Reunion
By Drucilla and April
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Tom stared out over the prow of the boat at the ocean as it passed him by, wondering what was wrong with him.
These days it seemed like everything was passing him by, not deliberately, but rather because it was all moving too fast for him to keep up. Huck's injury, the Phantom, the assignment, the League, M's treachery, Quatermain's death... all in less than a fortnight. His mind was still reeling from all the information assimilated, and his emotions were still getting used to the ups and downs. The giddy elation at having finally caught up with the Phantom, the horror and fear when Huck had been injured. The need to escape, the wonder at discovering the League. The growing attachment only to have one of them ripped away... again.
Would Huck even still be alive when he returned? He felt another surge of emotion, guilt this time, at having left his old friend. But it had all been so confusing, so intense. And he had wanted to hunt down the Phantom and visit a just retribution upon the bastard more than he had wanted to stick around and hold Huck's hand while his friend...
He couldn't think it. It was too much.
Tom turned around and retreated below-decks. Perhaps Nemo had something to distract him with, or at the very least there was always the comfort of Skinner's liquor cabinet. He needed something to take over the thinking part while they were heading back to America.
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Huck stared at the window and tried to ignore the lingering pain in his chest. It had been healing though...somewhat miraculously. The doctors had all been amazed, the would having been near-fatal.
Perhaps it had been waking up alone that had helped him to recover. He hadn't wanted to die alone surrounded by strangers. He had asked where Tom was endlessly for awhile, but the only answer he got was rather vague. Evidently the mission was top-secret.
It had irritated him though. After all, he had gotten injured because of the Phantom. Shouldn't he have been allowed to know what had become of him.
And despite the small bit of resentment he harbored towards Tom, he missed him far too much to remain angry. That is, if Tom planned on coming back to see him.
He drummed his hands on the window sill reasoning that Tom had gone off to do what Tom did best. Get into trouble and then somehow manage to kill the bastard. Rather unfair that he got to do it but...ah well.
He sank back into his bed just as one of the young nurses entered to check up on him. He hoped Tom got it over and done with soon. He was dreadfully bored.
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Tom stared up at the building with a sort of nervous trepidation making him shuffle his feet. The Georgetown University Hospital was a forbidding place at the best of times... or maybe it was just his imagination, since the only time he'd seen the building was when Huck was...
He pushed the thoughts out of his mind. Best not to think about the injury, about the blast, about the sight of Huck's chest blown open like a can of beans, blood spraying everywhere, his shirt soaked red, internal organs gleaming wetly in...
Dammit!
It couldn't have been that bad. No one could have survived that. He ignored the voice in the back of his mind that said he didn't know yet whether Huck had survived or not. It was probably just his usually overactive imagination. Really. It was.
He walked into the hospital, presented his identification. A nurse looked at it, at him, then nervously back at the identification. Tom frowned. Was there something wrong? Had the government sent down some sort of order to detain him and ship him back off to the League, or on some other assignment, when he arrived? Well, if that was the case, he would tell them where they could shove their assignments... and the nurse was calling someone up to the front desk. He would probably need to avoid them...
"Look, why don't you just tell me what room my friend's in," he said, leaning slightly over the counter and trying to turn on the usual Sawyer charm. "I'll be out of your hair quickly... I promise."
"Mr. Sawyer?" A doctor was walking down the hallway, and the nurse looked up at him gratefully and hung up the phone. Tom felt a little foolish... the nurse had probably been calling in someone to tell him about Huck's condition... or what had happened.
"Yeah?"
"Would you come with me please? We've been waiting for you."
We? "Excuse me?" This didn't sound good.
"Just come with me. I promise, everything will be explained."
With everyone staring at him, Tom didn't have much choice but to go along with the man or cause a scene right there in the hospital waiting room. And not that it hadn't stopped him before, but this was a hospital. There was enough grief to go around without him causing more.
He followed the doctor down the hall, around a corner and into what looked like a long-term care unit. Were they taking him to see Huck? Was it even possible...?
"The bullet passed straight through him, which was both good and bad... good, because it means that the bullet won't pass through his system and cause problems elsewhere, and bad because it means we have more to patch up. Thankfully it missed all internal organs, but we had to remove his spleen and a good part of his liver. He won't be anything like you remember..."
But he was alive. That was all Tom really heard, that Huck was still alive, and not likely to die anytime soon. He pushed past the doctor and ran into the room, eyes wide.
Huck was standing by the window, talking with one of the nurses about something, Tom couldn't hear the conversation. He looked pale, with dark circles under his eyes and bones showing through the skin. Had he just not been eating, or was it something to do with his injuries? Not that it mattered; all that mattered was that he was alive. He was going to live, and he was going to be okay. Huck turned around and blinked, and the nurse left discreetly.
Tom couldn't think. He couldn't move, all he could do was stand there and stare at the miracle before him. His heart felt as though it was going to explode in his chest; joy suffused his mind and threatened to overwhelm him. Before he knew what he was doing he had crossed the room, taken Huck into his arms, and kissed him.
Huck blinked. "Well, hello to you too," he said, hugging his friend slightly before pulling back a step. "I missed you," he said then, quietly.
"I know..." Suddenly Tom wanted to explain everything... how it had been, all the confusion, the uncertainty, the fear. "It's been... complicated." Tom winced. He sounded like Dorian.
"Well... do you want to tell me about it? They wouldn't tell me anything..." Huck knew he sounded petulant and didn't much care.
Tom pulled up a chair and sat down, fidgeting with his hands, cuffs, the last button or two on his shirt. The kiss had really embarrassed him. "After you... got shot... I didn't want to stick around and watch you die. I thought... I didn't think. But I guess I figured that if I didn't watch you die, it wouldn't happen. Or something... it made sense at the time."
Huck sat down on the bed. "Well... maybe you were right. I didn't die. I guess it's okay." It wasn't what he wanted to say; he wanted Tom to hurt for leaving him like that. But at the same time he didn't want to hurt Tom, not ever.
"Well... I tracked the Phantom to England... and ... oh, Huck, you should have seen it. There was this League of weird people... an invisible man and a vampire and a guy... two guys... or something, in one guy's body... and Allen." Tom stared at the floor. "Allen died. And this other guy, Dorian... he was supposedly immortal... he betrayed the team and nearly got us all killed."
Huck didn't know what to say to that. On the one hand, he was extremely jealous that Tom had gone off and had an adventure without him... Tom always had adventures without him. On the other hand... it couldn't have been any kind of a good time... so many deaths in so little time.
"You should meet them..." Tom said then. "You'd like them. Especially Skinner." Tom smiled wryly, thinking of how Skinner had announced his presence in the cliffs of Mongolia.
"I'd like too..." Suddenly Huck was worried. Irrationally, or so he told himself. But... "How long can you stay?"
Tom shrugged. "I haven't been reassigned yet. So... indefinitely, I guess." He looked over at Huck, trying not to let his desperation show in his eyes. He didn't even know what he was desperate for. But something in him wanted to reach out, hold on, never let go. It didn't make any sense.
Huck took Tom's hands in his own, guessing (rightly) that they both needed reassurance right now. And yet it was oddly comforting that Tom was as nervous, as afraid as he was. Maybe they could both be afraid together. Tom relaxed ever so slightly at the touch. "Will you be going back to England?"
Tom smiled shyly. "Only if you come with me." Just the simple touch of Huck's hands made it all go away, made it all better somehow. It was amazing.
Huck looked extremely relieved. "Well, if they ever let me out of this hospital..." He laughed.
Tom laughed. They laughed together, collapsing into each other's arms with the relief that came with the knowledge that everything was going to be okay. After a minute or so Huck pulled back, kissed Tom on the cheek. Tom blushed, again remembering what happened earlier. "Huck... about earlier. I didn't mean.... I mean, I did, but I didn't... um..."
"So... does that mean it's okay... what I just did... or not?"
Tom blushed more. "Well. I didn't mind..."
Huck smiled. "I didn't mind earlier either."
"Okay." Tom knew he was grinning like an idiot, and didn't much care. He pulled Huck back into an embrace, hugging him tightly, never wanting to let go. Huck returned the hug gingerly, wincing a little. "Sorry..." Tom yelped as Huck gasped. "Sorry... sorry..."
"It's all right." Huck said, and it was... because it was so good just to feel that pain, the pain of being hugged too tightly by his best friend in all the world "It's okay." He hugged Tom, stroking Tom's hair, rocking the other man gently, for both their sakes. Tom murmured something he couldn't hear, and when he pulled back to ask Tom to repeat what he had said Tom leaned in and kissed him again, reaching his hands up to brush his fingertips across Huck's cheek. The kiss seemed to go on and on, warming them both, drowning them in comfort and satisfaction.
When it finally ended Huck cleared his throat, taking a couple seconds and a few breaths to regain the ability to speak. "So. Do you think you can use your new-found influence to get me out of here?"
By Drucilla and April
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Tom stared out over the prow of the boat at the ocean as it passed him by, wondering what was wrong with him.
These days it seemed like everything was passing him by, not deliberately, but rather because it was all moving too fast for him to keep up. Huck's injury, the Phantom, the assignment, the League, M's treachery, Quatermain's death... all in less than a fortnight. His mind was still reeling from all the information assimilated, and his emotions were still getting used to the ups and downs. The giddy elation at having finally caught up with the Phantom, the horror and fear when Huck had been injured. The need to escape, the wonder at discovering the League. The growing attachment only to have one of them ripped away... again.
Would Huck even still be alive when he returned? He felt another surge of emotion, guilt this time, at having left his old friend. But it had all been so confusing, so intense. And he had wanted to hunt down the Phantom and visit a just retribution upon the bastard more than he had wanted to stick around and hold Huck's hand while his friend...
He couldn't think it. It was too much.
Tom turned around and retreated below-decks. Perhaps Nemo had something to distract him with, or at the very least there was always the comfort of Skinner's liquor cabinet. He needed something to take over the thinking part while they were heading back to America.
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-
Huck stared at the window and tried to ignore the lingering pain in his chest. It had been healing though...somewhat miraculously. The doctors had all been amazed, the would having been near-fatal.
Perhaps it had been waking up alone that had helped him to recover. He hadn't wanted to die alone surrounded by strangers. He had asked where Tom was endlessly for awhile, but the only answer he got was rather vague. Evidently the mission was top-secret.
It had irritated him though. After all, he had gotten injured because of the Phantom. Shouldn't he have been allowed to know what had become of him.
And despite the small bit of resentment he harbored towards Tom, he missed him far too much to remain angry. That is, if Tom planned on coming back to see him.
He drummed his hands on the window sill reasoning that Tom had gone off to do what Tom did best. Get into trouble and then somehow manage to kill the bastard. Rather unfair that he got to do it but...ah well.
He sank back into his bed just as one of the young nurses entered to check up on him. He hoped Tom got it over and done with soon. He was dreadfully bored.
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Tom stared up at the building with a sort of nervous trepidation making him shuffle his feet. The Georgetown University Hospital was a forbidding place at the best of times... or maybe it was just his imagination, since the only time he'd seen the building was when Huck was...
He pushed the thoughts out of his mind. Best not to think about the injury, about the blast, about the sight of Huck's chest blown open like a can of beans, blood spraying everywhere, his shirt soaked red, internal organs gleaming wetly in...
Dammit!
It couldn't have been that bad. No one could have survived that. He ignored the voice in the back of his mind that said he didn't know yet whether Huck had survived or not. It was probably just his usually overactive imagination. Really. It was.
He walked into the hospital, presented his identification. A nurse looked at it, at him, then nervously back at the identification. Tom frowned. Was there something wrong? Had the government sent down some sort of order to detain him and ship him back off to the League, or on some other assignment, when he arrived? Well, if that was the case, he would tell them where they could shove their assignments... and the nurse was calling someone up to the front desk. He would probably need to avoid them...
"Look, why don't you just tell me what room my friend's in," he said, leaning slightly over the counter and trying to turn on the usual Sawyer charm. "I'll be out of your hair quickly... I promise."
"Mr. Sawyer?" A doctor was walking down the hallway, and the nurse looked up at him gratefully and hung up the phone. Tom felt a little foolish... the nurse had probably been calling in someone to tell him about Huck's condition... or what had happened.
"Yeah?"
"Would you come with me please? We've been waiting for you."
We? "Excuse me?" This didn't sound good.
"Just come with me. I promise, everything will be explained."
With everyone staring at him, Tom didn't have much choice but to go along with the man or cause a scene right there in the hospital waiting room. And not that it hadn't stopped him before, but this was a hospital. There was enough grief to go around without him causing more.
He followed the doctor down the hall, around a corner and into what looked like a long-term care unit. Were they taking him to see Huck? Was it even possible...?
"The bullet passed straight through him, which was both good and bad... good, because it means that the bullet won't pass through his system and cause problems elsewhere, and bad because it means we have more to patch up. Thankfully it missed all internal organs, but we had to remove his spleen and a good part of his liver. He won't be anything like you remember..."
But he was alive. That was all Tom really heard, that Huck was still alive, and not likely to die anytime soon. He pushed past the doctor and ran into the room, eyes wide.
Huck was standing by the window, talking with one of the nurses about something, Tom couldn't hear the conversation. He looked pale, with dark circles under his eyes and bones showing through the skin. Had he just not been eating, or was it something to do with his injuries? Not that it mattered; all that mattered was that he was alive. He was going to live, and he was going to be okay. Huck turned around and blinked, and the nurse left discreetly.
Tom couldn't think. He couldn't move, all he could do was stand there and stare at the miracle before him. His heart felt as though it was going to explode in his chest; joy suffused his mind and threatened to overwhelm him. Before he knew what he was doing he had crossed the room, taken Huck into his arms, and kissed him.
Huck blinked. "Well, hello to you too," he said, hugging his friend slightly before pulling back a step. "I missed you," he said then, quietly.
"I know..." Suddenly Tom wanted to explain everything... how it had been, all the confusion, the uncertainty, the fear. "It's been... complicated." Tom winced. He sounded like Dorian.
"Well... do you want to tell me about it? They wouldn't tell me anything..." Huck knew he sounded petulant and didn't much care.
Tom pulled up a chair and sat down, fidgeting with his hands, cuffs, the last button or two on his shirt. The kiss had really embarrassed him. "After you... got shot... I didn't want to stick around and watch you die. I thought... I didn't think. But I guess I figured that if I didn't watch you die, it wouldn't happen. Or something... it made sense at the time."
Huck sat down on the bed. "Well... maybe you were right. I didn't die. I guess it's okay." It wasn't what he wanted to say; he wanted Tom to hurt for leaving him like that. But at the same time he didn't want to hurt Tom, not ever.
"Well... I tracked the Phantom to England... and ... oh, Huck, you should have seen it. There was this League of weird people... an invisible man and a vampire and a guy... two guys... or something, in one guy's body... and Allen." Tom stared at the floor. "Allen died. And this other guy, Dorian... he was supposedly immortal... he betrayed the team and nearly got us all killed."
Huck didn't know what to say to that. On the one hand, he was extremely jealous that Tom had gone off and had an adventure without him... Tom always had adventures without him. On the other hand... it couldn't have been any kind of a good time... so many deaths in so little time.
"You should meet them..." Tom said then. "You'd like them. Especially Skinner." Tom smiled wryly, thinking of how Skinner had announced his presence in the cliffs of Mongolia.
"I'd like too..." Suddenly Huck was worried. Irrationally, or so he told himself. But... "How long can you stay?"
Tom shrugged. "I haven't been reassigned yet. So... indefinitely, I guess." He looked over at Huck, trying not to let his desperation show in his eyes. He didn't even know what he was desperate for. But something in him wanted to reach out, hold on, never let go. It didn't make any sense.
Huck took Tom's hands in his own, guessing (rightly) that they both needed reassurance right now. And yet it was oddly comforting that Tom was as nervous, as afraid as he was. Maybe they could both be afraid together. Tom relaxed ever so slightly at the touch. "Will you be going back to England?"
Tom smiled shyly. "Only if you come with me." Just the simple touch of Huck's hands made it all go away, made it all better somehow. It was amazing.
Huck looked extremely relieved. "Well, if they ever let me out of this hospital..." He laughed.
Tom laughed. They laughed together, collapsing into each other's arms with the relief that came with the knowledge that everything was going to be okay. After a minute or so Huck pulled back, kissed Tom on the cheek. Tom blushed, again remembering what happened earlier. "Huck... about earlier. I didn't mean.... I mean, I did, but I didn't... um..."
"So... does that mean it's okay... what I just did... or not?"
Tom blushed more. "Well. I didn't mind..."
Huck smiled. "I didn't mind earlier either."
"Okay." Tom knew he was grinning like an idiot, and didn't much care. He pulled Huck back into an embrace, hugging him tightly, never wanting to let go. Huck returned the hug gingerly, wincing a little. "Sorry..." Tom yelped as Huck gasped. "Sorry... sorry..."
"It's all right." Huck said, and it was... because it was so good just to feel that pain, the pain of being hugged too tightly by his best friend in all the world "It's okay." He hugged Tom, stroking Tom's hair, rocking the other man gently, for both their sakes. Tom murmured something he couldn't hear, and when he pulled back to ask Tom to repeat what he had said Tom leaned in and kissed him again, reaching his hands up to brush his fingertips across Huck's cheek. The kiss seemed to go on and on, warming them both, drowning them in comfort and satisfaction.
When it finally ended Huck cleared his throat, taking a couple seconds and a few breaths to regain the ability to speak. "So. Do you think you can use your new-found influence to get me out of here?"