FIC: Western Lovers:Cowboys & Biologists (32/34)
Title: Western Lovers: Cowboys and Biologists <32/34>
Author:sassywitch
Beta by the talented alassenya
Pairing: OB/DW
Rating: NC-17 for the series, and for this chapter.
Summary: David is a hard, jaded warrior, Orlando is a biologist tracking Big Cats on the Double L.
Feedback: Feedback is my writers crack, which is not to be confused at all with plumbers crack.
Disclaimer: Not at all true in reality. These men whilst adorable and perfectly happy to slash themselves, their actual relationship is something that they only know. This story is adapted from a series of books that I adored when I was younger written by Elizabeth Lowell.
Word Count: 2474
Previous Story: Can be found here
Previous Ordaisy chapter: As suggested by mystery_ink can be found here
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1| Chapter 2 | Chapter 3| Chapter 4| Chapter 5| Chapter 6| Chapter 7| Chapter 8| Chapter 9| Chapter 10| Chapter 11| Chapter 12| Chapter 13| Chapter 14| Chapter 15| Chapter 16| Chapter 17| Chapter 18| Chapter 19| Chapter 20| Chapter 21| Chapter 22| Chapter 23| Chapter 24| Chapter 25| Chapter 26| Chapter 27| Chapter 28| Chapter 29| Chapter 30| Chapter 31
Posted to: fellowshippers, monaboyd and ordaisy
Header Art: Courtesy of the incredibly talented loki_girl.
~*~*~*~*~*
Billy leaned against the heavy wooden barn door watching his brother. Shirtless, his jeans stained with ash, rivulets of sweat streaming down his back, David pounded incessantly against the red hot metal he held against the forge.
“Think you might be finished beating the crap out of that any time soon?” Billy asked as he walked into the barn.
“No!” David growled without pausing.
“Any particular reason you need to be doing that?” Billy probed, stepping closer to the forge.
“No!” David grunted. “Just fuck off and leave me alone.”
“Can’t do that.” Billy almost grinned, “Well, I could, but I took pity on you. Dom was coming out to talk some sense into you, but I came instead.”
“Thanks. I’m fine. Fuck off.” David grunted, plunging the steel he was working with back into the coals.
“You can’t keep this up.” Billy stated, moving to sit on a bale of hay.
“Not keeping anything up, I’m doing what I should, and not hurting anyone.” David stood straighter, turning to face Billy.
“Except yourself.”
“So?” David shrugged, lifting his shirt from the rail beside Billy he wiped his face, spreading the smears of ash and dirt across his skin mingling with his sweat. “Doesn’t matter.”
“Go and find him.” Billy advised.
“No.” David growled.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not.” David replied, standing in front of Billy, his hands on his hips defensively.
“Because you’re a stubborn prick who hasn’t learned anything from my mistakes.” Billy sighed.
“Because I know when I’ve done wrong, I should never have touched him. I should never have even thought about it, let alone been weak enough to hurt him the way I did.”
“For fuck's sake Daisy, get over it, you’re pining like a lovesick puppy. Go and find him.” Billy implored.
“I’m no good for him. We both know that.” David shrugged.
“And we both know that I was no good for Dom, but neither of us has ever been happier. Face facts. Relationships aren’t logical. You need to find him, and for God’s sake tell him that you love him. He loves you.”
“How the hell do you know?” David frowned, pacing back and forth in front of his brother.
“I just know.” Billy shrugged non committally.
“Will you stop your other half matchmaking? Please?” David rubbed a large dirty hand over his face before he looked up into his brother’s face, his bleak eyes pleading.
“Hey, don’t look at me, I’ve already been threatened with the loss of privileges if I don’t make and I quote “my dumbass sibling” see sense.” Billy laughed derisively.
“God forbid I should interfere with your sex life.” David smirked, then sobered. “What happens if I find him and he’s changed his mind?”
“Did Dom?” Billy asked softly. “Did I?”
David turned, ran his large hand through his sweat-damp hair, his face filled with confusion, his eyes shimmering with tears that he refused to shed in front of his brother.
“Let me put it a different way.” Billy spoke his soft brogue barely audible above the crackling of coals in the forge. “Will you change your mind?”
David turned and walked towards the doorway, looking across the grassy expanses of the home yards towards Billy’s house, his arms folded over his chest, as he shook his head. Billy watched his brother sadly, remembering a time when his pain was as sharp and biting as David’s obviously was now. Standing, a little uncomfortable with experiencing David’s raw pain, Billy walked towards the doorway and patted David’s back reassuringly.
“Then what makes you think he will?” he asked quietly as he walked from the barn and back towards his house and his own lover.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Well?” Dom demanded as Billy stepped through the door.
“You need to stop matchmaking.” Billy replied, lifting Lennox from Dom’s arms and playfully blowing raspberries against his belly as he spoke.
“You didn’t see them. Both of them. Their hearts are breaking. Orli can barely exist and I’ve never seen anything as broken as Daisy. You didn’t see him when he found the ring, we can’t let them end like this.” Dom leaned into Lana’s playpen and lifted her into his arms.
“Dom, please, I know Daisy. He needs to change his own mind. None of us will do it for him.” Billy explained as he tickled his giggling son.
“Then take the damned stubborn bastard out into a field and beat it out of him.” Dom stated.
“Won’t do any good.” Billy snuggled his son, not even looking up at Dom as he spoke.
“Were we like that?” Dom moved across the room with danced with their giggling daughter, stopping only long enough to press a soft kiss against Billy’s cheek.
“Worse.” Liv’s voice sounded from the doorway. Carrying Daisy-May on her hip she stepped into the room and pressed a kiss to each man’s cheek as he presented it to her. “But you two ended up seeing sense.” Daisy-May clamored to be hugged in her PapaBilly’s arms, so he extended one arm to her and passed Lennox carefully into Liv’s keeping. “So, did you make him see sense?” Liv asked.
“Goddammit, not you too?” Billy cried out wearily. “Yes I spoke to him but he has to make the decision, not us. In the meantime, could you two stop meddling?”
“We’re not meddling, Billy. That’s what we’ve got you for.” Liv laughed as she laid Lennox in his playpen and walked back towards the door. “Gotta go, I left Viggo in charge of Milo and Rosie, God only knows what the three of them will be up to.” She smiled and almost ran out the door and down the steps.
~*~*~*~*~*~
David stood outside the University Chancellor's office, waiting patiently for his meeting. Orlando had been gone for three weeks before he finally decided that he needed to track him down. A further two weeks had been spent exhausting every available avenue he knew of to find even a town in Alaska where he could start searching. It appeared that Orlando Bloom had all but vanished. As a last resort, David had convinced Dom and Billy that he needed to plead his case with their friend and Dom’s boss, Chancellor Holm, praying that he would release the private information that the university protected more closely than the CIA did the identity of their operatives.
“Mr Wenham?” A short man, dressed in charcoal grey trousers, rumpled shirt and vest spoke from the doorway in front of the bench that David sat on. “I’m Ian Holm.” He paused then continued at David’s blank look, “The Chancellor. I believe you wish to see me.”
“Thank you.” David shook his hand, “I have a problem that I’m sure you’ll be able to sort out for me.”
Chancellor Holm ushered David into his office and closed the door behind them, before walking over to sit behind his desk, gesturing for David to be seated in the large leather seat that faced the ornate desk.
“Before you start Mr Wenham, I must tell you that I too am unable to provide what you have been requesting.” The Chancellor spoke calmly.
“Then why did you agree to meet with me?” David growled, his body tensing with the frustration he was feeling.
“Because, frankly, you’re scaring my staff and I need you to stop it.”
“I won’t stop it until I find him.” David replied shortly.
“Then I will be forced to take steps, legal steps, to stop you harassing my people.” Chancellor Holm responded calmly.
“You leave me no choice.” David calmly stated. “I will take whatever measures I need to, to find Orlando.”
“What is so important about him?” The Chancellor asked softly.
“He is a special man. A very special man.” David murmured. “He is my life, and I hurt him enough for him to run away, I need to bring him home.”
“You hurt him?” Holm asked, “And you expect after divulging that knowledge that I would willingly give up the personal details of a staff member?”
David stood and leaned menacingly over the table. “I wasn’t going to tell you this, as I don’t want to interfere with his career, and I know how you narrow minded little officials can be. Orlando is my lover, he left after an argument, I never have or would lay a finger on him, but I’m a hard man Chancellor.” David leaned forward, resting his weight on fisted hands. “Emotionally I hurt the man who is my lover. I want to put things right, but I can’t do that if I can’t fucking find him.” He paused and stood straighter, pacing through his temper, David turned to look at the Chancellor again. “Are we on the same page now?”
“Indeed we are Mr Wenham, but I’m afraid I still can’t help you. We have rules for a reason.”
“I’ve tried everything I know, I can’t find him. I need to explain myself to him and give him back his sister’s ring.” David flopped into the chair.
“He gave you her ring?” The Chancellor asked.
“He left it for me in lieu of a note when he ran away.” David frowned, “How do you know about the ring?”
“We all know, one of the female professors commented on the incongruity of that tiny delicate ring in amongst the other charms he wears and he told us the history.” Chancellor Holm watched him speculatively.
“Then you understand why I need to find him. He should have the ring back.” David sat forward eager to explain the gravity of the situation.
“Perhaps you should leave the ring with me and I’ll see to it that he gets it.”
“No.” David growled, “It’s not leaving my neck until I put it back around his.”
“Then it’s rather unfortunate that we can’t help you.”
“Look, I’m not asking for much just tell me the town he’s in and I’ll go and knock on every single door until I find him.” David pulled a leather cord from under his shirt, revealing the ring. “You know him, you know he wouldn’t give this to anyone. We need each other, I get that now, but I don’t know how to find him. You could tell me. So the way I see it, Orli’s future is in your hands.”
“I don’t have Orlando’s word on that, you could have taken that ring from him.” The Chancellor speculated.
David bounced out of his chair and leaned menancingly over the desk again. “Why the fuck would I take that ring, and can you honestly see him giving it up without a fight?” David snarled. “Jesus he loved that little girl and wore this ring for more than a decade. He wouldn’t part with it for nothing. Please, I’m not an axe murderer, or a stalker, I just want to put my lover back together again. If you had a shard of romance in you, you’d help me to find him.”
“I have one important question for you, and my answer to you will depend on your response.” Holm asked. “You speak of romance and you paint a very pretty picture of your lover, Orlando, what I haven’t heard is how you feel about him.”
“I’ve told you.” David growled.
“No you haven’t, you’ve told me about your lover, but you’ve not once mentioned your emotions. I know Orlando, I know that for him to give you that ring he loves you deeply. I also know for him to leave the way he did, he was hurting badly. I can but only assume that you are the reason for that pain. Why should I inflict you on him again?”
“Because, you officious little bureaucrat, without him in my life I am nothing, without him by my side my life is empty. I am not going to say the words to you that I haven’t even said to him. That’s why he left, because I couldn’t tell him. Wouldn’t tell him. He deserves to be the one that hears those words the first time I say them.”
Chancellor Holm watched him speculatively for long moments before he spoke again. “I will never ever do this again, in fact I am only doing so now only because I trust your brother and Dominic implicitly and I know that Orlando wouldn’t have left that ring with you lightly. If I hear you hurt him, in any way, I might be an officious little bureaucrat, but I can make your life hell in a myriad ways.
“You’re going to tell me?” David asked incredulous.
“Yes. You see I believe you love him, even if you don’t believe it yourself yet. I think that Orlando deserves happiness, and if you can give that to him, who am I to keep you apart?” He paused and spoke briefly into the intercom that sat on the edge of his desk, before turning back to David. “I believe we’re done here now?”
“Thank you, I’m sorry I was so…abrupt,” David murmured, as he moved towards the door.
“No you’re not, but I understand completely.”
~*~*~*~
Dom sat cross legged on the middle of David’s bed, watching him push clothes into a backpack, and struggle with Daisy-May’s little arms wrapped around his leg as he tried to walk across the room.
“So tell me again, what are you doing?” Dom asked quietly, beckoning Daisy-May towards him.
“Going to Alaska.” David answered shortly. Stuffing a pair of jeans into the pack, he bent to scoop the toddler into his arms and deposit her onto the bed, next to her Daddy.
“Shouldn’t you call him first?” Dom asked carefully, his fingers absently twirling Daisy-May’s hair.
“Nope.” David replied as he stuffed his toiletries into a wet pack.
“Because?” Dom questioned offhandedly as he played a clapping game with Daisy-May.
“Because if he says he doesn’t want me to come, then I don’t know exactly what I’ll do. Jesus, Dominic I’d rather find out face to face that I’ve killed any chance I have with him instead of over the phone if it’s all the same to you.”
“I didn’t say anything, I think it’s romantic.” Dom grinned, ducking his head as David threw a tee-shirt at him.
“Not all of us need romance the same way you seem to, Dominic.” David closed the top of his pack tightly and hefted it onto the chair in the corner of the room, watching as Dom lifted Daisy-May off the bed.
“It’s not the romance that I need, it’s Billy that I need - the romance is just an added bonus.” Dom settled his daughter on his hip and walked over to David and pressed a kiss against his cheek. “Don’t you dare come home without him, Daisy Wenham, or the kids and I will kick your ass.”
Chapter 33|