Ch.18 Pretty Eyed, Pirate Smile Reprise

James

It was almost over. My eyes had been wet with tears for a while, Ross held me close to her a few times, Another patrol car had come bringing coffee, and the sky was turning blue again, actually it was a mixture of cobalt blue and dark grey. Tony had tested Knight's limits over and over again, earning him three rapes, and two beatings. He lay shielding Kendall once more, in only his underwear and Kendall's sweatshirt, Kendall in only his own tee-shirt. Tony was wrenched from Kendall once more, as Knight proceeded to assault Kendall. Tony lay on the floor, his hand on the bed squeezing Kendall's.

"you can do this Kendall, stand up to him" Tony coaxed, even after being beaten, his hair a mess, wearing nothing but underwear and an old hockey hoodie of Kendall's, the strand of pearls still gleaming around his bruised throat, Tony was beautiful.

The other officers and agents had gone up to the door, they wire piled onto the stairs, Just Tyler and I remained, A Team dropped from Helicopters onto the roof, the bathroom window had several men dropping through that way, two ambulances waited silently in the parking lot.

The invasion was loud, Knight was surrounded and given the chance for surrender.

I believe his last words were "I'm not going back to prison". He had fired at the bed.

I screamed for a second as three shots echoed, The monster fell against the floor.

Kendall and Tony were each wrapped in sheets from the bed and carried outside, they didn't separate their hands the whole time. but as soon as they were down the stairs I was running to them, I just remember him breaking his contact with Kendall as they carried Kendall to one of the open ambulances, He was cold, but safe, in my arms.

Ross had been right, I put my arm under his legs and lifted him. I held his head into my chest as I carried him to Kendall's ambulance, the sheet still tangled around him.

"I can sit on James' lap, we're not leaving Kendall" he declared.

The medics nodded and didn't question anything, helping us both in the back.

"I want these filthy sheets off of both of us, please." He stated tearing his off as soon as he could stand.

The medics nodded and bagged both of the sheets in large black plastic bags.

They issued us fresh blankets, Tony was close to me, his head buried in my shoulder.

I watched while they rushed us to the hospital. Tony was cleaned up and put in a room, a doctor came in to tend to his wounds and he requested a nurse come in to do the rape kit. Kendall had needed stitches and the bullet removed from his leg which by some miracle hadn't been broken.

Tony preferred to stay close to me for the next hour or so once we knew Kendall was going to be okay Tony prepared to take a shower, I'd brought him some girly soap and a bottle of his favorite shampoo at the gift shop while he was seeing the doctor. I sat in a chair while he was in the shower. Kendall was laying in the other bed, sleeping peacefully, the doctors had given him a powerful sedative to combat any traumatic dreams, his body needed rest.

The sun had come up, and Tony stepped out of the shower, drying his freshly washed hair with a hospital towel. His skin was bruised in a lot of places, and he had a purple tint to the area just under the inner corner of his eyes, his pearls had been handed to me before he took a shower and the bruising on his throat was more visible without them.

Gustavo and Kelly arrived a little while later with Logan and Carlos, Kelly bringing Tony and Kendall some clothes and a blanket from each of their beds. Kendall was already sleeping, so Kelly just covered him with his blanket and left his stuff on the chair next to the bed.

"Tony's father wants him to move out" Kelly said laying two suitcases down in the room Gustavo had been carrying a slightly larger bag for Kendall which was placed on the chair near his bed.

"Griffin is sending his personal team of moving people, to Tony's house today, we're going to move him into your apartment" Kelly finished.

Kelly walked to the bed where Tony was sitting, placed down his blanket from his bedroom, a train case style makeup bag, underwear,a large black tee shirt, and a pair of black leggings. Tony slipped on his underwear underneath his hospital gown, pulled it down to his waist and pulled on the shirt. He put the leggings on and discarded the gown folding it neatly and placing it on the dresser, he sat down on the side of the bed, facing the door and reached for his makeup bag. I touched his arm gently.

"Don't worry about it right now, you're just as beautiful as you always are" I said quietly. Tony moved like he was going to put up a fuss, he wouldn't be seen in public without his face on.

"I just want my perfume" he decided. "no matter what I do, I can't get the smell of that apartment out of my nose"

"It's in there, James reminded me. You can get one spray and then really you should just lay down, and sleep for a little while, okay?" Kelly said. Tony nodded, took his spray of Shalimar Parfum Initial and put it back in the case. Kelly moved the case to rest next to the black bag with his name on the tag and then she sat down on the couch near the bed. We were silent for a little while nurse entered with a tray.

"I'm Julie, the doctor's just asked me to bring in some sleeping pills, Tylenol, and some hot tea, you've been through quite an ordeal and the pills will eliminate any bad dreams" Julie said with a half-smile. She handed Tony a small paper container with two little pills, a white one and a red one, she handed Tony a small cup of water just enough to swallow the pills and then She left with a gentle smile leaving the tray of tea on one of the end tables. I took a cup of tea and added in some sugar for him.

Tony took the pills reluctantly, I picked up both of his legs and put them on the bed so he was sitting back against the pillows and then handed him the cardboard cup. He drank his tea slowly, his free hand holding one of mine.

"Kelly, could you tell Griffin I said thank you for everything next time you see him" Tony said.

He finished his tea and laid down in the bed, the pills beginning to take effect.

"You know I couldn't do enough for him after how he acted last night" Kelly whispered as she passed me, patting me gently on the back, Gustavo nodded and followed her out.

"so you take care of him or I'll have to take him home with me" Kelly called from the hallway with a smile.

Carlos came over to stand by me, I was just leaning over the bed running my fingers through Tony's damp hair while he slept. Carlos put his hand on my back, without saying anything.

"You should get up there with him" Carlos said after a long silence.

I stared at him for a minute, and shrugged. Carlos looked to the sleeping form in the bed.

"you know if I'd almost lost someone, I'd want to hold them for hours." Carlos added.

" I couldn't stop praying, we had some agents with us at the studio, and they were watching the live feed from inside that apartment. I saw pieces of it. I had to turn away." Carlos' voice shakes as he talks.

"and this whole time I'm thinking please, if there is a God, you have to protect them, please, just don't let them die tonight" Carlos began to cry and he wrapped his arms around me. "I just want you to know I'm proud of you, for being able to be there for Kendall and Tony. So please, Jamie just for me, lay down with him and go to sleep for a little while, and I'm going to sit here a little while, Mrs. Knight is coming down as soon as the doctor can get her into a wheelchair."

I nodded and took off my shoes and socks, opening the bag Kelly had brought with my name on it. I changed into a fresh black tank and some grey sweatpants, then walked around to the other side of the bed, climbing in and laying down next to Tony. I placed an arm protectively around him,and laid my head down on the pillow, he was warm.

Mrs. Knight entered the room in a wheelchair, but immediately stepped out of it to rush to her wounded son, I could see bandages peeking out from beneath her pink robe that she'd always worn around the house in the mornings, she must have been shot in the shoulder. She tended to her baby and then kissed him goodnight. I wasn't tired or ready to sleep and Carlos was sitting on the couch with a bag of chips and a comic book.

Mrs. Knight sat with Kendall for a while along with Logan who had been sitting at the foot of Kendall's bed and then she got up, she came over and sat down in the chair I'd vacated to lay with Tony.

"you know when I first met him, I thought he was just like all the girls before him" She said, sighing as she reached her hand out to touch Tony's.

"I thought maybe he was only into you for your looks, or the amazing gifts" She stroked his hand softly. "and now, he could be like one of my own, I don't think Kendall could have dealt with this without someone else there, he wouldn't have been brave enough to defy that Monster, to resist,

my baby would have died last night" she paused to sniffle into a napkin laying on the end table nearby and wipe her eyes on her sleeve.

"you should have seen him Mrs. Knight, even in the face of his own possible death, all he wanted to do was get Kendall out safely" I said quietly still running my fingers through Tony's hair.

Mrs. Knight touched his hand softly, "the nightmare is over, it's time to move on" she said

"we can rebuild our lives, leave the past behind where it belongs, and James"

I looked up from gazing down at Tony sleeping softly in my arms, "Yes?"

"I'm happy you've got someone special" she said, with a twinkling smile.

Mrs. Knight kissed us both on the forehead, then went and kissed Kendall one more time before leaving the room.