What a handsome lad, that's my boy...

[coinopratedhero]

WHO: hangtherisk and coinopratedhero
WHERE: Toro's hospital room
WHEN: The evening of Jim's arrival in the city.
WARNINGS: Derp and squish and sadtiems.
SUMMARY: Jim is visiting his boy in the hospital. =(
FORMAT: Para para para.

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[hangtherisk]

Tom couldn't remember the last time he'd hurt this bad. He'd been through more in his allotment of years than most did in their entire lives---on top of the usual childhood mishaps of broken arms and stitches, he'd been shot five times now since the beginning of the war. It made sense, in a terrible way, since the natural response to a man on fire flying at your face was to unload a clip in its direction. He'd gotten hotter over the years, but there was no melting bullets cased in adamantium

[coinopratedhero]

Jim swallowed, his tongue feeling thick in his mouth as he crossed the room, standing next to Toro's bed and leaning over him with a weak smile.

Battered as he was his boy had grown up handsome...

"Toro? It's Pappy, kiddo, how are you holding up?" He brought a warm hand down to stroke through the matted hair on the less-bruised side of the young man's face. "I'm so sorry, I should have been here sooner. Cap told me what happened."

He cast about for a chair and tugged one of the little rolling stools away from the wall with his foot, easing himself onto it with his gaze stuck on Toro's sleepy face.

God, what a mess this was...

[hangtherisk]

Tom opened his eyes a little bit wider, failing to sit up like he'd meant to. He moved forward and then slumped back with a hiss of pain, the movement aborted by exactly how dizzy and sick the painkillers made him. They'd figured that out ages ago---that he and Namor reacted to things most people didn't because there was something in them a little different, a little off. Nowadays, they called them mutants---and a whole slew of other names not half so nice.

He squinted, his swollen, bruised face protesting the movement. The hand in his hair had weight to it, affection.

"Pappy?" he repeated thickly, questioningly. A thought hit him and he sucked up his breath hard. "'M I dead, Pappy?"

It seemed reasonable enough, as addled as his head was. Pappy wasn't in this rollercoaster of a future and Bucky'd tried to kill him and everything was so screwed up and wrong, it'd make sense that this little slice of right would be a bastardization of the pearly gates opening for him. Jim was a good enough man that he was sure he'd go to heaven,

[coinopratedhero]

"No no Toro." Jim shushed him with another slow stroke of his hair, taking one battered hand in his (oh so careful of all those needles stuck in his poor boy's arm) and squeezing as much as he dared.

"You're not dead, Tom. I got into this city place just a little earlier today. Cap went and picked me up and told me where to find you."

He would have given about anything to have been able to scoop Toro up out of the hospital bed just then and held him like a child, but he was too scared of what it would do to all his setting bones and other broken bits. Seeing his son so battered was hard enough but that pain in Toro's voice was another huge step beyond what he'd been ready for.

"And if you aren't grown up all handsome..." he said slowly, trying to gently guide the subject to something happier and bolster Toro's spirits a little.

[hangtherisk]

Toro had to close his eyes and focus on keeping his attention set. Was this a dream? It felt an awful lot like a dream would, though his dreams didn't usually hurt. He was one big, radiating ball of agony underneath the bandages and painkillers---never would have figured kneecapping hurt quite so much---so he wasn't sure which way was up.

He looked up at Jim---his familiar, even features, as all-American handsome as Horton could make them---and felt his eyes prickle and his heat rise sympathetically. He choked, overwhelmed.

"You always were one f...for flashy entrances," he said. He tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. There were too many grit teeth and bruises for the expression to be anything but pained. On his next breath, he made a soft noise of hurt. "---that ain't...Rikki's dead, Pappy. She's dead an' it's all my fault."

[coinopratedhero]

"Oh Tom..." Jim choked over whatever cheap condolence had been on his lips a moment ago, helplessness swelling up in his chest in a way that pushed all the breath out of him.

"Don't go saying things you know aren't true. You weren't the one who hurt her now." He consoled, lips pursing into a thin pained line as poor Toro's face shifted from one pain-underlined sadness to another, a smile hardly hinted at (though he hadn't expected much smiling, really.)

Jim squeezed Toro's fingers a little more, warming his hands some to try to put a familiar edge on his comfort. He knew that with the way Tom's body burned up drugs he was probably in far more pain than the standard doses of morphine could help.

"Blaming yourself won't mean you can change it, Tom."

[hangtherisk]

The thought of Rikki---Rikki, stabbed to death; Rikki, whom he'd put into harm's way by involving her---broke down what lucidity he'd been clinging to. Tom squeezed his hand back, so grateful for the warmth of his old mentor. He couldn't feel how hot Torch was, but he could feel that he wasn't cold. He didn't have to worry about burning him, didn't have to fret about accidentally hurting him. That was a relief, since control was the last thing he had at the moment. His sheets were smoking---again---and he couldn't help the tears that were rolling down his face.

"I---I asked her to help me. I shoulda just did it on my own, shoulda---shoulda thought---"He felt young and he felt stupid and he felt weak. This was defeat, pure and simple, and all he had left were sizzling-hot tears and the weight of his guilt. He wasn't sure if it'd been easier if he were alone---if Pappy hadn't winged in just to see him fail---or if being alone was the exact thing that would crush him

[coinopratedhero]

"I'm not going anywhere, Toro." Jim reassured him, pressing a hand to the poor boy's bruised chest and doing his best to wick up the heat that had set the sheets to browning up and curling off tendrils of threatening smoke.

He didn't know Rikki, hadn't the faintest of who she was beyond what Cap had told him which was basic at best (and he'd grasped so very little after hearing the words 'Toro' and 'hospital' in the same sentence) but he knew that Toro was in tears over her loss and that was quite enough.

"Take it easy now, you're going to toast this place and then where will we be?" he chided gently. "Deep breath now Tom, it's going to be okay. We'll figure out what to do from here, you and me."

[hangtherisk]

He could only barely believe that it was really Jim. After so long in the City with only Bucky punched through the past with him, he'd half-forgotten the war, Steve, Subby, and Jim. Without Jim, he'd felt like he was a cork bobbing on the ocean all by his lonesome. He'd been alone before, sure, but Pappy had come into his life as a pillar of support---someone who was just like him and who understood what it meant to be something as dangerous as a man on fire. He'd protected him, taught him, and set him on the right track.

Robot or no, Jim Hammond was the best kind of father Tom knew.

He let his heat go, allowing Pappy to soothe his natural instinct to burn. Not here, not now. Later, when he was healed, when he could walk, he'd fly up as high as he could go and burn until he was exhausted and all that anger and misery had bled out. Jim's words soothed. It was what he needed to hear.

"S'good to see you, Pappy. Don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you."

[coinopratedhero]

"You'd get by Toro, you did before I got here." Jim said with a faint smile. "But that's not the case anyway so don't dwell on it."

He slipped one hand away from holding Toro's then, digging into his coat pocket and producing the big sack of penny candies he's spent a good amount of time picking out that afternoon. There was an orange and a tangerine each in the fray.

"I hear the war is pretty far gone now but I'm told hosptial food hasn't improved any despite all this advancement."

He sighed a little wistfully, setting the candy on an empty patch of bed where Toro could reach it.

"Maybe this would all have been more appropriate when you were younger but I didn't think it could hurt either. You've gotten so big, you're probably as tall as me now."

[hangtherisk]

"It's a queer world," Toro mumbled in agreement, smiling crookedly at the sweets he'd brought. Perishable fruit and sweets had been hard to come by back home, so these treats were thoughtful. Special, even. It was so like Jim to do something simple and genuine like that. He was attentive in a way his parents had never been

[coinopratedhero]

Jim hesitated for a moment before taking hold of the twist tie on one side, holding one end steady to Tom could unravel the last of it single handed, helpful but not quite coddling.

"There we go. I'm sure your nurses wouldn't mind letting you have a treat after all this."

The bag flowered open at the top with a soft rustle and Jim picked himself out a peice of licorice. He'd never needed to eat, but the pleasure of flavor wasn't lost on him either, and he chewed the little black chunk thoughtfully, giving them both a moment of quiet before trying to ask a question of Tom, who was clearly worn out beyond all reason despite just being still in bed.

"How old are you now, Toro?" he asked finally.

[hangtherisk]

Jim knew that he hated being treated like a child, so the little assist made the ache in his chest warm and lessen. He'd be saying all of his prayers tonight, dutiful as ever, because Pappy was just what the doctor had ordered and that kind of intervention had to be heavenly. Toro settled on a square of Bit O Honey, popping it into his mouth.

"Nineteen in May," he said around the sweet, surprising himself at the thought. "'Least, as far as I can figure. It was November of '42 when I left home and July of '09 when I got here. So I guess I'm overdue for a birthday, anyhow."

He almost, almost added that Bucky was twenty-two, fancy that. But when the thought reached his tongue he realized there was no way he could spit the words out. He covered up the spike of misery attached to the aborted attempt by pawing through the bag and seeing what was at the bottom.

[coinopratedhero]

"Lord, you were just 14 last I saw you. You've gone and become your own man on me." Jim shook his head, a little bit wondering and a little bit pride.

"As long as you haven't grown out of liking candy I think I'll live though. You have a place to live in this city I guess. Got a job?"

[hangtherisk]

"Aw, Pappy, I'll never grow out of liking candy," he said hoarsely, his attempt at a smile creasing his bruised face with a slightly more genuine shine. "And I got three jobs, thank you kindly. I'm probably canned from all of 'em after disappearing for a week, though. I went back to school, too. Been gettin' a real education."

He'd done well. He knew he'd done well. He'd settled on so many decisions with the internal train of thought of this is what Jim'd want me to do. Jim would be proud of this.

And now, seeing his face as he looked at him, it was obvious he'd made at least a couple right choices along the way.

[coinopratedhero]

"THREE jobs!" Jim couldn't help an impressed laugh, picking out another licorice and finally shrugging his coat off his shoulders, draping it across his lap and settling in to stay a while.

"Well if you managed to pick up three before I'm sure you'll manage to find at least one again. Especially if you're going to school." He patted Toro's arm, pride puffing his chest and warming his skin automatically. Leave it to Toro to do everything possible and thensome.

"Are you liking school? Is it tough?"