"Josh, honey, what are you doing home now? I thought you had a meeting?" JC's mother looked up and stopped talking when she saw her son's face. "Josh? What's wrong?"
JC looked at her, eyes wide and full of remorse and surprise at himself. He still hadn't gotten over the shock of what he'd done..."I hit him, Mom," he said. "I hit Lance...last night, he came home and I...I made him bleed on the face and I..."
Karen dropped her spoon. "Roy?" she said. "Roy, come in here please..." Roy's shout came back and Karen turned back to JC. "Sit down, Josh, and tell me what happened..." She trailed off when she no longer saw the remorseful son..."Josh?"
"He broke the rules...he disobeyed...he was supposed to come home and call me...he didn't listen to me...punish..." JC was still staring at his hand, but his eyes were ice.
"Josh?"
JC shook his head and looked up at her. "What?"
Roy came in and sat down. "Morning, son...what is it? What?"
"I hit Lance," JC said dully.
Roy's eyes widened. "What? Why? What happened?"
"I don't know," JC said automatically.
"Twenty years," Roy whispered. "It's been twenty years and now it's happening..."
"Josh, listen to me...we have something to tell you," Karen said.
JC looked up and blinked himself out of his daze. "What?"
"Do you remember anything about before you came here? Anything at all?"
"No," JC said, confused. "You know that though, I don't..."
"Yeah," Roy sighed. "We hoped we wouldn't have to tell you why you came here, but..."
"What? Why?"
"Josh, you know you were adopted when you were five," Karen said. "But you don't know that it was because...It was because your father beat your mother. Your mother...and you."
JC looked at her in shock, shaking his head. "No...no," he said. "No, that's not right...no..."
"I'm sorry, Josh," Roy said. "But it's true."
JC shook his head, looking down at the table. "No...My mother..." he looked up, eyes wild. "Where...is she okay?"
"We don't know," Karen said. "She brought you here and then she disappeared."
"So...she just...she just left?" he whispered brokenly.
"She had to," Karen said quietly. "Your father would have found her and you, and there's no telling what he would have done."
*~*Flashback ~ 1981*~*
"Mommy, where are we going?"
"Shh, Scott, we're going away, okay?"
"Why?"
"So daddy can't hurt you anymore..."
"What about you? I don't want him to hurt you anymore!"
"I'm going away too," she said. "Okay? But do you remember Roy and Karen? We saw them last week?"
The five year old Scott nodded slightly.
"You...we're going to stay with them for a while, just until mommy can find somewhere for us to live, okay?"
"And he won't hurt you anymore? Mommy, I don't want him to hurt you..."
"He won't, okay sweetie? Now I need you to be quiet in case he wakes up."
"Okay."
Scott sat in the car now, staring out the window into the dark night sky. Soon, his mother pulled into a driveway he had recognized. "We're here, Scott," she said.
Scott nodded and pulled his backpack out of the car, hiding behind his mother when Roy came out of the house. He kept his stuffed bear, Snuggles, tightly in his arms.
"Hi, son," he said. Scott started; he'd never been called Son before. He liked it. It sounded nice. He ventured a smile. Roy smiled back. "Come on in," he said. "You look tired."
*
"Jessie, you can't go. You have to stay here, at least for the night."
Scott remained silent, hearing the voices of Roy and Karen, and his mother. He couldn't sleep in the strange bed, and clutched Snuggles to his chest.
"I can't. He'll find us, I know it," his mother whispered. "I have to keep Scott safe from him. He'll find me, and that's okay, I just have to keep Scott safe."
"Take care of yourself," Karen said quietly.
Scott feigned sleep, he'd become good at that, when he heard footsteps come into the room. "Goodbye, Scott. I love you."
Then there was the feeling of soft lips on his, and he gave up to sleep.
*~*End Flashback*~*
"She called me Scott," JC said quietly.
"What?" Roy asked, startled.
"My mother...she called me Scott, didn't she? I remember her bringing me here, and then she left."
"You remember that?" Roy asked.
JC nodded. "Why did she call me that?"
"Josh, she wanted us to change your name when we adopted you," Karen said.
"She knew, as did we, that it would be so easy for him to find you if you didn't change your name."
"We don't know much, Josh," Roy said. "She didn't want to tell us the details. All we knew was what she told us and the marks on your body."
JC closed his eyes and again looked at the hand that had hit -- hit! -- the love of his life. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "That doesn't explain why..." he shook his head when he felt a headache coming on. "Why don't I remember any of this?" he asked.
"You blocked it out, Josh," Karen told him quietly. "But the scar on your stomach? The one on your leg? The couple on your back? Those are from him. Old and small, yes, but they're there and they're from him."
JC shook his head and stood up. "I need to...I need to think about this," he said, going upstairs. "I don't understand why this would make me hit Lance...I don't know..."
*****
"I don't understand it," Joey said, looking at his hands. "JC's never been violent..."
"Well," Lance said, making the others look at him sharply. "No, no, he's never hit me before, but, he'd hit like, pillows, doors, walls...mostly when I was home late, or he didn't know where I was...I thought it was just worry, but last night, he...turned into this different person. It was...scary more than anything."
"I noticed it too...he'd go back and forth in between this...angry guy, and a scared JC," Justin spoke up. "I mean, sometimes he was really, really sorry, but then he'd suddenly act like you deserved it. Like something hidden inside of him showed itself, and..."
Lance shrugged. "He acted like he was really sorry he did it right after, but I was too scared of him to..."
"Yeah," Chris said, pulling the younger man into a hug. "It's okay, Lance. It's okay. We'll figure out what's wrong with him."
