Thread: Jaime's lost half Date: October 21, Evening (Backdated) Characters: Jadyn and Jaime Ishii Location: The local hospital and the abandoned hospital Summary: Companion thread to Jadyn's narrative. Jaime gets blamed for what Jadyn did.
Jaime followed two uniformed officers through the local hospital, his apprehension growing with every step he took. When his mother had called him and frantically told him that the police were looking for him, he’d been beyond confused. Heeding his mother’s urgent demands that he get home, he apologized to Rachel, gave her a parting kiss, and left quickly for his house. Upon arriving and confirming that he was ‘Jaime Ishii’, the officers informed him that he was needed at the hospital for questioning regarding an incident at the school. When they wouldn’t tell him anymore than that, he wanted to tell them that he hadn’t even been in school after second period, but he wasn’t sure how he would be able to explain that without seeming crazy, so he kept quiet.
Walking into the ER, he was led to one of the rooms where a severely beaten boy laid still on top the stark white sheets. Jaime couldn’t even tell who the boy was until the taller of the two officers called his name to gain his attention.
“Louis Adney?”
Jaime’s eyes widened at the name. Taking a closer look at the boy on the bed, he spotted the McKinley letterman jacket and pale green eye. This was the boy he’d stopped from slushying him a few weeks back. Jaime had barely recognized him at first, his face was so swollen, but he was sure of it now. What had happened? The first officer broke him out of his thoughts with his next question.
“Is this the student that attacked you?”
What?! If Jaime had thought his eyes couldn’t get any wider, he’d been wrong. He hadn’t attacked anyone. His eyes jumped from the police to Louis and back again, trying to understand what they were talking about.
“Yeah. That’s him.” Louis answered, his voice gruff and pained. Jaime was so focused on his growing alarm, that he didn’t notice the look that passed between the two cops.
“Are you sure?” One of them asked.
“Yes, I’m sure! Are you going to do something about it or just stand there asking me the same question over and over?!” Louis hissed.
“Please relax Mr. Adney. We just want to get all the facts straight. Now you say Mr. Ishii had been harassing you and your friends all week before attacking you today after school. You said, and I quote ‘He tried to use some freaky karate on us but we got in some good shots too’. Is that correct?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?” Came the firm response.
“Yes! He attacked us but he couldn’t take the six of us as easily as he thought. I gave him a black eye myself!” Louis told them adamantly. The cops shared another look and Jaime’s heart began to pound again, this time for a completely different reason. There was only one person he knew of who could fight a group of jocks, and look like him while doing it.
“Well as you can see Mr. Adney, this boy doesn’t have a single scratch on him. No cuts, no busted knuckles. No black eye. If it happened the way you say it did-”
“It did!”
“Then how do you explain his absence of bruises?”
Louis looked at him, his expression bewildered as he searched for the bruises he’d sworn were on him, but Jaime knew he wouldn’t find any. He felt bad for the broken boy as he frantically searched Jaime’s face before looking back at the police.
“I-I don’t know. But it was him, I swear.” He tried to convince them desperately. After making a decision, one of the officers turned to Jaime.
“Mr. Ishii, it would seem that this is just a case of mistaken identity. You’re free to go. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
Jaime nodded that he understood, but his eyes were stuck on the boy on the hospital bed. When he tried to take a step forward to apologize to Louis for all he’d been through, the other boy shrunk away from him, terror written all over his face.
“Please, just get away from me.” He whimpered and Jaime stood in shock. Jadyn, what did you do?.
“It’s probably best if you just went on home.” The same officer told him, leading him from the room and Jaime nodded again. “Do you need a lift?”
“No, I’ll be fine.” Jaime answered distractedly before leaving the ER. When he was in the main hall, he made his way over the the emergency exit and ran up the flights of stairs as fast as he could. By the time he reached the roof, he was panting and his mind was racing. Jadyn. He needed to find Jadyn, and now.
He started focusing on opening a portal when he stopped. That wouldn’t work, he didn’t know where Jadyn was. He could try the Hospice, but he highly doubted that she would return back there if she was as hurt as Louis had said she was. Oh god. Jadyn was out there somewhere, hurt and alone. Jaime ran his hands through his hair and squeezed his eyes closed in frustration. He had to find her!
Vaguely, he could feel the energy that was connected begin to well up. Now that he knew how it felt, he was more aware of it. That’s when it came to him. He used to be able to find Jadyn anywhere before he knew how to use his powers. If he could do it then, he could do it now. But how to open the portal subconsciously? He glanced at the edge of the roof, four stories above the concrete parking lot.
He couldn’t...could he? It had happened every other time he’d fallen from extreme heights, and two out of three times, the portal took him straight to Jadyn, or would have if he’d simply fallen through the one at BMW’s apartment. He had to at least try. Taking a deep breath, he backed away from the roof, filling his head with thoughts of Jadyn. He wanted to find her. He had to find her. She needed him, and he needed her.
He ran for the edge of the roof and took a leap of faith.
Beau’s ears perked up and he lifted his head from Jadyn’s lap. She’d been sitting on the ground with her back against and old tombstone, petting his head idly, until something caught his attention. The wind picked up slightly and she smiled as she saw a swirling portal open above the ground a few yards from where she was. She and Beau got to their feet and she watched silently as Jaime came through the portal, positioned as if he’d dived through before tucking into a roll as he reached the ground. ‘He’s learning.’ Her thought was amused until Beau’s warning growl sounded through the night.
“Jadyn?” Jaime called cautiously. He’d been pleased with himself that he was getting the hang of his powers until he heard the growl, and now he was wary. He didn’t know whether the growl had come from Jadyn or something else, and it was too dark for him to see more than a few feet in front of him. He took a slowly step forward before a snarl stopped him dead in his tracks. And then he saw it, a small wolf bearing down on him, it’s teeth bared.
“Beau!” Jadyn barked sharply, bringing the wolf-dog to heel instantly. She’d never risen her voice at him like that before, but he was not allowed to hurt Jaime, ever again. Beau’s ears flattened and he whined once before retuning to her side she made her way to Jaime. “He didn’t mean to scare you. He’s just worried about me.” She explained, talking to both of them.
“Jadyn, are you alright?” Jaime asked with concern once ‘Beau’ had settled down. Now that she was closer to him, he could see the bruising around her eye, and he noticed that she was walking with a limp. Louis had been right.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” She really was okay, save for the black eye and a few bruises on her body, but they were healing up nicely and rather quick so she didn’t think they were anything to worry about. Still, she tried to keep the side of her face hidden from him.
“The police came to the house today. I was being accused of attacking some of the boys at school.”
Jadyn cursed under her breath in Japanese. In all honesty, she hadn’t expected any of those boys to openly admit to being beaten so badly by one person half the the smallest football player’s size. She hadn’t meant to get Jaime in trouble, or involved at all.
Her curse had been all the confirmation he needed.
“Why did you do that? Why would you hurt those guys like that?”
“I just wanted them to leave alone, that’s all.” She muttered, her eyes averted to the ground.
“But you didn’t have to hurt them like that.”
“I just wanted to protect you. Please don’t be mad.” She pleaded, looking up at him again.
“I’m not mad Jay, just worried about you.” He sighed softly, looking around at his surroundings for the first time. But he couldn’t discern much in the dark besides a few rotted stones around them and a large building silhouetted against the dark. “Where are we?” He asked curiously.
“We’re in a cemetery behind the old abandoned hospital your friends keep talking about. I had no where else to go.” She rushed to say the last part once she realized that she’d just admitted that she’d been hovering around longer than just today. “Not like this anyway.”
“You could have come to me.” He answered instantly, looking back at her. He hadn’t missed her slip though. Just how long had she been sneaking around? He would have to question her about it later, but right now he needed to make something clear to her. He took her hand. “You can always come to me. No matter what.”
When she smiled timidly at him, he smiled back before taking a look at her knuckles, running his thumb lightly across her bruises. “Are you hurt badly?”
“No. My powers protected me from most of their blows and the one’s that got through are healing already.”
Jaime nodded slowly as he listened.
“Still, we should get you taken care of.”
“Where?” She asked, not sure where they could go that she wouldn’t get caught, especially since her hair was still dyed the color of Jaime’s.
“Home, silly.” He answered, smiling at her as her confusion deepened.
“But...” She began, not sure what to say. How could she go home after what she’d done? Jenna would just send her right back to the Hospice and this time, she’d never be able to leave. No. She couldn’t go back to that, she couldn’t.
“But nothing. You don’t belong here, and you don’t belong in that Hospice. You belong with your family. You belong with me.” He told her seriously. He should have never let their parents lock her away. That was no way for her to get better, left alone and feeling abandoned. It wasn’t right, but he would change all of that, starting now. He wouldn’t let their mother send her back without a fight. That thought firmly in mind, he opened a portal behind him, keeping his eyes on her.
Jadyn’s eyes flicked to the open portal and then back to Jaime. “You’re getting good at that.” She told him, laughing nervously to hide her fear but she wasn’t fooling him. He smiled reassuringly.
“Yeah, I am. Come on, and I’ll tell you all about it.” When she still hesitated, he tried again, locking his eyes on hers. “Jadyn, it’s okay, you can trust me. I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise.”
Jadyn hesitated a fraction longer before looking down at Beau who was looking up at her curiously.