is to see your face.”

Inara just shook her head and put her hand on his cheek, “I know you don’t mean that, Ri; I know you need me as much as I need you to get through this. I refuse to give up on you.” For a brief moment, Riley put his hand over hers and turned into it, and Inara felt his tears land on her hand, then he hardened and shoved her hand away. She let out a sigh of disappointment. She stood, let her hands fall to her sides, and looked down at him. “I will get through to you, Riley, and get my brother back if it takes everything I have. I love you. We all love you and will get you to realize it.”

As she walked away, she heard him mutter under his breath, “I love you too, Nari.” And she smiled to herself, knowing there was hope for him yet.