Second Side 2
AN: No new warnings for this chapter.
__________________
Zack Fair was the first one on the scene. Dispatch had called and said there was an accident all of a block from where he had been. Course it took him forever and a day to get to the actual crash since it was blocking the whole damn intersection, but that was a complaint for another time.
Dispatch had told him that it had been Roxas who called it in. As such Zack had expected to see the blonde near by, perhaps bitching out whoever caused the mess or making sure one of the victims didn’t bleed to death.
So when he didn’t see the spiky haired blonde anywhere he began to worry that perhaps Roxas was one of the injured victims.
Roxas’ car was the closest to him. Zack knew the car nearly as well as he knew his own so he was able to see where the damage from this crash was. Not to say Roxas often got in car accidents or anything like that, but they did have a dangerous job and all of their cars got banged up because of it.
Zack knew that was one of the reasons that Axel didn’t let his own car anywhere near the precinct.
It looked to Zack as though someone had rear ended Roxas and hit him into another car. Zack glanced back at the car behind Roxas’ confirming his thoughts. So, whom did Roxas hit? He looked up to see the car next to Roxas’ had been hit at a sideways angle, meaning the car had come from the same direction Zack had just walked from. Following that train of thought, Zack deduced that the car that was sideways against the front ends of two more cars was the one who had caused this insanity.
There was a group of people in the center of the road, looking shaken and one of them had one hell of a head injury. Roxas wasn’t with them though. Zack frowned and moved toward them.
“Has anyone looked at that injury ma’am?” Zack asked as he moved toward the woman whose head was bleeding.
The woman looked at him and shook her head a little faster than needed, “No, no… it’s fine no need to worry over it.”
Zack moved forward and held a finger up in front of her face, “Follow my finger, alright?”
She nodded after a moment and Zack moved his finger to the left and a moment later she followed it. He frowned a little.
“Ma’am, you’re in shock. Would you just come with me and I’ll take you to the paramedics…”
“We should wait for the police,” the woman replied shakily.
Zack blinked before realizing that he was technically off the clock and therefore out of uniform, “I work with the police. See, here’s my badge,” he held it up for her to see, “Now would you please come with me?”
He gently pulled the shaking woman over to where he could see the ambulance parking. He passed her off to Xigbar while Xaldin moved to go and check the others. Zack once again scanned the area, frowning when he still couldn’t find the blonde who had called the crash in.
“Well this is a mess,” Leon (Squall) Leonheart said from behind Zack.
Zack nodded, “Yeah, from what I can tell that car came through here as those cars were coming through, that car rear ended Roxas who hit the car that was cutting through, making it hit the car next to Roxas and then it hit those cars where it’s sitting now.”
“Who was driving?” Leon asked.
“No idea, haven’t gotten that far yet. Did you see Roxas anywhere?”
Leon shook his head, “No, he wasn’t here when you got here?”
Zack shook his head and they both moved back toward the people who were now being looked over by Xaldin and Xigbar.
“Excuse me, can you tell us what happened?” Zack asked as Leon pulled out a pen and a pad of paper.
From what they understood Zack had been right in his assumption. The only problem was none of them could tell them who had been driving the car.
“The other guy ran off,” a man said as Xigbar put an icepack on the man’s bruised arm, “The one who was driving the car jumped out and ran and that guy chased him.”
It really didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Roxas had gone after the guy who had tried to pull a hit and run, but Leon felt compelled to ask anyway, “The one who chased the driver, was he blonde?”
“Yes,” another woman replied, “I was the one who rear ended him and he just got out and took off after the guy.”
“Dammit Roxas,” Zack said quietly and pulled out his radio, moving away from the ambulance, “Dispatch, this is Zack Fair. I have a hit and run and Roxas Hikari is in pursuit on foot. I want anyone who sees him to report in immediately.”
“Understood Fair, dispatch is passing the word along.”
“Did I just hear what I think I heard?” Vincent Valentine asked as he moved toward where Zack was standing.
“Most likely,” Zack replied with a sigh.
“We have plenty of people here,” Vincent said as his eyes scanned over a good deal of the force trying to bring order to the complete chaos, “Go see if you can find him.”
Zack nodded and moved back toward the ambulance to ask which way Roxas had ran.
__________________________
Axel Netsui didn’t get worried easily. Generally speaking he was an easygoing guy. Even when things were bad he didn’t worry all that much since they had so many friends. He always knew what was happening from one person or another. He was always in the loop and well aware of where Roxas was and what he was doing at all times.
So when Roxas was two hours late and no one had called him Axel had started to worry.
Even when he was caught up at work Roxas would check in every few hours just to make sure Axel knew he was safe. But Axel knew that Roxas wasn’t at work because he had called him two hours ago and said he was dropping by Cloud’s before coming home.
One would assume then that Roxas was still at Cloud’s. Except that Sora called about an hour ago and had asked if he left something in Roxas’ car. That was when Axel had started calling Roxas’ cell phone.
After going to voicemail for the fifth time Axel was convinced something was very, very wrong.
It hadn’t helped at all that he flipped on the TV to see them reporting from the scene of a car crash where he could see a car that looked a lot like Roxas’.
Surely if something bad happened someone would have called him, right? Right? He bit his lip and resumed his frantic pacing. He supposed that he could call Leon, or Zack, or Vincent, or anyone else that worked with Roxas, but some part of him just couldn’t finish dialing the number. No news is good news, right? So long as no one told him something bad happened he could still believe that nothing bad happened.
Maybe Roxas was just caught up in making sure everyone was alright at the crash and telling the others what happened. It was a six car crash after all, it was going to take some time to clean that up.
But then why wasn’t he answering his phone?!
Axel nearly jumped out of his skin when the house phone rang. He spun around and answered it with a near frantic, “Hello?”
There was a pause, then a curse before the person on the other line spoke, “I’m guessing by the way you answered the phone that Roxas isn’t home.”
Axel nearly growled, “Dammit Zack, where the hell is he? What happened?”
Zack gave a quiet sigh, “He was caught in a hit and run. We don’t think he was hurt at all. He did, however, take off after the guy who caused the crash when he bailed. No one’s seen him since.”
“Took off… on foot?” Axel asked, feeling his panic growing.
“Everyone’s looking for him,” Zack assured, “I just thought we should make sure he didn’t just head home before we all panicked.”
“Well start panicking!” Axel snapped into the phone before cringing as Sebastian began to cry from down the hall, “How long has he been missing?”
“He called dispatch about an hour and fifteen minutes ago,” Zack said after a pause.
“Shit!” Axel said, running a hand through his hair, “Who the fuck was he following?”
“We ran the plates and the car came back stolen. Witnesses to the crash are pretty shaken up so our details on the guy are sketchy at best…”
“Can you get someone to draw the guy?” Axel asked, annoyed.
“Roxas is our sketch artist,” Zack pointed out.
Axel made a frustrated noise before pausing, “Naminé can draw.”
There was a pause before Axel could almost hear Zack nodding, “Right, right… Could you bring her down to the station? We’re all either stuck or looking for Roxas.”
“Yeah,” Axel said, moving down the hall to get Sebastian, “Yeah, I can get her down there.”
“I’ll have Luxord meet you guys. He should be down there right now anyway,” Zack said before hanging up.
Axel picked up Sebastian and grabbed his keys off the bedside table while dialing Naminé’s number on his cell phone.
“Naminé’s house, Yuffie speaking!” an overly bright voice chimed happily into the phone.
Axel, who was in no mood to deal with anything remotely cheery, snapped in reply, “Where’s Naminé?”
“Yeesh, aren’t we in a bad mood…”
“Yuffie I don’t have time to deal with you. I need to talk to Naminé, now.”
There was a pause before Naminé’s voice came over the line, “Hello?”
“Nam, I need you to come down to the police station with me. Roxas has gone missing and they need a sketch artist to try and piece together what the guy he was chasing looked like.”
“Missing?” Naminé repeated, sounding a little panicked, “What? How long?”
“I’ll explain on the way there,” Axel said as he strapped Sebastian into his car seat, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He hung up before Naminé could say any more and quickly got into the car, nearly tearing down the street.
___________________________
Sora damn near slammed into the precinct an hour later with Riku and Anastasia on his heels. How dare they not call him? Roxas had been missing for over two hours and no one thought to say anything to him?
He turned the corner to see Axel staring into a room through the one-way glass and fidgeting like crazy. Some of Sora’s anger ebbed away at the worry lines that were clearly written across Axel’s face. Sora couldn’t blame Axel; he wasn’t thinking straight. Sora knew if he were ever told Riku was missing after being in a car accident that he would be down right hysterical.
Sebastian, now a year and a half old, waved happily at the two from where he was being entertained by Yuffie of all people. Yuffie looked up at them and gave a half smile.
“We should really stop meeting like this,” the girl said in an attempt to get rid of some of the tension in the air.
Sora offered a halfhearted smile before turning his attention to the room and whatever Axel was so intent on. Naminé was sitting on one side of the table with a sketchpad before her. Her pencil was moving intently and the person across from her was nodding and pointing to the picture.
“Who are they sketching?” Sora asked quietly, unsure if Axel had even noticed his presence.
“Who ever caused that hit and run,” Axel replied just as quietly, “Roxas went after him when the guy bailed.”
Sora gave a slightly sad smile; that was something that Roxas would do, consequences be damned. He glanced back to see Riku had set Anastasia down to play with Sebastian and Sebastian was now trying to teach his two month younger cousin how to color ‘properly’.
“I have a bad feeling,” Axel breathed, never taking his eyes off of the room.
“So do I,” Sora admitted and realized that was what had been making him so angry.
There was the sound of someone skidding to a halt and the group turned to see Larxene. She moved toward them rather quickly and pulled Sora aside, handing him the paper she had been carrying with her. Sora looked over the sheet in front of him, his eyes getting wider by the second.
“WHAT?!”
Everyone jumped having never heard Sora yell like that. Riku looked up at his lover with wide eyes, unsure what could have possibly pulled such a reaction from him.
“That can’t be,” Sora said to Larxene, ignoring his audience, “He’s in jail!”
Sora was feeling light headed as he looked back down at the paper in his hands again. It had to be wrong, it had to be…
Naminé politely cleared her throat and everyone turned to look at her. She bit her lip, looking a little worried as she held the open sketchbook out to Sora. Sora’s hand shook a little as he took it from her and saw his worse fears confirmed.
Hojo was the one Roxas had chased.
Next chapter: http://ashley-reyland.livejournal.com/2535.html
__________________
Zack Fair was the first one on the scene. Dispatch had called and said there was an accident all of a block from where he had been. Course it took him forever and a day to get to the actual crash since it was blocking the whole damn intersection, but that was a complaint for another time.
Dispatch had told him that it had been Roxas who called it in. As such Zack had expected to see the blonde near by, perhaps bitching out whoever caused the mess or making sure one of the victims didn’t bleed to death.
So when he didn’t see the spiky haired blonde anywhere he began to worry that perhaps Roxas was one of the injured victims.
Roxas’ car was the closest to him. Zack knew the car nearly as well as he knew his own so he was able to see where the damage from this crash was. Not to say Roxas often got in car accidents or anything like that, but they did have a dangerous job and all of their cars got banged up because of it.
Zack knew that was one of the reasons that Axel didn’t let his own car anywhere near the precinct.
It looked to Zack as though someone had rear ended Roxas and hit him into another car. Zack glanced back at the car behind Roxas’ confirming his thoughts. So, whom did Roxas hit? He looked up to see the car next to Roxas’ had been hit at a sideways angle, meaning the car had come from the same direction Zack had just walked from. Following that train of thought, Zack deduced that the car that was sideways against the front ends of two more cars was the one who had caused this insanity.
There was a group of people in the center of the road, looking shaken and one of them had one hell of a head injury. Roxas wasn’t with them though. Zack frowned and moved toward them.
“Has anyone looked at that injury ma’am?” Zack asked as he moved toward the woman whose head was bleeding.
The woman looked at him and shook her head a little faster than needed, “No, no… it’s fine no need to worry over it.”
Zack moved forward and held a finger up in front of her face, “Follow my finger, alright?”
She nodded after a moment and Zack moved his finger to the left and a moment later she followed it. He frowned a little.
“Ma’am, you’re in shock. Would you just come with me and I’ll take you to the paramedics…”
“We should wait for the police,” the woman replied shakily.
Zack blinked before realizing that he was technically off the clock and therefore out of uniform, “I work with the police. See, here’s my badge,” he held it up for her to see, “Now would you please come with me?”
He gently pulled the shaking woman over to where he could see the ambulance parking. He passed her off to Xigbar while Xaldin moved to go and check the others. Zack once again scanned the area, frowning when he still couldn’t find the blonde who had called the crash in.
“Well this is a mess,” Leon (Squall) Leonheart said from behind Zack.
Zack nodded, “Yeah, from what I can tell that car came through here as those cars were coming through, that car rear ended Roxas who hit the car that was cutting through, making it hit the car next to Roxas and then it hit those cars where it’s sitting now.”
“Who was driving?” Leon asked.
“No idea, haven’t gotten that far yet. Did you see Roxas anywhere?”
Leon shook his head, “No, he wasn’t here when you got here?”
Zack shook his head and they both moved back toward the people who were now being looked over by Xaldin and Xigbar.
“Excuse me, can you tell us what happened?” Zack asked as Leon pulled out a pen and a pad of paper.
From what they understood Zack had been right in his assumption. The only problem was none of them could tell them who had been driving the car.
“The other guy ran off,” a man said as Xigbar put an icepack on the man’s bruised arm, “The one who was driving the car jumped out and ran and that guy chased him.”
It really didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Roxas had gone after the guy who had tried to pull a hit and run, but Leon felt compelled to ask anyway, “The one who chased the driver, was he blonde?”
“Yes,” another woman replied, “I was the one who rear ended him and he just got out and took off after the guy.”
“Dammit Roxas,” Zack said quietly and pulled out his radio, moving away from the ambulance, “Dispatch, this is Zack Fair. I have a hit and run and Roxas Hikari is in pursuit on foot. I want anyone who sees him to report in immediately.”
“Understood Fair, dispatch is passing the word along.”
“Did I just hear what I think I heard?” Vincent Valentine asked as he moved toward where Zack was standing.
“Most likely,” Zack replied with a sigh.
“We have plenty of people here,” Vincent said as his eyes scanned over a good deal of the force trying to bring order to the complete chaos, “Go see if you can find him.”
Zack nodded and moved back toward the ambulance to ask which way Roxas had ran.
__________________________
Axel Netsui didn’t get worried easily. Generally speaking he was an easygoing guy. Even when things were bad he didn’t worry all that much since they had so many friends. He always knew what was happening from one person or another. He was always in the loop and well aware of where Roxas was and what he was doing at all times.
So when Roxas was two hours late and no one had called him Axel had started to worry.
Even when he was caught up at work Roxas would check in every few hours just to make sure Axel knew he was safe. But Axel knew that Roxas wasn’t at work because he had called him two hours ago and said he was dropping by Cloud’s before coming home.
One would assume then that Roxas was still at Cloud’s. Except that Sora called about an hour ago and had asked if he left something in Roxas’ car. That was when Axel had started calling Roxas’ cell phone.
After going to voicemail for the fifth time Axel was convinced something was very, very wrong.
It hadn’t helped at all that he flipped on the TV to see them reporting from the scene of a car crash where he could see a car that looked a lot like Roxas’.
Surely if something bad happened someone would have called him, right? Right? He bit his lip and resumed his frantic pacing. He supposed that he could call Leon, or Zack, or Vincent, or anyone else that worked with Roxas, but some part of him just couldn’t finish dialing the number. No news is good news, right? So long as no one told him something bad happened he could still believe that nothing bad happened.
Maybe Roxas was just caught up in making sure everyone was alright at the crash and telling the others what happened. It was a six car crash after all, it was going to take some time to clean that up.
But then why wasn’t he answering his phone?!
Axel nearly jumped out of his skin when the house phone rang. He spun around and answered it with a near frantic, “Hello?”
There was a pause, then a curse before the person on the other line spoke, “I’m guessing by the way you answered the phone that Roxas isn’t home.”
Axel nearly growled, “Dammit Zack, where the hell is he? What happened?”
Zack gave a quiet sigh, “He was caught in a hit and run. We don’t think he was hurt at all. He did, however, take off after the guy who caused the crash when he bailed. No one’s seen him since.”
“Took off… on foot?” Axel asked, feeling his panic growing.
“Everyone’s looking for him,” Zack assured, “I just thought we should make sure he didn’t just head home before we all panicked.”
“Well start panicking!” Axel snapped into the phone before cringing as Sebastian began to cry from down the hall, “How long has he been missing?”
“He called dispatch about an hour and fifteen minutes ago,” Zack said after a pause.
“Shit!” Axel said, running a hand through his hair, “Who the fuck was he following?”
“We ran the plates and the car came back stolen. Witnesses to the crash are pretty shaken up so our details on the guy are sketchy at best…”
“Can you get someone to draw the guy?” Axel asked, annoyed.
“Roxas is our sketch artist,” Zack pointed out.
Axel made a frustrated noise before pausing, “Naminé can draw.”
There was a pause before Axel could almost hear Zack nodding, “Right, right… Could you bring her down to the station? We’re all either stuck or looking for Roxas.”
“Yeah,” Axel said, moving down the hall to get Sebastian, “Yeah, I can get her down there.”
“I’ll have Luxord meet you guys. He should be down there right now anyway,” Zack said before hanging up.
Axel picked up Sebastian and grabbed his keys off the bedside table while dialing Naminé’s number on his cell phone.
“Naminé’s house, Yuffie speaking!” an overly bright voice chimed happily into the phone.
Axel, who was in no mood to deal with anything remotely cheery, snapped in reply, “Where’s Naminé?”
“Yeesh, aren’t we in a bad mood…”
“Yuffie I don’t have time to deal with you. I need to talk to Naminé, now.”
There was a pause before Naminé’s voice came over the line, “Hello?”
“Nam, I need you to come down to the police station with me. Roxas has gone missing and they need a sketch artist to try and piece together what the guy he was chasing looked like.”
“Missing?” Naminé repeated, sounding a little panicked, “What? How long?”
“I’ll explain on the way there,” Axel said as he strapped Sebastian into his car seat, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He hung up before Naminé could say any more and quickly got into the car, nearly tearing down the street.
___________________________
Sora damn near slammed into the precinct an hour later with Riku and Anastasia on his heels. How dare they not call him? Roxas had been missing for over two hours and no one thought to say anything to him?
He turned the corner to see Axel staring into a room through the one-way glass and fidgeting like crazy. Some of Sora’s anger ebbed away at the worry lines that were clearly written across Axel’s face. Sora couldn’t blame Axel; he wasn’t thinking straight. Sora knew if he were ever told Riku was missing after being in a car accident that he would be down right hysterical.
Sebastian, now a year and a half old, waved happily at the two from where he was being entertained by Yuffie of all people. Yuffie looked up at them and gave a half smile.
“We should really stop meeting like this,” the girl said in an attempt to get rid of some of the tension in the air.
Sora offered a halfhearted smile before turning his attention to the room and whatever Axel was so intent on. Naminé was sitting on one side of the table with a sketchpad before her. Her pencil was moving intently and the person across from her was nodding and pointing to the picture.
“Who are they sketching?” Sora asked quietly, unsure if Axel had even noticed his presence.
“Who ever caused that hit and run,” Axel replied just as quietly, “Roxas went after him when the guy bailed.”
Sora gave a slightly sad smile; that was something that Roxas would do, consequences be damned. He glanced back to see Riku had set Anastasia down to play with Sebastian and Sebastian was now trying to teach his two month younger cousin how to color ‘properly’.
“I have a bad feeling,” Axel breathed, never taking his eyes off of the room.
“So do I,” Sora admitted and realized that was what had been making him so angry.
There was the sound of someone skidding to a halt and the group turned to see Larxene. She moved toward them rather quickly and pulled Sora aside, handing him the paper she had been carrying with her. Sora looked over the sheet in front of him, his eyes getting wider by the second.
“WHAT?!”
Everyone jumped having never heard Sora yell like that. Riku looked up at his lover with wide eyes, unsure what could have possibly pulled such a reaction from him.
“That can’t be,” Sora said to Larxene, ignoring his audience, “He’s in jail!”
Sora was feeling light headed as he looked back down at the paper in his hands again. It had to be wrong, it had to be…
Naminé politely cleared her throat and everyone turned to look at her. She bit her lip, looking a little worried as she held the open sketchbook out to Sora. Sora’s hand shook a little as he took it from her and saw his worse fears confirmed.
Hojo was the one Roxas had chased.
Next chapter: http://ashley-reyland.livejournal.com/2535.html