12.25.08 - I Wanted To Be Like You (Jakk's Capture - Part IV)

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Location: Redwall Infirmary

Characters Involved: Darklett, Taye, Sidney

Darklett is unconscious. Still. He's been out for a couple of days since Sidney and some other patrollers brought him in. It's a rather long infirmary stay for such minor (by comparison) injuries, but the blow to the head's kept him out of consciousness. So he just lays there in an infirmary cot, bandaged.

Taye is NOT confirmed to the infirmary, but nonetheless Taye is here, sitting by Darklett's cot. He's sitting in a chair, his legs - the one still splinted - up on the edge of the major's cot. And he's half-asleep. Every few seconds his eyes start to droop, droop, droop, and shut, and then down goes his head. Until with a jerk it all begins again.

And then there's Sidney in the doorway now. For some blasted reason he feels the teensiest bit responsible because, well. He found the poor sucker. I mean Major. Darklett is approached by the recruit, who offers a mug of warm cider out to Taye. "No change?"

My. What a fantastic Lieutenant he is. Darklett would grin and pat and be proud if he only knew. And hey! Suddenly, his eyes... They open. His lungs suddenly fill to capacity with a gasp. And that breath is held as his eyes dart around, paws planting on the cot as he sits up, reaching for his weapons. They're gone.

Sidney has magic powers, apparently. He gives a slight startled jerk, nearly spilling the cider, as Darklett wakes up. "... well /that's/ a change."

Unfortunately! Taye was in the middle of a nod. He jerks up straight in surprise, forgetting his leg in his state and planting it with a thud on the floor. He griiiiimaces. "/Damn/ it," he mutters. And scrubs at his mussed headfur. "Why d'ya wanna go 'n' tear your stitches 'n' give me more work?" Or, you know, someone who actually /is/ a healer, instead of a healer's son. Er! Anyway. His voice is all rough with sleep. He grunts.

"...Where is he?" The major's eyes glance around, his head flicking this way and that. "How'd I get here?!" Darklett rolls out of bed, standing up, eyes wide and wild. "Who... How did I get here?"

"Whoa, Dark," Sidney responds, reaching one hand to grasp the Major by the arm. "Hey, sit down, will you? You got beat up pretty bad. Me and another Patroller were out, found you on the road." He holds the cider away from him a little, cautiously.

"Where is... /who/?" Taye asks. He grabs a crutch and stands. "Dark! Dark. Stop. Calm /down/..." He would reach out, but Sidney's got that covered.

On edge. Darklett feels that paw grabbing his arm. "Found me? What about him? Where is he?!" The major doesn't quite move away. But he looks just about ready to pull away.

"Where is ... who?" Sid echoes Taye. He glances between the two officers, then peers at Darklett's face. "It was just you. ... you and some vermin corpses."

Taye is starting to feel a sinking dread in the pit of his stomach. He keeps his silence, eyeing Darklett.

That dread is contagious. Sidney has suddenly gone a little rigid.

"...No... No!" Darklett shakes his head in disbelief. "No! He said... We were talking, and he said... He actually... But..." The major stares downward, everything catching up to him now, his jaw quivering, fists clenched.

Sidney clenches his eyes shut. His grip on Darklett is.. very tight. "Not him," he mutters on an exhale. "Not-him-not-him-not-him."

Taye comes forward, resting his paws on Darklett's shoulders, staring him in the eye. "Darklett, /who/?"

"No... This is... I was... Always there. He never needed me he never needed me he was just... and I could've been there whenever and now when... I let him down and..." Darklett tenses more and more as the seconds go by, head spinning. "And now... he needs me and I can't..." The paw on his arm. The paws on his shoulder. Too much. "RrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaHGETOFFME!" The major's tension unleashes all at once, and he twists, flinging his arms outwards with a great amount of force to try and discard the hares holding onto him in the most efficient way possible.

Well hey, Taye's already precarious /enough/... He stumbles back, back, back, and falls. And lands on a cot. Handy! His lips are parted in surprise and he just stares.

Sidney stumbles backward two steps and collides with the corner of a cot. He cringes, barely staying on his feet, and stares at Darklett. ".. ohgodno," he mumbles feebly, clenching the cot's blanket. ".. ... don't. Say Jakk. Please don't. Please." His voice is tiny, ears pinned down.

Hares thusly discarded, Darklett stalks ferally towards the exit, out to the open ground. Towards, but... not quite accurately. He ends up just leaning against the doorframe as he collides with it, stopping, his paws going to his head, knees buckling as he falls to them, a pained growl emitting from deep in his chest, the major's body visibly spasming as he rests on his haunches, back arching over with his arms grasping at his head.

Sidney hunches, and his fingers shove up into his hair. He emits a very low whine, biting at his lower lip and shaking his head.

Taye doesn't know what to do, really. For a moment he just stares at Darklett, then he stands again. He crutches over to the doorway, ducking his head into the main infirmary to call for assistance. A healer comes in and the lieutenant murmurs, "He needs help." The mouse takes in the situation and goes to offer an arm to Darklett. Taye just stands, hovering nearby. Worried look.

The mouse doesn't get a response. Darklett barely moves at all, except for the sudden jerks of his upper body every second or so. "I... I couldn't do it... Too many of them... Overwhelmed us, and..." There're sounds coming from the major that are nearly inaudible, but they come in synchronization with each spasm of his body.

Sidney slides off the edge of the cot and sinks to the floor. His knees are bent up, head ducked as he stares at the floor between them. "... is he dead?" he asks in a choked whisper.

With the lack of a response, the mouse hooks one arm under Darklett's. Taye, somehow, maneuvers to do the same, though he does glance at Sidney with a frown. Thanks for the help! They lift together. "Majah," Taye says sharply, using his rank to try and snap him out of it. "You need to get it togethah... If somethin' happened to him, we need t'know exactly what happened. How many were there? Where were you? Was he injured? Come on," he encourages.

Sidney presses his eyes shut. Breathes in, breathes out. Inhale, exhale. His chest hurts. He draws another shaky breath and grips the cot to pull himself up.

"There were just... Just too many..." Darklett doesn't shove the mouse and lieutenant away this time, at least. "F... Fourteen, fifteen? Don't know, didn't count, couldn't count..." His arms are captured again and he offers no resistance, trying to get to his feet. "Jakk... I'm so... I'm so sorry..." The major is upright, and it's obvious to see that the shakes were sobs, tears streaming down his face. He makes no eye contact, just staring off into nothing. "They... I don't know if he's dead or... If they just took him... I don't know..."

Sidney steps forward, hesitates. He draws another breath and another, comes up past the mouse as Darklett is lifted. "... we'll find him," he says, with as much conviction as he can muster. His lashes are prickled with moisture but he's a lot better off than Darklett, as far as crying goes. "We just. We. We /will/. We have to."

They lead Darklett back to his cot, sitting him back down. They both respectfully keep their eyes away from his face. The healer goes away when the task is accomplished. Taye just kind of stands there. "Sidney's right, we will find him, Dark." Or, well, someone /else/ will. Taye will sit around like a cr- temporarily injured beast.

"If there's somethin' to find." Darklett's tears have stopped, it looks like, but he still has trouble lifting his eyes. "I... I couldn't do it. He... He never needed me to protect him before and I was always able to and he... He finally needed me, and I failed." He seems to have calmed down considerably, at least.

"Darklett. Just. ... tell us. What happened," Sidney mumbles miserably. His hand comes up, rubs across the side of his muzzle. "... please. Just. Please. Everything you remember."

Taye sits again on his waiting-stool. Waiting was so much more /restful/ than all this... "You did plenty, Dark. 'Tis well enough that you /survived/ at all. Jakk, he... he knows how t'take care of himself. You know that."

"Maybe... Maybe they left both of us and he woke up before me and..." Darklett's head goes through all the possibilities. "He just... left?" The major grits his teeth. "Why'd they leave /me?/ Did they think I was dead?" Disgust starts to tinge his tone. Such a full range of emotions he's displaying here. Finally he responds to Sidney. "...You found me." His fists clench, and he starts to stand again. "You found me there, and..." The major lifts his head up, looking straight at Sidney. "...Tracks, there... There had to have been tracks. There's... There's a patrol following the tracks, right?!"

Taye's ears twitch back. He'll let Sidney deal with keeping him from standing. Aaaaand tracking? That would usually be his job. Eh... heh.

Sidney's ears pin back. "... there. Were tracks," he mutters, not actually looking at Darklett while he reaches to gently, gently restrain the unsteady Major. "But ... no one really figured they. They needed to be followed." His muzzle twitches.

Restrain? No. Darklett suddenly reaches forward, grabbing at Sidney's uniform and lifting. Lifting up, and... Screaming. "You saw a /Long Patrol officer/ lying beaten and shot with arrows, unconscious at an /obvious/ scene of a fight with /tracks/ leading /AWAY/ from the scene of the fight... And you /DIDN'T THINK/ they needed to be /FOLLOWED?!/" Darklett jerks his arms forward once more, shoving Sidney away from him in the air. Luckily there are nice, soft cots to break his fall.

Uhhhhhh. Sucks to be Sidney! Taye's ears flatten back. He stands up, looking a bit shocked. "Dark, he's a /recruit/! What the he-" But he stops himself, and the censure in his tone. He crutches between Darklett and wherever it is Sidney happens to, er, land. "I /know/ he's your son... but you need to /calm down/. Do you remembah all the times Audri was lost or injured or worse? We always got 'er back! Now I /promise/ you, Dark, we're /going t' get Jakk back/. But we're not going t'be able t'do /anything/ until you calm the hell down."

Sidney jerks, hands rising to grab at Darklett's wrists instinctually. This doesn't prevent the lift-and-throw of the buck, who is about Darklett's size height-wise but thinner and lighter. The nice, soft cots are conveniently located to either side of where he crashes down, hitting the floor hard. He releases a choked outward sound as the impact just. Forces the breath out of him. One hand goes out, grasps the side of a cot, and he hangs on there, dazed. Stunned.

Well. There's something about Taye that gets him to just shut up. Because really. Darklett looked like he was about to just bound over that cot and beat the living snot out of that recruit. But he stops, eyes locking with Taye's. He stares at the lieutenant for... A while, even after he's done talking. And then, bam. The rage completely leaves him, and it's like he just realized what he'd done. His eyes look dead, and he collapses backwards, sitting on the cot with a paw grasping the side of his head.

Finally! Taye's expression nearly shouts. Relief briefly softens his features and then he's turning from Darklett, offering one paw down to Sidney. "Come on. Up. If you can't handle the occasional bodily throw by an officah, how d'ya expect to handle vermin hordes?" He's trying to be funny, but he also sounds gruff from the tension that's in all this.

Sidney takes the offered hand to pull himself up, the other on a cot and the combined tug helping to right the recruit. He looks cautiously at Darklett. "... I'll go now. It. It wasn't that long ago, the tracks will still be there."

Darklett slowly lowers his face into his paws, trying to just sit still for a moment and "Think... Think... There was somethin' else, I... I know there was somethin' else." The major lifts his face out of his paws, though his eyes are still closed. "Please... Take three or four hares with you, tell 'em it's my orders. Taye... Stay here a moment, I'd like a word."

Taye's ears twitch back at Sidney's words. He shakes his head, semi-irritably, apparently about to mention something. But with a glance at Darklett, he thinks better of it. He nods. "Yessah," he agrees.

Sidney doesn't say anything else. He shoots Taye a sideways look and then turns to leave.

"Good luck, recruit." The major manages this out before Sidney's out of earshot. "If things start to smell, don't hesitate to run back."

"...There /was/ somethin' else." Dark's voice is quiet. So this is obviously important, and not to be repeated, Taye. "...I remember. Somethin' strange." The major looks up at the lieutenant. "We were walking to the 67th. And Jakk had just gotten back from the 67th he told me, but he agreed to walk with me there 'cause of all the attacks lately." Eyes cast to the side. "...When the vermin did attack us, Jakk..." The major looks back up to the lieutenant. And now you know if Dark's hesitating to tell Taye something, then that something is... well.

This can't be good. That feeling of dread is back but worse. Dread doesn't really even cover it, anymore. "Jakk what, Darklett? Jakk what?"

"...Taye, I think Jakk was gonna sell me out to the vermin that attacked us."

Darklett unblinkingly asserts this to the lieutenant, voice barely above a whisper. "When the vermin first attacked us, Jakk didn't even... Didn't even draw a weapon. The leader of the vermin ordered them to attack me and not Jakk. When Jakk started fighting back, the vermin sounded surprised."

Well that. That's not. Not really a good thing, is it? Taye looks completely floored. He... "But if he started t'fight back," he starts.

"He changed his mind." Darklett finishes that for him. "...I... I just might not be thinkin' clearly." The major shakes his head, looking like he feels terrible just for mentioning it. "But it was already so out of character for Jakk to /want/ to spend time around me when he avoided me for /seasons.../"

Taye is fully aware. He cuts his eyes away. "Well, let's. Let's just see what he says when we find 'im, all right?" Pause. "Do you want me to tell anyone about this? Or is this close t'the vest?"

"...Keep it quiet." Darklett decides after almost no thought. "If only 'cause I'm still having trouble believing it myself." The major nods to himself. "...Taye, just before he did it he said he always wanted to be like me."

Taye's ears flinch back. He straightens a little bit, looking right at Darklett. "That," he says firmly, "I can believe."

"...Don't you get it?" Darklett shakes his head lowly, eyes cast downward. "He wanted to be like me, so he... So he turned me in. Sold me out to vermin. Gained my trust and... Turned it against me." He looks up, the corners of his eyes wet once more. "That's who I am to him. I'm still..."

Taye looks briefly aghast. He shakes his head. "/No/, Dark... Whatever he's done now, whatever's gone between you two, I just don't believe that. I was around, ya know - that kid /worshipped/ you... 'til everything else got in the way." So don't be such an idiot! Grr! "If anything, he changed his mind - tried t'protect you - because he wanted t'be like the hare you've become."

"He could've turned around anytime. Stopped me from going." The major tilts his head back down. "Waited till... I don't know. I'm... I'm glad he realized, or at least seemed to realize what he was doing." He looks right up at Taye again. "...You could be right. I... I hope you're right. Just... Stupid for me to think I could ever just leave that all behind me."

Taye's eyes lower. He stares at his paws a moment, which are clasped together. He sighs, shakes his head. "Jakk's always kind of been... different, Dark. You can't blame /all/ of it on yerself. You /didn't/ do this t'him."

"Jakk's a product of a /lot/ of things that I /didn't/ do." The major gulps back, eyes glancing off to the side again before returning to Taye's face. "Couldn't do. For him."

"Not everyone grows up with a mothan 'n' a fathah, Darklett. That's no excuse for any o' this - for anything he does. You ought t'know that." Taye's gaze is serious, his words a little harsh. "If he did this thing, well. That's on him, not you."

The major's quiet for a while. In fact, he really doesn't have much of a response. He doesn't /quite/ look scolded, but it's more of a mixture between knowing the lieutenant's right and an inability to feel better about it anyway.

Taye sighs. He looks back down, studying his paws again. "Whatevah, forget all that. Fact is, we're going t'find him. It's not going t'be easy - it's snowed since you were found. But there'll still be signs for a good trackah t'follow." His face twists into a brief grimace that said tracker will not be him.

"Snowed since I was found?" Darklett rubs at his head again. "...How long has it been?" The major looks around as if there'd be any indication in the infirmary of the answer.

"Two days," Taye answers levelly. "You've been unconscious for two days. I was startin' t'get worried." And yeah, from the way he says it, and the look he gives him, he really was.

"...Two days..." Darklett runs his paw through his headfur, stopping at his head wound. "There's hope. Maybe." Dark shrugs, smiling down at the floor, then up at Taye. "There's hope." Hey, he's... At least looking like he means that. "I'm glad there's one hare in the patrol who'll talk to me like that." He gives a quick salute to the lieutenant, smirking.

Taye's muzzle twitches... and he smirks, too. Inclines his head. "Glad t'be of service." Pause. Grin. "And /someone's/ gotta."

"...Don't think I've ever... /thrown/ another hare before." The major looks past Taye as if looking where Sidney landed when he threw him. He only looks kind of ashamed of it. "...Oh... Are you alright?" He stands up. "Didn't hurt your leg anymore, did I?" Smirk falls into frown of concern. "I'm really sorry, I... Don't know what came over me."

"Concern for yer son - undahstandable." Taye dismisses it with a shake of his head. "Sidney's fine, too. He's young. He'll bounce back." Smirk.

"Heh..." Darklett chuckles, scratching behind his head. "I'm sure he will. Hope he's not too afraid of me after that, though."

Taye grins, shakes his head. "I kind of doubt he will be..." He reaches out to pat Darklett. "You rest, all righ'. I'm going t'go see if there's been any word, yet. I'll keep you informed. All righ'?"

"...Thanks, Taye." The reaching pat is returned with the opposite paw, resting on the lieutenant's shoulder. "...Stop bein' such a good patroller. You'll make Major and I'll be left without ya in my patrol." He sits back down again, kicking his feet onto the cot and scooting back, tenderly laying down.

Taye looks amused. Shakes his head. "I don't think you've got t'worry about that happenin', Dark... Don't worry." He grins, having no intention of leaving the Major's patrol any time soon! With a final squeeze to the shoulder, he releases and turns, heading for the door and out.

And once Taye's gone, Darklett's demeanor goes right back to what it was before. Sullen. Worry. Jakk... What's going to happen to you?

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