Fic: Lives Are For Living. (12/35)
Title Lives Are For Living. (12/35)
Fandoms Torchwood/Being Human crossover fic.
Characters/pairings Andy Davidson/Tom McNair. Other Torchwood and Being Human characters will appear later on.
Word count: This part 2900. (Total posted 24,800 /65,000)
Rating This part PG (adult over all)
Contains Mentions of depression/anxiety. Mentions of past canon major character death. Mention of minor character death - not canon. In later parts canon level violence, graphic sex, Andy's homophobic mother. Spoilers for Being Human (UK version) up to series 5 episode 3, and for Torchwood up to Children of Earth.
A/N: Crossover with Being Human. Technically a CoE fix it as it's set in the same 'verse as Finding Ways To Smile Again (although that isn't apparent until about 2/3 the way through the story). Follows on from Break and Breakaway from Tom McNair's POV - which is where it breaks from Being Human canon.
Summary
After being pushed out of the police force following the events of Children of Earth, Andy Davidson tries to build a new life for himself in the deep in the Welsh countryside.
Tom McNair walked out off his old life after realising it wasn't what he needed.
A chance meeting would take their lives in directions that they had never expected and bring them love that they'd not thought they'd find.
Starts here: http://the-silver-sun.livejournal.com/214504.html
The dull, meaty thud of something heavy hitting flesh was unmistakeable and Tom dropped what he was doing and spun round half expecting to find them under attack. Seeing no threat, but Andy in obvious pain, he ran over to him, any annoyance he'd felt towards him temporarily forgotten.
“What you done now?” Tom asked, crouching down in front of him as he tried to get a better look at why he was hunched over. He couldn't see any obvious injury and he couldn't smell any blood, so that had to be a good sign, Tom decided. “You're walking disaster area you.”
“I don't know, but it really hurts,” Andy said, leaning against him.
"What d'ya mean you don't know?" Tom asked, worried now that he was missing something. "Is it you don't know how you got hurt or you don't know where or you don't know how bad?"
Andy took a moment to answer, then sounding surprised and shocked, said, "The bar I was using, it just sprung back and hit me.”
It fitted with what he'd heard and how Andy was holding his ribs. Hoping that what he'd find wouldn't be too bad, Tom said, “Come on, then. You'd better let me have a look.”
Andy nodded and then flinched, a hiss of pain escaping him as Tom carefully lifted up the front of his t-shirt. There was a long, raised bruise rapidly starting to form across Andy's ribs. Nothing seemed to be pushed out of shape or bulging out like blood was filling up somewhere it shouldn't be. He knew from past experience that it would hurt like hell for a while, every breath making the bruises ache. Andy was going to be sore for a good few of weeks.
“Stop it!” Andy gasped and pushed Tom's hand away before he could touch the bruise. “What if they're broken? You could poke a hole in something.”
“Just try an' calm down, will you? I'm pretty sure they're jus' bruised,” Tom said as he pulled the t-shirt back down, knowing that the way Andy was shivering, his breathing shallow and panicked would only be making him feel worse. “I know it hurts a bit...”
“More than a bit,” Andy snapped, although he gratefully leant forwards against Tom again, letting him support him.
Tom frowned. His dad had said the wolf made you stronger, perhaps he was expecting too much of Andy, he thought as he felt him shivering against him, he was just an ordinary bloke after all. Maybe normal humans were just a bit more breakable. Maybe it would be best to get him to a doctor, even if was just so he'd could be told it was really nasty bruising by somebody qualified. He was fairly sure that a doctor wouldn't come out to the farm for bruised ribs, but as Andy didn't seem to be willing to take his word for it, he asked “Do you trust me to drive the land rover?”
Andy sounded decidedly worried at the idea and there was definitely scepticism beneath the pain as he said, “Do you even have a driving licence?”
“I got a provisional one. Me dad taught me a little bit and Hal let me have a go with his car a few times.” They'd been good times, Tom thought, trying not to let those thoughts turn to how those times would never come again. “I ain't right good, but I can do it without crashing it, the roads round here ain't that busy and I don't 'spose I'd have to drive it that far any way.”
Andy looked like he was about to refuse when he coughed, doubling over as it put extra strain on his ribs, “Alright. Just be careful.”
The walk in medical centre in Rhayader, which Andy had decided was the closest option, was busier that Tom had thought it would be and the smell of antiseptic and cleaning products he found rather unpleasant. But given how Andy had spent the short journey there hunched up in the front seat, grunts of pain escaping him as the land rover had jolted and rolled down the rutted farm track out to the main road, he was more than willing to put up with the hospital smells.
Walk in apparently didn't mean get seen straight away, Tom rapidly found out. Rather it just meant that if you weren't registered with a GP or your usual doctor couldn't give you an appointment any time soon you could turn up at the walk in centre and wait to be seen. Things would have been so much easier if George and Nina had been alive, Tom thought glumly. Knowing a hospital porter and a doctor who'd been willing to sneak you in a get you treated quickly had been very useful on the occasions him or his dad had needed it.
Eventually Andy's name was called, and Tom walked with him to the door the receptionist had pointed to. “It'll be be fine, you know,” he said, feeling rather anxious now that Andy was going to be out of his sight.
Loitering around in the corridor, Tom tried to pass the time looking at shiny posters of people who all seemed to be smiling far too much considering the information was things like flu injections or getting checked various diseases. He was wondering whether to go back to the waiting room and ask how long he could expect to be waiting for Andy and if it was worth nipping out and finding something to eat when Andy walked slowly out of the room, one arm still curled about his ribs.
“That were quick,” Tom said, looking him over, trying to see if anything had been done. Quick had to be good, didn't it? Unless the doctor had decided to send him off to hospital in which case it definitely wasn't. “So what'd they say?”
“Definitely bruised, possibly a fracture or two, but apparently the treatment the same either way” Andy said leaning on him as they made their way back to the waiting room. “Basically pick up your prescription on the way out, then go home and rest, and only come back here if it turns serious.”
“Yer in still in pain, that's serious to me,” Tom said, holding the door open for him. “So what you 'sposed to do now?”
With one arm still held around his ribs, Andy leant awkwardly by the counter. “Just what the doctor said I guess, take some painkillers, get plenty of rest and put some ice on it if it hurts.”
It sounded like good solid advice, Tom thought, but there was something missing as far as he was concerned. “My dad always reckoned a good tight bandaged were the best thing.”
“Apparently that's considered a bad idea these days,” Andy said as he waited for the receptionist to find the prescription. “And I've got to take at least ten deep breaths each hour while I'm awake, even if it hurts, to help prevent chest infections. Apparently I'll be fine in three to six weeks.”
With the prescription finally collected, Tom walked Andy back to the land rover, and helped him get in. “Right then, we're stoppin' at the chemist to pick these up and then we'll head back,” Tom said, looking at how Andy was sat hunched and miserable in the passenger seat. He wished there was more he could do to help, as though Andy had been horrible to him before, he hated knowing that he was in pain. Caring about somebody even when they had been a bit of a knob about things meant that he was the better person in this, Tom decided. Or at least that's what Annie used to tell him when he'd being dealing with Hal in his early days at Honolulu Heights.
The trip to the chemist had thankfully been much swifter than the walk in centre, and after making sure Andy took one of the tablets, Tom had set off back to the farm. Andy had been very quite on the drive, although whether it was because he was because he was feeling too uncomfortable to talk, he didn't want to distract him while driving or something else, Tom didn't know. Whichever it was he was relieved when they pulled into the farmyard.
“I'm sorry, you know,” Andy said as Tom helped him get settled on the sofa.
“Everyone has accidents, that's why there called accidents because you don't do them on purpose,” Tom said, knowing it had sounded much better in his head. A lot of the things he said sounded better there, he thought glumly, wishing he could sound kind and funny like Annie or clever like Hal.
“I meant about what I said the other day,” Andy said quietly. “About why I gave you a job.”
“Oh, that.” It still hurt, Tom didn't really want to pretend otherwise, but forgive and forget was starting to seem a sensible option given that he would probably have to spend a fair bit of time with Andy at least until he was feeling better. It would be the adult thing to do, he told himself. At the very least he should hear him out and find out why he'd been so horrible when it seemed to go against everything else Tom had come to know and like about him.
“I didn't mean it, not like that. I'd just had some bad news and I wanted to be on my own and I wanted to...I couldn't...” Andy's voice cracked and he hunched over. “I can't cope with it, and I know it's pathetic, but there it is. And I'm so so sorry I said it to you, because you've been nothing but good to me, and I really don't deserve it.”
“Hey, it's okay,” Tom said sitting down next to him. He'd not really expected an apology or for Andy to look so absolutely wrecked about it. “I had this friend once, well two of them really, and they both said some pretty awful things after some bad stuff happened. Only I know they didn't mean it really and I guess this is kinda the same, ain't it? So it weren't like it were properly your fault in a way and I should've realised that you were so sad and done something' to help. So maybe it should be me sayin' sorry an'... you're crying, ain't you?”
Andy made a wet, sniffing noise and nodded.
Making Andy cry really hadn't been his intention, it made him feel awkward and awful that he'd not realised just how upset Andy had been. “'m sorry, don't cry, it'll be alright, really. We've both been right idiots about this, ain't we?” he said, only just stopping himself from trying to give Andy a hug, that would have certainly hurt more than helped. “I had this other friend, Annie, she reckoned as that was the problem with blokes, well most of them any way, that that we never talk about stuff, so we get it all wrong all the time. I'm beginning to think she were right.”
Andy managed a shaky laugh and then groaned. “Oh, not doing that again any time soon.”
“Nah, you probably shouldn't,” Tom said, carefully putting an arm around his shoulders. “You probably ain't gonna want to hear this, but they're gonna feel worse tomorrow once you've been to sleep, they get right stiff and achy.”
"That sounds like the voice of experience," Andy said, shifting uncomfortably as he tried to find a more comfortable way to sit, eventually deciding that leaning against Tom was the best option. “Is that how you knew they weren't broken?"
"Yeah. I've done mine in a couple of times, not recent like though. The worst time were when me and me dad were fightin' these five…" Seeing Andy's expression, Tom stopped. There really wasn't anyway of telling it that didn't involve mentioning vampires or making it sound like him and his dad went out beating people up for fun. "Yer not gonna be interested really, are yer? It were a rubbish story anyway." Trying not to jostle Andy too much, he got up. "Why don't I get us a cup of tea or do you wanna try and eat something. You should probably try. Soup is 'spose to be good if you're not feeling great, isn't it?"
"Tom, it's alright," Andy said, managing to look more worried than sore for a moment. “I'm not going to ask. Some things are probably best forgotten or at least not talked about.”
“Like whatever it was that happened to you?” Tom said, sitting down on the arm of the sofa. He knew he was probably pushing his luck a bit, but it looked like Andy had tried not talking about it and that didn't seem to have gone too well. “I mean you don't have to, you can tell me to shut right up, an' I will and I won't even be annoyed with yer. So it up to you.”
“There's not much to tell really.” Andy didn't look at him. “I made a choice that I thought was right, that still think was right. Only nobody else saw it like that, they didn't want me around any more, but they couldn't get rid of me, without there being questions. I suppose they just tried to make me want to quit.”
“So what, did they like hit you and stuff? 'cause I don't think people you work with are allowed to that,” Tom said, worrying that he might be right, as it would help to explain why he'd been so shaken up by the fight outside the pub.
“No, I could have reported that, people would have understood. No, they just stopped talking to me, began acting like I wasn't even there." He picked at a frayed patch on the knee of his jeans, trying to decide what to say. "I know why they did it, they didn't want to risk screwing up their own careers by being friends with me."
“So is that why you packed it in?”
Andy slowly shook his head. “I tried to ignore it. Not let it get to me, but guess it did. Then I was called out to this housing estate, there were all these people shouting, and just for a minute I thought I was back...” Andy stopped and took a couple of shaky breaths before continuing. “I have probably been fine if my DCI hadn't tapped me on the shoulder. I just lashed out, I didn't even realise it was him. They gave me the choice of retirement on mental health grounds or they'd brings charges against me. I couldn't see any point in fighting it, I just wanted it to be over.”
“I don't think it sounds like anything what happened were your fault,” Tom said, not really sure what he could say or do that would help. “I think you did the right thing leaving them to get on with it, they didn't deserve to have you, not with them treating you like that.”
When Andy made no attempt to either agree with him or tell him he'd got it all wrong, Tom said, “You've gone all quiet again. You're not feeling any worse are you?”
“No, I was thinking I should have done this months ago,” Andy replied sounding drowsy now that the painkillers were starting to kick in. “Just talked to someone about it, but I didn't think anyone would understand. I was throwing away a good career because a few people weren't speaking to me, at least that how my mum saw it."
"Didn't you try to explain? She must have seen what were going on was making you unhappy, that you couldn't put up with it."
Andy sighed, a brief, sad smile on his lips. “She's got some very ...set ideas about some things, about how people should act, and about what I should be doing with my life.”
Tom was sure that there was a lot more to it than that, but decided not to ask any more questions as Andy looked utterly exhausted. Thinking about it, Andy had looked knackered that morning even before they'd started work for the day, not that he'd not really been in the mood then to wonder why. Now he suspected that Andy probably hadn't been sleeping that well since the phone call. It made him glad in a way that the accident had happened. Not that he wanted Andy to be hurt, he didn't, but that it had happened before they'd truly ruined their friendship or Andy had an even more serious accident.
Eyes half closed, Andy yawned, winced and then yawned again, before leaning more heavily against him. Realising he'd have to move or spend the afternoon with Andy asleep against him, Tom picked up a cushion and passed it to him. “Why don't you have a rest and I'll see about getting us some food, being as we ain't had any lunch yet."
"I don't deserve you," Andy mumbled, settling again the cushion, already half asleep.
"And don't deserve to be alone," Tom said, knowing that nobody but himself heard it, and then turned his attention to getting them something to eat.
Part 13a http://the-silver-sun.livejournal.com/220208.html
NOTE
The treatment for Andy's bruised ribs (or broken for that matter as unless they suspect it's more than three they apparently treatment is the same.) come mostly from the NHS website - http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/rib-injuries/Pages/Introduction.aspx strapping up the ribs in now a big no no and the remembering to take frequent deep breaths is a must to help prevent chest infection and even pneumonia. There does seem to be a 'don't bother A&E unless you've broken them in a serious fall, it's from a crushing injury or it from a car crash.' kind of vibe from the NHS. In fact there is no recommendation you see a doctor at all unless you are have problems breathing, the pain gets worse rather than better over time, the pain moves to your shoulder or abdomen, you start coughing up blood or being to run a temperature.
The main advise is take it easy, take painkillers, breath normally and put ice on it (it actually say on the NHS website you could try using a packet of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel.)
This seems to be borne out by some people complaining on a forum about this (found while googling for the NHS article), long waits in A&E, then they weren't X-rayed, they were just assessed visually and sent home with painkillers.
Fandoms Torchwood/Being Human crossover fic.
Characters/pairings Andy Davidson/Tom McNair. Other Torchwood and Being Human characters will appear later on.
Word count: This part 2900. (Total posted 24,800 /65,000)
Rating This part PG (adult over all)
Contains Mentions of depression/anxiety. Mentions of past canon major character death. Mention of minor character death - not canon. In later parts canon level violence, graphic sex, Andy's homophobic mother. Spoilers for Being Human (UK version) up to series 5 episode 3, and for Torchwood up to Children of Earth.
A/N: Crossover with Being Human. Technically a CoE fix it as it's set in the same 'verse as Finding Ways To Smile Again (although that isn't apparent until about 2/3 the way through the story). Follows on from Break and Breakaway from Tom McNair's POV - which is where it breaks from Being Human canon.
Summary
After being pushed out of the police force following the events of Children of Earth, Andy Davidson tries to build a new life for himself in the deep in the Welsh countryside.
Tom McNair walked out off his old life after realising it wasn't what he needed.
A chance meeting would take their lives in directions that they had never expected and bring them love that they'd not thought they'd find.
Starts here: http://the-silver-sun.livejournal.com/214504.html
The dull, meaty thud of something heavy hitting flesh was unmistakeable and Tom dropped what he was doing and spun round half expecting to find them under attack. Seeing no threat, but Andy in obvious pain, he ran over to him, any annoyance he'd felt towards him temporarily forgotten.
“What you done now?” Tom asked, crouching down in front of him as he tried to get a better look at why he was hunched over. He couldn't see any obvious injury and he couldn't smell any blood, so that had to be a good sign, Tom decided. “You're walking disaster area you.”
“I don't know, but it really hurts,” Andy said, leaning against him.
"What d'ya mean you don't know?" Tom asked, worried now that he was missing something. "Is it you don't know how you got hurt or you don't know where or you don't know how bad?"
Andy took a moment to answer, then sounding surprised and shocked, said, "The bar I was using, it just sprung back and hit me.”
It fitted with what he'd heard and how Andy was holding his ribs. Hoping that what he'd find wouldn't be too bad, Tom said, “Come on, then. You'd better let me have a look.”
Andy nodded and then flinched, a hiss of pain escaping him as Tom carefully lifted up the front of his t-shirt. There was a long, raised bruise rapidly starting to form across Andy's ribs. Nothing seemed to be pushed out of shape or bulging out like blood was filling up somewhere it shouldn't be. He knew from past experience that it would hurt like hell for a while, every breath making the bruises ache. Andy was going to be sore for a good few of weeks.
“Stop it!” Andy gasped and pushed Tom's hand away before he could touch the bruise. “What if they're broken? You could poke a hole in something.”
“Just try an' calm down, will you? I'm pretty sure they're jus' bruised,” Tom said as he pulled the t-shirt back down, knowing that the way Andy was shivering, his breathing shallow and panicked would only be making him feel worse. “I know it hurts a bit...”
“More than a bit,” Andy snapped, although he gratefully leant forwards against Tom again, letting him support him.
Tom frowned. His dad had said the wolf made you stronger, perhaps he was expecting too much of Andy, he thought as he felt him shivering against him, he was just an ordinary bloke after all. Maybe normal humans were just a bit more breakable. Maybe it would be best to get him to a doctor, even if was just so he'd could be told it was really nasty bruising by somebody qualified. He was fairly sure that a doctor wouldn't come out to the farm for bruised ribs, but as Andy didn't seem to be willing to take his word for it, he asked “Do you trust me to drive the land rover?”
Andy sounded decidedly worried at the idea and there was definitely scepticism beneath the pain as he said, “Do you even have a driving licence?”
“I got a provisional one. Me dad taught me a little bit and Hal let me have a go with his car a few times.” They'd been good times, Tom thought, trying not to let those thoughts turn to how those times would never come again. “I ain't right good, but I can do it without crashing it, the roads round here ain't that busy and I don't 'spose I'd have to drive it that far any way.”
Andy looked like he was about to refuse when he coughed, doubling over as it put extra strain on his ribs, “Alright. Just be careful.”
The walk in medical centre in Rhayader, which Andy had decided was the closest option, was busier that Tom had thought it would be and the smell of antiseptic and cleaning products he found rather unpleasant. But given how Andy had spent the short journey there hunched up in the front seat, grunts of pain escaping him as the land rover had jolted and rolled down the rutted farm track out to the main road, he was more than willing to put up with the hospital smells.
Walk in apparently didn't mean get seen straight away, Tom rapidly found out. Rather it just meant that if you weren't registered with a GP or your usual doctor couldn't give you an appointment any time soon you could turn up at the walk in centre and wait to be seen. Things would have been so much easier if George and Nina had been alive, Tom thought glumly. Knowing a hospital porter and a doctor who'd been willing to sneak you in a get you treated quickly had been very useful on the occasions him or his dad had needed it.
Eventually Andy's name was called, and Tom walked with him to the door the receptionist had pointed to. “It'll be be fine, you know,” he said, feeling rather anxious now that Andy was going to be out of his sight.
Loitering around in the corridor, Tom tried to pass the time looking at shiny posters of people who all seemed to be smiling far too much considering the information was things like flu injections or getting checked various diseases. He was wondering whether to go back to the waiting room and ask how long he could expect to be waiting for Andy and if it was worth nipping out and finding something to eat when Andy walked slowly out of the room, one arm still curled about his ribs.
“That were quick,” Tom said, looking him over, trying to see if anything had been done. Quick had to be good, didn't it? Unless the doctor had decided to send him off to hospital in which case it definitely wasn't. “So what'd they say?”
“Definitely bruised, possibly a fracture or two, but apparently the treatment the same either way” Andy said leaning on him as they made their way back to the waiting room. “Basically pick up your prescription on the way out, then go home and rest, and only come back here if it turns serious.”
“Yer in still in pain, that's serious to me,” Tom said, holding the door open for him. “So what you 'sposed to do now?”
With one arm still held around his ribs, Andy leant awkwardly by the counter. “Just what the doctor said I guess, take some painkillers, get plenty of rest and put some ice on it if it hurts.”
It sounded like good solid advice, Tom thought, but there was something missing as far as he was concerned. “My dad always reckoned a good tight bandaged were the best thing.”
“Apparently that's considered a bad idea these days,” Andy said as he waited for the receptionist to find the prescription. “And I've got to take at least ten deep breaths each hour while I'm awake, even if it hurts, to help prevent chest infections. Apparently I'll be fine in three to six weeks.”
With the prescription finally collected, Tom walked Andy back to the land rover, and helped him get in. “Right then, we're stoppin' at the chemist to pick these up and then we'll head back,” Tom said, looking at how Andy was sat hunched and miserable in the passenger seat. He wished there was more he could do to help, as though Andy had been horrible to him before, he hated knowing that he was in pain. Caring about somebody even when they had been a bit of a knob about things meant that he was the better person in this, Tom decided. Or at least that's what Annie used to tell him when he'd being dealing with Hal in his early days at Honolulu Heights.
The trip to the chemist had thankfully been much swifter than the walk in centre, and after making sure Andy took one of the tablets, Tom had set off back to the farm. Andy had been very quite on the drive, although whether it was because he was because he was feeling too uncomfortable to talk, he didn't want to distract him while driving or something else, Tom didn't know. Whichever it was he was relieved when they pulled into the farmyard.
“I'm sorry, you know,” Andy said as Tom helped him get settled on the sofa.
“Everyone has accidents, that's why there called accidents because you don't do them on purpose,” Tom said, knowing it had sounded much better in his head. A lot of the things he said sounded better there, he thought glumly, wishing he could sound kind and funny like Annie or clever like Hal.
“I meant about what I said the other day,” Andy said quietly. “About why I gave you a job.”
“Oh, that.” It still hurt, Tom didn't really want to pretend otherwise, but forgive and forget was starting to seem a sensible option given that he would probably have to spend a fair bit of time with Andy at least until he was feeling better. It would be the adult thing to do, he told himself. At the very least he should hear him out and find out why he'd been so horrible when it seemed to go against everything else Tom had come to know and like about him.
“I didn't mean it, not like that. I'd just had some bad news and I wanted to be on my own and I wanted to...I couldn't...” Andy's voice cracked and he hunched over. “I can't cope with it, and I know it's pathetic, but there it is. And I'm so so sorry I said it to you, because you've been nothing but good to me, and I really don't deserve it.”
“Hey, it's okay,” Tom said sitting down next to him. He'd not really expected an apology or for Andy to look so absolutely wrecked about it. “I had this friend once, well two of them really, and they both said some pretty awful things after some bad stuff happened. Only I know they didn't mean it really and I guess this is kinda the same, ain't it? So it weren't like it were properly your fault in a way and I should've realised that you were so sad and done something' to help. So maybe it should be me sayin' sorry an'... you're crying, ain't you?”
Andy made a wet, sniffing noise and nodded.
Making Andy cry really hadn't been his intention, it made him feel awkward and awful that he'd not realised just how upset Andy had been. “'m sorry, don't cry, it'll be alright, really. We've both been right idiots about this, ain't we?” he said, only just stopping himself from trying to give Andy a hug, that would have certainly hurt more than helped. “I had this other friend, Annie, she reckoned as that was the problem with blokes, well most of them any way, that that we never talk about stuff, so we get it all wrong all the time. I'm beginning to think she were right.”
Andy managed a shaky laugh and then groaned. “Oh, not doing that again any time soon.”
“Nah, you probably shouldn't,” Tom said, carefully putting an arm around his shoulders. “You probably ain't gonna want to hear this, but they're gonna feel worse tomorrow once you've been to sleep, they get right stiff and achy.”
"That sounds like the voice of experience," Andy said, shifting uncomfortably as he tried to find a more comfortable way to sit, eventually deciding that leaning against Tom was the best option. “Is that how you knew they weren't broken?"
"Yeah. I've done mine in a couple of times, not recent like though. The worst time were when me and me dad were fightin' these five…" Seeing Andy's expression, Tom stopped. There really wasn't anyway of telling it that didn't involve mentioning vampires or making it sound like him and his dad went out beating people up for fun. "Yer not gonna be interested really, are yer? It were a rubbish story anyway." Trying not to jostle Andy too much, he got up. "Why don't I get us a cup of tea or do you wanna try and eat something. You should probably try. Soup is 'spose to be good if you're not feeling great, isn't it?"
"Tom, it's alright," Andy said, managing to look more worried than sore for a moment. “I'm not going to ask. Some things are probably best forgotten or at least not talked about.”
“Like whatever it was that happened to you?” Tom said, sitting down on the arm of the sofa. He knew he was probably pushing his luck a bit, but it looked like Andy had tried not talking about it and that didn't seem to have gone too well. “I mean you don't have to, you can tell me to shut right up, an' I will and I won't even be annoyed with yer. So it up to you.”
“There's not much to tell really.” Andy didn't look at him. “I made a choice that I thought was right, that still think was right. Only nobody else saw it like that, they didn't want me around any more, but they couldn't get rid of me, without there being questions. I suppose they just tried to make me want to quit.”
“So what, did they like hit you and stuff? 'cause I don't think people you work with are allowed to that,” Tom said, worrying that he might be right, as it would help to explain why he'd been so shaken up by the fight outside the pub.
“No, I could have reported that, people would have understood. No, they just stopped talking to me, began acting like I wasn't even there." He picked at a frayed patch on the knee of his jeans, trying to decide what to say. "I know why they did it, they didn't want to risk screwing up their own careers by being friends with me."
“So is that why you packed it in?”
Andy slowly shook his head. “I tried to ignore it. Not let it get to me, but guess it did. Then I was called out to this housing estate, there were all these people shouting, and just for a minute I thought I was back...” Andy stopped and took a couple of shaky breaths before continuing. “I have probably been fine if my DCI hadn't tapped me on the shoulder. I just lashed out, I didn't even realise it was him. They gave me the choice of retirement on mental health grounds or they'd brings charges against me. I couldn't see any point in fighting it, I just wanted it to be over.”
“I don't think it sounds like anything what happened were your fault,” Tom said, not really sure what he could say or do that would help. “I think you did the right thing leaving them to get on with it, they didn't deserve to have you, not with them treating you like that.”
When Andy made no attempt to either agree with him or tell him he'd got it all wrong, Tom said, “You've gone all quiet again. You're not feeling any worse are you?”
“No, I was thinking I should have done this months ago,” Andy replied sounding drowsy now that the painkillers were starting to kick in. “Just talked to someone about it, but I didn't think anyone would understand. I was throwing away a good career because a few people weren't speaking to me, at least that how my mum saw it."
"Didn't you try to explain? She must have seen what were going on was making you unhappy, that you couldn't put up with it."
Andy sighed, a brief, sad smile on his lips. “She's got some very ...set ideas about some things, about how people should act, and about what I should be doing with my life.”
Tom was sure that there was a lot more to it than that, but decided not to ask any more questions as Andy looked utterly exhausted. Thinking about it, Andy had looked knackered that morning even before they'd started work for the day, not that he'd not really been in the mood then to wonder why. Now he suspected that Andy probably hadn't been sleeping that well since the phone call. It made him glad in a way that the accident had happened. Not that he wanted Andy to be hurt, he didn't, but that it had happened before they'd truly ruined their friendship or Andy had an even more serious accident.
Eyes half closed, Andy yawned, winced and then yawned again, before leaning more heavily against him. Realising he'd have to move or spend the afternoon with Andy asleep against him, Tom picked up a cushion and passed it to him. “Why don't you have a rest and I'll see about getting us some food, being as we ain't had any lunch yet."
"I don't deserve you," Andy mumbled, settling again the cushion, already half asleep.
"And don't deserve to be alone," Tom said, knowing that nobody but himself heard it, and then turned his attention to getting them something to eat.
Part 13a http://the-silver-sun.livejournal.com/220208.html
NOTE
The treatment for Andy's bruised ribs (or broken for that matter as unless they suspect it's more than three they apparently treatment is the same.) come mostly from the NHS website - http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/rib-injuries/Pages/Introduction.aspx strapping up the ribs in now a big no no and the remembering to take frequent deep breaths is a must to help prevent chest infection and even pneumonia. There does seem to be a 'don't bother A&E unless you've broken them in a serious fall, it's from a crushing injury or it from a car crash.' kind of vibe from the NHS. In fact there is no recommendation you see a doctor at all unless you are have problems breathing, the pain gets worse rather than better over time, the pain moves to your shoulder or abdomen, you start coughing up blood or being to run a temperature.
The main advise is take it easy, take painkillers, breath normally and put ice on it (it actually say on the NHS website you could try using a packet of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel.)
This seems to be borne out by some people complaining on a forum about this (found while googling for the NHS article), long waits in A&E, then they weren't X-rayed, they were just assessed visually and sent home with painkillers.