The Monstrosity, Part Twelve

by J. Rosemary Moss

Genre: Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: R

LINK TO PART ONE

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Teaching Drew to fight was a challenge. In all honesty, if Drew was ever faced with the necessity of defending himself, I doubt my lessons would do him any good. I told him as much and—to his credit—he said that he was aware of that. But he wanted to learn just the same.

Sparring would be especially problematic for him, so we kept to wrestling. I tried to teach him how to keep an opponent off balance and how to pin him once he was down. Neither proved an easy lesson.

Drew didn’t want me to make it easy for him. I respected him for that, so I bit back any misgivings and pinned him over and over. But I still did my best not to hurt him beyond a few scrapes and bruises.

At one point I held Drew face down against the dirt. “Are you ready to call it a day?” I asked.

“No,” he said, struggling with a surprising amount of ferocity.

I shook my head at him. “This is pointless,” I told him, holding him firmly.

He sighed and relaxed a bit. “Are you sure?” he asked.

Stupidly, I took that for a surrender and loosened my grip on him. “Yeah,” I said.

The next thing I knew, I was yelping in pain. Drew had managed to bite my hand. Then he pressed his advantage by squirming out of my grasp and rolling over on top of me.

His victory was short-lived, however. I managed to thrust him off of me and pin him face down again. “I don’t recall biting as a part of these exercises,” I said in a warning tone.

He tried to shrug. “I can’t fight fair, Adam. But you don’t have to let me get away with it—punch me in the face if you feel you must.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not going to punch you in the face—however much you deserve it.”

“How chivalrous of you,” he spat. “If you’d have the decency to stop treating me like a child—”

“I’m not treating you like a child!”

“Yes, you are,” he insisted. “You don’t think I can tell that you’re holding back? Take off the kid gloves, Adam. I’ll be able to stand it.”

I took a deep breath before responding. “No, you won’t,” I corrected, shifting so that I could keep him pinned with one hand and a knee to his back. “I am holding back—but that doesn’t mean I’m treating you like a child. If I wanted to do that,” I said, pausing to bring my free hand down hard against his backside, “that’s how I’d go about it.”

Needless to say, that swat infuriated him. He broke free of me and came after me with a vengeance. But his efforts were futile—he was simply outmatched. I pinned him easily, held him down with one arm and then, just to teach him a lesson, used my free hand again to deliver a few more stinging blows to his dignity.

His face was white with anger when I finally released him, but he didn’t come after me again. He sat up instead and seethed.

I sighed and shifted so that I was sitting beside him. “Well?” I said.

“You’re a bastard,” he told me.

“Sometimes,” I owned.

“Do you take all your friends to task or do you reserve that treatment for me?”

I sighed again. “I reserve it for you,” I assured him. “You bring out the worst in me, Drew.”

He inhaled sharply at that, but for a long while he said nothing. And when he did speak, his voice was surprisingly calm.

“Adam,” he said at last, “I know you want to take me under your wing and adopt me for a little brother—but I can’t allow that. If I—if I let myself look at you that way, I’d end up with more regard for you than I feel for Jack.”

Now it was my turn to draw a sharp breath. I never expected to receive such a compliment from Drew. But, while I suppose I did want to adopt him, I never intended to outshine his brother. “I’m—I’m not trying to compete with Jack,” I managed.

He gave a short laugh. “Well, you’re doing a damn fine job of it regardless. Now, how do you intend to make things up to me?”

“Make things up to you?” I repeated.

He nodded. “You had no right to treat me that way—you know that.”

I rolled my eyes as some of the good will he had just garnered from me evaporated. “After biting me and baiting me you still expect me to fall at your feet and beg forgiveness for teaching you a lesson? My God, you’re a spoiled brat.”

“Sometimes,” he owned, mimicking me.

I laughed despite myself. Then I glanced down at my hand and noticed that it was bleeding. Drew's teeth had broken the skin. Nonetheless, I forced myself to remain civil.

“Fine, Drew," I said. "How do you want me to make it up to you?”

He flashed me that crooked grin of his. “I want you to let me take you out for lunch.”

I swore under my breath—I should have seen that coming. “No,” I said.

“Adam,” he said softly, “you’re not a coward. You’re going to have to face Virginia City sooner or later.”

I said nothing to that. I just turned my face away from him.

“They don’t know, Adam,” he told me.

“They don’t know what?” I demanded.

It didn't matter if he responded; I already knew the answer. But Drew, being Drew, couldn't leave the matter alone.

“They don’t know that Kane raped you,” he said, his voice still soft.

I shut my eyes. In my own head, I did all that I could to avoid that word. It slipped in now and again, unbidden, but I always banished it. Yet now the word lay there uncontested—and I realized that there was something oddly comforting in hearing Drew say it so matter-of-factly.

“All right,” I said at last. “We’ll go out for lunch.”

LINK TO PART THIRTEEN