There's pain first. An excessive amount of pain, too much and he curls onto his side, into himself. He must have got hit hard, by multiple people, if he's feeling it through his pads.
He's scared for a second; he can't feel his legs or his arms or anything besides the pain, which is excruciating. As much as he loves Street, as much as he would trade places with him in a heartbeat… he doesn't want to be Street.
One of them confined to a wheelchair is enough.
Just as suddenly he can feel his legs and arms and there's a momentary surge of relief, right before there's a spike of pain right up the middle of his back, to his brain and he wants to cry, scream. He doesn't because men don't cry; they get back on their god damned feet and throw a punch.
But he doesn't want to disappoint Coach, not when Coach has gone out on a limb for him. Offered up his home and his family and his only requirements for keeping those things were no drinking and no fighting and 'play like you love the game more then the booze'.
"This is taking too long," he hears, it's a familiar voice. He can't put a name to it yet, but he knows it. It's a friend, a close one, but not Street; he curls up tighter because he doesn't have close friends besides Street.
And he doesn't even really have Street right now, because he was stupid and scared and… he could have had everything and right now he has nothing.
"Don't rush me, not if you don't want me fucking this up," comes another one, sneering and derisive. He knows this one too, knows he doesn't like or trust this one, knows this one has caused him and people that he cared about (but not Street) pain and suffering.
This one tried to take things that weren't his.
"You've already fucked this up," the first voice again.
There's more pain, this time right in the center of his head and he makes a noise even though he's pretty sure he didn't mean to.
"Pogue?" A soft voice.
A girl's voice and he should pull himself together; he's making a fool of himself in front of a girl.
"Are you guys really going to fight at a time like this?" Another voice, this one lined with sarcasm and it's challenging both of the first two.
Reid.
The name is there and he's almost certain that he doesn't know a 'Reid', he knows a Jason and a Lyla and a Tyra and a Billy and Smash and Coach and Landry and Julie and Matt and, and, and…
Caleb.
Caleb, that's the name of the first voice.
Caleb and, and…
Chase.
Except, he thinks Chase is a bad guy, Chase tried to kill him and Caleb and Kate and Sarah.
Soft hands join those already touching him, rolling him onto his back and he manages to pry his eyes open, even though it causes more pain and he can't decide if he wants to throw up or pass out more.
He just lays there and breathes instead.
There are kind eyes looking at him, a young man/boy with dark hair (Tyler) and his head is bent close to a young woman (Sarah) with blond hair and a sweet face.
"I told you I'd do it," Chase again and he searches until he finds where Chase and Caleb are facing off. They're scowling at each other and Reid is standing between them glaring and from where he's lying on the ground he can't figure out at which of the two is drawing more of his ire.
He makes a low sound in his throat and Chase looks over at him, his eyes are dark, he can't tell if they're black or if they just look that way because the room is dark, there's more pain and he thinks maybe he's getting used to it because he just wants to throw up instead of throwing up and passing out.
That's progress right there.
"Where am I?" he manages to get out, his throat hurts and his head hurts and he recognizes the place even though he doesn't think he should.
He should be with Street and Lyla and Tyra and Saracen and the others, a last party before hunkering down for finals and he'd been drinking just soda because he had an agreement with Coach and Julie would so tattle on him if he reneged.
He remembers that, remembers walking out to tall weeds and trees because he'd heard something strange and he'd wanted to take a leak without everyone watching. Besides Landry had been trying to quiz him even though it's Friday and he doesn't think about school on Friday unless it's still daylight.
The others had been laughing and talking and the music had been loud.
He wonders if they've missed him, wonders how these others grabbed him, without being seen.
Caleb walks towards him, Reid latches onto Chase's arm to keep him from following, keeping him back and away and he's grateful for that because Chase isn't trustworthy and he can't protect anybody right now.
Tyler shifts over but doesn't leave, Sarah backs off and Caleb takes her spot.
"Finish it Chase," Caleb orders quietly, he makes a sound in his throat because he doesn't understand why Caleb and Chase are working together.
They should be at each others throats. Somebody should be threatening to kill Chase since he can't.
His memories are all muddled and there seems to be two sets of them, he can't figure out how he knows them and grew up with them when he knows that Jason is his best friend and has been since they were kids.
Chase rolls his eyes and shrugs off Reid's hand.
"What?" he asks even as Tyler abandons his position and Chase takes it.
He doesn't like this, he never likes things that don't make sense and this makes even less sense then half the things that Landry tries to explain to him.
"Shh," Caleb says, he moves slightly, pulls him into his lap, one arm latching around his chest and Chase leans over him. "Shh, it's okay now, you're safe now."
He wants to disagree, wants to scream at them that he doesn't know them and doesn't trust them and how can he have had two childhoods and two best friends and what the hell have they done with Jason and, and… he can't force the words out and then there's pain spiking through his body again.
"It's okay Pogue, you're home now," he hears Caleb whisper in his ear as his hand comes down over his eyes.
He screams.
FNLTCV
Pogue is still unconscious. Wrapped in warm blankets, curled onto his side in Caleb's bed.
He hasn't woken since that one time in the circle. Chase insists that he's okay, that he's recovering, that it'll take time for delicate memories and emotions to retie themselves to Pogue. He insists that it's better for Pogue to be asleep during that time, that it'll be less confusing for him and they're less likely to have whoever Pogue was when Chase 'summoned' him, staring at them with distrustful, unknowing, scared eyes.
Those eyes had been the worst part; Pogue has never not known him. Pogue has never been scared of him.
Even when he was hurt and laying in a hospital bed, barely able to remain conscious for more then a minute at a time, even then with his eyes closed and in pain he'd still known Caleb when he'd laid his hand on Pogue's arm.
Had still known Tyler and Reid.
Had still trusted them to take care of him, to help him.
"Do you think we should call Kate?" Sarah asks. Caleb shakes his head.
Even before Pogue's disappearance Pogue and Kate had been having massive problems. Fight after fight, breakups that were lasting longer and longer.
"Let's let Pogue make that decision when he wakes up," Caleb says.
Sarah nods once to indicate that she heard him. He doesn't deserve her, he knows this. She knows all his secrets and doesn't judge him, hasn't turned away from him.
Still loves him in her own way.
She deserves better, he's going to make sure that she gets that, even if it means sending her far away from him.
Which it probably will.
"I'm going to go see if they've managed to kill Chase yet," Sarah says, she squeezes his arm and leaves the room. Casting one last look at the bed where Pogue remains motionless.
Caleb stares at him, waits to see the even rise and fall of his chest before he relaxes a little.
Not too much, Chase is still in the house. But Chase has proven himself trustworthy in this at least. He'd brought Pogue home; Caleb tries not to think about the fact that Chase was the one that had sent Pogue to wherever he'd been, because he'd brought Pogue home.
And Reid had only had to hit him once in order to facilitate him doing so.
He waits until he hears the door click shut behind Sarah before he walks towards the bed. When he gets there he stands beside it, holds his hand over Pogue's chest. Not making contact, for this of all things he doesn't need contact.
Pogue's healthy and healing, but this is taking too long.
He doesn't need to look in a mirror to know that his eyes have gone black, if he isn't careful he can pull too much of the Power into himself and he'll run the risk of getting addicted.
Like Chase did, like Reid was on his way to.
He doesn't need Chase and Reid's (the only thing they have in common) smirking eyes telling him that he's no better then them, he doesn't want to see Tyler's sad ones telling him that he should be better then that.
He uses just enough to do what he needs done and then releases it.
He uses his gifts sparingly, always has except in cases of dire emergency (like battling Chase to keep them, like proving a point to Reid) he doesn't want to become Reid or Chase, doesn't want to become dependent on the emotions and the Power that flood him when he opens himself up to it's siren call.
Pogue's eyes snap open, eyes as black as Caleb's are. Power responding to Power. He inhales sharply, his face twists into something pain filled and Caleb draws back, lets Pogue's body relax.
He'd done what he'd intended to do, it's been long enough.
Pogue's eyes clear and he can see the moment of recognition, when Pogue had first opened his eyes down in the circle that recognition hadn't been there.
Then Pogue had searched the room, looking for someone not there and Caleb knew he should ask Chase where Pogue had been, should make sure that Chase had removed memories of whoever Pogue had been from anyone that would have known him.
Would seek him.
He hopes that would have been an unnecessary mandate, hopes that they've moved past the distrust and hate.
Knows that they haven't.
They stare at each other, Pogue from the cocoon of blankets that Tyler had wrapped around him when they brought him up from the circle, Caleb from the edge of the bed where he wonders if he looks as tired as he feels.
"Caleb."
He releases the breath he'd been holding and relaxes as Pogue's eyes close again.
FNLTCV
They've been searching for days. Jason had been unable to help because the area where Tim had vanished from was uneven ground and tall, overgrown weeds and trees and more trees.
Coach had been pissed, thought that Tim had gone back on their deal and Tami had his bags packed and waiting for him to return when they found a shoe.
Tim's shoe.
One shoe and a smattering of blood.
There had been a scorched area in the middle of the field that the searchers must have walked past a half a dozen times before they found it.
It looked like someone had set a fire there; the blood had been on the edges of the scorched area. Tim's shoe, the one they'd found, had been in the center, the sole had been melted and…
Jason doesn't finish that thought.
Tim is fine, Tim will come sauntering back into town and he'll be fine.
Except he hasn't yet. He looks over to where Lyla has her head bent, she's brought people from her church and they've been praying for hours.
Jason could tell them that it isn't any use; that he's afraid that wherever Tim is he's long past needing their prayers.
Tyra is leaning in the doorway and he wheels himself over to meet her.
She'd been out with the searchers that morning and he waits for her to say something, anything. Instead she shakes her head, looks over at where Lyla has stopped praying and is looking over at them.
They haven't found a body, or bones. They haven't found anything.
They've just found the one shoe and blood and scorched ground.
They haven't found a body.
He can still have hope.
FNLTCV
It's a road trip.
Caleb's idea, because he thinks that a road trip, the five of them being confined to a vehicle for an extended period of time is going to force them to play nice with each other.
Pogue wants to tell him that it's just making them want to kill each other.
He wants to tell him, just because we're the Sons of Ipswich doesn't mean that we have to like each other.
Half the time he doesn't even like Reid and he grew up with him, he certainly has never liked Chase.
He'll probably never like Chase, or trust him. Chase tried to kill Caleb. Chase tried to do something to him that the others refuse to talk about.
Of all of them Caleb and Tyler are the ones that he trusts to watch his back without fail or question.
Caleb, because he considers Caleb something more then brother, if anything could be closer then that.
Tyler, because Tyler is their little brother, all of theirs, even Chase's. They protect him from their fights when at all possible.
Reid he trusts if the things that he wants fall into line with things that Reid wants. And it's not like he doesn't consider Reid family, he does… he just doesn't always trust that Reid will put his family above everything else.
He makes sure never to call shotgun when Chase is driving and he and Reid have an agreement that Reid will be his navigator when he's driving and vice versa.
He'd rather have Caleb, but Caleb spends most of his time trying to keep Chase from being an ass so Pogue has given up on that.
Tyler sleeps a lot, they don't let him drive and he's horrible with directions so typically he's the one sitting behind whoever is driving.
They hit Dillon, Texas at 5:32 pm, just in time for dinner.
His stomach starts growling at the thought.
Dillon seems like a football town, every sign is promoting or proclaiming support of their local football team. He's never been a huge fan of football, except he has a sudden flash of himself in a uniform.
He forces the image away; if the others pick up on it they'll never let it alone.
"I'm gonna get something to eat," he says when they pull into the gas station. They've been on the road for a week. Pogue thinks that by the time they hit two weeks even Caleb will be ready to kill Chase.
Tyler comes with him, Reid is pumping gas, complaining to Caleb and Chase about the decline of full service gas stations.
Caleb and Chase aren't listening to him; they're bent over the map trying to decide where they're heading to next. Pogue wants to suggest that they just go home; it was a nice thought, but he thinks that it's going to take maybe fifty years and Chase dying for them to be able to all get along.
They won't listen to him, Caleb is bound and determined that they're all going to make nice even if it kills them.
He'll remember after the fact that when they walk in the entire place comes to a dead stop. He doesn't notice it then because at that time he's compiling a mental list of what they need and half listening to Tyler's rambling next to him.
Water, chips, jerky, maybe a couple of sandwiches to stash in the cooler in the trunk if they don't look too disgusting.
They've done this before so he and Tyler both grab baskets and go in separate directions.
He's standing in front of the cooler trying to decide if he should get ready-made sandwiches or just grab enough meat and cheese so that they can make their own when the girl approaches him.
She's a tiny slight thing, bangs hanging in her eyes and her face is sheet white.
She looks like she's seen a ghost. She grabs his arm and squeezes, a sound that's not all that human coming from behind her closed lips.
The uttered "Tim," is sort of a breath, he doesn't even know how he heard it because her lips don't appear to move at all. He wonders idly if she's psychic or a witch, he can't sense anything from her but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
In front of him she's stone still and doesn't appear to be breathing, her nails dig into the soft skin of his forearm and he makes a sound.
"Julie," is hissed from behind them and he turns. There's a group of girls standing there, all with the same white faces, shocked expressions.
He's not sure what's going on but he's pretty sure he's not going to like it, he's half tempted to put money on whatever it is being Chase's fault. (Most of the things that fuck up Pogue's life are.)
She throws her arms around him, squeezing tight and he doesn't know what to do.
'Get the fuck off of me,' seems kind of rude, especially since she's crying and he thinks she might be in the middle of some sort of nervous breakdown.
He wishes that Caleb were here, or even Reid. They're much better with crying, crazy females then he is.
He sometimes couldn't even stand to deal with Kate and her insanity on the infrequent times when they were on-again and he had to.
"Do you think Chase will believe me if I tell him that there weren't any sardines? I don't think I can take another day of the car smelling like fish," Tyler says as he walks up, he makes a face, an expression that Pogue's never seen before and he's known Tyler for eighteen years so there's not much about him that Pogue doesn't know.
"Um… Pogue?" he asks, his eyes are wide.
"Haven't got a clue Tyler," Pogue says, he tries to shrug but the girl still has her arms wrapped around him and for a tiny little thing she's got some serious strength.
He's still trying to figure out how to get her off him without hitting her, when Reid is there suddenly and right behind him are cops and Pogue still can't move.
"Miss?" he asks, because one of the cops has his hand on Reid's shoulder and Tyler is being backed up into the door of the cooler by another, and he really needs to have his hands and his arms free so he can help his friends.
They've been really, unbelievably good lately. No flagrant abuse of the Power, they'd even been obeying the majority of the speed limit signs.
A cop is by his arm and the girl still hasn't let go of him. The one cop is putting handcuffs on Reid and Tyler seems to have gone limp and is sliding down the door of the cooler. Pogue is getting ready to shove the girl off and go help when the cop latches onto his arm and starts pulling him away.
The girl stumbles along with them, not letting go of him.
"It's okay Mr. Riggins, we've got you now. You're safe, they can't hurt you anymore," he says and Pogue is opening his mouth to say 'get the fuck away from my friends' and 'who the hell are you talking about' when he's hit by that image again.
Only it isn't just that one anymore, there are series after series after series of them.
He's been seeing these exact same images in dreams for months, then they were hazy and slightly out of focus. Now they're crystal clear and he thinks if he thought about it hard enough he might be able to figure out what their names are.
Him in uniform, the girl hanging on his arm standing next to a guy in a football uniform, a girl dressed up as a cheerleader hanging off the arm of another different guy in a wheelchair. A tall leggy blonde standing next to a kid that is half in uniform, half out. An older guy with his arm around a woman with a baby, same girl latched onto his arm standing beside them. The guy in the wheelchair and the cheerleader and him lying on a beach, all three holding hands.
They're never ending and he sees a whole life that he's never lived, that he sure as hell doesn't remember playing out in front of his eyes in the span of a few seconds.
He can't see her, his eyes and mind are totally overwhelmed by the images, but he knows that he shoves the girl, Julie her friends called her, off him.
Backs up into the door of the cooler, closes his eyes and presses his hands to his head.
"Pogue," he hears Reid say, or yell. He can't be certain because the ground is rushing up to meet him and then it's black.
FNLTCV
Jason isn't the first one there; Matt had to come pick him up so they're pretty much almost the last ones there, he wants to have been the first.
He should have been the first.
(Landry will be last because he was out of town when the call came and Julie was first because she pitched a fit until she was allowed to ride in the ambulance with Tim.)
Tim is his best friend, it isn't fair that after all this time it's Julie Taylor who is the one that found him. In a gas station of all places, still apparently with his abductors, with absolutely no memory of them.
Jason thinks that's absurd. Tim is playing them, there's no way that when he goes into Tim's hospital room that Tim won't know him.
Except they get to the hospital and there's Coach and Tami, Tami with her arm over Julie's shoulders and Julie looks pale and scared, her face is blotchy and she's obviously been crying.
Julie didn't even really like Tim, what right does she have to shed tears, Jason wonders.
"No memory at all?" Matt is asking, he sounds disbelieving, Jason knows the feeling. Lyla appears next to him, she puts one hand on his shoulder, leans down to press a kiss against his cheek. He doesn't need to look at her to know that she's been crying.
"He woke up once in the ambulance and he freaked out, they had to restrain him," Julie says. She leans into Tami's side.
"He'll know me," Jason says. They all turn to him and he can feel Lyla's hand squeeze his shoulder. "He's my best friend," Jason says. "He'll know me."
FNLTCV
The room is quiet except for the beeping machines and the even breaths that Tim is taking. Coach is behind him because Jason didn't think he could do this with Lyla sobbing into his shoulder while he tried to get Tim to realize that he was safe and could know them now.
He looks almost the same, a little older, his hair is a little shorter then the way he normally wore it, lighter in color, though that might be because it looks clean.
"The doctors say there's not a mark on him, no signs of abuse, no bruises, nothing," Coach says.
Jason nods, there's others ways to hurt someone besides just the physical. Just because Tim doesn't have any bruises or marks on him doesn't mean that he hasn't been tortured.
Just taking him away from his friends and the people that he considered his family was torture enough.
He wheels right up to the bed, touches Tim's arm, squeezes lightly. Tim's a light sleeper; noises from two houses away would wake him from a dead sleep.
This time he doesn't, just keeps sleeping like they aren't there staring at him.
"Riggins' doesn't sleep this heavy," Coach says.
"They're doing a bunch of tests," they hear from behind them, Jason glances over his shoulder and there's Billy.
He's not looking at them; his eyes are trained on Tim in the bed. He looks like a brother who missed a sibling that he'd thought long gone. Jason doesn't think about the fact that Tim had gone to places where Billy wouldn't be, that he'd been living with Coach and when he'd disappeared he would barely exchange five words with Billy if they passed on the street.
Jason bites his tongue and doesn't tell Billy that he's not Tim's family. Fighting amongst themselves doesn't help anyone, least of all Tim right now.
Coach is biting his tongue as well, Jason knows. He knows that Coach doesn't think Billy is Tim's family either.
He gave up that right the minute the Tim couldn't live with him anymore, when Billy didn't even try and stop him leaving.
"I know what you both think of me," Billy says. His voice is quiet and remorseful, Jason doesn't look at him. He doesn't think things would have happened any differently had Tim still been living with Billy or with Coach, except if he'd still been living with Billy he'd still have been drinking and probably wouldn't have been on the team anymore.
Jason thinks he still would have disappeared.
He's not sure how he's so certain.
FNLTCV
Tyler is released first. He's the youngest of them and he's not sure how but he thinks Caleb and Chase both might have used the Power to influence the decisions of the officers working their case.
He doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth, one of them needs to be with Pogue, to find out what's going on and while he's pretty sure that Caleb wants to be the one there he'd also resisted arrest.
He'd thrown a punch when he'd seen them wheeling Pogue out to the ambulance on a stretcher, that blonde girl that had been clinging to him when everything went to shit running alongside.
"Hospital," Caleb says, he stares at him with dark eyes. There's no Power there, just anger, Tyler thinks that Caleb could raze this town to the ground with his anger alone at this point. He's really fucking happy that the anger is not directed towards him, else he would feel fear. "Do not leave his side until one of us is there with you."
Tyler nods to show he understands and goes.
FNLTCV
Landry's dad shows up when Jason gets tired of sitting in a room with a Tim that won't wake up.
"They're releasing one of them," he's saying when Jason wheels back out to the waiting room, Coach is beside him.
"Releasing…? Why? They…" Jason gestures at where Tim is in a room, unconscious.
"First call they made was to a lawyer, their families are all moneyed up going a few generations back. We've got birth certificates for all five of them, baby pictures up to graduation pictures for the boy," Landry's dad waves in the direction of Tim's room.
"His name is Pogue Parry," he says.
Matt snorts and even Coach makes a noise that might be a chuckle.
"Pogue."
"Family name, don't know, don't care. His parents were over in Europe somewhere on vacation, they're on their way back."
"We're sure that he's not…" Not Tim.
"DNA test would probably show whether they're lying or not, we don't have much time though. The one that's been released, he'll probably be here shortly, the others we can only hold for another 24, we could try and push the resisting charges, keep them for maybe another day or so. Their lawyers get here we're done, and those boys are going to be gone shortly after, that one in there with them."
Jason looks over at where Billy is leaning against a wall, Billy nods, pushes away from the wall.
"So DNA test then."
FNLTCV
When Tyler arrives at the hospital he can tell that every single person in the waiting room knows who he is.
If he wasn't who he was, if he didn't know that he could destroy every single person standing between him and Pogue, if Caleb hadn't told him to get to Pogue and stay there… well the fact that entire room turned to glare at him might have made him turn on his heel and go home.
But Caleb said to protect Pogue; something that he would have done regardless, because Pogue is his brother, is his family.
And if he fucks this up Caleb will hurt him in ways that Tyler doesn't want to think about, Tyler might be the little brother, but to Caleb, Pogue is something else.
Not that either of them will admit it.
That was the reason that Chase went after Kate back when he was bound and determined to take Caleb's Power for himself. He'd known, realized after only days of knowing them that the best way to get to Caleb was through Pogue, the best way to get to Pogue back then was Kate. Chase had hurt Kate using Creation, knowing that it would draw Pogue out, make him sloppy, then waited for him to go to her.
Pogue being hurt had thrown Caleb slightly off his game, not as much as Chase had probably hoped for, because Caleb could prioritize and push things to the back recesses of his mind better then anyone Tyler had ever met.
He straightens his shoulders, and channels his best Caleb and Reid and Chase impersonations.
None of these people are touching him unless he allows it and right now…
"I'd like to see Pogue," he says firmly. Caleb said to get to Pogue and not leave. That's what he's going to do.
FNLTCV
He has guests with him when he goes in. The one in the wheelchair had been insistent that he not be allowed to be alone with Pogue.
An older gentleman had agreed with him and they're standing in the doorway when he approaches the bed.
He doesn't know what they think he's going to do, Pogue is still unconscious and Caleb had said to wait for them.
He's not Reid; he doesn't disobey direct orders from Caleb. Not when Caleb had looked like he was just barely hanging onto the last threads of his sanity by the tips of fingernails.
He touches Pogue's arm, a soft touch, just the barest hint of Power. Just enough to let Pogue know that he's safe, that Tyler's got his back now.
Pogue's eyes flutter under closed lids, then crack open.
He blinks once, twice.
"Tyler," he says, voice rough and Tyler squeezes his arm. His eyes dart around the room, stop on the two in the doorway before coming back to focus on Tyler.
"Where's Caleb?"
"Jail," Tyler says.
"He finally kill Chase?" Tyler grins at the hope in Pogue's voice, if there was one person that hated Chase more then Reid it was Pogue.
"No, he, uh…"
"Tyler," Pogue says, he sounds gentle, but he really means 'quit stalling'.
"He hit a cop, when they were taking you out to the ambulance."
"Ambulance?" Pogue looks confused then his eyes dart around the room again. "I'm in the hospital?"
Tyler can feel the tension in Pogue's arm. He's never been a big fan of hospitals, hates them with a passion. Has hated them since the fight with Chase had landed him in one trying to stay alive while Caleb fought for them all.
Tyler thinks that Pogue has never really forgiven himself for being flat on his back in a hospital while Caleb and Chase battled over Caleb's powers. Caleb doesn't blame Pogue because as far as Caleb is concerned Pogue hadn't done anything wrong; Pogue thinks that he should have been there protecting Caleb.
Some day the two of them are going to get their act together and Tyler is going to laugh hysterically in their faces and collect a lot of money… today is not that day though.
"What do you remember?"
"We were getting food, I was hungry," Pogue starts slowly. "There was a crazy girl, latched on to me by the sandwiches, then…" Pogue looks up at him. "There was Reid and a couple of cops and people kept calling me by the wrong name."
"Yeah, apparently you're a dead ringer for some local kid that went missing about six months back."
Pogue looks at him and Tyler knows that he heard what Tyler needed him to hear. Six months back Pogue had woken up in Caleb's bed with three weeks of missing memories; six months ago when Chase had yanked him back from wherever he'd hidden him from the rest of the Son's, which Pogue still doesn't know about. Caleb had made the choice to not tell him, had instead just told him that Chase had done something to him; that they'd had to use the circle to combat it.
Pogue doesn't say anything; Tyler can see him thinking things through, he probably doesn't get it just yet. His memories of the time that he was missing were supposedly one of the first things that Chase had removed.
Now Tyler wonders if Chase had really done that, if he'd followed Caleb's directions and taken Pogue's memories or if he'd just buried them down in Pogue's subconscious somewhere.
Because what Chase did when he hid Pogue, he obviously didn't completely undo it when he pulled him back home. The two guys standing by the door are proof of that; the group out in the waiting room is proof of it.
They're going to have to deal with the repercussions if they can't talk their way out of it.
They might have to tell Pogue what happened if Pogue doesn't figure it out on his own, Caleb's thoughts on the matter be damned.
"Your parents on their way back home," Tyler says, Pogue winces.
"Fuck. They pissed?"
"Your mom cried, I let Caleb talk to her, he's the oldest you know…"
"Chase is actually the oldest…"
"They don't know Chase as well as Caleb. Your father was worried; I think he called my dad like fifteen times because I've had to talk my dad out of coming down here and waiting until they arrive about fifteen times. I think they're all convinced that you're dying or something and we're keeping it a secret from them."
"Fuck," Pogue sounds weary; he hates dealing with his parents' drama on the best of days. "Sorry."
Tyler shrugs. He can handle his parents, he just hopes that they have Pogue home and none of them have to come here at all.
This town might not be standing still if the parents show up in it.
Pogue's dad can be kind of overprotective.
Tyler can understand why, most of their parents had thought the idea of the five of them traveling around the country together was insane. Especially considering that the first time they'd met him Chase had almost succeeded in killing Pogue and Caleb and the second time he'd kidnapped and hid Pogue somewhere where they couldn't even sense him any longer for the longest three weeks of Tyler's life.
Tyler thinks they all have a pretty good idea where Chase hid Pogue now, later; when this is all over they'll all snicker about Pogue the football jock. Now there's the more immediate concern of just getting out of town before anyone realizes that Pogue Parry and Tim Riggins are the same person.
Tyler doesn't think it's going to be as easy as just driving away. They've had Pogue in the hospital for almost a full day now. If they haven't run at least one DNA test they're a bunch of backwater hillbillies that don't deserve to know what happened to their friend.
FNLTCV
He sounds different, Jason thinks. There's no slow even drawl to his voice, Tim had always talked like there was absolutely no rush at all. The young man lying in the hospital bed talks like he has a purpose.
There was no sign of recognition when he saw them standing at the door, Coach has his hand on the back of Jason's chair, it's comforting.
Because he didn't know them but he knew the other one.
Tyler.
It grates just a little, he wonders if they're wrong, if this is just a simple one in a billion case of Pogue Parry looking exactly like Tim Riggins.
The young man looks over at them, at him and for a second there is a flicker of awareness in his eyes. Something that if Jason hadn't been staring intently at him, watching every interaction between the two, he would have missed.
For just a second, for a split, brief, milli-second…
It looked like he knew them.
FNLTCV
The rest are released late the next day. Jason hates Caleb Danvers on sight. Hates that way that he can make Pogue Tim smile and relax and be calm.
Hates the way that Caleb touches him like Pogue is a prized possession, and Pogue lets him. Tim would have been slapping the hands away and he didn't like no one touching his hair ever, not even Jason, not even Lyla.
He hates that when Pogue had fought to be allowed to leave the hospital he'd instead bowed to Caleb's wishes and stayed while the doctors finished their tests.
Pogue trusts them, while he still looks at Jason and Coach with barely concealed suspicion.
"You collapsed for an unknown reason, we should really rule out anything serious," Caleb says seriously.
Pogue scowls and crosses his arms over his chest, he looks sullen and annoyed.
"My parents are going to show up here and we're all going to have to go home," he says.
"We'd already made the decision to go back anyway," Caleb says smoothly, Pogue looks at him with surprise and by the window Reid and Tyler do as well. Only the other one, Chase, the one that stands at the back of the room separate from the rest of them, doesn't.
"I think it's time," Caleb says. "It was a good idea…" Pogue snorts and Reid rolls his eyes. "It was, we'll try it again during winter break."
"I personally think we should try this again never," Reid announced and Pogue grunts his agreement, sounding so like Tim for a second that Jason almost forgets that he might be someone else altogether.
FNLTCV
Billy tugs him and coach aside when he wheels out of the room. Listening to the five of them talk, reminiscing about school and childhoods and picking on each other like guys that have been friends for eighteen years had been grating on his last hope that Pogue is actually a completely brainwashed Tim. Maybe they're all members of some cult or something?
"DNA tests are back," Billy says softly, he jerks his head and coach and Jason follow. Jason hadn't thought that the results would be back so soon, he knew that they'd rushed them. That they'd wanted to get them back before the four fled town possibly taking Tim with them.
There's a doctor waiting and Billy leans against the door after he closes it.
"That boy is Tim Riggins," the doctor says.
Coach closes his eyes and bows his head.
"You're sure?" Jason asks, he has to be sure, be positive. To get his hopes up, to come this close and have Tim taken away because they were wrong…
"One hundred percent," the doctor says firmly, decisively. Jason puts his hands over his face and takes a deep breath, then another.
There's relief there and he can breathe.
That's Tim in that room, a Tim with maybe no memory of them or completely under the thrall of his kidnappers and using an ability to lie that Jason hadn't known that he'd possessed to pretend not to know them. Maybe he thinks he's protecting them, maybe he thinks…
Jason doesn't have any clue what he thinks… thinking had never really been Tim's strong suit.
"What's our next step?" Billy asks, his voice is shaking; Jason looks over and sees that his face is damp though there are no signs of tears.
"I called the police, let them know the results," the doctor closes the folder on his desk, looks at them. "They should be here soon."
FNLTCV
They're gone by the time two detectives and some uniforms show up. Jason doesn't know how they did it; it was like they'd vanished into thin air. The rental car that had been impounded was still there, but Landry's dad had said they were all moneyed; they'd probably just rented a new one.
Jason knows that stuff is forwarded to the police department in Ipswich; he also knows (because Landry tells them everything) that their evidence that Pogue Parry is Tim Riggins and had been kidnapped or taken by force from Dillon, Texas is laughed at.
Pogue Parry is part of a very well-known foursome, while their detectives concede that there was several weeks that Pogue was sick, people that had not been the other four that he'd been in Dillon with had also seen him during that time.
He almost loses hope when DNA tests are sent back showing conclusively that whoever else he might be Pogue Parry is also, apparently, the son of Beatrice and Wayne Parry.
It's Matt and Lyla that convince him that maybe they should visit Ipswich; see for themselves that this is the end and that when they return they'll have to bury Tim in an empty coffin and move on.
They already have to some extent, Matt is one of his closest friends, not quite replacing Tim, but giving him somebody to talk to nonetheless.
He and Lyla haven't quite got back to where they were before his accident, but they're growing closer by the day. He has a ring and is waiting for the perfect time to ask her.
They, neither one of them, talk about the plans that he and Tim and Lyla had made while they were in Mexico.
Back then they'd been waiting for graduation, to have more time to figure out how they were going to move forward.
The three of them moving forward together. And it would have worked if they'd had more time, if Lyla hadn't got scared and Tim hadn't got distracted and Jason hadn't though they were both giving up on him before they even got the chance to get started.
There would never have been a wedding then, he would never have bought a ring because he wouldn't have been able to put it on both of their fingers.
FNLTCV
It's just settling on dusk when they get into Ipswich. No one besides Coach knows where they are, that they've come to do this.
Matt has made the trip with them primarily because Jason had asked him to.
Coach had asked him to call as soon as they knew something definitive.
A motorcycle blows past them as they're pulling over. There is a small bed and breakfast that they have reservations at, the only hotel that Jason could find that had rooms and was still wheelchair accessible.
He's begun getting feeling back in his legs, little pin pricks of pain and he hasn't told Lyla yet because he doesn't want to get her hopes up that someday she might have someone standing beside her as opposed to sitting.
"I think that was Tim," Matt says, he's staring after the motorcycle instead of removing Jason's wheelchair from the trunk.
"Tim doesn't ride a motorcycle," Jason says, he taps his fingers against the door and raises an eyebrow. Matt rolls his eyes at him and while he's tackling the wheelchair removal Lyla brushes her fingertips against his forehead and smiles at him.
Her eyes seem lighter and it's been almost a day since she last burst into tears.
"I have a good feeling about this."
FNLTCV
They're noticeable because Pogue doesn't know of anyone else in a 50 mile radius that is wheelchair bound, not that he knows everyone but the town isn't that big, a guy in a wheelchair would stand out.
Plus he recognizes them, he still doesn't know how or why, but he knows that the one in the wheelchair is Jason and the girl is Lyla and the other guy is Matt.
He really needs to start asking questions, he just thinks he's really afraid of what the answers might be.
Something that Chase is responsible for he has no doubt.
Sarah is shopping with him because as much as he loves his family he doesn't think he can take one more day of his parents hovering like he's going to drop dead at any second, Reid and Tyler watching him like they expect him to vanish into thin air and Caleb being basically surgically attached to him at every waking second.
He'd, under different circumstances, enjoy having Caleb want to spend every waking second with him. Touching him like he's afraid if he doesn't have one hand on him at all times he might disappear between one sentence and the next.
At least Chase is acting normal enough, but Chase normally acts like a jackass and Pogue doesn't really care about him.
They're all starting to drive him nuts. They need to relax and quit looking for trouble that isn't there.
He says as much to Sarah, keeping one eye on the three that he's sure have noticed him because the one, Jason, is blatantly staring at him. He wants to cross his eyes and stick out his tongue but he's not six.
"They need to relax."
"They're just worried," Sarah says, she leans into his side, lays her head on his shoulder for just the tiniest of moments.
He wonders if she sees them too, she's not normally this friendly with him.
She looks up at him and smiles and he wonders why he couldn't have chosen Sarah instead of Kate who can't seem to let go unless she's the one that wants to.
Except if he'd chosen to chase after Sarah he would have been in competition with Caleb (and Reid) and he's many things, but he's not stupid enough to think that he could have ever competed against Caleb seriously.
If anything he would have put a bow around her neck and gift wrapped Sarah for Caleb.
He still would if Caleb gave him any inclination that he saw Sarah as anything more then a really close friend that he used to get caught making out with.
"What color?" Sarah asks. She holds up two packages and they look identical. She should really have Kate here to help her pick out lipstick, except he's here and that would just be awkward since he thinks Kate is about one step and a phone call away from being able to legally be called a stalker.
"I'm probably not the right person…" he starts.
Sarah rolls her eyes at him.
"I'm not asking you to wear it," she says, she sounds amused, which she normally does when talking to him. "I'm just asking which color looks better."
"They look the same," Pogue says helplessly. Sarah just looks at him and he finally points to the one on the right.
Sarah glances down at it and back up at him. "You think?" she asks.
He shrugs and decides he's better off not saying anything.
FNLTCV
"Do you think that's his girlfriend?" Lyla asks. She sounds hurt and disappointed. The girl is blond haired and blue eyed and very pretty.
She looks sweet, though when she turns and makes like she's reaching for something on the top shelf of the aisle they're standing in he can see the tattoo on her back.
Pogue Tim knocks her arm down gently and grabs what she's reaching for. She smirks at him and Pogue Tim rolls his eyes at her.
They've been talking quietly, too quietly for them to hear what is being said. They should have gone over an aisle so they could hear, but then they might have lost them.
FNLTCV
Pogue Tim comes to them; Matt was right about the motorcycle because the same one that went past them as they were coming into town is parked outside.
He shuffles outside the door and Jason isn't sure how someone who professes not to know them had known what names to ask for at the B&B, they're not hiding. They've no reason to hide.
If anything they want Pogue Tim to come to them because that just solidifies the fact that all the while he's professing not to know them, he knows them enough to figure out how to find them.
Lyla answers the door and she steps aside to let Pogue Tim in.
He looks uncomfortable, Lyla looks hopeful when she comes to stand next to his wheelchair. Matt looks like he's not sure what the hell to think.
Jason leaves his hands in his lap because touching is probably really bad, even when Tim had still been around they hadn't been at the point where touching the way that Jason wanted to touch would have been acceptable.
"Why are you here?" Pogue Tim asks.
"The DNA tests came back," Jason starts.
"I don't care about any DNA tests; this is my home, these people are my family, my friends."
"Those tests that you don't care about say that you're Tim Riggins," Jason continues, like he hadn't been interrupted. Like it hadn't hurt something to hear Tim call someone else his friends. His friends and family are standing in front of him; his friends and family are back in Dillon waiting for news.
"Your tests got fucked up then, because I'm not. My name is Pogue Parry and yeah I went through a bit of a thing when I was twelve when I couldn't believe my parents would name me that but I wouldn't trade my name for another," Pogue Tim sounds exasperated. Like he can't believe they're having this conversation.
When he talks he doesn't sound anything like Tim.
Jason looks at him, really looks at him instead of saying anything.
"You know who we are," he says. Pogue flushes slightly and then his face goes utterly blank. No emotion, nothing in his eyes.
"Look, just because some people that were in dreams that I've been having for a couple of months turn out to actually exist doesn't mean anything other then maybe I've got some latent psychic thing going on that is going to piss Reid off because he doesn't like it when one of us ends up with something that he doesn't have."
Jason looks at him blankly, because nothing in that sentence made any sort of sense except for that it sounded like maybe Pogue had just admitted that he knew them.
Or at least knew of them.
Lyla makes a sound next to him and he can see Matt going to stand in front of the door, like he's going to stop Pogue if he makes the decision to just leave.
Pogue's head bows slightly and when it raises again his eyes are pitch black and there still isn't any expression on his face.
"Tim," Lyla says, it's so soft that if he hadn't been right beside her Jason didn't think he would have heard her.
She takes a step forward and Jason reaches out to grab her hand. She takes it, squeezes it, lets it go and continues to walk forward. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Matt poised to interfere if Pogue looks like he's going to get violent.
Lyla touches his face, fingertips against his cheek and she doesn't seem to be disturbed by the fact that Pogue's eyes are still black (what the fuck?) and there's some undercurrent of energy flipping through the room pulling at his mind, at the Tim that is in his mind.
"Tim," she says again.
"I can't be both of them," he says softly, he looks so distressed over that fact.
Lyla leans up and Pogue leans down and their lips touch in the chastest of kisses.
Jason bites his lips and hopes.
FNLTCV
He knows that he's fucked when he feels Lyla go limp in his arms, when he draws back, not letting go of her he sees Jason slumped forward in his wheelchair, Matt on the floor by the door.
There's been memories that he doesn't remember swirling around since he walked into this room, and now when he's conceding that yes, it appears that he does know these people (two of them he apparently knows pretty fucking intimately) they're on the ground unconscious and he thinks that if he waits around for them to wake up that they're going to not know him.
He's positive of the fact. It's the only reason that he gently walks Lyla over to the bed and lays her down on top of it. He presses a kiss to her forehead, presses another one to the top of Jason's slumped head, brushes his hand over short hair; takes a deep breath and then leaves.
They won't know him anymore, they won't know that they thought that Pogue Parry and Tim Riggins were the same person, if he's correct in his thinking, they won't know that there was a Tim Riggins at all.
FNLTCV
He wasn't privy to what Chase was doing to rectify the 'Tim' situation as Caleb had taken to calling it in his mind.
Chase's fuckup of monumental proportions is what he'd been calling it out loud.
He'd threatened him with 'dire' consequences when he realized that they'd been followed back from Dillon by three of Tim Riggin's friends.
He takes some comfort in the fact that at least Pogue hadn't been alone, that he'd had friends and family where (when) Chase had sent him. That comfort doesn't last long because it also means that there are people that Pogue had ties to that he might love more, that might and try to take him away and as long as Caleb has breath in his body he won't allow that to happen.
Pogue is his; he doesn't intend to share him with anyone.
He'd honestly half-expected Chase to continue to ignore him, to continue going on as he had and leaving loose ends that should have been tied up when they got Pogue back dangling in the wind.
He knows that Chase has tied all those loose ends into a pretty little knot and singed it with fire when Pogue comes blowing in all seething rage because he'd kind of, sort of, figured out what was going on and just when he'd sort of accepted it all of a sudden the three had been unconscious on the floor.
Caleb doesn't let himself get distracted by the point that Pogue had been with them.
Chase bolts at the first sight of Pogue; Reid and Tyler make hurried excuses and run away. They are most likely raiding the kitchen waiting for Caleb's all clear, Hurricane Pogue has been downgraded to a Tropical Depression.
Caleb takes the task of calming Pogue down; it's a task that's been his for years. Pogue is his best, closest friend. Pogue is his.
Of all of them Pogue was the one that he would trust above all others.
He tells him just the basics of what had happened to him, there's no sense in giving him too much detail. There's no one besides Caleb, Chase, Reid, Tyler and Sarah that even know that there used to be a boy called Tim Riggins and that he looked exactly like Pogue Parry. There's no one that can jog whatever shaky images Pogue still possesses back into full-on memories.
He thanks whoever is looking out for them that Pogue never really remembered the days leading up to his abduction by Chase, that he doesn't remember the three weeks that he'd been missing at all.
He's pretty sure that wasn't Chase's doing. Chase has been trying to drive wedges between them for as long as he's known them.
Caleb envies Pogue's lack of memories, because he does remember all that; he can vividly recall the absolute terror that the rest of them had felt when Pogue had vanished, the despair of Pogue's parents when it had been revealed that Chase (who they'd all thought dead, so they hadn't been protecting against) had been the one to take him. The same Chase that had almost killed him the first time they'd crossed paths, when Caleb had been his target.
Caleb was still his target; and after Chase had realized that Caleb wasn't handing over his power, wasn't giving it up to Chase of all people, after they'd got their hands on him; there'd been times that he'd had to fight the urge to bind Chase's Power so that it couldn't be used against any of them again.
The only thing stopping him had been the fact that if he did that there would be no way to get Pogue back, because Chase was the only one that knew where Pogue was, Chase was the only one that could return Pogue to where he should be.
Standing beside Caleb.
So he explains the basics, explains that Chase had taken Pogue in an effort to get Caleb's Power once more, had taken Pogue's memories, had replaced them with others and hidden him somewhere where they others couldn't even feel Pogue.
He wants to tell Pogue everything. He wants to be honest.
He doesn't; because he can't guarantee that Pogue wouldn't choose to walk away.
FNLTCV
Caleb stands beside him, a silent sentry looking for any sign of trouble.
Pogue watches as they load Jason into the car, Lyla sliding in next to him. Watches as Matt folds up the wheelchair and packs it into the trunk.
Caleb's hand settles on his shoulder and Pogue leans into it slightly, lets Caleb bear his weight for a few seconds before he straightens.
Standing on his own
Maybe it's time for that, he turns and Caleb is watching him, not the others leaving. They stare at each other while in the background Pogue can hear the car starting, hear it pulling away.
They're hidden in the shadows, no one can see them.
Caleb touches the side of his face, tugs on a lock of his hair. Pogue wants to smile, but he feels like his future just drove out of town leaving him mired in the past.
Caleb tugs on his hair again and Pogue focuses on him, waits for him to say something. Caleb just smiles at him. Soft and gentle. He tugs his hair again, runs his thumb over Pogue's cheekbone and Pogue raises an eyebrow.
"You pulling on my pigtails now Caleb?" he asks. His voice is quiet, like he's afraid to interrupt whatever is going on.
He's not scared of this; he's waited a long time for Caleb to see him. He just wonders why it has to be now when a future that he didn't know was possible is driving out of town thinking he doesn't exist.
"Not yet," Caleb says. His voice is soft too, his smile is slightly on the wistful side, like he's just seen something that he wanted and realized that he might not be able to have it.
"Not yet."
FNLTCV
The majority of his belongings are being shipped; he'd brought one bag with him. After Caleb and Reid and Tyler had insisted on driving him down it was pretty much all that would fit.
He'd chosen a college a short distance away. Not far enough that he couldn't go home on the weekend if he so chose, but far enough that it wouldn't feel like the others would just be dropping in whenever they got a whim.
They'll still do that, but it gives him the allusion of privacy that he doesn't have.
His parents had a fit; Caleb and he had almost broken up over it. They'd gone their entire lives being each others best friends, the minute they tried the dating thing Pogue had seen what everyone else had seen all along.
Caleb was a control freak. A massive one.
Pogue hadn't minded, not until Caleb had started organizing their future and he'd realized that future hadn't included Pogue going to college.
They had fight after fight, Reid and Tyler playing mediators until Reid just threw up his hands and Tyler looked so unbelievably disappointed in them that they both took steps back, deep breaths and talked until they reached some compromises.
Compromises which meant that Pogue would go off to the school that he'd chosen for two semesters and would then transfer to one closer to the Sons once his freshmen year was over.
The rest of them are gone now, he's unpacking what was in his bag. He'll look like the poor boy with no possessions until the truck shows up in three days. Then his roommate might not be able to fit in the room at the same time as him.
He has to share his room, there'd been no singles left and Caleb had pitched a fit until Pogue that he'd half expected to have to share his room and wasn't that part of the college experience?
The door opens as he's trying to decide if two people are actually going to be able to fit all their possessions in the one closet the room affords them.
Maybe they'll be the same size and can share clothes.
Maybe Caleb's head will explode when Pogue tells him that.
When he turns to introduce himself he stops short and just stares.
He looks like an idiot, he can tell. Standing there with his mouth hanging open, shock written over every muscle.
His roommate gives him a look, he leaves the door open. Probably for escape in case Pogue gets violent, he probably looks like an escaped mental patient.
Caleb is going to have a fucking fit.
"Hi," he says. He tries it again and hopes for no voice cracking. "Hi."
He thinks he can be excused.
Standing there, looking at him like he's nuts is Jason.
Standing there, no wheelchair in sight, no recognition on his face; he looks good and relaxed and Caleb is going to have a fucking fit.
"Pogue Parry," he raises a hand, tries to dial back the insanity a little bit.
"Jason Street."