Please by Lopaka Tanu

"You are lost, just admit it." Watching as Danny's jaw clenched, Martin allowed his lips to twitch and nothing more. There was a certain sense of satisfaction to draw whenever his partner was wrong. Danny rarely ever made a mistake in New York, but they weren't in the city now. Sitting back in the passenger sat, he crossed his arms. "I'm waiting."

"If I were lost, I would admit it." Danny resolutely kept his gaze on the road ahead of him. He had never used the 'bright' setting on his car before, and it was playing havoc with his night vision. "Now, Fitzie, you are another matter. If there was a man to fit the stereotype, you're it."

"Oh, don't start with me on that, it was one time." Martin raised his voice as he spoke over Danny's accusation. "There was no sign, it wasn't my fault. Those damn kids..."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say." Reaching up with his index and middle fingers, Danny flicked on the blinker. From what he could tell, there was a T-road ahead.

"Besides," Martin continued. "If I'm correct, you were the one who gave me the directions."

"Don't try to pin your inadequacies on me, Boytoy." He caught Martin's glare from the corner of his eye. Snickering, he brought them to a stop at the intersection. Turning to look at the man, Danny put out a hand to rest upon his shoulder. "Don't pout, Fitzie, you know it's true. You're my boytoy."

"I'm one year younger than you, ass wipe." He shrugged off Danny's arm, looking out the passenger window so he wouldn't have to see his lover's smug grin. The man knew how much it galled him, and he took great pleasure in rubbing it in. "I earned that promotion!"

Sighing, Danny rolled his eyes. Focusing on the road once more, he let off the brake. He pulled them to the left, crossing his fingers under the wheel. "If I believed what they said about you, I never would have put my dick down your lovely throat. Besides, the thought of you and Jack doesn't even register it's just so disgusting."

"Hey, I could get Jack if I wanted to. He happens to be kinda attractive..." Martin looked down where Danny's hand came to rest on his thigh. Snorting, he shook his leg in a pathetic attempt to dislodge the offending appendage. "You're not getting a blow job in the car. Your driving's already bad enough."

"Anyone ever told you your filthy mouth is very attractive?" Sliding his hand up Martin's thigh, he stopped just at the junction of hip and thigh. "It would look so good wrapped around my..."

"Quit trying to distract me. You're lost!" Still, Martin couldn't tear his eyes away from Danny's hand. It took all his strength to keep from shifting his hip that last little bit over. Despite his will, his cock was already filling out the front of his briefs. "The first station we see, you are stopping for directions."

"If you have to use the restroom, I will, but other wise, nope." This time, Danny found his hand thrown back in to his own space. Chuckling, he put it back on the wheel. All he could see in the light of car's lamps were barbed wire, trees, and weeds. "Where the hell are we?"

"See, I told you so!" Martin didn't bother to keep the triumph from his voice. It was a red letter day, Danny had admitted he was wrong! Clapping, he started to chant the words at Danny. "I told you so, I told you so."

"Not so fast, I asked where we were. I'm only testing to see if you knew, because I do." The sudden silence made his night. Raising a fist, he started to pump it vigorously. "Yes! I win!"

"Shut up, Dan..." The flash of lights were instant and blinding. Crying out, the force of the impact slammed Martin against the door. His head impacted the glass as the world spun. Held there by the momentum, he became aware of feeling very light, then he was no longer in the car.

Tumbling over through the air, saw the blackness of the sky. The moon shining through the clouds was all his mind registered before his back hit the earth. All the breath was knocked from his body as it felt like a ton of bricks crushed his chest.

He bounced twice before coming to a sliding stop upon some rocks. Over the roaring in his own ears, he could hear water rushing. He had to blink several times before his eyes could focus. Luckily, his head was turned towards the source.

It was the car. Engine down first, it was sinking. Through the tall grasses and broken trees, he saw the driver's side. Against the window, Danny was beating at it uselessly.

Martin's lips formed the word, but he couldn't draw the breath to say his name. His fingers twitched, knowing he had to move, they were the only things he could control. As he watched, helpless, the bubbling of the waters increased and the car sank.

The last sight he had of Danny was his face pressed against the window before the car went under.

Too stunned to move, Martin felt wet heat upon his face and thought he was crying. Blinking didn't clear his vision, it was soon blotted out. 'Oh, I'm bleeding,' was his last thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh, sweet Jesus!"

Martin attempted to blink, but his eyes were glued shut. It took him several seconds to remember by what. Then, the memory of the wreck came back. Moaning, he tried to speak. Danny, he had to get to Danny.

"You're alive!" A warm hand came to rest upon his skin.

Shivering, Martin realized that his body felt cold inside. There was heat beating down upon him, most likely from the sun. Too late. It was too late. He swallowed down a whimper. His body hurt and he could barely move, but that didn't matter.

"Oh, Jesus, hold on. Fuck!" The speaker was panicking. "Listen, I gotta leave you here. I can't...I'm just a kid, Mister!" He squeezed Martin's hand. "I'll be back, there's Mr. Jackson down the road, he's got a cell phone that might work. Oh, fuck!"

The hand was taken from his and Martin was alone again. He could hear the pounding of boots on asphalt, but they grew so distant. It didn't matter, it was too late.

Easing down another swallow of dried saliva and something else that tasted vile, he took a shuddering breath. For the first time, Martin prayed for death. He was mentally asking his body to let go when his world grew distant again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was pain.

He was breathing, so he must be alive. His leg hurt. The entire left side of his face felt sunburned. A dull ache in his left hand signaled the presence of a catheter. Another throb in his right arm meant a second.

Groaning, he swallowed in an attempt to wet his throat. Martin licked his lips before opening his eyes. For some reason, he was surprised when they opened. He knew, later, he would ponder over that. Right now, the world was too blurry and bright.

A stabbing pain in his forehead made him close them. As he moaned, he tried to shift in the bed. Whoever had laid in it didn't know how he liked to sleep. His back was sore, so he had to be careful curling on his side. With gasping pants, he eased himself on to his side.

By the time he was finished, he felt completely exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, someone picked that time to check on him. Too hot fingers slid across his neck. Martin vainly swatted at them to no avail.

"So you're awake." It was a woman.

Growling at her, Martin tried catch her hand under his jaw to smush against his chest. He had to wait for her to complete the physical examination, running her fingers from his collar bone to his spine. "Gunhu wuh!" His tongue felt too fat to speak properly, which meant he was severely dehydrated. That told him he hadn't been there long.

Ignoring his attempt at speaking, she pushed open the back of his gown. "You best settle down, Mister. Dr. Jackson will want this information and I won't take the heat for your being a mule." Her warning in place, she continued to trail gloved fingers down his back, checking each joint, rib, and vertebrae.

At his hips, her fingers spread out. They trailed slowly over his ass, checking his pelvis and coccyx. "Does this hurt? There are several bruises along your...Oh. I see." Her fingers aligned with the purple markings, though smaller in size.

Slapping out his good hand, he knocked the hem of his gown down over his backside. "Nuh ya buzznuzz."

Releasing him, she snorted. "I understood that one." Patting his shoulder softly, her exhalation was loud enough to echo in the room. "Don't worry, Dr. Jackson doesn't discriminate."

Martin growled at her again. It made his throat feel better and said all he wanted. As her touch left his body, there was nothing keeping him there. Soon, he drifted off again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he next awoke, there was no sound above the air flowing through the vent. Martin thought himself alone until a throat cleared along side the ruffling of a newspaper. Having grown up hearing it every morning, the noise was one he would never forget. Almost, for half a heartbeat, he could pretend it had all been a horrible dream.

Then he opened his eyes.

The pounding behind his eyes suggested that may be moving his head would not be such a good idea. Taking that to heart, he blinked to clear his vision. When he could make out the person in the room, he knew instantly that something was wrong. "Who aw woo?"

Lowering his paper, the man looked at Martin with a raised eyebrow. There was a moment he seemed to think, then snorted. Raising his paper, he turned the page.

Swallowing, Martin had to clear his throat several times before it was clear and his mouth moist enough to speak. "Wha...t branch?"

"Hmm?" The man didn't even so much as lower his paper when he asked.

"Don't fuck with me." It hurt, but Martin forced himself in to sitting position. The pain and sudden bout of dizziness were enough to force all but his current thoughts from his head. Using the pillows to support himself, he kept his eyes closed. "Who are you with?"

Turning the page in his paper, the man shifted in his seat. A loud fart echoed in the room.

"All right, that's enough." Nose scrunched, a man standing in the doorway waved at the air. "Daniels, get the hell out." He didn't wait for the sitting man to move to enter the room. There was a hitch in his walk, making him seem new to the effort. "Mr. Tanner, my name is Derrick Lee. How are you feeling?"

For a minute, Martin sat there with his hospital gown pulled up over his nose. Then Derrick snapped his fingers in his general direction. While glaring at the man, he began to breathe through his nose. "Who are you people?"

"I've already told you my name, Mr. Tanner." Derrick walked to the other side of his bed, pointedly ignoring Daniels.

For his part, Daniels snapped a one finger salute at Derrick. Dropping his paper in his chair, he began to whistle and strolled out of the room.

When the door had closed behind the other man, Derrick completed his walk up to Martin. Reaching in to his suit jacket, he pulled out a leather tri-fold wallet. Pulling it open, he held it out for Martin to take so that it fell open. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Tanner."

Martin stared at the strip of hard plastic behind the plexi covering. It held his picture, the same year of his birth and all his descriptors, but that wasn't his name. He wanted to ask the meaning of it, but knew the answer already. "Why?"

"You got too close, that bump must have jarred your memory." It was a simple explanation. The only one the man seemed inclined to give him. Dropping the wallet in Martin's lap when he didn't take it, the Derrick pulled something from his other jacket pocket. "We have taken great care to ensure you arrived safely. Do not make us regret this, Mr. Tanner."

"I didn't ask for this. Last I heard, that part was a prerequisite." He picked up the wallet, it wasn't like he had any other choice. Examining the contents revealed two credit cards from national banks, three hundred dollars in twenties, a couple sales receipts, and a few photos of himself with a woman he didn't know. "Who is she?"

"You're ex-wife. Charlotte Tanner is your contact. Really, I hope that amnesia is only temporary." The next thing he pulled from his pocket was a small recorder. Checking it over, he didn't see Martin smirk.

It hurt to make his face move, but Martin couldn't help himself. "Anything else you got hidden in there, Houdini?"

"Lots of things." Derrick pressed a button on the end of the metallic recorder. "What do you recall about the accident?"

That sucked the air right out Martin's lungs. Spots danced before his eyes, he started to gasp. Clinging to his bed, he felt the world tilt around him. It took him several seconds that felt like an eternity to realize what had come back to him. He heard of flashbacks, but this had felt so wrong.

His stomach in his feet, Martin's head became too heavy to support. He let it fall back on the pillows. Tears blurred his vision, the sound of bubbling water the only thing he could hear.

Distantly, he became aware of a stinging pain in his arm. Soon after, relief and sleep tugged at his eyelids. Without caring about the world or the people around him, he gave in to the blessed darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A woman was humming.

Opening his eyes, Martin found it easier to bring himself around this time. Swallowing, he wet his lips and moaned. A straw was placed to them and he drank from it gratefully. When he had to breathe, the straw was taken away. This gave him the chance to look up.

Hair cropt just under her chin, the tips of which curled under was the first thing he noticed about her. The second was that it was a very bad dye job. She wore entirely too much makeup for a woman of her looks, but he wasn't about to tell her that. "Are you..."

"Yes, I'm Charlotte." Her tone was bored, but held a hint of anger. Setting aside the cup of water, she pushed back the hair over her ear. "I am with the U.S. Marshalls office here in Colorado."

"I see." Apparently being a white woman with bottle blonde hair automatically qualified them for field duty. Snickering, Martin fought to keep the memories of another woman at bay. "Are you going to tell me what the hell is going on, or do I have to guess? That last guy wasn't exactly Mr. Helpful."

"Derreck Lee?" At his nod, she puttered her lips. "Figures. There's a reason he's on administrative duty. He can't seem to break character, even when he's supposed to." Checking Martin's pulse, she reached up to his face. Before he could react, she had pushed open his eyelids.

"Hey!" Jerking back made her nail scrape against the flesh under his eye. The sudden sharp stinging made him gasp and clutch at his eye.

"Have to make sure you aren't too doped up to remember this." Her tone was bored. The sound of her heels clicked on the tiles, followed by her falling back in a chair. "The ground rules are simple, no contact with your formal life. You are never to break your charade. From the moment you are released from the Hospital, you have two months to secure a financially sustaining job."

Rubbing at his eye, Martin blinked at her with his other.

Picking up her hand bag, she pulled out a lipstick tube and a hand mirror. "Do not break the law, we won't bail you out. Never tell people your original identity, you wouldn't believe how many times we've had that happen." She pulled off the cap, then began to touch up her lips. "If you violate any of these, your protection is null and void. If you have any problems, I am your contact."

When she was through, she pressed her lips together and tilted her head. Satisfied with her appearance, Charlotte placed both back in her handbag. "Now, on to your identity."

"Wait." Martin had to physically hold up his hand to halt her progress. His head had started to spin and what she was telling him only added to that. "What is going on?" Much to his shame, his voice cracked over that. He took a shuddering breath before meeting her gaze.

"What?" Having started riffling through her bag, she was forced to set it down in her lap. "You're kidding, right?"

"No." Unable to stop himself, Martin shook his head. Looking down, he found his hands shaking. To control them, he bunched them up in the hem of his hospital blanket. "The last thing... We're we hit?"

For several heartbeats, Charlotte sat there staring at him. When she did react, it was to look away. "That son of a..." She bit off the rest. "Yes," it came out a bit breathy. Clearing her throat, she nodded. "He was a local dealer, believed to be working under orders from Deiscatta."

"Deiscatta?" The name seemed familiar, but Martin couldn't place it, but the dealer part was easy. Frowning, he rubbed at his forehead. "Why would a drug dealer want to kill us?"

"You were investigating..." trailing off, she stared at Martin in confusion. When he shook his head, the purse slipped from her hands completely. The dull thud it made shocked her in to action. Grabbing it as she bent over, she placed her hair behind her ear again when it fell away. "Uh, I've got some phone calls to make. You stay right here."

Martin didn't have the time to remark on how he didn't think he could leave before she was out the door. As it shut behind her, Martin sat watching it. When it didn't seem like she was coming back after a while, he searched for anything to distract him. All he came up with was a television remote.

For lack of anything better to do, he pressed the power button. Some gaudy children's program was on. Numbly, he flipped through the channels, not really paying attention. When it landed upon a familiar news station, he set the remote down. If nothing else, it would provide him with some grounding in everyday life.

Seeing they were doing weather for the nation, he tuned it out. There were windows in his room, but they led to the roof of an attached building. Windows surrounded the roof on all four sides, forming a depressing scene of only more hospital. Still, there were birds playing among the roofing stones and water pools.

He used to watch the wild birds from his bedroom. On mornings when he woke up early, he would lay there looking out on to the balcony. Danny had placed a feeder there for them, to amuse him. It was a pain in the ass because he had to refill it, then scrape the bird shit from the balcony. There was no chance in hell his lover would ever clean up after some wild animals. "No, but you sure could bitch about it."

Turning his head from the window, he almost expected to see Danny laying beside him. When he found the right side of his bed empty, it felt like someone had kicked him in the chest. Unable to gather the needed air to breathe, he laid back against the pillows.

"Coming up after the break, a story we've been following here all week. A new twist in the case of two murdered FBI agents. Authorities are finally opening up about why those two men may have been killed. That and more in the next half hour. Stick around."

With a shaky hand, Martin grasped the remote and turned it off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~