November

Author's Note: I am so sorry about this, guys. I promised you a light and happy chapter, but when I started writing, I couldn't deliver. This just kind of came out. However, the next one will be about Liam Beckman, so there's a lot more light coming from that end. Please don't hate me; I just had to do it.


October 12

In the morning, he was back in classes. Sloane had returned on Sunday, completed the necessary paperwork, and gone to one or two closed-door meetings before rejoining his crew. They all asked about Ortega. Sloane told them nothing at all - only that he was away but OK - until Thursday morning, when Tega arrived during cooking class, carrying a knapsack and a small teddy bear.

Sloane looked up, assessed the situation - Ortega seemed clean enough, his hair shiny and brushed, any bruises faded. He wasn't smiling, but the abject misery was also gone. Sloane put down his pot, turned down the stove he was working on, and went over to him. Ortega looked away, then back up. His face was a mixture of desperation and need.
"Don't worry." Sloane said, rubbing his shoulder, "I'll tell them."
He led Tega to the front of the room, where the class immediately began celebrating his return in loud voices.
"Hey! Look who's back!"
Everyone was excited, but Suleiman smiled widest of all. Ortega grinned, but couldn't seem to meet their eyes. They sensed the change immediately. Sloane held up a hand for quiet and waited patiently for the noise to settle.

"Ortega has been through a lot of changes over these past few days," he said, suppressing a smile, "And all of them are very good, but also very tiring. So let's make sure to give him a little room for the rest of the week. Ortega? Would you like to tell them the good news?"
Ortega glanced out at his classmates. Seven sickeningly hopeful and curious faces looked back at him. He shook his head. Sloane rubbed his shoulder again.
"Ortega's getting married."
The room was silent.
"Show them your ring, Ortega."
Tega obediently held up one hand. The silence lengthened. The group members looked at Sloane.
"Whoa." Jesse finally said.
"And!" Sloane went on, still jubilant, "He's pregnant."

~:~

When Sloane went to answer a summons in the hallway, they gathered around him to gape and ask questions. Only Suleiman stayed where he was, cooking quietly and only occasionally casting gentle looks over at Ortega.
"Who is it?" Vichy asked.
"His name's James, um, Irvine."
"When did this happen?" Grant was next.
"Um, after we went out Friday night...I guess he really liked me, because -" Ortega swallowed; he could hear his own voice breaking. "Um, he wanted to see me again and then we spent the weekend together and so now, he..." the tears were pricking the backs of his eyes, "We're engaged, um, together."
Honesty grinned wide, twisted one of his blonde curls around his fingers.
"That's sweet! Love at first sight; it's like a story, innit?"
Ortega laughed, but his laugh was cut and tinny.
"So where've you been all this time?" Vichy still looked worried.
"I was at his house - his family's home. In the mountains." Tega's eyes went distant for a moment before refocusing.
"A family home in the mountains?! Who's a lucky one, then!" Honesty giggled as he drew up a seat and leaned in to more intently examine Tega's ring.
"Did he give you this?" he was pointing to the bear whose paw was in a vice grip in Ortega's right hand. Ortega looked at it in surprise; he'd forgotten he'd taken it with him.
"Um, yes."
Honesty smiled even wider.
"So he's nice, too? It's like a perfect story!"
"When are you getting married?" Grant asked, as engaged as Honesty in everything Tega was saying.
"In a month."
"When did you get pregnant?" Sai asked. Ortega paused. The hesitation was momentary, but clear.
"Friday. It was Friday, wasn't it?" Jesse was watching Tega with a frightening calm. "Same day you met him. You didn't know him and you're not in love. Sloane let him rape you, didn't he? And he would do the same to all of us."
Ortega didn't answer - couldn't answer! How could he? Everyone was here; everyone was watching. He wanted to disappear. The silence was thick. Jesse shook his head.
"There's your perfect fucking fairy tale, Honesty."

~:~

The fun/mandatory social started in fifteen minutes. Jesse still hadn't cleaned up, bathed, or even distantly thought about getting dressed. Sloane was pissed.
"Ten fucking minutes, Paik, and if you're not out of that goddamn bathroom, I'm coming in after you and you're going to the social in whatever the hell you don't have on."
Jesse shrugged and threw a towel over his shoulder. He took twenty minutes in the shower. He should have listened to Sloane.

He was just rinsing his hair when he heard a commotion outside - abruptly, the door came flying in and then two men he had never seen before with firm faces and blank eyes (chaperones, he belatedly realized), were grabbing him by the shoulders and gagging him roughly; then he was being dragged naked out of the bathroom, onto the cold tile floors of the center, and then outside, across rough ground, fighting all the way. Outdoors, they stopped halfway to the woods and just held him there, stalwart and silent. It took fifteen more minutes for Kosin to come out.

By the time he appeared, Jesse was shaking, shivering with the nighttime cold and fright and the realization that maybe he'd pushed his luck too far. He'd tried shouting through the gag, but that had just made them tighten it so now he could barely breathe, barely swallow, and he was a little frightened that he would swallow his own tongue.

The first thing Dr. Kosin did was hand the chaperone on his left a taser. The second was punch Jesse in the stomach. His mouth and eyes watered in pain and he wondered if he would drown in his own vomit.

"I would have thought," Officer Kosin said calmly, pushing his wire frames farther up on his nose as he circled Jesse, "That we could resolve our differences calmly. Now I see that I was mistaken."
Jesse shook his head madly, trying to explain that he could be reasonable, he could be fair, this wasn't necessary.
"It's too late, Jesse. Save your apologies for Sloane to sort out."
He nodded to the chaperone, who immediately applied the taser to Jesse's bare left arm. Pain electro-shot through his body and he seized, went stiff, shook and tried to get muscle control, tried to breathe through the pain, but it was all-consuming and before he could even move, Kosin said:
"Again."
And this time it hurt worse than before, and he was screaming through the gag. Now the chaperones dropped him to the ground and he was seeing spots and black, but couldn't even register this through the fire.

Then it was the boots - one to the stomach, two to the chest, one to the back, two on his sides and ass. He was still shaking from the tase, couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't escape. He vomited and someone untied his gag, tossed it to the side, kept kicking. He regained some awareness and screamed and got a boot to the face for it. He choked on a piece of his tooth.

He blacked out a little bit and came to with Kosin shaking him. He was lying on his back, naked in the grass. Kosin let go of him; he fell back onto the grass. His vision was fuzzy - no focus. Then Kosin's heel was pressing sharply into his groin and excruciating pain ballasted through him. He panted, tried to find his horizon line.
Kosin was speaking.
"Next time, carrier." he said, wiping dust and blood from his boot with a cloth. "Next time."

This time, they didn't wake him back up.