Last chapter! so I made a real effort, lol XD Hope you like!

"What do you mean I'm your last hope?" James asked, brow furrowed in confusion and worry.

Katie gulped. "Um, well, last Wednesday, you know, three days ago, I came home and Kendall wasn't there. Dad said he sent him off to live with our uncle for a while. He said he was sick of the sight of him. So anyway, about an hour ago, I called our uncle so I could talk to Kendall, because he wasn't answering his phone. And my uncle Ian . . . he had no idea what I was talking about, because Kendall wasn't there." Katie sniffled, wiping her eyes. "He wasn't there!Dad said that's where he went but now I don't know! I don't know what Dad did to him!" Then she burst into tears.

James did the only thing he could think of and pulled her into a hug, letting her cry into his chest. He was struggling not to break down himself. What had happened to Kendall? If that monster had hurt him—

"I'll help you. I don't know how, but I will. I think the first thing to do would be to go to your house. Is your dad there?"

"I think so. Yeah. But what can we do?"

They were interrupted by the front door opening and Erica walking in. "Hello," she greeted half-heartedly. "Who's that?"

"Her name's Katie," James answered quickly, starting to walk past Erica towards the door, Katie following.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Out," James replied in a 'duh' voice.

"Where?"

"Um . . ." James really had no idea why he was so hesitant to tell her. Maybe it was just because he hated her, but he had a feeling it ran deeper than that. Whatever, that wasn't important right now.

"Well if you won't tell me, why should I let you go out?" Erica asked, a cruel smirk on her face.

"Erica—"

"You're staying right here."

"No, I'm not!" James stormed past her. "You don't understand, Erica. I have to go find Kendall."

"Who?" Erica's nose wrinkled in disgust as she remembered. "That tattooed freak?"

"Don't you dare call him that!" James shouted furiously. "I have to go help him! He could be lying in a ditch somewhere, or . . . something."

"Why, his gang turn on him or something?"

"His . . . what?" Suddenly James's anger got the better of him. "Look, whatever stupid twisted crap is going through your head, you can't tell me what to do! I'm going to help him, right now!"

James stormed out of the house, feeling slightly satisfied for a moment. He and Katie hurried down the street in the direction of the house. As they walked, James pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled a number, praying they'd pick up.

He was lucky. "Hello?"

"Carlos! Hi, I need a favour. Could you maybe call your dad and tell him he's needed at Kendall's house? Tell him it's really, really important. No, I can't explain why right now, but I promise you I will. Ok, thank you." He hung up.

"What good is that gonna do?" Katie asked as the Myers' house came into view.

"Carlos's dad is a police officer," James replied briefly as Katie led him around to the back door. "I think he can help us."

Katie led him inside quietly. "So that was your plan? To get a cop over here?"

"Well, yes and no. I kind of just improvised," James said with a shrug.

Then suddenly, they could hear footsteps. And Mr Myers appeared in the kitchen. His eyes narrowed spitefully. "What the fuck are you doing here?" His voice raised. "Why did you bring him here, Katie?"

"Because I want to know what happened to my brother!" Katie snapped, fear evident in her voice.

"I already told you, your uncle Ian—"

"You're a liar!" Katie yelled. "I called him, I know Kendall's not there!"

Then there was a loud knocking on the front door. "Open up, this is the police! You have thirty seconds to open this door, or we'll break it down!"

Mr Myers turned on James and Katie furiously. "You called the cops on me?"

Neither of them replied, but Katie dashed past him towards the door, opening it to let Mr Garcia in. James saw he'd brought another man with him and smiled with relief. "Time to start talking, Mr Myers," Mr Garcia said coldly. "We have your daughter here, ready to give a statement. You'd better start talking."

Katie explained clearly, everything she'd told James. All the while, Mr Myers glared at her with such hatred it made James feel sick. Why bother having children to treat them this way?

Afterwards, the policeman turned to Mr Myers, arms folded. "Where did you take him?" Mr Garcia demanded. "Answer me right now, and we might go easy on you!"

Mr Myers didn't say anything for a second. Then he just rolled his eyes and laughed madly, replying, "The dump. That's where you take trash, isn't it?"

So Mr Garcia, after attempting to get more information from the man, called some backup, some to come and take this guy away, the others to come to the dump with him to find Kendall. "I'm going with you," James said as he followed him from the house.

"What? James, you're a child, and this is police business—"

"I don't care! I'm gonna help look for him, and you can't stop me!"

Mr Garcia sighed, then mumbled, "I'd better not take the heat for this," then said aloud, "Get in the car."

When they arrived at the dump, it took Mr Garcia about five minutes to talk to someone who worked there, grab a couple of flashlights from the trunk of his car and wait for the other policemen. Once they arrived, they and a few workers set off. They split up, intent on finding the boy who'd been left God knows where in this huge place.

"Kendall!" James called, searching is area with the flashlight. "Can you hear me? KENDALL!"

They searched for a good thirty minutes; the place was huge and none of them had caught sight of anything. But they couldn't stop, they couldn't give up. Kendall was lying here somewhere, probably badly hurt. Why hadn't they asked Mr Myers for a more specific location?

Suddenly James caught sight of something. A leg. He stumbled forward, falling to his knees in front of it. That van was so familiar. It was attached to a body half buried in crumpled newspapers and plastic bags. James's hands shot out and started grabbing the rubbish with shaking fingers, tossing it over his shoulders. He was suddenly met with the bruised and bloody face of Kendall Myers.

"I found him!" James shouted in the direction of the other flashlights. He turned and hurriedly finished pulling the garbage off Kendall. He was lying still. Eyes shut, lips parted. His arms were tied behind his back, and his left leg was bent at an odd angle. His right leg was tied to a weight by a rope. James couldn't understand why, but then he realised Mr Myers had wanted to leave Kendall here, with one leg broken and the other weighed down.

Did he really just leave him here to die?James thought in horror. He was trying to get his head around this when he actually realised that Kendall was just lying there and he wasn't moving! James reached a shaking hand forward and slid his arm under Kendall's waist, lifting him up slightly and pulling him closer. First he pulled the cord off from around his wrists, then he rested a hand on his neck, feeling frantically for a pulse. He felt something very faint. But when he noticed Kendall shivering weakly, he also noticed a faint blue tinge to his skin and lips. And he panicked.

He shrugged his jacket off and wrapped it around the unconscious boy's shoulders. He knew it wouldn't do much good, but at least it was something. Then, finally, Mr Garcia appeared next to him, followed by one or two other men. James was shocked to see that even the police were shaken at the sight of this. Mr Garcia pushed James aside, kneeling in front of Kendall. He started trying to revive him, holding him by the shoulders, speaking to him, trying to help even his breathing. Meanwhile another policeman was freeing his leg and making something to keep the broken one in place. As he lifted the leg, Kendall's eyes opened and he screamed, much to the surprise of everyone around him. He kept screaming hoarsely, trying to squirm away from the hands struggling to hold him down.

His hands shot out from behind his back, his fingers clawing at Mr Garcia's face as he screamed and sobbed. The man recoiled as one of Kendall's nails left a long gash across his cheek, blood trickling down and dripping off his chin as he resumed his attempts to calm the boy down. "Kendall, stop it. Listen to me, Kendall!"

Kendall didn't, he just kept thrashing around, hitting out at them, though he didn't even seem to have the strength to do it for much longer. James did the only thing he could think of. He dived forward and wrapped his arms around Kendall waist from behind, pinning his arms to his sides at the same time and effectively restraining the top half of his body. He still kicked with his good leg, weeping and trying to struggled out of James's arms. "Don't hurt me, please!" he managed to sob hoarsely, still shivering with the cold. "No, LET GO!"

There were tears falling down James's face too as he just held him tighter against his chest. This only worsened when he could see Kendall's struggles getting slower and weaker, until he stopped altogether, lying there limply. He still cried, and yelled or screamed if they touched him anymore. But the shivering had worsened, and they knew they had to get him somewhere warm, and fast.

James did the only thing he could think of; he was never good under this kind of pressure. He pressed a firm kiss to Kendall's cold neck and cheek and spoke loudly in his ear, "Kendall, I love you. Please, just listen to us!"

Kendall froze up, lips trembling. His eyes were wide and blank, and James could see his breathing was faltering. But they took the silence as a green light, and the policemen quickly grabbed hold of him, lifting him up and carrying him in the direction of the car. James followed them quickly, and got into the backseat when they placed Kendall there. He held the blonde's head and shoulders in his lap and wrapped him up in the blanket Mr Garcia handed him. He also gave him a flask of water. "He needs to drink something; he's dehydrated."

James took the drink and held Kendall up slightly, parting his lips and tilting the drink forward. He gagged slightly as he struggled to swallow it. He was shuddering violently, face violently pale. James held him close, hoping he might be able to send some of his body heat into the blonde. For the first time he noticed other damages to his boyfriend's body. Large scratches, bite marks on his neck. His bottom lip was torn badly, the lip ring missing. He could only guess that his father had probably ripped it off him.

When they got to the hospital, one of the policemen ran inside and came back out wheeling a gurney. They lifted Kendall onto it and brought him inside. James followed them anxiously, but was stopped by a nurse when he tried to follow them down the hallway. "Son, you need to stay—"

James ignored her and hurried after them. He didn't care about any stupid rules; he had to find out what had happened, he had to hear what the doctors said. Nothing else mattered. But he wasn't allowed inside the ward, none of them were. And he couldn't even see inside. The other men left, and James was left sitting in a chair in the hallway next to Mr Garcia. It was a half an hour before a doctor emerged from the ward to speak to them. They both leaped to their feet.

"Well?" James said desperately.

The doctor began to speak. "Well, the clearest would be that his left leg is broken, quite badly. He's severely bruised and even though we checked and we confirmed he's alright, there was a very large chance of internal bleeding. His lip is torn, we managed to stitch that up, as well as other cuts he had. He's been suffering from severe hypothermia and dehydration, and it's clear he hasn't eaten in a couple of days withers."

"Anything else?" Mr Garcia asked.

The doctor looked like he didn't want to continue, but he did. "There are signs of sexual trauma," he said in a sad voice. "The traces of semen were run through a DNA test, and there are thirteen alleles in common, which indicates it was a parent. His father, obviously."

James had to fight the tears threatening to fall. That bastard had raped Kendall; why would he do that? First of all, it was so sick, and wrong. And it didn't even make sense.

"He's been severely beaten, one of the worse abuse cases I've seen in a while," the doctor was saying. "And judging by the rape kit, I'd say it was his father who did it. We don't have an obvious reason . . ."

"He's gay," James said before he could stop himself. "His dad, he really didn't like that. Didn't you see what's written on his stomach?"

"Ah, well. That makes sense," the doctor nodded his head. "Some homophobes . . . it's as if they want to scare the gay out of them by, well . . . that's what happened here. That's the most likely reason, but nobody can really tell." He paused thoughtfully. "He'll recover from his injuries. Physically, at least." He sighed. "Mentally, I'm not sure. I think it's effected him really seriously; he won't speak to anyone, he's lashed out as us several times, we had to tie him down. And he's acting extremely paranoid to, well, everything. Sound and touches."

Then came the next question. "Can we see him?"

The doctor shook his head. "Given his . . . er, lack of mental stability, we'd prefer to keep people out for now. And we're still getting him warm, we're going to try and get him to eat something in a little while. We'd just prefer if he was left alone, for now."

So James trailed home, knowing staying there wouldn't do any good. He called to Kendall's house on the way home to speak to Katie. When she opened the door, he saw worried tears in her eyes, her mother standing behind her with the same expression.

"What happened?" Katie asked desperately.

"He's in the hospital right now. They're, uh, not allowing visitors, so you'll have to ask about him tomorrow." He sighed. "They said, he'll recover. Maybe not completely, but . . ." He swallowed. "I'm gonna go. Bye."

He finished walking home. When he unlocked the front door and walked in, he was greeted with the sight if his dad and Erica standing there, arms folded and looking stern. He sighed. Walking away from them would just get him in worse trouble. So he stopped, and folded his arms too. "Yes?"

"Where were you?" his dad demanded. "Erica told me you just wandered off without her permission. Something about Kendall."

"She would tell you, wouldn't she?" James muttered. Then he said aloud, "I was helping him."

"With what?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes, it does!" His dad looked furious. "I'm so sick of this! Ever since you started seeing that . . . thing, you've been lying and sneaking off all the time, talking back and giving me attitude! I won't have it!"

"I've always been like this, you just haven't noticed," James replied quietly. He just didn't care anymore.

"See? That's exactly what I mean!" Then he gritted his teeth, and said it. "You can't see him anymore. I forbid you."

At first James couldn't believe what he was hearing. He thought he must be imagining it. Then he managed to get out, "Y-you can't do that."

"Oh, sure he can," Erica said, smiling sweetly.

"No!" Then James was yelling. "He makes me happy, and I'm not gonna stop seeing him! He's not who you think he is; he's smart, and he's kind, and he's scared! He's just afraid, that's why he acts that way! And I love him, the way he is!"

His dad sighed. "You're sixteen; you're too young for all that!"

"Am I? All I know is that I never wanna leave him, I wanna be with him forever. For the last three years I've been completely miserable, then he just came along and everything got better!"

"You're a teenager, all teenagers are miserable," was his reply.

James couldn't stand it. So he rolled up his shirt sleeve and showed them his scars. "Am I supposed to be this miserable? Am I supposed to want to die? This has been going on ever since Mom died and Faye left, and you never even noticed! You never notice anything! But Kendall only knew me for five minutes, and he noticed! He cares about me, and I care about him! And guess what else? You two are so blind you didn't even realise all those bruises are from beating, that he puts up with every single day! It could've been going on since he could walk for all we know! Now he's lying in a hospital bed, emotionally scarred, and neither of you noticed anything!"

That was when he realised he'd been crying all the way through that last outburst. He pushed past the both of them and ran upstairs to his room. He fell onto his bed, sobbing into the pillow. What if Kendall never got better? What if he just ended up in a mental hospital, screaming at everybody who came near him? What if James went to see him and he didn't even recognise him? Just these thoughts alone tempted him, but he knew now he would never cut again. Never. He'd got at least part of what he wanted; he'd finally been noticed.

He heard the door open, but didn't move until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He rolled over onto his side to see his dad sitting there, stroking his shoulder with large tears running down his cheeks "I'm so, so sorry," he said softly.

Without really knowing why, James sat up and gave his dad a hug, both of them sobbing in each other's arms. He didn't know how long they sat there for. He just knew it was a long time.

The next morning, his dad wanted to come with him to see Kendall at the hospital. James didn't really understand why, but eventually agreed begrudgingly to it. "Just don't be intimidating; you'll scare him," he said firmly as they pulled up outside the hospital and got out of the car, walking inside.

Walking down the hallway towards the ward was nerve-wracking. He didn't know how it would turn out. It only worsened when the doctor showed up to tell them, "Only a little while; we don't know how stable he is yet."

James hurried into the ward, his dad following and sitting in a chair by the wall, while James went and sat in the chair by the bed. Kendall was lying there, on his back, staring blankly at the ceiling. His green eyes were dark, lifeless. It scared James. Sure, Kendall had always had those sad, unreadable eyes, but there had always been some form of life or energy in them. Now, there was just . . . nothing. His hands were gripping the sheets tightly, knuckles white. His lip had a band-aid over where it had been torn, and there were stitches on his neck and face.

"Um, hi, Kendall." James didn't really know what else to say. As he spoke, Kendall's head snapped to look at him, then he slowly turned away again, back to watching the ceiling. James, unsure of himself, reached out slowly, hoping he might snap him out of this.

As soon as James's hand touched Kendall's shoulder, the blonde leaped about a foot in the air, dry sobs racking his body as he squirmed away from him with wide, frightened eyes. James bit his lip and told himself not to cry. "Kendall, it's me. Jamie. Just . . . don't be scared."

Kendall stared at him, breathing wildly and unevenly. Then suddenly he burst into tears and threw himself on top of James, hugging him tightly. "Jamie, oh Jamie, I'm sorry . . ."

"It's ok, you didn't do anything wrong—"

"I tried to stop him, b-but he wouldn't listen, he t-tied me up and then—" He started crying harder. "Then he put me in the car, h-he broke my leg in the door, and he s-said he was taking me where all the trash belonged . . ." He couldn't seem to stop talking. "I thought he was only trying to teach m-me a lesson, I thought he'd come back, b-but he didn't . . ."

James just held him, then on impulse, kissed him gently. Kendall let out some kind of muffled gasp, then he sighed and kissed James back, holding onto him by the hair softly. James didn't even care about that band-aid scratching his lip as they kissed. This made up for everything.

"I'm so glad you noticed me that day in school," James murmured when he pulled back. "I'm so glad we found each other."

Kendall nodded, but didn't say anything except, "Mmm."

This worried James. "What's wrong?" Before giving Kendall a chance to answer, he automatically thought the worst. "You regret it, don't you? You regret meeting me. You wouldn't be here if it weren't for me."

Kendall shook his head, eyes wider than before. "No. I think, no matter what, I'd end up in here, like this. Sure, it wouldn't have happened so soon, but . . ." His voice died away for a moment. "And now, my dad is going to jail. He's gonna leave me alone now. That wouldn't have happened, if it weren't for you." He gave a tearful smile. "And, well, if I had died out there at the dump, of the cold, or starvation or whatever—you made me happy, before it happened. That means something to me." He bit his lip. "I've never been very happy before."

This meant something to James too. And it brought tears to his eyes, because it meant something else too. They would be alright now. They would recover, both of them. They could be happy, with each other. Nothing could get in their way now, and if it did, they could conquer it.

When the doctor told them to leave, James was shocked to discover, once they were out in the hallway, that his dad had dried tear tracks on his face. "What's up with you?" James couldn't help asking.

His dad sniffed mournfully, smiling sadly as he wiped his eyes. "I don't know, it's just . . . he reminded me a little of your mother."

James's initial reaction was, "Um, why?"

His reply was, "She was scared too, like that. And she said I made her happy. Like Kendall did." He smiled again. "He had that same look in his eyes."

Funnily enough, James knew exactly what he meant.

When James went to see Kendall again, the first thing the blonde said was, "I'm Kendall Knight now." He paused, biting his lip as tears built up in his eyes. "Mom, and Katie and I . . . we just want to forget everything. Start a new life."

James nodded, knowing this would take some getting used to, but that was ok. When Carlos, Logan, Camille and Jo came to visit, he explained everything to them, outside in the hallway. Camille and Jo had to wipe the tears off their faces before they went in, as did Logan. Carlos was in shock, especially after James found out his father had told him about Kendall's condition in much greater detail than James did. But it was ok, it would be ok.

The day Kendall came home from the hospital, James and Katie were both waiting at the front door of the Myers' house for Kendall and his mother to arrive home. When the car pulled into the driveway, Mrs Myers—no, Ms Knight, he had to remember that—was the first to get out. Kendall climbed out of the passenger side, a little unsteady on the crutches he had to use. James was the first to hurry over and steady him, leading him inside the house. The day was spent with the four of them just sitting and talking, every secret coming out, every thought shared.

But later in the evening, at James's request, Ms Knight and Katie left the house to give them some quiet time to themselves. This really just consisted of them both lying on Kendall's bed, Kendall curled up in James's arms. He was a little fearful of being touched; James guessed that it was because of what had happened. So he held him gently, careful not to scare him anymore. He'd had enough of that.

"I'm never gonna hurt myself again," James murmured quietly into Kendall's hair. "I've made up my mind. No matter how tempted I get, I'm never going to do it." He bit his lip. "Life's too short, and too precious. I know that now."

Kendall smiled up at him. "Good." He reached up with a slightly shaky hand and ran his fingers through James's hair. "But, if you are ever really tempted, call me, ok? Doesn't matter what time it is, I'll be there."

Somehow, Kendall lost that fear of James's hands on him, and they made love for a while, just wrapped up in each other's arm, kissing each other both softly and with heated passion.

They'd be ok now. Everything would be ok.

I'm not gonna lie, I was thinking of killing Kendall. I may still do that, in like an alternate ending or something. anyway, please review! Big thank you to everyone who read, favourited, subscribed and reviewed this!

One more thing: I think I mentioned before I was gonna start 'Il Ritorno' once this was done. Thing is, that's been delayed, because I wanna re-read 'Forbidden Game' before I do, and I gae it to my friend for a loan. Lol, I'd forgotten before actually and majorly flipped out when I couldn't find it on my bookshelf. My sister had to remind me where it was xD so, sory about that, and thanks again!