thegentlemanthug | RS/Debt Collection

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verse: safe hands

RS/Debt Collection

After Matthew sweats out his addiction, life returns to what passes for normal in the Drake-Judge household. Matthew signs Susan's papers, and they both agree not to politely ignore anything Reid may have to say about her.

But still something is bothering his lover, whether it's his pained leg or the lingering shadow of the drugs. Bennet does all he can to soothe his lover's frazzled nerves, with his clumsy words and the warmth of his body, but he will not be consoled.

Still, they are content, he thinks, and he's looking forward to returning home from a long day, walking Whitechapel by night without care.

Until a shadow falls across his path.

"It's time we took what's owed."

Something heavy strikes him on the head and Bennet falls to the ground, and knows no more.

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Matthew leaves Leman Street earlier than usual, takes a different route to the station, taking every precaution now to avoid the man who had sold him what he had once so sorely needed. They'd caught him three times this week already, and he knows he has to be more careful. They were the sort of men who would treat him like porcelain whilst he continued to line their pockets, but now that he refuses to trade? They would smash him to pieces in an instant, once they realised he would truly not go back to buying what they had to offer.

They'd threatened worse than just hurting him as well, the last time they'd crossed paths. There'd been suggestions that they knew how to hurt him without laying a finger on him, and that worried him more than the threat of more broken bones and nights in a bed in the London. The psychological fear haunts him, and as soon as it becomes apparent that Bennet is late home his fears escalate faster than he can calm them.

"Has there been no word at all?" he demands of Mrs Ramsay for the third time in as many minutes, peering out the window of their front room onto the darkening street outside.

Bennet wakes when cold water stings his face, gasping for breath as if he's drowning.

The room is gold and black, garishly bright, and he sees the jackal-headed Anubis staring at him. Dragging him back to the sands and the blood-soaked terror of that time.

"Welcome, Sergeant. Time to pay the Devil."

Matthew becomes more and more agitated as night comes on. It's not unusual for his lover to be kept late at the shop, as Mrs Ramsay tries to reassure him, but there's something in his chest telling him that this is not a late night on the job, or a last minute diversion into the Bear. This is them, taking their revenge, hurting him without laying a finger on him.

"I have to go out," he finally decides, unable to wait a moment longer.

Mrs Ramsay folds her arms, physically barring his way to the door and snatching up his walking stick.

"You are not," she says. "Not without saying what's going on."

Matthew growls in frustration, trying to take back his stick.

"I'm going to find Bennet," he tries to talk his way past his ridiculously overprotective housekeeper. "He should be home by now."

Mrs Ramsay remains unimpressed.

"And what are you going to do, out there alone by yourself? Hit them with your cane?"

"I'm gonna go get Reid," Matthew decides, Mrs Ramsay's blockade of the front door making him actually think through his fear and anger. He'll never take on the men who haunt him single-handed, and him with only one good leg, even with a loaded gun at his hip.

"'nd then we'll go find Ben together."

Mrs Ramsay nods, this idea at least bearing some resemblance to a plan.

"Bring him home."

"Can I go now?" Matthew is exasperated, reaching for the door with one hand and his cane with the other.

"Please?"

Mrs Ramsay hands him his cane and fetches his coat.

"Take a cab straight there. Don't walk the streets. You know what's befallen him, don't you?"

"Maybe," Matthew's answer is vague as he shrugs on his coat and takes up his cane.

"Don't know."

Mrs Ramsay says nothing, but her look says everything.

"Well, don't get yourself in trouble neither."

"'m already there," Matthew murmurs as he steps past his housekeeper and out into the night.

As promised, he goes straight to Reid's door, hoping that Susan won't be the one to greet him as he knocks. He's in luck, and the Inspector himself comes to greet him. Matthew quickly explains the situation in his own terms - Drake's not come home, they should probably check in at Leman Street but he thinks he knows what's happened - and leaves it at that. No need to admit to exactly who these assailants are, just yet.

Reid follows him out to the waiting carriage, and they make their way onwards to Leman Street. As expected, the place is quiet, no sign of Bennet. Arthurton, working late, assures them both that Drake had left for home several hours since.

Matthew knows the men who had threatened him, and he knows the den out of which they operate. It's walking distance from Leman Street, and he leads the way, leaning heavily on his cane as the night air stiffens the joints of his leg. Down a seedy alleyway, he stops at a door.

"In here," he tells Reid. "'s an opium den, but there's a door at the back. Leads through to more rooms. He'll be there."

They've given him something, to make him pliant, placid, and though he tries to fight it, he cannot.

When they press the cup to his lips, he has to swallow or choke, and he lets the cup fall to the floor, swaying on his knees as he stares up the man who looks like a god, Amun-Re himself.

"Your boy will learn his lesson well this time."

As soon as they burst through the door, the scent of the den hits Matthew hard. It's intoxicating, especially after weeks of running at such a high level of stress, and if the situation he found himself in were any less severe he'd be sorely tempted to turn aside and lay himself down on the nearest empty bed.

But they're here for Bennet, and Bennet means more to him than all the drugs in the world. Fighting the screaming temptation, he ploughs onwards, indicating the next door to Reid to knock aside.

As the door bursts open, Bennet feels a strong and around his neck, something cool pressed against his lips.

"Come for your boy, Jackson?"

"DON'T DRINK ANYTHING!" Matthew yells at his lover, glad to see him still alive but terrified by what might be in that concoction being pressed on him.

He's across the room in two bounds, his cane repurposed as a weapon as he brings it down across the baron's head.

But the baron laughs as he falls, dropping the empty cup to the floor, before meeting his maker.

Bennet slumps to the floor, far away, too hot - the Goddess is coming for him.

Matthew doesn't know what his lover has been made to drink, but he assumes it's poisoned and doesn't have time to think any further than that. He goes for the simplest, most efficient, poison remedy he knows and shoves two fingers down Bennet's throat until he gags.

Bennet retches, his body convulsing, tormented.

He vomits on the floor, the room spinning dizzily.

"Good," Matthew soothes, rubbing his lover's back with one hand whilst the other tries to make him sick once more. He wants every trace of that drink out of Bennet's stomach before it can do him any harm.

"You're alright."

Bennet vomits again, before sinking back against his lover.

"I...I killed you all."

"What you talkin' about?" Matthew frowns, ignoring the hullabaloo around him as Reid and his men arrest seemingly every occupant of the den.

"No one's dead... not that matters, anyway."

Bennet blinks at him, struggling to clear his throat.

"In the desert...you died..."

"Never been to the desert," Matthew points out, hand warm on Bennet's cheek.

"'s what they gave you, made you hallucinate."

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