A different angel:3, trials

Nothing was said he just patted the seat next to him for David to sit down and to settle down to wait. After a short while dad turned the TV onto the local news and David couldn't help but smile as Richard was being called a hero in the segment reporting on the rescue of the young girl from the quarry. The house phone trilled for attention and dad went to pick it up after listening for a whort while in a strained voice asked.
“will he recover?” ….......
Chapter 3:

Davids world started to crash around him when he heard what his dad had to say. Recover, just how badly had he screwed up. Wasn't he the one that was supposed to protect his little brother, yet he had run off to smoke and hang around doing nothing when Richard cooked and went out to rescue a little girl. He was worth nothing, his brother put him to shame and his parents did the same too working all the hours they did. The doubt about how he had been turned from a dull ache into a burn and all the macho outward behaviours broke and sobs started to wrack the young man's body.

Christopher Simms looked at his eldest son in shock, this was the first time in nearly 10 years that such emotion was shown by him. He had seen David distance himself from his younger brother at around 6 and Richard had been 4. Christopher didn't know the reasons but remembered the day as it was also the day David stopped calling him daddy. He sat down next to David and wrapped his arms around the shaking shoulders and pulled his son into his embrace. This was the first time in many years that he had felt so close to his eldest. He just wished the circumstances were better, one son seeming to crash into mess and another in the hospital after doing the right thing.

David lost himself in his dads embrace, he had pushed his family away and he knew now he had a lot of work to patch those differences. He finally understood his parents and his brother loved him no matter what even though he was an absolute heel. There were so many things he felt he had to apologise for, the times he had encouraged others to pick on Rich. The times he had given his parents more grief than they deserved. There was a time in the past he would do anything for all of them until that day at school. One of the bigger kids in junior school was teasing a smaller kid and David had stepped in. The bully laughed and taunted that there was no way a girl could beat him up, in the past David had looked fairly effeminate. That had struck him to the core, it was as if that bully had seen his biggest secret.

That secret had continued to taunt him, it drove him to emulate the most macho of behaviours. He surrounded himself with those boys and others that enabled him to hide the girl that was underneath the surface. He fought with his desires to take clothes from his mothers wardrobe and that also fed the anger and the desire to be a man's man. There were times his cronies had warned him over walking and sitting like a sissy so he continued to keep a permanent filter in place. Now it just felt right there being protected and comforted by dad, No it wasn't dad it was daddy, as David said that in his head it started to click further into place. The thoughts and emotions that were in his head scared him and he wondered how his family would react. He also considered that it was secondary, the first thing they had to concentrate on was Richard.

Christopher saw that his son was getting exhausted so with a push he sent the young man to his bed. There seemed to be a change in David and this gave Christopher something else to consider but at the forefront of his thoughts was his youngest. How could someone who all they wanted to do was the right thing and the fates made them pay that price. He also considered what it would mean for them as a family, it would stretch their finances if they had to accommodate some one in a wheelchair. How would he be in school, isolation could be a big factor and that would also strain things. With a sigh he sat back on the sofa everything was a huge weight and the gentle man sank his head into his hands and wept.

At the hospital Helen Simms had just been dropped off by the police officer. She was surprised to be shown straight to the cubicle where Richard was being examined once she had told the receptionist who she was. She was panicked by the amount of doctors looking at her sons medical notes and some one who she though was a nurse took her gently aside. Her youngest son looked swamped by the staff working around him and she was glad of the gentle touch and voice of this nurse. A short while later Richard was wheeled out out of the cubicle and the nurse explained they were going to take him down to the MRI scanner. She was taken to the reception area of the medical imaging unit and invited to wait, worse and worse scenarios started to run through her head. After half an hour a doctor approached the desk asking to speak to Richards parents and the worker there informed her that it was only the mother there.

“Mrs Simms?” The doctor asked looking around and Helen stood up.

“Yes doctor?” Helen could not keep the tremor out of her voice.

“ We are going to keep Richard in, There seems to be a problem with his spine and we can't be fully sure how bad it is” The doctor gently explained.

Those words seemed like a death sentence and Helen could not understand why the doctor seemed hopeful. Then it percolated through there was not any breaks in the spine but it was bruising. That one word made her breathe easier as it meant to her that it would get better and her youngest son wasn't going to be crippled. Richard was wheeled out and Helen was encouraged to go with him as he was taken to the children's ward. The pain killers were keeping him a little loopy but he knew there was something seriously wrong. Every time he tried to ask his mum or a nurse they just told him to rest, this was beginning to get old fast. Also it was starting to get late and the adrenalin finally ebbed and everything caught up with him and he slipped into unconsciousness and he did not even feel it when they gently transferred him into a bed, all through it his mother didn't leave his side.

** this is a short chapter as a bridge...**