The sun was setting and night was approaching and still Andre sat there answering the barrage of questions being flung at him. He was careful with his answers though. The last thing he wanted was to tell the police about what he and Wanda had discovered before he had a chance to first tell Rafe.
The two officers sitting adjacent to him gave him another skeptical look before the burly one to his right spoke, the cynicism in his every word, palpable. "So, you're saying that you were never really kidnapped and you left with a nurse of your own free will, correct?"
"Yes, that's what I'm saying." Andre answered firmly. "As a matter of fact, we never really left the hospital. That's why no one saw us leave." He sighed loudly. "Why are you still asking me the same questions? I have already told you all of this."
The other officer sat forward and grinned sardonically, showing yellowed teeth. "Yeah, you did tell us something of that nature, didn't you sir? Funny though, how we don't seem to believe a word you're saying. Now, why would that be, I wonder?" He smiled smugly then and relaxed back, folding his arms across his chest.
Andre stared at them, mouth agape. Are they serious? It was getting to the point where they had passed the point of being mere nuisances and had graduated to extremely annoying in a matter of minutes.
Where's a diploma when you need one? Instead of handing it to them as reward for their stupidity, he would probably just bang them over the head with it and hope he knocked them unconscious.
"Believe it or not, that's what happened." He said wearily. "You're trying to make something out of nothing all because of a supposed intuition and it's ridiculous. My answers are not going to change just because you want them to."
The relaxed pose and smug smile disappeared as suddenly as it had come.
"I don't think you quite understand our determination here, boy. We're basically gonna keep asking these same questions till we get the right answers and uh, believe me, we're not averse to staying here, all night if need be, to get them." He turned to his partner. "Isn't that right, Sheldon?"
The burly officer inclined his head. "Right you are, Preston. What a fine idea. I mean, you don't mind staying up all night and keeping us company, do you, Mr. Phillipe? Why, it'll be just like a bloomin' slumber party!"
They both guffawed like veritable idiots.
If he had a shoe in his hand right now, he'd throw it straight at them and hope he broke a nose or a rib or something. But wouldn't that get him arrested? God, they were driving him crazy! If they asked him one more question, he just might start screaming.
And the bad thing was, he couldn't just get up from the bed and walk out on them and they knew that, which probably gave them joy to no end. The grimy bastards! He didn't know how he'd endured this long without pulling his own hair out.
Ugh, why did Rafe have to go and leave him here with these imbeciles? Wasn't it enough that he was already stressed about his shortened life span? He had to put up with thing one and thing two as well? Oh hell no!
He was about to start contemplating the pros and cons of just throwing himself to the floor and crawling away when the door burst open and Rafe walked into the room with a thunderous expression on his face.
Oh thank god!
He was so relieved he completely missed the fact that the anger was directed at him and not at the officers smiling so smugly before him. So, when he finally spoke up, his heart very nearly plummeted down into his stomach.
"Officers, I believe I have the answers you're looking for." He said, directing a glare his way. Andre cringed at the intensity of it and wished the bed would suddenly open up and swallow him whole. He had a feeling the cat was most certainly out of the bag which could only mean one thing.
Rafe had spoken with Wanda.
The amber green eyes seared his own and he almost squeaked as he recoiled away. "You know that I know, don't you?" He said it so calmly, so softly that Andre suddenly wished he had screamed it instead. The man was downright scary right now!
"Uh, I have no idea what you're talking-."
"When exactly, were you going to tell me you were being poisoned, Andre?" Rafe thundered, stomping toward the bed. "When you were on a gurney being rolled off to the fuking morgue, huh? Is that when, Andre? Tell me, right now!"
Officer Preston shot up from his seat and put out a hand to stop Rafe's progress toward the bed. "I need you to stop right there, Mr. De' Notti." he said as he pushed him back and away from Andre but it only seemed to piss him off all the more and he renewed his onward struggle to get nearer to the bed.
"Get your hands off of me or I will break every finger you're using to touch me." Rafe said lowly, dangerously, his eyes flashing with an almost violent gleam as he glared at the now gaping officer.
Almost immediately, he was released but his next step found him flat on the hard tiled floor, face first, with officer Sheldon holding him down and completely subdued under his tremendous weight.
He struggled against the burly man, cursing him to the farthest reaches of hell and back for mashing him into the floor but stopped abruptly when he felt the bite of the handcuffs to his wrists and the resounding click as they closed around his flesh.
He should have known that was coming.
He looked up at Andre with pleading eyes but found no warmth there. The fear on his angel's face was so palpable, he could almost feel his body trembling even from his position on the floor. How could he have been such an ass?
"I'm so sorry." he whispered as a treacherous tear rolled down his cheek. "Please don't be frightened of me. I would never hurt you. I swear I would never hurt you. Please, just please don't look at me like that."
Andre looked down at the man who had professed his love that very morning and just couldn't believe this was the same man. He was feral and violent and when he had first started approaching the bed with those blazing amber green eyes, he had really feared Rafe intended to hurt him in some way.
But looking at him now, so vulnerable and pleading with tears in his beautiful eyes, he couldn't help but shed tears himself. He was hopelessly entranced by the beauty of the single tear which fell slowly down his face that he couldn't deny the pull as it compelled him to let his own fall silently.
He was so in love, he was suffocating in the intensity of his feelings.
A hiccupping sob escaped him then and he brought his knees up and buried his face away from prying eyes. "I don't know why I'm always crying." He said angrily. "What have you done to me, Rafe? Why do I feel like this? I don't want to feel like this for you!"
Rafe's heart nearly stopped beating at Andre's broken words and to his utter horror, a choked sob escaped his lips, a testament to how much it had hurt to know his little angel didn't really want to love him.
He should have known it had been too good to be true. This morning as he had so fervently declared himself to his little love, he had thought that he felt something beyond gratefulness...he had thought his love was returned.
I have given you my heart. You can't just give it back to me, Andre. Do you hear me? I forbid it!
God, he had practically forced the man to accept his love and therefore return it. He had given him no choice but to tell him of feelings he didn't really feel. How could he have been so stupid? So blind?
The commanding tone slammed into his mind and he winced, wanting to slap himself. Pressing his face to the cold tiles beneath him, he stared unseeing at the bed wheels, wondering how he had managed to muck everything up before it ever started... Wondering how he could have only thought of himself and of his own wants and needs.
He was just so dam selfish. he didn't deserve a man like Andre at all.
"Please just take these off me, Sheldon." He whispered hoarsely. "I promise you that I mean no harm and am now calm. I just want some time alone with Andre before I give you all of the answers you need. I need...time. Just a little time with him. That's all I ask. Please don't deny me this."
His body started shaking terribly with his restrained sobs and it was all he could do not to full on cry and embarrass himself in front of them. It was suddenly humbling to know you're not as strong as you always thought you were and he didn't much like this feeling of vulnerability.
Officer Preston caught Andre's gaze. "It's up to you, Mr. Phillipe." He said quietly. "Do you think you will feel safe being alone with him in here?"
Rafe's head shot up and he seared the man with his bright amber eyes. "Of course he will be safe!" he spat vehemently as he brought himself awkwardly up off the floor. "He will always be fuking safe with me."
He towered over both officers and glared down at them like they were nothing but mere dust beneath his boot heel. "I am in love with him you dolts and he never has need to be afraid of me. Now, take these cuffs off of me so I can hold him for just a little while or I'll find some way to knock you unconscious with just my legs."
"Release him." The words left Andre's mouth on a whispering breath. His body was quaking much too violently all of a sudden and he found that his breathing seemed too erratic to inhale the air around him.
He met Rafe's gaze and held it, his melted chocolate eyes unknowingly beckoning him closer to the bed where the other man bent to lay his head softly onto his lap. "I am scared for you, Andre." came the whisper. "And...I am scared for myself. If I lose you, I don't know if I'll survive it."
Andre ran his fingers through the silky strands of Rafe's hair so as to offer some form of comfort, wishing he knew how to answer to that softly spoken confession and cursing himself because he was at a complete loss.
He had no experience on matters of the heart and it irked him how he couldn't really express himself the way he truly wanted to. He wanted to say things that sounded mushy and he wanted to have stupid conversations that made no sense to anyone but the two of them.
He wanted to bask in the love this man was so freely giving forth from his heart but he found himself befuddled by the thought of holding someone's heart. No one had ever entrusted one into his care and he was scared shitless that it might one day slip through his fingers and fall, shattering into remnants of a love that never truly existed.
No...not might. Will. He was dying and it was only a matter of time before it truly happened. It was why he had wanted to refuse Rafe's love. It was why he had been absolutely horrified to learn the man had so freely given his heart, trusting he would keep it safe.
He didn't want to break it but how could he prevent that from happening?!
Rafe snuggled further into the softness of Andre's thighs and whimpered softly as he delighted in the caressing glide of his fingers through his hair. It felt so good, he wanted to purr in contentment and rub himself all over the man. Would that be too weird?
Preston came forward with the cuff keys and unlocked the vices from Rafe's wrists, making him sigh out in relief when he could finally feel the blood rushing back into his arms. "Thank you Preston." He whispered as he stood to his full height. "Thank you both for understanding."
Sheldon chuckled and slapped him on the back so hard he almost toppled over. "Aw, come on, stop it." He smirked. "We have known you since we were all in diapers, Rafe. I know the type of man you are and what I saw today wasn't anger...it was worry. I wasn't really going to arrest you. I just wanted to calm you down. No hard feelings?"
He extended his hand and Rafe came forward to take it. "No hard feelings, Sheldon." he said, chuckling as he then extended his hand to Preston. "I'll be over at the precinct bright and early tomorrow morning and I'll tell you everything."
"We'll be waiting for ya!" Sheldon said stepping through the door but not before he slapped another hand to his back and nearly toppled him again.
God dammit that hurt! He tried to rub his poor abused back but found he couldn't quite reach that part of his body. Curse that heavy handed beast! He'd done it on purpose just as he'd done so many times before.
He shook his head with a chuckle as he stared at the now closed door but his mirth died an abrupt death as he realized that he and Andre were now alone and that he could practically feel those warm honey brown eyes searing a whole into his back.
Not good. Not good. Not good.
Just the thought of drawing closer to him was already having a damning effect on him. He wanted to talk to Andre. Nothing more. Just a little talk so he can get some answers. This wasn't about jumping on him a-and kissing him or t-touching him. No way. Nope. He didn't plan on finally ripping off his clothes and thrusting his pulsing-.
Oh, fuk me I'm so fukked...
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