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Dexter Morgan’s truck slowly pulls up outside of a college as he parks the truck and turns it off.
“Are you finally going to tell me what the hell we are doing here, son?” said a frustrated Harry in the passenger seat, as he had been relaxing on his day off when his son had convinced Harry to go out on this random trip without telling him where they were even going.
“There,” said Dexter as he pointed at a man walking around with his friends surrounding him.
“Who the hell is that, Dexter? And which one are you even pointing at?” asked a confused and increasingly uneasy Harry.
With his finger still pointed at the man, Dexter says to his father, “The one wearing the white shirt is named Andy Hendricks, the guy that tried to rape Debra,” said Dexter with his monotone voice without any emotion.
Harry’s body goes stiff in anger and shock as he grips the arm of the passenger car door with all of his strength. “Why the hell did you bring me here, Dexter!” hissed out Harry in anger as he glared at Andy, who was casually walking around like nothing was wrong.
Dexter only continued to watch Andy with a hawk-like stare that gave far more of an answer to Harry’s question than any words ever could.
Harry stops looking at Andy as he suddenly turns to Dexter and hisses out to his son, “Dexter, do not tell me you are thinking about going after him!”
“He tried to rape Debra, Dad; he would have succeeded if I had not been there,” says Dexter as he grabs onto the truck’s steering wheel and grips it tightly as a rare show of emotion—anger—starts to seep into his voice; the anger was familiar to Dexter and one of the only emotions he had in his black, empty heart.
Unknown to Dexter, the iron-like grip he had on his urges and anger starts to melt away as the red haze starts to overtake his vision and everything else around him starts to fade away into white noise.
Dexter had to focus on the anger because every time he thought about Debra, poor damaged and hurt Debra being at the mercy of that animal, it made Dexter feel powerless, small, weak, and uncontrollably angry.
“Son, son, SON!” shouted out Harry, who had been trying to get Dexter’s attention for some time now. Once Dexter blinks a couple of times and comes out of the haze, Dexter sees that Andy is gone, as he had no doubt walked off somewhere out of view during his loss of control.
“Jesus, Dexter,” says a scared Harry at seeing Dexter losing control of himself, as Dexter's father looks like he had seen a ghost from how white he was. “You cannot go after that dirtbag, son! I know what he did was horrible, but he has not murdered anyone!” confidently says Harry.
Dexter only coldly turns to Harry and says to his father in a whispery voice, “Doris once told me some people consider rape to be a worse fate than death.”
Dexter immediately regretted his words the moment they left his mouth, as he knew before even looking that his father's face would have a look on it as if Dexter had stabbed him in the heart.
“I will only say this once, Dexter: do not ever use your mother to try and justify deviating from the code,” said a rarely angry Harry.
Dexter bows his head down in shame at using Doris against Harry, and yet in that moment it had felt right to use the ghost of the dead woman to try and get Harry to let Dexter get revenge for Debra.
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Back when Doris had still been alive, no matter how grim things had gotten, Debra had always been reading everything she could get her hands on about lymphatic cancer. No matter how bad the news was getting about her mother’s deteriorating condition, no matter how obvious it was that Harry was starting to drink more and more, no matter how many hours Debra would spend acting like everything was going to be ok, planning out things they could do as a family once Doris had recovered and beat the cancer.
Harry, who had more than a couple of beers in him one night, would try and gently try and curb some of Debra’s enthusiasm at the future plans she had been building once her mother had recovered, and yet when Debra had turned her hope-filled eyes towards him, Dexter, for once in his life, had been unable to use his cold logic to crush his little sister’s foolish dreams that Doris was going to survive, so Dexter had enabled her behavior and future plans for the family once Doris had recovered under the disapproving eyes of Harry.
All of this had come crumbling down with one conversation between Harry and Doris’s doctor; it was time to say their goodbyes.
Dexter would never forget seeing his little sister Debra walk out from Doris’s room in the hospital after saying her final goodbye to her mother. Debra’s face had already been a mess of tears, as her eyes were red-rimmed from crying.
Debra had said nothing, only brokenly walking into his body and hugging him harder than she ever had in her life as she let out a scream of pure anger and sadness as she started to sob into his chest. Harry had touched Debra’s shoulder with his own eyes shining with unreleased tears before leaving for his own goodbye.
Dexter had no idea how long Harry’s goodbye with his wife had lasted; all Dexter had known was that Debra had not moved a single inch the whole time, still sobbing into his chest as Harry had walked out of Doris’s room with clear tear streaks going down his eyes.
“It is your turn, son; don’t worry, go on in,” Harry had said with his voice far hoarser and gravelier than normal as Harry had grabbed Debra away from Dexter with much reluctance from her, and Dexter could still hear Debra angrily protesting about him leaving as he walked his way into Doris’s room.
Death was normally something Dexter took nothing but pure pleasure and delight in, and yet as Dexter took a seat in the chair next to Doris and her bed for the first time in his life, the idea of death did not light up his brain with a sick level of pleasure and get his heart beating in a way only death could.
Dexter had robotically reached out and taken Doris's hand that had already been positioned and not moved from where Debra and Harry had no doubt held her head.
“Hey, Mom,” said Dexter, with the word “Mom” rolling off his tongue roughly and stiffly, and yet even now Doris did not disparage Dexter for this as she looked at him and gave him the biggest, widest smile that she could in her state.
“Hello, Dexter,” was the croaked response from Doris, as it seemed like she had used most of her energy on both Debra and Harry.
Doris’s sunken eyes that looked like she had already shed plenty of tears started to release new ones as she choked out to Dexter, “I-I-know that I have no right to ask this of you, Dexter; you have your whole life ahead of you, studying to be a doctor, and you have no idea how proud of you I am, Dexter, for this,” said an almost breathless Doris, as the very words leaving her lips seemed to cause her pain.
Dexter had tried to stop her and tell her to stop and conserve her energy, but Doris had waved him off.
“Please, Dexter, please look after Debra for me!” almost sobbed out Doris as her weak hand had gripped his as hard as she could.
“Debra is just as smart as you and your father, but she does not see it, and she wears her emotions on her sleeve; she is going to make mistakes and get hurt. I am not asking you to stop her from making those mistakes, Dexter, just that you make sure that you are there to help pick up my little girl and help her back up again when she falls,” said a sobbing Doris.
Dexter had no idea why, but the heartfeltpleas and begging from Doris seemed to reach somewhere deep inside of himself that he had no idea even existed as he nodded his head and gave his promise.
“Of course, Mom, I will always be there for Deb,” said Dexter to Doris, and this seemed to satisfy Doris as she sank back down into her bed and let out a sigh of relief.
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Dexter could not stop himself from thinking if Doris would be happy seeing Harry, Debra, and him now.
“I know you are angry, son, and that rage you are feeling, I am feeling it just as strongly, but there is nothing I can do about it,” said Harry as he was trying to reason with Dexter.
“Let’s say I go after this dirtbag and make a big show of it, flashing my badge as I put the cuffs on him, and I loudly announce that I am here to arrest him for attempted rape. What then, Dexter? What evidence do I have?” says Harry with frustration dripping from his voice.
“The only evidence I would have on this scum bag is the eyewitness from the victim's brother, YOU, and might I add you left the asshole bleeding with a broken nose in front of many eyewitnesses, and do you really want to drag out your sister and make her testify against this person, son?”
Dexter knows the answer without even thinking about it: no, Dexter absolutely did not want to put Debra on a pedestal in front of everyone’s eyes, and Dexter knew the number one thing Debra wanted more than anything was to fit in, and the last thing that would help that is by forcing her to testify.
“Do you really think that I don’t want to send you to go kill this piece of shit Dexter? Hell, I want to go with you!” said Harry, taking Dexter by such surprise that Dexter almost does not believe what he had just heard.
“Debra might be your sister, son, but she is my daughter, and there is nothing that I would not do to protect my little girl, but trust me, son, when I say that if you take this man's life and break the code this one time, it will only be made easier the second time and then the third until you forget all about the code and kill whoever you want.”
Dexter relaxed his grip on the steering wheel and let out a disappointed sigh from deep within his chest as he looked over to his father. “I guess then I should tell you I already set up the kill room,” casually said Dexter with a smile on his face.
“Jesus, Dexter, what the hell do you mean you already set up the room....” Harry stops what he is saying as he figures out that his son had just made a joke; there is a long pause as father and son look at each other, one with a smirk on his face and the other with a look of disbelief.
“Just start the truck and get me home, Dexter,” said Harry with no real bite to his words. “And I think that you have been spending too much time with Debra,” joked Harry to Dexter as the truck was started and the two of them started to leave.
“Deb would argue that I have not spent enough time with her,” said Dexter to Harry. Harry released a very deep breath. “Then god give me strength if the two of you spend even more time together.”
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A couple of days later
Debra and Dexter were both on the couch; it was a late-night movie night with Harry passed out asleep.
Debra was engrossed in the horror movie that was playing, and Dexter would have normally been just as engrossed in the movie; after all, a horror movie where there is a lot of blood, gore, and screams of terror—of course, Dexter, in his head, would always be the one causing the screams, blood, and gore—but tonight Dexter could not focus on the movie no matter how hard he tried.
Finally, after taking nonstop glances at his little sister and finally coming to a decision, Dexter turns off the TV, hearing an angry sound from Debra.
"Ugh! What the fuck, Dex? We were right at the end," loudly complained Debra to Dexter.
Dexter gave his sister a blank look as he told her, “Get dressed, Deb,” earning a look of disbelief from said sister.
“Th-the hell, Dexter? Why would I get dressed? Where would we even go? Do you know how late it is?”
Dexter lazily raised an eyebrow at Debra. “If you don’t want to go out, then that is no problem; we can continue the movie,” he said in a lazy voice as he pretended to turn the TV back on.
“Ok, ok, fine, I am getting ready now, asshole, but this better be worth it,” sarcastically said Debra, who could not hide the smile on her face at the idea of sneaking out of the house with her brother.
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BOOM, CRASH.
Was the loud sound of a bowling ball impacting the top of a very expensive and nice Chevrolet Corvette, caving in the top of the car and shattering the windows.
Spray paint was already painted on the side of the car with bright, bold letters proudly saying many inappropriate things, but on the front of the car was painted RAPIST FUCK STICK!
“Quick, Deb, we need to get out of here!” urgently said Dexter in a whisper as he was standing next to his little sister, who had been the one who had just thrown the bowling ball onto the top of Andy Hendricks car that no doubt Mommy and Daddy had bought him.
Debra could not contain the delighted giggles and laughs of happiness as she and Dexter ran back to his truck.
Finally, once the two of them had made it back to his truck and had started to drive away, Debra could not contain her delight anymore as she cranked down the passenger-side window and screamed out, “FUCK YOU, ASSHOLE, SUCK A FAT DICK!”
With a rare grin on his face, Dexter, as he was still driving, gently tugged on Debra, getting her to pull her head out from the window.
“You know, Deb, you really are not helping in the whole stealth department,” joked Dexter as he looked at his sister with her wind-swept hair.
“Ha, ha, relax, Dex; that asshole did not even hear me. We are fine,” quickly said Debra, who was running on an adrenaline high.
“Don’t forget your seat belt, Deb,” lightly chastised Dexter as he glanced at his sister in the passenger seat without her seat belt.
With a roll of her hazel eyes, Deb buckles her seatbelt. “There, happy now,” snarked Debra as she made a show of it.
A long beat of silence fills the truck as Dexter is driving the two of them home, but Debra lets out a quiet, almost whispered, "Thanks" to her brother.
“Thanks, Dex, for... you know, tonight it... it means a lot. More than you know, sometimes it feels like you are the only person that gives a fuck about me anymore with Mom gone,” said Debra as she was looking out the passenger-side window.
Dexter was not sure what he should say. Harry and Debra’s relationship was one of the things Dexter had no words to help with; after all, it was not like Dexter could tell Debra the truth that Harry’s soul was too busy being suffocated by Dexter’s dark passenger to spend time with her.
So, Dexter said to Debra what he knew for fact, “Dad loves you, Deb.” Debra makes a disgusted face as she spits out spitefully, “Well, he sure has a funny way of showing it.”
“Anyways, we are so doing this again in the future, and the next target is that smug bitch Tiffany,” said Debra, brushing off the conversation about Harry as she now had a teasing large smile on her face.
“Absolutely not. This was a one-time thing, Deb. Once we get home, we never talk about this again and act like nothing ever happened.”
Debra lets a long silence fill the truck once again as she seems to take in what Dexter said. “Hmm, so it will be our little nighttime adventure that no one else will ever know about?”
“Exactly,” said Dexter as he looked at Debra with a fond look on his face and let silence overtake the two of them once again.
“I think that I can live with that,” softly said Debra under her breath as she hesitantly grabbed Dexter’s arm and rested her head on his shoulder as he was driving.
It may not have been the more permanent and plastic-filled end that Dexter thought a man like Andy deserved for daring to touch Deb, but tonight was not about satiating the dark passenger’s urges, and Debra seemed to be happy by the beaming smile on her face, and there was no body to clean up, so Dexter thought that tonight was a success on every front.