[for Brad]

[missingthekeep]

It's been a long night. Unwilling to leave Meredith's side but unable to block out the sounds of her forced breathing, the thoughts of the pain she's in, and the knowledge that it could have been so, so much worse, he earns himself maybe a few minutes of restless sleep for every hour he spends sitting up in the clinic and fretting. By the time morning rolls around, he's tense and wired, doubly so for all his attempts to hide it from the people around him. Things will be better later on, he tells himself, once he and Meredith are back home, sleeping off the stress of his life slowly collapsing around him in their proper bed. Until then, there's just nothing to be done about it.

Well, maybe. He's pacing about the Compound, having figured it best to give Meredith a bit of space while she gets ready to leave, her other acquaintances being better suited to helping her out in any real capacity than he is, when he spots a certain someone and instantly comes up with a few decent ideas about actions that are overdue to be taken.

"Brad, jus' the fella I been lookin' ta see."

Comments

[nothingtomiss.livejournal.com]

That's enough. Brad pushes away from him and turns on his heel, stalking away. He turns back and stares at him for a long moment.

"The only reason my fist isn't in your face is because of Terry," says Brad, shaking his head. "Maybe neither of us fucking deserve her, but at least I fucking love her enough to try."

[missingthekeep.livejournal.com]

"Don't," Sean commands, and while he doesn't go after Brad, his voice rises into a yell. "Don't ye dare question my love fer me daughter. Ye're scum an' ye don't know the meanin' o' the damn word!"

[nothingtomiss.livejournal.com]

It's enough to stop Brad, the tone enough like Terry's when she's pissed that he almost winces, head dropping forward. Suddenly he's so fucking weary.

"I can't prove myself to you, Sean. There's no fucking point in trying. Terry loves me. Terry trusts me. It's enough."

[missingthekeep.livejournal.com]

Not for Sean, it isn't, and all of a sudden, he doesn't quite know what to make of that.

"In that case," he says, using up what feels like a Herculean amount of willpower to turn around and head back inside, "jus' give her the message."

[nothingtomiss.livejournal.com]

"You man up and give it to her yourself," is Brad's parting blow, and he's not proud of it, but he's not being the bearer of news like that. Fuck that. He's not doing dirty work.

He walks away and keeps on walking.