How to hide a body

Raven

Tyler flinched as they dragged her into the hospital and through the hallways. Eyes followed her down the corridors and their stares burnt into the back of her neck. She kept her gaze to the ground, counting all the cracks in the floor as they passed them, only glancing up when a door was opened in front of her and she heard a gasp. 

Quinn tried to jump up from her hospital bed but Jia quickly stopped her from sitting up. Tyler shook her head and nodded to her side where one of the police that brought her in was. Quinn nodded back and laid back into her bed, glaring at the hands that were on Tyler's wrists probably leaving bruises.

"You've got thirty minutes," one of the police spoke before they both stood outside. All three of them watched as the door slowly closed all the way and then sprung into movement. Tyler rushed towards the hospital bed and perched on the side as she checked over Quinn.

"Hey, I'm all good," Quinn gently brushed her hand against her cheek and frowned when she touched the back of her head to find that it was covered in blood, "you need to get that checked out," Quinn hissed and tried to find her button to call the nurses. 

Tyler grabbed her hand and shook her head, "I'll be fine."

"No you won't," Quinn argued with her.

"She's right Tyler," Jai agreed with her, "you've been running around for hours with a hurt head and probably a broken hand, accept the help."

Tyler rolled her eyes, "fine, only after I've talked to you though," Quinn pursed her lips but nodded anyway, "I found what they were looking for. It was in our flat."

"What?!" Quinn sat up again but was pushed back down again by Jai.

"In one of the skirting boards," Tyler hushed her and glanced at the door in the corner of her eye, "I found a gold ring in Clay's house," Tyler brought out the object from her pocket and held it out to Quinn.

"Ok..." Quinn's eyebrows scrunched up as she tried to find the relevancy when she stared at the ring in front of her.

"He wasn't married, so whoever was our killer left it behind."

"How are you going to find out who's it is?" Jai spoke up from the other side of the bed as Tyler put the ring back away into her pocket and turned to him.

"I'm going to do something stupid."

"I'm guessing you've already done it because you're here," Quinn raised an eyebrow, "you handed yourself in to find them."

"Clay wrote police in his own blood Quinn. Surely that has to mean something?" 

Quinn ran a hand over her face and turned to Jai who nodded at her. She scowled at him, "you support what she's doing?"

Jai shrugged, "she's done it already so we can't reverse it. Remember, the longer she ran the worse everything would be in the end if the solution isn't found." 

"You've made such a big risk Tyler," Quinn whispered as if she had realised for the first time what was going to happen, "what if it doesn't turn out ok?"

Tyler gulped and steadied her shaking hands which she had hidden under the bed, "no matter what, it will be fine." She met Quinn's eyes and tried to hold as much confidence as she could when Quinn seemed unsure. 

"Do you remember when we slept on the roof at the orphanage," Quinn murmured.

"We had to sneak the mattress from my room outside the window," she chuckled and brushed a bit of hair out of Quinn's face, "you tried to distract the staff by acting like you were sick."

"I was very proud of my performance," Quinn remarked and smirked at Jai, "I made fake sick and all, even pretended to faint. Obviously, they believed my act because of its excellence."

Tyler shook her head, "they dismissed you and told you to go and bother me which is what you always do anyway."

"But we have fun. You nearly fell off of the roof."

"Because you threw my camera off of it and I had to nearly jump off to catch it," Tyler reminded her and Jai snickered from the right side of the bed.

"I forgot that. I thought you just tripped."

"How convenient."

"Joseph tried to sneak through your room to join us."

"You threw your water bottle at him so his head was bruised."

"He was very scary," Quinn shrugged and again turned to Jai, "he really appeared out of nowhere. Then Tyler was awesome and used her authority voice when you know she'd beat you up if you don't do what she says. But not really because she's a soft teddy bear. She was like 'Joseph remembered what happened last time you sneaked up here' and he ran because she shaved his hair off last time and it was very intimidating," Quinn rambled and Jai and Tyler shared an amused look. 

She tried to continue talking after that but Jai told her to get some rest. They sat in silence as the heart monitor beeped and each of them tried to act brave for the others, if the whole thing went wrong there'd be consequences for all of them.

Tyler and Jai watched as Quinn's head lolled back into her pillow when she fell asleep five minutes after they'd stopped talking. It was then that Tyler noticed the bags under her eyes that stuck out against her pale skin and the redness that surrounded her eyes, particularly in the corners. 

"She hasn't slept since she woke up from the operation," Jai muttered when he saw Tyler's concern, "she wanted to know where you were. Even tried to discharge herself when she hadn't even walked properly yet. She wouldn't stop crying when she knew you were out there, especially that you were alone, and kept muttering about your hand. Since the minute she came into the room she wouldn't look away from that window," Jai nodded to the window at the right side of her bed that had drops of rain racing down it. Tyler smiled fondly at the raven keyring grasped tightly in Quinn's left hand, "she's refused to let go of it since the alleyway."

Tyler pursed her lips as her eyes flitted around the room until they landed on a simple painting on the wall of a dandelion, "don't let her say she was involved when they question her," Tyler's eyes moved the side of Jai's face, "please. I can't let her get hurt," she gasped as she tried to keep her tears at bay, "I can't let her waste her life if she can get away," she begged him as she let the tears fall freely down her cheeks leaving red tracks behind. Her lip trembled as she gasped again, "she's all I have left."

Jai traced his thumb over hers as he nodded, "I promise I'll do everything I can."

"Thank you," she croaked and rested her forehead against his, "thank you," she whispered.

"Time's up," the two police came into her room and she nodded numbly, standing up from the bed. She leaned over to Quinn and kissed her forehead.

"I love you," she muttered as she gazed down at her before she turned to Jai and hugged him tightly, "thank you. Stay safe too."

Jai rested his head on her shoulder, "don't risk too much," a hand pulled her away from him and he mouthed, "good luck," to her as she was dragged over to the door.

She wrestled against them to glance back at Quinn one final time before the door closed behind her. She squeezed her eyes shut as she focused on her steps against the floor and breathed in as she tried to sort her muddled thoughts for the show that was to come.