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Title: Forget Me Not 1/2
Pairing: Dom/Miranda, Dom/Billy, Orlando/Elijah
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine, *really* didn't happen.
Summary: Things and people can change in the blink of an eye.
Notes: Many huge thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
beizy, and shanalle for the beta-reads. Whee. Written for two lines.
don't even remember what her lips felt like on mine / most of the time
bob dylan, "most of the time"
Billy watched with great uneasiness as Dom surrounded Miranda with one arm. He watched as Dom nuzzled his nose against her cheek and the truly angelic smile that it brought about on her face made Dom’s own expression further light up. Billy felt as though this was a great train wreck, and true to the old adage, he was unable to pry his eyes away. Dom whispered something that made Miranda laugh with delight, and simultaneously made Billy cringe.
He was supposed to be happy for his best friend: happy.
So then why was there that pinching, crushing pain in his stomach whenever Dom made contact with Miranda’s body? Right…the jealousy thing. It was a pesky little addendum that continuously reminded Billy about his damned obsession with his best friend. Dom raised his pool stick and lined up his shot, one of Miranda’s hands still trailing on Dom’s hip.
Billy gnashed his teeth when the ball went into the hole, and Dom was rewarded by a happy kiss on Miranda’s part.
“Luck, right mate?” Dom flashed a cheeky smile.
“Luck,” he murmured quietly when Dom sunk another shot and he got another kiss from Miranda’s pink-covered lips. Billy’s eyes sank down to the green felt of the table and prayed – with all his heart – for Dom to scratch and that arm of Miranda’s to pry itself off Dom’s hip.
Unfortunately for him, Dom kept up his winning streak.
Billy signalled the waitress in the coffee shop to quicken his escape from the table quickly becoming hell and into the real world. It killed him to say it, but watching Dom smile and fawn over Miranda with every sip of his coffee was making him want to commit slight Domicide. Billy pressed his lips into a thin, straight line and forced cheer as best he could.
“I’m annoying you,” Dom conceded after a moment of awkward silence passed.
“No! I really want to hear more about the date at the planetarium, and please don’t leave any details out. After all, I want to hear every name you gave ever star,” Billy didn’t even bother to bite back any of his sarcasm.
“Bill, I never wanted her to come between us,” Dom softly scoffed. “She doesn’t want that either.”
“Well, it happened,” Billy murmured too quietly for Dom to hear. When Dom leaned in a little further to better hear the words that had passed through Billy’s lips, the Scottish actor raised his head and played with the rim of his mug. “Some things just tend to happen without our control,” he said in a normal tone.
“And this is one of those things?” Dom remarked with bewilderment. “Are you telling me this can actually put a rift in our friendship?”
Billy was silent.
“Billy, you’re my best friend,” he stressed the words. “I hate to say it, but no woman can ever come between that, despite how gorgeous she may be,” he added with a cheeky smirk. “Now, are you going to come surfing with me and the boys tomorrow and drown away the troubles?”
“And is Miranda one of the boys now?” Billy bitterly questioned.
“Naw,” Dom grinned at the waitress as she laid down the cheque. “She’s my girl,” he proudly announced.
Billy spread out his towel in the sand, and blinked at the glaring sun above. He wished that he had remembered his sunglasses. When Dom had picked him up, the sight of Miranda, in the front seat laughing brilliantly had distracted him, and he’d forgotten to grab them off the table.
Elijah lay beside him in the sand, twitching and giggling while Orlando poured sand into his hair and pushed him down with his hips – a move that could be easily conceived as foreplay in roughly seventy-five percent of the world’s nations. Billy sighed heavily and kept his eyes focused on the rough waves. Dom had decided to brave them while Billy had opted to stay on dry land. He didn’t trust himself to keep his concentration while being distracted with the thoughts of Dom in someone else’s arms. Especially when he’d had the opportunity to be there instead.
But he had gone and fucked himself over. ‘No involvement with other cast members,’ he had said. As time progressed and things developed, he had given himself a good smack for denying Dom. As ironic fate would have it, Billy had fallen for Dom no longer than a month after Dom had put the moves on him.
And now, Billy found himself wanting something he absolutely could not have.
And that tiny voice that kept yelling at him for making such stupid mistakes wouldn’t shut up. Billy shook his head when the sounds of Elijah’s girlish shrieking broke his reverie. He looked to the side and gave him and Orlando a tired look. The British actor was straddling Elijah, and the whole situation was too much to deal with at the moment.
“Dom’s doing well,” Orlando didn’t bother to turn around to point – he merely jutted a finger in the direction of the ocean – in the hopes that Billy would turn away and give them the privacy of themselves and the rest of the voyeurs on the beach. Billy turned his attention to the surfboard cutting its way through the wake with Dom expertly travelling on top of it. A little closer to the water, Miranda was sitting, shielding her eyes from the sun so that she could see him better.
Billy turned away, looking back to the very public display of emotion that Orlando and Elijah were putting on – which now involved Orlando tickling Elijah’s bare sides – preferring to think of the two of them, rather than to reflect on his past bunglings. He allowed his mind to wander into the fuzzy recesses of nowhere.
He found he could easily lose himself – staring up at the sky and falling to sleep – when he was interrupted by a horrified female scream.
Billy snapped to attention, because that had been Miranda. He got to his feet – clumsily and kicking up sand in Orlando and Elijah’s direction, who didn’t seem to mind, as they were rushing down the beach right behind him – and made his way to Miranda’s side. She was pointing out to the ocean with tears in her eyes, a frozen look on her face, and one hand covered her mouth in horror.
Billy looked out to where she was pointing and felt his heart plummet into his stomach. There, upon the waves, was Dom’s surfboard. It floated aimlessly and it wasn’t carrying Dom.
“He…he…under the waves!” Miranda stuttered. “I think he hit his head,” she moaned quietly – appearing to be one step away from keening.
Billy wasn’t really listening anymore. Instead, he was running into the water – plunging under, and searching through the murky depths for Dom. He came up for air and felt desperation clawing at him. He took an extra deep breath and submerged again, searching for anything that resembled a body.
Finally, he saw Dom sinking slowly, arms and legs splayed. Billy gave a little extra kick of his arms and legs to get to Dom in time. Panic was surrounding him, and it gave him all the motivation he needed. He swam under Dom’s arms, and using that last kick of adrenaline, he pushed them both above the water – inhaling desperately and feeling panic course through him when Dom failed to cough up some water. Consciousness continued to evade the man. Billy brought him to the shore and laid him on the hot sand.
Dom was surrounded by his nearest and dearest. Billy knelt down by one arm and Miranda clasped the other hand. Upon seeing the blank look on Dom’s face, Miranda felt herself freeze up. She sat back a little, staring into nothing as she went catatonic.
‘Of course it’s up to me,’ Billy thought bitterly to himself as he lightly tapped Dom’s cheek.
“Dom?” Billy spoke to him, whose eyes were still closed. “Miranda, do you know how to do CPR?”
Miranda locked terrified eyes with Billy, and shook her head. As Billy leaned down to meet lips the fact that this moment would haunt him for weeks was in the distant plains of his mind. He hurried a little as he closed the distance, and pressed his lips to Dom’s. He began to ease oxygen into the waterlogged mouth.
When a few moments passed, and Dom’s eyes snapped open, Billy pulled away to allow Dom to turn to the side and spurt out further water. He gave a few more sickly sounding coughs before he turned to look at the people around him. Dom’s eyes lingered on Billy and there was something akin to gratitude and a certain sparkle shining there.
Billy smiled in relief, but as quickly as the shine had appeared in Dom’s eyes, it was replaced with the look of a lost little child. He looked around at the concerned faces around him and tried to find his voice.
“Relax mate,” Orlando piped up, which only caused further confusion on Dom’s part.
“What happened?” he mumbled slowly, grasping for the ground with his hands.
When no one seemed to want to answer, Miranda looked to Billy, who looked to Orlando, who then turned to look at Elijah. The American coughed and scratched the side of his head while searching for the proper words.
“You kinda hit your head,” Elijah said the sentence like it was one long word.
“I did,” Dom commented in a matter-of-fact voice.
“You did,” Billy gently confirmed.
“Oh,” Dom remarked as he looked out to the waves. “Right. One other thing then…”
“Yeah?” Miranda had finally found her voice. Her hand had drifted away from Dom’s, and they remained separated by the sand. Dom turned to her, and then looked up to the standing figures of Orlando and Elijah. Finally, he held his gaze on Billy and didn’t break away from his warm green eyes.
“Who are you lot?” he asked in a small voice. “Or…who am I?”
Billy felt himself fall back onto the sand with the force of the words that tumbled out of Dom’s mouth. Miranda’s eyes widened a little more – if that were even possible. Orlando and Elijah were madly whispering to each other with worry and drastic intrigue. Billy felt like someone had punched him in the stomach and then blinded him all at once.
“Anyone?” Dom was still speaking. “I mean…I know numbers…I know alphabet…and yet I don’t know who anyone is. Or myself, for that matter.”
“Dominic Monaghan,” Billy said hoarsely. “That’s you.” He looked the man in the eyes, feeling the situation had gotten rather sketchy within a minute. Miranda had seemingly taken a vow of silence in that minute, because she wasn’t saying a word. “We need to find you a hospital,” he finally made out.
He held out a helping arm – which Dom took hesitantly – and they slowly made their way off to the waiting cars. Miranda stood two steps back in tow, biting on her nails. Orlando paused to shoot a look of disbelief at Elijah.
“Holy shit,” Elijah finally swore.
“Yeah,” Orlando agreed.
“He fucking…I mean…nothing!” Elijah emphatically stated.
“Yeah,” Orlando agreed with a more miserable echo this time. They froze in place, watching Billy, Dom, and Miranda head off to the parking lot. Orlando looked out to the waves – where Dom’s surfboard was completely lost now – before turning to look at Elijah again. “Lij, mate?”
“What is it?” Elijah responded in a numb tone.
“Do you think we’ll get him back?” Orlando quietly asked.
Elijah got a look of pure fear on his face when he heard the question. He paused for a moment, and opened his mouth as though he were going to respond to the question, but clamped his lips shut after a second.
“I really don’t want to think about it,” he quickly responded before running after the others.
Billy peered around the corner of the hospital into the room where Dom was waiting and kicking his legs in a random pattern. Miranda leaned against the sterile hospital wall and never quite looked Billy in the eyes.
“He doesn’t remember anything?” she asked in a soft, throaty voice.
“Not us, not shooting any films,” Billy confirmed. “He knows his basics; what the world is like.”
“But not us,” Miranda reiterated.
“No.”
They stood in silence on opposite sides of the hallway. Random doctors and nurses passed them, and multiple announcements rang out over the loudspeaker in a nasal voice. Billy checked on Dom again – who was cleaning his fingernails now – and Miranda stared into space.
“I leave tomorrow to shoot a movie,” she distantly said. She finally locked eyes with Billy. “I can’t get out of it…as much as I want to stay, my agent would give me my walking papers and…”
“I understand,” Billy cut in.
“Will you look after him?” Miranda pleaded.
Billy paused to consider her plea, and imagined all the different ways things could go. He imagined all the possible scenarios, and he realized just how bad of an idea it was. It would be a prone Dom there for Billy to moon over. He opened his mouth to decline her request, but the desperate look on her face made him think twice.
He glanced over at Dom’s empty expression, and sighed heavily. “Yeah…yeah, he can stay with me.”
“Thank you Billy,” Miranda pried herself from off the wall, and surrounded Billy in a warm and tight hug. She clung to him so tightly that Billy felt how afraid she was of letting go. “Thank you,” she whispered, one lone tear threatening to fall.
“It’s okay,” Billy reassured her, stroking her arm a little while his eyes wandered off to rest on Dom. “It’s going to be all right.”
Dom paused in the doorway, hesitant to follow Billy inside the flat.
“So, this is your place?” Dom questioned from the porch, his voice ringing out into the home. Billy kept walking inside and unloaded Dom’s things beside the couch before pulling it out into the bed that was hidden inside. “S’nice…” Dom commented slowly as he took slow steps inside.
“I like it,” Billy smiled a little. “You can sleep on the couch here, and I’ll be taking care of you while Miranda; s’your girlfriend, mate,” it pained him to say the words and Dom got a puzzled look on his face, “shoots her movie.”
“So she’s an actress?” Dom’s eyebrow rose in amused intrigue.
“You are too,” Billy informed him. “Well, you’re an actor rather than an actress,” he amended with an embarrassed smile.
“And you?”
“I, too, fall prey to the acting disease,” Billy admitted. Dom gave an appreciative chuckle at the joke, and he walked into the flat more freely now, sitting on the edge of the pullout bed and looking up to speak. “Is this…?” Billy began to ask but then cut himself off at the sheer idiocy of asking if the man was all right.
“It’s fine,” Dom reassured him. “But, um…I’m a little unclear on a few things…well, you knew that, but you can help me with one thing.”
“Sure.” Billy sat down on the chair that was immediately opposite of Dom. “Just tell me what you need me to do, and I’m your willing slave,” Billy smiled before smacking himself mentally over how bad the words had come out.
“What’s your name?” Dom asked with complete curiosity.
“I didn’t tell you,” Billy realized with horror.
“No,” Dom agreed with a pleasant smile on his face.
“I’m Billy,” he introduced himself, and felt his throat begin to close up as the reality of the situation set in on him. He felt much too hot, and blinked rapidly while Dom tilted his head up a little and thought about it. Billy felt constricted and trapped. He clasped tightly onto the arms of his chair.
“Billy,” Dom tried it out.
“Billy Boyd,” he went on.
“That’s a good name,” Dom approved.
“Yeah.” Billy smiled tightly. “It’s done me well. Do you want some tea?”
“I…um, well…I don’t know?” Dom answered after a moment of thought, doing some type of deep searching to see whether he actually wanted to have tea or not, or whether he hated it completely. He winced a little as though he owed Billy an apology for not knowing. Billy smiled at him with pity.
“I’ll make some,” he told him.
Billy made a very slow journey into the kitchen, and turned away so that Dom couldn’t see him through the open walls between the living room and the eating nook of the kitchen. He exhaled in deep, long breaths and held so tightly onto the counter that he couldn’t feel his fingers any longer.
It was so wrong.
It was so very wrong because he felt he could love Dom as he was at that moment, and the many levels of exactly how wrong that was echoed in his body. He closed his eyes tightly while he thought about sobering thoughts – shooting in the rain for too long, his grandmother, being stuck in traffic – before moving about to get the tea.
Dom was not for the taking.
He was there for the taking care of.
Dom was wandering again. When Billy rose from deep slumber, it was to the sound of padded footsteps in the room beside him. It wasn’t something new; Dom had actually been pacing in the middle of the night since Billy had brought him back from the hospital. While it seemed like a good way to release stress, it most certainly was not a good thing for Billy’s sleeping habits. Billy managed to pry himself out of bed and made his way over to the living room to find Dom staring out the window.
“Can’t sleep?” Billy mumbled in a groggy voice. It seemed to surprise Dom, because he jumped – almost guiltily – and turned around. The control for the TV had been moved from where it had last been. Billy’s eyes were diverted to the empty video box and the words that Billy could see contained ‘Fellowship’ and ‘Ring’. He cringed. “You watched that?”
“Parts of it,” Dom admitted. He gave a wide smile. “It’s amazing stuff.”
“Yeah,” Billy agreed, sitting down on one of the chairs while Dom continued to pace.
“I just…I really wish I could remember it. Anything!” Dom cried out. “I mean, I don’t even know what kind of relationship you and I have. For all I know, you’re my biggest enemy and this is all a plot to get even with me.”
Billy gave him a dubious stare at which Dom faltered.
“All right, maybe not,” he conceded.
“I’m your best friend,” Billy filled in and it came out like molasses. Every moment now was a struggle to resist Dom. It was all too easy with Miranda out of the picture and Dom being a blank slate and … ‘NO, Billy,’ he screamed at himself. Dom looked down as though ashamed to look Billy in the eye.
“Yeah?” he hopefully asked. “I mean, seemed to be that way in the movie!”
“Ever since then,” Billy confirmed. “I mean…we talked about everything. Nothing was off-limits between us. Girls, guys,” he chuckled softly, “how we felt about anyone and anything? But now…it’s like none of that ever happened. It’s like I’ve lost you and…” he paused in mid-sentence – feeling his throat choke up.
Dom finally sat down directly opposite of Billy and looked conflicted as to what exactly he should be doing. Billy forgot to think for a moment and his hand reached out and patted Dom on the thigh. Both men froze for a terrible second and Billy managed a reassuring smile.
“You’ll be fine,” Billy said, entirely aware of how he was unable to pry his hand from Dom’s body. “I’ll make sure of that,” he swore.
It was all worth it though, because that hopeful sparkle in Dom’s eyes made its second appearance since the accident, and Billy would move heaven and earth just to see that look again.
“Thank you,” Dom said, and from the sound of it, he really did mean it.
When Billy stood up, his body shook with the knowledge that what he wanted was right in front of him, and in spite of everything -- still -- he couldn’t have it. Never. He turned around to see Dom getting under the sheets, looking at him.
“Thank you Billy,” he said, and Billy parted with a frown on his face. The name sounded so foreign. It sounded so wrong.
tbc
Pairing: Dom/Miranda, Dom/Billy, Orlando/Elijah
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine, *really* didn't happen.
Summary: Things and people can change in the blink of an eye.
Notes: Many huge thanks to
beizy, and shanalle for the beta-reads. Whee. Written for two lines.bob dylan, "most of the time"
Billy watched with great uneasiness as Dom surrounded Miranda with one arm. He watched as Dom nuzzled his nose against her cheek and the truly angelic smile that it brought about on her face made Dom’s own expression further light up. Billy felt as though this was a great train wreck, and true to the old adage, he was unable to pry his eyes away. Dom whispered something that made Miranda laugh with delight, and simultaneously made Billy cringe.
He was supposed to be happy for his best friend: happy.
So then why was there that pinching, crushing pain in his stomach whenever Dom made contact with Miranda’s body? Right…the jealousy thing. It was a pesky little addendum that continuously reminded Billy about his damned obsession with his best friend. Dom raised his pool stick and lined up his shot, one of Miranda’s hands still trailing on Dom’s hip.
Billy gnashed his teeth when the ball went into the hole, and Dom was rewarded by a happy kiss on Miranda’s part.
“Luck, right mate?” Dom flashed a cheeky smile.
“Luck,” he murmured quietly when Dom sunk another shot and he got another kiss from Miranda’s pink-covered lips. Billy’s eyes sank down to the green felt of the table and prayed – with all his heart – for Dom to scratch and that arm of Miranda’s to pry itself off Dom’s hip.
Unfortunately for him, Dom kept up his winning streak.
Billy signalled the waitress in the coffee shop to quicken his escape from the table quickly becoming hell and into the real world. It killed him to say it, but watching Dom smile and fawn over Miranda with every sip of his coffee was making him want to commit slight Domicide. Billy pressed his lips into a thin, straight line and forced cheer as best he could.
“I’m annoying you,” Dom conceded after a moment of awkward silence passed.
“No! I really want to hear more about the date at the planetarium, and please don’t leave any details out. After all, I want to hear every name you gave ever star,” Billy didn’t even bother to bite back any of his sarcasm.
“Bill, I never wanted her to come between us,” Dom softly scoffed. “She doesn’t want that either.”
“Well, it happened,” Billy murmured too quietly for Dom to hear. When Dom leaned in a little further to better hear the words that had passed through Billy’s lips, the Scottish actor raised his head and played with the rim of his mug. “Some things just tend to happen without our control,” he said in a normal tone.
“And this is one of those things?” Dom remarked with bewilderment. “Are you telling me this can actually put a rift in our friendship?”
Billy was silent.
“Billy, you’re my best friend,” he stressed the words. “I hate to say it, but no woman can ever come between that, despite how gorgeous she may be,” he added with a cheeky smirk. “Now, are you going to come surfing with me and the boys tomorrow and drown away the troubles?”
“And is Miranda one of the boys now?” Billy bitterly questioned.
“Naw,” Dom grinned at the waitress as she laid down the cheque. “She’s my girl,” he proudly announced.
Billy spread out his towel in the sand, and blinked at the glaring sun above. He wished that he had remembered his sunglasses. When Dom had picked him up, the sight of Miranda, in the front seat laughing brilliantly had distracted him, and he’d forgotten to grab them off the table.
Elijah lay beside him in the sand, twitching and giggling while Orlando poured sand into his hair and pushed him down with his hips – a move that could be easily conceived as foreplay in roughly seventy-five percent of the world’s nations. Billy sighed heavily and kept his eyes focused on the rough waves. Dom had decided to brave them while Billy had opted to stay on dry land. He didn’t trust himself to keep his concentration while being distracted with the thoughts of Dom in someone else’s arms. Especially when he’d had the opportunity to be there instead.
But he had gone and fucked himself over. ‘No involvement with other cast members,’ he had said. As time progressed and things developed, he had given himself a good smack for denying Dom. As ironic fate would have it, Billy had fallen for Dom no longer than a month after Dom had put the moves on him.
And now, Billy found himself wanting something he absolutely could not have.
And that tiny voice that kept yelling at him for making such stupid mistakes wouldn’t shut up. Billy shook his head when the sounds of Elijah’s girlish shrieking broke his reverie. He looked to the side and gave him and Orlando a tired look. The British actor was straddling Elijah, and the whole situation was too much to deal with at the moment.
“Dom’s doing well,” Orlando didn’t bother to turn around to point – he merely jutted a finger in the direction of the ocean – in the hopes that Billy would turn away and give them the privacy of themselves and the rest of the voyeurs on the beach. Billy turned his attention to the surfboard cutting its way through the wake with Dom expertly travelling on top of it. A little closer to the water, Miranda was sitting, shielding her eyes from the sun so that she could see him better.
Billy turned away, looking back to the very public display of emotion that Orlando and Elijah were putting on – which now involved Orlando tickling Elijah’s bare sides – preferring to think of the two of them, rather than to reflect on his past bunglings. He allowed his mind to wander into the fuzzy recesses of nowhere.
He found he could easily lose himself – staring up at the sky and falling to sleep – when he was interrupted by a horrified female scream.
Billy snapped to attention, because that had been Miranda. He got to his feet – clumsily and kicking up sand in Orlando and Elijah’s direction, who didn’t seem to mind, as they were rushing down the beach right behind him – and made his way to Miranda’s side. She was pointing out to the ocean with tears in her eyes, a frozen look on her face, and one hand covered her mouth in horror.
Billy looked out to where she was pointing and felt his heart plummet into his stomach. There, upon the waves, was Dom’s surfboard. It floated aimlessly and it wasn’t carrying Dom.
“He…he…under the waves!” Miranda stuttered. “I think he hit his head,” she moaned quietly – appearing to be one step away from keening.
Billy wasn’t really listening anymore. Instead, he was running into the water – plunging under, and searching through the murky depths for Dom. He came up for air and felt desperation clawing at him. He took an extra deep breath and submerged again, searching for anything that resembled a body.
Finally, he saw Dom sinking slowly, arms and legs splayed. Billy gave a little extra kick of his arms and legs to get to Dom in time. Panic was surrounding him, and it gave him all the motivation he needed. He swam under Dom’s arms, and using that last kick of adrenaline, he pushed them both above the water – inhaling desperately and feeling panic course through him when Dom failed to cough up some water. Consciousness continued to evade the man. Billy brought him to the shore and laid him on the hot sand.
Dom was surrounded by his nearest and dearest. Billy knelt down by one arm and Miranda clasped the other hand. Upon seeing the blank look on Dom’s face, Miranda felt herself freeze up. She sat back a little, staring into nothing as she went catatonic.
‘Of course it’s up to me,’ Billy thought bitterly to himself as he lightly tapped Dom’s cheek.
“Dom?” Billy spoke to him, whose eyes were still closed. “Miranda, do you know how to do CPR?”
Miranda locked terrified eyes with Billy, and shook her head. As Billy leaned down to meet lips the fact that this moment would haunt him for weeks was in the distant plains of his mind. He hurried a little as he closed the distance, and pressed his lips to Dom’s. He began to ease oxygen into the waterlogged mouth.
When a few moments passed, and Dom’s eyes snapped open, Billy pulled away to allow Dom to turn to the side and spurt out further water. He gave a few more sickly sounding coughs before he turned to look at the people around him. Dom’s eyes lingered on Billy and there was something akin to gratitude and a certain sparkle shining there.
Billy smiled in relief, but as quickly as the shine had appeared in Dom’s eyes, it was replaced with the look of a lost little child. He looked around at the concerned faces around him and tried to find his voice.
“Relax mate,” Orlando piped up, which only caused further confusion on Dom’s part.
“What happened?” he mumbled slowly, grasping for the ground with his hands.
When no one seemed to want to answer, Miranda looked to Billy, who looked to Orlando, who then turned to look at Elijah. The American coughed and scratched the side of his head while searching for the proper words.
“You kinda hit your head,” Elijah said the sentence like it was one long word.
“I did,” Dom commented in a matter-of-fact voice.
“You did,” Billy gently confirmed.
“Oh,” Dom remarked as he looked out to the waves. “Right. One other thing then…”
“Yeah?” Miranda had finally found her voice. Her hand had drifted away from Dom’s, and they remained separated by the sand. Dom turned to her, and then looked up to the standing figures of Orlando and Elijah. Finally, he held his gaze on Billy and didn’t break away from his warm green eyes.
“Who are you lot?” he asked in a small voice. “Or…who am I?”
Billy felt himself fall back onto the sand with the force of the words that tumbled out of Dom’s mouth. Miranda’s eyes widened a little more – if that were even possible. Orlando and Elijah were madly whispering to each other with worry and drastic intrigue. Billy felt like someone had punched him in the stomach and then blinded him all at once.
“Anyone?” Dom was still speaking. “I mean…I know numbers…I know alphabet…and yet I don’t know who anyone is. Or myself, for that matter.”
“Dominic Monaghan,” Billy said hoarsely. “That’s you.” He looked the man in the eyes, feeling the situation had gotten rather sketchy within a minute. Miranda had seemingly taken a vow of silence in that minute, because she wasn’t saying a word. “We need to find you a hospital,” he finally made out.
He held out a helping arm – which Dom took hesitantly – and they slowly made their way off to the waiting cars. Miranda stood two steps back in tow, biting on her nails. Orlando paused to shoot a look of disbelief at Elijah.
“Holy shit,” Elijah finally swore.
“Yeah,” Orlando agreed.
“He fucking…I mean…nothing!” Elijah emphatically stated.
“Yeah,” Orlando agreed with a more miserable echo this time. They froze in place, watching Billy, Dom, and Miranda head off to the parking lot. Orlando looked out to the waves – where Dom’s surfboard was completely lost now – before turning to look at Elijah again. “Lij, mate?”
“What is it?” Elijah responded in a numb tone.
“Do you think we’ll get him back?” Orlando quietly asked.
Elijah got a look of pure fear on his face when he heard the question. He paused for a moment, and opened his mouth as though he were going to respond to the question, but clamped his lips shut after a second.
“I really don’t want to think about it,” he quickly responded before running after the others.
Billy peered around the corner of the hospital into the room where Dom was waiting and kicking his legs in a random pattern. Miranda leaned against the sterile hospital wall and never quite looked Billy in the eyes.
“He doesn’t remember anything?” she asked in a soft, throaty voice.
“Not us, not shooting any films,” Billy confirmed. “He knows his basics; what the world is like.”
“But not us,” Miranda reiterated.
“No.”
They stood in silence on opposite sides of the hallway. Random doctors and nurses passed them, and multiple announcements rang out over the loudspeaker in a nasal voice. Billy checked on Dom again – who was cleaning his fingernails now – and Miranda stared into space.
“I leave tomorrow to shoot a movie,” she distantly said. She finally locked eyes with Billy. “I can’t get out of it…as much as I want to stay, my agent would give me my walking papers and…”
“I understand,” Billy cut in.
“Will you look after him?” Miranda pleaded.
Billy paused to consider her plea, and imagined all the different ways things could go. He imagined all the possible scenarios, and he realized just how bad of an idea it was. It would be a prone Dom there for Billy to moon over. He opened his mouth to decline her request, but the desperate look on her face made him think twice.
He glanced over at Dom’s empty expression, and sighed heavily. “Yeah…yeah, he can stay with me.”
“Thank you Billy,” Miranda pried herself from off the wall, and surrounded Billy in a warm and tight hug. She clung to him so tightly that Billy felt how afraid she was of letting go. “Thank you,” she whispered, one lone tear threatening to fall.
“It’s okay,” Billy reassured her, stroking her arm a little while his eyes wandered off to rest on Dom. “It’s going to be all right.”
Dom paused in the doorway, hesitant to follow Billy inside the flat.
“So, this is your place?” Dom questioned from the porch, his voice ringing out into the home. Billy kept walking inside and unloaded Dom’s things beside the couch before pulling it out into the bed that was hidden inside. “S’nice…” Dom commented slowly as he took slow steps inside.
“I like it,” Billy smiled a little. “You can sleep on the couch here, and I’ll be taking care of you while Miranda; s’your girlfriend, mate,” it pained him to say the words and Dom got a puzzled look on his face, “shoots her movie.”
“So she’s an actress?” Dom’s eyebrow rose in amused intrigue.
“You are too,” Billy informed him. “Well, you’re an actor rather than an actress,” he amended with an embarrassed smile.
“And you?”
“I, too, fall prey to the acting disease,” Billy admitted. Dom gave an appreciative chuckle at the joke, and he walked into the flat more freely now, sitting on the edge of the pullout bed and looking up to speak. “Is this…?” Billy began to ask but then cut himself off at the sheer idiocy of asking if the man was all right.
“It’s fine,” Dom reassured him. “But, um…I’m a little unclear on a few things…well, you knew that, but you can help me with one thing.”
“Sure.” Billy sat down on the chair that was immediately opposite of Dom. “Just tell me what you need me to do, and I’m your willing slave,” Billy smiled before smacking himself mentally over how bad the words had come out.
“What’s your name?” Dom asked with complete curiosity.
“I didn’t tell you,” Billy realized with horror.
“No,” Dom agreed with a pleasant smile on his face.
“I’m Billy,” he introduced himself, and felt his throat begin to close up as the reality of the situation set in on him. He felt much too hot, and blinked rapidly while Dom tilted his head up a little and thought about it. Billy felt constricted and trapped. He clasped tightly onto the arms of his chair.
“Billy,” Dom tried it out.
“Billy Boyd,” he went on.
“That’s a good name,” Dom approved.
“Yeah.” Billy smiled tightly. “It’s done me well. Do you want some tea?”
“I…um, well…I don’t know?” Dom answered after a moment of thought, doing some type of deep searching to see whether he actually wanted to have tea or not, or whether he hated it completely. He winced a little as though he owed Billy an apology for not knowing. Billy smiled at him with pity.
“I’ll make some,” he told him.
Billy made a very slow journey into the kitchen, and turned away so that Dom couldn’t see him through the open walls between the living room and the eating nook of the kitchen. He exhaled in deep, long breaths and held so tightly onto the counter that he couldn’t feel his fingers any longer.
It was so wrong.
It was so very wrong because he felt he could love Dom as he was at that moment, and the many levels of exactly how wrong that was echoed in his body. He closed his eyes tightly while he thought about sobering thoughts – shooting in the rain for too long, his grandmother, being stuck in traffic – before moving about to get the tea.
Dom was not for the taking.
He was there for the taking care of.
Dom was wandering again. When Billy rose from deep slumber, it was to the sound of padded footsteps in the room beside him. It wasn’t something new; Dom had actually been pacing in the middle of the night since Billy had brought him back from the hospital. While it seemed like a good way to release stress, it most certainly was not a good thing for Billy’s sleeping habits. Billy managed to pry himself out of bed and made his way over to the living room to find Dom staring out the window.
“Can’t sleep?” Billy mumbled in a groggy voice. It seemed to surprise Dom, because he jumped – almost guiltily – and turned around. The control for the TV had been moved from where it had last been. Billy’s eyes were diverted to the empty video box and the words that Billy could see contained ‘Fellowship’ and ‘Ring’. He cringed. “You watched that?”
“Parts of it,” Dom admitted. He gave a wide smile. “It’s amazing stuff.”
“Yeah,” Billy agreed, sitting down on one of the chairs while Dom continued to pace.
“I just…I really wish I could remember it. Anything!” Dom cried out. “I mean, I don’t even know what kind of relationship you and I have. For all I know, you’re my biggest enemy and this is all a plot to get even with me.”
Billy gave him a dubious stare at which Dom faltered.
“All right, maybe not,” he conceded.
“I’m your best friend,” Billy filled in and it came out like molasses. Every moment now was a struggle to resist Dom. It was all too easy with Miranda out of the picture and Dom being a blank slate and … ‘NO, Billy,’ he screamed at himself. Dom looked down as though ashamed to look Billy in the eye.
“Yeah?” he hopefully asked. “I mean, seemed to be that way in the movie!”
“Ever since then,” Billy confirmed. “I mean…we talked about everything. Nothing was off-limits between us. Girls, guys,” he chuckled softly, “how we felt about anyone and anything? But now…it’s like none of that ever happened. It’s like I’ve lost you and…” he paused in mid-sentence – feeling his throat choke up.
Dom finally sat down directly opposite of Billy and looked conflicted as to what exactly he should be doing. Billy forgot to think for a moment and his hand reached out and patted Dom on the thigh. Both men froze for a terrible second and Billy managed a reassuring smile.
“You’ll be fine,” Billy said, entirely aware of how he was unable to pry his hand from Dom’s body. “I’ll make sure of that,” he swore.
It was all worth it though, because that hopeful sparkle in Dom’s eyes made its second appearance since the accident, and Billy would move heaven and earth just to see that look again.
“Thank you,” Dom said, and from the sound of it, he really did mean it.
When Billy stood up, his body shook with the knowledge that what he wanted was right in front of him, and in spite of everything -- still -- he couldn’t have it. Never. He turned around to see Dom getting under the sheets, looking at him.
“Thank you Billy,” he said, and Billy parted with a frown on his face. The name sounded so foreign. It sounded so wrong.
tbc