A/N: Hey! I'm so sorry guys, I had two endings written and I posted the wrong one . Here's the real one, its almost the same just not tragic.
Chapter Twenty
10:32
Tuesday 14th February
Sheridan Industries
Andes wrapped his arms around Cain once he was in the office and Noah's eyes scanned the room, eyes darting from the window to the half conscious Wyatt to the sniffling Bobby. The only thing his eyes didn't touch was Jacob, who had stopped in mid step when he realised that the Noah stood by the door was a different Noah to his lover.
"Helicopter is here," Cain murmured against Andes' chest as he and Noah picked up on the sound of helicopter blades in the distance.
"Get to the roof," Noah told him, looking around the room again, "I'll be up shortly."
Cain nodded and stepped back from Andes, helping the former agent lift Wyatt and carry him out. Bobby followed, glued to Cain's side, and bringing up the rear was Jacob, who stopped dead when Noah levelled his gun at him.
"Noah?" Jacob was staring at him like he'd gone completely mad, "What are you doing?"
Cat eyes remained fixed on Jacob, the teenager not moving at all and after a whisper from Cain, the door was shut, leaving the two alone.
"For crying out loud Noah!" Jacob knocked the gun aside, moving faster than Noah anticipated, but his reaction time meant Jacob was slammed against the wall hard when he spun, "Why the fuck are you attacking me?!"
"You drugged me."
Jacob tensed. He'd thought he'd be able to deal with the anger once they were back at the farmhouse. Not that he'd have to face his irate lover, who was a killing machine. He knew if he pushed then he could very easily be the next dead man.
"Noah…"
"You lied to me and then you drugged me."
He'd not heard a voice that cold before and a spark of fear started to grow inside him. He'd ruined it, he'd honest to god, fucked up the first good thing he had in his life.
"I was trying to protect you," he exclaimed, trying to wrench his arm free, an attempt that failed and was immediately abandoned when Noah did something that made the bones start to crack.
"I don't need protecting Jacob. You've seen what I can do."
He stepped back, letting Jacob go and watching him like a hawk, tense, as if expecting Jacob to attack at any moment. Jacob found himself staring back, defensive in his stance as he waited for something to happen.
"I'm sorry." He stated, honestly sorry for what he'd done. At the time it had been a good idea, "I shouldn't have done it."
"No. You shouldn't," Noah retorted and punched him, hard enough to send him reeling back into the wall, "Consider what we had completely over. I can't be with someone I can't trust."
Jacob's eyes widened and he shook his head, ignoring the blood pouring from his nose and the split lip, he'd not realised how hard Noah could hit him. He couldn't let him end it though! All they'd had together was three weeks but in that time Noah had come to mean more to him than anything.
"You can't-"
"Can't?" Noah demanded, eyes flashing with fury, "I can't?! Who the fuck do you think you are? I can do whatever I want to now and there's no way I'm sticking around with a lying bastard li-"
"I love you."
Noah stopped talking and just stared at him again. Back to stalemate. Cat eyes were torn, full of disbelief and Jacob absently wiped blood off his face. Noah took a step back from him, confusion flickering in his eyes. The assassin shook his head again, eyes meeting Noah's, not caring that the kid would see how vulnerable he actually felt. Losing Noah, in any way, was something he could not handle.
"I mean I can't," Jacob said softly, looking away, "I can't lose you now. I need you."
It was Noah that shook his head, eyes hardening again, telling Jacob he'd said the wrong thing again. He closed his eyes when Noah sneered at him. Then he was shoving Jacob out of his path and out of the door, not another word to say and the assassin punched the wall, doing more damage to his hand than he could risk. The bones crunched together with the force and he spat a mouthful of blood out onto the floor.
What was he doing?
He was letting him walk away.
With a wince at the throbbing in his hand and another hasty wipe with his sleeve to get rid of more blood, he started after Noah.
XxXxX
Andes chuckled at Wyatt's wide eyes when he saw Cain knock out the two paramedics with quick fast movements. He turned weakly to the man supporting him and Andes just have a one-shouldered shrug in reply. Cain scrambled into the helicopter and a moment later the pilot jumped out. Andes took his cue and started to move Wyatt towards their mode of escape. Bobby squeezed Wyatt's hand tightly before running on ahead and helping Cain set up the stretcher.
Noah burst out onto the roof at a dead run just as sirens reached their ears. He was instantly helping Wyatt on his other side, speeding up their slow advance over the roof.
"Where's Jacob?"
"Still inside," Noah spat, hard eyes darting to Andes, "Bleeding."
Andes swallowed at the anger. Anger and a walking weapon were a bad combination and Andes was just as much part of the drugging as Jacob, if not more to blame. It was him that put it in the food after all.
"Is he following?" Cain asked warily and Noah glanced at him but didn't answer, he just started to strap Wyatt down on the stretcher, "Noah if you killed him as well-"
"He would have deserved it!" Noah suddenly shouted and tangled a hand in his own hair.
He was cracking. The realisation hit Andes like a tonne of bricks. Here was a boy that had been brought up simply to follow orders and kill. He'd been thrown into the real world, a place where he no longer had orders and even though he was following his training, in the long run he was guessing. It probably didn't help that Jacob had fucked him over with the drugs after promising him he wouldn't leave him in the dark.
"Noah…"
"Cain for once in your life shut the fuck up and do as you're told." Noah snapped and finished strapping Wyatt down, "I've told you this isn't the place for this conversation."
Andes shook his head sharply when Cain opened his mouth to ignore the demand and he attached the hooks onto the stretcher. The pilot, who was still hovering in the background, pressed the button that would lift it into the helicopter. He nodded a thanks and helped Bobby up after his brother.
"Are you going to leave me here with Jacob?" Andes asked, waiting for Cain to be inside and out of earshot. Noah glared at him.
"I should."
"He won't!" Cain stated angrily and Noah pulled a face, looking up at his brother, "You're a disgraced government agent and former assassin. I won't let him leave you here when there are police in the building. Now get in. Noah you too. We're all family."
Andes looked to Noah, and was relieved to see that his lips had twisted into a half smile. Whatever it was in what Cain had said it seemed to have reassured Noah and he no longer looked like he was about to shatter.
As if on cue, Jacob stepped out onto the roof and Noah looked away from him, even though a tiny smile hovered in his lips in relief that Jacob had followed. He agreed with what Jacob had said. He couldn't lose him either. His gaze going to the huge poster on the side of one of the taller neighbouring buildings. Andes watched the boy freeze, eyes widening and he scrambled to retrieve something from a back pocket.
"Noah what's wrong?" Cain demanded but Noah didn't answer. Instead, he looked at the card he'd got and then at the cheesy advert with the fluorescent orange telephone number, "Noah!"
XxXxX
It was such a pity really. That boy would have been such a valuable commodity.
"Ready?"
"Always," Harrison replied, not looking away from his target. The woman sat on the floor beside him smiled sadly.
"It's a pity. With those two on our side we'd be incredible," she mused, typing rapidly, "If you kill him then neither boy is ever going to cooperate with us."
"We're already incredible."
There. Right there. The moron had guarded himself so well for so long. They'd dogged his movement for nearly eight years and finally Jacob Caid had let his guard down long and made his first stupid mistake.
The mistake that was finally going to kill him.
"Besides, Noah is the one we really want and he hates Caid now." He'd been amazed when he came face to face with the kid on those stairs and he'd given him the first thing that he could find. The card that had given them their direction. The one that held the number of the advert on the building that they were now situated on the roof of.
"Spoken like man."
The kid would work it out as well, he'd already seen the sign and he'd realise what had happened. It probably hadn't been the best idea but it had been spur of the moment. Noah could have killed him easily.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He questioned curiously, finger tightening on the trigger and sending the bullet directly on target.
When the assassin crumbled to the floor he looked away and started to pack his gun up as she packed her super computer up.
"He still loves him. He's just angry."
XxXxX
It wasn't happening.
It hadn't happened.
It didn't happen!
Wait.
Who was screaming for Jacob to get up?
Oh.
It was him.
He wanted to run to him.
Jacob.
It hadn't happened.
"Stop struggling!"
Who?
It hadn't happened.
Jacob loved him.
Jacob…
"Knock him out!"
"Cain!"
"Do it now before he kills one of us!"
Who were they talking about?
Someone was still shouting, desperately calling Jacob's name.
His cheeks were wet.
"Noah stop it!"
"It won't work. Knock him out."
He couldn't get free.
"Let go."
The arms around him didn't move.
"LET GO!"
No.
He writhed as someone's stupid arms moved him away and stopped him looking, twisting to try to keep his eyes on Jacob.
"Andes!"
He was free and he was running to him.
Jacob wasn't dead.
It couldn't happen.
"Jacob?"
No response.
"Jacob wake up."
Nothing.
No movement.
No breath.
No pulse.
No heartbeat.
Noah curled around him, head resting on his chest as he silently begged his heart to start beating.
"Please Jacob."
"Noah?"
"Please come back?"
Then the arms were wrapped around him again and he wasn't struggling. Just crying. Hiding from it all as he hid his face.
XxXxX
29th August
Seychelles
Waves, Bobby's laughter and Cain's giggles accompanied by Wyatt an Andes' roars rose to his ears where he stood on the balcony, eyes hidden behind dark shades as he stared at the glistening clear blue of the sea. They were in the middle of nowhere, staying in retreat that Bobby's crime lord grandfather had offered them.
"You need to stop this honey."
Noah smiled faintly at the endearment and listened to Jackie wheel the wheelchair out and stop beside him. Andes had fetched her, to protect her from Derin, and she'd been with them for the past six months.
"He would have hated this."
Noah still didn't look at her but his slight smile faded and his fingers tightened on the stone wall, the only thing that stood between him and the one hundred foot drop to the beach and the sea below.
"Noah?"
When they'd first arrived in Spain, the poor ambulance pilot had left them on the deserted beach Bobby had pointed out and they'd been whisked off to his grandfather. It had been an interesting meeting. And by interesting Noah should have been using the word violent. They'd knocked him out when he had another bout of hysterics and he'd woken up in a white washed room with a locked door. He'd panicked and broken down when Andes got him out again.
Andes had grieved Kai in his own way. He'd been a dark presence among them, completely silent, dressed in black. He'd barely spent time with anyone but after a month Noah had gone out onto the balcony to see him playing with Bobby in the sea.
"Have you taken your steps?"
Jackie sighed, frustration underlying the nod. She was making great progress in getting her legs working again, doing exercises and taking as many steps as she could a day. Wyatt had paid the best of the best to help her and treated her like a princess, his way of apologising for it all. Once a week he drive her to the nearest hospital and she had intensive therapy for her legs and the trauma he'd caused.
"Two more than yesterday today," she admitted, smiling a little and looking down over the wall to wear Wyatt and Andes were playing with the other two, "Wyatt bribed me."
"With what?"
"Dinner."
Noah raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment. True, the man had done something horrific to her, but he was doing everything in his power to fix it. He often caught Wyatt watching Jackie sleep on the beach when Andes carried her down there. She deserved someone that doted on her and he could barely leave her alone. There was also what Andes had told him, Wyatt usually killed once he got his information but he'd left Jackie alive and called an ambulance. She deserved someone to take her out to dinner.
"Honey?"
The thought of restaurants reminded him of Paris back when things between he and Jacob were so confusing. The performers. The fire eaters and the flame throwers. The Eiffel tower.
"Will it always feel like this?"
"Like what?"
"Like part of me is still back there with him?"
Surely after six months some of the pain should be gone? He would never stay sane if it always felt so immense. When he'd first arrived he'd thrown himself off the balcony. The impact of hitting the sea had knocked him out but the others had found him washed up on the sand a couple of days later and he was completely fine. The nanites were becoming something of a curse to him. He couldn't even get drunk.
"It will get better petal," she took his hand, peeling the fingers away from the stone, and squeezed it tight, "I promise."
"I don't want to forget him."
"But thinking about him forever isn't going to bring him back. Let go."
There it was. They'd all tried to talk to him, to make him stop the way he was falling into some form of depression, but it was Jackie's blunt, yet gently stated, words that made him face it.
He didn't cry. He'd done enough of that. He just smiled sadly and turned away from the view, letting go of her hand.
"We've run out of orange juice," he murmured, glancing over his shoulder at her, "I'm going to go to the west beach and get some supplies."
She smiled at him and looked to the door where Cain and Wyatt stood, both grinning and very soggy. Her eyes went to the blush on Cain's cheeks and he immediately attached himself to his brother, demanding he wait so he could dry up and go too.
"Am I missing something?" Noah asked the adults when he'd finally agreed and Wyatt laughed, sitting on the wall and resting his feet on the arm of Jackie's wheelchair.
"There's a girl in the bakery, Cain likes to peep through the window at her," Jackie explained, not protesting at all when Wyatt's hand resting on her shoulder and started fiddling with a stray curl of her hair, "Sometimes he even manages to talk to her."
Noah bit his lip and then smiled. Nice to see Cain had started fitting into real life on his own while he was moping.
"I'm ready!"
"Come on then," Noah threw a wink over his shoulder at the other two as he rested his arm around his brother's shoulders, "You need to tell me about this girl."
"Well her name is Kate…"
XxXxX
The sand between his toes reminded him of why he hates beaches. He wasn't sure why Cain had insisted he meet him on a beach anyway, as far as he knew the one he was walking along was completely deserted.
Still, the water felt nice with the heat.
Jacob ran a hand through his hair, wincing a little at the old aches. It was something of a miracle that he was there, he'd woken in a hospital with Derin sat beside him and been completely disorientated. Last thing he'd remembered was running along corridors in his Uncle's building. Derin had explained it, shown him the video footage from the roof and told him of what had happened.
They'd gone off in that helicopter, leaving him on the roof unconscious. He wasn't sure why Noah hadn't realised that he was still alive but the hysterical mess that he'd become suggested that he'd just not picked up on it.
He'd been ready to kill Derin, but then his once friend had spent months paying for the private hospital and then searching for Noah. It was Cain that Derin had found first, he'd found the leftovers of a hacker trail that was similar to the one that had been left in Sheridan's security system.
"Cain!" he shouted when he saw the white haired boy dragging a taller boy towards the sand.
Suddenly Noah's head snapped to the side and Jacob smiled when Noah sprinted across the sand towards him, almost knocking him over with the impact.
"You're here!" Noah whispered, voice cracking and Jacob wrapped his arms around him, holding him tight against him.
He didn't need to say anything to that, just tilted Noah's face up and claimed his lips.
XxXxX
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