Mission Voyager (Part Seventeen)

[soulmatecest]

-Part Seventeen-
(Jensen)

The next few weeks must be the best of Jensen’s life. By far.

He wishes he could skip his job so he could stay with Jared all the time. It was hard enough to leave him when they were unlikely friends, but now Jared said I love you and the entire game has changed. Jensen doesn’t understand how anyone who has found his life partner can get anything done. Ever. How can Tom go to work every single morning and just not be with Mike? The idea of getting out of bed, take a shower and leave every day while Jared stays asleep on bed-which can be in his room or Jared’s, they have been rotating since Jared is really proud of his room and wants them to sleep there too-is basically torture.

But it might be suspicious if a healer who loved his job suddenly decided to quit. And Jensen loves being a healer, he still does. But not as much as he loves Jared. It's that simple.

Everyone at work keeps on teasing him that he looks more cheerful than before, congratulating on whatever is making Jensen stare at nothing during breaks and smile. If they only knew. Mike keeps on calling him to find out what happened with the shifter that had Jensen in such a poor state days ago, but Jensen says he will explain it eventually. He lets Mik and Tom know that’s he’s doing much better now, just so his friends won't worry. Mike laughs during the call and whistles before shouting “Get it, tiger! Go try some of that amazing sex!” making Jensen pull the phone away from his ear.

Jared cries laughing when he hears Mike, sitting right by Jensen’s side when he gets the call.

Jensen has to hang up when Mike starts to ask whose laugh was that and if Jensen was already sharing more than his time with the “lucky shifter” who was going to deal with Jensen’s “anal cranky mood” for the rest of their life.

Jared needs good ten minutes to stop laughing about that, mumbling that he wishes he could meet Mike. So does Jensen, and maybe someday, he will. If there’s someone out there who could understand, it would be Tom and Mike.

And during the time Jensen’s not working, all he does is Jared. Figurative and literally speaking. Now that Jensen got a taste of how amazing sex feels with Jared, he can’t get enough. Not enough sex, kisses or anything else Jared has to teach him. It's like an evolution of the relationship they had before, but with much more touching and Jensen constantly repeating how much he loves Jared. The last one is just to see him turn bright pink. Jensen has come to enjoy that too.

For a while everything seems fine. Jensen rushes back from work as soon as his shifts are over, never staying one second to do extra work and never taking files home. He doesn’t stop for the library as often, going straight towards Jared as soon as he can.

That night in particular is pouring like the sky is going to fall off and is later than Jensen would usually be driving back home because Tahmoh needed to exchange their shifts that day. Jensen felt guilty to say no after all the days he has skipped work or asked for permissions and Tahmoh had covered Jensen's patients-as Alona told him-so it would be rude to not return the favor. He called Jared from his office before leaving and told him to not wake him up and go rest, Jensen would sneak in bed once he got home.

They stayed up until really late the night before and then Jared decided to wake up early to cook and clean while Jensen slept in-since he didn’t have to be at work until two in the afternoon.

Jensen parks his car in front of the house, taking a moment to gather his coat and umbrella before getting out, wondering if Jared at least had something to eat before going to sleep. He’ll try to ask him once Jensen gets in bed, but sometimes is so hard to wake Jared up that Jensen also feels bad about disturbing him when he’s so tired.

Unlocking the front door with his set of keys, Jensen steps inside, leaving the umbrella at one side and stepping out of his shoes. As expected, all the lights at off and he can’t even hear the noise of the TV in his room. Jared must have been really tired to go to sleep already, he usually tries his hardest to wait up for him.

Trying to not make too much noise, Jensen leaves his coat by the entry and tip-toes into the kitchen. There are some dishes in the sink so maybe Jared did have dinner before choosing to go to sleep. Jensen could wash them right now, but he would rather take off the wet clothes and get in bed with Jared. He’ll wake up early next morning to clean.

Turning the kitchen's lights off before heading into the dark hallway, Jensen tries to not make noise as he opens the first door. Jared’s room is empty and the bed perfectly made. His room, then. Jensen smiles to himself, thinking that perhaps Jared picked Jensen’s bed because Jared couldn’t wait up but at least wanted to feel close to him somehow.

But Jensen doesn’t make it to his room.

Before he can get close enough, he feels something cold pressing against his back and someone breathing behind him. He freezes, wondering about Collectors for a quick second before he realizes that a Collector wouldn’t get in without permission nor point at Jensen’s back.

And if it’s not a shifter, then there’s only another possible option.

“Put your hands up and turn around.” A voice commands and then pushes Jensen twice on the back when he doesn’t obey. Jensen swallows, raising his hands up slowly as he stares at the closed door of his room. Is Jared okay? Did they do something to him thinking that Jared's a shifter too? A human wouldn’t be able to tell, and they could easily assume considering Jared's living here with Jensen.

He turns around slowly, just to find a gun right in front of his face when he does so. He breaths out, feeling a small deja-vú as he remembers Jared doing the exact same thing months ago. But when he looks past the weapon and towards the person holding it, he realizes this is not going to end like it did last time. He can’t see in the dark that well, but he can tell this man is not harmed nor sick like Jared was the night he broke in.

This human is healthy, he has a gun and he's not scared. Things are not working in Jensen’s favor here.

“Now I want you to tell me where is he.”

Jared. The human do knows Jared is here, Jensen is not sure how they could tell there are two people living in the house but the details are not important. This human knows and he probably thinks Jared is a shifter too, therefore he wants to hurt Jared as well. Jensen is not going to let that happen.

“How did you get in here?” Jensen snaps in return, not even considering answering that question while wondering if he could be fast enough to get in his room before the guy shoots him.

“You forgot to lock the door, asshole.” The guy says and then presses the end of his gun to Jensen’s head. “Now answer the fucking question or I’m going to blow out your brain.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“We saw his shirt outside.” A feminine voice says further in the black background, taking Jensen by surprise. Unlike his male companion, the girl is not breathing hard nor making any noise, at least not until this moment. “It was drying in the backyard along with other clothes.”

So much for drying now that is raining. But that’s not the point. The point is that Jensen can’t figure out what the hell these two humans are talking about.

“Listen, I don’t know what you want.” Jensen starts, trying to remain calm. “But if you leave now without doing anything stupid I won’t call the Security Division nor the Collectors. Nobody will know you were here, you can even take food from the kitchen. I’ll give you medicines for the ride. But only if you put the gun down and leave.”

“Stop fucking around!” The guy shouts this time, grabbing Jensen by his shirt and suddenly slamming him to one of the walls. “You think I want your fucking charity? You think I need help from something like you? Answer the other question! He was wearing the fucking shirt the night we split up and I want you to fucking tell me what you did with the human who broke in your house!”

Stepping away from Jensen, the human points his gun to Jensen's chest. Right to his heart. Not even shifter technology would save Jensen if he got shot there.

“Tell me where the fuck is Jared or I’m going to shoot you to death!”

Jensen doesn’t get to answer, too many things happening at once.

He doesn’t think he gets time to process the fact that this human knows Jared before the door of his room slides open, lighting up the corridor and letting Jensen finally see the two young humans standing in front of him. The guy has short blonde hair and blue eyes, a gun tightly held in his hand. He’s not shaking nor crying like Jared was that night months ago. He’s gripping the gun and looking at Jensen with enough determination to make Jensen be sure that this human has all the guts to kill him. The girl behind him has brown hair up in a ponytail, skin darker than Jared’s. She's small and petite compared to Jensen and the other guy. Both their clothes look old, dirty and raggedy; the exact same aspect Jared’s clothes had when he broke into the house.

All the humans do is stare back him now that they can see him too, but none of them gets to do anything before Jared is jumping out of the room and standing right in front of Jensen-between him and the gun-with his arms stretched open so he can cover as much of Jensen as possible.

“Chad!” Jared cries out and Jensen watches as the guy steps back and the gun falls from his hand.

The girl behind Chad-who now Jensen knows is the best friend Jared has talked him about so many times-lets out a loud gasp and then covers her mouth, looking at Jared like she can’t believe her own eyes.

Chad stares at Jared too, eyes going up and down Jared’s body, mouth hanging open. Jared stays in front of Jensen like some kind of shield, eyes going from the blonde guy to the girl behind him

After a long time of nobody saying or doing anything, Chad finally moves again. Jensen tenses, ready to kick the gun out of reach or take Jared with him in the room so they can be safe in case. All in the guy does something stupid.

But instead, all Chad does is put both hands on Jared’s shoulders and pull him into a long hug.

-

They all sit in the living room once things have calmed down and clarified to certain points. It basically feels like one of those human jokes Jared has told him before. Three humans and one shifter walk into a bar.

Chad and Sandy-whose name now Jensen knows thanks to Jared introducing them vaguely in between rushed explanations right after jumping in between Jensen and Chad-sit on the opposite side of the living room in silence. Jared and Jensen sit on the other couch, all of them with a cup of coffee in front of them and nobody saying a word.

Jensen doesn’t mind silence but this is basically awkward.

Jared keeps shooting nervous looks from Chad to Jensen, fidgeting on his spot and niggling on his lower lip. Chad, on his parts, throws glances at the house before squinting at the minimum space in between Jared and Jensen on the couch. Sandy is the only one who doesn’t seem to find anything suspicious, yet she doesn’t take her eyes off Jensen, like she’s expecting him to do something interesting out of nowhere, like disappear in thin air or pull a bunny out of front pocket.

After all the hugging part of the reunion happened-with Sandy and Chad clinging to Jared for dear life while Jensen offered to go prepare something hot for them to drink and towels for the unexpected visits so they can dry off; an excuse to give them some time alone once he hears them all start to cry-Jared started to explain the entire story of how Jensen had helped him once he broke into his house. Jared talks and talks, barely taking breaks to breathe, stuttering or repeating himself every now and then. He explains about Jensen being a healer, about curing Jared and not calling the Collectors on him. Jared tells Chad and Sandy about them becoming friends and Jared deciding to stay because he couldn’t survive on his own and he wanted to stay here with Jensen after all.

He doesn’t explain the rest and Jensen can understand why. Jared’s friends seem to have enough troubles wrapping their heads around the fact that they are friends at all.

Jared sighs by his side and then turns to look at him, giving him a small smile after taking a sip of his coffee. He looks tired and it makes Jensen want to kiss the bags under Jared's eyes and tell him to go to sleep. But right now might not be a good time for it.

“Oh my fucking God.” Chad snaps then, making everyone turn to look at him. He’s shaking his head, mouth hanging open while he looks at Jared with disbelief. “Really, Jared? With that thing? An alien? Dude. Gross.”

Jensen frowns, lost in the sudden conversation, but he’s glad that Sandy looks just as confused as him.

“Jensen is not a thing!” Jared argues back, body tensing on the couch and huffing. He reaches for Jensen’s hand and gives it a little squeeze without taking his eyes off his friend. “Chad! Don’t call him that, I told you his name is Jensen and he’s a shifter.”

Chad crosses his arms over his chest and leans back into the couch, clicking his tongue.

“What’s going on?” Sandy whispers, leaning towards Chad, who huffs and keeps shaking his head at Jared.

“He’s fucking the alien!”

Jensen has no clue of how Chad could guess that from the way Jared and Jensen looked at each other, but Jared did say they had been close all their lives. It's almost like Tom knowing how uncomfortable Jensen would be with physical contact the first time Jensen visited.

Sandy leans back on the couch too, looking at Jared with her mouth hanging open, making no comment about it while she sips on her coffee.

Jared turns bright pink and raises his chin in response, puffing his chest out like he’s proud of Chad’s accusation and is not going to feel embarrassed about it. Jensen squeezes his hand in return, throwing Chad a dirty stare. What a douchebag, just like Jensen guessed when Jared fist spoke about him.

“I’m doing more than have sex with Jensen.” Jared speaks trough his teeth, looking at Chad, who squints again in return.

“Elaborate, Padalecki.”

“Agent J and Laura in Men in Black II.”

Jared might just have spoken into another language for all Jensen knows. Chad, on the other hand, seems to have gotten every part of that reference because he mouths “oh shit” and doesn’t say anything else, eyes wide as he stares at the carpet. And then, nobody adds anything for another two awkward minutes.

There’s more fidgeting on Jared’s part as he waits for Chad’s answer, with Sandy and Jensen glancing at each other every now then, feeling like they are both witnessing a conversation they shouldn’t be part of. And they aren’t. This is all human-best-friends talk going down, so Jensen is happy to just sit there and hold Jared’s hand.

Finally, Chad clicks his tongue and looks back at Jared, expression hard to read.

“So…” he trails off and arches one eyebrow. “How many tentacles?”

“Not a single one.”

They both stare at each other with a serious expression and then Jared and Chad break into loud laughter at the same time. Jared throws his head back before turning around to press his face on Jensen’s arm, muffling his cackles while Chad holds onto his stomach, laughing with the exact little shit laugh Jensen imagined he would have. Even Sandy is chuckling now, looking down to her lap and trying to cover her smile with one hand.

“You know, I still don’t get what’s with that tentacle joke.” Jensen mumbles and it makes Jared laugh harder and Chad almost howl on the couch, absolutely losing his mind like Jensen said the funniest thing on Earth.

“I’ll explain later.” Jared whispers between laughs, cleaning some of the tears from the edge of his eyes before pressing a kiss to Jensen’s cheeks.

Things seem to completely change from that moment, awkward silences gone and Chad behaving like he has been coming around to hang with Jared and Jensen for weeks now, placing his shoes on the coffee table and acting like he’s in his own house. Sandy seems more relaxed too, but at least she behaves.

They explain how the night they were all running away, Chad and Sandy could escape from the Collectors and go back to the old factory Jensen already knows about. Jared has already told him about the survivors' group he stayed for almost a year with and it blows Jensen’s mind that such a large number of humans was living so close to Dallas without anybody realizing. Chad says that he told everything to Jeffrey Dean, Chris and Adrianne when they were back and Jeffrey decided they had to move, the idea of staying too dangerous after Jared got caught so close to their refuge. Jared’s friends tried to argue about going back to look for Jared but everyone kept telling them it wouldn’t do them any good. They would never find Jared and it was more than probable than Jared was connected inside a Facility already.

“But I wasn’t about to leave my best friend here. Fuck that.” Chad groans, frowning as he keeps on talking. “So we made a plan with Sandy.”

“The group moved and we went with them, but some weeks ago we drove here instead of going for provisions.” Sandy explains as she now munches on the cookies Jensen brought for them. “Adrianne is going to murder us when she finds the note we left.”

“You’re going out for provisions now?” Jared asks, looking worried.

“We had to. It was part of an ongoing plan.” Chad adds. “We had to get a car to come back, and only the ones in the group who go to the cities for food get the keys.”

“We left the car were they used to keep it when we lived in the factory, by the railway in that forest where they found you.” Sandy explains and Jared nods in return. “We left a note telling Adrianne that if we didn’t come back in a month they should come get the car and not look for us.”

“You guys…” Jared whispers and even Jensen has to admit he’s touched too. They risked themselves just come looking for Jared without any clue of where to find him.

“We knew you were still alive, Jared.” Sandy smiles at him and then blows him a kiss. “That night we had to split up because I passed out and you ran away to distract the Collectors and get them away from us. You’re our friend, we couldn’t leave you alone.”

That’s when it hits Jensen. They are here to take Jared back, bring him to their new refuge now that they know he’s alive. That has been their mission all along. He glances at Jared, who looks thoughtful.

Jensen loves Jared with everything he is, but he would never keep him around against his will. If Jared wants to leave with his friends, Jensen won’t get in his way. Just try to make sure he’s safe and healthy, but not force Jared to choose him instead.

“But I’m not alone now.” Jared finally says, turning to look at him with a smile. “I will never be alone again, I’m with Jensen.”

He smiles to Jared in return, feeling like his heart could burst out of his chest at any second. Chad makes a gagging noise in the background, mumbling something about not buying a ticket for a romantic-comedy movie. Sandy slaps his arm and whispers “stop that” but Chad only gags louder than before. Jared chuckles, turning his head towards them.

“And you guys don’t have to be alone to either! Maybe you can-” and then he stops, turning to look at Jensen while he nibbles on his lower lip.

“They can stay if they want to.” Jensen clarifies in case that’s what Jared is worrying about. If it means Jared staying, then he can move all the group of survivors in here if that’s what it’s necessary to make Jared happy.

“Really? Jensen, you’re the best!” Jared cheers, throwing his arms around Jensen’s neck and pulling him into a kiss right in front of his friends.

This time Chad makes a gagging noise for two minutes straight, yelling for them to get a room.

It’s already late but there are some restaurants that deliver until midnight, so Jensen orders a pizza on the phone and shoos all the three humans to the kitchen when the delivery boy gets there. The guy makes light chat with Jensen for good five minutes before finally leaving, and when Jensen goes back into the kitchen Jared is in the middle of explaining how shifters don't have to pay for anything.

Chad and Sandy devour the pizza and is a good thing that Jensen wasn’t that hungry himself. He swears Chad is actually about to tear up, mumbling something about not being able to eat anything like this in years and thinking he just saw heaven.

Jared and Jensen fix Jared’s room for Chad and Sandy, getting an extra mattress in there along with pillows and blankets. Jared gives them a quick tour through the house and Jensen clarifies they are welcome to eat anything in the kitchen and use the bathrooms if they want to, even take showers or watch TV. The only two rules are that they can’t go out or move the windows from screening mode because the neighbors will see them. And second, they have to put the gun in one of the closets and leave it there.

That’s where Jared’s rifle has been all along.

Chad seems against letting go of his weapon, but a quick chat with Jared makes him give up and hand him the gun along with a knife, looking defeated as he goes sit on the extra mattress on the floor. Jared offers them to change into some of his clothes if they want to and wishes them a good night, sharing long hug with each of his friends before closing the door and going to Jensen’s room.

“Thank you so much for this.” Jared says as he gets in bed, only wearing one of Jensen’s shirts. Jensen hugs him by his waist, bringing Jared close by his chin to kiss him softly.

“Of course, they are your friends, Jay. If you trust them then I do too.”

“I want to stay here.” Jared adds, once again making Jensen feel like there’s nothing better in the Universe than being loved by Jared. “I’m not leaving you for anything. But I’m worried about them. I don’t want Chad and Sandy out there.”

“I know, Jay.” Jensen nods along, brushing his bangs out of his face. “We’ll figure it out, alright? I promise. We’ll find a way to keep them safe.”

| Part Eighteen |