Jace didn’t even know where the fuck he was when he got the call, he just knows it took exactly two hours and thirty-five minutes to get to Beverly Hospital with the GPS spitting directions at him.
He knows he made a scene in the ER, but the haggard lady behind the desk was a goddamn blessing despite his panicked rudeness and generally disruptive behavior. He made his way to Ash’s room in a bloody haze, acid tears burning his face and legs heavy like a nightmare.
This is exactly what he was trying to prevent when he took off and lived out of his car for two days. And Ash called him the dumbass? He must have gone out to prove something right after that shitty phone call, high off his own self-righteousness and ready to prove how stupid and wrong Jace was. Well, fuck him.
He could almost believe (and honestly, what a relief it would be) that this was all some elaborate rue to coerce him into coming home, but Rose sounded…really fucked up on the phone, drained and scared and urgent.
He must have been underestimating Dick and his influence before, as impossibly as that seems, because the reality of Ash being seriously hurt, beaten to a pulp in close range–those are no ordinary thugs, no way. God, what has he gotten himself and his people into? But he can’t think about it now.
Jace finally skids into the room after almost bowling over two orderlies, and his knees almost give when he recognizes the pitiful figure in the bed. Hooked up to fucking IVs, yellow discoloration blooming across his visible skin, face wacked out on something–that can’t be Ash. It is.
He makes it the scant steps to his bed and buckles to be close to him, locking fingers with the hand he can reach and bringing it to his mouth, his own free hand sifting through Ash’s hair. Jace was so bitter and angry at him just minutes before, but he doesn’t feel any of that now. Just love, pounding in his ears, and a bloody wave of guilt. His fault, all of this.
“Baby, baby,” barely above a whisper, can’t find his voice, “Yes, I had to come back. What did they do to you?”
Of course, Ash should have known better than to think that he could try and be casual about this. He doesn’t want to make a big deal of this because he feels like a goddamn fool about it. he closes his eyes and turns his face up towards the ceiling when he feels the press of Jace’s lips to his hand.
He winces at the question. Obviously they beat the ever loving shit out of him. Eventually, he turns his head to look at Jace again. “Nothing that bad, Jace. It was my fault. I wasn’t being smart about it, is all.” He squirms as he looks at his IV, blowing out a breath.
He swallows hard, and it must be only in his imagination that he can still taste blood. The memory crashes over him even through the drug induced haze. he can feel it hot and metallic in his mouth. Can feel skin and muscle tear, teeth knock against bone. An animal, visceral kind of fear that spurs on the brutality. And great, he has to close his eyes again because they’re burning.
“Turns out me and Rowan’s…boyfriend were chasing the same lead.” Now, Ash is an idiot, but he’s not an idiot. He knows the implications of that, but he’s going to pretend he doesn’t for now. He’s too tired to deal with that. When he can walk, he’ll reconcile all that in his head. He’s allowed another twenty four hours to wallow, right?
He rips the lid off another cup of pudding angrily. “Shouldn’t even have known I was there, Jesus. Wasn’t even that fucking close,” he explains. “I was kinda sniffing out the area I had tracked him to. As a goddamn wolf in the goddamn dead of night. I should have been able to handle it.”