#askdetectiverogers

@alicetillyjones​

“You think you can handle me?  Me? Scourge of the seventeen seas and several sizable lakes?  Perhaps instead I will take your ship and your crew to the depths with me!”  He lunged dramatically, catching her practice blade under one arm with a cry.

Liam shook his head. “That’s not what... Killian, please.”

A life for a life wasn’t his plan. It was a risk he was willing to take, but it was not his plan. If he was injured badly enough, shot by the gun still at his brother’s side for example, then there was a chance that Rumplestiltskin would decide to leave him alive to deal with the fallout. It wasn’t much of a chance, but it was the only possibility that Liam could see with even the tiniest chance of himself and Killian both getting out of this alive.

“If you would just listen to me,” Liam tried. I’m your brother and your captain. You will listen to me. Dammit. Killian wasn’t going to listen. He was never going to listen. And it was Liam’s own stupid fault.

And my brother?  Is Liam permitted to count on no one?  When we’ve only just gotten him back?

Frustration welled deep in the pit of his stomach.  A sick feeling of guilt and anguish and anger all tangled up together and he just wanted to hit- to fight-  to yell at someone.  

There was no one here to fight.  Only his brother and the whisper of doubt in his head.  And he couldn’t fight Liam.  Liam was hurting enough without Killian showing him the confusion and fear that were running rampant in his mind.  He couldn’t even imagine the hell he was subjecting Liam to by ignoring his pleas.  

It would kill him to have to hurt Liam.  And Alice? His mind recoiled from even the thought.  He squared his shoulders against an involuntary shudder and looked up, finally meeting Liam’s eyes.  

“I didn’t mea-”  The words dried up in his throat and he swallowed hard,  clutching Liam tighter,  the same sense of powerlessness settling over him as the last time he had heard those words.  

“I wanted Rumplestiltskin’s attention on myself.  I thought I could protect him if-”  

It was the one thing that always worked.  Enraging the people that wanted to hurt him.  How many times had Liam begged, ordered or bargained with him to just keep his mouth shut?  But it worked.  It got their attention.  It got their attention off of Liam.  But not this time.  

He had no more cards to play.  

No power to do anything but hold Liam tight and beg the crocodile to spare him this.  

“He still hasn’t” Killian chastised himself for the errant, traitorous thought,  knocked loose when he hit the floor again. “it isn’t him.”

‘Stay down’ he heard the voice and it sounded like Liam.  He wasn’t sure if it was Rumplestiltskin goading him or Liam pleading with him or just that voice in his head that always told him how to survive and always sounded like Liam for as long as he could remember.  

“Do you remember when we were kids?” he asked quietly.  Liam’s aggressive stance backed down slightly,  the crocodile’s curiosity piqued giving them both a break that would be all too temporary.  Tears flowed freely down Liam’s cheeks and they hurt so much more than the blows.  “You used to tell me to stay down.  Just stay down until I come for you.  Just hang on until help comes.”  

He glanced up,  meeting Liam’s eyes pleadingly.  He hoped Rumplestiltskin would misunderstand the plea.  

Liam wouldn’t.  

A tinny melody buzzed at the edge of his consciousness.

An alarm. No. A phone. His phone

He jerked, reaching for it in the dark to shut it off before it woke the whole house. He was stiff, sore, and upon opening his eyes, realized abruptly that he was not in Liam’s flat. He shifted again, noting the handcuffs that bound his arms behind the chair he was sitting on.

Liam stood in front of him, unnaturally still. No one else was in the room with them and for a moment Killian felt relief. Then he met Liam’s eyes. Distant and unfocused, it was as though Killian was not even there, or perhaps as though he could not pull his focus from a spot on the blank wall to his left.

“If you don’t let me answer they’re just going to keep calling,” Killian commented.

For a moment Liam didn’t move. Then stiffly, he bent to unlock his right arm.

“Don’t be clever,” a voice that wasn’t quite Liam’s warned him before the cuff clattered to the ground.

The person on the other end of the call managed to garner very little of his attention, babbling something about breakfast and being a gentleman.

He could ask for help.

And put his brother’s life in the hands of an occasionally trigger happy SWAT team.

A familiar weight at his hip informed him he was still armed and his eyebrows furrowed. Whoever was making the decisions here was either extraordinarily stupid, or didn’t give a damn if Liam survived.

“Your brother is in a particularly foul mood today.”

“I daresay he is. But I’m a bit tied up at the moment. Let me call you back.”

Killian took a step back from sheer confusion.  Or perhaps from a habitual deference to his captain that had now spanned more than one lifetime.  But that lasted only a moment before he stepped forward again,  shutting their door behind him with a quiet click.  “You know I finished early today-” Killian started,  then trailed off when Liam stumbled backwards, knocking into a table and sending something which held no interest to Killian crashing to the ground.  

This was more than someone surprised their brother and flatmate had come home early.  Liam was afraid.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Killian said calmly,  his hands up placatingly, his mind spinning.  The curse?  Could his cursed memories have returned,  could he have forgotten-  “Do you remember me, Captain Jewell?” he tried.

“Killian-”  Killian’s relief at hearing his true name almost drowned out what came next, barely a whisper, “Run.”

He almost laughed.  

He didn’t have time.  

My mother is dead, I can hardly do her any harm now,” Killian snapped tersely.

And if she were alive it would hardly be a fair comparison. She was gentle. And young. And doesn’t have the scars to protect her that I do.

She couldn’t take it.