Every time Spencer wakes up from a sleep, the first thing he feels is guilt over the fact that he'd left Davin alone in any way, alone to think on their situation on his own while he's suffering from a concussion that Spencer should be paying closer attention to because he knows how dangerous they can be. He'd suffered three within the past year alone--four, if he counts his incident during the fairy tale spell--and each time had been a little bit more frightening than the last because he always lets himself wonder just how much more his body can take before it decides to give up on him. It hasn't yet, which he mostly thinks is due to the potions Joel gives him rather than any actual medical attention he's received, but he doesn't tell the nurses that anymore because the last time he'd tried to say he could get better help at home, they'd only glared. To be quite fair, they likely hadn't realized that what he'd get was magic so he supposes he can't blame them.
All of this, all of these thoughts are just a distraction, of course. Days after they'd been taken--and he knows it's been days because he's watched the sun rise and set three times now with a heart growing ever wearier--he'll take anything over having to look at Davin's mangled hand or acknowledge his own injured shoulder and battered body. Roman won't kill them, he keeps trying to tell himself this, but Spencer doesn't know how true that will be from one day to the next. Eventually, Roman is surely bound to tire of this. He'll decide to find someone else because if Davin and his grandmother are capable of doing this spell, there must be others out there who can do it, too. He can find someone else's powers he wants, another couple of sacrifices for his own greater good, and that will make it very easy for him to be willing to dispose of them.
He knows he should't think that way, and Spencer has been refusing to let himself since they'd been taken but it's getting harder. The only thing keeping him together is the dream; or rather, the reality that had merely taken place in his mind because he knows that seeing Joel and Coop hadn't just been a figment of his desperately exhausted and pained imagination. He wants nothing more in the world than to see his husband walk through that door every time Roman opens it, but he also knows that he hadn't been able to give much information when his husband and Coop had asked. He'd wanted to, he'd wanted to so badly, but it'd almost felt like there was a block in his mind each time he'd tried to reveal Roman's name. Still, he'd managed to show them Roman's face, he'd managed to tell Joel that they're in a warehouse that can't be far from town and about the books Roman had bought from Crossroads, and Spencer hopes that will be enough.
Even if James weren't an officer, Spencer would have faith solely because his husband has promised him that he'd find him. Joel always does, no matter what, no matter where they are or what world they're in, and Spencer holds that knowledge very close to his heart. The bare place on his finger where he usually wears his ring feels so strange without the cool metal against his skin, and he keeps finding himself tracing the shape of it over and over again as he continues to reassure himself and Davin that they'll be found soon. Maybe he'll get a tattoo of it, he thinks, a second permanent symbol on his body that represents their love and marriage because god, it hurts to see the ring gone. It hurts more, he thinks, than his shoulder or ribs or jaw, more than anything Roman could ever do to him because this pain runs much deeper, straight to his heart that longs to be in his husband's arms again.
His second beacon of hope, coming a full day after the dream he's already told Davin about, is the news that his friend's magic seems to be returning to him. Whether that means the wards are starting to weaken or Davin is simply powerful enough to overcome them, Spencer doesn't know, but he also doesn't care because if they can have this, if Davin can get his powers working again, it might very well be their best chance of getting out of here. Roman hasn't come back for the evening yet, and Spencer hopes he decides to leave them be--though he doesn't think that will be the case, at least not if his pattern of every night previous is anything to go by--but at least until then, he manages to push himself up to his knees to show Davin that he's more alert.
"You can do it," he murmurs softly, encouragingly. "You're stronger than him, Davin, than anything he could ever do, that's why he wants you here. You hold his future in his hands and aren't you the one who slayed a dragon?" Spencer smiles softly, though it wavers when his eyes flicker to Davin's hand. "We can fix it. I promise, we can fix it. Last year, when I was-- I was taken from home by someone who wanted to hurt Joel, and he broke my fingers. Three of them. It took time but with Joel's potions..." He trails off, holding his left hand up and wiggling his fingers. "I'm okay now. We're going to be okay, and they're going to come for us. We just have to keep fighting."
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All of this, all of these thoughts are just a distraction, of course. Days after they'd been taken--and he knows it's been days because he's watched the sun rise and set three times now with a heart growing ever wearier--he'll take anything over having to look at Davin's mangled hand or acknowledge his own injured shoulder and battered body. Roman won't kill them, he keeps trying to tell himself this, but Spencer doesn't know how true that will be from one day to the next. Eventually, Roman is surely bound to tire of this. He'll decide to find someone else because if Davin and his grandmother are capable of doing this spell, there must be others out there who can do it, too. He can find someone else's powers he wants, another couple of sacrifices for his own greater good, and that will make it very easy for him to be willing to dispose of them.
He knows he should't think that way, and Spencer has been refusing to let himself since they'd been taken but it's getting harder. The only thing keeping him together is the dream; or rather, the reality that had merely taken place in his mind because he knows that seeing Joel and Coop hadn't just been a figment of his desperately exhausted and pained imagination. He wants nothing more in the world than to see his husband walk through that door every time Roman opens it, but he also knows that he hadn't been able to give much information when his husband and Coop had asked. He'd wanted to, he'd wanted to so badly, but it'd almost felt like there was a block in his mind each time he'd tried to reveal Roman's name. Still, he'd managed to show them Roman's face, he'd managed to tell Joel that they're in a warehouse that can't be far from town and about the books Roman had bought from Crossroads, and Spencer hopes that will be enough.
Even if James weren't an officer, Spencer would have faith solely because his husband has promised him that he'd find him. Joel always does, no matter what, no matter where they are or what world they're in, and Spencer holds that knowledge very close to his heart. The bare place on his finger where he usually wears his ring feels so strange without the cool metal against his skin, and he keeps finding himself tracing the shape of it over and over again as he continues to reassure himself and Davin that they'll be found soon. Maybe he'll get a tattoo of it, he thinks, a second permanent symbol on his body that represents their love and marriage because god, it hurts to see the ring gone. It hurts more, he thinks, than his shoulder or ribs or jaw, more than anything Roman could ever do to him because this pain runs much deeper, straight to his heart that longs to be in his husband's arms again.
His second beacon of hope, coming a full day after the dream he's already told Davin about, is the news that his friend's magic seems to be returning to him. Whether that means the wards are starting to weaken or Davin is simply powerful enough to overcome them, Spencer doesn't know, but he also doesn't care because if they can have this, if Davin can get his powers working again, it might very well be their best chance of getting out of here. Roman hasn't come back for the evening yet, and Spencer hopes he decides to leave them be--though he doesn't think that will be the case, at least not if his pattern of every night previous is anything to go by--but at least until then, he manages to push himself up to his knees to show Davin that he's more alert.
"You can do it," he murmurs softly, encouragingly. "You're stronger than him, Davin, than anything he could ever do, that's why he wants you here. You hold his future in his hands and aren't you the one who slayed a dragon?" Spencer smiles softly, though it wavers when his eyes flicker to Davin's hand. "We can fix it. I promise, we can fix it. Last year, when I was-- I was taken from home by someone who wanted to hurt Joel, and he broke my fingers. Three of them. It took time but with Joel's potions..." He trails off, holding his left hand up and wiggling his fingers. "I'm okay now. We're going to be okay, and they're going to come for us. We just have to keep fighting."