His knuckles were raw and when the adrenaline faded, Caleb was left cold with fear rather than hot with rage. It had all been a blur after he opened that door. He hadn't known what he expected but it wasn't Reid beaten, stomach down and pinned under some guy. And that guy, Connor, palming his own hard on and working himself into position.
Somehow the worst of it all had been Reid's face. He was so fucking calm. He just stared back at Caleb, bloody mouth pulling into the faintest of smiles. Somewhere in the beating that followed, after Pogue took Reid away, Connor had said it was just how Reid liked it. Caleb had hesitated on that. What did he know about how Reid liked things? The idea made him sick—that Reid liked enjoyed being abused—that other men had treated him like that—but Tyler had taken the bat to Connor's leg and called him on the lie. Tyler would know all of Reid's secrets. There was nothing too shameful to be passed between them. Caleb envied that then. Envied someone actually knowing Reid.
It had hurt some part of him to realize that someone like Connor could have known his brother better than he did. To know that Reid would rather live with that guy than come home with him.
He found Pogue in the corridor of the hospital, reaching him just as he finished talking to a doctor. The man left Pogue with a slip of paper, pausing to frown at the state of Caleb's bloodied tshirt and knuckles, before walking away.
"Where is he?" Caleb blurted out the first question he could get out—the one that didn't feel as world shattering as "Is he okay?".
Pogue looked him over but said nothing about how he looked and didn't ask if Connor got what he deserved. The answer would have been no. Connor was still alive. "In there," he said, gesturing to the room beside him. "Trying to charm a nurse into blowing him and high as a fucking kite." He waved the paper the doctor had given him at Caleb. "Doc suggested someone else being in charge of his prescription." He laughed a little but looked worn despite the gesture. "You'd think he actually knew him."
Caleb nodded and finally drug in a deep breath. "He's all right."
"Couple busted ribs and a fractured collar. Doc said he needs to take it easy for a month or so. You know, to keep one of those ribs from stabbing him in the lung." He didn't sound amused. "He needs to stay with us," Pogue added, voice dropping.
Caleb understood what he meant. If only one of them could live at the house—it needed to be Reid. He wouldn't argue. He hated himself for not leaving earlier so Reid would follow Tyler home weeks ago.
They both looked up when a cute nurse came out of the room. He cheeks were pink with a blush, dress a little eschew, lips swollen from kissing and wearing a wide guilty smile. She looked caught when they both looked at her. Caleb rolled his eyes and caught the door before it closed, plunging into the room.
"Po, maybe we should steal this thing," Reid said. The nurse had managed to talk him into a wheelchair, no doubt the hospital policy in action. He looked up, saw Caleb, and his grin melted away.
Reid looked him over, managed to look unimpressed, and then lifted an eyebrow. "Did Connor survive?" He asked deadpan. His arm was in a sling, probably to keep him from pulling at that fractured collar, and his naked chest was colored in blotchy dark bruises. Caleb couldn't see his shirt anywhere and guessed they'd actually cut it off him. His cheek was bruised and one eye was red where it should have been white.
Caleb felt his resolve to be apologetic and understanding slip away. "You worried about him?"
Reid didn't flinch, instead locking the break on his wheelchair. "I heard he hit Baby Boy. I'm just curious."
"He's alive. But Baby Boy might have broken his leg." Caleb clarified and saw the flash of a smirk in the corner of Reid's mouth. It eased some anxious part of his soul. He wasn't sure what he'd have done if Reid actually liked Connor—still. "You should come home." He blurted out before cringing and dragging his fingers through his short, dark hair. "I can move out if—"
"No. That's fine. I'll move in." He said casually and Caleb was sure he would have shrugged if he hadn't busted most of the parts of him that made shrugging possible.
Caleb nodded slowly. He should have left then but he didn't. "I just have a question…"
"Fuck. No." Reid complained in a heave and a wince at the effort. "I said I'd come back. Just fucking shut up and leave it alone, all right?"
Caleb bit back with urge to fight, nodding tensely. "Yeah. Fine."
Reid groaned and stood up. Caleb hated how much pain rippled through him at the gesture. "Fuck it. Fine. What is it?"
Caleb hesitated. Was he really going to risk wrecking this? Of course, he was. "When I came in to the apartment…"
"Uhuh…"
"Did you know I was coming?"
Reid's cheek lifted, livid with expression even when bruised and half swollen. "What? How would I know?"
"It's just…" Caleb exhaled and had to resist the urge to look away. He couldn't risk missing any moment of truth on his brother's face. "You looked… calm. Like you knew what was coming and you just… didn't care."
Reid blinked at him for a second and then actually relaxed. "That's it? That's your question?" He sounded unimpressed. "I've been beaten up before, man."
Caleb almost stopped breathing. His mind reeled. "Beaten up?" He repeated, utterly dumbfounded. That wasn't what happened. Maybe that was how it started. Obviously, Reid had been holding his own for a while in that fight—based on the state of Connor before Caleb even touched him—but Reid hadn't just been beaten up. "That asshole was going to rape you, Reid." He saw the shock and then fury burn in those blue eyes. Strange, how they could burn even without magic behind them. He swung the arm not in the sling so fast Caleb couldn't even dodge. Knuckles cut across his cheek and knocked him back against the door.
"Shit!" Reid hissed in pain, shaking his bandaged hand, knuckles bleeding through the gauze. "Do I look like some damsel bitch to you? Did you see me crying and begging him to stop?"
Caleb licked the blood in the corner of his mouth, unable to look away from Reid now. He was totally serious. Caleb pushed off the door to tower over him again. He hadn't been crying or begging. Would he really not have? Even if they hadn't shown up when they had? "Has it happened before?"
"Has what happened before?" Reid shouted back, lip curled to bare those slightly elongated canines of his. He paced the small room and Caleb realized he was blocking the door.
"Have you been…" He hesitated at the warning glare in Reid's eye. "Has that happened before?"
"No, you dick! Get away from me!" Reid snapped but Caleb heard the unspoken 'but' at the end of that sentence.
"But it's gotten out of hand like that before? You've had boyfriends that knocked you around? Guys that tried to jump you and… fuck you?" He picked his words as carefully as he could.
Reid was still pacing, looking more uncomfortable but also like he'd never really thought about it this way before. "I always hit them back!" He defended but he was starting to sound tired and unhappy rather than angry. He stopped pacing and took a breath, staring at some spot on the wall hard. "Fuck." He shook the hand he'd hit Caleb with again. "It never got that far, okay? So stop talking about it."
Caleb nodded slowly. It would never have gotten that far before because he'd been able to use to make it stop—to make it all go away. "I'm sorry." It came out and Reid looked back at him for the first time since he'd clocked him. "I should have been there. Pogue should have been there." If they'd been looking out for him the last few years, they would have seen the danger of the guys Reid liked to hang out with. They would have laid down laws with his boyfriends to keep them from getting out of hand.
Reid curled his lip in a halfhearted sneer. "It's not your job to—"
"If what happened to you happened to Tyler." Caleb pointed out quickly, to give him the same perspective so he'd know what he meant. Reid needed perspective if you wanted him to get feelings. Caleb remembered at least that much from when they were teens.
Reid's jaw flexed and Caleb was sure the bruise on his cheek darkened. "In that case, you really fucked up." The blond finally said, the smallest smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Caleb huffed out a laugh, bitter but tired, and nodded. "I did. Forgive me?"
Reid shrugged and then cringed, hissing out a breath. "Sure. I mean, you did beat the guy up, right? So you didn't totally fuck up. Think if he'd actually broken off a piece of my sweet ass? You'd feel real bad." He smiled then, dark and just as tired as Caleb felt.
Caleb cringed but nodded, deciding he deserved it. "I would have, yeah. But so would Connor."
Reid smiled wide. "Yeah, I'll admit, I kept my cool because I knew one of you would kill him if he killed me." He nudged his chin at the door behind Caleb, still not comfortable enough it with him to close in on his personal space and push him out of the way. But for the first time in years, Caleb could imagine them getting back to that place. "Chair." He nudged his chin at the wheelchair behind Reid.
Reid didn't look back at it. "Come on. I can walk fine. I've been on more drugs and managed not to fall down before."
Caleb frowned at that but countered, "If you walk out that door, you're just giving Po an excuse to carry you."
Reid considered his choices for a second before letting out a string of curses and sitting himself in the chair. "Your both assholes." He complained while Caleb held the door and he wheeled himself out into the hall.
In the hall, Pogue was waiting with Tyler. Reid immediately pulled Baby Boy into the chair with him. Tyler expertly managed to sit in his lap without leaning into his chest and Pogue took over pushing the chair. Reid grabbed Tyler's chin to look at his face, frowning hard. "What a son of a bitch!" He looked at that bruise on Tyler's cheek with his blood red eye like it was a knife wound. "I hope you did break his leg!"
"I did." Tyler promised, only a little smug.
"Someone has to stop at the pharmacy for Reid's meds."
"Ooooh. What do I get? Can I have them on ice cream like sprinkles?"
"I'll pick them up." Caleb took the prescription from Pogue.
It was morning when they came out of the hospital and Reid cringed at the day, suddenly feeling the weight of his exhaustion. "Baby Boy, will you go with and get me ice cream?"
Tyler laughed, climbing off the chair when they got to the car. "Yeah, but no one's letting you eat your meds like sprinkles." He reminded. Reid was only half aware of the hand that held his elbow when he stood up until he swayed and it was that hand that kept him upright. He turned, expecting to whisper a thank you to Tyler, but found Caleb standing next to him. His meds were really kicking in now. Somehow Caleb helped him into Pogue's truck without it looking like he helped all that much at all. He sat there until the doors closed and he was alone with Pogue.
"Don't let him come home with me." Reid whispered, watching the smears of colors outside.
Pogue looked at him before looking at the road again. He smiled a little, realizing his brother was more high than not at this point. "What?"
"Po… Promise. Don't let Tyler leave with me."
Pogue stopped smiling. "You're not leaving. You're coming home."
Reid thought he nodded but he didn't. "I know. But eventually… It just doesn't go right with me. You know that. There's something…" His mouth pinched. "Don't let him follow me next time. He followed me and you followed Caleb." He sighed, closing his eyes. "You were right to follow him. I shouldn't have blamed you. Just promise you won't let Tyler follow me again… He deserves better."
Pogue sighed, reaching to the side to bury fingers in his brother's pale hair. "How about I just don't let you run next time?"
Reid huffed a laugh that ended too quick to be whole when he fell asleep. Pogue let his fingers linger in his hair and when they got to the house he carried him in—not to Reid's room, but to his own. He put him on the bed and crawled in next to him.
Ugh! So good to be writing this again. And look at this, VBK, I didn't even take a year to post another chapter! The next one might be steamy...
