[PRP] visiting hours (zac & jeremiah)

[azuredreams]

Zac's mother was, for a change, in the hospital because someone else had put her there. She was in a stable condition now, after a couple surgeries, and would live the doctors had said. Jeremiah had already handed off the case in regards to Mrs Farnack, his statements given. This was something far, far too close to a personal interest.

Besides that as Chief of Police working these types of things was not within his purview.

He was sitting outside her room, waiting quietly for Zac to come out. They had not had time to talk yet, not in the forty-eight hours since the accident had happened, and Jeremiah had a strong desire to just be there because of what happened.

Jeremiah stopped himself from raking through his hair, no longer wanting to give away any of his familiar tells. Instead he was quiet and waiting, two cups of warm tea in a carrier ready.

endejester

 

[endejester]

Zac emerged at last, though he moved something like a zombie, there was a weariness that had settled into him as though it had taken up residence in his very bones.

“They say she’s stable.” He said quietly.

He tipped his head slightly, staring at the teas for a moment before making eye contact long enough at least to confirm one was for him and reaching for it.
“But they had that look. Maybe they always have it, I think I might too if I were a doctor. This place smells of medicine, bleach and…” He shook his head dismissing whatever last word might have chased behind.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

The tea was just the right temperature, exactly how Zac liked it, and his favorite kind. Jeremiah inclined his head towards the younger man as the tea was offered out. "I talked to them and they seem positive," he said quietly, "even if they have that look."

For a moment Jeremiah pushed the door to her room open, eyes glinting briefly as he surveyed the room. "... and I don't see any of those little helpers around her so that is a good sign." The hospital spiders, the ones that seemed to help people in the hospital. If they weren't around that had to be a good sign.

"I understand about the feel of this place," he admitted before studying Zac. "I'm not going to be trite and tell you it'll be alright, Zac, but you do know I'm here for you."

endejester

 

[endejester]

He cradled the tea in his hands, fingers laced together just at the tips and bent over it enough to take a deep breath of the steaming milky chai. Not everyone’s favorite for it’s heavy spices and sharp to sweet variations but he found it comforting like a favorite shirt or a heavy blanket.

He leaned against the wall, a small ‘atlas’ holding the weight of two worlds on his shoulders.

“I know.” He said softly.

“And I’m 18, almost 19. In the eyes of the world I’m an adult, but not quite, even with this, even with everything we have seen and experienced in Other Ashdown, I … sometimes feel like they will never stop looking at me as though I’m a child. I think that makes this worse.”

“Waiting makes this worse.” He added frowning, his expression still distant in a world of thought and memories.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah's lips pressed thinly together before he simply sighed and put his free arm around Zac's shoulders. "Come on, let's step outside. Get this smell out of our noses and some fresh air." The rain had stopped even if things were still soaked and otherwise soggy.

"The waiting is the worst," he agreed, blue-green eyes focused ahead as he navigated them through the hospital hallway to a side door that let them outside. "Sometimes you have to bark at people to get them to acknowledge you," a wry twitch of his lips, "or bite as the case may be. They'll keep looking at you however they want until you change their view."

Then, after he took his own sip of tea, something that was strong and black. "Besides, you've been an adult since you were as tall as my waist. I'm not quite sure where people think you're a child ..."

endejester

 

[endejester]

The pavement made squish sounds as his sneakers settled into one of the myriad of puddles. He thought about Other Ashdown and all that it held, or had held.

“… Sometimes I think the end of waiting is just as bad.” He mused bitterly.

“If things change when you are – “ the thought went unfinished.

“I – I assume Shun mentioned that Heliodora is gone.”

This month, lord this month and everything that he had tried and failed, and now this. If there had been some tapestry that represented his plans and efforts it was little but snapped threads now. Even things he hadn’t planned, just things he –touched- felt like he was some source of rot.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I was informed," Jeremiah said quietly. His arm was still around Zac's shoulders, squeezing lightly. "I don't know what you were planning but I assume you wanted to help her." The fetch had called his son martyr, had made mention of Heliodora but-

He had no idea beyond that.

endejester

 

[endejester]

“Yes, I did want to help her, she said it would be nice to come home… but instead she’s missing. He shook his head anger swelling up where grief had been a moment before.
“But now she’s missing and I can only assume the worst. So I… just, what is even the point anymore. I wonder if the people cutting throats would be so gung hoe of we knew them better before slicing.”
He might be a little bitter.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"There is no coming home," Jeremiah said quietly, letting go of Zac and running a hand through his hair finally. "Not for any of them, not the way they should have." A sip of his tea was taken and he looked towards the young man with a sigh.

"Possibly but it is likely why certain people were approached." They did not know her therefore they could easily do what was asked of them.

The bitterness was understandable. Jeremiah was actually acutely aware that he had a meeting with Sunny now and there was some part of him that-

Not the place.

endejester

 

[endejester]

“But she could have, she wanted to!... Wait.” He frowned.

“… Are you, Are you talking about Heliodora? Do you know who killed her?”

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I do but it isn't my place to discuss it." Jeremiah held a hand up. "Not that she isn't dead but that I am not going to name the killer. It's their place to tell you."

Heliodora's decision for this likely stemmed from the fact that the other two were gone. They had failed horrible- Jeremiah had failed horribly.

endejester

 

[endejester]

Anger, he hadn’t thought it was possible to actually see red but he did now.
“Like everything else, where it’s someone else’s place to tell everyone else…except it never happens. Bad enough your partner decided I was being ‘Unreasonable’ because I’m upset she died. Thank you for the tea… I’m going inside now.”

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"You're not being unreasonable," Jeremiah sighed but then stopped himself. "I cannot do this. I want to talk to you but this is just-"

A hand was smoothed across his face, the most show of emotion he had done in a while in public since he had come back. "Bear in mind that Shun Kuroda is not my partner. I'm not quite sure what you're trying to imply but he has never been such in any capacity. If you really want to know who it was then talk to him as he was the one that informed you about her being missing. Forgive me for wanting to maintain someone's privacy. You saw how people turned on Algie and he did not even carry it out and I've no desire to see that done to someone else for doing something that was asked of them."

endejester

 

[endejester]

He did pause, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to force some of the tension away.

"He's your partner..or he was. You were detectives together, that's what I'm trying to imply. You were... in association through this, professional 'guard the rest of us' mentality I swear I think you both have."
He waved his hands and shook his head. "So there is no implication, Yes I saw how people turned on Alg, but if I'm upset at whomever did it, its because she wanted to come home. I was going to find a way."

He rubbed at his face trying to find a way to explain his frustrations.


"Dad, would you feel the same way if it had been ME who asked that of someone? Honestly? Would it be so easy to say 'She wanted it, He wanted it, so it's okay.'?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"... and I'm looking at it as a job perspective and I've not had a partner in fifteen some odd years," Jeremiah shook his head, "which is neither here nor there. I would like to say I'm long past the trying to guard people but if I have learned anything recently, it is that I am responsible for those that are around me more than ever."

He was quiet then, listening to Zac and sighing. "I did not say that I'm alright with it, I am saying that they were following through with what was asked. It is a shite situation where the only solution is death." His eyes flickered, the glow briefly there. "I would never be alright with it, if you asked someone that. Ever. It is easy enough to say that she was alright with it, that she wanted it, so it's okay but believing that? No, that I do not believe. We failed them." A pause. "I failed them and I will pay a price for it. I wanted them home, for their parents to have them back, and that will never happen."

endejester