A/N: Rating is probably a bit unnecessary, but rated it for safety anyway. This was written in a few hours. Rating for brief sex and language. Cross-posted on Ao3 under Gia_Sesshoumaru. Thanks to persephone_garnata from Ao3 for the beta!
Chapter One
Jessica's face turned back into her own, and she lay still. She was burning from the lightning that he'd sent towards her. She won't be getting back up again, Nathan thought, relieved. Adele got up; she would be okay. It was all over now. Well, perhaps not entirely, but he had killed those who needed to die - Soul, Jessica, and Wallend.
"Nathan." He heard Gabriel's voice from behind him.
Nathan turned around. He realized that he hadn't protected him at all. The bullets that Jessica had shot had ricocheted off him and hit Gabriel in the chest. He called for Arran again, knowing how panicked he must sound. "You'll be okay; you'll be fine." He grabbed Gabriel's hand, but the other man wasn't squeezing back. He screamed again for Arran. "Arran will be here any second. Just heal. You'll be okay."
"I can't…" Gabriel muttered.
Nathan shook his head. His mind couldn't process this. After everything they'd been through, it couldn't end like this! "I can't lose you," he told him. "I love you. I can't live without you, you know that!" His eyes still had flecks of gold in them, but they were spinning slowly. Nathan screamed for Arran again, and his brother finally arrived. "Please, you have to -" Gabriel's chest was sopping with blood, and that couldn't be good.
Arran knelt beside him. "I have to get the bullets out," he said and got to work.
"Stay with me," Nathan told Gabriel. "It won't be long. You'll be okay. Don't you dare fucking die on me! Don't you fucking dare! " He couldn't even fathom a world without Gabriel in it. And his vision! He'd seen them together. It couldn't end like this, it just couldn't.
Arran was saying that he can't find the bullet and that there's another one after that.
And it then it hit him.
Nathan knew that he needed to stop them. He needed to stop it, and then Arran could save Gabriel. The gold flecks in Gabriel's eyes were slowing, and he was beginning to fade. He was barely reacting to the cuts that Arran was making, and he'd already been weak when he'd found him. No, he'll live, he has to, Nathan thought.
Nathan rubbed his hands together and thought of stillness. Nothing happened, and panic started to set in. If he couldn't stop him and Arran, then Gabriel would die. He concentrated harder, and tried again, thinking that he needed to make him and Arran stop so that his brother could save Gabriel. Then it happened. Time stopped, but Arran stopped, too. Nononononono, it couldn't be like this. How did he stop Arran from freezing, too? There had to be a way.
Nathan reached out, and grabbed Arran's arm, concentrating on bringing him into his frozen time. Suddenly, Arran started to speak, halfway through saying something about needing to find the last two bullets. Panic set in again, and he thought he'd failed until he saw that Gabriel was still frozen, but no, he wasn't dead. It had worked! He had brought Arran into his frozen time with him.
"Wait, what…" Arran seemed to know that something was different. "Nathan, what happened? What did you -"
"I stopped time," Nathan said, knowing that he sounded choked up and that tears were staining his face. "I thought I couldn't bring you in, but I did, and it worked. Please save him, please. You have to -"
Arran stopped him. "I know. I'll do everything I can. You know that. Now let me work." Arran turned back to the frozen Gabriel and began to search for the bullet.
Nathan leaned forward to Gabriel, even though he knew that while time was frozen, he couldn't hear him. "Please, I need you, I love you," he told him. "Don't leave me."
"Found it!" Arran exclaimed. "I think there's one more."
Nathan just bent over Gabriel, squeezing his hand, his body still frozen. "I can't keep this up much longer, Arran," he said, a desperate note entering his voice. Tears were streaming down his face.
"I know, just one more second… got it!" Arran exclaimed and then Nathan couldn't hang on anymore, and time started moving again.
Nathan kissed Gabriel. "The bullets are out. Just heal, please." Gabriel was silent, but the gold flecks in his eyes were still there. They were slow, and slowing by the second. "Arran, he's lost too much blood! He's too weak!"
"He'll heal, but he's weak right now," Arran said. "He needs time -"
Nathan cut him off. He loved Arran, but he really didn't give a fuck right now. Arran was being as gentle as possible, he always was. Nothing mattered except Gabriel. Arran took a potion out of a medical kit he had, and slowly slipped the potion down Gabriel's throat. Slowly, the blood on his chest stopped coming, and his external wounds healed. Everything was internal now.
Nathan put his hands on both sides of Gabriel's face. "Look at me. Fucking look at me, damn it!" Arran tried to say something but then decided against it. Gabriel's eyes slowly found his again. "Fucking heal, please. Just concentrate." He started repeating the word. He had no way of knowing if Gabriel was listening or not. He kept repeating "heal" to Gabriel, hoping that it would work, that something would work, anything… what else was he supposed to do? How was he expected to go on after this, without him? In between repetitions of the word 'heal', he said, "I love you. I need you."
Gabriel's eyes slowly closed, and panic went through him. He saw a hand, much paler than his, go to Gabriel's though. "He's alive, but barely. He needs time to heal," said Arran.
At that moment, Celia came up the stairs, a couple of others behind her. They were apparently coming to check on things. Nathan wouldn't have known it was her, except she asked what was going on. Arran explained that Gabriel had been shot by Jessica before Nathan had killed her. He had managed to get the bullets out, but that he was weak. "Get him out of here," Celia ordered.
Arran shook his head. "Moving him is dangerous. He's too weak right now."
"Staying here isn't likely to be any better," she said. "I already gave orders to begin evacuating the injured. Everyone that is still well enough to fight is helping to clean this place out. Nathan -" Celia froze, as if she was going to say something, but then changed her mind. "You and Arran get Gabriel out of here. Are you hurt?"
Nathan shook his head, but the only thing he was thinking of was that he couldn't die. He couldn't lose Gabriel.
Nathan wasn't sure how they got Gabriel to the camp. Celia had ordered everyone who was injured to camp now that the battle was over. He brought Gabriel to his tent, and then Arran squeezed his shoulder. "I'll be back soon, I promise," he said. Nathan just looked down at Gabriel's weak body, still covered in blood. He had to live, he just had to.
True to his word, Arran returned soon, and helped him clean Gabriel up, and dress the wounds. The bleeding was finally slowing a bit, but he had lost so much blood. "There's a potion that will help with the blood loss, but it'll take time."
"He doesn't fucking have it," Nathan said, that panicked note to his voice again.
"Nathan, the bullets are out. I'll get the potion to you as soon as I can, but keep talking to him," Arran said. "I've heard that helps." With that, Arran left, promising again to be back. He was gone a bit longer this time, but he did come back with the potion he had promised. They force-fed it to Gabriel who was still unconscious. Arran left again, to tend to other wounded that had come back to camp.
Nathan wasn't sure long they stayed like that. He knew at some point that he had taken Gabriel in his arms. He just lay there with him, on the floor. At some point, his crying stopped. He knew over the next few days or so that Arran had come to check on him, and Gabriel. He said the healing was going well, but Nathan couldn't see how. He would constantly whisper to Gabriel that he loved him, to heal. Arran told him to sleep and take a break, but when Nathan refused to move, his brother left.
It was a few more days after that before Gabriel moved. He moaned a bit, and his eyes slowly started fluttering open. Every move looked like it pained him. "Don't move," Nathan said. "Just heal."
"Hurts…" Gabriel said, his voice weak. "What -"
"Shh, don't talk," Nathan told him. "Just heal." Gabriel nodded weakly and passed out again.
He woke up a couple of days later, groaning. "Nathan…" He muttered.
"I'm here," he said, tightening his grip on the older boy.
"What… happened…"
"Jessica, she shot at me, but… the bullets ricocheted off me, and hit you," Nathan said, and it was only then that he realized that it was his fault. He should have seen that, but he had never been the smart one. "I'm so sorry. It's all my fault. I should have moved you of the way, or…" But that didn't make sense, either, because Jessica would have hit Gabriel on purpose if he had done that. After all, she had seen that he was protecting him. What could he have done to save him, to prevent this?
Gabriel was shaking his head. "Nothing… to be sorry… for…"
"Stop talking," Nathan told him. "I can talk if you want." Gabriel nodded. He started talking about what had happened, how he had stopped time, and then brought Arran into the fold, so to speak. It had been long enough to get the bullets out. He admitted he wasn't sure how long it had been.
Gabriel was silent until he said one word, "Blood?" It was a question, and then Nathan realized that he was still covered in Gabriel's blood from that night.
"I'm fine," Nathan said. "It's… yours. I haven't left. I just…" He couldn't, just like when he had been shot. Gabriel had been there. "I'm fine. Just heal. Go back to sleep." Gabriel nodded and drifted off.
Gabriel slept a lot over the next week, but he started eating soups and drinking. He had no energy. Arran explained this was normal, and it would take time for him to recover. Nathan did get changed, since he realized it probably wasn't good to be lying around in blood-stained clothes. He tried to eat, too, but it was hard to leave Gabriel for any length of time. Nathan was afraid if he left, Gabriel would slip off, and he'd never… he couldn't deal with that. He knew he couldn't.
Nathan just slept there, with him, every night. He would grab Gabriel in his arms, and hold him tightly. Every time Gabriel held him back or squeezed his hand back, it just made him feel better. He had never been much of a one for hope, but after nearly losing Gabriel, it was everything that he needed. It proved that Gabriel was still with him, and right now, that was all needed.
Arran came by, just to check up on them, making sure they were okay. Gabriel was healing, but the process was slow. He was going to live, but it would be a while before he was well enough for travel. Right now, all Gabriel needed was rest. The camp was supposed to be temporary, and most everyone had left. Gabriel still couldn't travel long distances, and Nathan was fine with both of them alone. That was how things were supposed to be. They were better that way.
Ledger came by, too, to let him know that he'd destroyed the bottle. Nathan was no longer invincible. He was okay with that. He had what he needed.
Nathan and Gabriel were lying in the tent. He hated leaving Gabriel alone because he was too weak to fend for himself right now. He always left a gun there, just in case someone should come along. Everything was supposed to be better, now, but Nathan wasn't sure about that. Gabriel started to stay awake more and more, wanting to do more for himself day after day.
"Take me to Wales," Gabriel said one night. They were cuddling by a fire that he had made outside of their tent in which they were living now.
"When you're better," Nathan said.
"I want to see it."
"But you're too -"
"I'm better now," Gabriel said. "I'm getting stronger every day, and I think I'll feel better when I'm not in this camp. It's not even a camp anymore. I like it when it's just the two of us, but I want to go somewhere else, somewhere more permanent. You always said you would take me there." Nathan was afraid to answer, because while he knew that Gabriel wasn't going to go anywhere, he still pictured Gabriel's bloody body, as he was dying and fading in front of him in the Council Tower.
The next thing Nathan knew, there was a pair of soft lips on his neck. He looked down and saw Gabriel kissing his neck. The next thing he knew, Gabriel was kissing his lips. They hadn't kissed since… well, since before the battle. It felt good, very good. He knew that he wasn't ready for any of that yet, but it felt good to know that things were finally getting better.
Gabriel broke the kiss, smiling up at him. "You've been thinking too much, and I never thought I'd say that about you. "
Nathan couldn't help it, but it felt good to hear Gabriel well enough to joke around again. "Fuck you."
"Later, I'm not quite up for that yet," Gabriel said, leaning into him. Nathan chuckled in spite of it all.
"The war is over, Nathan. I survived. You survived. Let's go away, like we always talked about."
Nathan nodded. "Okay, we'll go," he told him.
Nathan made sure Arran came with them for the travel, just in case. They were using a cut, but Nathan was worried that Gabriel still wasn't well enough for it though he insisted that he was. As soon as they got there, he saw that he had been right, at least in part. Gabriel's strength started to fade, but he insisted he was fine. He just needed time to gain his strength back, and not moving wasn't going to help. Nathan didn't want him to hurt himself anymore, but Arran agreed with Gabriel, saying that it would help him gain his strength back if he slowly started to move around. He needed to take it easy.
This wasn't where Nathan wanted to be, where he wanted for them to be, but he wanted Gabriel to work up to it. He remembered the vision - the two of them, together, by the river. He wanted to go there, and they would. In time.
Gabriel was doing better. He started to help around the camp more. They began kissing more. Nathan desperately wanted to do more, and he knew that Gabriel did, too. He could tell by the way he kissed, each kiss getting more and more desperate. His hands would roam. Gabriel's strength was coming back, but he still needed frequent breaks and rest.
It was another few weeks before they made it to the spot. Gabriel looked like he was feeling a lot better over the past couple of days, and that made Nathan happier than he could ever imagine. For a bit there, at first, he wasn't sure Gabriel would ever recover. He knew he had been hovering a lot over the past… what, had it been months? At least two, he was sure of that. He couldn't be entirely certain. The passage of time just didn't seem important. The only thing that mattered was that Gabriel was okay, that he got better.
"This is beautiful," Gabriel said. There was a lake, the one he had told mentioned to Gabriel. There was a cliff and a rock face that overlooked the lake. "Imagine how much climbing we could do here. This is great."
"I thought you'd like it." They spent the rest of the day getting the area ready. He, of course, had been writing Arran frequently so that his brother - and anyone else who cared - knew where they were. Gabriel, of course, had been doing most of the writing. Nathan still couldn't write well enough for a letter, and probably never would. That afternoon, when they had finished, they were laying by the fire, cuddling. All of a sudden, Gabriel stood, and stretched. Nathan was a little annoyed because it had been nice just to sit there by the fire together. Now that he didn't have to worry about Gabriel slipping away, there was no war… Things could be good now, he supposed.
"I think I feel like a swim," Gabriel said.
"Where the fuck did that came from?" Nathan asked, the annoyance evident in his voice.
Gabriel leaned down and gave him a slow, lingering kiss on the lips. "Do you have to swear all the time?"
"Go fuck yourself."
Gabriel just smirked. "No, I had another idea," he said, taking off his shirt. The scars were still there, but they always would be. Nathan, for the first time in a while, wasn't noticing the scars or thinking about how weak Gabriel had been. All he was thinking about was that Gabriel was standing there, shirtless. Nathan wanted to pull him down, to touch that smooth skin of his, to kiss him… "If you want to know more, you're going to have to find out."
With that, Gabriel turned and walked towards the beach, slowly stripping, until he jumped into the water, naked. Nathan wasn't sure what kept him there, but then he quickly jumped off, awkwardly removing his own clothes and then running into the lake. Gabriel was smirking at him. "I thought you'd never join me. What took you so long?" He moved over, pressing their bodies up against each other, and kissed him deeply.
Nathan wrapped his arms tightly around Gabriel and kissed him back with as much passion as he could muster. It felt as if they hadn't been together in months despite the fact that they were together all the time. He was finally beginning to realize that he didn't have to worry about Gabriel anymore. He wasn't going to slip suddenly away, or get re-injured. He hadn't died from Jessica's bullets that night.
Nathan wasn't sure how they made it back to the tent, but at some point, they did. He made to push Gabriel down on his back, but his lover wouldn't have any of it. He pushed Nathan down instead, and Nathan moaned as Gabriel's mouth, and hands did delicious things, making him harder than he ever thought he could be. Gabriel took care of that, and they made love together for the first time in a long time. It was even sweeter knowing that they had both survived.
The next morning, Gabriel smiled up at him. "Sleep well?" Nathan shrugged. Yeah, he had slept better, better than in a long while. "I know you've had bad dreams lately."
"That's an excellent way to fall asleep," Nathan said. Gabriel chuckled. "And no, no dreams last night."
"Are you going to tell me what they're about?" Nathan didn't answer. "They're about me, aren't they? Losing me."
"That night, watching you bleed on the floor, I -" Nathan shook his head. "I can't do that again. I can't do that I can't lose you."
Gabriel leaned forward and kissed him deeply on the lips. "You're not going to lose me," he said. "Not that I don't appreciate all of the care you've given me over the past months. I'm much better now." He then moved, and gently settled himself in between Nathan's legs, slowly moving his hands up his body. "Much better." With that, he leaned down and kissed him. It was Nathan's turn, though, and he flipped Gabriel on his back kissing him, running his hands along his body before slowly thrusting inside him.
Nathan and Gabriel stayed there. Gabriel loved the area. They would spend their days, running, hunting, climbing… Gabriel always liked to show off. While it was annoying, and he always liked to tell him so, he also really enjoyed watching him. He was so gorgeous, just how he moved, everything he did… Nathan couldn't believe that he could ever have loved anyone as much as he loved Gabriel. He didn't think he deserved his love, but he never doubted it for a second. They made love every night, and Nathan never tired of feeling their bodies joined together.
Arran and Adele came by frequently. Nathan was glad that they were happy together. Things in the world now weren't perfect, but they were getting better. Nathan often didn't pay much attention to what was going outside his little world with just him and Gabriel. He didn't use his powers anymore. Gabriel understood why; he had never to explain to him though his lover did get enjoyment out of seeing him make a fire with matches instead of his fire.
They greeted them pleasantly. Gabriel gave them both a kiss on the cheek. They had made small talk before Arran told them the real reason he had come. "Annalise wants to speak to you," he said. Gabriel stiffened next to him.
"I told you before; I don't want to see her or talk to her," Nathan said.
"I know that, but I promised her I would give you this." It was a letter.
"I don't care." He shoved it back at Arran.
"You have a son."
Nathan's heart skipped a beat, and Gabriel was silent next to him. "What?"
"She was pregnant," Arran told him. "It's yours. She's with someone now. She moved to America and met him. They're in love, and very happy. He's a fain, but she wants you to be a part of your child's life. His name is Edge. She got him back after she finished her sentence. She spent a year in jail."
Nathan couldn't process the information, the fact that he and Annalise had a child. "I don't know. I just - can't -" With that, he ran off. Edge was his father's family name, but also the name of the hill where they used to meet. It took a moment for him to realize he was being followed. He slowed down, and Gabriel kept pace with him. They had run for a while before he spoke.
"What do you want to do?" Gabriel asked as they made their way back around to where they lived.
"I don't know," Nathan said honestly. As they neared camp, he stopped running. "I can't process it, that I have a kid. I just… After what happened to my father, I just…"
Gabriel stopped him and slipped his arms around him. "You're not Marcus," he told him.
"I know, but maybe it's better that he's raised by them, without me."
"Is that what you want?"
"Are you okay with this?" Nathan asked.
Gabriel shrugged. "Am I thrilled that my lover got his ex-girlfriend pregnant, no, but that's in the past," he said. "I wouldn't blame you for wanting to be a part of his life. You should be. It's not as if I'm afraid you're going to run off and leave me."
Nathan grabbed Gabriel and kissed him. Gabriel broke away and smiled. "If you're sure that's what you want."
Gabriel wanted to travel some, so they made plans to go and visit France. He also wanted to see Nesbitt in Australia. That was fine. Nathan wasn't worried. After all, they were together. It was just the two of them, together the way it should be. And they had all the time in the world to do anything and everything they wanted. They would always come back to this spot because it was special to both of them. There was plenty of time for everything.
