Chapter One: Our Problems Have Only Just Started
WARNING: I sadly don't own QAF:'(
AUTHOR'S NOTE: As another reward for taking so long to update my other two stories I've decided to put up the sequel to "I Will Find You!" I know a lot of you wanted this sequel and I've finally thought of the story for it!:) I hope you guys enjoy it!:)
"Talk"
'Thoughts'
Dreams
Chapter One: Our Problems Have Only Just Started
ONE MONTH LATER
Debbie's POV:
"Morning Sunshine!" I yelled as he and Brian walked through the door.
It had already been a month since we found Sunshine. During that time Justin had been released from the hospital once the infection had gone away. He's still in casts but that's to be expected with the broken bones he had. Laurence and his husband had moved to the pits after getting to know us better. They had said they liked the family and would love to live closer so we could still see each other and Laurence could give Justin his check-ups.
The thing that's still got everyone worried, especially Brian, is that damn brand on Justin's side. Even though it's been a month it still looks like he just got it. It's always bothering the poor kid, though he tries to hide it from us and claims that he feels fine.
"Morning Deb." Justin said pulling me out of my thoughts. I looked at him and smiled and pulled him into a tight, but not too tight, hug and pulled back to let him get his apron from the back.
"How is he this morning?" I asked Brian once Justin had gone into the back of the diner. Brian said and looked at the floor slightly.
"He had another nightmare last night and didn't get much sleep." he said and I looked at the back doors sadly.
"That poor kid." I said and Brian sighed again making me look at him. "What's wrong?" I asked getting slightly worried.
"I think the brand is getting worse. This morning he could barely get out of bed because of how much pain he was in. He also wouldn't let me near it to clean it. Normally he let's me, even though it's reluctantly, clean it and this morning when I tried get close he lashed out at me and locked himself in the bathroom. It took me almost an hour to get him out and another ten minutes to get him let me clean it. It's fucking swollen Deb! It's red and purple and has green stuff around it!" he all but screamed and I looked at him with wide eyes.
"Bri have you called Laurence yet?" I asked and he shook his head.
"No not yet. I was waiting until I had Justin here at the Diner then I'm going to call him when I get to Kinnetic. I don't know what to do anymore Deb." he said shaking his head and I pulled him into a hug.
"Sweetie we all knew that we'd have to deal with this eventually. Even if it's too soon for liking." I told him and he hugged me back and straightened back up with his mask on when Michael and the others came through the door.
"Hey Ma." Micky said giving me a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey sweetheart you boys hungry?" I asked trying to act as normal as possible.
"I'm not but Em and Ted are so I came along." Micky said as he sat in their normal booth.
"So Bri how've you been? I take it since you're here Sunshine's somewhere near by?" Emmett asked looking at Brian with a knowing look.
"I've been great Em! In fact I've never been better! And you're correct in saying Justin's around here. He's actually in the back still getting his apron." Brian said looking at the back door. "Come to think of it he's been back there for awhile now." Brian said before going pale in fear. I was about to ask him if he was OK when I understood and started to panic a little myself.
I went to speak my fears when Brian took off for the back doors with the rest of us not far behind. I sighed with relief when I opened the door to find Brian holding Justin who had a confused look on his face.
"Uh... Is there a reason everyone decided to barge through the door?" Sunshine asked and I couldn't help but smile at him.
"We thought you had been taken again. You hadn't come out in awhile and we got worried." I told him and understanding entered his eyes.
"I'm so sorry I scared everyone! I was actually talking to one of the cooks who had stopped me to talk about his latest trick and I couldn't get away. I'm sorry." Justin said hugging Brian back tightly.
"It's OK Sunshine. I should've considered you being held up by the cooks. They do like to talk about their tricks they had the night before." I told him and everyone laughed lightly.
"Well Sunshine I have to go. I've got an important meeting at Kinnetic at ten this morning and I would like to get there and prepare for it before they arrive." Brian said pulling back from Justin slightly to look at him. Justin looked at Brian and it was clear he was trying to hide his fear from Brian and everyone else.
"You'll come back after the meeting right?" he asked and Brian gave his signature smirk.
"Of course I will. After all I do love watching your fine ass work." he said and his smirk grew when Justin hit his arm playfully.
"I'll be hanging around for awhile Justin. I'm not opening the comic store until around noon today." Michael said and both Brian and Justin said lightly in relief at hearing that Michael would at least be here for awhile.
Brian turned to Justin and gave him a quick kiss before turning and heading back to the front of the Diner and out the front doors. All the while Justin was watching him and almost begging with his eyes for Brian to come back.
"Come on Sunshine. Why don't you go and make the coffee?" I asked him and he looked at me and smiled and nodded and headed out to make coffee.
Brian's POV:
I was very reluctant to leave the Diner. Not only did I know Justin would be freaking out on the inside because I'm not there, but I didn't want to leave him and be so far that I can't protect him.
'At least Micky's there until noon and Debbie will be there all day. Maybe I can get the meeting done by then and be at the Diner before Micky leaves.' I thought to myself as I pulled into Kinnetic. I walked into my office to find Cinthia waiting for me.
"Hey boss!" she said smiling and I smirk at her.
"Morning." I said throwing my brief case onto my desk and sitting in my chair looking at her. "So why are you in here? I have to started getting ready for the meeting and I have to make an important call." I told her and she smiled at me.
"The meeting is actually why I need to talk to you." she said and I raised in eyebrow in interest. "The client cancelled the meeting today. Said something about their idea changing and that it'll take awhile before they're ready again. Now you'll have the day off to be with Justin like I know you want to be right now." she said with her own smirk.
I laughed and shook my head in amusement and looked back at her. "I'll be leaving after I make an important call. I'll need you to leave my office and lock it behind you. I don't want anyone coming in while I'm on the phone." I told her and she nodded and left locking the door behind her.
I sighed and pulled out my phone and hit speed dial two and held it to my ear. 'You know it's bad when you've got your doctor on speed dial.' I thought to myself and was brought out of my thoughts when Laurence answered.
"What's up Bri?" he asked and I sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that morning.
"I think Justin's brand's getting worse." I told him getting right to the point. Laurence was silent for a minute before he finally answered.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
"Bad. It's swollen now and is red and purple and has this green stuff around it. It was hurting Justin this morning to where he could barely get out of bed. He also lashed out at me when I went to clean it. He locked himself in the bathroom and it took me almost an hour to get him out and when he finally did it took another ten minutes to get him to let me clean it." I told him and he went silent again.
"What did it look like after you got done cleaning it?" he asked and I thought for a second.
"A good portion of the green stuff came off but the swelling and red and purple color stayed." I told him and he sighed.
"I'll stop by tomorrow afternoon to look at it. I have my suspensions but I don't want to voice them until I know for sure I'm right." he said and that made me beyond worried at that point.
"Will Justin be OK?" I asked and didn't like it when he stayed silent for a long time.
"I'll be over tomorrow afternoon around one." he said and hung up the phone.
I just stared at my phone for a minute before I slammed it on my desk.
"SHIT!" I yelled and punched the wall behind me not knowing when I had stood up.
'Please, don't take him from me.' I prayed and walked out of my office with my mask on and headed towards my car.
Micky's POV:
I watched as Justin walked from table to table either taking orders or handing out drinks noticing the slight limp he had and was trying to hide. Whether Ma noticed it or not I couldn't tell because she never showed signs of seeing it.
But I saw it, and I didn't like it.
It'd been a month since Boy Wonder came back and about two weeks since the bastard Stockwell was thrown into jail. During that time Justin had been healing both physically and mentally. Physically he was healing rather fast, apart from the brand of course. Mentally though, he wasn't healing fast there. According to Brian Justin still woke up scream at the top of his lungs and it took Brian I good while to calm him down afterwards.
What Brian also told me and Em but no one else was that he had actually caught Justin with a razor held to his wrist. Brian had gotten there in time, which I'm beyond thankful for, and looked at his wrist to see that he hadn't done it yet which meant that would've been the first time. Brian had said that when he had asked Justin why he wanted to do it he had broken down and cried himself to sleep that night. Brian had held him in the bathroom until he woke up. The only reason Brian told us and no one else is because he knows we wouldn't pity Justin. We'd be there to support him and watch him when Brian couldn't. He says Justin's not tried it again since then but we don't want to take that chance.
"Need a refill Micky?" I heard someone ask making me jump out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw it was Justin holding a pitcher of milk with a smile on his face and laughter in his eyes. "Someone just came back from la-la-land." he said smirking.
"Haha very funny Boy Wonder. And yes I'd like a refill." I said in amusement and he smiled and pored more milk into my cup. Just as he turned to go back behind the counter the Diner doors opened and Brian came inside still wearing his sunglasses. Justin smiled brightly and set the pitcher down on the table and ran over to Brian and threw his arms around his neck.
"Hey Sunshine happy to see me?" he said with a smile on and pulled Justin closer to him.
'Why is Brian faking his smile? He never does when Justin's around him.' and I went into full alert when Brian looked my way and I knew he was going to tell me later and it wasn't good. Ma must've noticed too because she looked slightly pale and was holding the counter with a death grip.
"Of course I'm happy to see you! You said wouldn't be back here for another few hours." Justin said and Brian looked back at him and smirked.
"The client cancelled saying something about changing ideas and needing awhile to get it sorted out." he said and Justin smiled brighter and Brian pulled him over to the booth and sat down and pulled Justin onto his lap and held him tightly.
"Where'd Ted and Em go?" Brian asked looking at me.
"Ted went to Kinnetic to see if you needed any help, but I guess he's about to find out that you're not even there anymore so he'll probably leave and come back here and Em went to work but said he'd meet us here a little later." I told him and he nodded and pulled Justin more to him and placed his chin on Justin's shoulder.
We sat and talked for a few minutes before Ma came over and sat down beside me. "Bri I'm gonna need my waiter back. People are starting to get hungry." she said laughing a little and pointing behind her indicating the whole Diner.
Brian stiffened slightly and tightened his grip on Justin but loosened it when he hissed in pain. "You OK Sunshine?" Brian asked worried. Justin nodded and brought a hand up to his side telling us it was the damn brand again.
'Oh how I wish I could kill that fucker!' I thought to myself as Brian lifted Justin's shirt enough to where we could see but not the whole Diner. My eyes widened when I saw it and Ma gasped and her hand flew to her mouth and Brian started to shake. Whether from fear or anger or both I didn't know.
The Brand had swollen big time and was a deep shade of red and purple. The most disturbing part though was that there was a lot of green stuff around it. "Looks like more green stuff is on it than from this morning. The swelling has also gotten worse and the colors have deepened." Brian said with a shaking voice. He lowered Justin's shirt and gently sat him down and got up and wrapped a protective arm around him and looked at Ma.
"I think you're going to have to be short a waiter today Deb." he said and Ma got up and hugged them both then looked back at Brian.
"You take care of him." she said gently and Brian nodded and looked at me.
"I'll call you later Micky. And if you see Em sometime today let him know to expect a call from me too." he said and I nodded and watched as Brian lead Justin out of the Diner and into his car.
'Please, don't take him.' I prayed as I watched them drive away.
And there's the first chapter of the sequel! I know this was a depressing chapter but I can promise you that it'll only get worse from here:P I can tell you right now that you'll never be able to guess if I'm going to keep Justin alive at the end of this or not:) also now that I've graduated and have a lot more time now I'll be able to update quicker!:) hope you guys like the sequel so far!:) one more thing. This story will barely have moments when it's in Justin's POV. It'll mainly be from Brian, Debbie, Micky, and Emmett's POVs! There will be Justin POV but not a whole lot.