Battle Hymn
By: Vampira Maxwell
Disclaimer: I don't own Static Shock or any of the characters. If I did, there would SO be slash action everywhere.
Richie almost couldn't handle it. He felt so helpless. Even more so than usual. Which was saying something, since Virgil had been the superhero. He supposed that this was the actual fate of most sidekicks, though. You got to help out, some more than others, but you always felt at least a little helpless. And when your hero got injured? Badly? Then things hit home a little more.
At first, when Virgil had gotten his powers and had started fighting crime, Richie had thought it was pretty cool. It had almost seemed like a game. Even when things got a little dangerous, Richie had never actually thought seriously about Virgil ending up in the hospital, or worse...dying.
But now that it had happened...now...now he felt stupid. He should've known this could happen. He should have known this -would- happen. He should have tried to talk Virgil out of this sort of business.
Even as Richie thought that, though, he smiled a little and gave a half-amused chuckle. Yeah right. There was no way that he would've been able to do that. Virgil was the type of guy who would interfere if he had the ability, who would try to right wrongs and keep people safe and make things more fair. The only reason he hadn't done a lot of that before his powers was because he didn't have the means. But, give him the means and...well that's just the type of guy he was. That was one reason why Richie loved him so much.
Not that he'd ever tell Virgil that last bit. He was sure that on some level Virgil knew, but it was also true that Virgil was straight. There was no way he could return those feelings. But, that didn't get in the way of their friendship and commitment to each other. Virgil knew that out of everyone, Richie would always, always be the only person he could trust. And likewise the other way around.
But, knowing these things, and knowing that this was just simply Virgil's calling now, was not going to help the pain ease. Not while Richie was sitting there in the chair next to his bed, listening to the beeping of the monitors, seeing the IVs and tubing all over Virgil. He was sure that his best friend's family would be here soon, but for now it was just himself and Virgil. Like it always was, and like it was probably meant to be. If you asked Richie, anyway.
"Hang in there, V. You're strong, you can make it...I know you can..." Richie said, doing his best to sound sure of it and strong. Like usual. But, even to his own ears his voice sounded soft, thick, and cracked. Hardly the strong and confident voice he'd been hoping for. Guess he wasn't great in this kind of crisis, either. Great, he'd screwed things up in the battle...it was his job to make sure he got all of the pertinent information to Virgil and he had failed, he had missed something...but now he couldn't even be strong for his best friend and, if he was being quite honest with himself, the love of his thus-far short life.
Short life. That scared him to think of. His life was short? Ha! Look at Virgil, laying there in the hospital bed, with all those tubes and monitors and IVs and whatnot...his life might be cut even shorter.
Richie sniffed a bit and wiped at his eyes. He wasn't crying. He wasn't. He was just...allergic to all the cleaning products used in the hospital. Right. That was it.
"You can't die, Virgil..." he whispered, taking hold of his hand, lacing their fingers. "I...there's so much I wanted to say..."
He looked at the bandages and gauze all over Virgil's body, on his arms where the needles and tubing weren't taking up too much space, on his face in patches, around his head. Virgil had gotten hurt before, many times. But, not...not like this...
"If you die, I don't know what I'll do..." he began, but at that moment, the door opened and a nurse came in with Virgil's father and sister.
Richie sniffed again, and got up to free up the chair for either Virgil's father or sister, and gently began to remove his hand from his best friend's when he almost thought he felt a twitch or a squeeze.
He knew better, but Richie imagined that that was a sign just for him, something just between them, something special.