The Next Day

Dr. Morrissey peered inside his patient's room, not surprised to still see the auburn-haired man slumped in the chair placed alongside the hospital bed. After all, the man hadn't moved one foot from his location, except to snag a quick cup of coffee from the cafeteria or use the bathroom. The nurses had actually found the situation touching, and had sympathized so much with their patient's protective visitor, they had finally offered him an adjacent, empty room to take a shower in and grab a quick nap. He had gratefully taken advantage of a quick shower, but instead of an unoccupied bed, he had persisted in napping on the rather uncomfortable chair that converted to an equally uncomfortable twin bed next to his blond partner. That is precisely the location Dr. Morrissey now found the man in, his long fingers intertwined with those of the patient now lying more at ease in the bed.

Trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, the doctor quietly entered the room and approached Justin on the other side of the bed. He gently shook the slender man's left shoulder, softly calling to him.

"Justin?" At the sound of his name being called, Justin slowly opened his eyes, feeling stronger than he had the day before. The foggy feeling he had been experiencing yesterday, too, seemed to have diminished greatly, he discovered to his relief.

Brian, too, awkwardly roused himself from his half-lying, half-sitting position on the convertible chair and glanced over at the younger man, noticing the doctor had entered the room.

"How are you feeling?" the doctor asked.

"Better," Justin confirmed. Brian had to agree; the blond's color was definitely improved, and he seemed to be much more alert now.

As he raised a small penlight to look into his patient's eyes, the doctor noticed they were definitely clearer looking than the day before; in addition, Justin accurately moved his eyes to match the direction of his movement with the light. Nodding in satisfaction, he looked over at the man who had so devotedly stayed by his patient's bedside for the last two days.

"Definitely improving," he reassured them both, hearing an immediate sigh of relief from his patient's "shadow." Explaining, he continued, "Your eyes are focusing much more normally and don't appear cloudy or dilated any more. And I just got through looking over all your vitals. They'e all within normal limits. You were a very lucky young man, Mr. Taylor," he said, smiling.

"Yes, doctor, I AM," he clarified, looking over at his partner, smiling in gratitude. Brian smiled in return, elated at Justin's progress. "So any idea when I can get out here?" he asked the doctor somewhat impatiently. He had seen more than enough of hospitals in his relatively short life.

"Well, I'd like to keep you at least through the morning. If everything stays on track like it is now, I'll sign the discharge for you later today." Turning to Brian, he advised him, "Make sure he eats something this morning – with all the medication he's been prescribed, he shouldn't be ingesting all of it on an empty stomach. And make sure he reads over all the discharge instructions." Nodding at Justin, he stood up to leave. Just who's the patient here? Justin had to laugh inwardly - it seemed all the directions were being given to his "defender" instead of him.

"Don't worry, doctor, I'll make sure he follows every instruction if I have to chain him to the bed," Brian answered. As the doctor left the room, he turned to Justin, adding, "Not that the thought of you chained to my bed is necessarily an unpleasant image, Sunshine," causing Justin to blush slightly.

"Brian," he murmured affectionately, reaching up to caress the other man's cheek. Brian couldn't help bending down to bestow a tender kiss on the blond's mouth, forcing himself to pull back as Justin tried unsuccessfully to deepen it.

"Uh, uh, uh, Sunshine," he clucked. "No such luck. Nice try. You've got a breakfast to eat," he lectured, pointing to the covered tray lying nearby.

Justin groaned. "Something incredibly tasty, no doubt," he grumbled. Lowering his voice seductively, he added, "But not nearly as incredibly tasty as you."

Brian fought the instantaneous and distinctive effect that occurred at the sound of his lover's voice; shit, all he had to do was speak to him in that certain way and it never ceased to make him hard. Trying determinedly to will his body under control, he reached over to pull the tray table to move it closer to his partner.

Justin reached out and grasped the other man's arm. "Wait, Brian," he implored him. "I promise I'll eat," he reassured him. "But first, now that I'm actually LUCID this morning for a change," earning a smirk from the other man, "I need for us to continue our conversation from yesterday."

Brian averted his eyes. He was dreading having to make Justin relive what he had gone through at the hands of that asshole. But he knew Justin had to know everything, that he would INSIST on knowing everything.

Sighing in resignation, he asked, "What would you like to know, Sunshine?"

"I want to know how you wound up being here. And how I wound up being in this hospital. Everything after I drunk that champagne is a total blank. Brian, I need to know it all."

"I know you do. I just don't want you getting upset, not when you're so close to getting out of this fucking place. Promise me you will stay calm, Justin," he said, solemnly looking at the blond.

"I promise, Brian. But please – I need to know," he repeated.

"Okay. As you know, I went on a business trip to Chicago at the invitation of a potential client, a man by the name of Jack Belden." As Justin nodded, he continued. "Well, after pitching I don't know HOW many proposals at the guy, nothing seemed to satisfy him." Looking a little awkward at his lover, he added, somewhat shyly, "And it's a funny thing. The old Brian Kinney would have stayed there through fucking hell or high water until he had landed the client that couldn't be had. But the new Brian Kinney said "fuck it" and decided he wasn't worth the effort. Besides, I had something much more pleasurable waiting for me at home," he said softly as he looked pointedly at his partner, emitting another blush from the artist.

Taking a breath because he knew a particular blond wouldn't appreciate the next bit of information, he continued. "When I decided to go to Chicago, I knew I would be worried about your safety the whole fucking time. So I hired a private security firm to arrange for three of his men to keep tabs on you and the loft. To keep you safe," he added, just before Justin's mouth opened in protest. Satisfied that Justin would actually listen to his explanation, he advised him, "Well, when I got home, the first thing I did was call the guy I know at the security agency to find out how the detail had went – his name's Keller – only to discover from him that Ted had apparently called him up the day I left to cancel the security assignment. Said that you had found out about and was pissed. That you were basically having a major queen out and threatening to leave the loft unless I canceled the watchdogs. The guy even had the correct cancellation code, so Keller didn't think anything was out of the ordinary."

"But you're saying, I take it, that Ted wasn't the one who called?" Justin surmised correctly.

"That's right," Brian verified. "I called Ted about it and he was insistent he didn't even know I HAD a detail dispatched to the loft to watch over you. Not only that," he added, "Ted told me I had had a message delivered to Kinnetik, an anonymous note saying that you were where you belonged, and reminding me that this guy never gave up when he wanted something. That's when I knew all the gifts and the notes had been coming from Prescott." Looking regretfully at Justin, he explained, angry at himself, "I couldn't believe I didn't think of him from the start. All the pieces were pointing right at him. But it'd been over a year since he'd left, and I honestly thought he had given up. But it was right in front of my fucking face, Justin! I should have figured it out. If I had, NONE of this would have happened!" He placed his hands over his face, rubbing it in frustration.

Justin reached up to gently pull both of the man's hands away from his face. He held firmly onto both of Brian's hands as he clearly said, "Brian, look at me. LOOK at me," he repeated, more firmly. Brian finally raised his hazel eyes to meet Justin's as the blond assured his lover, "It wasn't your fault, do you hear me? IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT. You tried everything you could to keep me safe. If anything, I should blame myself for not taking the situation more seriously. So don't you dare go blaming yourself, Brian!" The blue eyes that Brian loved so much teared up slightly as he stared at his partner.

"I'll tell you what, Sunshine," Brian softly said at last. "I won't blame myself for not figuring it out sooner if you don't blame yourself for not wanting to let that son of a bitch intimidate you. I'm just so fucking relieved that you're going to be all right. That's what's important." He reached down to give Justin another quick kiss before pulling back slightly, hands still clasped with the blond's.

Justin smiled softly. "Deal," he said simply. "But I still need to know the rest, Brian," he reminded him.

"Okay. Well, when I figured out it was Prescott and that you were missing from the loft, I pretty much went out of my mind with worry," he admitted. "That's when Carl got involved – I called him over to the loft to investigate. That's also when I noticed you had left your cell phone at the loft," he said, sternly but gently admonishing his partner. Justin looked at him embarrassed as he continued to explain. "Eventually, Emmett showed up with Debbie and that's when I found out you had gone with Comisar out here to Lancaster for what was supposed to be an art assignment. But something just didn't sit right with me. It was too big a coincidence. I didn't know at the time that Comisar and Prescott were childhood friends and that he had been asked to help arrange your little private reunion with that fucker," he practically spat out the last word, extreme disdain clearly heard in his voice. "I finally found it out when Comisar admitted that he had helped plan the whole thing to get you up here."

Justin stared at Brian silently as he continued. "He finally admitted his involvement when he told me that he had seen Prescott CARRY you out of the restaurant, down to his yacht that he had conveniently docked at the marina out back."

"CARRY me?" Justin asked, shocked.

"Yes," Brian confirmed. "He had obviously slipped the GHB into your drink, and you pretty much blacked out almost immediately." Disgusted, Brian explained, "Apparently he told Comisar that you had had too much to drink, and he was doing you a FAVOR by carrying you out to his yacht to let you sleep it off. Real hospitable of him, wasn't it?" Brian spat. "Except Comisar wasn't so sure of his friend's pure intentions when he saw Prescott leaving the marina shortly thereafter with YOU on his boat."

Justin listened intently as Brian elaborated further. "Unfortunately for the son of a bitch, he didn't anticipate Carl and me commandeering another boat, a speedboat, to follow him and eventually catch up with him when he made the mistake of docking the yacht at a cove further down the river. It also allowed us enough time for Carl to call the local PD and get their patrol boat to meet us halfway. They arrested Prescott and the two crewmen and took them back to the police station for questioning. There was a paramedic onboard the patrol boat who helped to stabilize you until they could get you here to the hospital; Prescott finally admitted he had given you GHB. As far as I'M concerned, they should just go ahead and EXECUTE the fucker for what he did to you," he said passionately. He looked at Justin then, a little embarrassed by the sudden lump in his throat at the thought of what could have happened to the man he loved so deeply, if they hadn't reached him in time.

Justin bit his lower lip in realization of what Brian had done to protect him, and how he had almost made one of, if not THE biggest mistake of his life, by not listening to him. He hung his head in regret and embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Brian," he said softly. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you. And I'm sorry I didn't take everything seriously enough."

Brian reached down and lifted Justin's chin gently with his long fingers, persuading the blond to finally lift his eyes to look into the hazel eyes filled with so much emotion. "I won't say it hasn't been fucking difficult, wondering where you were at first and then wondering whether you were going to be all right. But NOTHING would have been worse than living my life without you in it," he said fervently. And as much as he hated to at that moment, he had to remind Justin that not everything was resolved just yet.

"Sunshine, you realize you will have to press charges against this man, and no doubt have to eventually testify in court against him," he prodded him gently. "If you don't, he will get out without a fucking scratch. You CAN'T let that bastard get away with what he did, what he COULD have done, to you. If he ever DOES get out, he won't see the fucking light of day ever again, one way or the other," he vowed vehemently.

"I know, Brian," Justin confirmed. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't dread it. I thought Lane was a pretty decent guy at first," earning a scoffing huff from his partner. "But I realize now that it was all a ruse to get what he wanted. Me," he said, a little embarrassed. "I still don't understand, though. He could have had anything he wanted, any ONE he wanted. And now he's thrown it all away because he wouldn't take no for an answer."

It amazed Brian that this man who had been through so much could actually still feel sympathy for that bastard. But it also pointed out one of the qualities he loved in Justin – his ability to always try to find the good in someone, his compassion for others. Well, I'll just have to protect you from yourself sometimes, Sunshine.

Brian reached over for the breakfast tray, uncovering the contents. "Ooh, look, some delectable scrambled Egg Beaters with half a tomato and some clumpy oatmeal just made to stick itself to your stomach and repair leaky drains, also," he smirked, earning a scrunched up face from his partner. Picking up the fork, he stabbed an apparent imitation sausage link nearby and waved it in front of his lover's face. "Open up, Sunshine," he sing-songed. "You can fill your little tummy up and practice your cock-sucking skills at the same time," earning a soft laugh from the blond.