asher_talos | [For Ray]

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ray vecchio

[For Ray]

Seven plus years of history came flooding back to him in a matter of moments. When it was over, all Asher could think was that he really fucking hated this place. After that initial thought, all he can think about is Ray and the twins.

That ring - Ray's ring, he knew that now - just like Onyx, it had been in the apartment the day he'd arrived, but he hadn't paid it any mind. Not until tonight. He wasn't sure what made him give the thing a second glance today, but he did. A second glance, a slip onto his finger and he was slammed with some weird vertigo-like sensation that nearly knocked him clear off his feet. When it was over, he remembered everything. How things ended back home - for him, at least - and the past seven years on the island; he remembered all of it. His first day there, in the city, and how he acted towards Ray and the twins, too.

Once he thought it was all in there and that there wasn't anymore of the freaky picture show left to flash in his head, he'd tracked down the number in the directory and text Ray. He could have called, he probably should have called, but what the fuck would he have said? He just needed his address, he could figure out the rest on the way there. Or that had been the plan, anyway.

Standing just outside the door, now, he was still just as clueless as before. Was he supposed to apologize? That's not something he did often. Never mind the fact that he was just the innocent victim of circumstance in this instance.

With an agitated growl at the back of his throat, Asher finally knocked lightly. He didn't want to wake Daniel and Celia if they were asleep. Then again, Ray was probably less likely to hit him if they were awake.

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Suspicious didn't even begin to describe it. Ray wasn't an idiot; he wasn't about to hand out his and the twins' address to just anyone, and right now, without further proof, that was who Asher was. Absolutely anyone. A few words in a text message didn't change that.

Truth be told, Asher turned up much quicker than Ray had been expecting. Having seen him walk past their actual apartment, Ray pulled his eye away from the peep hole and waited a few minutes before opening the door slowly, quietly. He leaned out only just far enough to catch a glimpse of Asher and hold the view, relieved to see no weapon. He wasn't sure what that said about them. Probably nothing worse than what his own gun slipped down the back of his belt was already saying.

Propping himself up with a hand against the door frame, Asher waited. When he heard no signs of movement on the other side of the door after a moment, he moved to knock again, only then noticing the movement out of the corner of his eye.

Sometimes he really hated being involved with a cop.

"You want to pat me down, too?" Asher asked, pushing away from the door, hoping whoever lived behind it was in some sleep induced coma and didn't answer. "I'm not completely opposed to a strip search."

Attempts at humor, he could do. That was much easier than apologizing for something he had no control over.

Narrowing his eyes, Ray poked his head out a little more, glancing down the opposite end of the hall to find it empty aside from Asher.

"You talking to me?" He checked in a reserved tone, stepping out just far enough to close the door securely behind him.

"I'm not talking to myself," Asher insisted as he moved closer. "Is this really what you want to do right now? Play dumb? I had an excuse when I was doing it."

What Ray really wanted to do was believe that Asher had all of his memories back and he guessed there was only one way to find out. It had been a while since he'd interrogated him but now seemed like the perfect time.

Folding his arms over his chest, a flash of annoyance crossed Ray's face. "What did I wear on your birthday in 2013? When were the twins born? What color are my eyes?" If Asher said green, Ray was turning around on the spot and going back inside.

Asher rolled his eyes, but went along with it. It was the least he could do. Although, he still thought the strip search would have been more fun. "The Mountie's uniform. 2009. Hazel. Anything else?"

There was a visible wave of relief when Asher answered each question correctly, though Ray wouldn't be Ray if he let it go so quickly.

"Uh huh. 2009 is pretty vague..." he trailed off, sounding unconvinced, though he didn't move away to counteract any movement Asher was making. "When's my birthday?"

"May. In a fucking elevator," Asher continued, just for good measure. "Your birthday is January seventh. Are these really the sort of questions you interrogate people with? You've been on the island too long."

Closing his eyes, Ray sent a silent prayer of thanks to anyone that might be listening, shoulders sagging as he finally let go of the last threads of his doubt. On another day, he might usually have made doubly, triply, quadruply sure before caving but he was tired and desperately wanted to believe that the Asher he knew was back.

"You owe me a birthday gift," he muttered, not caring that it had been summertime on the Island a few weeks ago and neither of them could possibly have known it would suddenly be January.

"Done," he said, arms outstretched as he presented himself. What better gift could Ray possibly ask for? Especially since he could guess that the twins were running him ragged just by the way he looked.

"That was good, the thing with the apartment number." It was something that would have annoyed him had his kids not been in that apartment with Ray.

"Yeah, well, I needed to suss you out before showing my face," Ray shrugged, moving over to Asher and reaching for his hand. It wasn't every day he got a cellphone message from a guy who'd wanted nothing to do with him, especially not one asking where he lived.

Lifting Asher's hand, he checked the gold band on his finger, recognizing it immediately. "You weren't wearing this before," he pointed out, twiddling it between thumb and forefinger and looking up.

The presence, or lack there of, of something as small as a ring wasn't the kind of thing Asher would have noticed unless he was specifically looking for it. He wasn't sure if Ray had been looking for it, or if noticing that it had been missing was just another cop thing he couldn't avoid, even if he wanted to.

"It was in my apartment the entire time, on the dresser. I didn't pay it any mind until today."

"Until you got your memories back, you mean?" Tightening his grip on his hand, Ray turned back to his apartment, pulling Asher along with him. For a heart-stopping moment he thought he'd left his keys inside and a breath of relief came out when he eventually located them. The last thing he wanted tonight was to wake the kids and spend the next few hours trying to get them back to sleep.

Edited 2015-01-31 01:01 (UTC)

"No. The memories came back after," Ashed said. At the time, he hadn't really put much thought into it. Tracking down Ray and the twins had been the priority, not analyzing why he suddenly remembered who they were.

"Right after, actually. I put it on and then boom. It's a fucking montage of the past seven years in my head."

The apartment wasn't much to look at but a few bits and pieces were familiar from home. The sofa had a pillow and blanket strewn untidily over the back and Ray tossed his keys in their direction, automatically heading straight towards the twins' bedroom.

He paused halfway there, turning back to Asher. "Why don't you check on them. There's a surprise in there." Asher's bed from their hut had always been a highlight but here it was a necessity as well. Without it, one adult and two kids would have been squeezing onto a single couch that first night.

Slowly, sheepishly almost, Asher made his way to the bedroom and poked his head in. All the island memories aside, he unfortunately still remembered how he acted both times he ran into Ray after he'd arrived. He'd said some pretty shitty things, and while Ray had most definitely heard worse directed towards him, Daniel and Celia hadn't. He didn't intend on waking them, though; there would be enough time to try to explain and apologize in the morning.

"Does the bed mean we're staying here for however long this lasts?" Asher asked with a faint smirk as he moved back over to Ray. Both apartments had indoor plumbing, electricity and no sand anywhere nearby to track inside, so either worked for him.

"I dunno," Ray shrugged, forcing a nonchalant air from where he was stood, hands propped up at hip height behind him, gripping the edge of the kitchen counter. "I've grown kinda used to sleeping on my own these past weeks."

"Meaning?" Asher urged him on, coming to a stop in front of Ray and resting a hand on either side of him on the counter.

"You're implying that's a good thing?"

"No, I'm not implying that," Ray replied with a swallow. He might have been physically exhausted but he was also tired of crap happening with no-one to blame. He couldn't yell at some invisible power and feel any satisfaction and he was trying really hard not to direct it at Asher instead.

"You couldn't've put the ring back on sooner? Gone boom five or ten days ago?"

"Are you kidding me?" Asher stared at him for a moment, trying to gauge his sincerity before pushing himself a few steps away.

"Yeah, I guess maybe I could have, but I didn't. I put it on today and here I am. Don't try to blame this on me, Vecchio. Shit like this happens. You know that without me having to explain it."

"That doesn't make it any easier to deal with, Asher. It doesn't make them any easier to deal with," Ray insisted, gesturing towards the bedroom where the twins were sleeping.

"Do you know how many times they asked to see you? They thought I was keeping you away from them." Ray pushed away from the counter, running a hand over his head, unsuccessfully trying to shake off the feeling that he was the bad guy once again. "Where's mommy, where's daddy, where's Robb, where's Bran, where's Gloria?" He looked up. "Where's Fraser? There was nobody here."

"I get all that, and thank you for taking care of them, but it's still not my fucking fault." He insisted, still trying to keep his voice down as best he could. It was definitely becoming a challenge.

"Do you think I knew putting the damn thing on would help and just didn't bother to because I preferred staying away?"

"Don't thank me. Jesus." Ray dug his fingers into his eyes, pressing hard for a long moment before pinching the bridge of his nose. He wasn't a babysitter and he didn't want or need gratitude for exhibiting basic parenting skills.

"I'm not blaming you. I'm sorry if that's how it sounds. I'm just..." He heaved a heavy sigh, too done in to argue. "C'mere. Please?"

"You can't have it both ways," Asher said with a scowl. Why bitch about how difficult Daniel and Celia were to deal with alone, only to then bitch about being thanked for doing it? Two weeks out of it and clearly nothing had really changed. He understood Ray about as much as he would have understood some alien language.

Stubbornly, he stood his ground.

Ray wasn't unused to having to back down for the sake of a quiet life. It turned out growing up in a house full of women was actually pretty good training ground for living with Asher.

"I'm just tired," he admitted, tilting his head a little and approaching Asher like he would do a cornered perp who might bolt any second. "And relieved. And regretting not taking you up on the offer a strip search."

"So go to sleep," he suggested flatly. Any sympathy he might have had for Ray was gone now. He did still have his gratitude, though, but he'd already made it clear he didn't want that. "Alone."

"You sure?" Ray asked evenly, stopping directly in front of him and holding his gaze. If he was going to sleep by himself for another night, then he wanted it to be absolutely clear that that was Asher's choice, not his.

"I'm not playing this fucking game with you, Vecchio. I'm not," Asher warned. For someone who claimed to be so exhausted, Ray still had enough energy left in him to piss him off. "You said you got used to it. Don't let me impose."

"I also said I was sorry," Ray reminded him, wondering whether Asher still had a touch of forgetfulness lingering around in there. "There's no game. There's just me saying if you wanna stay, stay."

"I was never planning on leaving, but thanks for the assumption." If Ray had wanted him gone he was going to have to call an actual cop that did actual cop work, because that would have been the only way to make him leave.

Ray dropped his head back to the ceiling, grinding his teeth. "I missed this."

Sarcasm couldn't make things worse, could it? Maybe the puff of laughter that came afterwards could but Ray wasn't able to help himself. This wasn't how he'd envisioned a reunion going. He pressed a palm over his mouth and looked back down at Asher. "We only have a sofa bed."

"I didn't." Even if he could have remembered this, he wouldn't have missed it. "And you only have a sofa bed," Asher corrected. He'd sooner sleep on the floor in the twins' room than out there on the couch with Ray.

"Alright," Ray relented, giving Asher's midriff a pat as he moved past him toward the couch. If being a stubborn jerk and holding a grudge for no reason made him happier than pushing past the ill-feeling, far be it from Ray to stop him. "Knock yourself out, pal. I'm hittin' the hay."

"I hope it hits back," Asher muttered under his breath, rolling his shoulders over in their sockets to disperse some of the tension.

It was going to be a long fucking night.

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[For Ray]

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