I need help (Jason)

[Matthew Roosevelt]

Matt usually didn’t like taking a ride on his – Luke’s – motorbike; he always considered it too dangerous. How could he not? You slipped once and there was an accident, you leaned to the side a bit too much in a turn and an accident as well. Also, you were much less likely to survive a crash with your motorbike then for example in a car or a bus. All in all, motorbikes were dangerous and most of the time it was too risky for Matt.
However, from time to time he needed it. Those were the times when he didn’t try to kill himself – Luke would kick his ass if he would ever do that – but wouldn’t care if he actually died. What did he have to lose anyway?

He was taking the rather curvy and risky road down to town, but didn’t Luke always say that was the fun of it? Feeling every single turn and knowing that a tiny misjudgement would end tragic. To be honest, he understood what he meant. It had a ring to it and especially for someone in a depressive phase it was a great distraction.
Matt wasn’t sure what he wanted in town, but he was sure it was better than staying in his dorm, haunted by his memories, even if it was just walking around in the park to clear his mind.

As he came closer he slowed down his bike a bit, surely not wanting to hurt someone by making an accident in town. If something happened to him, he didn’t care, but he didn’t want to pull anyone in that. He had no one to live for, but it could be different for those people in town.
He pulled over somewhere near the park; it was already quite late, so most of the parking spaces were free. Getting off the bike he took off his helmet and looked around for a moment. There was almost no one here, but he guessed it was better like that. He wasn’t the nicest person to be with when he had a depressive phase.

He locked his bike and went towards the park, hands in his pockets and his eyes fixed on the floor. He needed some time to think, needed some time alone, breathing in fresh air.
He hated those days, those days when he just couldn’t think of anything other than Luke and his family. But well, what could he do? Luke was stuck in his head, right next to his guilt and
to be honest he didn’t think he deserved any better.

He let out a sigh and looked around for a moment, only now noticing the group of people staring at him. He stopped walking, staring back at them, before he finally started talking.
“What do you want?”, he was pretty sure they weren’t going to ask him whether he was all right, they rather looked like they wanted to get the last bit all right out of him.
They glanced at each other, before finally one came towards Matt, an angry grin across his face.

“Do you remember Chester Stevens?”, the guy asked, the grin not fainting even a bit while he was coming closer.

Matt’s eyes widened, as he stumbled a few steps backwards. Stevens, Mr.Stevens. How could he ever forget him? How could he ever forget the person that tried to kill him and killed his brother instead?
“Yes. Yes, I do”, he answered once he found his voice, giving his best to not let show how much of a punch in the stomach that name was – especially today.

“Well, we are good acquaintances of him and did you know, that he still has a scar from where your brother attacked him?”, the guy continued, arching his eyebrows.
Scar, Mr. Stevens has got a scar. Well done, Luke. At least he hadn’t gotten away fully unharmed.

Matt bit his lip, trying not to say anything. It would just get him into a fight, it was better just to stay silent, get away maybe as soon as he could.
But of course those guys didn’t let him get away. The one coming towards him pulled out a knife, running it into Matt’s arm.
“Your power doesn’t go through stuff like metal, right?”, he said with a grin, as he drew the knife out again.

Matt took a shaky breath, tried to back away slowly, but instead tripped and fell to the ground, his arm aching. He wanted to defend himself, needed to defend himself, but he was too shocked, Shocked by the fact Mr. Stevens had found him and shocked, that he was going to get attacked again.

How? Why? Hadn’t Mr. Stevens punished him enough already? He had lost his brother because of him, he had lost his life with a family because of him, he had lost everything because of him.
He tried to get up, to defend himself, to run away, he didn’t know, but it didn’t matter, he didn’t even get that far. Instead his sight blurred, because of tears, because of the shock, because of the knife that was somewhere in his stomach now – he wasn’t sure, but he slowly felt how he started to faint, the men’s angry voices growing more silent and the park around him growing darker each second.



As Matt woke up again, everything was hurting and he needed quite a while to remember what had happened. However, once he was able to make out where he was, he realised this wasn’t the park anymore, but wasn’t in his dorm either, instead he was in some kind of empty narrow aisle.

He tried to get up, but failed as a sharp pain from his stomach shot through his body and his sight blurred once more. He let out a groan, as he got out his phone with his hurt arm, but he needed it. He needed to call someone, he needed help.

But who was he going to call? He couldn’t call an ambulance, they would touch him and then he would heal himself, that wasn’t an option. Police would call an ambulance for sure, so this wouldn’t work either. He took a shaky breath, scrolling through his contact-list, once more thankful having his phone with him, until he stopped at the sight of a name. Jason Campbell.

He wasn’t sure whether that was a good idea, Jason was still close to being a stranger and surely busy with other things, but on the other hand he didn’t have a real choice – he needed some help, he couldn’t deny it and Jason was the one person with the best chances to somehow be able to handle the situation.

It took some time till Matt managed to press the call button, as his sight still wasn’t the best and his whole body was shaking, but finally he did it.
The phone rang and when he heard a noise that sounded like someone answered the phone he simply started talking, not sure how much longer he would be able to do so.

“I need help”, he muttered, surprised how weak his voice was, “I got attacked.. I am...”, he made a pause, lifting his head a slight bit to make out where he was, until he saw a very familiar supermarket, “Next to the supermarket... where the accident happened.”
He wanted to say more, but due to his blood-loss, the shock and the pain, he felt how he was slowly fainting again. He took another shaky breath, trying to make out whether Jason answered or not, but before he could actually concentrate on it, everything went black again.

[Jason Campbell]

Good God, why was family so complicated? You’d think that when there was only one other member still alive that there wouldn’t be any more drama. But you’d be wrong. It had been over a year since his father died and Jason’s brother had yet forgiven him. If you listened to Raphael, you’d think Jason killed him. He didn’t. Alright, he didn’t heal him even though he could, but he knew it would’ve been pointless. The man wanted to die, he ruined his career and his life and wanted only one thing, to be reunited with his wife. Jason granted him that. He would’ve thought that, since Raphael lived with the man as he became a shadow of himself, that he’d be glad the man finally found some peace. But he must have developed Stockholm syndrome or something because he took it badly. And every attempt from the older brother to please the younger one proved futile.

He should give up. Raphael was twenty-five, he could live his life as he wanted. But one of the reasons why Jason came back was to be with his brother and to ask forgiveness to have left him all alone after their mother’s death. Still, it only made Jason feel worse in the end. And he hated to dwell in self-loathing. He was a hard worker, not one who stopped to whine about how difficult life was. Not that he judged badly people dealing with depression but it was not his case and he refused to act as if it was.

Jason grabbed a beer, sipping it quietly as he sat on the couch. He didn’t feel like doing anything. His mind was not into his research right now and even just looking for the remote and try to find a decent program didn’t seem interesting one bit. He tried to forget the words said earlier. But they lingered on his mind, refusing to get away. In the end, he still turned on the TV. But he was not really watching anything. It could be the most interesting show of all history, the one everyone watched, his mind was not into it. Anyway, it was not. When he bothered to check, it seemed like the news. And they were depressing so he just turned it off.

He could go out. But he doubted he’d be of very good company. And spending the night at the bar, drinking out his sorrow seemed both depressing and very cliché. No, he was better here, at home. He should eat. Yeah, eating was a good idea. But Jason didn’t feel like cooking. Good thing restaurants came up with the bright idea of making deliveries. He found one of the many flyers he had of the different places he liked in town and got one to his liking. He placed an order.

He didn’t have that much of an appetite, but since he had nothing to do and he currently was on a pulling weight phase after spending days starving himself, too busy working to think of ingesting anything, food was welcomed. It wasn’t the brightest of ideas to eat this late but, again, who cared? He would do whatever he wanted.

Jason didn't expect any call but he got one. And that intrigued him. For Matthew had not called since the last time they met, the first time they did actually. He could barely hear Matt’s voice. “Matt? Where are you?” he asked. Did he hear attacked? What happened? The supermarket. “Don’t move, I’m coming,” he added before hanging up on him. He had no idea whether he could move or not but that was not the point right now. He doubted Matt would’ve called him to say he needed help if it was not an emergency. He had only started to eat his Thai food but he left it on the table, grabbed his keys and stormed out of the house.

It took him a few minutes to get to the supermarket. A lot more to spot Matthew. Next to it, yeah there were a lot of spots that could be referred as next to it. Not in the parking lot, not on the street. Jason drove slowly, trying to peek into the alleys. There, could it be him? He stopped the car, got out. There was something but he couldn’t tell exactly what. He came closer. It was someone. Closer again. It was Matt! Jason ran to the boy. How did he get in here? Now was not the time to answer that. He saw the blood on his clothes, noticed the bruises and cuts. He checked his pulse. He still had one, but very weak. He lifted Matt’s shirt and placed his hand on the wound he had on the stomach. He would ask questions later. For now, he needed to heal him before he died on him.

[Matthew Roosevelt]

Matt woke up again, as he felt the strange sensation of an alien energy. What was going on? Something was wrong... Something was really wrong... The last time he had felt something like this was... Luke. No, no, this couldn’t be happening. Not again, no.
He tried to say something, to protest, but instead the only thing coming out of his mouth was a silent: “Luke... don’t -”

Then the memory hit in again. This wasn’t Luke, this was Jason. He remembered the attack... the knife... the call... Jason had actually found him. At least that was what Matt hoped. But who else would look into an abandoned alley like this one, right?

Still, he couldn’t let Jason touch him, not when he was actually hurt, not when there was a risk he might kill him. He tried to sit up, move away. It didn’t work. But Jason had to stop.
“It will kill you”, he muttered, still not able to move or even open his eyes. He was relieved he was able to speak however, no matter how weak it might be.
There was a chance he would get him to stop, before his own power realised what was going on and would take advantage out of it. He didn’t know how his power did it, but once he started using another person’s energy the person wasn’t able to pull away. At least that was what had happened to Luke.

He couldn’t let that happen, he couldn’t let someone die because of him again. Once was bad enough, and this was scarily similar to the first time it happened. Again he’s been attacked, again he woke up in an alley and again he had no idea how to stop his power from taking over.

Again it would be his fault if something happened. He had had more than enough time to learn how to control it. Damn it. Damn it. It was his fault, of course, again. He should’ve been more careful, he should’ve just stayed in his dorm. Why did he even leave it? Bad idea, bad idea of course. There was a reason he usually only left the school when it was absolutely necessary.

“Don’t touch me... Luke... It will kill you.”

[Jason Campbell]

Jason couldn’t tell just exactly how much blood Matt lost but judging by the wounds, and if he counted the time it must have taken from the attack to the call, and then from the call to him getting here, he could guess. And it was not to reassure the man. Jason could give him normal medical care but right now he needed something more. Because Jason knew Matt would not have called him without thinking about an ambulance first. Or so he hoped. After all, finding his number must have taken more time then dialing 911.

When he felt Matt moving, he placed his other hand on his shoulder. “Stand still, you’re not in any position to move,” he told him. He voice was low but the tone was confident. He knew what he was doing. It was his field of expertise after all. He totally ignored Matt’s remark on how it would kill him. It was doing nothing that would kill Matt. Even if Matthew didn’t want Jason to heal him, which would be ridiculous since he was the one who called, Jason had to put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding.

Clearly, Matt was delirious, calling him Luke. He couldn’t have him in that state. Since Matt could heal himself, it was time to have the boy work with him. “Matt, please, calm down, I need you to focus,” he said, his voice a little louder this time, a little more commanding. He needed him to hear what he had to say, to try. “I will give you of my energy. Take what you need and try to direct it on your wounds. You can do it, just focus,” he told him. Seriously, he had no idea what would come out of this. And he knew healing someone close to dying would leave him in the same state. He could not simply ignore him.

So he placed his hand on Matt and he let his energy flow from his body to the boy’s. He tried to focus on that cut and the one on his arm. He was surprised however how fast the energy was leaving him. It was as if Matt’s body decided to just suck it up. “Matt, please, try to control the energy,” he repeated again. It was always hard for Jason to break the link when he was healing someone but since Matt’s power was also clutching onto him, it was almost impossible. And he had no one else near to pull him away.

[Matthew Roosevelt]

Matt felt a hand on his shoulder, heard a voice telling him not to move. Jason, he guessed. He was surprised that he had managed to move at all, but decided to listen. Trying to get away was pointless and would pretty much just worsen the wounds.
Instead he tried to concentrate on his breathing. It was too flat, too unsteady, but he might be able to fix that.

“Matt, please, calm down, I need you to focus,” Jason continued, his voice a little louder this time, a little more commanding. “I will give you of my energy. Take what you need and try to direct it on your wounds. You can do it, just focus.”
“Don’t”, Matt muttered, pretty sure it was useless though. Jason hadn’t stopped before, why should he stop now?

He tried to go over what Jason had said in his head once again, tried to understand what he wanted him to do. Focus. Direct energy to his wounds. He wasn’t sure whether he could do it, but he had to pull himself together, he had to try. Jason wouldn’t let go, and now that he could feel his own power activate as well, he was pretty sure he couldn’t, even if he wanted.

“Matt, please, try to control the energy,” Jason repeated again.
Matt took a deep breath, tried to concentrate, tried to feel whatever his power was doing, tried to control it, but failed.
“I can’t... I can’t make it, Luke”, he said, his voice a good bit stronger now, “I’m trying... but I can’t”

Still, he had to try again. He was sure he was out of the near-death zone now, he needed Jason to stop. It must’ve taken him enough energy to get him up to here. Matt took another breath. Concentrate. Focus.

His eyes fluttered open, as he managed to take control over his power and was able to stop himself from taking anymore of Jason’s energy. Matt moved away from Jason as fast as he could to avoid losing control again, ignoring the – now weaker - pain coming from his stomach.

He stared at Jason, breathed in, breathed out. He managed to pull himself into a sitting position, leaning against the wall of some building. He looked down at himself, seeing the blood stains on his clothes and the more or less healed wounds, realising once more how much energy it must have cost Jason to save him from dying.
He glanced at Jason, guilt climbing up once more.
“I am so sorry.”

[Jason Campbell]

With anybody else, Jason would be calling an ambulance with one hand while trying to stop the bleeding with the other. But this was not anybody else, it was Matthew. And Matt told him a bit about his power, at least enough to know the boy could heal himself taking other people’s life force and that he could not control this very well yet. Calling an ambulance then, and having all these people who might touch him, it was not the best idea. Jason had to improvise and use his power and pray for the best.

He didn’t really know what would happen. Last time, he simply took the energy Matt was giving to the man and redirecting it properly along with his. This time, it was a lot different. He never healed someone who could take his energy on their own and he wasn’t sure how Matt’s body would react to get all that energy. But what else was Jason to do? He could not let Matthew die here just because he might not be able to control himself and drain Jason.

Of course, if he knew the reason of his fear, maybe he would understand it better. Jason was not Luke of course, the situation was not the same. But to Matt’s mind, right now, it kind of was. His life force was coming out of him so quickly you’d think he was the one bleeding to death. And Matt kept saying he could not control it. “Yes you can. Forget about the rest, focus on that,” Jason told him. If he kept the fear take all the place, Jason wasn’t certain how this would end.

Jason grew weak at a faster rate than he ever did. But eventually, Matthew managed to break the link between them and got away. Jason rested his hand on the concrete and let it support his weight as he tried to regulate his breathing and heartbeat. He saw a flash of light before his eyes. He didn’t want to pass out but it really had been close to it. Without needing an ambulance as much as Matthew needed earlier, he was in no way able to get up right now, let alone drive home.

He lifted his gaze when he heard Matthew talking to him, apologizing for the state he was in. “You did it,” he replied after a moment. God, he hands could barely hold him any longer. He didn’t want to lie down though. That was Matt’s blood, undoubtedly, and it was not the only thing you could find on that ground. He made his way to a wall and rested his back against. He closed his eyes, tried to focus on his breathing. If he could just make it regular again. “Are you still bleeding?” he asked. He didn’t bother to open his eyes or to look at Matthew. He was too tired for that.

[Matthew Roosevelt]

Matt wasn’t surprised to see how drained out Jason was, he knew how much energy it must’ve cost him to get Matt to the state he was in now. However, he was still terrified. He had seen someone die because of this once already.
“You did it”, he heard Jason say, but he just shook his head slightly.
“You did it. I only got me - us - in this situation”, he replied, looking away again - too many bad memories were fitting to this situation too well.

He wanted to help, but he knew he couldn’t. His power couldn’t heal energy loss and even if it could, he had not enough energy left to do anything right now. Maybe he should call an ambulance? He could just leave before they arrived; he had his motorbike after all. On the other hand he wasn’t sure whether he would be able to get to his motorbike in that state, let alone drive it to the school.

“Are you still bleeding?”
To be honest, Matt had no idea whether he was bleeding. His clothes were already full of blood, so was the ground around him – he wasn’t able to say how long the blood has been there though. It could be from when they had brought him in here, or from when Jason had healed him or from now, he had no idea.

“I don’t know”, he muttered, his one hand still placed on his stomach. He could feel the pain from the cut, but that didn’t mean anything. But to be honest, Matt didn’t really care. He would live, that was for sure, so now it was important to get both of them out of here.

He reached out for his phone, still lying in Matt’s blood next to where he had been till some minutes ago. He took it, tried to get it working again and was relieved it actually did.
“You need an ambulance”, he then said, not calling one yet though. He knew an ambulance wasn’t the right thing for everyone, but on the other hand they couldn’t stay here until someone else found them and called the police.

[Jason Campbell]

Jason finally opened his eyes when Matthew talked again, claiming he did nothing, that it was all Jason. He had no idea what Matt went through, he had no idea what happened. Maybe his brother had been in as good a shape as Jason before he healed Matthew. Maybe he was hurt himself and didn’t have as much energy which caused him to die. Of course, Jason couldn’t think that, but he did guess that something happened and led to something tragic. One thing he did know however was that he had a lot more life force than people seemed to expect out of him. Of course, right now, it didn’t look like it. He was exhausted and not just saying !I’m exhausted! and so spend the evening at home because you don’t feel like going out. He was drained, he could barely move without his legs giving up on him.

Still, hearing Matthew denying his effort in this gave him some energy, at least enough to look at the boy and say, “You pulled away. You said you couldn’t but you did.” It was about time Matthew understood he could make it if he wanted to. Because he did, right now. Sure he still needed to work on his skills, but he definitely had them and that was the most important.

Of course, Jason could not heal the pain. Pain was mostly in the head, he couldn’t do much about it, even when the wound was completely healed. He didn’t know if it was the case now however and he wanted to make sure Matthew might not bleed out to death again while Jason tried to recover. He wanted to argue with Matthew when he said he should call an ambulance. But he could feel he might pass out any minute now. “No, no...” he said, raising his hand, moving it as if chasing the idea away. “In my car, in the trunk... there’s a bag. There should be some adrenaline,” he said. He knew technically the hospital was the best solution. But he didn’t need them to do tests to find nothing. His heart was fine and in the end they would say he exhausted himself, and they would force him to take a few days off. He could easily call tomorrow if he was too weak and say he was not in shape. He didn’t need it to be recorded somewhere. So the injection of adrenaline would have to do. He raised his hand again to point at his car. “The keys should be still on the ignition,” he told him. Not really bright, he could have his car stolen, but Matthew had been his priority and he didn’t think much about his car then.

[Matthew Roosevelt]

“You pulled away. You said you couldn’t but you did.”
Matt couldn’t help but bitterly laugh out at that, while he shook his head once more.
“Obviously too late, huh?”, he replied, resting the back of his head against the wall.
He knew Jason only meant well, but he could not take it like that. It was his fault he got into this situation after all. And it was his fault Jason was in that stage as well.
Matt needed to find some way to learn to control his powers as fast as he could in case he would get into such a situation again and now that there were people here, who seemingly didn’t simply want to kill him, but bring him to such a position over again and again, this need became even more urgent.

Jason didn’t seem to want an ambulance, so Matt didn’t call one, even though he still held onto his phone, just in case they did need one if they wanted to or not.
“No, no...” Jason started talking, raising his hand, moving it as if chasing the idea away. “In my car, in the trunk... there’s a bag. There should be some adrenaline, The keys should be still on the ignitio”
Matt nodded: “I’ll go get it”
He took a deep breath, before he tried to get up – holding onto the wall nonetheless. He took another breath as he was standing, blinking the blackness away that began to overlay his sight again. The dizziness was still there, but he managed to straighten up and pull himself together, so he could walk towards the car.

He hurried to get the adrenaline before the dizziness could take over once more. As he was looking through the trunk he felt a sharp pain in his stomach again, and as he reached down for it reflexively, he realised he was still bleeding. Anyway, that wasn’t his priority now. He wiped the blood off onto his trousers, continuing to look for the adrenaline, when he finally found it.
He decided to take the whole bag out of the trunk, as he guessed they might be able to use whatever else was inside it and made his way back to Jason.

The dizziness was still there, as he put the bag down next to Jason, but he successfully ignored it.
“I wasn’t sure whether we might need anything else in it, so I just brought the whole thing”, he explained and sat down next to Jason again to prevent himself from fainting.

[Jason Campbell]

Jason would not tell Matthew, but he did fear his heart might start to beat so slowly it would actually stop. He didn’t tell mostly because he had no idea whether Matt knew how to resuscitate someone. It was also why he wanted the adrenaline, to prevent that from happening. But he was ready to lie, no not lie, to hide a part of the truth to Matt and tell him it would help him. Why put more weight on the boy’s shoulders when obviously he chose to carry the weight of the world already? “Hey, I’m not dead yet,” he replied. His tone might have sounded a little snappy. It was only a reminder of the obvious, so Matthew would not feel as bad as he currently did.

The thought did cross Jason’s mind to ask what happened exactly for Matthew to get stabbed. Had he been in a better shape, he would demand an explanation immediately. He still believed he deserved one, if only because he was the one Matt called for help afterwards. That JJ came with wounds of the like, he was not surprised. The man liked to fight and with his adrenaline, he could not always control himself. But Matthew... he seemed like such a calm boy. Well, people said the same about Jason and he did have a wild side, simply well-hidden.

Asking Matt to get up after such an attack was asking a lot out of the boy but obviously Jason was even less in a position to do so. If Jason helped his system to regenerate itself, the pain and the loss of blood might still be there. Not to add that he wasn’t sure he healed all the wounds. But unless they were to open on his way to the car, Jason promised to take a look at it later on.

Jason had his eyes closed, trying to focus while he waited for Matthew to come back. He opened them again when he sat down next to him. He could tell that Matthew was in a terrible shape still. But there was little Jason could do in his actual state. He opened the bag and looked at the syringe. “I’ll need your help. I need to inject this in the thigh,” he explained. Jason never would have thought he’d ever inject himself with adrenaline in some shady alley. Funny what life can bring you, right? That done however, it helped him rather quickly. He knew the effects were only temporary but he still took a moment before doing anything else. Well, he did look at Matthew and noticed he was in a terrible shape. “The healing didn’t work, you still need more care,” he pointed out. Just as Matt wanted to call an ambulance earlier, Jason was now tempted to do the same.

[Matthew Roosevelt]

“Hey, I’m not dead yet,” Jason replied.
Matt shot him a careful glance. Yeah... yet was pretty accurate now, wasn’t it? Who knew how long it would stay like this, Jason’s energy could be all gone now pretty much every moment. However, Matt decided to not say anything on this matter, it wouldn’t help any of them so probably it would be best just to leave it as it was and try to get them out of this instead.

Therefore getting the adrenaline was probably the better idea and even though Matt was pretty sure most of his wounds were open again, that was the least thing he could do to thank Jason for what he had done, especially considering the state Jason was in now. Who knew how that all would’ve ended, if Jason hadn’t hurried and healed him after all – it would surely look worse for Matt than it did now.

As Jason asked him to help him with the injection, he did hesitate for a moment. He had never done anything like this before and to be honest he had a problem with needles, but that didn’t matter now, there were more important things to deal with. He helped Jason out, ignoring the fact his breath was still pretty flat from getting the bag and his mind protested against handling a needle, but focused on helping Jason, so he would have a chance to survive and they could get out of here as soon as possible. He wasn’t sure what they were going to do, once they got away, but he knew this dusty alley surely didn’t help their medical condition.

However, as Jason pointed out that the healing hadn’t worked and that Matt needed more care he shook his head. Jason clearly needed more help than he did, so he didn’t want him to worry. He would get himself healed somehow, his wounds were healable after all – he wasn’t too sure about the amount of energy loss Jason had to suffer from on the other hand. Also, as the heart-beat slowed down when the energy was lost it wasn’t unlikely Jason’s heart could give in and stressing him was pretty much the best way to exhaust the heart even more.
“I’ll be fine”, he finally said, inconspicuously putting his hand on his stomach to reduce the bleeding and the chances of Jason realising his wounds were open again, "You should worry about yourself first"

[Jason Campbell]

Now that the link between the two was broken, his body could slowly regenerate. Sadly, as he was unable to heal himself, the energy required to feel good would take some time to come back to him. He didn’t know just how much time they might have however. Would someone notice his car, find it suspicious and call the cops? If so, Jason wished for it to be JJ to arrive. It would be a lot easier to explain and the man would have no problem to carry him home.

Had Jason been a gambler, he wouldn’t even be able to bet with certainty on which one of them looked the worst right now. Right now, he couldn’t do much for Matthew. This was not the best place to watch, clean and take care of his wounds. But he could do something about his state. He knew needles were not something many people loved and having Matthew so closed had him to hear his breathing and worry about it. But they had little choice here.

The adrenaline helped. He knew he should probably not drive, not scratch that, he should definitely not drive. But what other solution did they have, really? There was something a little frustrating to think so much energy was lost and Matthew was not in a better shape. But he supposed the boy must have suffered some severe internal damage and that must be healed. If the blade hurt his organs, there must be no trace anymore. Or so he hoped. Jason shook his head. “If you really don’t want any hospital, we need to get somewhere where I can take care of your wounds,” he said, forcing himself to stand up, holding against the wall behind him. He bent down to grab his bag. He knew it could be dangerous, but the ride was not long, and if he drove slowly, he thought they might have a chance. The fact drunk people thought the same thing did cross his mind but he chased it away. “I’ll take you home. We will be able to rest also,” he decided. He walked to his car, replaced the bag in the trunk, then turned towards Matthew. “It’s either that or I drop you at the hospital so you can get stitches,” he warned him. Jason could easily give him all the care he needed, provided it was not worse than it looked, being a doctor for real and not just a healer. But the boy had to take a decision quickly while Jason was still in a good enough shape to do something.

[Matthew Roosevelt]

"If you really don’t want any hospital, we need to get somewhere where I can take care of your wounds,” Jason said, forcing himself to stand up, holding against the wall behind him. He bent down to grab his bag.

Matt looked up in surprise, the adrenaline seemed to work faster than Matt would’ve expected it to. On the other hand, he wasn’t really experienced with neither adrenaline nor medicine in general, so what did he know?
However he wouldn’t let Jason take the bag – it was pretty sure exhausting enough for him to get up and walk to the car, let alone drive once they were there.
Matt got up as well, taking the bag before Jason could reach it. He clenched his teeth as he put the strap over his shoulder to not show the sharp pain going through his hurt arm.
“I’ll take it”, he said, straitening up now.

“I’ll take you home. We will be able to rest also,” Jason decided and Matt nodded. This was definitely better than a hospital and he knew he needed some kind of medical treatment. Matt did think about whether Jason’s condition was good enough to drive, but it seemed like they didn’t really have a choice now.
He followed Jason back to the car and gave him the bag as they reached it so Jason could put it back inside – Matt didn’t know where it belonged after all.

“It’s either that or I drop you at the hospital so you can get stitches,” Jason warned him.
To be honest, this was a pretty easy decision. At least Jason knew something about his power, Jason wouldn’t report him to the police and Jason would understand that Matt didn’t want to be touched if there was any way to avoid it.
“I’ll go with you”, he said, his hand back on his stomach again. There was no point in discussing Jason could bring him back to the Academy. It would simply stress out both of them, which was certainly nothing beneficial right now and he needed medical care, no matter how much he wished he didn’t.

[Jason Campbell]

All Jason needed back then was a little boost. And the adrenaline did the trick. Of course, his legs were still quite weak and there was no guarantee just how long it will last. But he hoped that by the time it would wear off his heart would have started to beat somewhat normally again. Matt’s body was injured and needed more than just rest but Jason’s body was simply exhausted. He was certain the damage was nothing some sleep and a good meal wouldn’t solve. Of course, he might be wrong, as he often minimized the effects of his power on his body. But he was fairly certain he could take it.

He was about to reach for his bag but Matt beat him to it. “Try to take it easy, your wounds are still open’” he said as he could see the pain on Matt’s face. But since he already got the bag, he assumed it would be pointless to fight for it now. They had more urgent matters to take care of first. He put it back in the car’s trunk, again, trying to force himself to hold on, at least until he reached his home and could put a bandage or something on Matt’s wounds. His home was not too far, the streets were in straight lines and empty at this hour. They should be fine, if he drove slowly.

He nodded as Matt agreed to come with him. It was the right decision. Well, not really. The right decision would be to call an ambulance or perhaps another doctor being a mutant, such as Ceanna Riggs. But neither of them wanted to deal with hospitals right now. So his home was the best decision. “Put as much pressure on your wound as you can. I don’t live too far,” he assured him. Though Jason did hope he would have enough time. Matt lost quite a lot of blood and even if the healing he got helped greatly, there was no guarantee just how much blood he recovered from it. He didn’t want the kid to bleed out on him.

As he drove to his place, he forced his mind to think of the medical procedures that would have to follow, just so he could stay awake. Taking a look at the wound, disinfecting them, the stitches then obviously, if he could not close the wounds with his power alone, even if that would be only temporary until he get enough strength for the boy to take his energy again and heal completely. He stopped for a moment as he figured a possible fault in his plan. “Do you need to touch skin to skin to take someone’s energy, or can you take it even through clothes or gloves?” he asked. His whole plan was for him to act as a normal doctor, which he was also. But if Matt could take whatever small amount of energy left in him even while Jason had gloves on, there might be a problem. Quickly, Jason scanned through the people he knew for someone he could call for an emergency, just in case.

[Matthew Roosevelt]

Matt nodded as Jason told him to put pressure on his wounds and did as he was told. He knew that he had lost quite a lot of blood and he couldn’t afford to lose any more, as he already felt his vision starting to blur again and his breath growing shallower.
He leaned his head against the headrest, closing his eyes while they were driving, tried to focus on breathing, on putting pressure on his wounds.
However, his mind preferred to observe what had happened instead. He had no idea how those guys had found out he was at the Bellefonte Academy, let alone did he know how they knew he would walk through that park at exactly that time.
Also, if they knew there existed a school like BA, why would they make so much of killing him? If they knew a place full of mutants, why would they focus on one of them?

“Do you need to touch skin to skin to take someone’s energy or can you take it even through clothes or gloves?”, Jason asked and interrupted Matt in his thinking.
He needed a moment to find back to the car and to understand what Jason wanted to know. His power... did it go through clothing?
“It depends on how thick the clothes or gloves are”, he finally said after a moment of thinking how to put it into words, “The thinner the cloth, the higher is the chance of my power going through it”, he pointed at his leather motorbike-jacket, “I think this is about as thick as the cloth has to be so my power won’t go through it, but I haven’t tried it out, so I’m just trying to guess.”

Sometimes he wished he knew more about his power - not only to be able to control it, but also to know how far he could go without putting anyone else in danger. However, trying to find out more about this power was quite difficult without putting everyone else in danger as well.
He had heard about other students using gloves to suppress their power, but as he had taken Luke’s energy through both of their shirts he doubted gloves would be much of help.
“But as far as I know it doesn’t go through any kind of metal”, he then added, thinking of the attack.
He wasn’t sure whether that fact could be of any help, but it surely was better than nothing. The more information Jason had, the better he could prepare to deal with Matt’s power and especially as Matt wasn’t sure how long he could hold on till he would pass out once more, he guessed he should hurry up with giving Jason information about his power – no matter, how unimportant they seemed.