Dim morning light softened the window, when Jehan forced his eyes open.
Everything hurt.
His cuts burned, his face stung, his hips throbbed. His entire being seemed to ache.
Something touched his side, with a strangled cry Jehan sat up, despite his bodies screaming protest.
"Jehan, it's okay! It's me!"Jehans eyes focused on the Joly, as he realised that he was inside an apartment, he was safe! He repeated the words again and again, but the message seemed to refuse to register in his brain.
Joly stood watching him for a while, letting the poet calm down before he said awkwardly "I've cleaned all the cuts on your face, they should heal fine..."
Jehan nodded, silent tears streaming down his cheeks.
"But that wasn't all of it," Joly stated, brown eyes flickering with concern for a second before it was replaced by the a blank stare. Right now he wasn't Jehans friend, he was his doctor.
Jehan shook his head, the tears coming faster. "I'm fine," he said, his voice soft from crying. "Really, there's nothing hurt except for my face."
"Jehan, I saw you last night; the marks, your clothes, everything... I-I know what happened" Joly said as comforting as he could, resting a hand lightly on Jehans shoulder, his fingers near the bite mark as though he was trying to make a point. A short whimper escaping the injured one's mouth before he quickly bit it off.
Swallowing, Joly sat down beside his friend "I've checked all the injuries, there will be quite a lot of bruising, especially, em... Lower down," Jehan flinched, making Joly continue quickly "I cleaned the cut on your stomach, it had worried me, because it was quite large, so I sterilised it. But I haven't bandaged it yet, I just want to let it breathe slightly. You cracked some ribs, but I can't really do anything about them, I'm sorry. You'll be able to walk and everything, but you'll just have to be careful, and coughing might be painful. I think that we should really call the police as soon as-"
"No!" Jehan screamed making Joly jump, his eyes now huge and terrified "Please don't tell," Jehan sniffled, shakily raising his head "I'm fine...really."
Joly shook his head slightly, his face disbelieving. The best thing would be to call the police, they could help find the bastard who did this... unless Jehan already knew who it was?
"Who did this to you?" Joly asked, softly, pulling the other gently closer to him, putting an arm around his shoulder, comforting him as much as possible. Jehan flinched slightly, his chest painful to touch, before relaxing.
"Tell me Jehan," Joly repeated when the other stayed silent.
"I, I don't know" the poet whispered, his voice breaking, he buried his face into Jolys shoulder, crying once more. The medical student supported his friend, but each tear and muffled sob broke his heart into piece. How could this happen to Jehan? He was the last person on the earth to deserve it.
"Please don't tell Joly...please..." The blue eyes pleaded for the tiny bit of mercy; to have his secret kept.
"What about Courf?" Joly whispered, his friend looked away "I've told him to come over, Jehan, he needs to know,"
"But he'll hate me," Jehans voice was so quiet that Joly could barely hear him "We had an argument, Joly, and he was so angry... That's why I was outside last night," he took a deep breathe but was unable to keep a hysterical note from his voice "And I was unfaithful, and he won't take me back! I've got no where else to go, I'll lose all my friends, and... and-" the young man was interrupted by a bout of coughs.
"... How can you say that Jehan? He loves you, okay? He won't give a damn about a stupid argument that you had," Joly continued, his brow creased with anger "And never say that you were 'Unfaithful' never! Don't you dare say that, don't even think it! Jehan, promise me?"
Jehan cringed away from the angry man, which just made Joly sigh, he shouldn't have gotten angry... But it's not right that Jehan feels guilty for this!
"I wouldn't be able to look him in the eye," Jehan muttered as Joly started to help him lie back down.
"If that's really the problem then I can tell him Jehan." Joly said as soothingly as possible.
"Would you really Joly?" Jehan breathed looking up at his friend as though he'd grown wings and a halo.
"I will, but I'm still not sure about not telling the police, I won't, but we need to talk about it later. You just get some rest now." Joly muttered, dragging the bed sheets higher, and gently tucking them around Jehan, before turning to leave.
"Joly," the medical student turned upon hearing the voice, so small and fragile it was scary "Thank you," Jehan whispered, his blue eyes looking half dead with exhaustion.
"You're welcome," Joly replied with a half smile, before he left the poet to get some much needed sleep.
Nervous, Joly sat in the living room, next to the one his patient was sleeping in. What was he going to say to Courf? He was starting to wish that he hadn't made the promise to Jehan... But he had been through enough, the least Joly could do was tell his boyfriend.
A car stopped abruptly, the door slammed louder than necessary and hurried footsteps were easily heard. Sighing Joly got to his feet and peered out of the window; Courf's car was easily visible, parked badly near the pavement.
Joly opened the door on the first knock, not wanting to wake Jehan, and revealed a very red eyed Courfeyrac.
"Is he okay? What happened? Where is he?" The dark haired student spoke quickly as he stepped forcefully into the apartment looking for his lover.
"Courf, stop, he's in the bedroom, he's asleep, and you need to let him," Joly said firmly as the taller man started towards the place where his lover lay. "It's the quickest way he'll heal," Joly continued, trying his best to lead his friend to the sofa.
"W-what happened? Is he going to be okay?" Courfeyrac spluttered, as he allowed himself to be guided into the soft chair. The curly haired man looked awful, his eyes we wide and blood shot, there were dark circles beneath his eyes; it was obvious that he hadn't slept at all last night.
"He'll be okay, em," Joly fidgeted, as he met Courfeyrac's worried glance "Well, this man, he, er he got, he got beaten, and was hurt. Not really badly," The medical student said quickly, seeing the look of horror on his friends face "He cracked a few ribs, but he'll be okay. The thing is that, before that happened, the man he did some stuff to Jehan..." Joly trailed off into silence waiting for Courfeyrac to understand. But his friends face, though exhausted, still looked confused, forcing Joly to continue.
"I mean really bad stuff, you know? What I mean is that he, he forced himself upon Jehan..."
The words entered the taller mans head, but they didn't seem to immediately register with his brain.
But as it sunk in, as he realised, Courfeyrac's mind seemed to stop.
But he didn't think... How could anyone... That bastard!
With a sound like a snarl Courfeyrac rose to his feet. No one, repeat no one! Touches his Jehan! Red tainted his view, Courfeyrac wasn't a violent person, that was more Bahorel's area of expertise, but he mentally swore that he would find this son of a bitch and make him sorry that he was ever born!
"Courfeyrac, calm down!" Courfeyrac came back to reality in time to see Joly standing in front of him blocking his path.
"Don't take this personally Joly, but if you don't get the hell out of the way within the next five seconds then I'll make you!" The dark haired man hissed, his mind focusing on murder.
"Courf, what are you doing?" The smaller man said desperately.
"I'm going to find this-" he couldn't even think of a word foul enough to describe this man "and kill him!"
"What about Jehan?" The question made Courfeyrac flinch "Don't you think he'll need help? He needs you Courf,"
Trying to swallow some of his anger, Courfeyrac mumbled "What happened?"
"I was on my way home from Taire's, I found him on one of the side street. He was obviously hurt, so I had to bring him back here and-"
At his last comment, Courfeyrac's head snapped up "What the fuck, Joly? He's fucking broken his fucking ribs! Why didn't you call a fucking ambulance! The last fucking thing he needs is you fucking dragging him through the fucking city, and fucking-"
Joly closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as Courfeyrac continued his rant, where practically every other word was fuck.
"Courfeyrac, for the love of god!" Joly snapped, the last thing he needed right now was a panicking Courfeyrac "I am aware of what his injuries are, I am a medical student! AND-" Joly raised his voice to stop Courfeyrac, as he opened his mouth to give an angry response. "He's only cracked two ribs, not broken them, the hospital wouldn't be able to do anything more than what I've done. And besides he didn't want to go to the hospital."
At this Courfeyrac simply mouthed wordlessly, seemingly unable to convey all his objections into one sentence "Oh well, only cracked well that is a relief!" He spat sarcastically. Before continuing in a flustered voice.
"Well... Well, Combeferre said that people with broken ribs can, like, do bad stuff to their lungs," Courf spluttered, glad that he occasionally paid attention to what his friends were saying.
"Again," Joly said patiently "Jehan has cracked a ribs, not broken it, he doesn't have any internal bleeding." The medical student paused before continuing "Though I know it's not a nice though, to be honest if he had internal bleeding, then we would most definitely know about it."
Courferyrac jerked his head up, scowling at Joly, before eventually allowing him to lead him back to where Jehan was sleeping.
Courfeyrac wasn't really angry at Joly, he knew that. When he came to think of it he was sure that he owed his friend more than he could ever hope to repay for finding Jehan. If Joly hadn't been there...
Courfeyrac didn't even want to contemplate the possible outcome.
~ ~ ~
I know it's short, but screw this, I'm tired! Courfeyrac is slightly ooc, but it's only because he's worried abut Jehan!
