(no subject)
Jared was getting pretty tired of his beat. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his job, it was just that he’d begun to develop a deep and abiding hatred for all things human. Still though….he liked the job. People were his problem, his eternal problem, and this was never more clear to him than it was on that late Thursday night. Five muggings, three stabbings, and two assault charges had him thinking that maybe he was in a fucked up version of “The twelve days of Christmas” courtesy Satan himself. It would be appropriate he supposed….it was the week before Christmas.
It wasn’t normally this bad. In fact, Jared was hard pressed to remember any day that had been this….shall we say prolific for the scum that passed as the criminals in the city, but nonetheless it tore at his core. People hurting each other; it was a daily occurrence. Yet somehow, Jared had never quite managed to rap his mind around it. He was used to it however. Nothing surprised Jared anymore. At least, that’s what he thought.
The call wasn’t a rare one: Neighbor gets tired of hearing the couple overhead fighting, hears some items breaking, gives up trying to hit the ceiling hard enough with her broom to elicit some kind of reaction, finally calls the police. Jared physically moaned when he heard the dispatcher over his radio. He was the closest unit. He would have to go. This did nothing to brighten his day.
He decided immediately to make this a quickie. Get in, cart the bastard off to jail, try to get the woman to agree to pressing charges and to go to one of the safe houses set up around town, get turned down or get one of the “but he really doesn’t mean it” speeches, then go home. It was a plan.
What he wasn’t planning on however was what he found at the apartment building.
The apartment was quiet; far too quiet. Never a good sign. Jared’s heartbeat accelerated gently as he pounded on the door, his voice carrying down the silent hall as he found himself barking “Police! Open up”. Nothing. No movement. No hushed voices whispering to stay quiet. Just empty silence.
Something was wrong.
Jared stood back from the door, readying himself to kick it down if he had to. He waited another moment, an odd but distinctive anxiety curling in his gut before slamming his foot against the door. It shuddered on its hinges but remained in tacked. He grit his teeth harshly, a long list of obscenities warring mutinously on his tongue for freedom. Another moment passed, this one more loaded, as there was finally movement on the other side of the door. Jared’s breath stopped, leaning forward against the doorframe to see if he could hear it again. AH! Right there! A moan. A small, muffled and heartrendingly small moan, but a moan nonetheless. Jared stepped back once more and readied his leg for the impact of round two. This time the wood around the lock splintered and Jared was granted access.
The room was mostly dark, the only light provided by a sliver of open curtain from the adjacent window. Jared moved cautiously, weighing his steps, listening for any sound or movement. A gargled sound like someone trying to speak through liquid met his ears. A shudder went through him as he realized the implications of that sound, just how hurt that someone had to be. His steps continued, this time moving in the direction of the noise. The window’s light became more prominent as he stepped further into the apartment, illuminating about a fourth of the room.
That’s when he saw it. A shape. A nondescript and almost unnoticeable shape huddled in on itself in the corner. For a long moment he was almost certain that it was a piece of furniture. Something abnormally shaped but functional that had taken residence in an odd bit of open space in the living room. Everything within him prayed that that small stunted shape could be anything but a human being. The words ghosted across his lips before he even knew he had spoken. “Please God”.
His theory was wrong. He knew it had been from the first moment that he had spotted the shape, but he could no longer deny it once he was aware of the figure’s trembling. Jared couldn’t seem to bring his feet to move. He stood there a long moment, something inside him breaking as the figure continued to shiver and shake, its body so tightly tugged into itself that Jared couldn’t make out one discerning feature. Jared found his feet stuttering into motion, his legs eating up the space between him and the figure within a moment. Jared was surprised to find that the figure was male. Most of the victims in these cases tended to be female.
There wasn’t much sympathy left in Jared. He’d seen too much, knew too many cases where it had been so much worse. But tonight, oh tonight, he felt a surge of pain so strong for the quivering figure that he actually felt tears burning down his cheeks. Jared hadn’t cried in sixteen years.
He didn’t need to ask if the figure was ok. The answer was clear. But Jared heard himself speaking the words anyway “Sir, SIR, are you alright”. Jared had always been proud of his ability to remain calm. It was one of his best attributes in his opinion, especially given his job, but he could feel his calm slipping. The figure needed to speak to him, and he needed to do so NOW. Jared had to know that this man was alright, he had to.
His hands passed gently over the figure’s shoulders, trying to get the man’s attention. The man’s shuddering intensified as he tried to move away from Jared’s touch. It was a pointless attempt; it did nothing in the way of moving the man out of Jared’s grasp. “It’s alright sir. I promise. I’m going to take care of you. Alright. You’re going to be ok”. Jared knew that the words were more to reassure himself than anything else, but it didn’t matter.
Jared gently turned the other man towards him to assess the damage. The face was hardly recognizable. Bluish bruising was already beginning to make its presence known, swelling contorting the face in odd and painful angles. Jared cupped the face with his hand, gently turning the neck from side to side. His eyes fell upon the hand shaped bruise already forming across the man’s collar bone and could feel the tears once more welling up in his eyes. He leaned backwards, steadying himself on his haunches to see the damage done to the body. Jared could tell that it wasn’t nearly as extensive as the work done to the face, but knew that it was bad enough that internal bleeding was a distinct possibility.
He leaned over once again, resisting the urge to once more place his hand on the victim’s face, realizing that it would be hurting far more than helping. A strangled sound made its way passed the man’s lips and after a moment Jared realized that it was his name. For a moment he was dumbfounded. He hadn’t thought he had told the man his name, and there wasn’t anything on him that could identify him. It was then that he truly stared into the other man’s face. The features were misshapen, almost indiscernible from what they would normally have been, but after a moment Jared realized that he recognized them.
Freckles. It was the only thing Jared was capable of thinking. He had only known one man who had freckles as distinct as that. For a long moment Jared was afraid that he might retch. His body shuddered with the effort to push the bile back down into his throat.
“Jensen”. The word was barely whispered. “Oh God….Jensen?
Jensen made his best effort to nod.
Suddenly all pretenses of professionalism left him. Jared found himself gathering Jensen to his body, gently laying his forehead against Jensen’s own. “Oh God Jensen.” Jensen made a valiant effort to speak. “Who? Who did this to you?” Jensen’s reply was garbled by his inability to form his mouth properly into words.
Jared had known Jensen for years. They had grown up together, went to high school together, they had even been each other’s very first kiss. But Jensen had always had big dreams and had left Texas far before Jared could even bring himself to consider the proposition. They had fought the night Jensen had left. Jensen has asked Jared to come with him, but Jared couldn’t be persuaded. “I belong here” he had said. Jensen tried to push the issue but Jared refused to be swayed. They hadn’t talked since. That was three years ago. It had taken Jared a little over a year and a half to decide that Jensen had been right in leaving, but had no way to contact him. Instead, Jared decided to move too, and choose to not think too hard on why exactly it was that he decided to move into the same city that Jensen was living in.
A half garbled moan from Jensen brought him back to the present. Jared looked down into the eyes of his one time friend and lover and choked back a sob. First things first, he had to get Jensen to a hospital.
With great care he disentangled himself from Jensen, laying him gently unto the floor, his one hand supporting his head while his other searched his pocket for his cell phone. He was one moment from flicking the phone open when the sound of footsteps caught his attention. The footsteps traveled down the hall, the person they were attached to obviously large and, if the amount of banging against walls was any clue, very drunk.
The footsteps sounded like they were coming towards them.
Within a second Jared was on his feet, Jensen’s head laid softly down on the floor. Jared ghosted across the empty space of the living room and poised himself against the side wall next to the door, right out of the light’s reach. Jared stayed utterly still, the footfalls growing louder and louder as they drew nearer. The footsteps stopped right at the door, the figure swaying slightly as he stumbled pass the doorway into the room.
Jared clenched his hands at his side. He didn’t know who this man was, and it was relatively possible that this was just a drunkard who was curious enough to check out an open door. This was dispelled however the moment the man opened his mouth. “Jenny, jeeeennnyyyy! Arsh you stillz here! Come on Baaabbbyyy you knos I did’t mean it”.
That was all it took. Jared was on the man in a millisecond. Jared’s hands grasped the shorter man by his neck and thrust the sniveling wretch up against the wall in a single thrust. The shine of drunkenness was knocked out of the man’s eyes immediately. He grew sober in a moment, his hands clawing futilely at Jared’s grasp, gasping with each inhale of breath.
“Don’t like it now? You don’t like being the one beaten, you sick sniveling piece of shit? Oh too bad.” Jared felt himself leaning further towards the man, his lips going to the other man’s ear. “Because I’m fucking loving it”. The words were whispered.
Jared didn’t recognize his voice. The words were strangled and rough, almost as though he’d been the one strangled, and there was a promise of death hidden there that would have made him shiver had it been any other time.
The man continued his futile dance of struggling in Jared’s grip, trying desperately to speak. Jared let up just a little, knowing that allowing the man to speak would only cause his anger to grow.
Jared wanted his anger to grow.
“Ten seconds scum. Start talking”.
The man dropped to the floor, sputtering as breath once more began filling his lungs. “He…he’s not..I didn’t….” Jared, feeling his fury grow into a physical entity, hauled the smaller man to his feet, once more slamming him into the wall, this time by his coat.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?” Jared knew that there was nothing that this wretch could say that would save his skin, but he wanted to see the fear in the other man’s eyes. Jared’s voice had gone down yet another octave and the man visibly shuddered at the sound.
“It was…it was his fault, he…”
Any and all other words were cut off from him as Jared hauled the man from the wall and tossed him full force onto the ground behind him. Jared’s mind had blacked out at those words. The rat bastard was blaming Jensen, Jensen, and if he honestly thought he was going to get away with it, he was in for a rude awakening.
Jared was once more on him, this time sitting on his chest as he punched him again and again and again. Blood poured over his knuckles with each punch, and some deep twisted part of himself got an utterly sick satisfaction in hearing the other man’s bones crunch beneath his fists.
Jared wasn’t sure just how long he had pummeled the bastard. All sense of time, space, and sanity had left him the moment the man had spoken those slanderous words. It was the thought of Jensen’s injuries that had finally ceased his blows. Jensen needed to get to a hospital, and Jared had to get him there.
Jared got to his feet, one last twinge of sadism calling him to slam his foot full-force into the other man’s groin, and then stepped slowly to where Jensen was laying. Jensen was conscious, but just barely. Jared pulled Jensen gently into his arms and headed for the door. Ambulances in the area were notoriously bad about being slow, and there was no way Jared was willing to waste any more time on getting Jensen to the hospital.
He got Jensen to the hospital in record time, keeping one eye on the road and the other on Jensen’s still form the entire way. It had taken all of the moral decency that Jared had in himself, but Jared had called his chief once Jensen had been rolled off into the hospital and told him that there had been an accident and that an ambulance should be sent to the apartment.
His chief, Christian Kane, was a close friend of Jared’s and was at the hospital twenty five minutes after Jared had arrived. Kane didn’t like the state his friend was in. Jared was wild eyed, twitchy, and despite multiple protests from Kane, would not sit down for any length of time.
Kane had been staring at Jared a good four minutes before Jared noticed enough to look up.
“You care telling me what happened out there?”
Any other day Jared would have smiled at the admonishing tone Kane was leveling at him, but not today.
“No sir.”
Kane’s lip twitched at that, but he remained silent.
“Good. Cause as far as the department is concerned- the cock-sucker was hysterically drunk and fell on the steps while you were taking the guy out. You valiantly carried him back into the apartment, despite his being a scumbag assailant, because your stern belief in the justice system told you that the guy would be punished. And he will. I promise you that. He will.”
Yet again, Jared felt tears welling up in his eyes. That’s why Jared truly loved Kane. He never had to tell him anything. Kane would just know, somehow, and would put everything to rights without needing any kind of explanations. He stood by those he cared about and it warmed Jared’s heart to know that he was one of that lucky lot.
It was two hours before a nurse came out to give Jared news. Jared was nigh close to insane by this point and Kane had thought more than once that he might actually have to restrain him in some way before he did himself some actual harm.
The nurse’s face was friendly once she saw the concern on Jared’s face, but still remote as she came to stand by them.
“Sir, are you related to the patient?”
Jared felt vaguely like he’d been punched in the gut. The truth was dangerous in that she wouldn’t tell him Jensen’s condition, nor would she allow him to see him, but lying was dangerous in that Jared wasn’t sure if they checked this sort of thing. Being tossed from the hospital seemed like an almost worse alternative. He had to be near Jensen. He had to.
Luckily Kane took the situation on with his usual aplomb before Jared could tongue tie himself into a corner.
“Yes. He’s the brother.”
The nurse nodded with a smile and once more turned towards Jared.
“Alright. He’s stable. He’s got a good deal of bruising, especially on his neck, and a few cracked ribs that got dangerously close to breaking, as well as some serious swelling across most of his body, but he made out relatively unscathed. With a beating like that….it’s rather surprising he fared as well as he did. Must have a good deal of fight in him. You can come back now if you’d like.”
Jared smiled thankfully in Kane’s direction before mouthing “thank you” as he followed the nurse along the hallway. Jensen’s room seemed like a thousand miles away as the nurse just continued to lead Jared down hallway after hallway. Finally she turned, smiling once again and gesturing towards the door.
“Visiting hours are over, but we’re not too strict about it around here. Just don’t go making too much noise, ok?”
He knew she meant it as a joke, but Jared merely smiled softly and nodded. She nodded in return, her customary smile crossing her face, and started off in the other direction.
Jared stared a long moment at the door knob, taking a deep breath to collect himself. The door slid opened silently, and Jared stepped lightly into the room, making out Jensen’s figure on the bed. Jensen turned when Jared came in, and Jared felt a part of him break into pieces.
Jensen’s wounds looked so much worse in the harsh light from the hospital. Even more so because Jared was all too aware of how beautiful those features had been before. Now they were twisted and marred and despite how much it made Jared hurt to see it, there was something inside him that was screaming for joy. Jensen was alright. No matter how bad it looked now, Jensen was ok. It was that fact that gave Jared the strength to walk fully into the room.
“You gave me quite the scare man”
Jensen watched him, his wary eyes capturing every move Jared made. Jared swallowed, knowing Jensen well enough to know that he was just watching to take in, to observe.
Jensen attempted to say something, but Jared was already beside him, silencing him by shaking his head.
“Don’t speak…..he…did a number on your throat.”
Jensen nodded silently, his eyes once more tracing Jared’s movements.
Jared sat down beside Jensen in the room’s chair, his eyes never once leaving Jensen’s face. They sat in silence for a long time and it took a long while before Jared found himself looking down, the tears from earlier once more resurfacing.
“Jen…I’m so sorry….I wish….I should have been there….he shouldn’t have been…”
Jared’s words were cut off by Jensen’s hand squeezing his. Jared looked up only to see that his face was not the only one with tear tracks.
“Not your fault. Thank you”. The words were mouthed, but Jared understood them perfectly. The tears fell harder, and he found himself on his feet, pressing a gentle kiss to Jensen’s forehead. They stayed like that a very long time, both perfectly content in the moment.
Finally Jared tried to pull away, but Jensen caught his hand.
“No”
Jared stared at him quizzically a moment before Jensen scooted himself over in the bed, allowing room for Jared.
“Here”
Jared smiled through his tears.
“You were always the bossy one”
It took them over three minutes to get all of the wires that Jensen currently had on him at the proper angles for Jared to lay down beside Jensen, but they did it. Jared held Jensen in his arms, and was once more smiling through the tears.
“You do know I’m taking you home with me, don’t you? I just felt like we should clarify that now, you know, before things get complicated”
Jensen laughed at the irony, a raspy and harsh sound but Jared loved it all the same.
“Ok”.