He turned on his heels and ran. He was dimly aware of someone at his side and caught a flash of blond hair. Barclay.
Where was Dee?
A loud boom shattered the silence.
Before Ryo could react he was bodily tackled and thrown to the ground, a heavy weight landing on him. He gasped, winded, trying to reinflate his lungs, his ears ringing with the explosion.
For a long moment there was nothing but the aftershock of the blast, his own harsh breathing, the desperate need to pull more air, and the suffocating weight on his back.
"RYO!"
Someone screamed his name in his ear and he winced. Miraculously, the headset was still on and functioning.
"Dee?" he coughed.
"Ryo, where are you? Are you okay? Ryo?!"
"I'm fine," he managed, trying to move.
Oh, there would be bruises. Boy, would there be bruises…
The weight suddenly moved and when he turned on his back, still panting, he looked into a pair of icy blue eyes in a soot covered face. No glasses hid the intense stare now raking over him. The light hair was in wild disarray and there was a bruise already forming on the commissioner's cheek. His headset was gone.
"Ryo, are you okay?"
Barclay's soft tenor seemed to penetrate the fog still around his mind, and the openly concerned gaze froze him. Those eyes had burned into him before, seeking the answer to the older man's lustful thoughts, and Ryo had always pushed him off. Now the expression was different. Deeply worried, downright scary worried, he decided. The need to know that Ryo was okay was like a living being raging inside those eyes.
"I'm fine…" he stuttered.
Barclay continued to gaze at him, then his hand reached out to flick a rogue strand of hair out of Ryo's eyes. Still, there was no lust there, no sexual power, just honest worry and tender care.
"Good."
Before Ryo could reply, Barclay was yanked up and pushed off him. "Get your filthy paws off!"
"Dee!" Ryo exclaimed, the strange spell broken.
Barclay landed on the debris littered floor and Ryo saw a flicker of pain cross the older man's face. His eyes suddenly focused on the bloody smear visible on the once white dress shirt.
"Shit, he's injured!" he exclaimed.
Dee's furious and jealous expression wavered. Green eyes fell on his perceived opponent.
"What?" he asked.
Barclay got to his feet, one hand coming to cover and protect the injury. "I'm fine, Detective McLane."
The blue eyes filled with pain spoke another language. Ryo was about to say something, already two steps closer to Barclay again when the rescue teams stormed in.
Ryo stared at the blond man, unable to say anything, to feel anything clearly.
He protected me, ran through his head again and again. He could have been killed. He pulled me down.
It was what any fellow officer would have done, but this had meant more. The gesture had been more, the look had spoken of something deeper, a connection that existed solely in the world of the paranormal and genetics.
"Dee, I'm fine," Ryo repeated for the umpteenth time. "Just bruised.
Barclay took the brunt of the force."
Dee harrumphed and fell against the wall next to the examination table
where Ryo still sat on, now getting dressed again. His chest was riddled
with bruises, but, while painful, they weren't life-threatening. Dressed,
he slid off the table and Dee was immediately at his side, eyes burning
with worry.
"Mother-hen," Ryo teased softly.
The sharp features twisted into a grimace, then Dee leaned forward
and kissed him tenderly, affectionately.
"I love you."
Ryo reached up and cupped one cheek, nuzzling him. "I know. C'mon,
let's check on Barclay."
An expression of dismay replaced the tenderness. "Do we have to?"
"Yes, now come on."
"He's fine," Dee muttered.
"He saved my life and he's your brother," came the insistent reply,
the words soft and intense.
Latener's emotions flared briefly, then he just shrugged. "Okay, okay.
If it makes you sleep better."
"You're cruel."
With that, Ryo left the room, heading for the nurse station to find
out where Barclay had been taken to.
Dee hurried after him, sighing to himself.
Ross Barclay had been lucky. The splinter had only left a deep groove
in his side, which was now covered by a white bandage. Like Ryo he featured
assorted bruises, but nothing life-threatening. As the two detectives waited
for their boss to redress, Dee moved closer to Ryo, an almost possessive
streak in his whole demeanor.
Barclay shot him a mildly annoyed look. His own feelings toward Ryo
were similar, but stemmed from a vastly different source. In the beginning
it had been lust; pure and simple. The younger man was sex on legs and
he didn't even know it. He was simply edible. Barclay would have loved
to sample him, but Ryo had pushed him away, had quite clearly told him
'no' – in form of a fist to the face. Barclay had taken the hint and while
he continued to look, he hadn't touched any more.
Now, knowing the whole truth behind Ryo McLane, and Dee Latener for
that, the explanation for his feelings was vastly different. His protective
feelings, the strong pull he felt toward the younger man, was on a genetic
level. Ryo was Dee's shield, they were a bonded Shaman Pair, and while
both were monogamous, the siblings of the two individuals involved would
always fiercely protect the shield. Dee might refuse to accept his heritage,
his relation to Barclay, but Barclay couldn't ignore the need to keep Ryo
safe. He would protect the younger man with his life. There was nothing
sexual behind it any more, even though Dee still openly accused him of
it.
"When will you believe that I won't take him from you?" he asked quietly,
looking at Dee.
Latener gave him a dark look. "When hell freezes over!"
"Dee!" Ryo hissed, clearly annoyed. "We've been through this!"
"I know, but he couldn't keep his hands off you again!"
Barclay sighed. "Not all physical contact is sexual in nature, Dee.
I can't go against my nature and neither can you. Ryo is your bonded partner;
neither of you will ever so much as consider having anyone else but the
other. Even if I tried, and you know I did, I wouldn't be able to achieve
that goal."
He slid off the table, favoring his injured side.
"And my sexual appetite is not running that way, Detective."
Dee glared again, but Barclay noted how Ryo's gentle touch on one arm
seemed to bring his younger brother down several notches.
Dee shot him a last, dark look, then left the room. Ryo remained behind,
dark eyes soft and warm.
"Thank you," he said sincerely.
Barclay smiled a little. "You're welcome, Ryo. Still playing the mediator?"
Ryo smiled ruefully. "Yes, it seems so."
The blond nodded and thoughtfully regarded the floor. "Either way's
not working. Keeping my distance or trying to approach him. It's always
met with aggression."
Ryo was silent for a moment, then the warmth was there again. "You're
making progress, though. Believe me, you are."
Barclay chuckled. "If you say so."
Personally, he didn't think their relationship would change any time
soon. He would have to accept it. He had found his brother, but Dee Latener
wasn't interested. He would probably rather see him dead, a very dark side
inside him mused morosely. It hurt. It hurt a lot.
"Sir?"
Ryo's gentle voice drew him out of his thoughts and he wiped them away.
"You should go home, Ryo. Get some rest," he murmured.
"So should you. We could drop you…"
"No," he immediately interrupted the man. "I'll take a cab, thank you."
There was enough tension already. Dee didn't need that on top of everything
else.
Ryo gazed silently at him, then nodded his acceptance.