"Please." Horse felt himself actually drooling at the sight and smells of their meal.
"Yeah, thanks, man."
"Dig in," Horse suggested. They didn't stand on ceremony at home, he didn't see why they should here.
"You know it." Jim stared at the steak, at the fork and knife, then set to cutting himself a piece, his face a study in concentration.
Horse watched, but managed not to cheer when Jim succeeded. Instead, he dug into his own steak, confident Jim wasn't going to starve, or to miss out on delicious food because of his arm.
They ate--slower than he was used to, sure--talking between bites, joking about the different songs on the sound system. Taking a moment to sit quietly when "Walking on Sunshine" played--the favorite song of one of the guys who hadn't made it home.
"We're the lucky ones," Horse noted. Stumps and broken relationships and all--they were still here.
"Yeah. Yeah, we were. To Daniels." Jim held up his beer.
Horse knocked their bottles together and they drank before going back to the last bites of their food.
Jim offered him a fry, then stole a bite of bacon from his potato. Look at them, sharing their food like an old married couple. Horse liked it. A lot more than he'd admit to anyone but the man sitting across from him.
The place was beginning to fill up, and a band set up on the stage, warming up.
"There lots of dancing?" Jim asked.
"Barton says so. My first time since coming home." He'd wanted to bring Jim, though. He knew the man liked dancing from when they were deployed. Jim had talked about it with a fondness.
"Yeah? I used to dance a lot."
"You totally did." A strange voice sounded, one hand landing on Jim's head. "You always said you were going to let it grow out for me, Jimmy."
Jim turned, glared at the little, dark-haired man standing behind him. "What the fuck are you doing here, Andy?"
Andy? As in Jim's ex? Horse's hands curled into fists. What the hell was that man doing with his hand on
his
Jim? He wanted to punch Andy's lights out, but he thought maybe Jim would like that honor.
"I came to apologize. I fucked up, baby. I swear, I'll make it up to you."
Jim just stared at Andy like he couldn't quite figure out whether the man was speaking English or not.
"He's not your baby." Horse managed to say the words evenly.
"Not even a little." Jim turned his back on the guy, facing Horse again. "Go home, Andy. Leave me be."
Horse gave Jim a supportive smile.
At least Andy had waited until they'd finished eating before crashing their party. Jim didn't look all that broken up, really. In fact, it was that Andy guy who was just staring. Horse decided he'd give the man about sixty seconds to move along before he helped it happen.
"You want some dessert?" he asked Jim, trying his best to forget the asshole was even there.
"Sure. What's good?"
"You're just going to sit there and ignore me? I drove all the way down here." Fuck this guy was working his way to shrill.
Horse saw Jim's hand clenched around the beer bottle, go white knuckled. "I can do whatever the fuck I want, man."
Horse looked up to meet Andy's gaze, but the man refused to look him in the eye, still staring at Jim. "Look, man. Jim has made it pretty clear that he's not interested. You made the trip for nothing."
How the hell had Andy known they'd be here in the first place? He hadn't even made a reservation for fuck's sake. Had the bastard followed them? How fucked up was that?
If that was the case it also meant he knew where they lived. Glaring, Horse stood, finally drawing Andy's attention. "Okay, buddy, I think you'd better go." Before he made Andy go.
"Jimmy needs to talk to me. I love him. I made a mistake."
"Yeah, but I didn't," Jim said quietly.
"Have some pride, man." Horse was gearing up to take this outside. Jim deserved better than this.
"Sorry about this, Horse." Jim was really calm and quiet, but Horse could see the dull color in Jim's cheeks. "You ready to go? I'll pay."
"No man, we were going to have dessert and maybe dance, right?" Why should they have to give up their evening out? This Andy jerk was the one who had to go.
"I'd like that." Jim nodded and turned to Andy. "Look. You made your choice. Live with it. I'm done with this bullshit."
"I made a mistake. And you're making one now. We have seven years together. You belong to me and I am going to have to insist that you come with me." Andy sounded like he had a screw loose.
Something flashed in Andy's hand and the next thing Horse knew, the man had pushed a needle into Jim's neck and depressed the plunger, filling Jim with God knew what.
"Horse!" Jim's knees started to buckle, his grip on Andy's arm fierce. "Don...Don'choo let him get 'way."
"What did you do? You asshole!" Horse curled his fingers into a fist and popped Andy in the face as hard as he could.
"Whoa! What the fuck?" Barton headed over at a run. "You want me to call 911?"
"Yes, please. Now! He's shot Jim up with something." Horse moved around the table, but he wasn't in time to grab hold of Jim before Jim hit the floor. Thank God, his head hadn't hit anything on the way down and Jim had crumpled forward rather than fallen outright.
"Make sure that asshole is down for the count and do not let him go before the cops get here," Horse ordered.
They'd drawn a crowd and he waved them away. "Everyone back off, give him some air."
Jim's eyes were open, staring at him, trying desperately to keep his eyes open.
"Don't you go, Soldier. You stay right here with me. The fucking medics are on their way." He could hear the sirens.
"He's out of his mind," Andy screamed. "He doesn't understand! We want him!"
We? Who the hell was
we
?
Meanwhile Andy was being held back by two other patrons.
"Don't make me come over there and hit you again." Horse would have already beaten Andy down if he didn't need to make sure Jim stayed awake.
"Sarge..." Jim grabbed for him. "Sarge, I don'..."
Horse gripped Jim's shoulder. "I'm right here, and so are you, God damn it. You hang on. I know you're a stubborn son of a bitch. Prove it."
Andy began shouting. "He hit me! He hit me! I want to press charges--fucking bastard!"
"This man?" A hand landed on his shoulder and Horse shrugged it off, turning to glare. Right into the face of a cop.
"Yes! That's him! He broke my nose!"
All his attention turned back to Andy, and if Horse hadn't been cradling Jim's head, he would have hit Andy again. He growled. "And I'd do it again."
"Who is this?" the cop asked, frowning down at Jim.
"My husband!" Andy said. "I have a doctor here to help. He has epilepsy!"
Wait a goddamn minute. Jesus Christ, Andy's lover was in on this, too? What the hell was going on?
"No! No, that man gave Jim something. He shot him up with something. No one but the EMTs treat him." They could arrest Horse if they had to, but no one related in any way to Andy was touching his Jim.
The cops were pulling him away, and someone he didn't know knelt by Jim. Horse struggled to get away, to stop the stranger from doing anything more to Jim. "No! No! Don't let that man touch him!"
Barton stepped in. "Dude, I know Horse and Jim. I never seen this guy before."
Oh thank fucking God.
"All right, everybody just stop, right where you are." One of the cops holding Horse gave him a steady look. "You sit and don't move."
Horse sat. With Barton there, he trusted this cop was going to ask questions first and arrest people second.
The EMTs pushed their way through the crowd, and the cop pointed to Jim. "One guy says he was shot up with something, another says he has epilepsy. We haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet."
"There's an injection mark on his neck," Horse told them. "We were in the service together. He doesn't have epilepsy."
The EMT checked Jim's neck, nodded. "There is. We need to get him to the hospital and we need to know what he was given." The EMTs started getting Jim onto the backboard and Horse sighed in relief as the cops turned their attention to Andy.
"I'm going with him," Horse announced, to the EMTs, to the cops, to Barton, he didn't care who was listening.
"He's my husband!" Andy insisted loudly.
Horse knew better. They might have been together, but they'd never had papers. "Jim's not married. This asshole kicked him out when he came home with his arm blown off." And he was going to go after Andy again, cops and all, if the guy didn't shut the fuck up.
The EMT's raised Jim on the backboard and put him on the stretcher; one of the cops cleared a path for them. Horse put Andy at his six and followed the stretcher out of the restaurant.
One of the cops grabbed Horse's arm. "Sir. Sir, you have to--"
"I'm going with Jim." They could arrest him later.
He kept going, watching the EMTs put Jim in the back.
"Only one of you can come with us," the guy told him and...son of a bitch, Andy had followed them as they brought Jim to the ambulance.
"I'm his husband! I'm going with him!" Andy was practically foaming at the mouth at this point.
Horse just pushed up into the ambulance. "I'm that one. Where do I sit?"
"Right here, sir." The EMT pointed at a bench, and Horse sat.
The ambulance sped off. The EMT worked on Jim, taking his vitals, checking his pupils. "Do you know what he was injected with?"
Horse shook his head. "I don't know. As soon as he was injected, Jim started slurring his words and his knees buckled out from under him. He never lost consciousness, though."
"He's sure out now." The EMT strapped a blood pressure cuff on Jim, and then ran an IV.
"Oh God." Horse grabbed hold of Jim's hand. "Come on, baby. Don't you dare let him win. You come back to me. You do it, Soldier."
Jim's heart rate sped, the beeping on the monitor increasing, Jim fighting for him.
"Keep talking, man," the EMT told Horse.
Yeah, he could do that. "You owe me a dessert and a dance."
Jim's eyelashes fluttered.
"That's it. Come on..." The EMT glanced at Horse. "Jim, is it?"
"Yeah, yeah. Jim." Horse squeezed Jim's hand. "The beach needs you, baby."
He could see Jim trying to answer, lips opening and closing.
"I know you're trying to talk to me. Keep trying. Don't you dare give up."
"Ho..."
That was it. That was his stubborn lover.
"Is that all you've got, Soldier?"
"Hor..." Jim swallowed hard, fighting to speak.
Horse squeezed Jim's hand again. "You got it, you got it."
"Not... not mar...not to him."
"Damn right you're not. Don't worry, I'm not going to let him near you."
Jim relaxed, nodding.
Horse smiled at the EMT. "He's awake."
"He is. You're doing great. Just keep him talking. We'll be there in three minutes."
Three minutes seemed an awfully long time under the circumstances. "Did you know Andy brought the doctor with him? Was this guy someone you knew?"
Jim blinked at him, eyes moving wildly.
"Sorry, sorry. I'm just babbling, I didn't mean to upset you." It had been the first thing that had popped into his head once he knew Jim was still with him.
"No. No. No doctor."
"He's not touching you, I promise." Horse had Jim's back. Would have had Jim's back even if he they weren't together.
"No lie. You. You love."
"That's right. I'm not lying. And I love you, too." The words just shot out of him, and it felt right, normal.
"'kay." Jim nodded to him, appearing to calm down.
"Yeah, you're going to be."
"We're coming in now," the EMT told him.
"I'm staying with him, okay?" Horse was going to make sure Jim got the best care from the professionals, not Andy or his new man.
"That's up to the doctors, but we'll do our best."
Horse turned his attention to Jim. "Don't worry. I'm staying with you."
"Staying." Just the one word, but it was firmly spoken despite everything.
"That's right."
The ambulance pulled to a stop, and the back doors flew open. Horse hopped up to get out of the way, and to be ready to follow. The EMT updated the doctor as they hurriedly pushed Jim into the hospital, and Horse stayed with them.
"Who is this?" the doctor asked.
"I'm his partner." Horse didn't care anymore that he and Jim hadn't discussed it yet.
"Okay. What happened?"
"His ex--a stalker--put a needle in him. I don't know what was in it but he collapsed and started slurring his words. Then he was awake but couldn't move. And the EMTs showed up."
"Do we know what was in the syringe?" asked the doctor.
Horse shook his head, but the second EMT interrupted the movement. "I just heard from the cops. They're two minutes out. With the syringe."
"Oh, good job. Good deal. Have a seat right here and we'll grab you once we do our preliminary exam."
They didn't make him go to the waiting room. The chair was right there next to the bay. He couldn't sit, though, so he paced.
The police came in; one took the syringe behind the curtain, while the other officer stopped to talk to him.
"Did you arrest him?" Horse asked.
"We have a gentleman in for questioning. He's pressing charges against you, but the owner at the restaurant acted as a witness, claiming the other guy started it."
"I won't lie, I hit him, but I was protecting my partner who he'd just injected with whatever that crap was. And you better believe
we
will be pressing charges, too."
"Can you tell us exactly what happened?" the cop asked, taking out a notebook.
Horse ran a hand over his head and took a breath. He had a feeling he was going to be telling this story a lot. This time he also told the cop about Andy calling a couple days earlier, how he'd rung over and over until Jim had answered, about how Jim had turned his phone off.
"Do we have the phone?" asked the officer.
"It's got to be in Jim's pocket."