Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Something Like Forever ❯ The Reason ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4—The Reason

 

Berkeley got the message not long after the explosion happened.

 

It wasn't a very detailed message—all it said was that Dee's I.D. had been found in his pocket and that he was being loaded into an ambulance as the message was left.

 

And having no idea how to tell Ryo—or where to find him—Berkeley called JJ's office instead.

 

-----

 

JJ couldn't remember ever feeling this exhausted. He had finally managed to hunt down Drake and drag him kicking and screaming back to the precinct, and now they both sat in JJ's office; Drake looked acutely uncomfortable.

 

“I told you, just forget it,” Drake said, making to stand up.

 

JJ grabbed his arm. “Drake…”

 

“No touching,” Drake replied. “Touching very dangerous right now.” His voice carried no anger—he wasn't angry. He was just at a complete loss when it came to handling the situation.

Well…Drake didn't actually handle situations, except in the physical way. When something happened between him and whatever girl he was dating, he usually just coaxed her into bed and the whole issue blew over the next morning. But this course of action clearly was not an option with JJ, so they just sat there looking awkward.

 

“Drake, I'm sorry, okay? I just…I don't know what's going on between us.”

 

“Nothing.” This time, JJ let Drake walk away, and he walked to the other side of the room to fiddle absently with the lock on his filing cabinet. “Nothing's happening between us, JJ! We're friends, and partners, and that's it.”

 

“But…you kissed me back…” JJ replied softly. Drake couldn't remember ever hearing his partner's voice sound so small.

 

“It means nothing, JJ. I'm a really lonely guy with little to no self-control, and that's all I am. I'm not gay and I'm not interested in you that way.”

 

“Cleopatra, queen of denial.”

 

“What's that supposed to mean?”

 

JJ sighed loudly and dropped his face into his hands before lifting it and speaking again. “Look, there's something between us. I know there is, and I think there has been for awhile. It may be crazy, it may be completely irrational, but it's there. I was always too stupid to realize it because I was so obsessed with Dee, and now you don't want to realize it because you're so thoroughly convinced that you could never be anything but a straight, lonely, brainless, pathetic moron without a clue—"

 

“I am a lonely, brainless, pathetic moron without a clue.”

 

“So you admit you're not straight.”

 

“I—no! JJ!”

 

“Drake, stop it. I know I'm not the person you had in mind for a relationship, but there's something happening here, with us. There's potential. And whether or not we decide to start something, we've got to put a stop to this crazy pattern we seem to have gotten ourselves into.”

 

“JJ, I'm not—"

 

And at that very inopportune moment, the phone rang. JJ snatched it off his desk. “Hello?” he snapped into the phone, sounding more like Dee than like himself. “Commissioner, this is really not a good time—" He was silent for a moment before he suddenly shot out of his chair. “I'll get Ryo and head over there.” He hung up and looked over at Drake, who was giving him a questioning look. “We have to go.”

 

-----

 

Dee had been found among the rubble and rushed to the nearest hospital, which also happened to be twelve blocks from the precinct, so it didn't take long for them to get there.

 

Ryo couldn't remember ever having been this terrified and this calm at the same time. The moment JJ had gone to find Ryo in the filing room, the moment the blond had heard the news, he'd felt the bottom drop out of his stomach and he became thoroughly convinced that his heart was going to fail right then and there, but now all he felt was the eerie, detached sort of calm that comes shortly after experiencing sheer terror.

 

The three of them arrived in the waiting room to find it empty except for three people Ryo didn't recognize--a man, a woman, and a little girl who lay cradled and sleeping in the woman's lap.

 

“I wonder where Mother is….” Ryo observed idly.

 

“The nun?”

 

“Yeah….”

 

JJ shrugged. “Probably hadn't gotten the message yet.”

 

“…I should call her.”

 

“Ryo…are you okay?” Drake asked, noting Ryo's monotone voice.

 

“I'm fine.” Ryo didn't elaborate as he went over to sit in one of the waiting room chairs. He stared straight ahead, zombie-like, and didn't even bother to reach for his cell phone. After a moment, JJ and Drake came to sit beside him.

 

“Excuse me,” the woman Ryo had noticed earlier said quietly. “Are you here for Dee Laytner?”

 

Ryo's eyes snapped to her, and he nodded. “I'm his…uh…partner.”

 

“Oh. It's nice to meet you. I'm Cecily. This is my husband Mitch and my daughter Robin.”

 

Ryo blinked at her for a moment, the words taking a minute to reach him. “Ryo. Er…Randy. McLean.”

 

“Oh. He…talked about you.”

 

Ryo didn't really know how to reply to that, so he just asked, “How do you know Dee?”

 

Cecily didn't answer for awhile, and when she did, her voice was very quiet. “He saved my daughter. He saved all of us. He…” Her voice trailed off then, not really knowing what to say. In these sorts of situations, words are seldom useful.

 

“What happened?”

 

At that, Cecily looked up, and that was when Ryo really looked at her for the first time. She really was very pretty, but she looked tired and disheveled, and her eyes held a worn, haunted expression. She didn't say anything for awhile, not sure she could talk about anything with someone she'd never even met, but something about this man's face, his eyes…he made her want to tell him everything she felt was wrong in the world.

 

So she talked. She gave them a complete rundown of that day's events, starting with Dee's arrival at the orphanage and ending with the explosion. Most of it came from what her daughter had told her. The others in the room were listening, as well, but Cecily spoke only to Ryo.

 

“I…I don't think I'll ever stop having nightmares about tonight. When Robin came running out of the alley by the orphanage…and she was alone… God. I just… Well, she only just got away from the building before it blew. And…I really don't remember anything that happened before the police showed up. I just remember…Dee…”

 

~Start Flashback~

 

Cecily stood outside the gates of the collapsed building, watching as police officers, EMTs, and a search-and-rescue team milled around the rubble.

 

Her husband had come and taken their daughter and the rest of the children to find a place that would take them in for awhile. He'd tried to get Cecily to come, too, but she had told him firmly that she would wait to see if the man who had saved their lives would make it out alive. She was numb, in complete shock from the evening's events, and she had absolutely no idea what to do.

 

She had been standing there for a good half-hour before four EMTs followed by the search-and-rescue team came rushing out of the fallen building with two stretchers, one of which carried someone who had clearly not survived the explosion. Cecily hurried over to the other one.

 

On that stretcher lay a young man with black hair and vibrantly green eyes that were currently clouded in pain and confusion. His handsome face was nothing more than a patchwork of cuts and bruises.

 

Cecily really didn't know what to do, so she asked one of the EMTs, “How is he?”

 

“Not good. Can you tell us what happened?”

 

“The building exploded with him inside. That's all I know. I don't know why he ever came here in the first place.”

 

“We asked him that. He said something about…he needed to get `him' here. We don't know who `him' is, but that was the last coherent thing we could get out of him. He's conscious, but I don't think he remembers much of anything besides his own name right now.”

 

“Will he be okay?”

 

“We don't know, ma'am.”

 

Cecily opened her mouth to ask another question, but at that very moment, a hand grabbed her wrist in a very tight grip, and she looked down to see green eyes staring back at her. Those eyes were very clear all of a sudden, as opposed to clouded like they were before. The stretcher stopped moving and Cecily stared expectantly at Dee, who managed to choke out two words. “Save…Ryo?”

 

Cecily stared at him, blinking, trying to figure out how to answer that.

 

“Did…I?”

 

After a moment, Cecily nodded. “You did.”

 

Dee relaxed and closed his eyes, and a minute later, the ambulance sped off with him inside. Cecily, after only a moment's hesitation, went to her car and followed it, pulling out her cell phone and dialing her husband's number as she sped off.

 

~End Flashback~

 

“I didn't know what to tell him,” Cecily said softly, her voice barely above a broken whisper. Her husband laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. “He'd done so much for us. I figured the least I could do was give him some comfort, you know?”

 

Silence.

 

It didn't take very much brainpower for Cecily to figure out who Dee had been talking about.

 

Ryo just stared at the wall in silence as everything fell into place. Dee had finished the case, and hadn't told Ryo anything, because he'd wanted to protect his ex-lover from being killed. He hadn't expected to make it out alive when he'd gone to the orphanage, but he'd gone and stayed there with the children to make sure they got out safely; he kept them there just long enough to make sure that the criminal came and gave Dee a confession. The criminal wouldn't have come if he thought no one was in the orphanage.

 

But how had Dee gotten the confession? He would have wanted to make sure it got to the police…

 

“Wait a minute…” Ryo said suddenly, turning to Cecily. His eyes were suddenly very clear with understanding. “Cecily, look in your daughter's pockets.”

 

Cecily stared at the blond as though seriously questioning his sanity, but decided to do what he said. After a moment, she pulled a small, metallic-looking cylinder with tiny wires attached to it, and held it up.

 

Ryo reached over and took it from her. “Brilliant…”

 

“What is it?” Mitch asked, speaking for the first time that night.

 

“It's a wire. Dee must have given it to Robin before he dropped her out the window. He must have gotten the guy's entire confession…”

 

“What guy? The bomber?”

 

“Mm-hmm. Dee…stupid, stupid Dee… Will you ever start thinking about yourself?” Ryo said this last part to himself, and JJ and Drake glanced at each other over his head. After a long moment, Ryo sighed loudly. “I can't take this, I have to find out what's going on. I'll be back.” With that, the blond stood and went over to the desk nearby, where a woman stood filing paperwork and checking charts. “Excuse me.”

 

The woman looked up. “Yes?”

 

“I was wondering if you could give me information on a patient here. Dee Laytner?”

 

“Are you family?”

 

“Well…no, not exactly, but—”

 

“I can't give you information unless you're family, Mr…?”

 

“McLean, and…I'm his partner…er…at work…”

 

“I'm sorry, Mr. McLean, but—"

 

“Ma'am, please…”

 

For the next few minutes, Ryo stood arguing with the woman, until he finally felt something inside him snap. “Look! I have been to this stupid hospital more times than I can count, and a lot of them have been for Dee. He and I have some unfinished business and I can't go anywhere until I know he's going to be okay. So you have some choices here. You can either let me behind the desk to look at Dee's file, or I can do everything in my power to have you fired and removed from behind the desk, then take over your job and then look at Dee's file. Either way involves me getting behind that desk and looking at Dee's file and you really want to end any further conversation with me at this point so once again, I'm looking for information about my partner, Dee Laytner.”

 

“Mr. McLean—"

 

“Excuse me.”

 

Both the woman and Ryo turned to look at the source of the voice, a small, dark-skinned man wearing a doctor's uniform and carrying a clipboard. “Dr. English,” the woman said (rather stupidly, in Ryo's opinion).

 

The man smiled at her. “It's all right, Julia. I'll take it from here. Will you come with me, sir?”

 

Ryo stared at the doctor, then shrugged and followed him over to where the others stood.

 

“I assume you're all here for this…Mr. Laytner, as well?”

 

JJ nodded and stood, as did the rest.

 

Dr. English looked from face to face, and suddenly he frowned as a look of recognition came into his eyes. “Oh dear God, again?”

 

Ryo blinked. “…Huh?”

 

“Another 27th cop? Jeez, if we don't quit getting you guys in here we're just gonna move the entire building twelve blocks down… Hell, why don't we just move it into the building? No commute that way… So it's Laytner this time?”

 

Ryo stared at the man for a moment, then said softly, “Yes, Dee Laytner…”

 

Dr. English's eyes snapped to Ryo. It wasn't as though Dr. English wasn't used to seeing 27th precinct cops in this hospital, but the tone in Ryo's voice…it was helpless, and it went beyond sadness or worry. It was the voice of a man who truly felt he couldn't go on living if he lost anyone else.

 

After a moment, the doctor said, “Wait here,” and went over to the desk. There, he held a short, quiet conversation with the woman behind it and she nodded, handing him a clipboard, which he brought back over to the group who waited anxiously for him.

 

“All right, since I didn't start out handling this one, the only info I have comes from what they've already figured out. I'm gonna see about taking over for Dr. Jackson, the guy who's handling Dee, but for now I'll tell you everything I can find. Just…don't mention it to anyone else, okay? It's against hospital policy and even though I always thought it was a stupid policy to begin with…well, never mind.” As he spoke, Dr. English was looking at the clipboard. “Ah, here it is. Okay…wow. I'm gonna be honest with you. This…does not look good.”

 

“What doesn't?” Ryo demanded anxiously.

 

“Well, the overall state of things in the world, for starters, but right now let's just focus on Laytner. He's got a partially collapsed lung, internal bleeding, several broken ribs, dislocations in his left shoulder and knee, two compound fractures in his left arm, and a very serious head injury, as well as shards of glass embedded in half his body. Looks like he didn't quite manage to find cover before the building collapsed. All that…well, after having an entire building fall on your head, isn't as bad as it could be, but it does put him in serious danger. He's in surgery right now to repair the lung and anything else they can operate on, but the head injury still leaves a lot to fate. If he makes it through the surgery well, it all depends on how the head injury heals.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well, we can't really ascertain how serious the injury is. We've gotten x-rays and treated him as best we can, but if it doesn't heal well, he could go into a coma, or even if he wakes up, there are a number of problems that it could cause—blindness, partial memory loss, you know. But from what we can tell, the chances of the head injury leaving permanent damage are slim.”

 

“But they're still there.”

 

“Yes, they are.”

 

Ryo sighed. “Okay…thank you, Dr. English.”

 

Dr. English smiled at him. “No problem. Hang in there, okay? I'm gonna go see what else I can find out. Go get a cup of coffee or something, man. You look bushed.”

 

The blond tried to smile, but he was fighting a losing battle. From the moment he heard the words “head injury” he'd felt an unbelievably heavy stone drop into his stomach and he found it very difficult to imagine ever breathing properly again.

 

As Dr. English walked away, Ryo stared after him for a moment, dazed, before he slowly turned and walked over to the chair he'd been sitting in previously. He sank into it, staring straight ahead, as everyone else took seats around him. Then, sighing, he leaned forward and dropped his face into his hands.

 

“Er, Ryo?” JJ asked quietly, after awhile.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“He'll be fine, Ryo.”

 

“Yeah…” Sighing, Ryo reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. “I really should call Bikky…and Sister Maria…” He sat there staring down at the phone for a minute, thinking, This is ridiculous. You don't even know what's going to happen to him yet and you're already panicking? Logically, his mind told him that. But all he could think was that if anything happened to Dee, half of New York City would drop what they were doing and start to cry.

 

Because whether Dee wanted to believe it or not, he was loved by everyone at the 27th precinct, all of his friends, Sister Maria, at least fifty orphans, every person he had ever helped while he was doing his job…and Ryo.

 

If Dee Laytner died, Ryo seriously doubted that he would be able to keep his sanity.

 

“Ryo?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“You've been holding onto that phone for quite awhile now. Are you gonna actually call anyone?”

 

“Oh…yeah…”

 

So Ryo dialed the phone, and held it up to his ear. The other phone rang a few times, and then the answering machine came on, blaring Bikky's loud, obnoxious voice all through Ryo's apartment.

 

“Hey, this is Bikky and Ryo. We're not answering the phone because a) we're not home, b) we're too lazy to get up and answer the phone, c) both a and b, or d) we just don't like you. In other words, GET OFF THE PHONE, BERKELEY!” Here, Ryo's voice issued over the phone. “Bikky!” And Bikky continued, “Yeah, yeah, fine. Leave a message and we'll get back to you. If you're lucky.”

 

There was something about listening to that message; it was a symbol of when everything was right, and calm, and…normal. Now the entire world had turned upside down and the whole idea that anything had ever been normal completely baffled Ryo.

 

So when he finally spoke—at least fifteen seconds after the beep had signaled for him to begin his message—his voice shook with pent-up emotion and tears. “Hey, Biks…it's Ryo. This'll…probably be all over tomorrow morning's news, but…well, one of the local orphanages…there was an explosion…and Dee was inside. The doctors, they, uh…they don't know if he's gonna make it. I'll…explain everything later, but…well, I just wanted to let you know. I have to go…I have to call Mother… Bye, Biks.”

After he'd called Sister Maria—who, he knew, had immediately dropped whatever she was doing and called a cab—Ryo didn't know what to do. He wanted to make more phone calls, or follow the nurses around begging for information…something besides just sitting and waiting. At last, he settled on the idea that he knew his Dee would always and forever approve of.

 

“Anyone want some coffee?”

 

-----

 

The caffeine helped Ryo's nerves a bit, but it didn't make him feel any better about the situation. The entire waiting room was completely silent except for the quiet shuffling of people changing positions.

 

The silence remained until Sister Maria, Bikky and Carol came bursting into the waiting room. Ryo stood up to greet them, and then let out a grunt of surprise as Bikky reached out and hugged him.

 

“You guys came…” Ryo stated in surprise.

 

“Of course we came,” Carol replied. “How's Dee?”

 

“The doctors don't know, they haven't told us anything yet. Oh, uh…guys, this is Cecily, Mitch, and their daughter Robin who is obviously asleep. Cecily, Mitch, this is my adopted son, Bikky, and his girlfriend, Carol. And this is Sister Maria. She runs the orphanage that Dee grew up in.”

 

“Oh, we know each other,” Sister Maria said when introduced to Cecily. “How are you doing, dear?”

 

Cecily just smiled tiredly at the three newcomers and shrugged in answer to the question, and Mitch nodded a hello.

 

“What happened, Ryo?” Bikky asked, sitting down and pulling Carol down beside him. Sister Maria sat down across from Ryo.

 

So Ryo gave Bikky and Carol a recount of what Cecily had told them, leaving out the part where Dee had asked if he'd managed to save Ryo.

 

After he finished the story, the entire waiting room was completely silent. They all just sat there for what felt like forever but could only have been minutes, and then Cecily—apparently having noticed that Ryo was looking like he was going to put a hole through the wall—decided to try to take the blond's mind off of his current location. “So…tell me about Dee,” she said. Her voice was soft; through all of this, the little girl in her arms hadn't woken up, and the others were trying to keep quiet and let her sleep. “What do you like about him?”

 

“…What?”

 

“There's obviously something between you two. What is it that makes you feel the way you do about him?”

 

Deciding that questioning this woman's perception just wasn't worth the effort, Ryo sighed. “Just…everything.” He didn't say anything for awhile after that, but then, a small, loving smile touched his lips, and when he spoke, he wasn't doing it for the others in the room. He was speaking for someone else, someone who he imagined could hear him even from the operating room. “Dee, he's…complicated, but at the same time he's incredibly easy to understand. On the surface he's…loud, obnoxious, overly friendly, lazy, and completely annoying, but…once you get to know him… I don't know, there's just something about him that makes everyone he meets become attached to him and they never want to let go. And he's got his quirks that just make him all the more lovable.”

 

“What kinda quirks?”

 

“Well… For starters, he always has his clock set at least fifteen minutes fast, so that when the alarm goes off in the morning, he knows it's not really time for him to get up, and he can sleep a little longer. He's a nicotine addict, but he's trying to cut down because he knows Mother and I don't like it. And he likes beer, but his favorite drink in the world is Coke—not Pepsi. He's very specific about his sodas. And his two biggest guilty pleasures are The Princess Bride—the movie, not the book—and musicals. You know, Dirty Dancing, Grease, Rent, The Phantom of the Opera…the works.”

 

“I so cannot picture Dee watching any of those movies,” Carol said, laughing.

 

“Neither could I, when I first met him,” Ryo replied. He didn't laugh, but his smile got a little bit bigger. “But now, it's…I dunno. It's just another part of him.”

 

Cecily smiled and leaned in slightly. “What else?”

 

“Well, let's see…he's a huge basketball fan—loves the New York Knicks—and he's a video game fanatic. I don't think he ever grew up completely. It's…funny. It used to annoy me. It still does, sometimes, but then he smiles, and it's just…it's Dee.”

 

After a moment, Ryo looked up to see the rest of the room watching him, and he blushed right up to the roots of his hair.

 

“So…why did you break up, then?” Carol asked quietly.

 

“To tell you the truth…I don't know. He never told me.”

 

“…I do.”

 

Ryo blinked and turned to look at Sister Maria. “Mother? What…?”

 

“He told me. Not long after it happened. He said he thinks you don't love him.”

 

“That's ridiculous, why would he think that?”

 

“He said he heard a phone conversation. Between you and someone else, and he didn't know who it was, but you said you didn't love him.”

 

“What? I…oh.”

 

~Flashback~

 

“Hey, Bikky,” Ryo asked, as he stood next to the sink tossing a salad for dinner. “Is your friend Jason still coming over this weekend? Because if he is I need to find that old air mattress, we've got nowhere else for him to sleep.”

 

“Don't worry about it, he cancelled,” Bikky replied from his seat at the table. “I guess I forgot to tell you.”

 

“Oh. That's a shame, why did he cancel?”

 

Bikky shrugged, his eyes on his math book. “Don't ask me, I don't know.”

 

“Don't lie to me, Bikky.”

 

“What makes you think I'm lying?”

 

Ryo chuckled and picked up the salad bowl, moving to sit across from Bikky at the table as he continued tossing the salad. “The only time you concentrate that hard on math, and the only time you're ever as quiet as you've been tonight, is when you're avoiding talking to me. Come on, `fess up, Biks.”

 

Silence.

 

Oh joy, I get to guess, Ryo thought wryly. “Did you do something, Bikky? Because you know what hiding things from me always gets you. It's better if you just confess from the start, and take the consequences. Or do I really need to remind you about last month's fiasco with the shoplifting?”

 

“I thought we agreed not to talk about that anymore,” Bikky replied.

 

“Desperate times, desperate measures, and you're avoiding the subject. Now why did Jason cancel? Did you two have a fight?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Is he grounded?”

 

“…Sort of.”

 

“How do you `sort of' ground someone?”

 

“His mother, she…uh…” Bikky paused. He had no idea how he was supposed to tell his father this. Best to just get it over and done with quickly, he supposed, since Ryo didn't seem to be giving up anytime soon. Damn, the guy was perceptive. “She thinks you're a dangerous influence.”

 

“…Huh? Why?”

 

“Because you're…uh…well, word has gotten around at school and it got back to some parents, and…”

 

“…Ah.”

 

“They're just a bunch of homophobes, Ryo. What do they know?”

“Enough, it appears.”

 

Bikky sighed. “Yeah. Enough.”

 

“So…how many others?”

 

“…Pretty much all of them. I don't get it, Ryo. I mean, this is New York City…there are drag queens running around all over the place and no one looks twice at them, but they won't let their kids anywhere near you. Why is that?”

 

Ryo stared at him for a moment, then chuckled.

 

“…What?”

 

“Nothing, just…sometimes I forget how young you still are.”

 

Bikky didn't say anything, but smiled slightly when Ryo reached over to ruffle his hair with a grin. “Here, why don't you take your homework to your room and finish it in there? I'll call you when dinner's ready.”

 

“'Kay.”

 

Ryo's smile disappeared the second Bikky did, and he sighed heavily as he returned to his work. “Damn it all,” he muttered to himself.

 

It wasn't until the rest of the meal was cooking and the table was set that Ryo finally went over and picked up the phone. His heart felt heavy and he dreaded the coming conversation, but it had to be done, he figured.

 

“Hello?” the person on the other end said as the phone was picked up.

 

“Hi, is this Mrs. Simon? Jason Simon's mother?”

 

“This is she.”

 

“Oh, good. I'm Randy McLean. Bikky's father?”

 

The woman's voice immediately changed to one of those tones that people used when they were determined to be somewhat courteous and still let the person they were talking to know they hated them. “Oh, hello.”

 

“Bikky told me that Jason cancelled, and…he told me why. I wanted to call and make sure there's been no misunderstanding. He said Jason cancelled because of me?”

 

“He did, yes.”

 

“Would you care to explain that to me?”

 

“I'll be frank, Mr. McLean. I'm not sure I want you around my child. You might give him…ideas.”

 

“What sort of ideas, Mrs. Simon?” Ryo asked, forcing his voice to remain pleasant.

 

“Look, Mr. McLean, if you want Bikky to turn out the way you have, that's fine with me. But if he's going to start eying boys with anything more on his mind than friendship, I don't want him doing so around my child.”

 

It was all Ryo could do to refrain from ripping the phone out of the wall, but his voice was pleasant—if a little chilly—when he replied, “Ma'am, I assure you, Bikky isn't going to be making any moves on your son anytime soon. And if he does, it will not be because I influenced him somehow.”

 

“Oh, really?” Mrs. Simons asked, sounding as though she seriously doubted it.

 

Ryo rubbed his head—he could already feel a headache building. “Mrs. Simon…I'm sure you're concerned because you know that I'm living with another man.”

“I've heard that, yes.”

 

“And you think Bikky's dangerous because he lives with us?”

 

“I think you have the potential to be a negative influence on the innocent minds of young children.”

 

“So that's a yes?”

 

“Yes, it is.”

 

Ryo closed his eyes. This woman was insane (and Ryo was finding it hard to believe that there were people in the world that actually said these things to other people) but her son was Bikky's friend, and since it didn't appear that she was going to become any more enlightened anytime soon, there was only one thing to be done.

 

After a moment, Ryo sighed inwardly and said, “Mrs. Simon, I know you probably aren't going to want to believe this, but…the rumors aren't true. Dee Laytner is just my partner. At the 27th. I'm a police officer, and police officers work in pairs. That's what Dee is. The second part of the pair.” These next words were possibly the hardest words Ryo had ever forced out of his mouth, but they had to be said. Ryo wasn't going to let his son lose all of his friends. He couldn't. “He's nothing more than a friend and partner. I…don't love him.”

 

After that, it had only taken Ryo a few more minutes on the phone to get a full apology and permission for Bikky to see Jason anytime he wanted to. Right after he had hung up the phone, Dee had entered the room, smiled tiredly, kissed him, and sat down to have dinner.

 

He had broken up with Ryo the next morning and moved back to his old apartment.

 

~End Flashback~

 

“He must have heard all of it…” Ryo said softly. “I didn't…” Sighing, he rubbed his forehead. “I'm gonna go get some more coffee,” he said absently.

 

“He didn't hear all of it,” Sister Maria said suddenly, as Ryo stood to leave.

 

“…What?” Ryo asked, turning back to look at the nun.

 

“He didn't hear all of it,” she repeated. “He only heard the end. The part where you said you were just his friend and partner and nothing more. The part where you said you didn't love him. My son is very sensitive, Ryo…all of my children are. He needs to feel loved. He didn't think you could give him that. Please…don't blame him, Ryo.”

 

“I don't. I…couldn't.” Forcing a small smile, Ryo turned and walked away, leaving the others to sit and wait anxiously for news.

Bikky caught up with him by the vending machine. Ryo smiled tiredly at him, but the boy didn't return the smile. On the contrary, his frown just grew deeper, and his eyes held the stormy quality that was usually directed at the people he hated and occasionally at Dee, but never at Ryo. Until now, apparently. “What's up, Biks?”

 

“You're an idiot,” the boy spat, sounding completely unlike himself.

 

“…Good to know.”

 

“I mean it, Ryo. Why would you do that?”

 

“I…thought I was doing it for you. I thought…you would be happy to have your friends back.”

 

“I don't care about them! I hate that you and the pervert…that you guys…I… Damn it, Ryo!”

 

“Watch your language,” Ryo snapped out of habit, but there was no real feeling behind the words. “Bikky, I'm…I didn't realize…I thought you hated Dee!”

 

“I do hate Dee!” Bikky replied, his tone not fully convinced. “I do…”

 

Ryo stared at Bikky as the boy rubbed his eyes, and that was when it clicked. Bikky was scared of the exact same thing as he was; he was terrified that Dee would die before he and Ryo had a chance to reconcile. “…Bikky…c'mere…” Ryo said softly, reaching out and pulling his son into a hug. “I'm going to fix this,” he assured the boy. “I don't know how, but I will. I promise.”

 

“You'd better,” Bikky replied, then stubbornly pulled away.

 

“I will. Okay, why don't you go back to the waiting room? Send everyone home and tell them I'll call them as soon as we have some news. I'm sure Mother will want to stay and I know you and Carol will, but everyone else needs to go home and get some sleep. And get Cecily and Mitch's number for me, will you?”

 

“Sure thing.”

 

And with that, Bikky was gone, and Ryo was left to decide how to best set about fixing what he had broken.

 

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Crap, this chapter took a long time to write. I'm sorry it's been so long! But this chapter is longer than my other ones, so I hope you're all happy!

So there you have it. Now you know the reason Dee left. I hope it wasn't an anticlimax, but it seemed like a good enough reason for me. I would have left if I heard that part of a conversation…

 

I'm gonna try to get the next chapter up much faster, okay? This story's almost done! I know I say that every chapter, but…I think I mean it this time!