"B-but... why can't we leave today?" Joshua looked at Synn with pleading eyes. "Please. I-I promise! I won't be any trouble! I want..."
"To leave this place."
Synn said as he stepped around the table, dragging the chair along with him. Joshua sat at the visitation station, with his hand, as always, restrained against the lock atop the hard oak surface as per the hospital's rules. Of course that didn't stop Synn time and again from using a key to unlock the restraint and allow the boy a bit of freedom of movement. Synn placed the chair next to Joshua's and had a seat, then reached around him and drew him in close with an arm around his shoulder. He felt the tell-tale shudder of Joshua's affinity towards being touched, a testament towards the level of physical abuse he suffered by the staff of the hospital.
Synn said as he leaned back and pulled the boy closer against him, and to Synn's surprise, Joshua seemed to allow it without much of a struggle, "I know. I know how badly you hate it here, and how much you want to be gone. And you will be." Synn turned his head and looked at the boy who brought his head up from how it had been drooping down in self-pity. "But it has to be tomorrow."
"Why?" Came the light whisper and Synn felt a pang in his chest, one that he never believed himself capable of feeling for another human being. For the vast majority of his life he had lived by one credo; to watch out for himself as nobody else would. All of that seemingly changed the day he stepped into this very room and laid eyes on his sixteen year old son for the first time.
Synn answered, "Because that is the soonest I could get the work done for the staff to release you into my care, Joshua. When we leave this place tomorrow, you will be under my care, my protection. I will be your legal guardian due to your 'problems' even until after your eighteenth birthday. There are still a few things the doctors here must do to finalize that, and I want to make certain I have your room at our home in the States ready."
Joshua looked up, his fist pressed hard against his lap. He frowned in questioning, "The States?"
Synn nodded, "We'll be leaving Canada, Joshua. I hope you don't mind. I thought it might make things easier for you to be as far away from this place as possible."
Joshua looked back away from him and Synn watched his face carefully. His eyes danced at the thoughts running through his head. Joshua wanted to ask him questions about other things, but something he had just said gave him pause and seemed to take precedence.
"My own room?"
Synn found himself smiling and he nodded. "Yes. So one more night Joshua. Then first thing in the morning, you'll be free of this place."
Joshua's head moved and he looked at Synn with a desperate longing to believe. Synn withdrew his arm from around him and set his hand firmly on his shoulder.
Synn said, "And I spoke to the head doctor here. Nobody will touch you. They will let you go back to your room, eat, have your medications, and maybe watch those videos that I brought for you. If you're cooperative."
"I will be!" Joshua nodded eagerly. "I love Looney Tunes!"
"I know." Synn nodded, giving his shoulder a pat. "Now, are we ready?"
Joshua nodded silently, looking aside and out the large, glass window. There was a whole world out there he would soon be able to explore. He turned back to watch as Synn walked towards the closed and locked facility door and almost cringed as he rapped his clenched knuckles against it to alert the medic's attention. Synn glanced back and Joshua looked absolutely miserable.
"It'll be alright." Synn assured him and Joshua shrugged and looked down. The insecurities of whether or not this man was truly here to save him from this place continued to surge through his mind, but hope, as they said, sprung eternal. Joshua had it in spades.
The door opened and it was the head doctor himself, Doctor Oswald Silkworth was the very man who opened it with caution. Synn waited, and the doctor paused and watched him, waiting. Like most patients with visitors, he expected Synn to step outside of the room so that he and the two interns who stood against the hall's far wall could go inside and secure the patient. Synn did not do this. He would not give this doctor who had treated Joshua the power over him. Synn had already imposed his will a multitude of times against this man who thought it incapable of being done against him. It was how Synn had been able to visit Joshua without any form of supervision -- no other rare visitor had been allowed such a privilege.
Finally realizing that Synn was not going to do as he expected, Doctor Silkworth took the initiative and stepped inside of the room. He looked over at Joshua who instinctively hid his eyes from one of the doctors who mistreated him but never by any admission.
Doctor Silkworth asked, "Joshua, did you behave yourself today?"
Joshua shoved his fists between his knees and nodded silently in the affirmative.
"Good boy." Silkworth nodded and he turned to look out towards the two interns and gave them a curt nod, "It's okay. We're ready."
Synn stepped back and the two men walked cautiously into the room, and as the good doctor turned to approach Joshua to unlock his wrist restraint from the table, he stopped short when he saw the handcuff still attached to the table, but not to Joshua's wrist. He blinked back his hidden surprise and looked over at Synn who just smiled and gave his shoulders a nonchalant shrug of indifference.
Irritated by this man's lack of care in following his rules, Doctor Silkworth exhaled sharply through his nose but said nothing to him. He knew what Synn had against both him and the hospital. He forced a smile and asked Joshua, "Alright Joshua, we're going to have you taken back to your room."
Joshua whimpered and pressed himself back against the seat as the interns approached him. Before Silkworth could speak, Synn did so for him;
"Joshua." Synn said from where he stood. "I told you that it would be alright. Just one more night. That's it."
Joshua looked up at Synn with an intense desire to believe the man. Slowly, deliberately, he pushed himself up from his chair and allowed the two men to flank his sides as they escorted him from out of the room. Synn followed out into the hall, with the doctor behind him. Synn's stare was intense as he watched the trio walk down along the hall, and feeling his eyes against him, Joshua cast a longing glance back over his shoulder and Synn gifted him with a wink.
They vanished around a corner as Silkworth stepped up beside Synn and said, "You'll be returning for him first thing in the morning?"
Synn nodded before answering, "I will."
Silkworth felt this was a terrible mistake to remove the boy from their 'care' but in this case, he had little choice but to comply. "Very well." He said. "All of the paperwork as well as his belongings will be ready for when you arrive."
"Good." Synn said. "And please remember our agreement, Doctor. If anyone so much as touches him between now and then, I will end you."
Their eyes were locked against one another's in an intense stare down.
"I hate you!"
The words stung. He had been told that many times before by strangers and exes, wrestling fan and religious zealot, on a vast number of occasions, but always he simply smiled and shrugged it off as a meaningless expression of emotional weakness. Not this time. Not with the one who had said it. He had just had Margaret, Despayre's mother, removed from their house as well as their lives, and it looked like there would be a heavy price to pay for such a burden.
"Joshua..." Synn started to say, but the moment he took that first step forward, Despayre turned on his heels at the top of the stair case and bolted for his bedroom with an audible shriek of dismay the only thing having been left in his wake.
Synn did not take that next step. Not yet. He stared up the staircase and toward the upper landing of his and Despayre's house at where he knew the boy was in hiding, currently going through an emotional wave of torment. For so many years Despayre had been sealed away from society, only being out of the hospital off and on sporadically when a family with 'good intentions' would take him into their foster care -- only for them to realize he was by far more troubled than they realized and he would be dumped back into the mistreating care of the Broodmoore hospital's staff. The only shining beacon he had during that entire time had been the misguided faith he held in his mother, the same woman Synn had just ejected. Through all of the weeks, months and years he was held in vexation, he had just one belief... one hope; that his mom would come rescue him.
Yet she never did. She had perhaps a handful of visits with him at first, but they eventually ceased and he simply never saw her again. Not until just recently.
Of course, Despayre did not remember any of this. Not exactly. In the fragile nature of his mental prowess, he simply bore a fractured sense of time in a way, and he did not recall or believe his mom had been absent from his life for so long. To him, the years were perhaps but days. Who knew how the mind of such an individual as his son worked? Synn certainly didn't, and it galled him all the same. Synn had always prided himself on being a man that could watch and know how the mind worked of any given individual through simple observation. Not so easy a task with a man who had such a mind that was always revealing something new to those around him. A mind that could be both caring and soothing, as well as violent and unpredictable.
He only needed one guess as to which he would be dealing with now.
Gabriel had been right when he had said that Despayre's mother had the advantage against him. Despayre knew nothing of how Margaret had locked him away inside of Broodmoore and left him there to seemingly rot. He just saw his mom as he remembered her; loving and nurturing. In Synn he saw a man he now knew as his father, absent throughout the vast majority of his life, but who had saved him from that bad place -- and who was keeping him from his mom.
In one fell swoop, Synn had snuffed out that beacon that was the sole bright star in the dark void that his son's mind seemed to be time and time again. If he could not find a way to rectify this, all the work he had done to get Despayre to both trust and care, would be for naught. The past few years that he had painstakingly worked to help him find his own place in the world around him might just be ruined. And he would have nobody else to blame save for Margaret -- and himself.
His son.
Synn shook his head as the full brunt of the revelation that he had discovered just a few short years ago hit him once again. It always seemed to be new and, yes, difficult to believe himself as a father. It was not something that he had ever aspired to be. He never thought of having a family in the traditional sense. He had enjoyed his time with women (as well as men) over the years but never thought he'd be in the place that he was in today. Yet here he was, and he thought many times that he wouldn't have traded places with anyone against the time that he'd spent with Joshua since that first day they had met.
"Synn?"
The voice drew him from his personal recollections and Synn looked away from the stairs to where Rage had been standing, and Theresa was close behind him, her own attention looking up toward the second floor where they all heard something slamming against the floor.
"Hm?" Synn whispered through pursed lips as a light crash caught his attention away from them. "What is it?"
"What is it?" Rage mused. "You want us to go up there with you?" He jetted a thumb toward the stairwell.
Synn narrowed his eyes in deep thought before he finally exhaled and shook his head. He couldn't always allow himself to rely on others to aid him with Joshua, especially when the situation such as this promised to be extreme in nature. Three times since Despayre had screamed at him, Synn came close to picking up the phone to call Gabriel. But he couldn't do it then nor now. Despayre -- Joshua -- was his son. He had to handle this.
"No." Synn finally answered Rage. "What you can do is do me a small favor."
Rage frowned. "What?"
"Take Theresa here out until it's time for us to go see Gabriel's show." Synn answered. "Get the two of you a coffee. Take her grocery shopping or for a drive." He shrugged. "Whatever. I think I'm going to need the time alone with Joshua."
"Are you sure?" Theresa herself asked as she stepped up beside Rage who looked a little put off. Of all the favors he might have been asked, simply stepping out for awhile was not one he had assumed he'd be asked to do.
Synn answered, "I am." He looked at the two from the corner of his eyes and said, "Go on."
Rage didn't say anything. he just gave a nod and turned and started to walk away with the housekeeper in tow. He heard the front door close and he turned his head away from the direction of the noise and back to look upstairs where it was unnervingly silent.
"Joshua?"
"I hate him!"
"Don't say that."
"But I do! I hate him!"
"I don't believe that for a minute. And I don't think you do either."
"Oh yes I do! He just kicked mom out! He yelled at her!"
"Joshy..."
"I hate him! I can't believe he won't let me see her! She's my mom!"
"And he's your dad."
"She was my mom first!"
"No, he's always been your dad. The only difference is that now, you know it."
"He should have told me! He should have told me that first day!"
"And how do you think you would have reacted if he had? Remember all the things your grandpa used to tell you about him?"
"Mm hm?"
"And?"
"He always said bad things about him. Called him bad names. Mom and grandma hated it when he did. He told me he never wanted me."
"And now that you know him, do you believe that?"
"I'unno."
"Oh don't give me that! He's done nothing but love you and treat you like a son!"
"If that's true, then why didn't he tell me? Huh? Answer me that."
"Because of all the lies that your grandpa was telling you. He might have thought you'd reject him, maybe hate him..."
"I do...!"
"You're mad at him, but you don't hate him."
"Joshua?"
"I do so hate him...."
The footsteps were heard in the hall just outside of the bedroom door.
"Don't do anything silly Joshy..."
Synn walked the long corridor of the hallway, until he stood outside the closed bedroom door of Despayre's. He frowned as he leaned in and heard a soft voice murmuring from behind. He recognized the voice being that of Despayre's. he could only assume he was having a bit of a so-called counciling session with Angel, perhaps. He reached over for the knob and grasped it, but when he turned it proved to be locked. That was when Despayre ceased his talking.
"Joshua?" He gave a rap on the door. "Open the door."
He paused but nothing was said. he waited and there was no sound to indicate Despayre had heard him, let alone would pay his order any heed.
"Joshua." Synn called a little more forcefully. "Are you alright?"
He tugged and twisted the doorknob again but no avail, save for a voice that called out from behind the closed door;
"Go away!"
"Open the door!" Synn demanded. "Now, Joshua!"
Still, nothing. No movement, and now no response.
"Fine." Synn growled and he grabbed the knob tightly and he promptly slammed his full body weight right into the door and with a loud 'crack', it swung open and slammed back against the wall with a bang. Hm, he'd have to have that fixed.
"Get out!" Despayre shrieked and he stood up abruptly from where he had scooted between the edge of his bed and the side of the wall, as if he were trying to shield himself from the harsh world the way he used to do in the hospital. He placed Angel gingerly on the pillows against the headboard and clenched his fists at his sides. "Get out!"
Okay, he knew immediately that he had made yet another mistake. Breaking his way into Despayre's private little sanctuary being it, and it had set the boy off immediately on an outraged verbal tangent.
"Get out!"
"Joshua!" Synn said as he took a cautious step inside. "Listen to me. We are going to talk and..."
"No!" Despayre suddenly ran around the bed and lunged at Synn and he tried pushing him back out the way he had come in. Synn's size helped prevent this from happening against the much smaller man, but in his current frame of mentality, Despayre's adrenaline was pumping and Synn had to grab onto the corner of the wall in order to keep his balance.
"Joshua! Stop this!"
"Get out!" Despayre cried out. "I hate you! Get OUT!!!"
Despayre stopped trying to push Synn out by force and he suddenly took a swing at him! Synn managed to block the blow with his forearm but Despayre simply snapped! Forgotten was the day he had spent with Rage having fun at the zoo. All he saw and remembered now was the man in front of him that swiftly ejected his beloved mom from out of his life. Both of Despayre's fists flew at him in a raging flurry as he screamed at the top of his voice.
"I WANT MY MOM! I WANT MY MOM!"
Synn managed to hold his blows at bay long enough until he snagged one of his wrists in his hand, but then in a shocking move, Despayre swung his other small fist and it clipped Synn right in the chin. It surprised the larger man, more than it hurt him -- physically. Synn's head snapped to the side for a brief second before he spun his head back and all he could do was stare at his boy. Despayre stared back and seemingly froze. His eyes shook as he took no more swings at Synn. He did not even struggle to tear his hand from Synn's grip. Synn relaxed his tight hold and Despayre slowly lowered his hand and he looked down and away, as if he were trying to think of where he might run or hide.
"Joshua..." Synn started to say and he stepped forward but Despayre took a hasty step back and started to shake his head 'no'. He reached for Despayre's arm but the boy flinched openly and he started breathing heavily and looking at him with a shocking fear in his gray eyes. It was almost as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water in his face and shocked him out of his latest bout of hysterics. "Come on. We need to go..." Synn said and he grabbed quickly at Despayre's arm and the boy cried out sharply.
"No!" Despayre started to wail and the flood gates opened as tears immediately flowed from his eyes and down his cheeks. "No! Please! No!"
Synn frowned as Despayre struggled more so now than he just did when he tried to forcibly remove Synn from his bedroom. His struggles increased to where the poor kid lost his balance and fell to the floor in front of his bed, almost taking Synn down with him!
"Please! No!" He cried vehemently and grabbed desperately at the leg to his bed. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please don't!"
"Don't...?" Synn relaxed at trying to force him back to his feet but did not release his grip.
Despayre looked up at him and Synn could see the stark terror in the boy's eyes as he lost all control of his emotions and he clenched his eyes shut and his mouth fell open in a silent sob. He let go of the bed post and fell into a state of seeming, if you will pardon the pun, despair.
He gasped in his sobs, unable to catch his breath. "I-I don't w-want t-to go b-back..." He choked back and whispered, "please..."
Synn closed his eyes in realization. Damn it. Even after all these years, all of the reassurance, the fear was still rooted deep inside his mind. Despayre, no -- Joshua's greatest fear of being returned to Broodmoore and being abandoned by those he had come to adore as friends and family. It was starting to appear as though Synn would never be able to permanently alleviate that one thing from the recesses of Despayre's subconscious.
He pulled Despayre toward him and Despayre immediately started to shriek in protest again but instead of being forced to his feet, the boy found himself wrapped tightly in an embrace. Despayre was frozen, unsure how to react except that he allowed his eyes to drift closed and his fingers tangled themselves into the cloth of Synn's shirt sleeves.
His head came to a rest against Synn's chest as he was held and he whispered between sobs, "Why did you yell at me?"
"I shouldn't have, Joshua." Synn acknowledged. "At times I lose control of this temper of mine. For that I am so very sorry."
Despayre let go of his clinging so tightly of his sleeves and slowly his hands reached around and he returned Synn's embrace. It was the experience of a son being held by his father and was not lost on either of them. Synn felt somewhat uncomfortable at the experience. Not at holding his son, no. But wondering simply if he were doing things right.
"Why won't you let my mom see me?" Despayre whispered, gasping hard to catch his breath as a fresh wave of emotion overtook him. "Why do you hate her?"
Synn struggled to find the words to answer his question. He wondered if he even should answer him. It could very well prove to be the catalyst to catastrophe. If Despayre were to learn the truth about how his beloved mother abandoned him, it could end everything with no coming back from the proverbial void.
Synn pulled him closer and held him tightly, as he said, "Joshua, there are some things that I simply cannot tell you right now. But you will understand everything one day. I promise. But I want you to understand one thing for now, and one thing only." He let go of the hug just long enough so that he could cup the boy's chin in his hand and tilt his head up to look at him. "You will never go back to that horrible place. Ever again. I told you that before. I don't care if you want to get angry and yell at me and vent. I will never abandon you. Do you understand that?"
Despayre just lowered his head and placed it back against Synn's chest and he asked, "Can we go see Gabriel's show?"
It was if he were returning from a waking dream. He had lost all hope in the time he had spent here, and believed he would never again be allowed to leave Broodmoore. he thought nobody cared about him. Nobody wanted him. He simply stood there on the 'other' side of the doors of the hospital's main entrance and looked around at the morning skyline as it was still tinted with the colorful hues of the dawn. He held his meager belongings in a bag against his chest and seemed unsure if this was somehow another cruel prank being played on him.
"Joshua?"
He jerked, startled, and looked at where the mean doctor was standing beside Synn.
"Are you all right?" Synn asked with his brow creased in concern.
Joshua looked away from them. He looked over toward the parking lot with all of the cars and within his sight fell the traffic on the road and even across from that, an open field. He shivered lightly and looked back at the two men.
"This isn't a joke?" He whispered in hope. "I really get to go with you?"
Synn nodded as he stepped forward. "Yes, Joshua. You do."
"Can we go see Gabriel's show?"
To anyone else it would seem a strange sight for a fully grown man to be holding another and rocking him like a child, but it seemed to be an instinctive act on Synn's part as he held his nineteen year old son. A nineteen year old son with the mind of a toddler.
"Of course we can." Synn said as he held him close. "Gabriel would be very cross with me if you missed even one."
"So would Angel." Despayre murmured.
Synn could only smirk.
"I'm sorry I said I hated you." The boy whispered.
"Come on, Joshua."
Synn wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders and guided him past the doctor, and away from Broodmoore.
"I'm taking you home."
"I have to admire your persistence gentlemen. I mean that. Even when faced with the adversity of going up against a clearly superior and by far more experienced tag team, you just don't give up. Some might call it foolhardy, others might think of it as fortitude. Either way, you obviously believe you have a chance at upending Sinful Obsession's reign as the SCW Tag team Champions."
"I'm here to set you straight."
"Now before I go on, let me assure you that this time you're not listening to Synn. I know, it seems unfathomable that you're hearing from someone totally different than Despayre's father in one of the boy's promotional outtakes, but it's happening so stay with me."
"I sat and watched you both studying videos of past matches of Despayre and Gabriel as a combination, from matches they had in both Sin City Wrestling as well as their old stomping grounds of the Asylum Wrestling Alliance. I just don't quite get just how far you imagine that's going to get you. Please, allow me to explain."
"You see, this isn't high school, guys. You are not studying for some history exam. You were studying to go in there in the ring for a match against one of the most unpredictable superstars to ever enter this sport. Unpredictable being the key word. Get it? No? Hm, dang. I guess I'm going to have to go into a little bit of detail. You see, so many others before you have watched Despayre in the ring, whether it be in the rare singles competition or his preferred teaming up with Gabriel. Whether it's a match for a championship, or not, studying seems to do an opponent no good -- and do you know why?"
"Unfortunately, I don't think you do."
"Take for example, what I said as far as it not being a history exam that you're studying for. History has happened. It's a done deal. It has already taken place so the events are never changing and studying for it gives you the option of understanding those past events. But I also said Despayre was unpredictable, and by that the meaning is clear. His mind is ever changing, as are his actions inside of the ring. In one instant, he could go from flying through the air against an opponent, to wrestling them down to the mat, to simply attacking them like a rabid animal. From one to the other and back again. How do you prepare for such an experience, hm? How could all the studying in the world possibly prepare you for an opponent who simply can't be predicted when you don't know what he's going to do next?"
"You can't. Quite the paradox, huh? One one hand, if you watch his matches to study, it's a waste of time because he can be capable of absolutely anything and for that, you can't prepare for. On the other hand, if you don't watch, you'll lose sight of what he could be capable of. Boy! I'd certainly hate to be the two of you!"
"Face facts, Weapon-X. You bought into this match, thinking you'd have the advantage over Despayre. You, like so many others, think his size and unique way of thinking puts you in line to put him down for the count. Yet to date, nobody has been able to do it. All that confidence in the world that you can muster behind you won't do you any good. One-on-one/ You might. Who knows? But this isn't a singles encounter, is it? No, this is a tag team match, and your partner isn't the one you've had any experience with. You're not teaming with your wife. You're teaming with Aleksei Koji. True, he's a very good wrestler, and capable of one day being a future champion. But not this time, and certainly not with you. This is your first match together as a team. You have a l-o-n-g way to go before you'll be prepared to even be a decent challenge for Despayre and Gabriel and be champions at their expense. The champions will not be losing to a team that has yet to even have even one match together. And a team with you on it? That will put you at an even bigger disadvantage."
"You opened up a huge can of worms all those months ago when you just showed up and started throwing about all these accusations against Gabriel and Synn. You have absolutely no idea of the can of worms you and your wife opened in trying to use Despayre's past as a means to an end for your own career advancement. The last time you faced Despayre? Yeah. You lost. that was when he had Kittie for a partner. Now he has Gabriel in his corner, and the stakes are even higher. Not for the champions. No, the risk of them losing the titles is minimal at best. No. I'm referring to whether or not there'll be anything left of you to be swept under the rug when you're made to answer for everything you've started. try not to get too optimistic."
"Sorry, Koji. I hate to be too much of a negative Nelly but the truth has to be stressed in cases like this. You say that you're a fan of ours? Well, I can say the feeling is mutual. You're a dude among dudes! You're one of the more entertaining guys on the SCW roster and Despayre and Gabriel, I'm sure, are both looking forward to meeting you inside of the ring."
"The only thing they have against you though is your poor choices in tag team partners. That alone is what's going to cost you in this match. Oh please don't mistake me in thinking that they won't be paying any attention to you once the bell rings. Quite the contrary! They've seen you plenty and what you've accomplished when you set your mind to it. Synn and I have made sure they've taken note of your strengths and your weaknesses, and are certain in how best to exploit either and both. Well, Gabriel at least. We try with Despayre but he usually starts rambling on about wanting to switch from the tapes to watch Looney Tunes. He seems to do his best when he just lets loose and goes in there and does what comes naturally -- when we can get him to focus, that is. And who can argue with that, given his rate of success?"
"What I want you to come to understand, Aleksei, is that when you're in the ring with my two boys, they are going to give you everything that they can and more! But when they're against Weapon-X, they're simply going to want to hurt him for everything that he and his wife has said about them in times past. They're going to need a toothpick to pick his parts from Despayre's teeth weeks from now. And then, that leaves you. Once your partner has been decimated, where do you go from there?"
"To the showers, Koji. There's just nowhere else once that bell rings and the Sins walk away once again with their reputations and records fully intact."
The bathroom door opened and Despayre walked out and stood in his bedroom. His face glistened from where he had finished washing away the dried tears and he hurried over to his bed and picked Angel up. He looked him over and wondered aloud, "Now who moved you?"
Something else caught his attention. He frowned and walked over toward his entertainment center and huffed before looking at the teddy bear.
"Now i thought you told me you'd only use this when I was in the room to help you. You know electronics aren't your strong suit."
Despayre reached up and switched off the video camera...
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