Chapter 35
It felt like déjà vu when Crawford laid the boy down on the bed back in his apartment. Ran was conscious but his eyes were glazed, staring at nothing. It would take time for the young man to recover. Crawford called for his personal Doctor to come and have a look at the young man.
"So… He is the reason why you just left without saying anything?" He turned to see Sylvia trot in front of Schuldig and Farfarello.
"Hey! Don't look at me… She just barged in." Schuldig looked at him defensively. He knew that Schuldig had a hard time reading Sylvia's mind.
Crawford did not bother to say anything to the woman; instead he dragged her out of the room and locked the door. "What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" He asked as he gritted his teeth.
"Well, I wanted to know what kept you away from me," she answered, ignoring the obvious sound of irritation in Crawford's voice and hiding the fact that she was storming inside.
It seemed like that useless old man had failed to keep his end of the bargain since the boy was back here with her Crawford. Never let a man do a woman's job, she thought scornfully. She would finish the boy off herself. Back to plan A… Kill the boy before he remembered or noticed who she really was… And she had a vivid imagination regarding how she was going to do it. The last time when she had hired the man to do a hit and run on the boy was a letdown and that man had paid the full price for his failure with his life for that simple job, even though she knew it was not entirely that man's fault. She had not known that Crawford would be there.
"Now that you know, get out." Crawford pointed at the door with his finger.
"Crawford, the Doc is here." Both heads turned when they heard Schuldig yell and saw someone at the door. Sylvia's sullen face became clear.
"I won't forget this," she told Crawford. "And you know what? I hope that the boy dies painfully." She stomped out the door, and Crawford dismissed it as an empty threat of a woman in her seething jealousy and watched her go. His glasses glinted as he turned to show the Doctor to his room and closed the door behind him.
"You should take her threat seriously."
Schuldig leaned against the wall and Farfarello was rummaging through the fridge trying to find something to eat. "Knowing her, she would do anything to get rid of her rivals and she does look at Ran as one. By the way, his friends were frantically searching for him when they heard about the blast. I told that pretty blonde that he had gone home. He didn't believe me, and you know what he did? He tried to strangle my hand with a wire… He sure has a talent with wires." He showed Crawford his wrist with the marks on it. "Takatori's 'home' is burned to the ground as we speak and the authorities will think that it was an accident because I made it look like one." He smirked. "We shall see the big news about it later."
Crawford digested the information; he wanted to say something, something about telling Schuldig to distract the blond when he heard a soft click from his bedroom door and turned to see that the doctor had come out.
"I've examined the boy. He will be all right. I had to inject him with valium to calm him down. He was struggling when I tried to put antiseptics on all his wounds. Was the boy raped?" He asked with his straight face, nothing was strange when it came to Crawford. He had been the American's private physician for a few years.
"Yes." Crawford answered with his expressionless face.
"That explains all the bruises and wounds around his private parts. Just make sure it is kept clean and disinfected or he will suffer serious infections," he said as he took off his gloves and handed Crawford the prescriptions. There were no other unnecessary questions from the doctor and that was why Crawford took him as his personal surgeon. He didn't like it if there were too many questions.
"You're taking it lightly about him being raped, aren't you?" Schuldig said as the doctor exited the apartment.
"It was necessary."
"Part of your mighty plan. Right. And you don't care if he is hurt in the process."
"As I said, it was necessary and I am not repeating it."
Schuldig snorted at the answer. He understood enough to know that Crawford would be angry if he kept pushing it. "Yeah… whatever… He is yours to deal with however you want to. I am going back." He got up and looked for his Irish friend. "Hey Farf! Stop emptying Crawford's fridge! Let's go!"
Crawford pinched the bridge of his nose and entered his room. Ran was covered with a blanket but he could see the troubled face the boy made in his sleep, his features contorting like he was caught in a bad dream and could not escape from it. The boy calmed down as Crawford placed his hand on his temple. Even in his sleep Ran could recognize the touch but his breathing was still heavy.
He thought about what Schuldig had said before, about him letting the boy be raped by the other man. He had foreseen it and he did not mind it even in the slightest. He knew how the things with Takatori would end and it had been his best solution. Certain decisions of his needed not to be explained. As a matter of fact, he was not obliged to explain anything, particularly not to his teammates. It would break the boy but not enough to destroy him and Crawford would not allow that to happen.
He had fallen in love with the redhead, something that he had been fearing, but he could finally admit it to himself when he had seen how battered Ran had been on the floor in Takatori's private house. It was not something that he had expected or foreseen, all he saw was that the young man would kill that old bastard. That was why he had told Schuldig to burn the house down and make sure there were no evidence of Ran being there left. He was in a wrath but he was not the type of man who would show his emotions; his pride would not allow it and there was no way in hell he would show it to Schuldig out of all people and so he had maintained his stone face.
Ran was a strong young man and he had a strong will. He knew that and he had known that all along. He may look fragile now, but he would get over it. Crawford watched as Ran's breathing finally was at ease, and he stooped down and kissed the wounded lips lightly. One man was down and that was easy but there was still another one and the other one was hungry for the redhead's blood. He hated the thought that Ran could not remember the face and he did not know who it was but he knew that his precognitive power would not fail him. When the time came he would deal with it.
He carefully hoisted the blanket down and examined the redhead's injuries and when he was satisfied, he laid down beside the sleeping young man and finally fell asleep.
He dreamt of Ran being stabbed with a knife; Sylvia was laughing crazily at the sight and he shot the woman point blank in her head.