the hospital

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Rehabilitation? Was he really that bad? Ethan frowned and looked down at his bandaged hand. How would he be able to explain this to school? To his friends? His family? Oh, his family... "Hey, Lock?" he asked quietly while still staring down at his bed. "Don't tell my family about this, okay?"
Hearing another voice, he lifted his head and watched Ellery walk in with a smile. He gave him a half-smile in return before seeing the photo on of the drawing with even cruder words on it. Normally he would have felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of his head while mentally cursing the brat, but all he could do right now was smile sadly at the drawing. "Tell him I said thanks." he said quietly while looking at Ellery, but anywhere but his eyes. He didn't feel like meeting anyone's gaze right now.
It was hard seeing the Texan so broken. Fredrich distracted himself from the sight by turning to face the songwriter. "Who did you have to visit?" he asked.

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He nodded and walked over, bending to press his lips to Ethan's forehead. "I will," he said, moving Ethan's hair back and smiling softly at him in such a way that made him so popular with the fans. With another nod, he walked back to Fredrich and stood in front of him, arms crossed and visibly upset. "Aldrich. His son called me this morning and told me that he'd gotten shot. Unfortunately, he was asleep, so I couldn't talk to him, but the nurse said that I can come back later tonight. I can't believe someone would shoot him. I mean, I know he's a little hard to get along with sometimes, but who would really want to hurt him?" He shifted from foot to foot, breathing through his nose.
Lock stood beside Ethan, squeezing his hand gently. "Are you sure that you don't want me to call your mom?" he asked quietly.

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Ethan blinked when he felt the kiss on his forehead, though it wasn't enough to move his eyes any higher. They sank back down to the bed when he felt his hand squeezed, nodding in response. "If my family knew about this then they'd get me out of the school in a heartbeat and back to Texas. I don't... I don't want to leave you, you know?" he whispered while squeezing Lock's hand back.

"There are all kinds of people." Fredrich offered in response. He looked back at Ethan and Lock then back at Ellery. "Let's go back home." he said and turned to walk out.

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Caught between a rock and a hard place, the Korean forced himself to play the devil's advocate. "But you're really hurt, Ethan. Maybe it'd be best if you were away from me, where it's safer." He looked down, breathing slowly. "I don't want you to go, but we've got to think about what's best for you."

"A-alright." Confused by his starkness, the man followed after Fredrich, waving to the teens before walking out. "Hey, are you alright?"

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Ethan quickly looked up at Lock's face, shock in his eyes. "Wh-What? B-But you can't leave!" he insisted and leaned forward in his sitting position. "You're the only one that can protect me! What'll I do if that happens again back in Texas?" Why did Lock insist that he leave? Why wasn't he taking his side?

There was a silent moment before the detective finally spoke. "It's hard seeing them like that." he mumbled without looking at the songwriter. He expected Ellery to understand even better than him. Less than a week ago those two were attached at the hip and scolding them on their own relationship problems, and know they were just two broken men struggling to find the right pieces.

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Sitting beside the brunette, Lock shook his head. "What happened with Barnabas happened because of me, Ethan. Do you really think that you're safe with me?" He kept his gaze down, not wanting to see his expression. "Everything bad that's ever happened to you was my fault. I love you, and I want to be with you, but the tables have turned with us. I put you into danger almost every moment that you're with me."

"I know." He stepped into the elevator, crossing his arms and leaning on a wall. "What should we do?"

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"That's not true! I was the reason Barnabas wanted revenge! That was my fault, not yours!" Ethan said as he reached out to grab Lock's sleeves, desperation in his wide eyes. "I-I've always had bad luck, I'm used to this kind of thing. It's okay! Really! W-We can get through this!" he said with a desperate smile to match his eyes. He sat in silence, tears rolling down his cheeks as he begged for Lock to look back at him and reassure him that everything would be okay. When nothing happened, Ethan's gently tugged Lock's sleeve. "R... Right?"

"There's nothing we can do." Fredrich said as he watched the doors close with solemn eyes. "All we can do is watch."

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He sighed, looking up and catching his breath at the sight of Ethan's tears. Lock reached to brush them away, cupping Ethan's cheeks and finding himself unable to say no to his eyes. "But what if this happens again?" he questioned. "We can't keep going through this."

Ellery walked over to Fredrich, wrapping his arms around his waist. "You're sure there's nothing we can do to help them?"

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"I don't care! I don't care if I'm tortured or put in solitary confinement, I don't want to lose you!" he cried out, his arm shaking from how tightly he held Lock's shirt. He was being clingy and maybe even crazy, he knew, but he couldn't stop himself. He didn't want to have his entire family treat him like a mental patient, he didn't want his friends to talk to him with fear in his eyes. He couldn't go back to that life! Lock was the first one that never thought twice of his bad luck. All those times Ethan spent with him, those warm memories, those times he thought that maybe all that bad luck was finally gone, he couldn't bear to lose it all.

Fredrich shook his head as he rested a hand on Ellery's back. "That's something they have to get through together, just like we did." His veiled eyes stayed forward and observed the elevator doors open to the lobby, where he gently walked the songwriter out.

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"Ethan, breathe!" Lock wrapped his arms carefully around the Texan, holding him close to his body. "If it troubles you that much, I won't leave you. I'll stay with you, I swear it." He rubbed Ethan's back, trying to soothe him.

Ellery didn't speak again until they were near the car, getting into his side and leaning on the door. "Yeah, but we're adults. We're somewhat different," he mumbled.

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Ethan froze when Lock yelled and hugged him close. He stared forward to the walls, listening to the words that tried to keep him stable and the heart monitor that beeped faster from how quickly his heartbeat was when he begged the star to stay. Was this who he'd be from now on? A sobbing mess that was desperate for company? Suddenly, he lifted his good hand to the back of Lock's shirt and started crying against his shoulder. He hated this, he hated what he became and how he sounded. This wasn't like him, and he didn't want it to be him anytime soon. He didn't want to be crazy and have Lock around out of pity.
With the heart monitor's rapid changes from a frantic high to a sad low, the doctor couldn't be patient anymore. The door clicked open as one walked in, fully expecting a sight like this. A nurse followed him in both to help him with explanations or to keep the patient down if he got rowdy.

"Age has nothing to do with it." Fredrich said, climbing into the car. "It's different for everyone, how to handle this. If there is anything we can do, you could talk to him now and then since you've been in a similar situation."

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As he cried into Lock's shoulder, the blonde closed his eyes and tried to figure out a way to calm the panicked teen he held in his arms. He raised a hand to stroke the back of Ethan's head, pressing down the hair and smoothing it. "It's alright, Ethan. We'll figure this out together, as a team." He couldn't bear listening to this. His heart broke each second at the sound of Ethan's sobs, and its shattering was so loud that he hardly heard the doctor and nurse come into the room.

"Unlike them, we weren't together yet when this all happened to us," he pointed out, buckling himself in and crossing his legs. "In fact, I don't even think we were in love yet."

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Hearing the faint voices in the room, Ethan leaned away from Lock and rubbed his eyes with his good arm to see the doctor gazing at him from the foot of his bed. He looked at the man and the nurse curiously until the doctor moved closer with a fake smile on his face. He explained that he needed to calm down or else they would have to tranquilize him, holding up the very syringe as he did so. The Texan did not see this, however. What he saw, instead, was the smiling author with a syringe filled with poison.
Ethan instinctively shouted for the doctor to go away and clung to Lock, wild terror in his eyes. His shadow twitched with its master's feelings and started moving on its own. Catching this, the doctor yelled for the nurse to hold Ethan down. She did with a struggle, and before the shadow could strike the doctor injected the needle into Ethan's neck. The teen jolted as the chemicals began numbing him. His pupils enlarged before eyelids fell and cast him into sleep again.

"No, we were, we just wouldn't admit it to each other yet." the Austrian said then glanced at the time on his radio. "Are we picking up Daniel's playdates too or will their parents drop them off at the house?" he mused as he got on the road towards the school.

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Lock cried out in anger as the doctor injected Ethan, holding on to him as he fell into the darkness once more. He turned to glare at the doctor, clenching his fist and a threatening gleam in his eye. "He's psychologically traumatized, you quack!" he snarled. "He's just barely waking up from the attack, he's afraid. What the hell do you think you were doing? We could sue you for that!" And he probably would. Lock was never afraid of calling his lawyer. Meanwhile, he could feel some strange part of him starting to change, like he'd had too much orange juice again.

Checking the clock, Ellery shook his head. "The playdates aren't at the house," he said. "Daniel didn't want them to go digging into your stuff, so he insisted that they take place at their houses. Timothy's parents should be picking them both up right now."

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Slipping the syringe back into his belt, the doctor fixed Lock with an unamused look. He explained that Ethan's heart rate was too erratic and that if he wanted to sue him for keeping him safe then so be it. After picking up the clipboard to assess what he was dealing with, he offhandedly told Lock that visiting hours were over.

"Timothy?" Fredrich mused. "You made it sound as though he would be going to girls' houses."

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