Title: When The Smoke Clears
Summary: Post 7X10. Bobby is released from the hospital, and the toll of the fire rears its ugly head on their first night home.
Disclaimer: I do not own 9-1-1 or any of its characters. They belong to Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear. I do, however, own my writing so please don't steal- SantinaJo©
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A/N: This is my first story for 9-1-1 and It's been a while since I've written anything, but I wanted to flex the 'ol muscle and see if I still had it.
-01-
They'd been discharged from the hospital that afternoon, the nurse giving strict instructions to take it easy and not overdo it. "You just went through a traumatic event," the nurse cautioned, "You're going to be very sore for some time. They broke two ribs when they were doing compressions, so, please… just take it easy. I don't want to see you back in here because you rushed recovery."
"You have my word, he's going to take it easy," Athena promised the nurse with a kind smile.
The nurse tracked Bobby with knowing eyes, and he had the nerve to grin boyishly at her. A week in the hospital had left him with severe cabin fever, and despite not having a home to go to, he was ready to bust out of the four walls of the ICU come hell or high water.
The nurse handed over his discharge packet. "Prescriptions have already been sent to the pharmacy."
Bobby frowned as he read over the first page. "Hydrocodone?" He shook his head no and handed the paperwork back to the nurse. "I can't go home with that."
Athena placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, squeezing the tense muscles she could feel flex under her touch. "He's in recovery," she explained simply.
"I'm so sorry," the nurse apologized. "I will let the doctor know to cancel that prescription. You should be fine with Ibuprofen and Tylenol. Ibuprofen for the inflammation and Tylenol for the pain. We want you to follow up within a week with your regular doctor, and we also gave you an Ortho doctor to follow up with for the broken ribs. If you have any chest pain, shortness of breath, or generally just feel off, please do not hesitate to come back and be seen in the ER."
"Understood," Bobby nodded.
"Great," The nurse smiled. "Let me send a message to the doctor about that prescription and re-print your discharge papers. I'll come back with a wheelchair and help you to your car."
Bobby groaned as the door closed behind the young woman. "A wheelchair?" he complained. "I can walk."
"Oh, please," May rolled her eyes, "You were on a ventilator a few days ago, just let the woman bring you a wheelchair and accept the help." She was no stranger to the terrible patient her stepfather was, remembering quite vividly how he'd reacted when an entire roof collapsed on top of him.
"Where are you two going to stay anyway?" Harry asked, "The house is a total goner."
"Well," Bobby looked at his wife, "Buck offered up his place."
"But I quickly said no to that," Athena shook her head, her lips pursing together in the way they often did when she was annoyed. "My temperament is this short already," she held up her hand, her thumb and pointer finger pressing together to demonstrate how little patience she had left. "He's a sweet kid, but I cannot be trapped with him for God knows how long while we look for a new place. No," she made a motion with her hand to end the discussion. "I booked us an Air B&B, and we'll stay there until we figure out our next steps. I'm meeting with the insurance agent on Tuesday and with a relator on Friday."
"And work?" May asked. "Are you going to take time off?" Her question was directed at her mother, but her eyes were focused on her stepfather. Despite being laid up in the hospital for the last week, he simply looked exhausted. It had been one devastating hit after the other, and she knew the real work of healing hadn't even begun.
"Of course," Athena promised, understanding everything May wasn't saying. Bobby being discharged was just one piece of a very complicated puzzle. It would be a long and tender road to recovery for them both, and as much she loathed the idea of going back to therapy, she'd already scheduled an appointment with Dr. Sanford.
"Good," May said, nodding her head as the nurse came back into the room with a wheelchair. "Then let's get the hell out of here."
…
"This place is super cute!" May gushed as she waltzed into the living room. They'd just finished eating pizza and she'd taken a solo tour through every room of the Air B&B. "It's so soft and girlie. I feel like I'm a guest in Barbie's Dream House!"
"Well, you know you're welcome to come by any time." Bobby smiled at her. He looked around the living room from where he was sitting on the pale pink couch. The house had a more feminine touch than he was used to, however, he was just thankful to be out of the hospital.
Alive.
As long as he and Athena were okay and alive… nothing else mattered.
He felt a sense of calm ghost over him at the sight of his family, and he squeezed his hands together tightly to calm the adrenaline that hadn't quite dissipated.
Having sensed this, May took a seat next to her stepfather. "Here," she said, tearing into the bags that littered the coffee table and living room floor. "I picked up some more things for you and Mom. This bag," she pointed to the pink one, "Has some clothes for mom, and this blue one has some clothes for you. Also, there are some bathroom items and laundry detergent to get you started, and I picked up the donations from 118 and the police department." She passed her mother a large envelope. "Sue wants me to come by the call center to pick up the donations from them tomorrow."
Athena frowned as she looked at the large envelope her daughter had placed into her hands. "I feel like a charity case," she complained.
"Well, our home did burn down," Harry reminded unnecessarily, "If we aren't charity then who is?"
Athena glared at her son. "I told them you wouldn't accept cash," May assured her mother, a weak attempt to save Harry from their mother's wrath. "So, it's gift cards to buy groceries and takeout food, and I figured we could always go shopping for more clothes this weekend."
Athena turned her glare from her son to her daughter. "I think you're just looking for an excuse to go shopping."
May grinned, "both things can be true."
They visited together a while longer, the evening naturally coming to an end when Bobby began to yawn and nod off on the couch. Athena suppressed a laugh as she watched his head bob a few times, his eyes jumping open when he'd realized he was falling asleep.
"Okay my babies," she wrapped her arms tightly around her children. "I think we're going to call it a night, what do you say honey?" she looked over at her husband who continued to fight sleep.
"That man is gone," Harry shook his head in amusement. "May's going to drop me off at a friend's house, but I'll be back with her tomorrow."
"You sure you don't want to stay here?" Athena frowned, "There's an extra bedroom. I would prefer it if you stayed."
"Tomorrow," Harry promised. "I already told my friend I'd be back tonight; besides I left some stuff at his house."
"Fine," Athena relented. "We'll also need to talk about whether you're going back to your dad's."
"Yeah," Harry nodded. "I just haven't made up my mind yet."
Exhaling a breath, Athena pulled her son back into her arms. It'd been far too long since she'd had her children under the same roof, and she missed them both terribly. She knew Bobby missed them too, and it would probably do him a world of good to have them here. She'd watched him in the hospital the last several nights, his body in a constant state of restlessness.
"Bye Bobby," May sat on the arm of the couch, her arm draped lovingly over his shoulder.
"G'night May," He reached up to squeeze her hand where it rested against his bicep. "Text your mother when you've made it home, please." He looked between his stepson and stepdaughter. "Please."
"Yeah," Harry agreed.
"I will," May promised.
Athena walked her kids to the door, her arms crossed protectively over her chest as she watched them buckle into May's car and pull out of the driveway. Only when she could no longer see the taillights, did she close and lock the door. She made her way across the living room back to her husband and held out her hand to him, a small smile pulled across her lips.
"C'mon, honey, let's go to bed," she helped him off the couch, her arm going around his waist to help support him as they walked. "You look exhausted." She could feel the tension in his torso and didn't miss the hiss of pain that he tried to swallow as he leaned on her for support. "Do you want some Ibuprofen?" She ran her hand gently over his chest, watching his face as it twisted up in discomfort.
She remembered how badly she hurt after Jeffery had attacked her. She had taken her pain medication as needed to get through the first week. Bobby hadn't taken anything stronger than something over the counter since coming off the ventilator, and she could only imagine how uncomfortable he felt. She understood perfectly well his fear of taking prescription pain medications, but it didn't make it any easier to watch him suffer.
Athena helped him into the bathroom, bypassing the queen-sized bed that Bobby desperately wanted to fall into. "I'll help you," she told him gently. "The warm water will be good for your muscles, and it'll help you sleep better." She guided him to lean against the counter. She left the bathroom and came back a few moments later with the bathroom supplies May had bought, their clothes, bottled water, as well as his medication.
"Ibuprofen for inflammation and Tylenol for pain," she parroted the nurse's words to her husband as she popped the pills into his hand. She made quick work of unpacking the toiletry bag and turning on the water. "Okay," she smiled at her handsome husband, "Arms up." She reached for the hem of his dark blue t-shirt and quickly pulled it up over his head.
They undressed one another slowly before finally making their way into the shower. Bobby groaned as he leaned against the wall of the shower, his weight propped up by his arm and Athena who wedged herself between him and the wall. With the hot water raining down, Athena made quick work of lathering her hands and a washcloth with a bar of soap before gently washing down her husband.
There was dried glue on his chest and stomach from the number of EKG leads and stickers that had been placed on him for different monitoring reasons while he was in the hospital. The scar from where he'd been caught in an electrical fire years ago caught her eyes and she traced her fingers over the area gently before trailing them down his chest. The bruising over his chest from where they did compressions was evident. Athena stepped into his arm, kissing gently at the marred skin before kissing over his beating heart. Her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, her naked breast pressing intimately against his chest and her nails scratching lovingly at the muscles she could feel tensing under her touch.
They stayed under the spray of the water until it cooled, taking turns to wash and inspect every inch of each other's body. Athena wrapped a towel around herself before drying off her husband and helping him into a pair of fresh pajama pants that May had bought. She left his chest bare, purely selfish in reason as she instantly gravitated toward his heat as they finally settled into the queen-sized bed.
"I never thanked you," Athena whispered gently, her hands tracing mindlessly across his stomach. Her fingers scratched down the trail of hair that led from his belly button to his cock. If her husband wasn't in such desperate need of sleep, or recovery, Athena couldn't promise that she wouldn't try to take advantage of him. The only thing she wanted, no, truly needed right now, was for her husband to fuck the anger and stress that had invaded their lives out of her body.
"Thank me for what?" he reached for her hand where it was tracing along the waistband of his pajamas and brought it up to his lips for a kiss. Any other time, he would be happy to have her hand slip lower, but tonight… tonight he was so damn tired.
"For saving my life," she reminded him gently, she pushed herself up so that she could look down into his warm, brown eyes. "If it weren't for you, Bobby, I'd have been dead in that fire."
"Don't thank me for that," Bobby demanded, an angry shake of his head as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. His stomach tuned in disgust, how she could even bring herself to say those words to him… how she could allow herself to be here and take care of him, he would never understand.
If he didn't love her so damn much, if he didn't selfishly need her so damn much, he would have walked away from her a long time ago. "If it weren't for me, none of this would have happened," He reminded her. "There never would have been a fire. You wouldn't have even been in the hospital. You wouldn't have lost your home. For God's sake, Athena, your children almost lost their mother because of me!"
"My children still have a mother because of you," she argued, her hands cupping his face. "The only reason I am alive right now, Bobby, is because of you."
"You deserve better than me," he told her brokenly. "You deserve so much better than me, Athena. Your kids deserve better than me, and if I was a better man, I'd walk away so that you could have that."
Athena shook her head no, shushing him as she brought him back into her embrace. "Please don't say that, Bobby. I love you."
"I love you, too, Athena, but that doesn't mean that I deserve you." He was so angry and disappointed with himself because even though he knew she would be better off, he wouldn't walk away from her. Not willingly. God forbid, had she died in that fire, they would have had to pry her out of his arms. "I love you more than I will ever be able to say to you."
"I love you," she kissed him. "I love you so much." She kissed him harder.
"I keep replaying our fight over in my head," he confessed against her mouth.
"Stop," she whispered, kissing him softly. She'd tried to block that out of her memory, tried not to think about how the last words they said to each other had been in anger. "Too late", her own words echoed in her head from their fight the night of the fire. She'd walked away from him, had slammed the bedroom door, and then had woken up hours later to the sight of him on a breathing machine, a doctor telling her about advanced directives and calling in family to say goodbye.
"I don't think I deserve you," he said again. "Hell, I know I don't deserve you, but Athena, I can't lose you."
"You won't," she promised.
"I almost did," he muttered softly against the crown of her hair. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I'm so, so glad that you're okay, Athena." His fingers traced down the spine of his wife's back as he held her tightly to his chest. "I wouldn't be able to survive losing you."
"I wouldn't be able to survive losing you either," she admitted. She'd proven that to herself when she'd gone looking for Amir. Her gun pointed steadily at his chest, a split second, a wrong word, and she wouldn't have hesitated to put a bullet through him. Her career, her life, her freedom, she would have sent it all up in flames to seek revenge in Bobby's name.
"Athena," Bobby placed his finger under her chin and tilted her head up so that she could look into his eyes. "I mean it," he vowed. "I cannot lose you, Baby… I would not survive, and I wouldn't want to."
Athena exhaled a shaky breath, his words like ice in her veins because she knew that he meant them; that he would not survive the loss of her. She wordlessly coaxed her husband to lay back down and as he did, she took her place next to him, her head on his chest, over his wildly beating heart, and her leg over his waist protectively. This man, the man that she loved more than any other man before, had pulled her out of a fire and had literally breathed life back into her, had collapsed in an empty field from the pure terror of his biggest nightmare coming to life once more.
She kissed the skin over his heart, her lips lingering in place as the racing muscle lulled into a steady and regular rhythm. "We'll get through this," she promised him quietly. "We'll figure it out together, Bobby, just like we always do."