Title: Shaken (Part Two)
Author: fated to flames (DJ)
Pairing: John Constantine/Chas
Rating: PG-13 for swearing and some violence
Spoilers Movie: No, takes place before the movie
Summary: Supernatural crises are no problem for John Constantine. But when Mother Nature throws her gauntlet down on John's life, will he and Chas be able to handle the consequences?
X-Posted to three Constantine communities(total) and my private LJ.
He'll be fine. He'll be fine. He's a smart kid…reckless, but smart. He can handle this.
Such was the mantra in John's mind as he struggled over wreckage, ignoring the carnage and destruction around him as his presently one-track mind focused on the one thing that mattered- Chas.
He wasted no time on the way there, but when he arrived at the library…or what was left of it…he almost wished he had.
There was nothing left but a smoking, tangled mess of wood, books, and bricks. Nothing.
"Chas…" John choked out, hesitating before rushing up to the building. People were milling around outside, some still with books in their hands, and John quickly found the first person with a library ID hanging around her neck. The woman looked like an absolute mess, but it was a start.
"Ma'am…ma'am, a boy was in there," John said, grabbing her arm tightly and trying to get her to concentrate on him. "He's seventeen, kinda scrawny, green jacket, short brown hair…"
Something clicked in the woman's eyes, and she spun around, looking back toward the wreckage.
"He…that kid, he took me to the door…"
John's heart leaped. If Chas took her to the door, then maybe, just maybe, he'd done the smart thing and gotten out before it collapsed. "And then? Did he get out?"
The woman raised a hand to her mouth, seeming to be in a confused daze. "N-No…he went back in to help that trapped girl…j-just before it collapsed, oh, God…he d-didn't get out, it's my fault, he didn't get out…"
The woman's babbling was no longer reaching John. He stared at her, feeling nauseated, dizzy, enraged, and agonizingly anguished all at once. He slowly turned back to the wreckage that was once the library, and after a few seconds, he rushed right into it.
"Chas! CHAS!" He yelled, looking for any sign of life. All of a sudden hands were pulling him back, gloved hands, and he fought, trying to pull away.
"No, I have to find him-"
"Sir, this is a hazardous area! You have to come with me," the fireman pulling him said, calmly pulling the dazed John away.
"But he's still in there somewhere!"
"I know, sir, we're doing all we can, but you have to stay back."
It took ten minutes and three firemen to pull John away from the scene, and even then a policeman on the scene handcuffed him to the nearest destroyed vehicle to keep him from interfering. He leaned against the car, staring at what was left of the building as the police took dogs over the wreckage.
It's my fault. If I hadn't been such an ass to him, if I'd just said 'yes' for once in my God forsaken life, he would've been safe with me, John thought, his throat tight. Now he could be dead.
I knew I shouldn't have gotten attached. I shouldn't have fallen for-
"Was he your son?"
John's head snapped away from the ruins of the library to find the librarian standing next to him, her hair a mess, her clothes covered in dirt and dust, but looking more composed in general.
"No," John said, the question sending a wave of disgust through him. "He's…he is my apprentice," he explained, deliberately using the present tense. Chas was not yet a 'was'. If he thought of him like that…it would break him.
Her eyebrows raised. "Your apprentice? What exactly do you do?"
Normally John Constantine would have no patience for such questions, but right now…right now John wasn't quite the normal 'Constantine. John Constantine, asshole'. He was more like the 'Hi, my name is John, and I'm in serious need of a big hug'.
"I'm an exorcist."
The librarian snorted and smiled weakly. "That explains a lot about him."
John glanced at her curiously before looking back at the search teams' progress. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"He came in just about every day looking like his dog had just died," the librarian explained with a shrug. "I assumed he was another one of those abused kids from the slums, all 'woe is me'…but I can see how working with that demon stuff all the time must be stressful."
John swallowed hard. He'd never realized how it seemed to happen every day, how often he brushed Chas off. To him, up until now, Chas was just the tagalong, the boy who slept on his couch, ate his food, and served as his chauffeur. Oh, and that little nagging object of lust in the back of his mind.
But now that he might be gone…John Constantine felt like he'd been ripped to shreds inside.
"Hey! Hey, I think Max found somethin'!"
John looked back out to the library, where a golden retriever was digging and barking, his trainer calling to the other police. John pulled hard on the handcuffs, trying to get free, but it was no use.
The policemen pulled a few blocks away before John could hear them shouting toward the ground, obviously trying to figure out if anyone was alive in the rubble. And after a few moments, John heard a muffled female voice shout back.
"Three alive down here, guys, we've got to get a crew down here!" One of the policemen yelled, and John practically went into a frenzy trying to pull his hand from the handcuffs.
"Lady, go ask them who it is. Go ask them!" He demanded, and the librarian nodded and stumbled away, one of the heels on her shoes broken off. John watched, his whole body tense as she approached a policeman and gestured to John.
After a few moments, the policeman walked over and grabbed John's shoulder.
"If I take those off, will you promise to stay out of the way?"
"Yes, yes, god damnit, as long as you find out if it's Chas in there."
The policeman shrugged and began unlocking the cuffs. "All I know so far is we've got two females and one male alive down there, and one dead body, older male. I'll work on finding out for you, okay? Just stay out of trouble."
John nodded, and the man worked his way back out to the crew, talking with them, talking a little more with the trapped people, and then coming back to John.
"Alright, look…rescue crews are coming, and-"
"Don't you fuckin' sugar coat this," John said with an impatient scowl, and the man, Officer Hendricks from his name tag, sighed.
"Two girls, Lisa Jenkins and Rachelle Lee…and one boy, Chas Kramer," he said, and John let out a sigh of relief.
"How is he?"
"The two girls are fine, mostly scrapes and bruises. A beam from the ceiling hit the fallen shelves and kept more debris from falling on them…like an improvised cavern," Hendricks explained. "Chas, he…to be honest, sir, he isn't good. The beam pinned him down pretty good, he's having trouble staying conscious. The girls are trying to keep him awake."
John's throat and fists tightened. "Hw long before you can get him out?"
Hendricks let out a long breath and ran his hand through his hair. "If you want me to be blunt…there's no telling. There's a rescue crew on the way, but it might be an hour or more before they can get here, with all the other buildings fallen like this. We're just gonna try and feed an air tube down to them, get them some air, but…"
"I have to talk to him."
Hendricks looked at John sharply. "Sir, I really don't think-"
"I don't think you heard me right, officer. I have to talk to him. He wouldn't dare die if he knew I was there…it would be less than impressive."
Hendricks looked from the ruins of the library to John, and then he sighed again. "Fine. Fine. But if I tell you to leave, you have to leave, understand?"
John was already gone by the time he finished that sentence, picking his way through the fallen building to where the policemen were standing. He had to talk to Chas, he had to hear the boy's voice for himself…
He had to know that he wouldn't lose the first and only good thing he'd ever had before he even realized just how much he needed it.