Fic: Seek and Ye Shall Find (Gabe/William, FRT, 2000 words)
Title: Seek and Ye Shall Find
Author: Ruth Sadelle Alderson
Pairing: Gabe/William
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 2000
Disclaimer: Not mine, not real.
Summary: With anyone else, the Academy being three days late wouldn't mean much, but William would never miss a rendezvous with Travie. He fucking loves that guy. If Travie were anyone but who he is, Gabe would have to hate him for it.
Gabe was raised on Jersey 3, far enough out from the Central Authority that the grip of the law was loose, to say the least. Despite learning a lot of useful things there, he doesn't like being planetside. He'd rather be in the black, in command of his ship.
But he owes Pete a lot, so he meets Pete on York 3 when Pete asks him to come. Pete's brought Brendon and Spencer, as well as a couple of the guys who make up his usual entourage. They drink and bullshit for a while, until Gabe puts his glass down and leans forward.
"What's up?"
Pete pushes the bottles and glasses out of the space between them. "The Academy's gone missing."
Gabe lets himself think William for one desperate moment before he shuts it away. "What happened?"
"They met with the Chem. They were supposed to rendezvous with Travie after that. Travie called me when they were three days late."
With anyone else, the Academy being three days late wouldn't mean much, but William would never miss a rendezvous with Travie. He fucking loves that guy. If Travie were anyone but who he is, Gabe would have to hate him for it.
"I called you as soon as he called me."
Gabe does the math. They've been missing at least a week.
"You start with the Chem. The Panic will go to Travie and work back."
"Where's the rest of your crew?" Gabe asks Brendon and Spencer.
Brendon fidgets as he says, "Ryan and Jon have embarked on their own journey."
"We have a full crew complement." Spencer doesn't so much as bat an eyelash. "Ian Crawford and Dallon Weekes are with us."
Gabe's never heard of Dallon, but he knows Ian. He's a good guy, but young. The way Spencer and Brendon are still twitchy means they're not a solid crew yet. Gabe mentally downgrades the Panic from an asset to a liability.
"I've got a flight plan to the Chem," Alex says in his ear. "We can leave whenever you get back here." Sometimes Alex's habit of listening in over his com comes in handy.
Pete doesn't keep him after that, and the Cobra takes off as soon as Gabe gets on board.
*
Gabe and Mikey go way back, so it's Mikey who meets him when they dock with the Chem and takes him to the bridge. Gerard is there, but he's lying on the floor with his daughter, both of them on their stomachs, legs in the air, making faces at each other.
"You're not going to get anything useful out of them," Lyn-Z says fondly. "Come on." Gabe follows her and Mikey into a briefing room off the bridge. "We've been asking around."
Mikey brings up a star chart. "Best lead comes from DCH-Alpha."
"It's a corporate planet," Lyn-Z says, pointing it out. "Strict rules of dress and comportment. We can't go, but your crew probably can."
Gabe's wardrobe includes a suit, and he's pretty sure Victoria still has the dress from the job they pulled on UT-7.
"We don't know much," Mikey says. He hands over a data chip. "Word is there's a guy who knows something, but we can't get close to him. Rendezvous information and code are on the chip."
Gabe flips the chip between his fingers and wonders how rude it would be to leave now.
Mikey comes around the table and pulls Gabe into a real hug. "We can hang next time. Go find them."
*
The trip to DCH-Alpha takes too long. It's not really that far, but Gabe spends most of it pacing the corridors of the ship.
He stops on the observation deck to watch the stars, and Victoria shows up to stand next to him. She leans her head on his shoulder. "We'll find him," she says, and it's not until later that Gabe realizes she used the singular.
*
The bar where Gabe's supposed to meet their contact on DCH-Alpha doesn't even serve caffeine. Gabe orders the strawberry-lime smoothie that appears to be the most daring thing on the menu and settles in to wait for his contact.
He's watching the door, so he sees Alex and Victoria come in and head over to the well-lit pool table where, he's sure, no one ever bets on the outcome of a game. Victoria does still have the dress from UT-7. Gabe laughed at her when she put it on earlier, but it works here, makes her look like she belongs.
A curly-haired guy in a scarf sits down next to him and orders a vanilla milkshake. Gabe's tempted to dismiss him, but his com pings with the signal for his contact.
"Hi," his contact says. "You're new here, right?"
"First time on DCH-Alpha," Gabe says.
The equivalent of the bartender serves his contact's milkshake, and the contact is smart enough to wait until the bartender's at the other end to speak again.
"Captain Gomez of the Waverly." The guy sips at his milkshake but doesn't look happy about it. "She and Nick are out of control." That seems about all he has to say.
Gabe holds out a data chip. "If you ever want to get out."
His contact shakes his head. "They're my brothers. I'm not leaving."
Gabe reaches over and tucks the data chip into the contact's jacket pocket. "If you ever change your mind," he says.
The contact goes back to drinking his milkshake, and they watch the room for a while, until it's been long enough that Gabe can leave.
By the time Gabe gets back to the ship, Ryland has information scrolling across every screen on the bridge, and a picture at the center of it.
"Captain Gomez," he says. "We've got a lead on her ship's location. We can be out of here as soon as Alex and Victoria get back."
Gabe changes out of the clothes he had to wear on DCH-Alpha and paces until that happens. He's still walking the corridors when he runs into them. Victoria's already half out of her dress.
Gabe coms Ryland. "We're good to go."
"Fuck this fucking corporate shithole of a planet." Victoria heads toward her quarters, still stripping as she goes. "Ryland, get us the fuck out of here."
Alex undoes the button at the top of his shirt. "I don't mind the duds. It's the rules. We couldn't even cheat."
Gabe coms Ryland again. "Why the fuck are we still sitting here? Get us out of here."
"Trying," Ryland sing-songs back. "Fucking corporate shithole of a planet has a line of ships wanting to get the fuck off it."
*
"That is one fucking giant of a ship," Nate says.
"We knew that," Gabe says, but he's feeling grim. The Waverly is a fucking giant of a ship.
"Has a full weapons complement," Alex reports, "but not turned on us." He frowns at the screen. "Energy usage is all wrong." He turns and looks up at Gabe. "What do you want to do here?"
Gabe watches the stats on the screen, which don't change. "Drop me in."
"You're a fucking idiot," Victoria says, but she leans over Alex to punch in details.
Nate adds, "Don't fucking die."
"Not planning on it." Gabe straps on a couple of weapons and suits up.
Things stay the way they are, the Waverly just hanging in space and not seeming to notice them, while they run a line across and Gabe hand-over-hands his way to the ship and slips through an airlock.
He checks the levels - O2 is good - and gets out of his suit. He hefts himself up through a hatch, crawls through an access tube until he finds another hatch. He drops through it and finds himself staring down the barrel of a plasma rifle - at Naomi Chislett.
They stare at each other for a moment before she lets it drop. "Come on," she says. "I'll take you to everyone else."
"I guess we're not needed," Gabe says. "You seem to be doing okay."
Naomi shakes her head. "They have all these weapons, but don't know shit about prisoners. They didn't even split us up."
She takes him to a large room that clearly serves as the mess. Mike's at the counter, doing something, and Naomi heads straight for him.
"What are you doing? You've been shot. You're supposed to be resting."
"I'm fine," Mike says.
Naomi ignores him and says, "You were supposed to be keeping an eye on him," to Michael.
Gabe stops listening to her fussing because in the center of the room William is facing off against a girl Gabe recognizes from her photo as Captain Gomez. She looks younger in person.
Gabe leans against the doorway in a pose that should look casual but is actually born of necessity; his knees have gone weak with relief, and he's not sure he can stand unaided.
"You can't do this." Gomez actually stomps her foot like a child having a tantrum. "You're supposed to be a present for Demi. She thinks you're pretty."
"A lot of people think he's pretty," Gabe drawls. "They don't all get to have him."
William turns, putting his back to the girl. Under normal circumstances, Gabe would have to yell at him for that, but she just told him she wants him alive. Plus, Gabe has his weapon trained on her and for all that Naomi's still fussing over Mike, he's pretty sure she has a handle on the situation and could shoot the girl as fast as Gabe could, certainly before she got anywhere near William.
"You're late," William says. He picks his way through the people, most likely the Waverly's crew, sitting on the floor, hands tied. "We've already got things under control."
"I like to make an entrance."
"You certainly do that." William jerks his head at the door. "Walk with me."
They end up on the bridge, and Gabe just looks at William. "When I heard you were missing-" He shakes his head and pulls William into his arms instead. He's warm and alive and holding onto Gabe just as tight as Gabe's holding onto him.
Gabe kisses him. William holds back for a moment, but then he opens to Gabe, relaxes into it. Gabe can't for the life of him figure out why he waited so long to do this.
"Are you okay?" he asks
"Yes," William says. "We're fine. Mike got shot, but it's just a graze."
"What the fuck happened?"
"They're children playing at being pirates." It's a lot of consonants, and William stumbles over most of them. Then his mouth tightens. "But they blew up my ship."
Gabe's heart aches for him. "Well," he lies through his teeth, "lucky for you my ship is woefully understaffed."
"Is that so?" William smiles like he knows what Gabe's up to. "Have room for six more crew members?"
"Hmm." Gabe pretends to think. "I really only have room for five. One of them will have to stay in the captain's quarters as my personal guest."
"As captain, I suppose it's my duty to protect my crew from that fate."
"If you're quite done," Alex doesn't even have the decency to use Gabe's com, has instead patched himself into the Waverly's com system so his voice comes out of the bridge's speakers, "maybe you could find someone to initiate docking procedures. Nate's anxious to take a look at Mike's arm."
"Mike's moving around," Gabe says. "He's fine. And what makes you think I can't do the docking?"
"No more dents in the ship," Ryland says over the speakers.
"That was one time," Gabe says.
William muffles his laugh against Gabe's throat.
"Fine, fine," Gabe sighs, put-upon once more by the abuse of his crew. "We'll get someone to do it."
William pulls away from him and flips the switch for the ship's intercom. "Adam to the bridge." He switches it off and comes back, and this time he kisses Gabe.
Author: Ruth Sadelle Alderson
Pairing: Gabe/William
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 2000
Disclaimer: Not mine, not real.
Summary: With anyone else, the Academy being three days late wouldn't mean much, but William would never miss a rendezvous with Travie. He fucking loves that guy. If Travie were anyone but who he is, Gabe would have to hate him for it.
Gabe was raised on Jersey 3, far enough out from the Central Authority that the grip of the law was loose, to say the least. Despite learning a lot of useful things there, he doesn't like being planetside. He'd rather be in the black, in command of his ship.
But he owes Pete a lot, so he meets Pete on York 3 when Pete asks him to come. Pete's brought Brendon and Spencer, as well as a couple of the guys who make up his usual entourage. They drink and bullshit for a while, until Gabe puts his glass down and leans forward.
"What's up?"
Pete pushes the bottles and glasses out of the space between them. "The Academy's gone missing."
Gabe lets himself think William for one desperate moment before he shuts it away. "What happened?"
"They met with the Chem. They were supposed to rendezvous with Travie after that. Travie called me when they were three days late."
With anyone else, the Academy being three days late wouldn't mean much, but William would never miss a rendezvous with Travie. He fucking loves that guy. If Travie were anyone but who he is, Gabe would have to hate him for it.
"I called you as soon as he called me."
Gabe does the math. They've been missing at least a week.
"You start with the Chem. The Panic will go to Travie and work back."
"Where's the rest of your crew?" Gabe asks Brendon and Spencer.
Brendon fidgets as he says, "Ryan and Jon have embarked on their own journey."
"We have a full crew complement." Spencer doesn't so much as bat an eyelash. "Ian Crawford and Dallon Weekes are with us."
Gabe's never heard of Dallon, but he knows Ian. He's a good guy, but young. The way Spencer and Brendon are still twitchy means they're not a solid crew yet. Gabe mentally downgrades the Panic from an asset to a liability.
"I've got a flight plan to the Chem," Alex says in his ear. "We can leave whenever you get back here." Sometimes Alex's habit of listening in over his com comes in handy.
Pete doesn't keep him after that, and the Cobra takes off as soon as Gabe gets on board.
*
Gabe and Mikey go way back, so it's Mikey who meets him when they dock with the Chem and takes him to the bridge. Gerard is there, but he's lying on the floor with his daughter, both of them on their stomachs, legs in the air, making faces at each other.
"You're not going to get anything useful out of them," Lyn-Z says fondly. "Come on." Gabe follows her and Mikey into a briefing room off the bridge. "We've been asking around."
Mikey brings up a star chart. "Best lead comes from DCH-Alpha."
"It's a corporate planet," Lyn-Z says, pointing it out. "Strict rules of dress and comportment. We can't go, but your crew probably can."
Gabe's wardrobe includes a suit, and he's pretty sure Victoria still has the dress from the job they pulled on UT-7.
"We don't know much," Mikey says. He hands over a data chip. "Word is there's a guy who knows something, but we can't get close to him. Rendezvous information and code are on the chip."
Gabe flips the chip between his fingers and wonders how rude it would be to leave now.
Mikey comes around the table and pulls Gabe into a real hug. "We can hang next time. Go find them."
*
The trip to DCH-Alpha takes too long. It's not really that far, but Gabe spends most of it pacing the corridors of the ship.
He stops on the observation deck to watch the stars, and Victoria shows up to stand next to him. She leans her head on his shoulder. "We'll find him," she says, and it's not until later that Gabe realizes she used the singular.
*
The bar where Gabe's supposed to meet their contact on DCH-Alpha doesn't even serve caffeine. Gabe orders the strawberry-lime smoothie that appears to be the most daring thing on the menu and settles in to wait for his contact.
He's watching the door, so he sees Alex and Victoria come in and head over to the well-lit pool table where, he's sure, no one ever bets on the outcome of a game. Victoria does still have the dress from UT-7. Gabe laughed at her when she put it on earlier, but it works here, makes her look like she belongs.
A curly-haired guy in a scarf sits down next to him and orders a vanilla milkshake. Gabe's tempted to dismiss him, but his com pings with the signal for his contact.
"Hi," his contact says. "You're new here, right?"
"First time on DCH-Alpha," Gabe says.
The equivalent of the bartender serves his contact's milkshake, and the contact is smart enough to wait until the bartender's at the other end to speak again.
"Captain Gomez of the Waverly." The guy sips at his milkshake but doesn't look happy about it. "She and Nick are out of control." That seems about all he has to say.
Gabe holds out a data chip. "If you ever want to get out."
His contact shakes his head. "They're my brothers. I'm not leaving."
Gabe reaches over and tucks the data chip into the contact's jacket pocket. "If you ever change your mind," he says.
The contact goes back to drinking his milkshake, and they watch the room for a while, until it's been long enough that Gabe can leave.
By the time Gabe gets back to the ship, Ryland has information scrolling across every screen on the bridge, and a picture at the center of it.
"Captain Gomez," he says. "We've got a lead on her ship's location. We can be out of here as soon as Alex and Victoria get back."
Gabe changes out of the clothes he had to wear on DCH-Alpha and paces until that happens. He's still walking the corridors when he runs into them. Victoria's already half out of her dress.
Gabe coms Ryland. "We're good to go."
"Fuck this fucking corporate shithole of a planet." Victoria heads toward her quarters, still stripping as she goes. "Ryland, get us the fuck out of here."
Alex undoes the button at the top of his shirt. "I don't mind the duds. It's the rules. We couldn't even cheat."
Gabe coms Ryland again. "Why the fuck are we still sitting here? Get us out of here."
"Trying," Ryland sing-songs back. "Fucking corporate shithole of a planet has a line of ships wanting to get the fuck off it."
*
"That is one fucking giant of a ship," Nate says.
"We knew that," Gabe says, but he's feeling grim. The Waverly is a fucking giant of a ship.
"Has a full weapons complement," Alex reports, "but not turned on us." He frowns at the screen. "Energy usage is all wrong." He turns and looks up at Gabe. "What do you want to do here?"
Gabe watches the stats on the screen, which don't change. "Drop me in."
"You're a fucking idiot," Victoria says, but she leans over Alex to punch in details.
Nate adds, "Don't fucking die."
"Not planning on it." Gabe straps on a couple of weapons and suits up.
Things stay the way they are, the Waverly just hanging in space and not seeming to notice them, while they run a line across and Gabe hand-over-hands his way to the ship and slips through an airlock.
He checks the levels - O2 is good - and gets out of his suit. He hefts himself up through a hatch, crawls through an access tube until he finds another hatch. He drops through it and finds himself staring down the barrel of a plasma rifle - at Naomi Chislett.
They stare at each other for a moment before she lets it drop. "Come on," she says. "I'll take you to everyone else."
"I guess we're not needed," Gabe says. "You seem to be doing okay."
Naomi shakes her head. "They have all these weapons, but don't know shit about prisoners. They didn't even split us up."
She takes him to a large room that clearly serves as the mess. Mike's at the counter, doing something, and Naomi heads straight for him.
"What are you doing? You've been shot. You're supposed to be resting."
"I'm fine," Mike says.
Naomi ignores him and says, "You were supposed to be keeping an eye on him," to Michael.
Gabe stops listening to her fussing because in the center of the room William is facing off against a girl Gabe recognizes from her photo as Captain Gomez. She looks younger in person.
Gabe leans against the doorway in a pose that should look casual but is actually born of necessity; his knees have gone weak with relief, and he's not sure he can stand unaided.
"You can't do this." Gomez actually stomps her foot like a child having a tantrum. "You're supposed to be a present for Demi. She thinks you're pretty."
"A lot of people think he's pretty," Gabe drawls. "They don't all get to have him."
William turns, putting his back to the girl. Under normal circumstances, Gabe would have to yell at him for that, but she just told him she wants him alive. Plus, Gabe has his weapon trained on her and for all that Naomi's still fussing over Mike, he's pretty sure she has a handle on the situation and could shoot the girl as fast as Gabe could, certainly before she got anywhere near William.
"You're late," William says. He picks his way through the people, most likely the Waverly's crew, sitting on the floor, hands tied. "We've already got things under control."
"I like to make an entrance."
"You certainly do that." William jerks his head at the door. "Walk with me."
They end up on the bridge, and Gabe just looks at William. "When I heard you were missing-" He shakes his head and pulls William into his arms instead. He's warm and alive and holding onto Gabe just as tight as Gabe's holding onto him.
Gabe kisses him. William holds back for a moment, but then he opens to Gabe, relaxes into it. Gabe can't for the life of him figure out why he waited so long to do this.
"Are you okay?" he asks
"Yes," William says. "We're fine. Mike got shot, but it's just a graze."
"What the fuck happened?"
"They're children playing at being pirates." It's a lot of consonants, and William stumbles over most of them. Then his mouth tightens. "But they blew up my ship."
Gabe's heart aches for him. "Well," he lies through his teeth, "lucky for you my ship is woefully understaffed."
"Is that so?" William smiles like he knows what Gabe's up to. "Have room for six more crew members?"
"Hmm." Gabe pretends to think. "I really only have room for five. One of them will have to stay in the captain's quarters as my personal guest."
"As captain, I suppose it's my duty to protect my crew from that fate."
"If you're quite done," Alex doesn't even have the decency to use Gabe's com, has instead patched himself into the Waverly's com system so his voice comes out of the bridge's speakers, "maybe you could find someone to initiate docking procedures. Nate's anxious to take a look at Mike's arm."
"Mike's moving around," Gabe says. "He's fine. And what makes you think I can't do the docking?"
"No more dents in the ship," Ryland says over the speakers.
"That was one time," Gabe says.
William muffles his laugh against Gabe's throat.
"Fine, fine," Gabe sighs, put-upon once more by the abuse of his crew. "We'll get someone to do it."
William pulls away from him and flips the switch for the ship's intercom. "Adam to the bridge." He switches it off and comes back, and this time he kisses Gabe.