Chapter Text
Aaron stared at the blank monitor.
What the hell had just happened?
"Turn it back on, Garcia." He demanded the shocked blonde. Garcia snapped into action at Aaron's desperate yet cold tone. Her fingers flew over the keyboard rapidly. Aaron couldn't decipher what she was doing exactly, but that didn't really matter. All that mattered was that he could see Spencer again and ask him why the hell he wanted Aaron to die.
"Sir? I can't pull the feed up again because its disconnected and he's bouncing the IP address all over the place and I can't track it-" Garcia rambled nervously. Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose and refrained from snapping at her.
"But, Garcia?" He asked.
"I can replay the last five minutes." She whispered. Aaron sighed and nodded at her. Maybe...just maybe, that would give him some clues.
She replayed the feed once. Aaron couldn't keep his eyes off of Spencer, the way his expression smoothed over when he announced Aaron's name, the way he wrote Aaron's death note with ease and almost relief. Didn't he know how much Aaron loved him, how much he had done to just get a glimpse of Spencer? Why was he so ungrateful?! Didn't he know that Aaron trusted him? They'd gone through that whole blindness exercise for a reason-. Wait.
"Sir?" Garcia asked. The monitor was at the end of the feed again, frozen on Spencer's teary face.
"Zoom. Zoom in on his fingers." Aaron stammered, hardly able to contain his excitement. Garcia nodded and did as he bid. Dave glanced at him curiously.
"Play the feed again." Aaron demanded. Aaron blocked out the words that Spencer was saying and listened to his fingers, speaking in a language known to all spies and assassins, and apparently also to one genius research scientist with an IQ of 187 and an eidetic memory.
"Fucking hell." Dave swore as they watched the feed again. "You didn't tell me he knew Morse Code." He accused Aaron.
"I didn't know either." The Colonel breathed out in reply, his heart singing from relief.
"Do you mind translating what he said for those of us who don't understand Morse code?" JJ asked politely.
"Cemetery. 1900's maybe. And then, after some hesitation," Dave looked to Aaron at that point.
"Sorry." Aaron finished. He was still staring at Spencer's tear-streaked face.
"Okay. I can find some cemeteries that have been around since the 1900s and have open fields nearby?" Garcia phrased the statement more like a question, only doing so after she received affirmation from Aaron. She turned away from the two men and immediately buried her head in her laptop.
"Okay. That's good." Dave said to Aaron. "It's good Aaron. Spencer knows you trust him."
"How can you be sure?" He asked bitterly. "I haven't even told him I love him yet." Dave gave him a patient and sympathetic look.
"He knows, Aaron, I promise you." Aaron restrained a scoff.
"I found it!" Garcia exclaimed. She pointed to a little green area on the map. "Marshall Cemetery. I sent the coordinates to your GPS." Aaron had begun running even before Garcia finished her sentence.
Morgan and Dave joined him at their SUV. The trio dashed off towards the cemetery. Aaron's grip on the steering wheel tightened painfully and his knuckles paled further every minute that past.
Raphael's grip on Spencer's arm bruised him as he was roughly dragged outside of the shack. He struggled futilely, twisting and turning and trying to get away.
"Stop." Raphael demanded. For one of the first times, his face twisted into an irritated expression, a slight narrowing of his eyebrows that seemed so pronounced on the usually emotionless face.
Well, emotionless when it was Raphael that is. The opposite applied for Charles and Tobias.
"Please. Please let me go." Spencer pleaded. He despised the hot tears spilling from his eyes. "I promise I'll never sin again - I'll go to church every Sunday, every day even!"
"Liar!" Raphael - Charles's face contorted into an ugly expression. He hurled Spencer onto the ground, the slight man rolling down the hill they'd reached. Spencer lay back on the grass with a groan, feeling bruises beginning to form on his naked back. He shivered as a breeze passed over him and goosebumps rose up on his skin.
Raphael stood over him, holding out a small shovel. "Get up."
Spencer struggled to his feet and tried not to collapse. He was so tired. His bones ached from the exhaustion they felt in their cores. He took the shovel from Raphael.
"Dig." Raphael ordered, crossing his arms. Spencer bent down and did so; he dug slowly, his arms aching and his legs shaking from the effort of standing after not having done so in a long time.
"Faster!" The demand scared Spencer and he shrunk back, whimpering slightly. When would Aaron come? Did he even understand the message? And if he did, would he come?
The thought of Aaron not loving him anymore, Aaron not wanting him anymore, terrified Spencer. He couldn't imagine not seeing Aaron when he woke up. He couldn't imagine not being able to hold Aaron or hug him or feel his warm, built body against Spencer's. He needed to feel Aaron's arms around him, holding him close and safe.
But he didn't deserve that now. He was dirty, spoiled, disgusting, and so much worse. Filthy.
A strong shove pushed Spencer onto the hole he'd been digging - his grave, he realized with a sick sense of horror. Charles stood in front of him and aimed that horrifying gun at his face. Spencer shuddered and closed his eyes; he tried to think of Aaron. He didn't want his last sight to be of this monster.
And then the dogs started barking. Loudly.
Aaron practically jumped out of the car in his haste. His body was thrumming with excitement and anxiety and adrenaline and red-hot anger. Once he got his hands on that man - no, monster Hankel...a shark-like grin appeared on his face, causing Dave to give him an alarmed look.
"Ready, Aaron?" Dave asked with a raised eyebrow. Aaron cocked his machine gun in response, the sound of it loud and final and very well representative of Aaron's dark desires. "I guess so."
"The dogs are ready." Morgan stated.
The trio set off in different directions, each with their own dogs. Aaron's heart pumped fast as he stumbled around through the woods, for once in his life feeling blind. He felt blind without his lover and the thought of seeing Spencer again was like giving water to a starving man.
Dave's dog started barking loudly.
"I hope so." Dave asked, giving a sidelong glance to Aaron, whose face was set in a grim expression.
The dogs had smelled blood.
"Fuck." Charles swore, turning to the side to gage how far away the dogs were. Spencer mentally thanked Aaron for his strictness in self-defense lesson as he swept his legs through Charles's feet, knocking the older man onto the ground. Spencer lurched forward and grabbed the gun from Charles's open palm; he stood on shaky feet, the gun sweaty in his palms. He knew how to handle it, of course, but the thought of hurting another person, even someone like Hankel made his blood curdle.
Spencer looked off into the distance where he could see the faint light of a flashlight. Charles was trying to get to his feet.
Spencer fired the gun, then collapsed to the ground as his legs gave out.
Aaron's running sped up when he heard the gunshot. Spencer. Spencer. Spencer.
All he could think of was his lover. Was he safe? Did he get hurt? Who shot the gun? Was Spencer alive?
His heart almost stopped when he arrived at the bottom of the hill and saw Spencer's prone body slumped next to Hankel's. Morgan and Dave caught up to him, faces flushed from the exertion and adrenaline.
Aaron carefully approached his lover, shrugging out of his coat when he realized that Spencer was naked. He crouched next to Spencer's body, smiling softly. Spencer was alive. He glanced over at Hankel and restrained a gasp when he saw the bullet hole in the middle of his forehead. His lover had pretty good aim, he thought proudly.
"A-Aaron?" A soft voice called out. Aaron's breath hitched at hearing his lover's voice for the first time after so long. A wave of emotions crashed over him as helped Spencer to his feet and handed him his coat.
"Are you okay?" He asked, laying a gentle and hesitant hand on Spencer's shoulder.
Spencer paused and turned to him; Aaron flinched at the ghostly paleness of Spencer's face, the haunted look in his eyes. His lover was a living waif. The younger man suddenly lurched forward and threw himself into Aaron's arms. If it were not for Spencer's next words, Aaron would've thought that his lover had finally passed out. What he said though, warmed Aaron's heart.
"I knew you'd understand." Spencer sobbed. Aaron shushed him softly. "I'm so sorry."
"For what?" Aaron asked, confused. Spencer looked away, abashed. "Don't worry. You have nothing to be sorry about. You had to kill him."
"I love you." His lover stated. Aaron beamed and kissed Spencer's forehead, wrapping his arms around the younger man and holding him to his chest tightly.
"I love you too, Spencer."
More than you'll ever know.
|| End Always, Spencer||