Rescuer 8/13 (Bon Jovi, Def Leppard)
Title: Rescuer
Genre: Gen, Slash, Het
Bands: Bon Jovi, Def Leppard
Main Characters: David Bryan, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres, Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Vivian Campbell
Adult Content: No
Words: 3507
Chapter: 8/13
Summary: Smart-mouthed nine-breasted Venusian women, bouncy and naive Earth men, tough-talking asshole Charonite pilots, friendly space pirates, and a deep-seated revenge plot that goes back decades - just another work week for Jon Bon Jovi, Interplanetary Secretary of Transportation.
Teaser: The idea of Tico being scared of him would have made David laugh if he weren't so close to crying.
Two weeks ago, David's complete experiences with death added up to three closed-casket funerals. Now he'd sat on a ship that had blown three others out of the sky, killing God only knows how many people, and he worked down the hall from an extremely cold-blooded killer.
This hadn't been in the job description.
Not that he was doing much of his job. For the most part, he was trying to look busy while he worried about Kelly and what was going to happen to her if they found out she was involved, and the guys up on the asteroid and how miserable they must be just sitting and waiting, and himself and what the Hell he was going to do if they failed. Jon wouldn't admit defeat until they killed him.
He thought about Tico a lot. He'd wanted to ask about him last night, but Jon would have said something to Tico, and Tico would have misread it. Or maybe he would have read it right, who knows? David sure as fuck had no idea what he would have meant by asking about him. But he'd wanted to. Still wanted to, badly - he was considering calling Jon when he got back to the apartment just to ask about Tico.
He wouldn't.
But he wanted to.
----------
"This button fires the big gun?"
Richie sighed and shook his head. "For the third time, no. That'll drop a bomb. Which we don't even have any of, so if you push that expecting the big gun you're probably fucked."
"I'm not stupid," Phil said.
"I didn't say you were."
"This is just complicated."
Richie nodded. "That's why you train for three years in the military before you try it. You're handling the abridged version better than I would be. Now, the big gun is this set of controls right here. Center button arms it - it takes a few minutes to load, so if I were you I'd arm it right around takeoff so you don't get caught without it. This button calls up the view screen, and these switches here aim the gun. The camera's on top of the gun, so you're always looking at whatever you'll hit when you fire. The red button fires."
"Right, okay."
"You've got it now?"
"Yeah."
Richie pointed to a button at the top of the panel. "What's that?"
"That's ... the shields. Takes down the shields."
"Yep. This one?"
"Bomb."
"Yes. And - "
"The rest are all for the big gun. Big black one to arm, green one to get the camera, switches to aim, red to fire. Right?"
"Perfect. We'll go over it again before you leave."
Vivian peeked over the back of the pilot's seat. "Are we done now?"
Phil rolled his eyes. "I told you if you stayed you'd get bored."
"You did. And I believed you. But it's a handy excuse to stay away from the house."
"What's wrong with your house?" Richie asked.
"Tico's staying there. I don't think he likes me."
Phil snorted. "I don't think he likes anyone."
Richie frowned. "He's not - I mean, he's not friendly, but I don't think he's always quite this bad."
"Oh, I'm sure," Viv said. "But if he stabs me in the throat, you can't very well resuscitate me with 'he was nicer a week ago'."
All three of them looked up when the ship's door opened, assuming it was Jon coming to tell them when they were leaving.
Tico stood in the doorway, hair a mess and sporting several days worth of stubble. "Phil or Viv, do you have a ship I could borrow?"
The two looked at each other. "Uh," Viv said.
"We - why?"
"I just wanna go for a ride, clear my head. And I can't take this piece of crap 'cause everyone's looking for it."
"You sure you're okay to fly, Teek? You look - "
"I'm fine, Richie. I just need to get out for a bit."
Phil sighed. "You can take my ship, if you're just going for a ride. But if you crash it, I'll kill you. Even if you're already dead. Got that?"
Tico nodded, and the two of them left. Viv turned to Richie. "Is he..."
"I have no idea; I haven't really known him that long. I don't think I'd trust him with my ship, though."
----------
David couldn’t handle the idea of going back to Jon’s apartment and just sitting around, waiting for something to happen.
So he didn’t. He stayed late at work, with his door closed so no one would pop in and ask about his time on Tico’s ship, doing the kind of mundane paperwork he was so good at. From there he went to his own apartment to check on his plants - because, hey, there was always a chance the automated watering system would break down, right? - and poke around to see if there was anything he wanted to bring back to Jon’s. There wasn’t, he’d known there wouldn’t be. But it didn’t hurt to look.
From there he went to a bar. Not to drink, at least not much, but just to have somewhere to go that wasn’t the couch in front of the communication screen, waiting for news. People recognized him from the news feeds and he waved away their questions and the drinks they bought him. When he realized people weren’t going to figure out that he’d been in there two hours and was just finishing his first beer and it wasn’t alcohol or conversation he wanted, he left.
Jon’s apartment reeked of alcohol, even more than the bar had. Not the good stuff, either - it was cheap, tasteless, the kind of stuff you love at night when you’re desperate for a buzz and hardly have any money but hate in the morning.
Kelly was lying on the couch, an empty bottle dangling from her fingers.
“Hey, you.”
“Got thirsty?”
“A li’l.”
“Nice accent.”
“One of the guys from the….uh, the, uh, place, called. And that was how he said it and I liked it so I’m gonna say it like that now.”
David pushed her legs off the end of the couch so he could sit down.
“You know which one it was?”
“The blonde one.”
Well. That narrowed it down a little. “Okay, do you remember what he said?”
“Li’l.”
David sighed. “Other than that.”
“Yeah, I - he - no. Not - no.”
“Why are you drunk, Kelly?”
“’Cause that’s what alcohol does, silly.”
“I didn’t mean - I meant, why are you drinking?”
She set the bottle down and sat up long enough to lean against David, who wrapped his arm around her. “I hate it here.”
“You don’t have to stay. You can go home, I’ll keep you updated on - “
“No, no, no.” She shook her head, then closed her eyes and rested more heavily against David. “I mean here, like, Mars. When they’re out there, and we can’t do anything, and they’re out there, and - “
“Oh.”
“I just - this sucks. I feel useless, and it’s - I hate it.”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t say anything else, and David didn’t want to break her silence. He just sat there and rubbed her shoulder, letting her go through her own little personal Hell. Whether it was worry about the Charonites or about Jon or if she was just feeling guilty because she’d sent them out there and messed with Tico’s life so thoroughly, David couldn’t say. Either way, he wasn’t qualified to give advice for any of those, so he did what he could do, and held her.
"I'm tired."
"So sleep. You can take Jon's bed tonight, I'm fine on the couch."
"No, I can - "
David lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom. "You can take the bed. No arguing."
"I - okay."
----------
"Where the fuck is Tico?" Jon stormed onto the ship where Richie was running Phil through the weapons lesson one more time.
Phil looked at Richie.
Richie looked at Viv.
Viv looked at Phil.
Jon glared at them. "Joe told me he was headed over here. Where. Is. He?"
"He, uh, he - " Richie cleared his throat. "He left."
"Where did he leave to?"
"We don't know."
Jon snapped his head so sharply towards Viv that Richie could have sworn he heard bones breaking. "One of you had better tell me what the fuck is going on right now."
Phil looked at Viv.
Viv looked at Richie.
Richie sighed. "He borrowed Phil's ship and took off. Didn't tell us where he was going. We've tried calling and tracking him, but everything's shut off."
"And not one of you thought it would be a bad idea to let the overly emotional guy borrow a ship without making sure he had a good reason?"
"He said he needed to clear his head," Phil said.
"So tell him to go take a fucking walk. Or at least give him a ship where he can't disable everything. We need him here."
"Well, he was upset, so - "
"So you thought it would be a good idea to give him something big and flammable to go do something stupid in?"
Richie frowned. "I didn't - we didn't think - "
"Of course you didn't. And now he's gonna do something stupid."
"Stupid how?" Viv asked. The other three looked at the floor, the ceiling, the control panel, anywhere but at Viv. "Oh. He wouldn't. Would he?"
Jon sighed. "Maybe. He - I don't know."
Phil headed for the door. "I'll try calling him again."
"Right." Jon nodded. "And," he paused and looked up at the ceiling. "Someone has to tell David."
----------
David was standing out in space. Not standing, floating. For some reason, he didn't have his spacesuit on, but he was breathing fine, felt fine.
A ship was coming at him. Tico's ship.
Tico's voice growled out of the intercom. "Shoot to kill."
"We're just here to pick him up." Jon. That was Jon's voice. What the Hell was going on?
"I said shoot, Richie. What the fuck are you waiting for?"
"Tico, he's - "
"Shoot!"
David's eyes went wide as the big gun raised itself out of the top of the ship and turned towards him. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out at first.
"Tico, don't - " Jon again.
David found his voice. "Stop! Stop! It's just me, Tico, it's me, I didn't - don't - don't shoot me, don't shoot!"
The gun stopped in its tracks. Tico's voice rumbled through the speakers again. "David? What the Hell are you doing out there?"
"Incoming call from Rick Savage"
"What did you just say?"
David frowned. "I didn't say - "
"Incoming call from Rick Savage."
Jon's apartment was dark and still smelled like alcohol. David sat up and shook his head, blinking a few times to bring the room into focus.
"Incoming call from Rick Savage."
"I fucking heard you," he snapped at the computer, and hit the button to call up the screen. "You have any idea what time it is?"
Sav tilted his head. "Here? It's ten or so. There? No idea. Sorry if I woke you up."
"It's okay, I was just - you interrupted a dream."
"Oh. Good one?"
"Not really."
Sav smiled. "It all works out, then. Tico hasn't called you, has he?"
"Unless he called while I was sleeping, no. Someone called while I was out, but Kelly just remembered he was blonde and said 'li'l'."
"That was Phil, looking for Tico. He borrowed Phil's ship earlier, said he needed to 'clear his head'. He hasn't come back, and he turned off the tracking device and the communication system. Jon thought he might've called you."
"Nope, and he hasn't shown up here either." David bit his lip, his stomach rapidly dropping to his toes.
"I'm sure he's okay, David, just - Phil wants his ship back, and we can't do anything without Tico here, so - "
"Yeah, he's - I mean he must be - he'd call me if he were in trouble. I think. I hope. I mean - "
"I think he would, Dave. He's been talking about you - I mean, Jon says he has, I don't talk to him at all. But Jon seems to think he's likely to be headed out to see you, and he would know better than me. If he's gone out to get himself hurt - if, and it's not very likely - he'd want someone to know, and that would probably be you."
"But - "
"Don't worry David, okay? I'm sure he's fine. No one here's really worried about him, we just want him back so we can get going on this."
"This is - dammit." David curled up on the couch and pulled a pillow into his arms.
"Are you okay? Do you want - "
They both looked up at the sound of someone knocking on the door. David frowned and got up to answer it.
Tico looked like shit. His hair was filthy and looked like it hadn't been brushed for a week, his stubble had almost achieved beard status, and there were huge bags under his eyes.
"I missed you," he said.
David led him in and shut the door. "Tico, what - "
"I missed you. So I came to get you."
David glanced over at the screen. Sav's eyes were wide and he was biting his lip.
"What the Hell is he doing calling you?" Tico glared at the screen.
"He was looking for you 'cause you took off like an idiot and didn't tell anyone where you were. Sit down, you want some coffee or something?"
Tico shook his head and sat down, still glaring at Sav. David frowned. "Sav, I'm gonna hang up so we can talk."
Sav nodded. "Call me later, okay? And I'll let everyone know you found him."
The screen went blank. David sat down next to Tico. "What are you doing here, Teek?"
"I told you. I missed you, and I came to get you."
David picked up the pillow again, pulling at the corner. "Tico, I - "
"Please, David, I just want you to come back. I don't know what I did but I won't do it anymore."
"It wasn't anything you did, really, it was just - "
"You didn't want to leave. You told me you didn't. And then you did, so what was it? If I can fix it, I will, if you'll come back." Tico moved closer to David, running his fingers through curly hair. David sighed a little and leaned into the touch.
"It was just - " David couldn't say it. Looking at the hurt and desperation written over every inch of Tico's messy hair and patchy beard and in every line on his face, pooled in the bags under his eyes, he couldn't bring himself to say that he couldn't fix it, because it wasn't something he did. It was just him, that angry part of him that had delighted in the killing and that could take over with no warning. "You shouldn't be here."
Tico's face fell even more - David wouldn't have thought that was possible - and his hand fell away from David's hair. "If you don't want me around - "
"No, I didn't mean here like with me, I meant on Mars. If they find you - "
"I don't care."
"What happened to being loyal to yourself and your ship?"
Tico moved even closer, leaning in and wrapping his arm around David's neck. "You."
David closed his eyes. "Tico, I - "
He couldn't think of anything to say. His stomach had slowly floated up from his toes, but instead of going back where it was supposed to it was now trying to get out through his mouth.
Tico kissed him. Gently, like he was asking permission, like he was afraid of what David would do. The idea of Tico being scared of him would have made David laugh if he weren't so close to crying. Instead, he kissed back, sliding his arms around Tico and holding him as close as he could.
He could swear Tico whimpered, but the sound was so unlike Tico he couldn't be sure. A tongue pushed against his lips and he opened his mouth to accept it as he was eased back on the couch.
David couldn't think and he couldn't breathe and he couldn't let go and that was okay because he didn't want to do any of those. He wanted to kiss Tico and feel Tico against him and tighten his fingers so even when Tico finally pulled away he couldn't go far.
Tico's lips pulling away from his felt chillingly final. "You should go," David said, before Tico had a chance to say anything.
"You won't come with me, will you."
Tico pulled out of David's arms and stood up. David sat up and ran his fingers through his hair.
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah, me too."
"I'm going with you, though."
Tico and David looked towards the doorway. Kelly was standing there, all dressed, bag slung over her shoulder. Tico frowned. "I don't think - "
"I don't care what you think, I'm going. And we'd better get going before your ship gets discovered."
"Let her go, Teek."
Tico looked at David, then looked at Kelly and nodded. "Fine, alright. And we'll get out of your hair." He leaned down and kissed David lightly. "I wish you would come."
"I can't."
"I wish you'd tell me why."
David just looked down at the floor. Tico sighed, straightened up and headed out, Kelly right behind him. She paused at the door. "You'll think of a story for why I'm gone, right?"
"I - you - "
"Not holding your hand, remember? You'll figure it out. See you later, Dave."
----------
Work was Hell.
David had gone in early to report how Kelly had called him late last night in a panic, how the last thing she'd said had been, "Oh shit, he's - " and then he heard a few seconds of what sounded like a struggle before the screen went blank. He told them how he'd tried to call her back all night and part of the morning, how he'd driven over there to see her and she was gone.
He answered questions. Thousands upon thousands of questions asked by seemingly hundreds of people, while the back of his mind second-guessed and called him an idiot and a worthless kid and questioned if he was getting the details straight. It had taken nine people to come up with a plausible story before, what made him think he could do it himself?
Well, not totally himself. He'd called Sav back after Tico had left, and after a short mental breakdown that ended with him flinging an empty bottle at the wall, hollering because "that stupid bitch didn't leave me any fucking alcohol", and collapsing on the couch with his head in his hands until Sav had asked if he'd rather talk about or be left alone, they'd gotten to work. The bulk of the story had been David's, but Sav had helped. Sav was a good guy, David liked him. A lot.
But not as much as Tico. And all day, the part of his mind that hadn't been focused on getting the story right or worrying he hadn't gotten the story right was focused on Tico. And when he walked into Jon's apartment at the end of the day, worn-down and so tired he could barely stand, Sav was sitting on the couch.
"I thought you might need some company," he said, and at any other point in his life if someone had dropped everything to come rushing to his side just because he might need it, David would have been his forever.
But this wasn't any other point in his life. "Will you take me to Tico?" David asked, and Sav nodded after only a brief pause.
Genre: Gen, Slash, Het
Bands: Bon Jovi, Def Leppard
Main Characters: David Bryan, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres, Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Vivian Campbell
Adult Content: No
Words: 3507
Chapter: 8/13
Summary: Smart-mouthed nine-breasted Venusian women, bouncy and naive Earth men, tough-talking asshole Charonite pilots, friendly space pirates, and a deep-seated revenge plot that goes back decades - just another work week for Jon Bon Jovi, Interplanetary Secretary of Transportation.
Teaser: The idea of Tico being scared of him would have made David laugh if he weren't so close to crying.
Two weeks ago, David's complete experiences with death added up to three closed-casket funerals. Now he'd sat on a ship that had blown three others out of the sky, killing God only knows how many people, and he worked down the hall from an extremely cold-blooded killer.
This hadn't been in the job description.
Not that he was doing much of his job. For the most part, he was trying to look busy while he worried about Kelly and what was going to happen to her if they found out she was involved, and the guys up on the asteroid and how miserable they must be just sitting and waiting, and himself and what the Hell he was going to do if they failed. Jon wouldn't admit defeat until they killed him.
He thought about Tico a lot. He'd wanted to ask about him last night, but Jon would have said something to Tico, and Tico would have misread it. Or maybe he would have read it right, who knows? David sure as fuck had no idea what he would have meant by asking about him. But he'd wanted to. Still wanted to, badly - he was considering calling Jon when he got back to the apartment just to ask about Tico.
He wouldn't.
But he wanted to.
----------
"This button fires the big gun?"
Richie sighed and shook his head. "For the third time, no. That'll drop a bomb. Which we don't even have any of, so if you push that expecting the big gun you're probably fucked."
"I'm not stupid," Phil said.
"I didn't say you were."
"This is just complicated."
Richie nodded. "That's why you train for three years in the military before you try it. You're handling the abridged version better than I would be. Now, the big gun is this set of controls right here. Center button arms it - it takes a few minutes to load, so if I were you I'd arm it right around takeoff so you don't get caught without it. This button calls up the view screen, and these switches here aim the gun. The camera's on top of the gun, so you're always looking at whatever you'll hit when you fire. The red button fires."
"Right, okay."
"You've got it now?"
"Yeah."
Richie pointed to a button at the top of the panel. "What's that?"
"That's ... the shields. Takes down the shields."
"Yep. This one?"
"Bomb."
"Yes. And - "
"The rest are all for the big gun. Big black one to arm, green one to get the camera, switches to aim, red to fire. Right?"
"Perfect. We'll go over it again before you leave."
Vivian peeked over the back of the pilot's seat. "Are we done now?"
Phil rolled his eyes. "I told you if you stayed you'd get bored."
"You did. And I believed you. But it's a handy excuse to stay away from the house."
"What's wrong with your house?" Richie asked.
"Tico's staying there. I don't think he likes me."
Phil snorted. "I don't think he likes anyone."
Richie frowned. "He's not - I mean, he's not friendly, but I don't think he's always quite this bad."
"Oh, I'm sure," Viv said. "But if he stabs me in the throat, you can't very well resuscitate me with 'he was nicer a week ago'."
All three of them looked up when the ship's door opened, assuming it was Jon coming to tell them when they were leaving.
Tico stood in the doorway, hair a mess and sporting several days worth of stubble. "Phil or Viv, do you have a ship I could borrow?"
The two looked at each other. "Uh," Viv said.
"We - why?"
"I just wanna go for a ride, clear my head. And I can't take this piece of crap 'cause everyone's looking for it."
"You sure you're okay to fly, Teek? You look - "
"I'm fine, Richie. I just need to get out for a bit."
Phil sighed. "You can take my ship, if you're just going for a ride. But if you crash it, I'll kill you. Even if you're already dead. Got that?"
Tico nodded, and the two of them left. Viv turned to Richie. "Is he..."
"I have no idea; I haven't really known him that long. I don't think I'd trust him with my ship, though."
----------
David couldn’t handle the idea of going back to Jon’s apartment and just sitting around, waiting for something to happen.
So he didn’t. He stayed late at work, with his door closed so no one would pop in and ask about his time on Tico’s ship, doing the kind of mundane paperwork he was so good at. From there he went to his own apartment to check on his plants - because, hey, there was always a chance the automated watering system would break down, right? - and poke around to see if there was anything he wanted to bring back to Jon’s. There wasn’t, he’d known there wouldn’t be. But it didn’t hurt to look.
From there he went to a bar. Not to drink, at least not much, but just to have somewhere to go that wasn’t the couch in front of the communication screen, waiting for news. People recognized him from the news feeds and he waved away their questions and the drinks they bought him. When he realized people weren’t going to figure out that he’d been in there two hours and was just finishing his first beer and it wasn’t alcohol or conversation he wanted, he left.
Jon’s apartment reeked of alcohol, even more than the bar had. Not the good stuff, either - it was cheap, tasteless, the kind of stuff you love at night when you’re desperate for a buzz and hardly have any money but hate in the morning.
Kelly was lying on the couch, an empty bottle dangling from her fingers.
“Hey, you.”
“Got thirsty?”
“A li’l.”
“Nice accent.”
“One of the guys from the….uh, the, uh, place, called. And that was how he said it and I liked it so I’m gonna say it like that now.”
David pushed her legs off the end of the couch so he could sit down.
“You know which one it was?”
“The blonde one.”
Well. That narrowed it down a little. “Okay, do you remember what he said?”
“Li’l.”
David sighed. “Other than that.”
“Yeah, I - he - no. Not - no.”
“Why are you drunk, Kelly?”
“’Cause that’s what alcohol does, silly.”
“I didn’t mean - I meant, why are you drinking?”
She set the bottle down and sat up long enough to lean against David, who wrapped his arm around her. “I hate it here.”
“You don’t have to stay. You can go home, I’ll keep you updated on - “
“No, no, no.” She shook her head, then closed her eyes and rested more heavily against David. “I mean here, like, Mars. When they’re out there, and we can’t do anything, and they’re out there, and - “
“Oh.”
“I just - this sucks. I feel useless, and it’s - I hate it.”
“Yeah.”
She didn’t say anything else, and David didn’t want to break her silence. He just sat there and rubbed her shoulder, letting her go through her own little personal Hell. Whether it was worry about the Charonites or about Jon or if she was just feeling guilty because she’d sent them out there and messed with Tico’s life so thoroughly, David couldn’t say. Either way, he wasn’t qualified to give advice for any of those, so he did what he could do, and held her.
"I'm tired."
"So sleep. You can take Jon's bed tonight, I'm fine on the couch."
"No, I can - "
David lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom. "You can take the bed. No arguing."
"I - okay."
----------
"Where the fuck is Tico?" Jon stormed onto the ship where Richie was running Phil through the weapons lesson one more time.
Phil looked at Richie.
Richie looked at Viv.
Viv looked at Phil.
Jon glared at them. "Joe told me he was headed over here. Where. Is. He?"
"He, uh, he - " Richie cleared his throat. "He left."
"Where did he leave to?"
"We don't know."
Jon snapped his head so sharply towards Viv that Richie could have sworn he heard bones breaking. "One of you had better tell me what the fuck is going on right now."
Phil looked at Viv.
Viv looked at Richie.
Richie sighed. "He borrowed Phil's ship and took off. Didn't tell us where he was going. We've tried calling and tracking him, but everything's shut off."
"And not one of you thought it would be a bad idea to let the overly emotional guy borrow a ship without making sure he had a good reason?"
"He said he needed to clear his head," Phil said.
"So tell him to go take a fucking walk. Or at least give him a ship where he can't disable everything. We need him here."
"Well, he was upset, so - "
"So you thought it would be a good idea to give him something big and flammable to go do something stupid in?"
Richie frowned. "I didn't - we didn't think - "
"Of course you didn't. And now he's gonna do something stupid."
"Stupid how?" Viv asked. The other three looked at the floor, the ceiling, the control panel, anywhere but at Viv. "Oh. He wouldn't. Would he?"
Jon sighed. "Maybe. He - I don't know."
Phil headed for the door. "I'll try calling him again."
"Right." Jon nodded. "And," he paused and looked up at the ceiling. "Someone has to tell David."
----------
David was standing out in space. Not standing, floating. For some reason, he didn't have his spacesuit on, but he was breathing fine, felt fine.
A ship was coming at him. Tico's ship.
Tico's voice growled out of the intercom. "Shoot to kill."
"We're just here to pick him up." Jon. That was Jon's voice. What the Hell was going on?
"I said shoot, Richie. What the fuck are you waiting for?"
"Tico, he's - "
"Shoot!"
David's eyes went wide as the big gun raised itself out of the top of the ship and turned towards him. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out at first.
"Tico, don't - " Jon again.
David found his voice. "Stop! Stop! It's just me, Tico, it's me, I didn't - don't - don't shoot me, don't shoot!"
The gun stopped in its tracks. Tico's voice rumbled through the speakers again. "David? What the Hell are you doing out there?"
"Incoming call from Rick Savage"
"What did you just say?"
David frowned. "I didn't say - "
"Incoming call from Rick Savage."
Jon's apartment was dark and still smelled like alcohol. David sat up and shook his head, blinking a few times to bring the room into focus.
"Incoming call from Rick Savage."
"I fucking heard you," he snapped at the computer, and hit the button to call up the screen. "You have any idea what time it is?"
Sav tilted his head. "Here? It's ten or so. There? No idea. Sorry if I woke you up."
"It's okay, I was just - you interrupted a dream."
"Oh. Good one?"
"Not really."
Sav smiled. "It all works out, then. Tico hasn't called you, has he?"
"Unless he called while I was sleeping, no. Someone called while I was out, but Kelly just remembered he was blonde and said 'li'l'."
"That was Phil, looking for Tico. He borrowed Phil's ship earlier, said he needed to 'clear his head'. He hasn't come back, and he turned off the tracking device and the communication system. Jon thought he might've called you."
"Nope, and he hasn't shown up here either." David bit his lip, his stomach rapidly dropping to his toes.
"I'm sure he's okay, David, just - Phil wants his ship back, and we can't do anything without Tico here, so - "
"Yeah, he's - I mean he must be - he'd call me if he were in trouble. I think. I hope. I mean - "
"I think he would, Dave. He's been talking about you - I mean, Jon says he has, I don't talk to him at all. But Jon seems to think he's likely to be headed out to see you, and he would know better than me. If he's gone out to get himself hurt - if, and it's not very likely - he'd want someone to know, and that would probably be you."
"But - "
"Don't worry David, okay? I'm sure he's fine. No one here's really worried about him, we just want him back so we can get going on this."
"This is - dammit." David curled up on the couch and pulled a pillow into his arms.
"Are you okay? Do you want - "
They both looked up at the sound of someone knocking on the door. David frowned and got up to answer it.
Tico looked like shit. His hair was filthy and looked like it hadn't been brushed for a week, his stubble had almost achieved beard status, and there were huge bags under his eyes.
"I missed you," he said.
David led him in and shut the door. "Tico, what - "
"I missed you. So I came to get you."
David glanced over at the screen. Sav's eyes were wide and he was biting his lip.
"What the Hell is he doing calling you?" Tico glared at the screen.
"He was looking for you 'cause you took off like an idiot and didn't tell anyone where you were. Sit down, you want some coffee or something?"
Tico shook his head and sat down, still glaring at Sav. David frowned. "Sav, I'm gonna hang up so we can talk."
Sav nodded. "Call me later, okay? And I'll let everyone know you found him."
The screen went blank. David sat down next to Tico. "What are you doing here, Teek?"
"I told you. I missed you, and I came to get you."
David picked up the pillow again, pulling at the corner. "Tico, I - "
"Please, David, I just want you to come back. I don't know what I did but I won't do it anymore."
"It wasn't anything you did, really, it was just - "
"You didn't want to leave. You told me you didn't. And then you did, so what was it? If I can fix it, I will, if you'll come back." Tico moved closer to David, running his fingers through curly hair. David sighed a little and leaned into the touch.
"It was just - " David couldn't say it. Looking at the hurt and desperation written over every inch of Tico's messy hair and patchy beard and in every line on his face, pooled in the bags under his eyes, he couldn't bring himself to say that he couldn't fix it, because it wasn't something he did. It was just him, that angry part of him that had delighted in the killing and that could take over with no warning. "You shouldn't be here."
Tico's face fell even more - David wouldn't have thought that was possible - and his hand fell away from David's hair. "If you don't want me around - "
"No, I didn't mean here like with me, I meant on Mars. If they find you - "
"I don't care."
"What happened to being loyal to yourself and your ship?"
Tico moved even closer, leaning in and wrapping his arm around David's neck. "You."
David closed his eyes. "Tico, I - "
He couldn't think of anything to say. His stomach had slowly floated up from his toes, but instead of going back where it was supposed to it was now trying to get out through his mouth.
Tico kissed him. Gently, like he was asking permission, like he was afraid of what David would do. The idea of Tico being scared of him would have made David laugh if he weren't so close to crying. Instead, he kissed back, sliding his arms around Tico and holding him as close as he could.
He could swear Tico whimpered, but the sound was so unlike Tico he couldn't be sure. A tongue pushed against his lips and he opened his mouth to accept it as he was eased back on the couch.
David couldn't think and he couldn't breathe and he couldn't let go and that was okay because he didn't want to do any of those. He wanted to kiss Tico and feel Tico against him and tighten his fingers so even when Tico finally pulled away he couldn't go far.
Tico's lips pulling away from his felt chillingly final. "You should go," David said, before Tico had a chance to say anything.
"You won't come with me, will you."
Tico pulled out of David's arms and stood up. David sat up and ran his fingers through his hair.
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah, me too."
"I'm going with you, though."
Tico and David looked towards the doorway. Kelly was standing there, all dressed, bag slung over her shoulder. Tico frowned. "I don't think - "
"I don't care what you think, I'm going. And we'd better get going before your ship gets discovered."
"Let her go, Teek."
Tico looked at David, then looked at Kelly and nodded. "Fine, alright. And we'll get out of your hair." He leaned down and kissed David lightly. "I wish you would come."
"I can't."
"I wish you'd tell me why."
David just looked down at the floor. Tico sighed, straightened up and headed out, Kelly right behind him. She paused at the door. "You'll think of a story for why I'm gone, right?"
"I - you - "
"Not holding your hand, remember? You'll figure it out. See you later, Dave."
----------
Work was Hell.
David had gone in early to report how Kelly had called him late last night in a panic, how the last thing she'd said had been, "Oh shit, he's - " and then he heard a few seconds of what sounded like a struggle before the screen went blank. He told them how he'd tried to call her back all night and part of the morning, how he'd driven over there to see her and she was gone.
He answered questions. Thousands upon thousands of questions asked by seemingly hundreds of people, while the back of his mind second-guessed and called him an idiot and a worthless kid and questioned if he was getting the details straight. It had taken nine people to come up with a plausible story before, what made him think he could do it himself?
Well, not totally himself. He'd called Sav back after Tico had left, and after a short mental breakdown that ended with him flinging an empty bottle at the wall, hollering because "that stupid bitch didn't leave me any fucking alcohol", and collapsing on the couch with his head in his hands until Sav had asked if he'd rather talk about or be left alone, they'd gotten to work. The bulk of the story had been David's, but Sav had helped. Sav was a good guy, David liked him. A lot.
But not as much as Tico. And all day, the part of his mind that hadn't been focused on getting the story right or worrying he hadn't gotten the story right was focused on Tico. And when he walked into Jon's apartment at the end of the day, worn-down and so tired he could barely stand, Sav was sitting on the couch.
"I thought you might need some company," he said, and at any other point in his life if someone had dropped everything to come rushing to his side just because he might need it, David would have been his forever.
But this wasn't any other point in his life. "Will you take me to Tico?" David asked, and Sav nodded after only a brief pause.