Don't Hesitate, Chapter Two

[cleanbc.livejournal.com]

Title: Don’t Hesitate, Chapter 2
Pairing: DM/BB
Author: cleanbc aka Coll
Rating: Probably PG-13 or R at the most graphic point, in the whole series.
Summary: What would happen if you feel asleep, and woke up somewhere not on this Earth? Billy and Dom go on a trip.
Disclaimer: Ok, so I don’t know, own, or have any influence whatsoever on Billy or Dom. This is AU, so it obviously did not happen. In addition, I stole many descriptions and ideas from Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series, so the parts when it is good, I might not have written that.
Feedback: Always welcome, of any sort.
Notes: A completed story. This is a combination of two of my most favorite things, and I am stunned at myself that I did not think of this earlier. I want to thank my betas, everyone I sent the story to in it’s beginning of the end phases, you all really helped me improve the story, and make the story for those who haven’t read Dragonriders. I hope you all can overcome your hesitancy regarding AUs and give my story a read.

Previous chapters:
One

Dom released Billy, turned back to the driver, and very carefully told him the address of the hotel. As the car started to go forward, he and Billy leaned back on the plastic-y leather seat and closed their eyes. Billy promptly fell asleep, and as the cap turned a corner, his limp form slid on the back of the seat right into Dom. Almost as if it was a reflex, Dom reached over and pulled Billy into him, then wiggled until he found a comfortable place for himself.

The driver’s eyes glinted, and he drove on in the quiet darkness of an early California morning.

It wasn’t the headache that woke Dom. It wasn’t the fact that his bladder was so full he thought he might just explode right there. It wasn’t the bad taste in his mouth from too many tequila shots at that god awful Mexican bar he had dragged Billy to last night. It wasn’t the fact that his belt was digging into his hip because he had slept in his clothes. It wasn’t even his usual morning wood. No, it was the loud roar of some…thing that he didn’t recognize that caused him to shoot straight out of bed and look around wildly, eyes bugging out of his head.

“What the? Where…? Who…?”

He was in what looked like…like a cave actually. The floor was smoothed stone and as he looked around, he saw that it went right up to the walls, then made a sharp angle upward and turned into the walls. They were also of smooth stone and arched upward to form a ceiling of sorts. He guessed that the highest point in the room, if that’s what this was, was about eight foot or so. The room itself was small and sparsely decorated, if you could call it decoration. He had been sleeping on what looked kind of like a sofa, with a lumpy mattress and some linens. There was a rock shelf bolted, or at least attached in some way, to the wall above the bed, but as he went over to look at it, there was only dust on it. He wiped his fingers on it. Yes, definitely dust. He turned around. Behind him there was an arched doorway, and

“Billy!”

Billy was curled up in a couch similar to the one he had been in, also still his clothes from last night, wrapped up in his linens, and, from what Dom could tell, still out. Despite the fact that he was very freaked out, Dom smiled. Once Billy was asleep, he was usually out for the count, especially after a night of drinking. He didn’t even wake up the time they had been in L.A. during that 6.7 earthquake.

Drinking! What the hell had happened to them? Where the hell were they? This was like some kind of medieval fetish chamber, and he half expected Dungeon Master Don to come walking in here with leather whips and cuffs. He went over to Billy, and shook him as he sat on him. A very effective way of waking Billy up, something that Dom had learned during the first months of shooting in New Zealand.

Billy shifted and groaned something unintelligible to the effect of ‘Leave me the fuck alone I want to sleep.’ Dom was about to start tickling him when another roar, this time a bit higher and more brassy than the first came echoing through the doorway and into their cave. Billy’s reaction, now that he was partially awake, mirrored Dom’s earlier wake-up process. He started, and sat straight up, almost knocking his head into Dom’s. Dom quickly moved off him.

“Oi! What in the…what the hell was that? Dom? What’s going on?”

“I have no idea Bills. I just woke up about five minutes ago. We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore though.”

“Kansas? But we were…oh, right. So what is going on?”

“Are you still drunk? I just told you I don’t know. Look around you, do you recognize where we are?”

Billy surveyed the room carefully as he sat up and moved next to Dom on the couch. He noticed pretty much the same things that Dom had, as well as the fact that on the wall by the doorway, there were two half-bowl shaped containers attached to the walls. From them was coming a greenish yellow sort of bright glow, which was enough to light the room, as only a small ray of what looked like sunlight was coming from the doorway. He turned to Dom and stared at him wide and bleary-eyed.

“Last night, what did we do? We went out and…”

“Drank the whole town dry, judging from the taste in my mouth and the current pounding around my temples,” Dom responded with candor.

“But how did we end up,” Billy gestured, “here?”

“Bills, you’re asking me like I know where here is”

“Oh, right. Sorry Dommie.”

“Anyway, the last thing I do remember is you shoving me into that cab, and then I think I pretty much passed out.” Dom sighed; he hated it when he drank to the point of losing his memory. He was English for the love of God; he was supposed to be able to hold his alcohol better than that.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much how my memory goes.” Billy also sighed, and rested his head in his hands. “This is what I get for drinking so much. Ali warned me that…Oh God! Ali!”

“Don’t worry mate, I’m sure she’s fine, where ever she is. She’s obviously not here.”

Billy wrung his hands. “But what if…She might think we’re dead or something! I have to call her.” Billy pulled out his mobile and flipped up the cover. He stood up as he dialed the number.

Dom started chuckling and his chuckle turned into a snigger and then a full out guffaw.

Billy stopped, and looked at him. “What?”

“You dumb ass! You aren’t going to get signal in a solid stone cave!” Dom was laughing so hard now he doubled over.

“Dommie, you did not just use the word ‘dumb ass.’”

“I believe it’s two words, you wanker,” Dom spat back playfully.

“Even so, we are going to have to get you back to Britain, and quick. You have officially cracked.” Nevertheless, he closed his mobile and shoved it back into his pocket.

“So what are we going to do then?” Billy sat back down next to Dom.

“Well, we have just been sitting here. We could get up, walk out that doorway, and see where we are. I mean, it seems as if that really is our only option.”

“Sure, I guess so.” Billy looked at Dom. Dom looked at Billy. They shrugged and stood up.

Billy and Dom were about to walk through the doorway when a woman walked through it. She had a tray in her hands with two mugs of a brown steaming liquid. As she saw that they were standing, she stopped. They stopped too. They stared at her, mostly out of surprise of seeing someone else.

She was a stately woman, getting on in years, with her graying brown hair pulled back, except for one straight strand that fell in her face. Even at first glance, they could feel her aura of quiet strength and calm. These were things they would remember later; all they could think about now was the fact that she was wearing some sort of medieval frock. She looked at them and said something in a language that they could in no way place. It sounded like it might be English at first, or even Old English, but then there were elements that sounded like a more Romantic language, like Spanish or French, but also elements of something distinctly Asian, and maybe a little bit of an African language, or Arabic. Whatever it was, they couldn’t understand it.

“Pardon,” Billy said, as if her repeating it would make them understand it some how. “We can’t understand you. Do you speak English?”

She looked at them in surprise, and at first fear, but then recognition. She smiled, a warm friendly, and inviting smile. Walking over to the shelf, she repeated what she had said before, but they could tell she didn’t expect them to understand her. She set the tray down, and turned to them. She put her hands on her head and made a face of pain. They started to chucked and nodded. She smiled back at them, then reached over and picked up the mugs and handed one to each of them. “Klah,” she told them.

“Klah?” Dom asked and pointed to the brown liquid inside. “Is that what this is called? Klah?”

She looked confused at his English, but nodded when he repeated the foreign word. She made a motion for them to sit down, and then said something that they didn’t need interpreted. “Drink it!” They both followed her orders like little schoolboys, not sure of what else to do. Dom drank first, never one to be worried about food.

“Mmmm, Bills, this is really good! ‘S like…” he thought for a minute. “Like really expensive coffee, but with cinnamon and some chocolate…and something else I can’t identify.”

Billy sipped at his carefully. “Mmmmhmm,” he said. “You’re right. And it’s nutmeg. Definitely nutmeg.”

“Well aren’t we just the cooking know-it-all.” Dom raised his eyebrow.

Billy was about to make a smart reply when he realized the woman was still in the room. He looked at her and nodded and smiled, trying to convey that he liked it. He elbowed Dom to do the same. Dom made a face at him, and then raised his glass to the woman. He winked at her.

She seemed to think their reaction was humorous, because she smiled a small smile to herself. She looked like she was about to say something else when suddenly another one of those roars came echoing through the chamber. Dom and Billy jumped. Dom’s klah sloshed out of his mug, almost soaking Billy’s jeans. They looked at the woman. To their surprise, she just looked exasperated. She looked at them, made a motion for them to stay, and then hurried out of the doorway.

Billy and Dom watched as the woman left the room. Dom turned to Billy. “Billy, this is very strange. Very very odd.”

Billy nodded, but didn’t say anything. He continued to sip at his klah while staring off into the non-existent distance at nothing. Dom looked at Billy for a bit. He wondered what Billy was thinking.

Billy was the person who could make him laugh until he pissed himself, and he was proud to say that he could, and had, done the same, but at the same time, when Billy became serious, Dom always felt the pull of years, and more importantly, experience between them.

Compared to Billy, Dom’s life had been a walk in the park. He could not imagine losing his parents at such a young age, and going to a job straightaway after school. Dom had chosen not to go to university, but he had definitely had the option, if he had wanted to go. Billy had not. He had needed that job at the printers to survive, really. He knew that Billy wouldn’t like to hear what he was thinking now, because to Billy, it was just his life, and he loved it, and dealt with the hard times the same way that he dealt with the fun times, with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

Dom sighed. He could never hope to be as happy with his lot in life as Billy was. He knew that. He watched the steam rise from the klah. This really was good stuff. He took another gulp of it, grimacing a little, as it was still too hot to swallow properly.

Dom reached down to set his mug down on the floor. Good, right, but that last gulp had made his stomach turn a bit. He hoped the woman would bring some food up, because just this rich drink wasn’t enough for him. The clunk of ceramic on stone echoed in the chamber, and caught Billy’s attention. He looked over at Dom and smiled.

“Hey Dom. I know that woman told us to stay here, but I feel like I need a bit of fresh air. Let’s find the outside of this place, hey?” He set his mug next to Dom’s and stood up, stretching until his vertebrae cracked. He looked down at Dom. He was playing with that ring on the middle finger of his left hand again. A nervous habit that, but somehow Billy knew it as Dom’s, and only Dom’s.

“Dom? Dommie? Where’d you go?”

“Wha? Sorry Bills, just thinking. Your right, fresh air would definitely help this headache of mine. C’mon.” Dom stood up too, and mirrored Billy’s stretch with one of his own, complete with cracking vertebrae.