Until I Get Caught Red-Handed.

“I think you know what it means.” Alex says, looking up from the thick book set out on the desk in front of him.

“No, I don’t.” Zack replies, rolling his eyes. “I know what you expect it to mean, what everyone will assume it to mean, but I don’t actually know what it means, no.”

“Do you have to overanalyze every little thing we find, Zack?” Alex replies with a sigh, turning to the younger man and pursing his lips.

“That’s kind of our job, Alex.”

“So? Can we not just take something for face value once? Please?”

“No, Alex, because that would mean we’re not doing our job right.”

Alex grumbles begrudgingly, slams the book closed and stands, sliding the thick, aged wedge of a book under his arm.

“I hate you and your stupid sensibility.” Alex frowns, tugging the sunglasses that rest on top of his head down over his eyes.

“No, you don’t.” Zack contradicts him quickly. “Because without it, you’d have been fired long ago.”

He pulls his own pair of black sunglasses from his suit pocket and slips them over his eyes.

“This is true.” Alex replies with a shrug, pushing himself up on the balls of his feet to press a kiss to Zack’s cheek.

“I thought so.”

They’re walking somewhat conspicuously down the street as they search for Jack’s sleek black car among the Saturday morning traffic.

“What do we tell Rian? He’ll be expecting us to have found something.” Zack asks as he opens the back car door for Alex to climb inside.

“We’ll think of something.” Alex replies as Zack slides into the seat beside him.

“Found anything?” Jack asks, glancing in the rear view mirror at the two of them before he begins to drive off in the direction of head office.

“Not exactly.” Zack replies slowly. “Alex thinks it’s related to some stupid old myth and he wants to look into that, but I’ve told him that Rian won’t buy into that.”

“No, you’re right, he won’t.” Jack confirms with a small frown. “You’ll have to find something better than that if you want to keep your jobs.”

“But we have no other leads!” Alex exclaims, waving his hands around.

“Make something up?” Jack suggests, taking the final corner into the parking lot of their headquarters.

“We’re going to have to.” Zack says with a sigh, opening the car door and checking quickly for anyone nearby.

Fifteen minutes later, the three of them are sitting awkwardly opposite Rian in his office, Alex with the book on his lap.

“So, what you’re saying is, you think the disappearances have something to do with this myth?” Rian asks, clearly confused, as he stares down Alex.

“Basically, Mr. Dawson, sir, yes. That’s what we think.”

“I don’t think,” He says, running a hand over his short hair, “that you’re looking deep enough into this. I suggest that you go away, all three of you, and research. I think that this situation is more than what it seems to be on the outside. Someone’s keeping a secret, and they’re keeping it safe. We need to find out what it is.”

“Jack, Zack, I want you to go back to the scene of the disappearances, and Alex, I want you to look into this myth of yours, and see how and if they link together.”

And so with a resentful sigh, the three of them leave and head towards Jack’s car, pulling their sunglasses over their eyes as they walk.

They drop Alex off at the city library, and Zack makes sure to tuck a handgun into the older man’s inside pocket, just to be safe.

“I probably won’t need it, you know,” Alex laughs, “I’m only in a library, after all.”

“Better safe than sorry.” Zack replies curtly, kissing his forehead.

Alex frowns at him, pulls away and turns, heading inside the library without another word.

Zack runs his fingers through his hair and turns back to Jack’s car, climbing inside without a word.

By this point, they are both sick of seeing the beach, with its tape cordoning and constant patrol. They get inside with a flash of their ID cards and Jack pulls his gun from his pocket.

“Stay alert.” He reminds Zack, like he’d forget.

He pulls a notebook from the inside pocket of his jacket, which contains the information and photographs of all the missing teenagers. He flicks through it absently, for what must be the fifth time today.

‘Davis, Jeremy Clayton; Farro, Joshua Neil; Farro, Zachary Wayne; Williams, Hayley Nichole; York, Taylor Benjamin’

Zack paces around absently while Jack pokes around further.

“Zack. Zack!” Jack yells across the sand, and the older boy turns to him. “I think I found something!”

Zack moves over quickly, and he inhales sharply at the sight before him.

It’s a box. But not just any box –blood is seeping out through the gaps and ridges in the rough wood, staining the sand it touches.

“I’m not fucking opening that. No fucking way.” Zack says, face paling as he takes a step back.

Alex has decided already that he really, really hates the library. It’s full of creepy old people who seem to sit and stare at him. Although, that’s probably because he’s wearing a full suit in the middle of summer, and sunglasses indoors.

He has various books on myths and legends spread out in front of him, open at various pages as he tries to collate the information together.

He’s almost done when his phone vibrates violently in his pocket, and he fumbles with it for a second before he opens the text he’s just received.

It’s from Jack.

Hurry up and get your ass down here before Zack gets himself killed.

And all of a sudden, the countless pages he’s been copying out are irrelevant.

He closes all of the books, folds the paper he was writing on and tucks it into his pocket beside his gun, which he mentally thanks Zack for leaving.

He’s left the library before anyone even realizes he’s moved from his seat.

He weaves his way through the crowd with ease, trying to convince himself that Zack will be fine, that nothing bad will have happened. Worrying never solved anything.

Except, he can’t stop himself, and he lets his mind wander off to think of the worst circumstances possible. Zack could be dead.

But it’s all part of the job.

Alex sighs as the beach comes into view. He can’t be distracted by his own demons. Not right now.

He shows the guards his ID card and he’s let into the site easily. His somewhat calm mindset is quickly shifted when he sees Jack, Andrew and Martin (some of their other co-workers) holding their guns aloft and poised at the surly individual a few feet away from them.

Alex is curious, and for a second is about to run over and back them up, until he catches sight of Zack slumped on the floor, bleeding from a nasty looking wound just above his hip.

And then everything slows.

He runs, runs over to Zack, forgetting completely that they’re on a crime scene, and crouches down beside him.

“What are you doing? They need your help.” Zack says in a dazed voice, his eyes struggling to stay open and focused on the older man.

“You’re bleeding.”

“So?” Zack asks, looking down at the bloodstained shirt and lifting it slightly to inspect the damage to his skin. “I’ll be fine.”

Alex pulls a bandage from the seemingly bottomless pockets of his suit and sets about bandaging it up, ignoring the red that sticks to his hands.

“We need to stop you from bleeding so we can sort everything out. Get you to a hospital, or something.”

His hands are oddly steady, and reassuring to the younger male despite the situation.

Zack’s eyes slip shut for a second, and Alex slaps his cheek gently to force him to open his eyes again, inadvertently smearing a little blood on his skin.

“Don’t you dare.” Alex snaps, leaning forward to press an awkward kiss on Zack’s cheek as he drags his eyes open again.

“Dare what?” Zack asks, blinking slowly.

“Don’t you dare die on me. I’m not losing you today.”

Zack laughs weakly, lolling forward against Alex, and the older boy stutters under his weight.

Alex swallows, because he knows then that unless Zack gets professional, medical attention immediately, he’s going to lose him.

“Hey, hey, Zack.” Alex says, cupping Zack’s face and making the smaller man strain his eyes to look at him. “I love you, okay?”

He’s wanted to say that, wanted to tell him for weeks, and it’s now or never.

“I love you too,” Zack laughs weakly, and in his last moments he presses a kiss to Alex’s lips.

And that’s when Alex breaks.

It’s a few weeks later, at Zack’s funeral, that everything seems so real, so final. Alex is in pieces, and he hasn’t stopped crying since the day he lost him.

He wonders, he wonders why he waited so long to tell him. He guesses he’ll never know.

He’s sitting in his room, alone, on the night he decides he can’t take it.

He hasn’t spoken, hasn’t breathed a word since Zack died. And this case, this case is taking its toll on him. It’s fucking impossible. The kids are gone forever, just like Zack.

He sits in the shadows, just a short distance from the window and twists the revolver between his fingers absently.

He’s going the same way as Zack.

He pushes the gun up under his chin, closes his teary eyes, makes his last thought of Zack and pulls the trigger.