ZEDD - A DAY AND A HALF LATER
I wake slowly, gaze locking on my still sleeping mate. Neither of us has been in any real shape to get up since he managed to practically carry me up here the other day. Bathroom trips we've managed, well while practically carrying each other the few feet to the other room that is, and the others have made sure we're fed, but beyond that, we've both been pretty much unconscious. I move carefully, testing myself. I'm fairly sure that Pina can take out the stitches today, which would be fantastic as they itch horribly, but given the state of my back versus his I can't really complain too much about them I suppose.
I rise from the bed, moving around it slowly to get a look at Thomas' back. It still looks bad, although I shouldn't be surprised with how extensive the damage was. He's probably still got another day or so before he'll be able to move without a decent amount of pain and I can only be grateful that I got to him before that damn lizard finished with his back and moved on to other areas. Carefully, I dress and head downstairs, still uncomfortable but at least able to move.
I meet Pina at the bottom of the stairs. Without a word, I turn so she can check her handiwork. In a moment she has the bandages off. "Good. The stitches can come out." Thank the powers. "Go sit down in the living room and let me get my kit."
Doing as told without protest for once, I wait impatiently for her to return and remove the stitches, hissing and cursing softly as I still feel each thread as it's finally pulled free. "Stupid lizard."
"It wasn't the lizard, Zedd, it was his minion" she reminds me, which doesn't really help my mood at the moment.
"Either way both are lucky they're dead as if either had survived-"
"I know, you'd make them beg for death" she finishes with a smile.
"You know me too well." Once she's finished, I remark, "Before you even say it, I know. I still need to take it easy today. Have you checked Thomas recently?"
"That's where I was headed when you came down. Stay here and get some food and coffee and I'll be back in a minute."
"Try not to wake him, all right?"
"I'll do my best" she promises, before gathering her supplies and heading up to examine my mate.
I head into the kitchen, greeting the others on my way to the coffee pot. I barely have my cup filled when the bond explodes with fear and sorrow. What the hell? Abandoning my cup, I head for the stairs as quickly as I can, taking them two at a time. About halfway up, I can hear Thomas. "Where is he, Pina?"
"Just downstairs, Tommy. What's wrong?" Her tone changes to something right next to panic. "Easy, Tommy. You're going to tear your back open again. Settle down."
"No. I need to see him. Now."
Hastily, I step into the room. "Thomas."
Relief is thick in his voice as he reaches for me. "Zedd."
I hurry over to him. "Easy, love. What's wrong?"
He pulls me in his arms and holds me tightly and he's shaking. "I'm okay. You're okay. Everything's fine."
"Talk to me, Thomas. What happened?" I can't hold him as I normally would to reassure him, but my mere presence seems to be calming him quickly.
"Bad dream. It was just a bad dream. It's fine now. You're fine."
"I'm fine" I agree. "Worried about you, but other than that, fine. What was it about?"
"It was about the battle and how you got hurt, but the piece of metal was twice the size and went all the way through you. Got you back to the lair and you passed out, but Pina couldn't help you. You -" He falters for a minute. "You didn't wake up, Zedd."
That would indeed be upsetting. "I'm here, love. I'm alive. I hurt like hell, but I'm alive."
"When I woke up and you weren't there-"
"It made it seem all the more real" I finish. "I'm sorry, Thomas. If I'd have known that you'd be upset by my absence, I would have woken you up before I went downstairs."
"You couldn't have known."
"Let Pina look at you and make sure that you haven't done any new damage to yourself and then we'll both go downstairs for a little while if you're feeling up to it."
"Sounds good."
Twenty minutes later, we're down in the kitchen with Thomas in a shirt borrowed from Jason and his chair turned around backwards, arms folded on the back. The much too large piece of clothing makes him look much younger, but his own clothing would have dragged too much on his still damaged flesh. Smiling suddenly as I'm reminded of his first few days at home with me, and how he'd looked rather similar after his bath, hair a mess and in one of my borrowed shirts to sleep in, I can't help but want to once more refer to him as cute.
Looking at me looking at him, he raises a brow in curiosity.
"Cute."
Not surprisingly, he rolls his eyes. "No, I'm not."
"Of course you are, Thomas."
He shakes his head. "You are so weird, Zedd."
"If it helps, you're cute in an attractive way not a young child way."
"Well, I'd hope not. You've already commented on how anything that makes me seem younger you're uncomfortable with. In spite of the fact that I am younger than you - by a lot." Ouch.
"But I told you, if you remember, that you and I are roughly the equivalent of the same age."
He rolls his eyes again. "That's not really the point."
I sigh, knowing what he's getting at. "Thomas, if this is about the name thing again-"
"What name thing?" Hayley asks. Really? You've spent all this time saying nothing and now you have to speak?
"The way Zedd calls him Thomas rather than Tommy" Jason puts in.
"Oh. Why do you do that if you know that he doesn't like it?" she asks.
Heaving a dramatic sigh, I throw my hands up in exasperation. "Because he's not a child. In spite of his youth when I first encountered him, he wasn't a child then and he certainly isn't now. It's a matter of making him my equal and showing him respect. Why does none of your species understand that?"
"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
"What?" I look at the woman oddly. What is she talking about? Why would she bring up flowers of all things?
Thomas explains, "She means that it shouldn't matter what you call me, I'd still be me."
Jason nods. "It's an old saying. It doesn't matter what you call something, it doesn't change what it is."
"So by your logic calling a rose a filthy, thorny, injury inducing plant of Christmas colored death would make it just as appealing to you" I point out calmly, smirking as this earns me a round of displeased looks. "I win."
"That's not what we meant, though you do get points for creativity" Jason states around his coffee.
Hayley continues, "Besides we're not talking about a detailed - and somewhat horrifying - description in place of a label. It shouldn't matter if you call him Tommy, Thomas or Tom, he'd still be your - mate." She shakes her head. "Sorry. That's still a little weird for me."
Thomas stills beside me. Damn it. "What is?" he asks cautiously.
"That word - mate. It just seems odd to me that, as affectionate as you can be, you'd use such a, I don't know, technical and scientific term instead of something like 'boyfriend'. It just doesn't feel like something you'd say."
Relaxing at her explanation, he shrugs and then sucks in a breath as the shirt slides across his raw skin. "I don't know. It just - fits. I can't explain it any better than that."
Hayley frowns. "It's still a little surreal. I mean, I've seen you with your past girlfriends and you're nowhere near as affectionate with Zedd as you were them."
He's not? I think back and realize that he has been less demonstrative since we've been here than he usually is at home. Could it be because of the children? His friends? Or is it something more? I almost miss his response.
"I don't need to be." Come again? Thomas looks at her calmly. "Zedd's made it more than clear that, while he doesn't mind the attention, I don't have to focus on him every moment. He should be a priority but not always the top priority."
"It was getting uncomfortable, love, when you didn't let me return the attention" I remind him. "I told you, we should be equals in this and even though I know you tell me you don't need it, I like taking care of you."
The female nods at this. "Now that sounds like Tommy."
She has all our attentions at the remark. Even Thomas is looking at her in confusion. "What do you mean?" Pina asks curiously.
Hayley shoots a look at me. "I've - said enough."
"I won't get upset at you for bringing up his prior mates" I promise, curiosity by far the greater motivator at the moment.
She hesitates again. "What are you talking about, Hales?" Apparently my mate is wondering as much as the rest of us.
"Tommy - look, it's none of my business really, how you handle your relationships, but, well, I noticed some things. One of them being how you always sacrificed yourself and what you wanted to try and keep your girlfriends happy. Sometimes to the point that you weren't really taking care of yourself trying to do everything you thought you had to do."
"What? Like when?" he demands.
Again she looks at me and I nod, giving her permission to respond. Reluctantly, she says, "Well, like with Beth. She asked you one time to accompany her to some god awful documentary about who knows what. You hated it, but because she loved it you went out of your way to search out every similar movie and take her to them. I don't think you saw any other type of movie for the next six weeks." Well now, that's not so bad I suppose. A little extreme but hardly troubling or dangerous to his health.
"Okay, just because one time-"
The female's voice cuts over his. "And then there was Elena. Oh and Amy. One of them loved the pizza from that joint just off campus and the other one adored the Mexican food from that food truck. Both of them made you sick, one way or another, but you got it for them and ate it with them anyway." Starting to see a pattern here too.
"Well-"
She cuts him off once more, ticking things off on her fingers. "Becky, Eva, Tanya, Denise, Caroline - cuddling, books, back rubs, video games, not sleeping. Want me to keep going?"
Face reddening, he mumbles, "No."
Gently she covers his hand with her own. "Tommy, you are a very giving, loving person." She risks a glance at the former Red Ranger before she continues. "But you would have slit your own throat if any of them had asked you to and, quite frankly, I think that goes back to Kim and, to a lesser degree, Kat."
Once more my distaste for the color pink rears its ugly head. Thomas' protest is weak. "No, it doesn't."
I can see the woman's jaw tighten, obviously holding something back. We're all surprised, therefore, when Jason says, "I think she's right, bro."
Feeling his upset, I speak on his behalf. "He's learning to give himself and his needs consideration. I understand what you're talking about and, without going into details, he was the same way with me in the beginning. Because it made me uncomfortable, I've confronted him on it more than once and he's getting better. He's realizing that him being happy makes me happy much more than him attending to me or doing what he thinks I want."
Thomas speaks again. "He also gets pretty irritated when I'm not taking care of myself" he mentions, shooting a look at me. "Remember when I fell asleep in the lab?"
Far too well - and the disagreement that preceded it. Hayley laughs. "Oh lord - you still do that?"
"Once" he protests. "I got caught up in what I was doing, lost track of time and fell asleep. It worked out though. It led to the formula that I sent you."
"Still though" I state giving him a look.
He sighs. "I told you after that there would be times that you'd have to pry me out of the lab just because I get engrossed in what I'm doing."
"That's not the only time you didn't take care of yourself" Pina adds. Suddenly, Pina, Dar and I turn and pin the Red Ranger with a look.
"What?" he asks warily. "What did I do?"
I can hear the barely controlled laughter in Thomas' voice. "You infected them with the flu, bro. They'd never had it before and all three of them got really sick."
Jason raises an eyebrow. "Well, how was I supposed to know that they could catch anything from Earth? Andros didn't think about it either, apparently."
"And that led to my mate not sleeping for almost a week" I growl.
"I did sleep - some" Thomas protests.
"Not nearly enough and you almost collapsed before you decided we were well enough not to need you." Thank you, Dar.
It's almost gratifying to see the looks the two humans level on him. "I know" he answers "but for the first time there was something useful I could do for you guys for taking care of me. I told you that."
Hayley sighs. "Classic Tommy."
