David Hodges’ Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Nephew (b)
Title: David Hodges’ Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Nephew
By sexyspork
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: One-sided Nick/David hints
Spoilers: End of HBP with changes
Warning: Language, mentions of past adultery, mentions of past prostitution, mentions of child abuse/neglect, and beware of cheesy clichés and deus ex machina. ^___^
Summary: David’s nephew is staying with him, but that doesn’t mean they’ll get along.
Part b of part 2 of my Harry Potter crossover of a (not so) different kind. I made it too big so LJ is making me split it into two parts...
Part 1 can be found here
Part a can be found here
It was Harry’s yelling that brought him to the waking world, and David glared half-heartedly at the beeping machines that he was hooked up to as he strived to beat back the fog that seemed to encompass his mind. Glancing around, a feeble sneer crossed his lips. A hospital room, how charming.
Pressing the call button, the nurse came in as the shouting stopped, and before she could inquire or begin the check-up, David waved her over. Pulling down the mask that had been covering his mouth, and ignoring her look, David rasped out, “Tell him he can wake the dead.”
Brown eyes blinked in confusion, “Mr. Hodges, I must-”
“Tell my nephew that.” He ordered, glad that this nurse seemed relatively green around the gills, because any RN with experience simply would have ignored his demands and done their job. Experienced registered nurses were like Jacqui on steroids.
Slowly after cautious consideration, she nodded as she carefully replaced his breathing mask and left the room. A few moments of quiet and David jumped slightly when his door flew open as Harry ignored the nurse ordering him to get out. Green eyes filled with tears met David’s drug-glazed blue ones, and a small sob choked past Harry’s lips as he threw himself at his uncle.
David ignored the jolt of pain the lanced its way up his spine as Harry buried his face into his uncle’s shoulder, fingers clinging to David desperately. David waved away the nurse who looked like she was seconds from calling security, and wrapped his shaky arms around his nephew uneasily.
Hearing but not really registering Harry’s high speed babble, David drifted back to darkness.
The second time he woke, sunlight was streaming through the windows and Harry was curled up in a chair asleep. David grimaced at the gummy feeling in his mouth and the fact that he knew drugs were coursing through his system made the entire situation worse. Struggling to sit up, a slight laugh broke the silence.
Turning his head to chew out whoever was mocking his efforts, David blinked in surprise at the sight of Mrs. Jacobs sitting in a chair next to his bed. She chuckled and set down the rather larger book in her hands and pulled off her reading glasses. Stern green eyes watched him, and David suddenly felt like the boy who had put roaches in his mother’s pimp’s car and had lied about it.
“You love scaring the good Lord out of people, don’t you, David?” The old woman began softly, running a frail hand through shock white hair. “Always have, and always will, I imagine.”
“You know me, always getting into trouble...” David said uneasily, a knot growing in his stomach. This whole “I’m an innocent old woman, as weak as a kitten, so don’t mind me” wasn’t going to work, but he couldn’t call her on it as it made him feel a bit guilty when she turned those big green tear-filled eyes onto him.
The silence stretched for a moment before Mrs. Jacobs slapped David upside the head with her monstrosity of a book. Hissing out in pain, David clutched the now throbbing area as he glared at the old woman who was the closest thing he had to a grandmother. She simply ignored him and reopened her book while stating, “Go back to sleep, I’ll wake you for lunch.”
David harrumphed and decided he didn’t want to deal with the world right now as he pulled the covers over his head to ignore the snickering old biddy at his side.
Days passed in a haze of drugs and pain, but night was falling when David woke with a clear head for the first time in what felt like years. The majority of the machines were gone, Harry wasn’t there and David assumed visiting hours were over and Mrs. Jacobs had taken the boy home.
Running a hand through stringy hair, David frowned with disgust and sighed explosively. He was tired of lying here, tired of being in the hospital, period, and wanted to go home. This place was depressing and all the Get Well cards only made it worse. Because he knew the majority of the people that sent them were probably disheartened that he had pulled through and David didn’t want to deal with their hypocritical bullshit right now.
The door opened and David stared at Nick Stokes in shock as the CSI froze at the sight of the conscious trace technician. The CSI smiled sheepishly, as he probably hadn’t been expecting David to be awake, but really, he couldn’t sleep all the time.
“Hey, Hodges, how are you feeling?”
The look David gave him made the poor man wince.
“Sorry, stupid question.”
Silence stretched and David bit back a growl, instead he waved his IV’ed arm in the general vicinity of the chair. “Take a seat.”
“I was picking up some evidence from another case,” Nick said as he sat down, waving a plastic bag filled with clothes, “And I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“Fine enough, I suppose. How long was I out?” David said grudgingly, tempted to get a doctor in here to see when he could go home.
“Two weeks.” David’s eyes widened in shock at this new information. “You were doing fine in the first couple of days until you developed an infection. Almost went into respiratory failure.”
“Christ,” David murmured and they both feel silent. David pondered everything for a few moments, wondering how in the hell Mrs. Jacobs had put up with Harry for half a month. But the he decided she deserved it, as it was probably her fault he got worse. It was the dark look on Nick’s face that drew David out of internal ponderings so he leaned over and flicked the CSI square in the forehead.
“Stop brooding, it wasn’t your fault.” David simply did not have the energy necessary to put up with a gloomy Texan.
Nick opened his mouth to protest and if David had a pen or a pipette, he would have thrown it at him. He didn’t have either of those on hand, so the trace tech simply flicked the other man once again. Nick’s hand flew up to cover the reddening patch of skin, and he sent David a sharp look.
“I’m not going to argue with you. I’m right, as always, and you’re going to listen to me whether you like it or not.” David said, tone booking no room for argument. He dealt with a nephew that was an emo teenager with more issues than everyone at the LVCL put together (and with Sara, Nick, and David alone, that was a hell of a lot of issues), so a petulant CSI was no trouble at all.
“Hodges-”
“Here’s a thought, you call me David and we say were even!” He said mockingly, eyes wide with fake innocence and his heart stopped when Nick smiled that broad, sexy-as-hell grin of his.
“It’s not even, but it’s a start,” Nick said easily and David rolled his eyes. Just as long as the man didn’t brood in his presence, David really didn’t care.
“See ya later, David.”
With a grin and a wave, he was gone, and David had to resist the urge to commit suicide via pillow. The floppy, nervous feeling in his stomach was blamed on the drugs.
“I think you should stay a couple of more days.”
David bit back an aggravated sigh as he continued to button up his shirt and he ignored Mrs. Jacobs amused titter, because of course she found his exasperation funny; probably thought it was deserved recompense for everything he put her through when he was young. Turning to look Harry in the eye, David quirked an eyebrow.
“What is it going to take for you to understand that I am fine?”
“You still have bandages to change, what if you get another infection?”
“I’m on every antibiotic known to man and I do know how to change dirty strips of gauze. A little hydrogen peroxide and I’ll be fine.”
Harry’s frown grew more pronounced. “You just got off your deathbed, and the doctors are just letting you leave?”
David glanced at Mrs. Jacobs and her green eyes glowed with understanding. She nodded as she collected her book and her purse, and silently shut the door behind her. Facing Harry once more as he grabbed his jacket to pull it on, David struggled to find the correct words to say.
“What’s wrong, Harry?”
The question agitated his nephew more, and Harry got up from the chair he had been sitting in and began to pace.
“You almost died.” He finally answered grudgingly.
“I pulled through.”
“The doctors said there was nothing they could,” Harry began softly, “So I asked for a favor…”
David froze, “It was bad enough that you had to use hocus pocus on me?”
“You were dying, what was I supposed to do?” Harry asked defensively.
The silence stretched and then David swallowed hard. “You had better not have made a deal that screws you over or I’m going to kick your ass.”
“I wrote Professor McGonagall. She sent the school healer to look at you one night and whatever she did must have worked, since the infection was fading by the nurse’s next round.” Harry’s gave a ghost of a smile. “It stumped the doctors to no end…”
David sat on the edge of the bed that had been his prison for almost three weeks, and watched his nephew pace for a few moments.
“You didn’t have to write her…”
Harry froze and then whipped around to glare at his uncle. “I’m tired of watching people die.”
I’m tired of watching people I care about die…
David smirked (smiled, but he could no longer tell the difference) and opened his arms slightly in a silent invitation. Harry watched him for a moment, wary and unsure, before burying himself in his uncle’s embrace.
“I still think you are a bastard.” Harry mumbled, and David just continued to smirk (a real one this time).
“You’re ruining the moment, brat.”
And when Mrs. Jacobs came back to find them in that position, she said not one word but helped David finish collecting the rest of his stuff.
“Why do I have to keep all this crap? I say we burn it.”
Jacqui shot him a look as she continued to arrange the cards in a pleasing manner along the counter of his kitchen. David scowled as Harry smirked across from him, the boy handing another card to the fingerprints technician.
“It’s the polite thing to do, so if anyone visits they can see that you kept their card.”
“If anyone visits, it must mean you’d have a date and couldn’t come torture me. But hell would have to freeze first, now wouldn’t it?”
David was smacked across the head as Mrs. Jacobs took a seat next to him at the bar, and Jacqui shot her a grateful look.
“Now I know that’s not how I taught you treat a lady, David Hodges.” She said sternly, calmly sipping her cup of tea.
David had to bit his lip to remark on how he thought no ladies had been present. But then he’d have not one, but two dangerous women out for his hide. So he looked at Ronnie, who was cooking dinner, for aid.
“I’m not getting involved; I have a wife and daughters in case you’ve forgotten.” The QD technician muttered in a way of an apology.
“Traitor.” David said, but it lacked real venom.
Jacqui snickered as Harry handed her another card, and Archie bounced into the room waving a DVD case.
“Guess what I brought!” He didn’t wait, because anyone who knew him (and many who didn’t) would guess right on the money. “Star Trek Voyager! ‘Cause Jacqui would like the captain, and I knew David would like Q.”
“Q?”
“Q of the Q.”
“Q of the Q?” David said, confusion crossing his face.
“Q of the Q.” Archie said solemnly, “He’s like you David, but only has the supreme power of the universe.”
David smirked, “Of course he’s like me.”
Archie then grinned at Jacqui, “This actually reminds me why I’m thankful David’s not a mutant or anything…”
“Anything I’d like?” Bobby asked while throwing some popcorn into the microwave, interrupting David before he could start, and ignoring Ronnie’s “What about dinner?”
“Explosions and peon deaths…?” Archie said hesitantly and Bobby shrugged.
“Good enough.”
The doorbell rang, and David glared at Harry when the boy yelled out, “Door’s open!”
“It could be an ax-wielding murderer and we’d all be dead.” He said with a scowl that Harry ignored with a grin. A hesitant Nick Stokes shuffled into the room, holding up two plastics bags as peace offerings. David turned his glare onto Jacqui, who simply grinned.
“He visited you everyday, so he deserves to go to David Hodges 'I'm Not Dead Yet’ party.”
“I brought ice-cream.” Nick said slowly, watching the techs like they were wild animals that were going to rip him to pieces. Jacqui was at his side in an instant, giving him an easy grin as she took the bags to put the frozen goods in the freezer.
“Take a seat where ever, David doesn’t mind.”
David muttered into his cup as Mrs. Jacobs shot him a look.
Nick grinned again and took a seat next to a smirking Harry.
A rap on the front door echoed through the apartment, and David glanced at Jacqui with an “Anyone else?” She shrugged at him though, glanced at Harry, he shrugged as well, and David rolled his eyes. Pulling himself out of his chair, he blinked when Nick jumped up and motioned for him to sit back down.
“I’ll get it.”
“I’m not a damn invalid.” David muttered to the CSI’s back.
A moment or two passed, and Minerva McGonagall walked leisurely into the room with Nick following closely behind her. Harry froze and David nodded his head slowly in greeting.
“Mr. Hodges, may I speak with you for a moment?”
“Of course.” Sliding off his stool, David walked into the next room with the older woman entering behind him. Ignoring the prickly feeling of eyes on the back of his head and the fact that Harry had followed them, the trace technician and the Headmistress of Hogwarts bent their heads together for as a private conversation as they could have in a room full of people who had too much curiosity for their own good.
“I must say I was surprised when Harry contacted me, but I am pleased to see that you are doing better.”
“What do you want?” David asked, watching the witch with sharp blue eyes and getting right to the point.
A lip quirked with sardonic amusement, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
David straightened and mocked, “I’m sorry, but I really can’t accept your feelings. I’m sure the right man will come along eventually, one that’ll allow for passive-aggressiveness and to be walked all over.”
Amusement faded and eyes behind the wire frames became cold and stern. A snort echoed slightly, and David glared at his nephew before Minerva grabbed his attention again.
“I must question your ability to care for Harry in light of recent events.”
David felt like he had been punched in the gut, and not-so-subtly placed his body between the witch and his nephew.
“I know I’m better than my half-sister.”
“Yes, but would you give your life for him?”
David snorted, “No.”
He didn’t have to explain himself to this woman, because she had to learn how to ask the right questions.
“Then we have a problem.”
“You should be asking about something other than some bogus, ‘Love everything, die in glory’, crap.”
A moment’s pause.
“Will you teach him how to survive?” She was learning, but not quickly enough.
David snorted, “He was merely surviving my half-sister and in the hell-hole you call a school. There is a difference between living and surviving.”
She was silent for a moment and a small, approving smile crossed her face. “You will teach him to live.”
“A ghost cannot teach the living what it means to be alive, but I’ll give him the means to figure it out on his own. And that’s better than anything anyone has ever given him.”
McGonagall nodded, her eyes warm as she regarded the pair before her. David Hodges probably didn’t even realize how protective he was looking at this moment, with a concerned Harry Potter being shielded behind him. And though she knew he had said he wouldn’t die for his nephew, there was no doubt in her mind that he would do whatever was necessary to keep Harry safe from whatever threats he perceived there to be. Even if that meant taking on the Dark Lord or the entire Wizarding World itself.
“Thank you.” She said simply, relieved that the boy she had grown so fond of in his years at Hogwarts finally had blood that actually gave a damn. David blinked, wondering what in the hell had just happened.
McGonagall turned to Harry, “Make sure your uncle stays away from magic, for the time being. Poppy’s not exactly sure how it may affect him since she healed him…”
She ignored David’s sputtered “There will be side-effects?!”
“Yes, ma’am.” Harry said with the cheeky grin that most definitely came from his father’s side of the family. She gave them a nod, and quietly left them to their celebration. Minerva had nothing to worry about now, after all.
Silence pervaded the apartment, and even though they had tried to eavesdrop, the Lab Rats (plus Mrs. Jacobs and one Nick Stokes) had only been able to tell what the conversation had been about from David’s body language. Earlier, he looked like a wolf protecting a cub, but now David looked like he simply wanted to fall over with exhaustion as he slumped onto the couch.
So when Mrs. Jacobs broke the silence, everyone jumped.
“Cheating on me, now are you?”
“One gal for every day of the week.” David mumbled back as Archie popped in the DVD and life resumed to the party.
And later, even though their relationship was still so very, incredibly rocky, David felt at peace for the first time in a long time when Harry fell asleep curled up next to him as the rest of his friends (that’s what they called themselves, anyways) were entranced (well, Archie was) by the adventures of Star Trek on his TV. And it didn’t hurt that Nick Stokes was curled up on the other side of him, so even though he had been put through hell, David was sure this would be the silver lining if he believed in such a thing.
Q = <3
Monty Python = <3
I don’t watch Star Trek, but if it’s on and I see Q, I’ll watch it. Because he’s like David but with god powers. This was going to be longer, but it’s pushing 20 pages and I’m sure you all are tired of reading. I did want to put in the Rats visiting David in the hospital, more Harry/David time at the hospital, and David going back to work. But pretty much everything I wanted to do can be done elsewhere.
I only did a cursory look over for editing, so if you notice any mistakes, please let me know so I can fix this.
By sexyspork
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: One-sided Nick/David hints
Spoilers: End of HBP with changes
Warning: Language, mentions of past adultery, mentions of past prostitution, mentions of child abuse/neglect, and beware of cheesy clichés and deus ex machina. ^___^
Summary: David’s nephew is staying with him, but that doesn’t mean they’ll get along.
Part b of part 2 of my Harry Potter crossover of a (not so) different kind. I made it too big so LJ is making me split it into two parts...
Part 1 can be found here
Part a can be found here
It was Harry’s yelling that brought him to the waking world, and David glared half-heartedly at the beeping machines that he was hooked up to as he strived to beat back the fog that seemed to encompass his mind. Glancing around, a feeble sneer crossed his lips. A hospital room, how charming.
Pressing the call button, the nurse came in as the shouting stopped, and before she could inquire or begin the check-up, David waved her over. Pulling down the mask that had been covering his mouth, and ignoring her look, David rasped out, “Tell him he can wake the dead.”
Brown eyes blinked in confusion, “Mr. Hodges, I must-”
“Tell my nephew that.” He ordered, glad that this nurse seemed relatively green around the gills, because any RN with experience simply would have ignored his demands and done their job. Experienced registered nurses were like Jacqui on steroids.
Slowly after cautious consideration, she nodded as she carefully replaced his breathing mask and left the room. A few moments of quiet and David jumped slightly when his door flew open as Harry ignored the nurse ordering him to get out. Green eyes filled with tears met David’s drug-glazed blue ones, and a small sob choked past Harry’s lips as he threw himself at his uncle.
David ignored the jolt of pain the lanced its way up his spine as Harry buried his face into his uncle’s shoulder, fingers clinging to David desperately. David waved away the nurse who looked like she was seconds from calling security, and wrapped his shaky arms around his nephew uneasily.
Hearing but not really registering Harry’s high speed babble, David drifted back to darkness.
The second time he woke, sunlight was streaming through the windows and Harry was curled up in a chair asleep. David grimaced at the gummy feeling in his mouth and the fact that he knew drugs were coursing through his system made the entire situation worse. Struggling to sit up, a slight laugh broke the silence.
Turning his head to chew out whoever was mocking his efforts, David blinked in surprise at the sight of Mrs. Jacobs sitting in a chair next to his bed. She chuckled and set down the rather larger book in her hands and pulled off her reading glasses. Stern green eyes watched him, and David suddenly felt like the boy who had put roaches in his mother’s pimp’s car and had lied about it.
“You love scaring the good Lord out of people, don’t you, David?” The old woman began softly, running a frail hand through shock white hair. “Always have, and always will, I imagine.”
“You know me, always getting into trouble...” David said uneasily, a knot growing in his stomach. This whole “I’m an innocent old woman, as weak as a kitten, so don’t mind me” wasn’t going to work, but he couldn’t call her on it as it made him feel a bit guilty when she turned those big green tear-filled eyes onto him.
The silence stretched for a moment before Mrs. Jacobs slapped David upside the head with her monstrosity of a book. Hissing out in pain, David clutched the now throbbing area as he glared at the old woman who was the closest thing he had to a grandmother. She simply ignored him and reopened her book while stating, “Go back to sleep, I’ll wake you for lunch.”
David harrumphed and decided he didn’t want to deal with the world right now as he pulled the covers over his head to ignore the snickering old biddy at his side.
Days passed in a haze of drugs and pain, but night was falling when David woke with a clear head for the first time in what felt like years. The majority of the machines were gone, Harry wasn’t there and David assumed visiting hours were over and Mrs. Jacobs had taken the boy home.
Running a hand through stringy hair, David frowned with disgust and sighed explosively. He was tired of lying here, tired of being in the hospital, period, and wanted to go home. This place was depressing and all the Get Well cards only made it worse. Because he knew the majority of the people that sent them were probably disheartened that he had pulled through and David didn’t want to deal with their hypocritical bullshit right now.
The door opened and David stared at Nick Stokes in shock as the CSI froze at the sight of the conscious trace technician. The CSI smiled sheepishly, as he probably hadn’t been expecting David to be awake, but really, he couldn’t sleep all the time.
“Hey, Hodges, how are you feeling?”
The look David gave him made the poor man wince.
“Sorry, stupid question.”
Silence stretched and David bit back a growl, instead he waved his IV’ed arm in the general vicinity of the chair. “Take a seat.”
“I was picking up some evidence from another case,” Nick said as he sat down, waving a plastic bag filled with clothes, “And I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“Fine enough, I suppose. How long was I out?” David said grudgingly, tempted to get a doctor in here to see when he could go home.
“Two weeks.” David’s eyes widened in shock at this new information. “You were doing fine in the first couple of days until you developed an infection. Almost went into respiratory failure.”
“Christ,” David murmured and they both feel silent. David pondered everything for a few moments, wondering how in the hell Mrs. Jacobs had put up with Harry for half a month. But the he decided she deserved it, as it was probably her fault he got worse. It was the dark look on Nick’s face that drew David out of internal ponderings so he leaned over and flicked the CSI square in the forehead.
“Stop brooding, it wasn’t your fault.” David simply did not have the energy necessary to put up with a gloomy Texan.
Nick opened his mouth to protest and if David had a pen or a pipette, he would have thrown it at him. He didn’t have either of those on hand, so the trace tech simply flicked the other man once again. Nick’s hand flew up to cover the reddening patch of skin, and he sent David a sharp look.
“I’m not going to argue with you. I’m right, as always, and you’re going to listen to me whether you like it or not.” David said, tone booking no room for argument. He dealt with a nephew that was an emo teenager with more issues than everyone at the LVCL put together (and with Sara, Nick, and David alone, that was a hell of a lot of issues), so a petulant CSI was no trouble at all.
“Hodges-”
“Here’s a thought, you call me David and we say were even!” He said mockingly, eyes wide with fake innocence and his heart stopped when Nick smiled that broad, sexy-as-hell grin of his.
“It’s not even, but it’s a start,” Nick said easily and David rolled his eyes. Just as long as the man didn’t brood in his presence, David really didn’t care.
“See ya later, David.”
With a grin and a wave, he was gone, and David had to resist the urge to commit suicide via pillow. The floppy, nervous feeling in his stomach was blamed on the drugs.
“I think you should stay a couple of more days.”
David bit back an aggravated sigh as he continued to button up his shirt and he ignored Mrs. Jacobs amused titter, because of course she found his exasperation funny; probably thought it was deserved recompense for everything he put her through when he was young. Turning to look Harry in the eye, David quirked an eyebrow.
“What is it going to take for you to understand that I am fine?”
“You still have bandages to change, what if you get another infection?”
“I’m on every antibiotic known to man and I do know how to change dirty strips of gauze. A little hydrogen peroxide and I’ll be fine.”
Harry’s frown grew more pronounced. “You just got off your deathbed, and the doctors are just letting you leave?”
David glanced at Mrs. Jacobs and her green eyes glowed with understanding. She nodded as she collected her book and her purse, and silently shut the door behind her. Facing Harry once more as he grabbed his jacket to pull it on, David struggled to find the correct words to say.
“What’s wrong, Harry?”
The question agitated his nephew more, and Harry got up from the chair he had been sitting in and began to pace.
“You almost died.” He finally answered grudgingly.
“I pulled through.”
“The doctors said there was nothing they could,” Harry began softly, “So I asked for a favor…”
David froze, “It was bad enough that you had to use hocus pocus on me?”
“You were dying, what was I supposed to do?” Harry asked defensively.
The silence stretched and then David swallowed hard. “You had better not have made a deal that screws you over or I’m going to kick your ass.”
“I wrote Professor McGonagall. She sent the school healer to look at you one night and whatever she did must have worked, since the infection was fading by the nurse’s next round.” Harry’s gave a ghost of a smile. “It stumped the doctors to no end…”
David sat on the edge of the bed that had been his prison for almost three weeks, and watched his nephew pace for a few moments.
“You didn’t have to write her…”
Harry froze and then whipped around to glare at his uncle. “I’m tired of watching people die.”
I’m tired of watching people I care about die…
David smirked (smiled, but he could no longer tell the difference) and opened his arms slightly in a silent invitation. Harry watched him for a moment, wary and unsure, before burying himself in his uncle’s embrace.
“I still think you are a bastard.” Harry mumbled, and David just continued to smirk (a real one this time).
“You’re ruining the moment, brat.”
And when Mrs. Jacobs came back to find them in that position, she said not one word but helped David finish collecting the rest of his stuff.
“Why do I have to keep all this crap? I say we burn it.”
Jacqui shot him a look as she continued to arrange the cards in a pleasing manner along the counter of his kitchen. David scowled as Harry smirked across from him, the boy handing another card to the fingerprints technician.
“It’s the polite thing to do, so if anyone visits they can see that you kept their card.”
“If anyone visits, it must mean you’d have a date and couldn’t come torture me. But hell would have to freeze first, now wouldn’t it?”
David was smacked across the head as Mrs. Jacobs took a seat next to him at the bar, and Jacqui shot her a grateful look.
“Now I know that’s not how I taught you treat a lady, David Hodges.” She said sternly, calmly sipping her cup of tea.
David had to bit his lip to remark on how he thought no ladies had been present. But then he’d have not one, but two dangerous women out for his hide. So he looked at Ronnie, who was cooking dinner, for aid.
“I’m not getting involved; I have a wife and daughters in case you’ve forgotten.” The QD technician muttered in a way of an apology.
“Traitor.” David said, but it lacked real venom.
Jacqui snickered as Harry handed her another card, and Archie bounced into the room waving a DVD case.
“Guess what I brought!” He didn’t wait, because anyone who knew him (and many who didn’t) would guess right on the money. “Star Trek Voyager! ‘Cause Jacqui would like the captain, and I knew David would like Q.”
“Q?”
“Q of the Q.”
“Q of the Q?” David said, confusion crossing his face.
“Q of the Q.” Archie said solemnly, “He’s like you David, but only has the supreme power of the universe.”
David smirked, “Of course he’s like me.”
Archie then grinned at Jacqui, “This actually reminds me why I’m thankful David’s not a mutant or anything…”
“Anything I’d like?” Bobby asked while throwing some popcorn into the microwave, interrupting David before he could start, and ignoring Ronnie’s “What about dinner?”
“Explosions and peon deaths…?” Archie said hesitantly and Bobby shrugged.
“Good enough.”
The doorbell rang, and David glared at Harry when the boy yelled out, “Door’s open!”
“It could be an ax-wielding murderer and we’d all be dead.” He said with a scowl that Harry ignored with a grin. A hesitant Nick Stokes shuffled into the room, holding up two plastics bags as peace offerings. David turned his glare onto Jacqui, who simply grinned.
“He visited you everyday, so he deserves to go to David Hodges 'I'm Not Dead Yet’ party.”
“I brought ice-cream.” Nick said slowly, watching the techs like they were wild animals that were going to rip him to pieces. Jacqui was at his side in an instant, giving him an easy grin as she took the bags to put the frozen goods in the freezer.
“Take a seat where ever, David doesn’t mind.”
David muttered into his cup as Mrs. Jacobs shot him a look.
Nick grinned again and took a seat next to a smirking Harry.
A rap on the front door echoed through the apartment, and David glanced at Jacqui with an “Anyone else?” She shrugged at him though, glanced at Harry, he shrugged as well, and David rolled his eyes. Pulling himself out of his chair, he blinked when Nick jumped up and motioned for him to sit back down.
“I’ll get it.”
“I’m not a damn invalid.” David muttered to the CSI’s back.
A moment or two passed, and Minerva McGonagall walked leisurely into the room with Nick following closely behind her. Harry froze and David nodded his head slowly in greeting.
“Mr. Hodges, may I speak with you for a moment?”
“Of course.” Sliding off his stool, David walked into the next room with the older woman entering behind him. Ignoring the prickly feeling of eyes on the back of his head and the fact that Harry had followed them, the trace technician and the Headmistress of Hogwarts bent their heads together for as a private conversation as they could have in a room full of people who had too much curiosity for their own good.
“I must say I was surprised when Harry contacted me, but I am pleased to see that you are doing better.”
“What do you want?” David asked, watching the witch with sharp blue eyes and getting right to the point.
A lip quirked with sardonic amusement, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
David straightened and mocked, “I’m sorry, but I really can’t accept your feelings. I’m sure the right man will come along eventually, one that’ll allow for passive-aggressiveness and to be walked all over.”
Amusement faded and eyes behind the wire frames became cold and stern. A snort echoed slightly, and David glared at his nephew before Minerva grabbed his attention again.
“I must question your ability to care for Harry in light of recent events.”
David felt like he had been punched in the gut, and not-so-subtly placed his body between the witch and his nephew.
“I know I’m better than my half-sister.”
“Yes, but would you give your life for him?”
David snorted, “No.”
He didn’t have to explain himself to this woman, because she had to learn how to ask the right questions.
“Then we have a problem.”
“You should be asking about something other than some bogus, ‘Love everything, die in glory’, crap.”
A moment’s pause.
“Will you teach him how to survive?” She was learning, but not quickly enough.
David snorted, “He was merely surviving my half-sister and in the hell-hole you call a school. There is a difference between living and surviving.”
She was silent for a moment and a small, approving smile crossed her face. “You will teach him to live.”
“A ghost cannot teach the living what it means to be alive, but I’ll give him the means to figure it out on his own. And that’s better than anything anyone has ever given him.”
McGonagall nodded, her eyes warm as she regarded the pair before her. David Hodges probably didn’t even realize how protective he was looking at this moment, with a concerned Harry Potter being shielded behind him. And though she knew he had said he wouldn’t die for his nephew, there was no doubt in her mind that he would do whatever was necessary to keep Harry safe from whatever threats he perceived there to be. Even if that meant taking on the Dark Lord or the entire Wizarding World itself.
“Thank you.” She said simply, relieved that the boy she had grown so fond of in his years at Hogwarts finally had blood that actually gave a damn. David blinked, wondering what in the hell had just happened.
McGonagall turned to Harry, “Make sure your uncle stays away from magic, for the time being. Poppy’s not exactly sure how it may affect him since she healed him…”
She ignored David’s sputtered “There will be side-effects?!”
“Yes, ma’am.” Harry said with the cheeky grin that most definitely came from his father’s side of the family. She gave them a nod, and quietly left them to their celebration. Minerva had nothing to worry about now, after all.
Silence pervaded the apartment, and even though they had tried to eavesdrop, the Lab Rats (plus Mrs. Jacobs and one Nick Stokes) had only been able to tell what the conversation had been about from David’s body language. Earlier, he looked like a wolf protecting a cub, but now David looked like he simply wanted to fall over with exhaustion as he slumped onto the couch.
So when Mrs. Jacobs broke the silence, everyone jumped.
“Cheating on me, now are you?”
“One gal for every day of the week.” David mumbled back as Archie popped in the DVD and life resumed to the party.
And later, even though their relationship was still so very, incredibly rocky, David felt at peace for the first time in a long time when Harry fell asleep curled up next to him as the rest of his friends (that’s what they called themselves, anyways) were entranced (well, Archie was) by the adventures of Star Trek on his TV. And it didn’t hurt that Nick Stokes was curled up on the other side of him, so even though he had been put through hell, David was sure this would be the silver lining if he believed in such a thing.
Q = <3
Monty Python = <3
I don’t watch Star Trek, but if it’s on and I see Q, I’ll watch it. Because he’s like David but with god powers. This was going to be longer, but it’s pushing 20 pages and I’m sure you all are tired of reading. I did want to put in the Rats visiting David in the hospital, more Harry/David time at the hospital, and David going back to work. But pretty much everything I wanted to do can be done elsewhere.
I only did a cursory look over for editing, so if you notice any mistakes, please let me know so I can fix this.