Ch. 35 The Accusation

Author's note: Trigger warning - there's some dark stuff here as they try to figure out what happened. This chapter does reference r@pe and self-harm.  I know this story is kinda dark at times, but I promise it will have a happy ending! But first, there will be drama :) 

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

You tried to roll over on your side, but a dull ache that seemed to extend to every part of your body stopped you. 

Beep.

Beep.

Was that your watch? No, you didn't wear a watch. You wore a bracelet. Where was that bracelet? Keigo would be sad if you lost it. 

Beep. 

This is dumb. A bracelet doesn't beep. Was it your phone? No. It felt too early in the morning to wake up, anyway. Someone needed to turn that alarm off right now.

You would hit the snooze button but it seemed like your arms weren't working at the moment. 

Beep.

Maybe this was a dream. Had it all been a dream? Had you dreamed of a fire, and of smoke, and of falling? 

Beep.

Beep.

Blurry images flashed through your head – an intense pain, a fluttering of red, and now you were here, unable to roll over and it seemed like everything should hurt but for some reason it didn't.

Where was here?

Beep.

Beep.

You tried opening your eyes, but your lids were too heavy, and your brain felt like mush.

It was much easier to go back to sleep.

-------

"Where the hell is she?" Bakugo shouted, storming into the hospital waiting room.

Hawks quickly darted in front of him, spreading his wings out to stop Bakugo from barging through the doors into the ICU itself.

"Stop. The doctors are already with her, and they'll tell us more when they can."

"And when is that?"

"I don't know. What the hell happened?" Hawks asked.

"I already told you. She stepped off the landing and fell. She must not have seen that the stairs had already been destroyed or, damn it, I don't know!"

"She's lucky I saw her and was able to get her here so fast. Why was she up there in the first place? Why hadn't she evacuated with everyone else?"

Bakugo threw his hands in the air. "Because she's stubborn? I don't know!"

"Why don't you know?" Hawks asked, his tone rising.

"I said I don't know!" Bakugo shouted back. "Fuck!"

Both men took a step back from each other, trying to calm down. Bakugo collapsed into a nearby waiting room chair and wiped the sweat off his face with his hand, while Hawks paced around the room.

Suddenly the doors opened, and Todoroki rushed in, followed by a police officer.

"We don't know anything," Bakugo said before Todoroki could even ask. "She's still with the doctors and they won't tell us shit."

"So she's alive. Thank god. Was she conscious?" Todoroki asked Hawks. "Did you talk to her?"

He shook his head. "No, she wasn't. She.... " In his mind he saw you, bloody, at least one of your arms probably broken, maybe a leg, too. He'd grabbed you and flown to the hospital faster than he had thought possible, but it still didn't feel fast enough. "She was breathing, but not awake."

"Thank you for flying her here," Todoroki said. "I can't thank you enough, really. You have no idea how much this means to me. And her. Obviously. To the both of us."  

"Oh, um, thanks?" 

"I'll see if I can find out any information on her condition," Todoroki said. "My father's on the board of the hospital."

Todoroki and the officer went to talk to the nurses, and Hawks and Bakugo watched as they let the police officer go back behind the closed doors.

"That was weird," Hawks said once they were alone. 

"He's delusional," Bakugo scoffed. "He's got it in his mind that he is her fucking Prince Charming, come to rescue the poor quirkless girl or some shit." 

"Interesting. What about y/n? What was y/n's state of mind like?" Hawks asked Bakugo now that they were alone. "Weren't you with her today?"

Bakugo's eyes snapped up to glare at Hawks. "How did you know that?"

"I'm not an idiot, Bakugo. I know you were with her this morning."

"Okay, fine. I was with her most of the day, but then I went to work and then home in the afternoon. I got a text about the fire and that's when I rushed over there. When I saw the address, I thought.... Fuck! I didn't know what to think."

"I'm not sure how to put this, Bakugo. I'm trying to ask... Did she step off the edge on purpose?"

"What?"

"Did it seem like she meant to go over the edge?"

"You think she tried to kill herself? What the fuck, man, there's no way--"

"I'm just trying to understand everything," Hawks interrupted. "Bakugo, if she's involved with these...." Hawks looked around to make sure no one was listening, "with the League, we don't know what's really happening. They could be torturing her for all we know."

Bakugo thought of the bruises he'd seen covering your torso and thighs. The mysterious bandage on your shoulder.

"I think they are," he said quietly.

"What?" Hawks asked.

"This morning. I saw... her skin... "

"What about it?"

"We were... well... I saw her chest, her legs, her stomach..."

"Okay," Hawks said, trying to shove down the pang of jealousy that was starting to creep up. "And?"

"She was covered in bruises, like she'd been in a fucking cage match and lost. Badly."

"Bruises. Not burns?"

"I don't fucking know, maybe? She was a mess."

Hawks watched Bakugo carefully.

"Whats with the back pack?" Hawks asked.

"Huh?" Bakugo had almost forgotten that he had it still. "Oh. This. It's hers."

"What's in it?"

"I don't know." He shrugged it off his shoulder and rifled through it. Pictures, some documents, your bracelet. "Weird. Why would she have a backpack full of important things just before her apartment burned down?"

"Maybe she packed it as they evacuated," Hawks said, taking the bracelet and spinning it around in his hand.

"No, That bastard said he saw her with it earlier in the day," Bakugo said, motioning over to where Todoroki was standing, talking on the phone with someone.

"So she'd known. That's the only explanation. Y/n knew what the villains were going to do."

There was no denying the truth in what Hawks said. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Bakugo had had the same thought. But then, if that were true, if you'd known that the villains were going to burn down a building filled with innocent people... 

"She knew and didn't stop them," Bakugo said plainly. That didn't sound anything like something you would do, but what other explanation was there? 

"Maybe she couldn't stop them."

"She could have told someone."

"Maybe she couldn't," Hawks repeated. 

"Why are you defending her? Why do you even care so much about her?" Bakugo asked him.

"Look, we all do dumb stuff when we're kids, right? I... well, I have some... regrets."

Bakugo looked Hawks over slowly, remembering that you had told him that there had been a time when you wanted to become a hero, but instead you had fallen in love.

"When you knew her," Bakugo asked carefully, "did she want to be a hero?"

Hawks stared down at the bracelet. "She might not have had the official title, but in my eyes, when I knew her, she already was a hero."

A long, uncomfortable silence passed between the two of them as they sat in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs. Bakugo spoke first, his voice low.

"And you loved her?"

"Yes."

"Do you still?"

"Bakugo. I had a chance and blew it. But I'll be damned if my stupid mistake led to her somehow getting involved with these creeps. If I can do something about it, I'm going to."

At the sound of the ICU doors opening, both men looked up, but it was only the police officer coming back out.

"Remember, we have to keep all of this to just us," Hawks whispered to Bakugo. "I don't trust anyone else."

Bakugo grunted in reply.

The police officer asked to talk to Bakugo alone, so he followed him into one of the meeting rooms near the ICU. Once inside the tiny conference room, the police officer took out his pen and notebook. Bakugo sat at one end of the table, the officer at the other.

"Can we get on with this?" Bakugo asked. "She could wake up at any moment."

The police officer simply clicked his pen and stared at Bakugo. Without answering, he opened his notebook and started to write.

"You were there with her when she fell," the officer said. "Is that correct?"

"Yeah, so?"

"She fell from the second floor and has very severe injuries. I want to understand exactly what happened. What were you doing before she fell?"

"Trying to get her ass out of there and to somewhere safe."

"And she wouldn't go with you?"

"No, she wouldn't."

The police officer clicked his pen again and made a few notes in his notebook.

"Why wouldn't she go with you?" the officer asked.

"We were arguing."

"She was mad at you?"

"I guess," Bakugo said. "I don't know. She wasn't making a lot of sense, but she wouldn't let me get anywhere near her."

"Interesting. Why is that?"

"I don't even know. She ran off and then- "

"And then she fell."

"Yeah."

"Had you seen her today before the incident?" the officer asked him.

"Yes."

"When?"

"This morning."

"Did you have sex with her?"

"Excuse me?"

The office looked up from his notebook, his face blank. "Did you have sex?" the officer repeated.

"It's none of your fucking business, but yes. Yes, we did."

"And was it, in your opinion, consensual?"

"What the fuck kind of question is that? Are we done here?"

"No," the officer said simply, continuing to write notes in his notebook. "When you saw her this morning, was there anything unusual about her?"

"What does that mean?"

"Let me ask this in a different way," the office asked, his voice cold. "Was y/n covered in bruises before or after you saw her this morning?"

The implication of what he was saying wasn't lost on Bakugo. He clenched his fists at his sides and tried to keep his voice level. "I don't know who or what caused the bruises on her, but yes, I saw them."

"Of course you did," the detective said, scribbling down something. "I'm telling you right now that the bruising we saw on her chest and thighs are not consistent with a fall. You've already admitted to being with her this morning, and having sex, so I suggest that you rethink your story."

"I'm not telling you a fucking story!"

"You need to calm down, sir."

"No, you need to calm down and quit wasting my time. If someone hurt her, go out and find them!"

The officer's eyes stared straight back at his. "That's exactly what I'm trying to do."

"I've had enough of this bullshit," Bakugo said, standing up to leave.

"You can go," the office said behind him, "but I should tell you that we collected a rape kit."

Suddenly the anger was gone, and in its place was a squeamish feeling that started to creep into Bakugo's stomach.

"You think she was..." he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"You tell me."

And just like that, the anger was back. "Are you insane? You think I did that?"

"Did you?"

"No!"

"But you admit that you had sex."

"Yes, but it wasn't like that!"

"Right," the detective responded, writing more notes. He took out his phone and sent a text. "In just a few minutes a few of my partners are going to be here, and they're going to escort you out of the hospital. For y/n's protection, at this time we ask that you do not come back and do not contact her."

Bakugo leaned forward on the table, tiny sparks starting to form in his hands. "This is complete insanity. If you think for a second that I'm going to let you get away with telling me –"

"Are you threatening a police officer?"

A low growl rumbled in Bakugo's chest.

"Because if you are," the officer continued, "I am sure the hero commission would love to know about that. I doubt you'd have a license for long." As he spoke, two other police officers showed up at the door to the conference room. "But I'm not sure you'll have one for very long, anyway."

"You bastard –" Bakugo started to say, but the other officers stepped in front of him.

"We're going to ask you to leave now, sir," one of them said.

Bakugo debated his options. There was nothing he could do for you here, anyway, and he didn't want to be around these assholes for one second longer.

"You don't have to babysit me, I'm going," he huffed, shoving past them and leaving the room.