Just To Be With You (7/9)
Title: Just To Be With You (7/9)
Word Count: 4,289
Summary: Babe makes a big mistake that sends the one he loves into the arms of another. Now he has to chase him across the globe to tell him how he feels before it's too late. Seriously AU. Various pairings
Disclaimer: I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!
Babe was starting to feel incredibly close to having a panic attack. When you were on the road, it always seemed like ambulances were driving like a bat out of Hell. But when you were the one waiting, it felt like an eternity and you could only assume that someone had stopped to take an emergency pee-break.
By the time they actually heard the sirens, Babe was sitting on a seat with his head between his knees. Nixon was rubbing circles on his back and Luz was saying that everything would be fine. He certainly hoped so. He briefly wondered if Gene had been there, could he have helped Speirs?
Breathe in. Breathe out.
As the sirens got closer, Bill put one arm behind Ron’s knees and the other under his neck so he could keep the cloth pressed to the wound on his head. Scooping him up, he went outside to meet the ambulance.
Babe, feeling immensely better all of a sudden, jumped up to follow him, the others close behind.
Pretty soon the EMT’s were loading Speirs into the ambulance and speaking in Dutch again. While Babe didn’t actually know what they were saying they were gesturing between the all of them and the ambulance.
“Bill you should ride with him,” Babe decided. Bill just looked at him funny.
“Why me?”
“Well who else should it be?”
“You’re my responsibility Babe, I should stay with you.”
Babe started to grow frustrated, “I’m my own responsibility Bill, get in the damn ambulance!”
Bill didn’t move.
“I’ll keep an eye on him Bill. Just go.” Nixon muttered shoving him slightly toward the ambulance.
“Call us from the hospital to let us know where it is.” Luz added.
“We’ll be walking.” Babe nodded.
Bill looked like he definitely had something to say about THAT but before he could get another word out Buck had practically grabbed his collar and tossed him into the back of the ambulance.
The EMT’s took the opportunity to slam the door shut and lock it.
As the ambulance drove off, Luz looked at Buck and laughed. “You are SO dead when we get there.”
Bill fidgeted inside the ambulance. Why the fuck did he have to ride in here?
It wasn’t as though he actually LIKED the jerk-off. Attraction and affection were not the same thing. And he did not LIKE Ronald Speirs. Everyone and their ma knew that.
Except…he did.
But he didn’t!
…. Damn it…
He looked down at the unconscious man, trying not to be disturbed by the breathing mask covering his mouth. Sighing he leaned forward and tentatively placed the back of his hand to the side of Ron’s face.
This didn’t change the fact that he was an asshole.
And he was going to tell him so when he finally woke up.
He’d better wake up.
“Oh my God I’m going to pass out.” Babe groaned. How long had they been walking?
“Damn Babe! We’ve only been walking for like 20 minutes!” Luz exclaimed as he rolled his eyes.
Babe just glared, “This coming from the guy getting a piggy back ride!”
Luz looked down at Buck, who didn’t seem to be having any problems carrying him. “Yeah well I’m special.”
“That you are,” Buck joined in with a laugh.
Babe sighed, “I’m still fucking hungry.”
“So I wonder what they were doing in that closet?” Nixon pondered out loud.
The moment the question was asked, Babe immediately stuck his fingers into his ears and started singing the unofficial ‘I’m Not Listening’ song.
“Maybe we shouldn’t discuss it now…or EVER.” Nixon amended as Babe screwed his eyes shut as well.
A chorus of agreements followed.
Ron downed his whiskey as he looked around the increasingly crowded bar. He figured he would wait a few more minutes before going outside to where Dick and his other friends were no doubt hanging around.
He said this because, just a few moments earlier, the door had opened and he had noticed a crowd gathering on the street outside.
Considering the fact that they weren’t really in any of Mexico’s tourist towns and they were all college aged white males, he figured chances were pretty good that it was them. Plus, few people inspired flocks of admirers the way Dick Winters seemed to.
He was about to leave when a young man came and sat down just a few barstools to his right. He found himself looking over. There weren’t really too many people he could be here with. It had to be one of Dick’s friends.
The young man was clad in jeans and a faded blue shirt that stretched across the muscles between his shoulder blades, his tousled, dirty blond hair fell onto his forehead and he had a face that one instantly liked.
Ron, despite himself, was intrigued by him. Why was he alone?
He watched him out of the corner of his eye for a few minutes. The man ordered something but took one sip and started to cough slightly.
Ron just smiled, “First time drinking tequila?”
A pair of large, brown eyes looked over at him. The man checked over his shoulder to make sure, Ron supposed, that he was the one being spoken to.
“Uh, yes, it is. I guess it’s fairly obvious.” He chuckled. Ron liked his voice… it was unique. The kind of voice that if he heard it just a few more times, he’d recognize it anywhere.
“Are you one of Dick’s friends?” Ron asked.
“Yeah…how did you know?”
Ron held out a hand, “Ron Speirs.”
The man shook his hand firmly and introduced himself, “Nice to finally meet you. Carwood Lipton.”
Ron smiled for the second time that night. Which was abnormal for him. He didn’t need to tell him what a strange name Carwood was. He was sure he already heard that enough. However he was surprised to be meeting him like this.
Dick had nothing but praise for the man sitting near him. And while Dick tried not to highlight people’s bad qualities, it was always obvious when he truly thought highly of someone.
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” Ron said truthfully.
Lipton crossed his arms and looked down before looking back at him for a moment and breaking into a smile.
It was the perfect smile.
The left side of his mouth seemed to draw up to meet his ear and the right corner quirked down softly. He let a chuckle escape and he had that open mouthed kind of smile that Ron thought was so difficult to pull off without looking fake.
Could you fall in love with a smile?
Speirs gasped as he jerked into consciousness. The memory fading away quickly and the pleasantness of it being replaced by a harsh throbbing in his head. Everything he felt now was painful and cold.
Blinking his eyes, he tried to clear away the hazy feeling fogging up his mind and take in his surroundings.
His eyes were bombarded by the bright whiteness of the room he was in, and he knew, even as the room spun, that he was in a hospital. He’d been in one enough times to recognize the feeling.
The dizziness…a concussion. Maybe severe. The fact that he was too disorientated to tell actually gave him a clue.
He figured he couldn’t be a priority patient, and that he still had to be in his street clothes. He tried to sit up, at the very least, be he felt sluggish, sick and dizzy all at once and he knew he must be medicated.
His initial scan told him that he was alone, but in his state he couldn’t be sure. Timing seemed determined to get the best of him and not a moment later the door creaked open and a familiar face shuffled in.
What the Hell? Was that…was that Bill? What was he doing there? Guarnere didn’t seem to realize that he was no longer unconscious. So he alerted him to the new development by asking him the first thing on his mind.
“What happened? What am I doing here?”
Gene was lost again. Only this time, he had decided they should stop and use a payphone to get some help finding their way to the farm where Renee was currently residing. Dick and Lipton opted to stay in the car.
Dick turned slowly to look back at Carwood from the driver’s seat. His friend had been extremely quiet.
“What was it you were trying to tell me earlier?”
Lipton looked up at him. He was severely out of it, at least that’s how it appeared to Dick. He began to worry that maybe he should have listened to Carwood earlier at the train station. He hoped he wasn’t getting sick.
Finally, Lipton spoke, “Do you know if Speirs is with them?”
Dick was somewhat surprised by the question. “Um…I don’t know really. I suppose it’s possible. But it seems unlikely. Why?”
“Their train broke down and they’re going to a hospital.”
Dick’s chest tightened. Suddenly seized with panic.
“What!?”
“Don’t worry, Lewis seemed to be fine on the phone. But he said Ron was hurt pretty badly. I don’t know a lot of Rons. Actually I only know the one….”
Dick was torn between a multitude of emotions.
Relief mainly, that Lew was safe. Guilt and sadness that Ron was hurt and that Lipton had to suffer in silence. And somewhere in there, was the satisfaction that came with knowing he had been right. Lipton still cared about Ron.
And he knew with certainty that the feeling was mutual.
However once his wave of emotions had subsided, the only thing that remained was his intense desire to see his boyfriend with his own eyes. And know for sure that he was safe.
“My toe hurts.”
“Hurts how?”
“Like it burns and freezes at the same time. Like a spider bit it or something.”
“Babe I swear if you bitch about that toe one more time I’m just going to have to rip it off.”
Buck supposed that they were all just getting a little cranky due to the heat. Or maybe this was how they always spent their time. He didn’t fucking know.
What he did know was that the bruise on Luz’s temple was getting darker, and since he’d hopped off of Buck’s back he seemed to be stumbling his steps every once in awhile.
He kept holding his hand up to block out the sunlight and Buck feared he might have a concussion. He’d have to keep an eye on him. He doubted that Luz would say anything even if he was feeling bad.
As he swung his small bag of stuff back around to his front and began to dig through it, he couldn’t help but reflect on how strange it felt to have only known Luz for about one solid day. Everything between them felt so natural. It was both the scariest and most awesome thing Buck had ever experienced.
Finally he found what he was looking for. Pulling it out, he made a few adjustments before walking up behind Luz and plopping his UCLA cap onto the shorter man’s head.
Luz looked up at him, confused. Then he covered his confusion with a smirk and tugged down on the bill of the cap. He gave Buck a cheeky grin.
“How do I look?”
“With that shiner? More like a hockey fan. But other than that? Great.”
Luz just smirked again and lit up the cigarette that had miraculously stayed tucked behind his ear.
Buck seriously wanted to take the cigarette out of Luz’s mouth. If he DID have a concussion the last thing he needed was to be smoking. But what right did Buck have to make that decision for him?
After all…he wasn’t his boyfriend.
Sighing, he watched as Luz tried to step on Babe’s mortally wounded toe, cigarette dangling from his lips, and Buck’s hat slightly tilted to the side. Buck was astonished by the rush of affection that filled him at watching Luz goof off.
But did Luz feel the same?
Bill looked at a sight he thought he’d never see. A confused and vulnerable Ronald Speirs. Now would have been the perfect time to fuck with the guy. But Bill found that he didn’t want to anymore.
“You don’t remember how you got hurt?”
Speirs’ eyes were cloudy and he looked like he was trying to remember, “I remember leaving the car at the train station.”
Holy Mother. He really didn’t remember. The train ride or anything about it, which meant he certainly didn’t remember what almost happened in that closet.
Bill wasn’t sure what to do. Should he tell him everything? How long had Speirs been thinking the thoughts he’d expressed when they were alone? If he really couldn’t remember, then only Bill would know what had happened. Or what would have happened.
“Well you’re missing a big ass chunk of time then.”
“How big?”
“About an hour.”
“That’s not too bad. I’ve had worse.”
“That’s not…good. How do you feel?”
“Like I have a concussion.”
“I’m sure you do. I wish I could tell you more, but it seems they haven’t found an English speaking doctor in this dump. Do you uh…y’know…want anything?”
“Yeah….I want to know what happened.”
Bill explained the gist of it. The short version he supposed. He left out their having been locked in a closet. He simply told Ron that he’d hit his head on something sharp.
Speirs nodded slowly and then tried to sit up once more. Bill rushed over to help him. After he was sitting up, Ron looked at him as though he’d never seen him before.
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
Part of Bill wanted to tell him, even if he still didn’t get it himself. He didn’t think it was fair that Speirs could just forget about it. But the other part of him told him to keep quiet. Maybe the feelings he had, maybe they’d just go away. Maybe if Ron forgot about it and Bill tried to forget about it, it’d be like it never happened.
Not sure what to say, he just shrugged. They sat in silence for awhile. Bill wished somebody would find a fucking doctor he could actually talk to.
Suddenly Ron stood up and pushed himself away from the bed on the opposite side of Bill. He only got two steps away before he started to collapse, Bill had to frantically jump over the bed to catch him in time.
Grabbing Ron’s shoulders they both slid to the floor and Bill was about to ask Ron what the hell he was doing when Speirs began to look around, apparently confused again.
He slowly brought his hand up to lightly touch his bandaged head. He looked at Bill.
“What happened? What am I doing here?”
Bill glared at the ceiling and at the God that was surely looking down at him, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”
Babe was a jinx. He knew it. All his friends knew it.
He jinxed everything from important ball games to the weather, to really important declarations of undying love. This trip for example, was all a product of Babe’s inability to keep his mouth shut. Well….kinda.
Like during Bill’s 12th birthday party, when there was a big storm, he’d said ‘Wouldn’t it really suck if lightning hit the house?’….and then it did.
Or when he had been watching the second Harry Potter movie, and he’d said ‘Man Richard Harris is really freaking old. What would they do if he just like croaked while making these movies?’
Then a couple of days later he totally died.
Luz still hadn’t forgiven him for killing Dumbledore.
So he probably shouldn’t have said, “No one’s going to just GIVE us a ride. Maybe someone will run off the road or something and we can use THEIR car.”
Not two seconds later a red car practically flew past them. Swerving insanely, it pulled off the road and smacked directly into a tree not forty feet away from them.
“SON OF A BITCH!” Babe shouted as they all stared in shock.
Finally they all began to race for the vehicle, hoping no one was hurt.
Babe got their first, and he quickly pulled open the door and looked to see if the driver was okay.
There was only one person in the car, an older looking man who was laughing way too loud as he took a deep drink from a beer can. Looking over the floor at all the similar looking cans sprawled around he figured the guy was really, really drunk.
That made him feel a little better about what he was about to do.
Reaching in he grabbed the guy’s collar and pulled him out of the car. Psst he wasn’t even buckled in! They were doing this guy a favor!
“Babe what in the Hell do you think you’re doing?” Nixon asked as he reached the car.
Babe just steered the man to the back seat and waved at them all to get into the car. “No time to explain, God has obviously given us a small break. Now get in the car.”
“This has less to do with God and more to do with my theory that you’re some kind of witch!” Luz accused as he stumbled towards the car and tripped over his own feet.
“Luz are you okay?” he asked his friend.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because you just fell down.”
Luz looked around, apparently realizing that the ground was a lot closer than it had been a moment ago. He just nodded, “Oh…I guess I did.”
Buck pulled him up by his elbow and sat him next to the drunk man in the back of the car.
“We’ll take it. I’ll drive, we definitely need a hospital ourselves now.”
Babe nodded and got in the passenger seat. “Maybe they can look at my toe!”
“Jesus Christ, Babe.”
She looked every bit as beautiful as the last time he’d seen her.
Her hair was pulled back and she had flour on her cheek. He wondered what she had been making before she had answered the door.
“Surprise.” He said with a smile at the girl he’d called his girlfriend for so long. For a moment there was only disbelief on her face and then she broke out into a sunny smile herself.
“Eugene? You are here! Oh my God!” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely on the cheek.
Pulling back she looked into his eyes, “What are you doing here?”
“I had to see you. I missed you.”
“Oh I’ve missed you too.” Her voice brought back so many memories. Good memories, of things that made him feel safe and loved.
“I came here to ask you something.”
At this she just giggled. “Oh really. What must you ask that you couldn’t have written for?”
Even as she joked he could hear the joy in her voice.
He grabbed her hand and got down on one knee. Her eyes grew wide and she put a hand to her mouth.
“Oh my…”
Lipton sighed. He had long since given up on trying to watch Eugene do something stupid. They were parked too far away to see anything anyways. He glanced at his watch, Gene had already been gone twenty-five minutes.
He looked over at Dick, who was leaning next to him against the car. “Tell me why we didn’t just lock him up somewhere when he first suggested this?”
Dick shrugged and looked thoughtful for a moment, “We weren’t really in the position to do much at the time. Plus we were-are- trying to be good friends. Just like the others are for Babe. If this is what Gene wants then we support him while he wants it. If tomorrow he wants to be a champion figure skater, we’ll support that too.”
Lipton arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms, “I suppose you’re right. Besides, the odds are low that she’ll even say yes. And even if she DID say yes. Don’t weddings take time to organize?”
Dick just nodded.
Suddenly Gene was rushing over to them with a huge smile on his face, but Renee was nowhere to be seen.
“She said yes!”
“What!?” Dick straightened up immediately, “I mean that’s…great. Um…where is she?”
“Inside, we don’t want her Aunt and Uncle to find out.”
“Why not?”
“Cause I doubt they’ll approve of their niece getting eloped.”
“Eloped?” Lipton wasn’t aware that had been part of the plan. “When?”
Gene just smiled again, “Tomorrow. We’ve got plans to make so let’s go! We have to get a church booked. She’s calling some friends to help her get ready. They’ll meet us at our hotel early tomorrow morning.”
Lipton just turned around and started beating his head on the car.
They had taken the drunk guy, or Rusty as Luz had decided to name him, and sat him down in the ER. Babe had kept his keys. He decided that he both needed and deserved them more than this Rusty guy did.
Man when did he become so morally flexible?
They had gotten Luz some ice for his head and started knocking on doors looking for Bill and Speirs.
After about twelve minutes they had finally found them. Bill was talking to a doctor, he had what Babe liked to call his ‘adult face’ on and was asking the doctor questions ever so often.
When he saw them over the doctor’s shoulder he waved them in. They all shuffled in and Babe noticed Speirs wasn’t there.
The doctor turned to leave, but noticed Luz and sighed.
“Let me have a look at you.” He gestured towards the empty bed and Buck helped Luz to go sit.
Babe and Nixon walked over to Bill.
“Where’s Speirs? Is he okay?” Nixon asked noticing Bill’s concerned face.
“He’s getting some tests done. They want to make sure he doesn’t have brain injuries or serious skull damage. They’ve got him kind of doped up. He’s got a severe concussion. Just keeps asking the same shit over and over. He doesn’t remember anything past the train station. After they run some tests, they’ll stitch up his head, but they want to keep him here 48 hours.”
As they took all that in, Bill jerked his chin over towards the bed. “What’s wrong with Luz?”
Nixon shrugged, “I guess we don’t really know yet. I think he has a mild concussion. They’ll probably give him some pills.” He turned to look at Babe.
“So…that’s two days. What are you thinking?”
Babe looked at him. “Well I think that our friends’ health is more important than getting to Bastogne right now. Also I’m hoping Rusty doesn’t come looking for his car keys in the morning.”
Nixon just smiled at him, impressed.
Bill raised an eyebrow, “Who the fuck is Rusty?”
Lipton was going to run out of change pretty soon. But he didn’t really care. The longer the phone rang, the more worried he became. “Pick up, pick up, pick up…”
“Hello?”
“Nixon! Thank God. Are you all okay?” he asked the moment he heard his friends voice.
‘Uh yeah…well, nothing life threatening anyway.”
“Is Ron okay?”
“Yeah…basically.”
“What do you mean by basically?”
“Y’know some…blood loss, a concussion…a little bit of memory loss. All the fun little things that come with a skull fracture.”
“A WHAT!?”
“Mild skull fracture, mild. Jesus! Take my ear off. He’s all doped up, he’ll be dandy before you know it…I think.”
“God you really suck at this. Look, I have some bad news.”
“What?”
“Gene and Renee are eloping. Tomorrow. I don’t know what church yet. But it’s going to be Catholic. Probably in a ten mile radius of that address I gave you guys. I suggest you figure something out. Soon.”
Babe knew they were all staring at him.
Luz was the first to ask it. “What are you going to do?”
Babe wasn’t sure.
“He’s going to go break it up. We ALL are.”
They all turned to look at Speirs, who was fussing with the bandage the nurse had put over his stitches.
“No we all AIN’T,” Bill broke in. “You’ve got a skull fracture! Do you get how serious that is? You don’t need to go anywhere. Neither does Luz.”
Babe knew what that meant. If Ron stayed, then Bill would want to stay. If Luz stayed, then Buck would stay. It would just be him and Nixon.
Ron persisted however.
“I know that I didn’t come all the way out here to spend my time in a hospital. They can’t do anything more for me anyways. We can stay for tonight and then go. It’ll take us most of tomorrow morning to get to Bastogne and then we still have time to find the church.”
Babe couldn’t help but smile, “You serious?”
Speirs shrugged and smiled at him. Holy shit Speirs just gave him a genuine smile. How odd.
“Why not? I think I deserve to be there after all the trouble I’ve gone through. Plus I’m pretty sure that you two wouldn’t make it very far alone.”
Babe found himself hugging another scary person that day.
Speirs would later protest that he was too hopped up on morphine to do anything about it.
Word Count: 4,289
Summary: Babe makes a big mistake that sends the one he loves into the arms of another. Now he has to chase him across the globe to tell him how he feels before it's too late. Seriously AU. Various pairings
Disclaimer: I’m not making any money off of writing this story. It’s entirely fictional and based on the performances given in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and not the actual soldiers. I don’t own anything….so please don’t sue me. I wrote it for your enjoyment so…enjoy!
Babe was starting to feel incredibly close to having a panic attack. When you were on the road, it always seemed like ambulances were driving like a bat out of Hell. But when you were the one waiting, it felt like an eternity and you could only assume that someone had stopped to take an emergency pee-break.
By the time they actually heard the sirens, Babe was sitting on a seat with his head between his knees. Nixon was rubbing circles on his back and Luz was saying that everything would be fine. He certainly hoped so. He briefly wondered if Gene had been there, could he have helped Speirs?
Breathe in. Breathe out.
As the sirens got closer, Bill put one arm behind Ron’s knees and the other under his neck so he could keep the cloth pressed to the wound on his head. Scooping him up, he went outside to meet the ambulance.
Babe, feeling immensely better all of a sudden, jumped up to follow him, the others close behind.
Pretty soon the EMT’s were loading Speirs into the ambulance and speaking in Dutch again. While Babe didn’t actually know what they were saying they were gesturing between the all of them and the ambulance.
“Bill you should ride with him,” Babe decided. Bill just looked at him funny.
“Why me?”
“Well who else should it be?”
“You’re my responsibility Babe, I should stay with you.”
Babe started to grow frustrated, “I’m my own responsibility Bill, get in the damn ambulance!”
Bill didn’t move.
“I’ll keep an eye on him Bill. Just go.” Nixon muttered shoving him slightly toward the ambulance.
“Call us from the hospital to let us know where it is.” Luz added.
“We’ll be walking.” Babe nodded.
Bill looked like he definitely had something to say about THAT but before he could get another word out Buck had practically grabbed his collar and tossed him into the back of the ambulance.
The EMT’s took the opportunity to slam the door shut and lock it.
As the ambulance drove off, Luz looked at Buck and laughed. “You are SO dead when we get there.”
Bill fidgeted inside the ambulance. Why the fuck did he have to ride in here?
It wasn’t as though he actually LIKED the jerk-off. Attraction and affection were not the same thing. And he did not LIKE Ronald Speirs. Everyone and their ma knew that.
Except…he did.
But he didn’t!
…. Damn it…
He looked down at the unconscious man, trying not to be disturbed by the breathing mask covering his mouth. Sighing he leaned forward and tentatively placed the back of his hand to the side of Ron’s face.
This didn’t change the fact that he was an asshole.
And he was going to tell him so when he finally woke up.
He’d better wake up.
“Oh my God I’m going to pass out.” Babe groaned. How long had they been walking?
“Damn Babe! We’ve only been walking for like 20 minutes!” Luz exclaimed as he rolled his eyes.
Babe just glared, “This coming from the guy getting a piggy back ride!”
Luz looked down at Buck, who didn’t seem to be having any problems carrying him. “Yeah well I’m special.”
“That you are,” Buck joined in with a laugh.
Babe sighed, “I’m still fucking hungry.”
“So I wonder what they were doing in that closet?” Nixon pondered out loud.
The moment the question was asked, Babe immediately stuck his fingers into his ears and started singing the unofficial ‘I’m Not Listening’ song.
“Maybe we shouldn’t discuss it now…or EVER.” Nixon amended as Babe screwed his eyes shut as well.
A chorus of agreements followed.
Ron downed his whiskey as he looked around the increasingly crowded bar. He figured he would wait a few more minutes before going outside to where Dick and his other friends were no doubt hanging around.
He said this because, just a few moments earlier, the door had opened and he had noticed a crowd gathering on the street outside.
Considering the fact that they weren’t really in any of Mexico’s tourist towns and they were all college aged white males, he figured chances were pretty good that it was them. Plus, few people inspired flocks of admirers the way Dick Winters seemed to.
He was about to leave when a young man came and sat down just a few barstools to his right. He found himself looking over. There weren’t really too many people he could be here with. It had to be one of Dick’s friends.
The young man was clad in jeans and a faded blue shirt that stretched across the muscles between his shoulder blades, his tousled, dirty blond hair fell onto his forehead and he had a face that one instantly liked.
Ron, despite himself, was intrigued by him. Why was he alone?
He watched him out of the corner of his eye for a few minutes. The man ordered something but took one sip and started to cough slightly.
Ron just smiled, “First time drinking tequila?”
A pair of large, brown eyes looked over at him. The man checked over his shoulder to make sure, Ron supposed, that he was the one being spoken to.
“Uh, yes, it is. I guess it’s fairly obvious.” He chuckled. Ron liked his voice… it was unique. The kind of voice that if he heard it just a few more times, he’d recognize it anywhere.
“Are you one of Dick’s friends?” Ron asked.
“Yeah…how did you know?”
Ron held out a hand, “Ron Speirs.”
The man shook his hand firmly and introduced himself, “Nice to finally meet you. Carwood Lipton.”
Ron smiled for the second time that night. Which was abnormal for him. He didn’t need to tell him what a strange name Carwood was. He was sure he already heard that enough. However he was surprised to be meeting him like this.
Dick had nothing but praise for the man sitting near him. And while Dick tried not to highlight people’s bad qualities, it was always obvious when he truly thought highly of someone.
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.” Ron said truthfully.
Lipton crossed his arms and looked down before looking back at him for a moment and breaking into a smile.
It was the perfect smile.
The left side of his mouth seemed to draw up to meet his ear and the right corner quirked down softly. He let a chuckle escape and he had that open mouthed kind of smile that Ron thought was so difficult to pull off without looking fake.
Could you fall in love with a smile?
Speirs gasped as he jerked into consciousness. The memory fading away quickly and the pleasantness of it being replaced by a harsh throbbing in his head. Everything he felt now was painful and cold.
Blinking his eyes, he tried to clear away the hazy feeling fogging up his mind and take in his surroundings.
His eyes were bombarded by the bright whiteness of the room he was in, and he knew, even as the room spun, that he was in a hospital. He’d been in one enough times to recognize the feeling.
The dizziness…a concussion. Maybe severe. The fact that he was too disorientated to tell actually gave him a clue.
He figured he couldn’t be a priority patient, and that he still had to be in his street clothes. He tried to sit up, at the very least, be he felt sluggish, sick and dizzy all at once and he knew he must be medicated.
His initial scan told him that he was alone, but in his state he couldn’t be sure. Timing seemed determined to get the best of him and not a moment later the door creaked open and a familiar face shuffled in.
What the Hell? Was that…was that Bill? What was he doing there? Guarnere didn’t seem to realize that he was no longer unconscious. So he alerted him to the new development by asking him the first thing on his mind.
“What happened? What am I doing here?”
Gene was lost again. Only this time, he had decided they should stop and use a payphone to get some help finding their way to the farm where Renee was currently residing. Dick and Lipton opted to stay in the car.
Dick turned slowly to look back at Carwood from the driver’s seat. His friend had been extremely quiet.
“What was it you were trying to tell me earlier?”
Lipton looked up at him. He was severely out of it, at least that’s how it appeared to Dick. He began to worry that maybe he should have listened to Carwood earlier at the train station. He hoped he wasn’t getting sick.
Finally, Lipton spoke, “Do you know if Speirs is with them?”
Dick was somewhat surprised by the question. “Um…I don’t know really. I suppose it’s possible. But it seems unlikely. Why?”
“Their train broke down and they’re going to a hospital.”
Dick’s chest tightened. Suddenly seized with panic.
“What!?”
“Don’t worry, Lewis seemed to be fine on the phone. But he said Ron was hurt pretty badly. I don’t know a lot of Rons. Actually I only know the one….”
Dick was torn between a multitude of emotions.
Relief mainly, that Lew was safe. Guilt and sadness that Ron was hurt and that Lipton had to suffer in silence. And somewhere in there, was the satisfaction that came with knowing he had been right. Lipton still cared about Ron.
And he knew with certainty that the feeling was mutual.
However once his wave of emotions had subsided, the only thing that remained was his intense desire to see his boyfriend with his own eyes. And know for sure that he was safe.
“My toe hurts.”
“Hurts how?”
“Like it burns and freezes at the same time. Like a spider bit it or something.”
“Babe I swear if you bitch about that toe one more time I’m just going to have to rip it off.”
Buck supposed that they were all just getting a little cranky due to the heat. Or maybe this was how they always spent their time. He didn’t fucking know.
What he did know was that the bruise on Luz’s temple was getting darker, and since he’d hopped off of Buck’s back he seemed to be stumbling his steps every once in awhile.
He kept holding his hand up to block out the sunlight and Buck feared he might have a concussion. He’d have to keep an eye on him. He doubted that Luz would say anything even if he was feeling bad.
As he swung his small bag of stuff back around to his front and began to dig through it, he couldn’t help but reflect on how strange it felt to have only known Luz for about one solid day. Everything between them felt so natural. It was both the scariest and most awesome thing Buck had ever experienced.
Finally he found what he was looking for. Pulling it out, he made a few adjustments before walking up behind Luz and plopping his UCLA cap onto the shorter man’s head.
Luz looked up at him, confused. Then he covered his confusion with a smirk and tugged down on the bill of the cap. He gave Buck a cheeky grin.
“How do I look?”
“With that shiner? More like a hockey fan. But other than that? Great.”
Luz just smirked again and lit up the cigarette that had miraculously stayed tucked behind his ear.
Buck seriously wanted to take the cigarette out of Luz’s mouth. If he DID have a concussion the last thing he needed was to be smoking. But what right did Buck have to make that decision for him?
After all…he wasn’t his boyfriend.
Sighing, he watched as Luz tried to step on Babe’s mortally wounded toe, cigarette dangling from his lips, and Buck’s hat slightly tilted to the side. Buck was astonished by the rush of affection that filled him at watching Luz goof off.
But did Luz feel the same?
Bill looked at a sight he thought he’d never see. A confused and vulnerable Ronald Speirs. Now would have been the perfect time to fuck with the guy. But Bill found that he didn’t want to anymore.
“You don’t remember how you got hurt?”
Speirs’ eyes were cloudy and he looked like he was trying to remember, “I remember leaving the car at the train station.”
Holy Mother. He really didn’t remember. The train ride or anything about it, which meant he certainly didn’t remember what almost happened in that closet.
Bill wasn’t sure what to do. Should he tell him everything? How long had Speirs been thinking the thoughts he’d expressed when they were alone? If he really couldn’t remember, then only Bill would know what had happened. Or what would have happened.
“Well you’re missing a big ass chunk of time then.”
“How big?”
“About an hour.”
“That’s not too bad. I’ve had worse.”
“That’s not…good. How do you feel?”
“Like I have a concussion.”
“I’m sure you do. I wish I could tell you more, but it seems they haven’t found an English speaking doctor in this dump. Do you uh…y’know…want anything?”
“Yeah….I want to know what happened.”
Bill explained the gist of it. The short version he supposed. He left out their having been locked in a closet. He simply told Ron that he’d hit his head on something sharp.
Speirs nodded slowly and then tried to sit up once more. Bill rushed over to help him. After he was sitting up, Ron looked at him as though he’d never seen him before.
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
Part of Bill wanted to tell him, even if he still didn’t get it himself. He didn’t think it was fair that Speirs could just forget about it. But the other part of him told him to keep quiet. Maybe the feelings he had, maybe they’d just go away. Maybe if Ron forgot about it and Bill tried to forget about it, it’d be like it never happened.
Not sure what to say, he just shrugged. They sat in silence for awhile. Bill wished somebody would find a fucking doctor he could actually talk to.
Suddenly Ron stood up and pushed himself away from the bed on the opposite side of Bill. He only got two steps away before he started to collapse, Bill had to frantically jump over the bed to catch him in time.
Grabbing Ron’s shoulders they both slid to the floor and Bill was about to ask Ron what the hell he was doing when Speirs began to look around, apparently confused again.
He slowly brought his hand up to lightly touch his bandaged head. He looked at Bill.
“What happened? What am I doing here?”
Bill glared at the ceiling and at the God that was surely looking down at him, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”
Babe was a jinx. He knew it. All his friends knew it.
He jinxed everything from important ball games to the weather, to really important declarations of undying love. This trip for example, was all a product of Babe’s inability to keep his mouth shut. Well….kinda.
Like during Bill’s 12th birthday party, when there was a big storm, he’d said ‘Wouldn’t it really suck if lightning hit the house?’….and then it did.
Or when he had been watching the second Harry Potter movie, and he’d said ‘Man Richard Harris is really freaking old. What would they do if he just like croaked while making these movies?’
Then a couple of days later he totally died.
Luz still hadn’t forgiven him for killing Dumbledore.
So he probably shouldn’t have said, “No one’s going to just GIVE us a ride. Maybe someone will run off the road or something and we can use THEIR car.”
Not two seconds later a red car practically flew past them. Swerving insanely, it pulled off the road and smacked directly into a tree not forty feet away from them.
“SON OF A BITCH!” Babe shouted as they all stared in shock.
Finally they all began to race for the vehicle, hoping no one was hurt.
Babe got their first, and he quickly pulled open the door and looked to see if the driver was okay.
There was only one person in the car, an older looking man who was laughing way too loud as he took a deep drink from a beer can. Looking over the floor at all the similar looking cans sprawled around he figured the guy was really, really drunk.
That made him feel a little better about what he was about to do.
Reaching in he grabbed the guy’s collar and pulled him out of the car. Psst he wasn’t even buckled in! They were doing this guy a favor!
“Babe what in the Hell do you think you’re doing?” Nixon asked as he reached the car.
Babe just steered the man to the back seat and waved at them all to get into the car. “No time to explain, God has obviously given us a small break. Now get in the car.”
“This has less to do with God and more to do with my theory that you’re some kind of witch!” Luz accused as he stumbled towards the car and tripped over his own feet.
“Luz are you okay?” he asked his friend.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because you just fell down.”
Luz looked around, apparently realizing that the ground was a lot closer than it had been a moment ago. He just nodded, “Oh…I guess I did.”
Buck pulled him up by his elbow and sat him next to the drunk man in the back of the car.
“We’ll take it. I’ll drive, we definitely need a hospital ourselves now.”
Babe nodded and got in the passenger seat. “Maybe they can look at my toe!”
“Jesus Christ, Babe.”
She looked every bit as beautiful as the last time he’d seen her.
Her hair was pulled back and she had flour on her cheek. He wondered what she had been making before she had answered the door.
“Surprise.” He said with a smile at the girl he’d called his girlfriend for so long. For a moment there was only disbelief on her face and then she broke out into a sunny smile herself.
“Eugene? You are here! Oh my God!” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely on the cheek.
Pulling back she looked into his eyes, “What are you doing here?”
“I had to see you. I missed you.”
“Oh I’ve missed you too.” Her voice brought back so many memories. Good memories, of things that made him feel safe and loved.
“I came here to ask you something.”
At this she just giggled. “Oh really. What must you ask that you couldn’t have written for?”
Even as she joked he could hear the joy in her voice.
He grabbed her hand and got down on one knee. Her eyes grew wide and she put a hand to her mouth.
“Oh my…”
Lipton sighed. He had long since given up on trying to watch Eugene do something stupid. They were parked too far away to see anything anyways. He glanced at his watch, Gene had already been gone twenty-five minutes.
He looked over at Dick, who was leaning next to him against the car. “Tell me why we didn’t just lock him up somewhere when he first suggested this?”
Dick shrugged and looked thoughtful for a moment, “We weren’t really in the position to do much at the time. Plus we were-are- trying to be good friends. Just like the others are for Babe. If this is what Gene wants then we support him while he wants it. If tomorrow he wants to be a champion figure skater, we’ll support that too.”
Lipton arched an eyebrow and crossed his arms, “I suppose you’re right. Besides, the odds are low that she’ll even say yes. And even if she DID say yes. Don’t weddings take time to organize?”
Dick just nodded.
Suddenly Gene was rushing over to them with a huge smile on his face, but Renee was nowhere to be seen.
“She said yes!”
“What!?” Dick straightened up immediately, “I mean that’s…great. Um…where is she?”
“Inside, we don’t want her Aunt and Uncle to find out.”
“Why not?”
“Cause I doubt they’ll approve of their niece getting eloped.”
“Eloped?” Lipton wasn’t aware that had been part of the plan. “When?”
Gene just smiled again, “Tomorrow. We’ve got plans to make so let’s go! We have to get a church booked. She’s calling some friends to help her get ready. They’ll meet us at our hotel early tomorrow morning.”
Lipton just turned around and started beating his head on the car.
They had taken the drunk guy, or Rusty as Luz had decided to name him, and sat him down in the ER. Babe had kept his keys. He decided that he both needed and deserved them more than this Rusty guy did.
Man when did he become so morally flexible?
They had gotten Luz some ice for his head and started knocking on doors looking for Bill and Speirs.
After about twelve minutes they had finally found them. Bill was talking to a doctor, he had what Babe liked to call his ‘adult face’ on and was asking the doctor questions ever so often.
When he saw them over the doctor’s shoulder he waved them in. They all shuffled in and Babe noticed Speirs wasn’t there.
The doctor turned to leave, but noticed Luz and sighed.
“Let me have a look at you.” He gestured towards the empty bed and Buck helped Luz to go sit.
Babe and Nixon walked over to Bill.
“Where’s Speirs? Is he okay?” Nixon asked noticing Bill’s concerned face.
“He’s getting some tests done. They want to make sure he doesn’t have brain injuries or serious skull damage. They’ve got him kind of doped up. He’s got a severe concussion. Just keeps asking the same shit over and over. He doesn’t remember anything past the train station. After they run some tests, they’ll stitch up his head, but they want to keep him here 48 hours.”
As they took all that in, Bill jerked his chin over towards the bed. “What’s wrong with Luz?”
Nixon shrugged, “I guess we don’t really know yet. I think he has a mild concussion. They’ll probably give him some pills.” He turned to look at Babe.
“So…that’s two days. What are you thinking?”
Babe looked at him. “Well I think that our friends’ health is more important than getting to Bastogne right now. Also I’m hoping Rusty doesn’t come looking for his car keys in the morning.”
Nixon just smiled at him, impressed.
Bill raised an eyebrow, “Who the fuck is Rusty?”
Lipton was going to run out of change pretty soon. But he didn’t really care. The longer the phone rang, the more worried he became. “Pick up, pick up, pick up…”
“Hello?”
“Nixon! Thank God. Are you all okay?” he asked the moment he heard his friends voice.
‘Uh yeah…well, nothing life threatening anyway.”
“Is Ron okay?”
“Yeah…basically.”
“What do you mean by basically?”
“Y’know some…blood loss, a concussion…a little bit of memory loss. All the fun little things that come with a skull fracture.”
“A WHAT!?”
“Mild skull fracture, mild. Jesus! Take my ear off. He’s all doped up, he’ll be dandy before you know it…I think.”
“God you really suck at this. Look, I have some bad news.”
“What?”
“Gene and Renee are eloping. Tomorrow. I don’t know what church yet. But it’s going to be Catholic. Probably in a ten mile radius of that address I gave you guys. I suggest you figure something out. Soon.”
Babe knew they were all staring at him.
Luz was the first to ask it. “What are you going to do?”
Babe wasn’t sure.
“He’s going to go break it up. We ALL are.”
They all turned to look at Speirs, who was fussing with the bandage the nurse had put over his stitches.
“No we all AIN’T,” Bill broke in. “You’ve got a skull fracture! Do you get how serious that is? You don’t need to go anywhere. Neither does Luz.”
Babe knew what that meant. If Ron stayed, then Bill would want to stay. If Luz stayed, then Buck would stay. It would just be him and Nixon.
Ron persisted however.
“I know that I didn’t come all the way out here to spend my time in a hospital. They can’t do anything more for me anyways. We can stay for tonight and then go. It’ll take us most of tomorrow morning to get to Bastogne and then we still have time to find the church.”
Babe couldn’t help but smile, “You serious?”
Speirs shrugged and smiled at him. Holy shit Speirs just gave him a genuine smile. How odd.
“Why not? I think I deserve to be there after all the trouble I’ve gone through. Plus I’m pretty sure that you two wouldn’t make it very far alone.”
Babe found himself hugging another scary person that day.
Speirs would later protest that he was too hopped up on morphine to do anything about it.