"Can I help you?"
The tone was accusatory, and not something Marius would immediately suspect from a bedridden– well, if his teeth were to be believed, a twenty-two year old. No one would have guessed, really. The bruises aged him.
"No, not- not really. I was here last night when they brought you in – just concerned."
He set one of the latte cups on the bed tray, taking a sip from his own. The quality was terrible – he had to press something on the state of public dining – but it was all for appearances anyway. His brown eyes met swollen, blood-shot blue.
"Well I'm fine, ok? I'm fine. Now if you could just –"
"Are you certain about that? – I mean, you seemed pretty upset last night."
"Look, I'd been drinking, and I was talking out of my ass – can we just forget it, and let me get out of here?"
"That's an interesting thing to say – given that your tox scan turned up negative for any kind of substances. So why don't we talk about what happened – non-fiction version please, Mr. – What was your name?"
The glare he received would have been enough to send him stammering for the door only a few months ago – now, it only felt like his insides were twisting up.
"Are you a cop?"
"No, but –"
"Then why don't you fuck off?!"
He turned away immediately, face half-hidden in the pillows as an embarrassed flush crept up his neck and transformed the reddened bruises to swollen splotches of purple. For a time there was nothing but an awkward silence, which Marius eventually forced himself to break. Edmond always said he had a un-honed gift for that...
" I'm... sorry. I shouldn't be... listen, I'm not a cop, I'm not a shrink, I just... thought you might need to talk."
So much for un-honed gift... whatever that meant.
His listener responded with a minute smirk.
"Not creepy at all."
"Yeah... yeah, that was a pretty lame excuse..."
"Who are you?"
Marius tensed a bit.
"DA with the police force – I – I'm not –" he struggled, when the patient went rigid and the color drained from his face. "I'm not digging for anything, or trying to bait you for a lawsuit, I just –"
"You felt sorry for me, because I'm such a pretty little boy. Yeah, heard that one. Now leave me alone."
"I'm just trying – "
Voices rose outside in the hallway, and his eyes darted toward the doorway like a hunted animal.
"J-Just go away, alright?! Just –"
Suddenly the door swung open, Combeferre clutching the knob and rubbing his temples, as a handsome, blue-eyed man with greying brunette hair all-but smashed his way into the room and over to the bed.
The victim swallowed – hard – and Marius narrowed his eyes.
"Jourdain –"
"Holy Jesus – baby, look at you –"
"I'm fine-"
The rest of the sentence was swallowed by the sort of intense kiss that Marius had never seen, short of within a bad porno. Lips and tongues were everywhere – hard, possessive, and more than inappropriate for a public venue, regardless of the circumstances – never mind the fact that until half a minute ago, he had thought he was looking at a father and son...
The younger man was allowing one of his hands to ride the shoulder of the elder, a flush steadily building up in his cheekbones, blue eyes wide open, wet, and- Marius started slightly – fixed on his own.
His lover-apparent took no notice.
Fuck. Fuckfuckuckfuckfuckfuckfuck...
Hands trembling a little, he heaved himself out of the rock-hard chair and slid next to Combeferre by the door, the lawyer's shock reflected in his face.
"Distract him?" he whispered.
"You got it."
A curt nod, and the medic grasped the guest by one of his sizeable biceps.
" 'Need you take care of some preliminary paperwork sir, and then he's all yours – this way..."
Eventually the man complied, with some grumbling, and Marius dropped to his knees next to the bed.
"I've got to leave now – my boss is probably ready to lynch me for waiting overnight for you. Here- " his hand dove into his jacket pocket and yanked out a pale blue card. "Here's my contact info –if you need to talk..." he trailed off.
The other twisted at the collar of the hospital gown and bit at his split lip.
"Ok."
"Alright – bye then."
"Wait –"
He paused by the door – outside the window, he could see Combeferre arguing with the boyfriend over insurance forms.
"Hm?"
The smile was slight, and almost shy.
"Thanks for the coffee."
Two Weeks Later
"You're telling me we don't have a scrap of substantial –"
"Every witness we put on that stand is going to be ripped apart by cross-examination, and as far as credibility is concerned, Villefort might as well be laughing in my face."
Javert seemed to be counting to ten in his head, and Marius allowed himself to begin breathing again – sometimes the man honestly terrified him.
"Start preparing opening arguments."
Marius felt his jaw unhinge.
"But – sir, we don't have a ca-"
"Then make one!" the captain growled, scratching irritably at his greying crew cut as he stalked out of the office.
The lawyer took a moment to brace himself against the desk, forcing his breath to slow down by sheer force of will – maybe Joly had a valid point, one day, with this job, asthma was simply going to kill him.
Boville was waiting outside the door, his eyes almost sympathetic at Marius' expression.
"That bad?"
All he could answer with was a helpless shrug.
"He's telling me to take it to a jury – we have no credible witnesses, all our evidence is circumstantial or hearsay – even if we manage to track down the last three kids, there's no way to guarantee that a judge will even let them on a stand, and even if they do the best chance I've got is to turn them into pathetic little urchins and melt the jurors' hearts –!"
"Calm down, calm down," the detective broke in, hands on Marius' shoulders. "First things first – someone's waiting for you in the squad room."
With a despondent groan, Marius glanced over to Boville's desk – brown-black eyes and a bright grin flashed back, her dark hair bouncing on her pale leather jacket as she scurried over like a little mouse...
Boville had the decency to look apologetic.
"Thought you might want to get the ugliest part over with quickly..."
Marius swallowed, hard, and brushed past him.
"Excuse me a moment..."
"You call that a liquid dinner?!"
"Edmon-!" Marius protested despairingly as Courfeyrac swept away the remains of a Virgin Bellini, and planted himself on the neighboring stool, waving over the bartender.
"Two short trips to Hell. On me."
"Edmond-!"
"Come on, it's basically just a fruit drink with schnapps and Red Bull – you'll thank me later."
Marius dropped his head into his hands, stifling a moan for what had to be the sixtieth time that day. Courfeyrac sighed.
"I'm guessing she didn't take it too well..."
"Um, I essentially had to tell her that her parents are going to walk – again – meaning she and her sister get thrown back to the wolves, and meanwhile all three of her brothers are still out there somewhere, either starving or dead or locked up in some drug mogul's kiddie harem – so no, not really."
"Does she know you're gay yet?"
Marius rolled his eyes up to the tiled ceiling. Sometimes it was so hard to make Courf prioritize.
"No."
He sighed again.
"Look, unless you want her to kill you by the end of all this – I mean, she's crazy about you, and now that –"
"You honestly think I'm about to make her take another hit?!" he snapped, just as two glasses of urine colored liquid were set in front of them. "She's sixteen years old, her life has been hell warmed over, and now she expects me to be the knight in-"
"When's the last time you had sex?"
Marius almost spat the drink out, and not just because of the question.
"E-Edmond, wha- what the hell?!" he spluttered indignantly, ignoring the drops of fluid streaming down his chin.
"You're obviously strung out, tomorrow's going to be a rough day, and you need to take the edge off."
Face flaming, Marius stammered incoherently for half a minute.
"I – that is – is – completely – just – but – urgh, you know what, forget this!" he finally choked out, shoving the glass aside and grabbing his jacket. "I'm going home and I'm getting something real in my stomach-!"
"Food shouldn't be a substitute for sex!" Courfeyrac called after him as he shoved his way out of the door. More than a few people stared, and Marius was surreptitiously giving him the finger when his phone buzzed.
The heat was still blazing in his ears as he unlocked the screen, rubbing his temples.
"Pontmercy."
A crash came over the line, and he pulled the device away from his head, startled.
"Hello?!"
Another crash, meatier, more like a thud – something like breaking glass – and voices in the background, but they were impossible to really hear – the ignition of the car wasn't helping much either...
"Hello?!"
"Help me! –"
There was another loud sound, like falling furniture, as Marius racked his brains for the voice – Holy God... oh no oh no oh no...
"It's me, it's me, I'm here - Wh-Where are you?!"
No answer – just a clatter, and scraping...
"...like spam... – Get off!"
Marius felt himself pale, nails digging into the leather of the steering wheel as the car screamed around a corner.
"Hello?! – Hello, are you still there?! –"
Later he would wonder what he'd been thinking, but in the insanity of the moment he could only let his panic tumble senselessly out of his mouth.
There was no answer, except a long, long stretch of sobbing moans, and a soft slap slap slap slap slap...
Then static, and silence, as he slammed to a halt in the precinct parking lot, shaking and a tear frozen on his eyelashes, as he stared at the phone screen.
Call Ended.