The Weary and Blasphemous (chapter 6/9)
Title: The Weary and Blasphemous
Fandom: House, M.D
Pairing: House/Wilson
Rating: G
Warnings: Severe AU
Disclaimer: not mine x 1 gagillion.
Summary: The “L” word finds it’s way into their relationship. They revel in the fact that they have a “relationship” in the first place. Eddie’s still blissfully unaware of the fact that his guests are an angel and a demon. He also seems to be drifting further away from the rest of the world...
Notes: Shorter chapter this time. Don't jinx it. The calm before the storm.
Chapter 6
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Gregory woke up the next morning from one of the best sleeps he’d had in a long time. No nightmares, no visions of hospitals or Hell. He was on his stomach with a warm body snuggled up against his back and a nose buried in his shoulder. One of his wings was trapped and, when he tried to wriggle it free, an arm tightened around his upper body and another around his waist.
Wait a second. Were there two people in bed with him?
Trying to twist his neck around to see over his shoulder, he realized that James’ left wing was completely wrapped around his smaller body. The demon’s wings were significantly smaller than James’, so his free wing was comfortably tucked underneath the shield his angel had created for them.
It felt wonderful, waking up in someone’s arms. In someone’s wings. In just the short time that he’d known James, Gregory had experienced things most demons don’t even know the names for. Love, trust, and the security that came with it. Let the rest of the angels find them. Let the rest of the demons. Let the whole world fall apart.
He would stay right here.
Little huffs of air from James nose spread pleasant warmth over the back of his neck and shoulder. Sunlight streamed in from the smudgy window above their heads, highlighting specks of dust floating in the air. He snuggled back comfortably against the angel’s chest, and closed his eyes.
He’d stay right here. Nobody was awake yet. Nobody was chasing them right now. Nobody was looking.
He closed his eyes, still a little groggy. He’d just rest his eyes a minute. Then the world could start again.
*
He woke again, but this time to James shaking him, almost violently. The angel was half sitting up, pulling the sheets up toward his chest and trying to scoot back into the wall behind them.
“Greg! Greg, wake up, wake up!” He could hear panic in the strained whisper, and he immediately assumed the worst. They must have been found, by one side or the other. There would be consequences, punishment.
“It’s Eddie!”
Eddie? Sure enough, when Gregory turned around, there he was, dressed only in a pair of tighty whities and one black sock. A metal spatula hung from a lose grip.
Cursing, Gregory quickly concentrated on making himself look fully human again, folding his wings back into himself. He could see the James already had. But just how much had the old man seen? And would he really care? He’d seen James’ sword and hadn’t batted an eyelash. Maybe his brain was so used to living in a fantasy world that the subject of angels and demons wouldn’t be so hard for him to accept.
He just stood there, and time stretched on for a long minute. James was still breathing hard, and Gregory put a hand on his chest to steady him. They kept very still.
Maybe his vision is based on movement. If we just don’t move, maybe he’ll lose sight of us and wander into the bathroom.
But Eddie just stood there, stiff as a board, head slightly cocked to one side. His eyes were dark and blank, staring at them.
“Eddie?” James called to him, the first to notice something was wrong.
Eddie still didn’t move, just stared. Drool was starting to collect on one side of his mouth.
“I… Don’t think he’s looking at us.” James slowly got off the sofa bed, padding up softly to where Eddie stood. “I think he’s… I think something’s wrong.”
He wasn’t staring at them, Gregory realized, he was just staring. Like a mannequin, except for the shallow movements of his chest.
“…eggs and bacon.” When he spoke, both Gregory and James jumped a little. Suddenly, their friend was alive again. He was moving again, smacking his knee with one hand and pointing outside with the other.
“Well? If’n you don’t come outside, I’ma eat all the breakfast by myself!”
As he walked back outside, the screen door slamming behind him, James shot Gregory a confused look.
“What was that?” The angel looked almost on the verge of tears. “Do you think he saw us? I was sure he saw us. I don’t get it, I just don’t get it. What was that?” He asked again, flopping back down on the bed beside Gregory.
The demon had seen this behavior from Eddie only once before. He had been in the middle of a conversation with the old man, and Eddie had just stopped. He’d stopped as he had now, stiff limbs and dead eyes. He’d stayed that way for a whole 4 minutes before switching back on again.
When Gregory had asked Eddie about it, he’d said he had no idea what the demon was talking about.
“C’mon ya sissy’s! Hangover’s no reason t’miss out on bacon cooked over a hot truck engine!”
Gregory thought he had an idea of what had just happened. Eddie probably didn’t remember seeing the two of them in their true form and, if he’d registered the sight at all.
Something was wrong, and it was getting worse.
Whatever was wrong with Eddie’s head, it was getting worse.
*
As days passed, they tried to make themselves useful in return for Eddie harboring them. They helped take care of the minor chores that went along with living there. They helped set the perimeter wire back up whenever it was accidentally tripped, tried to help Eddie maintenance on his old Chevy truck, and James took it upon himself to try and help clean and organize the place. Soon there was a neat pile of firewood beside the trailer instead of it being scattered all over the ground. The grime and dirt on the windows were clean and allowed much more sunlight to shine in. At one point the angel got into a fight with Eddie when he tried to get rid of his piles of old, broken electronics.
Eddie had a few very nice things, but most of the rest didn't work anymore, even though he insisted all of his stuff was “extremely important”. When Eddie finally threatened to shoot James if he threw any of it away, the angel decided to just work around it. Now there were piles of clutter in various corners of the trailer with makeshift duct tape labels that said, "Eddie's Very Important Things".
Just so there wasn't any confusion.
They stole moments with each other, whenever they could find the time. These times were few and far between, but they used them well. A quick kiss in the trailer, hushed conversations near the edge of the woods. More than a few times, they found refuge in the backseat of Eddie’s old Chevy, fogging up the windows, wishing the springs would stop squeaking, and trying desperately to keep quiet.
James told Gregory stories of Heaven, or what he still remembered of it. The longer he stayed in human form and cut off from his brothers, the more his memories started to fade into the background.
“I don’t want you to forget…” Gregory had whispered when James told him this. James had just smiled in return, a little sad.
“I’ll never forget the important things.” And the demon had shivered at the look in James’ eye, didn’t say how he didn’t think himself important.
James had asked Gregory to tell him things about Hell, about the things he’d done before they’d met.
“Better you not know, Cherub.”
James was silent and sulky for the rest of the day after that. Gregory wondered if leaving his past to the angel’s imagination was a bad idea.
Eddie would occasionally have a "blank episode", as James had taken to calling the fits of comatose that gripped the old man and were becoming more frequent as time went by. Eddie never remembered, afterwards, that he had blanked out. Sometimes he'd forget a little of what had gone on before the episode as well. But Gregory or James would just wait patiently till he switched back on, wondering if there would be a time when he didn't come "back on" at all.
At the same time, Eddie's behavior started to get more erratic. Gregory found him once talking to a picture of a pretty woman, presumably his ex-wife, in a low and secretive voice. When he looked up to see Gregory there, he pocketed the picture and pulled out a handgun from the pocket of his jacket. Looking the demon straight in the eyes, he held the barrel of the gun to his own temple.
"Sometimes, there's mountains out there Greggy. Mountains wit no roads or guides leadin' to the other side."
Gregory saw only despair and hopelessness in Eddie's eyes, something that was rare for the bright, energetic man. Eddie didn't pull the trigger; James had snuck up behind the man where he sat and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. The "bliss" ability worked like a charm, and James picked up the thin human and carried him into the trailer himself.
There were other times, like when Eddie came back from a trip into town with nothing but a Slim Jim and a pack of cigarettes. Trips into town were only supposed to be for essential supplies; gas, heating oil, food, beer. They had been dangerously low on all these things, and Eddie had been gone for three hours that day. He'd looked at the cigarettes and snack with a lost, confused look on his face.
"This was Ella's brand. She smoked...a pack a day." He'd meandered back into his truck, muttering dejectedly the whole time. "But she's done now. I forgot. She's gahn."
Gregory and James weathered these small attacks on Eddie's memory and psyche the way they would a bad storm; they braced themselves and hoped nobody got hurt.
*
“Maybe we should just go out and give ourselves up.” He proposed the idea one day, while they were out looking for rabbits to catch for Eddie. They didn’t go far, and never outside of the protective circle James had carved for them. But the rabbits were plentiful, and Gregory had gotten quite proficient with a gun.
“What are you talking about?” James looked as Gregory had expected him to, like meatballs had started to fall out of the trees. But it made sense to the demon; if James was a good indication of what angels were like, then maybe they could reason with them. Plead their case and ask to be left alone.
“Are you saying I should waltz up to my superiors and say, ‘Hey guys, we’re in love and we’d like to be left to go about our business. Could you please not try to kill us?’ Not to mention how crazy it would be saying that sort of thing to...demons.”
“Hey… you just said it.” Gregory grinned, letting the butt of the rifle Eddie had let him borrow drop gently to the ground.
“Said what?”
“That you loved me.”
Those bushy eyebrows shot up, full mouth hung open adorably. “You’re avoiding my question. And I said we loved each other.”
They hadn’t said it much, only breathed it against each other in the dark when they thought they were alone. “Oh, do we?”
There was no doubt it was true, but saying it felt strange and thrilling. Wrong and wonderful at the same time. And there was vague feeling that, if they said it too much, something might be jinxed just to spite them.
James looked out into the woods, pointing. “There’s a rabbit, by that bush.” Trying to change the subject.
Don’t jinx it.
“Oh, is there?” Gregory’s crooked grin brushed against James’ cheek, silly plans of surrender forgotten. He let his rifle fall to the ground, wrapping his arms around James’ shoulders. The rabbit hopped away unnoticed.
(next chapter)