Rating: M
Pairing: NAKRON
Summary: Zak does a lot of round about things to keep Nick and Aaron safe. He takes the front so he's the first thing the ghosts see. He taunts the hardest so the ghosts concentrate on him. Zak doesn't like it when spirits come out to bully his partners, so he takes it upon himself when they're not seperated. But this time he may of taken it too far and the recent possession just might follow Zak home.
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When Zak next wakes up it was in a brightly lit hospital. He licks his dry lips as he tries to get a hold of what's going on. It was quiet but for the beep of the heart monitor and it just got to him just how many tubes were stuck in his body. He panics and it shows on the machine he was hooked up to, but he doesn't want to move. Who knows who's waiting around the corner.
Zak groans quietly as the aches become more noticeable in his body. His torso hurts more than anything, but he doesn't really remember, at least, not the specifics. He still knows who put him here.
He got flashes of Nick, his face distorted in ways he's never seen, looming over him. Not Nick. Couldn't be. Because this Nick hurt him and his Nick would never. They promised each other protection. Nick wouldn't hurt him- he promised. But Zak hurts now and though he doesn't remember why he's in the hospital, he knew who's hand had hit him.
"Zak?"
He jumps and his eyes go wide as he looks over to his right. Aaron stares at him, hopeful and afraid. He looks like he wants to come to Zak's side and hold him, but is frightened to touch him. Did he really look that bad? He reaches for his face self-consciously, but the tubes in his arm makes it feel odd to move.
Nick, though. Nick is sleeping. He looks tired and the furrow of guilt was evident on his brow even unconscious. He sobs once, quietly, and Aaron quickly reaches over to squeeze his arm. It doesn't look right to see Nick take up so little space. He seems to fold into himself.
"What's wrong?" Zak croaks.
Aaron sighs and brings his hand back to himself, "A lot of things."
Zak nods. Of course. He fiddles with the hospital gown and shifts uncomfortably when he realizes just how naked and vulnerable he is in a hospital he didn't know. He wants his boys with him on the bed, but that might not be a good idea. "What happened?" He decides to ask instead. He doesn't remember much and he wants to know how he went from the elevator to this bed.
Aaron grunts quietly and falls back against the wall he was sitting against. He leans his head back and rubs his eyes before looking at Zak. "He got you pretty good. Your were a mess." He smiles a little as Zak looks worriedly at himself and pulls at the gown. "Don't even bother. Got you bandaged up a few days ago."
"Days?"
Aaron chuckles quietly at the surprised look on Zak's face. "Don't worry, not too long." He leans forward then, resting his head on his hands. "A lot has happened."
Not enough. Zak couldn't help the tick of annoyance in his voice. "What happened, Aaron."
Aaron's lips purse and it was obvious he was thinking. He drops his gaze and shrugs, "Its best you see the video. But... things should get a little better," he looks up, "Nick saw a priest."
Zak pauses, feeling all the nervous energy swell inside himself. He should of known Aaron would drag him over in the end. Still, he hoped. Zak was scared. The priest is their last resort and if that didn't work...
He sat up, wincing as sharp aches shot through his chest. Aaron sat up straighter as well, but kept back. Zak snickers. "I'm okay, Aaron. Sit with me?" He laughs quietly when Aaron shakes his head.
"'m gonna hurt you, dude."
"Yeah, yeah... is he okay?"
They return to Nick and the aforementioned man shifts in his sleep. Zak finally notices the dark circles under his eyes and can't help but feel guilty that Nick had to go through that for so long. Aaron rubs Nick's back for a few seconds before crossing his arms.
"He's okay. He was sick for a little bit, but he's going to be all right. He's worried," Aaron frowns a little, "He hates himself for hurting you."
Zak shakes his head quickly. "it wasn't his fault though!" Aaron only shrugs and anything Zak was going to say died in his throat. How could Nick blame himself? Zak fists tighten over the thin sheet over his lap and darted his eyes over to the younger man. "Is he still...?"
"That's the good thing." Aaron breathes a sigh of relief and relaxes. He gives Zak a small smile, "I'm not gonna lie. It was scary and from what I could tell it hurt. But Nick is free."
Zak quiets and he could feel himself uncoil slowly as Aaron's words sunk in. Nick is free. That demon wouldn't be touching Nick any more. Nick is cleansed. Zak wants to make sure. He wants to wake Nick up and take a hard look at the other man, but he didn't want to bother him. He suffered enough and he looked like he could get some sleep.
A man walks in and Zak becomes defensive when he stops at the door and smiles. Zak was about to ask him who he was, but the man brightly spoke. "You're awake. That's good, but you shouldn't be sitting up just yet."
He nods towards Aaron and Aaron nods back, saying a name, Greg, or something, before taking a seat. "Greg" comes to Zak's bedside and Zak twitches forward when the other man pushes him back. "You are safe here, Mr. Bagans." He says and Zak slowly lays down, trusting him as long as Aaron trusts him.
"When can I leave?" Zak asks and it takes about an hour to convince Greg, the nurse, and the doctor to let him go before sunset.
This was familiar. Zak sits in the back with Aaron and Nick takes the front, driving them back to their hotel. Nick won't speak, in fact, he moves around like a ghost unwilling to communicate. He wouldn't look at Zak.
Aaron tries to add conversation, something light, because Zak had just gotten out of the hospital, but nothing ever last. He ends up telling Zak about the break the network gave the trio. Their trips were to be suspended, for how long, Aaron didn't really know. They told him that Zak needs to talk to them and negotiate, but even Zak knows from the look on Aaron's face that it was going to be a while before they let them hunt again.
"How's your chest?" Aaron asks and zips up the last few inches to cover the bandages on Zak's chest. The raven haired man was leaning against him, spreading out along the back seat as much as he could. Aaron smiles down at him as Zak stares up at him from his lap.
"I'm feeling it." Zak answers dryly and really tries not to move. He grunts and winces slightly when he felt the car come to a stop. A soft murmur, "We're here" has him sitting up carefully with Aaron's help.
The door opens and Nick finally takes his eyes off the floor. Zak's heart breaks a little bit as the younger man brings a hand forward and pauses, unsure if he could touch Zak. He doesn't like this. "Please, Nick." Zak could do it himself, but he didn't want to accept this new development.
A shaky hand falls into his and Zak grabs on tightly as he steps out of their rented van. Aaron comes out right after, hand around his hip as the door shuts behind him. Aaron nudges him into Nick and the younger man shot a hand out, fingers pressing into his stomach so Zak doesn't end up falling but then it drops away.
"I'm sorry."
"You didn't hurt me, Nick." He sighs, the hand not in Nick's coming up to push back his productless hair. He doesn't meet Nick's eyes, not that he could, for a moment before looking into Nick's downcasted face. He holds onto the other man's arm, giving him half a smile as he says, "You know its not your fault, right? All this," he motions to his body, "That- back there- wasn't you."
"But I could of stopped it." Nick mumbles and he feels no less responsible. He pulls Zak along until they reach the pavement. He drops his hands from where he had them on Zak's body as he says, "Maybe I should stay in my room tonight. Alone, you know? I don't know if it'll come back- man, I hurt you. I could hurt Aaron too. And I don't-"
"You won't hurt us." Zak says with a shake of his head and looks at Aaron who has been silent throughout the exchange. The older man looks concerned, but he knows this is between Zak and Nick and only the raven could convince Nick that he was innocent. "I won't let it happen again."
They go upstairs, the three of them piling into one bedroom, Nick's, so he has nowhere to run. Zak winces as he undresses, and he wants to shower terribly, but the bandages on his body are new, the ointments in his cuts freshly applied, and Zak honestly doesn't think he even has strength in his legs to stand up. He's oddly weak, but he remembers the doctors telling him not to push it. He should not have passed out for as long as he had, the injuries he sustained were not that bad, and though his condition brought up questions they let him go as long as he goes to emergency care at the slightest hint of nausea.
Which Zak doesn't really feel now. He feels tired and he sits on the bed only in his boxers as he watches both Nick and Aaron disrobe. As Nick turns around, he pauses. His eyes glances over the bandages littering Zak's body before carefully making his way to the raven haired man, like he just might run if Nick so much as lay a finger on him, and Nick just couldn't handle that, not now. Nick huffs slightly, that shakey smile bringing one to Zak's lips too.
"You're not scared of me, right?"
Zak laughs and scoots back on the bed as he holds onto Nick's arm. "Dude, its gonna take more than that to scare me."
Aaron shakes his head with a snort. He's the last to disrobe as he make sure the door is locked and the lights are out. His pants hit the floor heavily and his weight settles over the bed on Zak's other side. It's tight, but for now its the best way to know Zak won't fall out of bed due to nightmares. "Go to sleep, you two." He mumbles into Zak's hair once he has him tucked against his body, back to chest, and reaches over to squeeze Nick's shoulder before letting it just wrap loosely between his younger two companions' bodies. Nick doesn't get as close, but his hand is entwined with Zak's, warm and gentle. They're close enough to breathe in each other's air and Zak could just make out his brown eyes in the dark, completely familiar.
When Zak doesn't feel like he was going to fall over every half mile he walks, they finally get their tickets to fly home, making it three days after the incident. Zak doesn't hurt as much and the marks on his body are fading. They had scared him at first, and he was sure they scared everyone that saw them, because the marks were by no means random and obviously planned. They look demonic by nature and Zak swears he's seen something similar in one of Lady Snake's books. He feels as if he should of paid more attention.
They do take the week off. The network wasn't expecting the short video of evidence, nor were they expected to look through them. In fact, they tried asking for the videos before Zak could even see them, but Nick and Aaron refused. These videos were personal- it had footage they didn't want anyone to see- and they weren't going to hand it in when they understood nothing.
The footage was put in the closet, forgotten as the boys calmed down. Zak thought it was surely sweet, these few moments where they simply sat around and enjoyed each other's presence, shoulder against shoulder or one laying on another lap. He didn't think he could count the times he had Nick or Aaron comb through his hair as they watched television or sat in his backyard. It was surely domestic, and for once Zak was able to trick himself into believing they lived a life out of the spotlight, that he did not hunt the ghosts that both tormented and kept these men together, and that he lived like this everyday until the day he dies.
But still, it isn't perfect. Even if Nick slowly becomes comfortable with himself and starts trusting himself again, he does not go anywhere near his own house. He won't see Annabelle and both Zak and Aaron know how much that hurts the younger man.
So he asks Aaron to leave for a moment and Aaron calls up a friend and heads out to another independent artists' exhibition. He has to tilt his head a little more as Aaron lands a kiss on his lips and then watches amusedly as Nick grins and pulls Aaron in by his shirt for his own, and then he's gone.
They find themselves on the living room couch, sitting knee to knee as Zak channel surfs. Occasionally Nick would ask him to stop, but he quickly gets bored and the channels start changing again. The silence between them is thick despite the mindless drone of the TV.
"What's on your mind?"
"Want to watch the footage?"
Zak bit his lip, smiling slightly at the younger man once they talked over each other. He shakes his head and his hand spiders across the cushion to grab onto Nick's. "Nah, bro. Later. Maybe tonight, when Aaron comes home."
Nick sighs deeply and he seems to sink into the couch. It was obvious the younger man wasn't letting it go. They sit in silence until the nagging need to ask Nick comes along and Zak just can't keep his mouth shut.
"Why don't we go visit Roni and your daughter?"
Nick shook his head, as expected. "G, you know I can't do that now..."
"It was a one time thing, Nick, it won't happen again."
"I don't care- I mean, I do. It might happen again. I can't expose Annabelle to... to this." Nick winces.
Zak gives Nick a small, pained smile, "What happened to this super ghost-hunting daughter thing you were hoping for?" The younger man scoffs slightly and hefts himself off the couch, dragging Zak along with him.
"It ain't happening."
Zak hates to hear Nick let go of another dream. He follows after the other silently, finding them going down into the dungeon. It seems the more they live together, they started sharing the same little sanctuaries. Nick kind of looks at home sitting in his self-proclaimed throne so Zak doesn't kick him out of it like he usually does. He lets Nick sit there and think.
Nick doesn't tell him to leave, so Zak turns up the heat and then finds a book to read. He drags a stool over and leans against the wall, opening the book onto some random page, immersing himself into a story he's never bothered to read before.
Its minutes later and Zak was more than half way done with another short story when he feels eyes on him. He sees Nick watching him from the corner of his eye and lifts his head to meet that soft gaze. He tilts his head in question but Nick simply shakes his head. Zak narrows his eyes.
"No, there's something. What is it?"
Nick opens his mouth but they shut with resolute click. It doesn't matter because Zak could practically read it off the younger man's face.
"Dude, I'm not afraid of you." Nick just swallows thickly. "You've gotten bigger, but I could still throw you half way across the state, Groff."
That makes Nick snort in surprise, cracking a genuine smile that brightens his face from the gloom it had. His eyes drop and his hands run back and forth over the armrests in nervousness. "I... I know that, man. I hear you, I... I know I don't want to hurt anybody." He licks his lips, "But Zak, I can't even touch you or Aaron without feeling sick. How am I go-" he chokes for a bit, but he meets Zak's eyes. He wants Zak to understand and Zak sort of gets it.
"You're not gonna hurt them, Nick. You're not a monster, you know that?" Zak murmurs and he wishes Aaron were here. Aaron understood a little more than Zak does, and sure Zak has been possessed a couple of times, wanted to kill his two partners in the dark those few, fearful nights, but it never got to him like this. He could let it go, by some unknown power, or sheer will, Zak allows himself to let it go.
Nick isn't doing that, like Aaron had done years ago when he had thought he just might kill the priest helping them at Bobby Mackey's and again when he dared take a step towards Zak with the intent to hurt him. Zak doesn't understand why they let it get this far, but he knows those two could work it out together.
Nick looks at him like he wants to believe him and its then Zak makes the decision to call Aaron so they could meet up at Nick's house.
"I'm taking you home. I bet your daughter misses you."
The drive is tense with Zak at the wheel and Nick besides him, fingers squeezing and occasionally popping together. It only gets worse as Zak parks next to Aaron's SUV. The eldest was already sitting by the front door, waiting for them with half a cigarette done between his fingertips. He offers them a huff, but Zak declines and Nick looks like he wants to pluck it from Aaron's fingers and finish it off, but he doesn't. He chews into his lip instead.
Aaron scratches out the fire and Nick unlocks the door. Immediately they hear someone coming into the welcoming room and Roni blinks in surprise before giving them all a smile. A few days ago she was informed of the situation, Zak wasn't entirely sure who called her, but at least she is hospitable.
"You guys are alright?" She asks and she does come around to pull Nick into a hug, despite the near deer-like look he gives them all. She looks at him with worry when he doesn't return the hug. "Nick, are you still...?"
"He's not." Zak grumbles. "He's clean. Completely. No demons, or ghosts- no evil entity is attached to him." And that's good, because Veronique looks like she's about ready to grab their daughter and run. They'd have it no other way.
Veronique exchanges a glance between the three of them, feeling the tense atmosphere that surrounds them all. She pulls away with another concerned look towards Nick, and this time Zak could tell it was for his well being. He knew their relationship is complicated, but they still cared for one another.
She nods towards the couches, "Go have a seat. Watch some TV. Whatever, you guys know the house. I'm just going to get Annabelle ready," she says and heads up the stairs as they crowded around in the living room.
Nick falls in with a huff and Zak follows, crashing into him slightly, but Nick just slaps his thigh playfully, then leaves him alone. Aaron takes the one solo chair on the opposite side and grins supportingly at the younger man. Nick needs it now, and neither himself or Aaron were going to leave his side.
"We can't stay long." Nick murmurs into the quiet room and he doesn't meet Zak's eyes, but Aaron's. Zak sees where this is going- Nick gets Aaron to play along with him and they overrule whatever Zak has to say. Zak sits up straighter and opens his mouth, but Aaron grunts and shakes his head.
"Nah, man. We're here as long we need to be."
Zak relaxes but Nick is still tense. "What's wrong, Nick?"
"I didn't care about her at all. Not once, Zak, not while I was gone." The words rushes through Nick's mouth, "I know I won't hurt her... but hell, how can I look her in the eyes?"
"G, don't say that." Aaron speaks up. "It wasn't like that. You know it." He meets Zak's eyes for a second before continuing, "Your mind was elsewhere. That demon, spirit- whatever, it was in you for a long time."
"A long... No, it was just while we were there, Aaron." Nick says a little confusedly. Zak feels a little sick, but there was no stopping it now. Nick would have to know.
Aaron looks just as unsure as Zak does, speaking about how aggressive Nick has been even before they travelled. Zak knows that it'll just be a minute before Nick gets tired of half-answers, but it feels too soon when Nick turns and grabs his arms and look into his eyes.
"That long?" Nick asks and Zak could see how badly Nick wants him to tell him 'no' or 'I don't know'. Zak could only nod.
Nick bolts from the couch and stands in the middle of the room. Zak could see right over the younger man's shoulder Roni pausing by the staircase. Zak pleads for her to leave and just as he sees her take Annabelle back upstairs Nick growls.
"That long. I hurt you, Zak, and you didn't say anything?" He scoffs lightly, "No wait, you told me that it hurt. Fuck, Zak, Aaron. Why didn't you stop me?" He paces and Aaron stands. Zak feels a little to lightheaded to do that just yet.
"I didn't know, Nick. Calm down-"
"Calm down? This- all of this- could have been over a long time ago!" he rounds over to Aaron, who spoke, and pins him with a glare, "Since you came home, huh?"
It feels like he's swallowing bile, but Zak manages to say, "Longer. Knew it before it even got you."
Aaron's mouth opens and closes, eyes darting between the two men in front of him. Nick's gaze pierces into him. Zak wants to square his shoulders, wants his voice to be steady as he tells the younger man that, yes, he knew. That he was trying his damnest to protect them both. But all he can feel is guilt seeping into the cracks Nick's broken look made. Zak drops his eyes and he could only nod.
"Nick-" he hears Aaron start, but heavy footfalls seem to silence them all as Nick paces and finally leaves. Zak hears keys and then the front door opening and slamming shut. Minutes later the sound of Nick's SUV is roaring and he is gone.