Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Misery ❯ Are You Sure He's Normal? ( Chapter 7 )
[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]
By: Kita and Subu-chan 
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Action / Drama / Romance / Police | Type: Shounen-ai | Uploaded On: 01.14.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.4K | Visits: 468 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Action / Drama / Romance / Police | Type: Shounen-ai | Uploaded On: 01.14.2007 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.4K | Visits: 468 | Status: Completed
Chapter Seven-Are You Sure He’s Normal?
Drake hung up the phone and looked at his clock thoughtfully. He had a couple hours before his shift and there was no way he could go back to sleep now. He called Ted, knowing that he was still on duty. Ted chuckled when he passed on the news about Ryo and what he had told Bikky. “Nice call.”
“I thought so. Maybe we can keep Dee out of trouble long enough to track this creep down and throw his ass safely behind bars.” Drake laughed. “Pass on the good news, willya? I got things to do before I drag my ass in there for my shift.”
“Yeah, I got ya. How’s spazzo boy, you know?”
“He was hurting pretty good when I went to check on him last night. If he’s not any better, I’m dragging his skinny butt to the hospital tonight.” Drake scratched his sleep-rumpled hair and sighed. “He managed to bang up his shoulder royally and I’m a little worried. Way he hit the desk when he fell, he could have done something more than bruise it, y’know?”
“I meant to ask, what happened? All I got was the short, short version.”
“Not much to tell. JJ fell asleep at his desk. I woke him up to go home, but he wasn’t too steady on his feet. Figure it must have been the stress of the whole thing with Ryo and the four hours we spent down there with forensics, trying to figure out where the bastard could have gone. Anyways, I offered to drive him home, cause it was pretty obvious he was feeling guilty ‘bout what happened to Ryo-” At the questioning sound from Ted, Drake sighed again. “Y’know how jealous the little guy is of Ryo. He was thinking-“
“…It was his fault. Got it.” Ted groaned. “JJ’s wound way too tight if you ask me. I don’t know how you put up with him every day.”
“Ah, he’s not that bad. Just a little too excitable. Anyway, he got mad when I grabbed his arm and yanked free. He was too unsteady to stay on his feet, so boom-he landed on his ass. Hit his shoulder on the corner of his desk on the way down.”
“Ouch.” He could hear the wince in Ted’s voice. “He should have had that looked at.”
Drake rose to his feet, rubbing sleepily at the stubble on his chin, and staggered towards the bathroom. “That’s what I thought too, but he was so upset, I figured best let him get some rest. But it was still really bothering him last night. The whole damned shoulder was black and blue, not to mention all the other colors in between.”
“Shit.” Drake heard Ted’s chair squeak. “You still got little over two hours before you’re on duty. Why don’t you drag his ass down to the hospital now instead of after shift? I’ll cover for you if you’re a little late.”
Drake was so surprised by the offer, he nearly dropped the phone. “That’s awful nice of you, but who are you and what have you done with the real Ted?”
“Ha-ha, funny.” Ted said darkly. “You’ll just be worried about him anyway, so might as well do it now. Don’t think I’m doing this for nothing, though. You’ll owe me.”
Drake laughed. “In other words, cover you sometime you have a date, hmm?”
“On the money. Go on. Take JJ to the hospital. Just call me if you’re going to be more than a couple of hours late, kay?”
“Thanks, man.”
“Sure.” Ted hung up and Drake glanced at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He looked like hell. He needed a shower before he tackled stuffing ‘spazzo boy’ into his car for a trip to the ER. He’d have better luck putting a cranky Rottweiler in the car if JJ didn’t want to go. JJ wasn’t very big and was certainly not the strongest man in the precinct, but he was hands-down the most stubborn. Even the chief admitted that, and Smith was one of the most pig-headed individuals Drake had ever met. Drake sighed and turned on the water.
Twenty minutes later, he pulled up to JJ’s apartment building. He snarled as the first spatters of cold rain hit the windshield. Of all the times for a rainstorm to start. Ducking his head, he pelted across the street and into the lobby just ahead of a deluge. The old man wasn’t at the desk, so Drake made it to the elevators un-accosted. He tapped on JJ’s door. There was no answer, so he knocked harder.
The door swung open as he was going for a third volley. JJ looked a little wild-eyed, clutching his blue bathrobe closed with one hand as he stared at Drake like he’d suddenly sprouted horns or something.
“D-Drake?”
“You okay, JJ?” Drake asked worriedly. JJ was rumpled and unshaven (not that it wasn’t harder than hell to tell with his light, oddly-colored hair) and had dark circles under his eyes, giving him the look of a shell-shocked raccoon. Drake had never seen his partner looking so rough. Never. “Did I wake you?”
“Y-yeah. Sorry. I didn’t sleep well. Did you need something?” JJ’s eyes darted around, looking anywhere but at Drake.
“How’s the shoulder?”
JJ grimaced. “Achy and stiff.” He backed away enough to let Drake into the apartment, still carefully looking everywhere but at his partner. “What’s the matter?”
Drake snorted. “I should be the one asking you that, shouldn’t I? You look awful.”
JJ didn’t even pretend offense this time. “Yeah, well…”
That wasn’t a good sign. Drake shoved his hand through his hair. “Get dressed, JJ. I’m taking you to the hospital, like it or not.”
That brought a little life into JJ’s eyes, though he still steadfastly refused to look at Drake. “Who made you my mother?”
“I’m not your mother, JJ. I’m your partner and I’m worried about you. Isn’t that enough?”
JJ turned his head and muttered something softly under his breath. Drake scowled at him. Had he heard JJ say, ‘Not nearly?’ He shook his head, dismissing the odd thought. “Please, JJ. I want a doctor to look at that shoulder. I don’t like the way it looked last night. Okay?”
For the first time since he had answered the door, JJ looked up into Drake’s face. “Y-you’re really that worried?”
“Yeah.” Drake told him. “I’m that worried.”
JJ sighed and some tension seemed to flow out of his shoulders. “Okay. Give me a second to get dressed.”
Drake nodded and ruffled JJ’s hair. JJ didn’t protest and in fact seemed to rather enjoy the treatment. “Go on. I’ll wait.”
JJ closed the bedroom door behind him and leaned against it. God, what had he done to deserve a partner like Drake? The man was a saint sometimes. JJ frowned at himself. Okay, maybe not a saint. He smoked too damn much for one thing, and could never seem to tell anyone no, but he cared more than any one person should be allowed to.
JJ allowed himself a small smile as he shed his robe and dug out a fresh pair of boxers with his good arm. Drake had startled him, showing up the way he had this morning. Fresh from another dream about his partner, finding him in the flesh on his doorstep had nearly been enough to stop his heart. The dream last night hadn’t been like the others the night before. He’d dreamt he was living with Drake, basking in a relationship like he’d never enjoyed before. It had been wonderful. JJ had never wanted it to end.
To distract himself, he called through the door as he struggled to pull on his slacks. “Any word on Ryo-sempai?”
He heard Drake’s rich chuckle. “He woke up this morning and talked to Dee and Bikky for a while. Well, whispered, according to Bikky. The nurse said he’s doing good.”
JJ allowed himself a small moment of relief. “That’s good.”
After struggling with a shirt for a long moment without the slightest measure of success, JJ came out of the bedroom with the shirt in hand. “Can you help me with this? My shoulder isn’t cooperating.” Drake chuckled and rose to help him ease into the shirt. He buttoned it carefully and JJ basked for a moment in that small intimacy.
“There.” Drake stepped back and JJ felt a rush of loss. He hid it with a smile. “Are you ready to sacrifice me before the alter of modern medicine?” He pulled the full fainting starlet move, pressing the back of his good hand to his forehead.
“Goofball.” Drake held the door open for him. “Let’s go.”
JJ waved goodbye to the rent-a-cop at the door and accompanied Drake to his car, both of them pelting breathlessly through the rain. JJ slid in the passenger’s seat, where he just waited patiently for Drake to dash around to the driver’s side and help him with the seatbelt. Drake wasn’t sure what to make of the strangely complacent JJ, but he wasn’t complaining. Oddly enough, when they got to the hospital, the ER wasn’t crowded. There was an old man with a persistent cough and a mother with a feverish baby and a girl who looked barely out of her teens with a badly cut up arm and two toddlers clinging to her legs. Both Drake and JJ winced at that last, recognizing the signs of domestic abuse in the girl’s scared face and the shell-shocked expressions of the two little ones. While JJ filled out the paperwork and showed the nurse his insurance card, Drake carefully approached the girl, who looked like she might bolt if he came too close.
“I won’t say anything but this.” Drake produced a card from his wallet and laid it on the seat beside her. “This lady is a good friend of mine. She can help. You don’t want to see that-” He gestured at her bleeding arm. “-Happen to them.” Drake glanced down at the two children, who were staring at him curiously, and smiled at them.
The girl drew a shocked breath and glanced down at the children as Drake walked back to where JJ was taking a seat. He glanced back once to see the girl pick up the card with a hard, determined look on her face. He sighed in relief and glanced back at JJ who was watching him with an odd little half-smile.
“What?”
“You’re a really nice guy, Drake-sempai. Your good deed for the day?” JJ nodded toward the girl, who was being summoned by the nurse.
Drake shrugged. “No. Just doing my job.” He prodded JJ’s arm. “I’m still doing my good deed for today.”
JJ frowned at him. “So I’m just your ‘good deed’?”
Drake rolled his eyes. “Don’t get personal, JJ. I was joking. I’m helping you because you’re my partner and my friend and I worry, okay?”
JJ nodded with another small smile and settled back into his seat. Drake shook his head, wondering what the hell had brought that on. JJ baffled him on a regular basis, but lately, Drake couldn’t make heads or tails out of his behavior. He sighed as the nurse asked the abused girl to follow her. Drake smiled reassuringly at her and felt some small triumph when she tentatively smiled back. There was one who had the moxie to not end up as a statistic. He was glad of that.
They had been sitting there for about thirty minutes and had seen the woman and baby be called into an examination room and a few others come in and take seats when Drake felt a weight on his shoulder. Surprised, he glanced down to see JJ’s head resting on his shoulder, features relaxed in sleep. He stifled a chuckle. It looked like that lack of sleep was catching up with him. “You pick the oddest places to doze off.” Drake murmured quietly.
JJ muttered sleepily and snuggled closer to Drake, wrapping his arms around Drake’s bicep like it was some sort of teddy bear. Drake tried not to blush at the knowing look he got from a teenager with one foot in a cast and a paperback book in one hand. It wasn’t like that, but any protest would be useless. People would draw their own assumptions and any denial would make them more certain they were right.
He was relieved when the nurse finally called JJ’s name. He gently shook JJ awake and steadied his groggy steps as the nurse led them to an examining room. He helped JJ up onto the exam table and told him that he’d wait for him in the waiting room. JJ blinked sleepily and nodded as the nurse told him to take his shirt off.
Drake returned to his seat, trying hard to ignore the teenaged girl across from him and her knowing eyes. She grinned at him and he shifted uncomfortably. “S’cool, man. Your friend’s cute. I can understand what you see in him.”
Drake stared at her out of wide eyes, shocked. She just laughed, adjusting her cast across the seat beside her. “S’not such a big thing these days, guy. Hell, in some circles, it’s the ‘in’ thing. Here.” She tossed her book at him and Drake snatched it out of the air with reflexes even stunned bewilderment couldn’t slow. “It’s Manga. Japanese comics. A few years back, you couldn’t find it over here to save your life, but it’s really popular these days. You read it backward. Start at the last page.” Drake obeyed, flipping to the title page. Imagine his surprise when he saw a pair of males sharing a tender embrace. The girl grinned at his shocked face. “It’s called Yaoi. Stands for some Japanese acronym that I can never remember, but basically means male and male relationships. Real popular stuff.”
Drake closed the book and extended it back towards her. “Thanks for the info, but it’s not like that. JJ’s my friend.”
She grinned at him and waved the book away. “Whatever you say. You can read it while you’re waiting for him.” She dug in the backpack at her side and pulled out another book. “I got plenty. You can read that one.” She laughed and negligently waved a hand at the racks of dog-eared, worn magazines and hospital informational flyers. “Unless you prefer magazines that were out of date in the seventies, cause I got to tell you, that’s about all that’s in those racks.” Without another word, she immersed herself in the new book.
Drake stared at her and then shifted his gaze to the book in his hand. He knew she was right about the magazine selection. Curious, and unwilling to admit it, he turned the book over and read the blurb on the back. Finally, for lack of anything better to do, he opened the book and studied the diagram on how to read the book. It was like the comics he had read as a kid, only backwards.
At last, unable to put it off any longer, he started to read. It took some getting used to the format, but it didn’t take very long to adjust. He read quietly, glancing at his watch every now and again until the story absorbed his attention entirely. The story was actually pretty good, about a businessman taking in a stranded student after he was injured. There was nothing shocking and revolting. The only thing that bothered him was an attempted rape scene. He was still reading when a nurse called his name.
“Mr. Parker? We’ll be releasing Mr. Adams shortly, after he finishes with the doctor. Are you driving him home?”
Drake handed the forgotten book back to the teen and nodded. “Yeah. How is he?”
“A little loopy right now.” The pretty blonde nurse grinned at him. “We gave him something a little stronger than what he was used to. He’ll be fine when it wears off.”
Drake chuckled. “He’s normally a little loopy, so I don’t know about that. How’s the shoulder?”
The nurse laughed softly. “You’ll have to ask the doctor. He’s in with Mr. Adams right now. Would you like to go back?”
“Can I?”
She nodded. “Like I said, he’s a little out of it, so you may need to help him.”
Drake grinned at her in relief. He waved to the teen as the nurse pointed him to the double doors. “Exam room Five, Mr. Parker.”
Drake found the room without difficulty. The door was open, though the curtain was pulled. He could hear JJ’s voice inside, sounding a little higher-pitched than normal. “JJ?”
“Drakey-sempai!” JJ exclaimed from behind the curtain, giggling fitfully.
A gray-haired doctor pulled the curtain back enough to peer at him. “You Mr. Parker?”
“That’s me. How is he?”
The doctor shook his head. “I’m making a note in his file. Nothing stronger than ibuprofen for this boy from now on. Do you know if he has any allergies to painkillers?”
Drake glanced at JJ, who was grinning as he unsuccessfully tried to pull off his hospital gown. Drake went over and helped him. “None that I know of. This is no weirder than he gets after a few beers.”
The doctor watched Drake patiently assist the grinning JJ out of the open-back gown. “You have my pity.”
Drake chuckled as he deftly helped JJ into his shirt. “Hold still, JJ. Yeah, well, you should have seen him the one time Ted bought him a shot of tequila. He doesn’t handle a lot of alcohol well. I think it might be the same principle.”
The older man chuckled as JJ glomped onto Drake’s arm, clinging to him and grinning like a fool. “Drakey-sempai, you’re such a nice guy. Dee-sempai should be more like you, but he’s a meanie. Dee…?” JJ’s bottom lip quivered and tears clouded his blue eyes.
Drake patted his head with a resigned sigh. “He’s not here, JJ. He’s at work.”
“Oh. Are we going to work?” JJ watched him earnestly.
“You’re off today. You’re going home.”
“Oh. Are you off? We could go out!” JJ exclaimed brightly.
Drake sighed and patted JJ’s head again. “We’ll see.” He turned his attention to the still-chuckling doctor. “Well, at least this time he didn’t try to strip in public. A small improvement, but an improvement anyway. How is he?”
“Other than the weird reaction, he’s okay. His shoulderblade has a tiny stress fracture at the point of impact, which probably accounts for a very great deal of the pain he’s been feeling. There’s no point in immobilizing it unless it gets worse. He’s going to hurt for a while, but that’s why I gave him a prescription for Loritab. I’m wondering if that was such a good idea now.”
Drake laughed. “He’ll be okay. Let him get some solid sleep and some food in him and he’ll be back to normal. Or as normal as this guy gets anyway.” Drake affectionately ruffled JJ’s hair with the hand JJ hadn’t immobilized.
“Your call. The rest of the damage was mostly bruising and strain. He’ll be fine.”
“Good.”
The doctor shook his head and handed Drake three slips of paper. “I’ve prescribed him some Loritab for the pain and Peroxicam, that’s a muscle relaxant, for the strained muscles. The puncture wound looks clean, but to be on the safe side, I’ve given him an antibiotic to stave off any infection.” He ran a hand through his grizzled hair. “Make sure he takes all of them, Mr. Parker. He needs to keep that shoulder as still as possible for the next couple of days at least.” He pulled a pad out of the pocket of his white lab-coat and wrote on it. “I’m recommending he takes today and tomorrow off, and light duty for the next two weeks. For him, that means desk duty.”
Drake sighed. “Wonderful. You’ve just condemned me to two weeks of non-stop chatter and ‘why I hate desk duty’ speeches. Do you have anything for a migraine?”
JJ looked up from his in-depth examination of the back of Drake’s hand and frowned. “That’s not nice, sempai.”
“But honest.”
JJ’s ire couldn’t last long against the drugs in his system and he went back to smiling vaguely at Drake’s hand. “Look!” He said giddily, twining his fingers with Drake’s. “Your hand is way bigger than mine. My fingers are longer.” He waved them to prove his point. “But yours are bigger. I like men with big, strong hands.”
Drake rolled his eyes and glanced at the grinning doctor. “Please ignore anything he says. He’s not known for being able to keep his mouth shut when he’s drunk. Hell, sometimes when he’s not drunk.”
The doctor just laughed. “I don’t mind. This has been the most entertaining part of my day.”
When Drake pushed a grinning JJ out of the ER, he glanced down at JJ. The younger man was leaning back between the handlebars of the wheelchair and smiling at him. “You are a certifiable nutcase. You know that, right? Hey, do you want to go see Ryo while we’re here?” Drake asked.
That got through the mental haze of drugs and weariness. JJ frowned. “Can we?”
Drake nodded. “I’m sure we can go visit for a few minutes. But you stay in the wheelchair and if he’s asleep, we don’t wake him. Got it?”
JJ nodded solemnly and was silent the entire elevator ride to the seventeenth floor. Drake pushed him through to door to Ryo’s room. The curtains were drawn over the window and the room lights were dimmed. Ryo slept peacefully, his color a lot better than the last time they had seen him. Drake pushed JJ up to the bedside and watched as JJ tentatively reached out to touch Ryo’s pale hand. “I’m sorry, Ryo-sempai.” He glanced up at Drake and his eyes were clearer. “Can I have a minute alone, please, Drake-sempai?”
Drake nodded and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him.
JJ frowned through the haze of drugs at the still figure on the bed. “I’m sorry, Ryo-sempai.” He repeated. “I never really wanted anything to happen to you. You’ve always been nice to me, even when my pouncing on Dee made you jealous. I actually like you.” He sighed. “I know Dee’s yours. He has been since the first day I transferred here. When he gives someone his heart, he doesn’t do it halfway. That’s one of the things I always loved about him. I’m jealous, you know. I wish I could hate you for stealing him, but I don’t. I can’t.”
He rested his chin in one hand, still touching the back of Ryo’s hand with the other. “I do love him, you know. He was nice to me at first. See, I knew I was gay back in high school. When I told my parents, they didn’t want to believe it. Mom’s holding out hopes for grandkids and Dad-well, Dad still wants to think it’s just a phase. When I went to the academy, some of the others there didn’t like me. Because I was gay, or small and feminine-looking, or from LA, I guess. I don’t even think some of them needed a reason. But Dee was nice to me and got some of the worst ones to leave me alone. Maybe just because he’s bi, and recognized it in me, or maybe just because he doesn’t like seeing anybody being picked on. Who knows?” He chuckled sadly. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. I loved him for it. But he never loved me the way he loves you and I have to face that.”
JJ sighed. “I guess I have to give him up now. It still hurts like anything, you son of a bitch.”
Drake hung up the phone and looked at his clock thoughtfully. He had a couple hours before his shift and there was no way he could go back to sleep now. He called Ted, knowing that he was still on duty. Ted chuckled when he passed on the news about Ryo and what he had told Bikky. “Nice call.”
“I thought so. Maybe we can keep Dee out of trouble long enough to track this creep down and throw his ass safely behind bars.” Drake laughed. “Pass on the good news, willya? I got things to do before I drag my ass in there for my shift.”
“Yeah, I got ya. How’s spazzo boy, you know?”
“He was hurting pretty good when I went to check on him last night. If he’s not any better, I’m dragging his skinny butt to the hospital tonight.” Drake scratched his sleep-rumpled hair and sighed. “He managed to bang up his shoulder royally and I’m a little worried. Way he hit the desk when he fell, he could have done something more than bruise it, y’know?”
“I meant to ask, what happened? All I got was the short, short version.”
“Not much to tell. JJ fell asleep at his desk. I woke him up to go home, but he wasn’t too steady on his feet. Figure it must have been the stress of the whole thing with Ryo and the four hours we spent down there with forensics, trying to figure out where the bastard could have gone. Anyways, I offered to drive him home, cause it was pretty obvious he was feeling guilty ‘bout what happened to Ryo-” At the questioning sound from Ted, Drake sighed again. “Y’know how jealous the little guy is of Ryo. He was thinking-“
“…It was his fault. Got it.” Ted groaned. “JJ’s wound way too tight if you ask me. I don’t know how you put up with him every day.”
“Ah, he’s not that bad. Just a little too excitable. Anyway, he got mad when I grabbed his arm and yanked free. He was too unsteady to stay on his feet, so boom-he landed on his ass. Hit his shoulder on the corner of his desk on the way down.”
“Ouch.” He could hear the wince in Ted’s voice. “He should have had that looked at.”
Drake rose to his feet, rubbing sleepily at the stubble on his chin, and staggered towards the bathroom. “That’s what I thought too, but he was so upset, I figured best let him get some rest. But it was still really bothering him last night. The whole damned shoulder was black and blue, not to mention all the other colors in between.”
“Shit.” Drake heard Ted’s chair squeak. “You still got little over two hours before you’re on duty. Why don’t you drag his ass down to the hospital now instead of after shift? I’ll cover for you if you’re a little late.”
Drake was so surprised by the offer, he nearly dropped the phone. “That’s awful nice of you, but who are you and what have you done with the real Ted?”
“Ha-ha, funny.” Ted said darkly. “You’ll just be worried about him anyway, so might as well do it now. Don’t think I’m doing this for nothing, though. You’ll owe me.”
Drake laughed. “In other words, cover you sometime you have a date, hmm?”
“On the money. Go on. Take JJ to the hospital. Just call me if you’re going to be more than a couple of hours late, kay?”
“Thanks, man.”
“Sure.” Ted hung up and Drake glanced at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He looked like hell. He needed a shower before he tackled stuffing ‘spazzo boy’ into his car for a trip to the ER. He’d have better luck putting a cranky Rottweiler in the car if JJ didn’t want to go. JJ wasn’t very big and was certainly not the strongest man in the precinct, but he was hands-down the most stubborn. Even the chief admitted that, and Smith was one of the most pig-headed individuals Drake had ever met. Drake sighed and turned on the water.
Twenty minutes later, he pulled up to JJ’s apartment building. He snarled as the first spatters of cold rain hit the windshield. Of all the times for a rainstorm to start. Ducking his head, he pelted across the street and into the lobby just ahead of a deluge. The old man wasn’t at the desk, so Drake made it to the elevators un-accosted. He tapped on JJ’s door. There was no answer, so he knocked harder.
The door swung open as he was going for a third volley. JJ looked a little wild-eyed, clutching his blue bathrobe closed with one hand as he stared at Drake like he’d suddenly sprouted horns or something.
“D-Drake?”
“You okay, JJ?” Drake asked worriedly. JJ was rumpled and unshaven (not that it wasn’t harder than hell to tell with his light, oddly-colored hair) and had dark circles under his eyes, giving him the look of a shell-shocked raccoon. Drake had never seen his partner looking so rough. Never. “Did I wake you?”
“Y-yeah. Sorry. I didn’t sleep well. Did you need something?” JJ’s eyes darted around, looking anywhere but at Drake.
“How’s the shoulder?”
JJ grimaced. “Achy and stiff.” He backed away enough to let Drake into the apartment, still carefully looking everywhere but at his partner. “What’s the matter?”
Drake snorted. “I should be the one asking you that, shouldn’t I? You look awful.”
JJ didn’t even pretend offense this time. “Yeah, well…”
That wasn’t a good sign. Drake shoved his hand through his hair. “Get dressed, JJ. I’m taking you to the hospital, like it or not.”
That brought a little life into JJ’s eyes, though he still steadfastly refused to look at Drake. “Who made you my mother?”
“I’m not your mother, JJ. I’m your partner and I’m worried about you. Isn’t that enough?”
JJ turned his head and muttered something softly under his breath. Drake scowled at him. Had he heard JJ say, ‘Not nearly?’ He shook his head, dismissing the odd thought. “Please, JJ. I want a doctor to look at that shoulder. I don’t like the way it looked last night. Okay?”
For the first time since he had answered the door, JJ looked up into Drake’s face. “Y-you’re really that worried?”
“Yeah.” Drake told him. “I’m that worried.”
JJ sighed and some tension seemed to flow out of his shoulders. “Okay. Give me a second to get dressed.”
Drake nodded and ruffled JJ’s hair. JJ didn’t protest and in fact seemed to rather enjoy the treatment. “Go on. I’ll wait.”
JJ closed the bedroom door behind him and leaned against it. God, what had he done to deserve a partner like Drake? The man was a saint sometimes. JJ frowned at himself. Okay, maybe not a saint. He smoked too damn much for one thing, and could never seem to tell anyone no, but he cared more than any one person should be allowed to.
JJ allowed himself a small smile as he shed his robe and dug out a fresh pair of boxers with his good arm. Drake had startled him, showing up the way he had this morning. Fresh from another dream about his partner, finding him in the flesh on his doorstep had nearly been enough to stop his heart. The dream last night hadn’t been like the others the night before. He’d dreamt he was living with Drake, basking in a relationship like he’d never enjoyed before. It had been wonderful. JJ had never wanted it to end.
To distract himself, he called through the door as he struggled to pull on his slacks. “Any word on Ryo-sempai?”
He heard Drake’s rich chuckle. “He woke up this morning and talked to Dee and Bikky for a while. Well, whispered, according to Bikky. The nurse said he’s doing good.”
JJ allowed himself a small moment of relief. “That’s good.”
After struggling with a shirt for a long moment without the slightest measure of success, JJ came out of the bedroom with the shirt in hand. “Can you help me with this? My shoulder isn’t cooperating.” Drake chuckled and rose to help him ease into the shirt. He buttoned it carefully and JJ basked for a moment in that small intimacy.
“There.” Drake stepped back and JJ felt a rush of loss. He hid it with a smile. “Are you ready to sacrifice me before the alter of modern medicine?” He pulled the full fainting starlet move, pressing the back of his good hand to his forehead.
“Goofball.” Drake held the door open for him. “Let’s go.”
JJ waved goodbye to the rent-a-cop at the door and accompanied Drake to his car, both of them pelting breathlessly through the rain. JJ slid in the passenger’s seat, where he just waited patiently for Drake to dash around to the driver’s side and help him with the seatbelt. Drake wasn’t sure what to make of the strangely complacent JJ, but he wasn’t complaining. Oddly enough, when they got to the hospital, the ER wasn’t crowded. There was an old man with a persistent cough and a mother with a feverish baby and a girl who looked barely out of her teens with a badly cut up arm and two toddlers clinging to her legs. Both Drake and JJ winced at that last, recognizing the signs of domestic abuse in the girl’s scared face and the shell-shocked expressions of the two little ones. While JJ filled out the paperwork and showed the nurse his insurance card, Drake carefully approached the girl, who looked like she might bolt if he came too close.
“I won’t say anything but this.” Drake produced a card from his wallet and laid it on the seat beside her. “This lady is a good friend of mine. She can help. You don’t want to see that-” He gestured at her bleeding arm. “-Happen to them.” Drake glanced down at the two children, who were staring at him curiously, and smiled at them.
The girl drew a shocked breath and glanced down at the children as Drake walked back to where JJ was taking a seat. He glanced back once to see the girl pick up the card with a hard, determined look on her face. He sighed in relief and glanced back at JJ who was watching him with an odd little half-smile.
“What?”
“You’re a really nice guy, Drake-sempai. Your good deed for the day?” JJ nodded toward the girl, who was being summoned by the nurse.
Drake shrugged. “No. Just doing my job.” He prodded JJ’s arm. “I’m still doing my good deed for today.”
JJ frowned at him. “So I’m just your ‘good deed’?”
Drake rolled his eyes. “Don’t get personal, JJ. I was joking. I’m helping you because you’re my partner and my friend and I worry, okay?”
JJ nodded with another small smile and settled back into his seat. Drake shook his head, wondering what the hell had brought that on. JJ baffled him on a regular basis, but lately, Drake couldn’t make heads or tails out of his behavior. He sighed as the nurse asked the abused girl to follow her. Drake smiled reassuringly at her and felt some small triumph when she tentatively smiled back. There was one who had the moxie to not end up as a statistic. He was glad of that.
They had been sitting there for about thirty minutes and had seen the woman and baby be called into an examination room and a few others come in and take seats when Drake felt a weight on his shoulder. Surprised, he glanced down to see JJ’s head resting on his shoulder, features relaxed in sleep. He stifled a chuckle. It looked like that lack of sleep was catching up with him. “You pick the oddest places to doze off.” Drake murmured quietly.
JJ muttered sleepily and snuggled closer to Drake, wrapping his arms around Drake’s bicep like it was some sort of teddy bear. Drake tried not to blush at the knowing look he got from a teenager with one foot in a cast and a paperback book in one hand. It wasn’t like that, but any protest would be useless. People would draw their own assumptions and any denial would make them more certain they were right.
He was relieved when the nurse finally called JJ’s name. He gently shook JJ awake and steadied his groggy steps as the nurse led them to an examining room. He helped JJ up onto the exam table and told him that he’d wait for him in the waiting room. JJ blinked sleepily and nodded as the nurse told him to take his shirt off.
Drake returned to his seat, trying hard to ignore the teenaged girl across from him and her knowing eyes. She grinned at him and he shifted uncomfortably. “S’cool, man. Your friend’s cute. I can understand what you see in him.”
Drake stared at her out of wide eyes, shocked. She just laughed, adjusting her cast across the seat beside her. “S’not such a big thing these days, guy. Hell, in some circles, it’s the ‘in’ thing. Here.” She tossed her book at him and Drake snatched it out of the air with reflexes even stunned bewilderment couldn’t slow. “It’s Manga. Japanese comics. A few years back, you couldn’t find it over here to save your life, but it’s really popular these days. You read it backward. Start at the last page.” Drake obeyed, flipping to the title page. Imagine his surprise when he saw a pair of males sharing a tender embrace. The girl grinned at his shocked face. “It’s called Yaoi. Stands for some Japanese acronym that I can never remember, but basically means male and male relationships. Real popular stuff.”
Drake closed the book and extended it back towards her. “Thanks for the info, but it’s not like that. JJ’s my friend.”
She grinned at him and waved the book away. “Whatever you say. You can read it while you’re waiting for him.” She dug in the backpack at her side and pulled out another book. “I got plenty. You can read that one.” She laughed and negligently waved a hand at the racks of dog-eared, worn magazines and hospital informational flyers. “Unless you prefer magazines that were out of date in the seventies, cause I got to tell you, that’s about all that’s in those racks.” Without another word, she immersed herself in the new book.
Drake stared at her and then shifted his gaze to the book in his hand. He knew she was right about the magazine selection. Curious, and unwilling to admit it, he turned the book over and read the blurb on the back. Finally, for lack of anything better to do, he opened the book and studied the diagram on how to read the book. It was like the comics he had read as a kid, only backwards.
At last, unable to put it off any longer, he started to read. It took some getting used to the format, but it didn’t take very long to adjust. He read quietly, glancing at his watch every now and again until the story absorbed his attention entirely. The story was actually pretty good, about a businessman taking in a stranded student after he was injured. There was nothing shocking and revolting. The only thing that bothered him was an attempted rape scene. He was still reading when a nurse called his name.
“Mr. Parker? We’ll be releasing Mr. Adams shortly, after he finishes with the doctor. Are you driving him home?”
Drake handed the forgotten book back to the teen and nodded. “Yeah. How is he?”
“A little loopy right now.” The pretty blonde nurse grinned at him. “We gave him something a little stronger than what he was used to. He’ll be fine when it wears off.”
Drake chuckled. “He’s normally a little loopy, so I don’t know about that. How’s the shoulder?”
The nurse laughed softly. “You’ll have to ask the doctor. He’s in with Mr. Adams right now. Would you like to go back?”
“Can I?”
She nodded. “Like I said, he’s a little out of it, so you may need to help him.”
Drake grinned at her in relief. He waved to the teen as the nurse pointed him to the double doors. “Exam room Five, Mr. Parker.”
Drake found the room without difficulty. The door was open, though the curtain was pulled. He could hear JJ’s voice inside, sounding a little higher-pitched than normal. “JJ?”
“Drakey-sempai!” JJ exclaimed from behind the curtain, giggling fitfully.
A gray-haired doctor pulled the curtain back enough to peer at him. “You Mr. Parker?”
“That’s me. How is he?”
The doctor shook his head. “I’m making a note in his file. Nothing stronger than ibuprofen for this boy from now on. Do you know if he has any allergies to painkillers?”
Drake glanced at JJ, who was grinning as he unsuccessfully tried to pull off his hospital gown. Drake went over and helped him. “None that I know of. This is no weirder than he gets after a few beers.”
The doctor watched Drake patiently assist the grinning JJ out of the open-back gown. “You have my pity.”
Drake chuckled as he deftly helped JJ into his shirt. “Hold still, JJ. Yeah, well, you should have seen him the one time Ted bought him a shot of tequila. He doesn’t handle a lot of alcohol well. I think it might be the same principle.”
The older man chuckled as JJ glomped onto Drake’s arm, clinging to him and grinning like a fool. “Drakey-sempai, you’re such a nice guy. Dee-sempai should be more like you, but he’s a meanie. Dee…?” JJ’s bottom lip quivered and tears clouded his blue eyes.
Drake patted his head with a resigned sigh. “He’s not here, JJ. He’s at work.”
“Oh. Are we going to work?” JJ watched him earnestly.
“You’re off today. You’re going home.”
“Oh. Are you off? We could go out!” JJ exclaimed brightly.
Drake sighed and patted JJ’s head again. “We’ll see.” He turned his attention to the still-chuckling doctor. “Well, at least this time he didn’t try to strip in public. A small improvement, but an improvement anyway. How is he?”
“Other than the weird reaction, he’s okay. His shoulderblade has a tiny stress fracture at the point of impact, which probably accounts for a very great deal of the pain he’s been feeling. There’s no point in immobilizing it unless it gets worse. He’s going to hurt for a while, but that’s why I gave him a prescription for Loritab. I’m wondering if that was such a good idea now.”
Drake laughed. “He’ll be okay. Let him get some solid sleep and some food in him and he’ll be back to normal. Or as normal as this guy gets anyway.” Drake affectionately ruffled JJ’s hair with the hand JJ hadn’t immobilized.
“Your call. The rest of the damage was mostly bruising and strain. He’ll be fine.”
“Good.”
The doctor shook his head and handed Drake three slips of paper. “I’ve prescribed him some Loritab for the pain and Peroxicam, that’s a muscle relaxant, for the strained muscles. The puncture wound looks clean, but to be on the safe side, I’ve given him an antibiotic to stave off any infection.” He ran a hand through his grizzled hair. “Make sure he takes all of them, Mr. Parker. He needs to keep that shoulder as still as possible for the next couple of days at least.” He pulled a pad out of the pocket of his white lab-coat and wrote on it. “I’m recommending he takes today and tomorrow off, and light duty for the next two weeks. For him, that means desk duty.”
Drake sighed. “Wonderful. You’ve just condemned me to two weeks of non-stop chatter and ‘why I hate desk duty’ speeches. Do you have anything for a migraine?”
JJ looked up from his in-depth examination of the back of Drake’s hand and frowned. “That’s not nice, sempai.”
“But honest.”
JJ’s ire couldn’t last long against the drugs in his system and he went back to smiling vaguely at Drake’s hand. “Look!” He said giddily, twining his fingers with Drake’s. “Your hand is way bigger than mine. My fingers are longer.” He waved them to prove his point. “But yours are bigger. I like men with big, strong hands.”
Drake rolled his eyes and glanced at the grinning doctor. “Please ignore anything he says. He’s not known for being able to keep his mouth shut when he’s drunk. Hell, sometimes when he’s not drunk.”
The doctor just laughed. “I don’t mind. This has been the most entertaining part of my day.”
When Drake pushed a grinning JJ out of the ER, he glanced down at JJ. The younger man was leaning back between the handlebars of the wheelchair and smiling at him. “You are a certifiable nutcase. You know that, right? Hey, do you want to go see Ryo while we’re here?” Drake asked.
That got through the mental haze of drugs and weariness. JJ frowned. “Can we?”
Drake nodded. “I’m sure we can go visit for a few minutes. But you stay in the wheelchair and if he’s asleep, we don’t wake him. Got it?”
JJ nodded solemnly and was silent the entire elevator ride to the seventeenth floor. Drake pushed him through to door to Ryo’s room. The curtains were drawn over the window and the room lights were dimmed. Ryo slept peacefully, his color a lot better than the last time they had seen him. Drake pushed JJ up to the bedside and watched as JJ tentatively reached out to touch Ryo’s pale hand. “I’m sorry, Ryo-sempai.” He glanced up at Drake and his eyes were clearer. “Can I have a minute alone, please, Drake-sempai?”
Drake nodded and left the room, pulling the door shut behind him.
JJ frowned through the haze of drugs at the still figure on the bed. “I’m sorry, Ryo-sempai.” He repeated. “I never really wanted anything to happen to you. You’ve always been nice to me, even when my pouncing on Dee made you jealous. I actually like you.” He sighed. “I know Dee’s yours. He has been since the first day I transferred here. When he gives someone his heart, he doesn’t do it halfway. That’s one of the things I always loved about him. I’m jealous, you know. I wish I could hate you for stealing him, but I don’t. I can’t.”
He rested his chin in one hand, still touching the back of Ryo’s hand with the other. “I do love him, you know. He was nice to me at first. See, I knew I was gay back in high school. When I told my parents, they didn’t want to believe it. Mom’s holding out hopes for grandkids and Dad-well, Dad still wants to think it’s just a phase. When I went to the academy, some of the others there didn’t like me. Because I was gay, or small and feminine-looking, or from LA, I guess. I don’t even think some of them needed a reason. But Dee was nice to me and got some of the worst ones to leave me alone. Maybe just because he’s bi, and recognized it in me, or maybe just because he doesn’t like seeing anybody being picked on. Who knows?” He chuckled sadly. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. I loved him for it. But he never loved me the way he loves you and I have to face that.”
JJ sighed. “I guess I have to give him up now. It still hurts like anything, you son of a bitch.”