Jason hurried over to Clay's apartment. Sonny didn't go into too much detail over the phone. All he said was there was a situation, Clay needed help and to just walk right in when he got there. Once Jason had arrived he saw Sonny sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. He looked around the room and thought it was a little odd that Clay was nowhere to be found.
Sonny looked up as Jason walked in. They made eye contact and then Jason gave him the 'you gonna tell me what the fuck is going on look?'
"He's in his bed sleeping." Sonny told Jason knowing that was going to be one of the first questions asked. "I don't know exactly what's going on but he's in a bad place right now. I knew something was up the moment he didn't show up for our run. He always beats me there. Always, and when…"
"Get to the point Sonny." Jason interrupted his babble.
"He looks like shit Jason, his kitchen is completely empty so I forced him to go to breakfast with me. The kid barely ate anything he ordered! He could barely keep his eyes open, so he clearly hasn't been sleeping. And when he talks he either sounds completely defeated or he's got some major attitude. And then there's his bathroom." Sonny paused as he mentally pictured it.
"What's wrong with his bathroom?" Jason asked.
"Go see for yourself." Sonny told Jason.
As Jason walked into the bathroom, he saw dried blood and glass everywhere. He put his head down, mentally acknowledging that there was definitely a problem and they needed to get it figured out quick.
He walked back out to the living room and sat down net to Sonny.
"Whatever demons he's fighting in his head, they're getting to him. We gotta break through to him Jase, and we gotta do it before they win." Sonny said concerned.
"You think this has anything to do with Stella? Maybe what happened in Mexico?" Jason asked Sonny.
"I think it's definitely a big part of it. The second I mentioned them he warned me to drop it." Sonny confessed.
"Have any of you talked about what happened? I know you all went through the debriefing after you guys were released from the hospital, but we all know the tricks of pushing away the bad and telling people what they want to hear in order to get cleared for the next mission." Jason treaded lightly.
Sonny remained quiet. He remembered Mexico perfectly, although he spent a majority of his time trying to forget it.
The silence was all Jason needed to hear to know that there was something more that happened in Mexico that he didn't know about. Something that neither Sonny nor Clay wanted to talk about. His mind immediately went to Brock. 'If they won't open up about it, I doubt I'll get Brock to.' Jason thought. He then looked over at Sonny who seemed to be lost in his thoughts.
"Hey." Jason said softly, pulling Sonny back to the present. "We need to figure out what our next move is."
Sonny nodded in agreement. They sat there for a couple of more minutes trying to come up with a plan, or at least a hopeful plan.
Jason called Ray, Brock and Trent and informed them of the situation, all of which said they'd be right over after they did some grocery shopping for Clay. Jason made sure to tell them to just walk in when they got there. Clay needed to catch up on as much sleep as possible and they didn't want to risk waking him up by someone knocking on the door. They all agreed.
As soon as Jason was done on the phone, they both stood up. They walked in to Clay's bedroom to check on him. He was sound asleep but it by no means looked like a peaceful sleep.
"Should we wake him?" Sonny asked.
"No. Let him go for now." Jason whispered, taking in the sight of his youngest brother. Sonny was right. He didn't look at all, but what really concerned Jason was the wrapped up hand.
Jason tapped on his hand as he looked over at Sonny. "How bad is it?"
Sonny shrugged his shoulders a bit. "Bloody and bruised to hell, but he insists he doesn't need a doctor."
"I'll be the judge of that once he wakes up." Jason informed Sonny as they left Clay's room.
As they walked by the bathroom Sonny said "We need to get this cleaned up. You want to go grab the broom from the kitchen?"
Jason agreed and then headed towards the kitchen. As he was grabbing the broom, they heard a low cry coming from Clay's bedroom. They both ran in and saw Clay sitting straight up, panting for breath.
"Hey kid. It's ok. We're here." Jason said in a soothing voice as he and Sonny approached Clay.
Clay looked around, recognizing he was in his bedroom and then looked up slightly confused, and even more annoyed. "What are you doing here?" He asked Jason and then looked over at Sonny "and why are you still here?"
"We're worried about you kid." Sonny spoke up first.
"Well you don't have to be. I'm perfectly fine." Clay barked out.
"Yeah. We can see that." Jason laughed sarcastically.
Clay just glared at the two of them as he laid back down. He hated that anyone was seeing him like this, let alone Jason and Sonny. He thought that maybe if he just closed his eyes, when they opened back up Jason and Sonny would be gone. Besides he was still too tired to argue with them anyway. Before he knew it, he fell back asleep.
"Damn. Guess he really hasn't been sleeping for him to konk out like that." Sonny uttered.
Although satisfied that Clay had indeed gone back to sleep, it also worried him a bit. Clay didn't even attempt to argue about them being there. He walked back out to the living room and plopped down on the couch. Sonny followed right behind. "I knew it was bad, but I didn't think things were this bad." Jason said putting his head in his hands. "I should have been on him more. I should have been on all three of you after you got out of the hospital."
"Don't beat yourself up over that. Whatever is going on here, it's more than just Mexico. That's not on you, but it is up to us to figure it out." Sonny informed Jason.
Jason nodded. He knew Sonny was right.
"Alright, now let's get this place tidied up now before the rest of Clay's unwanted company gets here. What do you think?" Sonny smirked. If the kid was mad about just the two of them there, wait until he woke up to the whole team there.
Jason headed to the kitchen to grab the broom he was supposed to grab earlier while Sonny headed straight to the bathroom and started picking up the larger pieces of glass and placing them in the trash can.
Just as Jason entered the bathroom Ray and Brock walked in with a handful of groceries and put them down on the counter. "How is he?" Ray asked.
"Asleep, but not too good." Jason informed them. "Where's Trent?"
"He stopped by the liquor store to pick a few extra things up." Brock replied.
Jason and Sonny then returned to the bathroom while Ray and Brock put away the groceries. Moments later there was a loud knock at door.
Sonny scrunched his face in concern, hoping it didn't wake Clay. Jason shook his head in annoyance. "So help me god if that's Trent. I made myself perfectly clear to just walk in!" Jason stormed over to the door while Sonny checked on Clay, relieved that he still seemed to be asleep. Ray and Brock just stood there, watching a pissed off Jason stride over to the door. Sonny walked back out to the living room, fully expecting to hear Jason quietly yelling at Trent, but instead just found Jason standing at the door with his hand on the door knob.
"I think we just found our missing puzzle piece." Jason said as he opened the door, revealing Ash Spenser on the side of the door.