Hidden Valley (D. SWING)

XXVI. The Rat Pack

"I really hope you just have a better day, Cyn."

His words are genuine. Everything Don says is genuine. The feeling is finally starting to sink into his system as he mentally puts the picture together. He quickly puts the puzzle pieces together, two by two.

Antoine and Derek were sitting on the stairs. Cynthia came over to see Dalvin, he assumes. Antoine and Derek say Dalvin is there but nobody is home. Derek goes in behind Cynthia and does what he does. Cynthia runs home. He pauses to think over the minor details. Where was Antoine during all of this, he ponders. His mind's racing is inclining by a mile a minute as he thinks through every possibility as to what happened. Was it planned? Did Derek and Antoine purposely set up Cynthia with the intention for Derek to go further than he did? If it was, how long had they'd been planning to do this? It is clear to Don that Javon is oblivious because had he had any idea of what is going on, Derek would not be there.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning," Cynthia says. He watches her get out of the car. The moment the door shuts, Don speeds down the street around two corners until he is in front of his house.

In the car, he sits still trying figure out all that happened. His eyes shut as his head drops to the headrest behind him. In the midst of his relaxation, the shutting of his home's screen door snatches his tranquility from his lap. Don turns to the door. Rage filling his eyes as he makes eye contact with the predator living in his home, Don nearly jumps out of the car. He fails to close the car door behind himself when he stomps through the crunchy top layer of ice over the grass they have closest to the street's curb. Upon his approach, Derek opens his mouth to say something. His words do not make it to be verbalized before Don punches him in the mouth.

Derek stumbles back. "What the fuck is your problem?" The anger can be heard in his yelling. It was no match for the fury burning within Don's furnace.

Don punches him for a second time, secretly surprised that Derek has not began to hold his guard up. Derek is more in shock than he is angry. Don is far from being known for any violent acts. This is why he does not start attempting to protect himself until Don swings for the third time. His knuckles painfully crack when his right fist makes contact with Derek's left cheekbone. Derek attempts to grab Don, trying to stop him, becoming the cause for the two falling onto the icy lawn. Don loses touch with his injury, his brand new focus of his mind being to hurt his brother as much as possible. This loss of connection becomes the reason Don's most recent punch slips as Derek pushes his one armed brother off of himself. Don falls over, landing on his left arm, his injured arm.

Dalvin, who was once watching from the screen door in complete satisfaction, comes running out of the front door. "What's going on?" His frantic tone is not too loud for a series of reasons. "D, you okay?" He runs out to help Don up. As he is pulling Don up, Dalvin comes to notice the piercing look in his eye. It is a look of someone who is beyond the point of being livid. Still partially afraid of his older brothers, Dalvin guides Don toward the care in a manner so careful that a butterfly would not flinch. "Mama's up stairs taking a shower. She gone hear y'all."

Derek, rising to his feet, exclaims, "That's him!"

Silent. Don is silent as he stares down his own flesh and blood. A piece of him hidden within that is more so on the empathetic portion of his heart hopes and prays that nothing happened the way he thinks it did. Don leans against the Monte Carlo, dusting the ice off of himself, beginning to calm down as he stares down at his injury. His asthma is the true reason he is calming down. The recent attack he had with the girls plus the cold air has left him in a dangerous state. In this moment, he makes a silent wish. He wishes for there to be no further damage to his shoulder caused by this run in. His arm's stay in the sling was already extended by Cynthia choice of tantrum, he cannot do the same to himself because of his own rage.