Jacob woke up to the smell of chicken noodle soup and a throbbing ache in his arm and hand. He tries to sit up only to feel a sharp pain run through his side.

"Oh, you're awake." He hears from somewhere beside him.

He looks over to see the doctor holding a bowl with a towel under it.

"The person you were on the phone with said to call them." The doctor gives him a quick look over before grabbing his phone and handing it to him. Jacob takes it and scrolls through his recent contacts. His heart drops. 

"I told her you were fine. I mean, you broke your arm and hand maybe a bruised rib or two, but you aren't dead." The doctor rambles off to him, and for once, Jacob realizes how odd he is. Does he act this weird all of the time?

Jacob hits Leah's number and waits patiently. She answers on the second ring. 

"Hey." He grunts into the phone.

"You're a fucking idiot." Is what he gets in return. He realizes it's Quil.

He looks down at his phone to see that it's eight o'clock in the morning.

"Love you, too." He mumbles, trying to see if he can scratch through the makeshift cast that the doctor had put on his arm.

"Not gonna lie, the only reason I answered was to hear the voice of this supposed doctor." Jacob froze where he was sitting. Quil had this mischievous lilt to his voice. He didn't understand what it was implying.

"Oh, really. What if I was dead?" 

"Leah said the good doctor said you were fine." Quil hums out. "Anyway, when are you leaving your boyfriend's house? Storm's over."

Suddenly, everything about this conversation made more sense.

Jacob glances over to see that the doctor had left the soup on the table and was now nowhere to be seen.

"Give me twenty."

Jacob doesn't know the good doctor's address. He was tempted to call Mike, but he didn't think "big mansion" was enough of a description to get the man over here. He ate a bit of the soup, more to be nice than anything, and then slowly and painfully made his way off of the couch. 

He knows he should give the man a thank you in person, but he just wants to get home without any banter and lay down in his own bed. So, he instead hobbles out of the house and plans to instead thank him when his head was on straight. He hobbled out to the street and got the address off of the mailbox before calling for Mike.

Mike was full of questions. Jacob just lets him ramble and gives him a rough "thanks" before slowly maneuvering out of the car and up to his house. When he finally makes it inside he just stands with the door holding him up.

"You really aren't dead; look at that." Seth teases from somewhere. He's not sure considering he has his eyes clamped shut.

"Help him up the stairs." Leah ordered.

Seth came over, grabbing for his good arm and throwing it over his shoulder. He brings his arm around to grab his waist and Jacob's eyes finally fly open as lets out a really loud grunt.

Seth looks startled but doesn't fully let go of him as Jacob doubles over.

"Okay, so I'm going to have to princess carry you." 

Jacob wants to punch him as he easily lifts him from the floor. Too bad, he's in so much pain that he's broken out in a sweat and can barely focus. 

He can feel other people watching but his eyes are closed as Seth slowly makes his way up the stairs.

He can hear a second set of footsteps behind Seth's and he doesn't even have to open his eyes to know that they belong to Leah. 

What he isn't expecting is Quil to be standing next to her once he's on the bed. It's probably the most serious Jacob's ever seen him.

"Relax, Q. They're just bruised." He huffs out, trying to take the edge off.

"Your boyfriend let you come home like this?" He sounds genuinely annoyed.

"Yeah, I told him my pregnant cousin was losing his mind without me. What was he supposed to say? No?" Jacob's joking. Just a bit of teasing. He knew that the "boyfriend" comments weren't going to stop any time soon. If he acted annoyed about them, they'd stay around even longer.

However, with the way that Leah stops fluffing the  pillows to look up at him, he realizes that they don't think he is. Leah looks like she's about to open her mouth to say something.

"I need pain meds," Jacob huffs out with a belated, "Please."

Leah looks reluctant to leave. She looks over to Quil before she saunters off to find him something.

Jacob closes his eyes, hoping that if he looked sick enough, Quil would drop it.

Quil grabs the chair from his desk and seats himself next to Jacob.

"So, what's he like?"

Edward tries not to feel anything when he hears the front door open. If that phone call was anything to go by, he was clearly missing his boyfriend. He was missing him bad enough to hobble down to the mailbox with a low fever, bruised ribs, and a broken arm and hand. Who was Edward to stop him?

A man who looked similar to the one Emmett had described, got out the car to open the passenger's door. Edward recognized him from the multiple crime scenes. The first one with the lady in the salad, he'd been standing behind the detective, almost clinging to him like his life depended on it.

So, he tried not to feel much of anything when they drove off without a single word to him.

He tossed the leftover soup in the garbage.

Monday was hell for him. As soon as he walked through the door, Emmett was standing there expectantly. Jasper was no better, pretending to be working, but he can feel his eyes as soon as his back is turned. 

"So?" Emmett asked, leaning against Edward's desk.

Edward didn't answer, powering up his computer and trying to think over what he needed to get done today.

"C'mon, man." Emmett seemed less excited the longer he watched Edward, "Did he do something stupid? Do I need to handle him?"

Edward let out a sigh, clamping his eyes shut.

"He almost fell down a flight of stairs." Edward said before turning back to his laptop and pulling up the charts he needed.

"Ed..."

"And he doesn't like chicken noodle soup. Are we done?" His tone is sharp and he's sure his eyes are piercing, but he keeps them on the computer screen as he starts to read over what he'd already done.

He was hoping to just sit in silence the rest of the day and then get out of the state. He'd let the chief know and he'd leave to clear his head for a couple of days. 

However, it's just his luck that he gets a phone call about five minutes after Emmett finally shuts up.

The car ride to the crime scene is quiet. Edward's seething despite himself. He's not even sure why he's so annoyed, but he is and he allows himself to be for the moment before he has to put on a mask for the officers. He's going to be there, standing with his arm in a sling and cast. His boyfriend is going to be there, bumbling behind him.

It's another dismembered body. This one also doesn't have blood. They collect the pieces in relative silence. 

He's leaning against one of the walls while his boyfriend is talking to him about something. Edward tries not to listen. 

He really does.

"A baby. This is going to be huge." The blonde babbles. 

The detective says something in return, but it's really quiet. Officer Newton laughs.

"You feeling alright? You really shouldn't be here. I told Leah I'd actually take care of you this time." 

Yeah, and how well had that turned out? 

He found himself thinking before shaking his head and going back over the chart. They had almost everything. There was just a hand missing.

Edward went searching for it on the opposite side of the room from the two. He's looking behind one of the mirrors when he hears a loud yell. He turns to see Officer Newton stumbling into the detective. Black holds onto him, staring at him in confusion.

"Hand!" 

The hand is about two feet away from them propped up against a different mirror.

"Fucks sake, Mike. Get it to the ME." The detective gripes. The blonde looks to Black and then to the hand then back to Black. He eventually sucks up the courage to pick it up in his gloved hands and rush it over to Edward. The officer doesn't look him in the eye when he hands it over.

Edward takes it and immediately hands it off to Emmett before he's heading out of the dance studio. 

He climbs into the passenger seat and rests his head against the glove compartment.

Emmett doesn't say anything when he climbs into the driver's seat. 

The drive back to the station was uncomfortable to say the least. It seemed as though Mike was hitting every pothole and speed bump he could find.

"Sorry, Boss." He mumbled for what seems like the fourth time in the last ten minutes.

There was not a lot they could do today anyway besides mark the local dance studio as yet another location. They were going to have to wait on the ME and his findings. Maybe there was something similar between the second two besides the fact that they were in bloodless pieces.

When he got home, he was greeted by Leah. 

"Food's ready," she called to him before he could even attempt the stairs. 

His stomach is doing better, he hadn't puked since early Sunday, but he was still given soup. There were more interesting ingredients like chicken and vegetables, but they were eating chicken that wasn't torn into small chunks and pasta that wasn't swimming in broth.

"So, how was work?" Quil asked, and he could hear Leah about to object before she could even open her mouth.

"No work at the dinner table." She reminds them, glaring at Jacob to make sure he understands.

"Was your boyfriend there?" Quil continues on like she hadn't even said anything.

However, she doesn't object to this question, instead looking to to see if he'd answer. Seth and Embry have also stopped eating, now very interested.

He eats his soup slowly making sure to take each noodle one by one, slowly up to his lips. 

"No work at the dinner table." He finally answers after the fourth noodle excursion.

Seth lets out an audible groan. 

"See what you've done, Leah." Jacob can practically hear him pouting.

After he's finished his meal, he slowly makes his way upstairs, ignoring Seth who stood at the bottom. Eventually, he made it to the top step, but he was admittedly out of energy by the time he got there. Seth said nothing as he picked him up and carried him the rest of the way.

"If you brought your boyfriend around," Seth started as he slowly brought Jacob down to the mattress, "he could be doing this."

"He's busy." Jacob mumbles before pointing to the files on his desk. 

Jacob should see if he can get his number from someone so he can thank him.

Seth rolls his eyes and grabs the files before handing them to Jacob. He stands there for a moment, maybe expecting more, but eventually leaves the room when Jacob starts opening up the folder to stare at pictures of dead bodies.

He stared at the images, hoping to find some similarities between the two. Maybe there was some connection in the location or the placement of the parts.

Edward stares down at the body laid out before him. He needed to compare the tears, figure out exactly how the blood was removed from both and see if that was similar, and see if there were any similar marks on the body. The work kept him from feeling guilty for getting upset with Emmett. It wasn't his fault. However, he couldn't help but be upset at himself. Emmett could be romantically inclined all he damn well please, but Edward had said he'd never get swept up into his bullshit.

He worked until about three hours after Emmett and Jasper had quietly left.

For the first time in about five years, he wished he was human. He wished he could have small distractions like cooking, eating, sleeping. Instead, he just laid in the silence feeling sorry for himself.

The next day starts a little different, but it's similar enough to feel like the same day. Edward enters the lab. Emmett and Jasper are very deep in whatever work they are doing. He starts looking at the body parts again. He finishes up the reports and hands them to Jasper.

Jacob's met by the empty gaze of that same assistant that'd come down to the station the first time to deliver the report. He didn't stay to stare this time, scurrying out of the room.

Jacob has the mind to call out to him before he can get out of the door properly. The man turns around stiffly and stares down at him.

"Do you have your boss' number?" 

The man seems taken aback, blinking at him several times. 

"His work number is in the f-" He begins.

"His personal number?"

The man stands there blankly for a moment, seemingly at odds on what to do. He looks over Jacob one more time before speaking again.

"No." Then, he's rushing out as fast as he'd arrived.

So, Jacob pushes himself up from his desk about thirty minutes before the ME usually clocked out and slowly made his way to the lab. He eventually got there leaning against the door, a bit out of the dull throb of pain, but mostly out of realizing that he had no clue what he was planning on saying.

He eventually made his way pass the sliding doors to find the doctor turned towards his computer. Both assistants were also at their desks. He cleared his throat and watched as both of them looked up from their work and immediately looked panicked. They glanced towards one another and then towards the clock. Ten minutes left until it was time to go. Maybe they thought there was another murder.

"Dr. Cullen?" He calls out and watches as the man slowly turns in his seat. It's almost as if he's looking directly through Jacob when he's finally facing him. 

"Can I talk to you?" Jacob gestures towards the doors.

"Have your injuries worsened?" He seemed almost robotic when he asks.

"No."

"Is there another body?" 

"No."

"Then, I'm still on the clock."

Jacob watches as the man whips back around to his desk. He gets it. It's been a long day. Jacob had just gotten his reports and they seemed detailed. Maybe, he was just tired. So, Jacob turned around and hobbled back through the sliding doors and slowly made his way back to the station.

He plopped back down into his seat and for a moment he just sat there. 

"Carver's, Boss?" Mike called from the doorway.

"Yeah, Mike."

He eats slowly. His eyes never leaving his food. 

"Something happen?" Mike asks around the sandwich in his mouth.

Jacob lets out a sigh. Nothing had happened. He hadn't even had a chance to really analyze the reports. Though, it felt like something had definitely happened.

"Was it with your special someone?" Mike asked before popping a chip in his mouth. 

Jacob shifted the food around on his plate. 

Mike seemed to take his silence as confirmation. 

"Don't worry, Boss. I'm sure things will work themselves out." He said before shoving more of the sandwich into his mouth. 

For about five minutes, the only thing he hears is Mike crunching on chips. 

"You're not feeling sick, are you?" Mike asked, his tone suddenly serious as he looked Jacob over. He was touching him again, using his crumb covered fingers to grab Jacob's chin before he placed the back of his hand against Jacob's forehead to check his temperature.

"I'm fine, Newt." He mumbled, pushing his hand away in annoyance.

"Well, you better not be lying. Leah's already threatened my life and Quil's got enough to worry about." He says before popping another chip into his mouth.

He gets another couple of minutes before Mike speaks again.

"Ay, look. It's one of Doc's guys." He says, tilting his chin. 

Jacob slowly turns to see the same guy from earlier standing with a girl. She has jet black hair that is flipped out at the bottom and her face looks like it's been pinched to the center.

"She looks like one of those fairy drawings." Mike mumbles, mouth still full.

They accidentally get caught staring and the assistant glares before whispering something to his date.

"Woah, what's up with him?" Mike mutters. 

Jacob lets out a sigh.

"Maybe his boss is mad. I sort of ran out of his house without thanking him." Jacob finally confesses and watches as Mike stares at him in silence for what felt like five minutes.

"The Doc is your special someone, isn't he?"

"What?" 

"Do you want to go see if he's still at the lab?" Mike says, looking at the time.

"What? No." Jacob's confused.

"Well, if you apologize-"

"I thought he gave you the heebie jeebies."

"-maybe he'll forgive you." Mike finishes before standing up from his seat. 

Jacob sits there, unmoving, and contemplates firing Mike when  he accidentally grabs him by his injured arm and yanks him towards the door.

"We at least have to try."

Edward's put away the bodies, packed up his tools, cleaned and sanitized the surfaces, and shut  off his computer. He's ready to go.

Though, he's frozen standing in front of his desk as Detective Black and Officer Newton stand behind the automatic sliding doors. They're bickering about something. Newton eventually triggers the doors and pushes Black inside. The detective is holding his injured arm and his jaw is clenched. His injuries must've gotten worse.

"I can give you something for your arm tomorrow, but I have to go." He tries to excuse himself.

"R-right." He grits out between his teeth. "I just came to say thanks for taking care of me the other night."

Edward's not sure how to react so he just gives a stiff nod before pulling his bag onto his shoulder. Black spins around and Edward can see that the pain must be disorienting him because he stumbles back into one of the counters. Edward, despite himself, rushes over to keep him from crashing into anything else. 

"Thanks." He grits out again before hobbling back out into the hall. Edward watches him as he stands there for a minute. For a moment, Edward thinks he's looking for Newton. That is until the man falls hard to the floor, knees catching his fall.

He's about to rush out to him, but Newton catches him by his shoulders before he can slump over. They sit there for a moment and he can hear Newton talking to him. The officer places a hand against his face, trying to get his attention. 

Edward wants to look away, but he can't bring himself to.

Newton slowly gets him on his feet and they make their way out of the building at a snail's pace.

He doesn't want to feel bad for just watching. They were clearly together and it seemed like Newton could handle it on his own. 

Edward's heart feels like it's about to beat out of his chest. Dread settles into his stomach.

The detective isn't at work the next day.