A/N: Thank you all for the lovely response I had to the first chapter. Hope you enjoy this one! I'm not really sure if I've got the police officers right, so I just took a guess at what they would say and do!
xxxx
Vince put his face in his hands, shaking his head from side to side, soaking his palms with tears. Howard frowned and went over to him, placing a hand on the top of his head and stroking his hair gently. Vince leant into him from where he was sat on the sofa, turning his face into the side of Howard's leg.
"That's enough now, surely?" Howard said, looking pleadingly at the police officer sat next to Vince with a pen and notepad in her hands. She looked up at her partner, who nodded at her.
"Okay," she replied, turning back to Howard. "We'll need Vince to come down to the station at some point though, to give a formal statement."
"Again?"
"It's standard procedure I'm afraid, sir," she said, smiling sympathetically. Then her partner called her over. "Excuse me."
As she walked off, Howard took her place on the sofa and pulled Vince against him, noting he had resumed his earlier trembling.
"Mr Moon?"
Howard looked up to see the male police officer standing over him. "Yes?"
"Can I have a word?" he gestured to the other side of the room, but Vince clung to Howard and wouldn't let him go, so in the end, in a low voice, the officer said, "Obviously Vince is in shock, but as it seems to be quite severe I think it might be best to call for a doctor, even if it's just to give him something to help him sleep."
Howard bit down on his lip, looked at Vince, who didn't seem to have acknowledged what the officer had just asked and was beginning to sob dreadfully again, and nodded.
"Okay."
"Good. I'll get that sorted for you." He walked off to make a call, while the female officer knelt down in front of Vince.
"Vince, thank you. I know it's extremely difficult but you did really well. Don't worry – we'll catch him, and you'll be fine. You're safe, all right?" She placed a hand on his shoulder and then frowned as she noticed the injuries on his hand. "Did you fall over when you were running home?"
Vince shook his head and tried to talk through his tears. "D-dropped my keys outside the door and c-couldn't get them properly in the dark."
The female officer nodded. She more or less understood what he was trying to say, and she smiled softly at him, standing again as her partner came back over.
"He won't be too long," he said. "I explained the situation, but would you like us to wait with you?"
"No, no it's fine. Thank you."
The male officer smiled. "We'll see ourselves out."
But Vince allowed himself to let go of Howard so he could go with them, otherwise who would lock the door?
xxxx
It was nearly four in the morning by the time the doctor had left. Vince was curled up in bed fast asleep, the doctor having given him an injection to calm him down.
"Just a mild sedative," he'd told Howard, and then proceeded to explain to him what to do if Vince got worse, and that recovery would take time and he'd have to be patient with him.
As if Howard would be anything but. He was desperately worried about his best friend, who'd nearly had a heart attack when he'd seen the needle and had had a bit of a hissy-fit before the doctor was able to administer it, Howard telling Vince over and over that it would make him feel better, even though his behaviour was breaking his heart. Unable to sleep himself, Howard sat on the edge of Vince's bed and just watched him – every breath, every movement, his body still shaking slightly as it worked with the medication to settle everything down, regulating his pulse and evening out his breathing. Howard reached a hand out to brush Vince's hair out of his eyes, and in his sleep Vince grabbed hold of it and wouldn't let go, sighing as he pulled it into his chest. Howard smiled down at him affectionately and didn't try to pull his hand back, instead lying down next to the smaller man and holding him close.
Eventually, sleep claimed him.
xxxx
"Howard? Howard! Howard!"
Howard, who was in the kitchen making himself some coffee, dashed into the bedroom to find Vince sitting up in bed, the duvet being twisted about his hands as his eyes darted about frantically, looking for his friend and panicking when he couldn't see him.
"Howard!"
"Shhh, I'm here, I'm here," Howard said, sitting beside Vince and rocking him gently until he started to quieten.
"I thought you'd died," Vince finally whimpered, trying his hardest to not start crying again.
"What? Did you have a nightmare?"
Vince nodded dejectedly. "He got you and you died," he whispered, looking up at Howard with watery eyes. "I don't want you to leave me." The flood in his eyes broke then and slowly trickled down his face.
"Hey, it's all right, little man. I won't ever leave you." Howard enveloped the smaller man in a hug. "You don't have to be scared, okay?"
"What's going on?"
Howard looked up to see Naboo and Bollo standing in the doorway, Naboo with a slightly weirded out expression on his face, as if he thought he'd caught Vince and Howard doing something he really didn't want to see. Bollo had a hand over his eyes.
Vince clutched at Howard's shirt and buried his head against his neck.
"Vince saw someone in the park during the night burying a body. The police have been round..." Howard didn't want to say too much in case it upset Vince even more, but he had to tell Naboo something.
Naboo looked shocked. "Shit." He walked into the room and sat the other side of Vince. "You okay?" Stupid question, Naboo knew, but what was he supposed to say?
Vince squirmed further into Howard and the tiny shaman frowned. "Has he been like this all night?" he whispered to Howard, as if Vince wouldn't hear him.
"He slept for a bit. Doctor gave him something. But mostly, yes."
Naboo nodded. "I'll see if I've got anything he can have."
xxxx
For most of the day Vince sat on the sofa with Howard, staring straight through the TV and only engaging in conversation when he was asked a question. It was raining now, and he was watching the water on the window intently, following the drops as they hit the glass and trickled down in streams, the ends of them like tiny globes which flattened out as soon as they hit the frame at the bottom. Thunder rumbled ominously overhead which in turn did nothing to soothe Vince's nerves. All day he'd been swinging from one mood to the other, crying one minute and then staring off into space as quiet as anything the next. Howard had tried to get him to go to the police station so he could give his statement, but Vince had panicked wildly at this, sobbing and begging Howard not to make him go outside. Howard didn't push it – he couldn't. Seeing Vince like this was tearing him apart. Every time he got up to use the bathroom or get something from the bedroom, Vince would start shaking, and it would only stop when Howard was by his side again where he could see him, and he'd grab the bigger man's hand and squeeze it so tightly that Howard was sure it would break. Not that he'd complained; he didn't say a word – how could he? And Howard felt guilty too, not just because he hadn't been able to protect Vince from seeing something so disturbing and gruesome, but also because his heart, however much it was hurting for his friend, was swelling at the thought that when it really came down to it, Vince only wanted him. This fact had been drilled in even more when Bollo had been on the receiving end of Vince's anger earlier that afternoon;
"Howard, we've run out of milk for tea. You run to the shop, Bollo take care of Vince."
"No." Vince moved so he was nearly sitting on Howard's lap, his pale face almost scowling up at Bollo as the ape stood in front of them.
That was when Bollo had made his grave mistake.
"Bollo can take better care of precious Vince. Howard's not good with emotions."
Howard shivered inwardly as he remembered the fit Vince had pitched at Bollo's words, startling the ape so much that he'd stumbled backwards and nearly fallen over the coffee table, Vince ranting at him and daring him to say one more bad thing about his best friend. Bollo hadn't, and Naboo had dragged him away as Howard had tried to calm Vince down. Since then, Bollo had been sulking in Naboo's room, listening to his records and sucking on the hookah the way a baby took to a bottle of milk.
"Vince?"
Vince blinked and tore his gaze away from the rain-splattered window.
"Do you want to try and eat something?"
"I'm not hungry."
Howard took Vince's hand in both of his and rubbed it gently. "You haven't eaten all day. If you just want something small I can make you some soup?"
Vince shook his head, eyes focused on the carpet. "No, thank you."
Howard looked at him, taking in his sallow face and the dark skin around his eyes, the eyes themselves bloodshot and sore. His lips, which were once soft and pink, were now almost bloodless, and cracked from where he had been chewing on them. His hair was untamed and dull, the layers kinked and flicking out all over the place, and his small frame was dressed in the loosest clothes possible – a pair of tracksuit bottoms that Howard wasn't even aware Vince owned, and one of Howard's jumpers. Howard had never seen Vince looking so lost – in fact, he'd never even seen him looking slightly lost. The closest to devastated he'd ever become was when Lance Dior had stolen his look. But even though that whole situation had obviously been real, it wasn't real like this was real. This was real in a completely real way. Frightening real. Life changing real. Sickeningly real in a way real shouldn't be. Things like this weren't supposed to happened, and when they did, they weren't supposed to happen in front of you or the people you loved. And yet here Howard was, because it had happened to someone he loved, and he had to fight the urge to be sick as he realised that Vince might never be the same again. That the sick bastard who had committed murder had ruined more lives than he probably even realised. Not that he'd even care, Howard reasoned. He felt guiltily glad that he hadn't known the deceased, because he couldn't even begin to imagine how their family must be feeling – glad because he had no idea how he would handle news like that, and guilty because he had it easy compared to the people who were grieving for the loss of someone they'd loved. And – Oh, God. What if it had been Vince? Was the person who had been killed taken there, already dead, or just dragged randomly from the path and murdered on the spot? What if Vince had walked through the park a few minutes earlier? Could it have been him? Could it? Howard didn't realise he was crying until he felt a hand on his face, and he opened eyes he didn't even know he had closed, gaze resting on Vince's tired face. Then he let out a strangled noise and hugged Vince to him fiercely, the desire to protect him against all odds overwhelming him.
Howard knew that if anyone ever dared to hurt Vince, they'd have to get through him first.
xxxx
Naboo wasn't sure what was making him wary of the letter in his hand. Vince got mail all the time from all sorts of people – most of them writing to profess their undying love – but something about this particular letter sent tingles down his spine. He tapped lightly on Vince and Howard's bedroom door, pushing it open when he heard Howard tiredly call out that he could come in. Howard was in Vince's bed, Vince himself still asleep and curled around his friend.
"This came for Vince," Naboo whispered, holding up the envelope.
"Thanks, just put it here," Howard said, nodding his head towards the bedside table.
Naboo shook his head. "I think we should open it."
Howard frowned. "Why? That would be an invasion of his privacy."
"It doesn't – I mean, I'm getting odd readings from it. I don't know why – it just doesn't feel right."
Howard pushed himself up, being careful not to disturb Vince as he moved. "What do you mean?"
The shaman sighed. "Please, Howard. Let's just open it, yeah?"
Getting slightly freaked out, Howard nodded, watching Naboo intently as he broke the seal and pulled out the piece of paper inside. He held his breath, then had to hold back a cry of alarm as he read the only three words the letter held, three words that made his blood run cold.
I saw you.