Fic: Matters of Dragons and Their Humans - Chapter 2 - Sharing a World AU - Lyle/Ryan
Title: Matters of Dragons and Their Humans
Characters: Lyle (OC), Kalti (OC), Ryan
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Lyle belongs to fredbassett and she is just her usual awesome self for letting me play with him, Kalti is mine, Ryan belongs to Impossible Pictures.
Summary: Lyle wakes up in the hospital.
A/N 1: This is a big jump into the AU world. There are still anomalies, there's still a team and there is even an ARC. There has also been a slight twist in evolution somewhere along the line and one more sentient species shares the Earth with humans, dragons.
A/N 2: Finally we got to the main storyline all the prequels have been building up to so far. This takes place around what would have been season 2 of the series, in 2008.
A/N 3: For a full list of all Sharing a World AU stories please have a look here on my Master List. Thanks to fredbassett as always for the great beta, all remaining mistakes are mine.
Chapter 2
It was dark by the time Lyle had been transported to the nearest hospital and Lester had finished talking with the doctor. Fortunately once the hazel-eyed Captain’s injuries had been bandaged up and he had received several transfusions, he had quickly stabilised enough that, with some manoeuvring from both Ditzy and Lester, a transfer to the Anomaly Project’s infirmary had been arranged for the following day.
For the moment though, Lyle was lying still unconscious in the dark hospital room with Kalti watching over him. The Lieutenant was slouching in an uncomfortable plastic chair by the window as Ryan came in. He quietly acknowledged the Captain with a nod and a soft, “Sir.”
Ryan nodded back at Kalti and checked on the sleeping man. Ditzy had had to sedate Lyle at the anomaly site when he had started coming around and had asked for Gostegion. Between the pain from his injuries and the fact that no one would give him a straight answer about his dragon, the soldier had become so agitated it had been all but impossible to treat him.
“The nurse left a little while ago. Said he’s just sleeping now and should be waking up soon,” Kalti said from his corner. The Lieutenant had changed the clothes stained with his CO’s blood for a clean pair of BDUs but even in the semi darkness Ryan could still see the smudge of dried blood on the other man’s neck.
“You should go home, Kalti. Lyle is not going to wake up in the best of moods and it’s going to be difficult enough to make sure he doesn’t march out of here with the IVs trailing after him.”
The Lieutenant snorted softly at Ryan’s words but didn’t move from his slouch. ‘Hell enough without having to deal with the fact he’s going to want to kick my arse all the way through the fucking anomaly and back.’
The soldier didn’t say it out loud but it was easy enough for the blond Captain to hear the unspoken words anyway. Kalti believed he deserved anything Lyle was going to throw his way once the Captain woke up. The truth was that none of the Lieutenant’s orders had been questionable, and if he had waited for Gostegion before going through the anomaly together he and Lyle would simply have been trapped on the other side with her. With the amount of blood the Captain had lost by then, any delay in reaching medical help could well have proved fatal.
“Go home, whatever shit you think you deserve can wait. Jon is not going to be thinking straight for a while and he’ll need someone who won’t take his words as a personal attack.” Kalti’s eyes narrowed at Ryan’s words but he barely had time to open his mouth before the other soldier continued, “No matter how justified you believe those attacks would be.”
The Lieutenant snorted but got up grudgingly. “I still need to give him my report. I’ll be back in the morning.”
Ryan watched him leave and took the other soldier’s place on the small plastic chair. As he watched out of the window he thought he wasn’t sure Lyle would be ready to hear anything else but his own angry screaming by the time morning came.
~.~.
It’s one of his oldest clear memories. Not a fuzzy memory of kisses and hugs and perfumes, the sort little children tend to have. Nor the kind that comes from routines, where every day is the same, so that they feel compressed into one continuously repeating day. No, this one is different. It’s a crystal clear recollection of every moment. It’s odd, sometimes, to think that he still remembers what the lolly he was eating tasted like, to the point that twenty years later he still can’t stand cherries.
He remembers he was chattering about dragons as always, excitedly telling his mother about a new book on dragon breeds he would have done anything to get for his birthday. She’d come to pick him up from school like every afternoon, completely ignoring his complaints that most of his other class mates don’t need their mothers to walk them to school, it’s only a ten minute walk after all and he’s going to be six and a half in a few weeks, it’s not like he’s a baby.
He does enjoy having that time with her, though, just the two of them, before they get home and she has to pick up his younger sister from the neighbour who watches her a few hours every day. Once the three of them get home, time sort of speeds up and it feels like someone has pushed the fast forward button until bedtime. There’s homework to do and his mother always appreciates a little help from him watching Bea while she cooks. Then his father gets home and everything is pretty much complete chaos until his mother comes out of Bea’s room and crosses the hallway to walk into his. She checks his school work, tucks him into bed and then reads him a story out of the old battered collection of dragon stories he owns.
That day things don’t go the usual way. They never make it home, they don’t pick up Bea. He totally forgets about his baby sister until later that evening when she barges into his thoughts with sudden clarity that would have made him jump out of the hospital bed if his leg had not been trapped in the heavy cast. As it was he vaguely remembers yelling and screaming until the nurses come in and then everything goes fuzzy again.
When Jon opened his eyes again he wasn’t surprised to find himself in a hospital bed. Every time he ended up sleeping on one of the apparently omnipresent uncomfortable mattresses - and over his years of service it had happened often enough- he would get the same old dreams. This time it was different. He could usually remember how he had managed to get himself into whatever mess he’d ended up in that that had led to him waking up with his nose assaulted by pungent, chemical scents. This time, the last thing he remembered was getting kitted out with the rest of his crew and joking with Ryan about being back from their recon mission before dinner time.
“The doctors say it’s most likely going to come back to you, but you won’t be missing anything if it doesn’t.” Ryan’s smooth voice didn’t exactly startle him but it was only because it was as familiar as his own or Ghosty’s… Cold fear suddenly pooled in Lyle’s belly and the soldier barely felt the pain from his injuries as he sat bolt upright.
“Where’s Gostegion?”
~.~.~
By the time it was over and Lyle was leaning back in the hospital bed again, Ryan had had to scream twice at the nurses to fuck off and stop try to sedate the other Captain. He was also sporting an already darkening bruise on one cheekbone together with a couple of other bruises not as visible but that he would definitely feel come the next day. Lyle hadn’t exactly taken the news about his missing dragon calmly.
Lyle was finally lying still, while a very pissed-off nurse was redoing the dressing covering the wound in his leg. The dark-haired Captain was still stubbornly not looking at either of them, jaw set and chest still heaving from his earlier exertion. He had barely flinched while the nurse had re-stitched his leg. His attempt to force his way out of bed and back to the anomaly site had bust some of the original stitches open and caused the wound to start bleeding again.
That had been the final straw for Ryan. He had knocked the other soldier down on his arse and dragged him back to bed, threatening to strap him down and have a guard posted outside his room if he didn’t start thinking clearly again. The nurse had left, glaring meaningfully at him on the way out and Ryan was quite sure that if they were going to have another round like their earlier one, she was not going to stand for it. She’d probably order them both sedated if they weren’t careful. Cautiously, Ryan moved closer to the bed, leaning back against the wall before speaking.
“Blade and Kermit are on watch at the anomaly site right now, if it reopens Celia is already on stand-by for an S & R,” the soldier said, trying to sound reassuring.
“You’ve said that three times already. Yes, we have men on site there now but if the anomaly doesn’t reopen soon, I somehow don’t think they’ll be there in two weeks, let alone a month.” Lyle didn’t turn his way, just kept staring into space, jaw set in a hard line.
Ryan shook his head and ran his fingers through dirty-blond hair. “Jon, the anomaly has no history of repeat appearances. Yes, we are still hoping it will open again but if it doesn’t open soon, the army is not going to be able to station a guard there just on the off chance it might.” Ryan logically understood the reason why they could not just waste a rotation of six or more people on a daily basis to watch an empty glade for what could be an indefinite amount of time. But it didn’t mean the decision was fair, nor did it lessen his desire to punch something.
“We’re only assuming it’s not a recurring anomaly. The fact that it hasn’t been detected before doesn’t mean that it hasn’t shown up when there was no one around stupid enough to take a stroll through it.” The last part was nearly shouted and Ryan pushed away from the wall to come and sit on the edge of Lyle’s bed, one large hand wrapping itself gently around the other man’s shoulder.
“The anomaly was just at the edge of the a field barely a stone throw away from the town. If it had opened before, something would have wondered out eventually. I’m not saying that it won’t come back but you have to think about that possibility too.”
Lyle shrugged off the hand on his shoulder angrily and looked up at Ryan, eyes red and full of an anguish the other man knew only too well from his own experience.
“Tell me, Tom, make me believe that if it was Chandrakant on the other side of that anomaly that you wouldn’t do the same thing. Look me in the eyes and tell me you’d give up on him and move on.”
The other Captain looked down at the words, eyes fixed on the polished floor of the hospital room for a long time before he sighed and shook his head. “You know I can’t. I could never do that to him.”
The words seemed to deflate Lyle’s anger, making him sag back against the pillows. Ryan reached out again and clasped his friend’s shoulder, his thumb brushing gently at the hollow of the other man’s neck. Lyle didn’t lean into the touch but at least he didn’t pull away ,either.
“Ditzy can make sure you’re put on medical leave for at least a couple of weeks and I’ll see what we can do after that all right? They won’t pull the guard duty before then so there’s no reason for you to try and break out of the hospital tonight.” Suddenly Ryan realised how very tired he felt himself and he wished nothing more than to be back at the Covert where he could sleep with his ear next to Chandra’s soothing heartbeat.
Lyle shrugged and didn’t turn from his intent staring of the sky outside the bedroom window. “Yes, I’ll rest like a good little soldier while Gostegion is stuck millions of years in the past, in hostile territory with no back up. I’m sure I’ll sleep like a rock.” Lyle’s voice was quiet but still shaking with anger at his current helplessness.
Ryan sighed softly and squeezed his friend’s shoulder tightly, unable to offer any more comfort than he already had. “Try to rest at least, tomorrow we’ll have Ditzy spring you out of here and then we’ll take things from there, all right?”
Lyle nodded quietly in response and closed his eyes. He led there awake until dawn, Ryan asleep next to his bed in one of the uncomfortable hospital chairs, the other soldier’s muscled frame scrunched into the tiny plastic seat in a way that would surely have him bitching come morning. The entire time Lyle kept repeating to himself the same mantra, an anchor in the storm of anger and fear that was currently his mind.
I’m coming, Ghosty, I swear I’m coming to get you.
Characters: Lyle (OC), Kalti (OC), Ryan
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Lyle belongs to fredbassett and she is just her usual awesome self for letting me play with him, Kalti is mine, Ryan belongs to Impossible Pictures.
Summary: Lyle wakes up in the hospital.
A/N 1: This is a big jump into the AU world. There are still anomalies, there's still a team and there is even an ARC. There has also been a slight twist in evolution somewhere along the line and one more sentient species shares the Earth with humans, dragons.
A/N 2: Finally we got to the main storyline all the prequels have been building up to so far. This takes place around what would have been season 2 of the series, in 2008.
A/N 3: For a full list of all Sharing a World AU stories please have a look here on my Master List. Thanks to fredbassett as always for the great beta, all remaining mistakes are mine.
Chapter 2
It was dark by the time Lyle had been transported to the nearest hospital and Lester had finished talking with the doctor. Fortunately once the hazel-eyed Captain’s injuries had been bandaged up and he had received several transfusions, he had quickly stabilised enough that, with some manoeuvring from both Ditzy and Lester, a transfer to the Anomaly Project’s infirmary had been arranged for the following day.
For the moment though, Lyle was lying still unconscious in the dark hospital room with Kalti watching over him. The Lieutenant was slouching in an uncomfortable plastic chair by the window as Ryan came in. He quietly acknowledged the Captain with a nod and a soft, “Sir.”
Ryan nodded back at Kalti and checked on the sleeping man. Ditzy had had to sedate Lyle at the anomaly site when he had started coming around and had asked for Gostegion. Between the pain from his injuries and the fact that no one would give him a straight answer about his dragon, the soldier had become so agitated it had been all but impossible to treat him.
“The nurse left a little while ago. Said he’s just sleeping now and should be waking up soon,” Kalti said from his corner. The Lieutenant had changed the clothes stained with his CO’s blood for a clean pair of BDUs but even in the semi darkness Ryan could still see the smudge of dried blood on the other man’s neck.
“You should go home, Kalti. Lyle is not going to wake up in the best of moods and it’s going to be difficult enough to make sure he doesn’t march out of here with the IVs trailing after him.”
The Lieutenant snorted softly at Ryan’s words but didn’t move from his slouch. ‘Hell enough without having to deal with the fact he’s going to want to kick my arse all the way through the fucking anomaly and back.’
The soldier didn’t say it out loud but it was easy enough for the blond Captain to hear the unspoken words anyway. Kalti believed he deserved anything Lyle was going to throw his way once the Captain woke up. The truth was that none of the Lieutenant’s orders had been questionable, and if he had waited for Gostegion before going through the anomaly together he and Lyle would simply have been trapped on the other side with her. With the amount of blood the Captain had lost by then, any delay in reaching medical help could well have proved fatal.
“Go home, whatever shit you think you deserve can wait. Jon is not going to be thinking straight for a while and he’ll need someone who won’t take his words as a personal attack.” Kalti’s eyes narrowed at Ryan’s words but he barely had time to open his mouth before the other soldier continued, “No matter how justified you believe those attacks would be.”
The Lieutenant snorted but got up grudgingly. “I still need to give him my report. I’ll be back in the morning.”
Ryan watched him leave and took the other soldier’s place on the small plastic chair. As he watched out of the window he thought he wasn’t sure Lyle would be ready to hear anything else but his own angry screaming by the time morning came.
~.~.
It’s one of his oldest clear memories. Not a fuzzy memory of kisses and hugs and perfumes, the sort little children tend to have. Nor the kind that comes from routines, where every day is the same, so that they feel compressed into one continuously repeating day. No, this one is different. It’s a crystal clear recollection of every moment. It’s odd, sometimes, to think that he still remembers what the lolly he was eating tasted like, to the point that twenty years later he still can’t stand cherries.
He remembers he was chattering about dragons as always, excitedly telling his mother about a new book on dragon breeds he would have done anything to get for his birthday. She’d come to pick him up from school like every afternoon, completely ignoring his complaints that most of his other class mates don’t need their mothers to walk them to school, it’s only a ten minute walk after all and he’s going to be six and a half in a few weeks, it’s not like he’s a baby.
He does enjoy having that time with her, though, just the two of them, before they get home and she has to pick up his younger sister from the neighbour who watches her a few hours every day. Once the three of them get home, time sort of speeds up and it feels like someone has pushed the fast forward button until bedtime. There’s homework to do and his mother always appreciates a little help from him watching Bea while she cooks. Then his father gets home and everything is pretty much complete chaos until his mother comes out of Bea’s room and crosses the hallway to walk into his. She checks his school work, tucks him into bed and then reads him a story out of the old battered collection of dragon stories he owns.
That day things don’t go the usual way. They never make it home, they don’t pick up Bea. He totally forgets about his baby sister until later that evening when she barges into his thoughts with sudden clarity that would have made him jump out of the hospital bed if his leg had not been trapped in the heavy cast. As it was he vaguely remembers yelling and screaming until the nurses come in and then everything goes fuzzy again.
When Jon opened his eyes again he wasn’t surprised to find himself in a hospital bed. Every time he ended up sleeping on one of the apparently omnipresent uncomfortable mattresses - and over his years of service it had happened often enough- he would get the same old dreams. This time it was different. He could usually remember how he had managed to get himself into whatever mess he’d ended up in that that had led to him waking up with his nose assaulted by pungent, chemical scents. This time, the last thing he remembered was getting kitted out with the rest of his crew and joking with Ryan about being back from their recon mission before dinner time.
“The doctors say it’s most likely going to come back to you, but you won’t be missing anything if it doesn’t.” Ryan’s smooth voice didn’t exactly startle him but it was only because it was as familiar as his own or Ghosty’s… Cold fear suddenly pooled in Lyle’s belly and the soldier barely felt the pain from his injuries as he sat bolt upright.
“Where’s Gostegion?”
~.~.~
By the time it was over and Lyle was leaning back in the hospital bed again, Ryan had had to scream twice at the nurses to fuck off and stop try to sedate the other Captain. He was also sporting an already darkening bruise on one cheekbone together with a couple of other bruises not as visible but that he would definitely feel come the next day. Lyle hadn’t exactly taken the news about his missing dragon calmly.
Lyle was finally lying still, while a very pissed-off nurse was redoing the dressing covering the wound in his leg. The dark-haired Captain was still stubbornly not looking at either of them, jaw set and chest still heaving from his earlier exertion. He had barely flinched while the nurse had re-stitched his leg. His attempt to force his way out of bed and back to the anomaly site had bust some of the original stitches open and caused the wound to start bleeding again.
That had been the final straw for Ryan. He had knocked the other soldier down on his arse and dragged him back to bed, threatening to strap him down and have a guard posted outside his room if he didn’t start thinking clearly again. The nurse had left, glaring meaningfully at him on the way out and Ryan was quite sure that if they were going to have another round like their earlier one, she was not going to stand for it. She’d probably order them both sedated if they weren’t careful. Cautiously, Ryan moved closer to the bed, leaning back against the wall before speaking.
“Blade and Kermit are on watch at the anomaly site right now, if it reopens Celia is already on stand-by for an S & R,” the soldier said, trying to sound reassuring.
“You’ve said that three times already. Yes, we have men on site there now but if the anomaly doesn’t reopen soon, I somehow don’t think they’ll be there in two weeks, let alone a month.” Lyle didn’t turn his way, just kept staring into space, jaw set in a hard line.
Ryan shook his head and ran his fingers through dirty-blond hair. “Jon, the anomaly has no history of repeat appearances. Yes, we are still hoping it will open again but if it doesn’t open soon, the army is not going to be able to station a guard there just on the off chance it might.” Ryan logically understood the reason why they could not just waste a rotation of six or more people on a daily basis to watch an empty glade for what could be an indefinite amount of time. But it didn’t mean the decision was fair, nor did it lessen his desire to punch something.
“We’re only assuming it’s not a recurring anomaly. The fact that it hasn’t been detected before doesn’t mean that it hasn’t shown up when there was no one around stupid enough to take a stroll through it.” The last part was nearly shouted and Ryan pushed away from the wall to come and sit on the edge of Lyle’s bed, one large hand wrapping itself gently around the other man’s shoulder.
“The anomaly was just at the edge of the a field barely a stone throw away from the town. If it had opened before, something would have wondered out eventually. I’m not saying that it won’t come back but you have to think about that possibility too.”
Lyle shrugged off the hand on his shoulder angrily and looked up at Ryan, eyes red and full of an anguish the other man knew only too well from his own experience.
“Tell me, Tom, make me believe that if it was Chandrakant on the other side of that anomaly that you wouldn’t do the same thing. Look me in the eyes and tell me you’d give up on him and move on.”
The other Captain looked down at the words, eyes fixed on the polished floor of the hospital room for a long time before he sighed and shook his head. “You know I can’t. I could never do that to him.”
The words seemed to deflate Lyle’s anger, making him sag back against the pillows. Ryan reached out again and clasped his friend’s shoulder, his thumb brushing gently at the hollow of the other man’s neck. Lyle didn’t lean into the touch but at least he didn’t pull away ,either.
“Ditzy can make sure you’re put on medical leave for at least a couple of weeks and I’ll see what we can do after that all right? They won’t pull the guard duty before then so there’s no reason for you to try and break out of the hospital tonight.” Suddenly Ryan realised how very tired he felt himself and he wished nothing more than to be back at the Covert where he could sleep with his ear next to Chandra’s soothing heartbeat.
Lyle shrugged and didn’t turn from his intent staring of the sky outside the bedroom window. “Yes, I’ll rest like a good little soldier while Gostegion is stuck millions of years in the past, in hostile territory with no back up. I’m sure I’ll sleep like a rock.” Lyle’s voice was quiet but still shaking with anger at his current helplessness.
Ryan sighed softly and squeezed his friend’s shoulder tightly, unable to offer any more comfort than he already had. “Try to rest at least, tomorrow we’ll have Ditzy spring you out of here and then we’ll take things from there, all right?”
Lyle nodded quietly in response and closed his eyes. He led there awake until dawn, Ryan asleep next to his bed in one of the uncomfortable hospital chairs, the other soldier’s muscled frame scrunched into the tiny plastic seat in a way that would surely have him bitching come morning. The entire time Lyle kept repeating to himself the same mantra, an anchor in the storm of anger and fear that was currently his mind.
I’m coming, Ghosty, I swear I’m coming to get you.