Secret's and Lies (MXM)

Prologue

"Twenty-one year old male, he's sustained a gunshot wound to the chest, and has lost about three pints of blood. Victim is in and out of consciousness, experiencing shock, and acute hypotension." The paramedic called out.

Dez could hear the voices, could feel the rough jostling of the gurney as it pushed across the pavement. But he couldn't move, he couldn't speak, his brain was all jumbled up and he could barely keep a constant thought in his head. A light shined in his eyes, causing them to well up with tears, as he was unable to close them.

"Hi honey, my name is Sam, you've sustained a pretty nasty injury but we're going to take care of you. Can you tell me your name?" A female voice called out to him, sounding rushed yet calm.

Everything hurt. His arms were heavy, and he couldn't even feel his legs anymore. But there was excruciating pain radiating through his chest, and if he could open his mouth, he'd surely be screaming with each stab that raced through the area and through his entire form. His head pounded, and his ears were ringing. Yet, even through all of this, he kept conscious and dug through his mind. There was something he was forgetting, something important, and he was overcome with the feeling like there was something he needed to find.

An image suddenly flashed through his foggy head, a man. Muscled body that was covered in tattoos, sharp jaw with the slightest shadow of a beard coming in. Dark hair with snow-white highlights fading throughout, a piercing green gaze that put all of the forests on earth to shame, and a slightly cocky smirk that just barely met those eyes, and made them shine with intensity, care, and love.

I know those eyes, I know that smile...

"Shit, we're losing him. I need the defibrillators now! Prepare an injection..." The sweet female voice grew panicked, just before it began to fade away.

Dez was lost in a world where he couldn't feel anything. Lights flashed behind his closed eyes, as images from his childhood began to play like the trailer to a movie. The first time he rode a bike, and how he refused to let his father let go of the handles. The way his mother used to hum for him when he was little, and afraid to go to sleep all alone in the dark. How she would stick her tongue out whenever she was mixing mashed potatoes for dinner. His eighth birthday when he got his first gaming system, and pestered his dad to show him how to play. The day his little sister was born, how small she had been in his lap, and how her chubby little hand grasped onto his finger. The oath he made to always be there for her, and protect her. His friends, and all the times they drug him out of bed in the middle of the night to go partying. His first heartbreak, and how he felt he'd never recover, until KJ snuck in through his window to bring him icecream and kick his ass back in gear. Getting his license, and driving his car alone for the first time. Highschool graduation, and that feeling of accomplishment he and his friends got as they danced around the courtyard, hitting each other with their diploma books. Moving away from home, and attending his first year of college, and how he thought he was going to piss himself before he even made it through the front gates. Meeting Matt, and dealing with KJ being all possessive over him as his best friend. Meeting Emery and feeling like she was the one, until... Until Dez met him. Who did this face belong to again? Those eyes that could see right through him, whether he was happy, or sad, scared, or excited.

Dez was overcome with a feeling of warmth, as the last memory played through his head. He was pressed firmly against a warm chest, laying back against the fluffy pillows of a large bed. His legs were entangled with the bigger, muscled ones of the one who held tightly onto him, as if he would fade away. Dez tilted his head up in the embrace to stare into the man's eyes lovingly. He smiled, and brought a hand up to trace the chiseled jaw, where the slightest scruff, that always tickled him, rested. The man smiled back at him, flashing his perfect white teeth, and a kind look that was reserved only for Dez himself.

"Ryker" Dez whispered carefully, before a deep sadness overcame him, and tears began to leak from his eyes.

"Don't worry Dez, I've got you. As long as I'm here, you don't have to worry, or be afraid, because I will always protect you."

That's right, Ryker will save me, I just have to wait for him to get here. Dez thought, before he allowed himself to slip into unconsciousness.

Ryker would never let him die.