The television is off, the only noise in Pitch's new room is the sound of his own breath. The room is still and in this silence, Pitch realizes how strange his own breath sounds and ends up switching to manual breathing.
He tries his best to divert his own attention, he starts to finger the sheets and search for something to grip to in the ruffles. His breathing shifts from calm to wild and conscious-driven. The silence was why he hated hospitals, he felt crushed and trapped within the four, over bleached walls of the room. He kept on telling himself that he was fine; he didn't have to freak out but the fact of the matter was, even when he told himself otherwise, he was around sick and dying people.
People bleeding out from injuries, dying of sicknesses, making him remember last month-
He drags himself away from thoughts of her and instead focuses on his room change and on Jack.
'This could be a good thing,' He tries as hard as he can not to be upset, 'Jack can meet someone normal now, someone who doesn't freak out at the slightest thought of loneliness and blood or pain. Someone normal, someone who can properly function.'
As much as he tries to convince himself, he can't see it. Thinking back, there was not one time when he saw Jack as 'normal', he always thought of his younger lover and boyfriend as better then the rest. Including the come and go rabble he'd meet on his nightly trips to and from different nightclubs.
Jack couldn't be with a 'normal' person because Jack himself was not normal, he was something better. He'd survived being a functioning adult for a majority of his latter childhood, even survived raising a child all on his own.
Pitch remembers his times raising a child on his own. The sleepless nights, the fear, the constant worrying about their safety. Even when you knew you were overreacting, you couldn't just take your money off them – your child was and is the primary thing that concerns you for a majority of your time. It was hard for him to even get up in the morning some days, much less face the world.
Some days, even with his love for Seraphina he couldn't help but want to give her to her mother, go on with his life because he couldn't take the subconscious stress anymore.
And he had functioning parents, more disposable income, a social circle and a degree for a majority of it.
Jack had none of that and, if his short but sweet meetings with Mary have been any indication, he's done a damn good job. Possibly an even better one. Now Jack is being taken away from him, being taken by the very same force they were both trying to get Jack away from.
He feels like a spider that's entrapped himself in its own web. Their relationship was all but out in the open now. What consequences will they face now? Who else knew about them now, besides two psychotic drunkards?
Pitch pulls himself off his emotional slump through force of pride and puts on a mask of moral superiority when Katherine and William come rounding the corner and into his vision through the hospital room window.
With hands folded and eyes patient Pitch watches as they come into the room, eyes kindling with emotions that Pitch were certain he'd now have to deal with. He has a hole in his chest still and his exhaustion is wearing him down but he'll be damned if he doesn't get just one insult in. If he goes down, it's while he's still swinging.
It's a shock to him that they seem to care enough to turn around and close the door behind them and when they turn back around to stare him down, the air is thick enough to be cut through. Breathing becomes a conscious effort as Pitch sees that they came in with purpose and reason; there is no evidence of alcohol usage or drugs, whatever they've come to say it is in a sober state of mind.
"I failed didn't I?" Katherine's voice is like a scream in the silence. "I let you happen to him." Her shoulders are slumped but her eyes are keen, hawklike. "I let a creep like you near my son."
Her breath is heavy and long when she sucks it in through her nose and then, with a muted whine presses her palm over her face. "I let a pedophile near my children, I let you into our home and not one second- not one second, did I bother to question it." Her weight shifts from foot to foot and her whining increases, shoulder's shaking and the hand over her face become a palm to his mouth to stop her from crying aloud.
As Katherine's face turns red with tears, William comes to her and embraces her, wrapping his arms around her. Pitch's eyes widen as he notices; their marriage is not something that can be damaged on a whim. Years of beating and abuse and they still support and love each other, at least when it comes down to their children.
"So all that talk..." William's voice is more quiet, stabler. It's like he has had this all as a prepared speech for a very long length of time but the anger behind his words cannot be ignored. "About hating being called a pedophile. Should have called it there, I guess."
Despite the ire brewing in his own stomach, it's the first time he finds he can respect William as a man and a father. It's as if he's being attacked but this time by people he has to look eye to eye with; they aren't drunken fools anymore.
It's both angering and uplifting. Jack's parents are finally back...which is good news...but they are 'back' and that's bad news. "Excuse me, but what?" He feigns squinting and confusion while inside he tries to grasp hold of his wit again, which he assumes must have leaked out through the wound in his lower stomach. "I believe that this is more then likely some type of misunderstanding."
Katherine's voice keens off in a high-pitched, frightening squeak, as if she's been injured. "We know that you hurt our son."
'Ah, well. Only so much hiding one can do.' Pitch smiles and, as a result, the room feels smaller and more tease on the Frosts' side. "Might I ask how?" He figures if he has to be held accountable for anything, he might as well look over the collection or accusation of his sexual misgivings as a personal 'Best of' list.
Katherine yanks out the phone and all but shoves it into his face, eyes streaked with tears as the phone shows a clear photo of him and Jack in the cafe booth. It's a day that he can clearly remember, after the meeting during the rainy night when they had begun their relationship but before their first 'sexual' moment together.
Pitch cannot see what he's done wrong and his smile only gets wider, especially when he sees Jack appear in the hospital room window, recently released going by the state of his clothing. Pitch waves, William sees and before he can attest to it the window's blinds are down.
"Not so fast, freak-show." Though William is sober Pitch finds he hates the man even more, now that he's sober enough to know what he's doing and still too ignorant to approach it with any sense of care.
In honesty, for Pitch the entire past few days have been made up of blind-sided claims, shouting and fighting all hitting him in rapid succession with no reprieve in between. "So," Pitch pushes his stress and anger into a much more productive rage that he intends to exert onto Katherine and William. It's a freeing sensation in his stomach, to feel hate boil up in his guts once again. "What you're telling me is that Jack, who is 17 and is allowed to consent to anyone he wants in this state, is being abused by me?"
It's difficult to see where they are coming from and hard for him to sort it all out himself, he couldn't understand what point they were trying to make. Were they attempting to control Jack? To get him to break up with Pitch?
The constant banging of the door tells Pitch that if they did try to get Jack to break up with Pitch, it didn't work.
"Mom, Dad, open the door!" Jack's yells from the other side fall on deaf ears and for a moment Pitch feels...wanted. Very strongly so.
"Tell me, does that sound like a child that is desperate to be saved from my ever so evil clutches?"
Katherine's voice is laced with anger – she knows that she's pressed on both sides. "Whatever hold you have over my son-"
"From the confines of this hospital bed, with an ever-present hole in my chest." Pitch interrupts. "Jack is 17, Katherine and I don't take you two or him for a bunch of idiots. If Jack was terrified of me or having contact with me don't you think for just a moment that he would have told you? That he would've come to you for help?"
"What do you have on my son that is making him act this way?"
Pitch squints and tilts his head. "Well, how polite of you considering I saved your son's life. Twice." He considers it and stops Katherine from speaking. "Multiple times actually."
The banging on the door has stopped and from the half-muffled noises coming from the outside Jack is trying his best to explain to the hospital staff about the situation.
"Did you deflower my son?"
"How cute and quaint of you," He cannot find the 'off' switch to his better-then-thou speech mode at the moment, so he rolls with it. "shouting curses at home while your drunk and then coming to me and using such soft words like 'deflower'."
"Kromotis, if I find out you raped my son there won't be a devil in hell that can save you from me." William's voice grows deep and dark but Pitch can only chuckle in response.
"William, speaking man to man I've seen you. I've seen how you are at home. I cannot respect you, much less fear you after the shit I've seen you pull."
"And what have I pulled, huh?!" William yells, his violent rage kindling and his hands slamming down, the bed giving a light bounce in response. "I raised two beautiful children and you come out of nowhere and start ruining my fucking family-"
"You call abusing the hell out of your children 'raising' them? You realize that me and Jack met after you beat him so bad he ran away right?"
"That's a lie. My son never ran away."
"But you admit to the abuse part right? You admit to beating him to a bloody pulp at least?" Pitch is trying to find some ground, trying to see how much William can admit to, so he can get a sense of where they stand.
"You don't know what I've had to do as a father to keep my family secure!" William grabs Pitch and the younger man smiles slyly at him, wishing that he would just go one step further, break all of this out into a ruckus.
Then court cases, jail dates and custody battles could start. As much as he wanted Jack's family to be back together, he wanted Jack to be stable and consistent more, come to his house for pleasure visits, not just to escape his horrible family. Fuck the consequences.
"Dad, stop!" Jack yells on the other side of the glass, hospital teams looking in, curious as to whether or not they should intervene. William's grip falters and Pitch lets himself fall back into the bed sheets.
The older man rubs his leathery, older hands together and walks around the room, face twisting multiple times as he muses over everything he knows thus far.
Katherine grips his shoulder in a motion of support. "Look, as a family, we've made some mistakes. It's true, but as family we're going to do better next time."
"Brilliant speech. But your past actions show that every next time has failed, Katherine. For both you and your husband. Worse for your children."
"You can't just hurt my child because..." Katherine shakes her head.
"Jack isn't a child anymore. He's been an adult for years now, Katherine." Pitch bridges his fingers and throws a wishing look to Jack. "You have to accept that he isn't a growing child. He's already grown."
Her voice breaks as she hears him speaking. "You can't just take my baby away from me, not like this."
"Your 'baby'," He says with a moderate amount of indignation, "had been gone for quite awhile. He's a man now, learn to treat him like one."
"He's still my son." Katherine's voice breaks, tears welling up in her eyes. "You can't tear him away from me, I'm his mother, I raised him, I fed him, I clothed him- I helped him become the good, sweet man he is today."
"You beat him, you insulted him, you berated him." Pitch amends. "He raised himself up to be a good man, not you. Frankly, I don't know why you're so upset." He points to the glass pane where Jack is watching with a tilted head and curious eyes, probably unable to hear Pitch's calm monotone. "He should be upset, he got cheated out of an entire childhood."
"Shut up, just-just shut up." Katherine holds her own face in her hands, "You don't know how I feel right now, so just...just stop."
"You're right, I don't know how you feel right now. And I don't care either. It was your job as parents to bring your son up, you failed at that. Epically so."
"And what would you know about being a parent, hm?" William speaks up, tears running down his face but his voice not wavering like Katherine's. There's a righteous anger burning in his eyes and he steps towards Pitch, shaking his head. "You wouldn't know a damn thing about what we're feeling right now- how could you? You've never raised a child."
There's a pang of burning pain in his chest, hearing that. "You're off the mark." He can't stop himself from crying, no matter how straight he keeps his face. Katherine and William are taken aback and watch Pitch break down in awe. "You tell me I don't know what being distant from a child is like, you're lucky you can even see your child wa-alk again."
It burns, how much it hurts when he thinks of Jack, Seraphina and Mary. Too alike, too different, not his, any of them, he wants them all though – he wants to be around them and nurture them but he can't. William and Katherine got their chance and wasted it. He felt like a dying man in the desert, watching other people pour water into the ground.
"You wasted your chance." His face goes red and he can barely keep his eyes open as he curls up, bringing his knees up and trying to hide his ugly tears. "You ruined it, don't come to me now. Don't start being good people now, you- you fucked it up! Like spoiled little brats you threw away what I would've taken! Gladly at that!"
Jack is banging on the window, perplexed. Hospital staff are out of sight, advising him to stop. He doesn't. He's not allowed inside and he can't scream for them to stop, voice too aching from the last scream and too weak to put any power behind the next.
"Pitch I don't know what weird mental disorder you have but Jack is our son. Not yours."
Pitch gasps for breath, feeling like he's being crushed under himself. "Kather-"
"Jack is our son, Pitch."
"Listen-" Pitch feels a minor wave of exhaustion come over him but forces himself past it, gripping his lower body in pain.
"Ours. Not yours-"
"Listen, damn you," Pitch grabs the wound in his lower chest, unable to stop crying. "You were blessed with some of the most wondrous children and you threw that away. How could you come to me and tell me that I'm the one in the wrong. You had your chance with Jack and you wasted it and Jack is raising Mary. I had to watch him come to me with bruises and aches and pains from the both of you and you're telling me that I hurt him – that I hurt him? What of you?!"
"We're gonna make it better," Katherine says, turning to Jack and smiling. "Right?"
Jack smiles, shaking his head dejectedly.
Pitch can see something in Katherine's eyes break. He can't hate her for it; he'd break too after hearing the truth, that he'd stood by watching his own children grow up and never got involved, that now they didn't want anything to do with them unless something major changed.
"Pitch,"William grabs Katherine's hand, "you stay away from my children." He leads her out of the room, Jack is only by the window for a few seconds more, mouthing 'I love you's through the glass. He disappears, a nurse quickly reappearing in the window and then movement, foot movement, as multiple doctors come rushing into the room.
Pitch realizes the warmth flooding in his lower stomach, over his legs and looks down – the wound re-opened and bloomed a red flower on his sheets.
