Fic: What Lies Behind a Pretty Smile (Chapter 1)
Title: What Lies Behind a Pretty Smile (Chapter 1)
Author: Stef (io_amore_voi)
Pairings: Jensen/Jared, Past Jensen/OMC/ Past Jared OMC
Summary: Jensen finally found the perfect guy. He's gorgeous, smart, funny, romantic...more than Jensen could possibly dream. Still, he can't shake the feeling that he met Jared somewhere before, and, for reasons he can't explain, he finds himself fearing the man. He chalks it up to his own paranoia and dark past. Besides, as they say, what you don't know won't hurt you, right? Wrong.
Rating (of this chapter): R
Warnings (for all parts):Gangs, near kidnap with the use of chloroform, sexual abuse (not childhood), domestic violence
Disclaimer: I do not know or own Jensen or Jared. Everyone and everything else is made up. This story is entirely fictional and I earn nothing for it.
Past Chapters
“Hey! Look who finally showed up!”
“Sorry, Bran. I fell asleep and didn’t expect to, so I didn’t have any alarms set or anything.”
“It’s okay. I’m just messin with ya. I just got a nice, hefty tip that would have been yours, had you shown up on time, so…”
Jensen smiled, giving his boss a clap on the shoulder as he moved behind the bar to take his place.
“Thanks.”
“Hey, no problem, kid. You needed your rest.”
Despite the fact that he was only three years older than Jensen, Brandon always called him ‘kid,’ which Jensen never quite got, but he was right about one thing; he did need rest. Unfortunately, the sleep he’d gotten hadn’t been peaceful. It was going to be a long, stressful night.
“You sure you’re gonna be okay?” Brandon asked, looking worried.
“Yeah, of course,” Jensen replied, though he wasn’t so sure. After an incident outside of the bar he used to work at in New York one year ago, Jensen decided he couldn’t take that state anymore. Too much had happened there for it to feel like home anymore, so he moved to a nice, small town in North Carolina. He didn’t have many job skills, so he was stuck being a bartender again, but had only been working days. This would be his first closing shift, and he was terrified. Still, he’d always been told to face his fears, and so here he was, being stupid and listening to that God-awful advice.
“Alright, well, I’m gonna set out of here then. Call me if you need anything and, seriously, call me when you’re leaving, okay?”
“Got it. Thanks again.”
“No problem, kid.”
The older man left and Jensen took a deep, relaxing breath. He could do this. He’d done it plenty of times. Not in over a year, but still…
Jensen didn’t really remember much about that night outside of the bar. All he knew was that there had been a guy, then Jensen woke up on the pavement all alone, head pounding and just about to choke on his own vomit like a junkie, except he hadn’t been drunk or high or anything else.
There’d been a car in the parking lot that wasn’t Jensen’s, but it had been reported stolen earlier that day, so that didn’t help any. Jensen shuddered, the knowledge that the man who had attacked him was still out there chilling him.
Stop thinking about it, Jensen told himself. You’re not gonna survive the night if you keep dwelling.
Luckily, it got busy soon, or, he assumed, as busy as that bar ever got on a Tuesday night, so Jensen really didn’t have time to dwell. Just when it was starting to slow down and he thought he was going to get a breather, a super tall, extremely well-built man plopped himself down in the seat directly across from the bartender and said,
“Something strong, please.”
Instead of following his order, Jensen just stared. The guy looked so familiar, but he couldn’t place him. He didn’t even have a good guess as to where he’d seen the guy.
When the man turned, probably to see why his request was being ignored, his eyes grew wide, almost as if he knew Jensen too, except the guy looked scared. Jensen had never harmed anyone as long as he’d lived and didn’t look particularly threatening, especially against Sasquatch, so he didn’t know why the man looked so stricken.
“What?” he asked, backing up self-consciously while his own heart rate picked up and anxiety started making its way through his body.
“Nothing,” the man replied, turning his terrified expression into a smirk. “I was just startled by the radiance of your beauty.”
Jensen rolled his eyes, relaxing a little.
“Cute. Have we met before?”
“Only in my dreams.”
Again, Jensen rolled his eyes and turned to get a mug for the man, though he really was just trying to hide the fact that he was smiling.
Once he got his facial muscles under control, he faced the man again, setting the mixed drink in front of him. “There you go. Something strong.”
“Thanks.”
The guy downed the drink in an impressively short time and Jensen watched lustfully as he sighed, content, and licked his lips.
“That was really good. Can I have another?”
“Sure,” Jensen replied with a laugh. “No puking on the bar though, okay? I will make you clean it up.”
“Noted.”
If anything, the guy finished the second drink even faster than the first.
“Bad day?” Jensen asked as he began fulfilling someone else’s order.
“Eh, not really. Just an accumulation of things.”
“Yeah, I feel you.”
The guy stayed at the bar for a while, not drinking or talking. He just seemed to be inside his own head and Jensen didn’t bother him. He wanted to keep him talking. The guy was absolutely gorgeous with his shaggy brown hair, sparking hazel eyes, tan skin, big, strong-looking hands that were gripping his empty mug like a life support. Still, it would be rude and bad customer service to bug the guy and, besides, something about him still made Jensen a little uneasy. It wasn’t just his size. Jensen couldn’t pinpoint any other reason, though, so he tried not to dwell on it. He knew he had trust issues on top of mild paranoia, and so it was probably just his imagination making him nervous.
Jared should just leave. He should have left as soon as he saw Jensen, but he didn’t seem to recognize him as anything more than a vaguely familiar face, and he was so beautiful. Masculine, but beautiful. Jared had appreciated his looks before, but he’d been understandably distracted by other things. Seriously, though, how some modeling contract agency hadn’t signed Jensen yet was beyond him. He’d decided his hair was more of a dark, dark blonde than light brown, and his eyes really were green-big, green, and captivating. He was pale, smooth complexion complimented by the adorable freckles sprinkled across his nose and the tops of his cheeks. His lips were full and ever so slightly parted. Even his nose was pretty! Besides that, his body was pretty much to die for. Jensen was tall and muscular with man curves in just the right places, mainly his nice, shapely ass.
Needless to say, it wasn’t at all surprising that some drunk douche started hitting on him, but it still pissed Jared off.
“Hey, you getting ready to close?” the drunk man slurred and Jared looked up, surprised to find that the bar was nearly empty.
“Yeah, just a few minutes,” Jensen replied as he began wiping the counter off. Jared took that as their cue to leave and stood, but the other man didn’t follow suit.
“Can I take you out to dinner sometime?” he asked, putting his hand on top of the bartender’s, who laughed nervously.
“Um, sorry, I don’t date.”
“Oh, okay, that’s cool. You can just come over to my house for a night then. No strings attached. Just sex.”
“Um, yeah…I mean no. I don’t do that either.”
“Aw, come on. You’re a bartender. You can’t have that high of morals.”
“It’s not a moral thing. It’s just-“
“Come on, baby. I’ll take good care of you.”
The drunk moved his hand to Jensen’s wrist, and the man let out a quick hiss.
“Please let go of me.”
“Come home with me.”
“Let go.”
“What’d you say your name was? Justin…Jason…”
“Please let me go.”
“You’re so hot.”
“Hey, dick, get off of him,” Jared spoke, fury making him want to slam the guy’s head into the counter. Jensen looked over at him, eyes wide, complete terror in them, but the drunk just glanced over, bored.
“Go away. This doesn’t concern you.”
“He told you to let go of him.”
“He’s just playing hard to get.”
In an instant, Jared had ripped the man off of the other and had him pinned against the wall.
“Fucking ass hole. Next time he tells you to fucking get off of him, you better do it, understand?”
“Man, whatever,” the guy replied, though Jared could tell he was shaken. Reluctantly, he let him push past him before turning back to Jensen. The poor guy was holding his wrist, looking absolutely terrified still.
“You okay?” Jared asked, starting to walk back over to his stool. Jensen gasped, taking a clumsy step backwards, eyes growing even wider than they already were. Jared’s heart plummeted. Jensen wasn’t scared of the guy who’d hit on him. He was scared of Jared.
Oh, God, he remembered…
No, it couldn’t be true. If he was going to remember, he would have done it long before then…right?
“Hey,” Jared said, voice cracking slightly. “Are you okay?”
Jensen stared for another couple of seconds before letting out a shaky laugh and lowering his arms back down to his side.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.”
Jared let out a quiet, relieved breath.
“No problem. Do you need help with anything?”
“No thanks. Do you?”
“No, you’re closing up. How much do I owe you?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s on the house.”
“You really don’t have to do that.”
“No, really, you saved me from a super uncomfortable situation.”
“Look, man, I don’t want you to get in trouble.”
“I won’t. It’s fine. You have a good night.”
“Do you want me to walk you out or anything?”
“No, no. I’m fine. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He didn’t want to leave, but he also didn’t want to annoy Jensen, so Jared walked out, checking the area to make sure the creeper wasn’t lurking somewhere, like the hypocrite he was, before driving off.
All he could think about on the way home was how much he really wanted to see Jensen again, but he knew he had no right. He’d almost kidnapped him. He’d chloroformed him.
Of course, Jensen didn’t appear to remember those two little events, or at least that Jared was behind them, which was good, but also bad, because it meant that he’d caused him memory loss. Jared knew Jensen had gotten a fairly good look at him. He hadn’t been worried about being in disguise when the guy was going to be killed.
The thought made Jared feel sick. Jensen definitely deserved someone much, much better than him.
Except that fate seemed to be trying its hardest to force them together.
“Mmm, Rocky, I missed you so much,” Jensen whined to his Golden Retriever as the dog ran over to greet him upon his arrival home. “I hope you’re ready for bed because I so am.”
He took a shower first, trying to wipe the creep from the bar’s touch off of him. Finally, once his skin was scalded and raw, he got out, threw on some clean boxers, brushed his teeth and laid down, after, of course, checking to see if his doors and windows were locked and the alarm system activated.
He was exhausted, so he thought he’d fall asleep quickly. He thought wrong. He tossed and turned, heart pounding, unable to relax for a good hour before finally fading into a fitful sleep.
When he woke up, he felt like death, with coughing, sneezing, chills, everything.
“Oh God, why?” Jensen groaned, putting his pillow over his aching head. He was so hot. No cold. No hot…
Damn it.
As he got out of the bed, his head spun and he held onto the wall as he walked to the bathroom.
“Shit,” he muttered when he opened the medicine cabinet and saw, so conveniently, no medicine. “Perfect.”
Well, he’d just have to suffer. He was in no condition to drive and he wasn’t going to have Brandon bring him anything. Jensen Ackles could take care of himself, damn it.
So, naturally, he laid in bed and cried.
He just felt worse as the day went on, and so he finally had to give in. He supposed he could drive if he went really slow.
The medicine he needed ended up being on the bottom shelf because why wouldn’t it be? Sighing-and then coughing-Jensen knelt, grabbed three bottles of the stuff and stood again. As he stood, he lost his balance and toppled into the man who was behind him, making him drop what he was holding.
“Sorry,” he muttered. He would have picked up the fallen items for him if only he could see where they went.
“It’s alright,” the guy said, gripping the upper part of Jensen’s arms to steady him. “Whoa, hey, you okay?”
Jensen narrowed his eyes. He knew that voice…
After much effort and concentration, he finally was able to make out why. It was the guy from the bar. Not the creeper, but the one with the shaggy brown hair and sparkling eyes.
“Yeah, fine,” Jensen told him, eyes beginning to water from the strain.
“You sure?” the guy asked. “You look miserable.”
“I’m sick.”
“Aw, man, that sucks. Do you need to go lay down for a while?”
“In a convenience store?”
The man let out a little laugh. “In the break room. I’m the manager.”
“Oh…oh! That’s cool.”
“I guess. It’s just to get me through med school.”
“Med school?! That’s impressive.”
“Nah. I’m still a twenty-eight-year-old guy who works at a drugstore.”
Jensen shrugged. “You do what you gotta do.”
“Yeah. Anyway, enough chit-chat. You need rest. Please tell me you didn’t drive yourself.”
Jensen nodded, which caused him to topple forward. Luckily, the guy caught him.
“Okay, you’re definitely lying down before you go home.”
“No, I’m okay,” Jensen said, trying-and failing-to stand on his own.
“You’re going to end up killing yourself or someone else. Let’s get you some Tylenol, get that fever down a little bit, and then, after you rest a little, you can go home to your own bed. Okay?”
“Well…okay,” Jensen agreed, letting the man lead him back to the break room. He wasn’t really being taken care of. Nope not at all. Okay, maybe a little bit, but once he laid on the nice, soft, couch, cold cloth that the other man had fetched him over his face, he didn’t care.
Author: Stef (io_amore_voi)
Pairings: Jensen/Jared, Past Jensen/OMC/ Past Jared OMC
Summary: Jensen finally found the perfect guy. He's gorgeous, smart, funny, romantic...more than Jensen could possibly dream. Still, he can't shake the feeling that he met Jared somewhere before, and, for reasons he can't explain, he finds himself fearing the man. He chalks it up to his own paranoia and dark past. Besides, as they say, what you don't know won't hurt you, right? Wrong.
Rating (of this chapter): R
Warnings (for all parts):Gangs, near kidnap with the use of chloroform, sexual abuse (not childhood), domestic violence
Disclaimer: I do not know or own Jensen or Jared. Everyone and everything else is made up. This story is entirely fictional and I earn nothing for it.
Past Chapters
“Hey! Look who finally showed up!”
“Sorry, Bran. I fell asleep and didn’t expect to, so I didn’t have any alarms set or anything.”
“It’s okay. I’m just messin with ya. I just got a nice, hefty tip that would have been yours, had you shown up on time, so…”
Jensen smiled, giving his boss a clap on the shoulder as he moved behind the bar to take his place.
“Thanks.”
“Hey, no problem, kid. You needed your rest.”
Despite the fact that he was only three years older than Jensen, Brandon always called him ‘kid,’ which Jensen never quite got, but he was right about one thing; he did need rest. Unfortunately, the sleep he’d gotten hadn’t been peaceful. It was going to be a long, stressful night.
“You sure you’re gonna be okay?” Brandon asked, looking worried.
“Yeah, of course,” Jensen replied, though he wasn’t so sure. After an incident outside of the bar he used to work at in New York one year ago, Jensen decided he couldn’t take that state anymore. Too much had happened there for it to feel like home anymore, so he moved to a nice, small town in North Carolina. He didn’t have many job skills, so he was stuck being a bartender again, but had only been working days. This would be his first closing shift, and he was terrified. Still, he’d always been told to face his fears, and so here he was, being stupid and listening to that God-awful advice.
“Alright, well, I’m gonna set out of here then. Call me if you need anything and, seriously, call me when you’re leaving, okay?”
“Got it. Thanks again.”
“No problem, kid.”
The older man left and Jensen took a deep, relaxing breath. He could do this. He’d done it plenty of times. Not in over a year, but still…
Jensen didn’t really remember much about that night outside of the bar. All he knew was that there had been a guy, then Jensen woke up on the pavement all alone, head pounding and just about to choke on his own vomit like a junkie, except he hadn’t been drunk or high or anything else.
There’d been a car in the parking lot that wasn’t Jensen’s, but it had been reported stolen earlier that day, so that didn’t help any. Jensen shuddered, the knowledge that the man who had attacked him was still out there chilling him.
Stop thinking about it, Jensen told himself. You’re not gonna survive the night if you keep dwelling.
Luckily, it got busy soon, or, he assumed, as busy as that bar ever got on a Tuesday night, so Jensen really didn’t have time to dwell. Just when it was starting to slow down and he thought he was going to get a breather, a super tall, extremely well-built man plopped himself down in the seat directly across from the bartender and said,
“Something strong, please.”
Instead of following his order, Jensen just stared. The guy looked so familiar, but he couldn’t place him. He didn’t even have a good guess as to where he’d seen the guy.
When the man turned, probably to see why his request was being ignored, his eyes grew wide, almost as if he knew Jensen too, except the guy looked scared. Jensen had never harmed anyone as long as he’d lived and didn’t look particularly threatening, especially against Sasquatch, so he didn’t know why the man looked so stricken.
“What?” he asked, backing up self-consciously while his own heart rate picked up and anxiety started making its way through his body.
“Nothing,” the man replied, turning his terrified expression into a smirk. “I was just startled by the radiance of your beauty.”
Jensen rolled his eyes, relaxing a little.
“Cute. Have we met before?”
“Only in my dreams.”
Again, Jensen rolled his eyes and turned to get a mug for the man, though he really was just trying to hide the fact that he was smiling.
Once he got his facial muscles under control, he faced the man again, setting the mixed drink in front of him. “There you go. Something strong.”
“Thanks.”
The guy downed the drink in an impressively short time and Jensen watched lustfully as he sighed, content, and licked his lips.
“That was really good. Can I have another?”
“Sure,” Jensen replied with a laugh. “No puking on the bar though, okay? I will make you clean it up.”
“Noted.”
If anything, the guy finished the second drink even faster than the first.
“Bad day?” Jensen asked as he began fulfilling someone else’s order.
“Eh, not really. Just an accumulation of things.”
“Yeah, I feel you.”
The guy stayed at the bar for a while, not drinking or talking. He just seemed to be inside his own head and Jensen didn’t bother him. He wanted to keep him talking. The guy was absolutely gorgeous with his shaggy brown hair, sparking hazel eyes, tan skin, big, strong-looking hands that were gripping his empty mug like a life support. Still, it would be rude and bad customer service to bug the guy and, besides, something about him still made Jensen a little uneasy. It wasn’t just his size. Jensen couldn’t pinpoint any other reason, though, so he tried not to dwell on it. He knew he had trust issues on top of mild paranoia, and so it was probably just his imagination making him nervous.
Jared should just leave. He should have left as soon as he saw Jensen, but he didn’t seem to recognize him as anything more than a vaguely familiar face, and he was so beautiful. Masculine, but beautiful. Jared had appreciated his looks before, but he’d been understandably distracted by other things. Seriously, though, how some modeling contract agency hadn’t signed Jensen yet was beyond him. He’d decided his hair was more of a dark, dark blonde than light brown, and his eyes really were green-big, green, and captivating. He was pale, smooth complexion complimented by the adorable freckles sprinkled across his nose and the tops of his cheeks. His lips were full and ever so slightly parted. Even his nose was pretty! Besides that, his body was pretty much to die for. Jensen was tall and muscular with man curves in just the right places, mainly his nice, shapely ass.
Needless to say, it wasn’t at all surprising that some drunk douche started hitting on him, but it still pissed Jared off.
“Hey, you getting ready to close?” the drunk man slurred and Jared looked up, surprised to find that the bar was nearly empty.
“Yeah, just a few minutes,” Jensen replied as he began wiping the counter off. Jared took that as their cue to leave and stood, but the other man didn’t follow suit.
“Can I take you out to dinner sometime?” he asked, putting his hand on top of the bartender’s, who laughed nervously.
“Um, sorry, I don’t date.”
“Oh, okay, that’s cool. You can just come over to my house for a night then. No strings attached. Just sex.”
“Um, yeah…I mean no. I don’t do that either.”
“Aw, come on. You’re a bartender. You can’t have that high of morals.”
“It’s not a moral thing. It’s just-“
“Come on, baby. I’ll take good care of you.”
The drunk moved his hand to Jensen’s wrist, and the man let out a quick hiss.
“Please let go of me.”
“Come home with me.”
“Let go.”
“What’d you say your name was? Justin…Jason…”
“Please let me go.”
“You’re so hot.”
“Hey, dick, get off of him,” Jared spoke, fury making him want to slam the guy’s head into the counter. Jensen looked over at him, eyes wide, complete terror in them, but the drunk just glanced over, bored.
“Go away. This doesn’t concern you.”
“He told you to let go of him.”
“He’s just playing hard to get.”
In an instant, Jared had ripped the man off of the other and had him pinned against the wall.
“Fucking ass hole. Next time he tells you to fucking get off of him, you better do it, understand?”
“Man, whatever,” the guy replied, though Jared could tell he was shaken. Reluctantly, he let him push past him before turning back to Jensen. The poor guy was holding his wrist, looking absolutely terrified still.
“You okay?” Jared asked, starting to walk back over to his stool. Jensen gasped, taking a clumsy step backwards, eyes growing even wider than they already were. Jared’s heart plummeted. Jensen wasn’t scared of the guy who’d hit on him. He was scared of Jared.
Oh, God, he remembered…
No, it couldn’t be true. If he was going to remember, he would have done it long before then…right?
“Hey,” Jared said, voice cracking slightly. “Are you okay?”
Jensen stared for another couple of seconds before letting out a shaky laugh and lowering his arms back down to his side.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.”
Jared let out a quiet, relieved breath.
“No problem. Do you need help with anything?”
“No thanks. Do you?”
“No, you’re closing up. How much do I owe you?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s on the house.”
“You really don’t have to do that.”
“No, really, you saved me from a super uncomfortable situation.”
“Look, man, I don’t want you to get in trouble.”
“I won’t. It’s fine. You have a good night.”
“Do you want me to walk you out or anything?”
“No, no. I’m fine. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He didn’t want to leave, but he also didn’t want to annoy Jensen, so Jared walked out, checking the area to make sure the creeper wasn’t lurking somewhere, like the hypocrite he was, before driving off.
All he could think about on the way home was how much he really wanted to see Jensen again, but he knew he had no right. He’d almost kidnapped him. He’d chloroformed him.
Of course, Jensen didn’t appear to remember those two little events, or at least that Jared was behind them, which was good, but also bad, because it meant that he’d caused him memory loss. Jared knew Jensen had gotten a fairly good look at him. He hadn’t been worried about being in disguise when the guy was going to be killed.
The thought made Jared feel sick. Jensen definitely deserved someone much, much better than him.
Except that fate seemed to be trying its hardest to force them together.
“Mmm, Rocky, I missed you so much,” Jensen whined to his Golden Retriever as the dog ran over to greet him upon his arrival home. “I hope you’re ready for bed because I so am.”
He took a shower first, trying to wipe the creep from the bar’s touch off of him. Finally, once his skin was scalded and raw, he got out, threw on some clean boxers, brushed his teeth and laid down, after, of course, checking to see if his doors and windows were locked and the alarm system activated.
He was exhausted, so he thought he’d fall asleep quickly. He thought wrong. He tossed and turned, heart pounding, unable to relax for a good hour before finally fading into a fitful sleep.
When he woke up, he felt like death, with coughing, sneezing, chills, everything.
“Oh God, why?” Jensen groaned, putting his pillow over his aching head. He was so hot. No cold. No hot…
Damn it.
As he got out of the bed, his head spun and he held onto the wall as he walked to the bathroom.
“Shit,” he muttered when he opened the medicine cabinet and saw, so conveniently, no medicine. “Perfect.”
Well, he’d just have to suffer. He was in no condition to drive and he wasn’t going to have Brandon bring him anything. Jensen Ackles could take care of himself, damn it.
So, naturally, he laid in bed and cried.
He just felt worse as the day went on, and so he finally had to give in. He supposed he could drive if he went really slow.
The medicine he needed ended up being on the bottom shelf because why wouldn’t it be? Sighing-and then coughing-Jensen knelt, grabbed three bottles of the stuff and stood again. As he stood, he lost his balance and toppled into the man who was behind him, making him drop what he was holding.
“Sorry,” he muttered. He would have picked up the fallen items for him if only he could see where they went.
“It’s alright,” the guy said, gripping the upper part of Jensen’s arms to steady him. “Whoa, hey, you okay?”
Jensen narrowed his eyes. He knew that voice…
After much effort and concentration, he finally was able to make out why. It was the guy from the bar. Not the creeper, but the one with the shaggy brown hair and sparkling eyes.
“Yeah, fine,” Jensen told him, eyes beginning to water from the strain.
“You sure?” the guy asked. “You look miserable.”
“I’m sick.”
“Aw, man, that sucks. Do you need to go lay down for a while?”
“In a convenience store?”
The man let out a little laugh. “In the break room. I’m the manager.”
“Oh…oh! That’s cool.”
“I guess. It’s just to get me through med school.”
“Med school?! That’s impressive.”
“Nah. I’m still a twenty-eight-year-old guy who works at a drugstore.”
Jensen shrugged. “You do what you gotta do.”
“Yeah. Anyway, enough chit-chat. You need rest. Please tell me you didn’t drive yourself.”
Jensen nodded, which caused him to topple forward. Luckily, the guy caught him.
“Okay, you’re definitely lying down before you go home.”
“No, I’m okay,” Jensen said, trying-and failing-to stand on his own.
“You’re going to end up killing yourself or someone else. Let’s get you some Tylenol, get that fever down a little bit, and then, after you rest a little, you can go home to your own bed. Okay?”
“Well…okay,” Jensen agreed, letting the man lead him back to the break room. He wasn’t really being taken care of. Nope not at all. Okay, maybe a little bit, but once he laid on the nice, soft, couch, cold cloth that the other man had fetched him over his face, he didn’t care.