Fic: WizardVerse3: I Want To Believe, Part 3/8

Oct 13, 2008 08:30

Title: I Want To Believe 3/8
Authors: Kathie and Ginny, yakihngenit
Word Count: 19,959
Team: Detroit Red Wings
Series: Wizard 'verse
Other Fandoms: CSI:NY, Supernatural, House MD
Warnings: RPS, slash, au, magic, moresomes
Pairings: Chris Osgood/Kris Draper, Steve Yzerman/Brendan Shanahan, Dan Cleary/Johan Franzen, Pavel Datsyuk/Henrik Zetterberg, Nick Lidstrom/Andreas Lilja, Darren McCarty/Aaron Downey
Rating: FRAO
Summary: After a demon attack, a wizard needs to deal with the consequences.
Authors' Notes: Because we are evil.

part 1
part 2



Something was different when he opened his eyes again. He felt miserable, his whole body ached and hurt. When he lifted his hand to his face, he noticed several deep cuts and fresh bandages around his wrists. The bruise on his elbow was new, he thought fuzzily, and one look next to his bed confirmed that the chair was gone again.

However, something was different.

There were flowers on the bedside table.

He must be imagining them but ... but he could smell them. And they were his favorites.

Slowly and carefully, he tried to sit up, but his arms wouldn't support him, and he fell back into the pillow with a pitiful groan.

He hurt more than he had in a long time. Had he tried to escape again?

Something moved on his other side. Steve tiredly turned his head, ready to face another day of tiring questions. "Did I have a relapse again?" he asked, his voice even raspier than he remembered it to be.

"Relapse? No Stevie. Just one lapse after that demon attacked you."

Steve blinked to get the person to focus. For a moment, he was confused. "You're not Dr. Daymon," he whispered while his brain tried to remember where he knew the man from.

"Who? No, I'm not," the man said. He reached for Steve and ran his fingers softly over his cheek. "Do you remember me?"

Steve swallowed against the tightness in his throat as the man's words caught up with him. "Demon?" he repeated, his voice barely audible. "Did you say...demon?"

"I did. You were ambushed. I'm sorry it took us so long to get up here, but there weren't any wizards nearby. The demon was after you specifically."

"But...why me? I'm..." He had to stop himself and swallow thickly once more. "Why me?" he repeated helplessly.

"You're the strongest wizard out there other than Ozzie -- who's currently pacing the hallway. What's the last thing you remember Stevie?"

"I don't know," he whispered.

"Okay," he said simply. "Can the others peek in to say hi or would you rather you were left alone?"

"Others?" he asked, feeling completely overwhelmed.

"Ozzie, Drapes, Pavs and Lils. Your parents are nearby too. You scared a lot of people."

"But...they didn't want to see me. For almost a whole year. I think." He blinked furiously, but he couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"Didn't want to see you? Oh Stevie," the other man, Steve cursed silently when he still couldn't come up with a name, sighed. "It's a good thing it's summer or there would have been some interesting cover stories as we all missed games. They've been hard to keep out of the room."

"How long have I been here?" Steve asked and weakly struggled to sit up. "What...what happened?"

"Four days," the man said. "You were alone after the demon's attack for about twelve hours."

"No, that can't be." Steve shook his head. "I remember Christmas, and Easter. It was almost a whole year."

The man sighed again. "Can I get Chris?" he requested. "He can explain it better than me."

Steve nodded silently and wiped at his eyes. He had no idea who this Chris was - even if he had a growing suspicion that he should know; that it was important that he remembered.

"Hey," a blond man -- Chris -- greeted. "It's good to see you awake."

Steve nodded and pulled his knees up to his chest.

"Chris," the first man said quietly. "I don't think he remembers anything. He thinks he's been in the hospital for almost a year."

"The demon intertwined himself deeply with him," Chris said quietly. "There's not telling what he was forced to see."

The man sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair before reaching out and touching Steve's pulled-up knee gently. "Whatever you saw, we're here now," he promised.

Steve grimaced at the touch. "My knee hurts."

"You fell on it, twisted it pretty badly," Chris explained gently. "Do you remember the attack?"

Steve shook his head.

Chris frowned and tilted his head as he stared at Steve for a moment. Something around the other man was different. The energy lines around him were...wrong.

"Do you remember us?" he asked, his voice gentle and soothing.

"No," he said, his voice cracking.

The dark-haired man hesitated briefly, but then he sat down on the edge of the bed and wrapped his arm around Steve gently. "Shhh," he whispered. "It's okay."

"I was alone. There was no one there but Daymon."

"You're not alone now," the man said fiercely. "Not now and never again."

Steve clutched at him tightly. He couldn't remember the man, but he felt safe with him.

The man pressed a gentle kiss into Steve's hair. "Want me to tell you our names?" he offered gently.

Steve nodded. "Please? I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," the man said again and tightened his grip on Steve a fraction. "I'm Brendan. Shanahan."

Steve froze.

"Stevie?"

"You're not real," he whispered. "You can't be real."

"I'm very real," Brendan told him. "I promise you that."

"I made you up. You're a figment of my imagination."

Brendan gave Chris a helpless look.

"Feel for him," Chris said gently. "Magic doesn't lie."

"But magic doesn't exist."

Chris reached out and touched Steve briefly. "It does," he simply said. "But that's not important right now, you hear me? The most important thing is that you get healthy again - or at least healthy enough for us to take you home."

Steve swallowed and nodded. "Okay," he whispered.

"I let you get your rest, okay?" Chris smiled. "Brendan will probably stay with you?"

"You're both real?"

"Steve," Brendan said, his voice cracking as well. "I fucking swear, we're real."

"Please don't leave me," he whispered as he clutched at Brendan and fell asleep.

"Never," Brendan whispered and kissed his hair again. "I love you, Stevie. Don't ever fucking scare me like that again."

He looked at the wards and charms placed around the room. Steve was safe now, Chris had promised him that. He let his fingers ghost over Steve's eye and winced.

House, who had threatened and bribed his boss until she'd let him fly to Canada, had promised that, from a physical standpoint, it looked worse than it was, and that the various cuts and bruises would heal on their own soon.

But Brendan couldn't help but feel like there was something more to the injury than could be seen.

He had been shocked that Steve hadn't recognized him, but the confused state the other man was in woke the protective side in Brendan.

Steve was his wizard and he would do anything to keep him safe.

He stretched out on the bed next to Steve and pulled him carefully in his arms, arranging the smaller man's limbs into a comfortable position.

He'd sleep too and trust that their friends would keep them safe. They would sort everything out in the morning when, hopefully, Steve would remember more.

~*~*~

"You didn't go away."

"I told you I wouldn't."

Steve clutched at Brendan's shirt. "I..." he licked his lips nervously. "I didn't think you would," he finally whispered. "I trust you, even if I don't remember you."

"Do you want to talk?" he asked softly.

Steve hesitated briefly. "It's all so confusing," he admitted. "What happened to the year I spent in this room?"

Looking around, he realized that he was in another room than the one he'd been in when Dr. Daymon had been the only other person talking to him - Dr. Daymon an a few of the nurses.

"It didn't happen," Brendan told him. "It wan't real."

"But it was real," Steve murmured. "It felt real to me."

Brendan held him tighter. "The demon made you see it," he said. "We couldn't break through the hold he had on you."

Steve swallowed. "How can I be sure that this isn't another of my delusions?" he asked softly.

"Feel for me," Brendan encouraged. "Can't you see the energy lines?"

Steve shook his head mutely.

Brendan swallowed hard. "I've never lied to you," he told Steve. "Please, just trust me."

"I trust you," Steve whispered and rested his cheek against Brendan's chest. "I don't know why, but I do."

Brendan kissed the top of his head. "Thank you."

A soft knock at the door made both of them look up.

"Come in," Brendan called.

Chris stuck his head in. "Good morning," he said quietly. "Steve, your mother wants to see you. Is that okay?"

Steve nodded. "That's fine."

Chris nodded, but he had noticed how Steve's grip on Brendan's shirt had tightened.

"I won't go anywhere if you don't want me to," Brendan promised him softly.

"Please stay," Steve said. "I don't..." He bit his lip sharply.

"I'll stay," Brendan told him. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I don't know...they told me I've hurt my brother," Steve said quietly. "And that he'd never recover. And that it was all my fault and they didn't want to see me."

He realized halfway through that his words probably didn't make sense, but it didn't matter.

"Your brother is fine," a woman, Steve assumed it was his mother, said as she walked in. "You've never hurt any of your family."

"Are you sure?" Steve asked, not caring that he sounded more like a ten-year old with a skinned knee than a grown man.

"I'm positive Stevie," she told him. "I'm your mother and I'm telling you that you have never and would never hurt a member of your family."

Steve blinked against the tears threatening to overwhelm him once more. "I'm glad to hear that," he said softly. "I'm...confused about what happened and what didn't."

"Why don't you tell us what you can," she suggested. "We can fix things from there."

Steve hesitated briefly, but then he started talking.

The three listened quietly while Steve explained everything. "So that's it," Steve said. "How much is true?"

"Nothing," Brendan replied firmly. "Your wrist isn't even broken. Just banged up and badly bruised."

"And my head?"

"What with your head?" Chris asked gently.

"It ... hurt," he said weakly.

His mother reached over and gripped his hand. "Let House look at it," she suggested. "Don't worry, Stevie, we're going to stay here, if you want."

"You're sure this is real?"

"You still can't feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"The magic," Chris said softly. "All around you?"

Steve swallowed hard and shook his head. "No," he whispered.

Chris nodded darkly. "Let House take a look," he said. "He's a witchdoctor. One of the best."

"Okay," he said. "If that's best."

"Yeah," Brendan murmured and brushed Steve's hair out of his forehead. "You'll see, we'll have you fit in a few days."

"I hope so," he said very softly.

"I love you," Brendan said firmly. "We all do. Don't worry about it, okay?"

"Sure," he muttered.

Chris chuckled. "I'll get House," he said and stood. "I'll be back in a moment."

"I'll be here. Always in this damn room."

"You want to go outside?" Brendan asked. "I'm sure we can borrow a wheelchair, if your knee isn't feeling up to walking."

"I can go outside?" he asked in surprise.

"Of course!" Brendan said. "Let me find you some clothes, and your shoes first."

Steve nodded, but didn't really believe Brendan. He hadn't been allowed out of the room before.

"You want to go now, for a quick walk down the hall and back?" Brendan asked. "Or wait for House to poke at you and then go outside?"

"I want to go outside," he said. "Out of the hospital."

"Now?" Brendan asked and stood. "Or wait for Chris and House?"

"Now."

"Let's go, then."

He handed Steve some clothes and waited patiently while he struggled his aching limbs into them before helping him tying his shoes.

"Where should we go?"

"I don't know. Just outside."

"Okay," he said easily as he started to push Steve down the hall.

They went past Chris and House, who both frowned, but didn't try to stop them.

"Here," Chris murmured and handed Steve a pendant. "To protect you."

"Thank you," he said politely and clutched it tightly in his fist.

Chris nodded and stepped back, letting them through. He'd heard Steve telling them what he thought had happened to him, and he'd felt that something was wrong with his friend, and he needed time to figure out what had really happened and what he could do to stop it.

Because if his suspicions were correct, the fallout was going to be huge.

He couldn't deny that he was very worried about Steve's inability to touch the magic around him. It wasn't just that. It was as if the magic stayed away from him - something Chris had never seen before.

He wondered just what the demon had managed to do.

He exchanged a brief look with House. The doctor had grumbled and complained all the time since arriving, but he had come as soon as he'd heard what had happened. Considering the fact that news traveled fast in the wizard community, Chris didn't even have to call him himself.

"Could it be a containment spell?" he asked, not sure if he was asking the doctor or just asking out loud.

House snorted. "Don't be stupid," he scolded. "What kind of containment spell is this supposed to be? No spell I ever saw has ever been able to do that. He's more...like a magnet, pushing all magic away from him."

Chris nodded, knowing the doctor was right. "How do we fix that?"

House shrugged and limped to Steve's room, to wait for the other man to return. The truth was that he'd never seen anything like this, and he had no idea how to fix it.

It was a challenge, and he liked challenges.

The problem was, Steve was a patient he found less annoying than all the others he was forced to deal with every day. If pressed, he might even admit - or not admit - that he liked the other man, and he wanted him healthy.

And that had the possibility of making the treatment more difficult. He scowled. He'd just have to make sure that people didn't think he was too involved with the case and patient. He had a reputation to uphold.

"Weasley," he snapped and limped over to where the redhead was sitting. He looked even paler than usual, the analytical part of House's brain noted, and he had dark rings under his eyes. "Let me see the pieces of his stick."

Maybe they would be able to tell him something new.

TBC...

chris osgood, team: detroit red wings, brendan shanahan, steve yzerman, kris draper, team: new york rangers, author: yakihngenit, rating: nc-17

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