I'll Help You Hide From Them

Friendship

Kier stays by my side constantly while I recover, talking to me and distracting me. Much to my dismay, after I was stabbed in my stomach muscles, it hurts to laugh.

"Oww Kier, I'm not meant to be laughing." I try to stop laughing at an old funny story he just told me about when he and Ralph were kids.

"Sorry Drew." He giggles. "But it really happened. You should've been there to see it."

"I wish I was." I smile, trying to contain the pain in my stomach from laughing.

"So Ralph was just chasing me, covered in spaghetti." He tries to continue, red in the face from laughing so much.

I keep laughing and whimpering at the pain, just finding it beyond too funny to picture. "Aww man that hurts." I try to stop laughing.

"It's okay, you'll be out of here soon and I'm sure the doctors will let you go back to work in good time." He reassures, still giggling at how he made me laugh so much.

"I appreciate the thought but they only care about getting me healed up, they tend to encourage that I quit my job or just wait a lot longer before giving me the okay to go back to work." I honestly tell him.

He gives me a soft look. "They are going to let you get back to work when they feel that your body can handle it." He tries to calm me.

"I wonder what Shane's doing to treat his stab wound." I think out loud.

"He's not checked into any hospitals, I've seen to it myself." He replies. "Maybe he knows someone who has the medical knowledge to treat him or he knows how to treat himself." He suggests.

"He probably went to the shooter for help." I figure out. "Dammit!" I growl.

Kier rests a hand on my right hand so that I can actually feel this soothing contact. My face forms a frown at the thought that he's still out there with only an injury that would delay him, not stop him. "I should've killed that son of a bitch."

"The choice I had was stop Shane and let you bleed to death or save you and let him get away. I just know that we'll both be able to catch him in the proper way." He hopefully points out.

I force myself to let this reassure me. The idea of Shane in a similar situation to me, healing up to take another try, is more than a little unnerving.

Kier seems to notice this, keeping a comforting grip on my hand. "I know I keep saying this but we're gonna get him. I know it." He tells me calmingly.

"I believe you, I just wanted it to just be over." I sigh.

"We'll be able to finish it soon. Hopefully because Shane failed to kill us, the shooter might get careless and do something that'll lead us directly to him." He points out to give me hope.

"That would be something." I murmur with a small smile.

Kier notices my change in expression so he only tries to change the subject. "After I started working with you I've been going through the academy's archives. You were a real high achiever." He cheerfully points out.

"Says the person beating all the records I set." I can't help but tease a little.

"I only just beat your undercover assignment mark by a fine hair." He argues.

"It's fine, I'm not much of an actor anyway." I reply.

He gains a serious expression and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear. "You would've been the best thing that happened to my brother." He quietly murmurs.

I give him a curious look to see his eyes welling up.

"Having you almost die on me just made me think of how selfish I was, never wanting to see him when he was alive. I had all these chances to see him and make things up to him but I never did. I know you probably hear this a lot from victims family's but I can never really get over the feeling that he's just going to walk into the room and give me a hug for all the ones we've missed." He honestly admits. "And I just hate how I was so selfish now I know that you two would constantly have your lives in danger. I know you don't really think much of yourself but you're an amazing person, he was so lucky to know you while I was pushing him away." He continues.

"I know it's hard Kier, believe me when I say that I have all these regrets of my own when it comes to your brother. It's perfectly natural to feel that way." I reassure.

"But it isn't natural to treat him like shit before he died. He did so much for me, he basically raised me so I must be a special kinda asshole to have just avoided him and refuse to speak to him or return his messages." He adds guiltily.

"Kier, he didn't die because of you, he died because I survived. That weighs very heavily on me in everything I've done since. If he didn't save my life, he'd still be alive. Maybe if I had died he'd go on to do everything he can to patch things up with the other most important person in his life. I know that he had more to live for than I do so I understand what you're going through very well." I point out, my eyes watering up a little as well.

He stares at me for a moment before he starts crying, hiding his face in my chest. I tense up a little, not quite knowing what I could do to help him.

What would Ralph do?

That thought makes me sniff back tears of my own but I still scan through all of my memories with him to try to find an answer. I slowly reach down and massage his scalp, almost stopping when it makes him also freeze up for a moment but he clings onto me as he starts crying even more, wordlessly letting me know that I'm doing the right thing.