A/N Sooooooo, this is just late night stuff that I've thrown together in a few hours... but there will be more. much more... Enjoy ;)
First, he had been alone. That had started from birth – he'd never really felt anything for his parents, and he suspected they had never felt anything for him either – and it had lasted right through school, Eton and then Sandhurst; and it had gone with him into the army, followed him through countless tours of duty, two in Afghanistan. And he had thought it had followed him here, to the ARC. Yes, first he had been alone.
Then, there had been Danny.
Danny was probably everything that Becker should have avoided; he was dangerous, a risk taker; he could be hard and cold and brutal, but he had a good heart, and he gave Becker the things he needed. Hard. Rough. Pain. Anger. Fear. These he gave in spades. But he also gave protection, warmth, consistency, and, when Becker really needed it most, tenderness. Applied sparingly, certainly, but it was there and Becker cherished it. Danny had been someone to hold onto in his darkest moments. He had not encouraged Becker to talk about his demons, as most might have done, only to face them, to fight them, and to tell him when the battle was won. Victory meant more of that sparingly given sweet tenderness flowing between them. Failure meant hard words, cold silences and rough love.
It had been a tough life, one that might have broken most, but Becker had revelled in it.
Then Danny had disappeared, Connor and Abby – two of the few that Becker had really come to count as friends – alongside him. He and Sarah had stayed close, the two survivors of an interminable war that none of them had really wanted to fight.
Then she had been killed, and Becker had been alone again.
This time, he had coped. This time he had Danny to wait for, this time he wasn't really alone. And so he waited.
And waited...
And waited...
Connor and Abby had returned without Danny. And still he'd waited, though he wasn't alone anymore.
And then...