the night of june 2nd // sanders sides ✔

47 : the aftermath

(a/n: SO SO SORRY for the lack of uploads recently! i'm back on it now!)

Patton Ambrose, tipsy at the time the authorities showed up to his house, didn't even try to play dumb.

Remy and Declan usually led events like these, but they'd let Joan and Thomas take the lead in this case. Remy stood at the back and Declan refused to leave him alone, so he went to the back with him and shower him with as much love as someone like Declan could.

"You're being arrested for murdering Roman and attempting to murder Foster," Joan said.

"Took you long enough," Patton replied through a smirk.

When Patton looked past Thomas and Joan and met eyes with Remy, he gave him the most sinister smile Remy had ever faced, sending legitimate chills down the detective's spine. There was something so wrong about the look in his eyes that Remy had either never noticed before, or Patton was just great at hiding it.

"Hey, baby. Did you miss me?" Patton cooed. "You look so much better now. I'm so glad I paid you a visit in the hospital to check in on you."

There was that sweet, innocent, untouched voice that Remy knew, and he understood why Virgil was so perplexed as to why he couldn't recognize the voice of the killer.

It couldn't be real.

This couldn't be real.

How Patton could just completely switch his personality so easily.

"Was it all fake?" Remy finally croaked out. "Everything we had?" He couldn't subject himself to Patton by crying over him in front of him. He stood up straight and used all his willpower to hold eye contact.

"Rem, not the time, he's literally being arrested..." Declan whispered.

"Oh, I did love you," Patton explained. "Don't worry about that. But, y'know. Love can only get you so far and then you get high one night and want to die so badly you kill someone else instead because you're angry with yourself and you've tried so many goddamn times to kill yourself so you resorted to a different tactic."

"Why Roman? And why me?" Remy demanded, reaching for his gun to threaten the murderer.

"Roman's caused me the most pain. It only makes sense. And you? Because I figured you'd look really cute if you were drugged and tied up in the woods. You couldn't tell who I was even there. Top notch detective work there, Foster," he ridiculed.

Patton was the only one who didn't sometimes or always refer to Remy as Foster, and Remy couldn't take it anymore.

"I can't... I can't believe I trusted you! I'd kill you if I fucking could, and I hope you're given a death penalty!" he shouted. His hand trembled on the gun on his belt, as he worked so hard not to pull it out, and sometime during his breakdown, Declan had brought him to the car to lay down inside with a pillow and blanket.

Declan gripped Patton's wrists in a fatally tight grasp, squeezing so hard he was hoping Patton's veins would pop. In the meantime, Thomas locked handcuffs on him. Declan got right up next to Patton's ear and cursed, "Fuck you. You don't get to manipulate him and hurt him and be all calm about it. You deserve to rot in prison." He spat out his consonants.

Forcefully, he shoved Patton into the backseat of the second car which Thomas and Joan drove before going back to the other where Remy laid.

Remy was staring out the window with the blanket over his body, which felt uncharacteristically weak. He couldn't even close his eyes peacefully.

Declan got in the driver's seat.

Remy turned to him. "How am I ever supposed to move past this? How is this ever going to get better?"

The older one sighed and shrugged. "No idea. But... You've got this. Never settle for a man like Patton when you're a solid 15 out of 10."

"It's just humiliating. Insulting to my own intelligence, and I want to strangle him!"

"Are you going to talk about this in therapy?"

Remy pursed his lips. "Probably. I've told that woman some fucked up shit these past years. This entire world is so endlessly fucked up... Why?"

Declan offered another sad smile. "It's just part of the job."

The younger one moved to look out the window again.

"Let's go to the station," Declan murmured.

Remy could only nod.

He would have to face Patton several times again before he actually landed in jail.

He wasn't sure if he could handle it.

(a/n from later than this chapter went up: sorry that the last couple of chapters and finale haven't gone up in a while, i'm just super self critical, but don't worry, this will not go discontinued! i've only discontinued then unpublished a book once, love you guys <3)