Astraphobia [M] [Closed]

"Look, I don't turn my back on people who need help - whether they're willing to admit that they need it or not." It was a little hard to not take offence, and it took effort not to snap that at him.. "You're a good guy with a shit ton on his shoulders and no one to help carry it, and you're right - this isn't my problem. They're your sons, and this is your mess... but I can help, so I will. It's not going to cost me anything, and even if it did I would probably help anyway."

He closed the gap between them and kissed Seph's forehead. "And yeah, maybe I am insane... but if more people were crazy like me then we'd live in a better world." He sighed and stroked his hair gently. "Now, you have a son in there that needs you, and two more at the police station. We can argue about how crazy I am and how you apparently don't want to see me after tonight when they're home and safe, got it?"

Reno leant into him and kissed back, fingers tangling in his hair to pull him in deeper. "I guess that means you're going to stop arguing?" he murmured when he pulled back a little. He kissed him again and pulled away completely, stretching and flicking his cigarette into the darkness.

"You go and sort signing Kadaj out, I'll give Mick a call and send him to the station. With some luck we'll be able to get you all home before morning."

Reno moved his cell phone from his pocket and made the call from the fire escape. It took a few minutes for Mick to pick up but he was thankfully willing to help if it meant squaring off some of his debt. He was assured that he should be able to wrangle a release should the facts fall in their favour, but with a record it wasn't going to be easy.

Satisfied that he would be at the station when they arrived, Reno head back inside, taking up his perch on the chair outside the hospital room again.

It could get worse, it seemed, as his father couldn't even look at him now. He closed his eyes with a silent sigh, trying to push that out of his mind and worrying about something else.

"... I don't have any shoes..." He muttered, going past him and into the hallway, wondering where he could find shoes.

"No, no, you do not walk about, mister," one of his nurses tutted, grabbing a wheelchair and going over, gesturing for him to sit in it.

Kadaj looked mortified at the thought of having to be wheeled about. "I just want to leave..."

"It's the rules, lovey. Until you're in the car you can't be walking about."


Reno looked up to watch the scene unfold, raising an eyebrow slightly as he looked over the boy. Under the swelling he could see a resemblance, but it was the silver hair and green eyes that were the best give-aways to it being Kadaj.

He shifted in his seat but didn't get to his feet yet.

Kadaj gave another grumble and settled himself in the wheelchair. He gave a confused frown at who his father was talking to, following his gaze to the redhead sat across the hall.

"...?"


Reno gave a nod and head over, giving them both a small smile. He eyed the bandaged right hand and offered his left instead. "I'm Reno, I work with your dad. I'd say it's nice to meet you but the situation sucks so..."

Tentatively Kadaj took Reno's hand and shook it. "You work with dad?" He turned a little to look at Seph - he'd never bought a friend home from work, so to bring him to the hospital was weird.

"Yeah, most everyone takes the train - I'm the only idiot that drives in. Seems it's a good job I did - you'd have been here another hour or so otherwise."

Kadaj gave him a scrutinising look. "How did you get here so fast, then?"

"If I tell you I was speeding will you dob me in?" Reno chuckled.

"No.. I guess not." Kadaj relaxed a little and gave a small smile. "Thanks for getting him here so fast."

Reno jumped into the elevator with them and leant against the side, hands in his pockets. "Eh, gets me away from paperwork for a few hours and I'm sure I can force you to buy me a drink sometimes to make up for it. Besides, I wasn't going to let you leave Kadaj here any longer than he had to be after the call."

He stretched and stifled a yawn, heading out of the elevator first to open the doors for the pair. Getting Kadaj into the car wasn't complicated and once the wheelchair was deposited back in the hospital he stuffed the laminated card back into the glove compartment and pulled out of the car park.

"Mick will be there waiting for you. I'll hang around the station so I can, hopefully, get all four of you home."

Reno nodded and gave an appreciative smile. "I have to admit if I had to drive home I couldn't promise I wouldn't fall asleep behind the wheel," he chuckled softly. "At least it went well... And none of your kids have questioned or lynched me yet..."

He undid his seatbelt and stretched. "Guess we ought to go see the damage inside... and you ought to make sure Kadaj gets into bed okay. I know, it's awkward but I think it would be more awkward if I did it."

He gave Seph a cheeky grin. "Come on, the worst of it's over."

Reno gave an understanding nod and followed him into the house. It was a nice house - a good size seeing as it needed to house four of them, and he had a feeling no one shared a bedroom.

Glass crunched under his feet as he walked through the door, and he looked around for something to clean up the worst of it with. He shut the door and locked it, as redundant an action it was, and went into the main area of the kitchen, cringing as he rounded the counter and saw the part of the kitchen you couldn't from the back door, but could from the other doorway.

He looked around and spotted the paper towels and carefully rounded the pool of blood to fetch it. He lay the sheets on the mostly coagulated pool and looked around for the bin and cleaning materials. This was something that Seph didn't need to be confronted with.


Kadaj was sat on the edge of his bed, the door still open. He was absolutely exhausted and didn't know if he had the strength to undress.
With some effort he'd managed to get his jeans undone and wriggled them off, putting on pyjama pants had been a whole different battle that he grimaced through, but had succeeded.

By that time he was completely unable to pull off the scrubs top.

"I just need this shirt off," he replied quietly. "And a lot of sleep."