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Patton was pedaling on one of the exercise bikes, which was one of his favorite activities to do at the gym. Relatively low impact and he usually took a “something is better than nothing” approach to his routines nowadays. Just appreciating the people watching and socializing with his workout famILY.
That was odd.
Remus hadn’t been to the gym for the whole week. Even when the kiddo overdid it – usually he’s not out of commission this long for it. Unless-
Something hit him in the gut when he realized that. He stopped on his bike and immediately buzzed his number.
Ring.
Ring.
Nothing.
He could shoot him a text, but it was just not settling right with him. Logan had been doing one of his HIIT circuits on the bike next to him. He took a deep breath, gently tapping Logan’s shoulder. Despite Logan’s concentration, he desisted immediately, turning off his music to respond, “What is it?”
“Have you seen a certain Pottymouth at your work recently?”
Logan paused, with a look of concerned realization, “Come to think of it, no. No, I haven’t. Well, he was getting particularly erratic and called in sick… 3 days ago.”
“I think I should go check in on him. My Other Son’s been swamped with work lately, sooo…”
If Logan was perfectly honest, it was often confusing when Patton referred to half their crew as his son, “Other son? Did you mean Virgil?”
Patton nodded.
“Probably prudent. Unfortunately, no one can stand in for me at the firm tonight. And. You’re better at the… emotions stuff.”
“I appreciate the vote of confidence! Hopefully I’m just worried for nothing.”
Patton rose up from his bike and was about to leave with his things. Logan smiled faintly, “Hey, if you would, could you tell me how he’s doing when you find out?”
Patton smiled back, a little forced if he was honest, “I’ll make sure to have him tell you that himself!”
-
It wasn’t a very far trip across the city to get to Remus’s apartment complex from the gym.
Once Patton parked his car and took another deep breath, he stepped out toward it.
After getting buzzed in and jogging up a couple flights of stairs, thanking his stars for basic training, he was at the door in a jiffy.
Patton wasn’t in the business, but he was reminded of the time Remus was raising heck to get Unit 404 from this building. He remembered seeing Logan trying desperately not to laugh when he heard about it.
He knew to knock to the phrase “Shave and a Haircut”, to alert Remus. He drummed out a few calls, waiting for Remus to make a sound on the other side, hoping he would.
It was a thing in their group, ever since they all watched “Roger Rabbit” together for a movie night, years ago.
Once. Twice. Thrice…
Patton heard the sound of chaotic crashing noises and an off-script, but still in the right cadence, “Fuck OFF!”
“Remus!? Kiddo, it’s me. I wanted to check on you!”
He heard some stumbling noises and a hoarse, “P-padre?”
“Can I come in?”
There was a dramatically loud sigh before the door was unlatched, unlocked, and open.
“Thanks- oh.”
Patton wasn’t exactly sure what he was expecting, but Remus looked even more harried than he usually was. The darkness around his eyes even more pronounced, his face was so drained. His makeup smudged, tear-streaked, and hanging on for dear life. His gaze wild and jumpy. Remus didn’t do much more than stand in the living room, staring at Patton once he entered.
Patton saw that Remus had knocked over one of his glass cabinets. He noticed Remus looked pretty scratched up and was bleeding in places, mostly his hands and knuckles.
Patton furrowed his brow, asking mostly to avoid presumptions, “How are you feeling?”
Remus sounded breathless too, “What does it fucking… look like!?”
Patton paused and looked around some more, there was a lot of trash strewn about the floor. Granted there usually was, Remus would just call it “organized chaos”. But Patton did note that there was an alarming number of energy drink cans piled around a hopelessly full trash bin. Monsters, NOS, Red Bulls, 5 Hours, yerba mate, the works.
Patton slumped a little bit in worry, “Not exactly peachy keen, I take it?”
Patton had a hunch that Remus was screaming not that long ago, based on just how raw his voice sounded, “No SHIT!”
“Um, would you like to sit down for a bit? It might help to talk it out.”
“Can’t.”
“Too restless, huh?”
“Yeah.”
At that point Remus was mindlessly digging his fingernails into his arm. Patton winced a little and decided to ask, “Can I take care of those injuries, at least? I just want to make sure they don’t get-”
Remus glanced at but barely registered the wounds, “Infected?”
“Yeah.”
“F-first aid kit’s in the bathroom. Not like it matters. It would be just my luck to have a brown recluse bite or resistant staph or necrotizing fasciitis. You know where shit rots and liquefies and you get all septic?! Imagine the SMELL.”
Patton slowly worked his way to the bathroom to get the kit, not taking his eyes away from Remus, “Well, if it looks like it’ll be that way, I WILL be taking your butt to the ER.”
Remus didn’t seem to register that, droning on, “Oh. What if I lose a finger? Or several! Or my entire hands! Everybody says I might die of a heart attack before I hit 30? My ticker feels like it’s going to EXPLODE, Teddy Roosevelt. Imagine a live grenade strapped to it – BOOM. Sounds like fun.”
Patton flinched, thinking that was to get a rise out of him, “Kiddo, I think that’s the opposite of fun.”
Remus weakly laughed, pointing at his chest thoughtlessly, “Better than worrying about cancer or some shit!”
Eventually Patton had to break line of sight to grab the kit, but he kept talking, “When… when did you last get some sleep?”
There was a pause that made Patton’s own heart ache a little bit. Remus muttered after some hemming and hawing, “Uh… 3? 4? 4 days ago? I think. I don’t even fucking know.”
Patton took a moment to look over the medicine cabinet while he was there. Just to see if Remus had anything that could help him get much needed snooze time. There was a bottle of trazodone, mostly full, Benedryl, also mostly full… no suspiciously empty bottles of anything around. So that was a hopeful sign.
“Would you mind if I asked you to take something to help you sleep? After I patch you up?”
“You remember that story where a whole batch of Tylenol was tampered with and killed like seven whole people?”
“… I’ll ask again a little later, then.”
Patton returned to the living room, kit in hand, both relieved and disconcerted about Remus just standing in the same spot he was in. His hands were clenching and unclenching, like he was fighting to stay awake even longer. “Okay, it would be easier on both of us if you sat down while I dress those wounds.”
Remus didn’t move, so Patton tried to gently nudge this poor kid toward the sofa anyways. Thankfully, he didn’t resist at all. Patton noticed just how wobbly a gait he had in that short distance. Once seated, Patton also saw that both his knees were scuffed. Patton winced, imagining that he took at least a few falls very recently.
Without prompting, Remus whined, “Everything hurts, Padre.”
“Well, going without sleep as long as you have can give you a bad case of the body aches. Seen some of my old combat buddies deal with that on our worst deployments…”
Patton started to wipe down Remus’s knuckles first with some cotton balls and alcohol. He just wanted to get a better sense of how deep these cuts were. He was relieved that they were surprisingly shallow, “I think these will only need some simple bandages and antibiotic cream… but I’m definitely going to check on you later, to see how your hands are doing.”
Remus nodded, and started to blather a bit again, “I feel like Hypnos himself has forsaken me. A curse! A bane! Pat? Is his brother going to come for me? Am I going to ride down Styx and meet the big H himself?”
“… you’re not going to die, if I can help it. I swear to God Himself.”
“Gross.”
Patton sometimes forgot that their positions of faith were so far removed. But that didn’t dissuade him from caring a lot. He hated seeing his friend suffering so much. He took another breath, and addressed the gouges and cuts in Remus’s arms. They were rough, probably unintentionally from his own hands. He approached those similarly. “You feeling any sleepier, yet?”
“Mmm… no.”
Remus looked like he was about to pass out, Patton was reasonably sure just the fact he was seated and getting some TLC helped push him closer to shutting his eyes. “Well. I’m going to hang around for a few, just to make sure you’re alright, okay? Mind if I turn on the TV?”
Remus started to slur his speech considerably, “Knock yourself out, Holy Ghost.”
Patton thinly smiled about the blasphemous sentiment, but he shook that off, it didn’t matter really. He was just glad to see Remus doze off like he desperately needed it.
Patton decided to tune into Nickelodeon and watch some cartoon reruns, eventually hearing some loud snoring coming from Remus. Patton sighed and smiled at the sight.
-
“Oh GEEZ, Patton. Were you – were you here all night?”
Patton blinked awake from the shouting and looked outside to see it was bright out, “I-I guess I was?”
Virgil was there to see his boyfriend sleeping like the dead and Patton next to him.
“Logan told me to check on Remus and I just got back here. And-”
“Remus is going to be okay, I think. Do you have any idea what may’ve started this episode?”
Virgil sat down on the recliner nearby and looked tired but contemplative.
“His “family” tried contacting him. All I know was it devolving into a messy fight and it rattled him. He… stubbornly didn’t want to talk about it.”
Patton understood what he meant at this point.
The only blood relative Remus had anything nice to say about was Roman. Someone who should probably know what happened, if he wasn’t already aware.
All to address later, once Remus recovered a little more.
Patton ran his fingers through Remus’s greasy hair. Not the most pleasant, but he hoped it helped to soothe him as he continued to slumber.
Virgil smiled at both of them, his own concern never quite gone, “Thanks for this, Pop Star.”