Save Me (Part 6)

[vampiremadonna]

Title: Save Me
Author: VampireMadonna
Pairing: YunJae
Rating: PG-13
Length: Undetermined
Summary: Kim Jaejoong is on the run from his crazed ex-husband and Lieutenant Jung Yunho is the only one standing between him and an uncertain fate. Will Yunho be his savior...or will his rescue come too late?


He closed the door behind him and stood facing the apartment, bright blue eyes darting to and fro, drinking in the scene.

So this is where he lives, he thought.

He walked into the living room, trailing his hand along the back of the sofa as he tried to get a sense of his competition. The room was simply decorated, uncluttered. There were basic pieces of furniture in a light, serviceable brown; a few small, framed landscapes on the walls. It could have belonged to anyone, as far as he was concerned. The room said nothing about the man himself. Perhaps, he considered, since he was a cop, he hardly spent any time there.

On the other side of the room, he entered a short hall and this, he realized, was where the man’s personality began to show. There were framed photographs of various sizes lining both sides of the hall. The man, Jung Yunho, and several people who bore resemblances to him struck a myriad of poses against multiple backgrounds, all smiling, either at the camera or at each other. The perfect picture of a happy family.

It made him sick.

At the end of the hall, he came to a door and pushed it open.

The bedroom.

Here, at least, he got a better impression of the man. The furniture was in that same neutral shade of brown but the large four poster bed and accompanying bedside tables were made of solid wood. Strong and manly. The bedspread was an earthy moss green, which completely contrasted to the highly feminine peach-edged-with-white lace curtains. He’d bet his last dollar that Jung Yunho’s mother or sister had picked those drapes. They didn’t fit what he knew of the man. A quick trip into the adjoining bathroom told him that Jung Yunho was also clean and neat.

Much like Jaejoong, a little voice teased.

The thought irked him. Jung Yunho was nothing like his love. They had absolutely nothing in common. And even if they did, his love would never be interested. He would never betray him.

Feeling his irritation grow, he began humming to himself.

He wasn’t sure why he’d come here, he’d just had to. After seeing this man with his love, knowing that he wanted him, he’d just had to find out as much as he could about him. It hadn’t been hard, not at all. In fact, his being a police officer made it a lot easier as there was so much to find if one knew where to look.

And I certainly do, he thought with a smirk.

No matter how sick they might say he was, no one could dispute his genius. His doctors in that…that place they’d sent him to had said his intelligence made him all the more dangerous. He didn’t think he was a danger to anyone, least of all his love. He just wanted to live peacefully with the man he’d married but everyone kept getting in the way of that and they needed to be taught a lesson. It was their own fault.

Satisfied that Jung Yunho was no match for him, just another boring, over-worked civil servant, he decided to leave but just as he was about to turn, his eyes fell to a file on the nightstand. Curious, he sat on the bed, picked it up and flipped it open.

Immediately, a haze of red clouded his vision, his blood boiling beneath his skin.

“No, no, no, no, no!” he screamed.

His pictures, the pictures he’d taken for his love. What was Jung Yunho doing with them? They were a gift, a gift for his love, to let him know that he was always there, would always be there. He need never worry about being alone. Why did Jung Yunho have them? Had he taken them? Had his love given them to him?

No, his love would never do that to him.

He passed a shaky hand over his face, struggling to calm his breathing.

His love hadn’t betrayed him. He didn’t think for one minute that his love would dare risk a repeat of his last infraction. He’d had to teach him a lesson then too and it had hurt them both in the end. No, this had to be Jung Yunho’s doing. Maybe he’d coerced him into giving him the photos.

But why did he have them at home? Next to his bed? Shouldn’t they be at the police station? That was the basis of their relationship, wasn’t it?

His eyes dropped to the top photo, trembling fingers tracing his love’s face. He was smiling in this picture, looking so unbelievably beautiful that it took his breath away. He’d always been bewitching. It was his curse. He couldn’t blame Jung Yunho for being unable to resist his love’s charms but he knew he was taken, he must know, so to knowingly encroach on someone else’s territory…

An image flashed in his mind of Jung Yunho smiling down at his love, eyes hungry and consuming. The pictures slid out of his hands as he brought them to his temples, massaging roughly as he rocked back in forth in an attempt to soothe the fire that flamed within.

It didn’t work.

Another image quickly followed, one of the two of them wrapped in each other’s embrace, skin against skin, their mouths fused together as they devoured each other.

With a roar, he lunged to his feet and knocked over the lamp on the nightstand. Spinning around, he blindly struck out, tearing and tugging at whatever his hands came in contact with. Before he knew it, he was in the closet ripping clothes off hangers, stomping on them as they fell to the ground. The fire didn’t dissipate, only continued to build, forcing him to continue to vent as he tried to burn out his rage.

He was like a tornado, crushing everything in his path, and when the bedroom was completely destroyed, he started making his way back through the hall. As he passed the framed photographs, however, his eyes met those of the occupants. Their smiles mocked him. They were saying, “Look at us. We have everything while you have nothing, are nothing.” He’d had a family, until they’d taken it away from him. His parents…the doctors…and now Jung Yunho.

Growling, he snatched the frames off the wall, throwing them to the ground and stomping on the glass. He knelt and picked up the photographs, brushing the broken glass aside, uncaring when his fingers were cut. One by one, he removed the photos from the frames and patiently, neatly, tore them into strips. He laughed to himself as he worked, picturing the expression on Jung Yunho’s face when he came home to a trashed apartment. Would he be shocked? Certainly. Terrified? Perhaps. Maybe he was one of those cops who thought that carrying a gun made him a big, bad wolf. Well, he’d show him. Cops weren’t the only ones with access to guns…

Humming now, the fire having abated, he finished his work, throwing the strips up into the air and laughing as they rained down around him. Climbing to his feet, he walked out to the living room, kicked the couch, knocked the landscapes off the walls. He pulled out the cushions from the sofa and chairs and threw them around, letting them land where they may, turning the furniture onto their sides for good measure. He went into the kitchen and emptied all of the utensils onto the kitchen floor. He didn’t touch the electronic appliances. He had a healthy respect for those. There was no reason to make them pay for what their owner had done.

Satisfied that his message was loud and clear - and with the knowledge that Jung Yunho would have another work load awaiting him when he arrived - he let himself out of the apartment, humming cheerfully as he locked up and strode back down the hall.

It looked like he’d been hit by a hurricane. Everything was either flattened or upended.

He walked through the apartment, forcing himself to stay calm as he assessed the damage. His bedroom was undoubtedly the worst, followed by the hallway leading to his bedroom. He knelt on the ground to look closely at the torn pictures, surprised to see smudges of dark red on some of the strips.

Blood?, he wondered.

Had Daniel cut himself? DNA would go a long way to cementing Daniel’s involvement. Breaking and entering and malicious destruction of property.

Pulling out his phone, he started to dial a number but stopped himself just before he pressed send when he realized that he’d almost called Jaejoong. Jaejoong needed to know, deserved to.

But he wasn’t going to tell him.

The last thing Jaejoong needed was more stress and worry. He already had his hands full with taking care of Maya and keeping them both safe, the last thing he needed was confirmation that Daniel had in fact made Yunho a target. Better just to let him suspect and worry a little than to confirm and make him paranoid.

Starting again, he called the station and asked for the head of the CSI team that had taken care of Jaejoong’s house.

“Hey, Yunho, I was just heading out.”

“I need a favor,” Yunho said, getting straight to the point.

“What can I do you for?”

“I need you to assemble a team and come to a scene, now.”

“Wait, you’re kidding right? I was just on my way home to…”

“Please. I need the best and you’re it.”

There was a long sigh and a moment of silence before a defeated voice finally asked, “Where?”

“My apartment.” He gave the address.

“What? Your apartment? Yunho, what’s going on?”

Surveying the damage, a hint of humor in his tone, Yunho said, “I think I just caught a break.”

“Definitely started in the bedroom.”

Yunho watched as the CSIs trudged through his home, taking pictures and dusting for finger-prints.

“He came all the way through the apartment without touching a thing but when he got here, something set him off.”

Yunho raised a questioning brow at the technician: a petite, cherub of a girl, matching blond hair and all.

She blushed. “Sorry, I studied criminal psychology before I switched majors and sometimes I just can’t help myself.”

Yunho smiled. “It’s okay. Finish it out.”

Blush deepening, she walked to the bed and picked up the photographs on the floor. “I think it was this. It’s the only thing in the room that’s in tact. He tore the other photographs but didn’t damage these.” She held them out to Yunho. “This mean anything?”

“It’s everything,” Yunho murmured, taking the photographs.

“He seems to have gone into a rage and trashed the room before going back this way,” she continued, walking out to the hall. “His anger caused him to knock the pictures down but the way he stripped them? So neat and symmetrical? It’s too methodical. He’s still angry but he’s thinking now, concentrating. He knows that he’s leaving DNA behind but he doesn’t care because he knows that you already know who he is.” She looked at Yunho for confirmation, continuing at his nod. “I think when he got to the living room, he was just burning off the excess. That and everything that came after was just fun. He didn’t actually destroy anything but merely displaced them. Same goes for the kitchen. He tossed the utensils onto the floor but didn’t touch the appliances, and there were several he could’ve easily broken if he’d wanted to. I think that, at that point, he was just trying to make things even more inconvenient for you, that’s all. He wants you to clean up after him. He thinks you’ll be pissed and that’s what he wants. He wants you to be angry like he is. Was.”

Yunho smiled to himself. She was smart. With her quick thinking, she’d get very far.

“He’s right. I am pissed. Was,” he amended with a wink. “He has inconvenienced me but he’s also made my job a helluva lot easier. He’s helped me more than he could ever know.”

Her brows furrowed in confusion but he didn’t bother to clarify. The less people that knew, the better. The connection between his break-in and Jaejoong’s would be on a need-to-know basis.

The head technician was just making his way over when his phone rang. He answered without glancing at the display, which he would regret immediately.

“My office. Now!” his uncle’s voice growled before the disconnect tone started beeping in his ear.

“Well, shit,” he muttered.

“I told you. I told you you were too close to this.”

Yunho watched his uncle pace back and forth behind his desk.

He’d no sooner arrived and closed the door behind him than his uncle had started in on his case.

“You wouldn’t listen to me, you stubborn bastard, and now look. Not only does he know who you are but he knows where you live. He’s torn your place apart,” his uncle growled.

“I’m well aware,” Yunho said mildly, earning himself a glare.

“Don’t speak!” his uncle snapped, no longer pacing. “From now on, you are going to do as I say, is that clear? You are going to hand over this case to one of the detectives. Do not see or speak to Kim Jaejoong again. Absolutely no contact, do you understand?”

Yunho jumped to his feet. “You can’t be serious. This is my case.”

“I’m dead serious, Yunho. Do not test me. I will bust your rank down to meter maid if I have to until this thing is over.”

“You can’t do that!” Yunho argued.

“I can and I will. Your father trusted me to keep you safe and I’ll be damned if I break that promise.” He turned away, stared blindly out the window. “I should’ve never let it get this far.”

“It’s my case, my decision. I will not let you reassign it after all the ground work I’ve laid. If I wasn’t your nephew…”

“But you are!” Captain Jung retorted, spinning around. “You are my nephew and unfair as it may be, that greatly affects things.”

Yunho shook his head. “I got here without favoritism, without any help from you, dad, grandpa, anybody. You know how hard it’s been, having to prove myself time and time again because of the Jung legacy. I’ve finally carved my niche, built a reputation of my own, and you want to do this to me? It’s not fair.”

“Life isn’t fair, Yunho. The sooner you learn that, the better off you’ll be. Now, pick a detective and…”

Yunho shook his head again. “No. No,” he repeated firmly. “My life is no more precious than anyone else’s. Do you think he won’t go after them too if he thinks they’re in his way? He’s already fixated on me but at least I know what I’m dealing with, what to expect. If you throw someone else into the mix, it’s like sending a sheep to the slaughter. And Jaejoong trusts me. Him and his daughter both. You can’t do that to them. It’ll destroy them.”

The Captain warred with the uncle. Yunho’s words had some truth to them. It was his case, albeit a case he’d told him not to take, and it was unfair to remove him at such a critical juncture. But his life clearly depended on it now that the suspect had apparently made him a target. Yunho was simply too close to the situation. His feelings for Kim Jaejoong aside, having his home broken into by a man no one could find put him in danger. As a Captain, he was entitled to remove him from the case and ensure that he was protected. As an uncle, he would make sure of it.

Resolved, Captain Jung’s jaw tightened as he squared off against his nephew. “This is not up for discussion. It’s an order. See that it’s done.”

Yunho stared unblinkingly at his uncle for long seconds. He was going to have to take a stand and there was only one option left.

Resolved, he unclipped his badge from his waistband, removed his gun from his holster and laid them both on his uncle’s desk. He said nothing: words weren’t necessary, his intent was clear.

Captain Jung’s eyes widened in shock, flitting back and forth between the items on his desk and his nephew’s face.

“You can’t be serious!” he gasped.

Yunho nodded slowly. “I am. You forced my hand Captain…Uncle. I can’t and won’t walk away from Jaejoong and his daughter and if this is the only way…so be it.”

“But…but…you love this job,” his uncle sputtered, still in disbelief.

“I do. But one of the promises I made when I took this job was to protect and serve. How am I protecting or serving if you remove me from the case?”

“There’ll be other cases, Yunho,” his uncle tried to reason.

“Yes, but not this one. I started this, so let me finish it. As an officer of the law, you know what it’s like, how it feels, to see something through from beginning to end. Think about what you’re taking away from me.”

Captain Jung shook his head slowly, still unable to wrap his mind around it. “You would do this, go to such lengths, for him?”

“For them,” Yunho corrected. “Forget everything that you think you know, Captain. I won’t deny that there’s something between us, that I’m extremely attracted to him, but first and foremost to me is keeping him and his daughter safe. Anything else is secondary. When he walked into this station all those months ago, I promised to help him in any way that I could. He’s been through a lot, they both have. They’ve had people fail them, turn their backs on them. I won’t let you force me to go back on my word. When all is said and done, I’m the only thing standing between him and that man who’s been terrorizing them for years. Years.”

“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of,” his uncle whispered.

“If you had no faith in my ability to fulfill my duty, to honor the badge, then you never should have given it to me.”

“You know that’s not it.”

“Then nothing else matters. I’m not the one with the problem here, Captain. You say I’m too close to this and maybe I am, but you’re the one having trouble separating work from personal obligations.”

Captain Jung took a deep breath and released it slowly. Yunho was right, the insufferable prick. He could order him to go on leave until this whole thing blew over but he knew his nephew. He’d go out the door and straight into Kim Jaejoong’s arms, or house, or whatever. It would draw too much attention and no doubt lead to inquiries as to why Yunho was not at work. It would do irreparable damage to Yunho’s reputation if or when he decided to come back. That was the last thing he wanted.

“Fine,” he finally said. “We’ll do it your way. But I’m putting eyes on your apartment, round the clock, until this is done.”

Yunho nodded. “You’ll get no argument there. I’d rather not come home to a ravaged house again,” he joked.

His uncle merely grunted as he dropped into his chair. “Update me on the case.”

Yunho relayed the recent incidents and information, wrapping up with, “…so I was hoping to put round-the-clock surveillance on his house too, until this is over with. The suspect has a wide knowledge of electronics and IT, which makes him even more dangerous as he could come from any angle.”

Captain Jung nodded. “Very well. Pick your men. Six-hour rotation. It’d be senseless to have one officer sitting in a car all day. His instincts would get dull from boredom alone and defeat the purpose of his being there.”

“Good idea,” Yunho agreed.

They fine-tuned the details of the operation some more before Captain Jung finally sent Yunho home for some much needed sleep.

“I’ll contact the Commissioner in the morning about filing a request for the files from the Swedish police.”

“Thanks, Captain.”

“And Yunho?” his uncle called, stopping him just before he closed the door behind him.

He turned slightly in the doorway, met the older man’s eyes.

“I’ve never once doubted you, or regretted giving you that badge.”
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Yunho smiled. “I know.”