Silas' POV:
"You were attacked?" my dad asks me as I focus on my wrists and the red ring growing on them from having been cuffed for so long.
The clock on the wall tells me it is nearly midnight, but I'm not tired because of my short nap. Also, because my focus is on getting the hell out of here and I won't rest until I have answers about how long I may be here.
"Yes. I was attacked but I fought back and threw the person out of my window. I think it was a man based on the stature, but I can't be sure because their face was covered and anyone looking to murder wouldn't be obvious about their appearance or do anything that would make their identity obvious," I tell him, trying to think about anything that would tell me who my attacker is.
The person who should be behind bars.
"Your apartment building was blown up. I saw it on the news," dad tells me. "How did you not get injured?"
"I wasn't there," I say. "I moved in with my boyfriends and was living with them at the time. Someone is trying to frame me in order to hide their own identity, but I didn't do anything wrong!"
My dad reaches across the table and places one of his hands on top on top of my left hand. "I believe you, Silas. I know I didn't believe you in the past and never came to your aid, but I know you are a good person and you didn't do anything wrong. I'm going to prove your innocence."
Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry.
"Does mom know you're here?" I ask, wondering if my mom is on the same page as my dad.
Dad nods. "She saw the news first and told me to come make sure you didn't do it, because she didn't think you would hurt anyone." He sighs. "Silas, we need to map out where you were and when on the days leading up to the explosion so I can find out how to get proof. Do you know if your... boyfriends? Do you know if they have cameras in their house?"
"I'm not sure."
It wouldn't surprise me if they did, just because it's such a nice house, but it also seems like something Lincoln would hate. No reason behind the thought, but I just get that vibe from him.
My dad lights up around three in the morning, when I go over how I was attacked for the fifteenth time.
"You said you threw your attacker out a window, correct?"
"Yes," I say, trying to figure out what he's thinking.
My dad opens to a new page of paper. "Did the window break?"
"Yes."
"Good," my father says, getting up. "They'll be bringing you back to your cell, but I will be building a case. Be patient, son. If what I am thinking works, we will have you out of here by tonight. Do not speak with anyone, do you understand?"
I nod as my dad leaves the room and the officer takes me back to my cell. I lay down on the bed and close my eyes, hoping that my dad can follow through with whatever idea sprung into his head so I can get out of here.
•••
Atticus' POV:
"What do you mean you found out how to prove his innocence?" Lincoln asks, getting up and following after James. "How?"
James turns around and looks at the pair of us. "You two must know this city... where would the glass from Silas' window be? They must have taken something from the crime scene, yes?"
"It would be kept in the warehouse," I tell him, because anything involving someone with Mistacesemia that isn't an entire building and is result of an attack or use of power is stored there. "I can drive you there."
Even though I don't like this man at all for how he treated his son, if he's going to help get Silas out of the cell and prove his innocence, I'll do whatever it takes to help him.
Besides, Lincoln and I can't make Silas our boyfriend if he's behind bars!
James looks between myself and Lincoln. "I don't suppose you know a doctor who's a specialist in Mistacesemia as well?"
Lincoln saunters forward and flashes out his identification badge from work. "Yes, I do," he says and he's being very cocky, which I think is pretty funny, especially considering the look on James' face.
"Of course you are," James says, sounding exhausted. "Well, show me to this warehouse and then I need you to run some blood tests."
Lincoln skips over to my car, hopping in the front seat. "You can sit in the back," he tells James. "Because I still despise you for being a dick to Silas when he was young, and I like the front seat."
"So much for being a professional," James mumbles, and I know he's referring to Lincoln.
I start the car. "Please stop fighting or I'll make you stay here, Lincoln. We are trying to help our boyfriend out here," I warn him, and Lincoln shuts up with a huff.
"Does anyone have the blood tests for people with Mistacesemia? Because Silas says someone with the malfunction attacked him and I guarantee that they're the same person who blew up the apartment to hide the evidence," James says from the back seat, scanning through the notes he must have taken when talking with Silas.
"Yes, I know one of the people who mans a file unit," I tell him. "Lincoln, call Jared and ask him to get the files with blood results for the 2003 grouping of people with Mistacesemia."
Lincoln grabs my phone. "Atticus, it's three-"
"Call him."
"Fine," Lincoln says, dialing the number and seeming surprised when Jared answers. He relays my message before hanging up. "He said he'd meet us at my office."
We arrive at the warehouse and I go in alone, since I'm an officer and I doubt they'd let three people in. I show my identification and the buzz me in.
"What can we do for you?" the man at the front desk asks me, having me sign in on a sheet once he's scanned my ID.
"I'm looking for physical remains of an attack dating May 9th, 2025," I tell him, and he opens a book to skim through the pages.
He points to a line. "Ah, here we go!" he says, leading me back behind the counter and down the long shelves of the warehouse. "Row 98, shelf 14..."
I wait while he climbs a ladder and returns with a box about twelve inches wide and tall. When he hands it to me, I hear glass crunch in the box, and there's an "Organic Material" sign on the side of the box.
"There's blood in here?" I ask, because I know for a fact that blood is the thing we want, even though skin would be even better, but I don't know if we will get anything like that.
The man shrugs. "I don't know, man. I didn't pack this one up," he tells me as we leave the back room. "It's possible. Blood or skin cells, maybe."
"Thanks," I tell him, signing my name on the list because I will have to return the resources once we've examined them. "I'll have them back here within the forty eight hour period."
"Good luck with the examination, officer," he says as I leave.
James goes through his notes on the ride to Lincoln's office while I sit in the silence, my right hand on Lincoln's thigh. It's comfortable silence, though it would be even better if we had Silas here instead of his dad.
"I'm going to set up my examination table," Lincoln says through a yawn as we enter his office with the box of material from the attack in hand. "I hate this bio stuff, though, so it may take me a while."
James and I follow him to the lab, sitting in the doctor chairs while Lincoln sets up his space. There's a knock at the door around four thirty and Jared enters the room with coffee and a fat file.
"I figured you two would be tired," Jared says before meeting James' eyes. "Sorry, I didn't know there would be another person here."
Lincoln squeals and goes to grab the coffee from Jared. "Atticus, I'm leaving you. Jared, marry me."
"He has a small dick," I say, taking my own coffee from my work partner. "Trust me, I'd know."
James gives us all a disgusted look. "You're all gay?" he asks us, and Lincoln nods.
"Yes, we are, get over it," my boyfriend snaps, lifting up the box. "If you have a problem, you can go wait in the lobby and I'll report the status of what I find in the next two to four hours."
"I apologize," James says. "Let's just finish this so that I can go home and my son can be out of a jail cell."
I hum. "We'll see you at the wedding."
"What wedding?" Jared asks. "Why would he go to your wedding?"
"They're dating my son, so-"
Jared gasps. "Seriously?! When did this happen?! Why didn't you tell me?! I'm your work partner, I'm supposed to know this shit!"
James groans at his childish excitement. "You are all adults-"
"Young adults," Lincoln interrupts. "You're just old as hell, grandpa."
"I cannot believe you're all specialists. You remind me of college jocks who end up being gas station workers."
Lincoln chuckles as he puts on surgical gloves, a mask, and goggles. "I was a college jock. Pro swimmer, at your service, gramps." He turns on a bright light and begins to pull out some tools and several liquid substances.
He always hated biology classes, especially those he had to take in order to be successful studying people with Mistacesemia, but I'm bet he's glad he took them now.
"I need you three to either put on masks and goggles or get out so I can limit contamination and make sure nothing goes wrong here," Lincoln tells us, so we all take masks and goggles before going back to the seats we were using before. "Atticus, hook up your phone to the speakers and play my workout playlist. The music helps me focus."
Lincoln meticulously scans the glass and uses his tools to scrape bits of the glass and the dried blood that is on it, as well as skin samples. He finally finishes after an hour of scraping and combining his samples with different liquids.
"Okay, now we have to wait a couple of hours for results to come back so I can find out whose skin and blood samples these are," Lincoln informs us, putting all of his samples in a tiny fridge-like box. "I'm annoyed they didn't test these when the attack first happened, but because it wasn't a normal person who was attacked and instead Silas, I'm not surprised."
"If these tests come back as someone with Mistacesemia, that means we could have found the killer weeks ago?!" I ask, because this case has been something we were supposed to do but Darrel sent us on other errands instead.
He's smart enough to know that biological testing is where we should have started! Even Jared mentioned it but Darrel claimed they did what they could!
"Yeah, and I think it also means that Darrel the Douche has been lying to you two. You mentioned that he said they did some kind of biological testing, right?" Lincoln asks, because that is what Darrel told me.
"Yeah, but if we find something here, we know he's lying." Jared looks like he could kill someone when he finishes his statement. "I'm not surprised at all, because he did say that he'd be fine ignoring this case because he hates people with Mistacesemia and said he'd be okay sitting back and letting them cross each other off."
James speaks up to cut the tension. "All of you relax. Let's just focus on proving Silas' innocence, and then you can deal with your boss."
Jared nods, and we all quiet down.
"The guys up top should be at our station today to make their first decision, so let's hope our evidence is ready by then," I say, because if we don't have proof of someone else being involved and prove Silas as innocent, it's very likely he'll be shipped off to some prison made for people like him.
He doesn't belong there.
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