Coronation Street, ABO-verse
May. 17th, 2015 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreySome more of that Coronation Street ABO-verse thing.
Callum pushes his car as fast as he can, just over the speed limit, barely keeping an eye out for any cops. He’s not sure he’d stop if they told him to.
‘Little prick. Little prick. Little fucking prick.’
Traffic’s a bitch, a fucking bitch, but the bus station comes up eventually. He spins his car into the car park and jumps out, not even stopping to lock it. If someone wants to steal it, he’ll kill them later.
He runs around to the coach side, then stops. He doesn’t want to draw too much attention, or have David spot him first. He keeps a steady, measured pace, scanning the crowd. Nothing. But David won’t want to be seen.
He makes his way down the aisles, scouting all around him. No-one gives him too suspicious a look. Good.
There. Sat in one of the metal seats, pushchair in front of him hiding most of his body. But Callum knows those sharp features by now, that too-casual look.
He darts forward, trying to close as much distance as possible before David notices. He does notice, of course, jumps up instantly. There’s a wild, terrified look in his eyes and he grabs at the pushchair, like he wants to run. But his hand scrabbles for purchase and he works out, obviously, that he can’t run anywhere with it, so he squares himself and steps around in front of it, fists clenched. Still looking terrified. Brave. Brave little cunt.
Callum walks right up to him and grabs him by the shoulder. Grips harder as David drops his head, looks around at the people near them.
“We’re going to walk out of here,” he says, low, furious, into David’s ear, “and we’re going to get in the car, and you’re not going to try anything, or I’m going to call the police, and you can explain why you’re taking Kylie’s kid away without her say-so.”
David’s completely still, that limp-but-thinking way he has. His breathing’s stilted. He looks up at the coach.
“And if I scream?” he says, turning to look Callum directly in the eyes. He holds them for a second. “If I tell everyone that you’re not my alpha, and to get the hell away from me?”
Callum’s hand tightens on David’s shoulder reflexively.
“Then Kylie is going to be really disappointed in you. And I’ll get some of my friends in –”
He stops and checks the front of the coach.
“– Bradford, to pick you up when you get off the coach.”
David stares at him, terrified and miserable. Callum can see the cogs desperately whirring, trying to think of a way out. It doesn’t come, and he sags under Callum’s hand.
Callum reaches down and grabs the holdall on the chair next to him.
“Get the buggy,” he says, steering David with the iron grip on his shoulder.
The people around them are looking, but Callum just keeps that hard look on his face and the hand on David’s shoulder, and no-one says anything. David keeps his head down while they walk on out on the bus station, Callum giving that same look to anyone who might even be thinking about interfering. They walk on out of the bus station, and Callum still doesn’t let go of David’s shoulder. Not until they make it right up to the car.
“Put her in,” he says, giving David a shove, making sure there’s nowhere to go but towards the car door.
David keeps his head down as he reaches down to unbuckle Lily. Callum’s not sure if he’s crying, but his hands are steady as he undoes her straps and picks her up, then puts her in the car. He’s so careful with her Callum wants to scream. While Lily, lovely little Lily, just keeps smiling as her dad puts her in the car. How she came from David, Callum can’t imagine.
When David’s done he stands up and faces Callum. He’s not crying, but his eyes are wet.
“So now what?” he asks, voice raspy. He looks down at the pushchair, at the holdall Callum’s carrying.
Callum punches him square in the jaw.
* * *
It knocks David out, which is the point. It’s a bit of a struggle to keep him from bashing his head on the bonnet or the ground, but Callum manages. He gets him quickly and carefully into the backseat, doing up his seatbelt, because he’s a nice guy. He catches eyes with Lily, looking at him curiously. He tells her daddy’s just sleeping – takes a moment to stroke her little face – then backs out. He gets the pushchair and holdall in the back – slamming the bag a little rougher than he needed to – then he gets in the front and drives.
His speed is steadier than before, but his knuckles are white on the steering wheel. He checks the rearview mirror every few minutes for David. Still out cold. The only way he doesn’t make fucking trouble.
It takes him about fifteen minutes to come round. When he does he blinks, looks around the car a little. When he realises where he is, a look of sheer terror crosses his face. Then he meets Callum’s eyes in the mirror, and it goes. Drops away to something unreadable. Then he just looks miserable. Trapped. He stares out the window for a few minutes. Then looks down at Lily. He holds her little hand all the way back home.
They get back to the estate, and Callum jumps out, stands by David’s door as he gets out. There’s nowhere for him to run now – nowhere Callum’s people won’t find him – but there’s no point taking any chances. He grabs him by the shoulder again and gives him a shove, tells him to get Lily. Watches him carefully, as he gets the pushchair and holdall. David stops when he stands back up, Lily in his arms, obviously not wanting to go back to the flat. But Callum’s behind him, and eventually – because he is smart – he moves. Callum follows him closely up all the stairs.
When they get through their front door, Kylie’s right there in the hallway. She almost jumps with relief, and when the look on her face when she looks at Lily is almost overpowering.
Callum drops the holdall and the pushchair.
“Take her,” he says, gesturing to Lily. “Put her to bed.”
Kylie looks at him, then David. Almost warily, she reaches out and takes Lily from his arms. He lets her, but his hands linger.
She gives him a look that somewhere between fury and despair.
“How could you?” she says, voice breaking with too much crying.
David says nothing. Keeps his head down.
Kylie gives him one last look – then another to Callum with a flash of concern in it. But she still turns with Lily and walks down the hall.
Callum waits till she’s been around the corner for a couple of seconds, then grabs David by the back of the neck, shoves him into the living room.
“What the fuck are you playing at?” he says. “Running away? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
David twists like a livewire in his grip, used to this, happy to fight. Callum manoeuvres him so he’s by the couch, then shoves him down over it, facedown, keeping him pinned with his own bodyweight.
David thrashes harder.
“What’s wrong with you,” Callum repeats, “huh? It’s me, right? It’s alphas. You’re going to tell me exactly what your problem with alphas is. Right now.”
David keeps thrashing.
“You’re going to tell me about the guy from when you were a kid.”
David goes completely still.
He arches his head around painfully so he can stare at Callum from the corner of his eye.
“Kylie told me,” he says, and he’s breathless from holding David down – from everything. “You had a nightmare in our fucking bed, David. She didn’t tell me who he was, though. You’re going to do that. Now.”
David stares at him for another second. Callum feels his body tense underneath him, try to curl up. Then he starts thrashing again, trying to throw Callum off.
“Get off me,” he says, and it’s almost, almost a growl.
His arms are free and they twist around uselessly, pushing at Callum, almost trying to dig his nails in where he thinks he can. Callum’s not going anywhere. There’s no way David can dislodge him from this position, and he’s not letting up until he finally knows what’s going on.
“So I’m guessing he was an alpha, right?” he says, shoving David down a little as he jerks his head up. “Who was he? What did he do?”
David just continues to thrash.
“Did he try to fuck you?”
“No,” David says, still growling, sounding like an animal. He tries to curl up again. “Let me go!”
“If you don’t tell me,” Callum says, “I’ll just ask Kylie, and don’t go expecting her to protect your secrets, not now that you’ve tried to steal her kid.”
David just thrashes harder.
Callum hears the door open behind him, hears Kylie’s slight intake of breath.
“Ah, Kylie,” he says, not looking round, continuing to push David down as he tries to kick his way out. “Just in time. We’re just talking – about Davey’s childhood. But you know more about that than me. Why don’t you fill in the blanks?”
Silence from behind him, just her trembling breathing. David’s gone still under him.
“Don’t,” he says, and it’s pleading.
“Yeah but,” Callum says, keeping a hand on David’s neck, “we’re just gonna keep having these problems, aren’t we? Until I know what’s going on – what’s going on in his head. You just gonna wait until he does it again? Until he really gets away with Lily?”
Harsher breathing from behind him now. David’s neck is so tense it almost feels like it’s going to snap.
“The guy from when he was a kid,” he says. “Who was he?”
Complete silence.
“Who was he?”
“Don’t, please,” David says.
Kylie takes a breath that’s almost a sob.
“He was his stepdad,” she says, brokenly.
David – he doesn’t even know how to describe it. It’s like he goes completely stiff and completely limp at the same time. Entirely tense without any hint of fight in it. His eyes (what he can see of them) look faraway.
Callum watches his face.
“And what did he do?” he asks.
Kylie walks round him, falls to her knees in front of David. After a few seconds his eyes track to her face.
“You tell him,” she begs. She’s crying again. “Please, David. You tell him. He won’t understand it coming from me.”
David stares at her for a second, then his eyes go back into the middle distance. For a few seconds he just stares.
“Let me up,” he says, tonelessly.
Callum watches him for a second, but there’s no hint of fight or anger, or anything, on his face. He lets go of his neck. David doesn’t move, just waits. Callum stands up off him, staying nearby in case he tries to run or fight again, or go for Kylie. David just pushes himself up, draws his legs up under him, and sits in the corner of the couch. He stares at the wall.
For a minute it’s just silence, just David staring.
“Well, come on then,” Callum says. “What did he do?”
David’s eyes slide towards him, hateful. Then he goes back to staring at the wall.
“Have you ever heard of Richard Hillman?” he says.
And that name – does sound familiar. Where has he heard that before? He gets a sense of – something bad, when he thinks about it though.
David’s looking at him.
“Heard the name,” he says. “Who was he?”
David’s giving him one of those annoying bitter, patronising looks. He looks back at the wall.
“He was a murderer,” he says. Quietly.
That’s it – he remembers now. Killman Hillman. And then it really clicks – he stares at David.
“He - ?”
David’s nodding.
“He was my stepdad.”
There was complete silence in the room for a moment. Callum tries to take it in. He’d known it was something bad – must have been something bad, for even Kylie to react like she did – but this…
He looks at David. David’s still just staring at the wall.
“Did he hurt you?” he asks.
David flinches, looks down. Callum looks at Kylie – she’s rocking on her knees like she wants to grab him, hug him, but she’s not sure she can. He probably won’t have forgotten she’s the one who gave him up in the first place.
He looks back at David, who looks like he struggling to talk – in between moments where his face goes completely blank.
“He – ” he says, then seems to run out of breath. He frowns like he’s angry with himself. Or with them. With everything.
Callum tries to think what happened with Hillman, where he is now. Then he remembers he died. The papers said he –
Oh.
Silence for another few moments at David continues to struggle with his words.
“He tried to kill you,” Callum says, finally.
David looks at him, and a myriad of emotions cross his face. One of them’s murderous hatred, which is a little unnerving given the situation. Then it all settles back into bitterness and he goes back to staring at the wall, shoulders low.
Silence again. Callum looks at Kylie. She gives him a helpless look. When he looks back at David, his shoulders are twisting up – like he’s trying to protect himself.
“Okay,” Callum says. Breathes. Tries to think. “Okay. But – that’s just one alpha, and I’m not a fucking serial killer. That can’t be your only problem, Sarah didn’t –”
David jumps up, fisting his hands in his hair, and Callum jumps up too. But he’s not after them or trying to run – he just yanks at his hair and wanders over towards the wall, like he wants to kick it.
“Tell him about the others, David,” Kylie says, steadily.
David whips around, and he looks furious and impossibly hurt. Kylie stays where she is on the floor. Callum tenses, in case he needs to jump in.
“You need to talk about it,” she says.
David flashes him another look of hatred, and then turns to face the wall again.
“He needs to know,” she says. “Maybe he can – ”
“What?” David asks, spinning back around. “Maybe he can what? Make me feel better? Look after me?”
He gives Callum probably the bitterest smile he’s ever seen on him, then turns away again.
“Understand,” she says. “Make it work.”
David’s shaking his head.
“They’re all the same,” he says. “All they care about is what they want.”
Kylie stands up.
“That’s not true,” she says. “What about Becky – she looked after me. Eventually.”
David nods sarcastically at the ‘eventually’.
“What about your gran? You love your gran. And Rita from the shop, and Carla – they’re alright. And Nick.”
“Nick?” David says incredulously. “Nick, who – ?”
He clicks his jaw shut and flashes another look at Callum. Then looks away again, keeping it shut. More secrets. Wicked.
“And what about your dad, huh?” David asks, calmly. Kylie’s face closes down completely. “And Carla – Carla got raped by her alpha fiancé. Her husband messed her around until she had a miscarriage. That’s what they do to other alphas. Why should we take the chance?”
He looks off towards the wall again, and folds his arms. Callum looks at Kylie – her face looks shadowed.
“Tell me about the others,” Callum says.
David jerks his head around, and then looks at Kylie. She’s hesitant. Something passes between them for a moment – and her expression turns resolute.
“His mum’s next boyfriend,” she says. David’s arms lash about, and he looks helpless, fists clenching. But none of it’s aimed at Kylie.
“All he’s going to try to do,” he says, teeth gritted, “is get in my head.”
“Yeah, David, that’s kind of the point,” Callum says. “What did he do?”
Another moment passes between them. David just looks hurt, and young, suddenly. Kylie stares at him, and when he doesn’t say anything, she opens her mouth again.
“He used to hit him,” she says.
David throws his arms up, fists clenching, and turns back to face the wall.
“He told Gail he wasn’t, when David told her, and she believed him. She hit David herself.”
Callum looks to see David tensing his shoulders.
Kylie leaves it there, at least for a moment.
“How old were you?” Callum asks.
“Fifteen,” David spits, not turning around.
Silence again. He was old enough to defend himself then, but from the way he’s clenching his fists it’s clear David doesn’t feel that way.
“What happened?” he asks.
David turns his head.
“I got rid of him,” he says.
Callum looks at Kylie, and she just looks steadily back, and in that moment he wouldn’t be surprised to hear that David had killed the guy.
“What do you mean?” he says.
David turns his head back to the wall.
“I sent a bunch of cards to the house,” he says, almost conversationally. “Signed from Richard. I told my mum Phil probably sent them – he was interested in psychopaths, practically obsessed with Richard. I accused him enough in front of her that he lost his temper, and hit me where she could see it.”
He stops like he just told a really ordinary story about a barbeque or something, but Callum can see from the way he’s folding his arms, he’s uncomfortable.
He is impressively fucked up.
Callum waits again, but David doesn’t say anything else. There’s just the sound of breathing in the room.
“So is that it?” he asks. David’s shoulders tense again. Kylie – takes a sharp breath. Hesitates. Callum looks at her.
She wavers for a second, eyes darting to David.
“And there was another guy,” she says, like a confession.
David whips around again, and he’s never looked more like he wanted to hit her, but mostly like he just – can’t believe it. Can’t believe she would do this to him.
Callum keeps his eyes carefully on both of them.
“What other guy?” he says.
Kylie and David stare at each other again, and she looks apologetic this time. But she closes her eyes, and continues.
“A guy on his street,” she says. “David was – David was interested in another omega, and then he found out she was seeing this guy secretly. Behind his other omega’s back.”
David is just staring at her. He looks cautiously at Callum, then away when Callum meets his eyes, mouth twisting like he’s going to be sick.
“David tried to get rid of him – ” And Callum knows what that means now. “ – but the guy caught him. He – ”
She breaks off, looking at David. He’s staring at the wall again, but what Callum can see of his face is switching between blank and that desperate, trying-to-think-of-a-way-out expression. And – something Callum almost can’t read. Harrowed, maybe. He’s breathing too fast.
“What?” he asks.
Nothing. David turns to look at Kylie, and settles on a sort of blank bitterness. She looks back at him, pleading, insistent.
“He locked me in his van,” David says, still staring at her, casually angry. “Threatened me. And then – ”
He breaks off, and his eyes go faraway. For just a second he looks like he’s not quite in the room, lost. Kylie shifts. Looks at Callum, worriedly.
“David?” he says.
David jumps, like he’s snapped out of it. He looks at Callum, then at Kylie, then back at the wall, shoulders tensing again.
“He tricked me into going round to Maria’s flat,” he says. “And then he tied me up. He – he said I must be afraid of water, after what happened with Richard. He ran the bath. And then he – he held my head under the water. Over and over again.”
His fists are clenching and unclenching, but his face has that faraway look to it again.
“He scented me,” he says, fingers twitching slightly. “Before he started. When I was tied up. He said I was too young. For him and Maria.”
Another moment of silence. Then his head jerks a little again, and his shoulders rise. He looks back around at Kylie and gives her a look of genuine contempt, and then just glares at Callum. And then gives up on the both of them, and just glares at the far wall instead.
“Is that all?” Callum asks. “Are there others?”
David snorts bitterly.
“There’s always others,” he says.
Callum looks at Kylie and she – looks shaken, but also relieved, like a weight’s been lifted off her. Nothing else then, nothing massive.
“So that’s why you don’t trust alphas.”
David gives him the most blistering glare he’s had today.
“I don’t trust alphas,” he says, “because I know what they’re like. What you’re like.”
He gives Callum a disgusted up-and-down look that makes Callum’s hackles rise. And shoots him through with a desire to impress David.
“I’m not a fucking serial killer,” he says.
“No,” David says, “you’re just a drug dealer, who sometimes ties people to poles and kicks the shit out of them!”
“Only when people try to send me to prison,” Callum says, ignoring the way Kylie’s head jerks around, “or try to steal my kids.”
“He’s my kid!” he shouts, furious.
“And mine!” Callum says, breathing hard. “And you were perfectly happy to leave him behind today!”
David’s face twists up, in anger, pain, self-hatred. He turns to the wall again, fingers curling helplessly.
Silence again for a moment, the sound of them all just breathing. But he can hear David’s breathing slowly getting more ragged.
“I can’t – ” David says, like he actually can’t breathe. “I can’t do this.”
He raises his hands, and Callum can’t tell if he wants to grab onto something or push it away. He just wants it to stop.
And Callum knows he does. Knew he did. He saw him, over the past couple of months. He never really relaxed in the flat. He got better, or at least less angry, after a few weeks. But he’d still tense up sometimes, for no reason. Fold his arms and look around like he needed to defend himself. He’d give Callum unreadable, hateful looks out of nowhere, when they were just sitting around watching TV or eating dinner. The last couple of weeks – the last couple of weeks he’d started just suddenly checking over his shoulder. As if he was expecting an attack.
Callum told himself it was just David being angry. He told himself David wasn’t used to living on a council estate, and he’d get used to it. He told himself David was just being determined to be difficult, as usual. He told himself he’d settle in eventually, or that he’d snap and have it out with Callum, and then – when he lost again – he’d accept it.
Now…now Callum knows it’s not like that.
David’s still breathing fast, and his fists are clenched, his head’s darting back and forth slightly, like he’s looking for a way out. He raises his fists in front of himself.
“David,” Callum says.
David whips around, and looks desperate and furious and trapped, and as he looks at Callum he pulls back very slightly like he wants to put his back to the wall.
And then – he stops. Gets hold of himself. His hands drop, his shoulders drop, and his face smoothes out, just a furrow at his brow remaining. It’s the most forced, most unnatural calm Callum’s ever seen, and David just – puts himself into it.
“Just let me go, okay?” he says, voice deliberately even. He looks at Kylie, then at Callum, and his eyes are flat, but there’s a hint of pleading in them. “Let me take Lily, and go back to my mum’s. You can visit whenever you want. I’ll come back and see Max whenever he wants.”
He stops and waits and holds himself perfectly still. Callum just stares at him. This is David. This is how he plans things. This is how he copes with things.
Callum breaks eye contact, and takes a deep breath.
Would it be better for him to leave? He obviously mental – completely mental. And maybe he’ll never get over it, maybe he’ll never be able to cope with having Callum in the house.
But he does love his grandma – his alpha grandma, like Kylie said. Doesn’t have a single problem with her, that Callum’s seen. Why does that work, how does it work? Couldn’t it work again now?
And Lily – is he prepared for Kylie to stare yearningly around their rooms, wishing she could be with her? He saw how she was when she came back, when she saw her kids again. She couldn’t be separated from them for the first few days. Is he prepared for Max to keep asking where she is? To look at her highchair, and not see her in it? Is he prepared for Max to ask where David is? For that sad little look he gets when David’s not around to read to him at night or help him with his homework, because Callum and Kylie apparently can’t do it properly? Is he prepared for Kylie to leave him and go back to David, and take Max or not take Max, because he’ll want his real dad either way? Is he prepared for the whole problem to start all over again?
He takes another breath.
“David,” he says, keeping his voice calm. He drops his shoulders, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. “We’re a family.”
He looks at David, who’s just watching him calmly, showing almost no reaction.
“This works – we work together. And you – you’re safe here.”
He wants to step forward, to grab at him, assure him physically – put a hand on his neck. He doesn’t, but David obviously sees it in his eyes, and draws back subtly, a hint of fear in his face. Callum stays where he is, counts to ten, breathes. Eventually, David relaxes again. Sort of.
But he just keeps staring at Callum. Callum doesn’t really have anything else to say. Isn’t it obvious? Isn’t it obvious, in general?
A smile suddenly breaks out on David’s face. It’s the bitterest smile Callum’s ever seen. David looks at the wall again.
“So you think we all have to live together as a family?” he asks, and it gets a little soft at the end, his eyes getting that faraway look again.
“Yes,” Callum says, and just catches Kylie shaking her head at him.
The smile widens but David’s brow furrows like he’s going to cry. Callum takes a few steps back, finally realising what boxing him in between the sofa and the wall must look like. David’s head turns slightly, then his eyes dart around. He’s looking at the door again. It takes every ounce of Callum’s willpower not to move towards it. David remains still, like a fox in a bolthole.
“David,” Callum says, as calm as he can. “I’m not going to hurt you. Not like that. We’re all looking after the kids together – we’re a family. And I am going to look after my family.”
David twists away again.
“Properly,” he says. He stares at David, staring at the wall. “And the longer you stay here, the more you are going to realise that. There’s no point – screwing all of this up, just because you can’t understand that.”
Callum pushes his car as fast as he can, just over the speed limit, barely keeping an eye out for any cops. He’s not sure he’d stop if they told him to.
‘Little prick. Little prick. Little fucking prick.’
Traffic’s a bitch, a fucking bitch, but the bus station comes up eventually. He spins his car into the car park and jumps out, not even stopping to lock it. If someone wants to steal it, he’ll kill them later.
He runs around to the coach side, then stops. He doesn’t want to draw too much attention, or have David spot him first. He keeps a steady, measured pace, scanning the crowd. Nothing. But David won’t want to be seen.
He makes his way down the aisles, scouting all around him. No-one gives him too suspicious a look. Good.
There. Sat in one of the metal seats, pushchair in front of him hiding most of his body. But Callum knows those sharp features by now, that too-casual look.
He darts forward, trying to close as much distance as possible before David notices. He does notice, of course, jumps up instantly. There’s a wild, terrified look in his eyes and he grabs at the pushchair, like he wants to run. But his hand scrabbles for purchase and he works out, obviously, that he can’t run anywhere with it, so he squares himself and steps around in front of it, fists clenched. Still looking terrified. Brave. Brave little cunt.
Callum walks right up to him and grabs him by the shoulder. Grips harder as David drops his head, looks around at the people near them.
“We’re going to walk out of here,” he says, low, furious, into David’s ear, “and we’re going to get in the car, and you’re not going to try anything, or I’m going to call the police, and you can explain why you’re taking Kylie’s kid away without her say-so.”
David’s completely still, that limp-but-thinking way he has. His breathing’s stilted. He looks up at the coach.
“And if I scream?” he says, turning to look Callum directly in the eyes. He holds them for a second. “If I tell everyone that you’re not my alpha, and to get the hell away from me?”
Callum’s hand tightens on David’s shoulder reflexively.
“Then Kylie is going to be really disappointed in you. And I’ll get some of my friends in –”
He stops and checks the front of the coach.
“– Bradford, to pick you up when you get off the coach.”
David stares at him, terrified and miserable. Callum can see the cogs desperately whirring, trying to think of a way out. It doesn’t come, and he sags under Callum’s hand.
Callum reaches down and grabs the holdall on the chair next to him.
“Get the buggy,” he says, steering David with the iron grip on his shoulder.
The people around them are looking, but Callum just keeps that hard look on his face and the hand on David’s shoulder, and no-one says anything. David keeps his head down while they walk on out on the bus station, Callum giving that same look to anyone who might even be thinking about interfering. They walk on out of the bus station, and Callum still doesn’t let go of David’s shoulder. Not until they make it right up to the car.
“Put her in,” he says, giving David a shove, making sure there’s nowhere to go but towards the car door.
David keeps his head down as he reaches down to unbuckle Lily. Callum’s not sure if he’s crying, but his hands are steady as he undoes her straps and picks her up, then puts her in the car. He’s so careful with her Callum wants to scream. While Lily, lovely little Lily, just keeps smiling as her dad puts her in the car. How she came from David, Callum can’t imagine.
When David’s done he stands up and faces Callum. He’s not crying, but his eyes are wet.
“So now what?” he asks, voice raspy. He looks down at the pushchair, at the holdall Callum’s carrying.
Callum punches him square in the jaw.
* * *
It knocks David out, which is the point. It’s a bit of a struggle to keep him from bashing his head on the bonnet or the ground, but Callum manages. He gets him quickly and carefully into the backseat, doing up his seatbelt, because he’s a nice guy. He catches eyes with Lily, looking at him curiously. He tells her daddy’s just sleeping – takes a moment to stroke her little face – then backs out. He gets the pushchair and holdall in the back – slamming the bag a little rougher than he needed to – then he gets in the front and drives.
His speed is steadier than before, but his knuckles are white on the steering wheel. He checks the rearview mirror every few minutes for David. Still out cold. The only way he doesn’t make fucking trouble.
It takes him about fifteen minutes to come round. When he does he blinks, looks around the car a little. When he realises where he is, a look of sheer terror crosses his face. Then he meets Callum’s eyes in the mirror, and it goes. Drops away to something unreadable. Then he just looks miserable. Trapped. He stares out the window for a few minutes. Then looks down at Lily. He holds her little hand all the way back home.
They get back to the estate, and Callum jumps out, stands by David’s door as he gets out. There’s nowhere for him to run now – nowhere Callum’s people won’t find him – but there’s no point taking any chances. He grabs him by the shoulder again and gives him a shove, tells him to get Lily. Watches him carefully, as he gets the pushchair and holdall. David stops when he stands back up, Lily in his arms, obviously not wanting to go back to the flat. But Callum’s behind him, and eventually – because he is smart – he moves. Callum follows him closely up all the stairs.
When they get through their front door, Kylie’s right there in the hallway. She almost jumps with relief, and when the look on her face when she looks at Lily is almost overpowering.
Callum drops the holdall and the pushchair.
“Take her,” he says, gesturing to Lily. “Put her to bed.”
Kylie looks at him, then David. Almost warily, she reaches out and takes Lily from his arms. He lets her, but his hands linger.
She gives him a look that somewhere between fury and despair.
“How could you?” she says, voice breaking with too much crying.
David says nothing. Keeps his head down.
Kylie gives him one last look – then another to Callum with a flash of concern in it. But she still turns with Lily and walks down the hall.
Callum waits till she’s been around the corner for a couple of seconds, then grabs David by the back of the neck, shoves him into the living room.
“What the fuck are you playing at?” he says. “Running away? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
David twists like a livewire in his grip, used to this, happy to fight. Callum manoeuvres him so he’s by the couch, then shoves him down over it, facedown, keeping him pinned with his own bodyweight.
David thrashes harder.
“What’s wrong with you,” Callum repeats, “huh? It’s me, right? It’s alphas. You’re going to tell me exactly what your problem with alphas is. Right now.”
David keeps thrashing.
“You’re going to tell me about the guy from when you were a kid.”
David goes completely still.
He arches his head around painfully so he can stare at Callum from the corner of his eye.
“Kylie told me,” he says, and he’s breathless from holding David down – from everything. “You had a nightmare in our fucking bed, David. She didn’t tell me who he was, though. You’re going to do that. Now.”
David stares at him for another second. Callum feels his body tense underneath him, try to curl up. Then he starts thrashing again, trying to throw Callum off.
“Get off me,” he says, and it’s almost, almost a growl.
His arms are free and they twist around uselessly, pushing at Callum, almost trying to dig his nails in where he thinks he can. Callum’s not going anywhere. There’s no way David can dislodge him from this position, and he’s not letting up until he finally knows what’s going on.
“So I’m guessing he was an alpha, right?” he says, shoving David down a little as he jerks his head up. “Who was he? What did he do?”
David just continues to thrash.
“Did he try to fuck you?”
“No,” David says, still growling, sounding like an animal. He tries to curl up again. “Let me go!”
“If you don’t tell me,” Callum says, “I’ll just ask Kylie, and don’t go expecting her to protect your secrets, not now that you’ve tried to steal her kid.”
David just thrashes harder.
Callum hears the door open behind him, hears Kylie’s slight intake of breath.
“Ah, Kylie,” he says, not looking round, continuing to push David down as he tries to kick his way out. “Just in time. We’re just talking – about Davey’s childhood. But you know more about that than me. Why don’t you fill in the blanks?”
Silence from behind him, just her trembling breathing. David’s gone still under him.
“Don’t,” he says, and it’s pleading.
“Yeah but,” Callum says, keeping a hand on David’s neck, “we’re just gonna keep having these problems, aren’t we? Until I know what’s going on – what’s going on in his head. You just gonna wait until he does it again? Until he really gets away with Lily?”
Harsher breathing from behind him now. David’s neck is so tense it almost feels like it’s going to snap.
“The guy from when he was a kid,” he says. “Who was he?”
Complete silence.
“Who was he?”
“Don’t, please,” David says.
Kylie takes a breath that’s almost a sob.
“He was his stepdad,” she says, brokenly.
David – he doesn’t even know how to describe it. It’s like he goes completely stiff and completely limp at the same time. Entirely tense without any hint of fight in it. His eyes (what he can see of them) look faraway.
Callum watches his face.
“And what did he do?” he asks.
Kylie walks round him, falls to her knees in front of David. After a few seconds his eyes track to her face.
“You tell him,” she begs. She’s crying again. “Please, David. You tell him. He won’t understand it coming from me.”
David stares at her for a second, then his eyes go back into the middle distance. For a few seconds he just stares.
“Let me up,” he says, tonelessly.
Callum watches him for a second, but there’s no hint of fight or anger, or anything, on his face. He lets go of his neck. David doesn’t move, just waits. Callum stands up off him, staying nearby in case he tries to run or fight again, or go for Kylie. David just pushes himself up, draws his legs up under him, and sits in the corner of the couch. He stares at the wall.
For a minute it’s just silence, just David staring.
“Well, come on then,” Callum says. “What did he do?”
David’s eyes slide towards him, hateful. Then he goes back to staring at the wall.
“Have you ever heard of Richard Hillman?” he says.
And that name – does sound familiar. Where has he heard that before? He gets a sense of – something bad, when he thinks about it though.
David’s looking at him.
“Heard the name,” he says. “Who was he?”
David’s giving him one of those annoying bitter, patronising looks. He looks back at the wall.
“He was a murderer,” he says. Quietly.
That’s it – he remembers now. Killman Hillman. And then it really clicks – he stares at David.
“He - ?”
David’s nodding.
“He was my stepdad.”
There was complete silence in the room for a moment. Callum tries to take it in. He’d known it was something bad – must have been something bad, for even Kylie to react like she did – but this…
He looks at David. David’s still just staring at the wall.
“Did he hurt you?” he asks.
David flinches, looks down. Callum looks at Kylie – she’s rocking on her knees like she wants to grab him, hug him, but she’s not sure she can. He probably won’t have forgotten she’s the one who gave him up in the first place.
He looks back at David, who looks like he struggling to talk – in between moments where his face goes completely blank.
“He – ” he says, then seems to run out of breath. He frowns like he’s angry with himself. Or with them. With everything.
Callum tries to think what happened with Hillman, where he is now. Then he remembers he died. The papers said he –
Oh.
Silence for another few moments at David continues to struggle with his words.
“He tried to kill you,” Callum says, finally.
David looks at him, and a myriad of emotions cross his face. One of them’s murderous hatred, which is a little unnerving given the situation. Then it all settles back into bitterness and he goes back to staring at the wall, shoulders low.
Silence again. Callum looks at Kylie. She gives him a helpless look. When he looks back at David, his shoulders are twisting up – like he’s trying to protect himself.
“Okay,” Callum says. Breathes. Tries to think. “Okay. But – that’s just one alpha, and I’m not a fucking serial killer. That can’t be your only problem, Sarah didn’t –”
David jumps up, fisting his hands in his hair, and Callum jumps up too. But he’s not after them or trying to run – he just yanks at his hair and wanders over towards the wall, like he wants to kick it.
“Tell him about the others, David,” Kylie says, steadily.
David whips around, and he looks furious and impossibly hurt. Kylie stays where she is on the floor. Callum tenses, in case he needs to jump in.
“You need to talk about it,” she says.
David flashes him another look of hatred, and then turns to face the wall again.
“He needs to know,” she says. “Maybe he can – ”
“What?” David asks, spinning back around. “Maybe he can what? Make me feel better? Look after me?”
He gives Callum probably the bitterest smile he’s ever seen on him, then turns away again.
“Understand,” she says. “Make it work.”
David’s shaking his head.
“They’re all the same,” he says. “All they care about is what they want.”
Kylie stands up.
“That’s not true,” she says. “What about Becky – she looked after me. Eventually.”
David nods sarcastically at the ‘eventually’.
“What about your gran? You love your gran. And Rita from the shop, and Carla – they’re alright. And Nick.”
“Nick?” David says incredulously. “Nick, who – ?”
He clicks his jaw shut and flashes another look at Callum. Then looks away again, keeping it shut. More secrets. Wicked.
“And what about your dad, huh?” David asks, calmly. Kylie’s face closes down completely. “And Carla – Carla got raped by her alpha fiancé. Her husband messed her around until she had a miscarriage. That’s what they do to other alphas. Why should we take the chance?”
He looks off towards the wall again, and folds his arms. Callum looks at Kylie – her face looks shadowed.
“Tell me about the others,” Callum says.
David jerks his head around, and then looks at Kylie. She’s hesitant. Something passes between them for a moment – and her expression turns resolute.
“His mum’s next boyfriend,” she says. David’s arms lash about, and he looks helpless, fists clenching. But none of it’s aimed at Kylie.
“All he’s going to try to do,” he says, teeth gritted, “is get in my head.”
“Yeah, David, that’s kind of the point,” Callum says. “What did he do?”
Another moment passes between them. David just looks hurt, and young, suddenly. Kylie stares at him, and when he doesn’t say anything, she opens her mouth again.
“He used to hit him,” she says.
David throws his arms up, fists clenching, and turns back to face the wall.
“He told Gail he wasn’t, when David told her, and she believed him. She hit David herself.”
Callum looks to see David tensing his shoulders.
Kylie leaves it there, at least for a moment.
“How old were you?” Callum asks.
“Fifteen,” David spits, not turning around.
Silence again. He was old enough to defend himself then, but from the way he’s clenching his fists it’s clear David doesn’t feel that way.
“What happened?” he asks.
David turns his head.
“I got rid of him,” he says.
Callum looks at Kylie, and she just looks steadily back, and in that moment he wouldn’t be surprised to hear that David had killed the guy.
“What do you mean?” he says.
David turns his head back to the wall.
“I sent a bunch of cards to the house,” he says, almost conversationally. “Signed from Richard. I told my mum Phil probably sent them – he was interested in psychopaths, practically obsessed with Richard. I accused him enough in front of her that he lost his temper, and hit me where she could see it.”
He stops like he just told a really ordinary story about a barbeque or something, but Callum can see from the way he’s folding his arms, he’s uncomfortable.
He is impressively fucked up.
Callum waits again, but David doesn’t say anything else. There’s just the sound of breathing in the room.
“So is that it?” he asks. David’s shoulders tense again. Kylie – takes a sharp breath. Hesitates. Callum looks at her.
She wavers for a second, eyes darting to David.
“And there was another guy,” she says, like a confession.
David whips around again, and he’s never looked more like he wanted to hit her, but mostly like he just – can’t believe it. Can’t believe she would do this to him.
Callum keeps his eyes carefully on both of them.
“What other guy?” he says.
Kylie and David stare at each other again, and she looks apologetic this time. But she closes her eyes, and continues.
“A guy on his street,” she says. “David was – David was interested in another omega, and then he found out she was seeing this guy secretly. Behind his other omega’s back.”
David is just staring at her. He looks cautiously at Callum, then away when Callum meets his eyes, mouth twisting like he’s going to be sick.
“David tried to get rid of him – ” And Callum knows what that means now. “ – but the guy caught him. He – ”
She breaks off, looking at David. He’s staring at the wall again, but what Callum can see of his face is switching between blank and that desperate, trying-to-think-of-a-way-out expression. And – something Callum almost can’t read. Harrowed, maybe. He’s breathing too fast.
“What?” he asks.
Nothing. David turns to look at Kylie, and settles on a sort of blank bitterness. She looks back at him, pleading, insistent.
“He locked me in his van,” David says, still staring at her, casually angry. “Threatened me. And then – ”
He breaks off, and his eyes go faraway. For just a second he looks like he’s not quite in the room, lost. Kylie shifts. Looks at Callum, worriedly.
“David?” he says.
David jumps, like he’s snapped out of it. He looks at Callum, then at Kylie, then back at the wall, shoulders tensing again.
“He tricked me into going round to Maria’s flat,” he says. “And then he tied me up. He – he said I must be afraid of water, after what happened with Richard. He ran the bath. And then he – he held my head under the water. Over and over again.”
His fists are clenching and unclenching, but his face has that faraway look to it again.
“He scented me,” he says, fingers twitching slightly. “Before he started. When I was tied up. He said I was too young. For him and Maria.”
Another moment of silence. Then his head jerks a little again, and his shoulders rise. He looks back around at Kylie and gives her a look of genuine contempt, and then just glares at Callum. And then gives up on the both of them, and just glares at the far wall instead.
“Is that all?” Callum asks. “Are there others?”
David snorts bitterly.
“There’s always others,” he says.
Callum looks at Kylie and she – looks shaken, but also relieved, like a weight’s been lifted off her. Nothing else then, nothing massive.
“So that’s why you don’t trust alphas.”
David gives him the most blistering glare he’s had today.
“I don’t trust alphas,” he says, “because I know what they’re like. What you’re like.”
He gives Callum a disgusted up-and-down look that makes Callum’s hackles rise. And shoots him through with a desire to impress David.
“I’m not a fucking serial killer,” he says.
“No,” David says, “you’re just a drug dealer, who sometimes ties people to poles and kicks the shit out of them!”
“Only when people try to send me to prison,” Callum says, ignoring the way Kylie’s head jerks around, “or try to steal my kids.”
“He’s my kid!” he shouts, furious.
“And mine!” Callum says, breathing hard. “And you were perfectly happy to leave him behind today!”
David’s face twists up, in anger, pain, self-hatred. He turns to the wall again, fingers curling helplessly.
Silence again for a moment, the sound of them all just breathing. But he can hear David’s breathing slowly getting more ragged.
“I can’t – ” David says, like he actually can’t breathe. “I can’t do this.”
He raises his hands, and Callum can’t tell if he wants to grab onto something or push it away. He just wants it to stop.
And Callum knows he does. Knew he did. He saw him, over the past couple of months. He never really relaxed in the flat. He got better, or at least less angry, after a few weeks. But he’d still tense up sometimes, for no reason. Fold his arms and look around like he needed to defend himself. He’d give Callum unreadable, hateful looks out of nowhere, when they were just sitting around watching TV or eating dinner. The last couple of weeks – the last couple of weeks he’d started just suddenly checking over his shoulder. As if he was expecting an attack.
Callum told himself it was just David being angry. He told himself David wasn’t used to living on a council estate, and he’d get used to it. He told himself David was just being determined to be difficult, as usual. He told himself he’d settle in eventually, or that he’d snap and have it out with Callum, and then – when he lost again – he’d accept it.
Now…now Callum knows it’s not like that.
David’s still breathing fast, and his fists are clenched, his head’s darting back and forth slightly, like he’s looking for a way out. He raises his fists in front of himself.
“David,” Callum says.
David whips around, and looks desperate and furious and trapped, and as he looks at Callum he pulls back very slightly like he wants to put his back to the wall.
And then – he stops. Gets hold of himself. His hands drop, his shoulders drop, and his face smoothes out, just a furrow at his brow remaining. It’s the most forced, most unnatural calm Callum’s ever seen, and David just – puts himself into it.
“Just let me go, okay?” he says, voice deliberately even. He looks at Kylie, then at Callum, and his eyes are flat, but there’s a hint of pleading in them. “Let me take Lily, and go back to my mum’s. You can visit whenever you want. I’ll come back and see Max whenever he wants.”
He stops and waits and holds himself perfectly still. Callum just stares at him. This is David. This is how he plans things. This is how he copes with things.
Callum breaks eye contact, and takes a deep breath.
Would it be better for him to leave? He obviously mental – completely mental. And maybe he’ll never get over it, maybe he’ll never be able to cope with having Callum in the house.
But he does love his grandma – his alpha grandma, like Kylie said. Doesn’t have a single problem with her, that Callum’s seen. Why does that work, how does it work? Couldn’t it work again now?
And Lily – is he prepared for Kylie to stare yearningly around their rooms, wishing she could be with her? He saw how she was when she came back, when she saw her kids again. She couldn’t be separated from them for the first few days. Is he prepared for Max to keep asking where she is? To look at her highchair, and not see her in it? Is he prepared for Max to ask where David is? For that sad little look he gets when David’s not around to read to him at night or help him with his homework, because Callum and Kylie apparently can’t do it properly? Is he prepared for Kylie to leave him and go back to David, and take Max or not take Max, because he’ll want his real dad either way? Is he prepared for the whole problem to start all over again?
He takes another breath.
“David,” he says, keeping his voice calm. He drops his shoulders, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. “We’re a family.”
He looks at David, who’s just watching him calmly, showing almost no reaction.
“This works – we work together. And you – you’re safe here.”
He wants to step forward, to grab at him, assure him physically – put a hand on his neck. He doesn’t, but David obviously sees it in his eyes, and draws back subtly, a hint of fear in his face. Callum stays where he is, counts to ten, breathes. Eventually, David relaxes again. Sort of.
But he just keeps staring at Callum. Callum doesn’t really have anything else to say. Isn’t it obvious? Isn’t it obvious, in general?
A smile suddenly breaks out on David’s face. It’s the bitterest smile Callum’s ever seen. David looks at the wall again.
“So you think we all have to live together as a family?” he asks, and it gets a little soft at the end, his eyes getting that faraway look again.
“Yes,” Callum says, and just catches Kylie shaking her head at him.
The smile widens but David’s brow furrows like he’s going to cry. Callum takes a few steps back, finally realising what boxing him in between the sofa and the wall must look like. David’s head turns slightly, then his eyes dart around. He’s looking at the door again. It takes every ounce of Callum’s willpower not to move towards it. David remains still, like a fox in a bolthole.
“David,” Callum says, as calm as he can. “I’m not going to hurt you. Not like that. We’re all looking after the kids together – we’re a family. And I am going to look after my family.”
David twists away again.
“Properly,” he says. He stares at David, staring at the wall. “And the longer you stay here, the more you are going to realise that. There’s no point – screwing all of this up, just because you can’t understand that.”
