Plot Bunny: Depressed Kaner Futurefic (Hockey RPF, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews/m)
This is not a happy plot bunny. I was having a really terrible week when I wrote it out, and I never got to the happy ending (which was not going to be Kane/Toews). I will never write this story, but if anyone else wants to take it on, feel free.
Warning: Depression and unspecified suicidal/self-harming ideation.
Below-the-cut warning repeat: Depression and unspecified suicidal/self-harming ideation.
Pat's partying his millions away, and then he's in a bar hitting on a girl, and she just sneers at him and says something about how he's the only guy over thirty in the place. Somehow that knocks him for a loop, and he decides it's time for a change, so he buys a plane ticket to Chicago and shows up on Jonny's doorstep (because Jonny, of course, has gone into coaching and he's an assistant coach for the Blackhawks). Jonny's surprised to see him, but lets him in. He hassles Pat about how he still has his own place in Chicago. ("Maybe." "If you didn't sell it, you still have it. I have keys if you don't." "There won't be any food.") It's not that late, but Pat's exhausted, so he just crashes out in Jonny's guest room.
When he gets up in the morning, he gets dressed in jeans and a slightly wrinkled t-shirt and heads out to the kitchen to look for coffee, and maybe something to eat. Jonny's in khakis and a polo making eggs, and there's a bagel in the toaster, and then some guy in a suit joins them.
Jonny says, "Mark, Pat. Pat, Mark." Pat shakes Mark's hand, and then Jonny straightens Mark's tie. He says, "You could look in a mirror."
"I like it when you do it." And then Mark kisses Jonny, just this familiar kind of easy kiss. He takes the bagel out of the toaster and makes himself a breakfast sandwich with some of the eggs Jonny has going and takes the travel mug Jonny fills with coffee for him. "I think I forgot to tell you Melissa and Julie want to hang out this weekend."
"Game on Saturday," Jonny says, "so Friday night if it's not too late, or Sunday brunch. But I'm not looking at more than fifteen pictures of their cats, ten if they're in costumes."
Mark laughs. "I'll try, babe, but I don't know if they'll agree to that." He leans over and kisses Jonny, waves to Pat, and leaves.
"Does he live here?" Pat asks.
"No," Jonny says. "He has a drawer and a foot of closet space."
Pat says something about Jonny not telling him about this and Jonny says something about how they never talk, and then they eat eggs and Jonny says, "I've got practice at the UC, if you want to come watch."
So Pat goes and watches and wanders around while Jonny does whatever else he has to do and he goes with Jonny for a couple of days, and then one day he wanders into the office of one of the people he still has contact with (because he still does some publicity sorts of things) and after he gets her promise of confidentiality, he asks her if she knows of anyone he can talk to, like a therapist.
All she does is ask, "Local?" and when he says yes, she prints him out a list of five names. "They've all worked with the organization," she says. "They're very discreet."
Pat picks a name, and goes to see a woman who tells him he can call her Claire or Dr. Williams. She's calling him Pat, so he calls her Claire. She puts him on an antidepressant and tells him drinking can interfere with it, and she makes him come to therapy three days a week to start. He hates it, and it's hard, but he doesn't know what to do with his life or how to fix it, so he keeps going.
Then he and Jonny have a fight that ends with Jonny leaving to go to Mark's, and Pat's hands shake while he calls Claire's emergency line and tells her that he's afraid to be there by himself. She asks him all these direct questions about if he's going to hurt himself, and then she asks, "Do you have someone else you can stay with, or do you want me to check you in somewhere?"
So he calls Sharpy (and of course Jonny's told Sharpy something about Pat not doing well) and goes over there.
"Have you eaten?" Sharpy asks, and when Pat says no, he makes him a sandwich and then gets him set up in one of the guest rooms.
Pat gets up in the morning and the girls (because by now Sharpy has three daughters) are all excited to see Uncle Pat. Sharpy and Abby get them settled down to have breakfast and get ready for school. "Are you going to be here when we get home?" one of the girls asks, and Pat says, "I don't know, but I'll come hang out with you soon if not, okay?" Sharpy drives the girls to school, and Pat hangs out for a while and later he heads back to Jonny's.
And then I don't know. Somewhere in there, Jonny invites a bunch of people to Chicago for Pat's birthday, and obviously Pat gets better at some point, and also he has to overhear Jonny and Mark having sex, but I don't know what the rest of the story would be. I wouldn't necessarily want Jonny and Mark to break up. Alternately, this could be the kind of story where Pat wakes up in a world where he's unhappy and Jonny's in love with someone else and decides that he's going to change things so that doesn't happen. (Except I don't know that I really like that kind of story.)
Warning: Depression and unspecified suicidal/self-harming ideation.
Below-the-cut warning repeat: Depression and unspecified suicidal/self-harming ideation.
Pat's partying his millions away, and then he's in a bar hitting on a girl, and she just sneers at him and says something about how he's the only guy over thirty in the place. Somehow that knocks him for a loop, and he decides it's time for a change, so he buys a plane ticket to Chicago and shows up on Jonny's doorstep (because Jonny, of course, has gone into coaching and he's an assistant coach for the Blackhawks). Jonny's surprised to see him, but lets him in. He hassles Pat about how he still has his own place in Chicago. ("Maybe." "If you didn't sell it, you still have it. I have keys if you don't." "There won't be any food.") It's not that late, but Pat's exhausted, so he just crashes out in Jonny's guest room.
When he gets up in the morning, he gets dressed in jeans and a slightly wrinkled t-shirt and heads out to the kitchen to look for coffee, and maybe something to eat. Jonny's in khakis and a polo making eggs, and there's a bagel in the toaster, and then some guy in a suit joins them.
Jonny says, "Mark, Pat. Pat, Mark." Pat shakes Mark's hand, and then Jonny straightens Mark's tie. He says, "You could look in a mirror."
"I like it when you do it." And then Mark kisses Jonny, just this familiar kind of easy kiss. He takes the bagel out of the toaster and makes himself a breakfast sandwich with some of the eggs Jonny has going and takes the travel mug Jonny fills with coffee for him. "I think I forgot to tell you Melissa and Julie want to hang out this weekend."
"Game on Saturday," Jonny says, "so Friday night if it's not too late, or Sunday brunch. But I'm not looking at more than fifteen pictures of their cats, ten if they're in costumes."
Mark laughs. "I'll try, babe, but I don't know if they'll agree to that." He leans over and kisses Jonny, waves to Pat, and leaves.
"Does he live here?" Pat asks.
"No," Jonny says. "He has a drawer and a foot of closet space."
Pat says something about Jonny not telling him about this and Jonny says something about how they never talk, and then they eat eggs and Jonny says, "I've got practice at the UC, if you want to come watch."
So Pat goes and watches and wanders around while Jonny does whatever else he has to do and he goes with Jonny for a couple of days, and then one day he wanders into the office of one of the people he still has contact with (because he still does some publicity sorts of things) and after he gets her promise of confidentiality, he asks her if she knows of anyone he can talk to, like a therapist.
All she does is ask, "Local?" and when he says yes, she prints him out a list of five names. "They've all worked with the organization," she says. "They're very discreet."
Pat picks a name, and goes to see a woman who tells him he can call her Claire or Dr. Williams. She's calling him Pat, so he calls her Claire. She puts him on an antidepressant and tells him drinking can interfere with it, and she makes him come to therapy three days a week to start. He hates it, and it's hard, but he doesn't know what to do with his life or how to fix it, so he keeps going.
Then he and Jonny have a fight that ends with Jonny leaving to go to Mark's, and Pat's hands shake while he calls Claire's emergency line and tells her that he's afraid to be there by himself. She asks him all these direct questions about if he's going to hurt himself, and then she asks, "Do you have someone else you can stay with, or do you want me to check you in somewhere?"
So he calls Sharpy (and of course Jonny's told Sharpy something about Pat not doing well) and goes over there.
"Have you eaten?" Sharpy asks, and when Pat says no, he makes him a sandwich and then gets him set up in one of the guest rooms.
Pat gets up in the morning and the girls (because by now Sharpy has three daughters) are all excited to see Uncle Pat. Sharpy and Abby get them settled down to have breakfast and get ready for school. "Are you going to be here when we get home?" one of the girls asks, and Pat says, "I don't know, but I'll come hang out with you soon if not, okay?" Sharpy drives the girls to school, and Pat hangs out for a while and later he heads back to Jonny's.
And then I don't know. Somewhere in there, Jonny invites a bunch of people to Chicago for Pat's birthday, and obviously Pat gets better at some point, and also he has to overhear Jonny and Mark having sex, but I don't know what the rest of the story would be. I wouldn't necessarily want Jonny and Mark to break up. Alternately, this could be the kind of story where Pat wakes up in a world where he's unhappy and Jonny's in love with someone else and decides that he's going to change things so that doesn't happen. (Except I don't know that I really like that kind of story.)