A Promise To Protect - 27. Fever Dreams

"Tyler, you're home!" It felt more than unfair to have his mum's arms around him only in a dream but Tyler wanted to melt into them. Let the dream swallow him whole and never wake up from this.

"Mum, I'm never leaving again." Tyler tells her quickly.

"I'm sorry. We shouldn't have let you go." His mum steps back and holds his face in her hands, looking into his eyes with sorrow.

"Let me go where?" Tyler frowns.

"Boarding school, darling. We thought it'd be good for you, but. It's been too long."

"Boarding school? I never went to boarding school."

"For two years." Tyler's mum nods her head at him. "Oh baby I know you're devastated, but you need to remember. It's important that you remember." She urges.

"Remember what?" Tyler asks confused.

"Zeke, it wasn't your fault what he did." She replies as she gestures towards a newspaper on the table beside them. Tyler looks at it, stepping closer and staring in shock at the photo of Zeke in the funeral notices with the headline saying 'suicide'.

"No." Tyler shakes his head. "That wasn't Zeke. That was, my ex." Tyler shakes his head again and looks back at his mum who wipes a tear from his cheek.

"Who? What's his name?" She asks. Tyler desperately searches his brain to the name, for that ex that he knew the story of but who's face be couldn't picture and name he couldn't recall.

"I don't understand. Why don't I remember him?" Tyler begs her.

"It's not real Tyler. Wake up, before it's too late." His mum sighs, looking around the room that was now destroyed, blood on the floor, on the walls there's bloody handprints and when Tyler looks back at his mum he's in their bedroom looking down at his parents slashed bodies again.

Tyler sits up with a jolt, sweating soaking his shirt and making him shiver, tears rolling down his cheeks. He feels for the light switch, hoping that Zeke hadn’t left yet because he was beyond terrified. As he flicks on the light and finds himself alone he simply falls to the ground, his mind racing with horrific thoughts and fears.

"What the fuck is happening to me!?" Tyler screams through his raspy throat, into the silence of his empty room, feeling alone, terrified and helpless. Zeke rushes from the kitchen to his side, wrapping his arms around Tyler and holding him tight.

"Hey, it's ok. I'm here." Zeke says soothingly, helping Tyler up from the floor and wiping the tears from his cheeks. "Are you ok?" He asks, looking deep into Tyler's eyes. Tyler shakes his head rapidly and holds Zeke's face in his hands.

"Zeke, I-I'm so scared." Tyler admits, shakily.

"What are you scared of? Another nightmare?" Zeke asks.

"It was my parents. My mum..." Tyler trails off and Zeke wraps his arms around him.

"I'm sorry I brought it up, telling you about my parents probably triggered some hard memories for you." Zeke sighs as he hugs Tyler's shaking body tight to try and comfort him.

"Don't leave. I don't want you to leave." Tyler begs, feeling like he was rushing towards a complete breakdown.

"I don't have to go yet..."

"No, Zeke, please don't go." Tyler's desperation and fear was so unexpected that Zeke couldn't help but feel more uncertain than ever about his decisions. He wanted to go, he felt he had to but god if it didn't also feel like his place was here, taking care of Tyler who was clearly going through something. "I'm telling you, I am fucking terrified of these dreams. I don't want to close my eyes. I don't want to have another one. Zeke, what if something is wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you." Zeke tells him confidently, deep down he felt devastated to see Tyler like this, he'd fallen so hard for Tyler's confidence and 'no bullshit' attitude and it crushed him to see all of that falling apart in front of him seemingly out of nowhere. "Listen, whatever it is you're dreaming about, just know that you are strong and that it can't hurt you."

"What if it hurts you?" Tyler asks.

"Why would it hurt me? Were you cheating on me in your dreams or something?" Zeke jokes to try and cheer him up.

"No." Tyler replies, wishing he could remember what had actually happened but he couldn't. He just felt the residual stress and panic of the moment.

"Why don't you take a shower?" Zeke suggests, leading Tyler towards the bathroom.

"Don't leave me." Tyler pleads.

"I won't, I promise." Zeke smiles as he rubs Tyler's shoulders, he enjoyed being needed but couldn't help but feel a little stressed about how Tyler would cope while he was gone. Zeke leans against the shower while Tyler stands under the warm water in a state of confused numbness after his nightmare. He had a sense of impending dread and couldn't work out whether he was scared of Zeke leaving and that was triggering these weird dreams, or whether his dreams were making him unnecessarily scared of something happening to Zeke. He kept trying to rationalize in his head that these dreams were just him own imagination trying to make sense of his life in this agency, but now that he was thinking about it there was an unnerving emptiness as he casts his mind back to the last time he'd had a nightmare or even a dream. He couldn't remember having any, and yet he'd been through so much trauma it would have been expected that he'd have been having these wild nightmares all along.

"Zeke?" Tyler turns off the shower.

"You ok?" Zeke waits outside the shower with a towel. Tyler steps out and Zeke drapes the towel over his shoulders.

"Do you have nightmares?" Tyler turns to Zeke who gives him a sad smile then wraps his arms around him.

"Sometimes I don't know if I'm even dreaming or not." He jokes but Tyler was not at all amused by it. "That's to say, this job is sometimes such a nightmare to live it's hard to know what's worse, the reality or the dreams." He sighs and rubs Tyler's back to comfort him despite his answer being anything but comforting.

"I can't imagine how bad yours must be. After all this time." Tyler looks into Zeke's eyes with pity, his heart had ached for Zeke from the moment he found out the truth about who Zeke was and the details of his past. Trapped and terrified in the safe room of his house, watching a masked figure murder his parents through the security cameras. Absolutely powerless and with no one to turn to, no one but his teacher, Mr G. The torment that followed him through the next 15 years, the nightmares Zeke must have would put Tyler's to shame. Yet he was functioning, not waking up in a sweat and screaming into thin air, Zeke's strength was both admirable and concerning to Tyler now. How he could move through everyday with the memories he had, was either a sign of being a complete psychopath, or just being very good at using his trauma to power his determination.

Back in bed, lying in Zeke's arms, Tyler is relieved that Zeke is distracting him with gentle affections, soft kisses being placed against his neck and shoulders. His hand gently trailing up and down his side in a soothing motion and made his skin feel like it was tingling with the touch. Tyler couldn't help but think about how weird this all was, that he and Zeke were in some kind of unspoken relationship now. It'd built up among a lot of complicated feelings and somehow just turned into the two of them lying on a bed and ignoring their traumas together. Tyler also couldn't stop thinking about why he was so afraid of Zeke leaving today. Zeke had gone out many times before and left Tyler behind, and he'd absolutely been worried those times too. This was different though, previously he'd been worried about losing his safety person or being in danger himself if someone followed Zeke back. This time, he was afraid of never seeing Zeke again, of the possibility that Zeke could get hurt and be tortured. Things had escalated over just a few days between them, but it somehow felt like they had always had this. The feeling between them had always been there somewhere deep down.

Zeke would be tired by the time he went out on his mission, and Tyler felt bad about that but he also hoped that he could keep him distracted enough that they could lose track of time and Zeke just wouldn't end up leaving. It would have been an easy plan, if either of them were able to get in the mood for more than just this, but given the circumstances, there was no way either of them would be capable of taking things further. The more time passed, the closer they got to finding out just what was going to happen on this mission. If these dreams were coming from a kind of foresight that something horrible would happen to Zeke, or all just painful and pointless ways his own brain was trying to mess with him.

With undeniable reluctance, Zeke finally leaves Tyler's side as he realizes he'd finally gone back to sleep. With his concerns for Tyler's newly developed nightmares, his first step before getting ready for the mission, was to talk to Corey. He wanted to know what could be the cause of Tyler's distressing dreams, and how he could help because he'd of course had nightmares himself in this job, like he'd told Tyler. Only his experience was always reliving memories or moments he only vaguely recalled. For example, the night he'd first gone to the shed, the night Zeke had opted to forget. He often had tiny moments he'd 'forgotten' seep back into his subconscious mind, he couldn't remember anyone in the room, but he dreamt of the room, he dreamt of the pools of blood on the floor from the men he'd fatally wounded and left for dead, he dreamt of the chains on the wall and the heartache of seeing someone helplessly suspended, covered in dried blood, fresh blood and bruised all over. He dreamt of the moment he'd been told that the person he'd saved, had ended up dying in hospital and he remembered so distinctly, storming into what is now Corey's office with enraged tears streaming down his face as he demanded with such determination, that he never wanted to think about the night ever again. That he was too shattered and too broken to have witnessed what he had and lost what he had. So while he did have 'nightmares' he didn't wake up from them afraid like Tyler was, he woke up from them heartbroken and infuriated.

Zeke knocks on the door of Corey's office, hoping he would answer quickly so that he wouldn't get caught by G and have to explain himself, he knew he should have been in the weapons room getting what he needed for the mission. Corey answers the door, surprised to see Zeke hadn't left yet.

"Everything ok?" He asks as he steps back and welcomes Zeke inside. Zeke walks in, unaware of how stressed he looked.

"I'm fine, it's Tyler I'm worried about." Zeke sighs and sits against Corey's desk. Corey quickly moves over to the desk, taking the file that was sitting on it open, that he'd been looking through, and putting it away to maintain the patients privacy.

"Is Tyler alright? Responding to medication ok?" Corey asks.

"Well the pneumonia seems to be better already, but he's very... Distressed? He woke up from a bad dream yesterday, coughing and choking and you saw him after that. Did he mention it to you at all?" Zeke frowns at Corey, hoping for answers but remembering who he was talking to as Corey remains silent. "Anyway, he's just woken up again, screaming and shaking and sweaty..."

"And you were there when he woke up? Again?" Corey asks slightly amused as Zeke momentarily panics and tries to think of a way to excuse him being present in Tyler's room in the dead of the night. "No comment, continue." Corey urges, crossing his arms.

"Don't tell G." Zeke begs quickly, embarrassed that he'd managed to keep this a secret for all of a single day before accidentally slipping up.

"I've said it before, I'm more worried about your mental health than anything. Outside of that, it's not my business who's bed you're waking up in." Corey shrugs. "And it's certainly not G's." He adds. "Anyway, nightmares?" Corey gets them back on topic.

"There's just, there's something going on and I don't understand it. I thought he might be having just weird fever dreams but he's really struggling with them. It's like he thinks they are real and it's taking him a while to remember that he's safe and he's ok." Zeke runs his fingers through his hair.

"I can't treat nightmares."

"I know. Just. I know you don't need me to say it, but, take care of him for me." Zeke chews his lip as he thinks about Tyler being alone for an unknown amount of time.

"Of course." Corey nods. "How are you feeling about the mission?"

"I don't want to go, but I also don't want to keep living like this. Something has got to give, so I'm putting everything into this. If it goes to plan, I'll have a future that's free of all of this bullshit. And if it doesn't go to plan, you make sure Tyler and everyone else in here, is kept safe. And between you and me, wipe G's memory and send him away because the power has well and truly gone to his head, I don't trust that he has the best intentions anymore." Zeke states quietly. Corey laughs, but doesn't respond. Wisely keeping his thoughts about their boss, to himself.

"Good luck Zeke, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that you end this. After all this time, I'd love nothing more than to be fired, so you kill this guy once and for all, so we call all move on." Corey says as he retrieves the folder he'd just put away, keeping it tightly tucked under his arm. "Is Tyler awake? I'll pay him a visit now and see what he tells me about these 'nightmares'." Corey suggests and Zeke's eyes move to the folder he was holding, wondering why Corey had already had it out before.

"No, he just went back to sleep actually." Zeke replies with a tone of curiosity escaping as his mind wonders.

"Oh, well then I could put some of these on his head and see what's going on." Corey walks over to a large cupboard, taking out a portable machine with a bunch of wires attached to it.

"What does that do?" Zeke asks.

"It's an EEG, it just monitors electrical patterns in the brain. If he has a nightmare with this on, I might be able to identify what part of his brain is active during, to help determine what the trigger is." Corey grins at him, seemingly excited about the project and excuse to use some equipment he likely didn't often get opportunities to use.

"Ok well I'll let you make sense of all that, and just tell me the simplified version when I get back." Zeke shakes his head and turns around.

"Be safe Zeke." Corey calls out before Zeke leaves the room. Heading at last, to the weapons room to get prepped for this final mission.

Tyler could swear he was feeling the harsh coldness of metal locked around his ankles and wrists, trickling of blood running down his bare skin and hearing the muffled voices around him as they continue to approach. He didn't have it in him to open his eyes, it was too painful, he was too bruised. His lip was busted, his whole body tender from the hits he'd endured and all he could think of was how he should never have run away, he should have gone along with it all and begged for death from someone who might just have enough pity to grant him an easy out of this situation he'd found himself in. The voices around him shout out in surprise and Tyler hears the slamming of the door, followed by gun shots. He's hoping one will pierce his heart and end this torment, but instead the shots are followed by the agonizing screaming of the men who'd been forcing those pained shouts from Tyler for days. Finally, finally something touches Tyler. It's a gentle hand on his cheek, a softness of warm lips delicately pressing on his other swollen cheek.

"Oh god Tyler, I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry. You're going to be ok, I promise. I promise I am getting you out of here and you will be ok. I shouldn't have let this happen." Tyler recognizes the voice and opens his eyes, meeting the kindness and sadness of Zeke's.

"This isn't your fault." Tyler mumbles out and Zeke can't help but let out the tears that were quickly filling his eyes.

"I am in love with you." Zeke whispers as he leans his forehead to Tyler's. "I don't know how they found out, but I knew if I let myself, you'd be in danger. I should have resisted, kept you safe and stayed distant."

"Where would be the fun in that?" Tyler asks, cracking a smile. Zeke fakes a smile back and quickly undoes the chains, catching Tyler as he falls helplessly towards Zeke's comforting arms. As he falls, Tyler's body jolts, and his eyes open.

The coldness of metal on his bare wrists and ankles so tight it feels like it's cutting his skin, the room is dead black and silent and to his horror, Tyler realizes where he is, that his nightmare was not so far from reality. He could only hope Zeke would come back for him in the real world, just like he had in the dream, to save him from the horror he knew he'd be having to face here, in the black room.

"Well would you look who finally woke up. You've been asleep for 3 days." A light comes on, blinding Tyler though he didn't need to see to know who the voice had come from. "So, I know you're not who you've been trying to convince as all you are, and since Zeke's tracking device has corrupted and he's fallen off the radar, it's time we found out the truth. So who the hell are you Tyler? And what do you really want with Zeke?" Tyler's eyes adjust to the light and he looks across at G, standing back with his arms crossed and a piercingly concentrated glare fixed on Tyler.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tyler blinks and turns his head to see Corey standing beside him with the metal trolley, set up with scalpels, needles and syringes.

"We'll start with an easier questions then, where is Zeke?" G demands, ready to get answers, at any cost.