Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Dale opened the curtain at the back off the shop, revealing beds with cuffs on them and a lone hunched figure in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts who shrank back further away from the curtain even though he already looked as far away as he could get.

"Mr. Mayor" Dale said.

"No kidding Dale i am not the mayor anymore" came the irritated reply of Johnston Green. He looked over and met the concerned gaze of the teenager who pulled back the curtain a little bit more to reveal what was in the back room. " My God, this is awful" Johnston whispered. He saw the blood on the cuffs and how the person who was there had blood on his wrists and his body, as well as extremely visible ribs and dark purple bruising just about every where that Johnston could see.

The man had shaggy brown hair and deep sorrowful brown eyes that looked very familiar, but there was unhidden terror that shown from their depths. The man raised his eyes to meet Johnston's and a flash of recognition flew across them, very faintly, Dale and Johnston thought they heard a broken voice whisper "Dad" but then the shop owner came back into view and started yelling. As soon as the shop keeper started yelling, the man on the bed jerked back against his cuffs, as if he was snapped out of a dream and punted into his deepest darkest nightmare.

" What the hell do you think your looking at" yelled the shopkeeper as he jerked the curtain out of dales hand and yanked it closed, cutting off the pleading look that the man was sending towards Johnston.

" I'm looking at something horrible", Johnston yelled back. " you cant just keep someone chained up like that"!

"That little asshole came into this trading post about 2 months ago stealing and causing a ruckus, he's lucky to be alive and he deserves what he gets, we use him as another example, along with hanging thieves, the good looking ones get passed around".

"Passed arou- you sick bastards, thats what you have been doing to that poor boy. Thats why hes covered in bruises and blood."

"He wouldnt be if he didnt fight us every ti"-CRASH" dammit not again. Someone escort these assholes out of here and make sure they dont come back!"

Security that was drawn to the tent with the commotion of the yelling grabbed Johnston, Dale and Heather, who had come over to find out what the argument was about, and started dragging them out of the tent. As that was happening, the shop owner and a few of the other men went into the back of the shop again, as they went through the curtian, Johnston saw that the man cuffed to the bed had somehow managed to flip the bed over, but in the prosess he had gotten his leg caught under the bed and couldnt get back out from under it. As the men got closed the boy started yelling and fighting harder against the cuffes and the part of the bed that had him trapped. I cant let them have him thought Johnston, struggling to get free.

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Johnston wrenched his arm forwards and turned to drive his fist into the stomach of the man holding his arms whilst trying to drag him away from the horrific scene in the back of the shop.

He could still hear the poor boy yelling and clanging against the bed he was cuffed to, but he could also hear the gut-wrenching sobs that were starting to rise, along with the occasional grunt of pain. Pulling himself free from the man's grasp he could see Heather and Dale doing the same from the corner of his eye.

He ran back into the shop, hoping that the man wasn't too injured to make a run for it back to the truck, pushing his way past the curtain he caught his breath. The boy was still trapped under the bed by his leg, but he had somehow managed to get free of the blood covered cuff that he had on.

The men who had gone into deal with the boy were standing around kicking him and laughing while he laid on the floor sobbing and straining to get the bed off of his pinned leg, feeling that the others had gotten near him he charged in and swung at the first goon he got to.

Shoving the grunt away he grabbed a hold of the bed and lifted, giving the boy the chance that he needed to pull himself free. Leaning down to scoop the kid up considering him walking on his own was very unlikely he realized just how light he was it was scary; he could feel his ribs digging into his arms. The kid wrapped his arms around his neck and buried his face in his shoulder as Johnston turned and took off at a run to where they parked the truck. They needed to get him back to Jericho so he could get medical care. As he got closer to the truck, Heather pulled ahead and wrenched open the driver side door, launching herself in and bringing the engine to life.

Johnston dropped the kid's legs as he pulled open the passenger side door. As he was sliding the kid into the middle seat, he yelled at Dale to get in the bed because there wasn't enough room in the cab.

As he slammed the door shut Heather took off in a shower of gravel and barreled through the open gate. Shrugging his coat off, Johnston laid it over the boy in an attempt to get some warmth to the boy as there wasn't enough meat on his bones to provide any insulation to his bruised and beaten body. Looking at Heather he saw the grim determination in her face.

He just hoped they'd be able to give him the help he desperately needed.

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Screeching into the hospital parking lot and slamming into park Heather jumped out and took off running towards the doors to hopefully go find April and alert her to the incoming disaster that Johnston held carefully in his lap. Jumping out of the back of the truck Dale ran around and opened the passenger door to help Johnston get the poor boy out of the truck and into the warmth of the hospital.

“Okay Dale I'm going to slide him off of me and you're going to have to hold him so I can get out, he passed out sometime on the way here don't worry he doesn't weigh much at all, you'll be able to handle him”.

Stepping forward and getting a hold under the armpits of the bruised and battered man Dale braced and held him up as Johnston got his aching bones out of the truck. Grabbing the limp man's legs Dale and Johnston started hurting towards the hospital doors when April came out with a team of Nurses and doctors with a granny and a pile of blankets. Rushing towards them, April told them to lay the boy on the gurney and then to get out of the way as they all ran back into the hospital to try to help him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [Time skip because I don't know how to write the mushy waiting stuff] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April walked into the waiting room looking really tired, but also relived and worried all at the same time.

" We have managed to get him warmed up slightly but he is in really bad shape, he's nearly hypothermic, severely malnourished, several broken bones, infections from a variety of injuries and probably a couple STDs as well, we are still waiting for the test results back on that, he has clearly been sexually abused repeatably for a very long time, we don't even know what his mental state it right now at all, he could have locked himself in his head, he might have gone mute or he might have good completely off of the rails, though for some reason he does look oddly familiar ”.

” I thought that he looked familiar as well, until we figure out why that is there anything that Gale and I can do to aid in his recovery?”

"Not really, possibly some warm clothes like sweatshirts and sweatpants to try to raise his core temp but for now all we can really do is wait until he wakes up.”

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I was scared when I woke up. I didn't know where I was, but I was sure it couldn't be any worse than the trading post, it might not be any better, but it surely wasn't going to be any worse. I thought that I had seen my father, but it must have been someone else because I wasn’t worth the trouble of fighting though the merchants to try to get to his fucked-up disgrace of a son.

I didn't sense anyone else in the room I was in, so I opened my eyes to try to get a read on my situation. It looked like I was in a hospital room, but I wasn't hooked up to any of those machines they use.

Taking stock of what shape my body was in I realized that any plan I had of running was now dashed, my leg was in a cast, something must have happened to it when the bed fell, and I had a splint on my hand but those were the only things out of what had become normal for me.

As I was realizing that I was feeling better than I had in a while the door opened and a nurse holding an armful of folded clothes walked through the door. When she realized that I was awake she set the clothes down and walked back into the hall. A moment later she walked back in with a pretty redhead, that I knew was not a hallucination.

“April” I breathed out.

“I'm sorry, do I know you?” she asked. “No” I said, “I thought I knew you, but I don't.”

I guess my dad was actually there, but if they don’t recognize me then I don’t want them to, let them remember me as a disappointment that disappeared and not as a pathetic weakling that can’t even defend himself against being raped.

” Oh okay" she said with a confused smile, and she turned and said something to the nurse that I couldn’t hear.

“We ran some testes on you when you were out, you have a couple broken bones, some infections and you are malnourished as well, we also ran a rape kit” here is when she paused “you have syphilis, but we caught it early enough that we can treat it.''

This is when the door opened up again and in walked Johnston Green.

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The boy looked even smaller laying against the pale sheets of the hospital bed. The gown he had been changed into was falling off of his bony shoulders and revealing scars and bruises that traveled from his chest up.

“I brought some of my son's old clothes for you, he was on the skinnier side, but you are way past skinny, so they'll probably still be big on you, he ran away a little over 5 years ago, so he won't miss them”.

“Thank you”.

” I talked to my wife Gale while we were waiting for you to wake up and she agreed that you can stay with us while you are recovering”.

“You really don't need to do that; I don't want to be a burden for you”.

“Don't you worry about that, if we felt you would be a burden then we wouldn't have offered for you to stay with us, besides Gale needs someone to keep her company, she's been lonely since our eldest left and for some reason you remind me of him”.

Johnston watched as the boy seemed to hunch in on himself, making himself appear even smaller, refusing to meet his eyes as he fiddled with the clothes he held in his lap.

“Thank you, sir, I'll try not to be in the way, you'll hardly even know I'm there”.

“Well, I'll let you get dressed while I get anything you might need from April, she's the redhead, she also happens to be my daughter-in-law so if you have issues or anything else makes itself known she’ll just be a call away”

He got a small nod in place of an answer.

“I'll be right back, holler if you need any help, I don't want you wearing yourself out just by trying to put your pants on”

Another small nod, still not even trying to make eye contact. Johnston left the room to go and talk to April, looking back through the small window in the door he saw the boy staring straight ahead, still fidgeting with the clothes but he also had silent tears streaming down his face, with what Johnston hoped to be relief. When he returned 10 minutes later holding a small bag of medicine and a list of instructions April had written, the boy was sitting on the edge of the bed in Jake's old clothes, head tilted, towards the ground and looking like the world might fall apart around him if he so much as blinked wrong. Johnston took a breath and stepped through the door.

“Come on, Gales outside waiting”.