A Promise To Protect - 16. Trust and Lies

Tyler wakes up alone in the dark, the only light coming from around the corner where the kitchen was. He drags himself from bed and starts smacking his uninjured hand against the wall to find the light switch, the noise gaining Zeke’s attention and a light flickers on from the other side of the room. Tyler spins around quickly just in time to see Zeke quickly turning his back on him.

“Sorry.” Zeke apologizes and Tyler frowns before looking down and realizing he’d not gotten dressed since passing out in the shower the night before.

“Shit.” Tyler races off embarrassed, searching through the clothes Zeke had stashed here. He fumbles to get dressed with his arm throbbing, and doesn’t bother about a shirt. Heading back out to see Zeke, only to find he’s alone again. “Zeke?” He calls, walking out around to the kitchen area where Zeke’s sitting at a laptop, a huge pad of notes beside him.

“You ok?” Zeke asks.

“Yeah, what are you doing?” Tyler asks.

“Work stuff.” Zeke shrugs.

“I thought you were off the case?” Tyler frowns. Zeke gives a ‘ha’ and shakes his head, clearly engulfed in what he was looking at. From what Tyler could see it was some kind of coded email. “Well can I get you anything while you’re working?” Tyler asks, acquainting himself with the kitchen. Zeke either ignores him or is too interested in what he’s doing to respond, not bothering to respond. Tyler assumes he’s busy and starts working on making them both some coffee. He leaves Zeke to his work and walks around, looking more closely at the details of the room he was now living in. The first thing he notices is that there’s no windows, of course, they were underground. But this meant Tyler had no idea if it was morning or not, now it made sense that Zeke was one of those people who had a 24 hour watch. There was no other way to gauge what time of the day you were in, as he notices this, he realizes he had no idea himself. It had been night time when they had to flee the house, dawn by the time they got in the car and then he’d been tranquilized and hadn’t seen sunlight since. He figures it must be still daytime if Zeke hasn’t gone to bed.

“Did you make this?” Zeke asks suddenly, holding the coffee cup confused about how it got there.

“Yeah.” Tyler turns back to him and nods.

“Oh.” Zeke has a sip. “Thanks.”

“No thank you kiss this time?” Tyler jokes, regretting it straight away as Zeke again seems to ignore him. “Zeke? What’s the time?” He asks.

“It’s, 3.30.” Zeke answers straight away. So he was ignoring Tyler about the kiss. Tyler bites his lip and thinks back to last night, back to Zeke’s ex, back to the near-death experience, back to the kiss. It made sense that everything led to an incidental moment of affection between them, it’d been an intense night, but it hadn’t felt like the kiss was incidental. It felt, at least to Tyler, like it meant more than just ‘thank you’.

Tyler leaves it, no point forcing Zeke to talk while he’s concentrating. Though he did want to know exactly what was happening, if he’d been taken off the case was he just trying to prove himself to get back on it, or was he now working on it behind their backs? Having met his boss, he almost hoped it was the second one. He liked the idea of Zeke undermining this guys’ authority and taking over the entire case. To bring down the bad guy all on his own, no matter how unrealistic that was.

“I’ll be back later.” Zeke announces suddenly as he closes the laptop and has a sip of the coffee, getting up from the table and walking past Tyler.

“Oh ok. Will you be gone for long?” Tyler asks, following him through to the bedroom where Zeke was quickly getting dressed into a suit as usual.

“I don’t know.” Zeke answers vaguely.

“Oh, I’ll just sit around in this room and wait for you to come home from work, just for something different.” Tyler jokes. Zeke flashes him an apologetic smile and heads over to the door then pauses and turns to Tyler again.

“I’ll let Corey know you’re awake and he’ll probably come down and see you soon, check on your arm and whatnot. No one else has authority to enter the room. See you later.” Zeke tells him, clearly in too much of a hurry to stop and explain himself any more than that.

“Ok, bye.” Tyler couldn’t help but say sarcastically. He understood Zeke’s job was this complicated secretive thing. But he was here now, in the work building. He’d seen the torture room, G’s office and how the security systems run to get into rooms and down lifts, surely he could be told more than just ‘I’m going’. Surely Zeke could start letting him in on something.

He stews on the thought for longer than he should have, but that’s because he had nothing else to do. At least at Zeke’s house there was a TV to occupy his time. He didn’t even know how much time was passing. It felt like being cooped up in some kind of experiment to see exactly how many hours it took for someone to have a complete crisis over the fact that they were so restricted of knowledge they weren’t even able to know the time anymore. It felt like forever had passed before he finally gets interrupted by a visit at the door. He’s almost so excited by the mere thought of getting to ask what time it is, that he momentarily forgets about the last time he saw Corey.

“How are you feeling this morning?” Corey asks, heading into the room with that metal trolley that he’d had beside Wyatt last night. The memory comes back to him all at once and he’s thrown by it, completely. The thought of Corey being able to let himself into the room that Tyler couldn’t himself get out of, combined with not knowing how long it would be until Zeke returned filled him with this daunting sense of vulnerability. He takes a step back from Corey, clearly anxious and it doesn’t go unnoticed. Corey gives a sigh and opens one of the drawers on the trolley and takes out a roll of bandage, a pair of scissors and some medical tape. “I just want to take a look at your arm, is that ok?” He asks with a kind smile.

“Where’s Zeke?” Tyler asks.

“He had to go and do something.” Corey answers. Tyler chews his lip and nods his head, not sure how much he could take of being left in the dark on everything.

“I thought he was off the case.” Tyler states, hoping Corey would at least give something away.

“How’s the pain this morning?” Corey asks. Tyler frowns at him confused.

“I thought it was afternoon.” He states questioningly. Corey lifts the fob watch pinned to his coat and looks at it.

“It’s almost 5 am.” He replies with a shrug.

“Do you guys ever sleep? Where’s Zeke running off to at 4am? How are you not sleeping? What day is it actually, because it was morning when we got here, right? So is it 4am the next day or what? How many days have passed?” Tyler can feel himself about to have a complete breakdown, like nothing around him is real.

“Yes, it’s 5am the day after you got here. So you and Zeke have been here almost 24 hours. Here.” Corey passes Tyler his patient chart.

Time: 6.03am. Patient given tranfusion, 500ml type B- blood. Wound to left inner distal arm approx 4inch. Clean laceration, 15 stitches. Patient administered amitriptyline IV. Obs within normal rage.

Time: 9:18am. Patient conscious and alert. Vascular obs normal, no numbness. Capillary refill 4. No pain reported.

Time: 9:55am. Patient unconscious and convulsing. Torn stitches, significant bleeding. Stitches redone, transfusion 500ml type B- blood. Administered amitriptyline slow release IV.

Time: 10:10am BP 102/41, pulse 73. Other obs normal.

Time: 10:25am BP 114/62, pulse 86. Other obs normal.

Time: 10:40am BP 117/64, pulse 91. Other obs normal.

Time: 10:55am BP 117/70, pulse 93. Other obs normal. Patient stable, condition unchanged. IV completed and removed. Review in an hour.

Time: 11:55am. Patient reported as awake, not appearing to be in pain and calm. No bleeding evident on bandage. Review in 4 hours.

Time: 15.55pm. Patient reported as asleep, not appearing to be in pain. Breathing normal. No bleeding evident on bandage. Physical review in 6 hours.

Time: 21.55pm. Patient condition unchanged. Review when awake.

Time: 4:43am. Patient reported as awake and active. Review immediately.

Time:

“I was convulsing?” Tyler frowns at Corey.

“Caused by blood loss and shock. How are you feeling now though?” Corey asks.

“Terrified.” Tyler admits, though it wasn’t quite the right word. He trusted Corey, clearly this guy was taking care of him like a doctor. He couldn’t be faking this kind of professionalism, surely. But he was also wielding torture equipment only a matter of hours ago at Zeke’s ex so he wasn’t completely comfortable being alone with him.

“It’s a lot to take in isn’t it? Don’t worry though, Zeke’s looking out for you, and I am too.” Corey states, taking back the patient notes.

“Are you going to write down that I said I was scared?” Tyler asks. Corey smiles at him and shakes his head.

“Scared is a perfectly reasonable symptom, unless it’s putting your blood pressure and heart rate through the roof, I don’t need to note it.” He replies.

“What was the physical review?” Tyler watches as Corey starts going through the drawers again, taking out a blood pressure cuff, thermometer and a pulse oximeter.

“I came down to check on you.” He answers like it was no big deal.

“While I was asleep?” Tyler gasps, feeling completely creeped out and violated.

“I did try to wake you, but you must have been exhausted. All your obs were fairly good though, I just want to keep an eye on your blood pressure and pulse though, you’re only just under what we consider normal range but if it’s unchanged then I’m happy. How is the pain? Because it’s been a while now since you’ve had anything, usually slow-slow release starts to lose its effects somewhere between 15-20 hours after administration, and you’re at.” Corey glances at the notes, mentally calculates the time. “About 19.” Corey tells him.

“It feels tingly, a little itchy I guess.” Tyler shrugs.

“But nothing significant?” Corey asks.

“Not really.”

“Now, you don’t have to answer this, but I did see the scars on your upper arm last night...”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Tyler states, again feeling violated that this part of him was just known by someone else, and he hadn’t wanted it to be.

“Ok, that’s fine. Can I just put this on your finger to check your pulse?” Corey asks, holding up the little oximeter clip. Tyler holds out his hand and lets Corey put it on. There’s silence as they wait for it to measure his pulse, both of them just looking at it until the number comes up on the screen. 97bpm. “Much better.” Corey takes the clip off, returns it to the trolley and swaps it for the blood pressure cuff. Again, Tyler offers his arm, letting Corey slip the cuff on, pump it up and they wait in silence until its finished reading. “Good.” Corey takes the cuff off and returns it to the trolley. Lastly he takes Tyler’s temperature, again just saying ‘good’ before noting it down. “So out of 10, your pain would be?”

“About a 3?” Tyler shrugs.

“You must have a good pain threshold. I wouldn’t be able to walk around with a slash on my arm and call it a 3.” Corey tries to lighten the mood with a joke but Tyler is still just feeling too weird about it all to think anything is funny. “Is there anything else I can help you with while I’m here? Since there’s no bleeding on the bandage I don’t want to touch it today, the longer I leave it covered while it’s clean, the better chance you have of avoiding infection so I’m just going to monitor pain and run obs for the next day or so before we need to look at the stitches.” Corey tells him as he’s busily writing down his new notes on Tyler.

“Yeah do you know when Zeke will be back?” Tyler asks.

“Not sure, sorry.”

“Was it about his ex? The thing he had to run off to?”

“Look.” Corey puts down his notes and turns back to Tyler. “They don’t tell me anything. I am just here to take care of people. It’s not my business what else is going on so I really can’t tell you anything about that kind of thing.” Tyler felt like he was being lied to but he also had such a conflicting idea about what to think. He wanted to trust Corey, but there was a lot that just didn’t sit right with him. “What I can do for you though, is give you this” Corey takes out a little bag from the trolley and opens it. “This is a pager, it pages me if you are having a medical concern and when Zeke gets back he’ll set it up so you can page him too. We’re currently negotiating your status here but I managed to get G to agree that you would require this in cases like this where Zeke isn’t home.” Corey hands over the little black device.

“Oh my god it tells the time.” Tyler states, feeling comforted already.

“And this, from Zeke. He felt bad having to rush off this morning and asked me to bring it down.” Corey hands him an Ipad. “Now, it has access to the internet, WIFI already connected but due to building security it’s blocked for all communications. So you can’t access social media, emails, that kind of thing, but it’s got Spotify and games so at least you will have something to do while you’re here.” Corey smiles at how quickly Tyler pockets the pager, in favour of the Ipad.

“Thank you this is awesome.” Tyler states in surprise as he takes the Ipad from Corey.

“You’re more than welcome. I have to go now, but I’ll be back to check on you again in 12 hours, or sooner if the pain gets worse, alright. Don’t sit around here suffering in pain either, if it starts getting worse than it is now, page me so I can sort something out immediately for you.” Corey turns back to his trolley and heads out without another word.

Tyler is content for the next hour, setting up song playlists on the Ipad, thrilled to have some kind of device all to himself. It seemed like such a big deal, he hadn’t had anything but a TV for technology in months and now he could actually have something he could use at his leisure and set up just for himself. Happy with the little taste of personal freedom that came with choosing which background photo he wanted and whatnot, Tyler sets music off and starts jamming around the apartment while he looks through the pantry for food. It was breakfast time, he knew because he had two devices that told the time now and they both said it was 6:23am. His hips are swaying in a figure 8 pattern to his favourite song, that he hadn’t heard or even thought about in months, while he’s waiting for a pop tart to finish heating in the toaster. This was why Zeke had no food at home, everything good was stocked up in his emergency homes’ pantry. Aside from the fact upstairs was a torture room and a guy hellbent on handing him over to the police, who would apparently fail at keeping him safe, Tyler’s starting to feel like this isn’t all that bad. The toaster pops and Tyler does a spin as he grabs out his very non nutritious breakfast, then he stops and almost throws it at the ceiling as he sees Zeke standing in the doorway with his arms crossed, watching him, an amused smile on his face.

“Having fun?” Zeke asks.

“How long have you been there?” Tyler asks embarrassed, the second time in one day, Zeke had caught him at a bad time.

“Almost the entire song.” Zeke tells him, watching Tyler’s face go red. “How did it go with Corey?” He asks. Tyler’s grateful that Zeke chose to ask about that, rather than mention his dancing.

“Good. I think. He gave me a pager.” Tyler replies, taking it from his pocket. “He said you’d set it up to page you.” He offers it to Zeke who takes it and starts fiddling with it while Tyler sits down and turns his music off, eating his pop tart.

“You don’t have to turn it off just because I’m here.” Zeke tells him with a smile, handing back the pager. “I’m heading out now anyway. I just wanted to check on you before I go, but it seems like you’re having a great time all on your own.”

“Where are you going?” Tyler asks.

“I’m being sent out to do something, I should be back tonight. Should.” Zeke answers with a sigh.

“Will it be dangerous?” Tyler could see Zeke had put a bullet-proof vest on. Zeke gives him a look like he didn’t need to answer that question. “Is it about your ex? Or the case? Or something else completely?”

“Tyler...” Zeke pauses and frowns as he considers what to say.

“Please don’t say you can’t tell me. Give me something to go on. I can’t be here and be completely left in the dark.” Tyler pleads desperately.

“It’s. Well.” Zeke shrugs. “Basically, just a stakeout at the moment. It shouldn’t become anything more than that. Just a few hours of watching for movement. That’s all I can say.” He shrugs again, but Tyler is actually thrilled to have been told that much.

“Ok.” Tyler nods and walks over towards Zeke. “Well, be safe.” He says then boldly leans forward to kiss Zeke.

“Tyler.” Zeke shakes his head.

“Did I do something wrong?” Tyler asks.

“No. I did.” Zeke admits with a sigh, raking his fingers through his hair and leaning his head back against the doorframe.

“You kissed me last night.” Tyler reminds him, wondering how Zeke could go from that, to rejecting him.

“I know, I’m sorry.” Zeke apologises.

“You don’t need to apologise.” Tyler states with a nervous laugh.

“I do. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you; it was a stupid thing to do.” Zeke replies, looking straight into Tyler’s eyes with a serious expression.

“Stupid? Zeke, I don’t know what you mean.” Tyler frowns, taking a step back, immediately hurt.

“Can we just forget it happened please? I don’t want to disappoint you and I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you.” The pager in Zeke’s pocket starts buzzing and he takes it out and looks at it.

“So it was a mistake to you?” Tyler asks offended and disappointed.

“I’ve got to go.” Zeke turns and walks out towards the door. Tyler follows him quickly, needing more of an answer.

“Can you just tell me what the hell that kiss was about? Do you not like me?” He asks annoyed that he’d been messed with again, that he’d let himself believe that there could be something there, again. But much to his frustration, Zeke decides to ignore him again. He leaves without any explanation, and it’s enough to send Tyler headed back to the kitchen to look through the knives. He hated Zeke for this, for leading him on. If there wasn’t any chance for them, he shouldn’t have kissed him. If he had no feelings, he shouldn’t have kissed him. If he didn’t feel the same way that he knew Tyler felt about him, he shouldn’t have kissed him. So he was either lying about how he felt, or using him. And both of those potential reasons, pissed him off.