For Lucy

[minimumbullshit]

If he had his way, he would've slept sprawled across the waiting room chairs, harassing the night nurses and generally making an ass of himself. Apparently, the detox program that Max had signed himself over to wasn't in the habit of allowing hovering visitors, despite their status as partners or boyfriends or lovers or whatever fucking label was foisted onto them. So, he went home to wait for Max's discharge, and more importantly, to figure out how they put their lives back together after something so catastrophic. Unfortunately, Brian Kinney was the world's worst at sitting around and waiting for things to happen to him.

So, he took Gus and left the quiet of their apartment, driving across town to Lucy's shitty little apartment, the one she seemed to be punishing herself with, after whatever transgressions she thought she'd committed last year. There was a chance she wasn't even home, but he had a feeling she would be.

On her floor, he let Gus run ahead. "Down the hall, sonny boy. Last door on your right," Brian said, pointing his son in the right direction. Gus beat on the door with his tiny fists, calling out, "Luce! Luce!" Brian hung back, arms folded, his expression carefully blank, but his jaw twitched, full of tension. If she looked closely enough, which he knew she would, she'd be sure to notice.

He couldn't hide a damn thing from these Carrigans anymore.

Comments

[radicalize]

"Yeah, 'cause we're both so far from that already," Lucy says dryly, though she knows he's not wrong. It's a hell of a lot easier said than done, when she's always had trouble backing away from things anyway, something in her innately compelled to try to step in and help, and even more so where Max is concerned. When it comes to this, though, it is outside of her control, as much as she hates that that's the case. It might not be quite so hard to deal with if it weren't. "I mean, you're right, I know you're right, I just..." Trailing off, she cracks what she can of a smile, though it's still halfhearted. "Kind of wish you weren't."

[minimumbullshit]

"You'd be surprised how exhausting it is, being right all the time, but I've learned to live with it," he said, and his smile was sharp, but it wasn't quite as mocking as it might've been.

Whatever bullshit jokes he might've made were overshadowed when he tightened his arm around her and turned to press a kiss to her temple.

[radicalize]

"Oh, yeah, I bet," Lucy says, deadpan, though the edge in her voice is distinctly lacking. As much as she wouldn't wish having to go through this on anyone else, having Brian here has helped her more than she knows how to tell him. She has a feeling, though, that he probably already knows. "What a burden to have to carry."