Savannah felt much more human after her shower. She had intended to shower much earlier, but hadn't wanted to disturb Chad when he was sleeping so peacefully. She dressed in her normal denims and an old faded loose t-shirt that claimed she loved coffee. She made her way downstairs, still brushing her wet hair as she descended. She halted before entering the kitchen, seeing her mom and Chad going through her case file.
Looking at the softness in her mother's facial expression, she could tell that her mom was trying to get a point across to Chad, encouraging him. Looking at Chad, she could see a lot of anguish in his face. She supposed that meant the pep talk was working.
Chad pushed the file away from him slowly and stood up, looking confused and angry.
“Striker, I gotta go.” He said abruptly.
“You can't leave the house.”
“I just need to get out. Breathe.” His shoulders sagged. “Please.”
She thought it over for a few seconds, and conceded. “Don't go far, and be back before nightfall.”
He didn't waste any further time or words. He pushed past Savannah and headed straight for the door, slamming it behind him. Savannah entered the kitchen cautiously.
“OK... what have I missed?”
Kat sighed. “I gave him a lot to think about. He's not very good at dealing with emotional attachments.” She cleared the file off the table and packed it away into her briefcase. “He needed time to process the information and he couldn't do that here.”
Savannah wrung her hands nervously. “Will he be OK?”
“He'll be fine.” She placed a chicken roll on a clean plate and handed it over to her. “He always is.”
The sun had set long before Chad came back. He was pale and shaking, and his eyes were bloodshot. He stank of alcohol and his knuckles were bloody. Kat and fully expected his condition however, and had already prepared herself for it. Savannah however, had no clue what to expect. Chad's knees gave way as soon as he was inside the house, and Savannah had screamed in panic.
Kat trudged over with an understanding and compassionate look in her eyes. She knelt down beside him as Savannah cradled his head in her lap. “Better than the last time at least.” She spoke softly to him, feeling his forehead as she spoke. “Last time you didn't know where you lived and passed out on the street.”
Chad's slurred words were barely coherent, but Savannah understood enough to know that if she had sworn like that at her mom, she'd be dead. Amazingly however, Kat laughed in response. “Let's throw you in a nice cool shower and clean you up.”
With a limp arm slung over each of their shoulders, they somehow managed to get him up the stairs and into the bathroom. Savannah turned on the shower and they both stripped him down to his underwear before placing him seated on the floor of the shower to clean him up.
“Chad? How much did you take?” Kat called out as she washed the dried blood off his hand. “Chad, talk to me. How much did you take?”
Savannah looked between Chad and her mom, confused.
“Allovum.” was his slurred response.
“What's Allovum, Chad?” She called out over the sound of the water.
“All. Of. Them.” He spat out the words. “But I puked them up.”
Kat sighed, visibly relieved to hear it. “Good.” She spoke calmly and softly to him as she sponged him down. “Do you know how long after you took them that you threw up?”
“Straight away.” He spoke much clearer now, the cooled water clearly doing its duty. “I puked straight away. Tasted bloody awful.”
Savannah took in a sharp gasp as she realised what had happened. “He tried to kill himself?” She hissed.
“If he wanted to kill himself, believe me he'd do it.” Kat said quietly back. “He just wanted to numb the pain, and got a bit carried away on the dosage.” She took his other hand and started cleaning it. “He knew he overdid it, and made himself throw up.” Kat sighed animatedly. “So he got drunk instead.” She added loudly, a note of humour and tenderness in her voice.
Chad opened his eyes and smiled. “And I beat the crap out of Dru.”
Kat grinned. “Uh-huh. Knocked some sense into him, did you?”
Chad nodded. “Felt good.” He rubbed his jaw. “He got a few decent shots in.”
“I can see that.” She said, gently wiping off his face that was already showing signs of bruising. She stood up and dried off her hands. “I'm going to go fetch his towel. Stay with him and keep him awake.”
She nodded and knelt on the floor in front of the shower where her mom had sat. She picked up the shampoo bottle and waved it in front of him. “Want me to wash your hair?”
“No.” He said quietly. “I don't want you seeing me. Not like this.”
“Too late now.” She put a reassuring hand on his raised knee. “Besides, it's a pretty decent view.”
He chuckled at that. “You've seen it before.”
“I wasn't paying attention then.”
Chad rolled his eyes. “Damn it woman I'm drunk and nearly naked. Let's talk about this when I'm sober enough to remember the conversation.” He stretched up and turned off the water, scrambling awkwardly onto his feet as Kat returned with a large towel. He quickly dried himself off and wrapped it around his body.
“Feel better?” Kat asked, eyeing him carefully.
He nodded. “Now I'm just normal happy drunk. Not stupid drunk.”
Kat giggled and Savannah rolled her eyes as they ushered him out of the bathroom and towards his bedroom, where Kat had already laid out dry boxer shorts and a pair of sleeping pants for him.
“Normal happy drunk means you can manage yourself to change out of the wet boxers and put dry ones on.” Kat said. “My parental compassion only goes so far. Come downstairs for coffee when you're done.”
Chad found them waiting downstairs for him, a steaming coffee already in a mug and calling his name. He took it gratefully and sat next to Savannah on the couch as he'd done that morning. His eye was swelling and the skin had slowly turned darker.
“Feeling better?” Savannah asked.
“Much.” He said, giving them a sheepish smile. “How much trouble am I in?”
“I'll let it slide, seeing as you didn't drink enough to forget where we lived, and were smart enough to throw up the pills before I had to call the ambulance.” Kat finished her coffee. “Like I said: Better than last time. However, you will be doing hard manual labour tomorrow, whether you're hung over or not.” She got up and placed a kiss on Savannah's head, and ruffled his wet hair as she passed. “Don't stay up too late.”
When they heard the bedroom door close, Chad sighed in relief. “I thought she was going to call Richardson and have my ass hauled off to Juvie again.”
Savannah smiled. “I think she considered it when you cussed her out.”
“I did what?” Chad's eyes widened and he grimaced when Savannah repeated what he'd said when he'd gotten through the door. “Man, last time I swore at her she gave me such a smack. My head rang for a week.” He touched his eye and winced. “Gonna ring for a week again this time.”
Savannah laughed sympathetically. “That's probably why she didn't smack you. You look like you'd been smacked enough already. You need some pain killers?”
“I reckon I've swallowed enough pills already.” He sighed. “Probably better I avoid anything else.” He finished up his coffee and sighed. “I'm sorry that you had to see this.”
“Don't apologise. You don't need to.” She reassured him. “We all deal with things differently.”
“Bet you don't OD on pills when you have a bad day.” He picked at his fingernails, his eyes lowered. “Or drink yourself into a coma. Or pick fights with the first person that crosses your path.”
Savannah moved closer to him, and rested her hand on his shoulder. “No. I don't do that. But it doesn't mean I don't screw up as well from time to time. I'm just as flawed as you.”
“Pfft. The difference is you learn from your mistakes.”
“You can too.”
He shook his head. “I can't even remember how many times I've done this. Hundred... two hundred times? Drunk myself stupid for no reason.”
“You had a reason.” Savannah replied. “You had a lot to think about, and that's scary.”
“Exactly. I was supposed to think. I didn't think.” He raked his hands through his hair angrily. “I couldn't think. I didn't want to think. So I screwed up and drank pills again.” He shook her hand off from his shoulder and stood up abruptly. “And then I felt guilty!” He hissed. “Guilty for taking the god-damn pills so I threw them up!” He paced angrily, cursing himself and the unwelcome lump in his throat. “Then I tried to drink away the guilt, because I'm so damn smart!”
Savannah's heart was racing and her eyes were wide with fear. She didn't know what she could say or do to help him. She looked frantically to the stairs, sure the commotion would have brought her mom down the stairs in a raging fit. But she wasn't. She was sitting on the top step, partially hidden. When Savannah pleaded with her eyes for help, Kat shook her head and put her finger to her lips, imploring her to say nothing. She looked back to Chad, who was still angrily pacing.
“And when I couldn't drink any more and had stopped puking my guts out, what do I do? Do I come back here and sleep it off? No!” He shouted. “I go and hunt out Dru for a punching bag!”
“Chad... stop, please.” She pleaded, watching how unsteady he'd become. She stood up slowly, arms in front of her, trying to placate him.
“Kicked the crap out of my own brother! Because I'm a god-damned idiot!” He picked up his empty coffee mug and threw it as hard as he could against the wall, smashing it into pieces and even creating a dent in the plaster with the force of the impact. “The only person who ever cared about me and I beat the crap out of him!”
Savannah saw her chance and took it while his back was turned. She wrapped her arms around his ribs, encircling his arms and restraining him with all her strength, prepared to wrestle him to the floor if necessary. She couldn't let him hurt himself.
“Get off of me!” He shouted, trying to break her grasp, but she held on tight.
“No! I'm not letting you hurt yourself!”
“Let go!” Chad cried out, too weak to continue fighting. His attempts to shake Savannah off slowed down into nothing more than feeble twitches of his arms. “Princess, let me go.” He said weakly, “Please just let me go.”
She loosened her grip slightly at first, and then when he didn't break her grasp, she moved her arms to encircle his waist, holding him tightly with a tenderness that completely broke him. She placed her cheek against his shoulder blades when she felt his sobs shake his body.
“He's not the only one that cares about you.” She said softly.
Kat watched silently from the top of staircase as Chad's defences finally crumbled away beneath him, and he allowed himself to finally accept and feel the pain he'd locked away for so long. She looked down at Savannah, who cradled him as he cried like a child into her arms, and ran her hands softly over him as she cooed words of consolation. It had taken nearly sixteen years, but Kat had finally managed to find a way to reach Chad Denver, with a bit of unwitting teamwork from Savannah.