Hey all, just another short thing while I continue to work on my other, longer WIPs and new bingo story. Enjoy!
*Set in season 1 as Carlos and Owen wait for TK to wake up from his coma.
Carlos knows he should have cut his losses long ago. Any smart man would see that TK's been fighting any progress between them since the moment they met, so he should just try to let the man go and stop his treacherous heart from falling in love. It might hurt now, but it will hurt less in the end.
But Carlos Reyes has never been one to follow rationality over emotion, and instead he usually goes all in, with his heart leading the way. So today, Carlos again steps into the hospital's waiting room and sighs, not because of the location itself, but because he hates how it's already starting to feel like home. After all, in the last week he's spent more time here than at his own apartment. Taking in the people sitting in the uncomfortable chairs, Carlos waves sadly before bypassing the room, and all conversation and questions -he knows the 126 crew means well, but the only voice from the firehouse he wants to hear right now belongs to the man still unconscious on the bed, so he goes directly to his room.
Like every morning in the past six days, Carlos closes his eyes just before he enters the room. He's never been a religious man, not like his deeply devout family, but he still remembers many Sundays in church and how he always used to accompany his mama without complaint, and he hopes that has to mean and count for something. So, again, he gives a silent prayer to the heavens, even if it really sounds more like a request, because right now he feels at his limit and he doesn't think he has a lot to offer. But still he asks, God or anyone willing to listen, to please spare TK's life, and not take him away before they have the chance to really figure out what they mean to each other, and what they could be. He thinks it would be something very special, and he needs TK to live so they can at least try.
But as every morning before, his plea is not answered and Carlos steps into the room to an unconscious TK, his father like always sitting on the chair next to the bed. "Morning," Owen says, without even turning back, this moment nothing special and just a repeat of every day that came after TK got shot.
"Good morning, any change?" Carlos asks hopefully, even if he should know better. In their jobs, hoping gets you nowhere, usually it only gives you a broken heart and more things to talk about with your APD-mandated therapist. But hope is everything that Carlos has left, so he clings to it for dear life.
"Nothing," Owen answers sadly, a hand clutching TK's as the other runs through his son's hair.
"Nothing is better than bad news," Carlos tries, a small, sad smile gracing his lips when Owen finally turns back to look at him, but it falls instantly as soon as he takes in the other man's disheveled and tired look. "Have you slept at all, Captain Strand? If you want I can stay with TK tonight and you can go home. Maybe take a shower, eat a warm meal and sleep for a few hours?" Even as the words leave his lips, Carlos can't help but feel that he's overstepping. Not only because Owen is his superior, even if they don't work for the same agency, but even more because he's the father of his… something? Not boyfriend, but also not nothing. Just something in between that still hasn't been given a label. Which only means that he still deeply cares for the man lying on the bed, and as consequence, also for the older man in front of him, and he knows TK wouldn't want his dad's health to suffer because of what happened to him.
Owen shakes his head and brushes off the concern, turning back to look at his son without muttering a single word.
"I'll go get us some coffee, then," Carlos says instead of further pressing the issue, knowing that being proactive is a better approach than arguing with the fire captain, "it's two sugars, right?"
That finally gets Owen's complete attention, and for the first time the man loses all physical contact with his son as he turns to look at Carlos fully, both eyebrows raised in a silent question.
Thinking back to his words, Carlos blushes and his eyes go wide, before his cop brain takes over and he schools his features and tries to calmly say, "TK once told me. And I just happened to remember. Cops, you know, we need to have a good memory to recall faces and case details." His attempt at normalcy would have been good if he wasn't rambling, and Carlos finds himself taking a step backward as Owen's face breaks into a grin. The man hasn't smiled at all in the last week, but this one seems genuine, and even if Carlos fears the words that will come out of the captain's lips, he still feels proud at being the one that put it there.
"Have you been spending nights at my house, Officer Reyes?" Owen asks, and his nose scrunches as he seems to ponder something. "That would explain the good coffee lately. My son is good at many things, and excellent at being a firefighter, but we all know he can't cut it in the kitchen. Not even for coffee."
"I-uh-I-" Carlos' brain is short circuiting and words evaporate as quickly as they come to his overloaded mind, not only because he just outed himself in front of his something's father, but because as soon as the man in question wakes up he's going to be the one ending up dead because TK will surely murder him for the slip up.
"Relax, Carlos. I already knew there was a new important someone in my son's life," at Carlos' questioning look, Owen chuckles before continuing, "not only because of the amazing coffee I now often find in the pot when I wake up, but TK, he's just been smiling more than before, and there's a new bounce to his step, you know? He looks happier than ever in the last year, and probably, just happier than ever, period. I'm just glad it i-" Owen stops abruptly and shakes his head, then turns back to the bed and retakes TK's hand, a few minutes, apparently, the longest the man can go without a physical connection to his boy. "I'm just happy he is happy. That's all."
Carlos has the feeling Owen was about to say something else, something more akin to approving of him as the man making his son happy. And his heart almost bursts at that possibility. If only TK could catch up to his father and also see what's right in front of their eyes. TK already makes him the happiest man on earth -just his smile fills him with warmth, and every look they share starts butterflies in his stomach- and he's not even his to call boyfriend yet. If given the chance Carlos knows he would gladly spend every day and night making sure TK feels as happy in return, and just loving and caring for him as he deserves, even if TK himself doesn't think he's earned it yet.
Lost in his thoughts, the silence stretches for too long and Carlos knows he should say something, reassure the man in some way, or at least thank him. But for now, he feels like he's already revealed enough. So not wanting to embarrass himself any further, or put a bigger target on his back when (not if, but when) TK wakes up, he just nods and turns to the door, but before he can exit the room, he's stopped by Owen's voice.
"And Carlos, yes, it's two sugars. Thank you." This time Owen doesn't turn back around, but Carlos can still sense the smile on his lips, so he smiles too. Both hoping their presence, joined hearts and shared wishes are enough reasons for TK to fight to wake up and breathe and smile again. But for now, both fire captain and police officer take comfort in this moment and the love they feel for the man lying on the bed. Because Carlos would be a fool not to see that he's fallen for TK already.
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