Someone you might have been (part 33 of 39)
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Someone you might have been
Secret agent!Jared/Jensen… with an additional warning of some non-con elements this chapter
part thirty-two
banner made by the fabulously talented nyaubaby
They don't leave Jared alone. Not ever. There are always at least three of Mike's guys in the room. They take it in shifts and Jared gets to recognise some of them. Currently it's the guy with the really ugly earring, and the guy who looks kind of like a skinny Jack Black, and the guy who wears band t-shirts from the seventies.
And then, no warning: Jensen turns up. He comes into the room with a bundle of files in his arms and heads towards the table.
"Are you allowed in here?" Ugly Earring says to him.
"Yeah, Jennybean," Jared says, "has Mike stamped your permission slip?"
It gets him backhanded by Ugly Earring but it's worth it. Jared's shoulders and back are aching and there's a light spinning in his head from dehydration, and it's clear he's going to have to make his own entertainment.
Jensen doesn't deign to reply to either of them. He meets Ugly Earring's gaze for a moment and then neatly sidesteps him and takes a seat at the table. He sets his files down, takes out a pen, and starts reading. There's an uncomfortable pause, where Ugly Earring obviously wants to take it further but Jack Black and Seventies T-shirts obviously don't want him to. Before Ugly Earring can make up his mind, the door opens again and Jensen's blond twink, Justin, appears with another armful of files.
He can't quite bring himself to ignore Jared, and Jared gives him a lazy smile as Justin's gaze flickers furtively in his direction.
"Where do you want these, Jen?" Justin says.
"Just here's fine," Jensen says, gesturing to some free space on the tabletop among the fast food wrappers and beer bottles. "Thanks."
After Justin sets them down, he puts his hand on Jensen's back and leans in to speak to Jensen in a low voice. And he makes Jensen smile that crooked, pretty smile that belongs to Jared. And Jared knows Justin is only doing it to rile him up and Jared knows he can't let it work but God he wishes he'd killed Justin when he'd had the chance.
Once Justin's gone, Jared watches Jensen. He knows Jensen's aware of it, because sometimes Jensen starts to raise his head to look in Jared's direction and then he realizes Jared's still watching, and he goes back to his files. Jared gets a masochistic pleasure from watching Jensen, almost enjoys seeing what he never noticed in him before, all the little lies that seem so obvious now.
What he doesn't like is that, while Jack Black and Seventies T-Shirts are happy talking about some movie they saw recently, Ugly Earring is blatantly watching Jared watch Jensen. Jared refuses to notice.
Instead, he says, "So, Jen, when am I being shipped to Kripke and Kring? 'Cause I kinda stink and someone needs to drag a comb through my hair. Don't want to embarrass you all."
"Mike's handled the arrangements," Jensen says, not even looking up from his paperwork. "I'm sure you'll do fine."
"Is it weird that I'm getting stage fright? I mean, seriously, you think I should I try picturing 'em naked? Imma get completely starstruck, aren't I?" Jared twists to get a better look at Jensen's face. "Seriously, wow, Kripke and Kring. This is such a big moment for me. My momma would be so proud." He pauses, wondering whether Jensen's a soulless bastard despite being so pretty or because of it. "How about you, Jen? You think your momma's proud?"
Jensen is silent.
:::
For what feels like hours, Jensen ploughs through his bundles of files. He's obviously got a system going because the files go into different piles once he's done with them, some with scribbled notes from him and some simply read through. Justin brings him a second load, tries to make him promise to stop for something to eat.
The other guys in the room change; this shift is Growler, Facial Hair and Star Trek Geek. None of them pay Jared as much attention as Ugly Earring did. They're a reasonably friendly bunch and Facial Hair even offers Jared some of the pizza they're sharing between them. Jared declines but politely. He has his pride, after all, and he's not going to allow Jensen to watch him be handfed.
Mike even comes in for a while. The atmosphere changes considerably and Jared is forced to conclude that though Mike is undoubtedly living on the exciting side of mental health, he's an effective leader. Jared's had experience of 'leaders' before, guys too weak to hold on to power and guys who get off on it so much they end up forgetting that the guys taking their orders don't actually have to.
Mike manages to come in somewhere between intimidating and charismatic. He exchanges a few quick words with Jared's babysitters before he takes a chair beside Jensen, helps himself to a handful of Jensen's files and starts working through them.
It makes Jared uncomfortable to see how easy they are with each other. They bicker quietly when Mike steals Jensen's pen; Jensen leans in close to show Mike something on the page, to ask his opinion; Jensen frowns and scribbles on the page and Mike looks over at him and smiles fondly at the top of Jensen's head.
It never really occurred to Jared before that Jensen had friends. He always seemed so isolated at ISA, introverted and tightly-wound and living for his work. And there's still something of that in Jensen's behavior, still that enigmatic independence. But he has friends.
Jared doesn’t know what to do with that.
:::
Jared's been on both sides of the 'keeping someone a prisoner' game and it's dull all the way round. That doesn't mean he's going to be even a little bit understanding when Ugly Earring decides to pass the time by using Jared as a punching bag. The other two guys don't seem happy about it, but they're clearly not willing to take Ugly Earring on.
One punch after the other, steadily snapping Jared's neck one way then the other. And the pain rises to muffled thunder in his ears and fire in his head as Ugly Earring just keeps on punching. The sound of the beating quickly grows wet as Jared's lips and cheeks split under the impact, his nose crumples. Ugly Earring's hands come away bloody. There's nothing Jared can do, no way to block it.
And every time Ugly Earring slams Jared's face to the left, he can see Jensen still calmly working through his files.
It goes on for a while and, quite coherently considering, the thought comes to Jared that it's not going to be long before he loses consciousness. It might be a relief, to get away from the blinding pain and humiliation, but he's not completely sure he'll wake up again.
Everything starts to go very far away.
"ISA's not going to trade us so much as a button for a brain-damaged agent," Jensen remarks in a vaguely disinterested tone of voice. "Kripke and Kring need him capable of higher brain function if they're going to get anything for him."
"You dumb slut."
Jared's willing to believe he didn't actually hear that, like it's an auditory hallucination or something. But Ugly Earring has stopped punching him, and he's looking at Jensen, and Jensen's pen has frozen over the page. Jared thinks it might actually be really happening.
Ugly Earring isn't done. "There's not gonna be any trade. Mike'd give the nuclear warhead back before he let them have him back. And it's not just 'cause you're a stupid whore who can't keep his legs together."
Jared snorts up blood and watches as Jensen, still silent, finally puts his pen down and looks up at Ugly Earring. Jared tries to read the look on his face but it's Jensen - who's never been what you might call the definition of 'open' - and also his head is still swimming.
"Mike wants him dead. You think he wants someone like him getting loose and coming after him?" Ugly Earring smiles in ugly victory. "I heard him make the arrangements. Your little boyfriend here gets handed over to Kripke and Kring for interrogation, sure, but only on the condition that they kill him soon as they're done with him."
It's very quiet for a moment. Ugly Earring is waiting for Jensen to make his move, hoping for it. And maybe all the sense has been punched clean out of Jared's head because he can only think to distract Ugly Earring from the way he's looking at Jensen, like it's him he wants to be punching instead of Jared.
"Fuck you. I object to being called 'little'," Jared says. His voice comes out thick and funny because his nose is streaming blood and his throat's full of it too. But it makes Ugly Earring look back at him instead of Jensen and Jared is totally blaming his concussion for making him think that's a good thing.
Ugly Earring draws his fist back and Jared braces for the next round.
"For interrogation," Jensen says. His voice is glacial. "Go ahead, give Kripke and Kring a corpse to interrogate after Mike's promised them a living breathing body. Just give me some warning before you tell Mike, I'd like to get out of the fallout range of his temper. He'll skin you alive, you suicidally stupid dick."
Another long silence.
Then, "Fine, not dead. Not even retarded," Ugly Earring says.
Just for a second, Jared is stupid enough and desperate enough to believe that's the end of it. Then Ugly Earring's tugging at Jared's fly and Jared jerks his hips away uselessly. Ugly Earring grips Jared's cock hard and yanks it free of Jared's pants. He tries to hang on to his training, all the conditioning he's been put through to allow him to keep himself together through all manner of torture, while Ugly Earring examines him.
"Jesus, you weren't lying, were you? Not little at all," he says, eyebrows raised. He looks Jared straight in the eye as he says it. Jared meets his gaze levelly and gives him nothing back. So Ugly Earring peers over at Jensen. "He was sticking it to you with this? No wonder you're so fucking bowlegged. You actually do anything useful for us while you were playing double or were you just letting him dick you the whole time?"
Jensen's only response is a withering look before he continues working through his files. And Jared didn't know what he expected but he feels like a fucking idiot for trying to take some of the brunt of Ugly Earring's hostility issues when clearly Jensen really isn't all that interested in reciprocating.
"How big does he get?" Ugly Earring says, stripping Jared's cock with rough, demanding jerks of his wrist. "I bet he gets fucking huge."
Jared is aware that it doesn't mean anything when his dick starts to get hard. It's his body's natural response to stimulus and it's not anything to be ashamed about. He knows it all, but it's in the part of his brain that's been trained for this kind of scenario, and that part feels detached, too distant for Jared to be able to reach it. All he has is feeling humiliated and violated as his cock gets hard for some asshole who's touching him like he's got a right to.
He tries to shut down, tries to separate himself from what's being done to him. Tries to not be here while this happens.
There's a sudden scrape of chair legs and Jensen's on his feet, and Jared looks to him instantly. But he's not stopping Ugly Earring.
He's not stopping him.
He's gathering his files up and he's leaving. The door clicks closed behind him and Jared wants to shout every ugly goddamn word he knows after him. Because Jensen got him into this and Jensen's fucking abandoned him to this. And Jared channels his shame into hatred, and it surges through him like something alive. He can taste his own blood and Ugly Earring's watching him like all he wants to see is the look on Jared's face when he forces him to come.
And Jared looks at Ugly Earring's so very ugly earring, which is right there, and he lunges forward, sinks his teeth into the guy's earlobe and rips.
There's a scream and a fresh rush of blood and then there's a ragged lump of flesh in Jared's mouth. While Ugly Earring - now minus his ugly earring, so Jared will have to rename him - is screaming and clutching at the side of his head, and the two other babysitters are rushing forward, Jared uses his tongue to work the earring free from the flesh. He spits out the bloody hunk of skin but tucks the earring up against his gum.
Ugly Earring lashes out at Jared, slamming Jared's head back into the pole hard. Jared's vision sparks white for a moment and he sags, waiting for the next punch, but it doesn't come.
Someone catches Ugly Earring's arm.
"You deserved that," Mike says.
In the commotion of separating someone from a good half of their ear, Jared didn't even hear him come in. Jensen is standing behind Mike, his expression livid. With one swift, vicious kick, Mike knocks Ugly Earring's legs out from under him and there's a crack of bone as he crumples to the ground.
"One, sexual assault is skeezy and I don't allow it," Mike says. "Two, sexual assault in front of someone's ex is skeezy and insensitive and I definitely don't allow it when that ex is Jensen. Three, when being a revolutionary terrorist, it's important not to open your mouth and let everything fall out." He shakes his head. "I'm very unhappy right now and I think the only thing that's going to make me happy again is taking you to Tom and having you repeat to him the nasty things you called Jenny."
:::
Mike has the two other guys drag Ugly Earring out and maybe Jensen is supposed to go with them, but he doesn't. He crosses to Jared like Jared isn't entirely strung up and helpless, like Jared's a threat. And Jared was right when he said you could accuse Jensen of a lot of things but not of being stupid. Jensen's really smart to be cautious of getting in range of Jared.
He doesn't speak to Jared, but he looks him in the eye as he very carefully, and with the minimum amount of touching, tucks Jared's cock back into his pants and redoes his fly.
And then, for precisely three minutes, Jared is left alone. Left alone with a sharp pin of metal from the earring and some cuffs. Too fucking easy.
:::
By the time Jared's babysitters come back, Jared's cuffs are purely decorative. He stays up against the pole, letting them think he's still restrained, and the whole ear-biting incident seems to have convinced them that getting close to Jared is maybe a bad idea. Slowly, feeling is coming back into his shoulders. He'll be at full strength in just a few moments. If the situation remains the same then it's not going to be long until Jared can get the hell out of here.
The situation does not remain the same. Approximately two minutes before Jared was planning to make his move, the lights go out.
Maybe God is on his side, maybe ISA has come looking for him; Jared does not need to wait for God or ISA to rescue him. Instead, within sixty seconds, he has disabled his three babysitters and is out the door.
He doesn't know what he expects to find the other door, what kind of building he's in, how many people will be there. What he was not expecting was Jensen. Jensen's eyes have just enough time to go wide before Jared kicks him squarely in the belly, slams him down onto the ground and puts one knee in his chest to pin him down.
"Please!" Jensen whispers, frozen and not struggling under him. "Don't, don't, I was coming to find you… I want to get you out of here."
"Bullshit!" Jared says. "You were coming to make sure I was still locked up tight."
"No! It was me, I knocked out the lights, brought security down. I bought us some time!" The expression on Jared's face doesn't waver from pure skepticism. "Look, look, I've got the key to your cuffs," Jensen says. "I lifted it off Tom. Let me go, I'm trying to help you!"
He does have the key and his hand only shakes a little as he offers it to Jared. Jared looks at the key, looks at Jensen's big green eyes. He smiles and shakes his head.
"How stupid do you think I am, Jensen? Let me say this real clearly, I don't trust you. At the very best, you're a liability to me."
"No!" Jensen says. "No, I can help you-"
Jared's wasted too much time talking. He's not letting Jensen screw this up too. He clamps his hand over Jensen's mouth, smothering all of Jensen's protests and hauls him back into the room. As soon as Jensen realizes what Jared's thinking, he starts fighting, thrashing and jerking and making desperate noises behind Jared's hand. Jared doesn't let it hold him up. Once he's got Jensen cuffed to the pole, he only has to hear a brief burst of Jensen begging him - don't do this, please don’t, please, Jared, please - before he gets Jensen gagged.
If he could afford it, Jared'd feel bad about the way Jensen gives up and goes silent as he leaves the room.
:::
Whatever else he was lying about, Jensen seems to have been telling the truth about buying Jared some time. The security screens he passes are all mysteriously showing nothing but static and he's been running for at least a couple of minutes before he hears anyone. Make that a lot of someones. Heading his way.
The place they've been keeping him has been heavily refitted to the Coalition's purpose but it's old and industrial, and Jared slides easily into the gulley that runs along and beneath the walkways.
"It would just be nice if he could give me some warning," Mike's voice says, "y'know, when he's planning in being more unpredictable than usual. Just… it would be nice. You find him, Justin. You haul his ass into a room and you don't let him out or anyone else in until I get there. Whatever it takes, you understand?"
"How do you know he's not with Jared?" Justin says.
They're almost on top of Jared now. Any minute now and someone's gonna find him.
"I'm choosing to be optimistic and to believe that Jensen hasn't just committed suicide by secret agent. And Tom, I'm really sorry but I'm gonna have to wreck your glorious revolution just a little bit. I need you to find and kill Jared. The killing part is essential. And would someone please get the fucking lights back on?"
There's a shaft of some kind just a little way along from Jared. The thin trickle of water that runs along the gulley is disappearing down it and it looks just about wide enough for Jared. He inches closer.
"They'll be coming for him again," Justin says in a dark voice.
"And we'll kill them like we did the others," Tom says.
"You can't just keep killing our own people!" Justin shoots back. "Kripke and Kring won't allow it!"
"I'll handle it," Mike says. "This is Jensen we're talking about. I'll look out for the kid, I always do."
:::
The shaft is a tight fit and more than once Jared starts to believe that he's crawled into his own grave. But it's either going forward or going back to Mike.
Put like that, forward seems good to Jared.
And then, then the shaft becomes a tunnel, and Jared's pretty disoriented by the dark confinement, but he's sure the tunnel's leading up. And up is good. Forward and up is really really good.
And then up becomes out.
chapter thirty-four
Someone you might have been
Secret agent!Jared/Jensen… with an additional warning of some non-con elements this chapter
part thirty-two
banner made by the fabulously talented nyaubaby
They don't leave Jared alone. Not ever. There are always at least three of Mike's guys in the room. They take it in shifts and Jared gets to recognise some of them. Currently it's the guy with the really ugly earring, and the guy who looks kind of like a skinny Jack Black, and the guy who wears band t-shirts from the seventies.
And then, no warning: Jensen turns up. He comes into the room with a bundle of files in his arms and heads towards the table.
"Are you allowed in here?" Ugly Earring says to him.
"Yeah, Jennybean," Jared says, "has Mike stamped your permission slip?"
It gets him backhanded by Ugly Earring but it's worth it. Jared's shoulders and back are aching and there's a light spinning in his head from dehydration, and it's clear he's going to have to make his own entertainment.
Jensen doesn't deign to reply to either of them. He meets Ugly Earring's gaze for a moment and then neatly sidesteps him and takes a seat at the table. He sets his files down, takes out a pen, and starts reading. There's an uncomfortable pause, where Ugly Earring obviously wants to take it further but Jack Black and Seventies T-shirts obviously don't want him to. Before Ugly Earring can make up his mind, the door opens again and Jensen's blond twink, Justin, appears with another armful of files.
He can't quite bring himself to ignore Jared, and Jared gives him a lazy smile as Justin's gaze flickers furtively in his direction.
"Where do you want these, Jen?" Justin says.
"Just here's fine," Jensen says, gesturing to some free space on the tabletop among the fast food wrappers and beer bottles. "Thanks."
After Justin sets them down, he puts his hand on Jensen's back and leans in to speak to Jensen in a low voice. And he makes Jensen smile that crooked, pretty smile that belongs to Jared. And Jared knows Justin is only doing it to rile him up and Jared knows he can't let it work but God he wishes he'd killed Justin when he'd had the chance.
Once Justin's gone, Jared watches Jensen. He knows Jensen's aware of it, because sometimes Jensen starts to raise his head to look in Jared's direction and then he realizes Jared's still watching, and he goes back to his files. Jared gets a masochistic pleasure from watching Jensen, almost enjoys seeing what he never noticed in him before, all the little lies that seem so obvious now.
What he doesn't like is that, while Jack Black and Seventies T-Shirts are happy talking about some movie they saw recently, Ugly Earring is blatantly watching Jared watch Jensen. Jared refuses to notice.
Instead, he says, "So, Jen, when am I being shipped to Kripke and Kring? 'Cause I kinda stink and someone needs to drag a comb through my hair. Don't want to embarrass you all."
"Mike's handled the arrangements," Jensen says, not even looking up from his paperwork. "I'm sure you'll do fine."
"Is it weird that I'm getting stage fright? I mean, seriously, you think I should I try picturing 'em naked? Imma get completely starstruck, aren't I?" Jared twists to get a better look at Jensen's face. "Seriously, wow, Kripke and Kring. This is such a big moment for me. My momma would be so proud." He pauses, wondering whether Jensen's a soulless bastard despite being so pretty or because of it. "How about you, Jen? You think your momma's proud?"
Jensen is silent.
:::
For what feels like hours, Jensen ploughs through his bundles of files. He's obviously got a system going because the files go into different piles once he's done with them, some with scribbled notes from him and some simply read through. Justin brings him a second load, tries to make him promise to stop for something to eat.
The other guys in the room change; this shift is Growler, Facial Hair and Star Trek Geek. None of them pay Jared as much attention as Ugly Earring did. They're a reasonably friendly bunch and Facial Hair even offers Jared some of the pizza they're sharing between them. Jared declines but politely. He has his pride, after all, and he's not going to allow Jensen to watch him be handfed.
Mike even comes in for a while. The atmosphere changes considerably and Jared is forced to conclude that though Mike is undoubtedly living on the exciting side of mental health, he's an effective leader. Jared's had experience of 'leaders' before, guys too weak to hold on to power and guys who get off on it so much they end up forgetting that the guys taking their orders don't actually have to.
Mike manages to come in somewhere between intimidating and charismatic. He exchanges a few quick words with Jared's babysitters before he takes a chair beside Jensen, helps himself to a handful of Jensen's files and starts working through them.
It makes Jared uncomfortable to see how easy they are with each other. They bicker quietly when Mike steals Jensen's pen; Jensen leans in close to show Mike something on the page, to ask his opinion; Jensen frowns and scribbles on the page and Mike looks over at him and smiles fondly at the top of Jensen's head.
It never really occurred to Jared before that Jensen had friends. He always seemed so isolated at ISA, introverted and tightly-wound and living for his work. And there's still something of that in Jensen's behavior, still that enigmatic independence. But he has friends.
Jared doesn’t know what to do with that.
:::
Jared's been on both sides of the 'keeping someone a prisoner' game and it's dull all the way round. That doesn't mean he's going to be even a little bit understanding when Ugly Earring decides to pass the time by using Jared as a punching bag. The other two guys don't seem happy about it, but they're clearly not willing to take Ugly Earring on.
One punch after the other, steadily snapping Jared's neck one way then the other. And the pain rises to muffled thunder in his ears and fire in his head as Ugly Earring just keeps on punching. The sound of the beating quickly grows wet as Jared's lips and cheeks split under the impact, his nose crumples. Ugly Earring's hands come away bloody. There's nothing Jared can do, no way to block it.
And every time Ugly Earring slams Jared's face to the left, he can see Jensen still calmly working through his files.
It goes on for a while and, quite coherently considering, the thought comes to Jared that it's not going to be long before he loses consciousness. It might be a relief, to get away from the blinding pain and humiliation, but he's not completely sure he'll wake up again.
Everything starts to go very far away.
"ISA's not going to trade us so much as a button for a brain-damaged agent," Jensen remarks in a vaguely disinterested tone of voice. "Kripke and Kring need him capable of higher brain function if they're going to get anything for him."
"You dumb slut."
Jared's willing to believe he didn't actually hear that, like it's an auditory hallucination or something. But Ugly Earring has stopped punching him, and he's looking at Jensen, and Jensen's pen has frozen over the page. Jared thinks it might actually be really happening.
Ugly Earring isn't done. "There's not gonna be any trade. Mike'd give the nuclear warhead back before he let them have him back. And it's not just 'cause you're a stupid whore who can't keep his legs together."
Jared snorts up blood and watches as Jensen, still silent, finally puts his pen down and looks up at Ugly Earring. Jared tries to read the look on his face but it's Jensen - who's never been what you might call the definition of 'open' - and also his head is still swimming.
"Mike wants him dead. You think he wants someone like him getting loose and coming after him?" Ugly Earring smiles in ugly victory. "I heard him make the arrangements. Your little boyfriend here gets handed over to Kripke and Kring for interrogation, sure, but only on the condition that they kill him soon as they're done with him."
It's very quiet for a moment. Ugly Earring is waiting for Jensen to make his move, hoping for it. And maybe all the sense has been punched clean out of Jared's head because he can only think to distract Ugly Earring from the way he's looking at Jensen, like it's him he wants to be punching instead of Jared.
"Fuck you. I object to being called 'little'," Jared says. His voice comes out thick and funny because his nose is streaming blood and his throat's full of it too. But it makes Ugly Earring look back at him instead of Jensen and Jared is totally blaming his concussion for making him think that's a good thing.
Ugly Earring draws his fist back and Jared braces for the next round.
"For interrogation," Jensen says. His voice is glacial. "Go ahead, give Kripke and Kring a corpse to interrogate after Mike's promised them a living breathing body. Just give me some warning before you tell Mike, I'd like to get out of the fallout range of his temper. He'll skin you alive, you suicidally stupid dick."
Another long silence.
Then, "Fine, not dead. Not even retarded," Ugly Earring says.
Just for a second, Jared is stupid enough and desperate enough to believe that's the end of it. Then Ugly Earring's tugging at Jared's fly and Jared jerks his hips away uselessly. Ugly Earring grips Jared's cock hard and yanks it free of Jared's pants. He tries to hang on to his training, all the conditioning he's been put through to allow him to keep himself together through all manner of torture, while Ugly Earring examines him.
"Jesus, you weren't lying, were you? Not little at all," he says, eyebrows raised. He looks Jared straight in the eye as he says it. Jared meets his gaze levelly and gives him nothing back. So Ugly Earring peers over at Jensen. "He was sticking it to you with this? No wonder you're so fucking bowlegged. You actually do anything useful for us while you were playing double or were you just letting him dick you the whole time?"
Jensen's only response is a withering look before he continues working through his files. And Jared didn't know what he expected but he feels like a fucking idiot for trying to take some of the brunt of Ugly Earring's hostility issues when clearly Jensen really isn't all that interested in reciprocating.
"How big does he get?" Ugly Earring says, stripping Jared's cock with rough, demanding jerks of his wrist. "I bet he gets fucking huge."
Jared is aware that it doesn't mean anything when his dick starts to get hard. It's his body's natural response to stimulus and it's not anything to be ashamed about. He knows it all, but it's in the part of his brain that's been trained for this kind of scenario, and that part feels detached, too distant for Jared to be able to reach it. All he has is feeling humiliated and violated as his cock gets hard for some asshole who's touching him like he's got a right to.
He tries to shut down, tries to separate himself from what's being done to him. Tries to not be here while this happens.
There's a sudden scrape of chair legs and Jensen's on his feet, and Jared looks to him instantly. But he's not stopping Ugly Earring.
He's not stopping him.
He's gathering his files up and he's leaving. The door clicks closed behind him and Jared wants to shout every ugly goddamn word he knows after him. Because Jensen got him into this and Jensen's fucking abandoned him to this. And Jared channels his shame into hatred, and it surges through him like something alive. He can taste his own blood and Ugly Earring's watching him like all he wants to see is the look on Jared's face when he forces him to come.
And Jared looks at Ugly Earring's so very ugly earring, which is right there, and he lunges forward, sinks his teeth into the guy's earlobe and rips.
There's a scream and a fresh rush of blood and then there's a ragged lump of flesh in Jared's mouth. While Ugly Earring - now minus his ugly earring, so Jared will have to rename him - is screaming and clutching at the side of his head, and the two other babysitters are rushing forward, Jared uses his tongue to work the earring free from the flesh. He spits out the bloody hunk of skin but tucks the earring up against his gum.
Ugly Earring lashes out at Jared, slamming Jared's head back into the pole hard. Jared's vision sparks white for a moment and he sags, waiting for the next punch, but it doesn't come.
Someone catches Ugly Earring's arm.
"You deserved that," Mike says.
In the commotion of separating someone from a good half of their ear, Jared didn't even hear him come in. Jensen is standing behind Mike, his expression livid. With one swift, vicious kick, Mike knocks Ugly Earring's legs out from under him and there's a crack of bone as he crumples to the ground.
"One, sexual assault is skeezy and I don't allow it," Mike says. "Two, sexual assault in front of someone's ex is skeezy and insensitive and I definitely don't allow it when that ex is Jensen. Three, when being a revolutionary terrorist, it's important not to open your mouth and let everything fall out." He shakes his head. "I'm very unhappy right now and I think the only thing that's going to make me happy again is taking you to Tom and having you repeat to him the nasty things you called Jenny."
:::
Mike has the two other guys drag Ugly Earring out and maybe Jensen is supposed to go with them, but he doesn't. He crosses to Jared like Jared isn't entirely strung up and helpless, like Jared's a threat. And Jared was right when he said you could accuse Jensen of a lot of things but not of being stupid. Jensen's really smart to be cautious of getting in range of Jared.
He doesn't speak to Jared, but he looks him in the eye as he very carefully, and with the minimum amount of touching, tucks Jared's cock back into his pants and redoes his fly.
And then, for precisely three minutes, Jared is left alone. Left alone with a sharp pin of metal from the earring and some cuffs. Too fucking easy.
:::
By the time Jared's babysitters come back, Jared's cuffs are purely decorative. He stays up against the pole, letting them think he's still restrained, and the whole ear-biting incident seems to have convinced them that getting close to Jared is maybe a bad idea. Slowly, feeling is coming back into his shoulders. He'll be at full strength in just a few moments. If the situation remains the same then it's not going to be long until Jared can get the hell out of here.
The situation does not remain the same. Approximately two minutes before Jared was planning to make his move, the lights go out.
Maybe God is on his side, maybe ISA has come looking for him; Jared does not need to wait for God or ISA to rescue him. Instead, within sixty seconds, he has disabled his three babysitters and is out the door.
He doesn't know what he expects to find the other door, what kind of building he's in, how many people will be there. What he was not expecting was Jensen. Jensen's eyes have just enough time to go wide before Jared kicks him squarely in the belly, slams him down onto the ground and puts one knee in his chest to pin him down.
"Please!" Jensen whispers, frozen and not struggling under him. "Don't, don't, I was coming to find you… I want to get you out of here."
"Bullshit!" Jared says. "You were coming to make sure I was still locked up tight."
"No! It was me, I knocked out the lights, brought security down. I bought us some time!" The expression on Jared's face doesn't waver from pure skepticism. "Look, look, I've got the key to your cuffs," Jensen says. "I lifted it off Tom. Let me go, I'm trying to help you!"
He does have the key and his hand only shakes a little as he offers it to Jared. Jared looks at the key, looks at Jensen's big green eyes. He smiles and shakes his head.
"How stupid do you think I am, Jensen? Let me say this real clearly, I don't trust you. At the very best, you're a liability to me."
"No!" Jensen says. "No, I can help you-"
Jared's wasted too much time talking. He's not letting Jensen screw this up too. He clamps his hand over Jensen's mouth, smothering all of Jensen's protests and hauls him back into the room. As soon as Jensen realizes what Jared's thinking, he starts fighting, thrashing and jerking and making desperate noises behind Jared's hand. Jared doesn't let it hold him up. Once he's got Jensen cuffed to the pole, he only has to hear a brief burst of Jensen begging him - don't do this, please don’t, please, Jared, please - before he gets Jensen gagged.
If he could afford it, Jared'd feel bad about the way Jensen gives up and goes silent as he leaves the room.
:::
Whatever else he was lying about, Jensen seems to have been telling the truth about buying Jared some time. The security screens he passes are all mysteriously showing nothing but static and he's been running for at least a couple of minutes before he hears anyone. Make that a lot of someones. Heading his way.
The place they've been keeping him has been heavily refitted to the Coalition's purpose but it's old and industrial, and Jared slides easily into the gulley that runs along and beneath the walkways.
"It would just be nice if he could give me some warning," Mike's voice says, "y'know, when he's planning in being more unpredictable than usual. Just… it would be nice. You find him, Justin. You haul his ass into a room and you don't let him out or anyone else in until I get there. Whatever it takes, you understand?"
"How do you know he's not with Jared?" Justin says.
They're almost on top of Jared now. Any minute now and someone's gonna find him.
"I'm choosing to be optimistic and to believe that Jensen hasn't just committed suicide by secret agent. And Tom, I'm really sorry but I'm gonna have to wreck your glorious revolution just a little bit. I need you to find and kill Jared. The killing part is essential. And would someone please get the fucking lights back on?"
There's a shaft of some kind just a little way along from Jared. The thin trickle of water that runs along the gulley is disappearing down it and it looks just about wide enough for Jared. He inches closer.
"They'll be coming for him again," Justin says in a dark voice.
"And we'll kill them like we did the others," Tom says.
"You can't just keep killing our own people!" Justin shoots back. "Kripke and Kring won't allow it!"
"I'll handle it," Mike says. "This is Jensen we're talking about. I'll look out for the kid, I always do."
:::
The shaft is a tight fit and more than once Jared starts to believe that he's crawled into his own grave. But it's either going forward or going back to Mike.
Put like that, forward seems good to Jared.
And then, then the shaft becomes a tunnel, and Jared's pretty disoriented by the dark confinement, but he's sure the tunnel's leading up. And up is good. Forward and up is really really good.
And then up becomes out.
chapter thirty-four