Disclaimer: I don't own anyone.
Rated: M
Warning(s): Slash, Crime, Non-Con, Incest, etc.

Cold, mucky water skidded off of the pavement and violently assaulted the glass side of the phone booth. The sound of car tires screeching, desperate to grab hold of the asphalt, instantly nabbed my attention. I was awake in a matter of seconds.

With a hint of disgust, I noticed that I was sitting in ankle-deep runoff. It was hard to believe that I would have nodded off so easily, but there didn't seem to be any other explanation. Looking out through the muddy panes of the phone booth, I was easily able to recognize the car. It was Uncle Glen's. This came as quite a surprise to me - I honestly didn't think that Phil would be able to do it. If he was in any sort of mood to be thanked, next time I saw him, I would be groveling at his feet. Quite possibly, I owed that boy my life tonight. I just thank my lucky star he was able to come through for me.

However, what came next... well, it certainly came out of left field. The door to the left side of the back seat opened and out came Randy, looking to be dressed in little more than his pajamas. As he stepped out of the car, he found himself instantly soaked from the storm. Yet, for some reason, he didn't seem to care. He made his way over to me with that slow, determined stride that was so characteristic of him. His eyes met mine through the storm and I could tell that he was infuriated, but whether it was with me or the situation I didn't know. He yanked the door to the phone booth open rather unceremoniously.

"What the hell do you think that you're doing?" Well, I can honestly say that, out of all of the things he could have said, I certainly wasn't expecting that one. "It's fucking freezing out here and you're soaked to the damn bone! What are you trying to do? Kill yourself?"

I felt the familiar sting of tears in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall in front of Randy. I didn't want him to think I was weak. "No..."

Randy only shook his head. "John, you're going to be the fucking death of me. Get off your ass and get into the car." He ordered.

"N-No..." I was ashamed to admit that my voice cracked with the beginning of a sob. "N-No, I... I can't..."

Randy growled. He reached down, fisting the front of my shirt angrily. He yanked me to my feet all to easily and I stood on wobbly legs. "You think you're so funny, don't you, kid?" And then, he laughed. "You think you have a choice about coming home or not? Let me make this clear: you don't."

"R-Randy, you're scaring me." I confessed weakly. Distantly, I attempted to grab onto the warning that my father had told me about Randy. IED. IED. But what the hell did that stand for? "Please, you're hurting me..."

Randy slammed me into the back of the phone booth. The driver of the car remained totally oblivious. "You think that this hurts? Huh?"

I swallowed hard, finding it increasingly difficult to breathe. "Yeah, I do."

"How about what you did to me, huh? How about that? All I wanted to do was help you, damn it! I didn't want you to make any hasty decisions, didn't want you to get hurt. I was looking out for you, can't you see that? And what do you do?"

"I'm sorry..." I whispered, clawing frantically at his hand.

Randy narrowed his eyes at me. "I don't think that you realize how much you mean to me, John. I never had anyone actually want to stick around me this long. Not even my own fucking parents. I would do anything for you. That was why I wanted to give you time. That was why -,"

But I cut him off. I couldn't take it any longer, couldn't hold back any longer. Releasing his hands and letting them do as they pleased, I hooked my hands on his head and brought him down for the most breath-taking kiss that I ever experienced - quite literally. His lips molded over mine perfectly, and when his hands fell away from my shirt and settled on the glass walls of the phone booth, the weight of his body settled comfortably over mine. It was an absolutely wonderful sensation, impossible to describe with words. Words simply were unable to do it justice.

He drew back for mere seconds, allowing me to desperately suck in air. But then he would take my lips again, his fingers snaking up beneath my shirt - now wet like a second skin - and mapping out intricate patterns on my belly. And I loved every minute of it, enjoying it as if it would be my last. It was very possible that I had obtained a fever from being out in the rain this long and all of this could be a mere hallucination. But it felt too real to be a mirage of the mind. It felt to... right to be imaginary. And so I let myself feel, as if it would be the last time that I would be able to do so.

All of a sudden, Randy had shifted our positions and had lifted me into the air bridal-style, never once bothering to break the kiss. Opening the doors to the phone booth (in the back of my mind, I wondered when they had fallen closed again), he carried me over to the car with the greatest of ease. Secretly, I knew that he was the only one that I would ever trust to handle me so intimately. With Zack's help, he was able to slide me into the car and bundle me securely in a blanket. Glen was the one behind the wheel. He looked at me in the rear-view mirror, but didn't say a word.

After Randy made sure that I was secure in the blanket, he said, "We're taking you back to the house, John. I'll run you a hot bath and wash off all of this mud and grime. I'll take care of you, okay?"

Glen and Zack stared steadfastly out of the windshield, attempting to allow us our privacy. "Why?" I asked.

"Why not?" He offered dismissively. It wasn't exactly the answer that I had been hoping for.

"I just... I want to know why you suddenly went from hating me to kissing me like you could lose me any second. Back at the house, you didn't seem to give two shits about whether I lived or died. I want to know what changed." I said.

Randy shrugged. "I don't know if I can really give you an answer to that - mostly because I'm not sure of the answer myself. But what I can tell you is that I love you, Johnny, and I take care of the things that I love."

I couldn't resist the small smile that I felt budding on my face. "I love you too." I answered immediately.

Randy turned to me, one eyebrow raised. With his left arm, he held the blanket secure around me. "Are you sure?"

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

True to his word, Randy took care of me as if I were his little baby doll. It was cute, but also rather annoying in some aspects. I was perfectly capable of bathing myself, for example, but Randy insisted on it. He put the dark blue washcloth in the water, allowed it to soak in the sudsy, warm water, and then carefully ran it over every available inch of my body. He paid careful attention to my neck and my back, where most of my scars were located. I wasn't sure how I felt about him taking such care around them, but the nervousness in my belly was undeniable.

Once my bath was done, he drained the water and stepped into the shower with me (fully clothed). This only served to make me feel more uncomfortable. While I knew that we weren't exactly ready to just drop all of our inhibitions and have hot sex right there in the shower, it would've made me feel better if he were naked too. Even the playing field, you know? But he was oblivious to my discomfort. He turned on the showerhead and rinsed away the final vestiges of dirt and muck from my body. Even without being able to see what he was doing, I could feel him mapping out my body.

After that, he stepped out of the shower and took a towel off of the heated rack. He motioned for me to step out, which I did carefully. Then, he eased the towel over my shoulders, rubbing it down my body to make sure every inch of me was dry. Once that towel was done, he retrieved a new one and bundled me up in it. Obviously, he and Zack had had a little chat about hypothermia. Picking me up again, he carried me into the bedroom that we shared and set me down on my bed. A few seconds later, he tossed over the pajamas that Zack had set out for us.

"Hey, Randy?" I asked, needing to break the silence after several hours of nothing else.

"What?" He tossed over his shoulder. I could tell that he wasn't really paying attention to me, though. He was rifling through the pajamas that Zack had left, trying to find something that would fit him. "Yeah, Johnny? I'm listening."

"It's... It's nothing. I was just... thinking about something that you said earlier, that's all." I confessed with a meek smile.

"Oh, and what did I say?" Look at that. He couldn't even remember. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"You said that you would be willing to do anything for me, even lay down your life for me." I told him. Randy nodded, pretending to be listening. "And I just wanted to know if you meant what you said -,"

He cut me off. "Can we continue this conversation in a second? I want to get changed before I get sick."

I sighed, feeling my shoulders slump forward. "Of course. Why not?"

He shot me a thankful smile, before taking his pajamas into the bathroom to get changed. I rolled my eyes. So, it was perfectly acceptable for me to be naked in front of him, but he couldn't be naked in front of me? Did he think I was a hormonally charged teenage boy or something? Okay, maybe I was, but that didn't make much of a difference. I didn't plan to attack him or anything. With a sigh, I rose off of the bed and let the towel fall to the floor. Quickly, I dressed in the pajamas. God forbid Randy come in and find me naked. Oh, the scandal. I rolled my eyes again.

Randy returned a few moments later, finding me seated comfortably on the bed. I was still shivering a little bit, but it was nowhere near as bad as it had once been. I turned to him slowly, noticing with chest-clenching realization that his pajamas didn't fit all that well... and that wasn't exactly a bad thing. The pajama bottoms were slung low on his hips, revealing the delectable 'V' that went down to his manhood. The shirt was a few sizes too small and clung to his well-built chest, showing off the faintest hint of a six-pack. Holy shit, I think I may have died...

"Now, what was it that you were trying to ask me?" Randy asked, seemingly genuinely listening now.

I shrugged. I wanted to seem as nonchalant as possible. "You said that you would be willing to do anything for me, even lay down your life. I want to know if that's true, or if it's just something that you say to all the girls." I offered.

Randy frowned. He sat down next to me, the bed shifting awkwardly under his weight. "You know that I wouldn't make something like that up, John. You may think that you don't have anything left - but you have me. And I have you. You're the reason I haven't... tried again."

I didn't need to ask to know what he meant. "And you literally mean 'anything'?" I needed to be absolutely sure.

"Well, it depends if its within reason, of course. I can't exactly get you the sun or something like that." Randy laughed.

I tilted my head to the side and offered, "Would killing a man be within your realm of 'reason'?"