Here's the disclaimer part, although it doesn't really need one. All the characters are mine, at the moment at least, if you want to use them then go right ahead. Any feedback would be great…….
Part 2
"Daftlll?"
What?
"Daviftlll?"
What the f…?
"David!"
Oh, right
David opened his eyes and closed them almost immediately, bringing up his hands to shield him from the light as it poured in and threatened to temporarily blind him. He tried again, gradually increasing the space between his fingers to lessen the impact. His sight wasn't doing particularly well though, all he could see was a big, white blur with several indistinct but darker shapes on either side of his field of vision.
"What the…..? What's going on? Where am I?" He blurted out, hoping against hope that the headache he had was going to go away as soon as possible. He reached up and felt a bandage around his head, wincing as he felt round the back and hit a tender spot.
"It's ok honey, it's ok," He heard a soothing female voice from one side of the bed say, he welcomed the gentle caress of his forehead even through blur of pain he was receiving from the rest of his head "It's Mum and Dad."
"And brother!" Came an indignant reply from the other side.
"And brother." His Mum repeated, sighing "How are you feeling?"
"Oh just dandy Mum," He said, irritably, "I feel like I've got the entire London Philharmonic Orchestra playing the same god-awful tune in my head over and over again but other than that, just tickety-boo cheers!" He could never work out why anyone would ask that question when it was pretty obvious that he wasn't ok. "That, and my sight's all shot to shit, what's going on?"
"You're having trouble with your eye-sight because of the blow you took to the head when you fell unconscious." A highly professional voice from behind the two blobs on the left said. "But that should clear up within the next hour or so don't worry young man."
"Well that's good to know, next question: Where the hell am I?"
"You're in hospital son," His father said reassuringly. "You've been here since they picked you up off the floor of the alley-way last night, But don't worry about that now, just concentrate on getting yourself better."
'The alley-way' he thought, trying to cast his mind back to the events of last night, 'I was walking, well stumbling, through the alley-way with Alex……..Alex?'
His eyes widened as the memory of what had happened came crashing back into his mind. "ALEX!" David shouted, trying to sit up but failing miserably, the room started to whirl around him and he only just managed to keep back the pang of nausea and rising bile in his throat. Several pairs of hands immediately, but gently, grabbed him by the chest or arms and lowered him back down onto the bed.
"Where's Alex?" He mumbled weakly, "Please tell me, is he ok? Please, I've got to know."
"Shhhh," His Mum cooed softly, one hand gently squeezing his as reassuringly as she could while the other stroked his hair, calming him down as much as possible in the light of the memories that had just invaded his thoughts. "It's ok honey, just lay still or you're going to hurt yourself even more and heaven knows I couldn't handle that."
"But Mum," he protested, trying to fight back the feeling that he was going to be sick at any moment. "Alex, my friend, Sam, his back, got to help him, got to stop Sam." he mumbled incoherently.
"He's here son, " His father said, rubbing his hand up and down David's leg in an attempt to placate him. "He's in the hospital, the doctors got to him quickly and, thanks to you, no-one tried to turn him over or touch him so there's a chance he maybe alright."
"Alright? What do you mean maybe alright? He's got to be alright, oh god what's happened to him?"
"Come on David, this isn't helping anyone right now. Close you're eyes and get some rest. There's no point telling you anything yet as we don't even know for sure what's happened to him. As soon as anything definite is found we'll let you know, I promise son."
"O-ok Dad," He said hesitantly, relaxing visibly as his mother continued to stroke his hair and hold his hand. Soon enough, tiredness overcame worry and he fell back into a deep sleep.
***
"So, you feeling any better Dave?" Danny said, worry and concern rife in both his voice and eyes. David stopped sipping at the boiling hot tea in his hands and turned his head, ever so gently, towards the seat in the corner that his little brother had staked as his own personal territory ever since he had been admitted. It had been a long and hard few hours since he woken up again. His sight was back to normal and the headache had faded to a dull throb at the back of his skull. The news on Alex was not as good as he was hoping for, though, and he had spent over an hour asking the consultant everything he could think of about his friends crippling injuries. He had had to fight back the tears when they said that Alex was paralysed from the waist down and finally gave up the ghost when they had told him the chances of him ever walking again were anywhere between zero and none.
"For a while back there I thought you were gonna leave without saying goodbye to me." The emotion in his voice wasn't hard to understand, and David found himself fighting the tears again.
"You know I'd never do that if I had any choice in the matter Danny-boy and besides, there's no point in thinking things like that when I'm here and not intending to go anywhere without your permission." He said, curling the edges of his lips into the nearest approximation of a smile that he could create. He looked at the worry-creased face of his brother and had to admit that he felt better with him being here.
Even though Danny was a good five years younger then him, they had such a close relationship that their parents had once worried than neither of them were going to make any other friends outside of the family. He looked older than his 17 years would have implied and his messy blond hair was constantly getting in his eyes making him brush it behind his ears every other minute. He always refused to get it cut any shorter claiming this time he really was going to grow it long, although Dave knew that this was simply a ploy to make their Mum fuss over him even more than usual. His parents had always called his younger sibling their 'little miracle' as after David was born, the doctors told his mum that complications with his birth had resulted in her being unable to conceive another child. So determined had they been to prove them wrong that they had tried all the medical treatments available. After five long years they had finally given up on the dream only to have it realised through the most natural of means.
Although initially jealous, as all older siblings are, of the extra attention Danny had received as a baby, he been such a joy to be with and a welcome relief from the depression that had hit his mother over the earlier news that he couldn't hate him for long. His Mum and Dad had always made sure to lavish attention on both boys as they grew older and David had decided at an early age to take his brother under his wing, as it were, and vowed that no harm would ever be done to him.
"Damn right," Danny said matter-of-factly. "And if I ever hear of you getting into such trouble again Mr Edward's I shall personally chop you're balls off and force them down you're throat!" He teased, trying to bring as much humour into the situation as he knew would be allowed.
"Now there's a great image to have in my head." David said appreciating the attempt to lighten the mood. "How's Mum and Dad?"
"Alright I guess, they were both frantic with worry until we found out you were alright, although I wasn't exactly the epitome of calm myself. They've managed to keep the police at bay for the moment but once they find out that you're feeling better it won't be much longer until they start asking you a load of questions."
"The cops?"
"Yeah, they seem pretty itchy about all of this to be honest." Danny said as calmly as he could, this subject was a dangerous one to bring up but if anyone could get David to talk about it he knew that he would probably be the most successful one. "They know that Alex's….injuries were caused by that bastards baseball bat, the marks on his back line up identically with the shape of the weapon, but they can't figure out what happened next."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, they found Sam's body on the other side of the grass-land, all of his bones had been shattered by a force that had managed to hurl him across fifty-feet of open space, onto a concrete wall and blow the back out of the wall. I only found this out cos I was sneaking around outside and overheard them talking while you were last asleep." He decided to go for it, "Can you remember what happened? Was someone else there as well?"
David unconsciously bit his lower lip, for the past 17 years its been impossible to lie to this man. "No." Maybe he shouldn't have bit his lip.
"No, what?"
"I don't remember, I can't remember anything after hearing Alex screaming ok?"
"Dave, there's something you're not telling me."
Shit. He definitely shouldn't have bit his lip.
"Either you tell me now or the police later on, I'm pretty sure which one I'd rather tell and you know you can trust me to keep whatever you say between us until you say otherwise."
"There's nothing I'm more sure of Danny-boy but I can't remember anything more, at least not yet."
"You know it's ridiculous."
"What?"
"You trying to lie to me. I don't think you've ever managed not to bite your lip when you've tried that and you never will."
Shit. Mental note: don't bite lip when lying.
"Look, even if I do remember something else, and this is only saying if I can. Believe me it's better you don't know, at least for the time being."
"Oh great now I know your lying to me, shit Dave I'm your brother, if you can't tell me then who can you tell?"
There was a long pause, David looked at his brother and realised that he couldn't keep it a secret from him for long but he wasn't ready to share this with him yet, he wasn't ready to share it with anyone except, "I need to see Alex."
"What?"
"I need to see Alex…… now."
***
Who knew that getting around a hospital would have been so difficult. It had taken a while to plan the necessary diversion to draw the police guards away from the entrance to his hospital room. Danny playing the fool and causing a 'distraught' fracas in the corridor, forcing the cops to try and subdue him. The pillows looked nothing like him and he knew that he wouldn't have long to talk to Alex before they found him. He slipped past some more policeman, and into a waiting lift. Danny had already told him that Alex was awake and that the police had been to see him earlier in the day. He had also given David the room number and department where Alex was being kept and it wasn't too far from where he was staying, although hopefully far enough for the police to take their time getting there.
He found the door he was looking for and quietly opened it, searching the room to make sure there were no other visitors about to spot him. Finding none, he opened it the rest of the way and whispered, "Alex? Are you awake?"
A groan told him that he wasn't but the next instant he saw his friends eye's open and fix on him with a welcoming and happy edge that made his guilt jump into over-load.
"Hey there stranger," Alex said sleepily, rubbing his eyes "How are you feeling?"
"I should be asking you the same thing, look Al I can't tell you…"
"Whatever you are about to say, and I've got a pretty good idea what it was, do not say it or I'll beat you round the head with whatever comes nearest to hand!" He teased and smiled a smile at David that left him in no doubt that there was no bad feeling between the two friends. "There's no possible way that you are responsible for this and I refuse to let you come in here and drip guilt all over me when all I want to do it talk now, sit."
David obeyed, he moved from the door, closed and locked it just to make sure he would get as much time as possible with his friend and sat beside Alex on a chair next to the bed. "You're one stubborn bastard sometimes, you know that?"
"Yep, it's one of my most endearing qualities, plus my ability to talk more shit than you when I'm drunk! And speaking of special abilities, do you wanna tell me what happened to you that saved both our hides back there?"
Typical, I come in to apologise profusely and the next thing I know he's forcing a confession out of me. David thought, God, I love this bloke.
"What can I say? It's pretty obvious I'm a mutant of some kind, what my powers are I have no idea as I didn't even know I was one until Sam attacked us. You don't mind me, you know, being a mutant? "
"Considering that's what saved our lives from that homicidal son-of-a-bitch I'd seem pretty hypocritical if I did. Anyway it seems like we were pretty lucky that you're body decided to manifest when it did."
"I suppose so, if only it had been a few minutes earlier….."
"Yeah, well I always said you were a slow bastard, I just didn't realise how right I was."
David smiled, "Cheers Al, I was hoping that you wouldn't hold it against me, I don't know what I'd have done if I'd lost your friendship."
"Glad to know I'm wanted," He replied, "And the same goes for you too, it's a pity I won't be seeing you for a while after this chat."
"What? What do you mean?"
"You've got to get out of here Dave and I mean now, the cops have got it in for you something fierce. I was interviewed by this weird fella this morning, the other cops were acting really awkwardly around him and I could tell he wasn't your normal run-of-the-mill policeman. He didn't ask a thing about me or Sam just kept on asking questions about you, "How long have you known him?" "Have you ever seen him display powers or abilities beyond the capability of a normal human?" All this sort of stuff, 'corse
I didn't tell him shit, but I don't think he really cared whether I confirmed his suspicions or not. He either knows something or he's definitely on the right track, either way you'd better split quick."
"Shit, I really don't need this right now."
"Tell me about it, I was looking forward to making you clean my bed sores for me"
"Christ, now that's two mental images I didn't need to think about."
"What's the other one?"
"You don't wanna know, but if you fancy a bit of sadomasochism then ask Danny." He grinned and then realised his time was up. If the police found him in here they'd bang him up for sure. "Seems like this is it for the moment then, I'd best get back and get some clothes on and tell Danny goodbye."
"You can't do it mate, you need to get out now, you were lucky you got out when you did. That copper isn't waiting around, if they haven't found that you've gone already then it's only a matter of minutes before they do. Take some of my clothes and my cards, I won't need them for a while and you won't be able to get your own anytime soon, but if I see a bill from the Savoy Hotel or something I'll track you down myself!"
"Shit, shit, shit! Can you tell him I'm sorry but I had no choice and I'm gonna have to ask his permission next time I have to disappear for a while?"
"As good as done, now get out of here."
"One more thing, tell him what happened, all that you can remember, he deserves that much at least and I'd like him to understand why his big brother had to leave him on his own." David held out his hand and without hesitation Alex took it and shook the hand of his best friend. "Tell him I'll be in touch in a couple of months when this has all died down and know that I'll see you again."
"I'll hold you to it mate, now fuck off before I start calling for the cops myself."
And with that David took what clothes Alex had in the wardrobe, took one last look at his friend and jumped out of the window and ran towards the nearest train station.