Ty Solomon (shadowbadge) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2018-07-20 23:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | #group scene, #november 2017, grady, jared, ty |
Who: Grady, Ty and Jared
Where: Sadie’s home
When: Early, early morning, Sunday, November 5th
Warnings: gore mention, sads
Status: Complete
Grady was on the clock and already out in his patrol car when the call came in from dispatch of a potential homicide on Sycamore Street. An ambulance from Mercy was already on its way and Grady did his best to ignore that uneasy feeling in his gut whenever a call came in about body being found. He knew practically everyone in this town, some better than others, and it could be difficult at times to keep his personal feelings separate from his job. He always succeeded, but only just.
He had beaten the ambulance to the address and a soft curse escaped his lips the second he recognized Jared’s old house. That uneasy feeling in his gut grew as soon as he parked up against the curb. He left the lights flashing for the ambulance but kept the siren turned off now that he didn’t need it. A middle aged woman was standing on the sidewalk in a bathrobe, her eyes wet from tears. She hurried over to him and grasped his arm.
“She’s in the backyard,” the woman said before hiccuping with emotion. “I didn’t hear anything, except for a dog howling and I thought maybe Mister Ryerson’s dog escaped his backyard, you know? He’s always squeezing through that broken old fence, so I thought maybe he was out roaming around or shit...I mean, going to the bathroom in my yard, so I came out…”
“Okay, hold on,” Grady said, lifting his hand to try and calm her. “You’re Mrs. Emerson?” The woman swallowed hard and nodded, still gripping his arm tight. He could hear the siren from the ambulance growing louder, and Grady looked toward the backyard. “It’s alright, ma’am. I know you’ve had a bit of a shock. But can you stay right here? I’m going to check things out, then I’ll come back and we’ll talk.” He needed to know what he was dealing with first. Who he was dealing with, even if he already knew. Mrs. Emerson nodded again and stepped back, releasing Grady’s arm. He had a feeling neighbors would be peeking out their windows or coming out onto the street soon and he didn’t have a lot of time to work with.
Grady walked up the driveway toward the backyard, his hand resting loosely on the butt of his gun, just in case. He spotted her almost instantly, the shock of blonde hair bright against the darkened yard. As Grady approached and he got a better look at her, his chest tightened at the amount of blood and gore. Sadie. “Goddammit,” Grady whispered. He unclipped his phone to call Ty, rather than using the radio. “Solomon, I need you at 20 Sycamore. We’ve got a body, potential homicide victim.” He wanted to tell Ty who it was, but felt like that was something for him to know when he got there. “Get your ass here as fast as humanly possible.”
Ty had just clocked in for his early morning shift and was murmuring hellos to people while he got coffee. It was a Sunday, which were usually quiet, but it was also the morning after a full moon, and that made him a little edgy. He hadn’t heard anything yet about any overnight disasters, but he’d also not had much time to settle in. As it turned out, he wouldn’t get to do that at all. His phone buzzed in his pocket and Ty frowned a little as he pulled it out. Jared didn’t come on duty for a little while, so Ty was thinking it was him ... but it wasn’t. The screen showed Grady’s name.
He answered, listened, and felt his heart sink into his stomach. Grady didn’t have to tell him who the potential body was; Ty knew that address. “Be right there,” he said calmly, already on his way out the door. On the quick drive over, Ty told himself that maybe it wasn’t Sadie, maybe she’d had someone visiting, or it was just a body that had ended up in her yard or ... something. The cow had been dragged to the front of the church, after all. Still, he had a sick feeling in his stomach by the time he pulled up in front of Sadie’s house. There were some neighbors out in the early morning light, but they were keeping their distance. That was probably good.
Heart pounding hard, Ty spotted Grady at the side of the house and approached him. “Is it Sadie?” he asked once he was close enough to ask it low. Nobody was within earshot, but it still felt right to be quiet, like Jared might somehow hear it if he was too loud.
The coroner was called shortly after Ty, and then Grady put up the proper yellow tape to keep the neighbors at bay. Then he met with the EMTs in the backyard to look over her body. The two men didn't bother unpacking their gear. There was nothing they could do for Sadie now. And Grady couldn't do shit until the coroner arrived and officially pronounced her dead. Grady was scribbling down notes when he heard another car pull up and he excused himself before walking down the drive to meet Ty. "It's Sadie," Grady confirmed quietly as he began to lead Ty back toward the yard and the body. "Based on first sight, it looks like an animal attack. There's a few hair fibers visible, but I can't collect them just yet. I'm just trying to keep the area sectioned off until the coroner gets here."
Ty’s guts sank again with Grady’s words. Not only was it Sadie, it was probably messy. Another animal attack. He suddenly and vividly remembered the eviscerated cow and his stomach turned over a bit. He walked silently with Grady to the backyard, his brow already furrowed. Sometimes in this job he had moments that were so crystal clear they were almost surreal. Walking up to look down at the mangled corpse of poor Sadie Gaines was one of them. Every detail seemed to jump out at him in sharp relief, weirdly lit by the early morning light. Her body was not intact, and he had the horribly calm thought that it would have to be a closed casket funeral. “Fuck,” he whispered, gazing down at her. Ty had seen people killed in awful ways in the line of duty, but very few who he knew so well. It was going to break Jared’s heart. Ty forced his gaze away and back to Grady. “Any, uh ... anything you need from me off the bat?”
"Right now we need to secure evidence. Her phone, the trash bag..." There wasn't likely to be anything there, but the white bag was splattered with blood and he didn't want to assume it was all Sadie's. "Anything else you might find in the yard. When the coroner gets here, we'll collect any evidence off her body so they can take her." If the victim had been anyone but Sadie, he would have called in Jared because they needed more hands, but this was a crime scene Jared would need to stay away from. They needed to do a walkthrough of her home as well. Shit. Grady motioned with his notepad toward the front of the house. "I need to go get a statement from Mrs. Emerson. She found Sadie and called it in. If you can start bagging evidence... I don't want to rush through this, but the quicker we get this done, the better."
Doing his best to push down all the grief-laden worry that was threatening to overwhelm him, Ty gave a terse nod. He needed to work now, not think about the consequences of all of this. “On it, boss,” he said, turning to head back to his cruiser to get evidence bags and gloves and everything he would need. He already knew that he would probably be the one who had to tell Jared, and once he was alone for a second, he was tempted to do it right then, like if he didn’t he would be disloyal somehow. But he knew that if he did that, Jared would rush right over, and he really didn’t need to be there. He didn’t need to see Sadie like this. It would be bad enough as it was. So Ty forced himself to focus and took his kit to the back yard to do as he’d been told.
While Grady and Ty worked hard at the crime scene, Jared had been leisurely making his way to work, changing into his uniform and getting his first cup of coffee. The station seemed a little too quiet for this hour and he'd expected to use the first couple of hours of his shift doing paperwork. There was buzz on the radio and talk of getting a coroner which explained why there were reserve deputies on duty and their sheriff was nowhere to be seen. Another day, another body. It was getting to be a lot and Jared felt a slight sinking in his stomach at the thought. He was carefully pushing it out of his mind because not every death was gruesome when he heard the chatter on the radio again with the address the coroner was heading off to. For a beat Jared just stood very still and clutched his cup of coffee but then he was moving, almost automatically. He knew that address, he'd lived there for years and now only one person lived there: Sadie.
Driving over there he thought about how it could have been a guest, an elderly relative visiting that he hadn't known about, or an intruder and Sadie had shot him. She did know how to use a gun, it was entirely possible. If it was self-defense nobody would hold it against her. It would be awful for sure and she'd already been through so much but at least it wouldn't be her. Maybe they got the street number wrong, maybe, maybe, maybe. All those maybe's somewhat died away when he got to Sadie's house and saw the police cars right outside. He was still holding out for hope that he'd see her sitting somewhere, wrapped in blanket and happy to see him there because a friendly face was always welcome when something bad had happened. He got out of the car, looking around as he ducked under the crime scene tape and headed straight for the front door.
Grady was talking with the coroner, who had just officially declared Sadie deceased and was estimating her time of death, when he caught sight of another patrol car pulling up to the already crowded street. They still needed to collect a few pieces of evidence from her body before they could take her away and as soon as Grady saw Jared ducking under the crime scene tape he cursed and turned from the coroner, having no time to apologize for the interruption. “Ty,” Grady barked. His deputy was scouring the gravel in the alley for anything that might be relevant, but that could wait. When Ty looked over, Grady pointed to the house, urgency evident in his expression. “Gaines. Get him the hell out of here now.” Grady felt the first sliver of guilt that he hadn’t thought to keep discussion off the internal radio. Someone either told Jared, or he heard the chatter. Regardless, this was the last place Jared ought to be.
Ty’s head shot up and then his eyes widened slightly. He hadn’t been paying attention to the radio chatter either, and goddammit, he should’ve known better too. His heart twisted sickly in his chest as he hurriedly stuffed the empty evidence bag in his hand into his pocket and jog-ran past the body and toward the house. To be quicker, Ty ducked in through the back door, since Jared was headed for the front. He intercepted his boyfriend in Sadie’s living room, already shaking his head. This was not how he’d wanted to break the news and he was entirely unprepared, but Grady was right, they needed to keep him away from the scene itself. “No, Jared, hey,” he said, a tiny bit breathless.
The look on Ty's face said everything Jared needed to know and he shook his head before tilting it, giving Ty a somewhat pleading look. It wouldn't accomplish anything, Ty wasn't about to tell him that oh, no he was misunderstanding. If it wasn't Sadie, they wouldn't care what he saw in there. "No," he muttered softly, considering asking how or how bad was it but he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know. Want and need were two very different things and while he might not want to see what had happened, he needed to know. Did they have someone in custody? Had it been quick? "How?" he whispered, unable to get the rest of the words out.
Ty glanced behind himself, worried for a split second that Jared could somehow see through windows in the back. It was stupid, Sadie was on the ground, not in the line of sight, and she would be moved soon, but he couldn’t help it. He wanted to shield Jared from it as much as possible, it was horrible. They saw a lot of horrible shit in the line of duty, but the horror on this one was amplified. Ty put his hand on Jared’s chest, ready to physically keep him from going any further, his heart breaking for him already. That look on his face was painful. “It was an animal attack,” he said quietly, his brow furrowed as he stared at his man. “I’m so sorry, Jare.”
Jared had been on one of those cases before and what he was imagining might very well be worse than what had really happened. Ty's hand on his chest sent a jolt through him, like he wasn't quite ready to be a physical person in that there moment. He brought his hand up to his mouth, his face tense and uncomfortable and so it felt only right to clasp it tightly, pressing his fingers against his jaw. He remembered the state of Sarah Knowles's body, the way her throat was torn out, the remains of her guts spilled carelessly around as if something had gone digging through her. It hurt to think of Sadie that way and he was trying hard not to but the image came to mind again and again, no matter how unwanted. "Where?" he started but he'd barely spoken when he turned on his heel and stumbled over to the doorway to throw up. He hadn't thrown up at a crime scene since he was a rookie but it was difficult to distance yourself from the horror when it was someone you knew, someone you'd loved.
He’d been firmly in work-mode before Jared showed up, working the scene and trying not to think about the woman it was centered around. But seeing that understanding and grief settle onto Jared’s face dragged Ty straight out of that mindset. She’d been a real person, someone he had a roundabout but still deep connection to. It was nothing compared to the connection Jared had, of course, but Ty could feel for her from a personal level too. He followed Jared and hovered to one side while he puked, his hands flexing at his sides, not sure how much touching he should do at the moment. Ty wanted to suggest they go sit in one of the cars, wanted to bring Jared some water or something, but he didn’t know if that was right either. He felt lost already on how to be comforting. “In the back yard,” he answered softly once Jared had stopped retching.
Jared's mind was reeling. That family had been through so much already, Lucy was going to be devastated and she was at such a fragile age too, Sadie's sister... God, who was going to tell her? It was too much for one family, it wasn't fair, Sadie was such a good person. "What the fuck is going on," he whispered, swallowing that excess saliva that kept threatening that he might just want to keep throwing up, even if there was hardly anything left in his stomach. He'd have to tell his mom and she'd feel guilty about talking shit about Sadie - no matter how politely and subtly she'd done it - so Jared would rather not tell her at all. Was that weird? If she never knew? God, his mind was reeling and nothing made sense. "Why haven't we killed that fucking thing yet?" he added with a touch more fire behind his voice, anger was easier than grief right now, even if his eyes were already burning.
Ty winced a tiny bit -- he hadn’t even considered that yet. But Jared was right, they should’ve been hunting down whatever this was that kept cropping up and killing people in their town. Some had tried, but they should’ve tried harder. “I dunno,” he murmured. “But we’re gonna do it.” Ty had no idea where to start, if this was some rabid wolf or a crazed bear or cougar or whatever, but it did need to be done, before anybody else got hurt. He reached out a bit hesitantly and put his hand on Jared’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Come on, let’s go sit down somewhere, yeah?” he murmured, hoping that wouldn’t somehow make everything worse.
Logically, Jared knew why they hadn't killed the creature yet, they'd searched for it and kept their eyes open but its behavior was so unnatural. Swooping in randomly to attack humans. There had been groups of hunters going around and if not for Carson's experience Jared might have thought to look into whether it might be a human being mimicking an animal attack, but even then a human being would have had trouble moving a cow carcass on their own. Ty's touch was not unwelcome though it only made it harder to stay angry and keep from crying which he really did not want to do, not here, not now. He turned around and wrapped his arms tightly around Ty in a moment of panicked realization that he might lose him too. How often had they sat outside after dark, making out and drinking next to a fire, not paying any attention to any looming threat. "I need to get the fuck out of here," he mumbled against his shoulder and even then felt guilty for it, like he should be there for Sadie.
Ty hugged Jared firmly in return, hands spread against his back, one rubbing gently. He wanted to cling to him, climb him a little, as if he could use his body to shield him from some of the hurt that was just sinking in. That was stupid, of course, but it didn’t stop that instinctual desire. Ty knew already that this would be a hard road and they were just setting foot onto it. But he was bound and determined to be right there beside Jared the whole way. Ty felt a small flood of relief at Jared’s words -- at least he wouldn’t have to fight him on looking at the body. He did not need to do that. “Yes,” he agreed. Ty gave him a tighter squeeze and then lightly thumped his back. “Come on, Barrett can handle this from here, let me take you home.” He was sure Grady wouldn’t mind that, and the force could make do without Jared today. He didn’t need to be near radio chatter or any other bodies that might crop up this morning or anything else.
"They need you here," Jared said numbly and while he wanted Ty to come with him and couldn't imagine going anywhere alone right now, that sense of duty still prevailed. Ty had been working the scene, they couldn't just leave Grady there by himself. "I can- I can wait in the car." It was stupid and he felt the intense stupidity of it as soon as the words were out but then he didn't think anyone could really fault him for not thinking straight at the moment. Sadie was dead and while they hadn't been married anymore Jared had loved her for years and still cared deeply about her. Why hadn't he come to see her again more recently? She was having a hard time after Danny went missing and Jared should have been there for her.
Ty shook his head a bit, though his lips pursed with thought. He was so good at thinking on his feet when he had no emotional involvement in whatever it was, but this was different. He didn’t want to work the goddamn scene anymore, he wanted to take Jared home and be whatever he needed. Ty glanced back over his shoulder, then hooked his arm around Jared. “Here, c’mon,” he murmured, starting to usher him out of the house. “Come sit for a minute and I’ll get on the horn and see who’s free to come take over.” One of their reserves could come collect evidence, and he would let Grady know. He sure as shit wasn’t going to just leave Jared sitting in the cruiser by himself while the coroner toted Sadie’s body away in a black bag and everything. They might be duty-bound, but Ty couldn’t be heartless about this.
Jared's thoughts were racing, from grief to denial to stupid things like what if someone thought he actually killed her because he was the jilted ex. The thought was ridiculous but people could be ridiculous and in fact they were, all the damn time. He'd barely wiped his face with the back of his hand when it was wet again and right now he didn't really want to be awake. It'd be real nice to just wake up and calm down while snuggling his man, then call Sadie to tell her not to go anywhere during a full moon because he'd had a horrible nightmare about her. It all did feel real though and he knew he wasn't dreaming even if he was operating in some kind of a trance at this point. He followed Ty numbly out of the house, taking in all the familiar things that he might never see again now because he'd never see Sadie again.
He escorted Jared back out the front to the car he’d brought to the scene, opening up the passenger side door with another glance behind him. Grady was still around the back. Once Jared was settled into the seat, Ty went around to the drivers side to slip into it and pick up the radio. It took him a few minutes, but he found somebody who could come and cover for him, at least for however long it took to get Jared home and settled. Surely Grady wouldn’t expect him to work after this. Once Ty had put the receiver down, he rubbed a hand over his head and sighed, looking over at his boyfriend’s stricken face. “I’m gonna go tell Grady I’m taking you home, okay? You’ll stay put?” he asked in a murmur, reaching over for Jared’s hand for a moment.
Jared nodded. He wasn't about to get out of the car or do anything but stare blankly at the dashboard for a while. There was a weird panicked wave of feelings when he thought about being alone and he hoped Ty wouldn't linger too long. He felt childish about it but he wanted to ask Ty to call Grady instead of going in to talk to him, like Grady might persuade him to stay and Jared would have to go home by himself. He swallowed down the request and closed his eyes, feeling tired and dissociated.
Ty was ridiculously grateful that Jared had some sense about him. Other people might have been freaking out and trying to rush to see the body. Jared could be a very emotional man, Ty had seen it, but maybe he’d seen enough crime scenes to know that he did not want to see this one. Ty squeezed his hand tightly for a moment, then got out of the car to jog back through the front yard and around the side of the house. He found Grady talking to the coroner, and waited for a pause to pull the sheriff to one side. “Miller’s gonna come bag evidence in my place, he’s on the way,” he told him quietly. “I need to get Jared home. That okay?” Ty was prepared to argue if it wasn’t, because it needed to be.
Once Jared showed up Grady had a feeling Ty would need to take him home. He was torn between needing to keep Ty on board - they had a lot to do - and just letting him go. They were short staffed enough as it was and Grady rubbed a hand over his already weary face. "That's fine." He wasn't happy about it, for obvious reasons, but he also understood that Jared shouldn't be there. It was Grady's own damn fault for not sending him somewhere else before he heard the radio chatter. "But I'm going to need you back at the station later, especially if Jared's going to stay home, which he should."
Part of Ty was tempted to inform Grady that he would stay with Jared as long as Jared needed him, but he bit his tongue on it. There was a job to do, they needed hands, and his being stupidly in love didn’t change that. At least Grady wasn’t insisting that Jared get back to work elsewhere today. There would be time for grief later, and he trusted that Jared wasn’t a suicide risk or anything like that. So he just gave a nod. “Yessir,” he said. “I’ll be back ASAP.” Hell, once he came to grips with it, Jared might not want him hovering around, who knew. This was just another shitty blow on top of plenty others lately, and Ty couldn’t just leave him right away. “Thanks, chief.”
Grady nodded and glanced toward the car where Jared was waiting. At least they would be gone before the body was moved, which would be happening shortly. "Make sure he's taken care of," Grady added. He wasn't afraid that Jared would harm himself, or do something drastic, but grief was a tricky thing. It affected everyone differently, and Grady was aware that Jared didn't have any real family in town to help him through it. If they hadn't been so hard up for help, he would have just dismissed Ty for the day, but they had a lot going on and Grady couldn't do it on his own, as much as he would have tried.
That job felt more important than his real job, and Ty gave another solemn nod. He would do everything he could to make sure Jared was as okay as he could be, but he knew there would be only so much he could do. This was going to be hard. Divorce or not, he knew how much Jared had loved Sadie, and to lose her in such a horrible way was just tragic. “Talk to you soon, boss,” he said to Grady, then turned to head back to the cruiser with Jared inside.
There was a part of Jared that wanted him to go inside and see for himself, in case this was all a big misunderstanding. He probably would have if he hadn't personally known the cops who were there but he did and Ty had seen her. Ty knew Sadie, how could that be a misunderstanding? Unless her face was gone. Nausea rushed through him again but there was nothing left to throw up so he just swallowed more saliva and tried to push that unwanted mental image away. When he saw Ty return he felt stupidly weepy again and swallowed that down thickly too, reaching over to grab his hand as soon as he was in the car. "Do you need to stay?" he asked, preparing himself to understand and be patient if that was the case.
Ty answered that question halfway by closing the car door and reaching over with his free hand to twist the keys in the ignition to start it up. “No, I’m gonna get you home,” he said, looking over at Jared. Ty brought his hand up to kiss the back of it, then held it to his cheek briefly. He wanted to just climb over into the seat and into Jared’s lap and hug him tight, smother him with love to block out the grief, but he more wanted to get him the fuck out of there. So Ty let him go to put the car into gear and pull away from Sadie’s house.
"I need to know how bad it is," Jared said quietly. "You saw her face?" He needed that image out of his head, that weird clash of the crime scene of Sarah Knowles mixing with some warped memories of Sadie. Knowles been a mess and what if Sadie's scene had been worse? He needed to know that it hadn't been and in some detached way he wanted to see the crime scene photos when they came in, just so he'd know.
His expression was already grim, but Ty’s jaw tightened a bit more and he gave a little sigh out of his nose. He understood Jared’s desire to know, as much as he could without having lived it, even if Ty didn’t want to give him any details. “I saw her face, yeah,” he answered, just as softly. At least she’d still had a face to be seen, not all of them had been that intact. “No question, it was her.” He paused and wet his lips, trying to think of the least graphic way to give him some details. “The damage was mostly at the throat. Just looking at it ... it was quick, Jare. She didn’t suffer long.” Ty glanced over, wishing again that he could have his arms wrapped around Jared while he spoke.
Jared loved nothing more than embraces from Ty but he was glad they weren't doing that right now. He couldn't handle it, not when digesting this sort of information. He needed to compartmentalize and he was carefully trying to do just that on this ride home. Sadie hadn't suffered. She'd probably been scared for a few seconds but maybe it hadn't really registered. Shock could see people through the hardest things and he tried not to think about her choking on her own blood. If an artery had gone in her neck, it had been real quick and she wouldn't have felt much at all. "It was quick," he echoed with a little nod. "We need another PSA, people don't fucking listen but we gotta..." He threw his hands up and went silent. He wasn't on the job right now, he needed to leave that mindset and start struggling through the grief he was feeling. That included realizing that it could have been him. He'd always taken the trash out, that had just been one of those chores he always did and if that was what she was doing - what else would she be doing out there at that hour - then it could have been him. Or neither of them. In some alternative timeline where they hadn't divorced. "Poor Lucy," he whispered because his mind couldn't stick to one place for very long. "Poor Tatum..."
Ty knew Jared’s mind was probably racing, so he didn’t address what he said directly. His own was kind of scattered, thinking about arrangements already, who was going to contact Sadie’s family -- he didn’t think that burden ought to fall to Jared, but maybe he would want to do it anyway -- if she would be buried in Point Pleasant or somewhere else. Who should notify the school. Sadness that she’d died so young and in such an awful way. There was a tiny sliver of gratitude in there that they’d been able to talk before this, though. That he’d felt settled about it and like she was happy for them. Divorce aside, she’d been a nice lady, and had to be a good person at heart if Jared loved her. And now she was gone. Ty looked over at his boyfriend again. “I’m here for whatever help you need,” he offered softly. Whether that was to rant or cry or be pissed about it or whatever, Ty would be there.
"I know, baby," Jared said and for a moment the fog cleared enough for him to focus on the here and now, realizing how this was probably affecting Ty too. "I love you," he said and wiped the tears off his cheeks again. "It's gonna be rough, it's gonna... I'm gonna be a pain the ass." He was no good at grief but then he didn't think anybody was. "Don't give up on me." It wasn't a request he felt like he had to make but more of an acknowledgement that Ty would be having a hard time too.
“Never,” Ty said immediately, reaching over with his right hand to find Jared’s again. “Don’t even think it.” Jared could be any kind of pain in the ass he needed to be, Ty wasn’t going to abandon him. That wasn’t how this worked. His own nose stung a little, and Ty sniffled. “I love you too. And I’m so sorry. She was a wonderful lady.” He swallowed thickly and took a turn to take them closer to Seaview. He already hoped that this wouldn’t end up being a long day, he knew he would be itching to get back to Jared as soon as he possibly could. God, this town was such a black hole sometimes, he had the wild urge to just get on the road out of town and drive them until they ran out of gas and never look back.
"She was," Jared agreed and one of his many stray thoughts was how relieved he was that they hadn't been on bad terms. He had been so upset with her for so long. If this had happened just four months ago it would have torn him up inside so much worse than it did now and he wouldn't have had this emotional support that he so desperately needed from Ty. "You don't have to stay," he said quietly when they parked outside his place. He knew Grady needed Ty and if Ty felt up to working then he should. "I'm sorry," he added. "It's your loss too, you liked her."
Ty put the cruiser into park but didn’t turn the engine off yet, Jared’s words making him feel a bit unsure. He shook his head a little, his eyes full of concern as he twisted a bit to look at Jared. “I did, but I’m not worried about me, baby. ... Grady knows it might take me a while, if you want me to come in with you,” he said quietly. “But I don’t have to. If you want some alone time.” Ty wasn’t quite sure how to handle this, it was a first for him too, and he didn’t know if bustling around and insisting on being present as long as possible was the right thing or not. He was inclined not to leave Jared alone for a while, but what did he know?
Jared shook his head slowly. "I don't know," he said honestly because he really didn't know at this point what he wanted to do, what he could do, what he should do. Whether Ty stayed or not he had a feeling he'd just sit on the couch zombified for a while and then? He had no idea. Grief was such a stupid emotion, he never knew how to deal with it. When his father died he'd been there for his mom and barely dealt with his own grief. With Sadie it barely felt like the grief was rightfully his because they weren't family anymore. He just felt lost and outside of it all and yet there was so much pain.
That broke his heart a little, but not for himself. Jared just looked so lost. Smaller, somehow, and that was difficult when one was six-seven. It made up his mind though, so he turned the car off and pulled his door open. “Come on,” he murmured softly. Ty would escort Jared inside, get him settled, give him some directions maybe. Make sure he had something to drink and was comfortable. He couldn’t fix what had happened, but he could at least give his man the softest place to fall possible. If that just meant some hot cocoa and pj pants and blankets, he could manage that.