Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Dead Men Tell No Tales ❯ Surprise ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6—Surprise

 

Dee stood in the hospital's lobby, his cell phone held in his shaking hands as he stared blankly at it. Things were happening so fast; it had all thrown him for a loop and left him completely numb. Sighing, he finally forced himself to dial his home number.

 

“Mmm….hello?” a voice asked after several rings.

 

“….You were still asleep?”

 

“Yeah….I feel like hell….hence the reason I took a sick day, Dee, lest we forget.”

 

“Oh….right….”

 

“Dee? Is.…something wrong?” Ryo definitely sounded more awake now.

 

“I….think you need to come down to the hospital, Ryo….”

 

“….Why?”

 

---

 

Ryo hurried through the long, winding halls that seemed to have no end. Doctors and nurses scurried out of his way instead of waiting for him to scurry out of theirs; and good thing, too, because the chances were good that Ryo would have just knocked them over instead of bothering to change his course.

 

He finally found Dee standing outside JJ's room, his head in his hands. “Dee?” he asked softly, placing a hand on his lover's arm.

 

Dee looked up, blinking slowly, and the next thing Ryo knew, he was being yanked into a tight embrace.

 

“Dee? Are you….?”

 

“Yeah,” Dee replied, quickly letting go of his lover. “I'm just….” He chuckled ruefully. “Never mind. He's in there.” He nodded towards the door next to him.

 

Ryo smiled at him and started towards the door, then stopped and turned around. “You coming in?”

 

Dee shook his head. “I'm gonna stay here for awhile. You go in, though.”

 

“Are you sure? Because—”

 

“I'm sure. I'm….sorta on a whirlwind here.”

 

Ryo smiled slightly again, stepping forward and pulling Dee into another embrace. “You okay?”

 

“Yeah. I'm fine. Just….it's all happening really fast, is all.”

 

“I know. C'mere.” Then Ryo pulled his lover forward into a long, slow kiss, chuckling as he finally pulled away. “Now you're gonna be hacking up a lung, too.”

 

“Oh? And whose fault is that?” Dee replied playfully, pulling Ryo in for another kiss. “I love you.”

 

“I love you, too.”

 

“Good.” Dee smiled happily. “Now get in there.”

 

---

 

Drake was sitting next to JJ's bed, holding his lover's hand lightly, staring down at it as it squeezed its own. They both looked over at the door and smiled when Ryo came in. The blond's hair was tousled from sleep, his clothes unmatched and hanging loosely on him, and he looked as though he had rolled out of bed and come straight to the hospital without really waking up, but he smiled back at them nevertheless and managed not to cough his guts out.

 

“Hi, Ryo,” JJ greeted his friend in a tired voice that was raspy from lack of use. That voice was completely devoid of its usual energy, and the speech was slightly slurred, but Ryo just couldn't bring himself to care. It was JJ's voice. That was what mattered.

 

“Hey, JJ, how're you feeling?”

 

“Tired….but I can't feel anything. Drake said that's probably a good thing, because I'd feel like total hell otherwise….” He tried to shift, and failed, finding that he simply couldn't move anything. “Damn, these are some good drugs….”

 

Ryo laughed, then turned to Drake. “So….what the hell happened?” he asked. “Dee wasn't good for much on the phone, he was so completely freaked out.”

 

“I expect he would be,” JJ replied, smiling happily at hearing that his former flame had been so worried about him.

 

Drake just smiled and shrugged in answer to Ryo's question. “I have no idea what happened, to tell you the truth, and I don't really care. I got what I want.”

 

JJ's smile grew to an all out grin, and he squeezed Drake's hand lightly. “The doctors said I should be fine,” he informed Ryo. “They said I still have a long road ahead of me—skin grafts and therapy and all that crap. But they said I won't have my next surgery for another few weeks, at least. Probably longer. The two breaks hurt more than anything else….damn, even the drugs can only do so much.” (JJ had sustained rather serious breaks in his collar bone and his elbow.) “They said it was a miracle I'm even alive….but….” He shrugged. “How should I know, right?”

 

Ryo smiled slightly. “Okay, well, I'll….leave you two alone. I'm gonna go find the doctor and see if he'll tell me anything. You want some lunch or anything when I get back, Drake?”

 

Drake laughed as his stomach made a loud, strange noise. “….I guess I am hungry….who knew?”

 

Ryo chuckled. “Okay, I'll bring something back for you. I'm assuming you don't want anything from the cafeteria, so I'll go out and get you something from somewhere else.”

 

“Ah, you're the best, Ryo.”

 

Ryo grinned. “I know.”

 

---

 

“How is he?”

 

“He seems fine. I'm gonna go find Dr. English, and then I told Drake I'd go out and get him some lunch. He must be starving….”

 

“Oh, no you don't,” Dee said, grabbing the blond's arm as he started to walk away. “You're not going anywhere. You're sick, remember?”

 

“Well, you're the one who called me down here. Might as well make myself useful.”

 

“You can do that by going in and sitting down and visiting with Drake and JJ, and letting me do all the work.”

 

“But—”

 

“I'll tell you everything Dr. English says and I'll bring you back some food, okay? Now….go in there and sit down, or go home. Those are your choices. No buts.”

 

“….But—”

 

---

 

A few hours later, Dee had interrogated four doctors before he finally found the only one willing to give him any information, fed both Drake and Ryo, and driven Ryo back to their apartment after an hour-long visit with JJ. Now he was back at work, and after he told Rose and the Chief the news about JJ, he closed himself up in his office and forced himself to get to work.

 

If anything, JJ's return from the brink had made Dee even more determined to catch the man who had put him in the hospital in the first place. He returned to work with a new determination as evening started to fall, and at last, he came up with something he could use.

 

---

 

JJ slept for half the afternoon, but he awoke again at about nine o'clock to find Drake still sitting next to the bed. He had finally withdrawn his hand to hold the newspaper with both hands, but he quickly dropped it when he saw JJ blink his eyes open.

 

“Hey, they haven't kicked you out yet?” JJ asked sleepily.

 

“Nope. I convinced the doc to let me stay tonight.”

 

“You really don't have to, you know….”

 

Drake smiled and took JJ's hand. “Yes I do. Go back to sleep.”

 

JJ returned Drake's smile with a tired one of his own. “I've slept more than I care to ever sleep again,” he replied—which wasn't entirely true, but he couldn't bring himself to leave Drake without anyone to talk to.

 

The hand holding JJ's tightened momentarily, and Drake looked down at the sheets. JJ looked confused, but waited for him to speak, which he did a moment later. “JJ….”

 

No reply—JJ sensed that Drake had something to get off his chest.

 

“When you….you know. When it….happened….” He blinked, then looked back up at JJ. “Why are you still alive?'

 

“Because I love you, of course. I had to come back to you.”

 

Drake marveled at how easily that came for JJ. The hyperactive man seemed to have no trouble getting those three words out, and when he had first said them to Drake (incidentally, only about a week before the accident), they had sent the poor man reeling. He still had not managed to say them back.

 

“….Why?”

 

Much to Drake's surprise—and mild irritation—JJ laughed. “I knew that was coming. And….I'm not going to answer.”

 

“….What?”

 

“I'm not going to answer. Because if you seriously have to ask, then….you don't deserve to know.”

 

Drake blinked. It made no sense, but somehow, he understood completely. He smiled slightly. “Go to sleep, JJ.”

 

“Mmm….okay,” JJ replied, letting his eyes fall shut. He was tired again.

 

“….JJ?” Drake asked softly, after about ten minutes.

 

“….Hmm….?” The sound was very quiet, and it was clear that JJ was more than halfway to sleep.

 

“I love you, too.”

 

JJ chuckled, and couldn't even bring himself to feign surprise. He was no more awake now than he had been before, and even if he'd felt the need to open his eyes, he wouldn't have tried to. “Took you long enough.”

 

---

 

Dee finally came home at about ten o'clock that night to find Ryo passed out on the bed, an open book lying across his chest. The only illumination in the room was the single lamp that burned beside the bed, its gentle glow touching Ryo's face with soft fingers. Smiling slightly, Dee went over and took the book off his lover, marking the page and placing it on the bedside table. Then he turned off the light and pulled the covers tighter around his lover, before grabbing a pair of sweatpants and going into the bathroom to shower.

 

---

 

Ryo stirred as he felt the bed shift next to him, and blinked his eyes open to find himself in a dark room and a tight embrace. “Dee?” he asked sleepily, moving closer to the familiar chest and closing his eyes again. “What time is it?”

 

“Late,” Dee replied. “Sorry to wake you.”

 

“It's fine. I've been sleeping all day.”

 

“And you're still tired?”

Ryo replied with a wide yawn. “Seem to be. How's the case coming along?”

 

“All right. Go back to sleep. I'll fill you in tomorrow, if you feel like coming into work.”

 

“Mmm…I will.” From the sound of his voice, the blond was already falling back to sleep.

 

Dee chuckled quietly, and hugged his lover lightly. “Sleep.”

“Okay….”

 

Dee kissed Ryo's head forehead lightly. “I love you, Ryo,” he whispered, before drifting off into dreams next to his lover, for once not kept awake until dawn wondering what was going to happen to JJ.