Gracie is a Superhero, Pol is Hurt, Jadyn is on the warpath.
Who: Gracie, Pollux, Jadyn What: Pollux is hurt, Gracie helps, Jadyn will seek and destroy Where: Behind McKinley High; hospital When: 1/9, after Az meets 'Cas' and during Azofsky fight. Warnings: Blood, gay-bashing, mistaken identity, language, Gracie, Pollux, Jadyn, the three of them together...
Gracie had not been having a good day. Between coming back from Christmas break in Virginia and leaving behind all of his friends again, for some reason the bullies had really been on the warpath lately. Especially the big one with the funny name. His thoughts had been especially dark and scary lately, especially about the cute little tie-dye kid and the big bear he was dating. He vaguely remembered a big dramatic coming-out thing of some sort but he hadn't cared at the time. He'd known all about that all along. Perks of being a mind reader (someone should write a book on him, he was way better than that Charlie kid). So when he heard the big scary guy thinking all happily about beating the kid up...well, Gracie could sit on the sidelines or he could totally do the superhero thing.
He followed the mental map that Big Scary Bully had given him around to the back of the building and then it was short work to find the beaten, broken body. And then Gracie realized he was totally in over his head.
“Um,” he mumbled intelligently. “You’re the wrong one. Hold on, I...I think I should call someone to help...”
Pol was beginning to come back toward consciousness. Blood was no longer freeflowing from his body. He shifted, the movement causing bursts of pain through his abdomin and face. He groaned, try to make sense of the blurred images. All his mind could think between the pain was Not Cas. Please don’t let Cas see me.
Well there went that plan. Shit. “Um. Um. Okay. Um. Gimme a minute,” Gracie mumbled, then pulled out his phone and after a brief shuffle through Pollux’s hazy mind, found the number he wanted. He punched it in and as soon as the other line was picked up, he blurted out, “Help I need help please there’s blood and oh god.”
Jadyn’s eyes widened then narrowed at the sudden outburst coming from the other line. A crank call? From Pollux’s phone? That didn’t make sense, but she didn’t recognise the voice on the other end of the line. “Who is this?” She snapped, her tone sharp. If this was a joke, whoever this was wouldn’t be laughing for long.
Gracie swallowed. “We - we met once, I like your puppy - but Pollux needs help - you’re friend right and - oh god there’s so much blood and...” He forced himself to be calm and said, softly, “He got beat up and I don’t know what to do, please help me.”
Jadyn’s heart seized painfully, as if someone had reached inside her chest and squeezed at the organ as if it were some kind of stress relief ball. The blood was pounding in her ears so loudly that she could feel a headache coming on. Vaguely she was aware that she recognized who was on the phone now, but her thoughts were otherwise engaged with more pressing matters. Pollux got beat up? Pollux was hurt? Pollux was bleeding?
“Where are you?” Was Jadyn’s only response, her voice sounding far away and blank, even to her own ears.
Gracie winced a little and crouched down next to Pollux, stroking his hair away from his forehead like his mom always did when he wasn’t feeling good. That’s when he saw the FAGGOT emblazoned on his forehead and cursed a little.
“We’re behind the school, near the loading dock. Please hurry, I don’t know what to do...”
Well he knew one thing. He always kept baby wipes with him - they did well to get rid of extra paint on his hands, and, he knew from experience, got permanent marker off of skin very well. He pulled one out of his bag and gently started to clean the word off of Pollux’s forehead. “Please, please,” he mumbled into the phone again.
Pol shifted with a groan under that touch. It hurt all over. His body trembled as the marks were slowly starting to come off. The marker had dried hours ago when Azimio left him for dead. His mind wasn’t quite back yet, but his body was coming around. One eye cracked open, trying to see. He didn’t feel Cas. He usually could feel his twin’s presence, even in sleep. This wasn’t his brother...good.
Before Jadyn knew what she was doing, or even had time to think, she was on her feet, and running for the edge of the roof, where she’d been smoking the day away. She leapt off the roof without blinking, her graceful landing melting into a full out run. It didn’t take her long to get to the loading docks, but she skidded to a stop before turning the last corner.
She could smell it now. Blood. So thick in the air, it was a wonder no one else hadn’t notice. How had no one else noticed?! She was practically gagging on the scent. For reasons she couldn’t explain, it made her feel scared. What if Pollux...
But then Gracie’s pleading chants cut through her own thoughts. No longer needing her phone, she slid it into her pocket, and rounded the corner.
Gracie almost started crying for real when the phone clicked off, and threw it on the ground next to him. He wiped his nose on his sleeve and finished cleaning Pollux’s forehead. “I’m sorry, I know this hurts, but that’s a bad word and I didn’t want you to have it on you...” He tossed the used wipe aside and kept stroking Pollux’s hair because he had no idea what else to do. “Jadyn’s coming, she’ll help you more than I can. She has a doggy, he’s not nice but he’s a good doggy. He’s protective of her. She’ll protect you. It’s like a cycle, huh?” He bit his lip to stop his rambling and said, quietly, “Your brother’s not here, he’s been gone for ages. So you don’t have to worry about him...”
Jadyn approached slowly, the sight of Pollux’s broken and beaten body becoming clearer and clearer with each step. When she was finally standing next to Gracie, she wasn’t sure if the pitiful whimper that sounded through the air came from him, or her.
“Pollux...” She whispered, dropping to her knees in front of him. Only the person she was looking at looked nothing like the self-assured boy she knew. It barely looked like a person at all. The parts of him that weren’t covered in blood anyhow. There was just so much of it. Even more than when Jaime had fallen out of a portal and cracked his head open on the pavement. Could someone even survive so much blood loss?
Another distraught noise sounded, and this time she knew it was from Gracie. She vaguely remembered that he could read minds, and that her thoughts probably weren’t productive, especially on top of his own, but she couldn’t seem to stop them. Suddenly her vision started to become blurry, and she couldn’t understand why until the first few teardrops fell onto the back of her clenched fists.
“Do you know who did this?” He question was addressed to Gracie, even though her attention was focused on Pollux. She was trying to deduce the best way to move him without hurting him any more than he’d already been hurt.
He shifted again, hearing her. The eye not sealed shut with swelling looked on her. He couldn’t quite talk, but he was trying. Stop crying. This is good. This is love. This was what he did for his brother. He didn’t regret it.
Gracie covered his eyes, like that would block out the mental images Jadyn was painting for him. He sniffled and managed a nod. “The uh. The big guy. In the letterman. Not the gay one or the one who can’t dance. His name’s funny and has an x in it or something.” Everything was clouding his mind up too much for him to really focus on anything but the here and the now. On Pollux. “He says he...he wants us to stop crying and that he did this for his brother.” He leaned over and looked Pollux in his good eye. “You’re dumb. You’re very, very dumb. And when you’re better I’m going to smack you in the face because of how dumb you are. Okay?”
He looked back at Jadyn with big, pleading eyes. “I have no idea what to do but if you tell me I’ll do it.”
Gracie was right. Sacrificing himself to save Cas? Pollux had been stupid. Really stupid. And the upsetting thing was that she understood, but that didn’t stop her from getting angry at him. She shook her head. Now was not the time to be thinking like that. Right now Gracie needed her. Pollux needed her. He would have time to explain later, once they were sure he would be okay. Manipulating her vocal cords, she release an inhumanly high pitched whistle before turning to Gracie.
“We can’t leave him here any longer. He has to go to the hospital, but I don’t want to move him more than I have to.” She explained as Beau’s large body came loping towards them.
“I need you to stay here until I can bring my car around. Beau will stay here just in case whoever did this comes back.” She assured Gracie before addressing Beau. “Stay here and protect them. If anyone tries to hurt them...” She started, looking at Gracie’s tear stained face and Pollux’s crumpled body before turning back to Beau. “Make them suffer.”
Satisfied that Beau would do as she said, she stood, promising to return as soon as she could, before taking off at full speed towards the senior parking lot.
Gracie could only nod and hold tight to Pol’s hand. “You’re gonna be okay and then we’re both gonna be mad at you, but that can wait for later because you can’t be mad at a sick person. Daddy says so.”
Pol heard the recriminations and the worry in both of their voices. He remembered the conversation he’s had over the journals with Eoin. Looks like he had more friends then he’d thought. He shifted, earning a pained groan.
Jadyn ran hard and she ran fast, barely noticing that lunch must have either begun or ended with all the extra foot traffic. Of course. This school was so useless. She’d bet her right arm that none of them had the slightest clue of what was going on behind the school. Well, someone had an idea. Jadyn released a low menacing growl as she shoved a nearby kid unnecessarily hard. Whenever she found out who did this, they would pay for it, tenfold.
But she couldn’t help but feel guilty as well. She and Pollux normally spent their lunch together, so why hadn’t she been there to stop this? To protect him? She knew why. Lately Pol had been spending his time with his new blonde friend and Jadyn hadn’t wanted to intrude. But where was his new friend now? Jadyn gritted her teeth, trying to stay focused.
Finding her car, she jumped into the dark green Jeep Wrangler that she’d gotten from her mother as a Christmas present. She eyed the backseat warily. It wouldn’t be much comfortable for Pol, but it was bigger than Jaime’s own backseat, so it would have to do. Switching on the ignition, she peeled out of the student parking lot, her tires kicking up dirt and gravel as she turned toward the dock access road.
Gracie heard the squealing of tires before he saw the jeep, and stood up to help Jadyn load Pollux into the back. “I don’t think we’re s’posed to move an injured person in case they have neck injuries...” But he doubted anyone would care enough to get an ambulance down here to help him. He leaned over Pol and said, “If we paralyze you we’re sorry.”
Pol laughed in his head at the ridiculous comment. He then cried out sharply when they moved him. Neck injury... no his head hadn’t been kicked, nor has his head been impacted to the wall. All of the pain was centered in his chest and face. He curled onto that back seat.
“Well back injuries are still possible.” Gracie looked up at Jadyn. “He says he didn’t get kicked in the head or thrown into the wall or anything so that’s one good thing I guess.”
Jadyn nodded stiffly, agreeing with Gracie as she tried to relax enough to unclench her jaw. “You should sit back there, with him. So he doesn’t get jostled too much. And sorry about the fur. Beau likes to sleep back there.” She added sheepishly, her voice soft. She hopped into the driver’s seat, Beau automatically getting in the passenger side. “Which way is the nearest hospital?”
The ride to the hospital was murder. He tried to focus his mind inside of himself. The white light was not helping enough. All of his adrenal energy had been spent ensuring his body could handle the attack. Soon there was another light, flashing above him. He realized blearily that he was on a gurney with lights rushing past his eyes.
Jadyn sat in the waiting room with Gracie, her entire body tense except for her right leg which just kept jumping constantly, no matter how hard she tried to control it. She hated hospitals. She hated the nurses, the doctors, the bright lights, the constant smell of antiseptic, the beds with straps, and the needles. She hated those the most.
They’d managed to somehow convince the ER nurse that they were Pollux’s siblings, thanks to Gracie’s sweet nature when it became apparent that Jadyn’s agitation and fear was making her aggressive. It helped that he was there. That she didn’t have to go through this alone, especially since he was probably the only one, outside of her family, who knew about her past. She hadn’t even told Pollux.
She bit into her bottom lip, hoping to stop the fresh tears that were on the verge of falling. She wasn’t sure how she would react of he wasn’t okay. He had to be okay.
“He will be,” Gracie told her softly. “I’m listening in, it’s...there’s a lot wrong but there’s a good chance he’ll come out on the other side. Not quite as pretty for a while, but he’ll be okay in the end.” He reached out and took her hand and squeezed. “But if you want to cry it’s fine. I’ll keep the nurses and the needles and the restraints away from you.”
And just like that, the floodgates opened, a choked sob ripping from Jadyn’s throat as hot tears flowed freely down her face. She hated that he could reduce her to nothing more than a scared little girl crying out her pain, with just a few words. But rather than get angry at him for it, she just buried her face in his shoulder, hoping to hide from everything that was happening, just then and in her memories as well, for a little while.
Gracie didn’t know what to do for her except hold her tightly against him and rub her shaking back. “Do you want me to call your brother or anyone else to come be here with you too?”
Part of her did. Part of her wanted Jaime there so bad, so that he could wipe away her fears as easily as the tears on her face. But the other part of her, the one that had been steadily getting louder over the past few weeks, reminded her that she couldn’t rely on Jaime forever. Not because he wouldn’t come if she needed him, she knew he would be there in a heartbeat if Gracie called him. But Jaime had his own life now, in which she wasn’t the center, and she had to accept that.
Shaking her head, she slowly pulled away from Gracie. He shouldn’t be the one to have to deal with her problems just because she wasn’t strong enough to handle her own fears. She was sure he had his hands full with his own worries.
“Sorry.” She mumbled darkly, starting to feel embarrassed and ashamed of her actions as she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.
Gracie just gave her a small smile. “You can’t rely on others for the little, everyday things,” he said softly. “But the big ones, the really scary or happy ones...you should share those with someone, especially your family. Plus quitting anything cold turkey is awful.” He shrugged, then opened his arms back up. “Also I am totally up for snuggling, it makes me feel better too so you don’t have to feel selfish.”
Jadyn frowned petulantly.
“That’s really annoying, just so you know.” She muttered, even as she sunk back into his arms and leaned her head against his shoulder. “And it makes you look like you’re talking to yourself.”
“You don’t even have to live with it,” Gracie mumbled right back, hugging her tightly and rocking her just a little bit. “But at least now I know when I am and am not talking to myself...”
He glanced up. “I just wish we could get some more information. We are his siblings, after all.”
Jadyn snorted but didn’t respond, trying not to think about why they hadn’t heard anything yet. That had to be a good sign right? If-if something had happened to Pollux, they would have told them by now. So the wait meant that there had to be some hope. Jadyn closed her eyes, clinging desperately to her reasoning.
By the time a doctor came to speak to them, Jadyn had long changed her mind about the wait being a good thing. She’d run through a gauntlet of ever worsening scenarios, at one point forcing herself to get away from Gracie so as not to torment him with her worries. She made sure to stay on the first floor, aimlessly wandering around for an undetermined amount of time. When she finally returned to the waiting room, hoping that there had been news, Gracie just shook his head sorrowfully at her. They still had to wait another hour before a doctor came to see them.
Now Jadyn found herself pacing impatiently at the foot of Pollux’s bed, glancing at his prone body every two seconds. The doctor had warned that it looked worse than it really was, but Jadyn couldn’t help the fury that was burning inside her as she took in the bruises and bandages.
“Tell me again, who did this?” She asked curtly, her eyes flicking to Gracie who was sitting beside the bed.
There was movement. Lots of moving things near his feet and that was... bad? The pain meds had been fed to him and while he wasn’t terribly conscious he could still see movement. Maybe he was on a boat, it would explain the floating. A big boat with a moving thing... like maybe the sun. It might be Cas, he moved around alot. An angry voice... no not Cas.
He shifted a little, his eyes barely opened to slits. Stop moving strage thing. It’s making the boat rock. This was no time for a revolution. That was later. Who needed to listen to all the people anyway. Most of them were sheep especially the Christians who made the song... maybe. Songs were fun to listen. Maybe the moving thing would sing.
“He’s either asking you to stop moving or serenade him, I’m not sure which.” Gracie shook his head and held Pol’s hand. “Hi. Hi Pollux. I’m Gracie. You’re in the hospital.”
To answer Jadyn, he had to think a moment for a name to come to him... “I think it’s...Azimio, that sounds right-ish at least.”
Jadyn stilled, considering Pollux critically, her eyes narrowed. After a moment, she shook her head.
“I’m not going to sing.” Then she turned her attention back to Gracie. The name was in no way, shape, or form familiar to her, but that wasn’t a big surprise. She had no interest in getting to know the people at her school. So she tried another tactic. “You said he wore a letterman jacket?”
Pol knew he was being asked about Azimio. He now had a name to put to the face. Well he had more. More names, more red jackets that would flock around and descend on his brother. He groaned, knowing he couldn’t stop all of them. No one goes after them. They would get worse. “No.”
“Yes, that’s his name,” Gracie said, interpreting. He leaned over Pollux and said, “Don’t worry, we’re not bad. You’re safe, your brother is safe, for now anyway. And I think he’ll keep being safe for a while, so don’t worry about it so much, okay?”
Jadyn’s eyes jumped from one boy to the other and back again, wishing for a brief second that she could read minds too.
“What? What is it? What’s he saying, or not saying?”
“He’s thinking about the bullies that did this to him and is worried about his brother...” Gracie sighed and looked to Jadyn. “You know a way to get through to him?”
There was so much talking and noise. The colors were moving. It was like that one trip on E. That had been fun. He wished he could have remembered all of it. He remembered good feelings, pleasure, Cas. And then the voices outside of his body in the room talked again. Bullies. Homophobes. They couldn’t touch Cas. not now. They would think he was beaten. But Cas needed to stay away. He needed to tell him to stay away!
“Shhh, it’s okay, shhh,” Gracie said, putting a firm hand on Pollux’s shoulder and telling him Calm. Just be calm. It’s okay, it’s all okay. I’ll tell him. To Jadyn, he said, “Do you know his brother’s phone number or anything like that? He won’t calm down but maybe if we can get him to believe that his brother’s okay then he’ll relax.”
Jadyn gritted her teeth before finally shaking her head. She had nothing to do with Castor, at all. Under normal circumstances, she may have had Castor’s number for emergency purposes...like this one for instance. But there weren’t ‘normal circumstances’ when it came to them. Gracie could know your whole life story at any given moment, she was practically an animal, and Pollux could teleport at any given moment. This shouldn’t have happened. Pol shouldn’t be lying in a hospital bed, drugged and delirious on pain meds to give him relief from a hundred cuts and bruises. But it had happened. Pollux was in pain and distress, and Jadyn wasn’t sure how to help him.
“No. I don’t have his number...But i could go see if he’s okay.” She looked at Pollux, not sure if he could hear her. “Is that what you want me to do?”
Pollux had... no he didn’t have... phones were such strange objects. It was like a shackle to the rest of the world, eternally on the beck and call of anyone who wished to speak. People you wanted and people you didn’t. Wait...Cas... Keep Cas safe. Keep him away from the school. “Don’t... don’t bring him here.”
Jadyn shook her head again. She understood why Pollux didn’t want his brother there. He was always trying to protect him. And normally Jadyn was okay with letting Pol handle his relationship with Castor his own way, but she couldn’t help thinking ‘what if it was Jaime in that bed’? She’d immediately want to know Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How she was going to get away with murder. Then again, Pollux and Castor were different than her and her brother. Still, she made her concerns known to Pol. If he still wanted to keep Castor away, she would abide by it.
“He might be hurt that you kept this from him. Or tried to. I doubt this will stay a secret for long.”
“Not today.” He managed. Pollux groaned a little as a jolt of breakthrough pain pushed up. IT at least cleared his head a little. He couldn’t defend himself from Cas today. He might slip, tell who hurt him, Cas might do something rash.
Jadyn frowned. ‘Not today’ what? Don’t tell Cas today? She wanted to ask what it was he wanted, but his groan discouraged her. Instead she looked to Gracie for further elaboration.
“He doesn’t want us bringing Castor here because he might say something that would upset him, I think.” Gracie sighed and shook his head. “So much drama!”
But then he remembered: they’d been given a little bag of Pollux’s things, which probably included his phone...oh. Duh. “Hold on, do you still have that bag-thing they gave us?”
She nodded, going to the chair on the opposite side of the bed that would have been her seat, if she could sit still, which she couldn’t. She’d put the bag of Pollux’s belongings there instead. Handing the bag over, she watched Gracie curiously.
Gracie rooted through the bag and finally came up with Pollux’s cellphone. “We’re kinda dumb, y’know. He pulled up Castor’s name and a text screen - because somehow he doubted a call would go over well and he didn’t want to have to be the one to make it. But then he just stared blankly at it. “Uh. What should it say?”
Jadyn stared back at Gracie blankly. She had absolutely no idea what the text should say. She didn’t know how Pollux spoke to Castor on a regular basis, but if they just ‘winged it’, Cas might notice that it wasn’t really Pol that was texting him, and then he’d worry for sure. They could always go with the universal ‘Hey’, but Pollux didn’t seem like the ‘hey’ type of guy. She frowned with a shrug, feeling absolutely useless just then.
“You’re helpful like a fox...” Gracie grumbled, but quickly began tacking out a message.
Hey! This is a friend of Pollux’s! He’s okay so don’t worry about him! :>!
“Alright, that’s gonna have to do...” Gracie put the phone back in the bag and then patted Pollux’s hand. “Your brother is okay and he knows you’re here but not why. It’s all good so you just rest up now.”
Shockingly, despite the strange flailings of the people? concerned moving things, he finally slipped back into a restful and healing sleep.