Finding the errant cousin

[serpentinthegarden]

Who: Anthony and Alec (Closed) - NOW WITH OPEN SECTION (Visit Alec in Hospital) 
What: Alec is drunk and wandering New York with a traitorous med alert bracelet letting his cousin know where he is. He is about to be found.
It goes poorly and Alec ends up being emergency transported to Mount Sinai Hospital where his heart is restarted and he is forced to stay for observation until Monday (May 18th)
When: Right after Alec's post, Evening of May 13th
Where: The subways of NYC
Rating/Warnings: One angry hurt drunk - anything could happen : Heart attack and Hospital mentions

Alec hadn't been at the hotel when Anthony arrived though the owner remembered having seen him... after being slipped fifty dollars and being threatened with motorcycle skid marks all over his lobby which was apparently the only room in the place he actually worried about being clean. Fortunately the med alert bracelet was still with Alec and still in pinging distance of the head office. Anthony chased that signal from one end of New York to the other until it occurred to him the only way his cousin could move that quickly was if he were on the subway.

Anthony's boot clicked against the concrete floor as he finally tracked the signal down to a certain station at the correct time for him to hop onto the train. He even managed to find the correct car before the whole train lurched forward and began its circuit around the city again.

"Wake up."

The soul of Alec's shoe was given a soft kick to aide in that request.

"What are you doing sleeping in the subway? Anyone could have found you down here."

Comments

[scotch_egg]

It was like coming out of a still dark pooi, the darkness clung to him, wanting to pull him back into its comforting dark depths. The voice spurred him only a little, the kick a little more. His limbs felt like lead and his eyes sandpaper and he muttered something about being awake, or thought he did, or maybe hadn't said anything at all.

Instead he found a more comfortable spot for his head on the metal wall and drifted back into the darkness.

[serpentinthegarden]

"Alec!"

He grew more instant and dropped into the chair beside him to give the exhausted idiot a proper shake. Sleep through this earthquake if you can. It uhm... might not have been as gentle as Aziraphale had been hoping for.

"Come on wake up. Time to go to a proper bed."

[scotch_egg]

"Bloody hell!" he croaked and his hand flailed out automatically to whack his assailant somewhere in the face. His heart kicked up as his whole body startled at the suddenness of the attack and he felt it galloping behind his chest as his breath came short and rasping.

"Bloody hell!" he said again as he recognized who was there. "Where did you come from?"

[serpentinthegarden]

Anthony was caught in the face so hard that his glasses actually landed on the floor and disappeared... where ever it was that lost things went. He was not finding them again!

"Guess I deserved that."

He leaned back into the seat and patted at his soon to be bruised cheek to assess the damage.

"It's worse than you let on, isn't it? You can barely catch your breath."

[scotch_egg]

"Sod off--" He wheezed it, searched around for his pills but couldn't find them -- so instead leaned against the wall and tried to calm down, to take deep breaths.

"What the hell-- Everyone keeps bloody stalking me. Leave me the fuck alone would you?"

[serpentinthegarden]

"I can't... Even if you piss me off, meddle in things you have no business in, and are a generally annoying pain in the ass, you are still family and I do still care."

His head boobed towards those many pockets.

"What's wrong? Did you lose your pills?"

[scotch_egg]

"No business? No bloody business?! You made it my bloody business! You wanted me to make good with Grace. To be a family. And you couldn't even tell you were breaking that poor bastard's heart whenever you were in the same room and you expect me just to--

Christ--" He leaned back, tugging at his collar, trying to breathe.

"Fuck you. Fuck you. Wish I'd stayed in bloody Scotland."

[serpentinthegarden]

"OI! I invited you over to meet my... at the time soon to be fiance, who now probably hates me and we'll never see again... you inserted yourself into the situation with Aziraphale!"

He reached over and despite any protests or smacking hands loosened the top few buttons of Alec's collar.

"Don't blame me for that..."

Anthony then patted down the few pockets he could see until the pill bottle finally dropped out into his hand where it could be handed back to Alec.

"I had googles on, 'normal life' goggles which are sort of like beer googles only you get them from trying to please others. I didn't always want to be the rebel... for a while I dreamed about actually fitting in for once."

Not that Alec would have any concept of that. He had always fit in with the family. The good son, the why can't you be as responsible as Alec...

"Can you get the bottle open or do you need help?"

[scotch_egg]

His hands shook as he tried to undo it but he twisted his body in such a way so that Anthony couldn't turn the cap for him. He wasn't an invalid.

"Fine. Next time I won't help. Next time I'll sit back and watch the both of you suffer. I'm sorry for ruining your perfect life. Add it to the list. Fuck." The bottle spilled out of his hands and went sliding across the floor. Alec slid down to the floor to get them and then closed his eyes as a wave of darkness washed over him.

"You never needed to fit in, you shit. You've always been fine just how you are. Always been loved just how you are." He turned his head up and tried to focus on Anthony-- and maybe they were in a tunnel because things had gone dim. "Just be happy."

Visiting Hours

[scotch_egg]

For the next few days Alec is going to be cooped up in bed, looking and feeling like shit. Even after he's recovered some there are shadows under his eyes and a hollow look to his face as if his body had survived, but only just.

In either case, while he's not open to receive visitors, he can't exactly stop them either.

the one visitor you don't want....well, marginally better than Mr. Martin. maybe.

[temptationaccomplished]

He had come the night Alec was admitted to sit with Anthony in the cold waiting room and await word on Alec's fate.

Now, despite knowing this is a terrible idea (as all his ideas are involving these two men), Aziraphale is back during visiting hours. He isn't sure if he hopes Alec is awake or not--probably best if he doesn't upset a man with a heart condition, so maybe he should wish for him to be asleep--but although Aziraphale feels like even though he probably shouldn't come, he needs to.

It's his fault, after all.

The flowers are nothing very special: a convenience store bouquet meant as a get-well and as a peace offering. Penance, perhaps. It seemed like a sweet idea at the time, an inside joke, a throwback to their unfortunate first meeting. But now standing here in the hallway, surrounded by the reality of the situation, he thinks it's all wrong. And not because the flowers don't pass muster (although they really are kind of silly). And not because tradition seemed to include bringing grapes or other fruit.

But because it is too sentimental. It's too telling. It's cruel without meaning to be, which makes it cruelest of all. Alec tried so hard to spare him those unintentional cruelties, and here Aziraphale has committed one against him.

He can't find a waste bin now, so he's left to toss the flowers out in the bin in Alec's room, which he does, and then hovers uncertainly near the door, debating whether or not to leave. Alec would be well within his right to pretend sleep and ignore him, or send him away entirely. Aziraphale has done irreparable damage to a relationship he hadn't fully understood before recently and his consolation is that it didn't cost Alec his life. He really just needs to see that for himself. So he stands fretfully at the far end of the room like a silent guard, dutifully listening to the vitals beep on their monitors, and watching the rise and fall of Alec's chest.

if things work out alec might have a lot of problems with a martin....

[scotch_egg]

He was drifting out of sleep, the dream sweet and agonizing on the tip of his tongue. It hurt, though in the slow sweet sort of pain that he didn't want to let go of. His hand moved automatically for his phone before realizing it wasn't there and remembering why it wasn't.

Bloody hell.

With a sigh he opened his eyes and startled at the figure standing at the opposite end of the the room, dressed in creams. For a moment he had the memory of incense from the brazier and the view of the old rafters of the stone chapel crossing overhead. Fortunately the angry beeping of the monitor brought him back down to earth and he cursed under his breath.

"Sit down already, Fell, you look like the bloody angel of death standing there." And then he saw it. "I'd shift if I were you in any case."

Not a moment later, Nurse Janesca poked her head into the room, a large bowling ball of a woman who could frown even the most hardened criminals in to behaving.

"You get one," she said to Fell, dark eyes blazing. "If I hear that thing go off one more time I'm throwin' you out on your ear. Understand me?"

aside from the obvious problems with furry aziraphale...

[temptationaccomplished]

"Yes, of course. Sorry. Thank you, ma'am." He waited until the nurse left before accepting Alec's offer, his appropriately apologetic smile turned guilty. He draped his coat over the back of the chair and pushed the chair a little closer, to make it more personal than leaving it against the wall, but not too close that he was crowding Alec. Any distance, really, might be crowding Alec, but it was a chance he was going to take.

Thank you. For not throwing me out.

He gave a smile, a little tearful around the edges as he shuffled around and took a seat. "I had hoped to strike a bit more...optimistic presence. A herald, maybe. Gabriel." He gave a little shrug at the joke and tried to keep things light. "Unto you a child is, uh, born and whatnot." The teasing smile went away just as quickly as it came.

Aziraphale let out a sigh and wasn't sure where to go from there. Words stuck in his throat. Topics flickered to mind and were rejected. Nothing about Anthony. Nothing that would upset Alec. Nothing that would leave Alec comforting Aziraphale. His hands couldn't decide whether to keep to themselves or offer comfort. Part of him wanted little more than to sit in silence and hold his hand.

"How long do they plan to keep you?" Small-talk--safely distanced, even if it wasn't Alec's strong suit. He hated it as soon as it came out.

/sob

[scotch_egg]

He tried not to think about it, turning his gaze to the ceiling. He could hear the tearful edges in his voice. He smirked a little at the joke, though he wasn't sure if being delivered unto an unexpected child with no choice in the matter was a blessing or not.

How long?

"Until Monday." They had said tentatively Monday but he was hardlining it. He was not spending all of his time cooped up in here, even if he felt like he could lie down forever.

"Sorry for worrying you. Everything got out of hand." Said gruffly. Because he was even though he hated apologizing. "But I'll be fine."

then we will have a "demon" and "angel" for both DT and MS

[temptationaccomplished]

Monday. That told him more than if he had outright asked Alec how he was feeling. Monday implied it was very serious, though approximately the average for a heart-attack (he had looked it up to be prepared), and not just something the doctors felt could be kept for observation.

"You needn't apologize to me. I'm just glad you are alive." A rather large understatement. His hand hesitated en route to reaching for Alec's and he fell silent trying to navigate the possibility of a minefield of conversational topics.

yes ROFL

[scotch_egg]

No. No hand holding. He moved his own away to rest on his stomach.

For a moment the silence filled the air and it was nice but with Fell being such an anxious presence he found himself wanting to fill it.

"Don't suppose you've brought a book to read."

[temptationaccomplished]

That was fair.

"Ah." He made a face, equal parts wince and guilt. "I didn't. I brought myself and--" And the flowers. "And that's all. A poor offering, as far as comfort is concerned--and you wouldn't like any of the books I have been keeping on hand right now anyway; they're all either terrible mysteries or art history and incredibly dry. I'd offer to get a magazine from the waiting room, but I suspect you'd enjoy that even less.

"I was rather distracted heading out today; I really just wanted to see you. If the feeling isn't mutual, I understand and I'll leave, but I just wanted to see you."

[temptationaccomplished]

That was fair.

"Ah." He made a face, equal parts wince and guilt. "I didn't. I brought myself and--" And the flowers. "And that's all. A poor offering, as far as comfort is concerned--and you wouldn't like any of the books I have been keeping on hand right now anyway; they're all either terrible mysteries or art history and incredibly dry. I'd offer to get a magazine from the waiting room, but I suspect you'd enjoy that even less.

"I was rather distracted heading out today; I really just wanted to see you. If that isn't mutual, I understand and I'll leave, but I just wanted to see you."

[serpentinthegarden]

Anthony hadn't gotten very much sleep what with the phone ringing off the hook and worrying over his idiot cousin. Every time he nearly drifted off there would be some little fear to worry him or some other relative to talk to. Telling them about Alec always got them off his back about the Grace situation but he wished the whole incident hadn't happened at all. The get out of jail free card was nice but not at the expense of his cousin's health.

Alec should have been taking better care of himself but this still felt like his fault. He replayed that moment in the subway over and over in his mind, hindsight showing him that he should have been kinder, should have taken more care with the pill bottle, should have called 911 the very second he had found where Alec was instead of trying to reason with him. One couldn't in the end. Alec was an unreasonable person. Stubborn, convinced of his own rightness... If you die you ass I'll never forgive you.

There was what Fell had said too, that this was some how their fault or, as he had later corrected, his mistake alone. That haunted Anthony. Why? Anthony knew he had been unsure, lost, trying to find his way just like every other person in the world... why had that hurt Alec so much? Weren't he and Fell allowed to be as confused as every other Different trying to navigate this maze of new memories? Or had something happened between them he wasn't being told? Why had Alec always paid his relationship with Fell such special attention but barely gave one fig about Grace?

In the end this was his fault too, Anthony concluded. If he had been quicker on the uptake, pushed Alec away from his meddling sooner, or even called the Doctor posing as his Scottish cousin to get the actual truth of his condition, all of this might have been different. He should have been more clever.

Alec was still fast asleep when Anthony arrived to hold this guilt trip vigil in the small uncomfortable chair by his bedside. Anthony pulled the rickety old thing up close to the bed and stared at his cousin for what seemed like hours. Alec looked pale and gaunt but his breathing was easier as he was being supported by all the little ticks and whirls of the medical equipment. The droning sounds they made were almost soothing. Anthony barely even noticed his eyes closing and he never felt it when his head landed on the mattress next to his ill cousin.

[scotch_egg]

Alec woke slowly. It wasn't his first time waking here, though each time he was a little more annoyed. This time though it was different. Mid-afternoon for one thing, the warm light slanting in on a worn starchy blue chair. There was also someone on his bed. He could feel the weight. The warmth. Peeling his eye open he saw Anthony slumped over like an idiot, head on the mattress. Poor bastard.

He reached out and stroked that red hair.

Moron.

Idiot.

Their life was going to be hell for the next few months, but he would do his best to shield his baby cousin from it.

[serpentinthegarden]

He stirred slightly from the touch and for a hair's breath he thought he was back home in that quaint little historical gatehouse in the English countryside he had grown up in, but the steady hum of the machines soon pulled him out of that dreamworld. His eyes opened and focused on Alec, a bit surprised to see the man looking back at him and with that fond older cousin hand running over his head again.

"You're awake."

Anthony sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and giving his spine a good stretch backwards over the head rest of the chair to try and work the kinks out.

"Might as well get the really annoying questions out of the way now... How are you feeling?"

[scotch_egg]

He smirked, chuckling roughly and winced a bit.

"Like shit. How about you?"

[serpentinthegarden]

"Only slightly better than shit."

He could at least sit upright without the aide of a mound of pillows. It was something to be grateful for, right up there with actually hearing Alec's voice again.

"I thought..."

Anthony shook his head, finding there were too many feelings getting in the way and too much fear that he might just say the wrong thing again and trigger another heart failure.

"I'm sorry. What ever I said... I don't want anything to happen to you."

[scotch_egg]

Alec was glad he didn't finish that sentence. Things had been melodramatic enough.

"Don't apologize, you ninny." Or at least not to him. "You're fine." He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "Soon they'll let me out and everything will go back to--relatively normal."

With hopefully a little less chaos.

"I suppose you told Ellie."

[serpentinthegarden]

"Eh..."

He feigned to the right, trying not to let all the really good news out all at once.

"Not exactly. But, mum might have found out through a very complex international phone tree game."

Which means they knew. The whole family knew. Evelyn was like the gossip hub of the family wheel, always checking up on everyone and trying to keep the family informed on everything that happened. The Columbo of family drama.

"But on the bright side, I no longer have to pop for a couple of plane tickets to visit the family. I think they are all on their way here."