Three Weeks Later
Jasper was wondering down the street by himself. He cleared to return to service, just watching monitors, so he had a bit more down time that he would otherwise would have had.
He had convinced Liam not to go back to where he was shot, but he had made no such promise to Liam, here he was, mere hours after being told he could leave the palace, tracing his steps the day he had taken when he had been shot.
He turned the corner, headed down an alley, and he knew the alley would open into a wider courtyard type space with another alley on the other side. He did not think he had been watched as he entered the alley, but he stuck to the edges, hiding in the shadows.
What he had not told Liam, was that he had not just seen the flash the morning that he was shot. He had seen something else as well. Something that shouldn't have been there, and he was not sure if anyone else had seen it. He crept to the edge of the courtyard, and looked in that general direction. He let out the breath that he didn't know he was holding when he saw it was still there.
Rather than run the risk of getting shot again, Jasper checked all of the hidden spaces for gunmen, before proceeding to the object that held his attention. He looked around the courtyard for something he could climb, so that he could retrieve it. He found nothing, with the exception of an industrial, roll top bin. Figuring that he would probably regret it sooner rather than later, he disengaged the brakes, moved it to below the object, before reengaging them.
Jasper climbed onto the bin, one foot on the handle, one on the roll top for balance. He reached up. He still couldn't quite reach, so he stretched for it. Feeling something pop, Jasper relaxed, before stretching for the object again. He could only just reach it with his fingertips. Unscrewing the object, he took it in his hand, and he found inside it what he had hoped to find. A video camera.
He tucked it into his jacket pocket, moved the bin back to it's original location and walked as fast as his torn stitches would allow him to.
As he made it onto the main road, he heard someone scream:
"Oh my God! That's Jasper Frost!"
"Do you think that means that the Prince is somewhere about?"
Before they could stop him and delay his return to the palace, Jasper quickened his pace, despite the red forming on his shirt and the pain increasing in his chest.
Upon his return to the Palace, Jasper went straight to Liam's room. He didn't knock, but went straight in, waking Liam up with a fright.
"Jasper? It's like six am. Aren't you meant to be asleep?"
"I found something" Jasper told him, before the room spun and he had to grab hold of a chair to stop him from collapsing to the floor.
Liam, seeing this in the half light of his room, sprung out of bed, and guided him to a chair.
Once he saw that Jasper was settled, Liam went to turn the light on. He turned to face Jasper, and saw a large patch of bright red wetness on Jasper's shirt.
"Jesus Jasper! Did you get shot again?"
"No" Jasper breathed out heavily, "I pulled a stitch reaching for this."
Jasper reached into his jacket and pulled the camera out of his pocket, before he threw it on Liam's coffee table.
"We'll need a laptop." Jasper finished.
"We need more than a laptop. Wait here."
Liam left Jasper, panting heavily from pain, hand to his now open wound, in the chair. He returned ten minutes later with a laptop and the doctor.
"What did you so this time?" the doctor asked him.
"I tried to reach for something, and I needed to stretch to reach it. I guess I stretched too far."
"The more you do things like this, the longer it will take to heal and return to active duty." the Doctor scolded Jasper, while rummaging around in his tools for something to replace the stitch with.
Liam and Jasper waited for the doctor to leave before Liam opened his laptop and handed it Jasper. Liam also handed the camera to him. Jasper paused as before he plugged the camera in.
"This may be hard to watch you know." he said to Liam.
"I know. So let's do it."
Jasper found the camera files and opened the last one on file. It showed the area being scoured by police officers. They had got to three videos from the newest one, when they saw Jasper and Liam enter the courtyard. They watched as the Jasper on screen stiffened. He glanced at the camera, before they saw the on screen Jasper launch himself at the onscreen Liam.
They both saw the flash of a gun as it went off.
They went further back in time, and they saw someone they both recognise enter the alleyway a mere thirty minutes before they did.
"No, it can't be." Liam said, disbelieving
"Clearly it is. Ted Pryce tried to kill you, and nearly killed me in the process."
They went back through many, many videos, eventually stumbling upon the one Jasper had suspected was on there.
"That arsehole killed my dad!"
Jasper, knowing Liam, was out of the chair quicker than his injured body wanted him to be. He stood in front of Liam who tried to push past him, but Jasper stood his ground.
It was only when Liam landed a direct blow to his injury, causing him to double over that stopped Liam in his tracks.
"We need to be smart about this. One wrong move and he could disappear forever." Jasper gasped.
"Then we need a plan."
"I'm going to need you to help me to the control room." Jasper admitted, attempting to stand up straight and failing. Blood was starting to drop onto Liam's floor.
"Shit. You aren't going anywhere, you need that seeing to."
"Can't call the Doctor back, he'd kill us both."
"Most of the guards have advanced first aid training, but who could we trust?"
