Freedom To Another Cage [BILLFORD]

Chapter 18: Cut

Ford was worried out of his mind. Bill was gone, with not a single trace of him. No sign of where he had gone or if he was in any danger. Everyone that could be trusted into looking for the Demon was in the search and they were getting nowhere. It was already getting late for today.
They all headed home. Suddenly, a bright swirl of glittering hues of color appeared in the front of the house.
For a moment, everyone was completely silent, but after a few seconds, they all rushed towards the front of the house, where the swirling colors appeared.

A few moments later, Bill floated out. He looked an absolute mess: Tired, a cut up hand, sluggish (and still in his white uniform)...
Bill rubbed his bottom eyelid, obviously in need of a nap. "Hey, Sixer.."

Everyone paused for a moment, looking over the exhausted, damaged and messy Bill. Ford himself was surprised. He definitely wasn't expecting Bill to just appear out of nowhere. Stanford quickly snapped out of it and started walking towards him. "..Bill? Where have you been?!"
Bill went up and slumped into Stanford's chest. "... Theraprism.. took me.." The portal closed behind him.

Ford was surprised by the sudden change in Bill's behavior. He did NOT sound like his usual self. He had so many questions right then, but Bill seemed like he really needed a break and to rest. He wrapped an arm around Bill and supported his weight. "..You alright?"
"No... Bed me... Please." Bill wrapped his arms around the human, closing his eye.
Ford went silent. It wasn't often Bill would willingly want affection, so the fact that he was, and even asking nicely, was surprising. He wrapped his other arm around Bill, supporting his weight as he started leading him inside. "..Yeah, I'll take you to bed."

Everyone watched, completely dumbfounded by the care they both showed to each other ("Woah, dudes. Am I, like, seeing things right now?").

Ford ignored the looks as he led Bill inside. He knew it was really weird, but he didn't care right now. He just wanted to get Bill rested first and make sure he was alright. "Alright... How bad the injuries you have?"
Bill opened his eye to look up at Sixer. "I... Can we talk later..?"
Ford paused for a moment to think. Bill's injuries really did look pretty bad. He didn't think he could leave him be without at least tending to them first. He shook his head. "Bill, you look pretty banged up. I need to tend to your injuries before you sleep. We can talk when you wake up."
"I can just heal them."
Ford let out a small sigh, still keeping Bill pressed against him as he continued walking him to a room. "Healing yourself won't really do much when there's still shards in those cuts, Bill."
Bill grumbled, but decided it wasn't best to fight it as they entered the room.

Ford led them into the room and over to a nearby bed. He carefully lowered Bill so he was sitting on the bed, a frown on his face as he could see the injuries up close. "Jesus.. how did you even end up like this?" Bill slumped back on the bed, "Heal now, talk later."
"Alright, alright. I'll do that, but you better actually sleep once that's done."
Ford moved to sit on the edge of the bed, taking Bill's injured hand into his own, being careful to not hold it too tightly. He looked it over, before letting out a small sigh at the sight of the deep cuts.

Bill slumped his other hand over, slightly tugging at the glove to take it off, although not doing well in his weakened state.

Ford noticed Bill's struggling with the glove, deciding to help take it off for him. He carefully got the glove off, looking at the cuts on Bill's hand. They definitely looked deep and painful. "..God, this looks bad. This might hurt a bit, alright? And try to hold still. I need to dig the shards out before you heal it.."
"Yeah.."
Ford nodded and went over to a nearby table drawers, opening one and looking through the contents until he found the tweezers he was looking for. He walked back over to the bed and sat back down on the edge, taking hold of Bill's hand again and looking for any pieces of glass to get out first.

Ford had to hold back a slight curse from seeing all the pieces of glass in the cuts. There were a lot more than he expected. He knew this wasn't going to be a fun process. "Okay... This definitely won't be a fun process. Tell me if it hurts too much, alright?"
"I've felt worse. Trust me." Bill chuckled to lighten the mood.
"I don't doubt you on that one." Ford chuckled along with him. Even with this, it was a bit relieving that at least Bill's personality was mostly still intact. He took hold of Bill's hand firmly and began carefully removing each piece of glass he could find. Ford tried his damndest to work carefully and gently, but he would be lying if he said he didn't see at least a few more winces from Bill. A few times he had to adjust his hold on Bill's hand to reach a piece of glass, and whenever he did that, Bill's hand would slightly twitch from it. After a few minutes, he believed he had pulled out all the pieces of glass.

"Finished?" Bill asked. "Don't be scared to stretch the cuts open to find more, I can handle it."
Ford went quiet for a moment, not exactly liking how careless Bill was being about the injures. He nodded as he sat the tweezers to the side. "..Yeah, I'm done. I think I got all the glass out of it. You're really not bothered by how bad these look, are you..?"
"Not really.." Bill then pulled his hand away, healing the cuts before reaching for his glove to put it back on.

Ford watched as Bill pulled his hand away, healed the cuts, and went to reach for the glove to put it back on. Ford reached out and grabbed Bill's arm to stop him. "Hold on. As much as I think you probably need to rest, I'm not finished checking you over. You probably have more injuries on your body than just that hand, right?"
Bill looked over at him. He seemed a bit hesitant to say anything, though.
Ford seemed to sense the hesitancy from Bill. He held a firm hold on Bill's arm, trying to gently encourage him to at least let him check over his body for more injures. "..Bill, I need you to be honest when I ask this; do you have any more injuries besides for that hand?"
Bill looked to the side, lightly tugging at the shirt of the uniform while remaining silent.

Something definitely wasn't right; it was so subtle, but he got a terrible feeling about this. "Bill, I'm going to ask again, honestly. Do you have any more injuries other than the cuts on your hand?" His tone was a bit more firm as he moved to lightly pull up the edge of the uniform a bit to look underneath.
The bricks gaps were back to normal, no longer thin.
Ford paused as he noticed the return of the wider brick gaps on Bill's body. He went silent for a moment, a small look of shock on his face, before speaking up again. "Bill..." He continued pulling up the shirt, looking to get a clearer look at what was underneath. No other wounds, thankfully.

When Ford pulled the uniform down to look at the triangle, Bill pulled him down into a hug cuddle, sobbing.
This caught Ford completely off guard. Seeing Bill start to cry really drove in just how wrong this situation was for him. He quickly wrapped his arms around Bill, holding him against himself with a firm grip as he let him cry. "..Hey, hey, it's okay... I've got you.." Bill pulled at Ford's sweater as he cried before he started mumbling incomprehensible words.
Ford let out a small sigh, moving one of his hands up to gently pet Bill's top sides as he mumbled through the sobbing. He couldn't make out whatever it was that he was saying, but didn't want to interrupt Bill by asking what he was saying when he was in this state. "..It's okay... I'm here, just let it out, alright?..”

Finally, something came out: "T-They took them..."
Ford paused and went silent for a moment as he heard Bill's broken sounding voice utter that sentence. Something was suddenly clicked into place for him, and his hold on Bill became a bit tighter in a protective manner.
Bill continued. "They... forced me.. surgery..." He took deep breaths before some words to prevent hitching breaths, trying to pull Ford closer.
A feeling of rage and disgust filled Stanford's chest, but he tried his best to keep any anger from showing in his voice and body language, keeping his hold on Bill firm yet gentle. "..Bill, it's okay... you can say it, alright? I've got you.."
Still nothing for a moment or two, but he eventually said something. "They... they killed them.. I... I'm sorry I.."

Ford had a feeling he already knew what Bill was about to say, but once he said it, he didn't expect to feel so terrible about it. He pulled Bill even closer once he said it, his hold on him almost becoming protective and a bit possessive. He felt a mixture of anger and sadness, and the latter was most visible in his voice.
"Don't be sorry.. It's not your fault..."