Estelle, smoked and looked out of her 5th floor window, at the closed down and boarded warehouse just 20 feet away from her building. Taking care of expenses with her husband's lack of steady work and her working as a maid in Motels, a bit of tar was a compromise she made to relax. And looking out for any information was her new source of additional money.
She was added to the network by her fellow maids and she had stumbled upon some useful information in one of her cleaning jobs, which yielded her a month's worth of rent money. Since then she has been keeping an eye open for any useful evidence, any cent earned was welcomed.
Just when she was about to take the last puff, she spotted a disturbance on the other side of the warehouse at the back entry, ideally fenced and locked.
She got her phone, zoomed in and started recording. The network was looking for any information on a missing person and there were people getting off a van, dragging an unconscious thin man between them. This can be useful, she thought. She zoomed in as much as she could without pixelating the video and observed, the man being dragged was thin, with swollen lips and cheeks and was wearing jeans and shirt.
Though she wasn't able to record it properly, he was obviously Latin American and in captivity. She posted the information and video on the network and called 911.
As soon as the police vehicles arrived followed by an ambulance, Estelle saw people running on foot, she called 911 and relayed them about it from her vantage point. The cops got in and there were some gunshots. After that they picked the unconscious kidnapped man and got him out.
Estelle quickly got down and went to talk to the cops and paramedics, introducing her as the caller and taking advantage to move closer to the victim, now with the paramedics.
She slyly took a video of the man, he was dirty and covered with dry blood, but his clean parts of the skin was a beautiful honey shade, and he was wearing cheap goodwill clothes, which didn't fit his thin but muscular body. It looked like they had tortured him because his face was swollen but still extremely beautiful. Estelle instantly felt sad that such a beautiful person had been beaten up. As they opened his mouth to check something, she observed and recorded that he had beautiful even teeth with his front teeth slightly bigger but aligned. He was wearing a wedding ring on his swollen left hand, which was being treated by the medics.
Estelle was pushed back by the cops now, as they paraded some of the offenders out and others were carried out on stretchers. The victim started moving his head and tried to talk.
A paramedic and a cop got closer to him and the cop relayed the message loudly to someone on his radio phone. "The victim is conscious... he is saying something." He put his ear close to his mouth and spoke to the victim loudly, "SIR! SIR! YOUR NAME?" the victim mumbled something, his lips swollen with the oxygen mask covering his mouth, making it difficult for everyone to understand.
The cop looked around confused at the words the victim mumbled. "WAY! He is saying, Way!" The paramedic explained. "What way, Sir? Which way? "FREEWAY? SUBWAY?" The cop asked loudly.
"Way! Way! Way!" Ignis repeated unconsciously... everything going on and off focus, till it got black and quiet... "Way!" He finished the sentence in his mind.... Just take me to Way!
***
"You will need to wait out!" The receptionist at the hospital tried her best to stop the large man pushing his way inside from the waiting area.
"Please Ma'am. Please let me through. I am a surgeon, you have my husband in the ER. The cops got him in, Ignis Castro Davis... I am Dr. Waylon Davis... his husband. Please let me through." Way didn't physically push the small middle aged woman but didn't budge either, taking one step closer with each word.
"Sir! Doctor! We will need some identification." She knew in her heart, the man was genuine, his face, the tears, swollen eyes behind his glasses, dishevelled clothes, unkempt hair and beard were proof enough. Someone as good looking as this man, to be in a state he was in, meant only one thing, he had been kept away from his loved one.
Joanna intervened, "These are his documents and marriage licence and documents of the patient. Can I talk to the investigating officer please?" She kept the folder on the reception desk, "Ma'am, please let this man go... please we are begging you!" Jo held the receptionist's hands in hers and pleaded.
As soon as the receptionist nodded, Way ran into the corridor without asking which room Ignis was in, he didn't need directions to reach his husband, they were tuned into each other.
"IGGY!" Way touched the glass partition through which he was able to see Ignis, he was battered, starved, malnourished and dehydrated but he was also alive, beautiful and in front of Way.
Way had cried so much and for so long for his Ignis, that he couldn't cry anymore. He was feeling relieved that Ignis had come back to him. It didn't matter now how long it took for him to get better, nothing in this world can now separate them, even for a second.
"Huh...hmm!" The Detective with a large moustache, cleared his throat to get Way's attention. "Hi! I am Detective Allen from El Paso Police and this is Detective Superintendent Desai from Metropolitan Toronto Police Force." Way looked at them once and went back to looking at Ignis. "Can I meet the presiding doctor? I need to understand how he is, what has happened and what treatment are being administered?" Way said, his eyes never leaving Ignis's sleeping form in the ICU.
Way looked at his husband hooked to Ventilator, monitors, EKG machine and endotracheal tubes. There were no feeding tubes hence he wasn't still assigned as critically ill but there were IV tubes... no blood. It was less than 24 hours hence critical ill diagnosis may take time, his vitals looked stable, besides fluctuating heart and pulse beat, but that could be due to PTSD.
"We understand you are engaged to Mr. Castro." Detective Allen read from his file.
"Hmm... ya... we are married in a private ceremony... Where is the Doctor? Is there a GP attached to this case or do we have a specialist? I need to see his medical case files? Was he conscious when they brought him in? Was there any internal bleeding or indication of any organ damage? What test were done... I need the CBC, MRI, X-Ray reports... I am happy to get an authorization from my hospital and I have submitted my licence documents at the reception." Way kept looking at Ignis, the steady monitoring stats bringing a relief to him.
