Title: Catching the Stars

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

Rating: NC-17

Word Count: ~ 2200

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

Pike stood with his forehead resting on the back of the hand that still held onto the receiver of the phone long after he had hung it up. He didn't want to turn around to see the look in Henry's eyes. He knew what he would see - pain, fear, anger, and worst of all...defeat.

He knew Henry was trying to understand - and he had been trying for over a week. So Pike had been waiting for Henry to be ready talk about it, hoping it would come before the phone call.

But that didn't happen and now Pike needed to make sure Henry could handle it without completely falling apart. He finally screwed up the courage to face Henry's wrath and turned around. He was expecting to see Henry's face clouded with a mixture of anger and anguish but what he saw was so much worse. Pike wasn't even sure how to define the emotion that was radiating from Henry's eyes but it was heartbreaking to witness.

Pike wasn't sure if he was stalling or not, but he knew he needed to have this conversation without a bunch of guys in the next room and he had the beginning of a plan formulating in his head that involved a tree about seventeen miles away. "You want to go for a little drive?"

"Not really." Henry barely spoke above a whisper.

Pike expected that. "Meet me at my truck. I just need to tell Jim he's on his own for a while."

Henry paused for only a second. "Okay."

Pike expected that, too.

The drive took almost forty-five minutes. Pike had forgotten how treacherous the curves were up this way. He would look over at his passenger every now and then and wonder what was going through his mind. Henry looked a million miles away. Pike finally saw his destination a few hundred feet away and slowed to a stop on the side of the narrow two-lane road in what looked like the middle of nowhere. The only thing to see for miles in all directions were trees.

"Why'd you stop here?" Henry asked with sad confusion.

Pike opened his door and hopped out. Before he slammed it closed he leaned into the truck, "Come on."

"Where?" Henry said while gesturing with his hand in an exaggerated circle.

"Please." Was Pike's only explanation before he slammed the old truck's door closed and walked toward the tree line across the road.

"Fine." Henry said under his breath before opening his own door. The only thing Henry could do was follow.

By the time he reached Pike, he found him sitting on what remained of a felled tree. Pike patted the spot next to him in a silent request for Henry to join him.

Henry wasn't really in the right frame of mind to be too close to his boyfriend right now. If he were being completely honest - he was a little pissed at Pike. So instead of sitting next to him, Henry chose to sit on a rather large boulder a few feet away.

A flash of pain crossed Pike's handsome features and Henry felt immediately guilty for causing it - but not enough to move closer. He waited for Pike to explain himself while crickets filled the air with a nostalgic sound.

Pike pointed to the giant tree near the boulder Henry had chosen for his chair. "Do you see that scar in the bark of the tree?"

Henry looked at the huge, bark-less indentation and nodded. "Hard to miss it."

"It was put there by the front end of a 1976 Impala." Pike started to explain. "My mother was driving."

Pike had the same look on his face that he had the night Henry started falling in love with the gentle giant - the night he discovered Pike was doing more than just cooking - the night he realized Pike was beckoning for Henry to fall from the sky - right into his arms. Henry could no longer resist being near Pike, no matter how mad he still was at him. He moved to sit next to his partner and grabbed his hand. "I'm sorry."

Pike continued as if Henry hadn't said anything. "I tried to fix it. Fix them. Since a was just a little kid. But I couldn't. They just got worse and worse. The more I tried to fix it...the more they just turned on me. He started beat just as much as he beat her. And she couldn't fight back at him, so she took it out on me, too. I didn't really have anyone or...anyplace to feel safe. The only reason I joined Little League was to get out of that house. I didn't think they would let me - but I guess they wanted me out too. So I went to every practice and every game and always volunteered to help clean up the equipment and organize the storage room - anything to stay away from home. Jim started taking me home for supper a few times a week. I loved the Soams and sometimes when I was in my bed at night I would close my eyes and wish they were my parents."

Henry shimmied closer to Pike and squeezed in hand. Sometimes he forgot how much Pike had suffered. I was so hard to imagine such a kind, loving man could have been through so much and still remain so gentle. Instead of taking it out on the world - Pike chose to just stay out of it.

Until he took a gamble on Henry.

"When they died I thought it was my fault...because I wished and wished and wished..." Pike gulped hard and closed his eyes.

Henry felt the pressure of pained compassion in his throat as he watched Pike relive the worst part of his life. "Oh Pike..." He didn't know what else to say.

"They were two broken souls who in turn broke apart others - their son, their tribal community...anyone who got too close. They never got a chance to make things right...to make things whole again. I'm not sure they ever would have anyway - but..." Pike looked at Henry. The intensity in his eyes was unnerving. "Everyone deserves the chance to make things right and whole - it's the only way they can be whole themselves."

"That makes a lot of sense, Pike." Henry soothed.

"My ancestors believed that to punish wrong doing was to make the damage permanent. In order for the community to become whole again, the wrong-doer was expected to listen to each person he had harmed. He was expected to hear how his actions impacted them...changed them. It was through this process that he reached redemption. Once the entire village had spoken their truth, the wrong-doer chose his own way to be accountable to those he harmed. And it was through the self-discipline imposed upon himself that he too became whole again." Pike could see Henry taking in his every word. "It wasn't just me that was hurt that night, Henry. It was Jim and Grace and Dean and the boys. It was the guys and the school and everyone who counted on Dexter's General Store for staples and a warm smile or two." Pike reached to touch Henry's cheek. "It was you."

Henry could feel the trail of wet heat escaping his lashes.

"I want to make things right. I want to make things whole...for everyone, for those boys, for me...but mostly I want to make things whole for you." Pike ran his thumb underneath Henry's eye to capture a stray tear. "They hurt you too Henry, and they need to know what they did to you and they need to make amends...and then you'll be free from your burden."

"Damn it, Pike." Henry said quietly before he kissed Pike with a hard press of lips. "How am I supposed to argue with that?"

Pike pulled Henry's hand until he took the hint and straddled his lap. He held Henry tight against his body and inhaled his scent. He finally felt the wall that had been standing between them for days fall away.

Henry nuzzled against Pike's temple. "I'm not as forgiving as you are."

"You don't have to forgive them." Pike said before he kissed Henry's neck.

Henry tightened his hold around Pike's shoulders until they couldn't get any closer together. "You understand that I won't be letting you out of my sight."

Pike could only chuckle and nod.

"You can just kiss me-time-Wednesdays goodbye for however long those kids are here." Henry warned.

"Understood." Pike finally felt like he and Henry were together on this plan. He was overwhelmingly relieved. "Thank you, Henry."

Henry pulled away to look Pike in the eyes. "Shut up, Pike." And he kissed him.

Flashback

Hospital coffee taste like piss.

Henry drank it anyway.

"Why is it taking so long?" Henry almost whined and he hated the sound of it.

Jim patiently sat across from him, drinking his own bitter cup of luke warm brew. "It's only been twenty minutes, Henry."

Oh.

"It may take a little time since they have to compare this scan to the one from yesterday." Jim placed his mug on the table. "How are you holding up, Son?"

Henry couldn't keep the bitterness from his tone. "I'm not. I feel like I'm...I feel crazy, Jim."

"You're not crazy." Jim patted the back of Henry's hand.

"Yes. I am." Henry's voice came out louder than he intended. "You know what he told the police?"

It was rhetorical but Henry waited for an answer anyway. Jim finally shrugged.

"He sad he didn't even try to fight back. He just let a bunch of punk kids beat the hell out of him and didn't even try to defend himself. I don't know who I'm more angry at - him or the kids who beat him." Henry realized he was yelling and toned it down. "I want to scream at him and hold him at the same time. I'm terrified to be away from him and still so angry at him I could...I could have lost him, Jim. He didn't do a damn thing to...it's like he...I don't know...it's like he just gave up on us...he didn't care if he left me here. I don't think I even remember how to exist without him in my life and he just gave up on us."

"He would never give up on you, Henry." Jim spoke in a his usual calm cadence. "He hasn't given up on you since high school - why would he start now?"

"You tell me?" Henry snapped.

"It's easier to be angry than it is to be scared." Jim explained patiently.

"I haven't slept in over 24-hours so you're going to need to be a little less cryptic." Henry said sourly.

"You're scared. You just said it yourself. The anger is more about all the things you're scared of than it is about Pike himself." Jim forced Henry to look at him by gripping his hand from across the table. "It's okay to be scared, Henry. Anyone would be. But Pike needs you now. So let yourself be scared and save all the other stuff for later. There will be time for that after Pike is on the mends."

"You say it like it's so easy." Henry sounded a little less agitated. "How am I suppose to just stop being angry?"

"Well..." Jim leaned back in the plastic chair. "...why are you scared?"

Henry glared at Jim for even asking such a stupid question. "Because I love him! Because I've waited my whole life for what we have together. Because he's beautiful and didn't deserve what happened to him. Because without him I'm only half a man...because...he's..."

"That's how you do it, Henry." Jim smiled fondly. "Just focus on that and you won't have room to be angry."

Henry leaned back in his own chair and crossed his arms across his chest. He looked at Jim with a mixture of skepticism and respect before saying, "That sounds like something Pike would say. He's picked up some of the habits of a good man, it seems."

"I don't know Henry..." Jim smirked a little. "...maybe I picked it up from him."

"Maybe you did, Jim." Henry couldn't help chuckling. "Maybe you did."

TBC