The Renegade Adored

Memory: "Whoever comes here, will die, will die!" (Fairy Tales, Traditional)

"Hayden? Baby girl, open your eyes!"
She blinked blearily, her head spinning. Tracey picked her up, cradling her in his arms.
"Say something, baby girl!" said Tracey urgently, but Hayden was too dazed to talk.
She moved her hand to his, and made a fist, then brought her hand to her body, then let herself slump into his arms. Dimly, she heard the front door open.
"What's going on here?" blustered her father.
"You asshole!" Tracey roared. "How long have you been gone? You just left her here alone?"
"What? What's wrong with her?"
"Oh, like you fucking care. Just go fuck around with your damn blue girlfriend, old man. I'll take care of her."
"I was only gone for a few minutes!"
"She's only fucking six years old! I told you I would be here after work, you and your fucking tentacled whore couldn't wait a few hours to mind fuck?"
"Don't talk to me that way! I was not with my girlfriend, I left for a few minutes to meet someone about a new job!"
Tracey didn't bother to answer, as they both knew the older man was lying. Tracey picked up the bag with Hayden's medications and walked out of the bungalow with Hayden in his arms.
"Such a useless fucker," Tracey muttered under his breath as her father shouted something after him. "Open the door, Charlie."
Charlie opened the door and jumped to the back so that Tracey could put his little sister in the front seat. "Is she starving again?"
"Probably," said Tracey bitterly. "This isn't going to work. I can't leave her there anymore. He's too wrapped up in his stupid blue tart to even notice that Hayden's alive." He stroked Hayden's hair gently, and handed her a candy bar from the glove compartment. "Here, eat this for now."
Hayden smiled weakly, and pretended to eat the wrapper just to make Tracey smile. Then she devoured the candy bar, which took the edge from the razor-sharp pain in her head. "Hungry. Milkshake!"
Tracey relaxed when she finally spoke, and he kissed her forehead. "Milkshakes it is."
"Sweet!" exclaimed Charlie.
"You're paying for your own lunch, buddy. You're eleven now, you do Company work and you have a paycheck."
"Awww, no fair. I was saving up for a chemistry set!"
Tracey grinned, and put the seat restraints on Hayden, because she was a little too small to be sitting in the front seat.
Charlie handed Hayden some more candy from his bag, and she ate it gratefully. "Should be a word for it."
"A word for what, baby girl?" Tracey glanced at her, trying to figure out where Hayden's mind was.
"Half-brother, half-brother's half-brother. Why aren't there words for that?"
Tracey grinned. "I do not know, I'm afraid."
"Half-brother's half-sister!" Charlie chimed in. "I think it's because most people don't care about their half-families. At least not the way you do, Trace."
"I don't even like the whole 'half' thing. That makes it sound like I should somehow care less or something."
Hayden glanced at her brother. "Do you like Trace better than Tracey?"
"I've never actually thought about it," he admitted.
"I think Trace sounds better," said Charlie.
Hayden didn't answer, and spent all of dinner trying to decide which sounded better.
Tracey made her drink a full glass of water, and watched her take her medications after she was done eating to make sure she didn’t skip any. Despite what he had said in the car, he paid for Charlie's meal as well as Hayden's. After dinner was over, he drove back to Hayden's father's house to have it out with him.
Hayden reluctantly got out of the car, and followed Tracey inside. Charlie stayed with the car.
Tracey opened the door, and stared. "Oh, that rat-ass motherfucker." He stared. There was no one in the house, and a lot of things were gone. A lot of things. "That fucking scumbag." Tracey threw the keys at the wall in frustration. "Stay right here, baby girl." He ran upstairs, looking for a note. The only things left in the closets were Hayden's clothes and her toys. The desk had all of Hayden's paperwork from various hospitals, lying in untidy piles. The drawer in her father's room where his girlfriend had kept her alien things was also empty.
Tracey kicked the wall, put his hands to his head in frustration. He heard a small noise from the door, and looked over to see two little faces watching him, wide-eyed and scared.
"I had to use the bathroom," Charlie confessed.
Hayden just stared at him.
Tracey sighed. "It's okay. Come on, Hayden. We have to pack your things."
"Where am I going?" she asked nervously.
"You're going to come live with me, of course," said Tracey reassuringly. "You're my little sister, I have to take care of you." Tracey smiled at her, and picked her up for a hug. "And I want to take care of you, so don't you worry about that."
Hayden hugged him tightly. "Trace sounds better."
Trace grinned. He'd been waiting for her to make up her mind all evening. "Fine. Trace it is then."

Trace watched in shock as the two Blue Island enforcers dropped like rocks. Hayden jumped back with a fast bounce, like a boxer, and wiped the knife off on her jeans.
"Hayden? What are you doing here?"
"Shouldn't it be Sparks now?" she asked curiously. "Charlie and I followed you. This was so obviously a setup." She gestured towards the shattered skylight that she had used for her entrance. "He's covering the door, so I came in that way."
As if on cue, Charlie walked in. "Yo, bro. 'Sup."
"Don't talk like that, Charlie," said Trace before he could stop himself.
Charlie grinned. Ever since Trace had taken Hayden in, he had stopped swearing and took great pains to speak correctly and properly around her. Charlie liked to use slang around Trace just to make him crazy. "Shouldn't it be Fetch?" he asked. He was sixteen now, and extremely proud of his gang name, unlike Trace who almost never used his.
"Oh, don't you start with that too." Trace stared at his siblings. "You followed me all the way out here?"
"Don't look at me," protested Charlie. "This was all Hayden's idea. She said it was a trap, and that we had to watch your back."
"It was a trap!" Hayden pointed at the dead Blue Island gang members. "They didn't even have the stuff to trade!" She sheathed her knife and looked nervously at Trace, trying to figure out if he was mad at her for saving him. "Besides, Charlie drove."
Trace laughed, and pulled her into a hug. "I'm just stunned, I guess. I thought you were at work!" He looked down at her, then up at the warehouse ceiling where she had entered by shattering the skylight. "How did you do that?"
Hayden shrugged. "I just jumped."
"She does that crap all the time, bro. You should see her outrunning the gong-an."
"I've never seen anyone move so fast, I wonder…" muttered Trace, but didn't finish the sentence. He kissed Hayden on the top of her head. "Never mind. Fetch, check the bodies. Even if they didn't bring what they promised, they should have something useful."
Hayden snuggled her brother. "Are you okay, Trace?"
"I'm fine, Hayden." He smiled at her. "You did good, Sparks."
She smiled happily.