A/N: Yeah, cliffhangers suck. I actually do feel bad about that. But a million thanks for the people who reviewed even as they began to loathe me.

Fun Fact: LQ is an English literature major because she doesn't want to have a job.

Raising a Hand

By LQ Aredhel

Chapter 15

I'm still dreaming, JD repeated over and over in his head; he couldn't take his eyes off of the knife. Other tiny thoughts began to appear about how Daniel had called him 'JD', reminding him of how close Daniel was to him and how if this was another dream, he should be more worried about what came next.

Daniel snapped his thoughts back to reality with a light slap on the cheek. JD jerked away.

"Come on, we've got to get out of here before the nurse wakes up or she'll see us," he explained almost patiently.

JD finally made eye contact with him, entirely confused. "We're leaving?" Normally he would just take JD right then and there, no matter who was around to see it.

Daniel nodded and jerked JD upright. The shock it sent through his ribs caused JD to hesitate; this wasn't a dream. This was real. Daniel was sitting beside him on the bed, holding him up, touching his shoulder and his back. Even through the hospital robe the touch frightened JD; that combined with his aching chest made him feel like he would throw up. He looked unsteadily at Daniel to see anger, impatience in his eyes.

"Come on, get up! I saw you walking around here a couple of days ago, don't try to tell me you can't."

And suddenly something clicked in JD's head. Despite having craved to go home to see Daniel for so long, now that he was actually with him…he was terrified of him, of what he would do next, of the anger in his expression that would burst out at any moment.

JD suddenly couldn't help himself; he curled his chest to his knees, frantically clawing his hospital gown further over his legs, hiding his skin, all the while watching Daniel, waiting for him to make his move.

"Johnny," Daniel started, "what are you doing? We need to go." He spoke quietly, darkly, an obvious threat hanging in the air between them.

And JD nodded as though he understood, because part of him knew that he was supposed to get out of the bed and sneak out of the hospital with this man, his best friend. But he didn't move. Something between indecision and terror froze him to the spot; he simply stared, wide-eyed, at Daniel.

Daniel's frustration was evident; he gave a muffled yell as he jerked himself up and stalked the room angrily, obviously trying to keep himself quiet. He glanced out the window to the nurse's station; JD followed his gaze to see a young nurse with her face lying on the counter. He swallowed hard, forcing himself to believe what Daniel had said: that she was only sleeping. He wouldn't have done anything bad…. But then his eyes caught the glint of the knife still clutched in Daniel's hand as he took steady breaths and turned back to the bed.

"Get up now," he stated carefully, breathing deeply, "and I'll forget this ever happened." It was a good deal, JD understood that. There was really nothing else he could do. He took several deep breaths, then forced his arms to unwrap from his legs and turned to slide off of the bed. Daniel watched, still fuming, the knife in his fist at his hip. After only a few moments, he jerked JD up by the arm, yanking out his IV and causing him to tumble onto the floor, knocking into the end-table. The disc on the end-table flashed bright blue then toppled over and shattered. JD stared at it and past it at the bag of uneaten McDonald's food still stashed under the bed. Daniel gave an impatient grunt and JD slowly rose from the floor.

By the time JD was standing, leaning his legs against the bed, he was already exhausted; his body was still unused to movement, and his muscles were all clenched tightly as he held himself up, ready for whatever Daniel decided he deserved. The whole situation still felt like a dream to him.

Daniel nodded toward the door and JD slowly followed him out. The nurse was gone.

"What the fuck!" Daniel half-whispered half-screamed. He quickly glanced behind the counter to see if she'd fallen and cursed again.

"Maybe," JD began numbly, "I should just stay. I mean, someone may have called the police like last time." He thought for a moment as Daniel cursed and paced the hall. "How did you get out of jail anyway?" JD finally asked curiously.

Daniel let out a frustrated grunt in reply, shoved JD into a wall then continued to pace. JD closed his eyes at the flaring pain in his ribs that caused him to cough and worsen the problem, but he didn't say anything; it was a distant pain. Just like in the dreams. All the power belonged to Daniel, and all he could really do was accept the situation, right?

Daniel finally calmed enough to lead JD across several hallways to a rarely used staircase oddly placed behind the bathrooms; JD had never used them before, but now he allowed himself to be dragged down from the fifth floor to the second. JD wondered briefly why they weren't going straight to the first floor, but didn't bother asking.

Daniel rushed out of the stairwell without checking the hall, which was strange until JD realized that the hallway was completely empty. They were in an abandoned part of the hospital. As he gained his bearings, JD recalled that there were rooms full of patients only a few hallways away; how did Daniel know so much about the hospital?

The place was quiet; JD had half-expected flashing police lights when they got closer to the main floor. But when Daniel wandered back to the hall from the empty room across from the stairwell – JD hadn't even noticed him leaving – he was frowning

"There are cop cars in the parking lot already," he murmured, almost to himself. It was one of those moments when JD wasn't quite sure whether he was perfectly calm or seething with anger; there was almost no warning of when the calm would suddenly become violent. So JD remained silent, passive.

"You're a fucking idiot, you know that?" Daniel suddenly announced. "You took like ten minutes just to get awake and out of that room! You screwed us both over this time, Johnny! Now how are we supposed to get out of here!?" He was waving the knife around in front of him as though he'd forgotten he was holding it. He finally yelled in frustration. JD followed him back into the stairwell, trying to picture in his head where it would come out on the first floor.

Daniel peered out carefully when they arrived at the main floor. Apparently satisfied, he pulled JD out with him and treaded carefully along the wall until they were just around the corner from the nurse's station.

JD could see two nurses there, one behind the counter and one in front of it. There was also a big man in blue outside of the counter. A security officer, probably. But they didn't usually stand around conversing with nurses.

Daniel cursed again, very quietly, after he'd viewed the scene. JD'd never heard him cuss as much in the whole time he'd know him.

"There's no emergency exit anywhere down this hall," he whispered to JD. "We have to go by them to get out, no matter what exit we use." JD wanted to ask how he knew that, and how he'd gotten into the hospital in the first place if that was so. He was silent.

A male voice suddenly spoke up from the nurse's station, and JD recognized it as Colonel Doctor's.

"Have they found him yet?" the doctor asked, his voice muffled by distance. Daniel was practically holding his breath so that he could hear better.

Another male voice said "No," and JD assumed it was the security officer. "A nurse came down a few minutes ago with a concussion. They think he already got upstairs even with officers guarding all the elevators and stairwells" – they missed one, thought JD – "so Dr. Reid went up to check on Dorian."

"Jeez, what a mess," Colonel Doctor replied.

"Yeah, they even called Dr. Cox up about it," a nurse threw in.

"What? Why would they call Cox? What could he do?"

There was a pause, then the nurse spoke up. "Dr. Cox specifically said to call him with any issues involving Dr. Dorian and/or his 'banned visitor'."

"Have you heard the rumors?" asked another woman, presumably the other nurse.

"We've all heard the rumors," the doctor cut in pointedly, "and now we can all forget about them. Anyway, I took the night shift as a vacation from his rants, but now he's going to march in here and bite all of our heads off."

"Yeah, probably," agreed the first nurse. "At least he can't say we weren't following orders."

They continued to talk about Dr. Cox's latest over-the-top tirades. Daniel glared at the while as he listened.

"These people are all so protective of you," he finally whispered, turning his glare to JD. "What do they think I'm going to do anyway?" he wondered. Something seemed to click in his eyes just as the elevator on the other side of the nurse's station silently swung open and Elliot walked out. She froze when she saw Daniel, JD tucked away behind him.

Elliot opened her mouth to speak when Daniel grabbed JD and pressed the knife into his neck. The blade was shockingly cold. Elliot froze. Through the numbness that had pervaded his countenance, JD felt total mortification begin to take over; he was being held hostage in front of one of his best friends and all he wanted to do was die of embarrassment.

After what seemed like an eternity, Daniel stepped out from the shadows, revealing the situation to the nurse and the security officer (Colonel Doctor was nowhere in sight). Shouts of alarm went up, but JD closed his eyes and pretended that none of this was happening even as Daniel screamed openly for them to stay away and shuffled himself and his hostage across the hallway and into the relative safety of the next hall over. JD almost wished that he had the courage to tell the people that Daniel wouldn't really hurt him, that he was just pretending. But he could barely find the will to open his eyes and watch the security officer following behind them at a safe distance.

JD didn't know how long it took them to reach the admissions room, but when they did everything in the hospital seemed to go quiet. The few waiting patients stared quietly from their chairs; two police officers who had been interviewing a nurse ended their discussion and tensed at what they saw; the three or four other medical professionals in the room stopped what they were doing to watch Daniel's unsteady half jerk and spill a few droplets of blood down his hostage's neck. JD didn't even flinch.

"We're leaving," is all Daniel said, but, although no one made a move to stop him, it was obviously going to be more difficult than that. The room was full enough that as he moved through, someone could easily take him out from behind. So he hesitated, breathing rapidly against the back of JD's head, and in the next moment Dr. Cox walked through the main double doors, stopping dead in his tracks with everyone else.

Daniel's breath hitched and then evened out, and JD knew that his hatred for the doctor overcame his panic.

"We're leaving," Daniel said again, much more confidently. "So everyone needs to get into those two corners of the room," he commanded carefully, pointing to the far corners where he could see them, "and stay quiet. Or I will cut his throat." He pushed the knife farther in; JD couldn't feel the pain, but he could feel the warm liquid trickle down his throat and the fury in Dr. Cox's eyes.

People began to move, clumping into the corners with a police officer standing between each group of patients and nurses and Daniel. Dr. Cox didn't move, but before Daniel could really complain, one of the officer's radios went off, and a static-covered voice rang through the silent room.

"We've got three men on the door, what's your status, over." Silence reigned again as everyone watched Daniel; JD could practically feel the anger boiling over in the man behind him. "I repeat, we've got a code 100, can you give us a description or location of the suspect, over."

The hand on JD's arm tightened enough for him to wince, but the knife moved away from his throat, Daniel's shaky hand almost nicking him in the chin as he jerked it back.

"Fuck!" Daniel suddenly screamed, causing JD to jump in surprise. Both police officers went for their guns, but Dr. Cox was faster, rushing up to the entranceway in which they stood in order to do God knows what….wrestle the knife from Daniel's fist?

Daniel cried out again when he saw Dr. Cox rushing up to him. JD watched in slow motion as he raised the knife out in front of them and he thought that Daniel was going to stab Dr. Cox. But the knife suddenly twisted around in his hand to face JD, and it didn't make any sense, even as he watched the knife enter his side, that Daniel would punish him when he only ever obeyed and did his best to please him.

JD watched the knife move back out of his hospital gown, covered in blood, and he watched and waited as it moved back in again, towards his stomach this time, before large callused hands took hold of it and practically broke the wrist behind it before moving it away from his body.

Daniel's warmth behind him was suddenly gone along with his support, and JD dipped to the floor, apparently forgotten. And rightfully so, he devised as he took in Dr. Cox grappling with Daniel above him. Dr. Cox was stronger, but they were both so angry….

There were more hands on him suddenly, but JD was too tired to look up. He watched the floor turn as red as the front of his hospital gown until his vision faded and blackened.