All Tied Up

River was standing in what felt like blank space, neither light nor dark. He couldn't see anything, but he wasn't afraid. It just felt like nothing was around him. He recognized he was dreaming, or at least unconscious. His mom had trained him enough in lucid dreaming to be aware of that.

"River," a voice came from behind him, and he turned to see his sister standing there. For a short, brief moment, she looked like she did in childhood, exactly like he remembered her, and then the person standing in front of him looked closer to his age. Like she should have looked now had Vinny and Billy not taken her from them.

"Cassia," River breathed out. "You...I didn't realize how much alike we actually looked until right now."

"Mom only said we could have been twins for years," Cassia laughed.

"I miss you," River told her once the smiles faded a little bit, his voice full of emotion.

"I know," Cassia said and she came forward to throw her arms around him. He wasn't sure how long they hugged for, or how long he cried for, but it felt like a long time. She petted his hair, much like Emmanuel would, patiently waiting for him to get himself back together. Thinking of Emmanuel made him suddenly worry about what was going on in the waking world, and much like she would have as a child, Cassia seemed to know that. "He's in surgery. He'll be okay, though, I promise."

"How do you know that?" River asked. "This could very well just be a dream and you're just placating me."

Cassia smiled at that. "It could be, but you were raised to believe it's not. Either way, I am always with you, River. In your heart, and connected to you. There is not a big life event I will ever be absent from because you will always remember me and think of me. So when you marry that man, make sure you have a pink rose on your boutonniere."

"You seem rather sure of yourself that I'll marry him," River commented.

Cassia grinned. "I know you will."

"Do you at least feel some peace? Now that Vinny and Billy have been brought to justice?" River asked.

"I'm at peace knowing Vinny can't hurt you," Cassia responded honestly. "Of course I wanted them brought to justice, but mostly I wanted you safe. You were in the most danger from Vinny. I think he's the reason you always fell for unavailable people, because he helped set you up to. Emmanuel was a flaw in his plan. As long as you, and the kids in the family, are safe, then I'm happy."

They stayed there for a while, talking through what had happened before River could feel the edge of his consciousness trying to wake him up. They hugged again, and told each other they loved each other, and then the scene in the dream disappeared.

When River awoke, he was in a hospital room. He had an IV in and was wearing only a hospital gown. His parents were there, as was Atlas, though he was asleep on the couch in the room. He was in more pain now, and had two cloth braces on his wrists, but it felt like he had come out really lucky for having fallen four stories. Gardenia came over and hugged River as soon as she saw he was awake, crying into his hair as she clung to him.

"Emmanuel?" River managed to ask once she had calmed down, his voice hoarse from everything.

"He was in surgery last I asked," Gardenia told him. "The doctors say you should be fine. It's a miracle you didn't break anything, or worse."

"I want to be there when he wakes up," River told her. She looked like she wanted to argue but then she saw the look on her son's face and nodded her head.

The doctor was called in and he agreed to let him go so long as he stayed on his IV. The nurses brought in some pants and a shirt for him to wear, as well as the grippy socks, and then he was taken to the room Emmanuel would be brought to once he was out of surgery. Emmanuel was laid into the bed on his side, with his own IV that was giving him pain relief and fluids.

One of the nurses gently called out to him, waking him up from the anesthesia to make sure he would be alert. "Mr. Charles? Can you hear me?"

Emmanuel awoke slowly, adjusting to reality with a bit of difficulty. He would later find this interesting because he ordinarily woke up all at once. He struggled out of the medicine-fog and looked around carefully. "What? What happened? Where's River?" he asked concernedly.

"You were shot," River said from his spot in a chair off to the side. He shifted a little in the chair so that Emmanuel could better see him. River's voice was heavy with emotion and his eyes shone with unshed tears. "You lost a lot of blood, and they took you to surgery to check for any fragments and to stop the bleeding. He-- Vinny almost killed you."

Emmanuel grunted at that, saying, "Fortunately, I'm not so easy to kill."

River's lip quivered a little bit before he wiped his eyes on his arm. "He would have killed you had I not pulled you down. He killed Cassia because of me, and he tried to kill you because of me."

"No," Emmanuel said, his weakened voice taking on a commanding tone. "He killed Cassia because of himself and tried to kill us for the same reason. And now he'll never do it again."

River looked down, letting that reason wash over him for a moment before he brought his eyes back up to Emmanuel's face. "Does it hurt?"

Emmanuel's eyes glinted in the soft light of the hospital room as he said, "Falling from heaven? Shouldn't I be asking you that question, Mister Express Route?"

River couldn't help but smile at that. He held up his hands to show the wrist braces. "It did, in fact, but they said miraculously, I have no broken bones. Just a lot of cuts, abrasions, some sprains, and...tears."

"I'm pretty sure your detective Jae got a little sweet revenge on your behalf," Emmanuel responded.

River let out a breath at that and nodded. "It should have been my own hand to take him out, but at least he can't hurt you now. Jae says Billy shot himself before the cops got to the apartment we were in."

"Good riddance," Emmanuel sneered, then realized he said that thought out loud. "Sorry, looks like I need to police my thoughts a bit better while on these meds."

River shook his head at that. "No, your thoughts are correct. No need to police them around me. I'm...conflicted on all of the Vinny stuff, about him being dead, but I know it's something to work on in therapy. He did a number to my head for decades, so I'll have to grieve the man I thought he was and deal with his death, while also coming to terms with who he truly was."

"A rapist and a coward?" Emmanuel retorted, then softened his tone. "Sorry, River, I know it's more complicated for you than it is for me. So, you've been in the revenge business for quite some time, what is your next move? Find yourself a pirate ship needing a captain?"

River nodded his head to the retort, because he could admit to himself that what Emmanuel said was true. He smiled at the question though, recognizing the reference, before shaking his head. "I'm no Dread Pirate Roberts. I'd like to think I was in the justice business, though it ended in a sort of revenge, I guess. Despite how gross it probably seems from the outside, I do love my job. Now I just focus on finding justice for others; people I have no real connection to other than that their bodies reach my desk."

Emmanuel smiled at his response. It was the most River thing he could say and Emmanuel loved him for it. Having River in the apartment full time was delaying the creation of his collar, but Emmanuel had already gotten the supplies he would need. They were in his backpack and he worked on them during lulls between his different jobs, which reminded him. "What day is it?" he asked, looking around for his phone.

River picked up Emmanuel's phone from the bag where his clothes had been put and handed it to him. "It's Friday," River replied as he did so. "I don't know how long they'll have you in here, but some of your manual labor may be off the table for right now."

"It's 'Manuel labor, thank you very much," Emmanuel responded as he took his phone and began texting furiously. Once he had told all of his bosses about his hospitalization and arranged for a friend and fellow scalper to pick up his weekend tickets (at a painful discount), he dropped his phone on the bedside table and sighed.

"At least you'll have one hell of a scar to show off?" River said, trying to make the situation a little lighter. He was worried about the stress of money for Emmanuel, and whether he might resent River for this later, but was trying not to let his insecurities run away with him.

Emmanuel looked up at him and smiled. "It'll be fine. If I lose my shitty little apartment, maybe I could move in with my boyfriend. He's got this huge place with its own basement and everything," he said with a quiet chuckle.

"He does," River agreed. "And it does feel a lot emptier without you in it, so he would definitely be agreeable with letting you move in. And now the house doesn't feel dangerous anymore. Imagine that."

Emmanuel smiled at that and reached for River's hand. River brought his hand forward so Emmanuel could take it in his before River brought their hands up to his lips to kiss Emmanuel's. "I was so afraid I lost you back there," River admitted quietly.

"Lost me? I'm the one who managed to avoid dropping his phone at the first sign of trouble. I still had GPS! I had to find you the old fashioned way, like I was some boy detective or something. Had me out here pretending to be Encyclopedia Brown for nearly 24 hours..." Emmanuel grumbled in response.

River gave him a good natured smile at that, but then he looked confused as he considered that. Had he really been missing for that long? Time had gotten wonky once he was drugged, and he never knew how long he had been unconscious even before that. "I didn't realize it was that long. The..." He stopped for a moment and took in a breath before he continued, "The rape felt...like forever and short all at the same time. Once he injected me, I lost track of time."

Emmanuel's fingers tightened in sympathy on River's hand. "I'm sorry you went through that, love. I am glad you thought to yeet him out the window, even if it meant you going too. I was so scared that he was going to be able to..." he hesitated here, blinking back tears for a moment, 'kill you before I could get up there."

River swallowed hard at that. "He tried. He was getting ready to, but...Cassia helped. Whether it was a hallucination or her actual spirit helping me, she saved both our lives."

"Both?" Emmanuel asked, slightly skeptically. "Tell me about that? How both?"

River's eyes shifted to the wall, like he was embarrassed, but he finally said, "She called out my name when he lifted the gun. Based on where your entry wound is, and the angle you were at before I pulled you down, he would have killed you for sure. She was also the one who made me notice the statue that helped crack the glass, and where to throw it. I know it sounds crazy, but it's what happened."

"You're right," Emmanuel agreed, "it does sound crazy. But I believe you. Next time you see her, tell your sister I said thank you."

River looked back at Emmanuel with some obvious surprise. He hadn't expected him to believe him at all. Even he was having a hard time deciding what had been real and what had been imagined or hallucinated. He shifted his chair closer to Emmanuel so he could lean in and kiss him gently.

"I love you," River said quietly once they had rested their foreheads against each other. "I'm sorry the first time I said it was in that situation, but I needed you to know it if I didn't come back. I didn't want to die without you knowing without a doubt that I love you more than anything."

Emmanuel considered and rejected making a joke at this moment, responding instead with, "I love you, too."

River smiled and kissed him again. They might have stayed like that for a while except the nurse came into the room and cleared her throat to get them to break apart. "You should be getting back to your own room to rest, River," she told him. "We can't forget that you're a patient here too."

"You know what they say about doctors making the best patients!" Emmanuel said with a deep laugh that reminded him rather sharply that he had a healing wound on his back.

River looked at him with sympathy, and a little guilt, when he grimaced from the pain. He wanted to argue with the nurse but knew better; plus, he was still fairly out of it. Sitting had been okay, but now he was getting tired. He agreed to go back to his room, and not long after he left, Emmanuel's foster parents and Krysta were let into the room to see him.

Both of them ended up with a revolving door of visitors while they were in the hospital, between family and friends. Most of River's family spent time with Emmanuel too, making it clear that he was part of the family now. Mamaw even brought him some dessert to cheer him up.

They weren't kept too long in the hospital, with River being discharged after two days and Emmanuel staying for close to four. Before they were both discharged, they agreed that Emmanuel moving in was the best option, so River's family helped him move everything over to River's place. The living room was still being worked on, but with the danger gone and the wall and window to the outside put back into place, they both felt comfortable staying at River's while they finished the renovation.

Emmanuel got more time off work than River did, because River's main injuries were mild sprains, cuts, and sexual in nature. Once he was cleared to just wear basic wrist braces, he could start helping with lab work again even if he couldn't move bodies around. Dr. Carrington made sure River always had someone else on shift with him to do the heavy lifting.

That left Emmanuel with quite a bit of time at home. He used that time seriously evaluating what he really wanted to do with the opportunity that the Thorns had offered him. He wasn't allowed most forms of exercise, though he did work on resistance training with bands provided by his physical therapist to keep his muscles from atrophying. Once he could manage stairs again, he set about straightening up the dungeon and giving it a bit of a makeover. He had noticed that River wouldn't go down there since they got home, so he figured it was okay.

River had been avoiding it because he knew what he would find down there. There would be blood, the signs of a fight, and he'd remember what had happened. He was working through it with his therapist, but he was worried he would break down if he saw it. He wasn't sure how Emmanuel felt about the basement, since they couldn't do much together right then anyway, so he was surprised to come home and not be able to find Emmanuel anywhere on the main floor.

"Emmanuel?" he called out.

He heard a grunt from the basement before Emmanuel's voice came drifting up, "Down here! If you want me to come up you may need to give me a bit."

River was initially alarmed that Emmanuel was down there, but once he had a moment to think logically, he took a deep breath and forced himself to go down the stairs to the basement. He slowed down near the bottom of the stairs, unsure of what he was going to see and bracing himself for any memories. It's done, you're safe, it's just a basement, he told himself in his head.

What he saw when he looked around at the bottom of the stairs was still very much his space, but also... different. He could definitely tell that Emmanuel had put his touch on things, but what he couldn't see were any signs of what had happened down here. The floor was painted in a sparkly garage epoxy in River's favorite colors and there were rugs throughout the space to lend a little softness. Emmanuel had repurposed all of River's furniture but the items that had been in need of updating had been.

He could see what Emmanuel had been struggling with as well: he had wrestled the St. Andrew's Cross from its usual corner to a more prominent space in the middle of the wall and updated the leather.

"Wow," River said after a moment of taking it all in. "You've sure been busy down here. I didn't even realize..."

"I've mostly been keeping myself busy," Emmanuel responded a bit sheepishly. "It started off with wanting to clean the place up so you didn't have to avoid it any more, but then I sort of... went nuts."

River frowned for a moment, thinking that he had been fairly good at not letting Emmanuel realize how he had been avoiding the basement, but if anyone could have figured it out, he guessed Emmanuel would be the one to. Once he'd shaken that off, he looked around again, taking in what was new or redone, and smiling. "It's perfect. It's like...a perfect mix of me and you, so that it's not just mine anymore. And it doesn't leave me feeling suffocated from what I know happened down here."

The look on Emmanuel's face was deeply sympathetic, as if he knew personally some of what River was going through. "It was the same thing, exactly," he responded to River's questioning look. "The first foster home I ran away from wasn't because I missed my parents; I never knew who they were and don't remember them. It was because Mr. Frank was a mean old bastard who made it crystal clear from day one that I was nothing but a check to him and I'd better not step out of line or he'd get his money's worth out of my hide.

"Well one day I got tired of being his punching bag and took myself a little stroll after school. When they found me a week later, they took me back to him. He beat me near to death before the police were even out of the driveway. I made sure to run away again as soon as I could."

"That's terrible," River said after a moment of taking that information in, shaking his head angrily. "You were just a kid, and you deserved better than that. No child should ever live through that. But you and I are both beyond our abusers' reach now. Yours should stay away too. I've already yeeted a grown man out of a window once. I'm not against doing it again if necessary."

Emmanuel shook off the memories and laughed, saying, "I believe the word for that is 'defenestrated'."

River grinned at that. "Defenestrated. I'll tell Jae to put that in his report. 'The victim defenestrated the culprit out the window.'" Once the grin softened, River came over to where Emmanuel was, putting his arms carefully around his shoulders so as to not bother his wounds. He had gotten the stitches out now but River was still trying to be gentle with him. "Thank you. This means so much to me."

Emmanuel smiled and said, "I don't know if you've checked the calendar, but I'm going to need you on your knees," before kissing him on the end of the nose.

River's dark eyes flashed with desire before he said, "Yes, Sir," and let go of Emmanuel's neck so he could get down onto his knees, his hands behind him at his back. He kept his head down respectfully, waiting for Emmanuel.

Emmanuel opened a nearby drawer, moving aside the small, flat, hand-made jewelry box inside. He took out the play collar he had made for River. It was leather and sized for River's neck exactly. He undid the cleverly hidden catch in the back and slipped it around his Pet's neck before re-closing it.

He stepped back to admire his handy work. River looked up at him with an expression that spoke to how happy he was by this, though he was mostly holding it in. It was in his eyes though, along with the love he felt for his Sir. Emmanuel nodded to himself, satisfied with how it fit. "We'll test how well it works when I can move properly again," he said with a smile. "Now, this next bit will need you on your feet, love, and on equal footing."

Emmanuel reached into the drawer again and pulled out a small blue box as River got to his feet, tucking it behind his back as he stepped forward and knelt smoothly on one knee. "River Aloysius Thorn, would you do me the honor of playing Gay Chicken with me for the rest of our unnatural and immoral lives?" he asked, taking the ring box from behind his back and opening it to reveal the ring Gardenia had given him from River's grandfather.