Chapter 5 Reunited
"James, slow down!" Kendall yells from the backseat of the car.
"You're going to get us killed!" Logan yells from beside him.
James doesn't respond. He keeps his eyes focused on the road, gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles have turned white.
"James!" They shout in unison.
"We have to get there, he needs us." He simply replies.
"Carlos does need us. But I'm sure he needs us in one piece!" Kendall yells.
"James, I know how you feel, alright? But running red lights and driving way past the speeding limit is not going to make it better." Logan calmly tells his friend. "We want to get to Carlos too, but he would want us to be okay. So please slow down the car, James.."
James doesn't respond. But the two in the backseat sigh deeply with relief when they feel the car gradually driving slower. But they want to face-palm when they see they're already at the hospital. They have to race to keep up with James, who is already out of the car and inside the hospital He marches towards the nurse's desk.
"We're here to see Carlos Garcia." He announces to the nurse, a small older Afro-American woman, who stares at him over her librarian glasses. "We're his best friends." Logan and Kendall stand behind him, panting.
"What he said." Kendall stammers. Logan just nods.
Suddenly the phone rings and the nurse goes to pick it up.
"Hey, you can't just ignore us!" James yells, getting angrier by the second. Logan and Kendall share a worried look. "Excuse me?"
"James, maybe you should calm down." Logan whispers to him.
"No, I'm not going to calm down. I asked her a question and she's just ignoring me."
"James, she is talking on the phone, maybe to another patient? Maybe we should just sit down." Kendall offers, slowly pulling on his friend's arm. James shrugs it off, marching back to the nurses' station, where the nurse just hung up.
"Okay, 'Agness'. Now that you're off the phone, why don't you answer my question; where is Carlos Garcia?"
"I'm afraid I can't give you that information, unless you're immediate family." She calmly tells him.
"What? What are you talking about? We're his best friends, we are his family!" He screams at her. Logan and Kendall gently put their arms around him, trying to keep him from attacking the woman.
"I'm sorry, son. I wish I could help you, but only immediate family is allowed on the fifth floor." She says.
"But we were the ones who searched for him that whole time. His family just pronounced him dead!" He says, his voice slowly breaking as tears begin to shine in his eyes.
"Uh, James.." Logan starts, realizing what the nurse said.
"No, we should be the ones who get to see him. We care a lot more about him.."
"James.." Kendall tries.
"We looked everywhere for two years and now that we found him, we can't even see him? That's just not fair.."
"James!" Kendall yells now.
"What!" James yells back.
"The nurse said he's on the fifth floor." James immediately calms down.
"Oh. Really?" He turns back to the nurse, who is now on the phone again. He turns to his friends who both nod. "Well, what are we waiting around for? Let's go, let's go!"
Kendall and Logan roll their eyes, before following their friend. The nurse 'Agness' keeps her attention on the patient on the phone. But as she hears the three boys leave, she can't help but smile warmly.
As the guys finally reach the fifth floor, James rushes out of the elevator, not even waiting for his friends. They rush after him.
"James, can you just hold up for a second? You don't even know where you're going."
"Yes I do. I'm going to find Carlos." He replies without looking back.
"James, you don't know where he is. This is a big hospital."
"He's on this floor, so it shouldn't be too hard."
He walks through every hallway, stops to look through all the windows. He even opens a few doors without thinking. Logan and Kendall apologize every time for their friend's erratic behavior.
Just when they round another corner..
"Look out!" Someone yells from behind them. They turn around to figure out what's going on, when they are knocked aside by a figure running very fast. As they slowly get up, three orderlies nearly run them over as well. As they're finally standing again, they look around, a little dazed.
"Okay, what just happened?" Logan asks, confusion eminent in his voice. Kendall shrugs.
"Beats me. James, are you okay?" But James isn't listening. He is standing in the middle of the hallway, staring after the figures that ran past them with wide eyes. "James?" Kendall asks again. He lightly touches his arm, when James jumps. "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I think that was Carlos…" He nearly whispers. The other guys don't respond, they just stare at the same spot their friend is, before all three of them rush off the same way.
They run around the corner, checking the hallway for a sign of the running people. Then James stops without warning, making Logan and Kendall almost crash into him.
"James, what the hell.." Kendall starts, but he stops when he sees what his friend is staring at. There, right in front of them, the three orderlies are holding down a heavily fighting Carlos, while one is holding a syringe.
Two years. It took them two years to find him. They always had hoped someday they would, but none had thought of what would happen when the moment finally came. In their minds, nothing would be different. They would just lock him into their arms and he would bring joy and laughter back into their home.
But this… they barely recognized the young man struggling on the floor. He was a lot thinner, his hair was longer, his clothes looked old and worn. But still, that wasn't the reason he looked so different. It was his eyes. They no longer held that youthful spark they had missed all this time. These eyes looked wild, filled with pain, hurt, anger. So many different emotions fell through those eyes.
James can't take it anymore. He yells out a roar and throws himself onto the orderlies, trying to pry them off Carlos. Kendall and Logan's eyes go wide. What should they do? Should they do the same? But they don't even know how much different this Carlos is.
But then they realized; they were best friends. They had grown up together, gone through so many things together. And they had always stuck by each other's side, no matter what happened. This couldn't be an exception.
The two friends share a smile and a nod, before letting out their own battle cries and getting mixed in with the fighting heap on the ground.
"What the hell is going on here?" Nurse Anderson yells when she sees the orderlies fighting the young men. When no one responds, she picks up a phone off the wall. "Get security to the fifth floor, now!"
It doesn't take long before the big security men rush towards the scene and pulls everyone out of the fight, including the orderlies. Carlos rushes away and sits in a corner unseen, knees pulled up and arms holding them tightly.
"Will someone tell me what is going on here?" Nurse Anderson asks the men as they have all seemed to calm down. Immediately everyone starts to shout at the same time. "Everybody quiet!" All men shut up immediately. "Alright, you, what's your name?" She asks, pointing at Logan.
"I'm Logan Mitchell."
"Okay, Logan. Why don't you explain what happened here?"
"Well, my friends and I," He says, pointing towards Kendall and James. "came in here looking for our brother, who went missing two years ago. We finally saw him when he ran us over, being chased down the hallway by those three gorillas." He says, now pointing towards the orderlies, who growl and struggle towards them. Logan jumps back and hides behind a security guard. "When we rounded the corner, they had him pinned to the floor, trying to give him a shot of something. I'm guessing a sedative."
"We were only following doctor's orders. That kid is dangerous. They had him strapped down with restraints in a locked room with a heavy sedative in his body. An hour later, we're chasing him down the halls. No one even knows how he got out, but he's out of control and he needs to be sedated!" An orderly argues.
"He is not dangerous. I'd try to run too if you put me in restraints!" Kendall yells back.
In the meantime, James quietly slips away and goes to find Carlos. He has to bite his lip to keep from crying when he finds his friend in the corner, rocking back and forth, just staring into nowhere. He looks so lost; James just wants to grab him into a hug. But he knows it might be too soon. So he opts to just sit next to him quietly.
"Carlos?" He quietly starts. His friend doesn't look up. James surely but slowly moves his hand up and moves it towards his friend. He doesn't notice the way Carlos starts to tense up.
"Hey! What are you doing? Step away from him, man. You don't know what you're doing." An orderly suddenly tells him. James turns his head towards him.
"Look, all he needs is his friends, his brothers. So just let me handle this." He goes to turn back towards Carlos.
"James, wait. Maybe this isn't such a good idea, maybe you should just come stand over here." Logan suggests. James rolls his eyes and stands up.
"Guys, this is Carlos we're talking about. He wouldn't hurt a fly. He's just confused right now. All he needs is us to be there for him." While he is saying this, Logan nudges Kendall with wide eyes. Kendall looks in the direction he's pointing.
"Uh, James. I think Logan may be right, just step over here. I don't think Carlos is ready for us yet."
"What is your problem? We waited two years to be reunited with him and now you're saying I should stay away from him?"
"James, I really think you should.."
"Kendall, for the last time, this is Carlos. Yeah, he may have a temper now and then, but.." He can't finish the last sentence because of the two arms that suddenly wrap around his neck from behind.
"James!" Kendall and Logan yell. They look on in horror as James struggles to breathe thanks to a wild looking Carlos, who holds a death grip on him. They hurry forward, but the security guards stop them.
"You see, this is why he needs to be sedated. I know you might think he's still your friend, the same person who went missing two years. But trust me, he's definitely not." One of the orderlies says as the three of them race over to Carlos and James. They have to ease up when Carlos tightens his grip on James' throat the closer they get.
"Alright, just take it easy. Why don't you just let go of your friend and everything will be fine." An orderly says, but Carlos isn't letting go.
"Carlos.." Kendall yells out suddenly. Carlos actually whips his head around to him. "Please let go of him. You're hurting him, you're hurting James. Remember, James, your best friend?" Carlos looks a little confused, but when he sees the orderlies coming closer, he grips even tighter.
James is trying with all his strength to pull Carlos' arms away from his throat, but he can feel his strength flooding out as his level of oxygen is dropping.
"Carlos, please… I don't know what you must have been through, but please don't hurt James because of it. He cares about you, we all do. Please let him go.." Logan now pleads, tears sliding down his face.
Carlos looks confused again. The things his old friends are saying seem to be sinking in somehow. He looks at his arms and suddenly he looks panicked. He quickly lets go, letting James drop to the floor. He backs up and stares at his hands and then at James on the ground.
James immediately starts to wheeze as he tries to regain air into his lungs. A male nurse quickly rushes over to help him stand up and walk away. James looks back only once, with so much confusion and hurt in his eyes, he can't stand to look a lot longer.
As Carlos is still dazed about what happened, the orderlies seize the moment to do the job they came to do. They gang up on him with syringe in hand, pouncing on him quickly.
"No, wait!" Kendall shouts at once. "He let go, you can't sedate him now, he'll never trust anyone again!" he struggles against the security guard who is holding a tight grip on him again. Logan just watches sadly as Carlos struggles at first, but soon his body goes limp as the sedative has once again shut down his system.
A/N Sorry, couldn't just let this be a happy reunion, now could I? I'm just a big fan of drama, like you may have already guessed. I have more angst/drama stories in my head, but I don't want to start them all up at once. I'll have to finish one first ;)
Anyway, hope you liked it. Let me know and thank you already for the great support so far!
Until the next chapter…
Love, Baxxie