“Do you know what happened?” I asked miserably as Matt handed me my tea. I hated not knowing, and Matthew always knewsomething..
Hestuffed his hands in his pocket and shrugged awkwardly “I don’t know…I think…he was raped. Along with tortured, he was definitely…raped.”
Igaped at him, mortification filling me. “You…really think…?”
Hegave a single, stiff nod and all I could do was give him a wide eyed look and whisper “no.”
“By a lot of different people.” He added quietly “he just…I could tell. By how he was acting. You don’t cry like that just because of torture, Theo. You cry like that when you think you have something to be terribly ashamed of.”
“Ashamed?” I exclaimed, angered,furious“of what? Of nothing. Those bastards-“
“We need to leave this to Jack for now, okay? If he can’t work his magic then…we’re fucked.”
It turned out that Jackcouldn’twork his magic, as we found out an hour later whilst we were chatting with Dean and Alex.
“Get John.” Jack had said, eyes wide “I can’t…he’s had three panic attacks in the last hour. He can’t hear me, lads. He’s stuck in his head. He’s not well, he can’t stay here like this.”
Iswallowed hard, looking at Matthew to gauge his reaction. He didn’t look too surprised.
“I’ll get him.” He agreed, shuffling closer to the pair and crouching in front of them. He gently placed a hand on Stryker’s arm, wincing as he flinched away and cowered further into Jack’s embrace.
“S, I…we hear you, okay? We know what happened and…it’s alright.” Matthew’s voice cracked “you don’t have anything to be ashamed of, S. Nothing at all. I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
“Leave it.” Jack murmured, running a hand through Stryker’s hair “he won’t…hear you.”
Matthew swallowed hard and nodded “I’ll fetch John now.”
Iwatched him leave, then looked back at Stryker and Jack “how come he trusts you so much?” I sighed, folding my arms “I…why won’t he-?”
“It’s not his fault.” Jack defended quietly “I…I suppose I’ve always been the one who watches out for him, is all.”He paused “he’s suffered a lot.”
“I know.” I whispered “I share a room with him. He always has nightmares. He has a knife under his pillow.”
Jack hummed. He shook his head, meeting my gaze steadily “he’s not here right now, y’know? Right away with the fairies.” He swallowed hard “he needs therapy or something.”
Igave a short, unamused laugh “yeah.” I agreed flatly “probably.”
All hell broke loose when Johnathan arrived and tried to take Stryker to the healers. He started screaming like I had neverheard him scream, crying for Jack and begging him to not let them hurt him again, clinging on to any inch of the poor, horrified lad he could reach, hyperventilating.
Johnathan had had to sedate him.
The solution they came to was that he was going to be sent home for a while, which would have been a brilliant idea, except from Stryker didn’thavea home anymore, much less anyone to look after him.
“Where will you go?” I asked him gently as he packed his things. I didn’t know how he was managing to walk around- his feet were torn up, he was wincing with every step, yet he didn’t complain. He glanced up at me, weary, exhausted “Raven’s. She’s due soon, you know.”
“Wow.” I breathed. He smiled but it seemed strained. I couldn’t blame him.
“You can come by.” He whispered “when it’s born. I’ll write to you.”
“I’d love to.” I replied earnestly. He smiled again, clapping a hand on my shoulder “heard you’ve got yourself a chest infection.”
“Yeah. But you always have to one-up me.” I joked.
He scoffed “trust me, I’d take the chest infection any day of the week. Hey, how are things? With Matt?”
The question sounded ridiculous coming from someone who had suffered as much as he had lately. I didn’t think I’d be capable of thinking about anyone else’s problems in his position.
“Fine.” I murmured “we haven’t argued in a while. We’re good.”
