From Gumnut's prompt: Touches Ask Meme 37: Putting their head on the other's chest, with Virgil and Scott.
With thanks to Gumnut and Tsarinatorment for their help and encouragement.
Scott Tracy has a very appealing chest. His pecs and lats are firm and his biceps sculpted, his deltoid and trapezius muscles are strong. A very appealing chest. He knows it is because when he rescues people, they tend to cling to it.
Having good chest muscles is very important. They help you breathe. They assist in moving the arms in every direction they are needed. And in International Rescue that is a very important thing indeed.
The other bonus about having a good chest is that it is vital for little brothers. Throughout his life his brothers have clung to his chest, from giving simple hugs to comforting babies and toddlers, not to mention nightmare duty, they have all involved his chest.
There is a reason why Scott is thinking about his chest and the current little brother who is on it. Virgil may not be the brother that typically lays across Scott's chest now, but it is his middle brother who is there currently.
Scott desperately needed to look down and see his brother, check that he is alright, but the angle that Virgil is across him, his head laying on Scott's chest and just under his chin, means that Scott's head is forced back because of their respective helmets. It was very uncomfortable.
Virgil was heavy normally. Virgil in his exosuit was significantly heavier. Virgil in his exosuit with half a building on top of him? All that now lay across Scott's chest and he couldn't move his head down, he couldn't move his arms, he couldn't breathe.
Worst of all, he couldn't ask if his brother was alright. The most he could manage was a rasping breath that was frankly worrying. He couldn't call out to John, Gordon or Alan, even if his two younger brothers were only on the other side of the site. And that got him even more worried. Were his other two brothers alright? Had the explosion affected them too? Why wasn't John shouting at him anyway?
There were black spots in his vision, and he was trying desperately to breath without exerting his diaphragm. Unfortunately, he really needed that particular part of his body for his lungs to function properly.
If he thought that he was in pain at the moment, it was nothing compared to the sheer relief and the absolute horrific pain that simultaneously exploded in his brain.
Virgil moved.
It was such an utter reassurance to know his brother was conscious. But the movement shifted something in Scott's chest, and the pain exploded. His vision whited out and he never heard Virgil groan before unconsciousness took him as his brother shifted again.
Virgil was confused. It was dark, not quite pitch black, but he was lying, face turned to his left, on something just that little bit uncomfortable, not his bed, not his brother's bed – any of them – and there was something digging into his back. He shifted to try to get more comfortable, and whatever he was lying on moved slightly.
The feeling of 'not right' exploded in his head as he attempted to shift again. Suddenly everything slotted into place. Well, not everything. He groaned. He'd been about to enter the building again when Scott had called him, and he had turned around and taken steps forward to see what his brother wanted when…
'SCOTT! VIRGIL! SCOTT! VIRGIL!' John was shouting in his ear, and that told him that whatever had happened had been bad and had affected both him and Scott. Come to think of it, where was Scott? He was just facing him before whatever happened to cause his blackout.
'Ow. Ow, John, I'm right here!' If he sounded a bit testy then that was because he was. He heard John's sigh of relief. 'Thank god, Virgil. I've been calling you both for almost five minutes. Status report.' Virgil's brain, though, had not caught up completely with everything. 'Er…I'm ok, I think, although I'm not sure I can move. Hang on.' Before he could do anything John was shouting at him.
'STOP! Don't move, Virgil. Gordon and Alan will be there in a minute.' Oh, ok. No moving. Right. He could do that. 'Scott?' Nothing. And that worried him, because he had been almost right next to his brother. 'John? John, where's Scott?' he asked, attempting to move again.
It wasn't John who answered though. It was Gordon who yelled this time for him to be still. 'Virg, Virg, stop. You need to keep still so Al and I can get you both out of there.' Both? So Scott was still with him then. Why wasn't he answering? What were his brothers not telling him? 'We'll have you out in next to no time, bro, ok? Just don't move.' Ok. He trusted his brothers.
Next to no time was almost 15 minutes. It appeared that a section of walling had landed on his back and pinned him down. With the release of the rubble came the horrified realisation of exactly where Scott was and why Virgil had been unable to see him.
He had landed squarely on Scott's chest, and in the fraction of time between being blown up and realising what was going on, Scott had reached out to him and his arm was across Virgil's helmet. That, and his laser light, had managed to block his vision.
Miraculously, apart from some soft tissue damage along the lines of his exosuit, Virgil wasn't injured at all. His wonderfully engineered suit had taken the weight of the chunk of wall completely.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said of his brother.
Scott's helmet had kept him supplied with air, and he was still breathing – albeit much more shallowly than Virgil would like – but the combined weight of everything on his chest meant he had a severely bruised diaphragm. They were lucky it hadn't been worse. He also had some bruising to his stomach, liver and to his intestines. Scott's right hand had several broken bones, and the bruising he would come up in would be spectacular, but it was his oxygen saturation and carbon dioxide levels they were concerned about. Thankfully, just about half an hour after the building had exploded and Scott was on Two and on his way to the nearest hospital. Scott didn't stir at all, and Virgil sat with his brother as Gordon flew Two.
Scott hadn't needed surgery. His hand was cast and his bed was placed on an incline to assist his breathing. A drip was currently feeding him pain relief, and Virgil grinned at the thought of how long that would last once Scott woke up. The hospital wanted to keep him in for a couple of days to ensure his CO2 levels returned to normal and to make sure that none of his injuries worsened.
Virgil had been given some anti-inflammatories and a bed in the same room. Everyone knew he wouldn't leave Scott until he was discharged. But for now he was sitting beside Scott, undamaged hand clasped gently and doing his best not to nod off. He was not succeeding at all.
'You'll sleep better in the bed' his brother said, smiling fondly as the big man's eyes opened again.
'I know I will, Scott, but I've got to wait for you to wake up.' His eye drifted closed as a small, dry chuckle came from the bed.
Scott managed to count to four before Virgil's eyes flew open and his brother attempted to sit up straight. By the look that passed over his face it was obviously not a great idea. Helping Scott to have a drink, Virgil couldn't help but look over the medical equipment his brother was hooked up to. Nothing too fancy, just the basics, but they were reassuring to the medic.
'Bed. Sleep.' As if to accentuate the command, Scott yawned and attempted to stretch. Ow, yeah, not a good idea for him either. Virgil didn't look like he was going to move anytime soon, though, and Scott frowned. What had happened? It didn't take much thinking to remember what had been happening when he last was conscious, and he gripped Virgil's hand and squeezed.
Virgil tried to smile and failed. His brother was obviously remembering, which meant he knew what was going on. Scott didn't fail to notice the grimace, knowing exactly what would be going through his brother's mind.
'It wasn't your fault.' Virgil shifted uncomfortably. 'It wasn't, Virgil. You couldn't have known the building was going to do that at that precise moment.' It was true. They knew the building was going at any moment, but an explosion was not something they had prepared for. 'I should have known. I'm the engineer. I should have known that there was a danger of this happening.' Scott sighed. Of course Virgil would take that stance.
'Did John know? Did EOS? No, they had no way of knowing either. So stop taking all the blame on your shoulders. They might be broad, but they are not needed this time.' That got the desired result as Virgil chuckled. 'Go to bed. If you feel anything like I do, we'll both be sore in the morning.' Still Virgil hesitated, and Scott knew what his brother needed.
Tugging Virgil over, he folded his arms around him as best as he could. Damn IV line. Virgil rested his head – lightly – on Scott's chest, and for just a moment everything was alright and normal in the world.