Disclaimer
: Everyone in the story is 18 years old or older at all points. Any resemblance to any actual person, alive or dead, is happenstance.
Note: for readers of the first story (which I recommend to everyone), you will notice I have changed from a first-person to a third-person perspective.
Carol woke somewhere around 6 am to the happy sounds of birds chirping.
Groaning, she thought about killing them all and turned over and pulled the blanket over her head in a vain attempt to silence them.
Last night had been rough. The entire thing had played over and over in Carol's head, making it hard for her to sleep. Her mind kept circling Cindy's heartbreaking story.
Carol was a big girl who could have told them to go fuck themselves. The worst case would have been telling the idiot she married and the kids that some asshole had raped her. Even if Al tried to blackmail her, she knew she would survive.
Cindy wasn't that strong. The mere mention of going to her parents with pictures had her doing whatever the sick fucks wanted.
That, more than anything else, forced Carol to get out of bed and get dressed. She looked at Don, noticing how peaceful he looked, sleeping just feet away from where she stood.
She smiled, remembering how much she loved him. It passed quickly, the memory of what had happened last night destroying the happy thoughts.
If the asshole had just walked me to the restroom, I wouldn't be in this mess
, she thought.
She realized she was glossing over that she could have walked away instead of getting involved. However, it was an inconvenient idea and clashed with her motivation for what she was about to do.
Placing her foot on the side of Don's chest, she pushed him as she yelled, "Time to get up, sleepyhead!"
She was satisfied as her shove, and shout caused him to jump up, ready to hit something, only to realize it was just his wife being a bitch.
"Shit, Carol. I almost hit you," he complained as he lay back and looked up at her.
"Which is why I used my foot, sweetheart," she said with a smirk.
He noticed that she was dressed. "What time is it?"
"Time to get the fuck out of bed," she told him, walking to the tent flap.
"Where are you going?" Don asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes and sitting up. He reached for his pants when Carol stopped him.
"I need a walk, and you need to get the kids up and start making breakfast."
"Let me get dressed, and I will go with you. We can make breakfast when we get back."
"You want to go with me?" Carol asked, looking innocently at her husband.
Don was fully awake and knew something was bothering Carol. Alarm bells were going off in his head as her innocent question was at odds with her attitude a few seconds ago.
"I don't want you to go alone," he told her as he put on his pants. He knew immediately that his response was the wrong one.
Carol closed her eyes and tried to calm down. Her instinct was to rip Don a new asshole. He refused to walk with her to the restroom late last night, but today he didn't want her to walk alone.
"I'm a big girl and don't need your help," she told him after controlling her emotions.
Don's initial thought was to tell her that he wanted to make sure she was safe, but something said to him that comment would land him in more shit than he was already in. So he decided to take a safer route, "You look like something is bothering you, and I thought you might want to talk."
Carol wanted to hug him almost as much as hit him. She knew if she told him what had happened, he would find the assholes involved, well, the male ones. He wouldn't hit a woman.
The outcome would be bad for them, but it might destroy Don's annoying, bubbly personality.
No, she needed someone who wouldn't lose any sleep over solving the problem.
She rationalized that not telling him was protecting him. "I want to get some fresh air and breakfast when I get back. Besides, you didn't think it was important last night to leave the bed and walk me to the restroom."
So something happened last night that she doesn't want to talk about, Don thought, looking at Carol more closely.
"About last night, I'm sorry...."
"Your not fucking sorry, asshole. You think I'm mad at you, so you want to appease me. Quit trying. Just get the kids up and get something ready for me to eat when I get back," Carol told him, holding her hands up to keep him from hugging her. She knew that if she let him hold her, she would break down and tell him everything.
"Ok, Carol," Don told her. He turned to finish dressing, the sound of the zipper opening and closing telling him that his wife had left.
Carol stood for a few seconds collecting herself before setting off for the campground entrance. She knew that she would have cell coverage at the attendant's station.
A short time later, she was sitting on a bench outside the station, making a call.
"Hey, Sis. Since you were camping, I didn't expect to hear from you for a few days. Everything ok?" Carol's brother, David, asked. He knew something was up. She liked to use her camping trips to unwind. She chooses this campground because there is no cell coverage and work interruptions.
"No"
David waited for his sister to continue, but at about 30 seconds of silence, he realized something terrible must have happened.
"Carol, are the kids ok?"
Carol sobbed into the phone as she answered. "Yes, Don and the kids are fine."
"Carol, what's going on?"
She could hear the concern in his voice, taking her back to when she was little. Anytime something happened, he was always there to fix it. She just hoped he could fix this.
In broken sentences, Carol tells her brother everything about last night. Well, almost everything. She lied about Don wanting to go with her and her stubborn refusal.
"Did you tell Don?" David asked, pissed and already putting a bag together to leave.
"No. I don't want Don to know, either. You know how he is. Don won't think about the outcome. When the dust settles, he wouldn't be able to deal with it."
David knew what she was talking about. Some teenage idiot grabbed Lexi's ass at a football game a few years ago. Don found out and almost killed the kid. The only reason that Don didn't go to jail was the father of the kid didn't press any charges.
"Ok, I'm leaving now. I should be there early tomorrow morning."
"You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?" Carol asked.
"Me, stupid? Come on, Carol," David laughed.
"Yeah, I do know you, and that concerns me," she responded, already feeling better that he was coming to help.
"Just lay low. It will all be fixed tomorrow," David assured her.
"Fixed? How are you going to "fix" it?"
"I want to talk with the assholes. Don't worry about the details, sis."
"Thanks, David."
"No worries, see you tomorrow," David said as he hung up the phone. Then, grabbing some things from the shed, he threw them into the back of his truck.
David picked up his phone and called his wife at work. It ran three times before going to voicemail. "Hey, Lisa. Something has come up with Carol, and I need to take care of it. I should be back in a couple of days. Love you."
A few minutes later, he was on the road, working through how to solve the problem.
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Don unzipped the tent the kids were sleeping in.
