smoke and mirrors

9

"I'm telling you ten, the doctor did it. He was the only one with access." Johnny bites down on his thumbnails. He couldn't stop fighting the feeling that jaehyun might be six feet deep. Just that thought alone makes him queasy.

The American stopped pacing the floor. His glance changed to the Thai male lying on the couch. "Then what am I supposed to do? I have no l..."

"Do you think that Joey is pregnant for you?" Ten says unbothered while looking at his nail beds. "I just find it so sad that she thought she was pregnant when you threatened to leave her."

"This isn't about Joey. It's about jaehyun." Johnny snaps back. He is so tired of everyone bringing up his fiance, right now his husband is in trouble or is already dead, which should be way more important.

Ten turns over on his side. While resting his head on his hand he rolls his eyes. "Johnny look, did you or did you not rip Jaehyun's heart for that woman upstairs?"

"Yeah, b..."

"Did you or did you not embarrass Jaehyun by even announcing the engagement instead of doing what a good husband would have and searching for him?"

Ten wasn't going to let Johnny live this one down, was he? Johnny already knew that about ten. The Thai male is very stubborn and persistent. It is almost scary.

Johnny quickly breaks eye contact with Ten. He couldn't stomach the fact that this little toddler was right. "You're right." Johnny swallows some unknown feeling, he feels like he is going to be sick. He kept seeing Jaehyun's body floating somewhere in a river.

That's when it hit him just a little, he can't imagine his life without the other.

Ten reads Johnny's facial expressions. He is a little sad because he thought Johnny learned to not be a player. He was so hurt that Johnny didn't keep any of his promises.

"Whatever you are thinking then I already know. I'm horrible and I shouldn't have for a second done what I did. But now..."

Ten slowly sits up. A look of shock takes over his face as he sees Johnny holding back tears. Sure Johnny wasn't there for him but times are different.

Ten lifts off of the couch, and he slowly embraces Johnny. "Johnny don't cry."

"What if I can't fix it? What will I do? I don't want to live without him." Johnny grabs ten, he holds him tighter.

Ten tries to quiet down the sniffling and sobbing. "Hey, Johnny everything will work out in our favor." Ten moves back. He grabs the American's face and wipes his tears away with his thumbs. "We have gone through too much for it to not work out for us."

Johnny wanted to believe every single word, however something was holding him down.

Hate, Johnny hates himself. Because he was so confused he lost everything he ever really wanted.

Johnny cursed the days when he was so impressionable, that he should have rejected all of his father's teachings. His dad told him how he needed to be the breadwinner, he needed to be in control, he needed to have kids, and he needed to just be the definition of toxic masculinity to succeed in life.

What did this get him? He is so confused, should he run down the street banging on the door to find clues, or should he watch the pregnant woman? Should he freak out and look into every single doctor and nurse at the hospital all night or rest and wait for everything to work out in his favor?

Ten pulls Johnny's chin down, "Stop beating yourself up, it won't fix anything. What he needs to do.."

Hold on in the mix of Johnny's mental meltdown he sparked a pretty good idea. "Ten we need to look into the nurses and doctors on that floor and the people assigned to his room."

Ten slightly smiles, "They you are. I knew you would pull yourself out of your pity party." Ten moves back. "I have just the thing. He walks over to the couch and reaches his hand behind it. "I looked into it for you." With a grunt, ten slaps a huge stack of papers on the table. "This is all of the info we need to find out who was in charge of Jaehyun's disappearance."

"Omg, then I could kiss you." Johnny blinks a couple of times, "Not that I would. I..m"

Ten still frozen just laugh off how awkward the situation is. "If you weren't in a crisis or a relationship, I would too." Ten looks down at the documents.

Johnny slides over and sits right next to him. It didn't take five minutes for Johnny to spot something off. "Look at that doctor, I thought he was placed into witness protection before leaving for Spain."

Ten looks at Johnny with a slightly bewildered expression. "So..."

"He died in Spain. He went to Spain after the car accident of the judges." Realization slowly sinks in. "Get taeyong and Yuta on the phone. Tell them to come over here."

Ten pulled out his phone and sent a text to Taeyong and Yuta. His fingers gracefully land on the doctor's picture. "If he is alive, that means he took Jaehyun, what if Jian and Jackson were telling the truth? The judges aren't dead."

That could be a very high possibility, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Johnny closes the documents. "If Jian and Jackson are right then Jaehyun could be in way more trouble. We need.... what are you doing?"

"I'm texting Jian and Jackson. If anyone can help us they can." Ten says simply. He stood up and walked into the kitchen.

A knock was heard on a door. Johnny opens it up to see a frantic taeyong and yuta. "Johnny then texted us. What's up?" Taeyong questions.

Johnny moved and motioned for them to come in. "Listen, I think I figured out who took jaehyun." He slowly picks up the picture of the doctor, "was this Jaehyun's doctor?"

Both Yuta and taeyong nod their heads yes. Johnny's face changes, "this is bigger than us. Yuta get your husbands over here now."

After waiting over ten minutes knocks could be heard on the door. Johnny opens it to see four guys. "Guys come in."

The air was so tense. More between Sicheng, Mark, and Jian. Everyone looks in between each other.

Ten steps in the middle. "Look, everyone, we need to put the past behind us and focus on saving jaehyun."

"If you guys would have listened to us over a year ago then jaehyun would be safe," Jackson replied with a matter-of-fact tone.

"The past is i.."

"No Mark it will never be! Because if Jian and I make a mistake we are categorized as evil people, however when you all make a mistake it is thought to be just a mistake."

Sichneg places his arm out in between Mark and Jackson. "Jackson, I hear you. You are frustrated because Jaehyun is your brother. However, we need to become one body and move swiftly to save him."

Mark nods his head. He looks up at Jackson. He could put everything aside for his cousin. Mark looked at Yuta. Honestly, Mark knew to be quiet because he still had the earpieces he used to fake his deafness. Who is he to judge Jackson?

He pulls sicheng back. "It's my fault for being hostile." He looks over to the wangs. "Let's work together."

Everyone stood shocked. Mark put down his differences without a fight, omg he was growing.