Chapter 14

Love and Pain

Morgan cut Boyd's restraints that Aaron had tied and he pulled him to his feet. Boyd was a coward, he cringed away from Morgan.

"Get up, creep." Morgan hissed. Boyd leaned away from Morgan, dabbing his nose with the back of his hand.

"You are going to show us where you took Reid." Morgan started to pull Boyd to the door.

"B-but I can't remember!" he sniveled. "Anyway, what's all the sudden interest in Scott? Yeah he was cute, but there are plenty more cute boys out there!"

Morgan pulled Boyd so that their noses were almost touching. Morgan was shaking with the effort of not throwing this horrible little man through the wall.

"Reid is a Federal Agent! FBI! "

Boyd's eyes widened in shock. "You're kidding! You are kidding, right? A Fed?"

"Do I look as if I'm kidding?" roared Morgan. Even Emily flinched "So that tiny brain of yours had better get remembering, creep, because you are in big trouble, and if Reid dies, just remember, they have the death penalty here."

Boyd looked genuinely frightened now. "I'll t-try."

Emily snapped cuffs on him and took him outside to their car. Boyd looked around.

"Hey! That other guy took my car!"

Morgan widened his eyes at Boyd, who shut up.

"Just get in." said Emily quietly, threateningly. "You'd better start praying to whatever low life god listens to you, Boyd, that Reid's ok."

Boyd slid into the back seat, Morgan beside him. Boyd cowered in the corner of the back seat as far away from Morgan as he could get. Morgan derived some satisfaction from knowing that the man was terrified of him.

Emily drove towards the town.

Boyd thought of Goff. Scott could very well be dead by now. It was very likely. Goff was a vicious nasty piece of work. Boyd was scared.

"I'm co-operating, right? You will remember that I am co-operating. I'm doing my best. I'll……."

"Shut your filthy mouth!" Morgan held up a fist in front of Boyd's face. "Yes, I will remember. I will remember that you held a federal Agent against his will, tortured him and sold him."

Boyd looked at Morgan fearfully, as Emily drove into town.

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"Open your eyes, Babe." Aaron whispered softly to Spencer, still holding him as if he would never let him go. "It's me, Spence. It's Aaron. Please, open your eyes for me."

Aaron was very sick, his vision was hazy, and he thought his head would explode, but he was holding Spence in his arms, and the feelings he had for Spencer overwrote any thoughts he had for himself. Aaron nuzzled his face in Spencer's soft hair, gently kissing his neck.

Aaron's breathing was erratic. The gun shot to the chest was making breathing difficult. He couldn't breath in properly. He thought he was probably bleeding around his lungs.

"I love you, Spence. Please, open your eyes." Aaron was crying.

Please don't let it be too late!

Spencer could hear a voice far away. The voice was familiar, as was the warm feeling of the arms around him, the softness of the touch of his hair. But the voice wasn't calling him. His broken mind tried to make sense of what was happening.

The voice was asking him to open his eyes. He tried, his eyelashes softly moving against white skin.

"Please, Babe, open your eyes."

Spencer opened them and looked into Aaron's frightened face. The dark gentle eyes, strong and safe.

Spencer tried to lift his hands to Aaron. Aaron took Spencer's hands and held them against his face.

His cut and broken lips moved, formed the word, "Aaron?"

There was no sound, but Aaron understood.

"Yes, Babe, it's me."

He wrapped his arms around Spencer's injured body, gently holding him, making him feel safe, loving him. He spoke words of love softly to him, pressing his face in Spencer's hair, trying to keep him alive.

"Stay with me, Sweet Spence. You will be safe now……."

Aaron moved against the wall, and allowed his head to rest on Spencer's. He thought it likely that they would both die here. No one knew where they were, but Aaron was happy. His last moments were with Spencer, and neither of them were having to die alone. He closed his eyes, breathing the special scent of Spencer's skin, holding his dying body close.

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"Hey! That's my car!"

Boyd was pointing up a back alley behind a seedy apartment block. "I think this might be where I brought him!"

Morgan was always amazed how bolshy low life crooks got all co-operative when threatened with a lethal injection.

Emily drove the car into the alley and stopped next to Boyd's car. Morgan undid one of Boyd's cuffs, and clipped it to the door pillar.

"Which door?"

Before he could answer, three men pushed their way through on of the doors on their left.

"That's them " said Boyd, ducking out of sight behind Morgan's seat. Morgan and Emily were out of the car in a flash.

"FBI! Freeze!"

Two of them stopped and turned, hands held high. Goff made a run for it.

"Freeze, or I shoot!"

Goff turned.

"I swear! I didn't know!"

"Didn't know what?" said Emily. She led Goff over to the car and cuffed Goff to a very scared Boyd.

"I didn't know he was FBI. He didn't look like a Fed. Neither of them did. He just came crashing in, waving a gun about; I thought he was on something." Goff was gabbling "I didn't know. He didn't show any ID. I had to do it. I thought he was going to kill us!"

Morgan pulled the other two over. He cuffed them to each other, then to Goff.

Morgan waggled a finger at them. "Don't go away!"

Emily removed the car keys, and she and Morgan went to the door.

They saw the same footprints that Aaron had seen. Bare feet in the blood on the floor, a hand print on the door frame, as if someone had stood and steadied himself against it.

The prints continued up the stairs to their right. Morgan and Emily carefully ascended the stairs, taking care not to step in the blood. They both had their guns drawn, moving silently towards the top of the stairs. They both had to resist the urge to run, but Goff had said there were no other people upstairs; they had absolutely no reason to believe him.

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Three doors. Two closed, the third one open. Emily and Morgan both noted the blood on the threshold. Morgan kicked the door wide, bouncing it off the wall.

"Clear!"

Emily checked the bedroom.

"Clear!"

Then the bathroom. Morgan pulled the chair away and opened the door.

"Oh my god!"