-Side note- Warning- blood and gore.
"There is a knife wound on the right hand side of the abdomen." Castellanos said as he looked at the body. The yellow tarp was off to the side. He took the man's hand and moved it. There was a symbol of a stars and a needle going through it. "Joseph look at this. What do you think that is?"
"I seen that symbol before." Joseph said as he wrote down their investigation notes. "Don't you remember when we were in STEM? That symbol was everywhere. I didn't know what it was." Joseph said looking over Sebastian's shoulder with the end of the pen pressed to his lips.
"Now that you mentioned it. I have see it in the mental beacon hospital." Castellanos said as he looked over his shoulder to make eye contact with Joseph.
"Morbius!" They yelled. Joseph smacked himself on the forehead and Castellanos signed with disgust.
"Great, that means that it's going to be difficult to catch them. They work like a shadow." Castellanos said as he looked back at the body. "There are bruises around his neck."
"So he was choked and stabbed."
"The stab wound looks like the cause of death." Castellanos said moving the man's head to get a better look at the bruises.
"What time would you put the body at?" Joseph said looking up from his notebook and pressing the pen to his lip's again.
"What time did the individual find the body?"
"Six this morning?"
"It was a little cold this morning, right?"
"That means in the last twenty-four hours." Castellanos said looking around the body for clues "I guess we hand it over to forensics. They will give us their reports after." He said standing up and removing the gloves. Suddenly, the sound of screeching car wheel echoed through the street. "... the hell?" Castellanos said as he saw the car racing towards them. The passenger window opened. Someone stuck their hand out. Every thing was happening so fast as the sound of gun shots rang.
"Ah." Joseph gasped as he grabbed hold to his side. Castellanos realized the passenger had a gun and the first thing he though of was to grab Joseph. He took Joseph by the shoulders and rushed him out of the way for the car. Castellanos saw that the car was aimed directly for them. He knew at the rate they were going. They wouldn't make it together onto the other side. Castellanos looked down at Joseph's side as another round of bullets rang out. The sound made their ears ring. The car was so close as Castellanos yelled, "Get out of the way." He threw Joseph as far as he could to the other side. Joseph couldn't catch himself as he fell hard on his right shoulder. Castellanos pedaled backwards to get out of the way from the car. The car shrived to aim for Castellanos and it swiped his leg throwing him a few meter to the side. Castellanos tried to slow himself by grabbing at the ground. His fingers were cut up from the frantic clawing. He laid there for a few second until he opened his eyes and feeling a pain radiating from the leg that was hit. He sharply breath in and held his breath. He didn't want to look down. He knew that his leg was broken, but convinced himself to look. Castellanos saw a pool of blood and a bone sticking out of his pant leg.
"Hah." Castellanos gasped as he tried to move it a little. "Joseph!" He yelled trying to find him.
"Help, Help" Joseph screamed. Castellanos bit through the pain as he crawled over to Joseph.
Joseph was laying on the concrete holding onto his side with his right shoulder dislocated. He had his right hand pressed being up against his open wound with his left hand. He tried his best to hold onto the gun shot wound. Before Castellanos reached out, he saw through Joseph's fingers that his intestines were damaged. He placed his hands on top of Joseph's to help stop the bleeding.
"Sebastian." Joseph gasped.
"It's going to be okay." Castellanos said pressing his hand against Joseph's sides. Joseph screamed in pain with the facial expression of vomiting.
"Sebastian." He managed to say, but could hardly breath. Castellanos placed one of his hands on the side of Joseph's face and tried to comfort him by stroking his thumb against his cheek. Castellanos' hand smeared blood on Joseph's pale skin. "I'm so tired." He managed to say.
"It's okay. Everything is going to be alright. Joseph, it's going to be okay. Please..." He breath in sharply trying to be strong. Castellanos shook as he saw Joseph eyes were beginning to lose their shine through his crooked glasses. Joseph's skin became clammy and pale as he melancholy looked at Sebastian.
"Joseph, look at me keep talking. Just keep talking. Look at me. Joseph, just keep talking..." Sebastian yelled breathless as he pressed hard in Joseph's side. "Joseph, I can't lose you. I don't want to lose you. Stay with me. I still love you. Joseph please...please..." He yelled as blood oozed through their finger tips. "Please, Joseph, I..." They could hear people rush over to them.
"Seb...Seb-as-tian" Joseph weakly whispered. "I love you too" Joseph said his slowly closed his eyes. His head slumped to one side and a few strains of hair fell a cross Joseph's face.
"Joseph, Joseph, No please." Castellanos pleaded for Joseph to wake up. "Joseph." He took one of Joseph's hand and pressed it against his face. He cried as a rush of people came to help. "Joseph..."
"Joseph," an voice like angel called out, "Joseph, wake up." Joseph could tell what was happening. He felt dizzy with nauseous and wanted to keep his eyes closed to sleep longer. "You need to wake up." It called out.
"Anna?" Joseph said waving his hand. "It that you? "
"Cute. But I'm not Anna." It said as Joseph slowly came back into reality. Everything was blurry as he came too. "Are you up Joseph?"
"Where am I?"
"I'm not here to tell you." It said.
"Where's my glasses." He said raising his hand to his face. The angel placed his glasses on. He finally could see. He looked at the person with the evangelical voice. It was a nurse. "Who are you?"
"My name is Tatiana. I'm your nurse." She said fixing the IV drip. "Are you in any pain?" She looked over her shoulder. Joseph looked at his left shoulder.
"Now that you say it, yeah. "
"Describe your pain." She took up a clipboard and a pen.
"Like some took a hot knife and is trying to carve my arm muscle out ."
"Dull, right. Muscle fatigue. Typical of being shot." She wrote it down on the sheet. "Rate it."
"Six, it fells like a six if I move it will be a eight." Joseph said as he shifted in his bed. His mind still was clouded with sleep and pain.
"Alright, how do you feel in general?"
"Fine as I will every be." He said relapsing into his fatigue. "Can I sleep now." His speech became slurred and slow. "God what drugs did you put in me?" He whispered as he fell in and out of consciousness.
"Before you allow you to sleep, I would like to ask you one more question." She said.
"Umm…"
"What is you relationship with Sebastian Castellanos?"
"My relationship with Sebastian." Joseph said, "Where do I even start?"
"Did your families ever go on an outing somewhere?"
"We rented a van and took both our family up to the mountains for a week." Joseph said with a sluggish voice. "The kids were still young so they couldn't do much besides play on the lake beach." He said.
"Anything else."
"Our wives, they talked among themselves as they watched over our daughters." Joseph said, "Sebastian... Sebastian... he wanted to go boating so we went rented a boat and went to one of the lakes. Sebastian was way to big for the boat. He kept rocking it when ever we moved." Joseph laughed. "It was nice. We were away from everything. I was glad I wasn't wet from rocking. Sebastian would just sit there and watch. Sometimes he would make eye contact with me and sometime he would looked at the trees." Joseph waved his arm with all the IV's. "I always felt something between us. A bond that could never be broken. I knew I wanted him to be part of my life no matter what. We had futures."
"Futures?"
"We had our wives, children, careers, and each other." Joseph said, "When Lily died and Myra left, our futures turned different paths. I felt the bond between us was being stranded everyday." Joseph said. "I don't know where we stand. For all I know, he's probability dead." Joseph closed his eyes and feel asleep again.
Joseph's eyes fluttered and closed again. The sound of people walking around faded in and out. He knew he was alive, but he was too tired to opening his eyes. He fell asleep again with a deep breath.
Finally, Joseph woke up with a sharp breath of air through his nose. He looked up to the ceiling and then to the machines that were beeping. Joseph freaked out as he tired pulled at the IVs. Help, he tried to scream, but his voice didn't come when he opened his mouth. He was scared and freaked over the confusion of his whereabouts. For all he knew, he was back in STEM again. Someone rushed over and placed and hand on Joseph. It was warm and gentle. Anna he tried to say, but couldn't. He slowly calmed down. His breathing was forced as he tried to catch his breath. Joseph looked over with his eyes filled with tears. Anna changed positions and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Sweetie. It's okay." Anna said putting her hands on his forearm and forehead. "You're safe here." Joseph closed his eyes to stop them from stinging. The panic set aside as he took her hand and held it. "It's okay." Joseph looked around and tried to speak, but his throat was dry.
"Water," Joseph finally got out. Anna took the water bottle from the nightstand and let Joseph drink from it. "Thank you." He said weakly.
"How do you feel?" She stroked his matted hair.
"Crappy." Joseph whispered.
"Get some rest." Anna said stroking Joseph's hair. "We'll tell the nurses that you woke up." She said patting his cheeks. Joseph nodded a little.
Castellanos and Suzy were out in the family waiting area. Susy was playing with the other children who came to see family. Castellanos was sitting on one of the couches with his leg stretched out front of him. He watched over Suzy. Sometimes Suzy would look at Sebastian and smile and he would smile back.
Anna came in a little bit fluster. "He's awake, but still really out of it." Anna said throwing her self next to Castellanos. Anna rubbed her tired eyes and looked as Castellanos. She looked at Suzy and she didn't notice her mom coming into the room. Anna turned her head and looked at Castellanos. "I really hope he's alright."
"Anna, Joseph is away fine in the end." Castellanos placed a hand on Anna's shoulder to comfort her.
"You're right." She said placing her hands on her waist which made her look confident. "Joseph's a fighter." She laughed and looked back at Suzy. Castellanos pulled away and looked at Suzy too.
Joseph woke up again. He laid in his bed for a minute and turned his head. He saw Castellanos sitting in a chair reading a book.
"Seb," Joseph crooked out.
"You're up." He said closing the book and took his crutch. "How are you feeling?"
"Still really crappy. How about you? Your leg I mean." Sebastian was plaster with bandages and bruises.
"Broke in three places. They sent me in for surgery to put metal plates in. Right now can't feel a thing." Castellanos leaning on his crutch.
"I fell horrible that you got hurt."
"Not a bad as you did."
"What happened to me? All I remember… is being shot." Joseph said looking down at his side.
"Yeah, pretty nasty. I'll spare you the details, but the doctor said that they had to remove your appendix and sew back your intestines back up."
"The gun shot was that bad?"
"Yeah, it was bloody. They said that the wound might not heal properly. It might leave a nasty scar."
"Fine by me. I rather be alive ." Joseph looked at his shoulder.
"Dislocated it when I threw you. They said it was going to be sore for a while."
"God," Joseph said as he moved it up to see it would move. Pain stung throughout his arm. "Fuck." Joseph said as he crippled it with his good hand.
"Don't move it." Castellanos said placing and hand on Joseph's shoulder. "Rest for now."
"Where Susy and Anna?"
"There at home. They need to sleep too."
"Why aren't you at home?"
"Someone needs to watch over you." Castellanos said. "Because the shooting was targeted at us, KCPD are set up outside this room and at your home."
"Great, that give me piece of mind." Joseph said sarcastically. "Do we have to watch our backs?"
"I don't think so. But you never know."
Joseph walked into Castellanos' office. "Sit down." Castellanos said offering a seat.
"Thanks. It's great to be back." Joseph moaned as he sat down. He placed a hand on his side to ease the pain. "I wish my side didn't hurt every time I move it." He laughed and looked at Castellanos. "How's the leg?"
"It's fine. You should have taken more time off if it pained you that much." Castellanos said sitting back in the chair.
"I wanted to get back to work. Being at home for almost a week made me crazy. I had nothing else to do." Joseph said taking his hand off his side and gave all his attention to Castellanos.
Castellanos placed a hand on his leg because it had been a pain in the ass; however, he was lucky that it wasn't his right leg. He would be stuck at home like Joseph was. "I could drive myself to work."
"I'm a little jealous." Joseph laughed again and smiled at him.
"Joseph, could I discuss something with you." The mood changed in a spit second.
"Sure?" Joseph said making eye contact with Castellanos.
"It's about that day. I couldn't get it out of my mind." Castellanos closed his eyes. "I almost lost you."
Suddenly, Joseph stood up as he did the chair fell down. Castellanos opened his eyes and saw Joseph taking the collar of his shirt. Joseph pulled Castellanos into a surprised kiss. He pulled away. "Everything I said out there was true. I do love you." He said wrapping his arms around Castellanos shoulder. Castellanos brought his hands on Joseph's back. Castellanos pulled Joseph closer to him and kissed. Joseph cheeks began to change to a bright pink. "But you told me that you couldn't love me." Castellanos pulled back on the kiss.
"Because I love you differently."
End of the Rise