"So your vitals are good," Alison told Noah with a smile, "Unless something unexpected happens, you'll be able to go home tomorrow morning."

He grumbled. "Any chance I can go home right now? I feel fine."

"Dr. Robinson said we should keep you for observation," Ali explained, her tone apologetic. "Just to be on the safe side."

Noah sighed in resignation. He was lying in a hospital bed yet again, and with no memory of the last day and a half. The last thing he remembered was being attacked just before he made it to Java… by his own supposedly dead father. There was the shock, panic, and pain from the needle inserted into his skin, then he woke up all groggy at the hospital.

Ali filled in some of the blanks, as did Luke's parents when they stopped by; they explained that Luke was being questioned at the police station, a notion that surprised and scared Noah in itself. Apparently, Col. Mayer really was alive, and after abducting Noah, led everyone to believe he had killed his son. As it that wasn't enough, the police uncovered another murder committed by the Colonel to obtain the money with which he paid his associate, a Dr. Timothy Lange.

Noah's eyes barely flickered at the sound of all of this. Maybe he was so shocked, maybe it was so much to take at once, that he didn't immediately react. Or maybe he didn't even allow himself to be surprised anymore, having accepted that his father's evil was a bottomless pit… that there was nothing he wouldn't do in the name of what he believed to be right.

As for what happened afterwards, Ali revealed that Luke had decided to go after Col. Mayer himself, and that she and Casey learned Noah was alive and stopped him just in time. Then they found the comatose Noah.

Just when Noah was thinking how much he needed to see his boyfriend right now, Luke finally walked into the room, and Noah experienced a wonderful sense of relief. "Hey!"

Luke strode over to him, looking worn-down and concerned. "Noah, I am so sorry I couldn't get here earlier…" he pressed a feather-light kiss to Noah's lips before resting his hand on Noah's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine… better now that you're here."

"That would be my cue to leave," Ali bashfully said. "Noah, if you need anything, you've got the call button."

Noah smiled softly. "Thanks for everything, Ali."

"No sweat." She gave Luke a quick kiss on the cheek. "Bye, Luke."

Luke half-heartedly waved to her as she left the room. There was an uncomfortable silence, the sort you get in situations that are just too much for any words to be appropriate.

Noah ended up breaking the ice. "You know, I'm getting really sick of being kidnapped and ending up at the hospital. At this rate, my boss is totally gonna fire me."

Luke snickered, surprised that Noah was trying to make light of the situation, but deciding to play along. "Yeah, you're like a movie character with all these kidnappings, aren't you?"

"More like a soap opera character," Noah groaned.

In spite of himself, Luke let out a light, good-natured laugh, before kneeling down beside Noah's bed as to be able to look at him more easily. Despite not really wanting to, he proceeded with the next question. "Did Ali tell you everything?"

"She gave me the cliff notes version," noted Noah quietly. "I can't believe my father made you think I was dead… I shouldn't put anything past him, huh?"

Luke closed his eyes in pain; he knew the ostensibly light-hearted attitude was just a cover for how hurt and angry Noah was inside, but there wasn't much he could say.

"Anyway," Noah continued, now in a noticeably calmer tone, "Bet he didn't expect you to catch him." To his surprise, Luke just looked sad. "Hey," he reached to take Luke's hand, "You saved me. How about you try being a little proud of yourself, Snyder?"

"Yeah," Luke murmured with a smile – that smile of his Noah had long known to be a fake one. He knew his boyfriend was troubled at the moment, and it wasn't just about being shaken up by the experience, or fearing the consequences of having taken the law into his own hands. This was something… deeper.

"Are you alright?" Noah asked, making his words gentle enough that Luke knew he didn't have to say anything.

Luke just shook his head slowly, looking rather lost. It took a few moments for him to speak. "When I thought you were dead – that he killed you – it was like my mind focused on one thing: to get revenge. It took over me… and I just let it." A pause, but Noah silently waited for him to continue. "At first I was using Damian and Casey; I had to find the Colonel and I needed a gun, so I just used them like it was no big deal, like they meant nothing to me. And then I went after him, to kill him, and I…" he trailed off again.

"Luke, what happened in that shed?"

"I went in there knowing I want him dead, and when I saw that smug face of his, knowing – thinking – he killed you, I couldn't control myself anymore," Luke stammered, his voice shaky. "I shot him in the kneecap… then in the other one… and I was gonna kill him, I wasn't gonna stop."

"Luke – " Noah began to interrupt.

"Just hear me out, alright?" Luke pleaded, making a visible effort not to break down right there and then. "I hurt him, I saw him lying there in pain and it didn't shake me up at all, Noah. It felt good to see him suffering like that, like he made us suffer. And deep down, it scared the hell out of me - I knew I was losing myself… but I didn't care, because I'd already lost you."

Noah felt his eyes moisten a little. There were a lot of things he knew how to do well. To watch Luke hurting was not one of them.

Eventually, Luke managed to regain his composure. "This whole thing just made me realize… I take for granted that I'm such a better person than the Colonel is, but look what I did. I put myself on the exact same level as him. I was ready to become a murderer."

"You're nothing like my father," said Noah in a firm voice. Luke just shook his head skeptically, but Noah was undeterred. "Listen to me. I'm not saying what you did wasn't wrong, but it's far from being the same. You thought I'd been murdered, and you went off the rails, you wanted revenge. It can happen to anyone. I know it would have happened to me if it had been you." He paused for a long intake of breath. "The things my father did – killing my mother because she was a prostitute, trying to kill you because he thought you were the reason I was gay, everything – he wasn't doing any of it in the middle of a crisis, he was crystal clear. These were the things he chose to believe, and what he chose to do for the sake of them. That's not you. That'll never be you."

The look on Luke's face was an unmistakable indication of how deeply affected he was. He made a small sound somewhere between a sob and a chuckle. "How is it that whenever I'm a complete mess, you always know the right thing to say?" he asked.

"Because I'm smart like that," Noah easily replied, before his cheeky grin gave way for a more earnest expression. "And because I know you… the way you do when you love someone."

A minute or so of silence. They were content to just look into each other's eyes and say nothing.

Then, Luke seemed to remember something. "Well, what do you know?" he brightly stated. "I forgot about the treats I got you." He reached for a brown paper bag he had placed on the floor; Noah realized he must have been so happy to see Luke arrive that he hadn't noticed it. "I made a couple of stops on my way here from the police station… let's see." He pulled out a massive cup. "Here's your extra-large iced coffee from Java – Jeff says hi, by the way, he was totally psyched to hear you're alive. And here…" he pulled out a smaller bag. "Is a whole batch of my grandmother's brownies. They're all yours; in fact, she threatened to kill me if I even take one."

Noah snort-laughed as Luke placed the iced coffee and cookies beside him. "You're awesome. Thanks." However, he noticed that Luke looked a little upset again. "What?"

"Nothing… it's just, my family was mad at me for slightly more serious stuff, too." He buried his face in his palm. "My mom, dad, both of my grandmothers, and even Damian pretty much took turns ripping me a new one for what I did. Damian was more angry than anyone; I lied to him, I don't know how he's gonna trust me again after this. And then I got Casey in trouble, too…"

"Hey," Noah said emotionally, giving him a significant look. "It's gonna be okay." Off Luke's sigh, he added, "The good news is, if everything goes according to plan, I'm gonna be released tomorrow morning."

This successfully cheered Luke up somewhat. "I can't wait to have you home," he said gratefully. After a beat, he reached to ruffle Noah's hair a little. "While you're here, is there anything else you need?

"Are you kidding me?" said Noah with a grin, "I've got an extra-large iced coffee in June, I've got a whole bag of Emma's brownies… and I've got you." He squeezed Luke's hand affectionately. "What else can a guy ask for?"

Luke just gave a bittersweet smile.

Statesville penitentiary, two weeks later

"Noah?"

Col. Mayer looked positively stunned to see his son behind the glass, as Noah sat down on the other side of it and picked up the receiver.

"How are your kneecaps?" Noah asked, not sounding like he really cared.

"Son, I'm fine," said the Colonel, all but handwaving the question. "I'm just so glad you came – I was starting to worry that I'd never see you again – "

"Spare me, Dad," Noah said coldly, "I mean it. I didn't come here for a family reunion. If you think I missed you when I believed you were dead…" he shook his head.

The Colonel seemed unwilling to accept this. "It must have caused you some pain. And I wish it didn't have to be that way – "

"At first, yeah," Noah cut across from him again. He was determined to stay in charge of this conversation. "I grieved for you, and I was hurting, you have no idea how much. I almost left Luke because of you – yeah, I know you think that would have been terrific. But when I got my head on straight, I realized you meant nothing to me anymore. And that's the way it is."

The Colonel looked momentarily chastised, and Noah seized the opportunity to go on. "Anyway, it doesn't matter… I just came here to ask you a simple question." He paused, but again, the Colonel didn't say anything. "Why? Why'd you do it?"

"I realize what you must think," the Colonel insisted, "That what I did was horrific, and Noah, I don't deny it. But can't you see why it was necessary? That boy plagued your life, he poisoned you!"

"So, what?" demanded Noah, putting extra effort into subduing the rage inside him. If there was one thing he owed his father, it was his capability to suppress his emotions. "You kidnap me, you make everyone think I'm dead? You're really so sick that you'd do all of that just to get back at Luke?"

"He needed to pay," gritted the Colonel, "He deserved it… but Noah, I did it for you. I was hoping that if I got you away from that boy's influence, I could find some treatment – a way to help you – "

"So you put me in a coma?!" shot Noah in cold fury.

"I knew you wouldn't let me help you, so it had to be done this way," the Colonel said desperately, and his voice reaffirmed Noah's realization that his father truly believed his own words. "I was trying to save you, son!"

Noah absorbed this for a couple of seconds. Then, he leaned closer to the glass, with unmistakable contempt in his eyes. "The only thing I ever needed saving from was you."

For the first time, he thought he saw some pain – perhaps even regret? – in the Colonel's expression. Or maybe he was imagining it. "All I've ever done was meant to protect you, to make an honorable man out of you. I'm sorry for the pain my actions caused you, if only it could have been avoided… but there was never a choice."

"That has to be the closest thing to an apology I've ever heard from you," said Noah, his words positively dripping with bitterness. "But you're too late, Dad… about twenty years too late." By now, his eyes were watering slightly, but there was no way in hell he was going to shed a single tear in front of his father. "And it's not just the past, it's not just the way you treated me all my life or what you did to my mother and Luke. It's having to prove to myself every day that I'm not like you, that I'm never gonna be. It's having to know you're my father, and live with it."

The silence that followed this statement was lengthy and heavy. Finally, the Colonel, sounding rather defeated, mumbled, "I accept it if you can never forgive me, Noah. I just need to know that you understand, that you don't hate me."

"Well, you're out of luck, then," Noah said harshly, without a hint of sympathy, "Because I'm never gonna understand, Dad, not in a million years… and you have no idea how much I hate you."

He stood up, not flinching at the devastated look on his father's face. After a moment, he added, "You should know, by the way… the justice department is going to seek the death penalty for you this time. So this might be goodbye."

"Oh, it won't happen," said the Colonel quickly, as if to reassure Noah. "You don't need to worry about that…"

"You don't get it, do you? I'm not scared for you. The death penalty is exactly what you deserve." Noah just stared at the Colonel, his face calm and callous. "But actually, it doesn't even matter if they execute you or not… you're dead to me anyway."

Without waiting for a reaction, he replaced the receiver and left the room.

As Noah stepped out of the building and into the prison courtyard, he was grateful for the summer sun, as the morning breeze felt a little chillier than usual. He walked through the courtyard for a few moments before spotting Luke on a bench several feet away.

As he came near his boyfriend, Noah realized Luke was finishing a phone call. "That's awesome, thank you so much, Grandmother…" Luke noticed Noah. "Listen, I have to go, I'll see you back at home, alright? Bye."

"Hey. Was that Lucinda?" asked Noah, as Luke hung up the call.

"Yeah," confirmed Luke, his tone mildly cheery. He stood up and slid his cell back into his pocket. "Looks like the lawyers she got me managed to negotiate a deal. Lots of community service, but no time here – " he indicated the prison, " – so I'm definitely not complaining."

"That's great!" said Noah happily, patting Luke's arm. His face fell slightly as he added, "Um, is there any news about Casey?"

"Well, the good thing is, his probation was already over by the time this whole thing happened – so he's not going back here, either. I guess he and I will be picking out trash on the highway together." Luke smiled glumly.

"I'm just glad I didn't lose you," muttered Noah, before pulling his boyfriend into a hug.

"Right back atcha," said Luke quietly.

As they pulled away, Luke sighed before wondering, "So, how'd it go with your father?"

Noah didn't really know how to reply. "As well as I could have expected, I guess," he shrugged. "I mean, it was hard, but… at least it's over."

A sad-looking Luke brought up his hand to brush it against his boyfriend's cheek. "Are you okay?"

"No, not really," Noah admitted, his voice breaking just slightly. "But you know what…" he took Luke's hand in his, not caring about anyone who might stare at them out here, "I think I'm gonna be."

They smiled faintly at each other, before walking away, hand-in-hand, never once looking back.

- End