tramitem_log | Finding the errant cousin

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Finding the errant cousin

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."

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"You aren't going to be able to."

The cell was slid well out of reach into a back pocket.

"She loves you even if you were barely there. I can't imagine why... she probably has never seen how difficult you are."

He sighed the playful jab before adding, "Now would you sit back and calm down before Caligula comes back in here??"

Anthony glanced quickly to the door.

"I already got the third degree for bringing in those cookies."

"It's not love it's bloody single mindedness." He flops back on the pillow and breathes a bit. "Just because we're family. It doesn't count." He did enjoy jammy dodgers. One of the few things he'd eat without reservation. But first.

"Tea." He wiggles his fingers for it, twists it open with some effort and takes a drink. It's not as good as coffee but it's warm and that's the important thing. "Did you sleep?"

Sleep was an elusive mistress, ten minutes here, a half hour there... He felt he had slept enough to at least truthfully answer the question.

"Yea, some."

Not enough probably but, details.

"You look better. Not great, but better. They been doing a good job checking in on you?"

"You need more rest. I'm not going anywhere." Would that he could. "Don't you have your art show?"

At the question he rolled his eyes.

"I feel like they'd chain me to the bloody bed if they could."

"I'm fine. Anyway being out of my flat is resting."

No phone calls, no dreams, no concerns about ex-fiance's randomly showing back up. Grace hand't yet but it was a worry.

"And the art show is up and running now. All the hard work has been completed. I can take as much time off as I need to read you silly stories. No one is going to call me out for looking after my cousin in the hospital."

The iPad appeared from a pocket only to be switched on and flicked to the book app.

"And you wanted me to move in with you." He rustles out a jammy dodger and eats it slowly, savoring the taste.

"Looking after your perfectly fine cousin probably doesn't pay well." Though he didn't have a wedding to plan anymore so that probably helped.

"It might work if we had separate floors... Our own bathrooms would be essential!"

He did not trust Alec to share or to not horde all the toilet paper.

"I was trying to keep you safe by suggesting it. Failed, but..."

Anthony grumbled and searched through the list of books before finding a fitting sword and sorcery adventure, reading the first line just as his own phone decided to vibrate in his back pocket again. It was turned off as Alec's had been.

"I don't need to be kept safe." He threw a biscuit at him, raised his eyebrows at the turned off phone, but then settled back reluctantly to be entertained.

"Better do the voices too."

It missed, sailed right past his bruised cheek and landed on the other room some where. The nurses would love finding that later.

"Says the man in the hospital bed."

Pointed look.

Anthony glanced at the page, then back at Alec, before raising his voice into a Princess falsetto to continue the story.

"It's just a precaution. Not worth taking a phone over." He didn't know if it would work, but he'd give it a shot.

The princess voice made him nearly choke on his tea and he was caught between laughing and coughing.

"Should use that one all the time," he said when he could breathe.

Precaution or not the phone was still kept right where it was in his back pocket. Alec was not getting it back, not until the Doctor said it was safe.

What his cousin was given was a hard stare. It was a friendly sort of glare with no heat to it because it was so nice to see Alec actually laughing. When was the last time he had seen his cousin so happy? It might have been proof of the sad state of things that he couldn't remember.

"You want me to do the voices or not??"

He asked with a barely contained smirk. This hidden smile finally broke free as he further hammed it up for the Princess's next few lines about the weakness of the castle's moat and how it would never stop the dragon, whose mighty roar brought a curious nurse to the window in the door just to make sure no one had slipped a dog in here.

He had to laugh again at the dragon, though not as loud. Too much and they would come in after him anyway. He could see them lurking by the door. He knuckled a tear from the corner of his eye.

"You should do this professionally. Ever thought of children's puppetry?"

"Puppetry?"

His nose crinkled into a confused bunch.

"No, can't say I've ever thought of doing that."

Anthony frowned as he looked back to the page as there was a question nagging at the back of his mind. One he eventually gave into to ask.

"You really think I would be good with kids?"

That was an interesting question. More interesting why he wanted to know. Did he want children? Being with Fell wouldn't exactly negate that but-- there was something about having your own. And he remembers Grace was a nurse in the maternity ward. It makes him sad in a way he can't quite pin down.

"I think so... Very good." He gave his cousin a look. "Why?"

"It doesn't matter."

Or so he said as he dived back into the book so he wouldn't have to dwell on it for very long. Having kids, watching them learn and grow... there was something very appealing in the idea. It wouldn't happen the way he had planned now of course. He had set about destroying that dream pretty soundly.

But there was a dragon smashing down the walls of the castle who needed to be confronted by the brave knight, who for some reason sounded very posh and tittered a bit when he got nervous.

Edited 2020-05-17 04:31 (UTC)

After a moment he puts a handover the ipad and guides it down.

"It does matter." He looked into Anthony's face. "Tell me." He wanted to know, and also the impression of Fell was a bit unnerving.

It wasn't Fell, it was a brave white knight here to defend the kingdom! In Anthony's head he had a white horse to ride in on because that sounded more romantic than the grey donkey the story said he actually owned.

"Don't we already have enough to worry about? Forget it. I thought kids might be nice, it's not going to happen, its... probably for the best. I would make a terrible father."

He frowned at the iPad.

"Just being good at stupid voices isn't enough."

"I don't think anyone knows how to just be a parent. It takes work like anything else." He wasn't, though sometimes it felt like he was. Maybe watching eighth graders day in and day out.

"You do your best and you do it with love and I can't imagine anyone more suited than you." Because for all that could be said about Anthony, he did everything wholeheartedly. "I don't see why it's not going to happen, either. Not if you want it. There are plenty of options out there. Adoption. Surrogacy. Fostering. Don't give up on something you want before you've even tried."

"It's no where near as simple as all that... you know it isn't."

There was the brand newness of his relationship with Fell... maybe he didn't even like kids, guilt over the way he had handled things with Grace, the absolutely pathetic way he had been looking after everyone who was important to him, and to top it off all the business with the Bureau and his being a 'demon'. Demons really shouldn't have kids, whether it meant they would turn out evil or if it would put them into the sights of this slippery agency. They could be in danger either way.

"Forget about it. It's not like this could have worked out differently. As soon as I saw Fell again I knew that."

He sighed and laid back on the bed, hands over his stomach.

"You two have the same bloody mind." He wondered if they'd be attracted to each other without the damn bureau. "It's like you're determined not to be happy. Or are afraid of it." He understood the last part. Far too well.

"You're going to live a long life, Anthony, and have plenty of opportunities. Don't give up before you've even started."

Did they have the same bloody mind? That brought a twitter of intangibly warm feeling up from where ever it had been resting leaving him with a faint blush like a silly kid with their first crush.

The rest... well, that was more like striking a match over a pile of dry leaves.

"It sounds strange to hear something like that from you, some one who has given up on life."

Was there anyway else to interpret the now infamous in his mind subway incident? Alec could have called nine eleven himself, at any time he could have reached out for help, instead it felt more like he was waiting to die in those dark tunnels.

"Just because you are sick that doesn't mean you have to give up on everything."

He shrugged. It wasn't because he was sick, such as it was, that was only a symptom of the problem.

Anyway.

"This isn't about me."

"Of course it's about you. I wouldn't be here now making up silly Princess voices if it weren't for you."

He stopped just short of saying it. Alec had always been gruff, intense, and not quite inclined to enjoy the squishier side of his cousin. I love you and want you to be happy too, might have proven too much.

It wasn't like he asked you to. The only reason he was here at all was because Anthony couldn't let go of anything.

"I'm fine. I'll be out of here on Monday and everything will be back to normal. Stop worrying so much."

He's not letting go of his irritating cousin!

"Stop saying that. Nothing is normal and it's not going to magically become normal by Monday. Everything is going to be new, different..."

Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. New could be as exciting as it was currently worrying.

"We need to help each other get through it. It needs to be a two way street from now on."

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