The Name's Crutchie

Chapter 8b: The Aftermath

Jack sat silently in the boarding house, both fuming and defeated as Blink calmly dabbed the dried blood off his face, the repetitive motion was soothing Jack's racing mind and the cool water was welcome against his hot skin. His chest rose and fell raggedly as he closed his eyes and imagined for a moment that none of this had happened, that he'd just left everything alone, not gotten upset at the price, never fallen in love with Crutchie, never set himself up to hurt as many people as he has. Jack relished the sting of his injuries; sickly glad that he was the one who had gotten hurt this time not someone else.

"Well the good news is your nose isn't broken." Said Blink softly carefully dabbing an open cut on Jack's face. He didn't reply. "You know better than this Jack." Blink continued undeterred by Jack's silence, Blink had spent many a night patching Jack up after a fight. "Fighting against them Delancey brothers only brings no good, you're lucky you didn't get sent off to the refuge again." Jack scoffed, a rough and empty sound.

"If only." Blink looked up.

"What was that?" He questioned incredulously.

"I said If I only I was in the damn refuge instead of Crutchie." Jack repeated, head bowed, staring blankly down away from Blink. "It's my fault he's there, I should be there myself. You said it I'm lucky I'm not there now, so why the hell am I still sitting here while Crutchie suffers in that godforsaken place." Blink continued with his work and took Jack's arm and began wrapping it in an old but clean bandage.

"Now what would we do with you in the refuge Jack? We need your leadership around here." Blink said evenly.

"It's my fucking leadership that got us into this shit in the first place Blink don't you understand that?!" Jack tried to jerk his arm back away from Blink but he held his ground, firmly holding Jack's forearm and continued to tie up the bandage. "Crutchie's starving in the refuge because of me! I try to sleep and he's all I can think about, they're going to be so hard of him because of his leg. He's not like me he can't just get out of there, Blink what if he doesn't make it? What if I've killed him Blink?" He looked up to see Jack's head hung, his face a tortured mixture of distress and anguish. Jack looked up and met Blink's eye, tears were freely falling down his face and he was choking back a sob. Blink wrapped his arms around the boys as sobs shook his slim frame. "I can't handle that." He said in a small voice. Blink rested his chin on top of Jack's mess of curls.

"I know. You won't have to." And Blink desperately wanted to believe that himself.

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Hey guys! happy holidays! I apologise for this very short chapter but I liked this little interaction Blink is such an under-utilised character anyways happy holidays! hope you guys are having a great holiday season

P.S Please comment if you're enjoying this series, if you're not enjoying this series, if you want me to try to work in a random word into my next chapter, I love hearing from your guys even if it's just telling me what you're doing this holiday season <3