[November 5th] [The Rockford Files-related] Chronicles of a Friendship, 5

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Title: Chronicles of a Friendship, scene 5
Day/Theme: November 5th - The Quiet Lands
Series: The Rockford Files (using characters from The Queen of Peru episode)
Character/Pairing: Ginger Townsend, Lou Trevino
Rating: PG-13/T

Continuing the dark mini-arc.


By Lucky_Ladybug

Ginger really hadn’t wanted to die. But he had realized it was inevitable after being kept underwater for too long, struggling to subdue the man who had masterminded everything, including Lou’s murder. Ginger had been held down, deliberately being drowned. In the end, Ginger had fatally stabbed the wretch, forcing him to let go. In defending himself, his revenge had become complete.

But he had not been able to swim to the surface. It had taken his last strength to retrieve and plunge in the knife. His body had given out on him in the next moment.

He seemed to still be floating somewhere, really. He was barely aware of anything, except that. And the fact that he wasn’t in water. He seemed to be floating in something much worse and far more frightening—complete darkness and oblivion.

Sometimes it seemed that a bit of light flashed and he could see that he was hovering high above some sort of shadowed plain, with low mountains in the distance. But then all was black again and he wondered if he was only hallucinating or imagining that it was different.

Every now and then a voice echoed in the nothingness. Usually he couldn’t distinguish the words, but every now and then something was clear.

“Vengeance is mine.”

Oh, so he had played God, was that it? And he would be sent to Hell for that, he supposed. But those madmen had needed to be stopped. They had murdered Lou.

Would he even be allowed to see Lou again? Did his grief mean nothing?

“Lou,” he rasped, weakly. “Where are you?”

There was no answer.

Lou should have been there. He would have been there, if he could have—right there to meet Ginger as he crossed over. Ginger hadn’t committed suicide, a grievous sin in Lou’s religion. Nor had he killed anyone in cold blood, another such sin (in both their religions). But even if he had done either or both, it wouldn’t have kept Lou away.

Nothing had ever kept Lou away.

“You aren’t supposed to be dead.”

Well, he was very sorry about that! He hadn’t meant to get held under and drowned. He had fought with all his might until his body had given out on him.

But if he wasn’t supposed to be dead, and he wasn’t being sent back, did that mean he had to make the choice to go back?

Go back to what? What was there for him now?

Oh, his job, the house, the material possessions he had craved as a poverty-stricken child. . . . But he would be experiencing them alone. Even his parents were gone now.

Suddenly terror struck him. He had never been completely alone. Michael was going to leave too, he was sure. There was no one for him. No one.

But . . . Lou would want him to try to find some meaning in life. Lou would want him to go on. He would have tried, had this not happened.

He drew a shuddering breath. He had always been a fighter, never a quitter.

Alright then. If he wasn’t supposed to be dead, he would go back. He would try to put his shattered life together again.

“Will you . . . at least let me see Lou again?” he begged. “Just one more time. Is that too much to ask?”

Another silence. “Wake up.”

“Please!” Ginger all but screamed, his voice ragged.

“Wake up.”

Ginger clenched a fist. Perhaps, if he saw Lou again, his resolve would waver. Perhaps that was why it wasn’t going to be allowed. But it made him furious. He wanted to see Lou again, to know he was alright. To tell him goodbye.

It was strange, how his entire body felt cold, except for his right hand. It was warm, as though someone was holding it even though no one was there. He wanted to think it was eerie. But instead . . . instead it was comforting.

Then there was a sound, something that was definitely eerie. Someone was crying, someone who sounded as though his heart was broken. Someone . . . someone he knew.

“Lou?!” he gasped.

Lou was suffering. Wherever he was, he was not alright. Lou would never, ever weep unless something absolutely horrible had happened. Ginger doubted that anything other than the loss of a loved one could make him break down like that.

. . . But the only person Lou loved dearly who was gone was . . .

“Lou!” Ginger screamed. “Stop it! I haven’t forfeited my life. I’m not going to stay here; I’m going back. Alright? You can rest in peace. I don’t know how I’ll get by, but I will. I know you would want me to. I’m sorry this happened. But I’m far more sorry that I couldn’t save you. Defeating those bloody sadists hasn’t brought you back. It can’t. But it still gives me some satisfaction that they didn’t get away with it.

“When I die for real, I expect you to be there, waiting for me. Do you hear me, Lou? Lou!”

But Lou did not seem to hear. And now, panicked and desperate to make Lou’s anguish stop, Ginger pushed against the darkness, the oblivion.

He fought to break the surface.

His eyes flew open and he gasped, choking on the water that he had swallowed. A voice cried out his name in utter disbelief and shock and some sort of container was produced that he turned and coughed the water into. Then, his lungs free at last, he groaned and slumped back.

He was on the couch in the living room. Someone had brought him home. But who? How?

“Ginger?! Ginger, are you okay?! Ginger, I . . . I can hardly believe you’re really alive. I was so sure you were gone . . . and all because of me. . . .”

“You?” Ginger rasped.

It was Lou’s voice, but it couldn’t be Lou. And . . . yes, it was Lou bending over him, his eyes filled with worry.

Ginger just stared at him, unable to think or speak. “Lou . . . you . . . you’re alive?” he whispered. He reached out, wanting to touch him and make certain this wasn’t just a sick man’s hallucination.

Lou nodded, smiling now. “I’m alive, Ginger. They were holding me hostage. Actually, you saved me when you attacked them. Even though you didn’t know you did.” He took Ginger’s hand, letting him feel that this was for real.

Ginger curled his fingers around Lou’s hand, gripping it tightly. “I . . . saved you?”

“Yeah. And I mean really. When they realized I couldn’t tell them what they wanted to know, they were gonna knock me off for real. I was trying to fight my way out of there, but I couldn’t get past the whole lot of them until you came. You really got them distracted.” Lou smiled.

“So you’re not going to scold me for losing my mind and going after them with the intent to avenge your death?”

“I should,” Lou sighed. “Ginger, you almost got yourself killed!” His shoulders slumped. “But . . . I probably would’ve done the same thing. What they did to make you think I was gone was awful.”

“Those other fools did something similar to you in the past, when they made you believe I’d been killed in a plane crash,” Ginger frowned.

Lou shuddered. “The guy in charge of that was just nuts. These people just had more basic criminal motives in mind.” He sighed. “But that’s bad too.”

He looked Ginger over. “How are you feeling, Buddy? Should I take you to the hospital?” He regarded him worriedly. “You could catch pneumonia from taking in all that water.”

Ginger ran a hand over his eyes. “I really don’t feel like going. Tonight, anyway. But I remember what happened when I found you beaten in the company fridge. You didn’t want to go to the hospital, but you did for my sake. And you said you’d remember it the next time I didn’t want to go.”

Lou nodded. “I know I said that. But after what you went through, I don’t know if you should be moved around too much if you don’t have to be. I think you should be okay here if you’re kept warm.”

Ginger ran a hand through his still-damp hair. “I would like a bath,” he said. “Or a shower. Anything to take away the bloody ocean.”

Lou sighed. “I figured. But please, Ginger, let me help you. You might fall and slip under, or hit your head, or something.”

Ginger was a very independent person who didn’t entirely like the idea of what Lou was proposing. But he was also very grateful to be alive, and very joyous that Lou was alive. He didn’t want anything to damage the fact that they were together again.

“Alright,” he consented.

Lou smiled. “Just let me make a call first,” he said. “I need to let Mike know I’m alive.”

Ginger nodded in agreement. “You should. And your parents, too. They’re here, to take your ‘body’ back to New York with them for burial.”

Lou could hear in Ginger’s voice some of the anguish and loneliness he had felt over that turn of events. “Oh, Ginger, I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

“Don’t be. When the time actually comes, if your parents are still alive, that’s where you’d belong. Unless . . .” Ginger paused. “You’d want something different.”

“I don’t know what I’d want,” Lou admitted. “I never really thought about it before. New York was always my home and my first love. I still like it better than here. But . . .” He laid a hand on Ginger’s shoulder. “I’ve got family on both coasts now.” He stood, heading for the phone. “I’ll have to think about it. But not now.”

“Not now,” Ginger agreed. He didn’t want to think about it, either. He just wanted to rejoice in the fact that Lou was alive.

Lou sat down, dialing his brother’s number. “Hello, Mike? . . . No, you’re not talking to a ghost. I’m alive. . . . Yeah, come over and make sure it’s for real. Bring Mom and Dad, too.”

Ginger was still on the couch when they arrived, not having quite gathered the strength to leave the room yet. But he sat and watched as they stared at Lou in awe and disbelief and then all joyously embraced him at once.

And he smiled. A rare, genuine smile. Everything was alright, just as it was supposed to be.

“Ginger?”

He looked up with a start. Lou was looking over, silently asking if Ginger would join them. He didn’t want to say it out loud because of how he knew it would put Ginger on the spot. But he wanted Ginger to know that he thought of him as family just as much the others with whom he was reuniting.

Ginger knew. And he wanted to be part of really welcoming Lou back. Most of their reunion so far had been Lou welcoming Ginger back—and Ginger being too awestruck to do much to reciprocate.

He stood, slowly making his way over. And his emotions, usually so carefully kept in-check unless his temper snapped, were coming to the surface now in a different way.

Lou was alive. . . .

He pulled Lou close, embracing him in front of Lou’s biological family. Lou returned the hug, every bit as joyous for their reunion.

Although Mike was too leery of Ginger to even dream of joining in, he smiled. Ginger was truly happy again now. And judging from his and Lou’s parents’ expressions, they recognized how important this moment was, too. Lou was telling them that Ginger was part of his family, whether they fully accepted it or not.

They smiled, laying their hands on Ginger’s shoulders. They would accept it.

Ginger looked up with a start. But upon seeing their sincere expressions, he relaxed.

Lou’s family was welcoming him. That was important, a definite milestone.

But the most important of all was that Lou had welcomed him—and that he was still alive to do it.