ArchivedLogs:Like Family

Like Family
Dramatis Personae Eric, Jackson, Sebastian, Shane
In Absentia	2013-04-24 also, nox is in a backpack. set right after sharkfishing.
Location <NYC> Mount Sinai Hospital - Harlem
On the cutting edge of many medical technologies, Mount Sinai Hospital is often ranked as one of the nation's best hospitals. The medical school attached is one of the best in the world, meaning that even your med students know what they are doing. Chin up, then -- when you come in here badly mutilated after the latest terrible catastrophe in Times Square, you're in good hands. The ride here has been largely quiet. Spencer shivering in the back seat. Bastian quiet in the front, carefully cradling his backpack-o-Nox. Noxpack. Shane, nearly silent in the back save for an intermittent surreptitious sniffle. The twins are mostly looking out the window. "-- You'll have to bring him into the hospital," Sebastian eventually says. "If he's with us they won't -- won't --" His head shakes. As they pull up to the doors of the ambulance entrance to Mount Sinai Hospital, Eric pulls the police cruiser to a quick stop in front of the double-doors.  "I need a stretcher!" he calls towards the building, as he opens the driver's door and heads to open the back.  "I got him." he murmurs, softly, looking into Shane's face for a moment as he scoops up Spencer into his arms and carries him towards the busily rushing doctors and nurses beginning to exit the hospital.  "Stay here.  I'll be right back." It does not take too long for Eric to return - a few minutes, and he settles back in the driver's seat.  "He's going to be alright.  Doctors say they're not worried at all."  A brief pause, as he glances to Sebastian next to him, and then to Shane in the mirror.  "Another officer is waiting with him.  He's not going back to OCFS, not right now." From the twins there is at first silence. Sebastian's gills flutter. Shane meets Eric's eyes only for a moment and then returns to staring out the window. "We should call Jax," Sebastian eventually says. Kind of heavily. "He'll care more than -- than whoever Spence has been with." "Yeah." That's all Shane says. He shifts uncomfortably, fingers plucking at the borrowed sweatsuit Nox has given him (Sebastian is only dressed in a kind of toga-wrapped towel.) And then kind of heavily, "We should go." His fist thuds against the inside of the squad-car door. Not really heavily. Just kind of flatthunk. "I already did," Eric says, buckling himself back in. "But he can't come pick him up, yet.  He'll be staying overnight at the hospital, at least, and the NYPD will be taking care of him instead of OCFS for a while." he says, and his tone is very satisfied.  "And then we'll see.  If Jax's lawyers are any good, he can probably get custody again without much trouble, I'd imagine." As Eric speaks, he begins driving once more, a quick flick of a few switches dispatching the flashing lights.  He turns south, driving down the main streets, police car skipping between the cars like a crazy Manhattan taxi. "Jax will probably want to stay with him." Sebastian frowns as they start pulling away. "Hey. /Hey/. Where are we going?" Now Shane /is/ pounding at the door. Thumpthumpthump. Thumpthump/thump/. "I was drivin' you guys home," Eric says, glancing up in the mirror.  "Is that not where you wan'ta go?" he asks, curiously. "No," Shane says. "We just wanted to get Spencer home. And now he's safe. Jax can meet him /here/." Or there, with the hospital rapidly disappearing in the distance. "Let me out." Sebastian is just silent. He eyes the city passing by, one hand toying with the door handle. "Alright." Eric says, and flicks on the turn signal.  He doesn't stop driving, though, as he moves towards the right lane, and takes a right.  "How about we grab dinner, then, since you skipped out on me last time?" he asks.  His voice cracks a little bit at the end, and his face hardens as it does. "Please stop the car," is all Sebastian says here, quietly. "I don't want to go anywhere till Jax gets back to Spence." It's Shane who's silent, now. He stares out the window, tense. Eric glances to Sebastian, and his shoulders fold inwards, slightly.  He hits a switch that turns on a slow flasher on the back of his window, and he pulls the car over to the curb.  "Alright.  Let me text him, see if he'll go to the hospital."  The police officer pulls his phone out of one pocket, even as he puts the car in park with the other hand. "Let me out." Shane's voice is smaller. Kind of /shaky/like. "Please." His hand presses against the door, his arm shaking, too. "Shane --" Bastian frowns, shifting uncomfortably. He holds his Noxbag carefully, hunched slightly over it to shield it from the lights outside. "{Shane, just /talk/ to him.}" "Please let me /out/." This is louder and a little more raggedy-edged. Eric turns in his seat, looking back to the teenager in the back.  "Damn it, Shane," he says, and his voice cracks for real this time.  He opens the door and closes it behind him, possibly with more force than is strictly necessary.  "Just going to leave again?"  He asks, as he opens the door to the back.  His eyes look straight into Shane's face, slightly glistening.  His voice softens, and his tone is over-steady. Shane's eyes are bright, too, and tears spill over as he blinks, one set of eyelids and then the other. He hisses sharp through his teeth, angrily scrubbing his palm against his cheeks and getting to his feet abruptly, pushing past Eric to the sidewalk. Sebastian exhales, slow, and he is slow to get up, open his own door. He stands, still mostly in the car, his bare feet on its edge and his arms crossed against the roof, watching Shane exit. His gills flutter, and his head bows as he hops down to the curb. "I'm /sorry/," he says, looking at Eric and Shane both. "This was my fault, OK? I messed -- I was messed up. I /messed/ up. He wouldn't have /left/ if it wasn't for me and I'm sorry and I didn't mean to screw things up and /please/ just /talk/ to him Shane." "This..." Eric turns and gives Sebastian a look.  His smile is small and sad, and he reaches over to clasp the younger man's shoulder, gently, and give it a squeeze.  "It's not your fault, Sebastian." He looks at Shane, stiffly.  "Come on, Shane.  Don't... I want..." he trails off, letting his hand drop off of Sebastian's shoulder. "Yeah, it is." Sebastian glances away, towards the hospital in the distance. "I need your phone. I'm texting Jax." Shane keeps his back to Eric. His palms are pressing at his face, but eventually he drops them. "I'm going back to the hospital," he says. "Till Jax gets there." "Alright." Eric says, dipping his hand back into his pocket.  "Come on.  Get back in the car, and I'll bring you in myself.  If you go in alone, I doubt they'll let you anywhere near Spencer." he says, softly. His eyes sweep Shane's back, even as he extends his cell phone to Sebastian.  "Come on, Shane." he says, with a note of pleading in his voice. Sebastian taptaps at the phone, frowning at the other two. "{Shane. At least turn /around/.}" Shane had been hesitating, but he draws in a shakyslow breath at Bastian's words, slowly turning. His eyes are still glistening. "Look, I --" That's all, though. His gills are fluttering rapidly. He looks away towards the hospital, squinting into its lights. Looks back towards Eric. He starts to step around past Eric towards the car but then stops, squeezing shut his eyes, and wraps his arms around Eric /tight/. His face presses against Eric's chest, mooshing against it hard. He still doesn't talk, though. Eric relaxes slightly as the teenager steps towards the car, and his eyes widen as there are suddenly ARMS. He stiffens in surprise for a very brief moment before relaxing - sagging, really - against the teenager and wraps his own, strong arms around the smaller man. His face turns down, pressing against Shane's hair. His breath turns slightly shaky, a ragged rasp of a thing. Sebastian relaxes, too. He exhales a hard breath and slips back into the car. Possibly communing with Noxpack. Shane doesn't relax. He hugs Eric harder, tighter, bruisingly so. His eyes leave damp patches against Eric's jacket. His gills flutter rapidly, his own breath halted in this futile attempt at gillbreathing. It is a good thing Eric's bruises heal quickly, because he seems to not care for the tightness of his grip or the strange looks that the two of them are beginning to get from passers by. His hands ball up in Shane's shirt and a tear forms in the corner of his eye. ALLERGIES, DAMN IT. "Let's go," Shane says, after a long silent SMOOSH into Eric's chest. "We'll --" There's a hesitation. He glances back to the car where Sebastian is still texting. From Eric's phone. "-- want to be there when Pa gets there." "I'm sure you'll beat him. His ride isn't as fast as mine is." Eric says, with a smile at the other man. He releases him from the hug, hesitantly, and ushers the younger man back towards the car. The ride back to the hospital is a quick one. He parks up against a curb in a designated spot for police, and ushers the twins - and backpack!Nox - through the doors of the ambulance bay. It does not take him long to get back to Spencer's room, and after a quick word with the hospital security guard standing by, he ushers them all into Spencer's room to wait for Jax. The waiting is long. Kind of awkward. A lot of discomfited stares from hospital staff, a few /very/ uncomfortable check-ups from nurses who check in on Spencer as perfunctorily as their job allows before disappearing. Sebastian paces. Restlessly. Even more restlessly and more agitated as time wears on. Shane dozes. At least one might think he is dozing, his eyes are closed and his head against Eric's shoulder. But he's also growing more tense as time wears on, evident in the clench of his fingers and intermittent flutter of gills. Eric has divested himself of his police jacket and is sitting, waiting, with the twins. He, at least, is distracted by the phone on his lap, playing Angry Birds, with one arm draped around Shane's shoulders to pull him a little closer. Even he, though, glances up every few moments to look at the door, then back to the time on his phone before returning to his game. The door opens. Well, presumably it opens more than /once/ to let in those nurses but one of those times it lets in a slightly wide-eyed, slightly nervous-energy'd Jax, bright in purple skirt and silver-edged black top. He glances towards the bed first, but then just -- stops. Frozen. And stares. /Someone/ had not been informed of the /other/ two kids' return. His eye widens even bigger. A tiny noise catches in his throat. Abruptly, all the light in the room is fluctuating, brighterdimmerbrighter/brighter/. It's brightest still around Jax. Blinding-bright, hot-bright. Next to him the wall starts to singe-sizzle, a little bit. Eric glances at the wall, and his arm tightens a little bit around Shane. "Easy, there, Jax." he says, gently. "You're..." he gestures towards the sizzling paint with a look of slight concern - a very different look than the normally easy-going police officer has. The light stays bright. The wall stays sizzly. Wisps of smoke curl upwards. Which -- almost immediately sets off a fire alarm. Jackson cringes. "You --" is all he manages, eyes darting between the boys. Eric. Back to the boys. Sebastian stops his pacing. He's dressed in only a towel, wrapped kind of toga-like around him. Shane has a old borrowed sweatsuit. He is slightly lifting his head from Eric's shoulder, glancing towards the door. Both of them fix dark eyes on Jax, gills fluttering rapidly. Flutterflutterflutter. Eric stands quickly, grabbing a fire extinguisher off of the wall. "Control yourself!" he says, voice curt as he glances out the door. He tries, first, smothering the fire with a towel, stamping it out with his towel-wrapped hands and beating the wall. "Wonderful," he mutters. "This should be just wonderful to explain." Jackson's cheeks flush dark, and he looks upwards. Blinking. Blinkblink. The light around him starts to fade. There is at least not /much/ burning. Just a sizzled patch against the wall, crispy. "You guys. When did -- where were -- what /happened/?" "Ocean," Shane answers simply. His posture curls in, slightly, when Eric stands, tightening his legs towards his chest more out of shivery-cold than anything else. Sebastian doesn't volunteer any explanation. He just looks at Jax long and quiet. Eventually: "Sorry." It is a very tiny sorry. Eric wipes the towel over the patch on the wall, then tosses the smoky towel in the trash. He opens the door and slips through it, and a moment later, can be heard faintly through the wood authoritatively speaking to someone. "It's under control. Someone's cigarette wasn't out." The reply is not audible, but he slips back through the door - and, a moment later, the alarm is silenced. Eric returns to his seat, wrapping an arm around Shane, a little tighter than before. Around Jackson the light is still vaguely quivering. But it's not burning anything, now, and it's slowly dimming, slowly settling back to normal. "You're /sorry/?" His voice is sharp, a little edged. "Where have you /been/ do you have any idea how --" The edge is growing, and he stops short, pressing his palm to his lips. His breath in is shaky. "Why did you go, are you /alright/?" The twins fidget. Their weight shifts uncomfortably. Shane bows his head, but Sebastian looks steadily at Jackson. His hand lifts, rubbing equally uncomfortably at one side of his fluttering gills. "I'm sorry, yes, I -- we -- /I/ -- it was my fault. Shane just -- I took off and he didn't want to --" "Tsss." Shane hisses, and for a moment he leans into Eric's touch, his eyes closing. But then they open again and he shakes his head emphatically. "Things were shitty. We left. It was crappy of us not to say anything." Eric's hand gently rubs at Shane's shoulder, tiny soothing circles that are barely visible. "My sarge has opened a neglect case. It won't go anywhere, but it'll keep OCFS from tryin' to place them somewhere for a while, without them wantin' it, anyway." he adds, voice quiet. Jackson lifts his hand, too, higher from his lips, knuckles scrubbing at his eye. "Your -- thanks," he says quietly, to Eric. It takes him a moment longer to look back at the twins. "What do you want?" he asks, soft. The twins exchange a look. Long and silent. It's hard to say which of them breaks it first; Bastian looks down towards the floor, Shane up towards the ceiling. "We want to go home," Sebastian says, eventually. Eric's smile at this declaration is quick and tight, but he turns to look in a direction neither of the twins do - to the sleeping boy on the bed to his left, to the monitors he's connected to, and then back to Jax. Jackson just nods, at this. "OK." That's all. His knuckles press to his eye again, and then his hand drops to his side, heavy and tired. "OK." He looks back at the twins. Back at Spencer. Down at the floor. Back up at the twins. He swallows once, hard. "But you can't keep doing this," he says, after a long moment of quiet. "You /can't/. I can't take it. He can't take it. I been praying every day for y'all to come home. I can't tell you how --" His voice hitches, and he looks away, up towards the ceiling. "It ain't easy. It ain't always easy and it ain't gonna be easy but you come home and you damn well better start treating me like I am /family/ who gives a /shit/ about you and not like it's just another foster home you're waitin' be moved /on/ from." Sebastian flinches, at this, and stands a little bit straighter. Shane's eyes widen and fix on Jax. There is a very long stretch of silence before the twins both move, Shane unfolding himself from Eric's side, darting across the room to wrap skinny arms around Jax tightly. Eric's smile is wider, and he doesn't bother to even hide it this time around. "Perfec'. Let me radio in to my sarge, let him know we've found a solution to where to temporaril' place the twins while the investigation proceeds... and I can make sure that the necessary suggestions are made to OCFS." He stands up, ruffling Shane's hair once as he passes on his way out the door. Jackson hugs the twins, hard, arms curling around them both to squeeze tight. "Thanks, Eric," is all he says. There is Very Important hugging to do.