Thanks to: Pip3, kipperoo453, w84u, LuvAngel448, Spidersting, and Jada91 for the great reviews. I appreciate the encouragement!
Title: Chapter 3 of "Ask, and Thou Shalt Receive"
Rated: PG13 (Sorry, I know the rating keeps going up and up!)
Disclaimer: See chapter 1
"Ennis, please." His voice came out small, like a little boy's.
"Oh...Jack, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He sighed and put his face in his hands. "I'm just so worried 'bout yeh, an' then I get here, an' thin's are worse 'an I coulda' imagined. I jus' wanna know what they did to my man."
"Ennis, I- wait...did yeh jus' say yer man?" Ever since Ennis had gotten here, Jack had been in a mood for crying. Now was no exception. A tear leaked from his eye and Ennis used the damp cloth to swipe it away.
"Are you brothers done yet?" The nurse stood in the door way, beating the floor with her sneaker clad foot. Ennis was sure that was what she wanted to do to him. "The doctor needs to wrap Jack."
"Yes ma'am," Ennis nodded, "we're all finished." He dropped the cloth in the bucket and looked inquiringly at Jack. Did Jack want him gone for this?
Jack nodded to a chair on one side of the room. "Yeh jus' sit there, this don' take long."
So Ennis squashed himself in the little, orange chair. The nurse checked Jack over, and found, to her disappointment, that Ennis had done a fantastic job. The doctor came in, followed by another nurse, laden with bandages.
First, they wrapped up Jack's arms, after applying a sticky, green salve to help the skin heal. Then they put some cream on his torso and bound that just a tightly. Last was the burn. Ennis noticed it went under the towel.
The nurses helped shift Jack so they could pull it out from under him; the doctor frowned, "That's still bleeding, hmm?"
Jack was on his side, facing Ennis. He was embarrassed to be naked in front of these strangers and ashamed that they had discovered his secret. "I'm sorry," he whispered. Ennis tried to look in his eyes, but Jack continuously averted his gaze.
"No need to apologize, Mr. Twist," the doctor sighed as he shifted him back over, "I just worry you'll lose too much blood."
They put a last, clear good on Jack's burn, that made him hiss in pain. Then they wrapped it and the doctor signed a chart at the end of Jack's bed. The whole thing took about and hour. Before leaving, the second nurse slipped a paper gown on Jack. "I'll bring you something more comfortable in a moment, I'll just go get something in your size." He thanked her as she left.
He smiled sadly at Ennis after the door was closed. "I'm sorry, Ennis."
"Jack, how many people gotta tell ya this ain't yer fault 'afore yeh believe it?"
Jack frowned, "I swear, Ennis, it mus' be this shit they got me on, 'cus I ain't ever felt more like cryin' in my whole life."
"How many times, Jack?"
"One more 'an yeh tol' me so far."
He took Jack's marred face in his hands and looked into those blue eyes. They were littered with fear, doubt, guilt and shame. No where could Ennis find the love and hope that used to reside there.
"Ennis, can a guy get raped?"
Ennis' hand slipped a bit from Jack's cheek. "Say what?" He looked at Jack, shocked, scared. He could fix this cut, that limp, but he had never dealt with some who had been raped. The closest he got to that was when a boy at school kissed Francine without her permission, and she ran home crying.
He didn't know what the conditions were when Jack was raped. He didn't know what to say to the man to comfort him. He didn't know how he could take away the pain and make it all better.
"I said," Jack breathed, "can a guy get raped?"
"Yeah, Jack. Why?" Ennis knew why. He didn't need to ask, but he thought he would, just in case.
"Ennis, I think I was raped."
"You think?" Ennis grabbed Jack's hand in one of the rare shows of affection he gave only at times of hardship or sadness.
"What did yeh say to the doctors, Jack?"
"More like what'd they say to me. I woke up here, an' started punchin' anyone in reach, thinkin' I was still getting' the beatin' o' my life. After they pinned me down an' got me Velcroed to the bed, they explained I had been beaten and raped, an' some farmer saw me, on the side o' the road, pants down, covered in blood. He scooped me up and brought me in. There were 5 guys attackin' me, Ennis, an' I think they all raped me. Otherwise, I wouldn' be bleedin' so much, would I?"
Jack sighed and fiddled with his hospital braclet.
"Jack, if the doctors told yeh that yeh were raped, why'd yeh ask me?"
"Yeh know this kinda stuff, an' I thought on'y girls could get raped."
"I know this kinda stuff?"
"Yah...don' cha?"
"I dunno where I would've learnt it."
"But yeh did know. Yeh answered my question."
Ennis moved his jaw for a moment, a sign that he was thinking, and then looked Jack in the eye. "Tell me what happened, Jack. Why did they do this?"
Jack lowered his head and sighed, "I guess I should've know this was gonna happen."