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DeAnna Zankich
Complete | Tenant of My Heart
Summary: Three locations. One tragic event.
Warnings: Other
Author Notes: Follow up to 'Tenant of My Heart'. Sorry guys, but I believe you will need to be familiar with 'Tenant'. Too many errant details to pick it up here fresh-it just won't make sense. WARNING: This story includes details and descriptions of the World Trade Center bombings on September 11, 2001. Please be advised of this content.
Spoilers: Some from Season One and possibly the first few episodes of Season Two.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Manchester, 5:20 p.m.
Stuart:
He had moved back to the couch but was still balled up in the comforter. The phone was sitting on the cushion beside him and every few minutes, he would pick it up and try Kate's number again. When the phone rang suddenly, he and Vince both nearly jumped out of their skin.
"Hello? Kate?" Stuart barked into the phone. He was frantic.
"Hey," Brian said.
Vince got up from the computer and walked to the couch, sitting down beside his lover.
"Yeah, have you heard from her?"
"I just got off the phone with her," Brian reported.
"And?!!"
"And, she finally got through to the airline and they said Richard missed his flight. They're both fine."
Stuart let out a long sigh and his head dropped back against the cushion. "Thank God. Has she spoken to him?"
"Not yet. The lines are still crazy."
Stuart looked at his partner. "Have you got through on the computer?"
"I have the IM program and the email open," he said. "If she logs on, we'll know. But I doubt she will."
Stuart sighed. "Brian, did you try Richard's cell phone? The lines have to be clearer where you are."
"I've tried a bunch of times. If I get through, it goes straight to voicemail," the American said. "Stay on the line, I'll try him again now."
Stuart waited while Brian attempted to conference them in with Richard's cell phone. It seemed to take forever and he was beginning to wonder if they'd lost the connection when Brian clicked back on. There was a great deal of static on the line then.
"I've got him," Brian said. "Richard? We're on with Stuart."
At that moment, the new message prompt clinked on the computer. Vince bolted from his seat and ran to the computer, grabbing the mouse and opening the message. He smiled hugely and exclaimed, "It's her! Luv, I've got Kate on the IM."
"Tell her we have Richard on the phone!" Stuart shouted. "Richard? Can you hear me?"
"Yes, I can," Kate's husband said. "Barely. Did you say you have Kate on the phone?"
"No, on the Instant Message on the computer. I don't think she can get a line out from New York. Are you all right?" He walked over to the desk, dragging the comforter behind him like Linus in the Peanuts.
"I'm fine," Richard said. "I mean . . . it's unbelievable, all this. I'm . . . I was supposed to be on that first plane."
"What happened?" Brian asked him.
"We . . . were late," he explained, sounding slightly dazed. "We just missed the flight. I'm with clients in Boston and we had a meeting that ran long this morning . . . we just . . . missed the flight."
"Thank God," Brian and Stuart said together.
Standing behind Vince at the computer, he squeezed his lover's shoulder. He could see the IM box open with Kate's screen name flashing as she typed a message. She made a million errors, she was typing so quickly. Vince had just told her that Stuart and Brian had got Richard on his cell phone. Vince asked what she wanted them to tell her husband.
"We've got your wife in the message box," Stuart relayed. "What shall we tell her?"
"Tell her I'm okay," Richard said. "Please tell her I'm okay. I'm in Boston and I'm taking the train home as soon as they'll let me leave."
Stuart repeated what Richard had said and Vince typed it into the box. They waited a moment and Kate typed back: please tell him I love him. tell him I'm okay, 2.
"Richard," Stuart said into the phone. "Katey says she loves you and she's all right, too." He heard Richard sigh and then his voice broke. He was crying.
"God," he said. "Thank you for reaching me, Brian."
Brian breathed a soft laugh, full of relief. "It was a community effort."
Richard went on to tell them what had happened once they reached the airport and Stuart relayed all of it so Vince could type the information to Kate. Apparently, he and his clients had got stuck in some late morning traffic and arrived at the airport in Boston two minutes after their ill-fated flight had taken off. They had gone to the ticket counter to be put on the next available flight to LA and while they were standing in the cue, the news came in about the collision. The airport was shut down and no one was allowed to leave the premises. In no time, the entire terminal was crawling with law enforcement personnel and Richard, his clients and everyone else in the terminal were herded into a waiting area for questioning. They had been there ever since and were only just able to use their cell phones to try to call out.
"They kept us until they searched our luggage," he went on. "It's been unbelievable. Please ask Kate if the house is all right?"
Vince typed the question and Kate replied that everything was covered in ash and dust, but nothing was broken. She described a bit of the scene in NYC.
"Richard," Stuart said, reading the IM message. "Kate says everything is covered in ash and dust there. That people are running around in the streets making a mass exodus out of lower Manhattan. She says it looks like the end of the world."
"It might very well be," Richard said. The line on his end exploded with static and he spoke quickly after it faded. "Look, I might lose this connection so please tell Kate I'll be home as soon as I can. And tell her I love her more than anything."
Stuart relayed and Vince typed. Kate replied that she would be waiting for him.
"You guys, tha--" Richard started to say but then the line went dead. Both he and Brian were gone.
"Shit," Stuart said, then hung up. "Tell her we lost the connection."
Vince typed that message to Kate then he looked at Stuart with a soft smile.
"Look what we did. We managed to get them together," he said. "I'm very pleased about that."
"Yeah," Stuart said and for the first time in hours, he smiled. Leaning forward, he kissed Vince's lips for a long time, savoring the pulsing life he felt there, loving the heat of his lover's skin, almost reeling from the fact that they were alive and there together.
All of them were alive and somehow there together.
The End.
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