Page 103 of Walking Wounded

Someone tried to blow up the man at the head of this table three days ago. Tried to kill him, because Matt has opinions and beliefs the bomber doesn’t agree with. He almost died. And Luke almost died. And Hal could have died, could have been blown to bits.

Luke thinks about black scorch marks on concrete and his throat tightens. He thinks about Hal apologizing, about Hal saying he loves him,loveshim, and saying he’s beautiful. It was almost ripped away. Stolen from them.

And…and…

His plate blurs. The tears rush into his eyes, hot and stinging, and he wants the floor to swallow him.

Instead, Hal puts an arm around his waist and holds him tight to his side. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

Quiet voices murmur around the table, under the warm kitchen light, and Luke gathers his composure in peace. For his sister. For his mother. For the burn scars on Hal’s leg. For poor dead Finn. For Will, and Sandy, and Matt, and Tara, and Maddie, and Hal’s sweet friends. All the wounds. And for the grace that soothes them, every moment of every day, in something as simple as the touch of the person you love most in the world.

~*~

“Don’t you have a shift?” Luke asks, leaning back against the plush pillows, covered in the warm duvet of their bed.

Clad in sweatpants and a threadbare t-shirt, Hal slides in beside him. Presses up against him, arm across his shoulders.

Luke rests his head on Hal’s strong chest.

“Not right now,” Hal says, flicking on the TV with the remote and moving quickly away from the news channel it’s already on. The Netflix screen pops up. “Name your poison.”

Luke listens to Hal breathe, feels the shift of muscle beneath his face. Revels in the strange wonderfulness of lying with an arm around his waist, being this close to him. “No preference.”

“Living dangerous,” Hal says, and pulls up Season Three ofOnce Upon a Time.

“Aw, no,” Luke grumbles, just because he feels like he has to.

“Shh, you’re delirious,” Hal says, rubbing his back.

Luke falls asleep like that, warm, content, and vulnerable in his true love’s arms.

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