Chapter Text
The night was cool, stars glittering like the snow of the Frostbacks. As a Ferelden this view was no different than all the years as a child he’d spent outside by the lake. It was a blessing and a miracle that he could do this once again. Simply take a deep breath not fearing that the world could end at any second. The Breach had been closed for nearly a month now. The Inquisitor triumphing over Corypheus and his mad plan to become a god. Cullen had lead his armies and fought at his side more than once and was proud to call Dominic friend.
But at the moment he wished to strangle him.
“Commander! Word from Mistress Nightingale.”
“Thank you Thomas.”
Cullen took the scroll. The perfect handwriting more familiar then his own.
Commander,
How goes progress at the Emerald Graves? You missed the most glorious party here, nobles from all around once again wished to thank the Inquisitor and bare gifts. A few, suitors, wondered about your presents being gone from the party. It was really rather entertaining as I know what your face would have looked like if you had been here.
The Inquisitor told me tell you, you’re welcome and try not to get killed out there. This place wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without you.
Nightingale
Evil woman. She knew how much he hated those gathering of nobles. Could hardly stand dealing with them, just lingering about, in Skyhold. Smirking softly Cullen was suddenly very grateful to the Inquisitor. Still wanted to strangle him a bit, but missing that particular event made him less hostile feelings.
He places the scroll down on his desk and exits his tent, finding his captain off to his left.
“Greeves, I’m going to take a walk of the parameter. Make sure Thomas doesn’t work though the night, again.”
“Yes sir!”
The cool night brushed against his sink, relief against the heat his body was overproducing. While the Lyrium withdrawals had calmed of late, Cullen still had dreams. They thankfully weren’t as frequent, but on nights like tonight, calm and quiet, he knew if he didn’t exhaust himself with a good walk it would be a very rough evening.
By the time he reached the farthest guard point from the camp. The moon was at its highest. The light shined down in rays of silver.
It was breath taking.
It reminded him of home once again and all those nights as a boy out in the fields on his family's farm. The lake being his only safe haven from his very loud brother and sisters.
He smiled lightly.
Hmm, maybe a quick letter to Mia is in order. She has been pestering me to visit now that world isn't going to fall into chaos.
Cullen thought it over as he spoke to the guard. It had been too many years. His parents and sibling would be overly excited he knew. As he hiked back down toward the camp, Cullen decided. He would write both Skyhold and his family tell them of his plans. Pleased he takes his time enjoying the night.
A sound resonates to his left. Cullen stopped, his hand lifting to the pommel of his sword. A branch cracked to his right.
He was surrounded he could feel it.
Maker's Breath.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the Commander of the Inquisition forces.”
A hooded figure of a man steps out of the shadows. While the moon gifted him enough light to see the man’s body his face stayed in darkness. By the robes he wore Cullen knew he was a mage. The others stayed out of sight. These were no amateurs.
“I had hoped the Inquisitor would have come, but alas you will have to do.”
Cullen’s eyes narrowed on the figure just before jumping back. What he knew as an arrow missed his face by inches, but then that’s what it was supposed to do. A ward lay just behind him, his left foot now encased in ice up to his knee. Cursing he tried to break free.
The man before him began to chant. The language one he had never heard before. Light formed all around him, the magic so thick it made it hard to breath. Cullen’s skin crawled. This magic was not normal; it felt wrong as it began gliding over him.
“What are you doing to me?”
The bright light around him had illuminated just the bottom half of the man’s face. An evil smile turning up the corners.
“Just sending you away. The game can’t be played without its Commander now can it? Don’t worry Commander Thades will be here when you return, hopefully. Enjoy your time on the other side,” the smile widened, “And try not to die.”
Then he was falling. Darkness surrounding him as fell further and further.
******
Tabby looked at her TV screen royally confused.
Where the hell had that guy come from?
That scene had never been there before. Even with the added DLC, she’d played Dragon Age multiple times already, that was not part of the game.
And now it’s frozen. Fucking awesome.
Sighing heavily. Her brown and teal blue hair falling forward into her face. The PS4 controller making hard contact with her head and black rimmed glasses.
This was supposed to be a relaxing two weeks off some work and yet it was definitely starting off badly.
Untangling herself from the sofa, Tabby winced, her long tan legs groaning from stiffness. She’d sat still for far too long with her legs crossed. She stood still for a second before stretching. The shorts and spaghetti strap tank hugging close to her curves. While she wasn’t completely obese Tabby wasn’t stick thin like some of her friends. Standing at 5’5 evened out her weight so she still had flat stomach..ish. What could she say she liked food and while she could make herself grumpy and irritable by going on a diet. Tabby would rather just go to the gym three times a week and relish the goodness of yummy foods.
Speaking of food.
Arms over her head fingers laced in the middle of thinking what to make for dinner, Tabby froze. Her dark brown eyes flicking around as the living room temperature dropped. The glass on her coffee table began to tremble. Then stopped.
Okay…
A near blinding light engulfed the room, a large hole tearing open on her ceiling, a body dropping out of it like a thrown sake of potatoes and landing on said coffee table.
Screaming she jumped back onto the sofa.
A loud crack forces her to cover her ears just the hole closes. Slowly she looks down. Tabby felt the blood rush out of her face, her knees almost buckling.
Oh no, no, no, no. This isn’t happening. That’s not… it couldn’t be… oh my god it has to be. Golden blonde hair, perfect face, ugly ass fur cloak, armor, and the scar above his lip.
Tabby looked to her TV then back to the man on the floor.
“Holy shit.”
It was Cullen.
Cullen Stanton fucking Rutherford. The General and Commander of Inquisition forces was laying on her floor. A few fantasy played out in her head quickly, until he groaned and started to move.
“Oh crap.”
Tabby jumped over the back of the sofa. While she understood the basics of Cullen's character after romancing him in the game. She knew even better that even without his Templar powers he could kill her without much effort. Having little doubt that he would freak out the moment he woke, Tabby made sure to put some distance between them. God only knew if he would have a withdrawal moment.
Oh for the love of all thing holy here and with his Maker please don’t let him have a moment.
She watched as he moved again a hand going to his head. Fear overpowered her hands reaching out to grab the first thing she could, a vase. She’d throw it at him if need be, before running away.
Slowly he brought his hand down. Gloved hands unsteadily pushed him off the floor. He still hadn’t opened his eyes, she noted. She also noted as he rose to full height that he was a lot bigger in person.
“Sweet baby Jesus.”
Her breath caught, he was all man. Everything about him screamed alpha. Even with all the armor on… Tabby felt a tad faint and increasingly turned on.
Cullen stopped moving, her voice forcing him to lift his head. Those amber eyes opened, catching her own plain brown. They narrowed.
She swallowed, her hands beginning to tremble. While the Commander was amazing eye candy, he reminded her brain, yet again, that he was still very much a man with crazy strength and power that could snap her like a twig.
They stared at one another, his hand moving to rest on the pommel of his sword.
Dear god, she needed to say something. Anything.
“Hello.”
Okay really? That’s the best her brain could do?
He stilled watching her closely with those eyes. While he didn’t move, for the first time in her life she felt uncomfortable with the clothes she wore. No one looked like her in Thedas. Very slowly Tabby put down the vase and raise her hands up in surrender. Instead of calming him it made him tense even more.
“Commander?” her voice a whisper.
Tabby hadn’t thought she could make the situation worse, but as such was her life, she succeeded. Cullen’s hand tightened on his sword. The brown and red leather groaning.
Wait red?
Tabby felt whatever blood she’d held in her face plummet back to the floor. Blood dripped from his arm and leg. A large piece of her coffee table was stuck in his arm and glass shards did the same on his leg.
Every skill she’d learned in nursing school kicked in. Fear of him flying out the window as, fear for him consumed her. Very carefully Tabby turned to go around the sofa.
“Commander, my name is Tabitha Amell. I’m a nurse. I help take care of people. You are hurt.”
He glanced down at the wound in his arm. It looked like he hadn’t even noticed it till them. God what did they make the men in Thades out of? She would be screaming her head off if a huge chunk of wood was sticking out of her arm. She rounded the sofa catching his attention once more.
“I’m not a threat, I promise. Honestly I couldn’t fight you if I tried. I’m not a mage either. I have no powers other than a sharp tongue and cooking really good tacos.”
Her hands stayed up in the air. His eyes never leaving her face as she approached.
“I know you're confused and I promise I’ll answer whatever questions you have if you just let me help you.”
Tabby stopped, standing close enough to see the tick in his jaw muscle twitch. He looked down at her now. The man had to at least be six foot. Meaning she was very small next to him. Her head reach just under his chin. The distrust in his eyes was killing her. She needed for him to understand, but she didn’t want to give away that she knew too much about him. The Templar and Lyrium thing was personal and being a stranger/ possible enemy in his eyes was hard enough to deal with.
Turning her hands palms up she presented them to him.
“I promise, I am as you see me. Human.”
His eyes moved then and she knew he was looking at her hair. Smiling she reached, slowly, for his uninjured hand. He tensed visibly, but she kept a soft smile on her face as she took it and brought it to her hair. Tabby noted the warmth and slight tremble.
“It’s just coloring. Not natural,” she pleaded again. The blood starting to pool on her wood floors, “Please Commander.”
All he did was nod and Tabby went to work. Carefully she moved him toward the sofa.
“Take off your coat, breastplate and sword- keep them next to you, but I need you to take off your shirt so I can clean your arm,” he hesitated, but did as she asked. She bit her lip whispering more to herself, but knowing he could hear her, “Just be glad I didn’t start with your leg.”
She teased. Whether that was a good idea or not she didn’t care. The tension in the air was suffocating enough and also she wanted to see if he really did blush easily. The answer came quickly as his ears burned lightly pink. Tabby smiled, her heart pumping blood into her veins faster now as she ran into her kitchen. Her hospital grad emergency kit sat just on the counter. Thank god she had just restocked it the other day.
Then cursed when she realized there were no real painkillers in her bag and she hadn’t had any inside the house since she came back from her last tour to the Middle East. Stitching him up was going to be difficult if he move. Sighing Tabby raced back into the living room. Having enough sense to slip on her flip flops and avoid cutting her feet open with all the glass.
“Listen I don’t have much in the way of pain relief, so just bare… with… me.”
Good god…
The man was a thousand more times handsome then in the game and mind blowingly sexy. He sat on the sofa, having taken off his tunic and armor as she had asked. Every feminine bone in her cried out to the very alpha male before her.
While I am confused and extremely worried about him, thank whatever god is out there for this amazing moment.
Normally she wasn’t like this. After everything at had transpired with Danny four years ago… she just couldn’t look at any other man in the same light. Of course she’d developed a slightly unhealthy fascination with the man in front of her, but damn it he wasn’t supposed to be real.
Swallowing the lump in her throat Tabby moved to sit beside him. Opening her kit she pulled out fresh gloves and went to work cleaning all the cuts on his arm.
“This will sting a bit.”
He hissed as she pulled out the piece of wood and again the second the alcohol soaked gaz touched the wound. He didn’t yank away his arm though.
“I’m sorry.” She whispered worrying her full bottom lip, throwing the hunk of gauze to the floor. Reaching back into the kit she hunts for the stitching thread and needle. His hand shot out and gripped her small wrist tightly. She looked into his eyes, they were hard.
This was definitely him in Templar mode.
“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you, I swear. Your wound is deep enough, I need to give you a few stitches to close it so it won’t leave a crazy scar or become infected.”
He stared those pools of amber gold shifting from distrust and confusion. Tabby tired to keep her calm and understanding while pleading for him to let her help. After what felt like hours he slowly loosened his grip. Whatever he had been searching for he must have found.
“Try not to move. This is going to possibly hurt more than before. Once done I’ll clean up your leg.”
He didn’t speak. Just glared forward, irritating her nerves. Without thinking she tightened her hold on his arm.
“Cullen.”
His head snapped to her, his brows nearly reaching his hairline in surprise. As upset and confused as he may be Tabby found she needed more than just four or five expressions out of him. She needed Cullen to trust her and understand she wasn’t going to hurt him. Why it was so important she couldn’t fathom but seeing that change satisfied something she couldn’t name enough to get back work.
After a time Tabby glanced up, he was watched her close the wound. Sighing she gave him a tired smile.
“I know what you’re thinking, but I don’t know how you got here. I could only watch as it happened.”
“Where am I.” He tone demanded an answer. She sighed keeping her cool. No one having spoken to her like that since her training days.
“Not in Thedas I can tell you that much. Somehow you were transported here and while I should be a hell of a lot more frightened, I’m not. I know you wouldn’t hurt me unless you felt threatened.”
“You don’t know a thing about me.”
She chuckled softly.
“There you would be wrong. I know a decent amount - hey don’t move and don’t give me that look. For all intensive purposes in this world you’re not supposed to be real.”
“Obviously I am.”
“Yeah no shit.” She sighed heavily placing a bandage on his arm. “Listen, I’m just as confused as you are, also a little terrified. This world is extremely different to the one you just left. There are no mage’s, no Templars, no elves, no Qunari or crazy creatures like dragons. Here it’s just us idiot humans. The age of swords and armor has been gone for a long time. We fight amongst each other and struggle with who we can trust and if the color of our skin or sexual orientation makes us different,” she smiled lightly, “It’s loud, and bright and beautiful all at the same time.”
“Sounds like Kirkwall, minus the beautiful part and the bright part.”
Tabby laughed moving down check the wound on his leg more closely. Still smiling and looked up into that magnificent face of his again.
“Well looks like you get to keep your pants on Commander. The cuts aren’t so bad just need a cleaning and a bandage.”
He sighed lightly and she could have sworn she heard him thank the Maker. His one hand reaching up to rub the back of his neck.
While she should, again, be worrying about how he ended up in her home and how to possibly get him back.The only thing that came to mind was how fun it was to tease him.
The small tells that he was nervous being so much cuter in person.
It took a few more moments for her to finish working on him, but once done she pulled off the gloves. A smile tilting up the corners of her full lips.
“Well Commander you are all fixed. Here,” She pours two Advil into her palm and grabbed the water bottle off the floor, “Take these and it should at least decrease the discomfort in your arm. Sadly I have nothing stronger.”
“Do you have whiskey?”
“I believe so, why?”
He handed back the pills.
“I’ll take that instead.”
“Cullen-“
“I am in a world that makes no sense, I’m injured and speaking to a woman who’s barely clothed. I’d really like a drink after the last few moments I’ve had.”
How could she argue with that?
Nodding she went to the kitchen and pulled the large bottle of Jack from her cabinet and two glasses. When she returned he had moved to stand beside her bay window.Still bare chested, but it the look on his face that twisted her heart. Tabby could only image how odd her world must look to him. Everything was foreign in the most basic ways. Armor and swords hadn’t been used in war since the middle ages. While she knew that Thedas had a bases in English history, it was still a world of fantasy.
Tabby moved to his uninjured side handing him the glass.
“It might not taste the same, but the effect you're looking for should be.”
She’d served him two fingers worth in the glass and in less then a second he’d downed it then motioned for the other one in her hand. Reluctantly she handed it over.
“More.”
“No, I don’t need you getting drunk and falling over hurting yourself more.” Sighing she touched his arm. “Come you can sleep in my guest room.”
“Im not tired.”
“Well I can’t take you outside there is a snow storm blowing through,” his stubbornness was grating on her nerves, “Cullen-”
“Please stop saying my name as if you know me. It’s disconcerting when I have no idea who you are.”
“Fine,”she stated slamming the glasses down, her anger getting the better of her, “then ask me questions. I’ll tell you whatever you wish to know.”
“Why are you angry?”
“Because I have an ungrateful man, whose wounds I just patched up, standing before me. I know trust is something you earn, but dammit you don’t seem to catch that I’m just as frightened as you are. You are capable of harming me enough that id never know what happened before you struck. You’re taller and larger than me. I may know combat, but you live in a world where you train and fight constantly. It’s not like that here.”
“I wouldn’t hurt you after you’ve helped me.”
Tabby watched a genuine pain full his eyes as he attempted to face her too quickly. Without hesitation she fitted herself to his side as he stumbled, her hand resting just over his heart. Heat pooled south and for the first time tonight she hated her reaction to him. It was so far out of the appropriate moment range.
Sighing she guided him to her guest room.
“Come on Commander. You need some rest.”
Carefully Tabby lowered him to the bed then kneeled to unlace his boots and set them aside. He laid down on his back.
“My room is just across from this one if you need me. The bathroom is through that door over there.”
When he didn’t respond Tabby turned to leave. He grabbed on her hand. it was trembling.
“Cullen?” she asked sitting back down next this him. Worried maybe the alcohol was reacting to his system weirdly. She touched his face, but she didn’t feel a temperature.
“Stay.”
“What?”
“Stay with me… please.”
Softly she brushed a curl from the top of his head a small smile pulling at her lips before he nodded.
“Of course Commander.”