"The guy will be lucky if he will survive being in the same room as you ever again! It's done Brody, I don't want you getting locked up now, do you understand me? I can't lose you because of that asshole, I need you!"

Adrian was begging Brody not to waste his life doing something that he was bound to regret. If he didn't stop Brody now, then Brody may be prosecuted for murder, and Adrian didn't want to lose him.

Brody was breathing heavily as he listened to Adrian, he used Adrian's words to ground him and bring him back to reality. He didn't want to be locked up because of all this, he just wanted Elliot gone.

Looking at Elliot, who was pulled out to safety by Adam, he was a deformed wreck. Bruises, purple patches and swelling everywhere, blood dripping from his nose and mouth, and Brody could only imagine the damage he did to his body.

"Can we get out of the water now?"

Brody nodded his head as he let Adrian guide him out of the pool. Once they were out of the water, Brody grabbed Adrian and hugged him like his life depended on it.

"Brody, I'm fin-"

"Shhh." Brody silenced Adrian as he continued to hold Adrian close to him. "I should have stopped him sooner. I should have been there for you more. I should have-"

Adrian interrupted Brody's self-blame by talking over him. "It's in the past. You're here for me now, and that's all that I want."

'Why wasn't I there before?' Was all Brody could think about. 'Why couldn't Adrian tell me about this?'

"Let's just go, I'm done with being here now." Adrian told him, wanting to be far away from Elliot and wanting to just be alone with Brody.

They had almost made it through the door without looking back, until Brody stopped and knelt down by the weak mess that was Elliot.

Grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, Brody pulled Elliot close to him so he could whisper in his ear. "If you ever see Adrian walking towards you, then you go the other way. If he's in the same room as you, then you make up an excuse to leave. If you think about harming a single hair on his head ever again, I won't be afraid to finish the job and end your life. Do you understand?"

When Elliot looked away from Brody, not responding to his threat, Brody slammed Elliot back into the ground once again. With more force, Brody tightened his grip on Elliot. "Do you understand?!"

Elliot admitted defeat when he nervously nodded his head, terrified by the fire and anger in Brody's voice.

Only time could tell if he would stick to his word, but Brody hoped he did enough so that this would be the last they ever saw of Elliot.

~~~~~~~~~~

Alone in Brody's apartment, Adrian sat down by the kitchen counter as Brody grabbed a bag of frozen food to place on his knuckles, all sore and bloodied up.

"We really should at least take you into A&E for your hand." Adrian expressed to Brody out of concern.

"It's fine." Brody assured him, trying to reduce the soreness and numbness with the cold at the same time.

"Really?" Adrian challenged him, "Give me a high five then, and not with your good hand."

"You know I'm good with using both of my hands." Brody gestured as he winked at Adrian.

"Brody..."

Brody looked down at his left hand, and he didn't have the strength to even relax his fingers into their normal position. Brody couldn't make a fist with his hand as it felt frozen in place. It was too difficult to be able to even remotely move it, and there was no way he could even clap his hands without it being a struggle.

"Rain check?" Brody joked.

"Idiot."

Adrian moved to sit next to his boyfriend, grabbing hold of the make shift ice pack and tentatively holding it over Brody's hand.

"Honestly, how is it?" Adrian asked quietly, so that Brody knew he was being serious.

Admitting the truth, "I can't really feel much of it right now. It will probably come back in a few hours."

A concerned look appeared on Adrian's face. "Brody..."

"If it's still bad in the morning, then we can go get it checked." Brody told him firmly.

The silence between them was filled with the elephant in the room. Neither of them wanted to initiate the conversation, but it had to be dealt with sooner or later.

"Why didn't you tell me about Elliot?" Brody asked, his voice weak with the pain of knowing everything Adrian had been suffering through.

Adrian began staring at the frozen bag on top of Brody's hand, avoiding looking him in the eyes. "I thought I had it all under control." Adrian replied, with the same amount of pain that Brody was feeling.

"You thought you had it under control? Adrian, I love you, but this has been happening for weeks, how was any of this under control?"

"I don't know!" Adrian got up from the chair as all of the frustration he had bottled up started to spill out. "I don't know, okay? You want me to say I'm stupid? Do you want me to say I'm a fucking moron for being so naive? What should have I done Brody?!"

"Tell me! Adrian, you should have told me! There were plenty of opportunities, weeks, and I still don't understand why you didn't even tell anyone. Were you afraid of how people would react or something?"

Brody tried to come up with some possible reason why Adrian kept everything a secret, but he was struggling to come up with a sane response.

"Look at you! Look at the state of you, the state you put Elliot in!" Adrian yelled at the top of his voice. "I didn't want to solve this with violence, to have my super macho boyfriend come in and rescue me like I'm freaking Mary Jane!"

"That's what this is all about, your ego? Did you think that I would treat you any less because of the things Elliot was doing to you?" Brody asked him honestly. He was dumbfounded because the way that Brody heard it, it sounded like Adrian wasn't going to be able to stop Elliot any time soon with just his mind and will power.

Adrian stormed off into Brody's bedroom, but Brody followed him, slamming the bedroom door behind him. The conversation wasn't going to be over with just one of them simply walking away.

"I didn't tell you because I didn't want to be this weak, pathetic 'man' that couldn't defend himself from Elliot. Happy?"

Adrian had a deep history of not having many people fight in his corner before. Even with Adam, Adrian was use to dealing with things his own way - on his own. It was a self-preservation mechanic that stopped people getting close to him, with it always ending in them abandoning him.

"I'm almost 19, and I couldn't stop this jerk from harassing me. I needed my boyfriend to swoop in and deal with a problem that I couldn't handle. I'm stupid, I'm weak, and I'm pathetic. You still love me after all of this?" Adrian painfully croaked, with his voice breaking after every breath he took.

Adrian hated himself for letting things get this far. He hated himself for not being strong enough to mentally and physically deal with his own problems by himself. And Adrian hated himself because of the trouble that Brody might be in.

"Adrian, I can't stop loving you even if I tried."

Brody knew that deep down Elliot was the only one to blame in all of this. The guy didn't back off, and Brody knew he shouldn't even dare to blame Adrian in all of this.

"Then you're a bigger idiot than me, for loving such a pathetic guy." Adrian whispered, collapsing down on the bed with his eyes focussing on the ground.

Adrian's sense of defeat and self-hatred upset Brody. Pulling up a seat in front of Adrian, Brody sat down in front of him so that they could further the heart to heart conversation.

"It's not a weakness to have people fight your battles Adrian, it's a strength to have them there in the first place." Brody whispered, hoping that Adrian knew he was always going to be on his side, no matter what. "Whatever problems you have, they're my problems too."

"And you'll be fine with that? Me burdening you with all of my problems?"

Brody took Adrian's hand and squeezed it gently. "Adrian, you know you can tell me anything and I'll listen to you. You could say you've never played hockey before and I'll believe you. You could say you have an iq of fucking 163 and I'll believe you. You could say you're 100% straight and I'll-"

Brody paused before he could finish his sentence. A flood of sexual and intimate things they've did together proved the opposite of what he was saying.

Brody poked fun at Adrian. "Okay maybe not the straight thing, but you get the point."

Hearing Adrian wholeheartedly laugh after the very long day they had made Brody feel relieved that everything was going to be okay. Adrian calmly squeezed Brody's hand back, a smile flourishing onto Brody's face.

"This relationship thing is still scary new to me." Adrian explained. "And I might mess things up still."

"It's new to me too." Brody told him honestly. "I've never loved anyone before either, but we have to work on this together. Communication and honesty is key to every relationship, or so I've heard."

Still holding Brody's good hand, Adrian used his thumb to rub the back of it. "So, can we kiss and make up? That's one of my favourite things about having a boyfriend."

Brody chuckled as he looked Adrian in the eyes, "You dork."

Brody met Adrian halfway and leaned forward, capturing his lips in a passionate filled kiss.

"One more." Adrian moaned to Brody, seeking out another kiss that filled Adrian's heart and soul with the love he desired.

"So, do you still love me?" Brody whispered.

"For as long as you love me too."

==========