PG, m/m
Crazy Eddie's Private Journals: Night Falls
By Tiriel
Oh, man, where to begin? As Cade himself put it, "Heaven and hell, my friend, all in the same day." The quatrains rarely steer us wrong, but then again, maybe this one didn't either. If the "barren ground" is Foster himself, and the "hunter" is the bounty hunter we converted to our side, then it all still makes sense. That Nostradamus was a clever guy. Cryptic as hell, but clever.
First, I'll cover what went wrong. Then I'll talk about the hard stuff. First indication I had that anything had gone wrong was when he called me. He didn't tell me he was wounded. How could he not tell me he'd been shot? I promised to get him out of there, and then got to work making sure that I could.
I was waiting--no, I don't think I'll do it this way. What matters most is the talk we had after all that, once we were safely out of town. I got us some pizza, found a place to park for the night, and we kicked back to recap the day. I'll try to remember exactly how it went.
We started small, the Cliff Notes version.
"So what happened to you, exactly?"
"No biggie, man. That bounty hunter held me at gunpoint, tried to drown me. I told him about the aliens, but he didn't believe me. Have I mentioned how much I hate being held at gunpoint? You know, just another day on the job." I put my feet up, tried to look relaxed. My thoughts continued, the things I wanted to say filling my head. *And then that hug, man. It's not every day that we hug, and the way you looked into my eyes afterward, it was...intense.*
"Sounds like kind of a big deal to me, Eddie."
"Nah, you know I'd die for you, man--for the cause." I hadn't meant to say it, and I corrected myself as best as I could. The last thing I needed was for him to figure out that I was in love with him.
He stretched out a little and I saw him wince. Then I spotted the blood on his shirt that his jacket had been covering.
"Are you hurt? Shit, man, why didn't you say something? Let me take a look."
"It's not that bad. Lena bandaged it."
"Somebody else patched you up, Foster? I'm jealous." I smiled to make sure it sounded like a joke. He flushed. *Oh,* I thought, and stopped smiling. "Well, it probably needs a fresh bandage by now. Let me take care of it while you tell me about what happened.
He shrugged off his jacket and pulled his shirt up, wincing again as he did it. I reached out to help.
"I was shot as I was running from the cops. I got into an alley out of their sight. Lena was driving past and I took her hostage. She took me to her loft. She turned out to be a plant. She was human, but the Gua paid her to find out where the Nostradamus book was. I killed one that came in to look for me. The bounty hunter killed more when he showed up."
I had carefully removed the bandages and was about to use some disinfectant on his wounds. "This'll probably sting."
"Okay. You did a better job--aaah--of convincing that bounty hunter than you thought. As soon as he saw them dissolve, he believed what you'd told him. He let me go."
"And Lena?"
"I left her to live with what she did. Maybe the Gua will kill her for botching the job. I don't know, and I don't care." His voice held some major bigtime venom.
"There. Fresh bandages, all cleaned up." I patted his shoulder and moved back to my chair, fighting off the usual fantasies about his chest and what it would feel like to have that skin against mine. "So I'm clear on the 'hell' portion of the day, but where does the 'heaven' come in?"
"There was a lot of time to kill. I didn't know she was a plant until just before the bounty hunter arrived. So I talked to her. I don't know why I did it, but I trusted her, opened up to her in a way I hadn't done since Hannah died. It was like a part of me I'd forgotten about came back to life." He paused and sat up straight. "Lena asked a lot of questions. One was about Hannah, if I miss her. I told her that I miss the trust we shared. Maybe I was trying to find that. But I was wrong, Eddie." He stood up and paced for a moment, then turned to face me. The look in his eyes just then, it was indescribable. "I realized something when I got back to the trailer and saw you. I have that kind of trust in my life. I have for a while now. I trust you, and I never realized before just how much."
I was speechless. I hadn't expected anything like that. I mean, sure, "I trust you" is a far cry from "I love you, I want you," but somehow the words felt heavy with meaning, like there was something more behind them. I was almost tearing up, it was just such a great moment. All I could do was stand up and hug him again, not caring then if he figured me out or not. I did exactly what I wanted to do. "Same here." I began to think more logically again and willed myself not to notice that he was still shirtless. "You've done a lot of almost getting killed lately. I'm so glad you got through it alive."
"You could've died, too, Eddie. Thank you for getting me out of there. You do so much."
"Not nearly as much as you--" I cut myself off when I felt it, his lips pressed to my neck like they'd been once before, after he had that nightmare. Except this time it was different. There was no ambiguity. He pressed his lips to my neck in a very brief but very real kiss. "F-foster?" I stuttered, as we slowly pulled apart, our eyes meeting like they had after our earlier hug. In that instant, I knew that he was about to kiss me. I was leaning in, he was leaning in, he had a hand cupping my cheek, it was perfect. And then it just didn't happen. I really couldn't tell you which of us moved away first, but next thing I knew we were both moving away. I was sitting back down in my chair, and he was pulling on a clean shirt.
"I'm beat," he said.
"Yeah, I can see why. Manhunt, gunshot wound, blood loss, you've had a big day. Get some rest."
So now I'm sitting and typing this--thank goodness he can't see the screen from there--trying to pretend that I'm not watching him, and he's lying there trying to pretend he's asleep. I have my own theories about what happened with him and Lena. As much as I've tried to deny it since, I could smell it on him in that first hug. And I could theorize for days on why we didn't kiss. But just this once, I won't. I do know one thing for fact. She betrayed his trust. I will never do that.
"Eddie."
"Yeah, just a second, man."
Oh, shit. He just said my name. What does he want? I've got to go.
-More later, Eddie