Ezra drifted in and out of consciousness. Sometimes he woke up with Rick beside him on the bed, sometime not. It took him far longer than it should have to realize he was drugged with something. He didn’t drift like this even when completely stoned and certainly never when he was sober, sick or healthy. Rick must have put in his drink or something, because that was the last clear thing he remembered.

Ezra teared up, but was pulled back under before he could start sobbing.

--

The next day, they restarted their quiet, tense vigil. Rave had stayed in a guest room- not Ezra’s guest room. There were a few ideas bandied about what to do, but nothing that would actually work.

Dimitri was cuddling into Malachi’s large chest, looking smaller and more delicate than Holly had ever seen him in front of any kind of company. Giovanni still hadn’t retreated yet although he was clinging to Leo more desperately than Dimitri was to Malachi. Rave and Rylan were sitting right next to each other. Rylan’s arm wasn’t around the lavender-haired fae’s shoulder, but it looked like it was a conscious restraint that kept it that way.

Holly scowled at the ceiling again. This sucked. He hated waiting. And he didn’t even have a cute young thing like Rave to distract him.

Although, he thought forlornly to himself, it probably wouldn’t make a difference. He was worried about Ezra.

He stood abruptly and stomped back to Ezra’s room. Unless he was actively being held by one of his husbands, he couldn’t seem to stand still.

He threw open the door, not caring that it banged into the wall. They were getting Ezra into a real room the moment he got back. Holly very carefully didn’t think of the alternative. Ezra wasn’t there by choice. He wasn’t that stupid.

Now that he was here, he didn’t know what to do. He collapsed on the bed for a moment- it still smelled more like anise than anything. Not real comforting. He got up again and paced around for a moment before taking a seat at Ezra’s desk. There were a few resumes scattered around- with their address at the top.

Holly smiled slightly. Well, that was a good sign at least. He set them aside, careful not to wrinkle any. There were a bunch of papers in a pile against the wall that turned out to be all receipts from the clothes. Holly didn’t even know why he still had those. He picked up a handful and tossed them into the trash. One fluttered into the bin slower than the rest.

He frowned and picked the photo up. The back had ‘Remember? I miss this,’ written on it. The ink looked fresh.

Holly flipped it over, frown deepening. He nearly screamed when he saw the front and he did throw it down. It fluttered slowly before settling face up, a young version of Ezra and Rick smiling up at him. Well, Ezra was smiling at the camera- Rick had his face pressed against Ezra’s hair and was smiling at him. His arm was wrapped around Ezra and all Holly got from him was smugness in possessing Ezra. Ezra’s hair was cut short and dyed black. He looked human. And… meek, somehow. It was sick.

Holly scowled at it but picked it up and stomped back to the living room. “I found another picture of Ezra,” he snapped.

He tossed it down. “It’s not very good,” he added, seething.

Dimitri was the first to lean forward, jostling Malachi a little. He picked it up and just stared at it for a few minutes. “He looks happy,” he said finally.

Malachi was looking too. He snorted. “Yeah, with a drug addicted asshole.”

Rave crossed the room to stare over their shoulders. His eyes widened a tad. “He looks really young in this photo. When was this taken?”

Malachi gently took it out of Dimitri’s hands and flipped it. He read the inscription and snorted again. “Asshole,” he muttered.

Leo kissed Giovanni’s head and wandered over as well. “Where was this?” he demanded.

Holly scowled. “His desk. It’s the only fucking personal thing in the whole goddamn room.”

“Where’d he get it?” Leo asked, eyes lighting up a little. “Rave, does he carry around photos of his ex?”

Rave shrugged. “He might. But…” He looked at the photo again. “This was a few years back, but he was complaining about not having any good pictures of them together. I told him I had some of him beat up and he hasn’t mentioned it since.”

“So Rick gave him this probably?”

Rave snorted. “Or his mom. She’s crazy.”

Holly sorted. “I’ve heard.”
Leo hurried out of the room. Holly blinked at his back and followed him when he headed down the hallway to the guest bedrooms. “Leo?”

“Just a hunch,” Leo muttered, as he walked into Ezra’s room and started rummaging around a pile of clothes on the floor.

“Leo?” Holly repeated.

Leo ignored him and pulled out a ratty old bag with a triumphant, “Ha!”

Holly blinked at it, recognizing it as the bag Ezra had been toting around when he first got here. “What are you doing?”

Once again, Leo didn’t answer, just started going through the bag. A flash came out first, followed by a ratty pair of jeans and then an envelope, marked simply with Ezra’s name.

He quickly dumped the contents out- a pack of neatly rubber-banded bills and a folded up piece of paper.

Leo unfolded the piece of paper and his eyes darted over it. Holly quickly crossed the room to stand behind him, reading the hand-written words.

It was a letter to Ezra, from Rick.

Ezra,
     I miss you…

Holly snorted and scanned the letter. It was sentimental drivel. Lots of, ‘I love you,’ and ‘I miss you,’ and ‘Remember…’ There were no apologies or ‘I’ll do better,’ only ‘Things will be better.’ Other than the very beginning, Ezra’s name wasn’t written. ‘Baby’ and ‘My baby’ and other pet names, usually preceded by ‘my’ took its place. The letter was possessive and patronizing. Less apologetic, and more full of blame, of all things. ‘You just need to come back home and behave and everything will go back to normal’ was implied in almost every other sentence. It was actually stated at one point, “I got our old house back. Everything can go back to the way it was. You just need to come back to me and we’ll find a way to make it work.”

Holly glowered it and Leo winced and stepped away. “Holly, cool down.”

Holly blinked and then forced the heat that had risen around him down. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

Leo threw down the letter. “This is gross,” he snapped. “Rick’s a dick.”

Holly glared at it. “I can torch it,” he offered.

Leo hesitated, but shook his head. “We can’t,” he said reluctantly. “It might have something important in it.”

Holly rolled his eyes. “What?” he demanded. “There’s a lotta pointless drivel, and thinly veiled threats, and half-assed promises. There’s no information in here except that Rick thinks Ezra’s really let himself go these last few years and that he bought their old house back. There is literally nothing else in that.”

Leo blinked. “Their old house!” he exclaimed.

Holly blinked at him. “In the human world? Don’t be stupid.”

Leo glared at him. “Why can’t they be there?”

Holly shrugged. They could be there. It was a good choice. It was just wishful thinking on Holly’s part that they wouldn’t be there. The police would be less than helpful in the human realm and they would have to get paperwork before they went there themselves.

“It says right here,” Leo said, pointing at the letter. “’Everything can go back to the way it was. You just need to come back to me.’ At our old house. Holly, he has to be there!”

Holly stared at him for long moments before nodding. “It’s a better idea than any we’ve had yet.”

Leo nodded, eyes large and hopeful, and grabbed his hand. He pulled him out the door and down the stairs, the thin paper flapping in his hands.

--

Leo bounced in front of his husbands and Rave, waving his hands around and trying to convince them. Holly hung back, arms crossed over his chest.

Rylan finally snatched the letter out of his hands and read it for himself. “It’s something at least,” he murmured skeptically.

Dimitri fiddled with his shirt, straightening it. “It could be something. We don’t know when it’s from, though.”

“There was money with it,” Leo said, waving his hands again. “He was broke, remember? It’s probably pretty recent. From when Rick beat him up or something.”

Rylan sighed. “That means we need to alert the human police.”

Malachi snorted. “Fat lotta good that’ll do ‘ya. He’s human, he’s with a human, we’re- you’re fairies. And me and Giovanni just some fairy devotees or whatever they’re calling it over there these days. Not to mention we’re still not a hundred percent sure he’s not there by choice and he wasn’t tied down or anything.” Malachi stood, starting his own pacing. Dimitri curled into himself without the man to cling to.

Rylan stared at him pensively for a moment as Malachi paced and then wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Dimitri jerked once, and then subsided, leaning against Rylan.

“What we need to do,” Malachi said, running a hand through his dreads, “Is just go over there. Rave, you know the address, right?”

“Yeah,” Rave said softly. He had drawn his legs to his chest and was resting his head on his knees. His eyes kept darting to Rylan and Dimitri.

Malachi ignored all of it. “Cool. We’ll go over there and bust him out. Or, well, I will. I dunno how big of a deal the border patrol really is, but in case Ezra actually is there by choice or whatever or isn't but refuses to say anything against Rick-"

Leo made a small sound like he was going to object, but Malachi whirled around to face him. "Don't even, Leo," he snapped. "We've all heard him. He's still in love with Rick or some shit," he spat. "I don't want to leave him there if Rick is hurting him, but we shouldn't take unnecessary risks! If push comes to shove you know he'll stick up for Rick and not us! Goddammit, we're already pretty much guaranteed to fucking fail the investigation and I don't want to miss the last few days I have with you guys because you're in fucking jail for trespassing on human land!"

Leo flinched like he had been hit. He fell back onto the couch, stricken.

Rylan growled and threw himself onto his feet, putting himself in the path of Malachi's resumed pacing. He twisted one hand in his shirt and the other in his dreads, yanking the taller man down by the hair. But he didn't start yelling. Instead, he crushed his mouth to his husband’s and held him in place. Every time Malachi tried to pull back to say something, Rylan renewed his oral attack until Malachi finally subsided.

He pulled back from the grumpy man, waited a moment to see if Malachi would start shouting again and then shook his head. "We're all going," he said, voice eerily calm. "We're not going to get caught and I'm going to see you every day for the next several decades."

Malachi snorted. "You can't just will that to happen. It doesn't work that way."

"Wanna bet?"

Malachi didn't reply. He stared down, eyes focused somewhere below the floor.

Rylan stared at him for a moment and then hugged him tightly. “’Lachi, you’re not going to lose us,” he murmured. “No matter what happens. We’ll find a way.”

Malachi let his head rest on top of Rylan’s. “Yeah,” he finally said. “Okay.”

Rylan stayed curled around him for a moment longer before gently pulling away and shoving him down next to Dimitri. “What we need now,” he said firmly. “Is a good, unobtrusive way to get over the border.”

They all turned as one to look expectantly at Rave- everyone but Giovanni who still had his face hidden in Leo’s side.

Rave nodded wearily and stood. He looked tired, but resolute as he fished a thin black phone out of his pocket. He flipped it open and wandered out of the room.

Holly hesitated a moment and then followed him to the formal parlor a room over. It was far enough away to offer quiet and a semblance of privacy, but Rave didn’t seem to mind the company. He offered Holly a thin smile and then tapped a few buttons on his phone before raising it to his ear.

Listening to half a conversation was about as fascinating as it always was, which is to say, about as interesting as watching paint dry. But Holly stuck around and fetched a pen and paper when Rave needed it and even wrote a few things down for him.

Holly had retreated to the uncomfortable, brocaded couch and was staring at the ceiling, half-asleep after almost an hour of it. His husbands had peeked in, one after the other like clockwork. All, except Giovanni who had been clinging to Leo, and Rylan who had peeked in twice to make up for the pair. But they had been quiet and hadn’t stayed for longer than a moment, not wanting to interrupt Rave and incidentally keeping Holly from having to get up and check on them. He hadn't slept well the night before and was tired. His men had been up and down all damn night and it hadn't helped his already broken sleep. But Rave's voice was soothing, soft and even when he spoke and the silences were long. Mostly, he was just a comfortable presence. He was a little calmer than the other men, a little less on edge. Holly wasn't sure why but it was helping with his own nerves.

So when Rave rested a hand on his shoulder, he jumped, not having noticed his approach.

"You done?"

Rave nodded and tucked the phone back into his pocket. "I have a route that should hopefully get us there safely and avoid the guards. It's a little circumspect, but it sounds pretty safe and civilized and stuff, just out of the way.

Holly brightened and bounced onto his feet, all the weariness and achiness of a moment before swept away by the news. "Great! Out of the way enough for all of us to go?"

Rave nodded. “Yeah.”

“Excellent! So we should leave now.”

“Uh, no.”

“No?” Rylan asked from the doorway.

Rave turned, flushing a little to face him. “Yes? I mean no…” he trailed off and took a deep breath. “We should go after dark. It’ll be safer.”

Rylan frowned but he didn’t argue. “We’ll see what everyone else thinks.”

Holly glared at them. Rylan bending to what Rave thought was cute and all but it was Ezra and he was with Rick and the longer they left them together, the worse it could be. “No,” he snapped. “Rick’s already nearly killed Ezra at least twice. From those pictures Rave brought yesterday, possibly more. I’m not leaving him alone with him longer than we have to. In fact, why hasn’t anyone called the fucking police over there?!”

Rylan didn’t hesitate in coming over and wrapping his arms around Holly. “Holly, the cops won’t actively do anything about it. It’s pointless. We can’t prove he’s not there by choice and all the records anyone has proves he is.”

“Call them anyways!” Holly snapped. “All the records also say he was getting the shit beaten out of him! Cops do stuff about things like that over there!”

Rylan hesitated a moment. “Go talk to Malachi. Get him to do it. Let me talk to Rave for a few minutes.”

Holly rolled his eyes skyward when Rylan stepped forward to talk to him. Like four inches apart, with Rave looking adorable and craning his head back to look Rylan in the eyes. Rylan always liked feeling tall.

But he ignored it for now and went to find Malachi. Rylan could hit on Rave all he wanted when they got Ezra back, but if he kept this shit up now Holly was going to deck him.

--

Malachi made the phone call and almost managed to gloss over the polygamous marriage to fairies, but slipped up at the last second when he said, “we” instead of “I.” He winced as he hung up, a full ten minutes after that. “Shit. That could’ve gone better.”

Holly sighed and patted his shoulder. “But they sounded like they might help anyway, right? I mean, they have the abuse on record.”

“Not the worst of it,” Rave said softly, trudging into the room, Rylan slinking in after him. “The only time they got anything on record was when me or my mom called the cops and the one time Rick beat him up while he was already in the hospital.”

“What?” Dimitri asked after a moment. “He attacked him in the hospital?”

“A few years ago. That’s why no one leaves Ezra alone with him in the hospital anymore. That time wasn’t actually that bad. He punched him like twice, in the gut. He hit his call button though and a nurse came in halfway through.”
“Has he ever reported any of it himself?”

“No. He used the police reports to file for divorce so he kind of half admitted it then. But he never reported anything new. I don’t know what he would have done if there hadn’t been so many attacks on file though. Rick was refusing to sign the papers and it was only reports that let him actually get a divorce.”

Rylan sighed. “So maybe something will actually be done. Malachi, what number did you give them?”

“My cell.”

“Good. So if they actually do something, we’ll know. Now Rave, tell them how we’re going to get over.”

Rave nodded and perched onto one of the couches. The six men gathered around him in a loose semi-circle. By this point, Giovanni was all but in Leo’s lap, but he was still there, with the rest of the men, which would have been unbelievable even a month ago.

“It’s actually really simple. There’s a border patrol and official crossing points, but there’s a lot more space than there are guards. Especially on nights with full moons, like tonight,” he said pointedly. “They’re more worried about weres getting over the border so a large number of the usual guards just go chasing after every little signal their little sensors pick up. So we go through one of the more un-protectable parts tonight. We’ll go up to the Kathareuein Mountains and just go through.”

There was a long moment of silence. “That seems like it would work…” Malachi murmured.

“It’s just sounds way to easy,” Holly snapped. “Also, I don’t think I’m comfortable leaving Ezra there any longer than we have to. We think we know where he’s at. Let’s just go now. We can totally talk our way through the border.”

Six sets of flat, un-amused eyes met his.

Holly hunched his shoulders. “Okay, maybe not, but just Malachi can handle it, right? Rick is just one human, and a measly one at that.”

Rave shrugged. “Probably.”

Rylan waited a tense moment. “But, you’ll notice, no one wants to send him there alone anyway, just in case,” he growled. “What if that bastard has friends? Or a gun? Dimitri can protect any of us from getting shot-“

“Hypothetically,” Dimitri said. “I’ve never actually put that particular trick to the test.”

Rylan waved the disclaimer away. “But he can’t do that if he’s not there.”

“Does he have a gun?”

“Yes,” Rave said. “Or at least he did ten years ago. He’s a drug addict. He deals with drug dealers a lot. He’s hired body guards before too, although I think Ezra always managed to laugh his ass off at him and stop that.”

Rylan snorted, but he was smiling a little bit.

Holly looked even more somber however. Leo’s smile faded after a moment as well. “I don’t think we should leave him there for longer than we have to. It doesn’t sound like crossing now would be that much harder than doing it tonight.”

“I agree,” Holly added. “Rick’s already gotten close to killing him before. I don’t want to rescue a corpse.”

Leo nodded his agreement emphatically. “And Ezra actually tries to piss him off sometimes. Like actively. He doesn’t seem to have a survival instinct.”

“I’ve noticed that too,” Malachi said. “I really should just go alone. Besides, we’re not even positive he’s there.”

“He has to be.”

“He probably is,” Rave added. “Plus,” he hesitated for a moment. “Ezra can handle Rick’s moods like no one I ever met. When he really wanted to avoid getting hit, he didn’t get hit.”

Leo glared at him. “Are you saying it’s his fault he got hit?” he spat.

Rylan put himself between the two. “Leo, I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way.”

“I kinda did though.”

The both turned to stare at him, Leo angrily, and Rylan incredulously.

“What?” Rylan snapped.

He raised his hands. “That sounds victim blaming and stuff and Rick never should have hit him, but Ezra can manage Rick. He knows how to manipulate him. Honestly, when Rick’s sober, it’s kind of scary how compliant Ezra is and how complacent he can keep Rick. He gives him everything he wants and doesn’t get hit. It’s not… normal and frankly it’s always creeped me out, but he knows how to keep Rick happy. It’s not a particularly safe, sane, and consensual relationship when they’re like that but it looks like it at first glance.

“He knows he does it too. It’s at least somewhat conscious. I know it is because when I was little, I once wandered into their yard when Rick was strung out on something and hitting him and Ezra calmed him down in like half a second and kept him that way until I left again.”

Rylan absently patted Leo’s head when he pressed himself to his back. “Yeah, but he doesn’t really do it, does he?” He nudged Leo. “He said he antagonizes him.”

“And he does. Ezra’s the wild card in this, not Rick. Rick is predictable. It depends on if Ezra has realized Rick could kill him and is being nice or if he’s pissed enough he’s not.”