Title: The Path Of Blood: Healed Author: Luna "Tic" Vee Feedback: Druidess@msn.com Rating: This chapter is PG-13 Pairing: Jay/Silent Bob Series/Sequel: 5 of 5 Warnings: Mention of murder, uber-mush, TalkBob, Jay torture, and overuse of ellipses Spoilers: None Archive: Sureness. Disclaimer: I own diddly squat. Jay and Silent Bob are property of Kevin Smith, View Askew, Miramax, and the Martians that live in Scott Mosier's left ear. Summary: Jay and Bob sort things out. Notes: Uber-mush! Yaaay! *** Pain. Excruciating, brain-shredding pain. Tearing, ripping, rending, bleeding. Flesh torn from muscle. Muscle torn from bone. Bone torn from marrow. Flames licking at him. Nerve endings screaming bloody murder. Smoke. The scent of burning flesh. The scent of rotting flesh. The taste of blood upon his tongue. This was surely Hell. Living shadows holding pitchforks prodded at his weakened body. Chained there in the middle of the air, arms apart, legs apart. Naked as the day he was born. Every single part of his body being cut, burned, stabbed, smashed, and otherwise tortured as he writhed and screamed. Then... Nothing... He felt nothing. Opening his blind eyes, he was once again able to see, but there was nothing to see. Just white. Blinding white, shredding away the shadows, burning away everything else, except him. His pain, gone, his blood, cleaned up, his burns, missing, his body, intact. Cool, blinding white greeted him with an eerie embrace. "Jay..." he heard a honey-sweet voice breathe. God? No, it wasn't God. God's voice would have killed him. Besides, God was a woman. Her voice, to those who could stand to hear it, was probably feminine. But this voice. This voice was male, young, low, and smoky. Music to his tortured ears. He tried to crawl to the source of the voice, but his body was too weak to move. So, he just lay there, in a heap of limbs, flesh, and hair. Blonde hair. But wasn't his hair blue? Yeah, he'd died it blue. Why was his hair suddenly back to blonde? Blinking his deep brown eyes a few times, trying to focus, he looked inquisitively towards the voice's source. "Jay...wake up..." he heard the voice breathe, worry tainting it slightly. Slowly, a figure moved into view. An angel? He couldn't be sure. All that he knew was, it was beautiful... "Jay, come on... You're scaring me..." he heard again, worry distinct and panicked a touch. And the figure was in full, obvious view now. Silent Bob? What was going on? Jay tried to crawl to Bob to ask what was wrong (speaking seemed like it wasn't an option), but before he could, Bob swooped down and wrapped his arms around him. "Jay..." he breathed, lowering his lovely face towards Jay's. Slowly, slowly, leaning in for a kiss... ...their lips about to meet... "JAY!" Jay's eyes snapped open as Bob barked his name. He looked around feverishly, disoriented. He was in a room, in an unfamiliar place. He saw a dresser, a closet, a bookshelf, and a broken picture of himself and Bob on the night stand. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Mister," Bob said with a smile. Jay studied the man above him. The way the sunbeams, dancing through the window, glistened upon his dark hair, giving it a red tint. The way his eyes danced with a fire he'd never seen before. The way he held his hand so tight he was quasi-afraid it might break. The way he smiled so wide... "Ngh...Bob...where am I?" Jay asked, sitting up slowly, getting assistance from Bob. "My place," Bob said simply. "My room, to be exact. You passed out last night, so I brought you here. You slept like a rock. Never heard you snore so loud before. And I was all the way out on the couch." His smile grew wider as the image of Jay sleeping crept into his head. Jay smiled softly. "Such a gentleman," he said with a slight giggle. "Thanks." "'Salright," Bob said with a wave of his hand. "The least I could do..." he sniffed the air and looked off in the general direction of what Jay assumed was the kitchen. "I'd better get back to the kitchen. Don't want breakfast to burn." "Breakfast?" Jay tried to suppress the hope in his voice. It had been forever and a half since he'd had a home-cooked breakfast. And forever since he'd had breakfast, period. "Yep. Hash browns and bacon. Your favourite," Bob smiled softly, almost proudly. "Of course," came the answer, as Jay wrapped his arms around Bob, his brain lazily registering that he was out of his blood-stained clothing, only clad in his boxers and a pair of Bob's sweatpants. "I need to get up to go make the food, Jay," Bob said with a chuckle as the boy held him down when he attempted to stand. "Uh, oops?" Jay giggled, letting go and hopping up with Bob, following him to the kitchen... A while later, over breakfast, Bob watched Jay scarf down the food at light speed, amazed at how hungry the scrawny boy was. He probably hadn't eaten anything good in years... "Jay?" Bob began, swallowing a mouthful of hash brown. "Hm?" Jay looked up from his food, face covered in ketchup. "N...nothing..." Bob sighed, his heart and stomach trading places as he looked at that beautiful face he'd love for so long, and could only think of the crime scene photos he'd seen on TV. "It's about what I've done, isn't it?" Jay asked, displaying an amazing and unfamiliar amount of observance, so much so that it startled Bob. "Y...yeah..." "I understand. Let me guess? You don't think you could love me... After what I did..." "N-no! That's not it at all!" Bob cried as he saw hurt flood to Jay's face. "It's just that... I don't know HOW to feel..." He poked at a strip of bacon with his fork. "I...Jay...what happens if... If you try to hurt me? Or yourself?" He looked up at the boy, eyes full of some mixture of fear and confusion. Jay lowered his head, shorter strands drooping forward to shield his face, gel washed away by the night before's downpour. "I... I'd never hurt you..." "But how can I be sure, Jay? You... your head's not right..." Bob tried to keep his words from hurting, but he knew they did anyway. "Because... I killed FOR you. I tried to kill myself, because I couldn't stand to be without you. You think that now that I actually have you in my reach, that I would fuck that all up? I'd rather cut my hands off, Bob!" Jay's head snapped up, to stare Bob straight in the eyes. "I love you, dammit! And I'd never do anything to hurt you! Fucked up in the head or not!" Bob sighed quietly and reached a hand across the table, clasping it around one of Jay's frail ones. "I'm sorry..." Jay blinked in confusion, "Huh?" "I'm sorry I could think that you would do such a thing... But it scares me. You understand? The thought that you... You did...that... It scares the piss outta me." "I understand..." "But... We can get you help. Or, I dunno what, but we can do something about it. You're never gonna harm anyone again. Cause you'll never be angry, you'll never be sad, you'll never be lonely." "What're you sayin'?" "I'm saying I love you, Jay. And I ain't gonna let anything bad happen to you again." "Bob..." Bob stood up and slid around the table, pulling Jay to his feet. Slowly slithering his arms around the frail body, he drew the broken boy close. Slowly, softly, he leaned in and kissed those soft lips, sliding one hand up to cup the back of his head, the other anchoring his waist, holding him against his large body. Jay opened his mouth slowly, allowing the invading muscle in, to run over teeth and battle with his own tongue. To taste his sweet flavour. To caress him intimately. He leaned helplessly into the bulky man, finally feeling that sense of belonging, that sense of happiness, that sense of love, that he'd been searching after for so long. Slowly, he let go of those full, soft lips, panting for air. "Bob... I..." "I know..." came the breathy answer as he felt the large man's nose brush against the bottom of his earlobe, nuzzling between ear and neck and base of skull, making his brain lock up and his body tremble. "It bares saying... I love you..." "I love you too, Jay." "You mean what you say `bout never leaving me alone?" "Every syllable of it... You're never gonna be lonely again." "...that's all I ever wanted." *End* *** Awwwww! So shweet! Veni Veni Venias ~Luna "Tic" Vee Ne Me Mori Facias