Disclaimer: Belongs to Bagdasarian!
That same night while Amber was in a wonderful mood having made her final decision about Ian, Ian was still at the jail, in pretty much an opposite mood. The fact that Amber had not been at work for the last two months had really upset him, even though his friends were constantly trying to convince him that it was not his fault, he couldn't shake the feeling that this was all his fault. Since Amber was not there now, a whole lot of the other men were all freaking out a bit, apparently having the female presence there at the jail did a lot more good than everyone thought. This just made Ian feel even worse, after all, it was his fault. He was the one who scared Amber off by telling her he loved her. This had scared her away, and since she was gone, and the men who were in the jail needed to have their appointments with a psychologist, be it Amber Hoboken or not, she had been temporarily replaced by some old looking man until she returned, which nobody could figure out when she was coming back, or if she was even coming back at all. None of the men at the jail really enjoyed this substitute psychologist, he was nowhere as fun to talk to as Amber, and it felt pretty awkward spilling all your feelings to someone of the same gender. Either way, practically everyone knew that Amber's absence involved Ian. Which was not really good considering since he had been there for eight months now, pretty much everyone in the place knew him.
Ian yawned as he looked around his room through his cracked glasses, they had been broken by Jack in one of their earlier fights, and Ian had been saving up to replace them. He had been very close for a while, that is until Amber had left. He had then decided to use up the coins he had saved up to send her an e-mail in hopes of patching up their relationship. He had also been using up coins every day to check his e-mail and see if there were any responses, which there were not. He had to figure that she had either not read the e-mail or was still unhappy with his revelation. As a result he was back at the beginning of his process of saving up for the new glasses. After looking around he realized that he was a little bit hungry so he got up and made his way to the cafeteria where all his other friends were. They were all seated at their usual table and waved him over. Ian joined them, eager to get his mind off of things. His friends all smiled when Ian came over to them. They had been trying to help him feel better lately, doing things like giving him other excuses as to why Amber might have left them. The excuses ranged from she had to move suddenly, which Ian did not like, to things like something bad had happened to someone in her family so she was preoccupied with that situation with her family, but this only made Ian feel even worse, sure it would have meant that it was not his fault that she had left them but he still loved her and, he certainly did not want her to have troubles or to have anything bad happen to her.
"Hey Ian," Kyle said with a smile on his face, he knew that Ian was having a hard few weeks since Amber left, so he was trying to make his pal feel better about his situation.
"Hey." Ian answered back in a bored tone as he sat down and looked at his spaghetti that was in front of him.
"We were just talking, and we were trying to figure out why Amber left, why do you think she left? I mean, you were her favorite… if anyone knows why she left, it's you!" said Randy. Everyone but Ian who stared down at his food glared at him. Randy wasn't exactly the brightest one in their group.
"No, we weren't. Don't listen to him Ian. We were talking about what happened on Dancing with the Stars last night, didn't Pamela Anderson look great?" Jared said.
Ian sighed once again and rubbed his temples, he simply did not understand why these men were so interested in watching someone like Pamela Anderson dancing around, sure she was supposedly an attractive woman but Ian simply did not see why other men would see that. "You guys know I don't watch that show, so, I don't know if she looked good or not, cause I didn't watch it! As for the comments about Amber, it's okay. I don't care if you guys talk about why she left, everyone else is doing it anyway." He lied as he took a bite of the poorly cooked pasta that was put out in front of him.
"Oh, well, Randy actually had a pretty good idea of why Amber left; he thinks that Amber probably left because she didn't want to tell you that she digs you too." Jared said with a smile on his face.
"Aww, c'mon!" Kyle said smiling "Why'd she be afraid to tell him that? Look at that face, ain't he cute!" Gesturing at a frowning Ian as the other men at the table all burst into laughter.
"WHOAH dude! Watch it man, he's Amber's remember?" Karl said laughing.
"Yeah man, we already have enough love confessions to last a while here, let's leave this one under wraps ok?" Jon said as the rest of the men tried to calm themselves down.
"You guys are lame!" Kyle said frustrated that his pals didn't play along with his joke.
Ian rolled his eyes. Amber wasn't even here, and telling her that he loved her was probably the reason that she had left, so speaking about the possibility that she might be in love with him as well was NOT a good topic to talk about right now, although it was kind of nice of his friends to be completely out of character just to try and make him feel better, even if they were joking around while doing so.
"Yeah," said Jon. "We all think it's kinda obvious that she has a little somethin somethin for you too!" He teased with a teasing smirk on his face.
"Yeah, but thanks to you Ian, none of us can see her anymore; whatcha tryin' to do? Keep her all for yourself?" Kyle said teasingly, getting a few of the other men at the table to chuckle along with him as he sat back and smirked as he took a bite out of the bread that had been provided with their spaghetti.
Ian rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, thanks for making me feel better guys, it really helps… a lot!" he said sarcastically to his friends who were not really succeeding in making their pal seem in a better mood. He sighed to himself and took another bite out of his food, perhaps having a full stomach would make him feel somewhat better, the only issue was that ever since Amber had left, he didn't feel as hungry anymore and if he ate at all it was usually only about half of what he had used to eat when she was still there.
Jared started to say something else in hopes of making Ian feel better about his sad situation that he was stuck in currently, but before anything could come out of his mouth, Jon, who had just finished up his meal whispered, "Uh-oh. Jack and his minions straight ahead."
Everyone looked in that direction and lo and behold Jack and his gang of buddies, the same guys who beat Ian up when he first got there were walking straight towards them with looks that said 'we are about to cause trouble'. Ian gulped and turned pale as he clenched his hands into fists, trying his best to stay calm and not cause any trouble, which would be hard considering he was not in the very best mood.
"Yo, you're Ian right?" Jack asked with a smirk on his face when he and his cronies finally reached the table. They usually sat on the other side of the cafeteria but today they had decided to give Ian a bit of a hard time after they had all finished up their meal.
Ian nodded, figuring that playing along to an extent might just please them enough to leave him alone, then he could just relax and deal with his situation himself. He didn't want to get in trouble again; one of the worst things that could happen to him now would be getting put into solitary confinement, which would mean that even if Amber did return someday, he would not be able to see her.
A booming laugh came from Jack. "Don't worry man, I'm not gonna hurt you. Well, not today at least." He said, getting frightened looks from Ian and his peers. "Anyways, man. You really scared Amber away, didn't you? I mean, why else would she leave and not come back for such a long time? Whaddya do to her?"
Jack and his friends laughed. Ian was furious, but he tried not to show it, instead he stabbed his fork into his spaghetti and violently spun it around to wrap some around it, he then took a bite of the food, hoping that Jack and his buddies would think he was busy eating and not paying attention to them. He really didn't want to get beat up again, not when Amber could return at a moments notice. He wanted to be in good condition when she returned, just in case she wanted to see him again, although he highly doubted that she would return at all let alone want to visit with him once he did.
"I bet you did something really bad. Something that ticked her off pretty badly. Whatcha do, man? C'mon, tell us!" Jack asked, laughing. Ian didn't answer, while his friends just looked at each other nervously, they certainly did not want to get into this confrontation either.
"Jack, dude, leave him alone. He's had a tough time the last few weeks, you know that! You don't wanna get in trouble again. You don't want to get put into solitary, do ya?" Kyle said.
Of course Jack ignored him, "I bet you tried to come on to her!" He started laughing again, getting some of his buddies to laugh as well. "You probably thought it would be different if you did it, 'cause you guys are all 'buddy-buddy' . I bet you thought she'd actually like you! HAH! Like that would ever happen. You're like the wimpiest guy here! What good would she get out of being with you?" Jack's gang was now laughing hysterically, with Jack himself was laughing the hardest.
Jack snickered at his remarks and continued taunting Ian "You know what? I bet you musta done something even worse than that! Something that woulda forced her to leave. Man I bet you ra-"
"DUDE! Just shut up man! You're gonna draw attention to yourself!" Jared quickly interrupted before Jack could finish his sentence and make the situation even worse than it already was.
"What? I know we all think that's what happened! C'mon it's totally obvious! Why else would she have left so suddenly?" Jack said with a sinister smile on his face.
Ian could not hold his anger in for any longer, Jack had finally gone TOO FAR. Since he had been having a hard few weeks, Ian had an especially short temper, so he was unable to control himself, he rose up from his seat, strode up to the laughing Jack, and punched him across the face. Jack, shocked, felt the spot on his cheek where Ian hit him. His gang's laughter immediately died down, along with all noise in the cafeteria. Jack's face slowly became red, and the tendons in his neck were sticking out. He reared his fist back and punched Ian in the stomach. The force threw Ian onto the floor, where he slid across the room and into the buffet line, where he hit his head on the metal counter attached to it. Ian slowly stood up but as soon as he could, Jack was right there. Jack picked Ian up, threw him to the floor and began kicking him repeatedly, until Ian had gone unconscious. It wasn't until then that the officials were finally able to constrain Jack and get him away from Ian.
When Ian woke up. He was lying on a stretcher. One of the officials was pushing him down the hall with a grim look on his face. He was happy to see that Randy was walking right beside the stretcher.
"Oh, god. Where am I?" Ian asked drowsily as he attempted to look around and get a view of his surroundings, and try to figure out what had happened to him.
"Don't worry. We're just going to send you to the local hospital; we've done all that we could do for you here, but the hospital should be able to take care of you. You'll return to us as soon as you are well enough to stand up for yourself." The official stated.
After an hour or so of waiting for it to arrive, Ian was loaded into the ambulance. Ian hated what was being done to him, but the doctor at the jail had said it was for his own good, so he would just have to deal with it. Before he was loaded into the vehicle that would transport him to the hospital, Ian turned to Randy and said, "Hey, Randy? Do me a favor would ya?"
Randy nodded. "Sure. What do ya want me to do man?"
"I-if Amber comes back, tell her that I'm gonna be in the hospital for a while." He paused. "Oh, and tell her that I'm sorry for fighting Jack again, I just… lost control. I couldn't let him say those kinds of things about her and get away with it." He didn't have a chance to hear Randy's answer because during his speech he had been pushed into the ambulance and before Randy could answer, they had closed the doors. They then began to head off, driving at top speed, with the annoying siren running the entire time.
Ian sighed. He doubted that his messages were going to be relayed. Randy was a nice guy, but he wasn't exactly the smartest guy in the bunch, and he didn't exactly have a good memory. He was left with worries about what she would think about him being in the hospital and whether or not she would even care that he had stood up for her like that and ended up in the hospital as a result as he drifted again into unconsciousness.