Just To Be With You (6/9)
Title: Just To Be With You (6/9)
Word Count: 3,962
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!
While Babe was aware of the fact that he had just eaten three hours ago, he was already starving again. Maybe it was because he’d thrown up so freaking much these past couple days-who really knew?
But when Babe was hungry he didn’t get headaches or become tired, he just did everything and anything he could to take his mind off the fact that he was hungry.
Unfortunately for him, there was hardly room to breathe in here much less do stuff. Who had suggested they take the cheap train? Oh right….he had.
Well it was bad enough that they had wasted so much money already. And he didn’t want Buck to keep paying for everything. If he wanted Luz to like him, well Babe thought he should work that out the old fashioned way. Plus it was either this or drive to Belgium. And Speirs had seemed quite adamant that they ditch the car once and for all.
They had wound up leaving the car in the parking lot of the train station, keys still in the ignition for someone else to….borrow. They were so going to Hell if they kept this shit up.
So he was hungry and he was bored. Plus, he was stuck in a small train compartment. And no one was helping matters to improve with their ever festive moods.
Speirs and Bill were still engaged in the world’s most fierce staring contest. Nixon was silently looking out the window and Buck and Luz were playing thumb war and trying not to let everyone’s foul mood pollute them as well.
However it obviously wasn’t working because Luz just stood up and sighed in what Babe felt was an overly obnoxious manner. “You all blow. I’m going to go find some vacant room to smoke a cigarette.”
Buck stood up to follow after him. “I’m going to go watch him smoke a cigarette.”
A few more minutes of silence passed.
Speirs and Bill stood up at the same time and went to the door leading out of their compartment. They stopped and looked at each other before starting for the door again.
“Move!”
“Make me!”
They just pushed against one another’s shoulders and attempted to squeeze out at the same time.
Only Speirs was slightly in front of Bill and got shoved out into the hallway.
“Ha!” Bill laughed as Ron pulled himself off the floor in as dignified a manner as Babe supposed he could manage.
Not wanting to hear them bicker anymore he stood up and harshly slid the door leading out to the hallway shut. Flinging himself back down onto his seat he looked at the last person left.
Nixon had been…disturbingly silent. He hadn’t bitched about anything since they boarded the train half an hour ago. He hadn’t even looked at anyone and Babe was kinda worried.
He and Nixon weren’t exactly friends or anything. But it was obvious that something was very, very wrong with the older man.
Sure he understood why Lewis might be upset about not knowing who Buck was, but that couldn’t be all-could it? And furthermore why should he care? Nixon wasn’t exactly NICE to him.
But then…it wasn’t in Babe’s nature to let others be miserable. He cleared his throat.
“Are you going to be okay?”
Nixon turned his head just slightly to give him what Babe assumed was a dirty look. He couldn’t really tell since Nixon had his aviators on.
“What do you think?” Nixon hissed.
Babe swallowed. Maybe he really should just leave him alone. But then…maybe he shouldn’t.
“I think you’re upset about something more than Buck. I thought maybe you might want to talk about it?”
“I…”
“Nix you can tell me. I’m not going to throw it in your face or anything.”
Nixon stared at him for a few moments. “It’s just uh…I don’t understand why-”
“Why Dick didn’t tell you about his ex?”
Nixon shook his head, taking his sunglasses off, he drug his hands across his face and Babe noticed the dark circles under his eyes standing out on his already pale skin. He wondered if Nixon had slept at all since yesterday.
“No I mean, I don’t tell him about all my past relationships either. I just don’t get why he’s talking to an ex of his and I don’t know about it. Why he doesn’t even let him know he’s taken or who I am or anything.” Nixon rubbed his temples, obviously distressed.
Now that Babe thought about it, it DID seem like Dick was going behind Nixon’s back by talking to Buck so frequently. And not even telling them about each other? It didn’t feel right.
Nixon sighed and kept talking, “I mean I’ve never even meant his parents. But he came with me to New Jersey to meet mine. I drop hints all the time. It’s not like they don’t know he’s gay. Everyone knows. That’s not the problem. So I guess…I’m the problem. “
Babe didn’t know why he did it. Especially considering the fact that he was pretty scared of Nixon most of the time.
But the man seemed so pitiful. And Babe’s heart went out to him.
He stood up and sitting next to Nixon he wrapped his arms around him in a hug. And Nixon let him.
Finding an empty compartment wasn’t too hard. They had picked the oldest, cheapest train and it had a surprisingly small amount of passengers. Not that Luz knew why.
He had just sat down and lit up his cigarette when the door slid open and Buck’s blonde head poked in. “Mind if I join you?”
Luz smirked and waved a hand at the seat in front of him, “By all means.”
Breathing out a stream of smoke he offered the cigarette to Buck, who declined.
“I don’t smoke.”
He explained when Luz looked at him as if surprised. “I use to, but I quit when I started playing college ball.”
Luz smirked and leaned his head back against the seat, “Should’ve known you’d be some kind of jock. What’d you play?”
“Football.”
“What position?” And he tried not to think about alternative answers to THAT question.
“This face? Quarterback, of course.”
“Of course.”
Luz just smoked and noticed that Buck didn’t seem at all bothered by it. As a matter of fact…
“Are you purposely breathing in my second hand smoke?”
“I miss cigarettes.”
“Well then smoke one.”
“I can’t. I’m already addicted to the smell as it is.” He paused and smiled at Luz, “Among other things.”
Luz was definitely catching his drift. Although Buck was anything but subtle. Luz licked his finger and put out his cigarette. Buck looked confused as he stood up and tucked it behind his ear.
“I think we could take care of both your addictions at once.”
“Oh really?”
Luz walked over to a now stunned looking Buck. Sliding his legs over Bucks thighs he straddled him and brought their lips close together.
“Yeah, really.”
Buck immediately cupped the back of Luz’s head and pulled him closer, smashing their lips together. He breathed in deeply, savoring the taste of both the nicotine and the man in his lap.
Luz couldn’t help but think this was better than a cigarette.
After the first five steps Bill just had to accept that fact that both he and Speirs were heading toward the same place. Speirs, apparently, didn’t.
“Are you following me?”
Bill snorted, “You wish.”
“Hardly.”
As Speirs stopped abruptly, Bill assumed that he had discovered where the bathroom was. As he opened the door however, the train began to shake violently, shoving Bill forward and into
Speirs’ back. They both flew forward; hitting the interior wall of what was definitely NOT a bathroom.
“What the fu-” They barely had time to stand up before the train shook again and caused something to fall against the door, slamming it shut. Speirs jiggled the handle and tried to push it back open without success.
“Great”, Bill griped, “this couldn’t be any worse!”
That’s when the lights went out.
“Damn it!”
Luz pulled away from Buck as the train began to shake, “What the fuck was that?”
Buck just shook his head and tightened his grip on Luz’s waist as the train shook more violently the second time.
Suddenly the lights flickered out, although that didn’t mean anything to them since they were in a room with a window.
Luz looked down at Buck, “Maybe we should go figure out what the fuck is up. Seeing as we’re like the only people on this thing.”
The train was still shaking slightly but it seemed to be skidding to a stop. The screeching was making Nixon’s ears ring.
Babe finally began to release the death grip he’d had on his arm rest. “We should go find the others.”
He started to get up.
“No! Don’t get up.” Nixon urged, “The last thing you want is to be walking around if this thing starts to shake again. You could get hurt.”
“But Bill,” Babe began to protest.
“Will be fine,” Nixon assured him, surprised at the protective instincts that were flaring up. Babe was a good kid. Plus Guarnere would whoop his ass if he got hurt, but mostly Nixon thought he was a good kid.
Huh...was this what it felt like to give a crap about someone other than Dick?
Felt weird.
This, Bill decided, was both a teeny-tiny room and one of the worst moments of his life. He couldn’t see shit. He tried to shift to the side but only succeeded in stepping on Ron’s foot.
“Jesus Guarnere could you try not to step on me with your block feet?”
“Fuck you.”
“Yeah you’d like to,”
“What the fuck is that suppose to mean?”
“I think you know.”
But before Bill could say anything he felt Speirs' knee brush up against something that it REALLY didn’t need to be brushing up against.
Bill gasped, “Speirs move your knee.”
Ron stopped shifting around, “What-which one?”
Damn that prick didn’t even know what he was doing. But that was a good question. Which knee was it?
Bill slowly put his arms out in front of him till he hit what he figured was Speirs' chest.
Pulling them back he moved them down and grabbed what he could only assume might be Speirs' thigh.
“Guarnere you’ve got a very small amount of time to take your hand off of my ass.”
“That’s your ass? Well for the record, it’s really bony.”
….Speirs cleared his throat. Bill realized he hadn’t moved his hand.
“Right,” He said jerking his hand back so quickly his elbow hit the wall, hard.
“Oh Bill, I think I figured out which knee you were talking about.”
“Great, then move it.”
“Fine.”
However instead of moving his knee away from Bill’s crotch he slid it up further in between his legs. Bill gasped.
“What the hell do you think you’re-”
“I figured it out.”
Bill closed his eyes tightly, trying not to think about the pressure of Speirs’ knee. “Figured WHAT out asshole?”
“Why you seem to hate me so much.”
“Everyone else already knows why, so congratulations you’re months behind.” Bill gritted out.
Ron just laughed and Bill wanted nothing more than to knock the shit out of him. “I think that they think they know. But it really has nothing to do with Lipton, does it?”
Suddenly Speirs’ breath was hot at his neck and Bill could only speculate at how close he must have been. “I think you’re pissed because I make you think about things you don’t want to be thinking about.”
Speirs was just whispering into his ear now, “You’ve always prided yourself on being the straight boy in the group of fags and now you realize maybe you aren’t as straight as you thought. Because of all that hatred you direct at me...”
Speirs trailed off and Bill suddenly felt soft lips ghosting over his ear, “… because of how I make you feel.”
Bill couldn’t think straight much less be straight at that point. He contemplated moving his head slightly towards where he knew the pricks lips would be waiting for him.
But suddenly the train shook once more, Speirs’ lips were gone and Bill heard a loud crack against the wall in front of him. Ron’s body slumped against him and Bill slumped with him out of shock.
“What the hell?” Bill grabbed at Speirs and found his waist, pulling him up he shook him lightly. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
Bill felt Speirs’ head roll onto his shoulder and he quickly pulled his hand up to try and lift his head up. Then he felt something hot and wet flow over his fingers.
Definitely blood.
Gripping Ron tightly, he began to kick ferociously on the door. “Hey! Someone open this goddamn door!”
Shit this was bad.
“Whoa! Be careful!” Buck hissed as he caught Luz before he tripped and fell on his face. They only had a couple more carts to go through till they got up near the train conductor. Luz had already fallen once the last time the train shook and Buck hadn’t been able to catch him. The result was the bruise forming on Luz’s right temple.
Buck felt like a parent trailing after a toddler, wary of taking his hands away from Luz’s sides lest he fall again. Plus anymore bruises in this group and they were going to look like part of some street gang.
Buck glanced at the few people he had passed along the way. They were mostly asleep or didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that the train was now practically stopped out in the middle of nowhere.
Once Buck was sure the train had stopped, he grabbed Luz’s arm to turn him back towards him.
“Let me see your face.” He said grabbing Luz's chin and tilting his head to the side.
“It’s fine.”
“Yeah that’s why it’s blue.”
“We’re here already let’s just see what’s wrong.”
Luz jerked his head away from Buck’s hand and banged on the locked door leading to the conductor's control room.
Buck didn’t understand what was bothering Luz so much. But he didn’t really think now was the best time to bring it up.
He smirked as he watched Luz alternate between violently kicking, punching and screaming at the door.
It was pretty damn cute.
“Get out here you fucking no good piece of shit! We could’ve died you ass-“
Finally the door opened and a scruffy looking man in uniform greeted them.
Luz just glared. “Hi. What the hell’s wrong with the train?”
The man looked at them dazedly before speaking in a language Buck couldn’t understand but thought he might recognize as…what...Dutch?
Luz looked around, “Does anyone know what the Hell he’s saying?”
“Yeah. He’s saying we ran over something.”
Buck looked over to where a man had apparently come to see what was wrong as well.
“Ran over what?” Buck asked.
The man just shrugged, “He doesn’t know. I’m not surprised though. This kind of thing happens often if you take this train. You should’ve taken Eurostar or something.”
Luz jumped in, “Can you ask him how long we’re going to be stopped?”
The man nodded and spoke with the conductor briefly, before turning back to them. “Indefinitely it would seem. They can’t go anywhere until the train is fixed. But he already called the authorities to report the incident and give people a ride into the nearest town. “
“Do you know where we are right now?” Buck asked him.
“Just inside Belgium, still half an hour from Brussels by train. Much longer by car.”
Luz cursed to himself, “Okay thanks.”
Babe was practically pacing a hole into the floor by the time Luz and Buck found their way back to their compartment.
“Oh thank God you guys are here. What’s going on?” He asked as Nixon perked up to listen to them relay the information.
“Well we might have to hoof it then. We really don’t need to be mingling with law enforcement of any kind.” Nixon muttered. This was not their day it seemed.
“Yeah but we don’t even know how far it is to the nearest town! Much less how long it’d take to walk there.” Luz protested. Nixon knew he was right. But their options were few. Hopefully they could get another ride before the day was done.
“But it could be even longer if we wait for the police to get here. And then we’d have to split up to ride back to town. I say we just walk.” Babe said.
Nixon knew that if that’s what Babe wanted, then that’s what they would do. Babe had finally seemed to discover that he got to call the shots on this trip.
“Well we’ve got a bigger problem,” Buck added, “where are Speirs and Bill?”
Lipton had tried everything he could think of to delay their trip to Belgium. He even went as far as telling Eugene that he had developed a sudden irrational fear of trains because of something he’d seen on the Travel channel. Gene had just looked at him funny and called for a cab to the train station.
Dick had tried to argue that taking the Eurostar was too expensive, but Gene had just paid for their tickets and they could protest no more.
That had been forty minutes ago. They were already arriving in Brussels, Belgium. A rental car waiting to take them to Bastogne.
By this point, Bill decided that hollering for help was useless. He had slowly slid what he prayed was only an unconscious Ron to the floor and began trying to break the door down by kicking at it.
Running his hands along the wall in frustration he came across what felt like a tool of some kind, hanging up on the wall across from him. Pulling it down off the wall, he could feel that it was a hammer. It had to have been what Ron had hit his head upon.
Flipping it around Bill began to beat at the door with the sharper end, hoping he could make a hole into the cheap wood and push off whatever was blocking the door.
“Well did they say where they were going?”
“No! Holy crap, what if something awful happened!” Babe began to rant despite Nixon and Luz’s best efforts to calm him. “What if they got THROWN off the train?”
Nixon raised an eyebrow, “That’s highly unlikely,”
“Or shot!”
“Now you’re being ridiculous.”
“What if they killed each other!”
“That…actually might have happened.”
“Oh my God!”
Luz sighed, “Good job Nix. Look Babe we just have to split up and look through every room. We’ll find them eventually. Where could they have gone?”
They didn’t have to go far it seemed to find a door being barricaded by what looked like…a tuba case?
“Whose tuba is this?” Buck asked looking around, “Seriously.”
“WHO CARES?” Babe shouted, kicking the tuba and all the other fallen luggage that had squeezed itself into the hall out of the way.
Suddenly something came straight through the door and would have probably gone straight through Babe’s head if Nixon hadn’t pulled him back.
“Is somebody out there?” Bill’s voice carried to them.
“Yeah! Hold on!” Babe shouted to him as he wrenched the door open.
Once the door was open they saw Bill wielding a hammer and facing towards them. He tossed the hammer to the ground and turned behind him to grab Ron who looked in bad shape, in a heap on the ground.
“Oh my God you killed Speirs!” Luz gasped as Buck helped Bill pull him slowly out of what looked to be a supply closet.
“I didn’t do it! He hit his head on the wall, where a hammer was hanging.”
Bill leaned over Ron as soon as they laid him on the ground. Now that he could see, he saw that Speirs had become very pale and that there was blood pooling into the dip between his neck and collarbone, coming from a large gash on the right side of his head.
Bill’s stomach got very cold as he briefly considered that Speirs might be dead. He was just so pale. Babe seemed to have gotten his wits back and he pressed his fingers to Ron’s neck on instinct, remembering some of the skills Gene had taught him.
“He’s definitely alive. But his breathing’s incredibly shallow, we need to get him to a hospital, like really soon!” He urged them.
“How? We’re in the middle of nowhere! The only people on their way are the police! We don’t know how far it is out of here, or how to call an ambulance.” Nixon began to shout and Bill tried to put together what he had missed.
All of a sudden Nixon’s phone started ringing, startling them all. Angrily he answered it.
“Unless you’re someone who can get us an ambulance then fuck off!” He growled into the phone.
Lipton looked at the pay phone that was cursing at him. He didn’t have time for this. Gene wasn’t going to think he was at the bathroom for much longer.
“Who is this-Nixon?” He asked startled
“Yes! Look I don’t have time to talk right now!”
“Where the hell are you guys? We’re about to leave for Bastogne! And what the hell do you need an ambulance for?”
“Our train broke down just inside of Belgium and Ron’s hurt pretty badly. We need to get him to a hospital so I have to go! Just stall okay!”
“Nixon wait!”
But the line went dead.
Ron was hurt? He couldn’t possibly be referring to who Lipton thought he might be. But who else could it be? Suddenly the implications of Nixon’s words reached him.
Ron was hurt. He needed an ambulance. He needed a hospital. He was about to call back-to say what, he didn’t know. But Ron needed an ambulance.
Suddenly someone grabbed his shoulder.
“Carwood, let’s go. As long as they know where we are there’s nothing else we can say. Gene’s getting antsy.” Dick said leading him away from the payphone.
“Dick you don’t understand!”
“Tell me later.”
Lipton was about to start shouting when Gene showed up and Lipton knew he couldn’t do much more without risking Gene taking off by himself.
How was he going to be calm now?
While they were all freaking out, Luz remembered the man who had translated for him and Buck earlier. Grabbing the cell from Nixon’s hands he took off towards the conductor’s room.
Halfway there he saw the man and skidded to a stop.
“Can you help me call an ambulance?”
The man sat up quickly. “What has happened?”
Luz thrust the phone at him.
“No time, just do it!”
Bill had torn off the bottom half of his shirt and was pressing it to the gash on Speirs’ head, hoping that would be enough for now.
But he couldn’t help notice that Ron’s skin was getting colder.
Lipton stared out the window of the rental car as Dick drove and tried to listen to Eugene as he excitedly practiced what he was going to say to Renee.
Carwood wanted to tell him how empty his voice sounded, that Renee being his wife wasn’t going to make him happy.
But he was thinking about his call to Nixon. How now he was feeling a little hollow himself.
Word Count: 3,962
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!
While Babe was aware of the fact that he had just eaten three hours ago, he was already starving again. Maybe it was because he’d thrown up so freaking much these past couple days-who really knew?
But when Babe was hungry he didn’t get headaches or become tired, he just did everything and anything he could to take his mind off the fact that he was hungry.
Unfortunately for him, there was hardly room to breathe in here much less do stuff. Who had suggested they take the cheap train? Oh right….he had.
Well it was bad enough that they had wasted so much money already. And he didn’t want Buck to keep paying for everything. If he wanted Luz to like him, well Babe thought he should work that out the old fashioned way. Plus it was either this or drive to Belgium. And Speirs had seemed quite adamant that they ditch the car once and for all.
They had wound up leaving the car in the parking lot of the train station, keys still in the ignition for someone else to….borrow. They were so going to Hell if they kept this shit up.
So he was hungry and he was bored. Plus, he was stuck in a small train compartment. And no one was helping matters to improve with their ever festive moods.
Speirs and Bill were still engaged in the world’s most fierce staring contest. Nixon was silently looking out the window and Buck and Luz were playing thumb war and trying not to let everyone’s foul mood pollute them as well.
However it obviously wasn’t working because Luz just stood up and sighed in what Babe felt was an overly obnoxious manner. “You all blow. I’m going to go find some vacant room to smoke a cigarette.”
Buck stood up to follow after him. “I’m going to go watch him smoke a cigarette.”
A few more minutes of silence passed.
Speirs and Bill stood up at the same time and went to the door leading out of their compartment. They stopped and looked at each other before starting for the door again.
“Move!”
“Make me!”
They just pushed against one another’s shoulders and attempted to squeeze out at the same time.
Only Speirs was slightly in front of Bill and got shoved out into the hallway.
“Ha!” Bill laughed as Ron pulled himself off the floor in as dignified a manner as Babe supposed he could manage.
Not wanting to hear them bicker anymore he stood up and harshly slid the door leading out to the hallway shut. Flinging himself back down onto his seat he looked at the last person left.
Nixon had been…disturbingly silent. He hadn’t bitched about anything since they boarded the train half an hour ago. He hadn’t even looked at anyone and Babe was kinda worried.
He and Nixon weren’t exactly friends or anything. But it was obvious that something was very, very wrong with the older man.
Sure he understood why Lewis might be upset about not knowing who Buck was, but that couldn’t be all-could it? And furthermore why should he care? Nixon wasn’t exactly NICE to him.
But then…it wasn’t in Babe’s nature to let others be miserable. He cleared his throat.
“Are you going to be okay?”
Nixon turned his head just slightly to give him what Babe assumed was a dirty look. He couldn’t really tell since Nixon had his aviators on.
“What do you think?” Nixon hissed.
Babe swallowed. Maybe he really should just leave him alone. But then…maybe he shouldn’t.
“I think you’re upset about something more than Buck. I thought maybe you might want to talk about it?”
“I…”
“Nix you can tell me. I’m not going to throw it in your face or anything.”
Nixon stared at him for a few moments. “It’s just uh…I don’t understand why-”
“Why Dick didn’t tell you about his ex?”
Nixon shook his head, taking his sunglasses off, he drug his hands across his face and Babe noticed the dark circles under his eyes standing out on his already pale skin. He wondered if Nixon had slept at all since yesterday.
“No I mean, I don’t tell him about all my past relationships either. I just don’t get why he’s talking to an ex of his and I don’t know about it. Why he doesn’t even let him know he’s taken or who I am or anything.” Nixon rubbed his temples, obviously distressed.
Now that Babe thought about it, it DID seem like Dick was going behind Nixon’s back by talking to Buck so frequently. And not even telling them about each other? It didn’t feel right.
Nixon sighed and kept talking, “I mean I’ve never even meant his parents. But he came with me to New Jersey to meet mine. I drop hints all the time. It’s not like they don’t know he’s gay. Everyone knows. That’s not the problem. So I guess…I’m the problem. “
Babe didn’t know why he did it. Especially considering the fact that he was pretty scared of Nixon most of the time.
But the man seemed so pitiful. And Babe’s heart went out to him.
He stood up and sitting next to Nixon he wrapped his arms around him in a hug. And Nixon let him.
Finding an empty compartment wasn’t too hard. They had picked the oldest, cheapest train and it had a surprisingly small amount of passengers. Not that Luz knew why.
He had just sat down and lit up his cigarette when the door slid open and Buck’s blonde head poked in. “Mind if I join you?”
Luz smirked and waved a hand at the seat in front of him, “By all means.”
Breathing out a stream of smoke he offered the cigarette to Buck, who declined.
“I don’t smoke.”
He explained when Luz looked at him as if surprised. “I use to, but I quit when I started playing college ball.”
Luz smirked and leaned his head back against the seat, “Should’ve known you’d be some kind of jock. What’d you play?”
“Football.”
“What position?” And he tried not to think about alternative answers to THAT question.
“This face? Quarterback, of course.”
“Of course.”
Luz just smoked and noticed that Buck didn’t seem at all bothered by it. As a matter of fact…
“Are you purposely breathing in my second hand smoke?”
“I miss cigarettes.”
“Well then smoke one.”
“I can’t. I’m already addicted to the smell as it is.” He paused and smiled at Luz, “Among other things.”
Luz was definitely catching his drift. Although Buck was anything but subtle. Luz licked his finger and put out his cigarette. Buck looked confused as he stood up and tucked it behind his ear.
“I think we could take care of both your addictions at once.”
“Oh really?”
Luz walked over to a now stunned looking Buck. Sliding his legs over Bucks thighs he straddled him and brought their lips close together.
“Yeah, really.”
Buck immediately cupped the back of Luz’s head and pulled him closer, smashing their lips together. He breathed in deeply, savoring the taste of both the nicotine and the man in his lap.
Luz couldn’t help but think this was better than a cigarette.
After the first five steps Bill just had to accept that fact that both he and Speirs were heading toward the same place. Speirs, apparently, didn’t.
“Are you following me?”
Bill snorted, “You wish.”
“Hardly.”
As Speirs stopped abruptly, Bill assumed that he had discovered where the bathroom was. As he opened the door however, the train began to shake violently, shoving Bill forward and into
Speirs’ back. They both flew forward; hitting the interior wall of what was definitely NOT a bathroom.
“What the fu-” They barely had time to stand up before the train shook again and caused something to fall against the door, slamming it shut. Speirs jiggled the handle and tried to push it back open without success.
“Great”, Bill griped, “this couldn’t be any worse!”
That’s when the lights went out.
“Damn it!”
Luz pulled away from Buck as the train began to shake, “What the fuck was that?”
Buck just shook his head and tightened his grip on Luz’s waist as the train shook more violently the second time.
Suddenly the lights flickered out, although that didn’t mean anything to them since they were in a room with a window.
Luz looked down at Buck, “Maybe we should go figure out what the fuck is up. Seeing as we’re like the only people on this thing.”
The train was still shaking slightly but it seemed to be skidding to a stop. The screeching was making Nixon’s ears ring.
Babe finally began to release the death grip he’d had on his arm rest. “We should go find the others.”
He started to get up.
“No! Don’t get up.” Nixon urged, “The last thing you want is to be walking around if this thing starts to shake again. You could get hurt.”
“But Bill,” Babe began to protest.
“Will be fine,” Nixon assured him, surprised at the protective instincts that were flaring up. Babe was a good kid. Plus Guarnere would whoop his ass if he got hurt, but mostly Nixon thought he was a good kid.
Huh...was this what it felt like to give a crap about someone other than Dick?
Felt weird.
This, Bill decided, was both a teeny-tiny room and one of the worst moments of his life. He couldn’t see shit. He tried to shift to the side but only succeeded in stepping on Ron’s foot.
“Jesus Guarnere could you try not to step on me with your block feet?”
“Fuck you.”
“Yeah you’d like to,”
“What the fuck is that suppose to mean?”
“I think you know.”
But before Bill could say anything he felt Speirs' knee brush up against something that it REALLY didn’t need to be brushing up against.
Bill gasped, “Speirs move your knee.”
Ron stopped shifting around, “What-which one?”
Damn that prick didn’t even know what he was doing. But that was a good question. Which knee was it?
Bill slowly put his arms out in front of him till he hit what he figured was Speirs' chest.
Pulling them back he moved them down and grabbed what he could only assume might be Speirs' thigh.
“Guarnere you’ve got a very small amount of time to take your hand off of my ass.”
“That’s your ass? Well for the record, it’s really bony.”
….Speirs cleared his throat. Bill realized he hadn’t moved his hand.
“Right,” He said jerking his hand back so quickly his elbow hit the wall, hard.
“Oh Bill, I think I figured out which knee you were talking about.”
“Great, then move it.”
“Fine.”
However instead of moving his knee away from Bill’s crotch he slid it up further in between his legs. Bill gasped.
“What the hell do you think you’re-”
“I figured it out.”
Bill closed his eyes tightly, trying not to think about the pressure of Speirs’ knee. “Figured WHAT out asshole?”
“Why you seem to hate me so much.”
“Everyone else already knows why, so congratulations you’re months behind.” Bill gritted out.
Ron just laughed and Bill wanted nothing more than to knock the shit out of him. “I think that they think they know. But it really has nothing to do with Lipton, does it?”
Suddenly Speirs’ breath was hot at his neck and Bill could only speculate at how close he must have been. “I think you’re pissed because I make you think about things you don’t want to be thinking about.”
Speirs was just whispering into his ear now, “You’ve always prided yourself on being the straight boy in the group of fags and now you realize maybe you aren’t as straight as you thought. Because of all that hatred you direct at me...”
Speirs trailed off and Bill suddenly felt soft lips ghosting over his ear, “… because of how I make you feel.”
Bill couldn’t think straight much less be straight at that point. He contemplated moving his head slightly towards where he knew the pricks lips would be waiting for him.
But suddenly the train shook once more, Speirs’ lips were gone and Bill heard a loud crack against the wall in front of him. Ron’s body slumped against him and Bill slumped with him out of shock.
“What the hell?” Bill grabbed at Speirs and found his waist, pulling him up he shook him lightly. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
Bill felt Speirs’ head roll onto his shoulder and he quickly pulled his hand up to try and lift his head up. Then he felt something hot and wet flow over his fingers.
Definitely blood.
Gripping Ron tightly, he began to kick ferociously on the door. “Hey! Someone open this goddamn door!”
Shit this was bad.
“Whoa! Be careful!” Buck hissed as he caught Luz before he tripped and fell on his face. They only had a couple more carts to go through till they got up near the train conductor. Luz had already fallen once the last time the train shook and Buck hadn’t been able to catch him. The result was the bruise forming on Luz’s right temple.
Buck felt like a parent trailing after a toddler, wary of taking his hands away from Luz’s sides lest he fall again. Plus anymore bruises in this group and they were going to look like part of some street gang.
Buck glanced at the few people he had passed along the way. They were mostly asleep or didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that the train was now practically stopped out in the middle of nowhere.
Once Buck was sure the train had stopped, he grabbed Luz’s arm to turn him back towards him.
“Let me see your face.” He said grabbing Luz's chin and tilting his head to the side.
“It’s fine.”
“Yeah that’s why it’s blue.”
“We’re here already let’s just see what’s wrong.”
Luz jerked his head away from Buck’s hand and banged on the locked door leading to the conductor's control room.
Buck didn’t understand what was bothering Luz so much. But he didn’t really think now was the best time to bring it up.
He smirked as he watched Luz alternate between violently kicking, punching and screaming at the door.
It was pretty damn cute.
“Get out here you fucking no good piece of shit! We could’ve died you ass-“
Finally the door opened and a scruffy looking man in uniform greeted them.
Luz just glared. “Hi. What the hell’s wrong with the train?”
The man looked at them dazedly before speaking in a language Buck couldn’t understand but thought he might recognize as…what...Dutch?
Luz looked around, “Does anyone know what the Hell he’s saying?”
“Yeah. He’s saying we ran over something.”
Buck looked over to where a man had apparently come to see what was wrong as well.
“Ran over what?” Buck asked.
The man just shrugged, “He doesn’t know. I’m not surprised though. This kind of thing happens often if you take this train. You should’ve taken Eurostar or something.”
Luz jumped in, “Can you ask him how long we’re going to be stopped?”
The man nodded and spoke with the conductor briefly, before turning back to them. “Indefinitely it would seem. They can’t go anywhere until the train is fixed. But he already called the authorities to report the incident and give people a ride into the nearest town. “
“Do you know where we are right now?” Buck asked him.
“Just inside Belgium, still half an hour from Brussels by train. Much longer by car.”
Luz cursed to himself, “Okay thanks.”
Babe was practically pacing a hole into the floor by the time Luz and Buck found their way back to their compartment.
“Oh thank God you guys are here. What’s going on?” He asked as Nixon perked up to listen to them relay the information.
“Well we might have to hoof it then. We really don’t need to be mingling with law enforcement of any kind.” Nixon muttered. This was not their day it seemed.
“Yeah but we don’t even know how far it is to the nearest town! Much less how long it’d take to walk there.” Luz protested. Nixon knew he was right. But their options were few. Hopefully they could get another ride before the day was done.
“But it could be even longer if we wait for the police to get here. And then we’d have to split up to ride back to town. I say we just walk.” Babe said.
Nixon knew that if that’s what Babe wanted, then that’s what they would do. Babe had finally seemed to discover that he got to call the shots on this trip.
“Well we’ve got a bigger problem,” Buck added, “where are Speirs and Bill?”
Lipton had tried everything he could think of to delay their trip to Belgium. He even went as far as telling Eugene that he had developed a sudden irrational fear of trains because of something he’d seen on the Travel channel. Gene had just looked at him funny and called for a cab to the train station.
Dick had tried to argue that taking the Eurostar was too expensive, but Gene had just paid for their tickets and they could protest no more.
That had been forty minutes ago. They were already arriving in Brussels, Belgium. A rental car waiting to take them to Bastogne.
By this point, Bill decided that hollering for help was useless. He had slowly slid what he prayed was only an unconscious Ron to the floor and began trying to break the door down by kicking at it.
Running his hands along the wall in frustration he came across what felt like a tool of some kind, hanging up on the wall across from him. Pulling it down off the wall, he could feel that it was a hammer. It had to have been what Ron had hit his head upon.
Flipping it around Bill began to beat at the door with the sharper end, hoping he could make a hole into the cheap wood and push off whatever was blocking the door.
“Well did they say where they were going?”
“No! Holy crap, what if something awful happened!” Babe began to rant despite Nixon and Luz’s best efforts to calm him. “What if they got THROWN off the train?”
Nixon raised an eyebrow, “That’s highly unlikely,”
“Or shot!”
“Now you’re being ridiculous.”
“What if they killed each other!”
“That…actually might have happened.”
“Oh my God!”
Luz sighed, “Good job Nix. Look Babe we just have to split up and look through every room. We’ll find them eventually. Where could they have gone?”
They didn’t have to go far it seemed to find a door being barricaded by what looked like…a tuba case?
“Whose tuba is this?” Buck asked looking around, “Seriously.”
“WHO CARES?” Babe shouted, kicking the tuba and all the other fallen luggage that had squeezed itself into the hall out of the way.
Suddenly something came straight through the door and would have probably gone straight through Babe’s head if Nixon hadn’t pulled him back.
“Is somebody out there?” Bill’s voice carried to them.
“Yeah! Hold on!” Babe shouted to him as he wrenched the door open.
Once the door was open they saw Bill wielding a hammer and facing towards them. He tossed the hammer to the ground and turned behind him to grab Ron who looked in bad shape, in a heap on the ground.
“Oh my God you killed Speirs!” Luz gasped as Buck helped Bill pull him slowly out of what looked to be a supply closet.
“I didn’t do it! He hit his head on the wall, where a hammer was hanging.”
Bill leaned over Ron as soon as they laid him on the ground. Now that he could see, he saw that Speirs had become very pale and that there was blood pooling into the dip between his neck and collarbone, coming from a large gash on the right side of his head.
Bill’s stomach got very cold as he briefly considered that Speirs might be dead. He was just so pale. Babe seemed to have gotten his wits back and he pressed his fingers to Ron’s neck on instinct, remembering some of the skills Gene had taught him.
“He’s definitely alive. But his breathing’s incredibly shallow, we need to get him to a hospital, like really soon!” He urged them.
“How? We’re in the middle of nowhere! The only people on their way are the police! We don’t know how far it is out of here, or how to call an ambulance.” Nixon began to shout and Bill tried to put together what he had missed.
All of a sudden Nixon’s phone started ringing, startling them all. Angrily he answered it.
“Unless you’re someone who can get us an ambulance then fuck off!” He growled into the phone.
Lipton looked at the pay phone that was cursing at him. He didn’t have time for this. Gene wasn’t going to think he was at the bathroom for much longer.
“Who is this-Nixon?” He asked startled
“Yes! Look I don’t have time to talk right now!”
“Where the hell are you guys? We’re about to leave for Bastogne! And what the hell do you need an ambulance for?”
“Our train broke down just inside of Belgium and Ron’s hurt pretty badly. We need to get him to a hospital so I have to go! Just stall okay!”
“Nixon wait!”
But the line went dead.
Ron was hurt? He couldn’t possibly be referring to who Lipton thought he might be. But who else could it be? Suddenly the implications of Nixon’s words reached him.
Ron was hurt. He needed an ambulance. He needed a hospital. He was about to call back-to say what, he didn’t know. But Ron needed an ambulance.
Suddenly someone grabbed his shoulder.
“Carwood, let’s go. As long as they know where we are there’s nothing else we can say. Gene’s getting antsy.” Dick said leading him away from the payphone.
“Dick you don’t understand!”
“Tell me later.”
Lipton was about to start shouting when Gene showed up and Lipton knew he couldn’t do much more without risking Gene taking off by himself.
How was he going to be calm now?
While they were all freaking out, Luz remembered the man who had translated for him and Buck earlier. Grabbing the cell from Nixon’s hands he took off towards the conductor’s room.
Halfway there he saw the man and skidded to a stop.
“Can you help me call an ambulance?”
The man sat up quickly. “What has happened?”
Luz thrust the phone at him.
“No time, just do it!”
Bill had torn off the bottom half of his shirt and was pressing it to the gash on Speirs’ head, hoping that would be enough for now.
But he couldn’t help notice that Ron’s skin was getting colder.
Lipton stared out the window of the rental car as Dick drove and tried to listen to Eugene as he excitedly practiced what he was going to say to Renee.
Carwood wanted to tell him how empty his voice sounded, that Renee being his wife wasn’t going to make him happy.
But he was thinking about his call to Nixon. How now he was feeling a little hollow himself.