Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Dead Men Tell No Tales ❯ Rain ( Chapter 8 )

Chapter 8—Rain

 

Dee's heart pounded in his chest as he dodged through the throngs on the New York City sidewalk, ignoring the ache in his still-healing ribs and the sharp pains that shot through his bandaged arms every time he slammed into someone. (There was a huge difference between holding Ryo in those arms and bashing them against every surface he was rushing too much to avoid.) He knocked down four different people and caused a woman coming out of a department store to drop all six of her bags, but he didn't stop to listen to the curses they hurled at him as he bolted towards the apartment building that was his destination. Through the halls….up the stairs….and at last, he was in front of the apartment door. His fingers fumbled uselessly at the key ring for a moment before he finally managed to find the right key and jam it into the lock.

 

“Ryo!” he yelled, almost before he'd gotten the door open. He nearly fell through the doorway in his haste to get inside….only to that the room he was facing was completely empty. His heart sped up to an even more erratic pace, and he bolted towards his and Ryo's bedroom. Empty….as was Bikky's room….the kitchen….

 

“Damn it!”

 

---

 

Ryo groaned, turning his head to the side as he tried to open his eyes. He couldn't do it, but the tiny movement sent a pain through his head that caused his churning stomach to rebel, and he turned his head to the side and thre up everything he'd managed to keep down during the course of that day.

 

Damn it, his head muttered to him, as he finally opened his eyes slowly and looked around. His eyes took several moments to adjust to the darkness, and when they did, they fell on the man who was sitting against the wall and facing him.

 

“….Russell?” he muttered, blinking several times before trying to sit up. He sank to the floor, though, as his stomach rolled again and a white-hot pain shot through his head again.

 

Russell Jarvis looked at Ryo sadly before moving to help him sit up. “I'm sorry about your head,” he said softly. “I only wanted to disorient you a little….”

 

“I'm sure,” Ryo replied sarcastically, not fighting the hands that dragged him over to lean with his back to the wall. “You know….most lunatics tie people up when they kidnap them….”

 

“Yes, I know, but….somehow I didn't think you'd run…. You're too thirsty for information to run. You don't look well, are you all right?”

 

“Oh, yeah, just peachy,” Ryo muttered, prodding the back of his head and wincing when his fingers found the huge lump at the base of his skull and the bruise that was spreading from it. “Where the hell are we?”

 

“I really have no idea. Here….” Russell handed him a water bottle. “Drink.”

 

Ryo stared at him, but his thirst won over his suspicion, and he drank deeply from the bottle. The cool liquid revived him a little, and he looked over at his captor as he finished drinking. “Why did you bring me here?”

 

Russell opened his mouth to reply….and snapped it shut again, as his phone began to ring. He pulled it out, looked at the name of the caller, and then quickly flipped it open.

 

“Who—?”

 

That was all Ryo got out before something hard slammed over his head and the world went black once more.

 

---

 

Back at his and Ryo's apartment, Dee was frantically dialing Ryo's number for the fourth time. Receiving no answer once more, he slammed it shut irritably and walked—or rather, dashed—towards the door. Enough was enough. He yanked it open….only to find Drake standing outside it, his arm raised to knock on the door. His face was a mixture of anger, exasperation, and worry, and JJ was sitting in a wheelchair in front of him.

 

“Have you found him yet?” Drake asked immediately, as JJ pushed past him into the apartment.

 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Dee asked, hitting the number one on his speed dial for the fifth time.

 

“He checked himself out,” Drake replied in an irritated voice. “The minute you called, he checked himself out and just….left. Made me bring him here. Where's Ryo?”

 

“I have no idea,” the frantic detective replied, slamming his phone shut. He was dangerously close to hysteria now.

 

“Did you call the precinct?” JJ asked.

 

“No, I've been trying to reach Ryo.” He tried calling a sixth time.

 

“Well, you really ought to call and—”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know….” Dee muttered, snapping his phone shut and then opening it again to dial the number of Rose's office.

 

---

 

When Ryo awoke this time, it was to find Russell leaning over him, looking dejected and….depressed?

 

“Y'know, Russ, all this knocking me out with blunt objects is really starting to put a damper on our relationship,” he muttered, trying to sit up, only to find that he was restrained by the ropelike binding around his wrists and ankles. “….What happened to figuring I wouldn't run away?”

 

Russell shrugged helplessly. “I'm sorry,” he apologized, although it wasn't entirely clear what he was apologizing for. People didn't generally apologize for this sort of thing. They just….did it. “This wasn't how things were supposed to turn out….”

 

“Oh?” Ryo replied with a grimace, twisting his hands in the ropes as he tried to remove them. He was beginning to worry now….they appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and an empty highway and little else. However, as he was Ryo and he was very stubborn, there was no conceivable way that he was going to actually show that he was afraid.

 

“Yes…. I'd planned to talk to you. Try to make you see reason. This was going to be a last resort….”

 

“I'm sure it was,” Ryo replied, playing long, trying to buy time until he could get loose—or better yet, until Dee came to the rescue. Ryo really didn't feel like running for his life at the moment—his fever was raging, his stomach rolled angrily, his head pounded, and he had the faint feeling that his legs wouldn't be able to support him even if they were free from their bonds. “But Russell—”

 

“I'm sorry, Mr. Stockwell,” Russell interrupted suddenly.

 

“Mr.—? No, Russell, I'm not—”

 

“Oh, sir….please….don't make this harder than it already is….” The man reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun—where he had gotten it, the blond couldn't even begin to guess.

 

Ryo swallowed, and struggled harder to rid himself of his bonds, not bothering to try to hide his actions anymore. Damn it, damn it, damn it…. Oh, Dee, where are you?

 

Russell readied the gun, his face a mask now. “Please understand, sir….I hold you in the highest respect, I really do. I think we might even have been friends if you hadn't been the one assigned to my case….all those years ago….”

 

The blonde's movements grew even more frantic. The ropes cut into his wrists, and the hot, sticky feeling of blood running down his hands caused his stomach to churn and heave, but he forced himself to keep his wits about him. He would not die without a fight. “Russell, you're making a mistake, I'm not—”

 

“Jason,” Russell interrupted quietly, his neutral expression still in place. “Enough.”

 

The gunshot deafened them both. The second was faint in Ryo's ears. Then the third hit him, his whole body jerked….

 

He lay completely still, the blood pouring from his body, and silence settled over the woods.

 

It was finished.

 

---

 

Dee sat in Rose's office, his head buried in his hands. He didn't know how much longer he could take this….or even why he had taken it for this long. The only conclusion he could come to was that his lover must have been a bad influence on him. Before Ryo MacLean had become his partner, Dee would have already hunted down the suspect, hauled him in, and tossed his ass in jail. And now here he was, reporting to Rose, waiting for the verdict, and thinking about things before he rushed headlong into them.

 

Yes, Ryo had definitely been a bad influence on him.

 

Rose was talking to him, but it washed over his head as he was consumed by worry for his lover. His heart clenched—something was wrong. Ryo was not all right. Why the hell had Dee chosen to go to Rose first? Why had he spent so much time trying to call Ryo? Why wasn't he out looking for him?

 

“Laytner, are you paying attention to me?”

 

“No, sir,” Dee replied, his voice flat. He bolted out of his chair, suddenly furious with himself. “We're wasting time here. Ryo is out there somewhere….with Russell. And if we don't find them both, Ryo's going to—” He cut himself off with a strangled gasp. Die.

 

That decided it. He had his gun, and he was going after Ryo. Ignoring the protests that Drake, JJ, and Rose all threw at him, he started to wrench open the door….and stopped as his cell phone began to ring. Pulling it out of his pocket with trembling hands, he fumbled with it for a moment before managing to get it open and hold it up to his ear. “Ryo?” he asked, his voice coming out hopeful and terrified and shaky and pleading all at once.

 

“….Detective Laytner….”

 

Dee immediately recognized Russell's voice. “Jarvis,” he snarled. “Where the hell is he? What did you do to him?”

 

“Detective….” Russell's tone was quiet and beseeching….and anything but emotionless. “I'm sorry that I….took so long to call…. Sir, I need you to meet me….in the alley where you arrested David Marks. Do you remember where that is?”

 

“Well….yeah, I do, but—”

 

“Good. Meet me there as soon as possible….please.” The line went dead.

 

“Jarvis?” Rose asked rhetorically.

 

“He wants me to meet him at the place where we arrested Marks….” He paused, and then wrenched open the door.

 

“Dee, where do you think you're going?” JJ demanded.

 

“To meet Jarvis, what do you think I'm doing?”

 

“Dee, I'm not—”

 

“Don't even try it, JJ,” Dee snarled, and then took off down the hall.

 

Rose's office remained quiet for a moment, and then JJ asked quietly, still facing the empty doorway, “Commissioner, do you know where that arrest was made?”

 

“….Yes….”

 

JJ turned his head to look at Rose. “Take me there.”

 

“….Adams, you're off duty. You're not technically allowed to come to work. You're not even supposed to know what's going on with this case, and—”

 

“I can still shoot a gun. So get me mine, and take me there.”

 

“But—” Drake protested.

 

“Now, damn it!”

 

---

 

Dee walked into the alley with every one of his guards up. It was dark, the city lights not quite managing to bathe it in their harsh glow, and Dee couldn't see much of what was in front of him, so the miserable voice that suddenly issued from the shadows startled him greatly.

 

“Thank you for coming, Detective.”

“Where's Ryo?” Dee snarled, readying the gun he held out in front of him.

 

“I'll tell you, sir….but, please, there's no need for the gun. Listen to what I have to say, and then I'll come quietly, I promise.”

 

Dee did not lower his gun. “Where is Ryo?”

 

At that, Russell finally stepped out of the shadows….and that was when Dee saw the look on his face. It was not the expression of a man who had triumphed, or done what he'd set out to do. It was the expression of a man who was at the end of his rope, had no idea where to turn, and would not be able to forget the pain he had inflicted on others if he lived to be a thousand years old. His hands were in his pockets, his shoulders were hunched, and he looked as though he would very much like to curl up and die right then and there. “I'm…. `Sorry' is not the right word, sir. Jason Stockwell….the man you call `Ryo'….has gone back to his resting place.” He plunged on, as he saw Dee's hands began to shake. “Please, you have to understand! They said it was for the best! They told me it was for the best!”

 

“What are you saying?” Dee asked, his voice quiet and controlled. He didn't really need to ask, though. He already knew.

 

Drake and Rose had come into the alley behind him, guns at the ready, and JJ—sans wheelchair—was standing under his own power, his anger and fear seeming to give him the strength and will to move on his own. He stood next to Drake, radiating fury, his gun at his side. When he needed it, he would use it, and use it well.

 

Dee, however, ignored them. His consciousness had shrunk to Russell's face. His hands were shaking—no, his whole body was shaking—and he was absolutely dead inside. He felt no sadness, no grief….nothing but the blinding, overwhelming need to tear apart the man standing in front of him.

 

A cry tore from him as he tossed the gun aside and lunged. His fellow officers did nothing to stop him….they would not have been able to. At this point, he would have destroyed them along with Russell.

 

The detective and his target hit the floor in a tangled heap, and then Dee's fists became Russell's entire world.

JJ moved forward into Drake's arms, hiding his face in his lover's strong shoulder and sobbing quietly. Rose looked on without moving to stop Dee, the neutral mask on his face completely broken. He looked as though his own world were falling apart around his ears.

 

The beating went on and on, and Dee had no desire to end it. The punches grew gradually lighter as his strength ebbed, however, until they finally stopped, and Dee hunched over Russell's unconscious body. His body heaved with dry, empty sobs, as he continued to hit the prostrate man with weak, broken punches that were really nothing more than a fist lifting and falling, lifting and falling.

 

Three guns hit the ground in unison, and then the alley fell silent aside from Dee's heaving sobs. No one moved to comfort him. No one could comfort him.

 

As Dee's entire world shattered, a heavy rain started to fall.

 

Ryo always loved the rain…