Chapter Text
Title: Inner Demons 1/?
Author: Jessi B.
Disclaimer: I own nothing :{
Rating: PG-13, for some mentions of violence
Characters: Johnny, Roxanne, Stuart (the camera guy), and a guest appearance from Spiderman
Warnings: Slash (later), some violence
Pairings: Johnny/Roxanne, Johnny/Stuart (later)
Summary: Johnny is trying to deal with the spirit inside him, Roxanne is trying to cope with dating the Ghost Rider, and Stuart is trying to survive being a cameraman in New York.
Notes: Still working on this but I finally corrected some of the mistakes I had made (I hope) and did another re-write. So this might be rewritten again, still a work in progress. Still, hope everyone enjoys!
This, Stuart thought to himself as the muzzle of a gun pressed into his ribs, is bad.
“This is Roxanne Simpson,” Roxanne stated, voice steady as though there weren’t a group of armed thugs threatening to kill them. “I have been asked to broadcast the status of the hostages so that everyone is assured of their safety.”
It was supposed to be a simple interview with a stunt rider. Stuart should have known better. It seemed like they were always in the middle of something, usually dead center in the middle, and more likely then not he was shooting the entire thing.
“As you can see behind me...” Roxanne motioned to the crowds, all strangely silent in the large stadium, and he did a wide shot of the crowd. “Everyone is fine, just a little shook up, but fine.”
“But they may not be for long,” Stuart reluctantly turned the camera to the black masked figure of the villain of the week. The Black Tiger, no shit, was tall and threatening and had tons of man power to back him but he had the brain power of a goldfish. A very large goldfish with a very large bomb though. It was days like this he remembered why he’d gotten the job.
’Lost the last camera guy because of Doc Ock, you can work a camera right?’ I should have known to stay on at the pizza place... While Black Tiger went on in great detail about what he wanted to have in return for the hostages a rumbling started in the distance.
Stuart smiled despite himself. The good thing about shadowing Roxy was the protective streak her boyfriend had. Tiger had stopped talking and was frowning, looking behind the cameraman. Stuart turned, a gun staying firmly against his ribs, and got a perfect shot of the ‘Ghost Rider’ bursting through. Something else crashed behind him and he turned to catch Spiderman tossing a goon at Tiger.
“As you can see,” Roxanne picked up like a pro. “Relief seems to have arrived. Spiderman and the mysterious Ghost Rider are making quick work of...”
The man who amazingly enough was still holding a gun to his back was plucked away and the webslinger himself stood beside Stuart to catch his breath.
“Does anything stop you guys?”
“Not much, sometimes we hide in the van until things settle but...ya know, going for the big raise, anyway, you know about the bomb, right?”
“Bomb?”
“Yeah, under the bleachers, wired to go off in thirty minutes,” Stuart said, glancing briefly at the hero. “Roxy’s the crazy one, I just hold the camera.”
“Noted, think I’ll see about that bomb, Ghosty has things in hand,” the costumed hero vanished from his line of sight. Roxanne wrapped up with a promise of more details as they developed and Stuart swung around to catch the end of the battle with Ghost Rider dropping a now very subdued thug. He turned the camera off and grinned at Roxanne.
“Grab the mike, Spiderman is trying to handle the bomb but I think it might be a good idea to start the evacuation...” he said handing her the stage microphone.
“Right, good plan,” taking a deep breath Roxanne spoke into the mike in a clear calm voice. “Ok guys, everyone in the first section here, get up and start filing out. Be very careful and no running or pushing...”
It was amazing what Roxy could do with a smile and a firm tone. The Rider moved to ‘unlock’ one of the exits with a well placed punch. Voices were moving towards them and Stuart personally hoped they’d brought the bomb squad.
“Right, just keep moving...” Roxanne said, voice clear and calm.
“You better get out while the gettings good,” Stuart said hesitantly. “I mean, the police...”
The Rider nodded and whistled, an odd in-human sound, and his bike rumbled to his side. He vanished through a side door as the police rushed in. The place was practically empty by then and they were hustled out barely getting in the warnings about bombs. Bombs that would go off in fifteen minutes.
“Ok, here we go,” Roxanne said, touching up her makeup with a pocket compact. “Ready?”
“I personally want to go home and hide under the bed for a while, but sure,” Stuart sighed pulling the familiar weight back on his shoulder. “Three, two, one...we’re on.”
“The police have arrived to apprehend the Black Tiger and his gang and are working feverishly to defuse a bomb that has been planted under the bleachers of the stadium. This bomb was set to go off in ten minutes time and the police are working against the clock to save the arena and the surrounding area. We will continue to broadcast updates as long as we’re able...”
Ten minutes passed and the bomb squad emerged amid cheers from the crowd of onlookers. The tired looking men smiled and waved.
“And it appears the city is safe once again thanks to our hard working police department. This is Roxanne Simpson, signing off.”
“Clear,” Stuart said lowering the camera. “You’re the craziest person I know. I think Louis Lane was you in a previous comic life, you know that?”
“That’s so sweet, Stuart, come on, it’s time to give statements.”
“Joy.”
Hours later he’d turned in his camera and the news van and was walking Roxanne to her car in the studio’s parking garage.
“God, if we don’t get tomorrow off...” Roxanne threatened, rubbing her eyes. The eye shadow and liner were running and made her look like a raccoon. Stuart smiled and looked away.
“You know how the boss is ‘Villains attack all the time, don’t whine, why when Galactus came...’,” Stuart started in mocking gruff tone.
“That’s him,” Roxanne laughed. “’Why I never took a sick day, not even when our building got destroyed, no we operated out of a hotel for months’.”
“He really won’t give you the day off after all o’ this?” A voice asked from beside Roxanne’s car. Stuart smiled when Roxanne rushed over to hug Johnny Blaze.
“We’ll get a day off,” Stuart answered with a shrug. “He’ll just complain a lot.”
“Yeah, well, you two should be more careful...”
“Don’t look at me, it’s the city,” Stuart shrugged, taking out a pack of cigarettes. Johnny frowned.
“Those are bad for you.”
“I only smoke after I almost die,” the cameraman said absently patting himself down for his lighter. He pulled the old silver thing out of his jeans finally and flicked it open. It was battered and worn long before he’d gotten it but it still worked. He took a deep breath of the smoke and felt the knot of tension in his stomach start to loosen.
“Or sex,” Roxanne added.
“Right, see if I take you drinking again...” Stuart muttered, flushing.
“How is...Richard?” she asked, the last word as much a question as anything else.
“No idea,” Stuart blew a smoke ring and leaned against the hood of Roxy’s sport car. It was a nice car in a beautiful cherry red. “But I hope he’s catching syphilis.”
“Stuart!” Roxanne laughed.
“I do, British accent or no I have standards,” he huffed, looking back at Johnny. “You ok, man?”
“Yeah,” Johnny forced a smile, the former stunt rider looked pale and haggard. “Mostly.”
“Listen, I’m headed home,” Stuart tossed the half finished cig away. “You guys have all night to...do stuff. I’m going to go home and crash.”
“Night,” Roxanne called though he doubted she’d even looked around. Smiling Stuart caught a cab. His apartment was small and messy but it looked like heaven at the moment. Falling down on his bed fully clothed he fell asleep.
***
Trouble in paradise, Stuart thought absently as he put away the camera equipment. Johnny and Roxanne were having a loud unhappy fight in the alley the former stunt cyclist had transformed in.
“I’m just saying, you could stop, I know people that could set you up with a new identity or we could get in touch with some lawyers...”
“Roxanne, it’s just...it’s not that simple. I may never...”
“And I’m supposed to wait around when there’s no end of the tunnel?”
Silence and Stuart could almost picture the hurt look on Johnny’s face.
“God, Johnny, I’m sorry, it’s just I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”
“I know and I’m not asking you to,” Johnny said softly. “It’d be selfish of me to expect you to hang on. Go out with the guy, it’s ok.”
Roxanne came stalking out of the alley wiping her eyes and Stuart handed her the tissue box without a word before starting the van. He glanced in the rearview mirror at the forlorn looking man behind them and frowned. It was bad for both of them. Roxanne wanted Johnny safe and able to settle down and Johnny wanted Roxanne, loved Roxanne, but claiming a cursed demon entity as your own wasn’t conductive to settling down in a suburb.
“Come on,” he sighed, forcing a smile for Roxanne. “Drinks are on me.”
Stuart regretted the offer the next day when both he and Roxy came to work in shades with hangovers that maybe Ghost Rider was needed to defeat. She’d crashed on his couch and they’d had cold pizza and a gallon of water for breakfast to wash down the aspirin.
He noticed that Roxanne accepted the cute copy repairman’s invitation to dinner.
***
Filming heroes never quite got boring. Mostly because the things they were fighting rarely cared whether they hit innocent civilians or not. In fact Stuart rather suspected villains actually aimed for innocent civilians.
The guy attacking was calling himself the Flame and if the tights and fashion sense were any indication...Stuart and Roxanne ducked behind a parked car as a fireball took out a convertible nearby. Happily their van was parked a few blocks away. They’d learned their lesson the last time the thing had gotten pulverized.
“This Roxnne Simpson reporting live from the scene of the battle with the new and mysterious villain The Flame,” Stuart nodded approvingly, always give the villains a bit of credit. It saved your ass if the villain was sensitive. One of the guys at from channel 2 had learned that the hard way.
“As you can see behind me massive amounts of destruction is being done to the area around us...” A car landed behind her to help illustrate the point. “We will be covering the story for as long as we’re able...”
“And...we’re out,” Stuart sighed, rubbing his shoulder as he lowered the camera. “Days like this I wish I was still a pizza boy.”
“Days like this are what makes it worth it,” Roxanne grinned as they watched the Thing and the Human Torch arrive on scene. Spiderman was already in the melee and Ghost Rider had his back. The Flame seemed to able to blow things up and throw things with his mind, which seemed unfair to Stuart, so things still seemed to be in the push forward the fall back stage for the heroes.
“You are crazy and I suspect hanging out with you shortens my life expectancy by quite a bit,” Stuart said absently, camera back on and filming.
“But it’ll definitely be interesting,” she laughed, checking her makeup in her compact. “Right, lets do it.”
“Ok, three, two...”
The fight raged on behind them as Roxanne covered it. Cars were smashed, blown up, or thrown, buildings were crashed into, and they were standing in the center of it dodging and reporting. When the fight finally wound down the duo were reporting from in an alley by the time the fight wound down and Roxy managed to get an interview with the Thing and the Torch.
“And we’re out,” Stuart sighed, he felt like the camera had been fused to his shoulder. Johnny Storm grinned and shook his hand and Stuart forced a smile. The blond was cute but he’d met the hero no less then a dozen times so he wasn’t as impressed as he had been the first time.
As the heroes scattered Stuart wasn’t surprised to see Johnny Blaze’s bike, normal and minus the hellfire, roll up beside them. He waved and Roxy smiled but there was no embracing.
“You’re crazy, ya know?” Johnny smiled.
“She’s crazy,” Stuart protested, putting the camera down and stretching his arms above his head. “I’m just the guy who films her.”
Roxanne whapped his sore shoulder and he winced.
“Anyway, you ok?” he asked as Johnny leaned tiredly against his bike.
“Huh? Yeah, I’m good...just kinda tired,” Johnny said absently. He looked exhausted actually with dark circles under his eyes and a scruffy beard.
“Where are you staying now?” Roxanne asked frowning.
“Here and there...” the stunt rider looked away.
“Hey, listen,” Stuart started, grabbing the camera and pretending to concentrate on an adjustment. “I’ve got a couch you can crash on, you don’t look like you’re getting much sleep.”
“I don’t want to...”
“It’s not a big deal,” Stuart shrugged, honestly he had no idea where the man had been staying till now but he guessed Roxy had been putting Johnny up at least part time before. “Come on, we’ve got to get back but if you meet me at work in a bit...”
“Thanks, Stuart, but...”
“Hey, at least give me a ride home and consider it huh?”
The other man hesitated but nodded slowly before swinging a leg back over his bike and starting it. As he rolled away Roxanne bumped Stuart’s shoulder with her own.
“Thanks.”
“Hey, who says I’m doing this for you? If he’s staying with me he has to shower occasionally...”
“Stuart!”
“What?”
Johnny found Stuart sitting beside Roxanne’s spot in the garage, smoking.
“Hey,” Stuart put out the cigarette and stood.
“Hey,” Johnny tossed him a helmet.
“Do you ever wear this?” Stuart asked, pulling his hat off and stuffing it into his backpack. Short curly brown hair was revealed just before he pulled the helmet on.
“You actually have hair, you’re always wearing those hats so I wasn’t sure.”
“Ha ha, man,” throwing his bag over his shoulders Stuart hesitantly approached the bike. Johnny slid up and the cameraman settled awkwardly behind him.
“Put your arms around me,” Johnny said absently as he started the bike. Stuart wrapped his arms loosely around the biker’s waist. “Tighter, unless you wanna fall off.”
“Right,” blushing and glad that Johnny couldn’t see he tightened his arms and tried to think about something else. The drive was mercifully quick and he got Johnny parked in his building’s garage before they took the elevator up to his floor.
He went in before Johnny, turning on lights and tossing any Blaze memorabilia out of sight.
“So, this is it, not as big as Roxanne’s place but, well, she’s in front of the camera and I just hold it,” he said nervously. “My room’s over there, bathroom’s in there, kitchen, this is the couch...”
Stuart gathered the various take out containers littering the coffee table up and made for the kitchen to throw them away. The kitchen had a few cereal bowls and glasses stacked in the sink and he ran water over them with wince.
“At least I don’t have to worry about messing the place up...” Johnny said mildly from the kitchen’s door.
“Yeah...well, I’ve had a lot of late nights...”
“No need to defend yourself to me, if I can use the washer and the shower I’ll be great.”
“Knock yourself out, washer and dryer are here...” he slid the door open to show the small alcove to Johnny. “And you can use my soap and stuff. I’ll grab the blankets and spare pillow from the closet.”
“Stuart, thanks.”
“No problem, stay as long as you need.”