Chapter 10

Dan found himself doing rather well as Don as July came to a close. He was getting out each day and walking several miles. He even jogged a little bit on some of his walks. He was always accompanied by one or two of his sisters. Thankfully, all four had never accompanied him. He thought that would have looked too much like a parade.

The cast was still an encumbrance to a lot of things he tried to do. He couldn't really swim. It kept him from doing much in the way of the jogging. It simply felt like he was unbalanced as he tried running. It was better to walk vigorously rather than to run badly.

He was getting along extremely well with Terri and Traci. The twins were very supportive and had been protective of him when he's first gotten home. Now they just seemed to enjoy his company and they kept on telling him things about the community surrounding them. He absorbed the information as best as he could. He often asked questions and tried to assemble a usable construct of the environment in which he found himself living. So, his walks with the twins were always a learning experience. He got to meet many people who'd known or else recognized Don.

It was on the Monday following his very nearly intimate encounter with Tasha that Jan and Susie sat down with and asked to speak with him about something personal. It came out that Jan had shared Don's medical condition with Susie. They both wanted to know if he was permanently disabled.

Oh, man. This is really weird for two sisters to asking this of their brother.

He explained what Dr. Rogers had told him. Both girls seemed to be relieved. Susie even chuckled about it. "So, Don - you've got a temporary reprieve from the consequences of what Cheryl's stories tell the girls about you!"

She'd really almost laughed at him as she said that.

He smiled back at her. "No, Susie - I have a medical excuse that saves me form the consequences of you spreading around those stories that you claim that Cheryl told you."

He once again found himself capable of making Susie frown and look at him in a way that he felt was more comfortable.

It followed that Dan found himself working at the Nichols family security firm two or three days a week. Otherwise, he stayed home and lay in the pool and worked on improving his computer skills on the new system that Henry had gotten for his son. Dan had asked to use Henry's credit card to order a few security enhancements for the computer. By the time he was finished he hoped that he was reasonably certain that nobody'd be taking over that particular system (no matter the claims of Microsquish and other software providers).

One afternoon Dan found himself with Jan's Uncle Lester and the West Albemarle Regional Combined Agencies SWAT team. Captain Lester Thomas had him go through his paces with Don's several personal weapons and those others owned by Henry Nichols. The members of the WARCA SWAT team had been simply amazed when a 15 year old kid with a cast on his arm had shot better than most of them. Comments and a general discussion regarding shooting proficiency with tactical automatic arms had followed. Dan had simply sat down for the remainder of the training session except when Lester had called him forward to show an individual a better way to do things. He'd responded to the questioning looks of the officers in their 20s and 30s and simply related that he seemed to have excellent kinesthetics relating to shooting. He demonstrated how he tried to achieve a balance regarding all of those things that made up finely controlled shooting.

Interestingly, three of the officers seemed to have picked up on his meaning with little effort. They had seemed to be primed to recognize what he did. Others had nodded and adjusted some aspects of their own shooting stances or styles of deploying weapons. He could only hope that the remainder picked up on the techniques as other members of the team absorbed them.

That same week he also got familiar with the park where Don had had a fight to protect Jan from two guys who thought they'd do whatever they wanted with her. Only this time it was a slightly encumbered Dan who had to deal with what was found.

The usual sort of walk had started out with Jan and both of the twins accompanying him on his routine. He'd joked that four didn't quite make a parade. He'd gotten quizzical looks from all three of the girls. He explained that if Susie had joined them then it would have probably required a parade permit for them to proceed with their walk. He'd actually gotten a grin out of Jan and giggles from Traci and Terri with that poor attempt at humor.

It wasn't long after that when grins and giggles were forgotten for that day. They'd entered the park and were passing the same patch of overgrown woods where Don and Jan had fought off two idiots when they heard the scream of a girl.

Jan said it first. "Oh God! Not again!"

Dan had no memory of what had happened before with Don. He just knew that someone was in trouble. He charged ahead without much thought about what he might find. In retrospect, that proved to have been kinda dumb. He didn't even notice when Jan charged right along with him and that the twins hurried to catch up with them.

What they found was bad. It was in a small clearing in that overgrown part of the park that no one seemed to maintain. There was a circle of bricks and cinder blocks surrounding a small fire pit. It seemed that people had used the clearing for campfires. There were also lots of beer bottles and cans. And plenty of used condoms. None of that really registered on Dan's conscience - immediately. He had other things to consider and act upon.

There were three guys. He immediately judged them to be of an age similar to Don's own age. And there was the girl. She was young - maybe twelve or thirteen. She was struggling against the boys while her legs and arms were being held down by two of the guys. They had her legs spread wide. She was also yelling, screaming, sobbing, and telling them they'd go to jail if they hurt her. The third boy was between her legs. He seemed to be working his pants loose while telling the girl to shut up. He didn't seem to be worried about jail, as he was also promising her he was going to split her open. A pair of shorts and panties were on the ground. Rape seemed to be the sport of the moment for those three boys.

Dan got mad. "Motherfuck!" Adrenaline rushed through his system and he forgot that he was partly crippled by a broken arm.

He jumped the fire pit and landed right behind the one promising the girl her splitting. He reached down with his good arm and grabbed the guy's collar. He yanked him up and back. Dan reached around across the neck to spin that unfortunate bastard around. The would-be rapist looked very surprised to find himself standing up and facing a guy who stood over him and had a cast on one arm.

Dan punched him hard in the solar plexus. The guy folded over and Dan grabbed his belt as leverage to throw him backwards. He didn't really notice the scream of pain from behind him. That was caused by the impact of Jan's foot to the balls of the would-be rapist. Dan learned about that afterwards.

The guy holding down the girl to Dan's left came up quickly as he saw his buddy thrown away from their fun. He took one step towards Don before a spinning kick connected with his jaw. Blood, spittle, and tooth fragments flew forth before he fell away to Dan's left.

The third guy was slower to rise. The reason became immediately obvious. He had paused to pull a large folding knife before rising. Dan backed off to his right and cleared the fire pit. He checked to see that Jan and the twins had backed up to the edge of the clearing. All three had a brick or piece of cinderblock in each hand. The guy he'd thrown backwards was lying in the ashes of the fire pit, groaning.

His opponent came at the partly crippled Don and slashed with the knife. Dan turned his cast into a useful tactical advantage. He took the knife's blade on the hard cast and then took the third guy down. He dropped and swept the legs out from underneath the knife wielder. The shithead whoofed out his breath as he hit the ground hard. Dan scissored Don's legs and pounded his right heel into the crotch of the guy. The bastard screamed as his nuts were smashed.

Dan rolled away and came up in a fighting stance. It didn't seem to be necessary. But being ready for anything else wasn't really an option. Still, all three would-be rapists had been caught by surprise. All three were down and folded up in various positions of pain and suffering. Not that Dan was concerned with that. And nobody else had shown up to help those three assholes.

He looked back to Jan, Traci, and Terri. "Quick, help her up while I watch these bastards!"

Don's stepsister and half-sisters quickly tossed aside their improvised weapons and rushed over to the girl. Traci shouted in recognition of the victim. "Julie! Julie! Come on! We've got to get away from here!" It was the twins who actually grabbed up the girl's arms and picked her up onto her feet. She seemed stunned to see the Nichols twins. It was Jan who picked up her shorts and panties. And Jan also took a moment to assist the guy lying in the ashes to become more familiar with the bottom of the fire pit. She picked up his feet and dumped him wholly into the ashes.

Dan grinned grimly at that sight. Maybe Jan was getting to be tired of experiencing or witnessing victimization. He took a moment to pick up the knife by the tip of the blade and carefully folded it without touching the grip panels. He then stuck it into the pocket of his running shorts. The girls were now back at the point where they'd entered the clearing. Jan had stopped them to help Julie with getting back into her shorts. Dan noticed that the panties appeared to be ripped apart. Jan hadn't tried to put them back on Julie. Dan wondered who Julie was.

The four girls backed out of the clearing and out into the main part of the park. Dan followed, keeping his eyes on the three would-be rapists until they cleared the wooded area. Don's sisters headed toward one corner of the park and Dan followed. They left the park and went less that a block before they came to a nice house with a late model Infinity parked in the driveway.

Jan ran forward to the house and went right in and started shouting for Mrs. Anderson. They were met at the door by Jan and a woman who gasped as she saw Julie. The girl broke free from the twins and rushed into the arms of the woman, sobbing wildly. Dan walked in and looked around. He saw a phone and told Jan to call her uncle Lester and tell him what happened.

Things rapidly got interesting. For the first time ever he heard Jan curse. She apparently was telling someone she didn't give a shit what kind of meeting her uncle was in. She had to talk to him NOW! Captain Thomas was on the line rather quickly. And Dan could hear his voice over the phone when the name of Julie Anderson was mentioned. He must have been shouting for Dan to have heard him.

I wonder what that's about. Maybe Lester knows the Andersons.

He'd leaned against the wall just inside the doorway and allowed himself to slide down onto the carpet. The adrenaline high was bleeding away and he was beginning to feel like the invalid he'd been in the hospital. He kept his eyes on the open door, just in case. He'd hardly been there for two minutes when a pretty blond girl came up to the door. She looked at him in surprise.

"Don - what's happened? I saw you and Jan with the twins holding up Julie. What's going on?

Obviously, this girl knew Don. Only, Dan had no idea who she was. Well, he'd had practice at this exercise. "Uh, hi. I'm sorry, but I don't recognize you. I lost all of my memories when I was hurt earlier this Summer."

She actually gasped and looked horrified. She came in and crouched down in front of him. "It's true!? Susie told me and so did Todd, too. I just couldn't believe it. That's horrible! But! What's happened to Julie!?"

Dan ran through the mentions of his stepsister Susie and Jan's friend Todd. He came up with the conclusion that this must be Don's friend Cindy. "Uh, I guess you're Cindy - right?"

She nodded. And she smiled slightly.

"OK. We caught three guys trying to rape Julie over in the park." He jerked his head in the direction of the park. "Jan and I took care of those bastards. We just brought her home. Jan called her Uncle Lester at the Sheriff's Office just now. I don't think Julie's really injured, but she's going to need some help."

Cindy gasped again. "Oh no! Jan at another attempted rape! That's horrible. How's she going to deal with this!?"

Dan smiled. "Pretty good, I think. She kicked one of the bastards in the balls and then threw him into a pile of ash at a campsite in the woods."

Cindy's eyes got large for a moment. Then she just burst! "Oh my God! Jan did that!? Wow! Oh! I've got to talk to her about that! Wait! How's Julie?" She looked over to where Mrs. Anderson was holding her daughter while Jan listened to the twins gave her names of the three guys and she passed that along to what must now be someone other than her uncle.