Catching the Stars

by salianne

The courtship and evolving relationship between Pike and Henry is told in flashbacks after a horrible incident rocks shakes the foundation of everyone who loves them both.

2. Chapter 2

Title: Catching the Stars

Pairing: Pike and Henry (from the movie Big Eden)

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: ~4000

Summary: The courtship and evolving relationship between Pike and Henry is told in flashbacks after a horrible incident rocks shakes the foundation of everyone who loves them both. (i.e.: The entire town of Big Eden!) (In my universe the last scene of the movie - the dance and kiss - happened a year later at the annual summer picnic.)

Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Friendship

Disclaimer: They don't belong to me - I just play with them a little.

Warnings: Injection of harsh reality into the idyllic world of Big Eden.

PRESENT DAY

"Henry?" Grace gently woke Henry from his fitful sleep. "The doctor's here."

That pulled him from his half-sleep fast. He jumped up from his seat and almost fell over from the head rush. Jim grabbed him by the arm and offered support. "Steady."

"How is he?" Henry almost begged.

"Pike looked a lot worse when we first assessed him than he is, Henry. He's going to be just fine." The doctor was the brother of Jim's wife's cousin.

"Details would be good, Bob." Jim kept a hold of Henry when he felt him sway.

"He's got a fractured wrist, several broken ribs, and a slight fracture of the hip. Nothing requiring surgery, but we want to keep an eye on the hip - those can bleed. He also has a couple of bumps on the head, but the scans look good and there's no bleeding in his noggin, so we're optimistic." Dr. Bob explained in a soothing tone. "But be prepared, Henry. He looks...it's not pretty."

"He's..." Henry sounded so desperate. "Can I see him?"

"Of course. He's heavily medicated, so he won't be awake. He looks bad, Henry. He took quite a beating. But trust me - he looks a lot worse than he is. He's going to be just fine."

"When can I take him home?" He never wanted to let him out of his sight again.

"At least a couple of days." Dr. Bob pointed to the wide hallway behind them. "He's in room 7B. I'll get another bed rolled in there for you."

Henry gripped the doctor's arm without thinking. "Thank you."

They all decided to give Henry some time alone with Pike before they crowded into his room to get their own visual reassurances that their gentle friend was really going to be fine. But as Henry stood outside of room 7B, he wished he had them all with him. He wasn't sure he would be able to stay on his feet without someone holding him up.

With a deep, shaky breath, Henry pushed the door open and walked into the room. The lights had been dimmed, but he could still see very clearly.

Pike.

He stood just inside the door and took in the details. His lover was reclined in his hospital bed - not quite fully horizontal and not quite sitting either. He wasn't wearing a hospital gown, so Henry had full view of the wrapping around his ribs. There was a cast on his left arm, it was bright purple and stopped just below the elbow. Henry grinned sadly. He's going to hate the purple cast.

Pike looked darker - not like when his complexion has been toasted by the sun - it was the kind of dark that comes from dozens and dozens of deep bruises. So many. They were everywhere.

Everywhere.

He quietly stepped closer and sat on Pike's bed carefully. He needed to be close, to touch his warm skin and breathe in the earthy musk that had become Henry's favorite smell. He gingerly lifted the white sheet covering Pike from the waist down. He saw an football-shaped, very dark black bruise on Pike's left hip. It was then the he realized Pike's injuries were more pronounced along the left side of his body.

There was a thin patch of skin to the right of Pike's belly button, between the dark fluff of hair and the bottom of the tight wrap that covered most of his torso and chest. He placed his hand as gently as possible on that strip of undamaged flesh and caressed the warm body beneath it. He wasn't sure who he was trying to soothe more, his lover or himself. "What happened to you?" He managed to whisper before the emotion closed up his throat.

He kept his hand where it was, afraid that if he stopped touching - Pike would disappear. As he scanned his eyes over Pike's body - mapping every detail of both familiar and unfamiliar shades and textures. The concentration of injuries became much more dense as shoulders led to neck which led to the face that still looked beautiful despite the distortions of swelling and bruising and split skin on puffy lips and one dark eyebrow.

Henry stopped breathing when Pike opened his eyes - as much as he could - and looked back at him with that intensity that was just so Pike-like.

Henry almost cried.

He moved his hand gently across the patch of skin he had claimed only moments before. He couldn't seem to force words from his throat no matter how loud his heart was screaming Pike's name.

They just looked at each other. They had always been good at communicating with very few words. So this was enough.

For now.

Pike reached for Henry's other hand and wove his long, elegant fingers with the shorter, well-worn digits of his lover. The connection completed a comforting circuit for both men.

Henry finally unburied his voice from beneath his raw emotion. He tried to offer Pike a small smile. "Don't you think this is a little extreme to get me too cook for you?"

Pike only smiled, just a little, to let Henry know he got the joke - the absurdity of it was quite funny and under different circumstances would have earned Henry a good bit of rumbling laughter - but for now they would have to settle for a knowing glance.

FLASHBACK

Henry had been hanging around all day.

It didn't go unnoticed.

By anyone.

"Uh uh uh..." Jim teased. "He said stay out here."

"It's my house." Pike complained while trying to hide his grin.

Jim pulled Pike away from the door that led to the modest apartment-style home in the back half of his store. "And he's your better half so you need to just do as you're told."

"Fine." Pike sulked.

Jim slapped him on the back. "Atta boy."

Pike endured the ribbing from the guys with more grace than most. It was fun to think about what Henry was up to all day. From the smells wafting from the rear of his property, he knew it had something to do with food...he just couldn't really identify what kind.

Henry spent his afternoon in isolation. He moved between Pike's cookbooks and every flat surface of Pike's kitchen. Nothing was working. He was under cooking, over cooking, over salting, too much vinegar, not enough oil. He just couldn't cook. It was frustrating.

It was with the hope of rescuing a very pale roasted chicken that he ventured to Pike's desk to google cooking tips. He thought it odd that the computer was on by the monitor was turned off. When he pushed the power button he was shocked by what appeared on the screen in front of him.

Pike was doing a little research of his own.

Henry could feel his face heat up. It was a little shocking to find his boyfriend's educational porn in all it's pixelated glory.

They had been dating for several months. At least their version of dating. It was a routine that had started in the months before Sam died. Pike would cook and bring a box full of tantalizing smells and delicacies that never disappointed the palate. After they washed up the dishes they would settle in on the couch or sit outside under the stars if weather permitted.

They were efficient with conversation. They were indulgent with kisses and touches and the escalating comfort of exploring more and more of each other's bodies.

While Pike Dexter was a man of few words - he tended to be rather verbose when raging hormones were involved.

It was a quirky dichotomy that intrigued Henry to no end. He was getting more and more attracted to the mysterious man who was always full of surprises.

But Henry fell in love - full-fledged-head-over-heels-in-love - on the night Pike leaned back in an old adirondack chair and explained why Jim Soams was so central to his life.

Pike was orphaned. He was only fourteen. He wasn't a little kid and he wasn't a full grown man when his mother shot his father before she drove her car into a tree. It was Jim he ran to when they tried to take him to a group home on the reservation.

Because it was Jim who had been his haven from the war raging within his family ever since Jim coached the Big Eden Little League.

It was Jim who took him in when there was no one else to claim him as family.

Henry felt a new respect for Jim Soams as he listened to Pike telling his story as if it were one of his ancient tribal tales. Jim must be something special to keep Pike's heart so pure.

He also felt a rush of admiration for the man who couldn't look at him as he relayed the most painful time of his life. He just looked at the sky and revealed so much of himself with his soft cadence. He wanted to scream in that moment. He wanted to look right into Pike's eyes and scream 'I love you Pike Dexter!'

He didn't though.

He got up from his own chair instead - stepped in front of the amazing man still staring at the stars - leaned onto the arms of Pike's chair until he was close enough to kiss him.

He's pretty sure Pike got the message - although he'd been meaning to say it out loud ever since.

"What are you doing?" Pike stood at the door of his small office.

The sound of Pike's voice pulled him from his solitary reminiscing. "I was looking for...help with dinner."

"You cooked?"

"Sort of." Henry swallowed nervously. "When I turned on your monitor I saw...um..."

Pike suddenly remembered what he had been looking at before Henry showed up earlier in the day. "Oh..."

"Yeah."

Pike just stood there, quietly pondering before he asked, "Are you mad?"

"No!" Henry shook his head vigorously while he blushed. "Are you?"

It took Pike a few seconds to consider the question. "No. I'm glad you found it."

"You are?" That wasn't the answer Henry expected.

Pike just nodded.

"Why?" It was hard to understand, especially when Henry knew that if roles were reversed, he would be steaming mad.

Pike shrugged his shoulders. "If I want to do that with you some day..." Pike pointed to the computer monitor. "...I think we should be able to...talk about it...or at least not keep things from each other, like..." He pointed to the computer again. "...I don't know what to call it...homework?"

"I've never seen homework like that before?" Henry tried to laugh through his embarrassment.

Pike just stood there for a few minutes. He didn't seem embarrassed - at all. "What'd you cook?"

Henry jumped up from the small desk and hurried to get away from the computer as if it were Pike's secret diary. As he brushed by Pike he was pulled into a full-press embrace. "I just want it to be good for you...when we...when we're ready."

"Are you...ready?" Henry asked and struggled not to blush even more than he was already.

Pike nodded before he kissed Henry deeply.

He could only kiss back because nothing really needed to be said after that. They pulled apart and were both a little flush and a little breathless.

Pike nipped at Henry's neck. He could feel Pike's lips smiling against his skin. "You gonna show me what you cooked?"

Henry really liked it when Pike got flirty. "Right this way."

Pike followed Henry into his small kitchen and looked into the casserole pan after Henry removed the lid. Pike leaned against Henry's back with his hands on Henry's hips and said with a voice laden with a smirk. "What is it?"

PRESENT

"What happened after you heard the noise coming from the front of your store?" The same Eureka officer stood near Pike's bed with his note pad and pen at the ready.

"I came out to see what it was and I think I scared them." Pike explained.

"Scared who, Mr. Dexter?" There was a little irritation in his tone.

"The kids." Pike answered.

"Kids?"

"There were...four, maybe five of them. All boys. None of them looked older than fourteen." Pike tried to fill in details. "I think I scared them."

"What makes you think that?"

Pike shrugged. "I'm big - they were all pretty small. I've been told that I can look intimidating without even trying - so I would think that to kids I would look like a huge threat. I think that's why they attacked me. They were scared."

"What were they doing when you surprised them?"

Pike thought about it for a few seconds, trying to remember. "Filling bags with beer and junk food. One of them was trying to get into the cash register."

"And when you walked into the store they just jumped you?"

"That's about it." Pike nodded. "I scared them."

"The medical reports indicate that you have defense wounds on your arms and hands, but there are no abrasions on your knuckles indicating that you fought back. Why is that?"

"Because I didn't."

"You were being attacked by four or five teenage boys and you didn't think to fight back?" The officer asked incredulously.

"I thought about it." Pike answered immediately. "I chose not to. They were so small - I could have really hurt one of them. I didn't want to hurt them."

Pike looked at Henry after he said it, almost as if he needed affirmation that he did the right thing. Henry found it impossible not to touch. He gently carded his fingers through Pike's messy hair. They spoke to each other with their eyes - like they usually did - until Henry couldn't keep it inside of himself anymore. "I love you."

He realized that he needed to say it out loud a lot more often than he had been.

Every day. I'll tell you how much I love you every day.

FLASHBACK

After they ate big bowls of steamed rice with cashews - prepared by Pike himself after they threw Henry's disastrous effort into the woods for the animals - Pike lifted Henry until he was sitting on the countertop next to the kitchen sink. He took the dish out of Henry's hand and set it in the sink. "We can do dishes later."

With one hand flanking each of Henry's hips, Pike stood between his legs and leaned in for a kiss. Henry's arms were around Pike's neck before he had time to think about it and he felt himself twitch a little below the belt when Pike slid his tongue past his lips.

They had gotten really good at this over the last few months. They made out like a couple of hormonal teenagers. Sometimes it was like this, hot, heavy and instantly arousing. Sometime it was slow and sweet and as gentle as Pike himself. As they became more comfortable with each other, they had escalated from simple kissing to full body contact - reclined on a couch or Pike's small bed - shirts off and hips grinding.

The first time they rubbed their erections together, Henry came on the spot. They were both still wearing clothes - so it was massy and really embarrassing. His first instinct was to get away from Pike as fast as possible before he completely humiliated himself.

Pike held onto him tighter when he felt Henry start to push himself away. "Don't." His voice sounded so deep and so so sexy. He grabbed Henry's ass - dwarfing his cheeks with his big hands - and continued kiss and grind until he had made his own mess for laundry day.

Now Henry was being pulled closer, sliding across the counter until their zippers were pressed together. Thank god for tall boyfriends. Pike's groin was at just the right height to create the friction Henry craved. He was adding kitchen counter groping to his long, long list of favorite-things-to-do-with-Pike.

"Did you mean it." Pike asked between a kiss on Henry's mouth and a nip at Henry's neck.

Henry knew by the way Pike was talking that he was well on his way to that place where there's no room for shyness. Henry loves it when they got to that place. "Mean what?"

"Are you ready?" Pike trailed hot, wet kisses from neck to chin.

Henry answered the question with fingers buried into long, dark hair and a deep, hard press of lips-to-lips. He wrapped his legs around Pike when he felt himself being lifted off of the countertop.

"This okay?" Pike asked. He sounded a little breathless.

Henry nodded. Who the hell was he kidding - manhood be damned - the fact that his boyfriend could carry him to bed was hot as hell.

The large hands holding him up by his ass felt hot through the fabric of his clothes. Their kisses became harder and more reckless as Pike made his way into his small bedroom. By the time Henry came up for air he was standing between Pike's knees as Pike sat on the edge of the bed.

He sucked in a breath when he felt those warm hands sliding underneath his sweater. It wasn't that this was the first time Pike's hands had touched his bare skin - it was just the first time that it would lead to Pike touching something else. He pulled Pike's shirt off quickly by yanking and bunching fabric from the place where his hands were holding him up by Pike's wide shoulders.

Pike only let it interrupt his own exploring fingers for a second. He pushed soft knitting up Henry's tummy - then his chest - then his shoulders, neck, and head. He could already feel himself getting sweaty and cursed his tendency to sweat over the lightest exertion.

When he felt Pike's tongue follow a bead of sweat that rolled from the hollow of his throat all the way to his bellybutton he assumed that Pike didn't really mind that his boyfriend was a sweaty mess already. He heard himself make a strangled-groaning sound which only caused his dark-skinned lover - lover? yes, we're definitely lovers...or we will be any minute - to bite him right beneath his innie.

Pike slowly unbuckled Henry's belt while he spoke. "Are you sure?" Dark eyes blazed.

Henry nodded vigorously.

"Stop me if..."

Henry leaned down enough to interrupt him with a kiss. "Not stopping."

Pike's fingers unbuttoned beige trousers. "We can stop if..."

"Pike..."

Pike spoke with reservation, but his hands were forging ahead with a slow undoing of Henry's zipper. "Just say the word and..."

"Not helping with the confidence here, Pike." Henry grabbed Pike's hands before they completed the task of removing his pants. He waited until Pike made eye contact. "Are you sure you're ready?"

"Yes." He sounded sure.

"I'm sure, too."

"I've never done this before..."

"Like never done this before with a man or never done this before with anyone?" Henry had never really thought about it before, but it would make perfect sense that Pike would be a virgin.

Pike's silence answered the question. He doesn't kiss like a virgin. "Wow." Henry said before he pushed Pike hard so he fell onto his back and bounced a little on the mattress. He crawled onto the bed to straddle Pike's hips. He leaned over Pike's long body, "Wow," and kissed him.

Pike still looked concerned. "I don't...without ever having done this...I just don't want to hurt you so you tell me if we need to..."

"Pike." Henry stopped him from talking himself out of this. "You won't hurt me. You're incapable of hurting anyone - under any circumstance. It's just not possible."

"Okay." Pike said as his hands slid beneath both pants and underwear to grip Henry's bare cheeks and pull them closer together. He started pushing the fabric off while they began to move together.

PRESENT

They were finally alone again. Pike finished answering the official questions from the Eureka police followed by more questions from his Big Eden chosen family. Henry sat on the edge of Pike's bed the entire time. They never stopped holding hands.

Pike looked so tired.

"You need to rest now." Henry still brushed Pike's hair with his fingers - very, very gently.

"No." He was confused by the fear that suddenly appeared on Pike's features.

"I'm not leaving." Henry figured it out without much trouble. He pointed to the wall across the room. "See. They even brought me my own bed."

Pike took a long look at the bed against the wall before he focused his gaze back on Henry again. He had that look on his face - Henry knew it well - it was a mix between a pouting child and a desperate man. It was the way Pike looked at him when he felt needy or emotionally vulnerable or - sometimes - hungry for nourishment of a more carnal nature.

"Okay." Henry agreed without needing to be asked the question. He squeezed Pike's hand. "Make a little room for me, will ya?"

Pike scooted as much as his body would allow, which just happened to be enough for Henry to settle in on his right, less damaged, side. Pike made a perfect space for Henry to dovetail the curve of his shoulder into the crook of Pike's armpit. Henry's head automatically found the dip between shoulder and chest that seemed to be shaped for the sole purpose of cradling his head. He let himself cry quietly when he felt Pike's arm tighten around him as if he were holding him in place so he wouldn't disappear.

"I was so scared," Henry finally allowed himself to release the tension he had been holding all night long.

Pike tightened his hold on Henry even more and placed a soft kiss on the bald spot on top of Henry's head.

Henry closed his eyes and felt hot tears drop from his nose onto the warm skin beneath his cheek. "I thought you were gone...I found you and you looked...I thought I lost you."

Pike cradled Henry's head with his large hand, fingers easily curved around the shape of Henry's skull, "You didn't."

Henry slid his arm around Pike's wrapped waist. "It this okay?" He was so afraid of hurting his lover any more than he was already.

Pike's other arm, cast and all, moved until his fingers could brush against the arm in question. "Don't leave."

"I won't." Never. Never ever.

Pike's breathing slowed and his body relaxed. Henry was relieved that his lover was resting his battered body. He closed his eyes and burrowed into the flesh-and-bone nest Pike had created for him. He smelled sweat and betadine and disinfectant - but mostly he just smelled Pike.

TBC