Shattered

Truths

A/N: Trigger warnings

Mayson stared out the window into the garden. He wanted to go outside. He wanted to feel the sun against his face and breathe fresh summer air. For the moment he was alone with his thoughts, though Jonathan wasn't far. Mayson sighed. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want to tell these police officers what had transpired between Lucius and himself. He didn't want Jonathan to know, let alone strangers. Jonathan told him these two were friends of his, they could be trusted. He was scared nonetheless.

Jonathan came in alone leaving the door open a fraction. Mayson looked nervously at the door.

"Hey, they're here." Jonathan took both his hands in his larger ones and kissed his knuckles. "I'll be here the whole time, okay?" Mayson chewed his lower lip and looked away, not speaking. "Unless you don't want me to be?" He left the question open, hoping he hid the hurt he felt from his voice. This isn't about you.

Mayson shook his head. "To be honest, Jonathan, I don't want you to know the things he's done to me...but...I can't do this without you here." Mayson looked at him showing him everything and hiding nothing.

"I'm scared, Jon. I don't want to be scared anymore. I've been scared my whole life...and I'm tired...I'm so tired."

Jonathan nodded. "I know. We'll both rest after this. You ready for this?"

"No. But let's get it done with."

Jonathan called to them by name and they slowly filed in. Mayson tried to calm his heartbeat by breathing slowly. He was glad he wasn't hooked up to the heart monitor anymore; no one else could hear its quickened pace.

"Mace, this is Mike Callahan and this is Gina Thomas. I've known them for years, you can trust to tell them whatever you need to."

Mason nodded and looked away. He didn't know where to begin. He didn't know how to begin. He took a couple of faltering, deep breaths trying to regain some balance of mind, something he hadn't had in so long he didn't know if he could gain it back. He looked at Jonathan as tears welled up in his eyes.

Jonathan nodded encouragingly and Mayson grabbed Jonathan's hand and squeezed, trying to reassure himself with Jonathan's solidity that he was actually there, that he was safe and that this was happening. He'd never spoken against Lucius before now and even though he wasn't there, he was terrified that he was going to find him again. The officers pulled up two chairs and sat down on the other side of the bed facing Jonathan. The three of them shared a look and it seemed as if Jonathan was wanting them to take it easy, that this one was much more fragile than he had been when they first helped him.

Gina was the first to speak, her voice was soft and light and airy, easy going on the ears and he was instantly pulled into her aura of calm. She was beautiful with dark red hair that flowed past her shoulders and dark, fierce green eyes that seem to make you freeze if you stared at them for too long. Her smile was kind and her voice was reassuring. When she spoke, she spoke gently as if she were afraid if she spoke too harshly he would shatter like crystal.

"I know that this might seem impossible for you to do, but what you're doing is the right thing. No one should be put through something like this. I want you to take your time, we don't have to do it all right now. We'll do this on your terms. You have full power here, if you want to stop, we'll stop. If it becomes too much, we'll stop. We're not going to sit here and pretend that this is easy for you when we know it's difficult, and we don't want to make your stay worse by trying to get you to divulge too much too quickly. How about we just start at the beginning, from when the two of you met and we'll take it from there. Anytime you want to stop we will, all you have to do is say so, okay, Mayson? With your permission, we'd like to record this session."