Red Light

What the...?

Nie Huaisang walked into the hospital room tapping his fan against his leg. Everyone in his department would have run at the sight. They all knew what it meant - Nie Huaisang was seriously peeved about something. He noticed Jiang Cheng was holding A'Yuan who was in tears.

"What happened? Is he okay?" he asked Lan Wangji in a quiet voice.

"He will be. Wen Chao is the one who beat him." was the equally quiet response.

The fan started tapping again. A night with no sleep, watching Yu Bin hurt, sending out a team for a last minute undercover op, waiting for search warrants from a judge who was up to her eyeballs in corruption and being confronted by Yu Bin's sister each time he saw her did nothing for his growing irritation. Add the situation with Wei Yuan and he was ready to pull out his new favorite fan.

'Wen Chao could always do with a visitor.' he thought with grim satisfaction.

"A'Sang?" the voice was low and concerned. He looked up to see Yu Bin looking at him with worry in his eyes. "Are you okay?"

Nie Huaisang gave an unconvincing smile. "Just tired, A'Bin."

"You aren't okay. Come sit. What's wrong?" Yu Bin gestured to the chair next to his bed.

"Too many things coming to a head all at once." he stroked Yu Bin's good hand gently as he thought. "I have an undercover op going out in a little over twelve hours. There are search warrants waiting for a sulking judge to approve. And I seriously want  to finish what I started with Wen Chao. He has hurt too many. He deserves to suffer through years of torment and die an ugly, painful, humiliating death." His voice was flat. Emotionless.

Yu Bin watched Nie Huaisang. He had seen The Spider before but this was something else. A glimpse of the darkness lurking within The Spider.

Nie Huaisang saw the look on Yu Bin's face. "I'm sorry, A'Bin. I promise, I have never crossed the line. I may work in the gray areas regularly but I've never crossed over." He paused. "Yesterday may have been the exception. Grinding Wen Chao into the glass. It wasn't strictly necessary but..." his voice trailed off.

"I owed it to Lu Jianmin and I couldn't let him get away with hurting you." he fiddled with his fan before suddenly rubbing his face. "I'm sorry, Yu Bin. This is neither the time nor place to display my annoyance with the world." His smile was the cool facade of The Spider again.

"A'Sang?"

Nie Huaisang looked up almost tentatively at Yu Bin.

"Just be you. With me anyway." The smile was warm, accepting, and snuggled right into Nie Huaisang's heart. It took him a second to swallow the lump in his throat.

"Thank you, A'Bin. I don't think I can tell you how much that means to me." His voice shook slightly before he cleared his throat. "I will be just me with you." The look they shared was private and it was obvious they had dismissed the world around them for the moment.

That was when Yu Qing walked in. She had never seen her brother look that way at anyone. He hadn't dated much but she had met each one. At no point had she ever seen him look so happy and content with any of them as he did at this moment. It gave her another reason to pause and find out what exactly was going on between her brother and this inspector.

She waited near the door, not wanting to interrupt. It was obvious something was going on by Wei Ying's bed. Wei Yuan was crying and Jiang Cheng was holding him. The sniffles and hiccups seemed to be slowing but Jiang Cheng wasn't trying to put the boy down. He just held him and gently rubbed his back from time to time. There was something about his face at that moment. A tenderness. A gentleness perhaps. Whatever it was, she liked it.