Family Ties – 3
When he comes to he can feel cool metal around one wrist, he pulls, yanks futilely on it and there's no give.
"Shh," he hears and he stops moving, doesn't even breathe.
He chances a glance to the left and sees nothing, to the right he sees another boy, about his age, he squints because he's pretty sure that's…
"Tyler?" he whispers.
"Shh," is the only response and the door to the room rattles and he closes his eyes, slumps against the wall.
His skin crawls and he can feel eyes on him even though his are closed.
He concentrates on breathing evenly and not moving a muscle when he feels a hand brush against his face, trace over his lips. He doesn't shudder in revulsion; he can hear the sounds the man is making, feel the movements of something.
He thinks the guy is jerking off while he traces fingers over his face and he can't…
He plays unconscious and the guy doesn't go to Tyler so he's pretty sure that Tyler is doing the same.
He can hear the low groan and feels something wet on his t-shirt, he almost gags, forces himself not to because if this guy thinks he's conscious he might do a lot worse to him then jerk off while he feels up his face.
The guy presses his lips to Dante's, tongue tracing over them and sighs against his skin before standing. There's silence for a few seconds and then the sound of a door closing.
His eyes snap open and he doesn't look down at the t-shirt that is now destined for the burn pile, he knows what he'll see and he's going to deal with it later.
Much, much later.
He yanks on the chain around his wrist; his other arm is pretty useless, his first assessment that it was probably broken is almost certainly correct.
There's a little bit of give, it's not very well secured to the wall and he wonders if some other boy had been chained to this wall and tried pulling and twisting on it to get free, it's loose regardless and he twists his body, pushing his feet against the wall and pulling and yanking with all his might.
"What are you doing?" Tyler asks, he sounds tired, scared.
"There's some give, I think I can," Dante yanks, winds the chain around his hand so he has something to grip and pulls.
It doesn't end like this.
OF + SC = DF
The house is quiet, just like Jason sitting next to him. Just like Max and Milo in the front of the car.
"Sir?" Max asks.
Sonny stares at the house, there's a gun in his lap,
"Sonny?" Jason asks, he's got one hand on the door, waiting for the go ahead.
"Okay," Sonny says.
He opens his own door, keeps his gun in hand. If he finds the son of a bitch who took his boy… he's not a good man, the thoughts racing through his head are not good thoughts.
He should be calling the cops, the FBI. Should be telling Mac and his contacts where he is and where his son is.
But all he can think is this man has already got put away once for taking boys, for…
He already got put away once, now he has two murder charges to add to that and he's a repeat offender and he's probably going to go away for a really long time.
If he's harmed Dante in anyway, he won't have to worry about going away because Sonny is going to kill him.
OF + SC = DF
The bolt securing the chain to the wall pulls free and Dante wants to cry, is just getting ready to turn to Tyler and has his mouth open to say, he's not even sure, because the door flies open and a man is standing there.
"What was that…" he starts and Dante runs for him, he still has the chain gripped in his hand, hasn't released it yet and he punches him. He's infuriated, angry and scared and the guy is on the ground and he only stops because Tyler calling his name breaks through the haze of red that he's seeing.
He stands up and he's panting, one hand clenched at his side the other arm held close to his body. It's starting to throb and ache again.
"Does he have keys on him?" Tyler asks, his voice is insistent and he's pulling on the chain still securing him to the wall like he can pull himself free.
Dante looks between the man on the ground and Tyler, he so doesn't want to touch this guy, but the alternative is leaving Tyler chained to the wall and eventually the guy is going to wake up. Dante can see his chest rising and falling and if he wakes up and Tyler is still there…
Tyler won't be there, he bends and pats down the guys pockets, not touching him anymore then he has to.
He finds the keys finally in an inside pocket on the guys jacket, it's a dress coat, like something he's seen his dad wear. He turns back to Tyler, who's still twisting and pulling on the chain almost absently, his hands are shaking and he's tired and his arm and shoulder are screaming at him in pain, he fumbles with the keys as he tries to fit them into the lock keeping the chain around Tyler's wrist.
Tyler shakes them off and is on his feet and through the door in an instant.
"Let's put him in the room," Dante says.
"Let's go," Tyler says insistently.
"If we put him in the room we can lock the door," Dante says tiredly, "it'll buy us some time if we can't figure out how the hell to get out of here."
Tyler looks at him and Dante hunches his shoulders, finally Tyler nods and they sort of roll the guy into the room, they're not all that careful but Dante's arm is maybe broken and in the light from the hallway he can see a bruise on Tyler's face, he doesn't think either of them much care. Dante pushes the door closed with his shoulder, and Tyler fastens the padlock and kicks the door viciously once it's locked.
"Alright, can we go now?" Tyler asks, he's almost vibrating with the same need that Dante is feeling; get out, get free, get home. His mom's got to be losing her mind and there's no way that she hasn't called his dad already.
He stays right beside him though and they're trying to be quiet, just in case the guy wasn't alone.
He sees the light of flashlights ahead of them and they plaster themselves to the walls, Tyler is making a high-pitched whining noise and Dante would tell him to shut the hell up but he thinks that people in other states can hear his breathing.
It almost stops when the flashlights come closer, when he realizes who's there.
"Dad," he breathes out, that's his dad; his dad came for him like he always said he would if something ever happened and the flashlights stop moving, there's four of them and Dante stumbles forward.
"Dante," his dad's voice is just as soft, stunned almost and then his father is pulling him into his arms and Dante is fighting to not scream or pass out or throw up as his arm, the one that he thinks is broken is pushed between his body and his dads.
He can't quite disguise the fact that something isn't right though and his dad backs off, his hands don't let go of him, just let him move back enough so there's a sliver of space.
"His arm," Tyler says, the flashlights all swing in his direction and Dante hopes he doesn't look as bad as Tyler does, though he's pretty sure he does. There's dried come on his shirt and his arm is broken and his dad is going to fucking murder someone he's sure.
"Are you okay?" the one guy standing next to his dad says, he's young, maybe in his mid-twenties or so. Dante thinks he might be Jason Morgan, Dante's heard all about Jason since his dad started working in Port Charles.
"Yeah," Tyler says, he rubs a hand over his face and Dante looks away, leans forward and rests his forehead against his dads shoulder.
"But his arm," Tyler waves his hand at him, "I think it's probably broken, he's been holding it pretty tight."
"Where is he now?" his dad asks and his voice, Dante didn't think you could actually hear the sound of murder in someone's voice but that's what he thinks he's hearing in his dads right then.
"Why don't you worry about getting your son and Mr….?" a voice comes from behind them and there's more flashlights and uniforms and these guys look like cops.
"Tyler, he's Tyler," Dante says into his dad's coat.
"Hello Tyler," the voice comes closer and Dante can see over his dads shoulder that it's Mac Scorpio, he's met him only a handful of times, and he doesn't touch him, just assesses the situation in front of him.
"There's an ambulance outside," Mac says. "There's only the two of them?"
"There was another boy, he was there when he grabbed me, but he disappeared right before he brought Dante in, I don't…" Tyler shakes his head. "I've not seen him since."
"Alright, Sonny why don't you get these two boys out of here," Mac says, there's an unspoken conversation passing between Mac and his dad, from the way that his dad frowns Dante thinks that Mac pretty much just refused to allow his dad to kill anyone.
"Dante knocked him out with his chain," Tyler says, Dante lifts one wrist to show the chain still attached and his dad makes a noise that sounds like a growl, he'd been more concerned with getting out of the room and away, and he still has the keys to unlock them he just was going to wait until they were out of wherever they are to get rid of them. "He's locked in the room that we were locked in."
OF + SC = DF
Sonny wants to kill someone, but instead he's gripping his son's good hand (he wants to maim someone, his son has a good hand and a broken arm and bruises and something on his shirt that he's trying to think about because when he does his mind veers back to murder again) while the doctor sets the arm and talks about casts and clean breaks.
Dante's not saying anything, just squeezing his hand every so often as the doctor fiddles around.
"I'll get you something for the pain," the doctor says, Dante manages an upward quirk of the lips that might, in some small foreign country that doesn't allow it, might be considered a smile.
He touches his forehead, smoothes back his hair and tells himself that his son is fine, he's in a hospital bed and he's got doctors and nurses taking care of him. He's got Sonny right beside him and Olivia is on her way and Jason's at the door and his back.
Dante's okay.
OF + SC = DF
Carly and Michael are at the apartment when he gets home, he's got Milo and Max with him and he'd left Jason at the door of Dante's room watching over Dante and Olivia.
He feels dirty, and he doesn't touch Carly but he tousles Michael's hair.
"I thought…" Carly starts.
"I have to go back to the hospital," Sonny says. He'd only come home because Dante had insisted that he needed to and Olivia had concurred, when they gang up on him like that he's hard pressed to say no to them.
But he'd never said how long he would stay away, so he's planning to shower and change and maybe have a stiff drink, then go back to the hospital and wait until it's time to bring Dante home.
They want to keep him overnight for observation.
Sonny thinks he can be observed just as fine by Olivia and himself and Jason and Max and Milo at the penthouse.
"Michael wanted to see you," Carly says, Michael glances up at his mother then over at Sonny.
"Mom said I have a brother now," Michael says, he's biting his lip and giving Sonny that look that he gets when he's not sure he's going to like how these things are going to affect him.
"His name is Dante," Sonny says, he sets a hand on Michael's head and kneels so he's looking directly at him. "I think you'll like him."
Michael looks at him then back at Carly.
"Mom said he was hurt," he says and Sonny nods, his eyes narrow over Michael's shoulder at Carly and she's got her arms crossed over chest like she's waiting for Sonny to call her out on this.
"He's going to be fine though," he says. "He's in the hospital and his mom is there with him, and Jason's keeping watch over them."
"Then he'll be okay," Michael nods once. His faith in the power of mom's and Jason is almost completely unbreakable. "Will I get to meet him?"
"When we bring him home tomorrow," Sonny says. "You'll be one of the first people I introduce him to."
Michael beams at him.
OF + SC = DF
His mom is sleeping, leaning forward on the bed, head resting on her arms. He shifts, then shifts again, his arm is propped up on a pillow and the pain killers that the doctor had given him are starting to wear off because it's beginning to throb in time with his heartbeat.
He wants to stay awake though, wait for his dad to come back. He knows him well enough, even though he doesn't get to see him that often, that he knows he'll maybe shower and change before he comes back.
Jason is standing in the doorway, periodically he'll look over at him then away.
"You can pull up a chair or something," Dante says, Jason just looks at him, expression inscrutable. "No, really," he says insistently. "Because you standing there like that is like having a human gargoyle hovering in my doorway, and also it's kind of freaky, like if I tried to leave the room would you tackle me or something?"
Jason raises an eyebrow but pulls a chair up next to the doorway, inside it not outside like he'd thought he'd do. He wonders if it's because there's two uniformed cops strolling up and down the hallway, they keep eying Jason like they'd like nothing more than to tackle him and slap handcuffs around his wrist even though he's just been standing there.
Dante has to wonder how Jason will react when his dad is finally able to come clean.
"You can ask you know," Dante says, Jason just looks at him, face inscrutable.
He wants him to like him, his dad likes Jason, trusts him, Dante wants to as well.
"Why'd he keep you guys secret?" Jason asks. Dante wonders if he's imagining the hint of betrayal that he thinks he's hearing in Jason's voice.
Probably not.
"He wanted to protect us," Dante says. It's what he always says when someone asks about his dad, 'he left to protect us', or variations on the theme depending on who he's talking to.
Frankie knew about his dad, he might not have known everything but Frankie knew who his dad was. It was probably really hard to mask with his dad threatening him every time he came into town if he even thought about touching Dante.
If his dad only knew.
OF + SC = DF