Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Don't Save It All ❯ Don't Save It All ( One-Shot )

[ A - All Readers ]

Ryo and Dee are called down to the precinct on a rescue mission and they end up getting stuck in the house due to the blizzard. And just when it looks like things can't get worse... Yup, you guessed it. They do. EDITED AND RE-POSTED WITH A NEW ENDING.

Anime/Manga: Fake Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance | Type: One Shot | Uploaded On: 01.15.2009 | Updated On: 01.15.2009 | Pages: 24 | Words: 21.9K | Visits: 1.1K | Status: Completed

Happy holidays, everyone! Okay, so this was actually supposed to be posted on Christmas day, but being as I wasn't allowed to sit down and just write for the last two days, it's probably not gonna actually get posted until the 26th, at which time I will be in North Carolina.

First of all, this story was originally gonna be all fluff, but I decided to give it a plot because while I love fluff, I like it to have a reason for being there.

The characters of the Simmons are actually based on other people. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons are a lot like Emily and Richard Gilmore from the show Gilmore Girls combined with several people that I know and, in some cases, despise. Autumn, the daughter of the Simmons, is the black sheep of the family, like Lorelai Gilmore in Gilmore Girls.

I think that's all I have to say. On with the fic!

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Don't Save It All

It was supposed to be just another, normal case. Besides the fact that it happened only a few days before Christmas Eve, it started out that way.

This case wasn't supposed to be anything big. It wasn't even a case, really—just a robbery that could be easily handled by any moron in the 27th precinct. So when Ryo Maclean and Dee Laytner got the call, they weren't worried.

Under normal circumstances, someone who was actually on duty would have gotten the assignment, but of the officers who were actually at the precinct, half of them had called in sick, the other half were on vacation for the holidays, and JJ and Drake weren't answering the phone, so Ryo and Dee—the only other officers who were in the city over Christmas—got the call.

And they were getting ready to have such a nice holiday, too.

“Dee, you're going to strangle yourself.”

“I am not.”

“You are if you keep twisting it like that.”

“Well, I'm trying to put it around the tree. Not sure how it wound up around my neck.”

Ryo sighed. “Here. I'll finish the lights, you unpack the ornaments. It'll be hard to kill yourself with those.”

“I can do it, I have powers! You'd be surprised…”

“Nothing you do surprises me anymore.” The blond kissed Dee swiftly as he passed his lover.

Dee leaned over and flipped on the radio. “Well, then, you're smarter than I am, because you can still surprise me just by being you.”

Ryo smiled at him and untangled the lights with ease. “Oh, I love this one…” He said, as “Merry Christmas With Love” came on.

Dee's movements slowed as he listened to his lover sing along with the music on the radio. “You've got a pretty voice,” he observed idly.

Ryo blushed. “I didn't even realize I was singing. I-I'll stop.”

“No, no, no. I like listening. Your voice is almost as pretty as you.”

This only made Ryo's face turn a deeper shade of red. “God, you're so horrible with the lines.”

“You're even prettier when you blush.”

By this time, Ryo felt he might burst into flame, his face was so hot. “Stop! You know I don't take compliments well.”

“The only thing I will never understand about you.”

Ryo didn't reply, only smiled as he finished stringing the lights around the tree. “Hand me that box, will you? And can you get the Christmas candles out of the closet? They're in a box separate from the rest.”

“Where did you get all this stuff?” Dee asked, lifting the box off the closet shelf and setting it on the floor.

“They were all my parents' decorations. I just couldn't get rid of all of them. And I started adding to the collection out of respect for them. I didn't think it should stop just because they weren't around to add to it anymore.”

“Okay, I understand that, but there is no excuse for this.” Dee gently kicked the box at his feet. “There must be fifty different candles in there!”

“Sixty-four, if you count the ones that come in pairs—there are twenty-three of those.”

“Oh, this is a sickness.”

“Nope, I checked the medical dictionary, and candle obsession is not classified as a disease.”

“You know, we of the normal population have a name for people like you. Grandma.”

“Why, Mr. Laytner, are you insulting my masculinity?”

“No, of course not. I'm insulting your masculinity and questioning your age.”

“Hmph! And you call yourself a boyfriend!”

Throughout their friendly banter, the two had been working, and a few minutes later, the ornaments and the garland were placed on the tree, along with some candy canes and a foot-tall porcelain angel perched carefully on top.

Dee had selected a dozen of his favorite candles from Ryo's collection and placed them around the room. Now he lit them with a match—he was trying to cut back on smoking to make Ryo happy, so he didn't have his lighter—before putting away the boxes and stepping back to the doorway with Ryo to admire their work.

“Pretty,” Ryo said quietly.

The tree's lights shown with a soft, unwavering radiance, and the flickering flames of the candles combined with it to cause the floor to gleam in strange combinations of light and shadow. The small fire in the fireplace added its gentle glow to the rest of the light, and outside, a gentle snow was beginning to fall. By the next day, that snow would be nothing but gray slush and a memory of white, but the first snowfall of the holidays was always cause for celebration, even in New York City.

Dee looked at Ryo's smiling face with a happy grin of his own. “Sure is.”

A moment of silence fell, and then Ryo grabbed Dee's hand. “C'mon.”

“Huh? Ryo? Where are we going? Ryo!”

A few minutes later, Dee had been dragged outside. Ryo came to a sudden stop outside the doors of the apartment building and turned his face towards the sky.

“Ryo? Have you gone insane? It's freezing out here!”

“Shh. Listen.”

“…I don't hear anything.”

“Exactly.”

And then it dawned on Dee. The city was never calm. There was so much hustle and bustle here, even at night. But right at the moment, people were settled in their homes getting ready for the holidays, and the only sounds were the quiet drone of cars a few streets over and Christmas music drifting from the surrounding windows.

Ryo inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with the crisp winter air. The snow seemed to somehow make the air much clearer, as though it was able to clean the smog away. “Do you smell it?”

“Smell what?”

Ryo turned and smiled at Dee. “Christmas.”

Dee's face broke into a wide grin. “I love you the most around this time of year, you know that?”

“Really? Why?”

“I…I don't really know. You just…you're just so much less…preoccupied. So much more…you.”

Ryo's eyes grew sad then, though the smile stayed on his face. “It was my parents' favorite holiday. When they died…well, I lost the Christmas spirit for a while. I've only just started to get it back.” He smiled and took Dee's hand. “Thank you.”

“…For what?”

“Oh, I don't know. Just…being with me. My parents would be happy knowing I'm finally spending the holidays with someone I love, instead of with a group of people whose names I can barely remember out of some stupid family obligation.”

Dee smiled. “I love hearing you say that. That you love me.” He drew Ryo into a kiss that lasted several moments, then pulled away and slung his arm around his lover's shoulders. “C'mon, let's go visit Penguin.”

-----

Everyone in the orphanage was milling around in semi-organized chaos in the “common room” of the orphanage.

Sister Maria, having recently managed to secure larger premises to accommodate the rising numbers of orphaned and abandoned children, was doing her best to make sure the place was cleaned up and perfect for the holidays.

This was Dee's favorite room in the new orphanage. It was more of a library, really, with bookshelves lining the walls and a fireplace surrounded by plush armchairs of deep greens and browns. The floor was made of dark brown wood and the walls were brick and heavily insulated to keep the place warm. The fireplace gave off a warm glow for the children who were doing their best to make sure the orphanage was ready for Christmas.

With the help of the children, Sister Maria had gone to the local nursery and chosen a huge, nearly-round tree and brought it home just the day before. Then she had dragged several large boxes from the storage room; today, the contents of the boxes were being hung and placed on the tree and around the room.

“Dee!” said a loud, squealing voice, and a small girl of about five launched herself at the tall, black-haired man. Dee laughed and swung the girl up into his arms and over his head. “Well, look at you, Holly! Birthday and Christmas all in one day? How old are you this year?”

“Six!” the girl replied proudly. “And Mother said she'd make a double chocolate fudge cake!”

“Oh she did, did she?” Dee shot a glance at the small, plump nun that had just entered the room. “I don't recall her ever doing that for my birthday.” He gave an exaggerated sigh and adopted his “dramatic” voice. “I guess she loves you just a little bit more than she loved me.”

Holly giggled. “You're silly, Dee!”

“I am?” Dee shrugged. “Well, then, I guess you don't wanna be around me. It might be contagious.” He laughed and set Holly back on her feet, and she ran off to join a group of girls her own age who were carefully placing candles around the room.

Sister Maria was laughing as she came over to stand by Ryo and Dee.

“How's she doing?” Ryo asked softly, watching Holly twirl in a circle around her friends.

“I took her to the doctor today,” Sister Maria replied. She looked at them both and smiled. “Clean bill of health. It's as if the cancer never happened.”

Ryo smiled. “Good.”

Dee put an arm around Ryo's waist and pulled him close. “C'mon. Let's go sit by the fire.”

The black-haired man sank into one of the chairs in the corner by the fireplace, and Ryo sat on the arm of the chair, placing an arm around Dee's shoulders. Sister Maria bustled off to help the children put the finishing touches on the room.

Ryo loved times like this. It was so rare that he had a quiet, perfect moment in his life, with nothing to worry him. The hazards of his profession made peaceful moments few and far between.

Now, sitting in this cozy little room, listening to the crackle and pop of the fire and the chattering of the children, watching the snow fall gently outside the window, Ryo felt completely at peace.

A gentle squeeze on his hand brought the blond back to reality. “Whatcha thinking about?” Dee asked.

“Hmm? Oh. Just…the world. Yours. Mine. Ours.”

“Oh? And, uh…what's your world like?”

A moment of silence, and then Ryo looked down at his black-haired, green-eyed lover. “I'm looking at it, aren't I?”

More silence, as Dee looked down at his knees. He felt a lump in his throat that he couldn't quite explain. It had only been in the last couple of months that Ryo had really began to trust his love for Dee, and to show that love to the world. Now, as he looked at Ryo, Dee wondered if his blond, perfect lover would ever stop surprising him. “You're a sap,” he mumbled, wiping the tears away form his eyes as he pretended to have something in it.

“Says the guy who nearly cried when he found out he might not be able to spend Christmas with me.”

“I did not! I was too mad at Rose to cry.”

“I hate that guy,” Ryo said with unusual venom.

“I think everyone at the New York police department hates that guy.”

“You never really explained why you hate him, though.”

“Problems with authority figures, the high school shrink said. And he has that annoying way of staring at you all the time, and thinking about you all the time, and being obsessed with you all the time. It's annoying.”

“I know, but he's also our boss, so—”

“So, I've got competition, is that what you're saying?” Dee asked, only half-joking; he still had problems with jealousy sometimes.

Ryo smiled. “Well, let's see. Berkley….is snobbish, smug, arrogant, rude…and worthless to me. But you…you, Dee Laytner, are smart, funny, very attractive, and all the man anyone could ever want.”

“Aww, really?”

“Mm-hmm.” Smiling, Ryo leaned down just as Dee stretched up, and their lips met halfway. Ryo slid down into Dee's lap and put his arms around his lover's neck.

The kiss went on uninterrupted for quite some time as the wind kicked up outside and the snow began to fall much harder. After awhile, Sister Maria stood in the center of the room to admire their work. Satisfied, she clapped her hands once for the children's attention. Ryo and Dee gave it to her, too, without thinking much about it.

“Oh, isn't it lovely!” Sister Maria exclaimed. “Like a picture. You've all done so well! Now, Dee will put up the lights outside tomorrow, and while he's doing that, we'll all go and pick out some wreathes to hang on Christmas Eve. And tonight, we'll put the presents under the tree…where they will sit and tease and mock you for the next three days. So everyone go get the gifts and put them under the tree. Off you go!”

So the children hurried off to retrieve the gifts they'd made for (Sister Maria's rule was that all gifts were made instead of bought) or received from other children and their “mother”. As they scurried away, Sister Maria came over to Ryo and Dee and sat in a chair across from them. “You know, it's customary to sit one to a chair,” she observed idly, smiling.

Ryo quickly began to move; after all, you just don't question those words when they come from a nun.

“Don't you dare move, young man!” Sister Maria ordered, before Ryo's feet had even touched the floor. “I said it's customary, not required. As you were.” She sighed. “I declare, you get old and dress as a nun and suddenly everyone thinks every word you say is an order to be followed. Honestly…”

Dee laughed. “You're nowhere near being an old lady, Penguin. And if you'll remember, I never did what you said even when you were giving orders.”

Sister Maria gave Dee a mocking glare. “Young man, this `Penguin' nonsense has got to stop. It was all right when you were a child but now you're older and I think I deserve some respect for putting up with you your whole life, so stop calling me a bird.”

“I never really thought of penguins as birds…” Dee replied thoughtfully.

“Don't change the subject.”

“Yes, your Penguin-ness.”

Sister Maria simply shook her head, but she was smiling. After a moment, she stood and went over to the window. “Oh my! There must be four inches of snow out there already, and it can't have been falling for more than ten minutes!”

“Really?” Ryo asked. “Oh, good! I'd love a white Christmas! Dee, do you think—? Ugh. Hold on.”

Ryo's cell phone had begun to ring. Without moving from his spot, he reached into his pocket and flipped open the phone. “Hello? Oh, good evening, sir. Yes, we're at the orphanage. Yep, I'm with him. In…every way, sir.” Long pause. “Oh. But…sir…I've got the night off… But…yes…I know… Where are Drake and JJ? …Marty and Ted? …Well what about all the other guys? …All of them? …Well then, what are you doing there? …I agree, it is sad… But why did you let them leave? …Where's the chief? …No way, he never gets sick! …Yes sir, back to the point… Well, why don't you go yourself? …No, I don't think that's out of line, it was just a simple question… But…but sir… Yes sir… Yes... I understand…All right… Yes, goodbye.”

He pocketed the phone and looked at Dee, not bothering to hide the irritated expression on his face.. “We have to go.”

“What? Huh? Ryo...”

Ryo stood up. “There's a burglar or something at a house a few miles outside the city. It's the only house out there—the nearest help is about a mile away, which…how often does that happen in New York City? But anyway, a woman who lives in the house called for help and Rose wants us to go, because apparently the 27th is the only precinct who can do anything about anything and we're the only officers who will pull our own weight.”

Dee cursed. “Translation: The guy ruined his own holiday just by existing and now he's determined to ruin ours so he doesn't have to suffer all by his pathetic lonesome. I really hate him…”

Ryo sighed. “I know, but I promise, we'll just make a quick run and arrest the guy and go home and spend the rest of the night listening to music and being romantic, okay?”

If only it could be that easy.

-----

The house was dark and silent when Ryo and Dee parked a few houses up from it.

“Nice house,” Ryo remarked.

“Rich people,” replied Dee in an irritated voice. “Can't we just let them get robbed blind and then save them if we hear gunshots?”

Ryo patted his lover's shoulder in mock sympathy. “No, Dee. I'm sorry, but no.”

Dee pretended to pout, but he was smiling as he got out of the car.

“You're too nice for my taste, sometimes.”

“But you love me anyway, right?” Ryo inquired, already knowing the answer.

“Hmm…I dunno. Ask me after you give me my Christmas gift.”

“You're awful.”

“I know.”

The conversation ceased as the two neared the house. It was dark and appeared deserted, except for the black, expensive-looking car in the snow-covered driveway.

Dee opened the door silently and slipped in, Ryo following. The hall in front of them was cloaked in darkness, and the entire place was silent as the grave.

Ryo grabbed Dee's wrist and the dark-haired man stopped and looked back at his lover, who stepped in front of him. The blond motioned for Dee to be completely silent, and listened. After a moment, they heard sounds—a clanking noise that sounded like a safe being opened. It was coming from a room to the right, behind a closed door. Ryo motioned towards the room, and Dee followed him towards it.

Upon entering, Dee had to suppress the urge to laugh out loud. He managed an amused snort before Ryo kicked him in the ankle and the only other armed man in the room whipped around and pointed his gun at the officers, only to discover that he had no bullets.

Dee thought his laughter was rather more than justified, under those circumstances.

The mother and father of the family were huddled together on the couch; a girl of about sixteen—the officers could only assume that she was the couple's daughter—was standing against the wall with her arms crossed, a look of mingled irritation and fear on her face.

“Amusing picture,” Dee observed as he handcuffed the guy, who didn't seem willing to put up a fight. “You're pathetic, you know that? I'm embarrassed for your kind.”

“Dee…” Ryo said warningly.

“What? I was expecting him to give me a shootout or at least hit me, but he just stood there like some sort of vertically challenged lump, and it's boring.”

Ryo rolled his eyes and smiled, turning to the family. “You guys okay?”

“Fine,” the girl replied with a scowl. “He took my bracelet. I told him it was just costume jewelry, but did he listen? No!”

Ryo laughed and tapped the robber on the shoulder. “Bracelet, Pretty Boy Floyd.”

“My name is Charles,” the guy grumbled, reaching into his pocket and handing the bracelet to Ryo.

The blond couldn't hold back a laugh this time; a New York City burglar named Charlie who had forgotten to buy adequate ammunition and obviously had nothing that resembled what one might call a “plan”? Yes, definitely laugh-worthy.

“Thanks,” the girl said, smiling and taking the bracelet. “I'm Autumn.”

“Randy MacLean, and the trigger happy guy over there is Dee.”

“Aw, man, he broke it!” Autumn muttered as she tried to close the clasp around her wrist. “The son of a bitch broke my bracelet! My ex-boyfriend bought it for me and everything!”

“Your ex-boyfriend, the only waiter at the local greasy spoon,” the woman on the couch said. “Watch your language, Autumn. It isn't as if it's anything to get upset over anyway. That bracelet cost five dollars at the most, and what happened to that diamond bracelet that I got you for your birthday?”

“Ex-boyfriend, huh?” Ryo asked, throwing a very out-of-character glare at the other woman. “Here, lemme see if I can fix it.”

“Really?” Autumn asked, her face brightening. “Can you?”

“I gotta say, Ryo,” Dee commented, shoving the handcuffed man into a chair and watching his lover walk across the room to the window, “this doesn't feel like a crime scene.”

“Well, it's technically not a crime scene until the police tape it up, which we probably won't do because there's no reason to, and even if there was a reason, we wouldn't be able to until the two feet of snow behind our car magically disappears.”

“Two feet? Seriously?”

“Well, not yet, but if the stuff keeps falling like this, it will be in about an hour. Hey, Autumn, I think I know what's wrong. It's just a missing piece of the clasp. See if you can find it and get me a pair of tweezers and I think I can fix it.”

“Really? Yay!” Autumn said, dropping onto her hands and knees on the floor. “Oh, and when are you guys planning to leave?”

Dee blinked. “Uh…”

“Because you really shouldn't be driving in this.”

“Um…”

“You can stay here until the plows clear it all, if you want.”

“Oh, uh…”

“And before you say no because we're all strangers…I'm Autumn, and they're my parents Greg and Anna, and we're the Simmons, and you're Dee, and he's Randy—or Ryo, isn't that what you call him?—and that's the robber who broke my bracelet, and we're not strangers anymore, and I found the piece, so now I'm off for the tweezers.” And she was gone up the stairs.

Ryo laughed and shook his head. “Is she always that hyper?”

“It's the coffee,” Mrs. Simmons replied in her coldly polite voice. “She drinks a lot of coffee.”

Ryo looked slightly put off at the woman's tone, but recovered himself quickly. “Oh. Right.”

There was a moment of strained silence while Ryo examined the bracelet he was holding and Dee hummed a Metallica song to push away the silence. Charlie the robber said nothing at all, but simply sat with a stony look on his face and fidgeted with his handcuffs.

They all jumped when Mr. Simmons spoke. “We've seen you on the news.”

Ryo blinked with polite interest. “Oh?”

“You get a lot of news-worthy cases, it seems. And the reports say that you're, um…that your…relationship isn't strictly…professional.” It wasn't a question. This couple knew that the reporters were to be believed in this particular case; they didn't seem to be taking kindly to that fact.

“Yep, that's us,” Dee replied, grinning happily. “Good cop, gay cop.”

Ryo's face was the exact shade of a lobster; Dee doubted that there would be the slightest difference if one of the creatures was put next to the blond. He laughed—he was powerless to stop it, but he did his best to stifle it when Ryo threw him a look that could easily have crumbled stone.

“Oh.” And then Mr. Simmons was silent for a moment. “…Did you call them, Anna?”

“Yes…when the robber sent me for coffee.”

Dee restrained his comment, but it was a close thing; his mouth tasted coppery as he bit his tongue so hard that it bled and a grin threatened to split his face in two. A burglar named Charlie with no backup plan whatsoever who forgot to buy bullets and sent one of his victims for coffee unaccompanied? What was not funny about this situation?

The next words from Mr. Simmons, however, wiped the smile from his face and replaced it with an annoyed frown.

“And did you ask for them, specifically?”

“Greg, we were being robbed. I called the police. It was their choice to send these particular officers.”

“I'm sorry, is there a problem?” Ryo asked, that ever-present courtesy tinged with just a hint of an icy chill.

“Oh, of course not,” Mrs. Simmons said smoothly, with a smile as artificial as her husband's hair. “Not at all. I mean, as long as one of you isn't my son, I don't care how you choose to live your lives.”

“What?” Ryo asked, arranging his face into a look of well-mannered confusion; he was quite certain, however, that he was not confused. Dee simply sat in the corner, frowning and feeling anger boiling up in his stomach.

“Please excuse Anna,” Mr. Simmons said. “She doesn't understand how to deal with…people like you.”

“People like us.” Ryo sounded for all the world as though he were simply repeating a fact to ensure that he'd heard right, but Dee could see cold fury in every line of his face.

“Now, we thank you very much for your help, and now we're asking you to leave.”

“Are you kidding me?” Dee asked incredulously. “In this weather? We'll be dead before we get to the highway!”

“Look, it's nothing personal. I just can't have you here, around my daughter.”

“Wha—?”

“She's a very impressionable young girl, and even a moment around… Well, might give her ideas, is all.”

“Ideas about what?”

That was when Dee exploded. “Well, what a craptastic group you guys turned out to be, huh?”

“Excuse me?” Mrs. Simmons asked, her expression not changing a bit.

“We came to rescue you in the middle of a blizzard and this is how you thank us? By sitting in front of us and acting like we're some sort of alien species come to engage your daughter in some sort of—of homo orgy, or whatever?”

Every person in the room—Ryo included—looked absolutely scandalized.

“Seems to me like you should be thanking us, not kicking us out into the snow!”

“I think you're overreacting—” Mrs. Simmons said.

“Found 'em!” Autumn's voice interrupted the argument before it really began as the girl came back downstairs. She took in the tense looks and her smile faded. “What's going on?”

“Oh, I was just saying how this was less like an arrest and more like a really weird Christmas party,” Ryo replied.

“Liar,” Autumn said, smiling and handing him the tweezers. “Okay, Mr. Fix It. Fix it.”

“Will do.” Ryo sat in a chair by the window and went to work on the bracelet. Feeling the silence press in on the room, he tried to make polite conversation, and after striking out with the parents a few times in a row and taking one look at Dee's face, he decided to try it with Autumn instead. “So, Autumn. Where do you go to school?”

“Private school. That, of course, means uniforms, the colors of which clash with every other color in the world. God, I can't wait for college.” As she spoke, Autumn threw another log on the fire and smiled as the flames came back to life. “Life of the privileged, huh?”

“There's no need for sarcasm, young lady,” Mrs. Simmons said.

“There is when you're me.”

“No, there most certainly is not—”

“Okay, new subject!” Ryo interrupted. “So…you have a boyfriend?”

“Not since bracelet guy. But let's not talk about my boyfriends. It'd be more interesting to talk about yours.”

“My…huh?”

“Oh, come on. I'm slow, and I don't give a crap about what's going on in the world, but a in the last few years it's seemed impossible to find a news story that didn't somehow involve New York's best and brightest gay cops.”

Ryo turned red. “Oh, um…”

“Don't even try to deny it. I can see the sparks between you from here.”

“Um…Autumn?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you talk to everyone like this, or just cops?”

“Like what?”

“Like the entire world is about to end and you have to cram a certain amount of words into a conversation with complete strangers before it does?”

“Okay, first of all, I thought we'd covered the `strangers' thing already, and second…in my world, you have to cram as many words as possible into a minute or you get cut off by people telling you you talk too much.”

There was something wrong with that logic, but Ryo couldn't quite figure out what it was, so he simply sat in the chair and worked in silence on the bracelet while Charlie muttered about being manhandled by cops, Mr. and Mrs. Simmons found excuses to leave the room as soon as possible, and Autumn pulled out a large textbook and began to read. Dee came over and put his arms around Ryo from behind, resting his chin on Ryo's shoulder. “So…you wanna go soon?”

Ryo fought his habitual urge to push Dee away as he usually did in the presence of strangers, and instead shook his head in amusement. “Dee, look outside. The snow's two feet deep, they won't even be able to get the plows out until the storm stops, so how are we supposed to drive?”

“Tiny details, Ryo, those are tiny details. I have to get out of here, I can't stand people like this.”

“Funny, neither can I,” Autumn said, not bothering to look up from her book.

“Dee, sit down, calm down, and I promise we'll go as soon as the streets are clear.”

“Ugh. Fine. What do we do with this guy?”

“This guy is sitting right here,” Charlie snapped.

“I guess we can just let him sit there, he's not doing anything,” Ryo replied in answer to Dee's question. “Aha! Fixed! Here.” He smiled, tossing the bracelet to Autumn, who immediately put it on. “What time is it?”

“Uh…” Autumn checked her watch. “Almost ten-thirty.”

“Okay. Is it okay if we sleep here tonight? I don't think we'll be able to get home until tomorrow.”

“Oh! Sure! Yeah, no problem.” Autumn stood and closed her book. “I'm gonna go to bed. Blankets and pillows are in the closet down the hall, bathroom's through the third door to the right, kitchen's through there, and we're upstairs if you need any of us. Thanks for putting up with my parents, and for fixing my bracelet, Ryo. G'night!”

“How much coffee do you think she has to drink to be that hyper?” Dee asked after Autumn had disappeared up the stairs.

“I dunno, but it must be a lot,” Ryo replied, smiling. “Here, why don't you get some sleep? I'll take care of watching Charlie, make sure he doesn't steal any more costume jewelry.”

“Hey!” Charlie said, stung.

“You sure?” Dee asked, ignoring Charlie like everyone else had been doing all night.

“Yeah, you were the one who was up at five to finish your Christmas shopping. I can handle an all-nighter.”

“Okay, but wake me in three hours, Ryo. You need some sleep, too.”

“Right.”

A few minutes later, Dee was stretched out on the floor, using his jacket bunched up under his head as a pillow, his gun lying next to his hand. Ryo watched him sleep for a few moments before taking a book off the shelf in the corner, dropping onto the couch, wrapping his gun in his jacket, and opening to the first page.

Charlie began to snore after about an hour, and about fifteen minutes later, Ryo felt his eyes drooping as well. He managed to stay successfully awake for another half hour before the darkness claimed him…

-----

The next thing Ryo knew, it was nearly one in the morning, the entire house was silent, and he was waking due to a movement at his head. He jumped awake and to his feet, reached for his gun, found nothing, swore, and stared at Charlie, noting the handcuffs dangling off the robber's wrist and…Ryo's gun in his hand.

Ryo was halfway through a lunge at the robber before the gun went off. All he felt was a burning pain in his side and then in his shoulder, all he heard was Dee's yell, and all he saw was Charlie sprinting down the hall to the door, before Dee was leaning over him, shaking and pale.

It had all taken less than ten seconds.

The entire house woke at the noise. Within moments, the Simmons family was gathered in the huge living room of their king-sized house, looking confused and slightly disheveled. As one, they all blinked, and looked extremely confused and even more frightened as they took in the sight before them.

Ryo was lying on the floor, blood spilling from a deep wound in his side and another in his left shoulder, and Dee was kneeling beside him, his face completely white as he tried to keep his hands steady to stop the blood flow with his jacket.

“Oh my God!” Autumn yelled, running over and kneeling next to Dee. “What happened?”

“What does it look like?” Dee snapped. “Go call an ambulance, and get me some towels on your way back.” He looked over at Autumn, who was staring at Ryo with wide eyes. “Go!”

The young girl bolted for the phone, but the electricity chose that moment to flicker and die, leaving them all in total darkness except for the light of the fire.

“Phone's dead,” Autumn informed Dee, before turning to her parents. “Don't just stand there, do something!”

“What would you have me do?” Mr. Simmons asked. “I'm a lawyer, not a doctor!”

“Get towels! And Mom, go get some blankets, it'll be freezing in here soon. And I'm going to be kind and not remind you that I've been saying we should all get cell phones for the past, like, forever…but I did say it, you know.”

As Mr. and Mrs. Simmons left the room (choosing not to comment on Autumn's “scathing words”), Dee flipped his cell phone open. “Damn!” he swore. “Of course it would be dead, because why the hell not? And Ryo left his at home…fine time to decide to turn into me… Autumn, put another log on the fire.”

“Dee…?”

Dee's eyes snapped back to Ryo's face. The blond's eyes were open, his face pale and covered in a light sheen of sweat. “I'm right here, love.”

“What's…going on?”

“You just got shot, power's out, phones are down, and the blizzard's still going.”

Ryo tried to laugh, but it turned into a cough. Blood showed scarlet on his fingers as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “That sucks.”

Dee chuckled at the reply that sounded so like himself, but the laughter was forced and died quickly. “I'm sorry, Ryo,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “Please…don't leave me.”

“Wouldn't…dream of it.”

Dee smiled slightly. “Where are those blankets?” he asked Autumn. “It's freezing in here.”

“C-cold,” Ryo whispered as Dee threw a quilt over him.

“I know…I'm sorry, Ryo. I'll try to get it warmer soon.”

“Okay…”

And that was when Ryo passed out.

“Ryo? Ryo. Damn it! Get me more towels,” Dee ordered over his shoulder as he replaced one blood-soaked towel with another clean one. “It shouldn't be bleeding this much…Ryo, wake up, baby. Autumn, do you have anything I could use as a bandage? And can you get your mom to stop standing there like a fool and have her try the phone again? And what happened to your father?”

“You heard him, Mom. Try the phone and then go find Dad.”

An hour later, Ryo's wound was bandaged and the bleeding had nearly stopped, though Ryo had already lost more blood than Dee liked. His breathing was labored, each lungful of air difficult to draw in, but he was hanging onto life, if barely clinging to it. The snow had slowed to a light fall, as well, but the electricity and phone lines were still down.

The room was still freezing, though the fire warmed the air slightly. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons were sitting on the couch, silent as though they were carved from stone, and Autumn was sitting next to Ryo's head, adjusting his blanket, helping him drink when he got thirsty. She had taken a very strong liking to the pair, and the only way she kept herself from blind panic was to do something for the cause of that panic.

As for Dee…well, Dee was doing whatever he could to keep from falling into a panic of his own. He sat in a chair not far from Ryo, dismantling his gun and putting it back together again, pausing every once in a while to reach out and squeeze Ryo's hand, as if by doing so he could anchor the other man to life.

“You're going to Hell, you know,” Mr. Simmons said, breaking the silence with his very interesting and extremely out-of-the-blue comment. It seemed that he was tired of “polite” words and resorting to plain, cut-throat “truth”.

“Really? I wasn't aware.” Snap.

“The Bible says it's unnatural for men to be with other men,” Mrs. Simmons said as her husband opened his mouth. “He doesn't want that for His children.”

“Really?” Dee replied without interest. “You're on speaking terms with God all of the sudden?”

“Mr. Laytner—”

“Would you mind telling me how you talk to Him? Is it, like, by phone?”

“Yeah, you have a God phone, Mom?” Autumn piped up, sounding faintly amused even in the face of the current crisis.

“That will be enough, Autumn,” Mr. Simmons snapped.

Dee shrugged. “Look, say whatever the hell you want. Doesn't bother me. My mother taught me differently.”

“Well, your mother was wrong.”

“…No…no, I think she knows what she's talking about…”

Mrs. Simmons sighed. “Look, Mr. Laytner, we are very grateful for your help and all I'm asking is that you let me return the favor.” She reached into the drawer of the little table next to her and pulled out a small card. “Here. I'm a member of a local group that takes in and helps…misguided souls like yourself.”

Dee blinked at the card that had just been transferred to his hand.

“Look, Mr. Laytner. You are not an evil being by nature…I know you aren't. I just want to help, so…please feel free to call or come visit us any time. I'm sure we can help you with your…confusion.”

“My…?” Dee stared at the woman in disbelief. Fuming, he tore the card in half and dropped it on the floor. “Sorry, lady, but I don't need help. Not from you, not from people like you, and not in this lifetime.” With that, he walked over and knelt beside Autumn, taking Ryo's hand again. “How's it going?”

“He's got a fever now, and I think the bleeding started again. I can't get it to stop.”

“Okay. Here…let me take over, you go check the phones again.”

“Maybe it should be this way,” Mr. Simmons said.

Dee froze, and then turned slowly to look at Mr. Simmons. His eyes glittered dangerously. “What?”

“Well, you're obviously being punished for your…misguided lifestyle. Maybe this…Ryo…deserves to die, as…an example.”

Dee looked as though he would very much like to hit the man, but he settled for making several vaguely threatening remarks, each sprinkled liberally with profanity. Despite his anger, the hands that pressed the towels to Ryo's wound were very gentle. Ryo was still unconscious, however, and no longer felt the pain. That should have made Dee feel better, but all it did was scare him; the blond was already in serious danger from blood loss.

“How long has it been?” Dee asked quietly, quite a while later, after the sun was up, the snow had stopped, and Ryo's bleeding had finally stopped again.

“I don't know,” Autumn replied. “Too long. The snow plows should be out soon, though.” She put the cordless phone that had been sitting by her hand all night up to her ear. “Finally!”

Dee listened as Autumn dialed 911 and answered a bunch of questions, but did not allow himself to feel relieved. There was still a chance he could lose his lover. At that thought, he hastily wiped away several tears that managed to escape.

“C'mon, Ryo. Stay with me, okay?”

But Ryo was beyond hearing now.

“They'll get here as soon as they can, but they don't know how long it'll take because of the snow,” Autumn informed the others, turning the phone off. “How is he?”

“I honestly don't know. Better than he could be under the circumstances, but bad enough that he could still die.”

All the fear had now left Dee. He spoke with a perfectly calm detachment, as the hazards of the job had taught him to do. Somewhere inside, there was fear, the kind of fear that made him want to crawl into his adoptive mother's arms and stay there until he died, but on the outside, he stayed calm.

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Just…wait. And pray. It's all any of us can do.”

-----

The waiting and praying must have served them in good stead, because half an hour later, an ambulance pulled up outside. When the medics rushed in and went to work, Dee backed away quickly and opened his cell phone. Seeing that it was finally working again, he pressed a number on the speed dial.

“Mmm…'lo?” A sleepy voice came over the line.

“JJ?”

“Huh? Dee? Wha? Early…”

“Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. Listen…don't freak out since I'm guessing Drake's sleeping right next to you, but…Ryo's been shot.”

“…Huh?”

“Ryo and I got called out on an assignment last night and the guy shot Ryo.”

“Wha…? God, is he okay?”

“I dunno. We finally get the medics here but it doesn't look good. Can you call Rose and tell him the guy got away?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks. Okay, sorry for waking you up. I just did because I knew you'd hate me if I didn't call you and tell you the first chance I got. Go back to sleep.”

“Are you crazy? I'm going to the hospital. I'll meet you there.”

“But—”

Click.

Dee looked at the phone in his hand. “O…kay…”

“You riding with him?” a medic named Jonathan asked, as the others loaded Ryo gently onto a stretcher.

“Yeah.”

“I'm going, too,” Autumn said firmly. “I'll follow in my car.”

“Fine,” Jonathan replied. “Let's go.”

Mr. and Mrs. Simmons looked about ready to protest, but one look from their daughter silenced them, and Mrs. Simmons said simply, “We're coming, too, then.”

Later on, Dee didn't remember much about the ambulance ride, except that he held Ryo's hand in a bone-crushing grip as he answered the questions Jonathan fired rapidly at him.

“You two together?” he asked, looking sympathetic.

“What? Oh…yeah. Yeah, we are.”

“Okay, does he—Randy, you said his name was?—does he have any allergies?”

“No, I don't think so.”

“What about relatives? Any nearby that need to be notified?”

“His aunt Elena is coming for the holidays. Her plane was supposed to get in at ten last night. I can call her, if I need to.”

“That'd be good. He may need a transfusion and he needs a family member's blood, it's his best bet. Do you know her blood type?”

“Um…I know Ryo's AB negative. I think Elena's a universal donor. Anyway, I'll get her here.”

By this time, the ambulance was pulling up at the hospital doors.

“All right, call his aunt and get her here ASAP. Then go to the waiting room and fill out the paperwork and we'll tell you as soon as there's news.”

“Okay.”

By the time he got to the waiting room, the Simmons family, JJ, and Drake were crowded together there. He gave JJ and Drake a small smile and motioned for them to hold on as he dialed the number of the orphanage.

“Penguin? Hey. It's Dee. Don't freak out on me, but…Ryo's in the hospital. Yeah, we were…on an assignment, and Ryo…well, is Ryo's aunt there? I told her to go over there if we weren't home when she got here. Okay, can you tell her to get to the hospital? Thanks.”

“Dee, what happened?” JJ asked, coming over to Dee.

“I told you on the phone,” Dee replied, hitting a number on the speed dial. “Carol? Hey, put Bikky on… Hey, Bikky. Look, I don't have time to explain, but you need to get to the hospital. Ryo's been shot and I'm freaking out and I need you here and I need you now so I have someone to have a meltdown with. Thanks. See you in a few. Bye.”

“Dee, you need to sit down for a minute and talk to us,” JJ said, taking Dee's arm.

“No. Sitting is bad. Sitting equals panic. I have to…do something.”

“Well, Dee…” Drake said from his chair by the wall. “Not that I'm complaining, because we would have been here anyway come hell or high water, but…why do you need us here?”

“Moral support, mostly, but I also need to talk to you about work. Oh, by the way, this is Greg and Anna Simmons and their daughter Autumn. So, first off, I need you to cover for us at the precinct for a while. Ryo's not going anywhere for a couple days at the very least and I'm not leaving until he does. And I need you to explain everything to Rose, tell him the guy got away and do whatever you have to to keep him from rushing out here to freak out over my Ryo.”

JJ chuckled, but his tone was serious when he replied. “Sure, Dee. We'll do whatever you need us to do. Now sit.”

“No. No sitting. Must pace.”

“Dee!”

The group turned quickly to see Bikky coming toward them, clutching his girlfriend's hand.

“Hey,” Dee said, attempting a smile. “How'd you get here so fast?”

“Cal lives a block away,” Bikky snapped, as though Dee were a total moron for not remembering that small detail in the middle of a crisis. “How's Ryo?”

“I dunno, they haven't told us anything yet.”

“Who're they?”

“Oh. Uh, Bikky, Carol. The Simmons, and vice versa. And don't expect the senior Simmons to talk to you. They hate me so they'll probably think you're tainted by association or something. But Autumn will talk to you. Autumn, this is Ryo's adopted son.”

“Hi,” Autumn said, smiling sympathetically. “I'm sorry about your dad. I, uh, can't help feeling like this is our fault.”

“How so?” Carol asked.

“Well, if Ryo and Dee hadn't come to help us, none of us would be sitting in a hospital waiting room right now.”

Bikky nodded, and he and Carol went to sit on either side of Autumn. “Been there,” he said. “There was this one time when a teacher at my school tried to blow the place up. I had to go back to school for something and Dee came to get me, and the guy ended up shooting him in the leg. Then Dee threw me out the window and told me to run and the school blew up with him inside. I think the only people who were freaking out as much as I was were JJ and Ryo.”

JJ nodded. “That's true. And Ryo knew what he was getting into from day one as an officer. In the world we live in, there's always a small chance that the next assignment we go on could be our last. It's nobody's fault. Sometimes—more often than any of us like to think—bad things happen to the best people. Ya know?”

Dee shot JJ a small, grateful smile. On top of everything else he couldn't take a meltdown from Autumn. Drake smiled at JJ, too, and slipped an arm around his waist and pulled him close as he laid his head on his lover's shoulder. Dee glared at the Simmons as though daring them to say a word.

It was only a few minutes before the last of the group showed up. Ryo's aunt came running into the room in a blind panic and had barely started pressing Dee for information before she was whisked away by a nurse. Sister Maria came in right after and walked forward immediately to embrace Dee.

It was then, held gently in the arms of the only mother he had ever known, that Dee's resolve crumbled. He had held up fairly well, not shedding a single tear during the ride to the hospital or in the waiting room, but now he began to tremble violently. Sister Maria guided him to the couch and sat on it, as Dee stretched out and laid his head on her lap. The kindly old nun threaded Dee's hair through her fingers. They sat there like that in silence for a while, before Mr. Simmons broke the silence.

“So this is your mother?” he asked, raising his eyebrows disbelievingly. “A nun?”

“Got a problem with that?” Drake snarled; he was very tense, and he was most definitely not in the mood for this.

“Well, no, it's just…ma'am…Sister…do you know about your…about Dee's…do you know about his…partner?”

“If you mean do I have knowledge of Ryo and Dee's relationship, I assure you that I know of it very well. If you are asking if I discourage it, I'll tell you only that Ryo is nothing less than another of my sons, and when you speak against any of my children you speak against me. I would therefore encourage you to hold your tongue on any subject concerning me or my family.” An icy tone had entered the nun's voice, but she spoke quietly and calmly.

The room fell silent after that. Bikky sunk into a brooding silence and kicked his foot against the floor as Carol rubbed his back between his shoulder blades, trying to ease his tension. Drake held JJ close to him, as though he were afraid of losing his lover the way Dee might lose Ryo. The Simmons just sat and looked awkward and out of place, and Dee rested his head against Sister Maria as tears continued to run silently down his face.

They lost track of how much time passed. It must have been several hours, at least. Mr. and Mrs. Simmons tried several times to get Autumn to leave, but the girl steadfastly refused, and so they stayed. Finally, though, Dee reached the end of his rope where they were concerned and told them coldly to just leave, and so the two parents left their daughter with the “transgressors” and went home. Dee supposed the only reason they'd come at all was to make sure the “dangerous gays” didn't “teach her their ways”.

At last, as the sun continued to climb in the sky, after Elena came back and sat in the corner to wait in tense silence and JJ fell into a light doze against Drake, a man with flecks of gray in his hair and scrubs flecked with blood—Ryo's blood—entered the waiting room. “Are you all here for Randy MacLean?”

JJ jolted awake as if he's been set afire as Drake shot to his feet, and Bikky and his “other father' came forward. The others hung back and waited.

“What's going on? How's Ryo?” Dee demanded in a tense voice.

“Well, the good news is that the surgery and the transfusion went well and he has a much better chance than he did before, obviously. However, the wound did get infected. It was through no fault of yours, of course. In fact, you did well in caring for him with so few resources. But the fact remains that he's still in serious danger. His insides were quite a mess, and that, combined with the blood loss and the fact that he was freezing when we brought him in, means that we definitely shouldn't count our chickens just yet.”

“Can I see him?”

“He's just been moved to recovery, but you should be able to see him in about half an hour. I'll send a nurse for you then.”

After the doctor left, Dee turned to the rest of the people in the room. He told them quickly what the doctor had said. “You guys can go home if you want,” he finished. “I'll call you with news, as soon as they give me any.”

“No way,” Bikky said firmly. “I'm staying until I can see Ryo.”

“I'm with the little guy,” JJ announced.

The rest of them voiced their agreement. Dee smiled, but said nothing. He'd expected this. Everyone loved Ryo. With a small sigh that no one else heard, he moved back to his former position, using Sister Maria's lap as a pillow.

Christmas music played quietly over the speakers, and outside the snow had begun to fall gently again.

“This is Ryo's favorite,” Dee said softly, as Don't Save it All For Christmas Day came over the speakers. “He always says how true it is. He pretty much lives by this song.”

“He'll be all right, Dee,” Sister Maria assured him in a voice just above a whisper.

Dee was silent for a minute. “I know.”

And that was all that was said until a nurse came out and told them that immediate family could go see Ryo. They managed to convince her that Dee was Ryo's half-brother and told her that Bikky was his adopted son. She told the rest of them to go home, told Dee what room Ryo was in, and disappeared.

“Go home, guys,” Dee said. “I'll call you all as soon as we know what's up. I promise.”

JJ smiled and gave Dee a hug. “It'll be fine, okay?”

Dee smiled and returned the hug; no matter what he said to the contrary, he really did appreciate his hyperactive, irritating little shadow. “I know.”

“Call if you need to talk,” Sister Maria said, kissing Dee on the cheek.

“I will. Now go on home and get some sleep. You too, Autumn. Oh, but first…here.” Dee reached into his pocket and pulled a slip of paper and a pen out of his pocket. “Here's the address for our apartment, and for the orphanage. Drop by sometime.”

“Thanks, I will. Mom and Dad will freak,” Autumn said delightedly, taking the paper and hugging Dee.

One by one, the group left and Dee, Elena and Bikky hurried to Ryo's room.

The sight of his lover nearly brought tears to Dee's eyes again. Ryo was lying in the hospital bed, an IV in one arm and a heavy sling and bandage on his other shoulder. He was very pale, and he didn't stir when his visitors entered the room.

Without hesitation, Dee grabbed a chair, pulled it up by the side of the bed, dropped into it, and took Ryo's hand in a gentle grip. Elena smiled slightly at this as she sat down, but didn't say a word. Bikky sat next to her and opened a comic book, pretending to read as he looked up every two seconds to check and see if Ryo was awake yet.

There, in the hospital room, the adrenaline rush ran out of them all. Bikky dropped off leaning on Elena's shoulder, and Ryo's aunt fell asleep soon after. Dee held out the longest, stroking Ryo's hand and staring at the blond's face, reassuring himself that his lover was still breathing. But eventually, the events of the last several hours, combined with lack of sleep, began to catch up with him, and he laid his head against Ryo's good arm and let the darkness carry him off…

-----

Ryo was floating. He felt very light, and wasn't quite sure where he was. After a few moments, though, his vision cleared enough for him to see white, bare walls bathed in early morning sunlight.

As his other senses kicked in, he slowly became aware of other things—a weight resting on his right arm; fingers laced through his; the gentle, even breathing of sleeping people; the presence of his aunt, his son, and his lover in the room; the beeping of a heart monitor; and quiet Christmas music playing over speakers somewhere.

After these details registered, Ryo concluded that he was in a hospital.

Damn.

This fact having been established, he now began to piece together memories of the events that had brought him here. A robbery. Telling Dee to go to sleep, then falling asleep himself. Waking to find his gun in someone else's hands. A burning pain in his side and then in his shoulder. Dee's panicked face, and then release from pain.

But now the pain was back, and it was not his friend.

He briefly considered waking the others immediately, but they all looked so worn out, and he wasn't ready to deal with their stifling concern yet. So he just lay there and stared out the window for a long while, as the snow continued to fall outside.

At last, feeling he needed a distraction from the horrors that snow—his beloved, beautiful snow—had brought, he licked his dry, cracked lips and whispered, “Dee?”

There was no reply, but the black-haired man at his side stirred slightly.

Smiling a little, Ryo slowly lifted his hand and placed it on Dee's hair. “Dee…”

The hand tightened around his own as Dee slowly lifted his head and blinked sleep from his eyes. “Huh? Wha…?” Then his face lit up in a huge, delighted smile. “Ryo!”

“Hey…” Ryo whispered. “Nice room…”

Dee just continued to stare at him with wide, almost disbelieving eyes.

“Aren't you gonna….hug me or something?”

And all of a sudden, without warning, tears began to slide down Dee's cheeks, startling both of them. “I'll do more than that…” he whispered, smiling in spite of the tears that were falling steadily from his eyes. Ryo grinned slightly as Dee leaned forward and kissed Ryo gently, then harder. When he finally pulled away, Ryo was smiling, all pain forgotten.

The blond nodded toward the other two people in the room. “Should we wake them up?”

Dee considered for a moment, then shook his head. “Uh-uh. Let them sleep. The second they wake up they'll start freaking out over you, and right now I want it to be just you and me.” He reached out and played with a lock of Ryo's hair. “You scared me, Ryo. I don't think I've ever been that terrified. I…I thought…” A pause, and then Dee shook his head ruefully. “Well, never mind. You're awake, you're talking…you're okay. So no, don't wake them up. I just wanna….bask.”

Ryo grinned. “My thoughts exactly. C'mere.”

When Elena and Bikky woke about half an hour later, it was to find Ryo wrapping his good arm around Dee and kissing him like there was no tomorrow.

Then again, if they had any more nights like last night…maybe there wouldn't be.

Lovely thought.

-----

“I hate that place,” Ryo muttered, as he and Dee finally walked out the doors of the hospital a few days later.

Dee laughed and reached down to take Ryo's hand. The one that wasn't supported by a sling. “I know. But you're out now.”

“But I have to come back in two weeks!”

“Just for a check-up.”

“And to get the stitches out, which always hurts like hell.”

This brought a smile from Dee. “Well, don't think about hospitals now. Bikky, Carol, and Elena are at the orphanage, and I'm going over there, too, so you have the rest of the day to yourself. And don't use it to clean the house. Use it to sleep.”

Ryo sighed, exasperated. “Dee, I'm fine. Dr. Hemingway told you I'm fine, Dr. Miller told you I'm fine, three nurses told you I'm fine, and I'm telling you I'm fine.”

“Well, I'm not taking any chances. I'm going to the orphanage to hang the lights, and you're going to hang out and relax and come over for Christmas dinner and not do any work at all because it'll pull your stitches out and that hurts.”

Ryo sighed, but he was smiling. It always gratified him to know that Dee cared. “Yes, JJ.”

“Hey! Knife in the gut!”

“Well, you sound just like him when he was still obsessing over you and your, for lack of a better word, well-being.”

“Okay, keep it up and you're walking home.”

“Right. Sorry. Shutting up now.”

-----

As soon as they got home, Dee cooked Ryo a quick meal and left for the orphanage after ordering his lover to “sit, stay, and sleep.”

Dee would have been very upset to know that his orders were not followed. But Ryo had made a plan as soon as he found out he would be home alone for the day. Several hours after Dee left, as the sun began to drop in the sky, he changed his clothes, grabbed his keys off the counter, and left, a look of determination on his face.

-----

The Simmons home was every bit as big as Ryo remembered it. He felt an odd sense of foreboding, not unlike the one he'd felt when he's been going in to arrest a robber. He supposed that people must always feel this way when entering the home of others who hated them, but it didn't make the feeling any more fun.

A maid answered the door this time, smiling in welcome. Ryo gave her a small smile and said, “I'm here to see the Simmons? Both of them?”

“Of course,” the maid said. “Please, come in.”

Inside, the woman showed him to a different room from the one he'd gone to last time, a large room furnished richly, meant to instill a feeling of awe instead of comfort.

“Please, sit,” instructed the maid. “I'll just be a moment.”

A whole minute to contemplate his inferiority to the wealthy. Fantastic.

Mr. and Mrs. Simmons appeared together, and the identical, ill-disguised looks of disgust on their faces would have been comical under different circumstances.

Ryo didn't stand or do anything to show any respect at all as the two came in and sat down. He smiled, but there was a chill in the room that couldn't be blamed on the cold outside.

“I know you're very busy, so I'll come straight to the point,” Ryo said, without giving the Simmons a chance to say a word. His tone wasn't hostile or even cold. It was actually quite pleasant, but it said all too clearly that he was not afraid to get ugly if need be. “I understand that you were…very unfriendly to Dee while I was…elsewhere. So I came to ask…why? Why would you say all those things to the man who, to put it crudely but succinctly, saved your worthless asses?”

The silence in the room seemed to carry the weight of a house. Ryo was almost relieved when it was finally broken by Mrs. Simmons. “We…well…we just… Well, what you have to understand, Mr. MacLean, is that our household is run firmly on a religious foundation, and on the foundation of society. Both the Bible and the majority of society discourage a romantic relationship between members of the same sex.”

“Those are a lot of big words,” Ryo said. “Don't you people ever just say what you mean?”

“She doesn't,” Mr. Simmons replied coldly. “I do. And here's what I have to say. You and your…your lover don't seem to understand that Hell welcomes people like you with open arms, and Heaven kicks them out.”

“But sir, if I'm not mistaken, the Christian ideas set firm store in the belief that faith in God will aid a person in their quest for Heaven, as will a good, clean, kind soul.”

“Yes, that's true. I'll be the first to agree.”

“Well, then, let me assure you that Dee is as good and kind and clean as they come.”

“You say that because you are just like him. But we others, we true believers, we see you for what you are. You are the Devil's children. Tainted. Hell-bound.”

The expression on Ryo's face didn't change. “You truly believe that Dee and I are bad people, then? That because we have no female lovers, we're `tainted' and can't possibly lead decent, respectable, loving lives?”

“I didn't say—”

“You don't have to say something to make your meaning clear.” Ryo stood up. “Well, I should be going. Just let me ask one more thing. Autumn isn't here, is she?”

“No,” Mrs. Simmons said, clearly confused at where this was leading. “She left about an hour ago. She didn't say where she was going.”

“I think I know. Let me take you to her. I know where she went, and there's something there that you need to see.”

-----

Half an hour later, Ryo pulled up in front of the orphanage and got out of the car. The Simmons' Jag pulled in behind him and stopped; the motion was almost wary, the poor car.

Smiling, Ryo motioned towards the orphanage.

Dee had finished hanging up the Christmas lights, and they were sparking and casting dancing colors on the snow in front of the building. Ryo opened the side door silently and motioned for them to come in, leading them towards the common room.

The inside was absolutely breathtaking now that the last of the decorations were finished. Presents were piled neatly under the Christmas tree, which was even taller and more beautiful than Ryo remembered. The floors sparkled after having been newly polished, and a large fire crackled in the fireplace. Green wreathes with real, red and white roses on them were hung all over the place, and an especially large one with tints of gold in the leaves hung over the fireplace. Two red taper candles held by small, porcelain angels on the mantelpiece combined with the fire to give the only light in the room, and a small, foot-tall statue of the Virgin Mary between them, painted with such detail that she looked as real as anyone else in the room.

Ryo's eyes scanned the room until they found Dee, sitting in the chair in the corner. Sister Maria sat next to him in her own chair; Elena, Autumn, Bikky, and Carol were sprawled over the rest of the furniture; Holly was curled up in Dee's lap; and the rest of the children were all sitting on the floor at his feet, gazing up at him with glowing eyes as he read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas aloud to them.

The black-haired man looked up momentarily, not pausing from his recitation—he'd heard the story enough as a child that he had it memorized in its entirety—and his eyes lit up as they met his lover's. The contact lasted only a moment before it broke as Dee returned to his story; the Simmons might as well not have been there at all for all the attention he paid them.

The two outsiders and Ryo listened to him read for a moment, before the blond whispered, “See the little girl on Dee's lap? She'd been through hell this year. Chemotherapy and radiation started when she was four. She's been brave, but the only reason she hasn't quit trying by now is because of Dee. She broke down only a few months ago, and Dee was the only one who managed to convince her that life was worth living. She's five years old, and she already knows enough to know that Dee is a good person, one who can be trusted.”

The couple at his side blinked, but said nothing.

“And see that boy over there? The one standing next to Mother? His father shot his mother and then committed suicide right in front of him. He was only twelve. Dee came and took him out of the house, kept him from committing suicide like his father did, and took him to the orphanage to live, and he's been happy here for the last year.

“You met Bikky and Carol, I know. Carol's an ex-pickpocket and Bikky was a street punk for a long time before he and Dee were kidnapped and Dee got his arm broken trying to protect Bikky.

“And as for Mother herself? He believes that she got him through his life, but she herself told me that it was the other way around. She told me that Dee convinced her time and time again to keep up the fight to help kids like him.

“Every single person in this room trusts Dee with their lives, their welfare, and their hearts. Me included. Do you really believe that anyone with that kind of love in his life could ever be a truly bad person?”

Then, smiling at Dee, Ryo came forward and put his good arm around his lover, looking over his shoulder at the book and smiling slightly.

The Simmons wouldn't change; he knew that. People like them simply didn't change, except in the most extreme of circumstances. But he could already see that he'd made them think twice about everything that they had previously accepted without question.

And now he was standing here, with the person he loved more than any other, reliving his childhood, seeing his entire future laid out before him in the form of smiling children and the gentle tenor of his favorite voice in the world.

That was good enough for him.

God, he loved this time of year…

Coming to the end of the poem, Dee looked up at his lover and smiled happily at him. The last line came out almost too softly to be heard over the crackling of the fire, and the words just barely made it out before they were swallowed by the gentle kiss that Ryo placed on the waiting lips.

“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

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I know, I know, I know. How corny was that? But it's a Christmas fic. It's allowed to be corny. Reviews are appreciated. I'd love to come back form North Carolina and see a whole inbox full of pretty review alerts….

Oh, and I know what y'all were thinking. “People don't talk like that.” But the fact is…yes, people really do say things like that. This story was inspired by a conversation I heard between real, live people that I actually know, and my God it was disturbing. It was like a cult thing…or something…

So yes, that wasn't just amateur writing from someone who's trying too hard to people in a villainous light; it's based on a reality that I've come into contact with (much as I wish I could deny that).