Fic: With My Shield (Or On It)
Jun. 8th, 2011 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grav_ityAN: Another tag for Carentan, because apparently my muse didn’t get the “only ridiculous fluff this week” memo.
Spoilers: Carentan, Revelations, and, as always with Declan, a brief nod to “Six Things”.
Disclaimer: Not mine. More’s the pity.
Rating: Teen
Characters: Declan MacRae
Summary: They never really talk about how every mission could be your last.
+++
With My Shield (Or On It)
They never really talk about how every mission could be your last.
He sends Ravi in without a second thought. He’s the closest, after all, and the conference is over, and Ravi said something about wanting more ground time in Europe when they talked on the satlink last week, and so it’s Ravi that he sends.
Technically, he and Ravi have the same rank, and Declan can’t really send him anywhere, but after decades of everyone doing whatever the UK Sanctuary said, on the grounds that it was easier to do just about anything than it was to argue with James Watson (except, of course, arguing with Helen Magnus, at which point it was generally considered good form to hide), Ravi takes the suggestion immediately.
Declan wishes him a pleasant walk in the woods, and turns off the computer to deal with the unexpected population surge in the pyroant colony that James never got around to completely exterminating on the grounds that they were actually moderately useful in the old-style furnace.
Six days later, Ravi is dead.
It’s not new to him, the military is a good teacher after all, but sometimes he’s almost afraid to go to breakfast, just in case.
The winter is the longest Declan can ever remember and with the latest deaths (stupid deaths, preventable deaths. Inevitable deaths), the mood at the Sanctuary is black. He lets James spiral for almost a week before he calls him on the carpet about the drugs, tentatively, of course, but still firmly, and he’s halfway to India before what he’s done really sinks in.
The man who meets him at the airport is young, with an open face and an easy smile, and Declan likes him immediately. They realize quickly that they’re both in similar positions, Declan in the UK and Ravi here in Mumbai, and bond over the vagaries of inheriting something they’re not sure any sane person should want to inherit.
Ravi laughs, saying that at least he doesn’t have Sherlock Holmes looking over his shoulder, and Declan is relieved to note that he can think of James again without worry or despair. The mission is relatively easy, only a couple brushes with danger and none at all with death, and Declan knows he’s being handled, but sometimes it’s just nice to get away.
They keep in contact after that.
He knows that when the call comes, he’ll probably walk out the door with a smile on his face.
When James leaves the UK Sanctuary for the last time, Declan locks himself in his own office for two hours, trying not to hyperventilate. It’s a toss-up, at the moment, as to whether he’s mourning the man or the job, albeit both a little prematurely, and he supposes that there’s always hope, except that James had looked so determined when he left.
There’s no point in stewing about it overlong. He’s got a satlink appointment with Mumbai and there’s still plenty of his own work to do before he has to start worrying about James’s as well. It won’t help anyone to jump the gun. He sorts his notes on the Lazarus virus for the hundredth time, and prepares to face the medical staff again.
There are calls he will have to make now, that he didn’t have to make before. There are things he will have to do. He’ll never be able to skip breakfast because he’s afraid of empty chairs. Someday, his own chair will be the one that’s empty. And there are pyroants in the furnace.
Declan unlocks the door and goes to work.
+++
finis
Gravity_Not_Included, June 8, 2011
Spoilers: Carentan, Revelations, and, as always with Declan, a brief nod to “Six Things”.
Disclaimer: Not mine. More’s the pity.
Rating: Teen
Characters: Declan MacRae
Summary: They never really talk about how every mission could be your last.
+++
With My Shield (Or On It)
They never really talk about how every mission could be your last.
He sends Ravi in without a second thought. He’s the closest, after all, and the conference is over, and Ravi said something about wanting more ground time in Europe when they talked on the satlink last week, and so it’s Ravi that he sends.
Technically, he and Ravi have the same rank, and Declan can’t really send him anywhere, but after decades of everyone doing whatever the UK Sanctuary said, on the grounds that it was easier to do just about anything than it was to argue with James Watson (except, of course, arguing with Helen Magnus, at which point it was generally considered good form to hide), Ravi takes the suggestion immediately.
Declan wishes him a pleasant walk in the woods, and turns off the computer to deal with the unexpected population surge in the pyroant colony that James never got around to completely exterminating on the grounds that they were actually moderately useful in the old-style furnace.
Six days later, Ravi is dead.
It’s not new to him, the military is a good teacher after all, but sometimes he’s almost afraid to go to breakfast, just in case.
The winter is the longest Declan can ever remember and with the latest deaths (stupid deaths, preventable deaths. Inevitable deaths), the mood at the Sanctuary is black. He lets James spiral for almost a week before he calls him on the carpet about the drugs, tentatively, of course, but still firmly, and he’s halfway to India before what he’s done really sinks in.
The man who meets him at the airport is young, with an open face and an easy smile, and Declan likes him immediately. They realize quickly that they’re both in similar positions, Declan in the UK and Ravi here in Mumbai, and bond over the vagaries of inheriting something they’re not sure any sane person should want to inherit.
Ravi laughs, saying that at least he doesn’t have Sherlock Holmes looking over his shoulder, and Declan is relieved to note that he can think of James again without worry or despair. The mission is relatively easy, only a couple brushes with danger and none at all with death, and Declan knows he’s being handled, but sometimes it’s just nice to get away.
They keep in contact after that.
He knows that when the call comes, he’ll probably walk out the door with a smile on his face.
When James leaves the UK Sanctuary for the last time, Declan locks himself in his own office for two hours, trying not to hyperventilate. It’s a toss-up, at the moment, as to whether he’s mourning the man or the job, albeit both a little prematurely, and he supposes that there’s always hope, except that James had looked so determined when he left.
There’s no point in stewing about it overlong. He’s got a satlink appointment with Mumbai and there’s still plenty of his own work to do before he has to start worrying about James’s as well. It won’t help anyone to jump the gun. He sorts his notes on the Lazarus virus for the hundredth time, and prepares to face the medical staff again.
There are calls he will have to make now, that he didn’t have to make before. There are things he will have to do. He’ll never be able to skip breakfast because he’s afraid of empty chairs. Someday, his own chair will be the one that’s empty. And there are pyroants in the furnace.
Declan unlocks the door and goes to work.
+++
finis
Gravity_Not_Included, June 8, 2011
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-06-08 03:59 pm (UTC)I love that you developed the friendship between Ravi and Declan, and they do seem to be of similar ages.
Great read!
no subject
Date: 2011-06-08 04:13 pm (UTC)Thanks!
*hugs Decland too*
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Date: 2011-06-08 06:21 pm (UTC)Gorgeous as usual. Made me cry, also as usual.
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Date: 2011-06-08 11:27 pm (UTC)