Chapter Two



Jared was lucky that his family was well off, owning their own successful law firm, he had his own spacious apartment that his father had brought for him when he started college. He had never been so grateful for the underground parking as he was now, letting a strange man, if that's even what he was, out of his Mercedes wearing nothing but a hospital gown.

They walked over to the elevator and Jared hit the button for the top floor. "Come on, come on," he muttered under his breath, watching as the numbers flashed before him. He cursed when the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

"Mrs Davis. How are you today?" Jared greeted his neighbour.

The woman, in her mid fifties, with short dark hair and a red lip-sticked smile, beamed at him when she saw who it was. "Jared, I'm very well. How did your exam go?" Her speech was only slightly slurred, after years of practice of hiding her drinking from her husband.

Jared considered telling her some version of the truth but decided just to flat-out lie to her. "Great, I think. There was a party after, guys playing pranks on each other. My friend here got his clothes stolen," he said with a laugh, nodding to Jensen who watched Jared's face carefully before mimicking his carefree smile.

Jensen nodded. "A prank. A trick played on someone that is intended to be amusing but not to cause harm or damage," he said with a laugh, making Jared close his eyes and cringe for a second.

"He just got done with his English oral exam," Jared explained, only for the woman to grin back.

"Oh I remember my college days. Let me tell you boys, it was a little wild. You might be shocked," she told them delightedly.

"Oh Mrs. Davis, were you a naughty girl?" Jared asked. He always flirted with her a little, it made her happy, as did hearing tales of his antics with his friends or boyfriends, all the things that would make his father furious.

She giggled in a way she no longer did with her husband and playfully pushed Jared's shoulder. "Please tell me this is the new man in our life? Tell me you chucked that appalling Chad the cad."

Jared smiled at her affectionately because, really, she was kind of like Jensen in the way she tried to grasp slang from the youth of today. "Yeah," he lied again, figuring it would be a convenient cover if Jensen was going to be staying with him for a while.

Jensen frowned at the woman's words. He knew what a cad was, a man who behaved badly or dishonestly, especially to women, but how could Jared have chucked one? He did seem to be very big and strong, but still.

They made their way up to the top floor, letting Mrs. Davis out at the floor of her friend's apartment, the one she watched old movies and mixed cocktails with every day around this time. She made him promise to have dinner with her one night this week when Mr. Davis was working late again and insisted he bring his new man.

"Okay, go into the bathroom, it'll be easier to clean up in there," Jared told Jensen as he let them into his apartment.

The place was open and spacious. The door opened into the livingroom, which was all creams and browns with a large window covering the entire back wall, showing an impressive view of the park. The kitchen was at the other end of the room, separated by a bar.

Jensen glanced round quickly before making his way into the bathroom.

Jared went into the cupboard under the sink and found the first aid kit his mother had put there when he'd first moved in. He was pretty sure there wouldn't be any needles or thread though.

"Jensen," he called out. "I don't have the right supplies to fix your stitches."

"Use cotton," Jensen called back. "When in the field you must make do."

Jared raised his eyebrows, thinking this was going to be messy, painful and unpleasant. He went into the bedroom and rummaged through his sock drawer until he found a little sewing kit he had taken from a hotel room once.

When he walked into the bathroom he froze, staring at the sight before him. Jensen had removed his hospital gown and was standing completely naked in front of his large bathtub.

"Damn," he breathed, letting his eyes wander down the hard, sculpted body, swallowing as he took in the thick, limp cock.

Jensen didn't seem to grasp the concept of modesty and Jared let out a long calming breath before moving closer to him. "Okay, I got a first aid kit and a sewing kit. Tell me what to do."

"We need fire and alcohol to sterilise the needle and the wound," Jensen told him, sitting down on the edge of the circular bathtub.

Jared did as he was told and clenched his teeth as he poured some vodka over the wound. Not all of the stitches had come undone and Jared was extremely grateful for that.

"I'm sorry man, this is gonna hurt," Jared told him.

He watched what he was doing carefully as he pierced Jensen's skin with the needle then looked up at his face to gauge a reaction. Jensen barely flinched and concentrated on his breathing, like in his training.

When it was all over Jared looked him in the eye carefully. "You aren't… normal, are you."

Jensen cocked his head again in a way that was quickly starting to remind Jared of a dog he'd once had who used to do that when trying to understand what he was saying to her.

"Normal… no," Jensen finally answered. "I'm not like you if your definition of normal is you and people like you… so no, I'm not," he concluded with a nod.

"Wow," Jared said kneeling on the floor in front of him. "Are you human?"

"Mostly," Jensen answered straight away. "Though there are other sources of DNA in my genetic makeup."

Jared frowned, wide-eyed and slightly horrified. "Like what?"

Jensen was about to answer him but he stopped suddenly. He felt hot; he never felt hot. He always remained the perfect temperature. He took a deep breath and shook his head. "Feline," he supplied. There were others but it was a long list, and feline, after human, was the highest percentage.

Jared put his hand over his mouth. He actually believed what this stranger was saying, why would he do that? He was a rational man, he rolled his eyes at the people on Jerry Springer who claimed to have been abducted by aliens.

"So what… your mom fucked a cat and you're what came out?" he asked looking kind of disgusted.

Jensen cocked his head and frowned. "Fucked," he said the word slowly, pronouncing it carefully as if trying to taste it. "I don't know this word."

Jared actually found himself smiling at him, because the freaky, cat-man was actually kind of cute and childlike. "Sex," he supplied and Jensen nodded in understanding, his mouth forming an 'O'.

"Copulate… no. I have no mother. I wasn't born, I was made."

Jared lifted his hands to his head and pulled back his hair. "This is fucked up."

Jensen frowned again. "It's sexed up?"

Jared couldn't help but laugh at that and he placed his hand on the man's thigh before remembering he was naked, and unbelievably hot, and removing it again. "Uh, it has more than one meaning, it's slang. A swear word, one you don't use outside of friends, okay?"

Jensen looked at him carefully before leaning forward and placing his hand on Jared's thigh, mimicking his actions from just moments ago. "We are friends then?"

Jared looked down at the hand and smiled, covering it with his own, because really, he couldn't help it. "Yeah, we are."

They stayed like that for a moment, Jared smiling at him and Jensen returning the act, though Jared thought it was more because he thought it was what he was supposed to do than that he was genuinely smiling.

"I have so many more questions for you, but it's been quite a day. So how about we get you cleaned, fed and put to bed, huh?"

Jensen thought about it for a moment and then nodded once in agreement. "Yes, let's do that."

Jared led Jensen out to the kitchen and told him to sit up on one of the stools at the breakfast bar. He had a meat loaf sandwich in there that Mrs. David had brought over for him the night before, as she often did with her leftovers. He put it on a plate in front of Jensen along with a glass of milk.

"Eat that, I'll go run you a bath."

He walked back to the bathroom, looking behind him at the naked man sat in his kitchen and shook his head. This was most definitely the weirdest day of his life.

Once in the bathroom he tossed the gown into the trash can, along with the needle he had used. There was no way he was sewing back on a button using that ever again.

He ran a bath, making sure not to make it too hot, but comfortably warm. He went back out into the living room and saw that Jensen was just sitting there like he was awaiting orders, having finished the sandwich.

"It's ready," he said, making Jensen turn and face him. Jared nodded to the bathroom and watched as the gorgeous golden god walked towards him in all his naked glory.

"You know how to wash yourself, right?" Jared asked, only for Jensen to turn and look at him like he was an idiot. "Right, you can calculate rates of fire acceleration but you can't bathe yourself… sorry," he said with a laugh.

He watched as the naked man stepped up into the bath and sunk down. "Do you mind if I stay?" Jared asked. "So I can ask you some more questions."

Jensen swished his arms through the water, a small smile tugging at his beautifully plump lips. "I don't mind," he answered, looking down at the ripples in the water.

"You said you were made," Jared reminded him as he took a seat on the closed toilet lid. "Like, in a lab?"

"No," Jensen answered, looking up from the water. "Not like a lab. A lab."

Jared snorted and leaned his arm on the sink next to him. "And there are more of you?"

Jensen frowned, feeling hot again, his hands clenching under the water of their own accord. "Not any more, they all burned."

"I'm sorry," Jared said, licking his lower lip.

"Why are you sorry?" Jensen asked, looking at him with a frown. "Why are you apologising for something you didn't do?"

Jared took a deep breath. He really needed to sit Jensen in front of a TV or something so that he could learn all this on his own. "When somebody loses someone they love, it's customary to tell them that you're sorry for their loss."

"That doesn't make sense," Jensen pointed out.

Jared shrugged. He watched the other man for a while, watched as he reached for the soap and began cleaning himself. "So, why did they kill them and not you?"

Jensen turned to look at him, frowning in confusion as he felt his teeth grit. "I don't know. The Jensen-point-ones were all killed long ago, they came out wrong and were destroyed. I don't know about the Jensen-point-twos, only that they all died in the field during testing, that's what our father told me, it all happened before I was made. The Jensen-point threes were strong and trained as an army. There was something wrong with their psychological makeup, they didn't follow orders well, they were angry."

Jared stared at him in complete shock. "Are you telling me they're like clones?"

"No," Jensen told him, reaching for the shampoo and opening the bottle, sniffing it and cocking his head. "Limes and mint. They aren't like clones, they are clones… were."

"Are you a clone?"

Jensen looked at him again as he worked the shampoo into his hair. "No, I'm the first Jensen-point-four, no others were made before me… or after."

Jared nodded. "Okay, I get it."

"Father said I was perfect, the perfect blend," Jensen told him and Jared nodded, looking down over his sculpted chest.

"Yeah, I can see that."

"I am strong, stable and very quick to learn. They wanted to make more of me, but father said no. He said he loved me, and wouldn't let me become like the others, killers. But they sent him away and were planning to make more of me despite his wishes."

Jared wanted to go over to him and comfort him in some way but he really wasn't sure how to or even if Jensen would understand that concept. "So why are you so special, other than being strong and stable."

Jensen ducked back under the water to rinse his hair and licked away the water droplets as he re-emerged, making Jared sigh with how unfair it was to have someone this hot and naked in his apartment and not be allowed to hit on him.

"Father would read to me when I was young and I would finish the stories in my head… he said I was able to imagine things, he called me his son. He never called the others that," Jensen told him.

"You have an imagination," Jared said with a slight smile. "That's good. So now I guess you're all alone in the world."

"They don't like imaginations," Jensen told him. "The men in charge. They gave me medication to prevent it."

Jared slid off the toilet seat and came to kneel beside the bath. "How long ago was your last dose?"

"Nine hours and twelve minutes," Jensen told him, frowning again. "I'm supposed to take it every six."

Jared smiled at him. "That's a good thing, Jensen. Trust me, you want to get that back."

Jensen smiled back at him and then frowned once again as an idea came to him. "I'm not supposed to feel."

"Emotions?"

"Yes, they make you weak."

Jared leaned his arms on the side of the tub and rested his chin on his forearms. "Dude, back in the hospital you looked scared."

Jensen cocked his head again, trying to remember. "Yes," he said almost excitedly. "I was scared. I was scared for my life," he told Jared, grinning like it was the best thing ever. "My heart was racing, I was sweating, my breathing grew shallow… and then again when you touched my leg."

Jared raised his eyebrows at that and tried not to blush or look away.

"Why would I be scared of you touching me?" Jensen asked innocently.

Jared coughed and straightened up on the floor. "Well, there are many different emotions that cause those same symptoms."

Jensen seemed to deflate at that. "How will I ever differentiate between them all?"

"You'll learn, everyone does," Jared told him. "Okay, so you can sleep in my room and I'll sleep on the couch tonight. We'll figure out some more things tomorrow, like what we're going to do with you."

Read Chapter Three of Twelve + Epilogue of Jensen.4.1