Archive of Our Own

Roman cursed, having not heard the 10-18 urgent code in weeks. He glanced over as his partner, Remy who shot him a look that meant: What are you looking at me for? Drive! 

At that, Roman shifted into gear, having been stationed on the side of the road to catch speeding cars. Checking the road before he did so, Roman gunned it onto the main road, finally flipping on his sirens. He hit 20 over the speed limit and held back, knowing past that he be more of a danger to civilians than would be of help.

He heard other patrols call in, Remy calling in for him as the roads were treacherous enough Roman couldn’t afford to split his attention to anything else. He heard both Logan and Virgil’s patrol as well as Emile and Janus’s patrol call in, which surprised Roman, and Logan and Virgil usually weren’t on patrol this early.

“You think it-” Remy started, before Roman interrupted him, knowing exactly what he was going to say.

“It could be, but I’m not sure, the description’s vague, but seems like his fashion sense, nondescript but also just his style. I.. can’t say.” Roman said, chancing a hand running through his hair out of nervousness.

Eventually they started to near the city hall, hearing other sirens join there’s as other cops neared the area.

Roman and Remy were the first responding officers on scene, pulling up behind the police car already there. 

The first thing Roman noticed was the bullet holes littering the ground as well as peppering the side of the cop car the second was the officer crouched in fear behind the cop car, a rookie cop who was on his first solo ride. Roman was sympathetic to the guy, getting something like this on is first ride alone?

“10-97.” Roman spoke into the radio as he rolled the car to a stop

Roman looked up when Remy suddenly cursed, looking up to see a bunch of things at once.

Roman first saw the man, who he immediately recognized as his estranged brother, Remus, as he was wearing nothing to hide his identity, it was clear that he was either willing to be gunned down, taking other with him as then it wouldn’t matter for him to show his face, or the more likely option was Remus was simply a little too arrogant in his ability to escape from the situation.

The second thing Roman noticed was that Remus was beginning to level a gun at their cop car. Looking as if he was about to open fire on them with no pretense.

The third thing he noticed was a civilian laying on the ground face up, too far away to be a direct hostage, but they were also way too close to be safe. They appeared to be too scared to try to move, likely because of the unhinged nature Remus had that Roman knew all too well from his childhood. 

The dead animals Remus started bringing in after they been run over, his disturbing tendency to bash the corpse to bits. Thankfully his mother had quickly convinced Remus to it outside instead of in their shared bedroom after forcing Remus to clean the first mess he made all by himself. Roman had appreciated his mother’s discipline, but it slowly became too little, too late when his mother got a call that Remus had become part of a gang and had brutally killed a man. Something didn’t feel right about it, but Roman had shrugged the feeling off, replacing it with the mix of anger at what Remus had done and what he was doing with his life, as well as a sadness for the brother he once knew, the one that got on his nerves, sure, but was his brother. Whoever this was... Roman... honestly didn’t recognize them.

Sure, they had the same face, but to be able to kill a man in cold blood and smile? Roman felt as if he was watching a skincrawler walk around in his twin’s skin.

Roman jumped, quite literally, into action, diving out of the car as soon as he could, hearing Remy jump out of the car through the same door as he heard Remus open fire on their cop car, Roman wincing as he heard his baby being shredded by the bullets hitting her.

He scrambled up, Remy doing the same as they both turned to face each other, crouching out of sight behind the car. Roman quietly signaled that he was going to get in a position to rescue the civilian, as their presence made attempting to subdue Remus harder, either due to returning stray fire being likely to hit them if any of his officers returned fire on Remus, or that the civilian could be taken hostage and used as a bargaining chip. Roman made sure Remus was distracted, hearing fire on another cop car that had come to the scene, by the tiny shriek and the hissing sound Roman heard, he knew Janus and Emile had arrived to assist as well.

Perfect. It’s go time.

Roman suddenly darted out of his hiding place, sprinting towards the civilian as fast as he could. He whispered quietly to the civilian, “Hey, I’m a cop, I’m here to get you to safety, please come with me. What’s your name?”

As Roman help the civilian to his feet, careful to keep himself in between Remus and... the boy, Roman realizes. The civilian is a boy, no older than 16 by his appearance. 

“Thomas, s- sir.” Thomas responds, hesitantly grabbing Roman’s hand to pull him up. Roman notices Thomas look over Roman’s shoulder as Roman’s twin, and quickly explains.

“Yes, he is my brother, or my twin to be more precise. I’m not happy about the relationship either. We need to hurry and get you somewhere safe, he’s not going to be distracted for long-”

Roman stopped speaking when he heard Remus shout from behind him. 

“Hey, you! Get away from them!”

Roman didn’t think, he just acted, in one motion, he pushed Thomas towards cover, while making sure he was still in between him and Remus. Continuing the motion, he turned to face Remus to know which way to dive when Remus shot at him-

Roman suddenly felt something stinging in his stomach, his mind suddenly reeling, trying to figure out what the stinging sensation was. Roman reached an exploratory hand down to feel his stomach,  bringing his hand back up with blood coating it.

Oh, I’ve been shot. Great. 

Roman felt himself going into shock, his thoughts feeling less and less connected to what was happening as he stumbled back, trying to get to cover. However, his body had other ideas as he collapsed to the ground, pain suddenly roaring through his body. 

Roman let out an involuntary whine at the amount of pain he was in, so much pain that he didn’t realize Remus was walking towards him until he was on top of Roman. Roman couldn’t completely focus on Remus’s words, but was able to see Remus’s grief stricken face as he crouched down around Roman’s stomach area.

Roman waited for a gun to be put to his head or a round to be put into his chest, wondering why Remus had looked distressed when Roman thought this was what he wanted.

Remus’s words finally broke through the shock.

“No! This- this- this isn’t what I wanted, Roman! I didn’t- I would never hurt you like that, no matter how bad I get!” Roman realized he had been speaking aloud, the realization undercut as Roman felt Remus press down on the gunshot wound, Roman screaming out in pain.

Remus continues, “I just- They framed me, Roman.” 

Roman grimaced, forcing his mouth to form words as he spoke, “Your gang framed you?”

Remus shook his head emphatically, chest shaking sporadically, Roman realizing that Remus was crying.

“No, the cops framed me. I don’t know why they did it, I never even saw the guy, Roman, and I had an alibi, but my one alibi was gunned down when he went to where I supposedly murdered the guy. They saw he was part of the gang and he made one wrong move and-”

Bang!

Remus cried out in pain suddenly from above Roman, the pressure on Roman’s side easing considerably, a temporary relief flowing through Roman before Roman felt blood start to freely flow from the wound. However it wasn’t gone for long, Remus clutching his side before placing his hands on Roman’s wound, not allowing any more blood loss than was necessary from Roman’s wound.

Roman went to protest, ready to cry out for Remus to tend to his own injures before Remus replied, knowing his twin enough to know his priorities.

“Roman, you have a much worse bullet wound, I’m sorry I shot you, I didn’t want to shoot you even before I knew who you were. I’m a lousy shot remember?” Remus smiled and chuckled sadly, barely holding back a sob and a hiss of pain, tears coming from his eyes as he searched Roman’s face.

Roman felt much more floaty now, his limbs feeling further and further away from him. Remus, ever the twin, immediately recognized what what happening and yelled something about staying with him, but Roman was too focused on the sky.

The blue sky with it’s puffy clouds looked so beautiful, Roman wanted to tell Remus how beautiful the sky was and that he should look at it too, but suddenly Remus wasn’t there, which was strange as he still felt that distant pressure on his side. 

Using what little strength he had, he tried to get up, croaking out his brother’s name, desperately craning his head to look for him. He did see Thomas being rushed to safety by another officer, which was good. Thomas was safe and that was good.

“Remus. Where’s- Where’s Remus?”

Suddenly, there were multiple sets of hands on his chest pushing him down, forcing him to stay laying down. Roman whined, pushing against them as he needed  his brother, as he finally saw that the person who he thought was a skinwalker in his brother’s body was only a wanted man desperate to clear his name, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Roman had to get to Remus, he had to tell them.

“Remus- Remus didn’t- didn’t do it.” Roman croaked out, his energy to get up spent, letting Roman look up at the great big blue sky. The big blue sky would listen to him, even if his friends didn’t.

He told the sky Remus’s secret.

“Remus didn’t kill the man. He didn’t- he- didn’t mean to shoot me.”

Roman felt his body recede to almost nothing, telling the sky one last thing, the most important thing, the one thing he didn’t think he had ever said to his brother.

“Can- Can you tell Remus I love him? I- I love you, Remus... I love you.”

Roman poured out his heart to the sky, his vision both tunneling in and widening paradoxically, the sky filling up his whole view, his body nothing but a distant memory.

I love Remus. Remus... is gonna be okay... I.... love... you.... Remu.....