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fellowshippers2004-11-17 01:24 pm
andrealyn) wrote in fellowshippers2004-11-17 01:24 pm
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Title: The Signs of the Zodiac 6/12
Pairing: Bean/Orlando, Dom/Billy
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Not mine, never happened.
Summary: Orlando's life goes through quite a bit in the course of twelve months.
Notes: So, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
captnobvious and beizy for hand-holding in the early days and to shaenie who completely ripped the first draft of this apart. Many thanks. Couldn't have done it without you. Previous parts can be found here.
CANCER
July 1st
Orlando had never really liked flying in the first place and with his ever-growing anxiety, he found he was enjoying it even less this time around. His knees always locked up because of idiots in front of him that had no respect for his poor legs, not to mention the way his back always ceased to have any feeling as the hours wore on. Whenever he arrived at the airport, he felt like kissing the ground. The flight from Heathrow to LAX was no different.
Good fortune – for once – provided that he didn’t have to wait long to speak to Dom. He had thrown on the first pair of trousers along with the first shirt he saw when he had cracked open his suitcase in the hotel room. The result was far from pretty, and would likely cause many horrible eye injuries. In his rush though, he still remembered to leave a quick message on the telephone before departing for the taxi that was waiting outside the lobby.
The taxi ride, to Orlando’s displeasure, was far too short. He arrived at Liv’s house to find the attendees stretched out onto the front lawn and there was simply no space to be seen. It was madness pushing into the front door, but somehow, he managed to do it without smiling once.
“He’s here!” A delighted voice – he wasn’t entirely sure to whom it belonged – announced. Liv, Dom, Billy, and a headful of incessantly perky music suddenly surrounded him in a mad rush. He managed a smile as he gave Liv a lavender gift box, wrapped in a simple bow – the extent of Orlando’s wrapping skills. Liv didn’t seem to mind an iota as she took the gift with a delighted and childish grin as she bounced a little.
“Orli! Thank you!” she squealed. Orlando nodded, smiling thinly before turning to speak to Dom and Billy.
Dom was regarding him with dismay. “Oh, Orlando,” he commented in a grave voice and for a terrifying moment, Orlando wondered if he somehow knew all about the situation that Orlando was planning to fill him in on. “How many more innocent, sensible and stylish outfits have to die before you get some fashion sense?”
“Rest in peace lost souls,” Billy added with a quick sign of the cross. Liv wandered off with a smile and left Orlando in a mad scramble to find words.
Thankfully, Dom found the exact words that managed to keep slipping out of Orlando’s grasp.
“You said on the phone that you had to talk to me?” he asked while quirking an eyebrow. Billy took the hint and drifted away in the midst of the moving bodies in an effort to make his way over to chat with Viggo. Orlando nodded and Dom drove himself straight into serious mode as he looked around. “Outside?”
“It would probably be best,” Orlando conceded and allowed Dom to lead him off to the outskirts of the trampled lawn – sure to be repaired into a perfect and verdant state when the morning came, because the simple fact was that having money helped to do such things. Dom stopped in the shadow of a streetlight before turning to Orlando.
They stood in an uncomfortable silence, during which Dom pulled at his collar once or twice and Orlando kept looking down to the sidewalk as though the answers were going to miraculously appear in the cement, carved merely to help Orlando speak his piece about the situation. ‘Now or never,’ his brain reminded him and that seemed to jumpstart Orlando’s ability to articulate.
“I need to show you,” Orlando finally spoke, his words trickling out of his mouth with terror attached.
Dom gave him a lost look as Orlando bent down and rolled up the leg of his trousers to reveal the bruise he had earned himself at Cate’s birthday party. “Looks nasty,” Dom supplied, no other words coming from him.
“Dom, I got that two months ago.” Orlando clenched his fists and tried valiantly to take a deep breath, but found his throat was unwilling to cooperate. The words sounded so horrible spoken aloud that he wanted to take them back immediately.
“Orlando…what…?” Dom began in a confused manner before trailing off into silence.
“I got all these books. I looked it all up,” Orlando spoke lowly as he rolled his trousers leg back down. “Trouble swallowing, unhealing bruise, muscle pains, just like in my back? Dom, they’re all symptoms of cancer.” The words came out bitterly. Orlando snaked a hand out and clamped it on Dom’s wrist, more out of fear than anything else. He felt terrified at hearing the word in the air for the first time.
Dom’s eyes widened with apparent fear at the evil word ‘cancer’. He stared right back at Orlando and tried to pry his hand loose of the vice grip that Orlando had on his wrist. Orlando listened to the utter silence save for their breath. “Let me get Billy, please?” Dom begged in a low voice. “He knows how to deal with stuff like this. I-I don’t!”
“No,” Orlando’s grip tightened and Dom winced a little. “Please, Dom. No one else can know. I couldn’t even tell Sean.”
“But why me?” Dom begged.
“I trust you!” Orlando shot back with indignation. “Isn’t that enough?” Dom gave him a weighted, yet impatient look and Orlando fidgeted a little. He cast his face downwards – concealing the irritation there – and Dom sighed. “So…?”
“So, you should go to the doctor,” Dom said immediately. Orlando clung to the material at Dom’s wrist – a cotton shirt that was now likely to wrinkle with Orlando’s fingers clenching it in a death grip – and stared Dom straight in the eyes. There was fear lurking behind Orlando’s brown gaze.
“And if I do? What happens if it confirms it?” Orlando pitched his voice lower as someone passed them. The presence of someone else reminded Orlando about his hand on Dom’s wrist. He slowly loosened his grip and Dom winced in pain. Orlando feared there might even be a mark by morning.
A ringing mobile phone prevented whatever Dom was opening his mouth to say. Orlando jumped a little at the sound and opened up the mobile, which had been hiding in his pocket.
“Hello?” he said, turning away from Dom ever so slightly. “Sean,” the name was spoken like it was a security blanket. Orlando relaxed a degree or two as the words spilled out of the cell phone in a buzzed tone. “No, I’m fine. I was just checking in.” A muscle tensed when Orlando switched phone from hand to hand. “Relax. Yeah, I’ll see you soon.”
When Orlando turned to look at Dom, he seemed to be rooted in place, terrified to the core.
Orlando hung up the phone and stared at Dom again. Dom gave him a conflicted look and stood like a statue until Orlando came tumbling into his arms. Dom waited a moment and then wrapped his arm around a shaking Orlando. The streetlight barely touched them while Dom worked to move himself out of the catatonic state he had fallen into.
“I’m actually scared, Dom.” The whispered and tortured words came out of Orlando’s mouth and they seemed to increase the tension between them. “Dom, I’m…”
“I have a doctor,” Dom interrupted Orlando’s painfully distraught voice. Dom’s voice sounded husky, like he had been screaming for hours on end. “A…yeah…um, a guy, when Billy had a little injury, so I can call him and make an appointment. He’s in England.”
“I have a doctor,” Orlando countered.
“Then call him,” Dom cried a little too loudly. The footsteps of an approaching figure slowed and he stood in the streetlight for a moment before earning the attention of both men.
“Billy,” Orlando acknowledged, reassured by the man’s presence.
Billy regarded both of them and Billy regarded them silently; confusion and worry flickering across his face. For a moment, the three of them just stood there in the open air. He looked at Dom and then to Orlando and then back to Dom. “Liv is ready for us to…” he said slowly and gestured to the inside of the house. “What’s going on?” he inquired slowly and suspiciously.
‘Please,’ Orlando mouthed as Dom began to speak.
“Just catching up.” Dom spoke up, his voice sounding normal. “Orlando, just d-don’t leave until I get out, okay? I’m going to call this guy of mine for you.”
Orlando nodded wordlessly as he watched two figures retreating into the warmth and the crowded atmosphere of the house. He toyed with the idea of staying and found himself torn at the thought. Part of him knew he had to stay; had to get a doctor’s appointment, but the able and physical part of his body was walking away and calling a taxi as he went.
He could wait a few weeks.
When the party disbanded, Dom felt like he could sleep a few weeks if he had to. Liv had thanked them for coming and had given them a guest room, telling them that ‘no two guys like you are going back to a hotel!’. She had been quite drunk at the time, and the two of them had been quite grateful. Dom collapsed on the bed, taking entire handfuls of sheets into his hand and clenching tightly as the memories of the night came rushing back at him.
“Good party,” Billy mumbled as he crawled under the covers and passed out almost immediately.
“Yeah,” Dom muttered quickly in response. He sat up, wishing he’d drank more. At the very least, it would have numbed his mind enough to make him forget – at least temporarily – when he didn’t want to know. A friend was a friend though, and a phone call was made.
Despite the fact that some people had left when they weren’t supposed to.
Sometimes, Dom could look into the future and anticipate exactly how an event was going to turn out in the end, whether it was for the better or worse. He turned to look at Billy beside him – snoring lightly – and he felt his skin crawl when he realized that Orlando’s new situation was definitely not one for the better. His mouth felt dry, like something invisible and powerful had sapped all of the moisture out.
“Give me strength,” Dom murmured softly, tilting his head upwards a little, a quick and effective prayer. He didn’t know what else to say, what else to ask for, and he was tired of thinking about Orlando’s problem – now Dom’s problem, too. He sank back down onto the bed and squirmed in as close to Billy as he could.
“God knows I need it,” he murmured before closing his eyes.
tbc
Pairing: Bean/Orlando, Dom/Billy
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Not mine, never happened.
Summary: Orlando's life goes through quite a bit in the course of twelve months.
Notes: So, thanks to
captnobvious and beizy for hand-holding in the early days and to shaenie who completely ripped the first draft of this apart. Many thanks. Couldn't have done it without you. Previous parts can be found here.July 1st
Orlando had never really liked flying in the first place and with his ever-growing anxiety, he found he was enjoying it even less this time around. His knees always locked up because of idiots in front of him that had no respect for his poor legs, not to mention the way his back always ceased to have any feeling as the hours wore on. Whenever he arrived at the airport, he felt like kissing the ground. The flight from Heathrow to LAX was no different.
Good fortune – for once – provided that he didn’t have to wait long to speak to Dom. He had thrown on the first pair of trousers along with the first shirt he saw when he had cracked open his suitcase in the hotel room. The result was far from pretty, and would likely cause many horrible eye injuries. In his rush though, he still remembered to leave a quick message on the telephone before departing for the taxi that was waiting outside the lobby.
The taxi ride, to Orlando’s displeasure, was far too short. He arrived at Liv’s house to find the attendees stretched out onto the front lawn and there was simply no space to be seen. It was madness pushing into the front door, but somehow, he managed to do it without smiling once.
“He’s here!” A delighted voice – he wasn’t entirely sure to whom it belonged – announced. Liv, Dom, Billy, and a headful of incessantly perky music suddenly surrounded him in a mad rush. He managed a smile as he gave Liv a lavender gift box, wrapped in a simple bow – the extent of Orlando’s wrapping skills. Liv didn’t seem to mind an iota as she took the gift with a delighted and childish grin as she bounced a little.
“Orli! Thank you!” she squealed. Orlando nodded, smiling thinly before turning to speak to Dom and Billy.
Dom was regarding him with dismay. “Oh, Orlando,” he commented in a grave voice and for a terrifying moment, Orlando wondered if he somehow knew all about the situation that Orlando was planning to fill him in on. “How many more innocent, sensible and stylish outfits have to die before you get some fashion sense?”
“Rest in peace lost souls,” Billy added with a quick sign of the cross. Liv wandered off with a smile and left Orlando in a mad scramble to find words.
Thankfully, Dom found the exact words that managed to keep slipping out of Orlando’s grasp.
“You said on the phone that you had to talk to me?” he asked while quirking an eyebrow. Billy took the hint and drifted away in the midst of the moving bodies in an effort to make his way over to chat with Viggo. Orlando nodded and Dom drove himself straight into serious mode as he looked around. “Outside?”
“It would probably be best,” Orlando conceded and allowed Dom to lead him off to the outskirts of the trampled lawn – sure to be repaired into a perfect and verdant state when the morning came, because the simple fact was that having money helped to do such things. Dom stopped in the shadow of a streetlight before turning to Orlando.
They stood in an uncomfortable silence, during which Dom pulled at his collar once or twice and Orlando kept looking down to the sidewalk as though the answers were going to miraculously appear in the cement, carved merely to help Orlando speak his piece about the situation. ‘Now or never,’ his brain reminded him and that seemed to jumpstart Orlando’s ability to articulate.
“I need to show you,” Orlando finally spoke, his words trickling out of his mouth with terror attached.
Dom gave him a lost look as Orlando bent down and rolled up the leg of his trousers to reveal the bruise he had earned himself at Cate’s birthday party. “Looks nasty,” Dom supplied, no other words coming from him.
“Dom, I got that two months ago.” Orlando clenched his fists and tried valiantly to take a deep breath, but found his throat was unwilling to cooperate. The words sounded so horrible spoken aloud that he wanted to take them back immediately.
“Orlando…what…?” Dom began in a confused manner before trailing off into silence.
“I got all these books. I looked it all up,” Orlando spoke lowly as he rolled his trousers leg back down. “Trouble swallowing, unhealing bruise, muscle pains, just like in my back? Dom, they’re all symptoms of cancer.” The words came out bitterly. Orlando snaked a hand out and clamped it on Dom’s wrist, more out of fear than anything else. He felt terrified at hearing the word in the air for the first time.
Dom’s eyes widened with apparent fear at the evil word ‘cancer’. He stared right back at Orlando and tried to pry his hand loose of the vice grip that Orlando had on his wrist. Orlando listened to the utter silence save for their breath. “Let me get Billy, please?” Dom begged in a low voice. “He knows how to deal with stuff like this. I-I don’t!”
“No,” Orlando’s grip tightened and Dom winced a little. “Please, Dom. No one else can know. I couldn’t even tell Sean.”
“But why me?” Dom begged.
“I trust you!” Orlando shot back with indignation. “Isn’t that enough?” Dom gave him a weighted, yet impatient look and Orlando fidgeted a little. He cast his face downwards – concealing the irritation there – and Dom sighed. “So…?”
“So, you should go to the doctor,” Dom said immediately. Orlando clung to the material at Dom’s wrist – a cotton shirt that was now likely to wrinkle with Orlando’s fingers clenching it in a death grip – and stared Dom straight in the eyes. There was fear lurking behind Orlando’s brown gaze.
“And if I do? What happens if it confirms it?” Orlando pitched his voice lower as someone passed them. The presence of someone else reminded Orlando about his hand on Dom’s wrist. He slowly loosened his grip and Dom winced in pain. Orlando feared there might even be a mark by morning.
A ringing mobile phone prevented whatever Dom was opening his mouth to say. Orlando jumped a little at the sound and opened up the mobile, which had been hiding in his pocket.
“Hello?” he said, turning away from Dom ever so slightly. “Sean,” the name was spoken like it was a security blanket. Orlando relaxed a degree or two as the words spilled out of the cell phone in a buzzed tone. “No, I’m fine. I was just checking in.” A muscle tensed when Orlando switched phone from hand to hand. “Relax. Yeah, I’ll see you soon.”
When Orlando turned to look at Dom, he seemed to be rooted in place, terrified to the core.
Orlando hung up the phone and stared at Dom again. Dom gave him a conflicted look and stood like a statue until Orlando came tumbling into his arms. Dom waited a moment and then wrapped his arm around a shaking Orlando. The streetlight barely touched them while Dom worked to move himself out of the catatonic state he had fallen into.
“I’m actually scared, Dom.” The whispered and tortured words came out of Orlando’s mouth and they seemed to increase the tension between them. “Dom, I’m…”
“I have a doctor,” Dom interrupted Orlando’s painfully distraught voice. Dom’s voice sounded husky, like he had been screaming for hours on end. “A…yeah…um, a guy, when Billy had a little injury, so I can call him and make an appointment. He’s in England.”
“I have a doctor,” Orlando countered.
“Then call him,” Dom cried a little too loudly. The footsteps of an approaching figure slowed and he stood in the streetlight for a moment before earning the attention of both men.
“Billy,” Orlando acknowledged, reassured by the man’s presence.
Billy regarded both of them and Billy regarded them silently; confusion and worry flickering across his face. For a moment, the three of them just stood there in the open air. He looked at Dom and then to Orlando and then back to Dom. “Liv is ready for us to…” he said slowly and gestured to the inside of the house. “What’s going on?” he inquired slowly and suspiciously.
‘Please,’ Orlando mouthed as Dom began to speak.
“Just catching up.” Dom spoke up, his voice sounding normal. “Orlando, just d-don’t leave until I get out, okay? I’m going to call this guy of mine for you.”
Orlando nodded wordlessly as he watched two figures retreating into the warmth and the crowded atmosphere of the house. He toyed with the idea of staying and found himself torn at the thought. Part of him knew he had to stay; had to get a doctor’s appointment, but the able and physical part of his body was walking away and calling a taxi as he went.
He could wait a few weeks.
When the party disbanded, Dom felt like he could sleep a few weeks if he had to. Liv had thanked them for coming and had given them a guest room, telling them that ‘no two guys like you are going back to a hotel!’. She had been quite drunk at the time, and the two of them had been quite grateful. Dom collapsed on the bed, taking entire handfuls of sheets into his hand and clenching tightly as the memories of the night came rushing back at him.
“Good party,” Billy mumbled as he crawled under the covers and passed out almost immediately.
“Yeah,” Dom muttered quickly in response. He sat up, wishing he’d drank more. At the very least, it would have numbed his mind enough to make him forget – at least temporarily – when he didn’t want to know. A friend was a friend though, and a phone call was made.
Despite the fact that some people had left when they weren’t supposed to.
Sometimes, Dom could look into the future and anticipate exactly how an event was going to turn out in the end, whether it was for the better or worse. He turned to look at Billy beside him – snoring lightly – and he felt his skin crawl when he realized that Orlando’s new situation was definitely not one for the better. His mouth felt dry, like something invisible and powerful had sapped all of the moisture out.
“Give me strength,” Dom murmured softly, tilting his head upwards a little, a quick and effective prayer. He didn’t know what else to say, what else to ask for, and he was tired of thinking about Orlando’s problem – now Dom’s problem, too. He sank back down onto the bed and squirmed in as close to Billy as he could.
“God knows I need it,” he murmured before closing his eyes.
tbc