Fear - 24

The next few days passed in a haze of medications, sleep, and at one point, more questions from Detective Rawlins. Questions Shawn couldn't, or wouldn't, answer. The detective wanted to know who Jared's friends were, where his family was. Did he have any place he was likely to go to lie low for a while.

He also wanted to know how to contact Shawn's family to let them know what had happened. The doctor had asked him that, too, soon after Shawn had regained consciousness the first time. He didn't tell any of them. He lied and said his parents were dead and for him, they might as well have been. They didn't want their strange son who wouldn't conform to their rules and their beliefs. They had three other sons who did and had made them proud parents and grandparents. So when he was eighteen, he'd packed up and walked away, leaving that life behind, making a new one for himself.

When he was twenty-one, he met Jared and fell in love.

And Jared loves me back. He does!

That thought kept circling through his mind as his body healed. None of the questions from the detective could make him think differently.

Gene however…

Gene always seemed to be there. Sometimes he was sitting by the bed, reading a book or watching the omnipresent television. Other times he came into the room soon after the doctors and nurses left. But he was always there.

At first Shawn patently ignored him, turning his face away, pretending to sleep. When that didn't work, he stated flatly that Gene could go home any time because he didn't need him there. Gene had just smiled and gone back to his book, pausing now and then to adjust Shawn's pillow or turn the channel to some program he apparently thought Shawn might prefer.

By the third day, Shawn began to like Gene's presence in the room, although he was loath to admit it out loud. Instead he asked, "What's the book about?"

Gene looked up and chuckled. "Nothing special, unless you're into a good mystery and a lot of action." He showed Shawn the cover, as if he hadn't been able to see it from where he was lying. "She writes well and keeps your attention. If you want, I can bring you a couple."

"I'm not much of a reader," Shawn admitted. "Jared thought…" He bit down on his lip. "He thought books were a waste of time when we had the television to entertain us."

"Some people are like that," Gene agreed. "Still, if you'd like, I can pick up something for you to read. A magazine or two maybe? I don't know much about cars but I've seen auto magazines in the grocery store."

"You'd do that?" Shawn asked in surprise.

"Sure."

And Gene did, coming back that afternoon with three magazines, which he laid on the table by the bed. "Hope these are okay."

Shawn took the top one, thumbing through it, and nodded. Soon he was deep into an article about new refinements to a race car engine. "I'd love to get my hands on one of these," he said at one point.

"A car?"

"No, this." Shawn showed him a schematic of a turbocharger.

Gene shook his head and grinned. "That means about as much to me as… as an anatomical illustration of the pancreas would probably mean to you."

"Okay, look. See this?" Shawn started to explain about engines and what the turbocharger did and much to his surprise, Gene paid attention and asked questions. When he was finished, Shawn almost laughed, saying, "Now you have to bring me a picture of a pancreas, whatever that is."