The One worth Suffering for chapter 4

[cillab42]

Mark Sheppard sat at his desk staring at his partner who was sitting at her desk. He knew she knew that he was staring at her but said nothing, because she also knew that he would speak when he was ready. He took his time because he needed to choose his words carefully since once the Ackles case was over, she would still be his partner and he would still have to work with her.

The problem was in the year they had been partners she had not acted like one. She hadn’t shared her theories until she had placed them both in awkward positions. He did not know shit about her private life, except that she did not have kids, that she was not committed to anyone, and nor did he know if she preferred men or women. Nothing. The only thing he was sure of was that she was a bitch, hell that was the only thing on which they could agree.

He knew that the job could harden you, and for a woman, it could be even harder, but Samantha? She had no emotions, and did not possess one ounce of sympathy.

“Why did you do that?” he asks as though they had been in conversation.

“Do what Sheppard?” She asked not even bothering to look up.

“Why did you try to cause a rift between Ackles and Padalecki?”

Now it was her turn to stare. “With all of the paperwork we have here are you really gonna bust my balls about something that happened three days ago that I really don’t remember? Really?”

“Yeah, really.” He mocked, the cockney accent that he had worked yeas to get rid of (even though Yanks couldn’t tell the difference) started coming through because he was so angry that he couldn’t focus enough to enunciate his words. If she did not stop sitting there pretending not to know or even care about what she did, then rhyming slang was going to make an appearance soon.

“Because Padalecki was being an arrogant prick, that’s why. By all accounts Ackles is as good as they come, loyal and loving, but Padawhatever makes a huge decision like that and doesn’t tell the man he supposedly loves?”

Sheppard just stared at her in disbelief; he couldn’t believe this emotional outburst was coming from his supposedly heartless partner.

“You and I both know that we can put in all the hard work we want, but hiding something that huge can cast reasonable fucking doubt and Morgan walks free.”

“Yeah, I know that and so do you, but our job is to help them. We know Jensen got a raw deal as far as Morgan being a stalker was concerned, but this is our chance to make up for it, to make it right.”

“You have two kids right?” She asked her partner. “When you and the Mrs. decided to have them, you did the deed and nine months later you were blessed with a bouncing baby whatever. Well, what if the reversal hadn’t work? What if he allowed you to keep trying and …and nothing. Months of failing pregnancy tests but you were made to feel as though it was your fault that you couldn’t give him a child.”


Realizing what she had revealed, she stopped, but the look of horror on her face made Sheppard realize she was no longer talking about Ackles.

“So this was your way of getting even for Jensen? Then why didn’t you tell Jared about the second suspect? That Jensen had been drugged?”

“Because someone close to them knows something, knows what happened. I cannot figure out who it is yet and keeping Padaleski in the dark will play to our advantage.”

“Okay, I understand that, but you might wanna get his name right and try to play nice, because like you, I don’t think it would take much to piss him off.”


Jensen moaned as he made his way down the hall to sit on the sofa in the den. Usually he has either Jared or Chad to help him with what he needed, but this was the first time since the attack that he had tried to move on his own accord. The frustrating thing about this was that once he was beside said sofa, he realized that he had forgotten the doughnut pillow he was supposed to sit on to keep his ass from hurting, but he didn’t have the energy to walk back down the hall again. So he did what any rational adult would do, he cried.

If he thought about it, the tears were not for the doughnut, but his inability to retrieve it. He was crying because it will be weeks before he could open his mouth and from what he understood, even longer before he could chew pain free again. His attackers literally tried to rip him a new one, and now he had to shit in a bag, but he couldn’t even take care of that because of his broken arm.

That was how Chad discovered him a few minutes later and his embarrassment grew even more. Without so much as a hello, Chad walked to the bedroom, retrieved the cushion, placed it on the couch, and motioned for Jensen to sit down. He then grabbed a garbage bag and pushed Jensen’s shirt up so that he had access to the colostomy bag and changed without exchanging a word with Jensen. After he disposed of the bag he came back in and sat next to Jensen on the sofa, but Jensen could not look Chad in the eye.

“I’m a fucking doctor,” Chad growled at him, “and you are my friend, there is no need to be embarrassed Jen”

Holding his head down Jensen mumbled, “I know, it’s just too much to ask of someone especially… never mind”

Jared walked into the room startling both men “I didn’t know you were here man, Jen needed you to help him.”

Walking towards the kitchen Jared replied, “I’m sure he would call if he needed help.”

“Jared!” Chad snapped.

“It’s alright Chad,” Jensen whispered, “I could have I suppose.”

Chad looked at both men as though they were crazy, because there was no way that Jensen could have called out to Jared. Even if his jaw was functional, the pain alone would have prevented him from calling out. He was going to say as much to Jared but the pleading look in Jensen’s eyes stopped him.

The twenty-foot trip from the bedroom to the sofa wore Jensen out so much that both men had to help him back to bed. Once Chad left, Jared looked down at his lovers sleeping form wishing him to heal immediately. After talking to detective Ferris, he had some questions he desperately needed to ask Jensen and it did not seem fair to ask him when he was neither physically or mentally able to handle them.

Jensen woke later to his phone alerting him that he had a new text. Gently rolling towards the bedside table, he grabbed it, pulled the message up and frowned because did not recognize the number. After reading the message, how was Jared’s trip? Jensen thought that one of their friends may have changed their telephone number and not told him. He was so not in the mood to discuss Jared’s vacation, so Jensen closed the text and went back to sleep.

Jared had not planned to stay at Chad’s place more than one night, two at the most yet here they were three weeks later still in Chad’s guest room. He could understand why Jensen did not want to go back to their home that night, but they had to go back sometime, they could not intrude on Chad’s privacy this way.

They needed to deal with what happened to Jensen and as much as Jared loved Chad, he did not need to be a part of the equation. It was imperative that they do this together. Since Chad and their parents were hovering over Jensen and taking care of his every need, Jared, along with Chris, Mike, Steve and Aldis cleaned up the mess once the police released the crime scene.

He did not want Jensen to come back to their violated home so with the help of their friends and a local handy man, he redecorated everything so that when Jensen came back home, it would be like a new space, a new beginning. After seeing the carnage in the bedroom, it was hard for Jared to enter the room, consequently he could imagine how Jensen felt, so he took the room he used for his office downstairs and converted it into a master suite and Jensen could go back upstairs when he was ready.

When the new mattress arrived at the end of the week, Jared decided it was time. When Chad had gone to the hospital Jared suggested going home, but upon seeing the terror in Jensen’s eyes, he could see the man’s inner turmoil, not wanting to go, but in the end, he dully whispered “Okay.”

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