"P-please, let me g-go home," Calum sobbed, leaning against the door that led to the backyard.

It was Michael's turn to stay home and watch Calum. The three had been taking turns, always leaving at least one person home with the curly haired captive. They all worked 3 twelve hour shifts a week, so there was plenty of time to look after him, they made it work so there was always someone home.

Calum had taken to attempting to escape when he thought no one was looking. He should have known someone was always watching him, but he was confused and vulnerable, so he took the chance when he thought he could.

He felt pathetic. He was being locked in a house by people he thought were his friends, people he felt attracted to, but they also were being confusing.

He couldn't believe he was trapped with murderers. He was disgusted that Ashton—someone he'd always admired despite his occasional bad attitude—had such a dark secret he'd hidden so well. Calum had thought something was a little off about him when they'd met, but he'd placed it as his general grumpiness. He never would have thought it would be something like that.

"I don't w-want to-to st-st-stay h-here," he choked on his tears, unable to take a deep breath. He spluttered, spit hanging off his chin as he collapsed against the door, physically unable to keep himself upright anymore.

"Cal, baby, you need to calm down. You're going to make yourself sick," Michael winced, watching him fall apart as he sat opposite him on the floor.

He hated it, he hated that Calum reacted this strongly to what they were doing. All they were doing was helping, he knew eventually Calum would see, but right now it was torture watching him war with himself.

"Take some deep breaths, Cal, okay? You're going to be all right. I made you some tea, why don't you sit up and drink it?" Michael pushed the mug closer to him, not close enough that he would hit into it if he fell over, but close enough that he could reach if he tried.

Michael knew when Calum worked himself up like this, any touch from one of them was like a lightning strike. He would scream, cry, and make himself worse. All Michael could do was try to comfort him with words until he tired himself out and they could go sit on the couch together.

Calum, still breathing erratically, pushed himself up so his back was against the door and drew his knees to his chest, arms wrapped around his legs and head resting on his knees. Michael knew it was the wrong moment, but he thought the boy looked so cute and small, and he just wanted to hug him and kiss him and love him, but he knew Calum wasn't ready yet.

Once he'd stopped sobbing, Michael asked, "Do you want anything to eat, Cal? You haven't eaten all day and it's almost 7," Calum shook his head as best as he could.

Michael sighed, sitting down on the floor a bit away from Calum. Michael had let him have a moment alone in the den, where he'd been lying on the couch, curled up and not moving. He went to the kitchen to get himself a drink, but he saw movement from the corner of his eye and saw Calum bolt. He found him desperately looking for a way to unlock the door, but all of the exits had been replaced with locks that needed keys to be opened from the inside as well as outside. All the windows were bolted shut. They couldn't risk him leaving.

"Cal, I know this is hard on you, but I swear we aren't bad people."

Calum didn't respond, and his even breathing showed Michael that he'd finally fallen asleep. With a sigh, he picked the smaller man up, cradling him against his chest as he took him to the living room. He placed him gently on the couch, draping a blanket over him and adjusting the pillow under his head. He sat on the other side, sending a quick text to Ashton and Luke, updating them on what happened the last hour.

Michael knew it wasn't going to be this way forever, but damn was he tired. It had been a week and it didn't seem like Calum was going to crack. He was still upset, still wouldn't let them get near him, still didn't see their good. He knew he had to be patient, but he didn't want to. He wanted things to be perfect, like they were before, but with Calum in the mix.

He got up from the couch once he knew the boy was deeply asleep and went into the kitchen. He opened the monitoring app (that was technically a burglar alarm, but worked for this) on his phone that showed live footage from the room and alerted to movement, that way he'd know if Calum woke up and was trying to get away again.

He didn't feel like cooking. He had planned to make something for dinner, maybe try to get Calum to help him, but that flew out the window when Calum got crazy. Instead, Michael decided to heat up a couple frozen pizzas. It was easy and quick, since Luke and Ashton were going to be home soon. It was already 7:30 and Ashton could be getting off his shift at any moment.

After puttering around for a bit, he heard the front door unlock and Ashton's teasing laughter ring out.

"Hey, babe, how are you?" Luke asked, immediately finding Michael and giving him a big hug. Michael chuckled.

"I'm fine, baby, how was your day?" he let him go, leaning on the counter as he watched Luke look back at him and frown.

"Why fine? What happened?"

Michael shrugged. Luke narrowed his eyes.

"I just want him to love us already," he shook his head. "I know it's going to take time, and I know it's silly, but I just feel like something is missing now." Michael's eyes shot up to meet Luke's. "Not that it felt like there was something missing when it was only the three of us, I don't mean that, I just mean—"

Luke put his hands on Michael's shoulders.

"I know what you mean, Mikey. We were good before him, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to improve something. I might not say something was 'missing' before, but things can always be made better. I know we're all hoping that with Calum, things will be better."

Michael smiled. Luke always knew exactly how he felt. He pecked him on the lips.

"You make me feel so much better, just by being you. I love you,"

"I love you,"

Michael went over to the microwave where the timer was beeping, indicating that the pizzas were done.

"Why don't you go change, and when Ash's out of the shower, let him know dinner is ready. I just made pizza, Cally's meltdown really threw off the whole making food thing."

"Babe, you don't have to explain anything to us. You know whatever you're nice enough to make is good enough. We don't expect anything,"

"I know, but I'd said earlier..." he shrugged trailing off. "You're right, it's okay."

"Plus, who doesn't love pizza?" With that, he exited the room, quickly going to check on Calum, who was peacefully sleeping in the den.

All three boys got ready, Michael with the food, Ashton with his shower, and Luke in a new pair of clothes: another one of Michael's sweaters and a pair of Ashton's joggers.

"You look cute, Lukey," Ashton said as they walked down the stairs, swatting the boy's bum as he passed him.

"Thank you," he smiled, both of them heading to the living room to wake the sleeping boy.

"Cally, hey, baby, it's time for dinner. You gotta wake up," Ashton said, gently shaking his shoulder. He saw the boys eyes flutter and land on him, widening in panic. He sat up, trying to get away, but Ashton backed up, letting him have his space. "Sorry to scare you, my love. It's dinner time," he said softly. Calum nodded, rubbing his eyes with a closed fist before getting up and following them to the dining room.

Michael had four places set at the table, and put the three pizza's in the middle. Cups of juice and water were in front of each plate, and napkins on one side.

"Thanks, Mikey, this is great," Ashton said, going for a slice.

Michael nodded, setting an entire pie on his plate.

Calum's eyes widened, wondering if Michael was really going to eat all of that.

"Cally, you can have some," Luke told him, pushing the plate towards him.

Calum shook his head.

Michael tsked. "You've got to eat, baby, you haven't had anything all day,"

Again, he shook his head.

    "Do you want something else? If you don't want this there's other options," Luke offered.

"Not hungry," he muttered.

Ashton scooted his chair over, looking down at him.

"You're a nurse, Cal, you know it's not healthy to stop eating," the other nurse scolded. "We put our patients on fluids and feeding tubes if they won't eat. Don't make me do something like that for you,"

"It's so nice having a nurse for a boyfriend," Michael sighed dreamily, playful smirk on his face. "They can do all sorts of things normal people don't get the chance to,"

"Shut up." Fondly, he rolled his eyes at Michael. Then he turned to Calum, tone all business when he barked out, "You, eat. Now."

Calum gulped, reaching across the table to grab a slice of pizza, noting Ashton watch him closely. He didn't really want anything, but he knew Ashton was serious. He wouldn't hesitate to somehow hook him up to fluids if he wouldn't listen.

The captive ended up eating a half a slice of pizza, which more than satisfied the others. It was something, much more than he'd eaten the last few days, so they'd take it.

"Want to watch a movie?" Ashton asked once they'd all moved to the living room.

Michael nodded, Luke shrugged, and Calum remained silent.

"How about we talk about some things?" Luke suggested on a commercial break. No one found anything they wanted, so they settled for watching How I Met Your Mother on Hulu.

"Like what, baby?" Ashton asked, looking down at the boy he was snuggling. He loved that Luke was so cuddly, especially after a long day at work. Ashton loved being a protector, loved holding someone in his arms and loving them hard. It was the best thing about having two boyfriends—if one didn't want cuddles, there was another person around. He hoped soon, he would have three.

"Well...Cally, have you given any thought to what we told you the other day? It's been a while, and you haven't said much. We want to know what you're thinking,"

He shook his head.

Calum can't be with them. They're literally murderers, they make it seem like it's okay to let people die. Like it was something good.

"We're not bad people, Cal, we'll keep telling you until you believe it," Michael told him. "There's qualifications, it's only when people ask for it. We're giving them what they want. Keeping them around, suffering, is the bad thing."

"No," Calum exhaled. They were wrong. They were the bad thing.

But then why did they make him feel so good? Why he did feel happy when they did little things for him that let him know they cared about him? How could he have such a strong connection to people who enjoyed murdering others? It was insane.

"These people need our help. They need Luke to switch the meds, Ashton to deliver them, and Michael to make sure we get away with it so we can keep going. It's a good thing, we're making the world better off."

"S-switch the meds..." Calum recalled when Ashton said Doug was DC'd his anti-seizure meds and given tramadol. "Wait, T-tramadol wasn't on Doug's ch-chart. I looked at it after h-he was gone, to see if th-there was anything I could have done. Tramadol definitely w-wasn't there, I would have s-seen it." Calum gasped, having figured it out. "You switched it?"

"Yeah, baby, it's a three person operation. Luke put Tramadol in the Carbamazepine bottle, and I gave it to him through IV, and left. It's how it always goes, and then Michael fucks up the autopsy report and pretends he doesn't find anything they can trace back to us. It's perfect,"

"And we want you to help us on Ashton's end. Think of all the people we could Help with two nurses," Micahel said, sparkle almost visible in his eye as he thought about the possibilities.

"NO!" Calum shouted, springing up from the couch, surprising everyone. He'd never exploded before. "I c-can't keep hearing you s-say that. Y-you aren't doing g-good, you're killing p-people, inn-ocent people, with f-families, and lives. How can you th-think this is a good thing?" He hiccuped hysterically, trying to get his point across to these insane human beings he was forced to be with.

"Cal, they want it done. We're heroes,"

"You're monsters," he whispered, glaring at them. He couldn't get comfortable with them again. He needed to remember who he was—he was a good person. He couldn't be okay with murderers—no matter how cute they were.

"Don't be mean, baby, we're just trying to explain our point of view to you," Luke frowned, getting up and walking over to him. He was hoping to get him on the couch, maybe try to cuddle with him and calm the boy down.

"You're c-criminals, you deserve jail," he spat. "D-don't come near me!" his eyes widened as Luke approached.

"Calm down, baby, you're going to work yourself up,"

Calum shook his head. "Don't c-call me that, I'm not a baby and I-I'm not y-yours," he said fiercely.

"Oh, that's where you're wrong, Sweetheart," Ashton had joined Luke, the two getting closer and cornering Calum against the wall. "You are ours. And we'll break you; you'll figure out that we are good, and you can be good just like us soon."

Luke reached out for him, and at the same time Calum threw his hands up, trying to stop him. His nail connected with Luke's cheek and the man staggered back, clutching his face.

"Oh my god, Luke I'm so s-sorry!" Calum exclaimed, looking at him in shock.

"Lukey, are you all right?"

Through teary eyes, the man nodded.

"I'm okay, just stings,"

Michael rounded on Calum since Ashton was tending to Luke, dabbing his face with a tissue to get rid of the tears.

"Oh...that was a bad choice, baby. You need to be punished."

Calum too had tears sparkling in his eyes.

"N-no, I'm s-sorry, I didn't m-mean to..."

"Our Lukey got hurt because of you. You're dangerous, unfit to be around people if you're going to behave that way. I think you need a little time out to think things over," Michael hissed, snatching the man's arm and dragging him from the room as he cried and begged for him to stop.

Michael made his way up to his old room, the one Calum had been staying in. He shoved him into the wooden chair underneath the desk, not even needing to tell him to stay. Calum was petrified, he couldn't move even if he wanted to. After a few seconds of digging around in a drawer, Michael produced four bandanas.

"You're going to sit here for a bit and think about what you did. You can think about how you could have a nice, warm bed to sleep in, three wonderful men to love you and dote on you," he put one of the cloths around the armrest and Calum's wrist, securing it to the handle. He tied it tight, ensuring he couldn't get out. "You could have love and kindness, but instead you went and hurt Lukey, the man who's done absolutely nothing to deserve that, and now you get nothing. We'll have to talk about what this means for when we let you out,"

Calum hardly recognized the man in front of him. Michael had turned into a different person, a dark, scary man that Calum didn't want to cross.

"Be good, and think about your actions, Calum," Was all Michael said as he slammed the door and left the crying boy sitting alone in the dark.

***

"Can we let him out yet?" Luke mumbled the next morning, the first thing he said when his eyes opened. Usually he took a moment to admire Ashton's chest (the man always slept shirtless, claiming he got too hot with three people in the bed—both Michael and Luke thoroughly enjoyed it) but today he had other thoughts.

"No, baby, we can't. We have to wait a little longer, maybe after lunch. He needs to learn that we're not messing around, that his actions have consequences." Michael scooted closer to Luke, pressing his chest to the man's back. "He can't do something like that again, he needs to learn his lesson."

"But he's not like us, we don't know how he'll handle it," Luke pouted. He'd been asking Michael to let Calum out since five minutes after he went into the bedroom last night.

"He'll have to figure it out. He hurt you, Lu," Ashton rolled over, propping his head up on his arm and staring at his beautiful boyfriends. Michael had a black tanktop and was holding Luke in his arms. Luke was bundled up in a sweater and fluffy blankets, as well as Michael. He was always cold, which was why he usually slept in between the two.

"I'm okay, it really was just a scratch," Luke's breath caught as Ashton lightly brushed his fingertips over the broken skin. Ashton had administered bacitracin over the wound after they'd cleaned it the night before, but it was still a little tender. 

"It doesn't matter. We don't hurt each other. End of story. We'll let him out later."

All three men were off work that day, so they had the entire morning to chill out before Michael made them get up for food. It was around noon when they finally made it out of bed, Ashton pushing Luke quickly past the door to the bedroom where they could hear Calum's pathetic sobs and pleas to be let out. Luke felt awful about the whole thing, but the others were adamant.

"Do you think he needs water or something? Maybe we could bring him something to drink or eat, just something small." Luke suggested after they'd eaten lunch, flinching at the gut-wrenching wail he'd just heard. He was sitting down on the counter while Ashton and Michael cleaned up.

Michael chuckled, looking back at him while he dried a plate with a towel.

"Lu, that would defeat the purpose of isolating him,"

"But he's so sad," the man pouted.

Ashton sighed. "I know, baby. But this might be a good thing. I know it's kinda terrible, but I think after being so scared and alone like that, he's going to be much more susceptible to us. He might be more wiling to go along with our plan."

"But his motivation will be fear, and I know from every dystopian movie ever that fear isn't a good motivator, and he's going to betray us, and I can't handle the thought of any of you in jail," he inhaled sharply at the end of his rant, and Michael and Ashton both turned around, noticing the panic plaguing him.

"Hey, Lukey, Lukey, calm down!" Michael rushed over, catching Luke before he fell over. "No one's going to jail, hon, you don't have to worry. We're being careful."

"That isn't what I meant, baby, just breathe. Once he realizes this is his situation, he's going to start to love us. There's really no other choice, he's fragile. He was before we met him, and he's going to need a lot of love and comfort. And guess who's going to be there to give it to him?

Luke smiled shakily.

"Us,"

"Exactly, Sunshine. So turn that frown upside down and let's go play a game, it'll take your mind off everything,"

The three boys relaxed, played games, and cuddled all afternoon. After Michael had put the last Uno card back in the box, Luke was at his heels with a pout.

"Okay, it's time—"

"YAY!" Luke cheered, turning around, about to zip away, but Ashton caught him by the arm.

"I'm going to check on him. I need to talk to him about what he did."

"But why—"

"Lu, he hurt you, baby," Michael frowned, brushing a curl behind Luke's ear. "Ash needs to make sure he won't do anything like that again."

"Once I know it's safe, you can see him."

"It was an accident," he protested weakly, but nodded begrudgingly at Ashton's glare. "Okay, fine."

"You'll be okay, Ash?" Michael asked, concern lacing his voice.

"Yep, we'll be fine. I'll call you when we can all go talk to him." Ashton smiled, kissing both of them before climbing the stairs.

He honestly wasn't sure what was going to happen. He hoped that what he told Luke was the truth, that Calum would be much more willing to listen to them now, but if he wasn't as broken as Ashton thought, it could be bad.

With a deep breath, Ashton opened the door, peering in at the sad little captive.

Calum was sitting in the same position he was left in, tied in the chair. Tears were running down his face as he sniffled. His mop of curls hung over his head as he was looking down with his eyes closed, whimpering and breathing shakily.

Ashton flipped the light on, and it took Calum a moment to register his presence. His head lifted, eyes opening wide as Ashton closed the door, crossing the room and undoing the bandanas. He knelt on the floor, chuckling to himself, knowing Michael had kept them even though he'd stopped wearing them for a while. Maybe he should start again. Or, this seemed like a pretty good use for them. He'd take them to their bedroom after they released Calum.

Once the captive was free, he launched himself into Ashton's arms, almost making the man topple over, but he caught himself, tensing until he realized Calum was only hugging him. The dark haired boy cried and sobbed and there was snot running down his nose onto Ashton's shoulder, but he didn't care. He was so scared they were going to forget about him, or that they didn't like him anymore. He'd always hated being alone, and being stuck in the room by himself made him realize just how much he disliked it.

"I'm s-so s-sor-ry," he choked out. Ashton squeezed him a little tighter, gaining his balance before standing up and carrying the boy to the bed where they could actually sit together. "D-don't h-h-hate me, ple-ease,"

"Oh, baby, we don't hate you, Cally, please don't think that. I'm sorry we had to do this, but we needed you to know to be careful,"

Calum nodded emphatically, looking into Ashton's hazel eyes.

"I w-will never hurt anyone, i-it really was an accid-ent."

Ashton smiled, brushing Calum's curls back. The man leant into the touch. Ashton smirked. He had been right. A little isolation was all they'd needed to break the boy. He was theirs now.

"I know it was, Cupcake, I know," Ashton brought him in to his chest, gently running his fingers through the curls, brushing them out. Calum sighed, happily basking in the comfort he'd been craving. He shuddered, trying to stop himself from crying, but he was feeling so many things so quickly, he couldn't keep up. Ashton sent a quick text to Michael, asking the man to bring a cup of water and a snack upstairs. Moments later, he appeared, Luke on his heels despite being told to wait downstairs.

"Cally!" Luke cried, pushing past Michael. The man was quick to grab his arm.

"Not so fast, baby, I don't think you should be near him yet."

"Mikey," Luke tried to protest, but Michael shoved him behind him.

"I'm n-not going to hurt h-him," Calum whimpered, twisting his fingers into Ashton's shirt and tugging. "I swear, I..."

"Cal, it's okay. Michael's just trying to look out for Lukey. Everyone knows it was an accident. Let's all calm down."

Ashton looked at Michael with a nod and he let Luke go.

"Luke, I'm sorry," Luke walked over with a small smile, wrapping his arms around the boy, who moved slightly away from Ashton.

"It's okay, baby. I'm not angry. I'm so sorry we did that to you," Luke rested his forehead against Calum's, slowly running his fingertips across the mans back. "But hopefully we can start fresh and move forward, huh?"

Calum shrugged.

He'd forgotten why he was stuck here—because these guys were murderers. He cringed, pushing himself away, then deciding against it when he realized they might get mad and make him be alone again.

Luke sighed, holding out his hand.

"Why don't we go downstairs and watch a movie? We can relax, just let our minds go, and cuddle for a bit," he looked hopefully at Calum who nodded. He knew he was going to need lots of reassurance for a while, so he accepted. He hated himself for it, but he decided Luke was right. Maybe he should take a break from his thoughts for a while, and just pretend everything was all right. That might be the only way he could survive.

***

My poor Cally! Do you think he's finally gonna break?

Also, I think little Lukey is my favorite character. He's so cutie !!!!

Happy thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate!! I myself will be at work tomorrow, but I wish you all a lovely holiday!

~ashtonfortherwin