Work Text:
Home
by PEJA
Standing with a hip balanced against the kitchen door frame, a steaming cup of coffee cradled in his large hands, Tom Price smiled an honest and peace-filled smile and let his gaze roam over the people gathered there.
Abby Grant, strong willed and determined to find her son, Peter....Aalim Sadiq and his... well, his pretty much adopted son, Najid Hanif... The two of them may pretend indifference from time to time, but they were as close as any father and son could ever be. Damned if you'd hear either one admit it though. Anya Raczynski, silently carrying her guilt over not being able to save so many from the virus.
'These are my people....' The thought hit him with the force of an hydrogen bomb in an atomic twister and his smile wavered for a moment.
His people. Depending, simply by keeping him close, on him to have their back.
He belonged. Belonged to each and every one of the people living on this little piece of dirt they called home for now. How the fuck had it happened, this sense of belonging.
The gravity of how his life had changed since the rebirth of the world settled around his shoulders. He marveled at how light that commitment smoothed over him. He would have expected to feel the bite of imprisonment, but not this...this was an angel's embrace around his shoulders.
It was a miraculous second chance. He could be a better man. Hell, he was a better man.
His little family of strangers respected him. He turned to him for advice. They looked at him without the disgust he'd seen in the eyes of the prison guards. And it had changed him.
His smile widened again, becoming a secret smile as he caught Greg's eye.
The look Greg caressed him with was something altogether awe-inspiring. There was passion in Greg's gaze. For him. Passion, and a love so great as to rival the heat from the hottest suns.
Tom had lived through hell, but at the end of the world, he had come home.
Home to a family bond by want rather than birth.
Home.
end
I know, this kinda sucks, but let me know if you read it anyway.