I always find you

Chapter 05

When TK opened his eyes, Owen was sitting on the edge of his bed, staring at him, and despite still being sleepy and exhausted from a few too many long days, he had no trouble noticing that there was something his father didn't know how to tell him.

"Dad?"

"They've found him, TK. Gabriel has found Carlos."

"Tell me I'm not dreaming, please."

"No, unfortunately TK, it's not a dream."

TK sat up in bed, his whole body ached but he cared little when he knew something hadn't gone as well as he had hoped in rescuing his husband.

"Dad, tell me what happened, is it bad?"

"It's not good."

TK tried to sit up fully and stand, but Owen stopped him with a hand on his shoulder and a glare to keep him from moving any further.

He struggled, but he was still tired, so he could barely use as much strength as he would have liked.

"They're on their way to the hospital. Gabriel told me they gave him a fairly mild sedative to rest him. He was very agitated when they found him. He was barely able to recognize his father and the paramedics were afraid he'd hurt himself more."

"More? Dad, what did they do to him? Tell me... Why are we still here?"

Again TK struggled with his father and this time, either because of how upset he was or because Owen understood him too well not to stop him, TK stood up.

"They haven't done much more to him than we've already seen in the videos."

"So?"

TK ran to the closet and grabbed his jacket; then, hopping down the steps two at a time, he made his way to the kitchen where Tommy, Nancy and the others were eating dinner.

"TK, wait."

"I can't wait, Dad. I need to be with Carlos when he wakes up and I hope to beat him to the hospital so he won't be alone."

Owen motioned to Tommy for help. TK had to know what Carlos' condition was before the doctors told him, he had to find out from someone who loved him.

The captain stood up and cut him off before he reached the parking lot. "TK, Gabriel called me ten minutes ago when the paramedics were attending to Carlos." TK stopped breathing, he trusted his captain as he trusted his own father. "They have to do more tests on him at the hospital, but it is likely that the doses of substances they have given him these days have been too high, and the consequences of the days to come..."

"No..." TK shook his head. "They couldn't have done that to him, besides Carlos is much stronger than me. I'm sure that, no matter how much they have given him, he'll kick it out right away."

"You should be prepared for a very difficult few days, TK, no one here knows better than you what he might go through."

"But it's not going to be like that, Tommy. I know him, he's my husband, he's the strongest person I've ever known. Whatever they've done to him..."

"TK," Judd's hand on his shoulder made him break down. "No one wants to see Carlos in a bad state, but from what Tommy's saying..."

"Dad, will you drive me to the hospital or do I have to ask you for the keys?"

Without another word, Owen got behind the wheel and drove his son to the hospital doors. There was no more conversation and TK didn't look away from the window.

That no one had given him any real details about how his husband was doing did nothing to help TK's head fill with horrible ideas about what might have happened to him. He'd seen the videos, more times than Owen knew...more than he would have let him. He'd seen horrible things done to him, he'd seen drugs administered to him, and yet he'd also seen that Carlos didn't break.