Early Friday Morning, room 311

[tyler_gone]

Maybe the salt kept bad dreams away as well as ghosts; maybe he was just exhausted. For whatever reasons, Tyler slept peacefully through the night

Comments

[kawalsky]

Bob nodded, but his expression remained neutral. "Yes."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler let his face and voice harden. "Look, it's not that it hasn't been great to catch up with you? But, really. Go. Now. This is an order."

[kawalsky]

Bob stayed still at first. Then he went to say something and stopped. Then he started again and stopped. Finally, he spoke. "Always giving orders. Always. Not always.. not always the right ones."

There. He said it.

[tyler_gone]

Oh. That.

Tyler looked at his feet. "Never said they were all the right ones."

Then he jerked his head back up. "But this one is. Go back to wherever dead people belong."

[kawalsky]

"This is where dead people belong," Bob replied. "Dead people who weren't supposed to be dead shouldn't have to go. They belong here. I do."

[tyler_gone]

Tyler didn't have a good answer for that. "You had cancer," he said finally, defensively. "Way I figure it, we gave you another chance."

[kawalsky]

"The cancer was gone," Bob said. "So were other parts, but I could have lived the way I did for years. But I chose to follow you." Bob was beginning to get frustrated. It was as if he couldn't decide whether to blame himself or Tyler. "You let me die!" he yelled out of nowhere, where Bob's anger often came from. "You let them shoot me and you let them bury me in the garden!"

[tyler_gone]

Tyler was yelling too. "I know, okay! You don't need to show up and keep reminding me."

"I was out of control, I was sick, I was-" he paused, remembering something Dr. Pevensie had said. "And they took your balls, not your brain. Everything you did, you chose to do."

[kawalsky]

"I didn't choose to be shot! I didn't choose this! I didn't choose dying, I didn't," Bob yelled, his face contorted in anger. "I didn't."

[tyler_gone]

"You chose to risk it," Tyler said, and there was something dangerous in his eyes. "You had burial money in your shoe. Should have tipped you off that we weren't going to be voluntering at the Humane Society."

His voice was a hiss, rapidly gaining confidence. "You said yourself that you liked it, that it was something bigger than you. I hate how things ended. I hate it. It was wrong. I can't stand that anyone died because of me. I'll always have to live with that."

"But I never forced you to do anything, and I didn't shoot you."

[kawalsky]

"You ordered me to go," Bob said. "You ordered me!"

[tyler_gone]

There was a break in Tyler's eyes and then -- "No. Part of me did. Part of me that I shot myself in the face to get rid of. I go to a shrink every week so he'll stay gone." And no need to mention it didn't always work.

"I -- me-I -- should have stopped it sooner. I should have been more awake. But I didn't give that order."

[kawalsky]

"Tyler did." Bob took a few steps back, realization setting in. "Tyler Durden did. You're not him."

[tyler_gone]

"I'm not," Tyler said, finally believing it. "I was, but I'm not. Not that Tyler, anyhow."

His fingers traced the lip-print scar on his hand. "I could have saved you," he said. "I didn't, and I'm sorry. But I didn't get you killed."

[kawalsky]

"No," Bob said quietly. He'd wanted someone to blame and hadn't found that someone.

[tyler_gone]

"No," Tyler echoed.

He ran a restless hand through his hair. "You're supposed to go away if I confront my emotions," he said. "I'll always be sad about you. But I can't always be guilty."

Her took a deep breath. "Goodbye, Bob."