[center]Collab with [@BrutalBx][/center]
[color=ed1c24][center][h1]Mordechai Boaz[/h1][/center][/color]
Mordechai had just finished scrubbing his face when he heard the speakers turn on in the gym. Sighing, he left the bathroom and made his way down the hall and into the large area, just as Mr. Payne began his speech. 

The doorjamb dug into his shoulder as he leaned against it, his whole body screaming against actually entering the gym; he'd spent plenty of time here with Danny…

The mere thought sent his mind wandering, spiraling into a memory in sharp relief.
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[center][color=82ca9d][i][u]Season 2, Episode 14[/u][/i][/color][/center]
[i]"Decky, c'mon!" Danny whined, reaching for the basketball that his big brother had held over his head. The two boys had just moved in with Mr. Beau, and despite the man's welcoming presence and promise that it was their home as well for right now, the brothers still enjoyed spending time other places. The middle school had just let out, and Decky had met up with his brother and brought him to the highschool, skipping his last class so that they could hang out together in the gym.

He hoped Mr. Beau didn’t catch him skipping. The man was one of few that could actually make the teen feel bad about his amoral behaviour. Not because the man is cruel to him about it, but because he seems to genuinely understand and care.

His own thoughts betrayed him by pulling his focus, allowing Danny to jump on him in order to reach the ball. They both went tumbling to the floor in a heap of laughter as the ball itself rolled aimlessly out of reach. So caught up in their bonding, the two boys didn’t notice the shadow that fell over them. That is, of course, until Mr. Beau himself let out a short cough, arms crossed and eyebrow raised at the scene before him.

Decky let out a nervous cough in answer as Danny rolled off him and into a sitting position. “H-heeey, Mr. Beau…”

With his usual great smile on his face, Edenridge High’s English teacher span the basketball in his hands. “Well ain’t this a sight to behold? The Boaz brothers playing ball in the gym. Maybe I should speak to Coach O’Hara and get you put on the team Decky? You’ve got a mean hook shot and maybe it’ll teach you a little thing about humility and respect” Beau’s smile faded to a face of disappointed as he bounced the ball off of the floor and back to Decky. “What on God’s Earth are you doing boy?!”

Mr Beau had come across many people during his time. Growing up in New Orleans, his environment was one that was far from tranquil. Every other weekend, somewhere on his block there was a shooting or a stabbing. Corner boys fell where they stood, dropping dime bags and bullets as they crumbled. It was hard life but Beau knew it wasn’t for him, the call of the badge and blue was too great. Natural police. Stints in Narcotics and Homicide showed him just how dark the path can be for boys and girl in similar positions that he himself used to be in, could be. That in itself was what lead him to teaching, well that and a love for the written word. And now here he stood with two boys going down that same path and he was in a position to try and stop them.

Decky couldn’t help the full body flinch at the man’s raise of voice. He instinctively brought his arms out in front of himself, crossed to defend his body from the oncoming hit. All that touched him was the basketball, which bounced harmlessly off his knee. His cheeks stained red in embarrassment as he scrambled to his feet, helping Danny up but not turning his back to Mr. Beau.

It was hard reminding himself that this was a Good Man. That Mr. Beau wouldn’t hurt him; hell, he’d helped get him and Danny[/i] out[i]of that situation in the first place by offering to take the brothers in.

Arms crossed over his chest and body shielding his little brother, Decky glared at the ground. “Sorry, Mr. Beau. I wanted to walk Danny here from the middle school... then I didn’t want to go to class and I knew the gym was open and-” He began scratching at his arm. The track marks from some of his last hits were slowly, painfully fading, and he couldn’t help the way his stomach rolled at the thought of another hit. He knew a guy. Hell, he knew several. Two of them were in his last class of the day…

Danny grabbed his wrist, pulling his big brother’s hand from his arm and holding it in his own as they waited for the lashing from their temporary guardian, eyes glued to the floor instinctively.

Beau folded his arms and let out a great sigh from his nose as he looked at the brothers. He had seen this type of reaction before. These boys knew both physical and emotional pain, a raised voice meant a flinch which meant a strike that should never have been thrown. A strike that carried enough weight to change a boy’s life. Enough of those blows had been struck at Decky and Danny already, no more, not if Beau could help it.

“I’m gonna tell you story boys. If you’ll indulge me?” Motioning his hand towards the bleachers nearby, Beau took a seat and waited for the brothers to join. “You know when I came up, ain’t no man, woman or child who wasn’t in the game. On my block alone, you had kingpins, corner boys and ladies of the night. Still, as rough as that neighbourhood was, it was a community. You helped the old lady cross the street and nobody was no victim that didn’t matter. We had bad boys for real, not so much gunslingers but mothers who knew what to do with their hands. I was desperate to be like them. One day, I cut class and go off with his little girl from around the way. Ain’t no thing right? We’re foolin’, we go down to the train tracks, little spot kids would go. We hear the train so we decide to move….then she gets stuck. Her hair was caught on the tracks, I couldn’t do anything but watch as that damn three thirty train to the French Quarter smushed her brain into nothing. I ran home, as fast as my chubby little legs would take me. Word got out, that night those same boys I idolised came into my home, pulled me from my bed and went hard on me in the middle of the street, the entire neighbourhood...just stood there and watched. They screamed at me. You’re better than this life here, schoolboy. Didn’t realise til much later what they were doing for me. You understand boys? Where you come from? It don’t matter. The life you lead before? It don’t matter. What matters is what you do with the time that’s given to you and how you impact other lives. If I don’t teach you anything else, remember this; all lives matter, even yours.”[/i]
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Mordechai remembers crying for the first time in years that day. He remembers gripping his brother's hand tight as they sat on bleachers in silence, his track marks irritating him but his brother staying his hand. That was the day when he really truly started going to classes, despite his previous promise to Lanie.

Absently, he scratches his arm where the track marks once were. 

He never did tell Mr. Beau that he was leaving, and the thought sends a strike of pain to his chest as he sees the older man sitting to the side on the bleachers; the same bleachers where he'd given Decky and his brother such meaningful words.

Listening to Mr. Payne speak, Mordechai found himself disagreeing with the man's words. Decker’s ‘darkness’ didn't  [i]try[/i] to enter their lives, it [i]succeeded[/i] in doing so. It even destroyed some completely. That day, way back when, the only person Decky picked up was his brother, limp and bloody from the cafeteria floor.

His heart twisted again. If he didn't know any better, he'd think he had a condition.

When Mr. Payne ended his speech, people began to mill around; Mordechai kept his eyes on Mr. Beau. He had to apologize. Had to tell the man how much he meant to Danny and himself.

He couldn't bring himself to enter the gym; his feet were glued to the floor and muscles pulled taught. Effort straining his simple movement, he raised his hand to catch Mr. Beau’s attention, hoping the older man would get the message and make his way over.

“That was a good speech, Kerry” Beau shook his predecessor's hand and nodded. “That was a talent of yours I haven’t yet picked up as Principal” The two elder men stood in idle chat as the memorial goers began to mingle for themselves. The whole idea of the memorial was to not only remember life but to celebrate it.

Beau’s dark eyes were called to the corner of his vision as he saw a long departed face in the doorway, waving his hand. Mordechai. Excusing himself from the conversation with Kerry, Beau made his way over to the doorway to look upon the now grown stature of one of his former charges. He did not hold any ill will towards Decky, quite the opposite really. Beau had seen enough in his life to know that sometimes the only way for a person to move forward is to move off to the side which is exactly what young Mr. Boaz had done. He had ran off into the distance and not looked back since.

“Get yourself in here boy” Beau grabbed Decky by the back of his neck and pulled him into a hug. He allowed himself to squeeze the young man tight in the embrace. He had missed him dearly and worried about him constantly. The day Decky left was a hard one. That morning, it was a Wednesday, so it was gumbo night in the Beauregard household. Beau was outside the school, making sure there was no one cutting class or leaving the grounds. When the first shot rang out, he instinctively looked for his own gun which he no longer had. In that moment he was a cop again and not an overweight English teacher. He watched kids run from the building and he watched one run back in. He knew better than to run in himself but a day hasn’t gone by since where he didn’t wish that he had gone back. It wasn’t until the evening, when Charlie Decker was dead and the bodies had been counted that Beau found out Danny had been a victim. No one had heard from Decky and it wasn’t until a month later when Beau was told he was alive but that’s all he was told.

 “You’re a little late for that gumbo. Guess I’m gonna have to ground you for a couple days.”

Tears fell from Decky’s eyes at the man’s words, and his grip on him tightened in desperation.  Burying his face in the crook of Beau’s neck, Decky felt like a child again.

Despite having been moved out of Beau’s home for almost half a year at the time of the shooting, the older man all but demanded that the two still have dinner with him at least once a week. They always tended to come over on Wednesday’s, since the man’s cooking was to die for but his gumbo specifically was out of this world.

After being pulled away from Danny’s body that day, Decky ran off; not to his apartment or Phil’s Garage, not to Beau’s, and not to Lanie. He spent the time at a funeral home and cemetery, speaking to the Funeral Director, Rabbi, and Groundskeeper about a place for his brother. Twenty hours after the shooting, Danny was buried at the Z”L cemetery in a quick but tasteful ceremony. Four hours later, Decky was passing a sign saying “You Are Now Leaving The Bay State.”

“I’m so sorry,” He whispered. “I’m so, [i]so[/i] so-sorry…” He pulled back slightly, desperate for the comfort but needing to look the man in the face. “I should have said goodbye...I...I should have told you where I was going,” He wiped the fresh tears from his face and gave Beau a sad smile. “I guess your lessons on manners didn’t rub off as well on me as they did on...on Danny.” He tried not to choke on his little brother’s name. “You meant so much to him. To us…”

“You got nothing to be sorry for, not a damn thing” Beau showed off a pearly white grin as he looked upon the boy turned man. He had grown so much in the ten years, he looked healthy, strong and all the things that he knew the boy had the potential to be. “I was sorry to hear about Phil, he was good people. Ain’t many a folk around like that no more.” Beau left a comforting hand on his charge’s shoulder as he let the other one fall to his pocket.

“I managed to keep a few tabs on you through some old contacts of mine, this old dog still got a few tricks you know? I don’t blame you for running, life’s roads take us all over but in the end they always take us to where we need to go. Yours brought you back here, back to us, to the people and the town that love you. Now, go on, go socialise with some of those other little reprobates who superglued my desk draw shut and you and I will have a proper catch up tomorrow. Be ready at the garage, you know I wake up early.” Beau patted him on the shoulder and smiled proudly.

“Yes sir,” Decky replied with a smile, not even bothering to deny having glued his desk shut once or twice way back when. Letting his hand rest another second on the man’s shoulder, he made his way, slowly, into the gym itself, looking around for the people he used to know.