Archive of Our Own ^beta

It had been over a year since the night that Percival de Rolo’s world had come crashing down around him, all over again.  It had been over a year since the night he had come home, to an empty home, and his partner’s phone number disconnected.  It had been over a year, since the night that he found out that the man that he loved, was gone.  And no one could say if or when he would ever come back…

It had been over a year, since Vax’ildan had, without any warning whatsoever, been taken and thrust into Witness Protection, with a sixty second call to his sister, laying the burden upon her to tell everyone he loved that he was sorry, the only thing left for those in his life.  

She hadn’t been able to do it.  She was devastated.  

It had been over a year ago, that Percival had come home to an empty house, and found Scanlan Shorthalt on his doorstep shortly after, the bearer of the the news that would bring his life to a screeching halt…

It had been over a year since Percy had become like a widower, grieving for a loved one that was virtually lost…

It was a surreal world that he lived in now, where time moved on, and yet stood still.  

He got up, he went to work, he came home…  the world marched on.  But Percy didn’t move on.  Everything in his life stayed the same.  Everything in his home.  All he had, was the hope that some day, any day, Vax’ildan would be able to come home.  And he clung to that hope.  

The small house that they had rented?  

Percy bought it.  And he changed nothing.  Vax’s shoes remained by the front door.  His mug remained by the coffee machine, that Percy didn’t even use.  His toiletries remained scattered across their bathroom counter.  Percy did eventually gather up all his clothes that were scattered around the house, wash them, fold them, and put them away in Vax’s side of the dresser, or hang them in Vax’s side of the closet.  But they were still Vax’s side.  He never touched his desk in their home office.  Well, aside from gathering the dirty dishes from it, and taking them to the kitchen to be washed and put away…  And feeding the betta fish.

Seven months later, when the fish died, Percival had collapsed into the chair of Vax’s desk, dropped his head down onto his arms folded on the desk, and sobbed for nearly a half hour…

Keyleth had to come over to deal with the dead betta fish; Percy hadn’t been able to bring himself to do it…

Seeing Percy such a mess over a dead fish had really been what made the others worry about him.  They reached out to the Marshall Service, just to see if they could find out something, but…

Nothing.

The months dragged by.  

Percy had withdrawn.  They would have to go to him, at his home, to force him into socializing.  They could sometimes coax smiles from him.  But the sadness behind his eyes…  

That never left.

Never…

It had been not quite a year and a half after Vax’ildan had been taken from them that something finally happened.  And when it did, well…

Everything seemed to happen.  All at once.  Very quickly.

Looking back, they weren’t even sure which happened first.  

The news broke that arrests had been made involving the nationwide crime organization, The Clasp, and several high ranking members had been taken into custody and were facing multiple federal indictments.  Around the same time, Vex’ahlia had been informed that her brother had been secretly brought back to Emon… and was quietly being kept under guard at one of the city hospitals…  She was informed that over the past several months, her brother had been under treatment for anxiety and depression, and more recently, had been placed under a suicide watch.

When she told Percival, he didn’t give a damn about the warnings to stay away from the hospitals and play it cool… he went looking for Vax…  He knew exactly what was going on.  Vax was a social creature.  He needed his friends!  He needed his family!  He needed connection!  Without his loved ones, he would wither and die!  Being put into Witness Protection was the worst thing for Vax’ildan!  Taking him away from his loved ones was the reason he was in the state he was in, now!  

Vax needed him…

Needless to say, the Marshalls were unimpressed, and Percy soon found himself under House Arrest…

And in a hospital on the other side of town, Vax tuned in on a conversation out in the hallway after an alert had gone out for a possible hostile intruder…

“All clear,” he heard someone call, down the hall.

“What happened?”  Someone else asked.

“Eh, the boyfriend, apparently…”

“How’d he find us?!”

“Seems he was just going to all the hospitals until he found the right one,” the first voice snorted.

“That’s the one with the white hair and glasses, right?”

“Yeah.  He’s in custody and they’ve removed him.”

Vax’s heart was pounding…

Percy.

He swallowed…  Percy had been here?

He moved to the window of his room, and looked outside.  It was gray outside, and threatening to rain.  For a moment, he focused closer, looking at his own reflection in the glass…  He looked at his gaunt cheeks and his hollow eyes.  He looked down at his thin wrist…  And then, he looked down at his hair, bleached and then dyed silvery white halfway down…  dyed, to remind him of Percy…

His fingers curled into a fist…

He was done with this.

He was here.  The arrests had been made.  Why keep him anonymous any longer?  

No.  He was finished with this shit.  He wanted to go home.

Instantly, his mind was spinning in the thoughts of how to get out.  He had two Marshalls right outside of his room…  There was one at the nurses’ station.  One at the stairs.  Two at the elevators…  that was his guess, at least.

He chewed his lip, then turned around, and walked to the door and poked his head out.  

“Um…  excuse me, guys,” he mumbled, and the two Marshalls sitting there started a bit, and looked at him, getting to their feet.  “Did I hear it’s all clear?”

“Uh, yessir,” one of them nodded.  “It’s all fine.”

“Oh,” Vax sighed, feigning relief.  “Good.  Thank the gods… I–thank you…  Um…  Could I–not right now, I understand things are probably still a bit crazy, but…  I’m a bit wound up…  at some point, could I…  could we go for a walk?  Just around the floor?  Just so I can…  get some of these jitters out?”  The Marshalls glanced at each other.  “Whenever…  Just let me know,” Vax shrugged.

“Uh, yeah, I think we can make that happen, yeah,” the first one nodded.  Vax gave him a smile.  

“Oh, that’d be great, thank you…  I, uh…  I’m going a bit bonkers…  If I can’t move a bit here soon, I’m gonna need to be transferred to a room with padded walls.  Y’ know… so that I can start bouncing off of them…”

Both of the Marshalls got a chuckle at that, and nodded.

“We’ll see what we can do.  Just give us a bit to get things locked down again.”

“Sure thing,” Vax nodded, and retreated back into his room again.  And then, he began to search it.  There were supplies in here, sure…  maybe…  just maybe, he could find something that might work to help him disguise himself!

…  but there was nothing.  There were gloves, and face masks, and some hair cover thingies, but…  other than that?  Just a hospital gown, which was exactly what he didn’t want!  He needed scrubs!  Something to make him look like a doctor, or a nurse!

Shit!

Still…  he shoved a mask and surgical cap and gloves into his pocket.

…  then the door opened, and they were offering to take him for a walk.  

All of a sudden, he felt like an anxious chihuahua being taken outside to poop.

He felt exposed and guilty as he walked out of his room between these two Marshalls…  oh, gods, surely they knew what he was really up to!

He was exposed and seen!  They were watching him, and just waiting for him to try something, he just knew it!  

No!  No, no, no, he was just being anxious and paranoid.  Come on, Vax…  deep breath.  Focus!  Get the layout of the floor.  See what the security really was.  Look for creative opportunities…

…

All of a sudden, the fire alarm started going off.

Vax stood there, as the Marshalls freaked and started looking around, and nurses were looking around, and then jumping up and running this way and that, and a medical transport elevator opened, with some alarmed looking staff wheeling a patient out on a transport bed and…

“...  that’ll do,” Vax mumbled to himself.  In a flash, he dropped down, swung his leg around, sweeping the Marshalls’ legs out from under them, sprang forward and sprinted towards the medical transport elevator.  He darted around the transport team, snagging the ID Badge from a shocked Elf as he darted past, and threw himself into the elevator just as the doors were closing, and smacked the ‘Close Doors’ button, and then… he hit the ‘UP’ button.  They would expect him to go down!  They’d be waiting!  But Vax did know ONE thing about this hospital.  There was a Children’s hospital next door.  And two floors up was the Obstetrics department.  And there was a skybridge connecting the Obstetrics department to the Natal unit over at the Children’s hospital…

… the doors opened…

And thank the gods.  The corridor was mostly empty…  Vax darted out and ducked behind the rolling rack that meal trays would be delivered on.  It was empty for the moment, but conveniently placed for him.  Okay…  okay okay okay…  There was a door across the hall that said Staff Only.  Vax peeked out from around the rack.  There was someone standing at the nurse’s station down the hall, with their back to him, and some people talking further down, but none looking in his direction.  

Vax darted across and scanned the stolen ID Badge at the door, and pushed it open when the light turned green.  

… it was a small, currently empty staff break room.  The television was on and showing a Tennis Tournament.  A tray of cookies was out on the kitchenette counter.  A line of hooks and cubbies were on the wall, and had coats hanging from them…  and a motorcycle helmet.  Oh.  That was promising…  

No!  No, no, no!  No stealing a doctor’s motorcycle!  There were several large cabinets off to the side… Vax began to open them and–

Yes!  Scrubs!  In several basic colors!  Pale blue, navy blue, royal blue, a minty green but slightly pukey, maroon, and purple.  And they were labeled by sizes!  Oh, and they also had basic ass white socks!  Vax grabbed a set of maroon scrubs and a pair of socks and then checked the doctors’ cubbies until he found a pair of shoes that would mostly fit him, mumbled an apology under his breath, and ducked into what appeared to be one of three little napping rooms off to the side.  He took off the white scrub pants and t shirt and grippy socks, and shoved them under the bed, as far back into the corner as he could, and got himself into the socks and scrubs and into the black sneakers that were just a half size too large.  He laced them up nice and tight, put his hair into a messy bun and shoved the surgical cap onto his head to hide his hair, and then pinned the badge to his shirt, picture facing his chest to hide it, and then rushed out, putting on the face mask as he went, and tugging on the pair of gloves, tucking his hospital band underneath the one until he could cut it off.  He headed back into the hallway, grabbed a wheelchair that was just sitting in the corridor, and started pushing it down the hall.

As he passed the nurses’ station, there was only one nurse there, and she was on the phone with her back to him.  He scanned the desk, and then his eyes lit up.  His hand darted down over the high counter and onto the low desk below, and plucked up a stethoscope and a pair of reading glasses.  Without missing a beat, he continued on down the hall, following the signs for the Skybridge.  

He slid the glasses onto his face, watching where he was going over the top of the frames, and draped the stethoscope around his neck. As he passed the elevators, they opened, and a Marshall he didn’t know got out, looking around.  For a moment, he started, thinking he had been spotted… but the Marshall headed for the nurses’ station, and Vax just kept going.  

… he moved into the Skybridge.  It was beginning to rain.  Gods… he felt so exposed here, even though he was seven floors up.  He just felt like at any moment, someone would shout “there he is!”

But…  no one ever did.

He made it to the Children’s Hospital…  He moved around, looking for the Medical Transport Elevator, that required a badge to access…

…  There.

Gods… he was going to do this!  He was going to get out of here!  He was going to go home, and see Percy!!!

He scanned the Badge at the elevator and pushed the ‘DOWN’ button.  It was coming down from one floor up.  It arrived.  And the doors opened.  There were three people inside.  Two looked to be moving medical equipment, and one looked to be a doctor, scribbling on a clipboard.  Vax swallowed, and stepped into the elevator.  The doors closed, and he moved to get the wheelchair turned around to face the front again, to push it out when they arrived on the ground floor.

But then, the doctor looked up, and said, “Why don’t you go ahead and have a seat, Vax’ildan?”

Vax blinked, at first not registering what he had just heard.  But only a moment later, the other two people in the elevator had moved in, and the next thing he knew, there was a hand over his mouth and an arm banded around his torso, holding his arms down, and a sting in the side of his neck.

He let out a shout and was struggling, but hands were already pulling off the sneakers and the Badge and stethoscope, and he was already feeling heavy and sluggish…  and they were wrestling him into a hospital gown over the scrubs and lowering him into that damned wheelchair and…

“Thank you,” the "doctor" was saying, patting his shoulder, “for doing most of the work for us…  And to think: all we had to do, was pull the fire alarm for you to give you the opening you needed.”

Vax felt the tears welling up in his eyes…

Gods…  what had he done…?!

The elevator opened into the parking garage, and they wheeled him out…  A black town car was sitting there, waiting.

No… no no no!  Gods, no!

He was lifted out of the wheelchair and the door was opened, and he was put into the back of the car…

“Vax’ildan…”  Spireling Shen smirked at him.  “My superiors and I have been looking for you for a long…  long…  time…”

The car pulled away, and to Vax’s horror, as they left the parking garage…  the federal Marshall posted there…  turned the other way…  

Shen was grinning.

“We have…  so much to discuss, Vax’ildan…  so much…”