csi_sanders1129 | Fic: Worth The Wait (Reply)

Title: Worth The Wait
Chapters: Chapter 5
Author:

csi_sanders1129
Genre: AU. Drama. Romance.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~3,350
Pairings/Characters: Jason/Spinelli.
Synopsis: Spinelli’s parent’s show up in the middle of the night and some of Damian’s secrets are inadvertently exposed, leaving Jason in a difficult situation.
Comments: AU in that I entirely distort the timeline of events as it is known to have occurred. Not so much actual events, but moreso the details of people involved in them. Which reminds me. I suppose I have to warn for mentions of underage involvement. Nothing graphic or messy, I promise. Partially co written with

cynical_sweater and with lots and lots of aid courtesy of

Jason drives his hostage to a nearby park that isn't seeing much activity at the moment and pulls Weston from the trunk.

"Where's Spinelli?" He demands, leveling his gun at the man even though they both know he won't fire so long as his captive can be used as leverage. "I know you have him, and now I have you, so talk."

Weston smirks at him, a cocky, knowing grin that makes Jason want to punch him in the face just to get rid of it. "You mean that talkative boy whom my niece quite enjoyed spending time with last night? She spoke so highly of him, but I'm sure I have no idea where he could possibly be. He talked about you, I heard. He told her that someone of great import to him had recently given him a ring. Which is funny, I thought, since I was under the impression that you were keeping your distance until he no longer qualified as jail bait."

He gives in, punches him. A few bruises and a split lip won't make him less valuable leverage.

"You know," Weston glowers at him, face contorting briefly in pain. He shakes his head, clears the cobwebs, and then he's back to his speech. "That wasn't very nice. Who knows what my men are doing to your boy as we speak, and you're here wasting your time with me. It was you who led me to him, I hope you're aware. I'd tried to find him before, but when you took off – on his birthday, very subtle, by the way – I knew I finally had the power."

Jason tries not to think of what they could be doing to him because of him. He's been trying not to think of that since he heard the news. "Where is he?"

Weston ignores his repeated inquiry, cranes his neck to see Jason's watch. "If I don't call my men soon, it won't matter much where he is now. If I fall out of contact, they have orders to kill him and dispose of his body. You'll never see him again."

"Why did you take him?" Jason asks, tries a different approach, because he's not ready to give in to Weston's manipulation just yet. "You want me out of your way, I get that. Why not go after me directly? What would you have asked for if your plan had gone smoothly? A trade, my life for his, or did that even matter? Would you have been satisfied if I just walked away from the business?"

He scoffs. "I don't leave loose ends. If this had gone smoothly, you both would have been dead and gone. Corinthos can't defend your territory on his own; it's always been you doing the hard work. It would have only been a matter of time before it was all mine." Weston shrugs as if there isn't a gun in his face. "Really, I'm serious about that call. They're going to kill him if they don't hear from me."

Jason reluctantly pulls the phone he lifted off of Weston's goon from his pocket. "Number?" Weston rattles off the digits and Jason sets it to speaker. "One word about your current situation and I kill you. Same goes for any orders to hurt him." He warns as the phone rings.

"Duly noted." Weston snarks.

***

The shrill ring of the phone in the previous silence of the room startles Spinelli. Glass-Breaker and Boss-Caller are both looking rather anxious – likely by lack of contact since Arm-Tier's last message, and it's making him nervous by proxy.

Glass-Breaker grabs up the ringing cell phone quickly, snaps it open. "Where are you?"

He's hovering near Spinelli when the reply comes, so he can just make out the words. "The plane was delayed. I'll be on my way shortly." A new voice, not Arm-Tier, assures, and the call is ended.

"Boss says the plane was late." Glass-Breaker reports, looking to his cohort suspiciously. "But it landed on time, did it not?"

"It did. I got a message confirming it on my phone."

Both of his captives turn to look at him, then, which is more unnerving than their anxious attitudes had been. Now there's an air to them that is most concerning. They hadn't really harmed him up till now, but perhaps now that Jason had acted against them that would change.

Glass-Breaker looks to Boss-Caller. "You know what to do."

***

"So, enlighten me, Morgan – because I must say, I'm curious." Weston hums in apparent boredom, as if he isn't terribly bothered by the fact that he's taped up in his enemy's car. "Why are you hooking up with a teenager? I never figured that for your style. For as much as you are a stone cold killing machine, you're a surprisingly moral one, otherwise."

Jason's grip tightens on the steering wheel, he stares straight ahead. "I didn't know."

Weston throws his head back and laughs at that. "Oh, ho. 'Ignorance is no excuse' isn't that what they say?"

He doesn't give in to the baiting this time, stays silent in his stoic stone cold way and drives.

"Oh, come on, don't get all pissy now. We've got another ten minutes before we get there. You should keep me entertained or else I'll have to start singing or something – and then you'll really want to kill me." Jason is most displeased to see that the arrogant grin is back in place on the other's face.

***

Spinelli sits in what can only be described as absolute terror as he watches Boss-Caller return to the room with two large gas containers. He has a sinking feeling in his stomach that makes him think he knows exactly what they're going to do now that the plan has been compromised. Or maybe this was the plan all along.

"Got the stuff." He says, and Glass-Breaker grabs one container. The two step into the next room – the main entryway that they'd dragged him through when they'd put him in here – and they set about dousing the walls and floor in gasoline.

"Mrngh!" Spinelli tries to shout out, but the bandana gag over his mouth prevents it from being decipherable. "Mm!" The zip-tie he's almost had loose finally gives under his renewed and frantic struggling, biting into his wrist more before it snaps and releases one of his hands. He moves to pull the gag away from his face.

"Kid's loose!" Boos-Caller warns, heading for what Spinelli can only presume is a back door as he passes out of sight.

Glass-Breaker storms in, looking irritated by the lack of cooperation once again. "Damn it, brat." He growls out. "You gotta be difficult, huh?" He bops Spinelli over the head with something – he never does figure out what before things go blurry and dark on him – and then he feels his hand being pulled behind once again. His efforts were all in vain, he realizes. He's fixed in place once again. There's a pull on his hair as well, presumably the gag going being tied back into place.

Moments later, and he feels the warmth of fire nearby and the overwhelming, sickening scent of smoke closing in on him.

***

The house is up in flames already when they approach and Jason can't even bring himself to care that he's leaving Weston behind in the car as he runs into the burning building. Spinelli's in there, here and now. He can deal with Weston and his goons once he has his Jackal safe and sound.

The rickety looking front porch – and by default, the door - is entirely blocked by flames, so he circles around to the back, looking for an open window or back door, or anything really to provide him an uncompromised entry point. After almost a complete circuit around the house, he's found nothing, but finally there's a window low enough for him to get through.

He grabs a rock from the ground, hurls it through the glass – there's no fire evident in the room, which at least means he isn't giving it more fuel - and once he knocks as much glass from it as he can, he hauls himself through. Some shards slice his hands and knees, but that's hardly going to stop him.

"Spinelli!" He shouts, desperate and practically shaking with anxiety. "Spinelli! Where are you?"

He hears nothing in response. The door to the room he's in isn't hot to the touch, so he dares to open it. It lands him in a hallway that extends practically the length of the house.

Following it to its end, back toward the front of the building, he finds another door. This one is worryingly warm, but he has no choice. Spinelli could be just on the other side.

He cracks the door open, just a bit, and the same flames that had blocked his entrance are on the other side of the room. Smoke clouds his vision, makes him cough, so he hunches down as low as he can as he searches, calling out Spinelli's name every few seconds.

There's another door off to the side, so he slips into that room – it looks like a kitchen. He's not the only one coughing anymore.

Distantly, he hears the crash-bang of something falling towards the back of the house. The fire's getting worse, probably compromising the already unsteady looking structure of the house. "Spinelli?" He calls out again, trying to get nearer to the other occupant of the room. His eyes are red and watery from walking through the smoky entryway, but the figure tied to the chair is most definitely Spinelli.

"Mrrngh!"

Jason's beside his grasshopper in seconds, trying to figure out how many ties he'll have to cut to get Spinelli out of here. Ankles, knees, and wrists are zip-tied, and he's attached to the chair as well. He pulls the gag from its place over Spinelli's mouth.

"St-" He stops to cough. "Stone Cold, I…"

"Hold on. I need to get you out of here." He assures, pulling out his pocket knife. He carefully cuts the ties on Spinelli's wrists. He sees the blood there, but he'll have to take care of that later, once they're out of here.

Spinelli's hands paw at him frantically while he cuts the ties on his knees and ankles, then the one's securing him to the chair. Arms wrap around him, and Jason's tempted to hold on for as long as he can, but there are more crashing sounds and they need to get the hell out of the house before it burns down all around them.

"You're okay?" Jason asks, looking him over. He's soot-stained and he has a few cuts, and a bump on his head, but he doesn't see any other injuries. Another coughing fit interrupts a verbal reply, but the younger nods in answer. "Good." He grabs the bandana Spinelli's kidnappers had gagged him with and offers it up. "Cover your mouth and nose."

He does as told and his hand finds Jason's as they navigate back through the main entryway. The front door is still ablaze, too much to risk going through, so it's back to the hallway.

"Stay close to me." Jason says, wary of whatever had been making noise back here previously. Any loose sections of walls or roof or floor would be quite the disastrous hazard. The door he'd come through, the one to the room with the broken window, is hot to the touch now. Which doesn't make sense. The hallway isn't on fire, so the only way that room could be is…

If it were a trap.

Jason growls and silently chastises himself for his own idiocy. They'd lured him in here to rescue Spinelli only to trap both of them once he'd made his move. The crashing noises had been this second fire starting, blocking their exit.

Spinelli's eyes lock with his and it's clear that they both know something isn't right.

One thing that would improve their very problematic state of affairs would be if there was running water available. As it stands, with the condition that house looks to be in, Jason very much doubts this as a possibility.

"Come on, we need to find another way." He says, and they backtrack down the hall back towards the main room. Maybe there's a door he missed somewhere that leads to a safe exit.

Spinelli clings to him as they pass through the smoke-filled room. It's getting worse and worse with every moment that passes. They need to get out of here soon – the smoke will kill them before the flames.

There isn't a door in the kitchen, but there is one they seemed to miss in the main entryway. It's stuck, though, and Jason has to use considerable force to get it open. He ushers Spinelli into the room ahead of him and then they realize that it was closed off so effectively for a reason.

The floor splinters beneath their feet, and swallows them up, dropping them quite unceremoniously on the cold concrete floor of the house's cellar. Funny – he hadn't seen stairs anywhere. He hears Spinelli's screams as they fall.

Jason groans with the impact, his muscles groaning in protest as he tries to sit up, but on the plus side, the smoke seems content to stay at higher levels. His arm aches from how he'd thrown it out to break his landing, and he'd clunked his head against a box he'd landed half on-top of, but mostly it's just knocked the wind out of him.

"Spinelli?" He calls out, vision swimming and trying to adjust to the comparative darkness of the basement. Slowly, which is as quickly as he can manage, he sits up, unnerved by the silence in answer to his call.

No coughing, no words, just the crackling of the flames above them.

When he finally blinks his vision back into watery focus, his eyes land on the form of his Jackal, lying still on the concrete. His leg is twisted at an awkward angle, Jason figures that probably happened with the initial fall, when the floor gave out. The concrete probably didn't help.

He moves quickly, ignoring the sharp pang of pain in wrist as he falls to Spinelli side.

"Mm…" The single sound from Spinelli may be one of the best thing's he's ever heard. "Wha… happened?" He mumbles out, lifting a hand to his head before Jason can stop him from moving. Doing so seems to remind him of the state of his leg, because then he's cringing and gasping in pain.

"We fell." He explains quickly, sliding his finger's behind Spinelli's head to check for bleeding. None. Good. "Aside from," He doesn't look at the obviously broken extremity, he can't. "The leg. Anything else hurt?"

Spinelli blinks up at him. "Uh, everything?" He coughs out. There's a disturbing creaking noise above them that doesn't sound like good news.

If Jason had his way, they'd hide out down here until help arrived, but two things prevent this. One, he doesn't know if or when help is coming. Two, if he doesn't get them out of here soon, the rest of the house is going to be joining them in the cellar, as well. They got lucky on the fall; chances are they don't get lucky again.

No time for field-first aid attempts, no time for anything right now except escape.

Jason spots the outside (possibly the only) entrance to the cellar – their way out. He moves to make sure they can get out through it. He can see a bolt across it, locking it in place, but he can break through that if he puts some strength behind it – the locks are meant to keep people out, not in. He doesn't know if the culprits behind this are still close, so he has to be fast.

Returning to Spinelli, he looks him over once more. "I need to move you, and it's going to hurt." He warns, because the last thing on the planet he ever wants to do is hurt Spinelli, but he's going to have to in order to save him. "Hold on to me if you can."

Spinelli nods in understanding, and he tries – for Jason – to stay silent. Carefully, he helps Spinelli to his feet, rather foot, and then uses his good arm to leverage Spinelli's body over his shoulder in a firemen's carry. Spinelli's arms wrap around Jason to keep him in place and Jason curls his bad arm around Spinelli's uninjured leg. After a brief moment of shifting his balance to support the added weight, he makes for the exit.

His call on the locking mechanism was correct, he is glad to see. It gives after a couple of decent hits from his good arm and the two doors open to allow them their escape. Maneuvering carefully up the steps – quite a challenge when he's top-heavy with Spinelli across his shoulders – he peers out. He sees no sign of Weston or any of his men.

"How many guys were with you?" He asks Spinelli quietly, as he dares to move further out.

Spinelli's trying not to cough, Jason knows, can feel how tense he is, but he answers anyway. "Four, but…" He pauses, tries to stop himself and succeeds. "Two left."

Jason figures one of them was the guy he'd seen at the airport.

With no sign of anyone else around, not bad guys and not good guys with sirens, he makes for the row of houses beyond the woods behind the house. Someone there must have a phone, must have a way to get help for Spinelli.

He scans his surroundings carefully, looking for any sign of imminent ambush, but none comes. Weston's goons probably think them dead by now, probably stopped watching since they'd blocked all fathomable escape routes. He wonders if they knew the cellar was still inadvertently accessible.

"Almost there." Jason assures Spinelli as he jogs up the hill toward the houses, trying to jostle his cargo as little as possible.

The first house he comes to is empty. Not abandoned, it's just that no one seems to be home. He considers breaking in, but he's spared the decision when someone down the street spots him.

"You need help down there?" Someone calls out, waving to him from two houses down. A man, just getting in from work, Jason would guess, given his briefcase and undone tie.

He carries Spinelli off of the porch toward the sidewalk and cuts across the lawn, approaches the stranger cautiously. "That house down there is on fire – my friend, he got hurt."

The man eyes the oddly angled leg, and both of their ash-covered persons, reeking of smoke. He nods. "Bring him inside, I'll call for help."

Jason follows obediently, waiting patiently for the man to get his front door unlocked and allow them entrance. "Can I put him down somewhere?"

"Put him on the couch." He suggests, darting out of the room to grab a portable phone. He returns a moment later with the intention to aid in the task to find that the injured one has already been laid out on the sofa and the, well, less injured one if hovering over him watchfully.

"Spinelli," Jason says, shaking the younger's arm. "Hey, come on, stay awake for me, okay? We'll get you to the hospital soon, alright?" Spinelli hums in affirmative response, but ends up in another coughing fit.

The homeowner passes the phone to the more alert of the two strangers. "I figure you'll have a better idea of what to tell them." He says by way of explanation.

Jason dials 911 and requests an ambulance immediately. He has to pause to ask for the address, but is otherwise quick and thorough in his explanation of Spinelli's current situation and list of injuries. After several moments of conversation, the sound of sirens can be heard on the street.

He should probably make a call to Spinelli's parents, or at the very least, to the Oakfield police, but he does neither.