"No way am I getting a tattoo!" Caleb practically screamed. "I don't like pain or needles or- Just no!"

"Please, Caleb, you said you trust me, so act on it." Dyson smiled at the man in front of them. He, unlike the others in the room, looked like he didn't belong there. He had on a button-up shirt, naturally colored hair, and he looked like he could be an accountant.

"You must be Dyson and Caleb." The man stood up and held out his hand.

Dyson shook it and nodded.

"Nope," Caleb said and turned to leave.

"Caleb," Dyson frowned. Maybe this was a mistake he thought as Caleb walked to the door. Dyson went to follow him but Bentley stopped him.

"Go get yourself a drink and one for your," Bentley paused and Dyson knew that he wasn't sure what to call Caleb.

"Friend." Dyson let out a sigh.

"Right, get your friend a drink too. I'll bring him back." Bentley pointed to a small kitchen and Dyson nodded.

"I can't believe him." Caleb cursed when he got outside. He flung his arms out and started pacing.

"Hey, kid, you're going to wear a hole into the sidewalk," Bentley said and Caleb jumped.

"Sorry." Caleb rubbed his neck. "I can't do it."

"I know it's hard, but your friend told me about the scars. Let me guess, you can't look at them or yourself." Bentley felt terrible when the boy looked up at him with sparkling green eyes. When Dyson had called him the day before he had actually needed to hang up to handle the strong emotions he was feeling. He had wanted to run all the way to their stupid backward town and beat the monsters to an inch of their lives then leave them out in the desert to slowly die and even that didn't seem like enough pain for those bastards.

"He told you?" Caleb asked feeling angry, hurt, then just ashamed.

"Yes, he told me because he wants to help you. He loves you, I can tell just like I can tell you feel the same even if neither of you can admit it. But, please, let me help you." Bentley touched the boy's arm and wasn't surprised when he flinched away. He understood. Sure, he hadn't gone through the same thing. No one had knocked him out, held him down, and carved into his arms, but he had his own scars from the hands of someone else. He had been ashamed of them even when he knew that it wasn't his fault. Only with the help of his now-wife had he been able to move on and stop hating himself just because of a few scars.

"How?" Caleb asked him. "I don't think some tattoo is going to change how I feel about myself or what I see."

"I don't know about changing how you feel but I can change what you see. My specialty is hiding old tattoos and scars. Usually, I cover up surgery scars for women who had breast cancer, but I've done some like yours too." Bentley's heart melted when he saw the look of hope on Caleb's face. He'd never get used to that look. It was an emotion that was more than hope; it was one that couldn't be described with words.

"You can get rid of them?" Caleb asked him.

"Honestly? No, you can never get rid of scars physical or emotional, but I can take their hideous message and leave you with something beautiful to look at. I can give you the chance to look at something that used to bring you pain and feel strength instead." Bentley watched as the boy seemed to let it sink in.

Bentley watched as a weight seemed to lift from the boy's shoulders. He was going to be okay; that much Bentley was sure of.

"I don't want any flowers, glitter, or whatever." Caleb finally said with a smile to hide the tears that he quickly wiped away.

"I don't know. Your friend seemed to mention flowers, glitter, and lots of colors." Bentley teased as they walked back inside.

"Dyson Fucking O'Keefe!" Caleb shouted and everyone looked at him. "I'm going to kill you!"

"Finally you call me by my full name and somehow it sounds like I'm in trouble." Dyson smiled then laughed.

"Glitter, flowers, color?" Caleb stomped up the stairs and started playfully smacking Dyson who flinched and covered himself with his hands and brought his legs up.

"Ow, stop, stop it." Dyson laughed even harder.

"No, you are a bastard." Caleb laughed and gave him one final playful smack before sitting down.

He looked at Bentley and gave him a calm smile. "So, what options do we have?"

"First things first. I need to see your ID." Bentley held out his hand and waited as Caleb gave it to him.

"Perfect." He went and copied it before filling out a form. "I'll need you to sign this and then we can get started."

"Right." Caleb perused the form before signing at the bottom.

"Now, I need to see your arms and then we can decide the best way to do this," Bentley said softly as he closed the door. He had taken them to the private room his shop had for just this reason. He knew it was going to be hard enough for the boy to show him the scars let alone doing it out in the open.

"Uh," Caleb looked down at his long sleeves. "Maybe it won't work."

"Caleb, I'm here. I know you can do this." Dyson touched Caleb's hand.

"I just. I don't." Caleb started breathing quickly, inhaling through his nose as his heart started racing. "I can't."

"Caleb," Dyson touched Caleb's cheek and he looked into his eyes. For the first time in months, he felt like he was home again. "You can do this. Now breathe."

"I-I-I," Caleb swallowed and touched the bottom of his shirt.

"What do you think life would be like if we were squirrels?" Dyson asked Caleb and Bentley held back from asking what because when he saw the smile on Caleb's face he knew it meant something to them.

"You'd still be annoying as hell." Caleb smiled and even though it didn't reach his eyes Dyson was happy.

"Probably," Dyson admitted with a chuckle then went back to being serious. "Now, you can take all the time you need, but we need to get started if you want to do this today. Or, we can come back in a week, month, even a year if you want to. If you really don't want it, we'll leave right now. But, don't leave just because you're scared."

"Okay." Caleb reached down again. "But, don't look, please."

"I won't." Dyson stayed looking at Caleb's eyes as he scooted back.

"And I don't want to see them," Caleb said and a single tear slid down his cheek as he lifted his shirt.

Bentley covered his mouth to keep from gasping. How in the hell could someone ever do something so brutal to another human being? He once again was struck with the need to get the boys' addresses so he could destroy them. He wasn't normally a violent man, but he had been a part of some fights in his life and knew how to handle himself.

"They're hideous. I know." Caleb frowned noticing Bentley's anger and disgust.

"No, you, my boy, are beautiful. What happened to you is beyond hideous. I would honestly like to hurt the person who did this to you." Bentley said with fire in his voice.

Caleb looked away from him because he knew that hatred and anger. "I just wish that I could make it even ten minutes without remembering it."

"Well, we're going to make sure that happens." Bentley took Caleb's right arm in his hand and waited for Caleb to relax in his grip after flinching multiple times.

"How do you feel about dragons?" Bentley asked because he knew that he needed to add color to cover the reds and whites of the nasty scars. They were grisly and clearly had not been handled very well. He imagined no one had actually really done more than bandage them and he was positive that Caleb had not really looked at them ever.

It was going to be nearly impossible to cover but he had to. He couldn't let such a sweet, broken kid go a single second longer with such heinous marks on his otherwise perfect body.

"They're fine," Caleb whispered. He had his eyes closed and was forcing himself to not bolt. He couldn't breathe because the lump in his throat was so big. Caleb chewed on his lip and tried to focus on anything other than what he was thinking about; the scars.

"I drew up a couple of ideas already. I'll need to make a couple of changes so as to cover the scars correctly. They're worse than I thought they'd be." Bentley admitted. He never lied to his clients. It never worked out well.

"I'm sorry. We can just go." Caleb said as if it was his fault somehow.

"It's not your fault. Caleb, I can cover them. I just want you to know that I'll need to add some more colors and other things to hide the discolorations. Will you be okay with that?" Bentley asked and held one of the drawings up. "What do you think?"

"It's great." Caleb hissed through clenched teeth. His eyes were still closed.

"You have to open your eyes to see them," Bentley said gently.

"I can't," Caleb admitted. "Just as long as there isn't glitter or flowers it's fine."

"As I said, I do need to use some color to cover up the scars, but no glitter," Bentley said with a smile.

"Dyson, you can look right?" Caleb frowned deeper.

"Of course, it's awesome but you need to see it," Dyson said with a patient smile.

Bentley covered Caleb's arms with his shirt and Caleb opened his eyes. "Good. Now tell me if there are any changes you want to make."

"It's perfect. Can I make a request?" Caleb asked as a thought struck him. "Can you do a small, I mean tiny, minuscule, no one can see it but me-"

"Caleb, we get it. What do you want?" Dyson asked and gave Bentley an I-told-you-this-wouldn't-be-easy look.

"A purple heart." Caleb smiled and opened his eyes to look at Dyson so he'd know it was for him. Then he closed his eyes again.

"I think I can manage that." Bentley offered with a smile to Dyson.

"Thanks," Caleb whispered.

"Okay, I'm going to start on your right arm. I'll draw, clean, then tattoo. This is going to be a long day and I'll probably need you to come back another day to finish them up. Are you ready?"

"Yes." Caleb nodded.

He almost jumped out of his seat when Bentley started to draw on his arm. Sometimes he was able to just transfer the drawings onto the client's skin, but the scars were far too uneven. "Sorry, I just want to make sure that I cover everything. Then I'll have you approve it again before I start."

"Dyson?" Caleb called out like a boy lost in a crowd. His eyes were still closed and his left hand was shaking away from his body. Dyson grasped Caleb's hand between his.

"I'm here." Dyson brought Caleb's hand to his lips and kissed it. "I'll always be here."

And with that promise, Caleb was thrown back to that night and for the first time since that night, he allowed himself to remember what happened before he was attacked.