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Desperation 01: A Deperate Act

Summary:

Darien and Bobby are trapped in a warehouse with enemy agents all around them. What can they do?

Work Text:

Title: A Desperate Act
Author: Tayla
Fandom: The Invisible Man
Pairing: Darien/Bobby
Rating: FRT
Status: Complete 01/04/2002
Warnings: Mild slash
Category: Drama, angst, death?
Feedback: Yes please all constructive criticism will be accepted graciously.
E-mail: tayla36@aol.com
Authors Web Site: http://www.geocities.com/tayla36/index.html
Series/Sequel: you'll just have to wait and see
Disclaimer: The Invisible Man and its characters belong to Stu Segall productions. No copyright infringement is intended. The author makes no profit and exists solely on the accolades from fellow fans.
Authors Note: Thank so much to my Beta readers, Chalie and Suz for their valuable insights
Summary: Darien and Bobby are trapped in a warehouse with enemy agents all around them. What can they do?

 

A Desperate Act
By Tayla

 

Hobbes motioned for him to be quiet, so Darien tried to slow his breathing. Not an easy task, since they had been dashing up and down corridors for fifteen minutes.

It was supposed to be an easy assignment. Break into a warehouse, do a little snooping, look for files. They did that sort of thing all the time. Kind of their specialty, really. The corporation that rented the space was suspected of dealing in stolen weapons. The Official had lent out his golden boy to the ATF to try and find evidence. Sounds easy, right?

Wrong!

*********************************

 

Fawkes had been rifling through a filing cabinet while Hobbes was watching out the window.

"Aw, crap," Hobbes swore under his breath. "Fawkes, we got company."

"What?'

"Four vans just pulled up and guys are coming out of them like cockroaches. Come on. Let's move out."

Bobby headed deeper into the maze of corridors that made up the office space attached to the warehouse. He pulled out his cell phone as he went.

"Eberts, this is Hobbes. We've been set up. Get some back up here, now. Eberts?" He threw the phone into a nearby wastebasket. "Fuck. They jammed the phone signal. I hope the hamster got some of that."

"Hobbes, where are we headed? As I recall, the door is the other way."

"They've already got the doors covered, kid. We'll have to hole up and wait for backup."

"Why? Come on, Bobby. I'll just do my amazing disappearing Fawkes and Hobbes act and we waltz out the door."

"No can do, partner. They're Chrysalis."

"Aw, crap." Then he gave Hobbes a suspicious look. "How do you know that? You suddenly psychic?"

"Bunch of teenagers with guns and thermal glasses? You tell me who you think they are, smart boy."

"Aw, crap."

"You said that already. Come on"

*************************************

So now they were looking desperately for a place to hide while Chrysalis agents fanned out through the warehouse. Sometimes running, sometimes slinking, sometimes just avoiding detection by ducking behind cubicle walls. With every passing moment, Darien's appreciation of his partner's skills increased even as his hopes of avoiding capture decreased. The longer it took for their backup to arrive, the less chance there was of it making a difference.

They got involved in one shootout, Bobby emptying his gun into a cluster of agents as he and Darien ran for cover. As he was trying to replace the clip, Darien stumbled into him and the clip went spinning off into the darkness.

"Damn it, Fawkes!" Hobbes whispered angrily.

"Aw, crap!"

"Just keep moving!"

Finally Bobby found what looked to be a janitors closet. They quickly rearranged some shelves and boxes to make a hiding space that they both could fit in. Bobby went to the door and looked back at their handiwork. He though it might pass a cursory inspection. It all depended on how close a person was looking. He crawled into the space beside Darien, arranged the covering boxes to his satisfaction, and settled down to wait.

There was just enough light filtering in through the high window for Darien to see his partner's profile. His jaw was clenched and his eyes darted nervously around the room, trying to catalogue every small sound. Darien continued to study Bobby's face as they waited in the darkness for a rescue that might not come. It wasn't a particularly interesting face at first glance. Or even a second or third glance. Bald head with a fringe of dark brown hair, wide-set coffee colored eyes, kind of a big nose and lips that were usually crooked into a smirk. A perfectly ordinary face. But it was a face that Darien saw every day; had seen every day for the past two years. His partner, his friend.

Who would have thought two years ago that he would count Hobbes as his best friend? Strange. He had never really had a best friend, never had many friends at all. Liz didn't count. Thieves have no loyalty. Casey didn't count. Apparently girlfriends have no loyalty, either. But Hobbes had loyalty. Oh boy, did Hobbes have loyalty. It was comforting, really. He knew that Hobbes had his back. Hobbes would never bail on him. Bobby had been saying that since he had met him. Darien wondered when he had actually started to believe it. He thought back over the past two years and realized that he could not pinpoint the moment when Hobbes had ceased to be an annoyance and Bobby had become his friend. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't. It was an important moment in his life. A friend that he could depend on. He should know when that had happened. Shouldn't he?

Oh well, too late to worry about it now.

Darien was afraid that their friendship, or whatever else could have been, was about to come to an abrupt end.

"So, are you gonna get your gun out so we can go out in a blaze of glory when they find us?"

"Wish I could, Fawksie, but that was my last clip that you knocked out of my hand."

"You're out?" Darien asked him, stunned.

"I'm on empty, my friend. Maybe we can chuck some of these bottles at 'em. Smack 'em upside the head with a broom," Bobby snorted sarcastically.

Darien stared at him with the fear growing behind his eyes.

Just then, they heard the doorknob turning. Both men tensed as a shaft of light from the corridor stabbed into the room.

Apparently their rearrangement job was good enough because they heard a voice say, "They're not in here," and the door closed again. Darien let out the breath that he didn't know he was holding. Bobby clapped a hand over his mouth as he heard more footsteps going by the door. His eyes were darting nervously around the room again. After a few minutes he relaxed back against the wall

"That gives us some time. They won't look in here again until they can't find you anywhere else. Gives the cavalry a chance to arrive."

"That's assuming that you actually got through to Eberts."

"I don't even want to think about that, my friend."

"Well, I kind of have to."

Bobby gave him a puzzled look. Darien sighed heavily. He reached under the neckline of his shirt and pulled out the pendent that he had taken to wearing the past few months. It was a small silver-mesh box about an inch square.

"Is that some kind of magic talisman, Fawkes? You gonna wish us out of here?"

Darien was fumbling with the catch on the front of the box. He got it open and dumped something into the palm of his hand. Then he held it up for Bobby to see it.

"What's that for?"

"It's a bullet."

Bobby rolled his eyes. "It's a bullet, he says. I can see it's a bullet. What am I supposed to do with one bullet, Fawkes, throw it at them?"

"Make sure they don't get the gland."

Bobby stared at his partner in confusion. Then his eyes went wide and his jaw dropped as he realized what Darien was asking him to do. He slapped at Darien's hand as he tried to hand him the bullet.

"No, Fawkes. Absolutely not!"

"Hobbes, you have to."

"No, Fawkes," Bobby said emphatically. "I'm not gonna kill you."

"What do you think they're gonna do to me when they find me, Bobby?" Bobby was shaking his head and still muttering 'no' under his breath. "They're gonna crack my head open and yank the gland out. And I don't think they're gonna be too careful about it."

"Fawkes, please don't ask me to do this." Darien could tell by the sudden hitch in his voice that Bobby was close to tears.

"Sorry, buddy, no other choice. You won't let me carry a gun." He held the bullet out to Bobby again. He gave his friend a small, sad smile. "Load it."

"Darien?why are you doing this."

"You know, ever since I've known you, you've been talking about duty and patriotism. Now you're surprised that some of it's rubbed off."

"Yeah, but this is a little above and beyond, Dare."

Darien sighed "Can you imagine what will happen if Chrysalis gets the gland? They could clone it and make an army of invisible soldiers. Think of how much damage they could do. I'm not going to be responsible for that happening."

"We don't know that they can clone anything."

"We have no idea what their scientific capabilities are, Bobby." He smiled again. He sat up straight and gave Bobby a lazy salute. "For the good of the country, we must safe guard the gland, with our lives if necessary," he said in his best impersonation of the Official.

"You think this is funny, Fawkes."

Darien was still smiling serenely. "Nope, dead serious, Hobbes. Load the bullet."

Bobby took the bullet. He let out a small sob as he slid it into the chamber. They could both hear noise out in the warehouse. The noise of many people moving around. Darien got up to his knees and turned his back to Bobby, bowing his head. He heard Bobby take in a deep breath. Bobby knelt up behind his partner and gently turned him around to face him.

"You sure about this, Fawkes?"

Darien just nodded.

"You deserve better than this. This whole thing has been shitty for you since the beginning. You had no idea what you were getting into. They coerced you, and blackmailed you and treated you like a lab rat. They forced you into this life, my friend. You had no choice!"

"I still have no choice, Bobby. We can't let Chrysalis get the gland." Darien leaned forward slightly until his forehead touched his partner's. "One good thing came out of all this mess," he whispered. "I met you." He felt Bobby's hand, warm on his neck, steadying the gun barrel flush against the back of his head. Bobby was holding the gun backwards, with his fingers wrapped around the back of the grip and his thumb on the trigger. "You're gonna have to move to the side, Bobby. If you shoot while you're still in front of me, the bullet's gonna kill both of us."

"Yeah, so what's your point, partner?"

"Bobby?"

"You think that when those guys come in here and find you dead, they're gonna let me walk out of here? You think I got no sense of duty? You think I'm not ready to give my life for my country, too? Besides, Bobby Hobbes does not bail on his partner."

"Jesus, Bobby. I didn't want to take you down with me."

Bobby could hear the footsteps getting closer to their hiding place. "We got no choices left, my friend."

The two men knelt together, listening, and just staring into each other's eyes. Tears were streaming down Darien's face now, too. And then, because it was the last chance he would ever have, he said quietly, "I love you, Bobby."

He felt a sudden hard pressure against his mouth as Bobby brought their lips together in a quick kiss. They heard the doorknob turning. Bobby's thumb tensed on the trigger as the door was flung open. "I love you, too, Darien."

The End?