Missing Dom (original) (raw)

Title: Missing Dom
Author: Blackbird Song
Pairing: DM/BB (sort of)
Rating: R (language)
Disclaimer: Lies, every bit of it. Just having fun playing with these guys. No disrespect is intended, and no statement is being made about the actual lives or sexual orientation of the men on whom these characters are based.
Feedback: Sure! I'll just sharpen those knives...
Archive: Absolutely not without my express permission.
Response to the following: Dom/Billy: Lost was a huge flop and Dom drops off the face of the earth. Elijah and Sean look for him, and decide there in only one person who could know where he was... Billy. Orlando in there somewhere as a huge star who doesn't have enough time to care. [Request by seedyapartment]

Los Angeles.

He sat at the window, eyes staring unfocused through the smoke. Weeks. He’d lost track of how many. He took another long drag and replayed the message, lighting the next cancer stick with the butt’s glowing end.

“Hey, it’s Dom. Well, you probably heard Lost is crap, so I’m just going to crawl into a pub for a while and drown me sorrows for, oh, a few weeks. Talk to you when I get back, alright? Love ya, gay boy!”

He stared out the window at the black ocean. Months. What was the date? Oh, yes. His birthday: the third big date in a month or so that he’d missed Dom. And boy, had he been a dickwad to everyone who’d called him and hadn’t been Dom. How long ago had he called, now? Oh, yes. Right before Thanksgiving, when the assholes had canned Lost. Sean had called the police two days later when nobody’d heard anything from him. There was a worldwide manhunt launched the following day after statements were given and reports filled out. Nothing turned up. Calls and visits to and from the local precinct became fewer and farther between.

The knot Elijah was trying to burn out of his stomach was prevailing over the cigarettes, and he found himself wishing for the hot, dry burn of the cloves he’d given up in favor of the healthier tobacco. He laughed bitterly as he thought of Dom chiding him for his smoking habit until he’d hooked him on the fucking things. “Fuck!” he yelled, dropping the coal from his burnt fingers and grinding it hard beneath his foot.

“Didn’t mean to startle you that much,” chuckled a voice from the doorway.

He spun around, clutching his fingers. “Shit, Sean! What the fuck are you doing here?”

Sean moved closer. “You don’t usually tell me to fuck off when I wish you a happy birthday, Lij. Thought I’d better see for myself if you were all right.” He took Elijah by the wrist and pulled him over to the kitchen sink, taking advantage of the stunned silence to run the injured hand under cold water.

“’M sorry, Sean,” muttered Elijah.

“Aah! Don’t worry about it. I spent the day worrying about him, too. Got a call from Orli after you told him about some rather interesting sexual positions he could try with himself and a household appliance or two.”

“Oh? Has he heard anything?”

Sean shook his head. “Couldn’t get a word in edgeways. He was so involved in talking about his latest projects, I had to yell at him to shut up so I could ask. He hasn’t heard a thing.”

Elijah stood mute at the sink, the cold water settling painfully into his hand. “Fuck, Sean, this hurts worse than the fucking burn!”

Sean held the fingers dutifully under the faucet for a few more seconds before turning it off and tossing Elijah a towel.

“Where the fuck is he?” Elijah swiped his fingers dry. “I’ve called his places in Hawaii and LA, his parents... Any luck finding Matt?”

“Finally got through to him in Costa Rica. He hasn’t heard a thing. He’s worried shitless like the rest of us.”

“Fuck!” Elijah started chewing thoughtfully on his fingernail. “Shox hasn’t heard anything, Sala, Lawrence, PJ...”

Sean nodded. “I saw Lani when I was shooting in New Zealand. She said none of them’s heard a thing.”

“I caught Ian when I was in London. He had no idea where he could be. He said we should give Billy a ring.”

“It’s a thought,” shrugged Sean.

“Shit, Sean, Billy doesn’t know where he is any more than we do.” Elijah pulled out another cigarette and lit it before Sean could pull it away. “Seems pretty damn calm about it, for a guy whose best friend could turn up dead in a river like Spaulding Gray,” he added, taking a bitter drag.

“Well, Billy’s always fairly calm,” offered Sean.

“Except when he screams like a girl,” countered Elijah.

“Yeah, well, that’s when he’s about to be killed by a giant firework. I’d scream like Lizzie if there was a fuse the size of Manhattan aimed at my balls, too.”

“I suppose,” muttered Elijah. He looked up at Sean. “Seriously, though, have you talked to him lately? It seems like every time I call him he doesn’t want to talk about Dom. It’s almost like they argued, or something. And he was so worried that first week or so.”

“Yeah, I did notice that. I just thought he was so worried about things that he didn’t want to keep rehashing it.”

“Could be,” allowed Elijah. “I was calling him like every day or two for a while.”

“Yeah, he did sorta mention that,” said Sean with a glint.

Elijah cuffed Sean as he blushed and avoided swallowing his smoke. “Wanker!”

“I’ll take that as directed toward Billy,” said Sean smoothly. He draped an arm around Elijah’s shoulders and looked out toward the ocean with him. “You know, if this were a movie...”

Elijah winced at the cliché. “Billy’d be hiding Dom in a cave in the Highlands, or something, right?”

“Well, probably more like a deserted stone cottage, but yeah,” said Sean.

“Are you saying that he knows where Dom is and isn’t telling us? Come on, Sean! He wouldn’t do that. He’s almost as safety-conscious as you!”

“Well, you said yourself that he’s always finding a way not to talk about it. And he was pretty freaked out when Dom first disappeared.”

“What do you want us to do about it, Sean? Hop a jet to fucking Scotland and make Billy show us where he’s keeping Dom? I mean, come on!”

Sean looked straight ahead. “Think about it,” he said, ignoring Elijah’s retort. “Who does Dom always talk to, no matter what? Who’s always in touch with him, regardless of how depressed or out of it he is? And even when they’re not in touch, they are. If there’s anyone in the world who’d know where Dom went, it’s Billy.

Elijah finished his cigarette and sighed. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. And at least he hasn’t told me to stop calling him.”

“Still persona non grata at the precinct, huh?”

Elijah cuffed Sean again, half-heartedly, and pulled out his cell. “You coming with me to Scotland?”

“Yeah. Christine told me if I didn’t go voluntarily, she’d have me kidnapped and flown to Glasgow.”

“You know, you really don’t deserve her. You sure she’s not available?” Elijah hit the speed-dial for his manager.

“El-wood! You get your googly eyes off my wife!”

Glasgow

Billy took his final curtain call, his face a practiced mask of ease and grace. He’d been good at cultivating that look since he’d moved into his Gran’s place after Mum had died. He’d retreated into her strictness and stuffed down the urge to act for so many years that he’d almost stopped noticing the fact that he was slipping on a character every morning before he even walked out to the kitchen table for his porridge. Surely, then, it shouldn’t be so terribly difficult to assume this mask now, whilst he was accepting the applause for his performance on stage? After all, he’d kept big secrets before. Many of them. Sometimes in defiance of rampant rumor and millions of photographs on the computer screens of obsessed fans. He covered his sigh as the curtain came down for the last time.

He donned the professional ‘I’m in a hurry, sorry!’ smile that he always adopted when he had to push through crowds, though in this case it was just the cast and crew of the play, and those who were paying attention to him at all just thumped him on the back as he passed and congratulated him on a good performance. As he reached his dressing room door, the stage manager caught up with him. “There’s a couple of people here to see you, Billy. I told them you were busy tonight, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Billy rounded on her and remembered just in time to keep his mask. “All right, Jen, thanks for telling me.”

She gave him an apologetic glance before she had to bark some orders into her headset.

Billy took a deep breath. Shite! Why fucking now? He pushed the door open, prepared to give the reporters or obsessed distant relatives of the twelfth stage hand on the left a very limited amount of his time and then growl an excuse to shove them out of his life. “Hello, so sorry to be– Jesus!”

“So sorry to be Jesus?” chuckled Sean.

“Seanie? Elwood?” A huge grin spread over Billy’s face and he launched himself into their arms. “Christ it’s good to see you! What the bloody hell are you doing here?”

“We wanted to see you, dude,” said Elijah, an edge threading around his voice.

Sean nudged Elijah in the group hug. “You were great tonight, Bill,” he said.

“Thanks!” Billy pulled away and blushed at the sight of makeup splotches on his friends’ collars. “Oh, shite, ‘m sorry about that. I’d best not touch you till I clean off, yeah?”

“Hey, Bill, don’t worry about it. Not like we don’t know the drill, you know?” Sean squeezed his shoulder.

“Oh, yes, of course.” Billy laughed nervously. “Well, sit down, then.” He gestured to a very old armchair, which Sean claimed. Elijah perched on its arm in favor of sitting on the grimy floor.

“When did you get here?” asked Billy, reaching for the removal cream when he was interrupted by a tinny rendition of ‘Somewhere, Beyond the Sea’ from the mobile in his coat pocket. He jumped. “Oh, excuse me, but I have to take this,” he said, moving to the clothes rack to retrieve the device. “It shouldnae take long; I’ll just be out here....”

Billy left the room and Elijah and Sean looked at each other. “Jumpy, isn’t he?” said Elijah.

“Yeah, very. And he only calls me ‘Seanie’ when he’s worried or upset about something.”

“Yeah. Accent’s thicker, too.” Elijah reached for his cigarettes.

“Um Lij? Makeup? Solvents? Firetrap?”

“Fuck!” Elijah put the cigarettes back in his pocket and bit his fingernails. “Shit!” He jumped up from the arm of the chair. “I’m going outside for a smoke, Sean.”

“I’ll hold the fort, then,” said Sean, leaning his head back against the chair and closing his eyes as Elijah left the room.

Elijah made his way to the back entrance, where he could see other smokers gathering. Just as he was pulling his cigarettes out in preparation for the dash into the February cold of Glasgow, he heard Billy behind a door to his left. His voice was low and urgent, stretched so tight that Elijah thought it would snap at any moment. He put his cigarettes back again and leaned against the wall, trying to hear what Billy was saying without pressing his ear to the door. He couldn’t make out much more than the cadence of the conversation until the tide of people smoking and leaving ebbed and allowed him to hear some of Billy’s words:

“Look, I’m sorry, but I just can’t...” There was a pause. “I told you why! I have unexpected guests...” Another pause, then a raised voice: “Well it’s not my bloody fault if they just showed up at the theatre, is it?” A pause. “I can’t tell them to fuck off! I haven’t seen them in ages, and it wouldn’t look right.” A long pause. A sigh. “Look, I’ll see you just as soon as I can. Maybe tomorrow, all right?” Another pause. A gentle, weary voice: “I know, love, I know. I can’t, either. We’ll talk tomorrow, yeah?” A pause. “All right, love. Bye-bye.”

Elijah shot away from the door, pulling out his cigarettes and reaching into the pack. He was just at the back entrance and making way for a returning smoker when Billy emerged from his hideaway. His face had lost its mask and was drawn and worried. For the first time since Elijah had known him, Billy looked every bit of his thirty-six years and then some.

Billy reached for his own cigarettes, cursing when he remembered that he was still in costume. He looked up and caught sight of Elijah. “Hey, Lij! Mind if I bum a fag?”

Elijah held out the pack in mute offering.

“Thanks, mate,” said Billy, helping himself.

Elijah noticed that his fingers were trembling, but said nothing as he lit them both up.

They took their first drags in silence, drawing in deep and exhaling on a sigh. “Christ, I needed that,” said Billy, his voice all but devoid of the humor that normally permeated it.

Elijah frowned. “Everything all right, Bill?”

“What? Oh, of course, everything’s fine.” The muscles in Billy’s face contorted into an unconvincing smile. “Just a bit tired, is all.”

Elijah nodded. “Worried about Dom?”

“Yeah, I am,” said Billy, quietly. Then the mask returned. “Of course I’m worried. He’s my best mate and no-one’s seen him in ages.” He took a long pull on his cigarette, holding the smoke as long as he could before blowing it out.

Elijah glanced at him, sharply, before schooling his expression back to one of concern. “Who was that on the phone? I mean, you seem a bit upset. Was it the police?”

Billy stiffened a little. “No, no, nothing like that. It was Ali.” He sighed. “She didn’t take it too well when I told her I couldn’t see her tonight.”

“Why can’t you see her?”

“Well, I can’t exactly ask you and Sean to bugger off, now, can I? After you flew all the way here to surprise me, and all.” Billy smiled, then, with a little more ease.

“Yes you could,” offered Elijah. “It’s not like we called you up in advance, or anything. You don’t have to drop everything you’re doing to be with us, you know.”

“Yeah, I know, but...” Billy puffed at his cigarette. “Ali and I... Well, we’ve been having some trouble, and I don’t know that I could keep a civil tongue in my head if I saw her tonight, anyway. It’s probably best if I stay away.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Billy.” Elijah shifted and stared at the ground as he took a drag. “You sure we shouldn’t just–”

“Ach! Rubbish, lad! You and Sean flew all the way here to see me. Least I can do is take you down the pub and put you up for the night.”

“Oh, that’s all right, Bill, we can grab a hotel...”

“Nonsense! You’re staying with me, and that’s final!” Billy turned a bright smile on Elijah.

Elijah studied Billy for a moment as he exhaled a large puff of smoke. “That anxious not to see Ali, are you?” he grinned.

“Well, I wouldn’t put it quite that way, exactly...”

“Whatever, man,” said Elijah, grinding out his butt on the pavement. “And thanks! We’d love to stay with you.”

It didn’t take nearly as long for Billy to shed his makeup and costume as it did for Sean to shed his attack of jet-lag, so Elijah poured his costar into the back of Billy’s car and sat in the front to keep the driver company. “You sure you wanna do this, Bill? I mean, you look like you’re about ready to drop. You sure you want guests?”

“I said I was, didn’t I?” said Billy, his smile covering part of a growl. “Besides,” he said, softening his tone, “I’ve missed D– everyone so much lately, I was beginning to go mad.”

“We’ve been missing him too,” said Elijah.

“Aye, I know! I should’ve known something was up when I didn’t hear from you for twelve hours,” quipped Billy.

Elijah slapped Billy’s arm. “Fucking wanker!”

“Oi! Best not to hit the driver, if you want to survive the journey,” growled Billy, a more genuine smile spreading over his face.

Elijah studied him. “You know, Sean and I’ve been looking for him all over the world,” he said. “Sean even asked around in New Zealand while he was filming ‘Hercules’. Nobody’s heard from him.”

“I know,” said Billy, his smile fading.

Elijah’s gaze never left Billy. “We’ve talked to Matt, his parents, PJ, JJ, everyone.” He paused. “We figured if anyone would know where he was, it’d be you.”

“I don’t know where he is,” said Billy quietly, staring straight ahead.

“Then why are your knuckles turning white?”

“Sodding hell!” said Billy, swerving to avoid a driver who seemed to fancy himself a clone of Jackie Stewart but didn’t have his talent. “Because this a fucking dangerous patch of road, isn’t it?”

Elijah gripped the dashboard as Billy made his dodge. “Good point,” he allowed, and moved on to other topics for the rest of the drive.

They woke Sean enough to get him out of the car and into the flat.

“Sorry, but I’ve only the one guest room, so you’ll have to share,” said Billy.

“No problem,” chorused Sean and Elijah.

“I’ll just kick him out of bed if he starts attacking me,” said Elijah.

“And Christine and Ally would kill me for molesting Uncle Lijah. I’ll go sleep on the couch if he starts snoring,” yawned Sean. “Assuming I can move, of course.” He waved goodnight as Billy left them in their room, and turned to Elijah. “Which side you want?”

Elijah shrugged, biting his nails.

Sean shrugged back and claimed the right side of the bed. “Something bothering you?” he yawned.

“That phone call...”

“What phone call?” Sean unzipped his suitcase, pawing for his pajamas.

“The one at the theatre,” said Elijah.

Sean looked blank.

“The one Billy got on his cell. I overheard him talking. He was telling the person on the other end that he couldn’t come over tonight. He seemed really upset.”

“Must have been Ali,” said Sean, his eyelids drooping.

“That’s what Billy said, but I don’t know...” Elijah chewed on a very thin sliver of nail.

Sean forced his eyes open. “You think it might have been Dom?”

“The thought had occurred to me,” admitted Elijah.

“And you intend to do what? Eavesdrop on him the whole time we’re here?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Well, then, just be discreet about it.” Sean yawned and stretched. “I’m going to get ready for bed. And Lij?”

“Yeah?” Elijah turned to find Sean looking at him, fully awake.

“Get enough sleep so you don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“Okay, Mr. Safety,” grinned Elijah. “Thanks, man,” he added, more gently.

“De nada,” said Sean, fumbling with his pajamas and waving Elijah from the room.

Elijah squeezed Sean’s shoulder fondly before clapping it and stepping into the bathroom. He pissed for what seemed like a year and then washed his hands, grimacing as he saw his travel-filthy skin in the mirror. He opted for a quick shower, pulling some spare clothing from his bag to put on when he was dry. He finished up and started making his way toward Billy’s lounge.

The smell of smoke reminded him that he could light up any time he wanted here, and he smiled to himself as he started to pull his cigarettes from his pocket. He pulled in an appreciative breath. The smoke didn’t smell right. He frowned and sniffed. It smelled of one of Billy’s heady European brands, but there was a harsh note threaded through it, like one of those disgusting things Dom had tried. For a moment, he entertained the notion of bursting in on the smokers he was sure were in the lounge, but Sean’s voice in his head pulled him back (a sure sign that he was tired to the point of insanity) and he shook his head, clearing the delusion away. Ali must have shown up here, upset with Billy for breaking their date. Fuck! Can’t go in there...

Elijah turned and made his way toward the kitchen, mindful of Sean’s distaste for cigarette smoke even as the urge to light up bore down upon him, and fumbled for his cigarettes, cursing as he dropped the lighter on the floor. He bent down to pick it up, fumbling it again. “Fucking jetlag,” he growled, chasing it along the corridor. As he wrapped his fingers around it, the cigarette dangling between his lips dropped onto a set of toes that appeared before him. “Mother puss buckets!” He paused. “Those aren’t my toes, are they?”

The toes tapped.

“Definitely not mine,” said Elijah around a swallow. “And they don’t smell bad enough to be Sean’s.”

There was a sigh behind him. “And they’re too ugly to be mine,” said Billy.

“Hiya,” said a voice about four and a half feet above Elijah’s head. “Mind removing your fag from my foot?”

Elijah grasped it with a trembling hand. “Dom...” He looked up, blinking. “Where the fuck have you been?”

“Well, he’s been hiding out here, actually,” said Billy, with ersatz cheer.

“You could have let him eat a bit more, couldn’t you?”

Dom passed a bony hand over his face. “Actually, I’ve been in hospital for the last couple of months,” he said.

Elijah’s thumb slipped on the wheel of the lighter. “Fuck!” he yelled, as the flame nearly caught his hand and he dropped the lighter and the cigarette.

Dom sighed, bending down to retrieve both items and Elijah. “Come along, Elwood.” He grasped Elijah by the elbow and led him into the lounge, passing a gobsmacked Astin along the way. “You too, Sean.”

Dom deposited Elijah on a chair and sank down on the sofa opposite, propping his feet on the coffee table and leaning back into the cushions. “I came here after Lost was cancelled, you know, Billy being me best mate, and all.”

Billy shot Dom a look.

Dom blushed. “Well, not right away. Got hugely drunk first. Showed up here somehow a few days later, only I couldn’t stop pissing and moaning, and getting trousered, wellied and trolleyed on alternate nights. Billy got a bit fed up, yeah? Threatened to throw me out. And then, well...” He covered his face with his hands and scrunched it in a yawn. “I hit him.”

And then Elijah realized that it wasn’t a yawn, and that Dom was crying.

Billy sat next to Dom. “Wheesht, Dom. No harm done that a few stitches couldn’t mend.”

Dom shook his head and huffed, squeezing his palms against his eyes and regaining control. “He says that now,” he said, looking at Elijah with bright eyes, “but he couldn’t say it at the time. He was unconscious.”

Elijah looked from Dom to Billy to Sean in the chair next to his. Sean appeared to be lost in thought and memory.

“He was barely breathing,” continued Dom, with some difficulty. “Margaret was supposed to come over for tea, and she found us.” He trailed off.

“She called 999 and I woke up a bit,” continued Billy. “I didn’t let her call for the police, just an ambulance. Dom didn’t really hit me that hard. I just slipped on that sodding step over there and hit my head on the hall table. My own stupid fault, really.”

Dom looked sharply at Billy, who returned a ‘We’ll discuss this later’ glare. He sighed and closed his eyes. “I don’t remember much, really, just bits and pieces as they start to come back, but apparently Maggie called Mum and Dad, and they and Bills arranged for me to have an extended holiday at a private loony-bin. Lovely rooms; nice, soft walls and furniture; all the comforts of a luxury hotel without the bother of a key.”

Elijah studied his friend as he spoke. He was gaunt and his face was drawn and pale. “Apparently the cuisine wasn’t that great,” he ventured, quietly.

Dom opened his eyes and cast a tired glance at Elijah. “I don’t know, really. I didn’t have that much of it. Not that they didn’t try, mind,” he added.

“All that because of a cancelled TV show?” asked Elijah.

“Lij...” Sean’s warning was quiet, and Elijah thought that it came from a very deep place that he had tried repeatedly to help his co-star to access in some of their most difficult scenes together.

“Sorry,” said Elijah. “That was rude of me.”

Sean gave him a smile laced with melancholy, which Elijah determined to investigate once this was all over.

Dom sighed. “Stupid, isn’t it? Losing your mind over something so trivial, I mean.”

Elijah watched with veiled interest as Billy leaned ever so slightly into Dom. He watched as Dom turned to Billy, as if he wanted to kiss him, but had to stop himself because... Well, one doesn’t just kiss Billy out of the blue, unless one happens to be Viggo.

“Anyway, by the time I came to, they had me sorted and dried out. Went through a pretty nasty case of withdrawal, really. And then there was the anger. I had to ask them not to let Billy see me till I could manage things better. When they told me what I’d done to him, it all came flooding back, and I couldn’t stand to think I’d hurt him again, so I told them to keep me locked up indefinitely.” He pushed against Billy a little.

Sean nodded, his eyes to the floor.

“Then there were the days I couldn’t stop crying, no matter what I tried. I didn’t want anyone to see me like that, but Mum and Dad had privileges, yeah?” Dom rubbed his eyes. “Didn’t think I had that much water in me. And then they put me on some pills and started me talking to people, and then Billy...” He blushed and smiled.

“I got a bit forceful about wanting to see him and Aureen threatened a couple of his doctors, so I got in,” said Billy, a genuine smile lifting his mouth this time.

“Got your shirt all wet too, didn’t I?”

“It needed a wash, anyway.”

“Did pong a bit, at that,” said Dom quietly, relaxing as Billy’s arm came around his shoulders.

“So... How long have you been out?” asked Elijah. “Did you bust out of there?”

“No,” laughed Dom, the smile highlighting the hollows in his cheeks and the lines around his eyes. “They let me out tonight. Brought me straight here, of course. Rather a surprise for Bill, I think.” He looked at Billy, searching his eyes.

“Aye, but a good one,” murmured Billy. And then, he turned and kissed Dom on the forehead.

Elijah watched as Dom closed his eyes and leaned in, moisture glittering at his lashes.

Billy drew Dom into an embrace and they held each other for a long moment.

“Thanks,” said Dom, pulling back to look into Billy’s eyes.

It seemed to Elijah then that Billy was the one wanting to do the kissing and stopping himself because... Well, one didn’t just kiss one’s best mate like that while one was still involved with one’s girlfriend of three, no four, or was it eight years.

“So how long are you out?” asked Sean, to everyone’s surprise.

“Just for twenty-four hours,” replied Dom. “I don’t think I’m quite ready to face the world again all by myself. But I’m close. If all goes according to plan, and I follow my schedule, I should be out for good in a couple of weeks.”

Billy swallowed and stroked Dom’s arm, encouraging him to settle back against him.

Sean nodded. “Sounds about right,” he said, quietly. “Welcome back, Dom.”

“Yeah... Dude, yeah... Welcome back,” said Elijah.

There was an awkward silence.

“Well? What are you all waiting for? Isn’t anyone going to hug me?”

In an instant, Sean and Elijah piled onto Dom and Billy and for an instant, Elijah felt as though everything were back to normal. Except he couldn’t keep up the illusion when he felt the thinness of Dom’s arm around his shoulders, the sharpness of his ribs under his hands, the dry fragility of his cheek against his lips. He wondered for a moment if he would ever see his friend again, the one who’d pissed in the fountain with him, who’d arranged for his first lap dance, who’d argued and agreed with him in such vivid detail about music, who’d mellowed so much since they’d first met, and who had helped him cross over into the heady, dangerous pleasures of adulthood as though they were college roomies. He swallowed and pulled back

“Now that’s more like it,” said Dom, a familiar grin spreading across his face.

“I missed you, Dom. We both did,” said Elijah, his own eyes moist.

Dom thumbed away a tear. “Sentimental wanker. Always did cry at the drop of a hat.”

Elijah shrugged. “So fucking bite me,” he said, hugging Dom again. “I thought you were dead, you know?”

Dom hugged him back, hard. “I’m sorry, Lij.” He pulled Sean in. “I’m sorry, Sean.”

They pulled apart and ended up in a comfortable horseshoe with Billy and Dom sandwiched between Sean and Elijah, sides touching as though glued together, catching up on the latest gossip from California, New Zealand, Glasgow and the Very Special Private Facility which Dom had called home for the past two months.

As they spoke, Dom settled further and further into Billy’s arms, and Elijah watched Billy’s hand caressing Dom’s head as he stroked his hair.

“So Bill,” said Elijah, “that phone call you got at the theatre... It really was Ali?”

“Of course it was,” said Billy, frowning in confusion. “I told you that, didn’t I?”

“He thought it was Dom,” Sean interjected.

“Ach, no! I’d called off a visit to him, actually, to go have a chat with Ali.” Billy sighed. “Wasn’t going to be a very easy one, I’m afraid.”

Dom stiffened.

“I remember you saying you two were having some trouble,” said Elijah.

“Yeah. Well, the trouble is that I don’t think we’re suited for each other, even though I love her to bits. I was going to break it off with her, tonight. You may have noticed that I was a bit tense...”

“Yeah, we did,” chorused Sean and Elijah.

“Bill...” Dom pulled back enough to look Billy in the eye.

“It was a long time coming, Dom,” said Billy, quietly. “We were on again, off again for so long, it could never have worked.”

“I’m sorry, Bill,” said Sean, giving his arm a heartfelt squeeze.

“Thanks, Sean. It’s all right, though. For the best, really, all things considered.” He patted Sean’s thigh and stood up, dislodging them all. “And now, gentlemen, and I use that term extremely lightly, I think it’s time for bed. Sean, Elwood, you two are sorted, which leaves me and Dom. I’m obviously going to take the main bedroom. You can have your choice. The sofa, the armchair, the kitchen table, or–” Billy swallowed. “I have quite a large bed, really. Don’t really need the whole thing. Not for one night, at least...”

“Bills...” Dom reached a hand toward Billy’s face and stopped, shaking. “Bill, I’m so sorry,” he whispered, meeting Billy’s eyes with difficulty.

Billy pulled Dom to his feet. “You’re forgiven, Dommie, long since,” he said, thickly, grasping Dom’s hand and bringing it to his cheek. “I trust you with my life.”

Elijah blinked as Billy drew Dom’s hand further up toward his hairline to rest on the small crescent scar hiding at the edge of his temple. He watched Dom’s fingers caress the mark and heard his breath hitch.

“And your face?” asked Dom with a watery smile.

“And my face,” said Billy, thumbing away a little moisture from Dom’s eyelash. “But not with my porridge,” he added.

“Or your guitar,” said Dom, before he laid his head on Billy’s shoulder.

“Come on, Lij,” said Sean, materialized at his elbow. “That’s our cue to go to sleep.”

“Huh? Oh! Yeah, of course. Goodnight, guys.” Elijah waved feebly at them as Sean dragged him toward their room for the night, muttering something about a hotel the next day.

He looked around to see Billy and Dom standing together in a close embrace, stroking, murmuring, soothing; an ancient love entwining two friends (lovers? he wondered) as they negotiated new contours of body and psyche. Elijah thought it the most intimate embrace he’d ever seen.

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