Title: Too Old
Author: Darwin's Ape (manic_laughter@hotmail.com)
Beta: "Donna Moss" (donna_j_moss@hotmail.com), with thanks to Naath (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=220332). All mistakes, however, are mine. Pairing: Toby/Leo
Rating: PGish
Spoilers: Not unless you count Five Votes Down (season one, episode four). This is set around the start of season three.
Archive: Wherever, just tell me, please?
Disclaimer: They aren't mine. If That Nice Mr Sorkin objects, I will erase both this story and anyone who has read it.
Summary: Two grumpy old men, no alcohol. Notes: POV changes from section to section.
===
One of them sighed. They were too old to be embarrassed by sex, and yet, sitting not exactly awkwardly on chairs that weren't quite comfortable enough, too sober not to be.
"So," said Leo. The word hung in the air of his hotel room for a long moment. "Josh tells me you were behind fixing the Pearson thing."
Toby nodded. He may have offered a syllable or two in reply. He may just have continued to focus on the glass of water in his hands. He doesn't remember, nor does he honestly care.
"That really shouldn't have gone as far as it did," Leo added, more, Toby thought, to appease the silence than to tell either of them anything new.
Toby nodded.
"Have a drink," Leo said, and Toby acknowledged the unspoken suffix of "damn you" with a tiny twitch of his lips in what could have been a smile.
"I have a drink." Toby held up his glass.
"Have a drink."
But there's nothing worse than getting drunk in front of a former? - recovering? - in front of a non-observant alcoholic, apart from perhaps going through this excruciating routine while sober, and so Toby shook his head. "If I wanted to get drunk alone, I'd at least have the sense to get drunk alone."
Leo seemed to surprise himself by laughing.
Toby smiled behind his beard, more at the laughter than the joke.
One of them sighed.
===
Leo put his glass down, and wondered if he could make Toby catch his eye. "I saw Jenny today," he offered.
Toby looked up. "Oh. Is she, uh, is she well?"
"She's well."
"Good."
"Yeah."
Toby rattled the ice cubes around in his glass.
Stoic bastard, Leo thought to himself, adding aloud, "And Andrea?"
Toby, being a stoic bastard of the first degree, didn't even have the common courtesy to flinch. "She's doing good."
Leo briefly contemplated asking Toby why he had come up to the hotel room if it weren't for sex. "So," he said, once more leaving the word hanging out there in an attempt to embarrass Toby into speaking. He knew it wouldn't work, but he liked to think he was having fun trying. What was it Jed always used to say? But scratch that thought, because there are places Leo's brain refuses to take him any more.
"I miss Andi."
Leo thought for a moment about a weekly card game he played. He wondered how long it had taken Toby to say words such as those out loud. And he wondered how long it would take him to say something similar. "I know."
"Yeah."
One of them sighed.
Leo must have missed something, because the next thing he knew Toby had left his chair and his drink and was walking towards him. Toby looked unamused (and water is wet and fire is hot). He was just far enough from Leo's personal space for plausible deniability when he stopped.
"Leo."
"Toby."
"This isn't going to be a thing?"
"No."
Toby nodded, apparently to himself, and leant forward. He rested one hand on the arm of Leo's chair and the other on Leo's shoulder. And then he smiled.
===
The thing Toby remembers, the thing was the fear. He remembers more in terms of what it wasn't, he thinks. He remembers that it wasn't the dull ache in his stomach, the crushing sense of inevitability he'd felt when Andi? - Andrea? - when Andi had finally shaken her head and refused to let him unpack her bags. Refused to stay. Refused him. It wasn't the invigorating feeling, the one that let him bridge helplessness and determination, that got him through each year's State of the Union and similar crises. It was different.
He didn't know what was going to happen next.
===
Leo closed his eyes and kissed Jenny.
=Fin=
Feedback is a gift from the gods. Whichever gods you like.
Beta: "Donna Moss" (donna_j_moss@hotmail.com), with thanks to Naath (http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=220332). All mistakes, however, are mine. Pairing: Toby/Leo
Rating: PGish
Spoilers: Not unless you count Five Votes Down (season one, episode four). This is set around the start of season three.
Archive: Wherever, just tell me, please?
Disclaimer: They aren't mine. If That Nice Mr Sorkin objects, I will erase both this story and anyone who has read it.
Summary: Two grumpy old men, no alcohol. Notes: POV changes from section to section.
===
One of them sighed. They were too old to be embarrassed by sex, and yet, sitting not exactly awkwardly on chairs that weren't quite comfortable enough, too sober not to be.
"So," said Leo. The word hung in the air of his hotel room for a long moment. "Josh tells me you were behind fixing the Pearson thing."
Toby nodded. He may have offered a syllable or two in reply. He may just have continued to focus on the glass of water in his hands. He doesn't remember, nor does he honestly care.
"That really shouldn't have gone as far as it did," Leo added, more, Toby thought, to appease the silence than to tell either of them anything new.
Toby nodded.
"Have a drink," Leo said, and Toby acknowledged the unspoken suffix of "damn you" with a tiny twitch of his lips in what could have been a smile.
"I have a drink." Toby held up his glass.
"Have a drink."
But there's nothing worse than getting drunk in front of a former? - recovering? - in front of a non-observant alcoholic, apart from perhaps going through this excruciating routine while sober, and so Toby shook his head. "If I wanted to get drunk alone, I'd at least have the sense to get drunk alone."
Leo seemed to surprise himself by laughing.
Toby smiled behind his beard, more at the laughter than the joke.
One of them sighed.
===
Leo put his glass down, and wondered if he could make Toby catch his eye. "I saw Jenny today," he offered.
Toby looked up. "Oh. Is she, uh, is she well?"
"She's well."
"Good."
"Yeah."
Toby rattled the ice cubes around in his glass.
Stoic bastard, Leo thought to himself, adding aloud, "And Andrea?"
Toby, being a stoic bastard of the first degree, didn't even have the common courtesy to flinch. "She's doing good."
Leo briefly contemplated asking Toby why he had come up to the hotel room if it weren't for sex. "So," he said, once more leaving the word hanging out there in an attempt to embarrass Toby into speaking. He knew it wouldn't work, but he liked to think he was having fun trying. What was it Jed always used to say? But scratch that thought, because there are places Leo's brain refuses to take him any more.
"I miss Andi."
Leo thought for a moment about a weekly card game he played. He wondered how long it had taken Toby to say words such as those out loud. And he wondered how long it would take him to say something similar. "I know."
"Yeah."
One of them sighed.
Leo must have missed something, because the next thing he knew Toby had left his chair and his drink and was walking towards him. Toby looked unamused (and water is wet and fire is hot). He was just far enough from Leo's personal space for plausible deniability when he stopped.
"Leo."
"Toby."
"This isn't going to be a thing?"
"No."
Toby nodded, apparently to himself, and leant forward. He rested one hand on the arm of Leo's chair and the other on Leo's shoulder. And then he smiled.
===
The thing Toby remembers, the thing was the fear. He remembers more in terms of what it wasn't, he thinks. He remembers that it wasn't the dull ache in his stomach, the crushing sense of inevitability he'd felt when Andi? - Andrea? - when Andi had finally shaken her head and refused to let him unpack her bags. Refused to stay. Refused him. It wasn't the invigorating feeling, the one that let him bridge helplessness and determination, that got him through each year's State of the Union and similar crises. It was different.
He didn't know what was going to happen next.
===
Leo closed his eyes and kissed Jenny.
=Fin=
Feedback is a gift from the gods. Whichever gods you like.