On My Own (A Shoey Fanfic)

Confrontation

Shane's POV~

It was all I could take. The last straw. The boiling point. Sawyer had crossed every last line, and he was going to pay. It hurt me to leave Joey crying on the floor, it really did, but he wasn't all right in the head. I mean, that had to be the case if he could still find it in him to defend Sawyer.

I would do anything for Joey. God, I just wanted him to be okay...

I didn't know where Sawyer had gone, but I needed to find him. No matter what it took, Joey deserved this kind of determination. My eyes were peeled for his yellow sports car - I was ready to take him down.

I'd stormed out of the apartment with my keys in hand, mentally prepared for a long drive ahead of me, but I stopped in my tracks when I found Sawyer only feet away from the entrance with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, leaned against his car.

What a stupid bitch.

"Hey Sawyer," I yelled forwards to him, stepping out into the parking lot. "What the fuck is the matter with you?"

He looked to me through sunglasses, taking another drag from the cig He must've thought he looked too fucking slick... all I wanted was to sock him right in the eye, but I wasn't exactly sure what good that would do.

It would feel pretty great, though...

I held back my fists for now, clenching them at my sides, panting with the energy I'd gathered up. "I know what you did to Joey," I calmed the tone of my voice now, low and smooth. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing how angry he'd made me. "I'm going to make sure you get put away for a long time, so you can never hurt or see Joey ever again! Do you get that? You fucking sicko?"

Sawyer just continued to scowl at me, not saying anything. He took the cigarette from his lips (funny, I didn't think he smoked) and tossed it to the ground, stepping past me and hitting my shoulder hard with his. I turned with exasperation and sighed loudly as he continued to walk away from me. "Sawyer - " I called him out again, "get back here!"

"Give it a rest, Dawson," his back was still to me and his voice was unusually calm. "You think you're gonna be able to fix things. You think you're just gonna do one little thing and everything will just fall into place." He turned back, halfway towards me now. "You don't know half of it."

My mouth fell open. "What are you - "

He cut me off: "Joey won't let you put me away. If I'm gone, he's going to crash and burn. I've been there for him from the start - he has so much more of a reason to love me than a reason to love you. He'll realize it soon enough."

"No he won't!" I spoke with a strength I didn't know I possessed. "He loves me, that's it." My voice wavered a tiny bit as I realized the truth in what Sawyer was saying - Joey believed him. Even though it was hurting him, he believed him,

In half a second, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life.

Sawyer was going to jail, and Joey and I were going to therapy.

I dug my phone out of my pocket, using the emergency call button so seldom needed. Sawyer turned more, now nearly head on to me. "They don't have enough to book me," he spoke softly, hoarsely. "Joey won't press charges. They'll just take all of us down to the station and we'll get out in the morning. By the time you're done collection your possessions from the deputy, Joey and I will be gone."

I didn't want to believe him. I wanted to keep telling myself that he was delusional, he didn't know what he was saying. But some tiny part of me deep inside found reason in his words and I faltered, lowering the receiver for a moment. Time seemed to slow; I was stuck. There wasn't a solution to this problem.

Was this... the end?

But as I was hesitating, Sawyer moved with haste I hadn't seem coming. Just like that, he was facing me, hand finding its way into his waistband and in a fraction of a second, pulled out something dark and sleek. A gun. Sawyer had a gun. I couldn't process these things, why did Sawyer have a gun?

In the second where I was still trying to figure things out, the loudest crack I'd ever heard shook through the air and something struck my shoulder with an unprecedented force. My phone tumbled from my hand as I fell, right hand leaping to my left shoulder where the pain started.

The gun's barrel was smoking.

"That was a warning," Sawyer stepped forwards, voice sharpening and rising with anger. "The next one goes right through your forehead if you don't back down."

I was stunned. What was... what... I stumbled to my knees, holding my shoulder as it started to bleed. I didn't want to take my eyes off Sawyer, but I wanted to make sure the wound wasn't that bad. I couldn't comprehend what was happening, my good hand tried to find my phone on the ground but there wasn't anything I could find.

Was I going to die?

Suddenly we both spun around at someone yelling: "Sawyer, don't do it!" Joey threw the lobby door open, running out into the parking lot.

"Joey, stop!" I screamed, falling forwards and using Sawyer's momentary distraction to my advantage. I lunged at Sawyer, jerking forward, trying to grab his arm and stretching towards the weapon. Just a little more -

But Sawyer spun back, hitting me hard with his forearm and sending me to my knees before straightening both arms and aiming the handgun at Joey. "Don't move or I'll shoot!" he screamed, chest heaving. Joey froze, I froze. Sawyer's hands were shaking, his fingers were on the trigger: if I didn't do something, Joey would -

I leapt up and grabbed Sawyer's arm, drawing the barrel away from Joey.

He pulled the trigger.

My last thought was about my and Joey's dinner date the next night.