.

Appearance

"Of course I forgive you, you idiot!"

Shaun and Jayden looked at each other for the longest moment, one of them remorseful and the other happily exasperated.

Jayden attempted to sit up and was having difficulties, so Shaun put an arm around his back and helped to prop him up. Jayden looked thoughtful for a second, then made up his mind; he rotated a bit and extended his arms toward Shaun, gently wrapping him into a hug. Shaun leaned forward and let Jayden press him close to him, feeling his previous tension and anxiety fade away.

"Jayden, I'm just happy you're still alive."

They stay silent for a moment, both not needing to say much, or feeling like they had to. Shaun smiled and wrapped his arms around Jayden to hug him tighter. He never wanted to let go. He never wanted him to be in danger again. He wanted Jayden to live on to be his guardian angel another day, an angel that would rescue him when the situation called. He just wanted to live with him forever, to laugh together, have fun, travel with him wherever he went on FBI missions… if he still went on any-

Shaun moved that thought to the back of his mind. He would ask about that later, but instead he wanted to focus on this moment, while it lasted. Jayden lifted one of his arms and cradled Shaun's head against his chest. He gently stroked his hair and gazed down at him. Jayden was happy that Shaun was the first thing he saw when he woke up. Maybe having Shaun stay with him for a few extra days will free him from this abyssal darkness that had overtaken his heart.

'Shaun, you're a little angel. You didn't deserve any of this that has happened to you,' he thought while he smiled down at him. Oddly enough, Shaun had this exact same train of thought.

'Jayden, you're my big angel. You didn't deserve what has happened to you, and I want to help you through it.'

Shaun perked up, a mischievous grin on his face.

"I came up with a new one." Jayden took his hand off Shaun's head.

"What is it?"

Shaun touched Jayden's face and Jayden said out loud, "'Scared'," and then Shaun punched Jayden in the leg, softly. "Um, now what does that one mean…?" Jayden inquired playfully.

"'Idiot'."

Jayden started laughing. Shaun elaborated on this, really wanting to get the excuse to punch him again. He poked himself in the chest, then touched Jayden's face, then poked Jayden in the chest, then punched his leg again.

"'I' [Was] 'Scared' 'You' 'Idiot'"

Jayden laughed a little longer, then found the courage to say what he wanted to say for a while. Previously, he was nervous about it, but Shaun always made the situation better. Always. This boy was magic. Jayden lowered his head, level next to Shaun's, and said quietly as if there were other people in the room, "I saw him again…"

Shaun looked up at Jayden with wide, big eyes. "You did?" Jayden nodded, slightly consternated. "Yeah. I even saw him after being clean for three days this time. That's why…" Jayden glanced out of the corner of his eyes at the desk, "that's why I just lost it. I wasn't really intending to overdose, honestly." He momentarily looked down at Shaun again, who was listening intently.

"But I just had to talk to him again! For some reason, previously I could only talk to him and see him when I used ARI, but recently it's been like he's messing with me, teasing me to do it again. I just couldn't take it anymore-"

Shaun blinked. 'That explains those weird emotions I felt when I practiced with ARI all those times…! Even when I just used them today!' Shaun moved his head away from Jayden's chest and looked at him, surprised that he realized and understood what Jayden was talking about. "I felt it! These little… fragments! I… I saw Dad when I used ARI!"

Now, it was Jayden's turn to look surprised, but Shaun excitedly continued on, on the brink of discovering something. "Your memories of him must have somehow been uploaded into ARI! That's how he can talk to you!"

Jayden gasped, neural connections suddenly set on fire. He zoned out, staring into nothingness as this revelation hit his soul like a freight train. 'All this time, I thought I was just-'

"…Shaun?"

"Yes?"

Jayden paused before continuing, still thinking about a million things at once, and all of their possibilities. "Can you… wear ARI again and open file A426-B, and tell me what you see?"

"Of course! I'll go get it and come right back!" Shaun got off the bed and left the room hurriedly. Jayden leaned his head back against the headboard of the bed, exhaling a long, soundless sigh. He had a lot to think about, mull over. He closed his eyes, trying to relax a bit while he waited. Shaun came back in the room and sat on the bed, crossing his legs to make a butterfly. Jayden pulled off his glove and gave it to Shaun; he slipped it on and looked at the glasses for a second.

"Well, here goes…" He put them on. They were still in Investigative Mode. "ARI, Evidence Mode." Slowly the transparent environment Jayden last used became more opaque, finally transforming the room into rustling leaves and beautiful trees. The bed served as the "desk". Shaun reached out in a direction to his side and pulled out a filing cabinet drawer. He saw all the orange holographic folders inside. "ARI, sort alphabetically with initial letter 'A' as reference point." The folders lifted up out of the cabinet drawer and neatly rearranged themselves, floating back down into the drawer afterward.

"Or, you could have said 'open most recently-accessed file'." Jayden reminded with a good-natured smirk, eyes still closed.

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't worry, it has been a while since we went over all of it. You still know your way around it though, which is good."

Shaun smiled at the compliment. "I want to be an FBI Investigator, like you. I want to be your partner."

Jayden cracked open an eye. "Alright, then I'll keep teaching you so you can quickly pass your ARI proficiency test at the ripe age of 13, and come on dangerous missions with me."

Shaun stopped searching through folders and had a playful, slightly annoyed tone when he looked back at Jayden. "Hey, I'm serious. I'm not kidding." Jayden shut his eye, lifted his eyebrows and grinned again, putting his hands behind his head and against the headrest.

"I wasn't kidding, either."

.

Shaun was suddenly confused. He was scanning through the files sorted by 'A' with his eyes, then found somewhat what he was looking for: A426-A, A426-C, and A426-F. Shaun knew that the letters with a dash before it meant they were different files related to the A426 case, but 3 files were missing out of the group. He looked closer into the filing cabinet; the slots for where 2 of the missing files fit into the indentations in the bottom of the cabinet shelf drawer were glowing red instead of being solid black. The other indentation was flashing a bright red, then black repeatedly. Shaun put his ARI glove-covered index finger and thumb together above the flashing indentation point and felt a very thin file that was invisible to him before. The orange file rippled into view, more transparent and a slighter whitish hue than the others. Giant red letters flashed on and off across the file.

'CORRUPTED'.

Shaun tried to pull it out of the drawer, but his hand just passed though. The file rippled back into nothingness, indentation still flashing red. Shaun closed the cabinet and took off ARI, sitting it in his lap. He turned to look concernedly at Jayden.

"…The file's not here. It's gone. I hope… it wasn't important."