"...The epic follow-up to Flying. Can read it w/o reading it, though. R&R?"

Free Falling

Hank smiled as he walked across the beautiful Hamptons beach side. He had just finished his latest medical emergency and thought that the rest of the day would be fairly relaxing.

And then his cell phone rang.

With a disappointed sigh, he answered a bit hastily. "Hello?"

"Uh, did I catch you at a bad time?" the other voice asked. Hank automatically put the voice with its face: Tucker Bryant.

"No, sorry about that." Hank covered, blushing slightly. He shouldn't have greeted him like that. Even if it were another client, he knew better than to lose his 'chill factor' around patients.

"Oh, well, are you clear for the afternoon?" Tucker questioned, covering up his discomfort with a cough.

"Uh, yeah- I think so, anyways." Hank laughed. "Why, you wanna hang out?"

"You could say that." Tucker smiled.

"Alright, I'll be over in just a sec."

"Thanks man." With that, they both hung up...

A few minutes later, Hank knocked on Tucker's door, only to be greeted by a young dark-haired man wearing a black suit with a backpack-looking thing on his back. Then, his brain finally made the connection- he realized why Tucker had asked him over.

"No."

"It's too late; I already signed us up." Tucker smiled, suppressing an evil laugh, Hank thought.

"Let me reiterate: Hell. No." Hank restated.

"Well, that's too bad. Because then, I'll have to do it alone, and there's a better chance that I'll get hurt and start bleeding because of said injury because I don't have supervision as I fall, and then if the nice people in the helicopters that don't know I have hemophilia decide to just take off in case something happened, I could die, Hank. Bleed out."

"Are you seriously playing the hemophiliac card on me?"

"You seem surprised, Hank. Have I upset you?" Tucker asked, looking as innocent as ever.

"Fine, I'll do it as long as we fall over the ocean and I have eyes on you at all times. I think this is too dangerous, especially for you, but it's obvious I'm not going to stop you." Hank sighed.

"I wouldn't have thought you would do anything differently." Tucker said, nodding his head.

"Alright, let's go."

With a large smile on his face, Tucker escorted Hank outside, where a helicopter with two men inside it were waiting...

The two men stood at the edge of the helicopter, their eyes glued to the ocean beneath them. Tucker gripped the side of the helicopter as tight as he could. He was beginning to have second thoughts about his 'brilliant' idea.

Hank wasn't any calmer than Tucker was. His eyes glanced from the ground to Tucker. He studied the younger man with worried eyes, seeing how ill at-ease Tucker had became.

"We don't have to do this, Tucker. You don't have to prove yourself to anyone." Hank said- the voice of reason.

"I know." Tucker nodded. "I just...I have to."

"No, you don't." Hank argued.

Tucker inched toward the edge, hands spread out in the starting position. "Push me!"

"What, no!"

"PUSH ME!"

Seeing that there was no point in arguing, Hank placed his hands on Tucker's back. "One last chance, Tucker."

"I don't need a second chance; I'm not backing out."

Finally, Hank gave into Tucker's wishes. He watched as the younger man 'fell' out of the elevator, his parachute now in sight. Hank sighed before jumping himself, trying his best not to back out.

Using Tucker's safety as motivation, he followed the younger man, joining Tucker as they both fell.

Tucker could feel tears welling up in his eyes as 'flew' in the sky, the wind wiping his body around as if it was weightless. At first, he was terrified, but as he neared the ocean, he found himself smiling.

Hank laughed as they wind carried him down safely. He was actually having a good time, and he found that he wasn't afraid anymore.

As they landed in the ocean, Hank and Tucker shared a laugh. Tucker wiped at his tears as Hank swam closer to him, resting a hand on his tired shoulder. "Are you bleeding?"

"No, I'm good." Tucker smiled.

"Yeah, me too." Hank said, noticing the tears in his eyes. Tucker caught Hank looking at him, and he gave him a reassuring smile.

"There' tears of joy." he joked. Hank just shook his head at his friend's bad attempt to avoid talking about the tears.

"Tell me Tucker, was it as bad as you'd thought it'd be?" Hank laughed, finding that he had actually enjoyed the fall.

Tucker thought about the question for a minute, but he quickly stopped himself. He had 'flown', and he was still alive. He had survived, and that was all that mattered.

"No, it wasn't."

"...ta-da! I finally wrote it! A quick note, I stole the 'was it as bad as you thought it'd be' from an ep of Criminal Minds. I disclaim that and the RP characters. :) Hope you liked it! R&R?..."