Brothers Keeper
by Lisa

Rating: PG-13 for language and violence.

Additional warning for this chapter: Suicide of minor character. If this bothers you, please don't read that part.

Many thanks to Sherry for the ideas, help and endless patience!

 

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Part 6

 

            Face looked up from the floor and wondered what had happened. The last thing he knew was that Mike had been standing over him holding his gun. He tried to get up but he couldn't. Not only was the pain unbearable but he couldn't move his arms at all.  Face tried to sit up but found that his arms were bound behind him. His legs were tied the same. He could feel the warm blood dripping down on his face from where he'd obviously been last hit.  He tried to see Murdock but couldn't. He closed his eyes again and tried to clear the fog that was in his head.

He looked around and saw Mike standing over Paul's bed; tears were flowing down Mikes face. He saw Mike reach down and pull the sheet over his head.  Face closed his eyes when he realized that Paul had died. He could feel the pain that Mike felt. The next thing he felt was Mike grabbing him by the collar and pulling him up.

            "Bastard!" Was all that Mike said and started punching him in the face again, taking out his frustration the only way he could think of. Face couldn't stay awake any longer and mercifully passed out. Mike stopped hitting him and let him fall to the floor. He was breathless and angrier than he had ever been. He felt so alone. Mike thought of his mother's face when he told her that her baby was dead. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at Face.

            For a long minute he held it there, wild-eyed and fighting with his own conscious. He couldn't do this. Even with all his threats and angry battering of his victims, he wasn't a murderer. This had gone far enough.

He started to put the gun down when another desperate thought came to him. He slowly raised the gun to his own head. Memories mixed with the sorrowful tears leaving him with no other place to go. He cocked the gun slowly. It was the loudest sound he had ever heard. He moved his finger to the trigger, took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

Then he heard a faint voice.

            "Don't." It was barely above a whisper. Mike opened his eyes and saw Murdock looking at him.

Mike stared at the stranger carefully; saw the pale face and the bruises. He saw the pain that was etched in his face. Why would this guy care if I live or not?       

            Mike heard a vehicle pulling up in the distance. He knew it must be cops.

I'm sorry, Mom.

 

            Hannibal jumped out of the van and pulled a tied-up Tom out the side door.  He threw him on the ground and ran towards the trailer with BA close behind. Before they got 20 feet from the door they heard a gunshot. Hannibal stopped dead in his tracks.

No! Not when we're this close!

He paused a moment before opening the door, not wanting to see what awaited on the other side. His stomach wretched with fear and concern.

            Hannibal saw a man lying on the floor with a gun in his lifeless hand. Blood was pooling in a mass under a man he didn't know. It made him sick to his stomach. He immediately saw Face and Murdock. Face was on his side and turned away from him. He reached for the knife in his pocket and cut the rope that held him. BA ran for Murdock, who was no longer awake. BA normally took everything with the tough guy attitude that had served him so well, but this was his family. This was his brother. He felt for a heartbeat; sighing with relief when he found it. He almost cried seeing the bruises on his face. Both of his eyes were black and blue. He lifted his shirt and found a bullet hole under a towel.

            "We better git him out of here Hannibal. I don't know if he'll make it. Looks like he lost a lot of blood." BA had tears in his eyes but wasn't ashamed.

            "Face looks like he has had the shit beaten out of him. We'll take them to Bad Rock. It's only a half hour away." Hannibal pulled Murdock's eye open to see if there were any head injuries. His pupil had no reaction.

He looked up at BA. "Lets move them one at a time, carefully and slowly; then we'll drive like hell." Hannibal helped BA load Murdock and Face into the back of the van. They tied the kicking and screaming Tom down onto the trailer steps and left the bag of evidence.

            While BA drove over back roads he tried to make it smooth as possible. Hannibal snatched open a medical kit that they kept in case of emergency. He put pressure bandages on Murdock and tried to stop the flow of blood on both of them but felt totally helpless. BA had called the police to tell them where to find the money and the robbers. The only thing that made him feel better was knowing that Tom would probably spend the rest of his life in prison. He then called Maggie and explained the situation to her. She promised she would be ready to meet them.

            Hannibal kept taking blood pressure readings and wiping the brows of both his men. Hannibal noticed that Face's eyes were opening and looking around. Hannibal grabbed the sides of his head and tried to understand what he was trying to say.

            "Murdock is alive. He's right next to you. We're on our way to Bad Rock and Maggie."

            Face nodded his thanks and looked over. He saw Murdock and made sure he could see him breathing and fell back to sleep, satisfied and comforted with the knowledge that Hannibal was in charge.

 

            BA pulled into Maggie's and saw her running out of the back of the house down a ramp that wasn't there before, pushing a gurney covered in an immaculate white sheet. They lifted Murdock onto the gurney. Hannibal and Maggie pushed him inside while BA carefully carried Face in.

"You guys wait out here," she ordered gently and closed the door to the examination room.

Hannibal sighed, wishing he could help, but knowing his men were in the best hands possible. He was glad the search was over and glad they were here. He reached into his pocket and grabbed the bloody handkerchief they had found in the VA's parking lot. Knowing it was Murdock's blood, shed in senseless violence, he wadded it up and threw it angrily into the trashcan. BA just wanted to hit something.

 

            Maggie came out what seemed like hours later. She sat down hard on the sofa next to Hannibal and took a tired deep breath of her own. Hannibal and BA had been waiting anxiously and silently. Neither feeling the need to talk about what had happened. Only hoping their friends would come out all right. BA's bandaged arm showed his contribution of blood to Murdock. Unlike the first time they'd been here, this time he was glad he shared the same blood type.

            "Face will be hurting for a while, but he'll be okay. Besides the obvious cuts and bruises, he has broken ribs and a concussion." She sighed deeply, hating this part of her job of telling people painful truths about those they love. "Murdock is not so well. If he were in a hospital, he would be critical, but I think he will live. BA's help in replacing the blood helped a lot. He has a concussion, broken ribs, the bullet passed through but mostly damaged muscle. He didn't have major damage to any organs luckily. He possibly may have chronic back pain but he won't be paralyzed or suffer nerve loss. He has multiple contusions and needed a lot of stitches to his face. He wouldn't have gotten as bad as he did if they had gotten help right away. He was probably minutes from dying. But it also looks like any help that Face gave him was enough for him to get by. He'll be sedated for a couple of days to give himself time to heal."

Hannibal reached over and put his arm over her shoulder. BA went outside to be alone.

            "I thought I lost them Maggie. I didn't think we would ever find them alive. Whoever that guy was, I thought he shot one of them. I was sure I would find one of them dead."

            Maggie took his chin and forced his eyes from the haunting images he saw in his mind to her warm, reassuring eyes. "It's over John. They will be okay. Just tell Face to drop the doctor scam for a while." Maggie smiled at Hannibal who smiled back.

 

            A couple of days later Face was up and around. All of them were waiting for Murdock to wake up. Maggie said it would be a while even when she slowed the drugs that were keeping him asleep. Hannibal was at his side when he saw the brown eyes open and look around.

            "Face! BA!" Hannibal yelled and heard them both coming. He covered Murdock's hand with his own.

Face looked down at him and they stared at each other. Face could see the tears come when Murdock saw the damage that was done to his friend's face.

            "It's okay, buddy. I will heal up just fine, and you will too. I'll be taking Maggie's advice and won't be using the doctor scam again." Both men smiled and Hannibal left them to be alone.

            Maggie was in the kitchen trying to allow them time. She was reading the local paper on the capture of the bank robber and the discovery of the brothers' bodies.  She read the obituary on Mike and couldn't help but shake her head.

            She read on and on of a man she'd never met but someone felt something for. The article went on of the man he was. He was a Vietnam Vet, was a supporter of charities, sole support of his mother. He donated time to various charities as well as Meals on Wheels. Why would he turn like this? The good things he did in life took one paragraph. The robbery took the rest. Aside from the obvious crime he committed, why was all the good things in his life forgotten? Why was he left to make a decision like that? It turns out that due to medical bills that were incurred by his mother he had been left to a horribly wrong choice.

            Hannibal walked out and asked her what was wrong. She read the article to him and he too felt a stab of pity. But it wasn't enough to stop his anger at the man who had helped cause the injuries to his men. She read on and the article ended with:

Tom Dodge is being charged in the bank robbery, killing the security guard at the bank and drug possession. With the prior crimes he had committed it was likely he would spend the rest of his life in a federal prison.

Hannibal took the paper and walked into the room that his men were in. There was explaining and questions to answer.

 

 

                                                The End.

 

This story didn't quite end the way I wanted to. It was originally about a group of bad guys and the good guys. The bad were the bad. A couple of days ago our CEO and president of the bank I work at killed himself. He was a good guy who was nice to everyone and did tremendous amounts of charity work. He was also involved in a college scandal of a basketball team. The press concentrated on this one fault and in the end it cost him his life. I am now wondering why even now that he is gone, why is the public only interested in the bad things. Nowhere in his local obit has the words charity or philanthropist. No were in it says husband and excellent employer. It only says scandal and suicide. I don't mean to offend anyone with the suicide part of the story that wasn't going to be in there. But I wanted in some way to put my questions in the story. I don't think a bad deed is excused by a good but why isn't it considered?  This is a poor way of showing my respect for him considering I had already made Mike to be a VERY bad guy but hopefully someone will see that even a bad guy has a past and good qualities somewhere.