Stick Because I'm Stuck on You [PART THREE]

[queenklu]

Part One |  Part Two

 
They had almost two hours before Jensen had to go to work. He needed at least ten.

“What grabbed you?” he asked when he could sort of breathe again. “Mac?” he asked when Jared just looked away.

“I dunno,” she said, sniffled, then rolled off him to look at her leg like she was expecting to see marks. Jensen’s stomach turned over even when there weren’t any.

“Crap,” he said, hauling himself upright as fast as his strained muscles would allow. “Jared-“

Jared was lying on his back, eyes closed, breathing quickly and quietly through his mouth like he didn’t want to draw attention to how much fucking pain he had to be in. Jesus. The coral had done a real number on his left calf, shredding the skin from knee to ankle, rubbing literal salt in the wounds.

“God-dang,” Jensen hissed, choking down worse curses in front of Mac. He didn’t realize he’d put his hand on Jared’s thigh until those strange eyes blinked up at him, tight at the edges. “Come on.” He moved that hand to Jared’s back and didn’t let himself think about touching bare skin as he hauled Jared to his feet. “We’ll get you home and get you cleaned up, wash that salt off you.”

Jared clenched his jaw and nodded, but he didn’t whimper once on the way home.

Once he was inside, though? Different matter. Mac bounced anxiously on the other side of where Jensen was supporting him, but the instant Jensen wrestled the door open she was up the stairs digging for supplies. Maybe it wasn’t so much Jared reaching the house that cut off his control-maybe it was Mac out of sight. Either way, a nearly silent whine wrestled its way out of his throat, and it fucked Jensen up so bad it was like getting hamstrung and belly shot all at once.

Here’s the thing Jensen would never admit to any living soul: He could read a hundred articles about death in Iraq or hurricane Katrina, hundreds of thousands of people dead, but you show him one clipping of a family talking about a pet they had to leave behind even though they knew their homes were going to be destroyed, and Jensen’s a fucking mess. Jesus, fuck, what was he thinking giving himself a weak spot like that?

Jared’s not an animal. He got that between his teeth and bit down, even when he stumbled on the stairway and Jared whimpered so low in his chest Jensen felt it in his ribs.

He sat Jared down on the edge of the tub with his leg under the spray, only turning the knob halfway so the water pressure wouldn’t push against his cuts while Mac got him her tropical fish blanket and her worn blue bunny who was missing one eye and her very favoritest book on Hawaiian mythology. When Jared managed to get through to them that he didn’t know how to read she sat down at his feet and started reading to them both. She kept her back against Jared’s good leg and her foot on top of Jensen’s the whole time.

“Hey, kiddo,” Jensen said when the sand and the blood was washed away, leaning over to ruffle her damp hair. “It’s okay. We’re okay.”

She nodded, mouth pressed in a line, and finished the story she was on.

By the time she was done Jared was bandaged up, and Jensen had to leave soon if he wasn’t going to be late two nights in a row. Fuck. He let himself rest the back of his head against the bathroom tiles for a second. God, he wished-he wished he could let Mac stay home with Jared. He wished they could both-

“You don’t have to go,” he blurted, suddenly, realizing it was true. Jared didn’t have to. He made his voice go softer, thumb moving absent circles on the skin of Jared’s knee above the gauze before he noticed. “I mean, you could stay here if you’re not- You could just rest.”

Jared looked like he could use it. He had some major adrenaline withdrawal working against him, but he rubbed a hand through his hair, shook his head, and stood up, favoring his good leg.

“Hold up a sec.” Jensen trotted down to the master suite and came back with a Hawaiian shirt covered in red, orange and yellow sunsets behind silhouettes of palm trees. “Try not to wreck this one?” he said, voice shaking a little on his attempted joke, “Dad actually wore it sometimes.”

Jared smiled down at it for a moment before stripping off the old one. Jensen pretended not to notice.

~*~

“Two strawberry daiquiris?”

“Sure, coming right up.” Jensen flashed the bald-shaved-whatever, the-guy-who’d-been-here-last-night-with-his-boyfriend a smile. “Hey, uh. Thanks for pointing out my sister yesterday. She gave me a heart attack running outside like that.”

“Yeah,” the guy grinned with a quick shrug. “Kids. What are you gonna do?” His eyes drifted to where Mac was set up at a table with Jared, attempting to teach him Go Fish. Jared caught the guy looking and straightened up, frowning, but the man just tipped his white and green fedora in their direction, took his drinks from Jensen with a brief, “Thanks,” and wandered off to the opposite side of the bar.

If Jensen caught himself smiling down at his dishrag thinking about the protective look in Jared’s eyes, well. Nobody’s fucking business.

Especially not Clif’s, who was lurking in the same corner as baldy and his boyfriend, like Jensen couldn’t pick out that black suit from a mile away. Jensen didn’t really care. All his worst nightmares were whispering about that-shit, whatever that was at the cove-and what would’ve happened if Clif had been there. So the big guy could sit there and order as many nonalcoholic drinks as Sandy would bring him, Jensen did not care. He might even chip in for-

“Jenny!”

Jensen’s head snapped up the same time as his hackles. Nobody but- Oh.

Chris leapt half up on the bar to loop an arm around his neck and haul him close, pressing Jensen’s face into the thick smells of whiskey, cigarettes, and leather. He closed his eyes. Did not inhale.

“What are you doing here, Chris?” Which was dumb, Kristen told him he was in town. Of course Christian Kane would drop by. Of fucking course.

“Sayin’ hi to my boy,” Chris said against his forehead, leaving with a wet smack of a kiss. Jensen rubbed the spot with the heel of his hand as Chris landed back on his side of the bar. His hair had gotten longer, brushing the top of his shoulders as he arched an eyebrow. “I’m allowed to do that, right?”

Jensen arched an eyebrow back, so maybe Chris wouldn’t notice how roughly he was scrubbing his glass. “I never said you weren’t.”

“Right.” Chris’s slow southern smile still did things to Jensen as guitar-calloused hands beat out a brief tattoo on the bartop. Made it seem almost casual when he said, “Hey, where is the little rugrat?”

Kristen calls her rugrat, too, Jensen hissed at himself, trying to unclench his jaw. He didn’t manage it enough to speak, just nodded towards their table. Jared was focused entirely on holding his cards, tongue peeking out between his teeth, and Mac was laughing so hard she was almost toppling over. Then as Chris turned his attention their way, Jared straightened just like before, eyes wary, flicking between Jensen and the stranger sizing him up.

“Cute.” Chris angled himself back on one elbow, black tank pulled tight across the muscles in his chest, arms flexing like he didn’t think Jensen would notice. “Finally invested in a babysitter.”

“Back off, Kane.”

“Now, that’s not very polite.” Chris dragged the back of his thumb over one lip and pushed off the bar. “Gonna go say hi to my favorite brat.”

“Chris-Chris, don’t-” Jensen dropped his dishrag on the counter and grabbed Sandy as he rounded the bar. “Hey, can you watch the bar for a second? I’ve gotta-“

Then Chris was hollering, “Hey there, kiddo!” and Jared was on his feet, blocking Chris’s way. Jared didn’t know him, his eyebrow told Chris that. And boy did Chris look small against six-foot-four of overprotective muscle, ridiculous enough that Jensen had to swallow a smile down with the knowledge that that’d be rubbing Chris the exact wrong way. Napoleon Complexes ‘R’ Chris.

“You wanna back your fat ass up?” Chris sneered, advancing well into Jared’s space. “I’m gonna say hey to my girl.”

“She’s-“ Jensen cut himself off. It wasn’t his call.

“I’m not your girl,” Mac said, sticking her head out from behind Jared. Jensen could see her tiny fist clutching onto a handful of sunset cloth, watched her jaw set and her green eyes burn. “You didn’t want me.”

“What?” The word felt like a balloon let loose. Jensen stared at her. “Mac, who told you-“

“I heard you fighting,” she muttered at the floorboards. “He wanted you to dump me in foster care.”

Chris actually attempted a scoff. Jensen was going to kill him.

“Excuse me, gentlemen.”

Jensen’s blood froze. “Clif-” He hadn’t even seen the big man move.

“I was simply wondering,” Clif rumbled, sliding down his sunglasses to reveal a pair of pale blue eyes, “if you might care to take this conversation outside. We seem to be drawing a crowd.”

Jensen closed his eyes. He was going to hit someone, and he really, really hoped it was going to be Chris. He grabbed Jared’s wrist blindly, squeezed it probably too hard. “Stay here.” Then he dragged Chris outside without a word or touch between them.

~*~

“Come on,” Chris drawled when they were out in the cool night air-cool being relative, but it felt good on the back of Jensen’s neck. “What the kid said-that’s nothing new.”

“Why did you come back, Chris?”

He gave Jensen a smirking, slanted look. “I gotta spell it out for you?”

“Right.” He didn’t know why, but that seemed to knock the anger out of him. Now he was just…tired. “Get out of town, Chris. Stay away from my family.” He started back towards the bar.

Chris snorted, loud and ugly enough that Jensen hesitated, but he didn’t turn around until Chris grabbed him, forcing him to. “You really like playing house with that special ed case in there? Tell me, did you tell him it was a pants popsicle or a boxer banana to get him to suck you in his mouth?”

“What the fuck, Chris?” Jensen demanded, yanking his arm away, even though that more than anything was going to leave a bruise. “What the fuck business is it of-Chris?”

Chris had gone sheet white in the space of a second, eyes wide and terrified and locked on something just over Jensen’s shoulder. Jensen froze, gaze flying to the wall behind Chris that showed the shadow of something-someone?-with motherfucking horns, frills shuddering like that fucking spit-o-saurus from Jurassic Park, and it leaned forward, low rattle snapping out through the air.

Chris took off the split second Jensen spun around, heartbeat cutting off his air as-

No monster. Just Jared standing in the doorway with a cheerful smile on his face, lifting one hand in a wave.

“Wh-“ Jensen jerked back around, but all the shadows showed now was the floppy curl of Jared’s hair. “What just-?”

Jared shrugged with his whole body, whole face, mouth pulled into a Who knows? that Jensen wouldn’t have bought for a second from Mac.

“Hookay,” he said after a second, rubbing the back of his neck. “Doesn’t matter. Don’t care. Chris is gone.”

“Yes,” Jared said, decidedly cheery about it.

Jensen let out a breath that was only a little shuddery. “Hey,” he said, because he wasn’t sure if his legs were up for walking yet, “Come here. You’ve got something…”

Jared padded over, easy, and Jensen could see Kawelo in the way he moved, even in the way he ducked his head obediently for Jensen to fish out the piece of blue paper caught in his hair. Or.

“…Huh,” Jensen said after a very long moment. Jared’s face was so close to his, staring intently while he waited for Jensen to choose an emotion. Jensen had nothing. Not even when the light blue-feeler?-curled shyly around his ring finger.

While Jensen watched, a second antenna grew from beneath Jared’s hair to brush lightly at his fingertip. Jensen felt it in a low, rolling shudder down his arm, and he tried to keep his breathing steady as the blue bit of flesh reached out for him, so slow, tentatively yearning, to trace the shape of his cheekbone.

Jared nudged the air by Jensen’s nose, soft, curious noise slipping out of his mouth, curled at the corners. A What do you think? and Is this okay?

Jensen nodded.

Jared kissed him.

It was just a press of his lips, soft and warm and molding to the shape of Jensen’s mouth with a soft puff of breath, and Jensen thought-God-thought maybe, maybe aliens-fuck, aliens, Jared was a, is a-maybe aliens don’t know how to-

Jared slid back just enough to make that noise again and Jensen used the hand in Jared hair to haul him back and show him how the earthlings do it.

He felt like every nerve was on fire, Jared’s huge hands on his back and his free one on the side of Jared’s face, guiding him, showing him, opening for him, opening him up, and Jesus Christ he knew, he knew that Jared was a quick study but goddamn, all Jensen wanted to do was crawl inside him and never-

Jensen shoved Jared back. Not very far because the antenna/feeler thing wouldn’t let go, but far enough so he could breathe. Jared’s irises were huge, just like at the beach, gulping him in. Jensen closed his eyes and tried to think.

“Mac.” They snapped back open. “Mac. Where-?”

“With.” He stopped, frowned, then made a rectangular shape the size of his shoulders.

“Clif?” Jensen asked, let relief sink in enough to calm down. “Okay. Okay. Can I have my hand back?”

Jared looked surprised, and then he looked towards his hairline. The feelers reluctantly retracted.

“Right.” Jensen swallowed. “Um.”

He was losing his mind. He was losing his mind. …Alien. He shouldn’t have to think the word human when he was describing himself. Or anyone. It should’ve been pretty self fucking explanatory. He needed something-real. Mac. Mac was real. Work was real. He had to work. “I’m gonna,” he said, and walked the way his finger was pointing.

The sounds of the bar pressed in hot around him, beating against his eardrums as his feet stopped moving. Clif wasn’t there. Mac wasn’t there.

~*~

“You said you left her with Clif!” Jensen’s fingers were digging too hard into Jared’s wrist, yanking him through the crowd even though Jared hissed every time he came down on his bad leg. Jensen’s heart clenched, trying to feel bad about that, but he couldn’t fucking think. “Jared! Where the hell is she?”

It wasn’t like Jared was dragging his feet not wanting to look for her; Jensen tried to make himself realize that. He was right at Jensen’s side, moving people out of his way with his free arm, ducking his head to look kid height. Breathe.

“HEY!” Jensen bellowed, snapping a few heads in their direction. “ANY OF YOU SEE A GUY IN A SUIT LEAVE WITH A KID?”

Two bottle blond Asian women pointed towards the door with worried, high pitched words tumbling out of their mouths that Jensen didn’t pay attention to. Jared got them to the door and out into the open air of the parking lot, the women and another handful of concerned locals following on their heels. Jensen couldn’t think about them, only had eyes for a black Mercedes and the suit standing-

Jensen felt like he was drowning all over again. That was Clif. Standing in the woods. Hollering for Mac. Oh god oh god oh fucking god-

“Where is she?!” he yelled, dropped Jared’s wrist to shove Clif so hard he almost fell.

“She-I was simply-” Clif’s sunglasses were missing, his pale blue eyes wide.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Baldy from the bar came running up, and Jared went so stiff at Jensen’s side it hurt just being close to him.

“I simply wanted to speak with her alone. The bar was too noisy, and no place for-“

“You-” Jensen spat, every muscle in him vibrating, “-someone she doesn’t know-you hauled her outside, away from people-”

“I only-“

“Get in your car-Get back in your fucking car!” Jensen moved to shove him again, stopped only by Jared’s fist locked in his shirt. “You find her!”

“Calm down, Mr. Ackles,” Clif placated, “You’re in no condition to help her-”

“I am in better condition than you!”

“Alright, now,” Baldy growled, catching Clif by the back of his suit and turning him in the direction of his vehicle with surprising strength. “Let’s focus on the kid. We’ll check the beach,” he added, motioning to his scruffy boyfriend, who took a step forward and said, “You have an admirable wardrobe.”

“Huh?” Jensen blurted.

“Haha, you’re cute,” Baldy said, tugging his boyfriend away. “But, seriously, we’ll find her.”

The Asian women took the opposite direction. Clif turned out of the parking lot and went fuck knows where. Jensen turned to Jared and found Kawelo instead.

“Oh thank god,” Jensen breathed. “Go get her.”

~*~

Geckos skittered luminescent along the plant leaves as they passed, the damp quiet and muffled bird calls covering the sounds their scrambling footsteps made, monkey howls reverberating through the palm trees.

In a world like this, aliens seemed less absurd.

Kawelo moved like a shadow, like he wasn’t actually touching the mossy ground Jensen kept sinking up to his ankles in. So, so very much a bad idea to run into a rainforest at night. So dumb. God, Mac. What was she-

Jensen nearly fell when the trees gave way to flat, bare ground. He stumbled into Kawelo, stroked down his back to apologize, and raised his head to see-his refrigerator. The old junker fridge blocking off the back door of his house. That was his house, he was-

“Jensen!”

It was like getting hit by a car-like his parents must have felt-when Mac slammed into him.

“Oh, Jesus. Jesus Christ.” He was cursing, didn’t care, got her up in his arms and crushed her. “I could f-freaking kill you, you stupid little brat!”

Mac released him just enough so she could smack the back of his head. “He was-He was going to take me away, jerkface!” Was? Jensen thought, stomach heaving before he shoved that thought away. “And you told me to!”

“I didn’t mean into the forest in the dead of night!”

“Your fault you didn’t say!”

Kawelo leaned against Jensen’s leg and lifted his head to lick her toes with a soft whine. “You stay out of this!” Jensen snapped, and instantly deflated when he met the dog’s-Jared’s eyes. “I’m sorry. God, I’m sorry. Thank you. You did good.”

His legs were shaking so badly he wasn’t going to be able to stand much longer, but he knew if he sat down now he wouldn’t be able to get up. “Come on,” he mumbled into Mac’s hair, and he was probably getting bruises from her grip on him. He couldn’t really care.

At the top of their rickety stairs, just above the handle on their weather-worn doorknob, someone had tacked a note. Jensen pocketed it before Mac could see. He had a pretty bad feeling he knew who it was from.

“You cut up your feet again?” he asked against her hair, sliding the door shut once Jared’s tail was out of the way.

“Nope,” she mumbled. She sounded exhausted, but that didn’t stop her from digging her heels into his back. “Wearin’ sneakers, ‘member?”

“Yeah…”

He carried her upstairs and to her room. The note in his pocket crinkled loud enough to hear when he sat down, but Mac just frowned drowsily and demanded the story about Pele and the Hog God. Jared curled up on the bed beside her with his eyes on Jensen, and Jensen didn’t even pretend it was for guilt or permission. He just started talking.

She was out long before he got to the part where the Hog God turned into a Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, but Jensen kept talking until the story was done.

Jared’s eyes stayed on him when he stood to leave, but he didn’t make to follow.



Jensen sat down in the middle of the hall.

~*~

The first call was to Ben at the bar to apologize for skipping out on work, and to let him know Mac was home safe. Ben sounded strangely gruff like there was something stuck in his throat, but he promised to get word out to the search parties.

Second call was to Kristen’s dad down at the police station just in case they’d been informed. They had, which meant the third call was to Kristen telling her to calm down.

He couldn’t make the fourth call.

Clif was going to take Mac from him. The very least he could do was make the guy sweat it a bit.

No, that wasn’t fair. Jensen sighed and hunched over his knees, wondering how he’d made it into the living room. No one deserved to panic over a missing kid.

He called Kristen back and gave her Clif’s number, then unplugged the phone.

Galaxy Quest was on TV. So was Fifth Element. Jensen tried to muster up enough energy to snort at the irony, put it on the channel running a commercial for Greenpeace, and turned the volume down so low he could barely hear it.

Jared padded downstairs just when Fred Kwan started making out with tentacle girl. He was human shaped, wearing an old pair of Jensen’s swim trunks and a pink shirt Jensen recognized from the bottom of his sock drawer. Jensen felt his heart flip over like it was happening far away. But still happening.

“Hi,” Jared said, sleepy and sweet, a There you are. He didn’t wait for Jensen to answer, just climbed on the couch and curled up so he could fit, resting his head on Jensen’s knee.

“Hey…” Jensen let out, and cut himself off before his voice shuddered too hard.

They watched in silence for a while, Jared’s lashes brushing Jensen’s skin every time he blinked and frowned at the aliens on TV. Jensen-Jensen deliberately stroked his hand through Jared’s hair, twining the locks around his fingers, combing out the tangles. One, then both of his antenna crept out to touch his wrist. There you are.

Jensen sagged back against the couch. “If we ever make it through this,” he said, barely above the hum of the TV, “one day this will all be very funny.”

Jared lifted his head to see him, looking for all the world like Jensen had bared his entire soul. Like he knew what was going to happen to Mac. Jensen’s eyes blurred until he couldn’t see his expression anymore, a wet laugh shaking out of his lungs.

“If we don’t then it’ll just be sad.”

Jared whined, a high longing note in the back of his throat as he gathered Jensen up until he was wrapped in a cocoon of arms and legs and Jared, plumeria and skin and the sea. Jensen hid his face against Jared’s neck and tried not to shake too badly while he cried.

PART FOUR