A/N: This is possibly the fastest update so far for this story. I'm actually a little surprised with myself!
The next chapter will be the last, I'm afraid. I'd rather end it now rather than let it drag on while I struggle for ideas, which I think is understandable enough.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
I'll Save You
Chapter Seven - Reported
Emma, after being given the address by Paige, visited Dean, Roman and Seth the following day. She greeted them with a wide smile, and they could tell from simply the way she was stood that she was feeling much happier in herself than the previous day.
"I just wanted to say thank you for your help yesterday," she started when she was invited inside. "I really wouldn't have had the courage to leave him myself if it hadn't been for you."
"I just wish that you could have left him before he hurt you," Roman said, his eyes flickering to her bruise for a moment.
"I'm just grateful that I'm not with him anymore," she said.
"How long were you in a relationship with him?" Seth asked, silently hoping that it was a short period of time and that the bruise was the only injury she had been inflicted with.
"Only around a week. He started getting really angry with me a few days after we were together."
"That's a lot sooner than how long it took him to snap when it came to me," Seth said. "He must really not be able to control his anger issues anymore."
"So he's the reason you left school?" she asked, and sighed when Seth nodded. "That's awful, I'm so sorry. It must have been horrible if you had to leave school because of him."
"It was. I'm just glad that you don't have to go through everything I did, though."
"That was really brave, you know," she smiled. "I mean, it would have been brave for anyone to stand up to someone like that. But how you stood up to someone who hurt you so you can protect someone else… That's just amazing. So thank you, Seth."
"It's not a problem," Seth replied, returning the smile.
"I think I should go to the police. He's only just going to find someone else to unleash his anger on if I don't. You should come with me. You were with him longer; it'll help."
That made Seth's heart stop in his chest. Reporting Randy's actions to the police was something which he still hadn't found the confidence to do. While the thought didn't paralyse him with fear like it used to, it still scared him.
"I… I don't know..."
"Why are you so unsure about it?"
"It's just… I'm scared that if I went to the police, they'd just laugh at me," Seth admitted, a little surprised that he was saying this out loud for the first time. "I mean, guys sometimes aren't taken seriously when it comes to abusive relationships. And they'll start to question why I didn't leave him sooner, or why I didn't go to them sooner. I guess I'm just too nervous about how they might react."
"That's completely understandable," Emma said. "But I do feel like it is the best thing for us to do. He deserves it, after all. Don't worry, though; if you're not ready to, you don't have to. We can just wait until you're ready."
"Thank you, Emma," Seth smiled. "I appreciate that."
"It's not a problem. I better get going now, if that's alright. I only stopped by here on my way to see a friend."
Seth nodded and after saying goodbye, he, Dean and Roman smiled and wave as she walked down the path. Seth knew that she was right. If Randy was still out there on the streets – with most likely a broken nose, but still, out there – then he was perfectly free to do whatever he liked to anyone else. There were only a couple of other people who saw the event between them, and they weren't likely to go to the police themselves considering they wouldn't have been completely sure what Randy's name was, never mind about the situation. After seeing the bruise on Emma's face, Seth realised how much the thought of Randy hurting anyone else terrified him. It also made him start questioning whether he was the first victim or not. Did Randy's short temper start with him, or had he been like that before? But then he remembered how sweet Randy had been to start with, and doubted it. It seemed as though it was more likely that Emma was, hopefully at least, the only other victim. This made him relax a little, but he still despised the thought of both Emma being hurt, even if it was just that once compared to the countless times Seth had been beaten, and the knowledge that Randy could easily do this again.
He just had to hope that he'd manage to pluck up the courage to report everything.
It was around one in the morning when Seth slid out of bed. He had been awake for the last couple of hours, with no success in falling asleep. After simply lying there, waiting for sleep to come to him, he decided on going downstairs to get a glass of water. He wasn't even that thirsty – it was mainly something for him to do.
His footsteps were quiet as he made his way down the stairs and through the hallway to the kitchen. He grabbed a glass and held it under the tap to fill it with water. It almost slipped out of his hand when there was a voice behind him.
"Trouble sleeping?"
Seth turned to see Dean standing there, leaning against the kitchen doorway. His face began to heat up when he saw that Dean was merely wearing a pair of pyjama bottoms, allowing his well-kept upper body to show. Seth had only seen him topless once in the time he had stayed there. Trying to avoid looking at the man's muscles, he quickly looked up at Dean's face.
"Yeah, a bit," he said after clearing his throat.
"Same here," Dean said, making his way over to the sink to get his own glass of water. "It's been pretty hectic recently, hasn't it?"
"Definitely," Seth chuckled.
"I do think Emma had a point today," Dean said, turning to face Seth after he filled his glass. "I don't mean to push you or anything like that. I'd never do that. But if both her and you go, whether it's together or separately, then they'll make more of an effort to throw him behind bars where he belongs, and for longer, too. He deserves at least that."
"I know, I agree completely, but..."
He paused, sighing. He took a sip of his water before he continued to speak.
"But I seriously am worried about going. It's what I said before; I'm scared about how they would react. It's like with the… With the rape, for example. There isn't just sexism to girls; there's sexism with guys, too. If a guy is drugged and raped by a girl, then he can be seen as weak and even get laughed at. If a guy is raped by another guy, then he's seen as less of a man. So I'm worried that if I went, they'd treat me like that. They'd probably also put part of the blame on me, what with me getting in a relationship with someone older than me when I was fifteen. It was stupid of me, I know. I was far too naive then. Maybe everything that happened with Randy was the inevitable."
"No, that's not true," Dean argued, though his voice was soft. He put his glass of water down on the kitchen counter, and instead placed it onto Seth's shoulder. "It doesn't matter whether you were young or not. What Randy's done is entirely his fault, not yours. I won't let anyone try to put the blame on you, because not one bit of it is your fault. If the police tried to say anything like that or not take you seriously then I will go to them myself and won't back down until something is done."
His other hand gently brushed away the few strands of hair falling into Seth's eyes as he spoke again.
"I'll be with you every step of the way, Seth. I'm not going anywhere."
They were both silent for a few moments after that. Dean was looking into Seth's eyes, appearing as though he was contemplating something. However, he removed his hand from Seth's shoulder and picked up his glass of water, nodding towards the doorway.
"We should get back to bed now. But remember, Seth, if it's too much pressure for you to go to the police, then you don't have to. I'm not forcing you to do anything that you don't want to do.
"No, I'll go," Seth said, almost surprising himself with those words.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I mean, it's for the best, right? Even if I'm nervous about going to them I still need to report everything that happened."
Dean nodded, a smile growing on his face.
"I'll go with you. I'm sure Emma would want to come with you as well, rather than on her own."
The two of them began to make their way back to their rooms. Both paused at each of their doors, turning back round to face each other.
"Night, Seth. Sleep well."
"Goodnight," Seth whispered back. Moments later, he was lying back in bed, and this time, it didn't take him very long at all to fall back to sleep.
It was clear that Seth was nervous just by the look on his face, though it was the shaking Dean could feel as he sat next to him that made him take Seth's hand in support and give it a small squeeze. Emma sat on the other side of Seth, and though her nerves weren't equal to his, it was easy to tell that she was somewhat nervous herself. The two of them reported what Randy had done, and were now both waiting to be questioned. Seth was surprised that there was no convincing, especially when it came to allowing Dean to stay there, too. He merely said that he was there for support, and they understood. Though Seth was still naturally nervous, he had calmed down a fair amount since they entered the police station.
A friendly-looking woman with blonde hair entered the room shortly after they were instructed to wait there. She greeted the three of them with a smile, which only made Seth feel even more relaxed.
"Good afternoon. My name is Renee Young," she said, shaking each of their hands before she settled into the chair on the other side of the desk. "Before I ask any questions, I would first like to say that thank you for coming to us to report this. The sooner we can arrest someone this capable of dealing harm, the better. There's no need to be afraid; we are not going to judge you or anything like that. If you also need to have a break while speaking about this, that's fine. We want you to be as comfortable as possible."
She opened a small notepad which was laid down on the desk in front of her and took a pen out of her pocket before she began to speak again.
"Right, so I'd first like to question you, Seth, if that's alright. I believe that you were in a relationship with Orton a lot longer than Emma?"
"Yeah, that's right," Seth nodded. "I was with him for around a year."
"How long was it until you were living together?"
"Only around three months. We became a couple in February, and on my 16th birthday in May, I confessed that I was gay to my family. My dad said I couldn't live there anymore, and I didn't know where else I could go apart from Randy's. He let me live with him from then on."
"But he changed?"
"Yeah, he did. He was really supportive and caring before I lived there, and for a little while after I was living with him, too. But about a month or so later he started getting angry with me over everything, until one day, he just snapped and slapped me across the face. He said he was sorry, and at first, I believed that he did truly feel guilty. But then it soon started to become a common thing for him to unleash his anger on me. I had to leave school by that point being as I was in too much pain for it on some days, and I didn't want them questioning where my bruises were coming from."
"Did he abuse you in any other way apart from being physical?"
"Yeah, he was also verbally and sexually abusive. I can't quite recall how many times, it's all a blur, really..."
"It's okay, Seth," Renee smiled, her voice and her expression soft. "Take your time. It's normal for this to be hard for you."
Seth nodded, and took a moment to calm himself down before he continued.
"I think he raped me around eight times in total, during the time I was living with him."
"And how long were you living with him for?"
"For around nine months. I left in the February of this year."
"That's when he moved in with me," Dean said.
"Did you both know each other beforehand?"
"No, we didn't," Dean shook his head. "I saw him on a bench while I was on my way to meet my two friends at the pub. I cancelled my plans with them so I could take Seth home after finding out he had nowhere else to go. I knew he had been hurt, and I didn't want him to go back there."
"That is very noble of you," Renee smiled. "That's all I have to ask you, Seth. I'll have to, however, contact your parents. Though you were indeed old enough to leave home, they shouldn't have made you leave without questioning if you had somewhere safe to stay."
Seth nodded in understanding. He had already expected that his parents would have to be contacted, so he wasn't very surprised at that.
"How long were you with Orton, Emma?" Renee then asked, her gaze shifting to the other girl.
"Only about a week," Emma replied. "He lost his temper with me six days after we were together, and hit me across the face. I probably wouldn't have had the courage to leave him myself if I hadn't had Seth come up to me the next day when he saw us in the street, telling me I should leave him. I'm grateful for that."
Renee nodded before she placed her pen back inside her pocket and stood up, grabbing her notepad as she did so.
"That's all I need from you. Thank you very much for your time. I promise you that we will have Orton in custody in no time at all."
She shook their hands once more, before guiding them to the door. Seth couldn't hold in a sigh of relief once they were stood outside the room, and Dean grinned at him.
"See, I told you it'll be fine."
"You were right," Seth smiled. "We still have court to go through yet, but I'm not as scared about it as I was before. I guess it was the questioning that was worrying me the most."
"Well, I can tell that you're more comfortable now than you were before by how much looser you're holding my hand."
Seth's cheeks flushed when he realised that their hands were, in fact, still linked. Dean laughed as Seth quickly let go, trying to avoid looking at Dean's eyes.
"S-Sorry, I completely forgot..."
"Don't worry about it," Dean chuckled, and placed his arm around Seth's shoulders before they walked out of the building. Emma walked behind them both, a grin on her face the whole time.
Dean greeted Roman with a smile as the man sat down next to him on the sofa, which was naturally returned.
"Did Seth go to bed early?" Roman asked.
"Yeah, he did," Dean replied. "I guess he was a bit tired after today and such. I don't really blame him."
"I'm glad that it went well today, especially after how worried he was."
"As am I."
The two were silent for a couple of minutes, though it was broken by Roman chuckling. Dean raised an eyebrow and looked at him with curiosity.
"What are you laughing about?"
"I'm just wondering how long it's going to take for you to admit that you have feelings for Seth."
"And what makes you think I have feelings for him?"
"Dean, it's obvious," he grinned. "Emma could tell and she barely knows you. You're not the only one who can see these things, you know. So I'm going to give you your own advice and say just tell him already."
"I can't do that."
"And why exactly can't you?"
"Because he's only just gotten out of an abusive relationship, that's why," Dean sighed. "I can't really expect him to be ready for another one only a month after getting away from something as awful as that."
"Maybe if you were someone he couldn't trust, you couldn't expect him to say yes. But he trusts you a lot, Dean, he really does. He cares about you, too. Honestly, it'd probably be the best thing for him. You're the perfect person to show him what a relationship is actually like, rather than what he's experienced in one."
"I suppose you do have a point."
"I'm always right about these things," Roman chuckled, before he slid off the sofa. "Besides, he's bound to not say no anyway, considering how much he likes you. Trust me."
Before Dean could say anything else, Roman had walked out of the room. Perhaps he didn't need to say anything. Roman, as he always did, had a point. The man had always been such a good friend to Dean, and his advice was never wrong. Dean knew he could him about this.
Besides, he wouldn't ever leave Dean alone until he finally confessed to Seth that his feelings had, in fact, developed romantically.
A/N: It feels strange that this story will be ending so soon. It feels like I haven't been writing it that long at all, even though when it will be finished, it will only have one less chapter than Hostage.
But anyway, I shall say more in the next update. As usual, thank you for all of your reviews, they really help encourage me to write! And also, thank you for reading. I doubt the next update will be as soon as this one, but we can always hope, right?