Right so I'm guessing we're about ready for some answers...but notice I said some answers because there are still a whole lot more!
Hayley1001, Hey super glad you're still enjoying it and particularly because we still have a long old way to go. In this chapter we're back to the case and we get some answers or maybe that should be more questions instead?
Cheryl24, Bray reminds me of the far more camp Wrong Turn but yeah basically any film that has bizarre social outcasts and that is him and his boys! Mick and Bischoff will pop up more the further we get into things and Mick should be in this one but…
Mandy, Bit more on Truth in this one coming up but it might not be in the way you expect. Roman and Dean are pretty much totally in sync now in the way that best friends and brothers should be and that bond is only going to grow too.
Wolfgirl2013, Thank you very much. Got some answers to maybe a couple of questions in this chapter but expect more questions to crop up too!
Minnie1015, Haha, slow burn is totally the description for this one. I kind of felt like it needed to be built up to avoid turning into a massive jumble (like my brain). But yeah sooo many things left to be answered and the drama is by no means over!
Ohana1337, Cookies? Ooh you said the magic word! I'm afraid Bray will be hanging round for a while longer yet as you suspected because he is not the kind of guy to take no very well besides which I know you love him really! No?!
SkittlezLvr79, Yep, next level Bray stuff coming up next chapter because like you said, he's not a massive fan of the waiting game and also because he's super creepy! Got some answers on Truth in this one so brace yourself…
Skovko, Yeah I'm sorry but sometimes you have to sacrifice a much loved character to make the bad guys even more bad…if they are any bad guys because this could all be a horrible misunderstanding that everyone ends up laughing about. No?!
KiaraKitty08, Haha are you going through this story with a marker pen and everywhere it says Dean you're putting your name in instead?! But yeah panicky and protective Roman rocks but he does that quite a lot in this story and with good reason too…
Cherry619, Good news on the Roman-piecing-the-puzzle-together front because this chapter has a whole lot of the big dog scratching his head and trying to make the jigsaw take shape. But naturally I'm not going to give you all the answers!
Stingerette1975, Truth is super cool but…um…well he's healthy and happy in my Little Brother stories which might be the best you can ask for…maybe?! You're right Roman does not like what he finds out because the news is not good!
Daisysakura, Roman's overprotective mode goes into warp speed next chapter and from then on but in this one we're back to business for a little bit. As for some physical trauma with emotional hurt on top? I think I may have that covered!
Back into the lions' den then...
The Holy Grail
Either because the guy is full of hot nonsense or else because he is simply biding his time, the attack that Roman is waiting to happen remains a possibility but doesn't actually come.
Bray lurks though.
He's real good at lurking and particular in doorways or too close to where they are and always with that look of amused sort of hunger that likes to ripple away beneath the excess of scratchy hair and that makes Dean alternatively twitchy and god damn outraged and which paints a feeling of lingering danger through the stale and sweaty prison air.
Roman isn't keen on leaving his cellmate for a second or frankly even having the copper blonde much out of his sight, except he doesn't really have a choice in the matter since rules is rules and they still both have their jobs.
Dean for his part is fairly pragmatic because in spite of the fact there is a swamp monster after him, he isn't exactly the babying type and so merely shrugs his constantly sloughing shoulders and sniffs a little too hard,
"No big deal uce."
Roman has a hard time believing him on that though –
Mostly because his shoulders keep on moving in a sort of nervous tick of a motion that is by no means calm and makes the younger man look kind of crazy, or potentially on the verge of a total mental breakdown and who could even damn well blame him for that? Locked up after having been forced into dealing, then losing his best friend and now this bayou stalker thing.
Roman palms his neckline,
"I can get out of it."
He means his cleaning shifts and isn't bluffing on that point since he is literally a second away from phoning up Hunter and demanding he do something to fix their situation even though he doesn't know exactly what can be done.
Dean won't let him skip out on work however and pushes the hand down,
"You need a clean record man, no troublemakin' so you can get outta here when you're meant to."
He even throws in a far too chirpy I'll be fine which is possibly the least convincing sentence in history but does seem to genuinely be what he wants, because the two of them are men which means the act of needing comfort will always be pushed down for bravado instead, besides which they don't much have a choice in the matter and so the bigger man blows a sigh out and continues to go to work.
Needs to go to work too –
Needs to focus on his mission.
But damn it if concentrating on anything isn't hard and especially not when the anything in question is carpet dust bunnies and the emptying of trash cans. Although he tries his best to force his lawman hat back on and pull out as much information as he can get.
For the next four days though, he comes up empty.
But on the fifth day he manages to hit the holy grail.
"Stomach flu."
"Huh?"
Roman peers at the guard blankly as he snakes up the vacuum coil and tows it over the office floor. He hasn't been expecting to have a conversation and so the sentence pretty much strikes out of the blue and renders his reply decidedly ineloquent although the bigger man is silently worrying about his lone cellmate too.
The guard blinks back and then gestures around the office,
"Foley, he's not here because he's got the stomach flu."
"Oh."
Roman had noticed that his colleague had been absent only because the chunky man is hard to ignore and for the most part is always whistling and chattering and making the work day fly right by. He had naturally wondered what was keeping him busy but hadn't thought or even figured that he would be allowed to ask and so nods in reply and smiles at the officer in a measure of gratitude,
"Thanks for passing that on."
"You need to clean the file room."
He blinks,
"I what now?"
He doesn't need it repeating because he hasn't heard the words, but more because they slip out so totally casually and play so far into his hands that he can't believe his luck and so struggles to form a normal sounding sentence as his heart begins to hammer.
The guard sighs,
"File room."
He punctuates each of the words with frustration, like he's trying to book tickets over the phone but has been saddled with a automated voice recognition system which is forcing him to over pronounce what he wants.
Roman has been there before.
He clears his throat rapidly and then tries to play down the bloom across his chest as he nods his big head and shrugs very lightly in an offhand gesture that he has learnt from his quirky friend.
"Hey sure thing man, just point me in the right direction."
He isn't so much pointed as frog marched there, trailing the tiny and inefficient little vacuum like he has at some point been surgically attached to the thing and then towing it in over the threshold of the file room as the guard unlocks the door and leads them both in.
It isn't exactly the most exciting room in existence in terms of size or general design, but what the space lacks in character and color and windows it makes up for and then some in what it contains, which is rows of neatly lined and towering filing cabinets that are bulging with information that could crack the case and therefore release him from his living prison nightmare as well as bring justice for Callihan, Dogg and Truth.
Dean too probably all things considered.
In other words being stood before the files feels huge and is the reason that the detective almost totally forgets himself in a purposeful stride towards them before remembering his place. He isn't a policeman raiding a drugs den, he's an undercover prisoner with a duster in his hand and so he fights back the near overwhelming urge to rifle and instead clears his throat like he's taking it all in.
The guard leans back against the doorway lazily,
"Warden likes it cleaned once a week, but we don't get long in here so get yourself moving."
Roman doesn't need to be told a second time and instead strolls in with his trusty little vacuum and heads directly for the far corner of the room, hoping against hope that his minder doesn't follow and being rewarded when the smaller man simply stays put and then starts to examine his fingernails absently in a way that implies he's not a man who loves his job.
Perfect.
Roman swiftly ducks around the next row of cabinets and then drops to his knees pulling the thin hoover cord close and pretending to be scouting for a useable outlet as his eyes instead scan the labelled metal drawers.
They are alphabetized –
Good.
For the criminal warden who likes order or being able to easily find the files of the deceased. Presuming that Bischoff is actually guilty which isn't a sure thing and which is his job to find out. Roman hunkers himself down a little further and then shuffles in closer to where he wants to be and moves backwards down the row of boldly printed letters until he finds the nearest likely one.
Bingo.
K.
Truth having been forcibly removed from the prison had made Dean briefly reflective the night before and he had spoken about the guy and the little he had known about him, while at the same time casually tossing his real life birth name out.
Ron Killings.
Roman seizes the cabinet handle and then tries to pull it open a tiny bit but stops with a bolt of cold hard adrenaline as it squeaks in the runners and makes the firm drawer grate too loud. He can't see the guard but he can sure hear him stiffen as well as the instantaneous suspicious sounding voice,
"What was that noise?"
"I'm just looking for the socket – not to worry man, I got it in now."
Roman snaps in the pins and then quickly reaches over to fire up the vacuum into life before hauling himself back onto his feet swiftly and stalling the guard with his sudden reappearance as he begins to haul the noisy appliance back and forth.
It settles the guard who goes back to his leaning and the bigger man blows a sigh out.
Damn.
Round two.
Hooking the drawer open with his foot isn't easy but his half-hearted vacuuming nicely hushes up the sound and allows him to slide the thing all the way open with his heartbeat pounding like it might fall clean out.
He likes it though –
He likes the rush of tension because it's exactly the sort of thing he joined the force for and why he has kept to the career without flinching through the good times and the far worse undercover prison bad.
Lifting up one of the vacuum accessories, he mimes accidentally dropping it on the ground and then lowers into a squat to quickly root through the paper files until he comes to the one he wants.
Ron Killings.
Truth.
He opens it quickly and then skim reads the pages as fast as his pulsing eyes will allow as the adrenaline makes the words begin to swim in front of him and the drone of the vacuum makes concentrating on it hard. He flips the sheets over as he bypasses the basic details and even ignores the seemingly long life of crime, before landing on the last of the thin slips of paper and feeling his gut roll at the red stamp.
Deceased.
"Shit – ,"
In the back of his awareness he can hear the guard shifting, because he has more than likely been hunkered down on the floor too long, but he needs another few seconds to finish reading and so keeps in position with the file in his hands.
"Come on, come on – ,"
He hits on the right line and then sucks in a breath that gets caught up in the dusty air because the truth of what has happened is stark in its simplicity and lack of description.
Asphyxiation.
He had killed himself or at least that's what the official records point to and perhaps even said if he'd had the time to look, which he doesn't since the guard is almost on top of him and fast rounding the line of tall filing cabinets.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
Roman slips the thick file back quickly and slides shut the drawer which is still disguised by the vacuum moan and is just pretending to pick up the extension nozzle when the harried corrections officer turns the corner with a frown.
Roman blinks back with a smile of deprecation,
"I – uh – can't work out where this bit goes."
The guard rolls his eyes and checks his watch briskly,
"Well work it out fast, you've only got five minutes left."
Roman nods and grabs up the vacuum which he then begins to sweep in fierce motions across the floor, while he poor brain whirs and paints pictures out of nothing because Ron Killings is dead, like Sami Callihan and Road Dogg and more than ever he knows that something is happening and until he shuts it down, no one is safe.
Next chapter the boys do a little bit more bonding and spend some quality time hanging out...before it all goes to hell...
