bsumone | ❝ Nobody knows where you’re going ❞

"Agent Moreno~," he corrected with a playful smile. "For now."

Dal definitely wouldn't be able to eat more than two slices, either! But it was so delicious he couldn't resist. Even if he couldn't finish the second slice, he could keep it until tomorrow. Day-old pizza's never bad. Pizza is never bad... except when it has fishes on it. He actually managed to nibble his way through half the slice before it was forgotten in favor of the movie on tv.

He chuckled when he heard the agent part. Somehow it sounded sweet when he said it. Gabriel finished his pizza then sat back, resting his arm on the back of the couch. This was nice. Relaxing with someone he knew he could trust. That he hoped he might have more with when this was all done.

"If you really want to be technical about it...I'm Senior Special Agent Moreno," he said after a bit. Not that the ranking mattered between them but he somehow felt like flirting that light wouldn't cross a line.

Dal's eyes widened a little at that title. "What a mouthful! Do I have to say that every time?"

Gabriel let out a laugh and shook his head. "You can just call me by my first name. I don't need all the formalities and never have. I get enough of that at work."

A look of relief came over his face. Then he offered a small, shy smile. "Gabriel," he repeated to himself. "I really like your name." His faze was soft and very fond. He definitely had feelings he was nursing for Gabriel. They talked about it, so they were both aware. But more than that, he really just adored what a kind and understanding person Gabriel was. If this ended up being the only time they spent together, Dal knew he would treasure it.

"Is this what dates are like? Real dates?"

His soda paused partway to his lips. Oh. Well that was an interesting question actually. Gabriel had to think about that because going on a date with someone was such a wide range of experiences. But as a whole?

"Yes. It really is. Two people interested in one another spending time doing something together as they get to know each other better."

That description made him melt a little. Dal grabbed his drink in both hands and brought it to his lips to consider... After a quick sip, he drew his legs up and leaned into the corner of the couch.

"I know you said after but... would ya be upset if I thought of this as a first date?"

Dal was truly so very sweet. He could really see himself dating someone like him. And he knew that this wasn't just some charm to get into his pants either. Dal was just...like this.

"What if we think of it as a practice for our first date? So that way when we have our real one I'll be able to have give you our first kiss."

"Oh..." That sounded so romantic! Dal blinked at first, then bobbed his head in an eager nod. "I like that."

Gabriel gave him such a warm look. Good, that was a solid compromise for them both. "Then when the time is right I'm going to take you on a first date later. Nothing fancy because I think things like this suit us more."

"I don't want anything fancy." Nor does he need it. He'd be happy putting a puzzle together with Gabriel while sharing a meal with him. All Dal wanted was whatever Gabriel wanted to give him. His time, his affection. That was enough. He didn't need wooing! That part was already accomplished.

"Somethin' simple like this is just fine."

"Excellent. I'm very good at simple." Gabriel noted the credits were rolling and wondered when that had happened. Ah well. It didn't matter much. Still, he couldn't help laughing a moment about it.

"We might have missed the ending it seems."

Those dark eyes glanced over the TV and Dal joined in the laughter. "I bet it was a happy ending." What he saw of it made him think it was going to end well for the fictional couple. Once that show was over, they went through to find another, then another after that. They watched TV from their respective sides of the couch until early in the morning. It wasn't as late as Dal would normally stay up, but he also didn't want to keep Gabriel awake. He was putting so much into the case, he deserved some good rest, too.

The next day, Dal's place was open again. Thankfully, when Gabriel took him to check, they'd thought ahead and wrapped up some of the pizza for Dal to take with him. Just in case. He was glad to know he'd had something to eat in the morning when he was done working. The next few days were pretty routine for Dal, save for a few text check-ins with Gabriel so the man would know he was doing alright.

The days stretched into a week, then a bit more. The threat of the killer still loomed over the street workers. He hadn't struck since Tommy was found, but that wasn't unusual. It's not like he picked someone off every night. And he had to be aware that the Feds were involved by now.

Everything was fine on Dal's block since then. But Dal still had to make a pit stop at the local shelter. Not for socks, those were still good, but to pick up more condoms. It's always good that they give them away for free. Maybe he could blame being tired from being up all night and then some due to a few last-minute calls.

It was almost 6am before Dal was stopped on his approach by one of the men he'd seen in the shelter so often. Not someone like him, but one of the volunteers. Someone who wasn't just there to spoon out soup and sign in people who wanted to talk to a pastor or see a doctor. He's pretty sure the guy was one of the people actually responsible for running the place. He called Dal by name, which surprised him, but then he was asking for help picking up some grocery donations.

They were already in his car before Dal felt that something was wrong. They definitely weren't headed in the direction of the church where the donations usually came from. His heart started to race, but he kept his panic under the surface, just barely. One thing Dal was good at was hiding his feelings when he needed to. This was definitely a needed to situation. He somehow managed to reach into his coat pocket without being detected to dial the first person in his list of contacts: one Agent Gabriel. Dal never put last names in his phone.

Obviously, he couldn't say anything. He did try to say something to the man he was with, asking where they were going and how far away it was just so Gabriel would know he was in a car with someone he felt unsafe with. Hoping maybe they could track his phone and find him in time.

It wasn't long before they were well out of the area Dal was familiar with. And then the man was assuring him everything would be fine. But he started sounding... unhinged. Talking about the filth on the street and how it needed to be cleansed. That was his mission. He was a tall man, broad and stronger than Dal, for sure, so there was no point in trying to fight when he pulled Dal from the car and led him into what looked like some nondescript house. Dal would later discover it was supposed to be used to house women trying to get out of bad family situations.

This was the guy. Dal knew it when he felt the iron grip on his arm leading him in through the attached garage. The rest got a little blurry. The guy was one about his mission, that he had to cleanse them before they could enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Hadn't Gabriel suspected someone street-smart folks who'd been vanishing would trust? Someone they wouldn't hesitate to wander off with alone? His heart was pounding as the man tugged his clothes off with no help from Dal. Was he fucking them before them??

No, no, he simply led Dal to the bathroom to get him washed while he prayed. He might not have wanted sex, but there wasn't an inch of Dal that went untouched, and somehow that felt like more of a violation than most of what he's ever experienced on the street. Dal was shaking when he done, standing on the tile floor and taking particular note of how cold it felt under his feet. That's why he was shivering, right? The sound of water filling the bath was almost as loud as the blood rushing in his ears. He didn't even hear the guy praying. He didn't even fight when he was guided into the bath. Nor did he beg when he was oh-so-gently guided back... Not until his head was under the water and that urgent will to live kicked in.

Then hs struggled. He grabbed at his assailant's arms as they tried to keep him under the water. He kicked and splashed, coming up for too-small sips of air, which he foolishly used to plead to be let go. Why, why, why? Suddenly he was gasping in water, trying cough beneath surface. ANd his vision started getting dark around the edges.

Dal didn't call him. Dal sent text messages. And luckily Gabriel was with a couple other agents he'd called in for this meeting with police force. Concerned, he answered the call and listened in. The voice he heard that wasn't Dal's made his blood run cold and he knew what was happening. So he muted his end and immediately demanding someone start tracking the phone he was on the call with. He also allowed no one to question him when he demanded a force to follow the tracking and ran to his car.

With a squad behind him, he put his phone on bluetooth and started to record the call. Evidence. Gabriel kept his eyes on the road and tried not to panic as he rushed in the direction the phone was in. He heard everything as he did and it all clicked. His instincts had been right.

The candidate for mayor. The one no one would suspect because he looked so good. Was so public. Well he wasn't going to let him take Dal. He'd save him.

Arriving there, he spread people out to keep searching and he brought three officers with him. They cleared each room and that was when he realized. Drowning. "The bathroom. Go!"

Rushing forward, he kicked the door open. "Release him or I shoot!"

The man scrambled back and Gabriel let the officers arrest him while he rushed forward himself. "See where the ambulance is!" he demanded as he pulled Dal out and immediately started administering CPR on him to get the water out of his lungs.

"Come on...don't you die on me..."

That voice was so soothing in its familiarity despite the urgency in it. There was something going around him, voices and footstep. And coughing. Water splashed on his face and life seemed to return to his body. Dal lurched onto his side, coughing and taking desperate gasps of air. His lungs burned and it felt like he hadn’t breathed in years.

Everything was instinct at that point. Struggling for air, Dal initially batted at Gabriel, wild and wide-eyed until his mind could parse those familiar features. It took all seconds for him to go from struggling to clinging. He was shaking so hard it hurt. Surrounded by so many strangers left him feeling more vulnerable than he could remember being. So he clung to the only familiar thing: Gabriel.

He didn't know where Dal's clothes were and it didn't matter. He ended the call he was on with him and took his coat off to help him maintain his dignity. Then he gathered him into his arms to carry him out of there and away from the man that they were arresting. Cops were looking at Gabriel in shock as they took care of things. Shocked because he'd done something in a matter of a month that they'd failed to do in several. Not to mention that his instincts on who the killer was had been right.

Rubbing Dal's arms, he saw the ambulance and carried him over there so he could get checked out. Right away they told him they were going to have to get him to the hospital to make sure there was no further fluids in his lungs. He knew Dal wasn't going to react well to that so he pulled his badge out.

"I'm going with him. This is my case and he's the victim. Where he goes, I go."

They might need to call the fire department for the jaws of life to pry Dal away from Gabriel. He's not letting go without a fuss since these are all strangers and he's not feeling particularly trusting after what just happened. And mentioning the hospital had him shakin ghis head violently.

"No, no, no! No hospital!" He can't afford a trip to the ER. Nor does he have the reading skills to jump through the hoops of paperwork for any sort of charity waiver. He clingers even tighter to Gabriel when they try to load him into the ambulance, his thin hands going white-knuckled with their tight grip. He peered up at Gabriel, wide-eyed and still very much terrified.

"Don't make go."

"Shhh. It won't cost you anything and I'll handle your paperwork," he reassured him, only shifting here and there to allow the paramedics to look Dal over as they rode to the hospital. He had other agents that he knew would be there to handle matter. So right now he had to focus on the victim. On the man he'd come to care so much about and almost lost.

"I won't leave you, Dal. I'll be with you the entire time." Then he looked up at the people with them. "If there's anyone there who can speak Korean it would be preferred. He'll have an easier time with someone who can speak his first language."

Dal was still shivering, but it didn't stop him from cringing at every touch from the paramedics. Even the most basic things, like getting his pulse and blood pressure, brought the fear in his eyes into sharp relief. They must have radioed ahead because, as Gabriel requested, they had an interpreter there to help Dal through whatever exams and tests needed to be done.

Once they were there, Dal was silent, mostly just staring off and keeping his hand clenched in Gabriel's sleeve. He fought when they tried to swap out Gabriel's coat for a hospital gown. The compromise ended up being to let him have the coat back after they finally got him to change. After that, he fell silent, simply nodding whenever the interpreter spoke. And after a few uneventful hours, they discharged him with a warning to come back if he experienced any number of a list of symptoms in the next 72-hours.

He was still shaking.

By the time they let him leave, someone (probably from Gabriel's team) brought some clothes: a set of sweats that were a little too big. They weren't Dal's clothes, and at some later time he would be grateful that some stranger hadn't been rifling through what little he had at his apartment. He just hoped to get his own clothes back at some point. It didn't occur to him at the time, in his detached state of mind, that they were evidence now.

Had he let go of Gabriel's sleeve at all the entire time? Probably not and his hand ached from that vise-like grip he kept. There would be questions; from the FBI, maybe from the police, too. He didn't think about any of that. Dal felt stuck in that moment when he'd gasped in the first mouthful of water, then later when he felt his head get light and his body going weak and his vision started to darken. A few more seconds...

He remained silent until they were in the warmth of Gabriel's car, the heat blasting on him as he continued to shake. It was fear. Real and true fear. Then finally, "... can I stay with you?"

Gabriel did as he said and he filled out all paperwork. He made sure to work with the hospital to get it so Dal wouldn't have to pay a single penny. Then, since he was the only one that was trusted right now, he helped him to get dressed and talked to the officers that showed up to say that Dal was in shock and needed the night before they questioned him tomorrow. And that he was going to pick who questioned him.

Dal deserved to have someone be gentle with him. Not interrogated like he was at fault when he was the victim here.

With that, he thanked an agent of his for bringing his car to the hospital before loading his companion into it. At the question, he nodded and encouraged the younger man to rest his hand on his leg. Not for anything sexual but rather because he could handle the car while Dal could have physical contact with him. "You're staying with me, yes. We want to make sure that you're safe. Tonight you can rest and then I'll be the one to get your statement tomorrow, alright? You only have to talk to me in the station tomorrow. I promise."

He'd make sure of that.

"Just hold onto me. I'll get you to my room and we won't go anywhere else tonight."

He could feel the warmth of Gabriel's skin seeping through his pant leg where his hand rested. It's the only warmth he really felt. Even with the vents pointed at him and spilling hot air into the car. Why did it feel like Gabriel was the only thing that was real? Dal wasn't even sure he was. It felt like this was all some fevered dream his brain created in those lost few seconds when the oxygen became just too little. Wasn't he really back in that room drowning? Wasn't that why he was still shivering?

"... I gotta work..." he murmured in a distant tone.

"We'll worry about that later. Right now you need to rest somewhere safe."

Gabriel sped them all the way to the hotel and only parted from Dal long enough to get out of the car to go help him out. Then he got him up to his room to sit him down on the bed. Taking his jacket off, he knelt before him so he could get those shoes that were given to him off.

"You're safe here, Dal. No one can get you here."

Dal just kept his eyes fixed on Gabriel, as if the man might vanish if he blinked or looked away. Once his shoes were gone, he looked down at his bare feet and wiggled his toes to make sure he could still control them. Then he turned his focus back to Gabriel. The terror was still fresh in them and he couldn't shake it. Dal swallowed hard and reached out for Gabrile's hands and clung to them.

"Stay here with me?"

It's not appropriate. It's definitely not the best thing for the case, but Dal doesn't want to sleep alone.

It was in this moment that he had to decide what was better for the victim or what was appropriate. No one could make that decision for him and he knew that. And Gabriel already knew what his decision was anyway. So he gave Dal a very warm smile as he gave those hands a gentle squeeze.

"I'm going to go right over there to change. You'll be able to see me the whole time, alright? Then I'm going to send the recording of our call to my superior. After that we can stay right here. Together. Is that okay?"

"I won't watch if ya don't want..." But he appreciated that Gabriel wanted to stay in his line of sight. The last thing he wanted was to make Gabriel uncomfortable. But he desperately didn't want to be alone and he didn't trust anyone but the man in front of him now. The man who's been so kind and understanding, the one who hadn't judged him from the start, the one who wants to be with him when it's all over, the one who pulled him back from the black nothing that threatened him hours ago.

So he waited, folding his hands in his lap and focusing on them to give Gabriel enough privacy but still keep the man in his periphery. Dal wasn't going to change. These sweats were clean and though a bit large, they'd be comfortable enough to sleep him. And a little less scandalous than a bathroom when they were going to share the bed.

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