The Bone Collector-The Watch #1 - ch. 19 (Patreon)

Unbeta'd. Blah Blah Blah. GiftGift felt Park return before he saw him, knowing he watched Gift with his friends. There was something different between the two of them now. Gift couldn’t quite put his finger on when or even what but something had shifted last night. Somehow, Gift no longer felt immature or unsophisticated next to Park. He no longer felt like this naive, silly boy idolizing a superhero. It wasn’t killing Aspen. It wasn’t sobbing hysterically into Park’s arms until he fell asleep.But it was something. It was in the way Park looked at him, deferred to him. Park seemed to have decided Gift could take care of himself, even if he sometimes wanted Park to do it for him. And that’s all Gift had ever wanted. He liked being helpless, he liked being Park’s needy baby. But on his terms. In their bedroom. Behind closed doors with strict rules in play and the security of a safeword.When it came to the outside world, Gift wanted full autonomy. He wanted to make his own decisions, his own mistakes. Letting Park control him in the bedroom fed some desperate need for care his parents had denied him by shipping him off to boarding school, but Gift had been on his own most of his life. He’d made his own decisions most of his life. His parents just hadn’t noticed. Neither had Park.Now, his mother might never know that he was okay. That he was an adult who could stand on his own two feet. She might never see him taking care of himself and others. The thought clawed at his already raw and bleeding heart. So he shook it away.When Park made no move to come to him, Gift extricated himself from Payton’s arms, crossing the room to meet him. He knew it was bad before Park even opened his mouth. The pain in Park’s expression was for Gift, like he knew whatever he was about to say might break Gift.Fuck.“Park?” he said, hiccuping over his name. “Is it my mom? Is she…” the words clotted in his throat.Park shook his head quickly. “No, ouen. No. It’s not that. Anchali’s alive. I spoke with her. She wants me to take you to her.”Anchali.Anchali.Not ‘‘your mom’.Gift nodded, more to himself than Park, the truth settling within him. Anchali wasn’t his mother. He took a shaky breath, then nodded once more, giving Park a wobbly smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes.“I’m fine,” he said before Park could ask, wrapping his arms around his waist and pressing his face to Park’s chest, the buttons of his shirt biting into Gift’s uninjured cheek. Park didn’t say anything else, just closed him in his arms, resting his chin on Gift’s head. Gift wouldn’t cry. He wasn’t sure he could cry anymore than he had last night in Park’s arms. There were no more tears left.Gift didn’t care if the others were there, if they watched, if they stared. That same thing that had shifted, making Gift feel like Park’s equal, had also made Gift realize he deserved to be there. That he was no more or less valuable than the others in his pod. Gift was always meant to be there.It took the sting out of the truth. His mother wasn’t his mother. But she was alive. She was alive and she wanted to see Gift. She cared enough to want Park to bring him to her. She cared enough to check on him in the first place.“When do we leave?” Gift asked.Park pressed three quick kisses to the top of his head. “Now, ouen. We leave now.”“Okay,” Gift said, looking down at his school uniform. “Can I change first?”“Of course. I’m going to change too,” Park said.“He’s coming back, though, right?” Morgan asked from across the room.Sound was funny in this room, like the acoustics of the walls weren’t meant to contain secrets.The others nodded like they wanted to know too, but it was Payton who asked again,“You’re bringing him back to us, right?”Park gave them a tired smile. “Don’t ask me. Gift’s an adult. He can come back if he wants to. He doesn’t answer to me.”Gift’s heart swooped like he was on a rollercoaster heading down hill. Park felt it too. Whatever it was that had changed between them last night. Park was right there with Gift.Just like Gift was meant to be at the watch. He was meant to be with Park. He’d never believed in soulmates until he’d met him. Some part of Gift’s soul had recognized some part of Park’s. He’d known they belonged together from the start.“I’ll be back,” he promised them, voice wobbly.Then took a deep breath and smiled.  “I’ll be back,” he said again, voice stronger.Park looked over the group gathered. “The rest of you report to Mac and Archer in the gym. They need your help with something and they want to brief you on a new assignment before we put the facility on lockdown.”“Lockdown?” Luca cried. “Oh, fuck no. Listen, I’ve been in enough crazy houses to know lockdown means locked in our rooms until further notice. Are we in trouble?”Gift looked to Park. Were they in trouble? Why did Mac and Archer need to report to the gym? He hadn’t even known they were back until he’d seen them standing over Aspen’s corpse yesterday. But he’d been too out of it to realize they weren’t supposed to be there.Park shook his head. “Nobody’s in trouble. I can all but guarantee that once you hear what Mac and Archer have to say, you won’t mind spending a few hours in your room before the main event.”“Main event?” Dove asked.Park gave them a mysterious smile. “You’ll see.”Before they could ask anymore questions, Park curved his arm around Gift’s waist and led him to the door. Gift gave one last wave before he let Park lead him back to his dorm room so he could throw on jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of sneakers. Back at the apartment, he sat on the corner of the bed watching as Park removed his suit, trading it for black jeans, a black t=shirt and a black hoodie.“You look like you're going to rob a place,” Gift said around a giggle.Park looked offended, pinching the fabric of his hoodie. “This is Alexander McQueen, thank you very much.”Gift shook his head. “You’re such a label snob.”Park snorted. “Don’t think I don’t know that those jeans you’re wearing cost three hundred dollars, ouen.”Park returned to the closet, snatching another hoodie and tossing it to him. It was a deep, blood red. “It gets cold at night where we’re going.”Gift nodded and pulled it over his head, the hood catching as he pulled it down. Park reached out and grabbed the edge tugging the hood over his eyes. “Now who looks shady, huh?”Gift batted his hand away, pushing the hood down, waiting until Park turned around to grab his boots before grabbing the collar with both hands and bringing it to his nose, inhaling deeply, the scent tugging at something deep in his core. It smelled like Park. He smelled like Park.“I see you sniffing my sweatshirt, you little freak,” Park teased.Gift flushed as he realized the mirror in the corner allowed Park to see Gift in the reflection. “You smell good,” he mumbled, letting it fall.Park launched to his feet, dropping his shoes and pushing Gift backwards on the bed, straddling his torso and capturing both his hands over his head. “Don’t be embarrassed, ouen.” He buried his face in Gift’s neck. “I like the way you smell too.”“And how do I smell?” Gift asked, feeling a little faint.“Like your mine,” he said against Gift’s skin.A million butterflies took flight in Gift’s belly. “I am yours.”“Oh, I know,” he growled playfully, rumbling against Gift’s neck until he dissolved into a laughing fit.When it faded, Park sat up, hovering over him. “Are you going to be alright, ouen? Are you sure you want to do this?”“See my mo-” he cut himself off, closing his eyes. “See Anchali?”“Baby, you can call her your mom. She’s still your mom. Even if she didn’t give birth to you. She loves you. She named you Gift for a reason. Don’t write her off just yet.”Gift’s heart squeezed. She had named him Gift. Once upon a time his mother had thought he was a gift, not a burden. His mother. She felt like his mother. Even when Gift thought she didn’t care, he’d always felt a connection, even if her love language had been micromanaging his life from a distance and coddling him until he felt suffocated.Maybe she’d been his mother in another life. Maybe she was his mother in some form in every lifetime.“Do you believe in the red string story?” he asked suddenly.Park leaned into his space once more, so close it made Gift slightly cross-eyed. “The one that says the gods tied a red string around the ankles of those destined to find each other in every life? I don’t know. It’s a nice thought, though. I’d like to think I’ve loved you in every lifetime. That I’ll keep loving you in every one to come.”Gift’s breath caught. “Really?”“Why do you sound surprised? Do you not want to spend eternity with me?” he asked, tone teasing. “Already sick of me, ouen?”Gift shook his head. “Never.”“Good.” Park pecked a kiss on his lips. “Let’s go, baby. We’ve got a long drive out to the middle of nowhere.”###Park was right, the drive to Anchali’s took so long that, by the time they arrived, the sun was starting to dip in the sky, staining it pink and purple behind a smattering of fluffy clouds. It seemed to go on forever. Park said it would have taken less time if he hadn’t had to employ countermeasures to ensure they weren’t followed. Gift assumed those measures had been them circling back half a dozen times and making several wrong turns until the lady who lived in the GPS sounded angry.After a long drive through scrublands over dry, cracked earth, they finally parked outside a small house with a broken wooden fence and a sagging  open gate.“Where are we?” Gift asked, looking around at the miles of nothing on every side.Park pulled a gun from the glove box, checking that a bullet was chambered, and that the safety was off. “According to the map?” he said, as if what he was doing was as normal as tying his shoes. “Meadview, Arizona.”“Oh,” Gift said, like that provided any clarity.“Stay behind me,” Park warned as he opened the driver’s side door and stepped out of the vehicle.Gift nodded, waiting for Park to walk around and open his door, before following behind, his fingers caught in the belt loops of Park’s jeans. They were just about to reach the rickety wooden steps leading to the door, when it flew open. Park raised his gun at the person flying towards them, but didn’t fire. Gift’s stomach fell into his shoes as he recognized the blur racing towards him.Park lowered his weapon as Gift called out, “Mae,” a second before she barreled into him, almost taking him to the ground.His mother was barely five-three but that didn’t stop her from grabbing Gift’s face in her hands and pulling him down to kiss his cheeks and his forehead before hugging him hard once more. She stepped back, running her hands over him, fingers stroking over the cut on his cheek, making a distressed noise. “My baby,” she said, in Thai. “I was so worried. I cannot believe that bastard sent someone after you.” Gift’s eyes went wide as his mother muttered. “Such a piece of shit.”“Mae!”“What? You could have been killed,” she looked around before hugging Gift once more than pulling him towards the house. Park followed behind the two, his gun hanging at his side as they walked up the steps. When Gift wrapped his arm around his mother’s waist, he felt the gun at her back. Despite her past, it was hard to associate that woman–a woman who carried weapons and killed people–with the woman he’d known for the past twenty-one years.Once inside, she shut the door and locked it, replacing the chain. She sat in the armchair, gesturing to the couch. Park sat first and Gift sank down beside him, curling against his side, giving his mother a defiant look when her brows shot up.She looked back and forth between the two of them then shook her head with a rueful laugh. Gift felt his hackles raise.“Don’t look so defensive, noo. Did you think I didn’t know about the two of you?”Gift looked at Park, who shrugged.“You-You did?” Gift asked.“Mm,” she said. “I have my spies on the inside just like the other parents.”The other parents had spies? What did that even mean? “But a part of me suspected it would happen the moment I introduced you to Park.”“What? Why?” Park asked, flummoxed.Anchali laughed. “Because Gift has a way of getting what he wants. He always has.”“And you thought I wanted Park?” Gift hedged.“I have eyes, noo. The moment you laid eyes on him, everyone else in that room disappeared. And the way Park refused to look at you, told me Park felt the same way.”Gift worried his bottom lip between his teeth, before saying, “You’re not mad?”She gave a tired laugh, waving a hand. “You’re both adults. Was it my wish that my child would fall for a man almost twice his age…no. But it’s not my life to live.”Gift felt like he was dreaming. “Who are you and what did you do with my mother?” The moment the words were out of his mouth, the truth crashed in on him, once more. Oh. Right. She wasn’t his mother. She saw his face fall, her confusion obvious. “Except you’re not my mother, are you?”Her gaze flicked from Park to Gift and back again. “What?”“Stop it,” Gift snapped. “I’m not a little kid. Just tell me the truth.”She looked pained as she finally said, “Noo, you’re my son. Regardless of how you came to me.”“So you admit it,” Gift said, choking on the words. “I’m-I’m adopted.”Anchali closed her eyes and let her head fall into her hands. “I didn’t give birth to you, no. But you were my baby. My Gift. And I loved you so much.”Gift’s voice cracked as he asked, “Then why did you send me away?”“It’s complicated,” she said, shaking her head.“Then give me the short version.”She sighed, then gave a weary nod. “Okay. I sent you to boarding school because Marshall Kendrick hinted that your biological mother’s family might come looking for you. Knowing what I thought I knew about them, I thought sending you away would keep you safe. Everything I did was to keep you safe.”Gift swallowed thickly. “Who’s my biological mother?”Anchali closed her eyes with another deep sigh. When she opened them she asked,  “Do you really want to know? It’s not a nice story, noo.”“I think we’re past fairy tales, mae.”She nodded, resigned. She stared at a spot on the wall just past Gift’s shoulder as she started to speak. “When I found out I was pregnant, I wasn’t happy. Park can tell you how distraught I was. I had just started to move up in the ranks. I was good at my job. I loved the excitement of it all. I even contemplated having an abortion and just never telling your father. But he found my paperwork from the doctor and he was so excited.” She gave a bitter laugh, her expression almost nostalgic. “So I kept it. I told Kendrick. I had no choice. He was my handler. He was pissed. You know how he felt about me.” She looked to Park, who nodded.“What does that mean?” Gift asked. “How did he feel about you?”Park made a disgusted sound. “Kendrick had a very one-sided interest in your mother. He made no secret of it.”“He brought me to work in his office until he could find a permanent position for me out of the field. I worked alongside a beautiful, young girl named Sukhon, but everyone called her Petal. It suited her. She had the most beautiful skin.” She reached out and stroked Gift’s cheek. “Like you.”“Are you saying…”She didn’t answer directly. Instead saying, “We were both pregnant. She was a few weeks ahead of me, though she was doing her best to hide it. She barely had a bump compared to me. I kept her secret. Even though she was married, there was a lot of discrimination against pregnant women. She said she worried if Kendrick knew, she’d lose her job.And her husband had run out on her. She needed that job to take care of the baby.”Gift chewed on his nail, a slippery feeling settling in his stomach.“After I’d spent a few months in the office, Kendrick came in one day and told us there was a leak, that someone in our office was selling US secrets to the highest bidder. A few days later, over lunch, Petal confided in me that she suspected it was Kendrick himself. I did my best to put her mind at ease. Kendrick was a pervert and incompetent, but espionage? Treason? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. He wanted to be president one day.”Gift took Park’s hand, not missing the way his mother’s gaze dipped to stare at their joined fingers for a long moment, before seeming to remember herself.“No matter how much the agency investigated, we couldn’t plug the leak. Then Kendrick brought me into his office one day and said he suspected Petal was the mole. He said he had proof but that he needed to catch her in the act. He wanted my help. He suspected she’d been sneaking into his office at night, accessing his computer. It was supposed to be easy. I just had to wait in Kendrick’s darkened office and when she arrived, Kendrick would come in and confront her. It was a terrible plan. Ridiculous, really. But it seemed harmless enough.”“So what happened?” Park asked.“There was no chance to confront her. She walked into Kendrick’s office with a gun in her hand and she shot me. By the shock on her face, I assume she expected to find Kendrick. She dropped the gun and ran. Kendrick chased her. I passed out. I woke up six days later to learn that my baby girl was dead, Petal was dead, and the leak had been plugged. I was too grief-stricken to even think about her baby.”She shook her head, like she was back in that moment, her anguish real. “I was furious with Kendrick. I hated him. I probably would have killed him if I had any strength at all. This stupid plan was the reason my baby was dead. He was the reason I’d never have any more children.” She flicked her gaze to them, then away again. “The bullet caused so much damage that they had to remove my uterus and part of my liver. He begged me not to tell anyone about his stupid plan. He said he’d shown the higher ups proof that Petal was the leak and that it was over. I told him death was too good for him and to get out of my room and never come back.” She gave Gift a look that made him feel like crying. “But two days later he was back and he brought me…you.”Tears streamed down her face. She got on her knees in front of GIft and held his hands. “You were so small. You had these big ears, and this tiny nose…like a mouse. You had ten fingers and ten toes and these big, soft brown eyes. He said you were mine. That they’d saved Petal’s baby, but not her and you had nobody who could care for you. He said he’d already arranged everything. There was a birth certificate showing you were ours. Mine and your father’s. I just had to keep his secret. Holding you, keeping Kendrick’s stupid plan a secret seemed such a small price to pay to have you.”“But you said you didn’t even want a baby,” Gift whispered, clinging to his mothers sweaty hands.She smiled through her tears, shrugging, “I didn’t. At first. But as I got further along, I fell in love with my baby, with the idea of her…or him. When she died it felt like someone had ripped my lungs from my body. Then they told me I’d never carry a child again. I was inconsolable. Kendrick knew that. He brought you to me to buy my silence. But how could I say no?”Gift didn’t realize he was crying too until his nose started running, causing him to sniffle loudly. He wiped at his cheeks with the back of his hand.“I told your father everything. I couldn’t do this without him. He wanted to be a father so badly and you were right there. Absolutely perfect. You never cried. You were so quiet we worried something was wrong with you. But you were just…content. Despite everything you’d been through. Your father named you Kla…brave. But I just called you Gift. Because that’s what you were. It’s what you are.”Gift hugged his mother hard, crying buckets for the second time in twenty-four hours. Park rubbed his back, but otherwise stayed quiet, like he wanted them to have their moment.After a while, Gift pulled away and his mother returned to her chair.“So why is Kendrick trying to kill me? Kill us?” Gift asked.Her expression turned grim and she glanced at a clock on the wall. “Because you and I are the only people who can prove what really happened to Sukhon.”“I don’t understand.”There was a knock on the door just as his mother said, “You will.”