Sawed Chapter 02: Strange Finding
Chikorita-Trainer1
T
Disclaimer: I don't own Saw or anything else I might reference or shamelessly rip off.

Author's note: I'm sure these points were made a long time ago, in YouTube videos and stuff, but I'm just putting it out there MYSELF that I personally have used a hacksaw on pipe…it's not hard. Those guys could have been out of there so fast. Oh well. Still a good movie.

Adam had trouble falling asleep that night, for several reasons. First off, anxiety. Now that he'd satisfied his need to see Lawrence alive, there was nothing left for him to think about other than what had just happened to the two of them. There was a dull ache in his shoulder, too, and while he could ignore that fairly easily, he was unable to sleep on his side; one of his sides had an arm in a sling and the other had an arm with an IV in it.

The third reason he couldn't fall asleep was a strange new feeling coursing through his veins. Processing his experience mixed with the happiness of seeing Lawrence and the brief moment of intimacy they had shared made for a frenzy of emotions swirling around in his head.

So, Lawrence is getting divorced, he thought. His conscience told him to feel bad about that, to pity Lawrence, pity his whole family, but for some reason, he actually felt like the concept was a good thing. Probably because Allison had reassured him that it was the right move. At least that's what he told himself.

Alone with his thoughts for hours, he was actually relieved when the police came in to question him, if only because it would break up the monotony.

"Adam Faulkner?" said one of the officers. "Like to ask you a few questions about last night. Is that alright?"

"Yeah," Adam answered.

"…then I woke up here, and they told me Lawrence was alive."

"And you have no idea why the Jigsaw Killer would target you?"

"Not really. Unless he has a problem with my line of work," said Adam.

"He just might," said the officer. "Alright, I think we've got everything we need. We'll let you know if anything else comes up."

"'preciate it," said Adam.

"Take care of yourself, kid," said one officer.

"Get some rest," said the other as they turned to leave.

"Wait," said Adam, reaching out towards them. They turned back. "So, can I visit Lawrence now? Am I allowed?"

"As long as it's OK with his family, it should be fine," said one officer. Adam sighed in relief.

"Thanks."

Adam briefly thought of running to him immediately, but then he remembered he was still being fed intravenous fluids. He glanced to his left and realized that his IV pole had wheels.

Oh, I guess I could have gone to see him last night without ripping this thing out of me, he thought sheepishly. But he still didn't like the feeling of being tethered to something.

Carefully getting out of his bed and grasping the IV pole, Adam wheeled it along the floor, making sure it wasn't tangled up with any other wires, and exited his room. It still felt foreign to him to be using his left hand to grasp anything, but his right arm was in a sling.

Ugh. I don't even need this stupid sling. My arm isn't broken!

Upon arriving at Lawrence's room, he peeked in the window of the door and saw Allison and Diana at his bedside, and decided to wait until they were done with their visit. He sat on a chair in the hall.

I can't go in there now. They need their private time, Adam thought. Hell, maybe they're reconsidering the divorce. Though his heart clenched up and his stomach knotted to think of that.

After waiting about twenty minutes, the door to Lawrence's room opened and Allison and Diana emerged. Diana looked at Adam and he smiled weakly at her. He still hadn't even formally met the little girl, but he didn't want her to be weirded out by him or anything.

"Hi, Adam," said Allison.

"Hey," he said back.

"How're you doing?" she asked.

"Fine. I told the cops what happened, and they said I could visit Lawrence now, as long as it's OK with you."

"Of course," said Allison. "Diana, sweet pea, this is Adam. He's the one who saved Daddy from the bad man."

Diana smiled and walked up to Adam.

"Hi," she said softly. "Thank you."

"Heh," said Adam. It seemed weird and inappropriate to say "you're welcome" or "no problem" to a ten-year-old child when she'd just thanked him for killing someone.

"Did he hurt you too?" she asked.

"Uh, he, like—" Adam stammered, unsure of what would be acceptable to reveal. He looked to Allison and asked "How much of what happened does she actually, like, know?"

"Everything," said Allison. "We were part of it too, you know."

"Right. OK, so, the…bad man…uh, Zep, he came in ready to shoot your dad. And I was on the floor, pretending to be dead. And I grabbed his legs and forced him down and beat him with a toilet tank lid."

"That's what my daddy said," said Diana.

Allison nodded silently.

"Were you scared?"

Adam almost scoffed in incredulity, but he didn't want to offend the child.

"Was I-? I—YES, I was scared!" he exclaimed with a laugh, trying to lighten the mood. "I was very scared. Thought we were both going to die."

Diana crept closer to Adam, and slowly wrapped her arms around his neck. He was surprised, but gently hugged her back.

"You were very brave," said Diana.

"Thank you," he said, letting go of her. Diana smiled at him and walked back to her mother.

"Larry's waiting for you," said Allison. "Go on in."

"You planning on sticking around?" asked Adam, rising from his seat.

"We have to get back home. The police are still taking pictures of our house, since it's a crime scene. We need to be there when they pack everything up."

"Right. It's good to see you. And Diana, it was nice to meet you," said Adam. Diana just smiled and held onto her mother's hand.

"Bye, Adam." And then they left.

Cute kid, thought Adam.

Lawrence appeared to be in better spirits than the previous night. Adam attributed that to the fact that he'd just been with his family. That and a good night's sleep.

"Hey," he said, softly closing the door behind him.

"Hey," said Lawrence, smiling at him. Adam rolled his IV pole along with him and tried to keep it a far enough distance from the two of them that he could sit down on the bed at Lawrence's left and get close to him.

"How'd you sleep?" asked Lawrence. Pretty casual icebreaker.

"Not well," said Adam. "Between this fucking tube in my arm and this sling, I couldn't lie on either side, and that sucked."

"Yeah. Must've been pretty uncomfortable." It took Adam a bit of critical thinking to figure out whether Lawrence was being facetious or not—seeing as how he had far more discomfort to live with than Adam did.

"How 'bout you?" Adam asked.

"Not too bad," said Lawrence. "But I am on a lot of painkillers."

Adam nodded and tried to think of something else to say.

"I met your daughter, just now, out there," he said, throwing a thumb back over his shoulder.

"What'd you think of her?" asked Lawrence.

"She seems to be handling all this amazingly well," said Adam.

"Tell me about it. She's actually in favor of the separation, too."

Adam's blood went cold for a second when he heard that. He wasn't planning on mentioning it, so it was shocking that Lawrence had brought it up so casually.

"Why's that?"

"Well, Alli and I have been arguing a lot, and I know Diana overhears it. It's been tearing her apart for years. I think she understands that when two people don't love each other anymore, this is what happens. She's been very mature about it. She understands."

"Still got to be horrible," Adam said softly.

"I think, going through what the two of them went through, kind-of helped clarify things," said Lawrence. "When something that traumatic happens, it opens your eyes. You see things you couldn't before."

"Yeah," Adam agreed, nodding. "But how are you handling it?"

"I'm a big boy, I can deal," said Lawrence.

Adam stared at him, challenging him to deny it.

"…of course, I'm devastated," said Lawrence. "But it's for the best."

After another moment of silence, Lawrence spoke again.

"Are you alright?"

"I guess," Adam sighed. "Still can't believe we're out of there."

"I know," said Lawrence. "I keep thinking about what we could have done differently."

"Like what?"

"Well, like…" Lawrence trailed off and sighed. "We probably gave up on those saws way too quickly."

Adam bit his lip to keep from laughing.

"I mean, we were sawing at our chains for all of, what, five seconds before we got mad and stopped?"

"Well, mine broke," said Adam.

"We also probably could have sawed through the pipes," said Lawrence. "I don't know why that didn't occur to us."

Adam snorted.

"Well, wait—wouldn't like, raw sewage have spewed out if we had done that? I mean, I had already stuck my hand in a bowl of shit, I don't know if I would have wanted to saw through those pipes."

"I don't think anything in that bathroom was connected," said Lawrence. "I mean, it looked like it hadn't been in use since the 20's."

"You're probably right," Adam chuckled.

Both men looked at each other and started cracking up. Before long, they were laughing together like two buddies watching Family Guy.

"Why did we not think of that?" Lawrence asked through laughter.

"Because we're idiots?" Adam giggled.

Lawrence's chuckles soon faded, and Adam awkwardly regained his composure as well. Then he yawned.

"Tired?" asked Lawrence. Adam's yawn was a long one, and he nodded while still covering his mouth. "You ought to get some rest."

"I've been trying, but if I can't lie on my side, it's not going to happen," he complained. "I don't even know why I need this stupid sling."

"Because you've had a bullet removed from your shoulder, and it's only going to heal up if it's immobilized," said Lawrence. "Come here, let me look at it."

Adam grunted as he pulled down the collar of his gown to expose his right shoulder and the bandage on it. Enough skin was still showing for Lawrence to see a huge bruise around the affected area.

Lawrence gingerly ran his fingers along the bandage, smoothing the tape down flatter. The pressure he applied caused Adam to wince.

"That hurts, you know."

"Sorry. I mean it's more than a bullet wound. God knows how many other ligaments you tore when you were smashing the hell out of Zep with a bullet still lodged in there. It's also prone to infection, what with the horrid conditions of that bathroom."

Adam had to resist the urge to roll his eyes; he knew Lawrence knew what he was talking about, but he still felt patronized.

"Well, if you hadn't shot me, I wouldn't have had to get stitches."

"If you hadn't sucked at faking asphyxiation, I wouldn't have had to shoot you," Lawrence countered.

Adam's jaw dropped. Playing the blame game, were they? May as well blame Lawrence for their getting snatched up in the first place.

"Well, YOU shouldn't have been messing around on your wife!" he said mockingly.

"Well, YOU should get a real job!" Lawrence answered, taking a shot at Adam's entire profession.

Adam was almost offended, until he realized that Lawrence was just messing with him.

The two men broke down again in laughter.

"Kidding," Lawrence said softly, reaching out his left hand to rest on Adam's cheek. Adam smiled against the warm contact and nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "Whatever we did wrong, I think we've more than paid for it."

Images of Adam desperately beating Zep with the toilet tank lid suddenly flashed across Lawrence's vision, and he remembered something.

"By the way, thank you for saving my life." He let his fingers curl around to the back of Adam's neck, gently tousling his hair.

"You're welcome."

END OF CHAPTER 02
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