Title: Swimming in the Smoke
Author: indehed
Fandom: Eastenders
Pairing: Christian/Syed
Warnings/Spoilers: continuation from my previous stories 'Burning in the Skies' and 'Beating of the Storm'. Please assume spoilers apply through current storylines/time.
The baby swap/SIDS doesn't happen in my fic universe. I don't have any problems with that storyline, it's just that it's very dramatic and I want the 'dramatic' element of Albert Square to be Chryed for the purposes of this fic! Other canon events will still happen - some will change almost completely, some will be near identical to what you saw on screen. Hopefully they will be obvious to spot!
This story portrays a canon homosexual relationship between two men,
Notes: Thanks to Madworld_NES for the beta!
Summary: As Christian and Syed rebuild their lives after recent traumatic events, they get unexpected news. Meanwhile someone arrives back in Walford to confront Syed leading Christian to repeat an action from the past. And Zainab begin to come to terms with her son's life choices.
It was a week since Christian had received the news of Alec's death and he and Syed were doing their best to return to normal. Problems had begun to arise when the Square began to find out about what had happened with Alec kidnapping Kamil and shooting at Christian - everyone wanted to know the details, everyone stared at them, nudged each other and whispered rumours.
Funnily enough, they'd been able to keep quite hidden away for a while and had been able to just talk to friends on the phone and dissuade them from coming over to see them in person. They just wanted to be alone in the flat and didn't feel like being sociable and putting on brave faces when they just wanted to collapse on the sofa or the bed together and, well, hug.
After seeing Police outside the flat again, Jane had rushed round from the Vic as soon as she could, leaving Alfie to cope with the orders on a busy lunchtime, to come and see her brother. She had found him with a tear stained face when he opened the door and she immediately pulled him into a hug.
"What happened?"
"He's dead..."
She had known who he'd meant and was aware he was just relieved. She took care of him that afternoon until Syed returned from a trip to a hidden destination elsewhere in London, where he'd seen his mother.
Syed came home, drained but just wanting to see Christian, and walked in to find Jane making cups of tea and Christian curled up on the sofa with the TV on showing Loose Women. He immediately knew something was wrong and rushed to his side, letting Christian fill him in on what had happened and, with an arm propped on the back of the sofa, he pulled Christian into a hug.
They pulled back and Jane brought the tea over, perching on the end of the sofa where Christian's legs were.
"Shouldn't you be at work?" Syed asked her as she sat down.
"Alfie's taking care of it; I thought I might make sandwiches." She rubbed Christian's knee and smiled at him. "Like when we were young and you were sick."
"I'm not sick." Christian put in.
"I know you're not, but it's like comfort food, isn't it? You used to love my apple salad sandwiches." Jane kept smiling.
Christian didn't feel like committing to anything and so thought of a reason to excuse himself. "I'm just popping to the toilet. Talk amongst yourselves..."
If there was one thing Syed was well aware of about himself, it was that he'd inherited the 'mother hen' routine from his mother. He just wanted to please everyone and that was far too difficult - he'd discovered that when he made the greatest mistake of his life and married Amira. When he'd met with his mother for lunch that day they had talked about it, when Syed had brought up that he'd been trying to make sure Christian was okay after everything that had happened, and his mother had asked if Syed had taken care of himself properly. He'd been slightly unsure how to answer. As far as he was concerned he was fine, and he told her so. He told her that he'd placed his faith in Allah and he was sure that God had been in control during the whole drama and he was at peace with that. Then he'd spoken to her about how, without such a strong faith, he worried that Christian hadn't been able to put everything into some sort of perspective and was floundering a little.
When he'd arrived home to find Jane interfer-, visiting and trying to help out, he'd had to quash that other emotion he seemed to have a reputation for - jealousy. He may be equally aware of his own propensity to get possessive and jealous over things and people but this one aspect of his personality was a lot harder to control at times. And he felt himself wanting to get Jane out so that he could take care of Christian as he had been for the last week. He felt that she could do or say something that would contradict him or set them back in some way.
Christian's arm was healing fine - the physical ramifications were no worry. To be fair, Christian had been fine mentally too. But he had been quieter than usual and only in the last few days had he seemed more like the Christian everyone knew and loved - but Syed could see behind his eyes that he was still wary. It was all because he'd trusted Alec and called him his friend. Now Christian had started doubting other people around him, even if it was just the strangers behind him in the queue at the Minute Mart. It reminded Syed of when Christian had been beaten by that homophobe and he'd refused to go outside for ages. Syed had seen him through then, and he'd do it again. At least, this time, Christian wasn't afraid to set foot outside.
But he still wanted Jane to go so he could sort everything out himself.
Once Christian closed the door to the other room, Syed turned to Jane. "Well done, now he thinks everyone is stifling him."
"You've been stifling yourselves for days, Syed. Hardly anyone has seen you both."
"We just wanted to take some time out for ourselves. We've had to think about what to do about work what with everything that's happened. I'm starting back on my course in a few weeks and Christian's training again from tomorrow so no need to worry about us."
"I'm his sister, I'm your friend... of course I worry."
"Thank you, but everything's fine. Maybe you should head back to work, you know what Alfie's like in a kitchen. I'm home now."
Jane picked up her jacket and scarf and looked at Syed again. "Okay, just... tell him I'll call him tomorrow."
"Will do." He shut the door on her before she could say anything more.
The next day, Christian returned to work, where at least his clients were some of his oldest. He thought of them as friends. It was more of a comfortable friendship though. He wouldn't call them at midnight for a lift home, they weren't close friends... but if he was out and saw them he'd have a drink with them and he knew enough about them to ask after their family and work. It was that comfortable ease that was helping him at the moment to just continue to get through the day without worrying what people were really thinking.
After two sessions, he took a wander back down Turpin Road and stopped outside the gym. It seemed such a shame. The building was fine, in fact it was pristine. The only difference was seeing the shutters pulled down in the middle of the day with a 'closed' sign up, and he hated seeing it like that after the hard work he'd put into it. Who knew what would happen to it now that Alec was dead? Maybe someone else would buy it and take it on, or maybe they'd gut the place and turn it into something else.
He had half a mind to buy it himself, but with Syed training for another few months, he couldn't justify buying the place and being able to support both of them. Though if he could find a sympathetic bank manager maybe he'd have a bit more luck. He just didn't want to see them end up in a lot of debt. Maybe he'd raise the issue with Syed later. Syed could finish his course and set up a sports massage business and take a room in there too. They could be working together again properly. Maybe that was what they needed.
