Loyalty in the Face of Change Ch. 8
Title: Loyalty in the Face of Change
Chapter: Eight: Of Finals and Baseball Bats
Author: chasepoke
Characters: Characters in Heroes, but mostly Luke and Gabriel/Sylar
Spoilers: Season 1 and beyond
Rating: R - NC-17
Warnings: Violence in this chapter.
Summary: AU-ish. Luke and Gabriel attend the same High School back in the early 90's (which I'm guessing is when canon!Gabriel went to High School). The story follows their relationship throughout the years. I suppose the story will end when the series does. Wow, this summary sucks. Oh well, just read it.
Gabriel, predictably, was embarrassed about last night’s incident. He kept telling Luke over and over that they should have been more careful. Luke on the other hand, just shrugged it all off. “Honestly, Gabe. It doesn’t really matter. My mother isn’t going to risk her own already tattered reputation by telling everyone that she caught me having sex with a guy.” Gabriel fidgeted, looking down at his hands.
“You sure?” Luke nodded,
“I’m positive.” Gabriel didn’t seem comforted.
“C’mon, Gabe, cheer up.”
“Still, your mother caught us. Doesn’t that embarrass you at all?”
“Not really. Like I give a shit what she thinks. The only thing that pisses me off is the fact that she upset you.” Gabriel smiled at bit at that,
“Thanks Luke.”
The next few weeks passed without incident. Luke and Gabriel decided not to sneak out together, at least for a little while. Besides, with Finals coming up, as well as graduation, both boys were rather busy. Even Luke studied hard, seeing as he couldn’t afford to be held back. After all, his mother was sure to kick him out when he turned eighteen. So, the days slipped by unnoticed. It wasn’t until a week before graduation that all Hell broke loose.
“You’ve never been on a plane before?” Luke and Gabriel were walking down a darkened street. They had decided to escape their oppressive homes that night to take a break from studying. They were currently having a discussion about traveling on airplanes.
Gabriel shook his head, “Nope, never. My mom’s way too paranoid about it crashing. And frankly, so am I.”
“Aw, come on. You have more of a chance of getting into a car crash than into a plane crash.”
“Yeah, but you won’t ever be able to walk away from a plane crash.”
“But-” Noises in the brush next to them interrupted their conversation. They stopped as several people picked their way through the bushes to stand in front of them. Luke recognized them as Nick and his goons.
“Hello,” Nick said. Luke shifted nervously. It was one thing for Nick, Dan, and Brad to confront Gabriel and himself at school, but it was another thing entirely for them to do it after school, especially during the evening.
“What do you want?” Luke asked, warily.
“I know it was you who threw that damned rock through my window,” Nick said. Gabriel looked at Luke, frightened. Luke ignored him, not wanting to confirm Nick’s accusations with his body language,
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Luke said.
“Bullshit. I saw you running from the scene! You know how much fucking money fixing that window cost?”
“Maybe you were-”
“Save it! You ain’t gonna talk your way outta this one. You’re gonna get what’s comin’ to ya.”
“Luke…” Gabriel said, panic in his voice.
“It’s okay, Gabe. We’ve been over this before. Just remember what I taught you.” Time seemed to stop then, for what seemed like hours, but was probably more like a few seconds. Then, things snapped back into motion as the blows began to fall. It was so sudden, Luke didn’t even have time to think, let alone defend himself. All he knew was one moment, someone was hitting him and the next, it stopped. Luke looked up, confused. Gabriel had pulled what turned out to be Brad off him. He now had to defend himself from both Brad and Dan, but Luke didn’t have the chance to help him, because Nick was coming at him now.
Things progressed like this for about an hour. As soon as either Luke or Gabriel fought off one of their attackers, another one replaced him. Luke and Gabriel soon began wear down, but their antagonists did not relent. If anything, their attacks only became more sadistic and vicious as they sensed weakness in their victims.
Luke fell to his knees, panting, after a particularly bad whack to the jaw. He looked over to Gabriel, who Brad was holding against a tree and pummeling. He couldn’t keep this up and he knew Gabriel couldn’t either, “Alright. We give up! We surrender,” Luke said, pride smarting worse than his wounds. Brad dropped Gabriel, who slid down the trunk.
“Good. Just one more thing.” The three boys each pulled something out from the bushes. Luke struggled to get up when he realized with growing horror what they had retrieved. Baseball bats.
Luke returned to consciousness to the sound of sirens. He saw a man he didn’t recognize standing over him. The man was wearing a paramedic’s uniform. “What’s going on?” Luke asked the man.
“You and your friend got beat up somethin’ awful,” the man said. He had a slight Southern drawl. Luke sat up suddenly, ignoring the screaming pain that ripped through his body as he did.
“I know who did it!” he exclaimed. The paramedic put a hand on his chest and gently pushed him back down.
“Easy kid. Save it for the police. I ain’t got any authority over that kind of thing. Now try not to move. We’re going to load ya on the stretcher.” Luke felt a trill of shock go through him,
“Stretcher? No! I’m fine.” The paramedic rolled his eyes and sighed. He must’ve heard Luke’s assertion a million times a day.
“No, you’re not. You’ve got broken bones and internal bleeding. I’ve tried to patch ya up the best I could here, but you need more medical attention. Attention ya can only get at a hospital.”
“But-” Luke’s protest was cut off by more pain as he was lifted up by the paramedic and his partner and placed on the stretcher. “Ahg!” he shouted, unable to contain it.
“Told ya,” the paramedic mumbled.
Luke ended up being the one to give the police report. Gabriel was just too upset. The police promised to take Gabriel’s statement at a later date, after he calmed down. After the police left, the paramedic, whose name turned out to be David, came into the room to inform them that Virginia was coming to visit and that they would be released in a few days, but their condition was stable.
“My mother isn’t coming?” Luke asked, though he knew the answer. David shot him a sympathetic look, which Luke tried his best to ignore.
“She said that you got yourself into this situation and you can get yourself out…” David said, sounding reluctant. Luke felt a pang of hurt. He shouldn’t have expected anything else, but a small part of him had hoped that his mother would at least be a little concerned about the fact that he was in the hospital.
“Oh,” Luke said flatly. David sighed,
“Listen. The doctors noticed the cigarette burns on your-”
“My dad did it a long time ago. I no longer have contact with him,” Luke said, knowing where this was going. David exhaled loudly again,
“Listen, if you need any assistance at home…”
“I’m fine,” Luke insisted. David nodded,
“Alright.” He left the room. Luke turned his head to look at Gabriel, who was on the bed next to him. His lover was sleeping off his injuries, which were worse than Luke’s, but luckily not too serious.
“I’m sorry,” Luke said, “that I couldn’t protect you.” He whimpered slightly, guilt-ridden, “It won’t happen again.”
Chapter: Eight: Of Finals and Baseball Bats
Author: chasepoke
Characters: Characters in Heroes, but mostly Luke and Gabriel/Sylar
Spoilers: Season 1 and beyond
Rating: R - NC-17
Warnings: Violence in this chapter.
Summary: AU-ish. Luke and Gabriel attend the same High School back in the early 90's (which I'm guessing is when canon!Gabriel went to High School). The story follows their relationship throughout the years. I suppose the story will end when the series does. Wow, this summary sucks. Oh well, just read it.
Gabriel, predictably, was embarrassed about last night’s incident. He kept telling Luke over and over that they should have been more careful. Luke on the other hand, just shrugged it all off. “Honestly, Gabe. It doesn’t really matter. My mother isn’t going to risk her own already tattered reputation by telling everyone that she caught me having sex with a guy.” Gabriel fidgeted, looking down at his hands.
“You sure?” Luke nodded,
“I’m positive.” Gabriel didn’t seem comforted.
“C’mon, Gabe, cheer up.”
“Still, your mother caught us. Doesn’t that embarrass you at all?”
“Not really. Like I give a shit what she thinks. The only thing that pisses me off is the fact that she upset you.” Gabriel smiled at bit at that,
“Thanks Luke.”
The next few weeks passed without incident. Luke and Gabriel decided not to sneak out together, at least for a little while. Besides, with Finals coming up, as well as graduation, both boys were rather busy. Even Luke studied hard, seeing as he couldn’t afford to be held back. After all, his mother was sure to kick him out when he turned eighteen. So, the days slipped by unnoticed. It wasn’t until a week before graduation that all Hell broke loose.
“You’ve never been on a plane before?” Luke and Gabriel were walking down a darkened street. They had decided to escape their oppressive homes that night to take a break from studying. They were currently having a discussion about traveling on airplanes.
Gabriel shook his head, “Nope, never. My mom’s way too paranoid about it crashing. And frankly, so am I.”
“Aw, come on. You have more of a chance of getting into a car crash than into a plane crash.”
“Yeah, but you won’t ever be able to walk away from a plane crash.”
“But-” Noises in the brush next to them interrupted their conversation. They stopped as several people picked their way through the bushes to stand in front of them. Luke recognized them as Nick and his goons.
“Hello,” Nick said. Luke shifted nervously. It was one thing for Nick, Dan, and Brad to confront Gabriel and himself at school, but it was another thing entirely for them to do it after school, especially during the evening.
“What do you want?” Luke asked, warily.
“I know it was you who threw that damned rock through my window,” Nick said. Gabriel looked at Luke, frightened. Luke ignored him, not wanting to confirm Nick’s accusations with his body language,
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Luke said.
“Bullshit. I saw you running from the scene! You know how much fucking money fixing that window cost?”
“Maybe you were-”
“Save it! You ain’t gonna talk your way outta this one. You’re gonna get what’s comin’ to ya.”
“Luke…” Gabriel said, panic in his voice.
“It’s okay, Gabe. We’ve been over this before. Just remember what I taught you.” Time seemed to stop then, for what seemed like hours, but was probably more like a few seconds. Then, things snapped back into motion as the blows began to fall. It was so sudden, Luke didn’t even have time to think, let alone defend himself. All he knew was one moment, someone was hitting him and the next, it stopped. Luke looked up, confused. Gabriel had pulled what turned out to be Brad off him. He now had to defend himself from both Brad and Dan, but Luke didn’t have the chance to help him, because Nick was coming at him now.
Things progressed like this for about an hour. As soon as either Luke or Gabriel fought off one of their attackers, another one replaced him. Luke and Gabriel soon began wear down, but their antagonists did not relent. If anything, their attacks only became more sadistic and vicious as they sensed weakness in their victims.
Luke fell to his knees, panting, after a particularly bad whack to the jaw. He looked over to Gabriel, who Brad was holding against a tree and pummeling. He couldn’t keep this up and he knew Gabriel couldn’t either, “Alright. We give up! We surrender,” Luke said, pride smarting worse than his wounds. Brad dropped Gabriel, who slid down the trunk.
“Good. Just one more thing.” The three boys each pulled something out from the bushes. Luke struggled to get up when he realized with growing horror what they had retrieved. Baseball bats.
Luke returned to consciousness to the sound of sirens. He saw a man he didn’t recognize standing over him. The man was wearing a paramedic’s uniform. “What’s going on?” Luke asked the man.
“You and your friend got beat up somethin’ awful,” the man said. He had a slight Southern drawl. Luke sat up suddenly, ignoring the screaming pain that ripped through his body as he did.
“I know who did it!” he exclaimed. The paramedic put a hand on his chest and gently pushed him back down.
“Easy kid. Save it for the police. I ain’t got any authority over that kind of thing. Now try not to move. We’re going to load ya on the stretcher.” Luke felt a trill of shock go through him,
“Stretcher? No! I’m fine.” The paramedic rolled his eyes and sighed. He must’ve heard Luke’s assertion a million times a day.
“No, you’re not. You’ve got broken bones and internal bleeding. I’ve tried to patch ya up the best I could here, but you need more medical attention. Attention ya can only get at a hospital.”
“But-” Luke’s protest was cut off by more pain as he was lifted up by the paramedic and his partner and placed on the stretcher. “Ahg!” he shouted, unable to contain it.
“Told ya,” the paramedic mumbled.
Luke ended up being the one to give the police report. Gabriel was just too upset. The police promised to take Gabriel’s statement at a later date, after he calmed down. After the police left, the paramedic, whose name turned out to be David, came into the room to inform them that Virginia was coming to visit and that they would be released in a few days, but their condition was stable.
“My mother isn’t coming?” Luke asked, though he knew the answer. David shot him a sympathetic look, which Luke tried his best to ignore.
“She said that you got yourself into this situation and you can get yourself out…” David said, sounding reluctant. Luke felt a pang of hurt. He shouldn’t have expected anything else, but a small part of him had hoped that his mother would at least be a little concerned about the fact that he was in the hospital.
“Oh,” Luke said flatly. David sighed,
“Listen. The doctors noticed the cigarette burns on your-”
“My dad did it a long time ago. I no longer have contact with him,” Luke said, knowing where this was going. David exhaled loudly again,
“Listen, if you need any assistance at home…”
“I’m fine,” Luke insisted. David nodded,
“Alright.” He left the room. Luke turned his head to look at Gabriel, who was on the bed next to him. His lover was sleeping off his injuries, which were worse than Luke’s, but luckily not too serious.
“I’m sorry,” Luke said, “that I couldn’t protect you.” He whimpered slightly, guilt-ridden, “It won’t happen again.”