[March 17th] [The Man From U.N.C.L.E.] Out-of-Body

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Title: Out-of-Body
Day/Theme: March 17th - here in the dark is where new worlds are born
Series: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (specifically, The Odd Man Affair episode)
Character/Pairing: Mr. Ecks, Mr. Wye
Rating: K+/PG


By Lucky_Ladybug

Ecks stood on the balcony of their second-story motel room, his arms folded on the railing. He leaned against it, feeling the night breeze ruffle his hair and touch his cheek, just as though it were a mischievous femme fatale like Vivalene.

How many cases had he and Wye been on in the dark of night? Everything seemed so different then, with shadows rampant and light a precious commodity. It was as though night was a whole new world, an entirely different experience.

Ecks hadn’t liked the darkness as a child. It was bad enough to be alone at all, but at night was when everything got ominous and creepy. He remembered wanting to sleep with his light on, and even trying it, only for the caregiver to flip it off again and insist that no future agent of the organization was going to grow up afraid of the dark.

He didn’t fear it now, really. He liked it and the mysterious magic that belonged only to it. What he didn’t like was when he recalled how he had slipped into another kind of night after being wounded. Sometimes he had still heard voices, but other times everything had been lost to him and he had heard nothing.

He had been frightened then.

And what of that odd memory of encountering Wye somewhere in that state? It was just a hallucination, surely, or a dream. Still, Wye had been wounded, and perhaps it had happened right around that time. There was nothing to say that he couldn’t have traveled out of his body and met Ecks briefly on some supernatural plane.

Nothing except the fact that Ecks really didn’t want to think that. It was too unsettling, too disturbing. He was still trying to deny that it seemed like he had left his body right after the stabbing.

“Now, what are you doing out here? It’s getting late; you should be in bed!”

Ecks jumped a mile. Wye had somehow come out on the balcony and right up behind him and he hadn’t heard a thing.

Wye was very aware of that too. “A fine thing,” he scoffed. “It’s a little understandable for those U.N.C.L.E. agents to have sneaked up on you because they were bein’ quiet. But that ruddy door swears a bluestreak every time you try to open it! And you didn’t budge an inch.”

Ecks sighed. “I was thinking.” He turned to face him, now leaning on the balcony with his back.

“Well, that was obvious,” Wye grunted. “It must have been a really deep thought. Thinking how you’re going to give what for to Kuryakin?”

“No. Just . . . why I want to.” Ecks frowned. He still wasn’t sure he was ready to get into the paranormal discussion.

Now Wye sighed. “Ecks . . . something’s been bothering you. I know you’ve been trying to hide it, but I’ve seen it anyway. Especially when you’re asleep and suddenly start thrashin’ about. You never used to do that. At least, not when I saw, when we were on assignments. You were always the calm, cool, and collected one.”

Ecks cursed in his mind. He should have known better than to think he could hide his problems from Wye. “. . . Almost dying like that does something to you,” he said vaguely.

“I know that,” Wye retorted. “Sometimes I have dreams about it too. But is that really all it is?”

Ecks opened his mouth to retort, then paused. Wye really wanted to know. And maybe, although Ecks was still displeased at the thought of speaking about it, it would do him good to get it off his heart.

“No,” he confessed. “It isn’t. Wye . . . do you believe in out-of-body experiences?”

Wye stared at him. “I don’t necessarily believe or disbelieve in them,” he said. “Are you saying you think you had one?”

“I don’t know,” Ecks said helplessly. “I want to think it was all in my head. It’s just too disturbing to think that I kept leaving my body, that I didn’t have any control over it.”

“Maybe it was better if you did, Duck, so you didn’t have to experience every bit of the pain.” Wye spoke quietly, knowingly, almost as though he wasn’t entirely surprised by the suggestion that Ecks might have gone through such a thing.

“Did you?” Ecks blurted.

Wye paused. “I could have,” he said. “I honestly don’t remember.”

Ecks hesitated again. Maybe, even if the experience had been real, he shouldn’t mention Wye’s participation in it. Maybe Wye didn’t remember because he preferred forgetting altogether. “Would you want to remember?” he asked.

“I guess that would depend on what I might’ve seen,” Wye answered honestly. “I wouldn’t particularly like remembering burning in Hell, if that’s what it might have been.”

“I didn’t experience anything like that,” Ecks said. “It wasn’t Heaven either, though. I don’t really know what it was. Just here, I suppose. Earth. And oblivion.”

“Well, that’s not as bad as it could have been,” Wye said.

“I know,” said Ecks. “But I still don’t like it anyway.”

“You came back from it, whatever it was,” Wye said. “That’s the most important thing.”

Ecks nodded. “. . . I saw you at one point,” he confessed. “You said you were dead.”

“Cor blimey,” Wye muttered in astonishment. “And you figure it really was me?”

“I don’t know,” Ecks said. “It could have been something I made up because I was worried something might happen to you, after what happened to me.”

Wye nodded. “That was probably it. I can’t believe I’d forget meeting you on some supernatural plane. Unless . . .” He trailed off.

“Unless what?” Ecks prompted in surprise.

“Unless that’s why I was so convinced you were dead when I came to.” Wye looked troubled. “Maybe subconsciously I remembered and believed it was true.”

Ecks frowned. “. . . Well, like you said, the fact that I came back from it is the most important thing. Whatever may have happened on some mysterious, otherworldly realm.” He pushed away from the balcony and went over to his friend. “I guess we’ll both have to focus on that.”

“That’s the most logical thing to do,” Wye slowly agreed.

“So let’s take your advice and go inside and go to bed,” Ecks said. He slid open the door, cringing at the protest it struck up. It really was incredible that he hadn’t heard Wye coming outside.

Wye followed, perfectly willing to do as suggested. “Are you feeling better then?” he hoped.

“Some,” Ecks said honestly.

He still hadn’t told Wye of the experience in the park. What had happened when he had assumed he was unconscious in the hospital was far easier to explain than thinking he was standing outside his body and watching Wye bend over him. It was probably all a dream, really, but it had seemed so real.

Perhaps he would tell Wye sometime. Right now he wasn’t up to it. Wye definitely would remember that moment, after all, and if Ecks described what Wye had done and it corresponded with reality, then he would know it had happened.

For the time being, he would rather think that it was still a mystery.