Watari Pt 1: L\'s Heirs

Fenian watched them both carefully, firstly through the window, then as they climbed inside. The devastated teenager and the defeated young man, so alike in their attire. The Irishman sensed that now wasn\'t the time to ask questions. Mello answered it anyway. "Catania\'s dead. He shot himself."



Fenian nodded. "We\'ve got a theory on the numbers, but it\'s a long-shot. I mean a real long-shot." He saw the hope flare again in Mello\'s eyes. "No, I really mean a long-shot. But Near hasn\'t come up with anything better. There\'s no obvious patterns. Everyone is working on it."



"What\'s the long-shot?" Mello asked, fingers entwined in his rosary. "Because I\'m prepared to clutch at anything right now. Matt is stuck in a cave with no-one alive knowing where he is."



Fenian sighed, looking a little afraid. "For this theory to work, Matt would have to have a fucking good memory."



"He has. He\'s got an eidetic memory." He noted Fenian\'s bewilderment. "A photographic memory. He can sit there with a dictionary and learn a language in an hour. Though it does fade if he doesn\'t use it. Why?"



The Irishman grinned. "Let\'s go and get him then. Mello you ever been underground before? Because I can call back-up, but we\'re close to the hills here. We can be there in about ten minutes."



"What?" Mello blinked, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing. "Fenian, what have you found?"



"A map." Fenian turned to give directions to the driver and the car slid away. "You got all the supplies I asked Century to get? I asked if you\'d been underground before. If you haven\'t, I\'m calling back-up."



Mello shook his head. "I learn very quickly." He slid off his chair to his knees, gazing up at Fenian. "You\'ve really found him?"



"I don\'t know, but maybe it\'s worth the craic."



Within quarter of an hour, they were standing on a headland, the sea dark below. The air was filled with its rushing and its salt. Fenian was gabbling through his explanations of the use for each piece of equipment, but Mello was barely listening. He nodded in the right places, his eyes flickering constantly to the fissure in the earth that could well have been the entrance to Hell, but for the fact that Matt might be down there. Fenian fastened ropes, clamp-ons and torches to Mello\'s body, then clipped on the paper covered in its plastic sheet. "It\'s going to be dark in there. I don\'t want you crying if you break a fingernail. Ok?"



"I won\'t." Mello smiled in what he hoped was reassurance. "Can we go now?"



"I think you\'re underestimating the danger."



"I\'m not. Can we go now?"



Leaving Neuron in the car with their driver, Fenian led the way inside. They descended on ropes for a few feet, before finding solid ground. "Right. Twenty-four paces forward." He frowned. "How fucking tall is he?"



"An inch shorter than me." Mello took what he judged to be Matt-sized steps forward, close to the twenty-fourth, there was a fork. "Which way?"



"The flower is leaning to the right." They moved on in silence for a sample following of their suspected map. It worked. There was always a turning as the paces directed, always a decision to be made where the list of numbers dictated that there should be. It felt like far more than a coincidence to both men. It felt like it was actually going to work. Fenian sucked in a breath. "I know you\'re sick of Lamond telling you, but you need to fucking understand what we\'re going to find here. I\'m experienced in cave search and rescue, I\'ve seen it. I\'ve seen people survive for days; and I\'ve seen people dead in fucking hours. It all boils down to what supplies they had on them. I can tell you now that there are so many variables, but from what I\'ve seen in those pictures, it\'s not looking good. He\'s fighting on two fronts: dehydration and fucking hypothermia. Keeping active and moving will stave off the latter, but will further dehydrate him." Fenian shook his head, but continued to talk as brusquely as he could. No sentiment here to rile Mello. "He\'s been carving things all over the wall, which might have seen him through the first night keeping warm, but is a bastard for losing water. He\'s sweating and breathing in chalk. Soon as he loses the fight with hydration, he can\'t keep moving and then the hypothermia will get more of a hold. Both of them are going to mess with his mind and push him to lose control of his muscles. Both of them are going to make him fatigued. The second he loses consciousness, he\'s done for." The route, highlighted in his torch, showed another fork up ahead. "If we find him at all, we\'re probably going to find him hanging, Mello."



"Twenty-eight steps. We need to turn left here." The going was easy. Despite the equipment that Fenian had insisted Mello learned and carried, the tunnels were mostly wide and tall enough for normal walking. It was all Mello could do not to break into a run.



"It\'s just so you know what we\'re up against."



"Fenian, I know." In contrast to the summer heat outside, the temperature underground dipped more the further that they went. "You don\'t have to say it for me to know what you\'re thinking. It\'s in your tone. You think we\'re here to collect his body."



Fenian hesitated just a touch too long. "No fucking news is good news." But Mello didn\'t reply, just walked behind him, counting pointedly.



About half a mile in and they were about to run out of numbers. A rushing sound had been gaining momentum, crashing through the rocks like a live thing. "Six." Mello stopped the Irishman at the corner. "What is that?"



"It sounds like the fucking sea to me. Some kind of underground inlet. It\'s possible here." Fenian glanced down at the paper in his clip, visibly nervous. It wasn\'t that he hadn\'t fetched corpses from the bowels of the bedrock before, but that he knew he would have to be the one to deal with Mello during it. The blond had always been a little unstable. "We\'re nearly..." He didn\'t finish before Mello pushed past him, impatient with the pause that he had initiated himself. They counted the steps and followed the tunnel in a dog-leg, then reached the final number. Mello\'s pace quickened. "Mello! Stop!" Fenian grabbed the blond\'s waist and physically held him back. His torch picked out a sudden ending of the track. Down below, they could hear the sea crashing in. The two men stumbled backwards, landing hard on chalk and wood. "What the fuck?" His voice echoed and his torch slowly rose.



They had found him. On the far side of a deep chasm, halfway up sheer white rock, there was the ledge. Matt was slumped into a corner, arms pressed around his chest. His legs may once have been bent into his torso, but now they were sprawled, one foot already over the ledge. It was difficult to tell how he hadn\'t slid down over the edge. The chain rising from his neck was taut against the wall and it looked for all the world that he was already hanged without the drop. There could be no conclusions other than the choker was firmly embedded into his neck and that the redhead was strangled.



"Mail!" Mello screamed and his voice echoed through the cavern, returning back hardly less impassioned. Then, as they watched, Matt\'s foot shifted a tiny fraction. His eyes momentarily flickered open, then closed fast shut again. "Mary, Mother of God! Fenian! He\'s alive! He\'s alive!"



Fenian stared at the rigidity of the noose and a \'how\' formed silently on his lips, but he was already moving. "These planks have been a bridge. Mello, help me move them. Come on!" They could see the indentations where they had been placed before. With one in place, Fenian made a grab for Mello, forcing him back to the next. "It\'s too dangerous. Get the bridge in place first. You are not crossing on one!"



"Mail, I told you I\'d always come back for you. I\'m here. Mail Jeevas, are you listening to me?" He and Fenian manoeuvred the second plank in place. "Mail Jeevas, wake up!" There was no response; the roar of the sea far below rendered it impossible to tell if there had been a tiny sound. Mello turned as if going for the third plank, then performed a feight. He rushed out onto the two planks already there. Arms stretched wide, he balanced over the yawning chasm, feet testing for support of his weight even as he committed himself in faith that they would hold. In ten sure steps, he was over the divide and straddling his lover for want of anywhere else on the narrow ledge to sit.



"Mello! You fucking halfwit!" Fenian raged. "Are you trying to kill yourself too? Saints fucking preserve me! You had no bastard harness!"



"Shut up and tell me what to do next." Mello snapped, his fingers already clawing at Matt\'s neck to release the choking noose, but he couldn\'t find it. "Fenian! Shine that torch back over here!" He did and Mello glimpsed another flash of dazed green eyes, before Matt sank back into unconsciousness again. "Mail, stay with me, guapo. You\'re going to get out of this." He could see now what was happening, as he followed the chain down. It hit leather above the padlock, which had forestalled its removal. The leather took the strain of the tension and continued below. Mello followed it to beneath Matt\'s armpits. It was his belt around his chest and so the noose was transformed into a safety-line. He ran his fingers back up, reason telling him that that alone could not have saved his lover from strangulation. He find the links of the choker, around the base of Matt\'s neck, but not against it. It had been twisted around his metal collar with the last looped secured with his wristwatch. Matt was not hanged. Mello relayed all of this information to Fenian, then added, "Jeevas, your mind is awesome. I should have trusted you to think of something."



"Mello, stop rubbing his arms now!" Fenian called. "If he\'s suffering hypothermia, you\'re pushing cold blood into his heart. Idiot!"



"Then tell me what to do!" Mello yelled back.



"Cover his torso with your body. Don\'t touch his limbs. Yeah, I know it looks a bit gay, but, like, cuddle him. You need to warm his heart." He was straining under the weight of the third plank, trying to place it by himself. "He needs to regain consciousness before I\'m putting any fluids in orally. He\'s going to need hydrating with a drip."



Mello pushed his own knees up so hard that they grazed the chalk wall, leaning in to clutch the redhead to him. "Fenian, there is nothing in the world I\'d rather do right now than cuddle this beautiful man."



There was a pause. "Right." Fenian spoke through the darkness. "There was some important information I wasn\'t told. It\'s all good. Whatever swings your boat." There was a crash of falling wood. "Fucking Jesus." He righted himself. "I\'m good. Just dropped the plank. I\'m nearly with you, Mello, just keep him warm and talk to him. He can probably still hear you, even if he\'s too far gone to respond. Ideally we need him conscious."



Mello held him a little harder, hoping that sheer will would transfer his body heat onto his lover. His breath whispered into the redhead\'s ear. "You\'re going to be ok now, Mail. I came for you. I\'ll always come for you. Always." Matt felt so cold, as if he was dead after all. His lips were badly chapped and his eyes sunken. "I failed you, but I came as soon as I could. I love you so much, Mail. You have been so clever. We found you because of your clues. We got here. I\'ll always back for you, no matter what happens. Can you hear me, Mail Jeevas?" There was the tiniest noise in the back of Matt\'s throat. "Mail, Fenian\'s here too. Can you hear him remaking the bridge? He\'s got hydrating solution and blankets and stuff. He\'s going to make you feel so much better. It\'s over now, guapo. You made it."



"Mello." Fenian called from over the divide. "I\'m shining my torch over the rock and there\'s some cracks."



The blond turned his head. "What are you telling me, Fenian?"



"To get your fucking harness on." There was movement. "I\'ve got myself clamped on here. How strong is that there hoop the chain is connected to?"



Mello took his torch and shone it from behind Matt\'s back up the wall. "Fuck knows, I can\'t reach that."



"Right." He made clicking noises, thinking. "Right, you\'re either going to have to get your arse back over here and secure yourself properly or..."



"It\'s the or, I\'ll be back over there when he is. I\'m not leaving his fucking side." Mello warned.



Fenian nodded. "I don\'t want to risk my weight over there too until I know that the pair of you are attached. That ledge might give." He sighed. "Unwrap your rope and throw the end over here." Mello did as he was told. It fell short, but Fenian scrambled and caught it. There was the sound of hammering, then torchlight flooded their area again. "What the fuck are you doing?"



"What does it look like?" Mello snarled, witheringly. "Putting my harness onto Matt. You\'ve just told me the ledge could give." There was no reply. A second rope hit the bridge, but scittered off into the abyss. It was reeled in and thrown again. Mello ignored it, already picking the lock on the padlock now that he knew that Matt could not fall and be lost forever.



"Oh! For fuck\'s sake! Mihael!" Fenian barked. "While we\'re down in this fucking cave, you will do precisely what I tell you to do. All the fucking heroics are well and good, but you\'ve made three mistakes so far. You endanger himself and yourself, then why the fuck am I here?" He stopped, watching in disbelief. "Mello, you had better not..." But Mello already was. He had risen, away from the man he was supposed to be keeping warm, and was dragging him up onto his feet. Matt tried to take his own weight, his head lolling in abject confusion, his knees giving under him. His eyes opened briefly, unfocused and unrevealing. Fenian shrieked. "Mello, what the fucking Hell? You haven\'t got..." Mello stepped onto the bridge and, with suitable leg room, bent to lift the redhead in his arms. "Mihael, you have no idea how dangerous this is!" Fenian raced back to brace against the rope. "I could hold one of you but... Mello, you cannot carry him over that... oh! Fuck. Holy Mary, Holy Mother of God, Holy Virgin and virgins, Mother of Christ, Mother of divine grace, Mother most pure..." Fenian dashed forward to take Matt from Mello\'s arms and to help him lie him on the tunnel floor. "Mello, you ever try anything like that on my watch again and, so help me fucking God, I\'ll kill you."



Mello wiped the hair from his eyes. "The ledge had a crack in it. He\'s not on the ledge. You needed to get to him to fix him. He\'s right in front of you. What\'s the fucking problem?" He pressed his body back over Matt\'s torso. "Now we\'re not farting about with ropes and he\'s not in danger. It\'s fucking warmer over here! It looks to me like things have improved." Against his arm, he felt a twitching and turned to look. Matt\'s hand had moved closer. "Mail, we need you to wake up now. I know it\'s hard, but Fenian needs you conscious, so we can give you some water. Will you open your eyes for me, guapo?" He stroked back the red hair. "Come on, guapo, open your eyes for me. We have water and food and a cigarette." Fenian was moving around him, laying out his supplies and preparing his liquids. Suddenly Matt began shivering under his lover and Mello looked up in alarm. "Fenian!"



Fenian smiled, "No, this is good. He\'s starting to regulate his body temperature. Keep at it, boy. You\'re going great, Matt. The sooner you wake up, the sooner we can get this crazy fucker off you."



"Don\'t tell him that." Mello grinned. "He likes it." He bent again and whispered in Matt\'s ear. "Open your eyes, so I can get you home and really cover you, Mail. Then you\'ll know what hot is." Fenian coughed to indicate that he could still hear him. Mello glared up, crossly. "Problem, Fenian? Mail, should I kiss you? See what he does? Or should I...?" Mello realised that he was looking down into emerald eyes behind orange goggles. "He\'s conscious! Give him water."



Mello had seen something like this before. It was when Matt had saved the overheating dancer in that Camden nightclub with water and sugar. This was the opposite end of the spectrum but, as he held Matt\'s head up, and Fenian let the solution drop, regularly, but in tiny amounts between Matt\'s lips, the effect was much the same. The redhead rose from seeming dead to straining for the dropper. Fenian drew back, "Let me do it, Matt. You\'ll get enough." He increased the rations, short trickles instead of drops, until Matt\'s hand rose and he tried to take the bottle. Fenian held it out of reach. "Nearly there, Matt, trust me." He allowed more sips in and they both watched the sentience flood back into Matt\'s eyes. "That\'s good, you\'re coming back to us. Hold still."



"Water." Matt rasped, his throat like sandpaper.



"Mello." Fenian handed the solution to him. "Stay warming him. Just sips of that." The Irishman dashed back to his bag and withdrew a flask and a block of Kendal Mint Cake.



Matt was attempting to grab the bottle from Mello, but the blond pinned him down with his arm and elbow, still cupping his head from behind. "Mail Jeevas, you will lie still and let me do this. Do you understand?"



Fenian frowned. "Don\'t take that tone with him. He\'s working on a very primal level to survive at the moment." He took a wrist and monitored Matt\'s pulse rate. The back of his hand took the temperature of his forearm, as Fenian peered at its colour. "Matt, you\'re doing fine." He snapped off a tiny piece of the mint block. "Let\'s help his system get an energy boost." Fenian pressed the substance between Matt\'s lips and stood back. "Eat it." Matt began coughing, spluttering it all over his chin. Mello\'s hand reached out and Fenian placed another piece into it. Mello pushed it between Matt\'s teeth and held his hand over his mouth. "Fuck! Mihael. I think you should get away from him until I\'ve..." But Matt had quietened. His gaze was fixed onto Mello\'s and was focusing. "Right." The smile on Mello\'s face was frightening. He was looking at Matt like a predator over its prey. Fenian quietly said, "I have lukewarm tea. But I\'m not sure..." Mello\'s hand left Matt\'s mouth and reached for it. Fenian was surprised to see the faintest smile on Matt\'s face; people were normally weakly fighting at this point, but Matt sipped the tea as docile as a lamb.



They watched him rise a final level. Coughing and gagging until the empty cup was nearly knocked out of Mello\'s hand. "Water! And get me a fucking cigarette!" Matt croaked. "Mello, water."



Fenian grinned and handed over a thermal wrap. "You can get off him now, Mello. Welcome back, Matt." As Mello wrapped the silver sheet around his lover, Fenian unpopped the top of a bottle. "This is water." Matt took it from him and gulped it down, turning as Mello tried to stop him. "You\'re going to be sick, Matt. Shockingly enough, Mello\'s finally got it right."



"Fuck off." Matt replied, as Mello tried to stop him. Then immediately turned and threw up onto the chalk floor.



"I rest my case." He stood back. "Reckon you could stand with help, Matt?" The redhead nodded and Mello helped him up. "Sip your water, tell us when you need a rest and we\'ll get you out of here."