Rhys had been even more squirrelly than he had ever been before in the coming weeks since the day where he believed that he had seen his step father. It was strange to think that his pretty soul mate had been jumping at shadows just at the idea that he may or may not have seen him.
A lot of nights, Rhys would wake up gasping and crying from the after affects of a nightmare about his past or maybe even something concocted by his fears.
This had been one of those nights and Jack had woken up to his soul mate sobbing and rocking himself forwards and backwards as he muttered, "No, no, no" like a mantra.
"Rhysie?" Jack questioned, looking at the terrified look on his soul mates face. "What's wrong, pumpkin?"
Without even thinking, Rhys jumped into Jacks' arms and cuddled him close as he babbled anxious nonsense, more to himself than to Jack, about everything he thought had happened. The only thing that the younger man said that Jack could clearly make out was, "I, I th-thought you were dead."
Jack was actually taken aback by that, "What?" he questioned stupidly, "You thought I was dead?"
"Yes! I -" Rhys nuzzled further, "I thought that Frank killed you..." he whimpered, "He… in my dream… he…"
The younger man tried his best to put all of his thoughts into words, but found himself trailing off stupidly.
He couldn't come to terms with that reality, even though it wasn't a reality at all.
Even knowing it wasn't real, the grim remembrance of the dream kept playing on repeat in his head and he couldn't shake the terror that he felt when he dreamt of his soul mate being harmed by his step father.
"Me?" he joked weakly, "Nah, kitten. I'm not so easy to get rid of."
'I'd love to see him try,' Jack thought, infuriated by the panic that his soul mate was in. No one was allowed to make Rhys feel like this – not even him.
Rhys either didn't hear him or chose to ignore him so he could keep cuddling against the older mans chest. He clung a lot, touching Jack in a way that almost seemed like he was doing it to make sure that Jack still existed.
That he was still real.
A little part of him – A part of himself that he wasn't proud to have, no matter how stubborn it was about sticking around – reveled in the way that Rhys jumped in his arms and clung to Jack for dear life and sobbed on his shoulder.
Most of him just wanted blood on the behalf of his soul mate – he wanted that asshole to suffer for as long as possible. He wanted to see Frank sobbing and pissing himself, petrified as Jack exacted his revenge on the man.
The only thing that held him back was his want to have Frank behind bars, being violated by hateful prisoners and stuck feeling the exact same fear that Rhys had been forced to suffer through his whole life. In Jacks' eyes, it was only fair and killing him would just be letting Frank off easy.
But if he found any concrete evidence that Frank had been stalking Rhys and his soul mate wasn't just jumping at shadows then that man would be dead.
Jack wouldn't even be hesitating to snap his neck if he knew that what Rhys had been thinking was true.
Rhys pulled back suddenly, looking terribly apologetic. "I, Jack, I am s-s-s-so s-sorry." he stuttered out between staccato sobs, "I d-d-didn't mean to w-wake you."
Jack tutted at the younger man and wrapped his arms around Rhys' waist before pulling him back into his lap. "Don't be sorry for having a nightmare, Rhysie." he scolded softly, "Tell me what happened, pumpkin."
Jack ran his fingers gently through his soul mates chestnut colored hair, cooing nonsense to the younger man as he did so until his sobs petered out into something less panicked and hysterical sounding.
Rhys sighed out shakily as he tried to calm himself enough to tell Jack everything that had happened, every single detail that had horrified him enough to have him panicking and practically on the verge of a heart attack.
The older man was incredibly patient with him, more patient than he would ever be with anyone who wasn't a part of his family. "It's okay," he assured, "Take your time, Rhysie just… tell me whenever you're ready."
"I...okay." The younger man muttered as he looked at his soul mate. "You were… well, we were um- in bed together and..."
Jacks' face lit up as Rhys flushed, trying to skirt around the fact that he had had a sex dream about them last night. It was so cute. "Go on, kitten." he urged the younger man, "We were 'in bed' together and…?"
The younger man let out a tiny giggle despite himself, "We were… well we were, sleeping together and then," tears fell down Rhys' cheeks once more as he started to sob again. "Th-then it wasn't you. Then it was him!"
Jack stiffened as he heard that, he wanted this man dead for causing his soul mate so much emotional pain and it riled up his temper. Still, he did his best not to let it show and to comfort the young man in his arms.
"He was touching you?" Jack clarified, his tone was dark and deep and dangerous. "It wasn't me, so it was him and he was touching you."
Rhys nodded, "I, I kept calling for you." he insisted, "I kept saying 'what did you do with him?' because I knew that he did something to you… h-he's evil, he would have killed me if he knew I told you about what he did."
His dream had felt so very real, to the point that he woke up feeling phantom pains from past assaults in his lower regions.
It occurred to Jack then that Rhys might not have been in the right state of mind to be thinking of this, he was already paranoid that his step father was following him, he didn't need to hash out any more painful details.
"You don't have to keep going." Jack murmured reassuringly, "You don't need to say anymore kitten."
Rhys shook his head no, because Jack was right. He didn't have to tell Jack the rest of his nightmare but at the same time he needed to. "Y-you were dead," he said with a blank tone. "He killed you and started r-raping me again." he flinched, "and again." he squeezed his eyes shut, "and again." clenched his fists at odd intervals, "and again."
The young man was truly broken up by the graphic imagery, but at the same time he was relieved that it wasn't real. It didn't make it less disturbing, but it became a little more livable to know that it was just a concoction of his imagination.
Jack wasn't going anywhere, he reminded himself. His soul mate was strong and if anyone would ever be able to handle Frank then it would be Jack Lawrence. He repeated it to himself while Jack held him, he kept reminding himself of it on repeat – Jack was safe, Angel was safe, he was safe, they were safe.
"Rhysie." Jack called, bringing Rhys back from his thoughts and grounding him back to reality. "I am not going to let that asshole touch you ever again. We live in a private building that only me and my high clearance employees are allowed to enter. Let's say Frank is following you-"
He regretted his choice of words when a tiny sob eked out of his soul mate, "He's not." he reminded gently, "But if he were he would never have a chance to get within ten feet of you. I have more security than anyone in the world would be able to breach and I can always get more."
Rhys blinked up at him blearily, thinking on how he must have looked so crazy and unstable to the older man. Jack wouldn't say it, but Rhys was sure that he was more trouble than he was worth. He probably begrudged the fact that he had to be paired with someone so needy every single day of his life since they met.
"Thank you." Rhys hummed sweetly, "You're so good to me." he added sincerely, "I know I can be… a lot." he looked down at his legs crossed on the bed in his embarrassment.
If Jack hadn't been so concerned with his soul mate, then he might have corrected him with a bit more harshness. Instead, he took Rhys' hand, brought it to his lips and he gently kissed the younger mans' knuckles. He knew how much Rhys loved physical affection and he planned to give it to his fragile soul mate in droves.
Rhys gasped in surprise before he melted to the contact, "Jack…" he trailed off before crashing into the older mans chest. Jack laughed at the younger mans' clinginess as he nuzzled against him stubbornly, he stroked a hand down Rhys' back gently.
"You're not a lot." He corrected, "You're not a burden, kitten. You have no idea how much I need you, Rhys." he added patiently, "I. Love. You." he let a snarky grin cross his features, "Stupid." he added with a kiss to the younger mans forehead.
Despite himself, Rhys laughed. "I love you too." he said genuinely before getting up off of the bed and getting himself ready for the day.
With all the commotion that had been happening that week, Jack almost forgot his preparations for Rhys' nineteenth birthday.
'Almost' being the keyword, because Jack took great pride in having his soul mate feel cared for, happy and pampered. The only problem with that was that his soul mate was too stubborn and self punishing to allow himself to be properly spoiled.
So, naturally, Jack had to get a little more creative with his efforts. It definitely needed to be a surprise, he thought wisely. Especially with what he had planned, it was better if Rhys had no idea what was happening until he was there.
"Hey kiddo." Jack hummed to Angel as she poured over her homework, trying to get a little more done before she was taken to school. "How are ya?"
"I'm okay." Angel replied with a tired smile, "'M trying to finish up the rest of my homework before we go."
"Shouldn't you have gotten that done last night?"
"Well at least I'm getting it done!" she crossed her arms over her chest in an argumentative stance, "I could just decide not to do it!"
Jack shrugged at that, "Fair enough." he assented, "Just make sure that all that gets done, I don't want Rhysie stressing over your grades on his birthday."
"Rhysies birthday is coming up?" Angel perked up at that, "Is it a surprise?"
"Yeah, so we gotta keep it on the down low." Jack hummed sagely, "Do you want to help me set it up for him?"
Angel nodded perkily, "Of course!" She agreed. "I'll do whatever I can!"
"Okay good, So I'm gonna need you-" Jack cut himself off as he looked at his soul mate, who had approached with a cup of overly sweetened coffee for himself, "Rhysie." he added in a pleased tone as he looked at the cup of caffeinated liquid, "Did you make a whole pot or just enough for yourself?"
Rhys decidedly didn't answer Jacks question. "What are you two whispering about?" he questioned, looking at the two curiously.
"Nothin' that you need to be worrying about, kiddo." Jack assured, "Just going over a few things with Angel."
"Oh yeah?" Rhys retorted, narrowing his eyes at them suspiciously. "What kind of things?" he looked at Angel, "Angel, what's going on?"
Just as Angel was about to open her mouth – and possibly spoil the surprise while she was at it – Jack interrupted the scene fluidly, "Rhys. Babe. Honey. Kitten. Light of my fu-" he stopped himself as he looked at the disapproving face of his daughter, "freaking life, you don't need to be nosy-"
"I'm not being nosy!" Rhys protested, suddenly feeling very small and helpless in the way that Jack made him feel like on occasion – seemingly with just the aura that exuded from him. "I just, you guys are very clearly talking about me and I just want to know what you're saying."
Jack frowned as he looked at the younger man biting his lips and giving him the most convincing puppy dog eyes that he had ever seen. "Come here, pumpkin." he hummed and Rhys was barely in an arms grasp when Jack pulled the younger man into his lap and wrapped his arms around the slimmer waist.
"Brat." he murmured playfully before kissing the younger man on the lips – much to the disgust of his daughter, judging by her over exaggerated 'ews' and retching noises. He snorted as he pulled back and looked at her, "You're even worse." he said to her with a mockingly scolding tone.
"Will you please just tell me what you two were talking about?" Rhys questioned softly, not so much angry as confused – he had never liked being out of the loop, throughout his childhood it was one thing that always managed to drive him crazy and even as an adult he was no different when it came to this one thing.
"Mmm, nah." Jack replied after pretending to think about it. "It's a surprise." he added with another kiss to the side of his soul mates pretty face.
"Oh no." Rhys' eyes widened as he realized what that meant. "Jack I said I didn't want a big thing for my birthday."
"Yeah, and I said I'd think about it." The older man argued, his hands soothing up and down Rhys' lithe hips. "And I did think about it. But I still think that you need to be spoiled half to death, Rhysie – might do you a little good."
"You're still going through with this?" Rhys sighed out with exasperation, "I mean I already know why would you-"
"Hey, you don't know everything." Jack argued, "Any moment, a surprise party could be lurking around the corner."
"Sounds like my worst nightmare." Rhys joked as he leaned in to the older mans' chest. "I hate surprises."
He did indeed loathe surprises but he could tell that Jack really wanted to do this for him and he was hard pressed to deny the older man the chance to spoil him.
"I think you'll really like this one." Jack hummed with a kiss to his soul mates shoulder blade, "And if you don't then I'll never surprise you again. Maybe, I don't know, I might break that pormise.
"Of course you would, Jack." Rhys replied with no small amount of fondness in his voice. "I'll… fine, whatever give me a surprise party." the younger man finally agreed, "But don't expect me to have the time of my life about it."
Jack chuckled at that, because he had a feeling that Rhys would love this surprise. No matter how blasé and put upon he was acting about it.
Rhys had been putting forth an enormous amount of effort not to jump at any shadows or cower in fear every time he heard a noise – because he knew how unrealistic it was of him to assume that his step father would have followed him across the country, let alone that he had stalked him for almost a year without Rhys noticing him.
Still, it felt so real. Like he knew that it was Frank that he had seen that night in his heart of hearts and although he knew that he was more than likely being paranoid – he couldn't rid himself of the dread that he was feeling.
Rhys shook his head nervously, he wanted these feelings gone. He wanted no more fear to permeate his senses and overtake all of his common sense and reason, he didn't want to be like this anymore – Rhys was so sure that he was done living in fear.
He was so sure that he wouldn't feel this way anymore – for almost an entire year, Frank had lost all of his control over Rhys. He was so sure that his step father wouldn't evoke so much fear in him but still he cowered in fear just at the shadow of him.
What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just let this be? What exactly about this encounter shook him so much that he couldn't bring himself to shrug it off.
If you asked Rhys, he would not be able to answer – because he wasn't entirely sure of why, himself.
Rhys was snapped out of his thoughts by someone touching his shoulder, he whipped around and readied himself to defend himself from an attack. He wilted almost immediately as he saw Vaughn holding his hands up in surrender.
"Vaughn..." Rhys breathed out in a shaky and frightened tone. "You, uh, you scared me."
"Hey man," Vaughn hummed, looking concerned and friendly all at the same time, "You coming?" he asked, hoping to snap Rhys out of whatever state that he had been put – or put himself – into.
Rhys looked at his friend with an almost shocked expression – all wide eyes and slightly parted lips – before remembering himself and answering the smaller male, "Yes, yeah of course." he babbled listlessly.
"You're sure?" Vaughn asked again, "You look pale." he added with a bit more outspoken concern laced in his tone.
"Oh...yeah, no, I'm fine." Rhys dismissed, "Just a little tired is all."
"If you say so," Vaughn hummed, "Let's get going. Otherwise, Gaige is gonna…well, you know."
Rhys giggled at that, "Yeah. I know." he agreed, "She's great."
As he stood up and got his shoes on, Rhys made a point with himself to stop himself from listening to the warring dialogues in his head for the rest of the night.
He needed to enjoy himself and he was not going to allow this monster to control him anymore.
If Rhys had been frightened by his encounter – Jack had been infuriated.
Just the idea – just the thought of someone touching Rhys like he had been was enough to enrage him and throw him right over the edge.
But this? This was even worse, the idea that Rhys' step father had been stalking the two of them for whatever reason. It drove him crazy and he was glad that Rhys had gone out for the night and Angel had gone to a sleepover at another girls house.
He didn't want either of them to see him so uncontrolled and angry and not only that because he knew that he could be downright fearsome when he was angry enough – there was a chance that he might end up hurting Rhys or even Angel without even realizing it and that… was something that he could never live with himself if he had done it.
Still, Jack needed answers – his brain wouldn't shut up until he figured everything out.
After a while of thinking he decided to phone Hammerlock – if anyone would be able to figure out whether or not this man was an actual threat it would have to be her.
Jack was happy to find that the Baroness picked up on the second ring. "Hammerlock, listen I need a favor-"
"Jack, I had thought that we weren't on speaking terms anymore." The woman on the other line teased in her usual tone. "What do you need from me, darling?"
"Can you call and ask around about a Frank Shapiro?" he asked in a forcefully blasé tone because he had a feeling that she might sniff out what was really bothering him about this man if he didn't.
"Is this about that soul mate of yours?" The baroness responded in an amused tone, "The one that I haven't gotten the pleasure to meet yet?"
"Who told you about him?" Jack replied with thinly veiled suspicion.
"Nisha." She answered truthfully, "She was incredibly shocked about how… what was the phrasing that she used? Oh yes, 'annoyingly cute' that he was."
"I'm gonna kill her." Jack snapped, rolling his eyes in his aggravation.
"I'm more than a little offended that you didn't deem me fit to meet him." The Baroness said in an exaggerated tone meant to let him know that she was 'oh so very hurt'.
Jack wasn't buying it and that was putting it lightly.
"Look you're a little intense and-"
"That's implying that you are not?" She countered.
Jack groaned and muttered, "Fair point." underneath his breath before addressing her, "he spooks easily. I didn't want to scare him off by having him meet all the people I…" he trailed off, unsure of how to word the phrase. "Associate with."
"Cute." She replied, seemingly not so much annoyed anymore as she was amused. "What was the name? Frank?"
"Yeah," Jack agreed, "Frank Shapiro, he's from Sanctuary." he added, "I just want to make sure that he hasn't been in the city limits."
"I can handle that easily," Hammerlock agreed, "On one condition."
"I'm gonna regret this aren't I?" Jack muttered to himself before asking her, "What do you want?"
"I want to meet him." The Baroness stated her terms evenly, "He sounds absolutely precious and you know just how much I adore cute things."
"I know how much you like putting them on your wall." He quipped, "Like, stuffed and mounted."
"Those are my terms." She replied in clipped tones. "Accept them or not, I don't care – but I won't help you without incentive."
"Fine." Jack agreed after several moments of thoughtful silence. "But if you spook him, I'm sending the bill for all of the therapy to you."
"Charming." She hummed, "I'll get back to you shortly on this Frank man and I just cannot wait to meet your soul mate. I'm sure he's lovely."
Gaige and Vaughn had taken Rhys to a robotics festival – something that absolutely sparked his adoration for his two friends and a nerdy fan boyish excitement that he couldn't truly contain as he looked over all of the tech.
"Oh my god," Rhys cooed as he looked at the little robot. "It's a Gortys companion bot! Man these things are state of the art – with imprinting technology and… and… oh this is so cool!"
Just as Rhys was about to take ten of them Gaige interrupted the sale with a laugh, "Jack will straight up kill us if we bring Atlas tech back to his penthouse."
"But it's so cute!" he argued, "How could Jack hate anything so cute?"
"Whatever dude." Vaughn retorted, "I'm not gonna be complicit in this."
"Yeah, me either." Gaige agreed, "Meet us by the food court when you're ready." she added, "Oh. And bring snacks, please!"
Despite their wishes and maybe even his better judgment, Rhys got himself that Gortys bot. He figured that Jack wouldn't get as mad at him as he would have if it were anyone else.
He had been so excited that he hadn't noticed the woman walking near him until he hit her full force with his own body, both of their belongings flying places – Gortys flying into her hands, thankfully.
"Sorry!" Rhys babbled apologetically, "I uh, I didn't mean to bump into you."
"Don't worry about it." She said nonchalantly as she helped him up, "That's a cool lookin' robot." The red headed woman said, "Well, it's cute… but still."
Rhys smiled impishly at that. "Yeah, my uh, boyfriend payed for it." He giggled, "He doesn't know that yet, thought. Hope he doesn't get mad…"
"You've got a boyfriend?" The woman seemed like she was doing her best to seem surprised, but he didn't comment on it. "They have a name?"
"His name is Jack." Rhys allowed himself a small smile then, "He's so great. He treats me like I'm royalty or something like that, which is…a little overwhelming but still pretty great."
"Jack?" she narrowed her eyes, "His full name wouldn't happen to be Jack Lawrence, would it?"
"That's him, yeah." Rhys answered genially, figuring that she was probably Hyperion and may have seen him around Helios. A dreamy smile crossed his face as he thought of his soul mate. "Um, do you work for Hyperion? Because I'm pretty sure that Jack wouldn't like it if I was talking to someone from a rival company."
"You just let him order you around like that?" Lilith asked with incredulity – whether it was feigned or sincere Rhys could not be bothered to differentiate.
"I… don't know if I would word it like that?" Rhys responded, confused by her hostility towards his soul mate.
"Then how would you word it?"
The things that this woman was saying had Rhys feeling squirrelly, most people didn't like having their world view challenged and he was no different – he especially didn't enjoy having this conversation with someone that he didn't even know at a robotics fair where he was supposed to be having a good time exclusively.
"How would I word it?" he asked rhetorically, "I guess, I like to do nice things for people that I care about and I care about Jack a lot." he had already started to feel incredibly uncomfortable with where this conversation was going. "I'm sorry what's your name again?"
"Lilith." she answered him curtly, "If I could just ask you a few more questions-"
"I'm sorry," Rhys interrupted her, "I really am but I have to go."
Rhys turned away from the red haired woman and scooted off in a way that was not unlikea scared rabbit, because he was truly a little taken aback by the encounter itself.
He wandered around the fair grounds for a bit, not at all ready to come back to his friends as he was still feeling a little bit out of sorts. Probably not a good idea, considering how he had been feeling but he still would rather face whatever real or imagined thing that he was fearful of than try to explain the bizarre encounter.
When he came back to his waiting friends – he saw only Gaige, looking at him with a strange and indiscernible expression.
"Is something wrong?" he asked, feeling a little defensive of himself although he knew that he didn't actually do anything wrong.
"You took forever." Gaige said, looking more than a little miffed by the sour expression on Rhys' face. The younger man didn't look so much upset as he did confused and turned towards her with an equally quizzical tone. "What was the wait all about?"
"I ran into some woman while I was walking to the concession stands." Rhys replied in a dazed and sleepy tone. "It was pretty weird so I didn't manage to get the snacks, I'm sorry about that."
"What sort of woman?"
"I think she was a reporter?" he replied, "she was asking me questions about Jack and…" he blinked a few times, "I don't know, I got uncomfortable all of the sudden so I ran off."
"Why would a reporter be asking you about Jack?" Gaige replied with equal dumbfoundedness. "I mean…he gets some media coverage but they would be more likely to ask him about you."
"She didn't seem to like him much." The young man replied, furrowing his brows in his contemplation.
Gaige looked at him evenly, "Was her name Lilith?" she asked with uncharacteristic calmness.
"Yeah, that was it."
Gaige groaned and sighed all at the same time, "He's gonna kill me!" she shouted, throwing her arms up in her exasperation. "Of all the people to run into you… and he's gonna blame me, which is, really not fair at all!"
"Gaige, are you alright?" Rhys asked cautiously, with a tone of voice that sounded like he was worried that she might need to be sedated in the next few minutes.
Gaige looked at him, "Okay we should go find Vaughn first, then we can talk about this all together." she promised.
They ended up gathering their number savvy friend quickly and it took only a little bit longer to find a quiet place for them to talk about everything that had happened.
"So who is this Lilith?" Rhys asked, "I mean you acted like Jack would know her and get… angry about her talking to me."
"He wouldn't get mad, at least I don't think so."
"Then what's the problem?"
"She hates Jack." Gaige responded evenly. "I dunno, she thinks that he killed her boyfriend or something like that."
The Mech-Romancer didn't seem all that convinced that that was something Jack would do either way.
"Huh," Was all Rhys could really say, he made a mental note to himself to ask Jack if he had ever killed someone named Roland or if the woman was just deluded – having no idea how correct she really was, just not in the way that she would have thought.
Strangely enough the idea that it might have been just this woman eased him – just slightly so, because there were even more ramifications to someone like her following them.
He wondered whether or not it would be a good idea to tell Jack about her following him – because it could go either way, both outcomes in opposite extremes.
On the one hand, if he told Jack then his soul mate might be able to rest a little easier knowing that it wasn't about him but about Jack – given who has soul mate was and what he was prone to do whenever he felt like he was backed into a corner, he figured that Jack would take care of it promptly.
On the other hand – whatever Jack decided to do about it might end up with him acting rashly about it and possibly even getting caught.
That was something that he would never, ever want to deal with – he could barely go a week without seeing his soul mate before he was a whining, babbling, codependent mess.
In the end, Rhys opted to tell Jack if he ever saw her again and decided that her meddling had gotten to the point that it was dangerous for the two of them.
When and if that day ever came, he would tell Jack and let all the cards fall where they may.
