The Truth About Drew

t h i r t y f i v e

Kai's grip tightened a little. "And?" he encouraged gently.

"T-the door was open, so I tried to make a run for it, but he stopped me. He started t-touching me and telling m-me I was gonna stay here forever so-" Drew's voice broke and he bravely scrubbed his tears away and took a deep breath. "-so I slammed his head on the dresser over there. I didn't want to kill him! I swear!" Drew looked panicked and Kai wondered briefly if this is how he looked when he had been abused by those people what seemed like so long ago.

"It's okay, love, you did nothing wrong." Kai picked up one of Drew's hands and pressed kisses to each of his fingertips. "You didn't do anything wrong and I'm so proud of you, okay?"

Drew nodded. Kai stood, pulling Drew to his feet. "Let's take you home, okay? Your mom's probably worried sick. Let's just hope she doesn't kill me, huh?"

Drew smiled a little. "She won't." He tilted his head up and welcomed a kiss on his cheek. "She'll probably make you a pie for saving me."

"I didn't save you; you saved yourself, you brave little hero," Kai said, poking his tongue out.

"Um, guys?" Aaron asked. "What do we do with the corpse here?" He poked Jared again, none-too-gently.

Kai groaned. "I guess we have to take him to a hospital or something. Come on, let's throw him in the trunk."

"Ew," Aaron muttered as he gingerly picked Jared's dead looking self up.

"See?" Blake said, slapping his shoulder. "Told you you'd come in handy!" He scurried away after Drew and Kai, sniggering immaturely.

After Aaron had dragged Jared down the stairs and tossed him in the boot, and he and Blake had piled in the back, (Drew got the passenger's seat of course) Kai started the engine. "So should we call the police?" he piped up.

Drew bit his lip. "No."

"Why? Baby, he kidnapped you! Don't you want to see him thrown in jail?"

Drew was silent, gnawing on his lip until Kai was worried it was going to split. "I don't think he should go to jail," he finally said. "I think something's wrong with him."

Blake scoffed, "You're darn right something's wrong with him!"

"No, I mean, when we were... talking, I guess, he kept mentioning a them. Like they told him to do something. They said something was okay. They told him to kidnap me." Drew wrung his hands in his lap, and Kai reached over to squeeze them reassuringly.

"So what? Like schizophrenia?" Aaron asked.

"I don't think so. At least not just that. Plenty of schizophrenics live perfectly healthy lives with medication and stuff. Schizophrenia doesn't make you a monster."

"Well, I doubt he's on meds, but I guess we can take him to the hospital to get checked out," Kai said. He turned on the GPS.

***

"I don't understand," Drew said blankly. The doctor sighed and adjusted his glasses that were slipping down his nose.

"Completely? Neither do I, I haven't had time to run a full series of tests, but as far as I can tell, Derek here-"

"Jared," Kai corrected, a hand on Drew's shoulder protectively.

"My bad, Larry here must have suffered a traumatic event in his life, probably involving someone he loved, and has latched onto Drew instead as a replacement for the love that he lost. He's unstable and is suffering from a mental break from the looks of it, but I think he can be helped."