Always?

Chapter 9

The group all stared at Atlas, his face and torso covered in blood. He blinked a couple of times as he reached into the box and picked up what appeared to be a heart. Max gasped a little as he stepped forward, and Alex held out his arm to keep him in place. Oliver glared at Cai before approaching Atlas and snatching the box from his hand. “You’re f*****g s**t at your job,” he hissed.

“I was still learning before it all went to s**t,” he replied, collapsing onto the couch with a groan of pain.

Oliver pried his eyes away from Cai to look over at Atlas, who remained frozen in his place, the blood dripping onto the floor and beginning to pool. He sighed as he waved his hand before the man, forcing him to meet his eyes. “You’re fine. Go shower, get the blood off you.”

Atlas still didn’t move, and Oliver sighed again, pried the heart out of Atlas’s cold fingers and threw it to Alec. “Figure out if it’s a human heart, and if it is, f*****g whose, and if this blood is human. He needs to be tested for diseases.”

“Are you going to explain what the f**k is going on?” Helios deadpanned, staring at his older brother in worry.

Oliver stared blankly at the man and decided not to reply. Instead, he grabbed Atlas’s hand and dragged him to the bathroom down the hall. It was rather luxurious, with a shower at one end and a clawfoot tub on the other. The green and white he had in most of his space continued into the bathroom, with fake plants scattered throughout the area.

“Atlas,” he snapped, clicking his fingers in his face. The man blankly turned to look at him, his eyes glazed over. “You’re fine. The blood isn’t yours.” Atlas caught his reflection and quickly looked away.

Oliver stared at the man for the longest time before he took off his coat and shoes and rolled up his sleeves. He quietly helped the taller man sit on the closed toilet seat. He muttered something to himself as he left Atlas on the seat to run the bath and returned to him so he could take off his blood-stained shirt and pants. He would have left the underwear on, but it had also been soaked in blood, and he wondered just how much of the small brown package had honestly held.

He helped him into the bathtub and quietly scrubbed shampoo into his hair, rubbing particularly aggressively at the front where most of the blood had caught him. He took his time helping the man clean himself up. All the while, Atlas remained completely quiet and in a state of dissociation.

A sharp knock on the door caused Oliver to snap his head over and glare at whoever was behind it. “Oliver?” Max asked gently. “Are you okay in there?”

He looked down at Atlas and wanted to ask Max to define okay, but he didn’t want to worry him further, so he grunted and let out a harsh sound. “We’re fine. Give us ten minutes.”

“And you’re both alive?

Oliver rolled his eyes. “I didn’t kill your brother if that is what you’re asking me. While you’re here, get me some of his clothes.”

Oliver heard Max’s gentle footsteps walking away before he turned to look down at Atlas, who was looking at him then.

“The blood,” Atlas whispered, shifting in the bathtub as he looked at the water, stained red.

“Isn’t yours,” Oliver repeated, massaging shampoo into his hair. “The blood isn’t yours. You’re fine.”

“There was so much of it, and it was all over me. The heart, too, oh f**k, was it a human heart?”

“They’re figuring it out. But I doubt it was a human heart. That would have been on the news.”

Max knocked on the door before he walked in, and then he paused and looked up at them. Atlas was in the bathtub naked, and Oliver was sitting on the side washing his hair. “Not a word of this to anyone,” he deadpanned.

Max nodded as he placed the clothes on the towel rack and cleared his throat. “The blood, it’s human. It was on the news that a blood bank was targeted, and five packs of blood were reported stolen. However, it should be clean, considering it was in a blood bank. Nevertheless, you should get him tested just in case. And, I am now leaving.”

Oliver helped Atlas finish cleaning up. After the bath, he made him sit on the toilet seat and dried his skin. Once it had dried, he grabbed the moisturiser he had seen him use multiple times before and lathered his skin in it. While Oliver waited for the moisturiser to soak into his skin, he checked the news on his phone about the blood bank, and just as Max had said, a local blood bank had been hit, and five packets of blood had been stolen; the criminal was still at large. Well, they wouldn’t be getting the blood back anytime soon, as it was all over the international actor and now in the drain of his bathtub.

He slipped his phone back into his pocket and sighed as he helped Atlas dress in the shirt and sweats Max had brought in, and when he realised the man still hadn’t snapped out of it, he grabbed his hand and dragged him to the lounge room and deposited him on the couch. “What have you learned?” Oliver deadpanned, looking at the group.

“Can you explain what the f**k is happening exactly?” Helios hissed, glaring at Oliver.

Oliver returned his glare with a blank expression. “The girls picked up Cai on a run.”

Atlas looked up at Oliver with a slight frown. “A run?” he whispered.

“Right, he doesn’t know,” Matt muttered. “We should probably tell him.”

“No, I don’t think-”

“We’re mercenaries,” Oliver deadpanned. “Well, some of us. Matt and Alec only come when it’s a need now, but we’re mercs nonetheless.”

Atlas blinked up at him repeatedly. “You’re kidding?” he muttered.

“No,” he replied. “Those three,” he said, pointing at Alice, Ani and Amber. “Went on a run and brought Cai back with them.”

Atlas glared at the group, but he seemed too tired to move. “Are you putting my brothers’ in danger?”

“Calm down, they can look after themselves,” Oliver deadpanned, waving his hand to dismiss him.

Atlas continued to stare at the man, and he frowned. “And you?”

“Me, what?”

Atlas’s frown deepened as he gazed into the space between the sofa and armchair for a few seconds before looking at them all again. “Nothing. It’s all beginning to make sense.”

“Yes,” Ani said, clearing her throat as she crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s the short version for us. Now, Atlas, care to explain why someone delivered a pig’s heart rigged to explode with human blood to you?”

~*~