pittsburgh, sometime before now
Series Metadata
Listing Series
-
Tags
Summary
Jack wants to know why he’s here.
But Robby cannot tell him that. He cannot answer for the fact that he’d given Jack’s contact information when the intake nurse asked if there was anyone they could call for him. And he cannot answer for the fact that a small swell of relief wrapped up his spine when he caught sight of Jack storming across the ER, headed straight for him.
Series
- Part 1 of pittsburgh, sometime before now
-
Tags
Summary
“Robby, you’re fucking scaring me.”
“I just need a minute,” Robby chokes out, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes and turning from the door.
“Okay,” Jack says. “But if it’s more than a minute, I’m kicking the door down.”Series
- Part 2 of pittsburgh, sometime before now
-
Tags
Summary
Robby hasn’t seen him, not since the funeral, only a few days after the hospital. Hardly enough time for anything to have changed. Except, of course, for everything. There is something strange about the throes of grief. It distorts, it changes, but it leaves all of the essential things untouched and strangely constant. Jack’s spread of freckles. The twist of his mouth when he’s displeased. The spark of relief when he looks at Robby.
And yet: dark circles under his eyes, his hands closed into fists, his face unshaven. A new person, a changed person – dressed in Jack’s clothes and perfectly familiar.
Series
- Part 3 of pittsburgh, sometime before now
-
Tags
Summary
It’s a mistake, it’s a glaring step over the boundary that keeps them both safe, but Robby is too lost in the flirtation to care. He has slept beside this man, held in the web of his own desire. He has watched him grieve, has watched him love, has watched him for years and wanted.
What was once? What was one slip of desire, against years of restraint?
Series
- Part 4 of pittsburgh, sometime before now
-
Tags
Summary
There is glitter stuck to his neck, which Robby reaches to clear off before he can think better of it. His fingers brush Jack’s warm skin, salt-dried and still slightly sticky. The glitter transfers onto his fingers; but he doesn’t notice. Robby is watching Jack’s eyes flutter closed, his mouth part.
Series
- Part 5 of pittsburgh, sometime before now
-
Tags
Summary
He steps toward the photographs stacked three-deep on Jack’s dresser. Some familiar faces, some strangers, they all grin up at him. He, too, looks up at himself: a photo of him with his arm around Jack’s shoulders, smiling on the last day of residency; a snapshot of him on his old motorcycle that Jack had taken in the driveway; a frozen moment of the pair of them laughing at some joke at some party that Robby has long since forgotten.
Series
- Part 6 of pittsburgh, sometime before now
-
Tags
Summary
“You are the emergency contact on file for Dr. John Abbot,” Cora says matter-of-factly as the entire world tilts on its axis.
His breath stops.
His heart seizes.
His hand grips the edge of the table until his knuckles turn white.
“I am?”
Series
- Part 7 of pittsburgh, sometime before now
-
Tags
Summary
Jack slides a hand down the railing and Robby puts his own on top of it. They do not talk about it.
Instead, they talk about anything else. Jack stays there, his hand warm and alive under Robby’s, but he looks at the door to the stairwell and frowns. “I think I’m going to get a cat.”
Robby blinks, startled. “What?”
Series
- Part 8 of pittsburgh, sometime before now
-
Tags
Summary
“Don’t give me the concerned friend routine when we both know that’s the last fucking thing you are to me.”
The expression that snaps into Jack’s face couldn’t be more stricken if Robby had reached out and hit him. His eyes widen, his mouth parts; hands limp at his sides, he stands in the hallway and stares helplessly at Robby in silence.
Series
- Part 9 of pittsburgh, sometime before now
-
Tags
Summary
“Just need to feel alive,” Jack mutters as he mouths at Robby’s throat.
“Yeah.” Robby pulls him closer, closer, until their hips are flush. “I know the feeling.”
Series
- Part 10 of pittsburgh, sometime before now