Walk on By - Part IX
WALK ON BY - IX
Author: Lottie Lenya
Type: RPS
Pairing: VM/OB
Rating: PG (R/NC-17 in later chapters)
Category: AU
Disclaimer: This is fiction, not based in reality - to the best of my knowledge Viggo Mortensen has never lived rough and Orlando Bloom was never part of the Constabulary.
Beta: Ana, who walks the walk and talks the talk, and who remains a constant joy and delight - thanks, my lovely!
A/N - A huge thank you to chaosmanor, who helped me with all the medical details for this and the next couple of chapters. She also gave me some very good advice about the structure of my fic, so babe, hope you approve, this one’s for you.
Warning: There are some vaguely squicky medical conditions going on here - all very painstakingly researched - sorry if it offends; if in doubt maybe skip read!!
‘I’m not fucking well touching his minging arse.’
‘You heard what I said, you don’t have to, just stick the end of your kosh up it.’
‘No fucking way! I don’t get paid enough for this weird shit. Why the fuck we couldn’t have come tooled up I do not fucking well know. I mean, why have we gotta mess about with kicking the shit out of him?’
‘Cos we were fucking told to, now get on with it.’
‘No fucking way. The wife don’t object to washing blood outta me clothes but she sure as hell ain’t gonna like me stinking of shite. Fucking ‘ell. He smells like a fucking corpse. Think I’ll just kick him a few more times. He’s got blood coming out of his mouth anyway’.
Viggo came to with a shudder. He opened his eyes and tried to sit up. Blinking furiously, he saw Orlando, sitting slumped in a chair, dozing. He was still holding Viggo’s hand. A wave of nausea came over him and his stomach started churning.
Noticing his distress, Rose Dunsford came over to him. ‘Are you feeling sick, love?’ She enquired. ‘Here.’ Reaching into the bedside locker, she brought out a bowl. ‘I thought you’d be feeling a bit off, here use this. Better out than in.’
As Viggo began to vomit, Orlando woke up. When he saw what was coming out of Viggo’s mouth, he began to wish he hadn’t.
‘What the fuck? Your puke’s alive, it’s wriggling.’ He looked at Rose in horror. ‘It’s like fucking Alien all over again. What’s going on?’ And then to his horror and Viggo’s shame, he turned green and had to rush off in the direction of the Men’s Toilets.
When he had finished Rose wiped his mouth before taking the offending basin away, Viggo begun to cry. It was the last straw. He hadn’t thought he could feel anymore humiliated and debased but waking up to find Orlando holding his hand and then to disgrace himself…
Rose came over and sat down in the seat that Orlando had recently vacated.
‘Don’t cry love. You’ve got worms, it’s quite normal for someone who’s lived like you have for so long. Here.’ She handed him a tissue. ‘Don’t mind him, he was that worried about you and I’ll bet he’s feeling a total twat now.’
Refusing to look at her, Viggo fiddled with the tissue. ‘I can’t do this, Miss, when can I get out of here? Please, I just want to get out of here and be left on my own.’
Rose sniffed. ‘Don’t be a pillock. You’ve got cracked ribs, you’re malnourished, you’ve got TB and you’re drugged up to the nines. You’ll go nowhere until we’ve got those conditions under control. And judging by your breath, I would say you’ve got some seriously bad dental problems.’
Viggo looked at her, aghast.
‘So you wait for that rather sweet young man to come back and enjoy watching him squirm. He was telling me about his old job, I wouldn’t have thought there were many sights left that’d make him gip. Ah Mr Bloom…’
Orlando came up, looking, as Rose had predicted, rather sheepish.
‘Sorry mate, dunno what came over me. Right Rosie, you can bugger off now.’
Viggo flinched and Rose hastened to reassure him. ‘Don’t you worry sweetheart, the young boy wonder here and I have got the measure of each other. We’re just mucking about.’
Orlando winked. ‘Yeah, well mate, she has such a high opinion of herself, someone needs to bring her back down to earth with a thud,’
Getting up, Rose retorted, ‘Piss off you big girl’s blouse.’ as she went back to work.
‘How’re you feeling then?’ Orlando asked. He was feeling a little awkward now. ‘Up to telling me what happened?’
Viggo’s face fell. How stupid to think that anyone really cared what happened to a homeless bum.
‘Nothing. They came after me, they caught me, what else is there to say?’
Orlando sighed, he knew he was handling this all wrong.
‘Look mate, this is the situation. You’ve got yourself mixed up in some really heavy shit. Now, I need to know exactly why you are a target, what you know or what you’ve seen that makes seriously heavy crooks wanna kill you. Yeah mate, kill you. These boys were gonna finish you off. I’d love to know what stopped them.’
Viggo’s already pale face had blanched even more, the grey-blue eyes a startling contrast to the pallor of his skin.
‘Some tourists were lost, they were wandering about, looked as if they were going to ask for directions. That scared them and they ran off.’ He looked up. ‘Orlando, they wanted to… they wanted to...’ The tears started again.
‘I know what they wanted to do to you mate, so why don’t you help me out and tell me what this is all about.’
‘He can do that later Mr Bloom.’ Interrupted Rose, who could see that her patient was exhausted. ‘Maybe you should think about leaving for the day, eh? Come back tomorrow.’
Viggo held on to Orlando as if he was a drowning man. ‘Please don’t go, stay, please. I don’t want to be on my own, please…’ Rose smoothed the hair off his brow.
‘Okay, love, if that’s what you really want. She fixed Orlando with a stern look. ‘And you, Boy Wonder, if I hear you talking shop, I’ll have you out of here quicker than those Prada clad feet of yours can touch the ground. Got it?’
Grinning up at her, Orlando retorted. ‘Message received loud and clear Rosie-Posey, now off you go, take your bottom for a walk, I wanna talk to the man here.’
Rolling her eyes and patting Viggo’s shoulder, Rose disappeared leaving the two together.
‘What’s going to happen to me Orlando?’ Asked Viggo. He knew that the longer he stayed inside the more difficult it was going to be to get back on the streets.
With a sigh, Orlando looked into the scared blue-grey eyes. ‘First off, you are gonna tell me exactly why you’re a target for these guys. I need to know that before we can decide what to do with you.’ Getting out his notebook and pen, he sighed again. ‘Come on mate, you may as well tell me now, then we can start doing something about it.’
Viggo begun to talk, his words tumbling out in a rush as he brought Orlando up to speed with the last few weeks. He was appalled that Viggo hadn’t told him about the murder.
‘Why the fuck didn’t you tell me mate? We walked, we talked, we fucking ate together. You knew Roxwell had clocked you, was possibly after you.’ His fingers reached for the inevitable cigarette. ‘Have you got any idea what you’re dealing with here?’
Rose drifted over. ‘I hope you boys aren’t talking shop.’ She stuck a thermometer into Viggo’s mouth. ‘What did I say to you, Boy Wonder?’
Orlando continued to fiddle with his cigarette. He looked up at Rose as if he was seeing her for the first time. ‘Right, love, whatever! Look Vig, I have to go yeah? You’ve just opened a whole bag of worms and I’ve got some serious damage limitation to sort. I’ll see ya later.’
With a wave of his hand he hurried out of the ward, a distinctly worried expression on his face.
Viggo looked at Rose and shrugged.
Back at the station, Orlando headed straight for Bicknall’s office. The rest of the team jumped as he barged in and slammed the door behind him.
He emerged an hour and a half later, stalked out of the office, once more slamming the door behind him. There had been some raised voices and much banging going on. The rest of the team knew better than to ask. D S Bloom was wearing that look and no one in their right mind would challenge him in that mood.
Arriving back at the hospital, he sought out Rose. Taking one look at his face, she ushered him into the office.
‘What’s up Boy Wonder?’ She enquired.
‘How soon can we get Viggo out of here? To be honest. it’s not safe for him and I, well we wanna get him away from here ASAP.’
Rose looked serious. ‘Frankly Orlando, he needs to get out of here for other reasons as well. He needs to be deloused, looked after, fed and you need to keep an eye on him, make sure he takes his medication, oh and you could do with fixing his teeth.’
Orlando looked horrified. ‘What the fuck do you mean by delousing, Jesus Christ, weren’t the worms enough?’
Rose rolled her eyes. ‘The guy’s been homeless for years, what the fuck do you expect, course he’s got fucking worms, he eats his food off the street, you could show a little tact and diplomacy for fuck’s sake! Every time you open you big mouth you stick your fucking great big foot in it. Show a bit of consideration, you complete arsehole.’
Orlando sat with his head in his hands listening to Rose’s diatribe. Sitting up, he smiled wanly. ‘Right, I need to speak to Doctor Death, get him signed out with a prescription for all the drugs he needs and a list of instructions from you.’
Rose grinned and put her hand on his arm. ‘Chin up, love, you’ll soon get over your squeamishness. Come one, let’s go and break the glad tidings to him, he’s been a bit tearful since you left.’ As they stood up, Rose delivered her killer blow. ‘Oh and Wonder Boy, tell the poor soul that you really like him, yeah? He’s really confused right now and you’re not helping him much.’
With that she marched off in Viggo’s direction, Orlando trailing in her wake.
TBC
Author: Lottie Lenya
Type: RPS
Pairing: VM/OB
Rating: PG (R/NC-17 in later chapters)
Category: AU
Disclaimer: This is fiction, not based in reality - to the best of my knowledge Viggo Mortensen has never lived rough and Orlando Bloom was never part of the Constabulary.
Beta: Ana, who walks the walk and talks the talk, and who remains a constant joy and delight - thanks, my lovely!
A/N - A huge thank you to chaosmanor, who helped me with all the medical details for this and the next couple of chapters. She also gave me some very good advice about the structure of my fic, so babe, hope you approve, this one’s for you.
Warning: There are some vaguely squicky medical conditions going on here - all very painstakingly researched - sorry if it offends; if in doubt maybe skip read!!
‘I’m not fucking well touching his minging arse.’
‘You heard what I said, you don’t have to, just stick the end of your kosh up it.’
‘No fucking way! I don’t get paid enough for this weird shit. Why the fuck we couldn’t have come tooled up I do not fucking well know. I mean, why have we gotta mess about with kicking the shit out of him?’
‘Cos we were fucking told to, now get on with it.’
‘No fucking way. The wife don’t object to washing blood outta me clothes but she sure as hell ain’t gonna like me stinking of shite. Fucking ‘ell. He smells like a fucking corpse. Think I’ll just kick him a few more times. He’s got blood coming out of his mouth anyway’.
Viggo came to with a shudder. He opened his eyes and tried to sit up. Blinking furiously, he saw Orlando, sitting slumped in a chair, dozing. He was still holding Viggo’s hand. A wave of nausea came over him and his stomach started churning.
Noticing his distress, Rose Dunsford came over to him. ‘Are you feeling sick, love?’ She enquired. ‘Here.’ Reaching into the bedside locker, she brought out a bowl. ‘I thought you’d be feeling a bit off, here use this. Better out than in.’
As Viggo began to vomit, Orlando woke up. When he saw what was coming out of Viggo’s mouth, he began to wish he hadn’t.
‘What the fuck? Your puke’s alive, it’s wriggling.’ He looked at Rose in horror. ‘It’s like fucking Alien all over again. What’s going on?’ And then to his horror and Viggo’s shame, he turned green and had to rush off in the direction of the Men’s Toilets.
When he had finished Rose wiped his mouth before taking the offending basin away, Viggo begun to cry. It was the last straw. He hadn’t thought he could feel anymore humiliated and debased but waking up to find Orlando holding his hand and then to disgrace himself…
Rose came over and sat down in the seat that Orlando had recently vacated.
‘Don’t cry love. You’ve got worms, it’s quite normal for someone who’s lived like you have for so long. Here.’ She handed him a tissue. ‘Don’t mind him, he was that worried about you and I’ll bet he’s feeling a total twat now.’
Refusing to look at her, Viggo fiddled with the tissue. ‘I can’t do this, Miss, when can I get out of here? Please, I just want to get out of here and be left on my own.’
Rose sniffed. ‘Don’t be a pillock. You’ve got cracked ribs, you’re malnourished, you’ve got TB and you’re drugged up to the nines. You’ll go nowhere until we’ve got those conditions under control. And judging by your breath, I would say you’ve got some seriously bad dental problems.’
Viggo looked at her, aghast.
‘So you wait for that rather sweet young man to come back and enjoy watching him squirm. He was telling me about his old job, I wouldn’t have thought there were many sights left that’d make him gip. Ah Mr Bloom…’
Orlando came up, looking, as Rose had predicted, rather sheepish.
‘Sorry mate, dunno what came over me. Right Rosie, you can bugger off now.’
Viggo flinched and Rose hastened to reassure him. ‘Don’t you worry sweetheart, the young boy wonder here and I have got the measure of each other. We’re just mucking about.’
Orlando winked. ‘Yeah, well mate, she has such a high opinion of herself, someone needs to bring her back down to earth with a thud,’
Getting up, Rose retorted, ‘Piss off you big girl’s blouse.’ as she went back to work.
‘How’re you feeling then?’ Orlando asked. He was feeling a little awkward now. ‘Up to telling me what happened?’
Viggo’s face fell. How stupid to think that anyone really cared what happened to a homeless bum.
‘Nothing. They came after me, they caught me, what else is there to say?’
Orlando sighed, he knew he was handling this all wrong.
‘Look mate, this is the situation. You’ve got yourself mixed up in some really heavy shit. Now, I need to know exactly why you are a target, what you know or what you’ve seen that makes seriously heavy crooks wanna kill you. Yeah mate, kill you. These boys were gonna finish you off. I’d love to know what stopped them.’
Viggo’s already pale face had blanched even more, the grey-blue eyes a startling contrast to the pallor of his skin.
‘Some tourists were lost, they were wandering about, looked as if they were going to ask for directions. That scared them and they ran off.’ He looked up. ‘Orlando, they wanted to… they wanted to...’ The tears started again.
‘I know what they wanted to do to you mate, so why don’t you help me out and tell me what this is all about.’
‘He can do that later Mr Bloom.’ Interrupted Rose, who could see that her patient was exhausted. ‘Maybe you should think about leaving for the day, eh? Come back tomorrow.’
Viggo held on to Orlando as if he was a drowning man. ‘Please don’t go, stay, please. I don’t want to be on my own, please…’ Rose smoothed the hair off his brow.
‘Okay, love, if that’s what you really want. She fixed Orlando with a stern look. ‘And you, Boy Wonder, if I hear you talking shop, I’ll have you out of here quicker than those Prada clad feet of yours can touch the ground. Got it?’
Grinning up at her, Orlando retorted. ‘Message received loud and clear Rosie-Posey, now off you go, take your bottom for a walk, I wanna talk to the man here.’
Rolling her eyes and patting Viggo’s shoulder, Rose disappeared leaving the two together.
‘What’s going to happen to me Orlando?’ Asked Viggo. He knew that the longer he stayed inside the more difficult it was going to be to get back on the streets.
With a sigh, Orlando looked into the scared blue-grey eyes. ‘First off, you are gonna tell me exactly why you’re a target for these guys. I need to know that before we can decide what to do with you.’ Getting out his notebook and pen, he sighed again. ‘Come on mate, you may as well tell me now, then we can start doing something about it.’
Viggo begun to talk, his words tumbling out in a rush as he brought Orlando up to speed with the last few weeks. He was appalled that Viggo hadn’t told him about the murder.
‘Why the fuck didn’t you tell me mate? We walked, we talked, we fucking ate together. You knew Roxwell had clocked you, was possibly after you.’ His fingers reached for the inevitable cigarette. ‘Have you got any idea what you’re dealing with here?’
Rose drifted over. ‘I hope you boys aren’t talking shop.’ She stuck a thermometer into Viggo’s mouth. ‘What did I say to you, Boy Wonder?’
Orlando continued to fiddle with his cigarette. He looked up at Rose as if he was seeing her for the first time. ‘Right, love, whatever! Look Vig, I have to go yeah? You’ve just opened a whole bag of worms and I’ve got some serious damage limitation to sort. I’ll see ya later.’
With a wave of his hand he hurried out of the ward, a distinctly worried expression on his face.
Viggo looked at Rose and shrugged.
Back at the station, Orlando headed straight for Bicknall’s office. The rest of the team jumped as he barged in and slammed the door behind him.
He emerged an hour and a half later, stalked out of the office, once more slamming the door behind him. There had been some raised voices and much banging going on. The rest of the team knew better than to ask. D S Bloom was wearing that look and no one in their right mind would challenge him in that mood.
Arriving back at the hospital, he sought out Rose. Taking one look at his face, she ushered him into the office.
‘What’s up Boy Wonder?’ She enquired.
‘How soon can we get Viggo out of here? To be honest. it’s not safe for him and I, well we wanna get him away from here ASAP.’
Rose looked serious. ‘Frankly Orlando, he needs to get out of here for other reasons as well. He needs to be deloused, looked after, fed and you need to keep an eye on him, make sure he takes his medication, oh and you could do with fixing his teeth.’
Orlando looked horrified. ‘What the fuck do you mean by delousing, Jesus Christ, weren’t the worms enough?’
Rose rolled her eyes. ‘The guy’s been homeless for years, what the fuck do you expect, course he’s got fucking worms, he eats his food off the street, you could show a little tact and diplomacy for fuck’s sake! Every time you open you big mouth you stick your fucking great big foot in it. Show a bit of consideration, you complete arsehole.’
Orlando sat with his head in his hands listening to Rose’s diatribe. Sitting up, he smiled wanly. ‘Right, I need to speak to Doctor Death, get him signed out with a prescription for all the drugs he needs and a list of instructions from you.’
Rose grinned and put her hand on his arm. ‘Chin up, love, you’ll soon get over your squeamishness. Come one, let’s go and break the glad tidings to him, he’s been a bit tearful since you left.’ As they stood up, Rose delivered her killer blow. ‘Oh and Wonder Boy, tell the poor soul that you really like him, yeah? He’s really confused right now and you’re not helping him much.’
With that she marched off in Viggo’s direction, Orlando trailing in her wake.
TBC