'Safe with Rafe' Y/N x Rafe Cameron

Chapter CXX

You push away from Rafe to follow Pope inside and of course, Rafe followed. As well as Jj and Sarah.

Pope bends over a sleeping John B on the couch and pulls out a laptop from the side of it, stuffed between the couch and a side table.
Pope hurriedly looks around for somewhere to sit but as John B slept on the couches entirety, he walked away to the bedroom instead, waving you and the others over to follow him. Popes determination to show you whatever it is that's on the laptop irked you, whatever it was must be important and Rafe was the only one out of the four of you who had some idea of what it could be, making him just as vigilant as Pope was.

Jj lazily throws himself on the bed and so does Sarah. Pope and Rafe however, sit side by side with attentive eyes while you, climb up beside Sarah but just behind Rafe as you cling onto his back, arms over his shoulders as a type of hug from behind and peaking over his broad shoulders.
It made his serious demeanour falter with a small smile, rubbing your arms softly as they meet his chest, feeling flustered as your own presses against his back.

"Alright, brace yourselves." Pope says with a serious gaze towards Rafe and yourself.
When he opens the laptop, it was already opened up on a few tabs, some were minimised and some were in small screens. The desktop was such a mess that you had no idea what to look at and neither did Rafe.
"What're we looking at Pope?" You sigh.
"This," He begins as he maximises a black and white clip, "Does this guy look familiar?"
He presses play and instantly you recognise the setting like it was from some uncanny dream.
It felt nostalgic.
"Isn't this the burger parlour?" You ask.
"Sure is."
As the video plays out, Kelce comes on screen. Rafe wasn't there that day when you went for breakfast so suddenly seeing the oh so familiar face so abruptly, made Rafe tense up, his fingers that were rubbing at your arm so carefully were now beginning to lock up, tightly grasping as your skin.
"Thats your old pal Kelce, and that guy over here, right beside him..." Pope says, "You know him, don't you?"

Your face drops.
You did in fact know him.
From last night.

"Y/N?"
You look down at Rafe to see him looking at you, his head turned to look at you so directly as his face is only mere centimetres away from yours. His face begins to look concerned the longer you stare at him, speechless.
You want to admit that yes, he was the man from last night, but your body feels weak with fear as if just looking him in the face was putting you in danger. You were drunk last night but his face was far too distinguishable to forget, how could you?
"Hey...Y/N." Rafe says again, softly, not to startle you further than you already were.
"Yeah..." You mutter, "I know him."
"I thought so too, I thought I saw him from somewhere." Pope says back.
Rafe shakes his head out of confusion, clearly he wasn't on the same page as you two were and it only made him curious.
"Where?" Rafe asks before averting his eyes back to yours, "Who is he, Y/N?"
"The guy."
"The guy?"

Two words is all he needed.
The guy.
As small and simple as it sounded, it meant so, so much more. It meant confirmation.
It was the problem as well as the solution all at the same time.

Two words is all it took to bring out the same Rafe as the unrecognisable one from the pier, a version of himself only something of murder could quiet.
It scared him but it enraged him both, he felt like he had poison in his bloodstream, that his entire body was being pulled apart by a black hole of contradicting emotions.
He was spiralling.

Little do you know, Rafes face scrunches up fiercely.
Anger evident in his aura that you could only detect from behind him as your chest lay against his back, now rising and falling rapidly with deep breaths.
There isn't much you can do when he's in a state like this, so you only hug him tighter, moving your face in closer against his own as you place soft kisses against his skin to calm him.

Pope notices him escalating too, but he wasn't as brave as you were. Rafe had always scared him, especially the old version of him that he sees now surfacing before his very eyes, so he only looks back to his laptop and lets you handle him on your own, knowing you never failed to bring out the best of Rafe. Evidently.
"I told Shoupe that I recognised him from the parlour so Shoupe paid them a visit and got the footage for us, he wanted me to bring it back and show you...maybe it could confirm a suspect for him and, well..."
"It's him." You say.
"Deep down, I knew...but, I didn't expect to see Kelce in the same footage." Pope says lowly, "I didn't want to believe it would get this bad."
"What should we do?" You ask.
"Tell Shoupe. Kelce is obviously up to something and if he's willing to take it this far then...who knows what else." Pope sighs.
"No."
"What do you mean, no?"

The legal system continues to fail people like you, pogues.
Your association with Rafe would be his downfall against someone like Kelce in court; and while what he did back at the pier was out of self defence, it wouldn't fly if they found out that the Cameron's pay off Shoupe to keep it hush.
You simply couldn't endanger Rafe like that.
Not ever.

"Y/N, what do you mean?" Pope asks again after noticing you begin to zone out.
"That would mean trouble for Rafe, too." You say.
"That was self defence-"
"To an extent, but Kelce was just about dead."

Suddenly, Rafe stands up with such force, causing you to fall back on Sarah and Jj behind you.
He starts to pace the room, his body movement was jittery and anxious as his hands rest on his head, looking like he was gasping for air or perhaps feeling suffocated, something people did when they cried except there were no tears in Rafes eyes, only rage.
"I'm so sorry, Y/N, this is all me-" Rafe begins to ramble, his voice shaking.
"Rafe-" You stand too, trying to stop him from pacing and look you in the eyes but he felt so lost in his emotions that he couldn't bring himself to stand still, he needed a release and pacing back and fourth just wasn't enough.
He needed violence, it was his only outlet.
"Y/N, maybe sit down-" Sarah says but Rafe only begins to ramble again, more aggression in his movement now and it frightened everybody in the room.
"I need to do something- I have to do something, for you, Y/N, I can't let this- I can't live with myself if something happens to you, I- I-"
"Rafe, hey, it's okay-"
"Why do you choose to stick around for me?!" He shouts as he turns around to face you, and as much as you wished it wasn't so, he frightened you, too.