Title: Until It Sleeps (7/?)
 

I parked my car outside the large hotel where Sean told me to go.  I walked inside, looking around until I found the Sean.  "You so owe me for this," he muttered as we walked passed the check-in desk.

Once we got up the first flight of stairs, I grinned at him.  "Thanks for getting me in here, pipsqueak.  I'll buy you some Mountain Dew or something, ok?"

Sean flipped me off as he walked away, leaving me by myself.  I found the room number Sean gave me with ease.  I took a deep breath before knocking.  The door squeaked open.  "What do you...Mark?"

I drew back my fist and hit Hunter in the face, sending him stumbling backwards.  "Let's chat, Helmsly."

He got his balance and shoved me.  "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

I grabbed his shoulders, holding him still.  "Let’s start with you running me down with a fucking car."

He struggled against me, but I was holding out, until he managed to get a kick at the back of my bad knee.  I fell, and it was all over from there.

He got on top of me, punching and kicking.  I tried to fight back, but it wasn't working.  Fuck, this was not supposed to go this way!  He pummeled me until I could barely see, barely breathe, barely move.  Then, he shifted to kneel over me, his knees pinning down my arms.  "Did you think you were just gonna come in here and beat me down, Mark?  What did you take me for?"  He was breathing heavy, his eyes nearly glowing with rage. "After all, I pulled off that scheme where your ass was lying dead in the road.  Too bad it wasn't."  Suddenly, his rage seemed to ebb and the cold steel was back in his voice.  "And you know what?  Not only did I fuck with you physically, I got to you mentally.  You know your little wussy fuck-buddy?  Guess what?  Guess what happened to him?  Guess why he can barely stand to look people in the eyes?  Why he won’t come into work?  His ass was lying on the ground too, but it wasn't a car that got him down.  No, he was violated.  In the worst way ever possible."

Oh my fucking God.  My eyes widened and with strength I didn’t know I had, I flipped Hunter off of me.  Now I was the one pinning him down, filled with fury.  "You son of a bitch!  I'll tell you what.  You can beat my ass down, you can run me over with a fucking car, you can do whatever you want to me, but when it comes to Dennis you don’t touch him and get the fuck away with it!"  Drops of my blood were falling onto Hunter.  "I could be dead, I could be hanging on to a thread of life, but you go after him, you do what you did, I will come back.  It doesn’t matter how many times you beat me, how many times you run me over with a car, how much blood pours out of my body...I will come back."

Hunter smiled in his sick way.  "Oh, but Mark...it wasn't me who did it at all."

I pulled him half off the ground so I could slam him back into it.  "What the fuck are you trying to tell me?  Spit it out or I will beat you to a bloody pulp so it pours out of you!"

Hunter was still grinning at me.  "Old man, you’re a fucking fool.  We...me and Stephanie...we pulled off the last thing you would expect.  I didn't rape him.  She did."

There was just a moment of hesitation before I slammed his head into the floor again.  It dazed him enough where a few more punches were able to make him completely unconscious.  I walked out of the hotel room and got into my car.

Oh shit.  Oh my God, anything but that.  It explains so much though....why he's so scared all the time, so depressed....dammit, how had I not KNOWN?   Why didn't he tell me?  Ad then Kane's words drifted back to me from earlier that night, "Don’t be a prick, Mark..."  Of course he hadn't told me.  I had been such a bastard since the moment I came out of the coma, he probably couldn’t stand to be near me...

My head hit the steering wheel.  What had I done?

Finally, I collected myself enough to drive home, stopping along the way at a rest stop to get the blood cleaned off my face.  I walked up to the door and went inside, hoping to find Kane so I could figure out what to do with this whole fucking mess.

Dennis sat on the couch, staring at me sleepily.  "Mark?"  His voice was quiet.

I took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and said the only thing I could think of.  "Oh God."