Without You

AU in that Jake dies. Takes place after all the Russian-kidnapping drama from a few weeks ago. Not mine. Would not exist without cynical sweater. Enjoy!

Part 2

"Spinelli!" Maxie called, announcing her presence in the now darkened Crimson offices. "I'm back from my talk with your ungrateful, ignorant roommate. You're better off without the jerk, if I do say so myself." She flipped on the lights. Then, wished she hadn't.

The office was trashed. The computers were on the floor, their screens shattered, papers everywhere. Phones were ripped out of the walls. Kate was going to kill her.

But, that was the least of her worries. Either Spinelli had hit a breaking point rather reminiscent of one of Sonny's mental breakdowns, or… Or someone else had been in here.

"Spinelli!" She shouted this time, eyes scanning for any trace of her best friend. "Damn it, if you don't answer me… This isn't funny!" Her eyes searched frantically, finally resting on a lamp that had once been on her desk. It had blood on it. "Oh, no…"

***

Every bump the SUV went over was like a new kind of torture. Spinelli had been bound and gagged and thrown rather hastily in the back of the vehicle after being bonked over the head with a lamp. "Heathens," He growled to himself, just as they'd slammed the door.

No wonder Jason wanted him gone. He was useless. Couldn't even keep himself from getting kidnapped. "Mrngh… mm, rrgg." He mumbled out through the tape they'd covered his mouth with. His vision was swimming and his head pounding, and all he really wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep, but that was not an option. Wouldn't ever be an option if he didn't get out of this.

"Sorry, did you say something?" A voice from the front of the vehicle mocked. He couldn't see who it was, but it was undoubtedly another Russian goon.

His cell phone went off in his pocket, blaring some ridiculously loud popular tune and Spinelli fumbled for it as much as he could with his hands tied behind his back. Before he could make much progress, though, another hand removed it, and he could hear the sounds of a window rolling down. That was the end of that.

He could only hope Jason would save him. Stone Cold was his only hope, and he had some things he really should have said before all of this. With any luck, he might still have a chance.

"I think this is it." He heard someone say a few moments later. He felt a sharp prick of pain in his arm and the next thing he knew his consciousness was overwhelmed.

***

Jason had refused all visitors. He'd turned the phones in the penthouse off, locked the doors, had Milo and Max stay downstairs to keep numerous pesky, nosy blonds from barging in on him. He'd cut himself off completely. Both to mourn the loss of Jake and to plan the ultimate attack on Sasha and her Neanderthal thugs. And to keep his mind off of Spinelli.

That last one proved too difficult to be possible within the confines of the penthouse where he'd lived with Spinelli for so long. So, he opted to go for a drive on his bike to clear his mind. He made his way to the Harbor View Towers parking garage after informing Max of his plans, grabbed his motorcycle, and felt better until he remembered his promise to teach Spinelli to ride it sometime.

On his way out of the garage, though, Maxie started running towards him. The look in her eyes made him pause.

"Jason!" She called frantically, running closer, only stopping when she was beside him. "Spinelli's gone. The Russians must have grabbed him from Crimson."

His face paled. "Are you sure?"

She nodded, trying to catch her breath. Jason figured she'd probably been trying to reach him for a while now. "Yeah, I called the police. They're checking it out now, but I wanted you to know about it. And you weren't answering your phone…"

Damn him, and his own stubbornness. If he'd just kept his phone on, he would have had that much more time to start tracking Spinelli down. Better yet, had he not practically forced him out onto the street, this wouldn't have happened, either. "Alright. Go tell Max, tell him to call in anyone and everyone good with computers and track Spinelli's phone. Then, go glue yourself to Mac." He revved the engine.

"Wait…" The blond stopped him again. "There… there was blood."

He closed his eyes. Fuck. "I'll bring him back." He promised. And this time, he would not fail.

***

Without Spinelli there to track the location of the Russian's hideout, finding him took substantially longer than he would have liked. He sped toward Crimson, hoping beyond any sort of logical hope that Spinelli had left him some trail to follow. When he arrived at the scene, flashing lights were everywhere. Mac was talking to Lucky by the entrance to the building, and they paused in their conversation long enough to stare at him.

His phone let out a shrill ring that startled him back into motion. He drove around the corner, pulling out his cell, which displays 'Maxie' on the caller ID. "Shouldn't you be with your Dad?" He asked, since she obviously was not.

"I was dealing with your technological problems. I've seen Spinelli track enough people down, so I figured I'd give it a try, and let me tell you, it's harder than it looks." Maxie informed him. "I traced his cell through the GPS system through your cell phone – you're paying ridiculous amounts of money for that, by the way - Last time his phone transmitted was out on the road not far from where you found the Russians in earlier."

"Thanks, Maxie." He told her, resisting the urge to shut the phone and go speeding off to save Spinelli. "Go stay with Mac, now, alright?"

"Milo said he'd take me over." She answered, and he could hear the guard respond affirmatively in the background, so he felt safe in ending the call. Then, he was off.

The drive was substantially faster this time. Without Sam with him, he had nothing to keep him sane while he was driving; rather, flying down the winding roads that appeared once he got closer to the more rural areas far on the outskirts of town. Upon getting close to the set of warehouses that made up the location Maxie had given him, he found that it was actually a storage company's building. His heart fell. There were dozens of locked rooms to check. So much for quick. So much for silent. So much for surprise. They'd hear him coming as soon as he started searching.

***

"Mrrngh…" The young man groaned, as he blinked himself back to a bleary level of consciousness. His vision was blurred and distorted, and his skull throbbed. The fell of not quite dry blood was caked in his hair, and what felt like all of his muscles hurt.

Spinelli realized why a moment later, when he got the strength to look up, though his vision was further impeded by the darkness of the room. His arms were securely chained over his head, to a beam running across the ceiling. His feet dangled a good three feet from the concrete below.

"Help!" He yelled, screamed, begged. Over and over, despite the fact that he was near hoarse from doing so and how much it hurt his head to make a sound. Someone had to hear him! They had to. He had so many things he needed to tell to so many people. Starting with Jason.

***

He found the cell phone just before the start of the driveway that led into the storage area. It was scraped, from being thrown out a window, he guessed. They hadn't been smart enough to destroy it, a good thing, or he would have never gotten this close.

Deciding that he had no other option, he deemed it necessary to avoid the guns blazing approach, entering the main hallway of the building as quietly as he could. Two guards were just inside the entrance, he pulled the trigger once on his silenced weapon, aiming carefully, unable to afford a ricochet in such a metal environment. An elephant would be quieter than a ricochet.

He took out the other with his knife, and even took the time to drag both bodies around the buildings corner before returning.

"Give me a clue…" He begged silently, listening intently for signs of his best friend's presence.

They were unprepared, he realized, upon rushing past the first storage area, where several of the burly Russian thugs were seated at a small table. They hadn't been expecting him this early. He grinned. Instead of wasting valuable ammunition on them, he reached up, grabbed the metal door and lowered it, locking it in place. Hopefully, few others would get in Jason's way.

"Spinelli!" He dared to shout, focusing on getting a reply. By now, though, the others were shouting about being locked in, which made it nearly impossible to hear much of anything else.

He made a run for the second floor of storage area, hoping for quiet there.

It wasn't quiet there. Four more guards were in place there, a fact that told him he must be closer to the right place. They wouldn't use guards on the second level unless Spinelli was there. He pulled out his gun again, aimed at the one who seemed to be the leader of the four and fired, taking him out with a shot to the head. The others spotted him, though. Two ran into another opened room and one charged at him. Jason fired at him, missed. And got a nice ricochet for his trouble. The bullet bounced off several surfaces, almost including Jason's own shoulder, before it died bouncing uselessly to the ground. Another shot, this one hit his pursuer in the stomach. He'll be down, but not out, Jason knew, so he made a break for the room the other's had gone into.

At first, he didn't see what the guns were pointed out, both of the thugs were aiming upwards, and then he realized that they both had their weapons trained on Spinelli's chest.

He raised his hands, unwilling to risk Spinelli's life in such close proximity to the bad guys. "Alright." He said, "Alright. You win."

The one on Spinelli's left laughed, confident with their leverage. "Thought so, Morgan. Sasha is not going to be happy when she finds out about this."

"I don't care what Sasha's going to think about this. Let him down." Jason demanded. Not that he was in much of a position to be making demands.

Spinelli hasn't made a sound, a fact which quite worried Jason as each tense moment ticked by. Neither Russian made a move to comply or go against his command and Jason still remained under their control. Finally, after a rather intense stare down, the man on the right shift's his aim toward Jason instead of Spinelli.

And evidently, that's what Spinelli had been waiting for. The younger man swung with all of his strength, his legs colliding with the skull of the man on his left. It effectively knocked the man down, and out for now, at least, giving Jason the opportunity to fire at the man on the right. The bullet hit, another headshot, and the man fell. Just to be safe, he also took out the man unconscious on the ground.

"Jason." Spinelli groaned, obviously in pain.

"Hold on, Spinelli, I'll get you down." He wasn't exactly sure how to go about doing that. Now that he'd had time to look over how they'd chained him up, it was certainly going to be a difficult task. About two feet over Spinelli's head there was a large beam with a chain coming down. Spinelli's hands were chained, as well, and hooked to that. There was a Masterlock, but he had no way of knowing who had the key, and Spinelli certainly didn't look up to telling him. "You're gonna have to bear with me for a minute here, alright?" He asked, a plan forming in his mind.

Spinelli's head dropped a bit, and it was clear he fairly close to passing out. Jason reached up and shook him gently, enough to cause the younger man to look at him. "I… it hurts."

"I know, it'll feel better once you're on the ground. But, you have to stay awake. He slid under Spinelli, so that he practically sat on Jason's left shoulder. The height change made the chains loosen, giving him some slack to work with. The movement, however, made Spinelli scream in pain. Jason hadn't been expecting that. "I'm sorry," He said quickly, but didn't move away. "I'll be as quick as I can, but I need you to listen for a minute. I'm going to shoot the lock. Then I need you to lean forward, when I tell you, and I'll catch you. Can you do that?"

A weak nod from Spinelli was all that he got in reply.

Jason sighed, taking aim with his right hand at the lock. "Alright, lean back."

Spinelli complied and Jason took his shot. The bullet clanged as it bounced off the metal, embedding in the wall. He fired again, this time it worked. The lock shattered, and Jason shouted for him to lean forward as he tossed his gun aside. With a pained yelp, Spinelli fell towards him, sliding off his shoulder to land, Bridal style, in Jason's arms.

With that problem solved, the next issue was getting Spinelli to help. Had he brought a car instead of the bike, he would have just driven like mad to the hospital, but there was no way Spinelli could cope with that sort of ride right now. Back on the ground, he now had a pretty good idea of most of Spinelli's injuries. His right arm was bent at an awkward angle at the shoulder, telling him it was more than likely dislocated. And, given the glazed over look in his friend's eyes, he was either still suffering the lingering effects of some drug or a concussion, or possibly both. He needed to get Spinelli to safety.

"Hey, come on, you need to stay awake just a little while longer, Spinelli." He prodded, gently laying him down on the cool concrete below. Spinelli's head rested on his lap, and hazy green eyes blinked up at him, complying with his order.

"'Nythin' you say, Jason." He mumbled, the fingers of his good hand searching out Jason's.

Jason gripped his hand in return, while digging his cell from his pocket. He dialed 911 and reported their location, making sure to add that the area wasn't secure. He didn't need the people here to help Spinelli getting killed on their way. Upon ending that call, his attention once again focused on Spinelli. "You'll be okay, alright?" He said, carefully running a hand through the younger's hair. "You'll be fine, and then you can yell at me for kicking you out."

"Won't yell at you." Came the barely audible reply.

"You should," Jason countered. "You should be furious at me for all the things I said to you."

Spinelli managed to shake his head. "I know you didn't mean what you said." He cringed in his attempt to shift closer to the older man. "…That you were suffering a serious loss and were blinded by grief. I can't hold that against you, Jason."

Jason closed his eyes wondering what on earth he'd done to deserve someone as amazing as Spinelli. He had no idea why the young hacker adored and idolized him so. "Stone Cold, okay? Call me Stone Cold. And you're the Jackal. Forget everything I said earlier. I wouldn't change a thing about you. Not the Spinelli speak, or the orange soda crowding the refrigerator. "

"The Jackal is touched to receive such kind sentiments from his Master." Spinelli grinned up at him, looking just a bit better for regaining the use of his cyber persona. "Your kind words are just one of the many fine qualities Stone Cold possesses. Not unlike the bravery you repeatedly show in risking everything to save those you care about. The Jackal wishes he were that fearless…"

Jason could hear the sirens now, blaring loud and clear as they drew nearer. "You don't need to be like me. I don't want you to be like me, Spinelli."

"But… Stone Cold is the epitome of manliness and the Jackal is merely a speck of dirt in most people's eyes… Not to you, though. And perchance that is just one of many reasons why the jackal finds himself in love with you, even though it is a hopeless endeavor…" The glazed look in Spinelli's eyes seemed stronger, and Jason's concern increased tenfold even as his brain processed what Spinelli just said. For the moment, he didn't have time to dwell on his confession though. Spinelli was fading.

"Come on, stay awake for me. Just a little while longer." He begged, squeezing the younger's hand tightly. He could hear the police on the floor below him, dealing with the goons in the locked storage shed, he assumed. Several more came storming upstairs and he could make out shouts of 'Clear' as they went through each of the other sheds.

Paramedics raced in once they'd cleared the building, a couple dealing with the man Jason shot in the stomach in the hall and several more rushing in to work on Spinelli.

"They're here. Just hold on." He said again, as they shooed him away from Spinelli.

***

The ride to the hospital had seemed disproportionately longer than the ride out to the storage building had been. They hadn't allowed him to ride with Spinelli. Jason had only called in for Spinelli, but they'd had to deal with the stomach wound, too. So, Jason was forced to ride back on his bike after Mac finished questioning him.

On the other hand, the ride back had given him far too much time to think. Spinelli's confession was weighing heavily on his mind. He'd been under the impression that Spinelli was interested in Maxie, at least he had been previously. He'd just figured Spinelli was as oblivious as he was last time, with Georgie. Could he have been wrong about Spinelli's interest all this time? It seemed so.

Despite how much he wanted to, he didn't go straight to the hospital. No, he needed to think this through before he did something he couldn't take back. So, he detoured back to the Penthouse, where he first informed Max that Spinelli was safe. Then, he set to work returning all of Spinelli's possessions to their proper places.

By the time he'd finished, he'd made his decision.