Disclaimer: Dee, Ryo, Bikky and Fake in general are not mine (yet! Muhahaha!) and I am not making any money from any of this (if I was do you think you'd be reading it on the net?). Lyn, Andrew, their girls, and other original characters ARE mine, and I do plan to one day make money from them, so no usey!
Ordinary Heroes
Chapter Four: Free Falling
Dee's face was utterly expressionless as looked at the body of their most recent victim. The victim, naked and impaled on the bent bar of a wrought-iron fence, was clearly male. It was also equally clear that he preferred to be a she. Under all that damage done to his (her?) body, Dee reflected, he would have been striking as either gender. Long, dark, hair the body of a dancer, her eyes were almost teal in color and frozen open in an eternal expression of fear and pain. Dee stared up at her, hands on hips, for a long moment.
"Dee?" Ryo cleared his throat, tapping Dee's shoulder lightly when he didn't respond. "Do you see something?" Ryo knew that Dee didn't see anything, other then the victim as a whole, but the uniforms at the scene were starting to shoot him weird looks out of the corner of their eyes. Dee either needed to start pretending to be detached or he needed to go back to the precinct.
Dee shook himself and looked at his partner. "Same M.O., as far as I can tell. Transgender, the right look, suspended by impalement and bled dry. I can't tell for sure if it's between the T-4 to T-6 vertebra until they get her down. Obvious signs of torture and violent sexual assault." Dee shrugged. "And enough evidence to convict the bastard if we could ever find him."
Ryo sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, well, at least it will be a slam dunk when we do get him. Come on, his clothes are over here." He led the way over to the small heap of clothes, torn and bloodied. There wasn't much there. Ryo crouched down, pointing with his pen. "Skirt, tank, the bra has really good prosthetics though, like the kind a woman with a mastectomy would have."
Dee snapped on his gloves, and whistled for the uniform with the camera. "Photograph this, would ya?" He called, waiting until the man came over and snapped pictures of how things laid before Dee marked the position of the bra on the ground and picked it up gingerly by one mutilated strap. The fake breasts were actually part of the cup of the bra, and heavy. Dee felt one as the uniform snickered.
"Most action you've gotten in a month, Laytner!"
"Go fuck your mother, Fredricks," Dee replied mildly, handing the bra to Ryo. "You're right. Well, the good news is, we should be able to identify her then. If she was a sex worker, she was a highly paid one. Those ain't cheap."
"Christ Laytner, I know you ain't bright, but you'd think you'd at least know the difference between a man and a woman," Fredricks snorted.
"What did I just tell you?" Dee said coldly, looking up at the uniformed officer.
"Damn your touchy, it's just a tranny hooker,"
"Dee," Ryo said warningly, trying to rein his partner in before this could get further. Fredricks was a jackass, but there was no point in doing anything but ignoring it. Ryo knew, though, that Dee was scraping the bottom of the barrel of his reserves of patience and energy. Fredricks was playing with matches during a drought.
Dee stood, carefully placing the article of clothing in an evidence bag, waiting, just waiting for Fredricks to step over the line. He was strung tighter then a bowstring, and he wanted nothing more then for Fredricks to give him an excuse to break his face. In addition, or maybe because of, the stress he'd been feeling over the last months, Dee knew he was sick. Very sick. His stomach hurt almost constantly, and sometimes it was all he could do not to double over in pain and he was throwing up blood. Not often, and not a lot, but it was happening, and with ever increasing frequency. He knew full well that anytime you started puking blood you should be taking yourself straight to the E.R. but he took a certain amount of perverse pleasure in having a very real and physical manifestation of what he was feeling emotionally. Further more, it wasn't like he was puking nothing but blood. There was just enough to be noticeable. Of course, the fact that he was throwing up at least once nearly every day was also a pretty damn good indicator something was wrong.
In addition to whatever the hell was wrong with his stomach, he'd had an almost constant headache for weeks now, and no matter how much he slept, he never felt rested. The last day he'd had off, he'd slept for eighteen hours and it hadn't mattered. He was exhausted, he was in pain, he was brittle with stress, and this stupid prick just kept pushing him, despite every verbal and nonverbal warning both Dee and Ryo were giving him. Dee couldn't wait for him to open his mouth one more time.
"Why are you so obsessed with this anyway? Do you pull second shift as hooker in a miniskirt?"
Dee didn't look up, even hearing the chuckles from the other uniforms, as he peeled off his gloves. Beside him, Ryo tensed nervously, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Dee…" Dee's calm may have fooled the other idiots here, but Ryo knew it for what it was. A moment of tense quiet before a lightening strike. He looked around for Ted or Drake. The longer this quiet lasted the more worried Ryo was about how bad Dee would snap. "Come on, lets go check with Drake," Ryo stepped in front of Dee, trying to catch his eye. When Dee continued to studiously remove his latex gloves, Ryo looked around again, almost frantic for Ted or Drake. Finally he managed to catch Drake's eye. Drake, despite appearances, was not a stupid man and had known Dee for close to ten years. Ryo saw that he took the situation in at a glance, and was able to connect the dots. He started towards them at a brisk jog. Dee's silence seemed to only egg Fredricks on. Whether it was because the other man was daring Dee to snap, or if it was because he was too stupid to realize that Dee's calm was not at all submissive.
"Really, we should thank this guy for cleaning out the gutters. This city's filthy enough alr—"
Ryo was fast and every ounce of his focus was on Dee. He saw when Dee's muscles bunched to strike, but with a speed and agility Ryo had never seen from his partner, Dee dodged around him before Ryo could even get his hands up to restrain him. By the time he'd turned around, Dee's fist had already connected with Fredrick's face. Dee didn't stop there, though; he followed Fredricks down like he would a perp he was trying to subdue.
"Dee!" Ryo shouted, diving into what was fast becoming a melee, trying to get a hold of Dee to pull him away, but two other uniforms had already converged on the fight. Instead of doing their jobs and stopping it, they retaliated. Ryo even took a punch to the face as he tried to pin Dee's arms and drag him back. Drake waded in, trying to shove away the other uniforms, whom in turn tried to beat Drake senseless as well.
Ryo was finally able to get a hold of his partner, who had managed to deliver two more blows to Fredricks, despite having had the two other uniformed officers trying to return the favor on behalf of their comrade. Drake managed to keep the two occupied enough that Ryo was finally able to jerk Dee back and off Fredricks, dragging him a few feet across the gravel of the industrial lot they were in as Dee fought against him like an alley cat.
Dee did manage to finally pull free of Ryo, but by the time Dee had scrambled to his feet, Ryo had his arms pinned behind his back, and Drake restrained him from the front.
"Dee let it go!" Drake shouted.
"Let me go! Voy a romperme suyo cara de mierda!" Dee shouted back, lunging forward. Ryo grunted, holding Dee's arms even tighter.
"Come on, we're going Dee. Now. Drake and Ted can wrap this up." Ryo said as firmly as he could. It took both him and Drake dragging Dee most of the way back to the car for Dee to cool down enough for Ryo to let him go to walk on his own. Dee stormed to their unmarked and threw himself into the passenger seat, slamming the door so hard Ryo half expected it to fall off the car.
"Ryo," Drake said, "Get him back to the House, get him to cool down, then get him home. He's fucking off his rocker." Despite his words, Drake's tone was quiet and worried, as he glanced at Dee over Ryo's shoulder.
"He just needs to chill, he'll be fine," Ryo said, but sound unconvinced even to himself. He looked over at Fredricks, who had been restrained, finally, by his uniform buddies. Dee had done a number on his face.
"Listen, I know how things were with you two, but I've known him since we were rookies. He may be fine tomorrow, but you're not going to really get him calm today. He's going to explode every time someone breathes wrong. Besides, look at him, he looks like shit." Drake indicated Dee with his chin. Ryo turned and looked at his partner with a sigh.
"You're right. See what you can do to smooth this over, okay? If Rose lays into him over this…"
"Right. It's going to make d-day look like a beach romp," Drake nodded and slapped Ryo's shoulder bracingly. "Good luck. May The Force be with you," he smirked.
"Yeah yeah," Ryo muttered moving over to the unmarked, slipping behind the wheel. Dee's head was dropped back against the seat, his eyes closed. His normally olive skin was pallid and clammy looking. The tension in his neck and shoulders though, told Ryo that Dee wasn't anywhere near calm, he'd just pulled his rage back and focused it inward. That wasn't really better… but for the moment it was at least safer.
Dee had at least opened his eyes by the time they got back to the station, though neither man had said a word. Ryo parked and got out, watching Dee through the windshield as Dee made no move to get out. Ryo rounded the hood and opened his door with a sigh.
"Come on Dee, let's get inside."
By the time they got to their office Ryo was starting to be seriously concerned that the minute the door was closed, Dee was going to blow up at him, but that didn't happen. Dee sat down at his desk, stiff, silent, unyielding, and simply opened a case file. Ryo watched him a moment, then let him be, Drake might just have been right, Dee may have snapped completely.
There was no summons from Rose, so at least so far Drake was managing to do damage control. After about an hour of thick silence, Ryo finally got up and walked out, needing some water. When he came back, Dee wasn't there.
"Sheila, did you see where Laytner went?" Ryo called, sticking his head back out into the bullpen.
"Yeah, he's in the can," Sheila called back.
"Thanks!" Ryo returned to his desk, confident that Dee wasn't going to do anything crazy, besides there was only one way off their floor without setting off a fire alarm, and that was past Sheila. This was a precinct house after all, and semi-escape proof.
When Dee wasn't back after half and hour, though, Ryo was worried. Dee was not a half-an-hour-in-the-can kind of guy. Finally, Ryo left the office again, going back to the men's room/locker room. It was quiet. None of the showers were running, no one was changing; no one was at the urinals.
"Dee?" Ryo leaned down, looking under the stall doors. Dee didn't respond, but he was easy enough to find. It wasn't just his boots and jeans down around his ankles. Dee was sitting on the floor, leaning back against one wall, his knees pressed to the other. "Dee, what's wrong?" Ryo asked, straightening, moving over to that stall. Dee's answer came as a violent wretch.
"Dee!" Ryo gave the stall door a push. It was, of course, locked. Ryo might have waited and insisted Dee unlock it, once he was done throwing up… but it didn't sound like he was going to ever stop throwing up. After the third or fourth wretch, Ryo gripped the stall door tightly in both hands and pushed as hard as he could. The lock, which barely worked in the first place, snapped free easily, and Ryo kept the door from swinging open and hitting Dee.
Dee had shifted positions into the standard worshiping-the-the porcelain position, his shoulders and back heaving as he wretched yet again. Ryo's own stomach turned at the sound, but there was almost no smell. Why that was became quickly apparent, though. Dee was throwing up nothing but blood.
"Fuck! Dee!" Ryo said, going from minor trouble mode to emergency mode in an instant. He crouched behind Dee, resting a hand on his back. He knew he should probably be calling for an ambulance, but Dee would kill him and probably flatly refuse medical treatment if he did that.
Finally, Dee stopped, hanging his head over the toilet and panting raggedly, every muscle twitching from the strain. Ryo eased his arms around Dee, helping him sit back once again. Dee lifted one very pale hand; his handkerchief clutched in it, and wiped the blood from his mouth.
"Dee, something's really wrong. Have you been doing this since you left the office?" Ryo asked him softly, smoothing Dee's hair away from his clammy face. Dee nodded weakly, his eyes closed.
"Okay, I won't call a bus. But we're going to the hospital. Now." Ryo said in his most no-nonsense voice. Dee shook his head.
"No, I'm fine. Just need to go home," he rasped. Ryo stared at him incredulously.
"Dee! You just threw up half a pint of blood! I don't know what's wrong, but that blood is fresh. You're bleeding, bad, it's just on the inside." Ryo glanced in the toilet making a face. That blood was definitely fresh, as opposed to blood that had been partially digested or sitting in his stomach a while.
"I'm fine," Dee insisted stubbornly, "I just—" he interrupted himself, as he leaned over the toilet and started throwing up again. Ryo knelt with him, not even sure what to do, other then offer some comfort. His worry compounded infinitely as more blood came up. When Dee finally stopped, Ryo took his chin in his hand firmly.
"Here are your two options. Either you let me take you to the hospital right this second, or I'm calling a goddamn ambulance. You can refuse all you want, but it's only a matter of time before you pass out, and when you do, they'll take you in anyway. But everyone in the damned building will see them carrying you out on a stretcher, and everyone in our department will be crammed in the door watching the scene you make until you do." Ryo growled.
"Well when you put it that way…" Dee rasped, allowing Ryo to help him to his feet. He almost passed out anyway, but Ryo slipped under his arm and helped support him until his vision cleared and he was able to make his shaky way over to a sink. Ryo kicked the flush on their way out, and helped Dee rinse out his mouth. He also commandeered a small wastebasket to use as a puke bucket.
Dee managed to pull it together enough to walk out of the bathroom, and out of the building for that matter, under his own power. His steps were slow and deliberate, but Ryo knew that Dee would fall down every stair on the way out rather then have anyone see him as weak enough to need help.
The trip to the E.R. was harrowing for Ryo. Dee threw up twice more, and with the bucket, Ryo was able to get a better idea exactly how heavily Dee was bleeding, and it was serious, especially if it had been happening for almost an hour now. Not to mention that the sounds were almost enough to make Ryo vomit himself. He managed to keep it down to the occasional sympathy gag though.
For once, service in the E.R. was fast. That meant that Dee's condition was pretty serious, as they whisked him off to triage almost the minute they walked in, carrying a bucket of blood. Ryo told the nurse everything he could about what had happened, how long it had been happening at what little he knew about things like what Dee had eaten that day. After that, all he could do was wait. He used the time to call back to the station and let Rose in on what was going on. All he had to do was hint that it might be a worker's comp issue, and Rose was very accommodating indeed.
Ryo waited and paced. He had told the nurse that he was Dee's partner on the force. Although technically not allowed to give information to anyone but family, the hospital staff generally bent the rules for NYPD and FDNY when one of their brothers (or sisters) was being treated. He hoped that would be the case this time, because he felt fairly confident that he was no longer listed as Dee's emergency contact or power of attorney. That was probably Mother Maria or Lyn and Andrew.
It was over an hour before a nurse called him over quietly. "Detective Mclean?"
Ryo was over to her in a moment. "How's my partner?" He asked without preamble. It was a nurse talking to him, not a doctor, which was probably good news.
"It's a good thing you brought him in. I've seen a lot of New York's Finest come through the E.R. here, and I know how you all are. You'll have six bullet holes in you and claim it's just a flesh wound," she smiled at Ryo, and Ryo relaxed a bit further. If she was teasing him, Dee was probably going to be fine.
"We're a tough breed," he winked. "And my partner's the toughest there is," and since Ryo had actually seen Dee with a gun shot wound bandage himself up with a bandana and insist he was just fine, he was fairly confident that Dee really was one of the toughest damned cops in the city. Also the most pigheaded, stubborn and all together unreasonable, but that was beside the point.
"Well, the tough guy needs bed rest for at least a week. He has a severe ulcer in the upper tract of his stomach. We've given him a blood transfusion and the doctor is performing an endoscopy as we speak. That should get the bleeding to stop. I don't know if they'll want to keep him over night. Judging by how he looks and what symptoms he was willing to admit to, he's probably severely anemic as well. We're sending the blood in right now," the nurse gave him all this information politely and professionally, though with a little half smile that Ryo recognized all too well. Dee had yet another admirer ready to throw herself at his feet.
"Oh man," Ryo groaned, "damn it, I should have seen this. He's looked terrible for ages now, but he is just so damned stubborn. Can I see him? I know the doctor's working on him but… I don't think he's going to handle that endoscopy well." That was an understatement. Ryo reflected that the nurse must have left before the doctor had started the procedure. Dee couldn't stand even routine procedures that were semi-invasive. He hadn't gone to the dentist since he was ten, he had to be utterly unable to swallow before he'd submit to a strep throat swab, and it wasn't just his mouth. He didn't tolerate anything in any orifice. Having a tube shoved in his mouth, down his throat, all the way to his stomach… he'd have to have five orderlies holding him down.
"Don't worry, he's moderately sedated, he won't even know it's happening," she smiled reassuringly. Ryo let out a breath.
"Oh good, thank you, I'm sure he'll still be pissed as hell when he comes around, but… well, thank you," but at least Dee wouldn't be any further off his rocker than he had been to start.
"Of course. It will probably be about another hour before you'll be able to see him, I'll come get you when he's been settled, alright?"
"Yes, okay, thank you again," Ryo sighed, offering the nurse a small smile. He went over to a row of plastic chairs and half collapsed into one. The diagnosis was unsurprising considering how much stress Dee was under, and how poorly he was handling it. He felt terrible for not paying more attention sooner, though. Dee had been pale for over a week now, his appetite shot, exhausted, drawn, yes he should have seen it sooner. It was too late for 'should haves' though, and at least Dee was getting fixed up now.
Ryo waited, far more patience now that he knew Dee was more or less okay, for another hour, until the nurse came back out, signaling him with a look and a small smile. Ryo got up immediately, following her down the hall.
"How is he?"
"We have him in recovery. The doctor is going to observe him for a couple hours. He's still coming around, but having a familiar face and voice will help make the process less traumatic," the nurse told him as they walked.
"Good, thank you," Ryo said, wondering how Dee was tolerating the sedation. Ryo had had surgery on his knee, way back before his parents had died, and he remembered how he'd felt coming around afterwards, sick to his stomach, disoriented, it had been terrible. Of course Dee hadn't been that heavily sedated, but Ryo was glad they were letting him be with Dee. Dee got so weird about some things, and Ryo was willing to bet this would be one of those things.
The nurse showed him to a curtained off area, and Ryo slipped in quietly. Dee still looked terrible. He had more then one IV, the first of which was more blood; another was fluids and probably medication to counteract the sedation. There was also an oxygen mask over Dee's face. His brow was deeply furrowed and his hands and fingers twitching and moving, already fighting his way towards wakefulness.
Ryo didn't hesitate, moving over to sit on the edge of Dee's bed, taking his hand. "Dee?"
"Breath deeply, Mr. Laytner, this is oxygen, it will help clear your head," The nurse said in a slow, loud voice, as though speaking to a small and rather stupid child. After that though, she left them in peace, as Dee started to come to.
"Dee, it's okay, you're going to be alright," Ryo said softly, patting his hand. Dee's head lolled a bit and his frown deepened as he took very deep breaths of the oxygen. He was fighting his way back to consciousness as fast as he could, flashes of emerald showing as he'd manage to force his eyes open only to have them fall shut again a moment later. "Relax, bud, you're fine, take your time," Ryo said softly. "It's just you and me."
Dee groaned softly, his head turning to the other side now. He was really restless. Ryo smoothed his dark hair back from his face, making soothing sounds. He absolutely ached to hold his partner, wanting to do more to comfort him. It was hard to see someone you loved so obviously sick, so very vulnerable. Especially when that someone was as tough as Dee.
"Shhhh, it's okay Dee, you're okay," Ryo repeated. Dee's hand flailed up and he tried to paw the oxygen mask off his face. Ryo gently eased the elastic band from around his head, placing the mask back in Dee's hand, then bringing it back to his face. "Keep that there, sweetheart, it will help."
Dee obeyed, seeming to accept using it as long as he had control over it. Finally his eyes opened and stayed open, staring at Ryo glassily. He licked his lips, and then lifted the oxygen mask off his face again.
"Wha…?"
"You're pretty sick, Dee," Ryo said softly, caressing his cheek. "The doctor says you have an ulcer, and are anemic because of that. That's why you've felt like shit."
A look of understanding and recollection sharpened Dee's gaze. He was becoming more alert by the minute. He nodded a little. "Right," a deep frown bowed his lips, an experimental hand touching his stomach. "What did they do?"
"Does it hurt? It shouldn't—" It was Ryo's turn to frown. "They did an endoscopy, a camera at the end of a long tube, the doctor told you this before he put you under didn't he?"
"Yes," Dee stopped there, closing his eyes again, gathering his wits. Ryo waited patiently. "Did they have to cauterize?"
"Yeah, I think they did," Ryo nodded. Dee shuddered and Ryo couldn't blame him. The thought of burning close the lining of your stomach sounded painful and revolting. There wasn't much in the way of nerve endings in the stomach though, and no matter how bad it sounded, Dee shouldn't be hurting.
"Urgh," Dee shuddered again.
"Well, that's what you get for not being smart enough to go to the doctor before you were puking blood like pea soup. You've had to have felt terrible for ages, Dee, why did you let it get this bad?" Ryo asked, giving Dee's hand a squeeze.
"Hate doctors," Dee shrugged.
"Yeah, well I hate stubborn jerks who don't go to their doctors in a timely fashion," Ryo retorted, then sighed. "They want to observe you for a couple hours, make sure it's all kosher, then they'll discharge you. You're coming back to my place, and I won't hear a word about it. For one thing, you're going to be as high as a kite for the rest of today, and longer if they give you pain meds. For another, you need to sleep, and I'm sure they're going to want you to only eat certain foods for a day or two. I don't trust you to take care of yourself like that." Ryo said firmly, snagging Dee's gaze and pinning him with a look.
"Ryo—"
"Don't "Ryo" me. That's what's going to happen. Since I'm your damned ride, and I had to listen to you vomit up your damned toe nails you're going to damned listen to me!"
Dee looked at Ryo for a long moment, and Ryo could tell he was seriously considering arguing with him. "If the next words out of your damn mouth are anything but "yes Ryo", you're going to be wearing your ass for a hat. Do you understand me?"
Finally, meekly, Dee lowered his gaze. "Yes, Ryo," he mumbled, clearly not happy. Ryo didn't care if Dee was happy or not. He cared about whether Dee was safe and healing. He was also a believer in positive reinforcement, so he smiled warmly at Dee once the accent was given, leaning down and kissing his forehead.
"Good, now just rest, sweetheart, I'm looking out for you,"
Dee watched him for a long moment, before slowly closing his eyes again. Ryo sighed softly to himself, still holding Dee's hand, caressing the back of it tenderly. They needed to get this case solved, get them solved. Ryo wasn't shameless enough to take advantage of Dee during his convalescence, but he was very glad that he and Dee would be under the same roof again, for a few days at least.
Authors note: This took me a ridiculously long time to write. Most of you probably don't know this, but generally what happens when I write a chapter, is that I sit down and write the whole thing in one sitting. This chapter, I've been hacking away at for weeks, and to be honest, I'm still not 100 on it. I hope you enjoyed it though. Don't worry, it's not going to become a hurt/comfort thing, but Dee had to reach some kind of breaking point with the stress he was under. Thanks to all of you who keep leaving me reviews.