When Crickets Cry...

"Brayden....Baby sometimes you have to before he hurts himself...." Higgy sighed softly.

"I save him from the snake venom and then you knock him out anyways! What the fuck?!" Brayden screeched

Higgy took Brayden's face in his hands.
"I knocked him out...I didn't kill him baby."

"STILL!" Brayden didn't know what to do. He'd never been so furious and upset...

"Brayden! What else could I do! NOTHING! And neither could you!" He growled.

"You could have fucking let him go like he begged you to!!! And just wait until he cooled off!"

"Brayden baby!! He would have hurt himself, he was....He wasn't even with us...His body was there but his mind was somewhere else."

Brayden covered his face, gasping as he felt something wet on his hand. He was crying.... No, he didn't cry...

Higgy sighed and wiped away the tears.
"Im sorry Brayden....But.....Why don't I take you home? I don't think you need to be around Angel."

"No, well I'll go home if I'm bothering you but I do want to be around him..."

"Brayden....Baby...You want more with him then I think you can have. If he is going to be with you...You'll have to take care of him and right now you....you can't."

"What do you mean I can't? I could deal with his fits, what I can't deal with is you knocking him out!"

"Brayden...If I wouldnt have he would have hurt himself baby...worse....You cant deal with that..." He shook his head.

"But I will.... I...." He wanted Angell...

"You'll have to do what I did...You'll have to knock the fuck out of him and put him to sleep." He shook his head.

Brayden grimaced but nodded.
"I will........"

Higgy paused.
"Your having a fit when I did it...Can you really hit him?"

"I... If I need to." He grimaced. He was just so tiny....

Higgy shook his head.
"I dont want you hitting him....If....He.....I dont want him scared of you. I want him to trust you."

"Higgy this isn't fair! You're telling me I can't be with him unless I hit him! So I agree to hit him and then you tell me I still can't have him!"

"Im....Trying to help Brayden....Its hard with him. I....I want him to have you but...He needs someone who can help when he has those fits and the only way to do that and knock him out but...I dont want him scared of you."

"Keeping me away from him isn't helping... I want to be with him...."

"I.....Maybe you can find another way to help him....But first you might wanna know where he came from."

"Okay.. can you tell me?" Brayden asked.

"Alright....C'mon." He stepped back into Angel's room, sitting on the bed and pulling Angel into his lap.
The small boy's eye was an ugly purple and black.
"Lets talk."