“Let me go, damn it! Right now!” Brian struggled to pull away from the nurses who were working on him. Most of their time was spent trying to hold him to the bed. Since the ambulance had brought him in ten minutes ago, he had been trying to get away from them so that he could go find AJ. But they weren’t letting him leave. He was getting steadily more pissed. “Look, I’ll let you work on me in a bit.” He tried to reason with one of the nurses. “But I have to go find him. Do you understand me?”
“You need to sit right there, Mr. Littrell.” The elderly woman told him, her face a stern mask. He fully expected to see her put her hands on her hips or shake a finger at him. “Once we’re done with you, we’ll go find out for you what is going on with your young man. But you’ve been hurt, and we need to worry about treating that right now.”
“I don’t give a shit about what’s wrong with me!” He screamed at them all. “He was shot, do you hear me? Stabbed and beaten and shot! You expect me to sit here when I don’t even know if he’s alive?”
There was sympathy on his nurse’s face, but she was already shaking her head at him. Just as he would have exploded again, the door to his room opened and Kevin flew in, followed close by Nick and Howie. “Thank God! Bri, we found you!” Kevin cried, rushing to Brian’s bedside.
Brian didn’t waste time with pleasantries or anything like that. “How’s AJ?” he demanded to know.
“We just got here, so we haven’t been down to see him yet.” Kevin replied.
Now that he knew they didn’t know about how AJ was, Brian paid them no mind. He went back to trying to get out of the bed. It was Kevin who stopped him this time, holding him down gently by his arms. “Brian, what’re you doing? Look at you, you’re hurt. You need to stay here and let them treat you.”
Frustration rang in Brian’s voice, echoing through every part of him. “I don’t know how many times I have to say it. I don’t give a shit about getting cleaned up and wrapped up. I’m not bleeding, nothing’s broken, and I can walk. I want to know how AJ’s doing, and now!”
“Frick, I got this.” Nick interrupted. He took Brian’s hand for a moment and gave it a squeeze. “Let them clean you up, and I swear, I’ll go find out how J is.” He didn’t give Brian time to answer, but spun and left the room quickly.
Howie stepped forward, his arms wrapped around his waist. He was looking at Brian from head to toe, noting all the marks, as well as the fear in Brian’s voice. It left a sick feeling in his stomach. “We haven’t had time to talk to any nurses yet. What…what happened?” He wanted to ask why Brian was so scared, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He was afraid of the answer he would get.
Now that Brian knew someone was going to tell him about AJ, he sat back enough to let the nurses do their jobs. They were testing everything to make sure nothing was broken, as well as treating the small burns. There really wasn’t much for them to do. The worst pain was bruises, which they couldn’t do anything for, and the other pain that he hadn’t told them about. They were also monitoring his heart, to make sure that whatever drug Dave had given him hadn’t adversely affected his heart.
His eyes traveled over his two friends, watching them quietly. A slow anger built in him. These fools had let security go lax. They had thought that Dave was all talk, that he wouldn’t come after them anymore. Because of them, because of him, he and AJ had lived through something they would never be able to imagine.
“You want to know what happened?” Brian asked. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed, glaring at them. He never noticed Nick coming back to the door. “You want me to tell you what he did to us? The whole thing? I could start with the cider he sent us that was spiked, using a note that was forged with Kevin’s name so that we’d actually drink it. Or I could go right into telling you about the basement we were in.”
Anger carried Brian to his feet. His fists clenched at his sides. Anger at them, anger at himself, almost overwhelmed him. “Do you want a play by play of the torture? Of how he dragged me to the ground and raped me? Or did you want to hear about when he stabbed AJ, and how much he enjoyed doing it?”
Everyone flinched, and Howie’s face went paler. They couldn’t speak.
“Dave had AJ strung up so that his feet were chained to the ground, and his hands were chained up to the ceiling, high enough he stood on tip toe so he wouldn’t break an arm. That’s not to say he did, with the way that Dave beat him and he ended up flopping all over the place. He hit him with fists, a strap, a fucking paddle. He took AJ’s cigarettes and lit them, and burned him with each one until they were gone.”
Brian reached a hand up, moving his curls away from the burn at his ear. “He has these little marks, all over him.”
“You should be in bed after living through all this.” Kevin said softly. He was trying to keep his voice soothing, but Brian still flinched away from him. He glared at them and sliced his hand through the air.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about, Kevin, so I suggest you shut your fucking mouth.” He snapped. The anger in his words, the attitude, had everyone silent again. “What I have here is nothing, nothing, compared to AJ. Everything he did to AJ, he did to me first, but in such small doses I don’t really think it counts. Do you know what this is?” Brian held out one arm, pointing to the small burn there. “Well, do you?”
They shook their heads, terrified of the answer. Brian didn’t hesitate in giving it. “It’s from a cattle prod. AJ has them all over his body. The fucker even used it inside of his cuts. All over his chest, his stomach, his back. In his fucking armpit! But you want to what else? We can’t forget the baseball bat. Oh, no. Can’t forget when he took that fucking bat and swung it right into AJ’s knee.”
Howie gasped, one hand coming to cover his mouth. Kevin and Nick looked down as they felt their hearts break. A knee injury for someone with a passion for dancing like AJ had, that was devastating.
“But, I haven’t got to the best part.” Brian continued ruthlessly. “I gave in, you know. I told him I’d do whatever he wanted, if he’d just stop hurting AJ. But he said that wasn’t good enough. So he pulled out his revolver.” Tears were coursing down all four faces. “Even with Dave holding that there, do you know what AJ said? He didn’t say he hated me, or any of us. No, he asked me to not remember him like that. Then he told me he loved me.”
Everything drained from Brian. He sat back on the edge of the hospital bed and buried his face in his hands. “Cops came in, and they scared Dave. He shot him. I lost everything after that. I just know that he shot him. Someone said he flinched, that it hit AJ’s shoulder more than anything.” He looked up again, and the pain and devastation on his face broke all their hearts. “So you wanted to know what happened. Well, there it is. We tried to warn you guys, but you didn’t keep up the extra security. An now, your brother, my love, could die because of it. I hope you’re real happy.”
Judging the time right, Nick stepped forward. He made no pretense to wipe his face, or to hide the tears in any way. He just squatted on the floor at Brian’s feet and took both his hands. “He’s alive, Frick.” He said softly. That was the most important part to say. He saw Brian relax, and knew that now was the time to fill in the details. “He was in shock when he came in, and had pretty severe, um, tachycardia. They stabilized him. The bullet went clean through, and he’s still in the OR finishing getting patched up on his shoulder. They said they’re moving on to his knee next, and how long that will take they don’t know. But he’s alive, and they say he has a pretty good chance of making it. The stab wound missed vital organs, so all they had to do was sew it externally. All in all, they say he should be fine, he’ll just have some pretty strong PT to do.”
Brian felt all his stress drain from him. He sagged forward, but Nick was there to catch him, to help him stay steady on the bed. Brian felt the sobs start, and he buried his face in his hands. He was going to be ok. That was all he could think about. AJ was going to live. The rest they would deal with later. “Thank you, God. Thank you, God.” Brian chanted. He had never meant any prayer more in his entire life.
“Bri…” Kevin started to say. It was actually Nick who held a hand up and shook his head. “Not now, Kev.” He said softly, his arms around his best friend. “Let’s let Rok rest. He’s been through hell.”
Seeing that Brian was about to protest, Nick shook his head again. “I swear that the instant I know anything about J I’ll personally wake you up and tell you, ok? But, Rok, he had you guys for almost twenty four hours. Your body needs to sleep.” At that, Brian turned to look at him. Only a day? They had only been in that basement for a day? It felt like it had been a lifetime.
Somehow he found himself lying down, and Nick was tucking a blanket around him. He smoothed a few locks of curls back from Brian’s forehead. “Sleep, honey. I promise you, the instant I know anything, I’ll wake you. You just sleep.”
“When’d you get to be so parental?” Brian asked with a yawn. He missed the quick grin that flashed across Nick’s face, but he could hear it in the gentle response. “Someone’s got to be right now.” With a kiss on Brian’s forehead, Nick turned and ushered everyone from the room. Before they were even gone, exhaustion and pain medication had Brian fast asleep.