Reunion
Ben Jones x reader
Summary: He meets you again under not so great circumstances.
Warnings: violence, cursing, blood
"Jones, he is running," Barnaby screamed. Jones was standing in front of a house and looked up to the window on the second floor where Barnaby was standing. Before he could really realise what he had just heard, he was pushed to the ground and he only saw the rear of the suspect.
It took him some seconds but then he was chasing after him. He yelled several times for him to stop but of course, the suspect didn't listen. Some years ago, when he was working as a PC, he probably would've caught the man in a short time but nowadays... he was still fit, don't get me wrong. But working on a desk became a big part of his job.
Suddenly something shiny caught his attention but before he could identify it, he heard a loud bang. A gun. The man just tried to shoot him. The people on the streets were screaming and began to panic. They were running into the shops. That might've been the only reason why he noticed me. I was lying on the ground, half passed out and Jones knew that he couldn't live with himself if I had died just because he tried to chase a man in the meantime. I heard his rushed steps coming towards me. "Fuck," he mumbled under his breath when he saw the bleeding wound on my stomach. He gently grabbed my shoulder and turned me on my back. For a second he hesitated. Then he recognised me and I also recognised him even though my view was blurred by tears. "Benny?" I whispered. "Don't worry, everything is gonna be alright." Jones pressed his hands on my wound. "It's cold," I mumbled, not daring to look at the hole in my stomach again. "Don't close your eyes. Don't dare to die," I heard his soft voice. "Listen, Ben, I," he stopped me. "Don't. We'll talk about it later." "But-" "No, you are going to be alright." I wiped a tear off his face, leaving a bit of blood under his eye. We waited an eternity for an ambulance. By the time I was finally lying inside of it, I had passed out.
"What happened?" Barnaby asked. "He... he shot her. By accident. I was the actual target but... And she just happened to be there." "You know her, don't you?" Jones nodded slowly. "But I haven't seen her in years. She... she was my girlfriend back in school." The duo was silent for some time. The ambulance left minutes ago. "Where have you been, sir?" "A neighbour held me back. I've got interesting news. But you should go home." "What? We are in the middle of an investigation." "Yes. But after all that happened, you should get some rest. I'll call if anything interesting happens." "Okay, sir," Jones mumbled. But of course, he didn't go home but made his way to the hospital. As soon as he entered, he was surrounded by some nurses, who were worried about the blood on his hands. "Sir, are you hurt?" "No, not me," he mumbled and sat down on a chair in the small waiting area. Every ten minutes, he asked for news about me. But every time the nurses gave him the same answer. "Sir, we can only wait. The doctors are giving their best." Whenever a nurse entered the waiting area, he jumped up. And every time they came for someone else. Each time he sat back down with less and less hope. "DS Jones?" He looked up, thinking he had misheard. "She is out of surgery." He immediately followed the nurse and wished she could walk faster. When the door to my room was opened, he saw my pale body. "No one knows when and if she will wake up. We just have to wait." Jones sat down next to me and as soon as the nurse had closed the door, he started crying. "You can't die. Not now. You can't die before we talked about what happened. I won't let you leave that easily all over again. You can't die thinking I don't love you." He wanted to take my hand, but stopped when he saw the blood on his hands and immediately went to the small sink in the room.
I woke up after an eternity. "Ben?" He immediately rushed from the window to my side. "How do you feel? Does anything hurt?" I could hear that he had cried. "I don't know. I feel dizzy... and I think I have to throw up." He ran to get me the bin, which was standing next to the door. In the next ten minutes, I lost all my stomach contents. The whole time, Ben held my hair and caressed my back. After that, I found myself shaking in his arms. His hands felt heavy on my body but it was comfortable. His breathing was slow and suddenly I felt reminded of our past.
He has always been a nice person. But that also led to him not being seen and not having many friends in school. But I... I have always seen him. While my friends were fooling around with the popular boys from the rugby team, I saw the quiet boy in the last row of the room. The one who loved to play cricket.
"Hey, what are you looking at?" One of my friends asked. "Benjamin, who else," another one laughed. "Oh, stop it, guys. He doesn't deserve to be mocked by you." "Oh, c'mon, he is a loser. You can do better," the captain of the rugby team laughed. "Oh yeah? Like you? Someone who makes fun of everyone who doesn't fit in? I tell you something, Brad. Sometimes it is great to not fit in. To be different. Because in the end that are the people who think outside of the box and achieve great things in life. Maybe you're the one with money, but Ben is the one with a heart." That left them speechless and me with a smile.
Behind me, I could hear a small laugh. "What, Jones, wanna say something?" Brad asked angrily. "No, no!" "What a loser. Not even daring to defend himself but letting a girl do it for him." "I don't see any problem. She isn't any worse at it just because she is female. And everything she said was true. Money doesn't make good people. You're the perfect example for it." Brad wanted to say something but Brittany stopped him. "He's not worth it. Let's go." The group stood up and went to the door. "Do you come?" Brittany asked at the door. "Nah, I think I can get better company." She rolled her eyes. "But don't come to us crying after realising he really is just a loser." "Oh, fuck off."
"Do you really think it's worth losing your friends?" Ben asked when I sat down on his desk. "Yes, I am very sure. Being rich isn't an excuse for being an asshole. Anyways, how about lunch?"
The next weeks weren't easy. Now I've also become a victim of Brad and his friends. They used every chance to bully me. One morning, I was locking my bike to a fence at the school, when Riley came up and cut a hole in the tyre. "I hope you have fun walking home," he laughed. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I yelled and shoved him. He only continued laughing and when I was about to pick up the backpack from the floor next to my bike, I tripped over Tommy's foot. I fell to the ground and my knee started bleeding, while the two of them walked away, laughing. "Sometimes I just wanna punch them in their stupid-looking faces," I heard Ben's voice next to me. "Oh, Tommy is just annoyed I denied dating him again and again. That hurt his ego. Especially after I defended you." "Wait, Tommy is into you?" Ben asked shocked. "Yes. Am I that bad looking that you won't believe it?" "No, quite the opposite actually. But... I mean, it's Tommy. It's just weird to think he could actually love someone." "I don't think it's true and pure love. More like wanting to lay me." "Does your knee hurt much?" "I will survive it," I laughed. We stood in front of each other before he pulled me into a warm hug. One I will become addicted to in the future.
"I never stopped loving you," Ben whispered into my hair. He must've thought that I was asleep in his arms. I didn't dare to answer and slowed down my breath, so he wouldn't notice my excitement.
What I didn't know at that time was that I would probably never get the chance to say it back since the doctor missed a bleeding vein during surgery.
