DA Summer Fest Fic: "Kiss My Eyes and Lay Me to Sleep"
Title: “Kiss My Eyes and Lay Me to Sleep”
Author: ladyarcherfan3
Fandom: Dark Angel
Rating: PG-13 for some language (show level)
Word Count: ~2,777
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you’d recognize - Dark Angel and the characters and concepts belong to their creators; title taken from AFI’s song of the same name.
Characters: Alec, Joshua
Prompt: Alec, Joshua (h/c) prompt: Alec seizes while he and Joshua are out and about. Author's choice whether Joshua rushes him to one of the others for help or manages to take care of him himself. What happens when always-all-right-Alec displays such weakness/vulnerability?
Notes: Set between “Medium is the Message” and “The Berrisford Agenda.” Hopefully the prompter will be pleased with the results of were my muse ran with this idea. All mistakes are mine.
Joshua knew something was wrong when Alec stumbled up the stairs and through the front door.
For an X-5, with their cat DNA and stealth training, Alec was noisy. He chattered constantly, slammed doors, fought with Max, and never sat still for long. Joshua didn’t mind, usually. It distracted him during his long solitary hours in the house, and the visits were usually accompanied by gifts. Alec had brought food like the ham hocks or mac and cheese and hot dogs a few times, and recently there had been painting supplies. Other times, Alec had swung by between runs at Jam Pony, to wait for some other side deal to happen. Joshua suspected that the X-5 was lonely and had no solid base of operation; and the painting deal kept Alec interested as well. The visits were never planned but generally expected.
But the sounds Joshua heard now were not what he usually associated with Alec. Something was wrong.
Alec’s bike clattered to the ground, the kickstand ignored. Uneven footfalls echoed on the stairs and the door rattled open. Joshua set down his paint brush and frowned.
“Hey, Josh, w-what you doing?” Alec’s voice caught slightly. He rounded the corner and set his shoulder against the door jam.
“Painting. Max.” Joshua gestured to the canvas. The initial broad strokes of red and black were feathered over with light touches of blues and pinks.
“Huh.” Alec looked at the canvas but didn’t seem to see it. After a few moments he glanced around the room at random and spotted the painting titled Joshua Number Two. “Wait, did you steal that back, after I told you not to? What the hell, Josh!”
Joshua flinched and ducked his head automatically at Alec’s harsh tone. Then he looked back up, defiant. “Had to get the papers back for Max. Virus bitch going down.”
Alec snorted. “And you just screwed yourself out of a huge money making deal.” His lips curled up in a slight snarl and he tucked his arms close to his body, as if cold.
The frown on Joshua’s face deepened. Alec didn’t look right, and he certainly wasn’t acting right. Joshua sniffed once, canine DNA working in his favor. Alec didn’t even smell right. He smelled of sickly sweat, with a faint tang of something that made him think of the basement of Manitcore. But the disgusted and frustrated expression on his friend’s face claimed Joshua’s attention. “Alec mad?”
“Yeah. No, no. Never mind.” Arms came from his sides and wrapped around his torso; a shiver rocked him. “Well, this trip was pointless. I’ll see you later.” Without another word, he turned and went to the front door.
Joshua’s head cocked to the side in confusion while his shoulders drooped in disappointment. He hadn’t meant to upset Alec, but Max was his friend too. And if fingers were being pointed, it was almost as much Alec’s fault as Joshua’s that the papers had gotten painted. Money was nice, but it wasn’t everything. With a big sigh, Joshua started for the door to argue his point. Maybe Alec would listen.
There was a sudden thump from just outside. A groan of pain and annoyance echoed through the door.
Without hesitating, Joshua ran down the hall and out the door. Alec was curled up on the sidewalk at the bottom of the steps, shaking. Everything made sense - the wrong mood, the scent like Manticore - it was the shakes. Joshua never had them himself, as the flaw seemed to be restricted to the X-5’s, but it wasn’t just the transhumans who ended up in the basement of Manticore.
And watching someone with the shakes scared him.
Alec groaned again as another shiver ran through him, even as he struggled to sit up. Something clutched in his hand rattled in time to the shakes. Joshua shook the fear and hesitation away. Alec needed help, and Joshua helped his friends and family. Always.
He reached out to grip Alec’s shoulder but the X-5 shrugged off the touch. Joshua persisted. “You alright?”
“I’m-m always al-alright,” Alec managed and he sat up; the tremors had slacked off. He reached for his messenger bag, fumbling for something.
“Alec want to call Max?” Joshua spotted a cell phone that had fallen out Alec’s pocket and picked it up.
“What? No, n-no Max! ‘kay, Josh?” Alec’s eyes flashed wide and he snatched the phone away. “J-just leave me alone.” He went back to pawing at his bag, one handed. The other was still clenched in a fist, forgotten.
Joshua frowned at the dismissal, but ignored it. He settled on his heels, peering at Alec, pensive and patient.
“I know I’m a handsome devil, Josh, but quit staring already.” A sudden, sharp spasm made Alec’s whole body jump. “God!” he panted, voice almost a whimper. “W-where’s that tryp’?” he muttered.
Something clicked in Joshua’s head. The rattling, the befuddled search. He reached out and grasped Alec’s wrist, gently prying open the fist. “Tryptophan here,” he said simply.
Brows pulled together in pain and bemusement, Alec stared down at the small pill bottle in his palm, as if wondering how it got there. He managed to twist off the cover and pour a few of the pills into his hand before another seizure hit. The tryptophan scattered across the sidewalk as he jerked. After a moment he got his limbs under some semblance of control and scrambled for the spilled medication. Joshua reached out to help, but Alec tried to push him away.
“I got this; don’t hang out here because of me.” He tried to smile but it was wan and shaky.
“Not leaving,” Joshua said firmly as he scooped the scattered pills back into the bottle. “Alec is sick.”
A smirk appeared and he finally swallowed a few of the tryptophan. “Not sick, just shaky.”
“Can you stand?”
“Yep, yep.” He shifted to his knees, hands braced against the sidewalk. Halfway up, his left leg and right arm jerked and he slipped back down. Eyes squinted against pain and the faint grey sunlight Alec looked up at the transhuman and said, “I got it, don’t worry.”
Joshua sighed. “Not worried,” he lied. “Just helping.” He stood and reached down to grasp Alec’s arm. Gently but allowing no other option, he pulled the X-5 to his feet and started walking to the house.
“Josh! Hey, let go!” Alec demanded. “I’m fine, seriously.” He tried to pull away.
“You are not fine.” Joshua nearly had them to the stairs, but Alec was putting up a surprisingly good fight, despite the shakes.
“Still doesn’t mean you have to haul me around like a rag doll. Let go.” He slammed to a stop and ripped his arm out of Joshua’s grasp.
The flash of triumph on his face lasted a few seconds before he crumpled with a groan. Limbs connected with unforgiving cement as the seizure danced through his body. On the edges of his blurry vision, he watched Joshua kneel and reach out. The pain intensified and white light snapped around in his skull. A whimper broke from his throat. He heard Joshua’s empathetic whine just as one final, bright flash of light and pain knocked him out.
Joshua whined again as Alec went from twitching uncontrollably to utterly still in less than a heartbeat. He waited a few heartbeats to make sure another seizure wasn’t about to appear. Then, he scooped Alec off the ground and hurried back into the house. If the seizures were over or not, the sidewalk was no place for his friend now.
He managed to get through the door before Alec started to wake up. It wasn’t much at first, just a slight shift of the head, a fist that opened and closed. By the time Joshua stepped through the living room door, Alec was restless. He squirmed against the gentle grip cradling him, and half formed whispers escaped with his puffed breaths. After a few moments, Joshua could make out the words.
“No, no, please, don’t…”
“Alec?” The dog man settled him on the sofa but got no response beyond a muffled groan. “Don’t move,” he ordered, holding his hands up as he backed away, as if the gesture would keep Alec in place. A few quick steps into the kitchen, and then he was back, a glass of water clenched in his hand.
“Yes, sir, no…mission,” Alec whispered.
Joshua settled next to the sofa, setting the water nearby on the floor, face twisted in frustration. Alec’s mutterings made no real sense, but the tone was frightened and desperate. Whatever memories or dreams he was struggling against were not happy. And Joshua wasn’t sure what he could do, if anything, to help.
“Alec?” He gripped and then shook Alec’s shoulder, hoping to rouse him. “Alec, are you awake?”
“Nnnghh,” was the reply. Eyes roved under the lids, but they didn’t open.
Joshua tried again; the slight response was encouraging. “Wake up now, Alec.” He shook him again, harder.
“No.” The word was a breath.
“Yes,” Joshua argued and shook him again.
Alec gasped and blinked wildly. “No!” He managed to sit up, but quickly fell back. His face was pale, brows pinched in pain.
“Good.” Joshua’s face broke into a wide grin. “Alec is awake now, drink some water, take some tryptophan, get better.”
The X-5 blinked; the heel of his hand scrubbed against his left eye. His gaze traveled around the room haphazardly and came to rest on Joshua. There was no recognition there. Joshua whined under his breath.
“Nomalie!” Alec’s breath caught, and then sped up in fear.
“No, just Joshua.”
“No.” He shook his head in denial, the movement spreading through his body as a seizure built. “No, please.”
His whole body went into convulsions again. Flailing limbs pushed him off the sofa; the hollow thump of a body on the wood floor echoed through the room. With a keening whimper, his eyes rolled back in his head and then he passed out again.
“Not good,” Joshua stated. But Alec seemed down for the count at least for the moment, so with another order to stay still, Joshua ran out of the room, heading away from the kitchen this time.
*
When he woke, Alec was first aware of only the ache encompassing his whole body; he had no real idea of what had happened, how much time he’d lost or any other sort of detail. Then, he realized that despite the pain, he was actually fairly comfortable. An experimental stretch of one hand discovered a wide swathe of softness and warmth. His legs and feet ran into more of the same and tangled. He heard the soft pad of footsteps approaching and thought about opening his eyes.
He could feel the light where pressed against his lids, so he knew it was going to hurt to face it. But there was only so much he could figure out about his situation sightless. Slowly, he cracked open one eye, the slit of light almost blinding him. He groaned and snapped the eye shut.
A body shifted closer and the light faded slightly. “Alec?”
The voice was familiar. “Yeah, Josh?” he croaked and winced. It wasn’t just his muscles that hurt - his throat felt sandblasted. Blinking rapidly, he managed to see. The dog man was crouched on the floor; the light was behind him and prevented Alec from seeing his expression.
“Here, water.” Joshua held out a glass.
Alec all but lunged for it, the clear liquid the most wonderful thing he had seen in a long time. Unfortunately his limbs were having none of it, and he almost fell on his face. Strong arms caught him around the shoulders and intercepted the crash, lowering him back onto the cushions. He realized then that he was in a nest of blankets and pillows, piled in the middle of the floor.
“Wh-” he tried to ask, but his voice gave out.
Silent and patient, Joshua helped him sit up and gave him the water. Alec’s hands only shook a little as he raised the glass to his lips, eyes peering over the rim at Joshua’s stolid features.
“Do you want more?” Joshua asked as Alec put the empty glass on the floor.
“Nah.” He looked around at the makeshift bed. “Why am I on the floor? Did you try to talk me into building a blanket fort with you but I fell asleep half way through?” A halfhearted grin pulled at his lips.
“You don’t remember?” Joshua’s eyes flashed fear and then narrowed as Alec bit his lip guiltily.
“It was a joke. Sorry man.”
“Don’t joke. Alec was seizing, and I was scared.” Joshua’s tone was surprisingly sharp but he recovered quickly. “You alright now, right?”
“Yep, I’m always alright.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, ruffling it up a bit to avoid looking at Joshua. The guy seemed to see right through his shield to see how scared he was. The shakes were to be expected but never fun to deal with, especially with someone else around. “Seriously, though, why am I on the floor?”
“You fell off the sofa with the shakes. I didn’t want you to get hurt more,” was the simple reply.
“Huh. Looks and feels like I didn’t break anything. Thanks.”
“I saw other X-5’s with the shakes get hurt when they hit the floor,” Joshua said, his voice reminiscent. “In the basement.”
“You’re hiding X-5’s in your basement?” At Joshua’s look, Alec forced his muzzy brain into focus. “Wait, back at Manticore?”
Joshua nodded. “Saw you there.”
“Yeah, when we first met, before the escape,” Alec said easily. A spike of cold went through Alec’s chest even as he spoke. The only time he’d been in the basement of Manticore had been when he went with Max to escape - and those times during reindoctrination. The fear was chased with mortification. Joshua had just seen him crumple and flop around like a dying fish, and apparently had seen it in the past. Great. He didn’t like people seeing him like that.
“And before.”
“Well, they had us all over in that place, before and after missions and that sort of stuff,” Alec admitted. He reached for the empty water glass and rolled it between his hands, just to have something to do. His head was still fuzzy and it felt like he was a half a step behind.
“When you were shaking, you talked. You sounded scared.”
“You try having your brain do some crazy misfiring and not get a bit worried,” Alec shot back.
Joshua didn’t say anything else, but his gaze was steady, and continued to look past all of Alec’s bullshit. Alec dropped his gaze.
“Thirsty? Need more tryptophan?”
“Nope, I’m good. As soon as I can stand, I’ll get outta your hair.”
“Call Max - she could help you home,” Joshua suggested.
Alec shook his head sharply. “No.” Then he continued, lighter, “Max doesn’t like me that much to let herself get dragged away from work to haul my ass home. I got this.”
“Said that before, and you didn’t,” Joshua muttered as he took the water glass away and went back to the kitchen to refill it.
Alone for the moment, Alec dropped his head into his hands with a sigh. What had he said while seizing that he didn’t remember? All he could recall was the utter helpless panic that the shakes always brought on, and fighting as long as he could against them. But fighting the shakes was about as effective as fighting Phys-Ops. And Joshua apparently knew about that too. How long would it take for Max to find out and start hounding him about that, demanding some sort of heart to heart when he’d rather leave it all behind?
*
As it turned out, Max never did really find out; she found out about some of the Phys-Ops stuff eventually, but not the shakes. Even weeks later at Joshua’s dinner party, she had no clue. But it wasn’t because Joshua had forgotten.
“You alright?” Joshua asked, holding up the locket.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m always alright,” Alec replied, shoving away the memories to hide behind a grin.
Joshua handed the necklace back, but caught Alec’s gaze for a moment, knowing, asking as a friend what he could do, how he could help as he had helped before. But he didn’t say a single word. He had recognized Alec’s need for that bright façade to hide the darkness, and wouldn’t break it.
If he hadn’t been sure before, Alec suddenly realized what a friend was, and that Joshua was one.
Fin.