Chương 32: Case 32 - Valentine's Day

[Haley Dunphy commentary scene]

"When I visited Alex at Caltech a few days ago so that she could read over this dumb exposé I needed to write so that I could enter this young fashionista exposition Ben showed me, some nerd tried to hit on me," Haley lightly complained, but she had a pleased smile on her face. "I mean, it was very flattering, but he tried hitting on me by talking about maths, different realities, and the stars or whatever. Ugh, I get goosebumps just thinking about it."

Pursing her lips a little as she stared next to the camera, she continued, "Alex didn't stop talking about how smart this Arvin guy was and I got the feeling she wanted to get him for herself. But he was a creep, totally a decade older than Alex, and he hit on me first. My sister deserves better than a guy that can't even land me," Haley frowned a little, "Okay, maybe he wasn't a creep, but she deserves better anyway. He's like her teacher or something. So we spent the rest of the day finding her a date on campus. And, eventually, we found some nerd she has had a crush since before even going to Caltech. His name is Jason Something... no, wait, I know this one... I made fun of him for it... Darling! Jason Darling!"

Haley gained a pleased smile that turned slightly awkward, "All I needed to do was tap his shoulder, say: 'Do you know Alex?' and they started geeking at each other for half an hour straight. It was honestly a bit embarrassing how into each other they are... but in a cute way."

With a pout, Haley added, "Mom wanted to set me and Ben up to go on a double-date with Alex at Caltech for some reason. I was pretty sure she wanted to do something disgusting while alone at Ben's house. She's been kind of unhinged lately. I know it's starting to worry dad, too. He's been keeping his distance from Ben and sending him these weird looks filled with longing from across the room... sometimes I wish I had normal parents..."

[Commentary ended]

It was barely noon, and Ben entered his house with a frustrated expression. Nothing seemed to be going his way lately.

"You're home early," Luke commented as he sat at the kitchen counter and ate cereal with his face in his phone. "Must be nice..."

Ben just walked past him, grabbed something from his freezer, and wordlessly left for his bedroom.

When Luke noticed that Ben didn't say anything, he looked in the direction the detective went and muttered under his breath, "Weird."

On the way to his bedroom, Ben saw Zofia with her face buried in a book, but he didn't call out to her, so Zofia didn't look up to greet him. A few doors down, he saw the guest room door open was, and saw two outfits lying on the bed that looked straight out of an 80s high school movie. He recognized the thin, eggshell-white shirt as something Phil had shown him a few days ago.

He also remembered the Trans Am in the driveway and muttered, "Ugh, it's a sex thing, isn't it."

The realisation that his in-laws that had been living in his house for half a month planned some kind of sex-capade in his home or starting it here didn't really improve his mood, even if he felt he would normally just laugh something like that off. He wasn't usually a prude anyway.

In his bedroom, Ben pried off his ripped shirt and hissed in pain as he watched his upper body in the mirror.

Small scrapes on his knuckles, 'claw' marks on his chest, and bruises on his neck, arms, and shoulders. Even deep blue and green bruises from someone choking him with a chain.

He was stupid enough to answer a backup call to break up a 'brunch-orgy' that derailed into a catfight between several women who didn't know that their partners took them swinging and a bunch of jealous husbands duking it out in a parking lot. Thinking the situation was under control, he turned his back on two women who seemed to be out of it... but one of them suddenly reached for his gun as the other one jumped on his back and tried to strangle him with handcuffs that were on scene before the police showed up... for sexual reasons.

He put both of them into the ground eventually, especially the one reaching for his gun. But by then, he already looked like he came out of a cage match getting tag-teamed by a manic possum and a wrestler since these two women weren't the only people trying to involve him in the fight. Their spouses, for example, charged Ben after he cuffed their wives and started a second fight all on their own.

Walking into his bathroom, he took out some ointment and cleaning supplies to dress the wounds as he fought every urge to not curse loudly. Next Valentine's, he would go out in full tactical gear, Ben decided right there. People do some messed up shit on a day that is supposed to be about love.

"Fuck!"

He suddenly couldn't take it anymore after one of cuts stung especially hard. So Ben kicked the laundry basket in anger, but he forgot that it was empty, so all he actually kicked was the wall.

Limping as he jumped on one foot, Ben cursed some more, his misplaced anger on the world slowly rising. Leaving the room shirtless, Ben quickly made his way into his garage and started unloading on the poor sandbag he had hanging there for training. After working up a sweat and venting his frustrations, Ben held the sandbag as he panted.

A minute later, as he calmed down, Ben looked down with a frown. The nail cuts opened up a little during his boxing workout, and he looked like he came straight out of a horror movie with the lines of blood running down his torso.

"Fuck..."

Mellowed out, he mumbled the curse instead of shouting it this time around. With a sigh, Ben made his way back into his bathroom to take a shower and maybe get a few bandaids for the deeper cuts so he won't ruin whatever shirt he'll put on after freshening up.

[Luke Dunphy commentary scene change]

"First of all, good on you, Haley. That dude looks pretty alright all sweaty from a workout - even with the blood," Luke praised with a small nod. Then, the youngest Dunphy sibling gained a small frown. "Secondly, running around half naked and all bloody in his own home? Ben's clearly troubled by something."

"I would have helped him... but I had a date at this expensive restaurant tonight and still needed to get ready... so I called Haley. Let her deal with it. She's the mooch living off of her rich boyfriend," Luke commented distractedly as realization slowly dawned on his face. "Oh no! We're all mooching off of him!"

His smile slowly turned cocky a few moments later as he realized, "Heh, we're all mooching and we don't even have to put out. It's all on Haley."

[Commentary ended]

Still ignoring everyone else in the house, Ben went to his dad's old study, opened his laptop and decided to work from home the rest of the day. He let Cortez know after sending her a photo of his bruises and cuts, and started reading through her change proposals for police conduct, accountability and responsibilities that Plank and his captain had been working on.

A few hours later, his mood was still not improving, so he ordered some pizza for himself and Zofia - the only one he wanted at his home. Emilia and Anna weren't home as they were spending the day, as well as one night doing something called mom-daughter-spa-day... that for some reason he paid for.

... he booked it for them before he found out that Emilia was an ex-MI6 agent working mercenary jobs and getting paid tens of thousands of dollars for her missions.

His original plan had been to celebrate his relationship with Haley by doing something as just the two of them with Zofia sleeping in the guest house far away from the action. Not even Chris was supposed to be home tonight.

An hour after Ben ordered the pizza, he looked at his phone with a frown. His food still hadn't arrived.

With yet another sigh, he walked into his kitchen to get an apple to fight off his hunger with a small appetizer.

"And you're sure you didn't order the pizza?" The detective heard Haley ask.

"Nope, it's weird. Maybe I have a secret admirer... I didn't even have to pay. It came pre-paid," Luke answered as he was clearly eating something.

Ben stopped in his tracks, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

Without saying anything to either of them, he walked into the kitchen, took the rest of the pizza still in the box, gave Luke an annoyed stare, and walked back into his study.

His patience, despite venting earlier, was wearing thin.

As Ben closed the door of the study a little more forcefully than he intended, Luke looked at the pizza slice in his hand, then at his sister, then back to the pizza before he muttered, "Oh. That makes more sense..."

"Ben was home this entire time??? Why didn't you say anything!" Haley indignantly shouted at her brother. Something about her boyfriend not even acknowledging her just then gave her a bad premonition and ruined her mood.

"What do you mean? I sent you a text and told you about the blood!" Luke countered with a confused expression before he asked, "And didn't you see his car when you came in?"

"Blood"? Haley asked with a horrified look as she quickly took her phone out of her purse.

"Yeah, he was brooding earlier. I think a coyote probably attacked him... maybe a puma? Or maybe a gardener with a rake?"

[Haley Dunphy commentary scene change]

"Ben silently smiling in the background as he lifted everyone up with his presence and his unseen helping hand. That was the normal I came to love," Haley reminisced in a dreamy voice.

"That was not the Ben I got today," the brunette muttered sadly.

[Commentary ended]

"You didn't even say hello to me! What's wrong with you!" Haley accused as the two were slowly entering a shouting match after Ben brushed her off when she entered the study to ask what was wrong.

"What's wrong with me? Everything is wrong with me! And everything's wrong with everything around this place!" Ben countered angrily, though he wasn't even looking at Haley.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay! Why are you even yelling at me?"

"But I'm not okay!" Ben countered and pulled down his collar to show the choke-brusing on his neck and the scars on his chest. "And that's just why I'm home early! There's so much more that's wrong!"

"Ben, I..."

"And why is your brother eating my fucking pizza anyway!" Ben shouted as he didn't let Haley talk. He didn't want the conversation to dwell on the things that were on his mind, opening up about his frustrations about his living arrangement and everything that last case in NY brought up was not on Ben's mind.

Well, it was. But he wasn't looking to share it with anyone - and so, he very predictably deflected once more.

Unaccustomed to fighting like this in a relationship, Ben dodged Haley as he walked out of the study with his laptop in hand. Talking about not being okay was not one of his plans for today, so he walked away in the hopes that they could 'just ignore' his outburst later in the day.

Back in the study, Haley stood there rooted, looking at Ben's back in disbelief.

[Haley Dunphy commentary scene change]

"He didn't even look at me once. I had my hair done really cute for today," Haley complained lightly, but her heart was not in it as her frown deepened. "He didn't even look at me... because he couldn't. He was even more uncomfortable than me about this whole thing, and that's saying something. I have the emotional maturity of a moody high school girl, but Ben is, like, Superman. A hero in everything he touches. He isn't supposed to be uncomfortable with stuff like this..."

Haley bit her lip as she contemplated the situation.

With a sigh, she buried her head in her hands, "And of course I only made it worse. Why the hell did I even listen to my stupid brother? Stupid Dylan and his stupid booty call he sends me every Valentine's Day..."

[Commentary ended]

"Maybe I should become a cop. He's been 'working' there by the pool for over an hour now," Luke idly commented from the sofa in the living room with full view of the pool - but he earned himself punches to the shoulder from his sister.

"You're the reason he's so pissed! 'Secret admirer' my cute ass! Of course he ordered the pizza you moron," Haley complained in distress.

"It was an honest mistake," Luke excused with a wave of his hand but Haley just frowned and asked, "Why are you even here? Why are any of you here living with him?"

"Well, he didn't throw us out? But you should ask mom. I think there's some scheme under way or something," Luke answered unsurely. "It's nice here?"

"It is..." Haley mumbled and bit her lip in contemplation.

Her phone rang and she was distracted for a moment as she read a long text that brought a small smile on her face for a moment before she huffed, lightly slapped both of her cheeks and walked out with a determined look.

"Ben, we need to talk," Haley sternly expressed as she reached Ben's side. "You're clearly going through stuff, and I really want to be suppo-"

She was cut off by Ben holding up a finger to her without looking, which made Haley really incensed.

"I'm trying to pour my heart out here! You can at least have the decency to listen to me!" Haley shouted angrily before she held up her phone. "If you don't plan to be nice to me on Valentine's Day of all things, I can just go call Dylan. He sent me a sweet message like he always does and he would never point up a finger at me to silence me! That's so disrespectful!"

Ben slowly turned around, and said in a quiet voice, "I'm sorry. I guess I'll call you back when I'm on my way, Commander Hicks."

Haley's eyes immediately widened as she saw Ben end the call and put down his phone with a weary expression. A million thoughts ran through her mind as she wanted to find the perfect excuse, but reality hit harder when her boyfriend sighed and proposed, "Maybe you should go to him. I don't think I'll be good company today anyway... Hicks called me in for an amber alert from San Diego, kid might be in LA..."

Wordlessly packing up the laptop, his phone and his keys, Ben walked past Haley with slumped shoulders.

Standing there like a wooden statue for a few minutes, Haley started crying until she eventually sat down on the pool furniture. Luke joined her a few minutes later with a drink in hand.

"I think I'm going to pack my stuff. Not trying to rain on your parade, but I'm not holding my breath," Luke said in a joking tone to try and lighten the mood - but he got the wrong audience as Haley just slapped his shoulder over and over, calling her brother an asshole.

"Hey! You're the one who brought up Dylan," Luke deflected with a wronged expression. Haley perked up and asked, "You listened in on us?"

"It's acoustics of this place. Keep one window open and you can hear everything. I even know what Ben planned for you two tonight because he told Zofia and I was just chilling upstairs," Luke revealed with a shrug.

"Really? What?"

Luke looked around conspiratorially before he whispered, "I'd never reveal it because the bro code forbids it, but I'm pretty sure circumstances will not allow for it to happen anyway. With you being such a bitch and him getting scratched and stuff. But you've been working really hard getting that sewing thing down, so he got lessons in hand massages specifically and regular massages in general. He was going to give you like a full spa treatment for your hands or whatever. Even bought a massage table. It's in the garage."

"How do you know that?" Haley asked in disbelief.

Luke looked at his sister for a moment before he asked, "I don't know if you know this, but I'm kind of spending a lot of time at this house...?"

"I'm here just as much as you!" Haley countered with an angry outburst.

Luke pointed at his eyes and asked, "Are you?" He pointed at his heart and asked again, "Are you?"

Haley thought about this for a while, her tears coming back on account of Ben having such a thoughtful gift prepared and her not really paying attention to her boyfriend as much as Luke did before she looked at her brother, searching his face, "Did he tell you how he got hurt like that? It looked painful."

"He didn't. He was really quiet. But I found a video on insta," her brother revealed and tapped on his phone for a moment before he showed her a video.

In it, a half-naked woman wearing a robe was hanging on Ben's back as a second woman in just underwear tried desperately to wrestle the gun from the detective's holster. Both hands on his gun so it wouldn't leave his person and be used by the female attacker, Ben eventually managed to take a step back and heavily kneed the woman with the wish for a gunfight in her stomach, reached for one of the arms holding the handcuffs around his throat, and rolled his center of mass under the woman somehow as he used that momentum to slam her to the ground.

Both women were heavily gasping on the ground. Ben pried the fur-handcuffs with the long chain from his neck and vigilantly looked around as a burly man in black leather boxers charged at him. The detective managed a last moment side-step to trip the man, who then planted his head into a wall. A second guy brought a bat-looking thing which turned out to be the leg of a broken chair and swung it at Ben.

The detective blocked the swing at the last moment with his arms, deflected the second and with a low-sweep to the overextended attacker's legs planted the man on his back. Just as Ben started cuffing the four people who attacked him, one of the women, the one who tried to reach for his gun, jumped on his back again and you could clearly see in the video that she was scratching him, yelling profanities over and over.

The video ended when three of the four people were in cuffs and Ben looked at the one filming the whole scene with an annoyed eye-roll.

"That was his morning? No wonder he was so pissed," Haley whispered under her breath before her tears started anew.

He had been a little distant to everyone but Anna lately. He was rarely home. He was still trying his best to be a supportive boyfriend, giving her tips like that showcase for her clothes... and then he got into a fight like that this morning. Her brother ate his pizza. She yelled at him. She stopped him from an important phone call with work and accused him of something that he didn't even do.

And worst of all, when he was already down from all of this, all of whatever was on his mind... and she brought up an ex-boyfriend.

"He's going to break up with me, isn't he..." Haley mumbled quietly as she stared ahead with an unfocused look at nothing.

"I know I would," Luke mocked before his sneer softened, and he slowly reached out to give his sister a hug and a shoulder to cry on.

-----

Close to Ben's home in Brentwood, at Jay Pritchett's house, Phil and Claire were babysitting Jay's young son Joe. When they finally managed to get the little troublemaker, who had been flirting with his forty-year older sister all evening, into bed, things started to heat up between the married couple.

Still dressed in their 80s getup from before their Valentine's derailed after they sent Jay and his wife Gloria out for a night of naughty roleplaying fun. Their night quickly led into the main bedroom... until Jay and Gloria unexpectedly returned early and barged in on Phil and Claire doing in their bed.

"What kind of freakshow goes on here when I'm not around!?" Manny shouted when he entered the scene of a naked Claire and Phil with Gloria and Jay just standing there all dressed up from their date.