A Strange Escape 6/14

[charminglygawky.livejournal.com]

Title – A Strange Escape.
Chapter – 6/14
Author – Charminglygawky
Pairing - Ryan/Colin
Rating – for the most part about a 15 for swearing. That's gonna change, later. XD
Disclaimer – I own nothing and nobody!
Feedback – Adored - in fact I do believe that it makes the world go round!
 
Part 6 of my insane fic - key point is that Colin is English - did I mention that I have a deranged imagination? Now what's eating Brad? 
As ever thanks to jerluvsdean for her help and for just being on the other end of msn!  XD 

 
A/N – Colin is dissatisfied with life, does Greg hold the key? 

It was four shows later before I joined them on stage again. Ryan had been practicing games with me for hours on end during the long drives. We were well into America, having left Bellingham the previous day after three shows at the same theatre. Apparently it was the only occasion on the ‘tour’ that we were spending consecutive nights performing in the same place.

“The owner of the theatre is a friend of mine.” Explained Ryan; I had just smiled at him, he really did seem to love the area, and he had been much quieter than usual on the drive away from it. I had left him to it and the sombre mood lasted until just before lunch. Then he had suggested that I might like to drive. We were the only two in the truck. The others were all in the motor home, apparently it was more comfortable. I didn’t mind.

“This is weird.” I said as I drove away from our lunch stop.

“Why?” Ryan didn’t even glance up from the map.

“The gearstick is on the wrong side, I keep trying to open the window when I want to change gears.”

He looked up then “Oh yeah, I forgot you English people drive on the wrong side of the road.”

“No we drive on the correct side of the road. Not our fault you’ve got everything cocked-eyed.”

“Really? What side of the road do you drive on?”

“The left.”

“Well we drive on the right. And if we are on the right side of the road then you must be on the wrong side.”

“Brilliant use of logic there.”

“I do try.” We grinned at each other companionably; we seemed to do a lot of that. “So you going to come on stage with us tomorrow night?”

I sighed, he’d been badgering me ever since I had threatened all of them with immediate death if they repeated my first impromptu stage appearance. “Ry...”

“Aw come on Col, you have to at some point, and it’s only a small theatre, and we’re only there one night.”

“Maybe, we’ll see.”

He cheered and cranked up the radio, his idea of a celebration. “I only said maybe!” I yelled over the music blaring out.

“Yeah whatever, you’re doing it!” I pretended to sulk. “Are you angry?” He asked mock regretfully.

“Why would I be?”

“Are you after some extra practice here?”

“Would I do a thing like that?”

“Yes, now shut up and drive.”

I smirked and checked in the mirror for the motor home, slowing slightly when I saw that we were leaving it behind. Ryan followed my eye movements.

“Brad must be driving again; he always was an old woman when he drove.”

I snorted in response. “Don’t let him hear you say that, you wouldn’t live to see another day.”

“Brad’s a pussy cat really.” Ryan stretched out in his seat to highlight his lack of concern.

“He doesn’t like me very much.” I said quietly.

“That’s my fault.”

He looked a bit uncomfortable, so I didn’t know whether I should question him further. I settled for a simple “Oh?”

“Yeah, I... I kinda came out to them a while back. Not long after Brad did and he thought that there could be something between us. I had to say that I’d rather be friends.”

“Oh so you’re...?”

“Yeah.”

There was no mistaking it now, he looked really uncomfortable. “And Brad?”

“Well sorta, I’d say he swung both ways really... I’m sorry, are you ok.. I..”

“Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?” I interrupted him.

“Well some people are bothered by it.”

“Not me, in fact I think I...”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I think.”

“Oh”

There was an uncomfortable silence, I had to break it. “So why would that make Brad not like me?”

“We hit it off too well.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

The damn silence was back, so I told him about Alice, I told him about my family and about why I’d followed Greg. We were talking honestly. He seemed genuinely interested in my family. And when I’d finished Ryan told me about his family. And I was genuinely interested too. The miles just flew by.

After a while though, I noticed that he was fidgeting in his seat. At first I ignored it, but when I was able to hear strain in his voice I decided that I had to ask.

“You ok Ry?”

“Yeah, I’m fine?”

“You sure? Do you want to stop for a bit? We have been driving for hours.”

“Nah, I’m okay.”

We drove in silence for another twenty minutes or so, we’d talked ourselves out and the silence was more than comfortable.

“Actually,” he sounded a bit sheepish “do you mind if we stop for a bit, I could do with a walk about.”

“Sure, no problem.” There was a lay-by a mile or so ahead so I pulled into that, making sure to indicate well in advance to give the motor home behind me some warning. I turned the ignition off and watched in concern as Ryan stiffly hauled himself out of the car, groaning slightly as he did so. I hopped out and went around to him.

“Ry? Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, sorry, long car journeys play havoc with my back. I’m just a bit stiff.”

He looked pale, he was more than stiff. But I didn’t comment as the guys were pouring out of the motor home and wandering over to us.

“You guys alright? Why’d we stop?” called Drew as he approached.

“You ok Ry? Is your back bothering you?” asked Brad, looking concerned but shooting me a superior look.

“A bit”, Ryan admitted.

“Aww sucks man. I think I have some aspirin if you want some.” Drew was always solicitous.

“Nah.” Ryan ran his hand through his hair. “I’ve got some pills in my bag, I’ll get them out. I think I just need to stretch it a bit.”

“Take as long as you need buddy.” Greg was leaning against the back of the truck.

“Thanks, I’ll be fine. You guys don’t need to wait. We can catch you up easily enough, and if you hang around here too long then we might miss check in.”

It was true, we weren’t due to get to our overnight motel until quite late anyway and the cumbersome motor home really couldn’t afford too many holdups. The guys agreed and headed back slowly, reluctant to leave us. Brad in particular hung back, seemingly loath to leave us on our own. In the end he had to go, he was one of the drivers and Greg was honking the horn to hurry him up. We waved them away then stood, side by side watching the huge vehicle disappear into the distance.

“You want to tell me how bad it is Ry?” I asked not looking at him.

“Fuck.” He groaned out.

“Ry?”

He waved me away and walked away from the road slightly and into a field. I locked the car and followed. He was lying flat on his back when I joined him. I sat down beside him but said nothing.

“Col?”

“Yeah.”

“Could you get something out of my bag for me?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks, side pocket, there’s a bottle of pills.” I went to get up but he moved his hand to my wrist to stop me, I looked back at him. “Colin, I’m sorry, but would you mind driving the rest of the way today? I can’t drive if I take a pill.”

I smiled back at him. “Of course I don’t mind silly. Now let me go and I’ll go and get them for you.”

He sighed in relief and released my wrist. After taking a pill out of the bottle I brought him he appeared to fall asleep. I lay next to him and watched the clouds passing overhead. If it wasn’t for the fact that Ryan was in pain I don’t think I could have been more content.

I gave him about forty minutes before I regretfully woke him. He moaned as I shook him awake.

“I’m sorry Ry, but we need to get going or we’ll never catch up with the others.”

He grunted his assent, and then held his hands up in a mute invitation for me to pull him up. I did finding it remarkably easy; Greg was right the man was a walking skeleton. He laughed and sagged against me once he was upright.

“Wow, you’re pretty strong.” He giggled into my shoulder.

“I’m not the only thing, what the hell was in that tablet?” I smiled at him affectionately ruffling his hair.

“No idea, seriously strong shit though. I like my doctor!”

“You feeling better now?”

“Yeah, much. I don’t want to get back in the car.”

“I think you have to Ry.”

“I know.”

He let me lead him back to the car willingly enough. I took care to put the pills back where I found them. By the time I got behind the wheel Ryan was asleep again. I sighed and checked the map before pulling away.

It took me almost three hours to catch up with the motor home, which I didn’t overtake. My map reader appeared to be comatose. I thought it might be sensible to just let them work out where the motel was. About an hour after that Ryan groaned himself awake.

“Ry? You ok? Is your back hurting again?”

“Course it bloody is.” He wriggled in his seat trying to get his spine into a better alignment.

“But you took a pill.” I said in confusion.

“Yeah, but I’m still in the fucking car aren’t I?” He snapped back, followed by. “Sorry, where are we.”

“Not sure, I’m letting them lead.” I pointed at the motor home. “But we can’t be that far away, we’ve been driving for hours.”

“Oh.” He scrunched his face up and I noticed that he had gone pale again.

“Do you need to stop?”

“I’d love to, but we can’t. Keep going.”

“But we could catch them up again.”

“No, stay with them, it wouldn’t help, we would still have the distance to cover.”

“Yeah, but we could go faster than this.” I thought for a moment or two watching a sign telling us that there was parking a mile ahead. “Are you able to map read?”

“Yeah, but...”

“Good.” I cut him off and promptly overtook the motor home. Then immediately started to indicate for the parking, pulling off the road again I was glad to see the motor home following.

I had the ignition off and was halfway back to the door of the motor home before Ryan could even form a question. Drew was behind the wheel and looked at me in confusion as I swung myself into the behemoth of a vehicle.

“Colin what?”

“Hi, look Ryan’s got the booking conformation hasn’t he?”

“Yes, bu..”

“And we both have directions on how to get there don’t we?” I interrupted.

“Yes.” Drew had cottoned on and was only answering the question asked, good marine training I supposed.

“So, other than the bonds of brotherhood or whatever, there is no reason for us to travel together?” I glanced over to the car to see that Ryan had hauled himself out and was limping towards us in a determined manner. I had to hurry up.

“No.” Drew was now openly grinning at me.

“Great, we’ll see you there then. We’ll be there first.” I jumped out of the door. “Now get out of here!”

“Ok, and Colin, when you get there put yourself in his room. I shared with him last time and I think that you’ll make the better nurse.”

The door shut and the engine revved as he pulled away. I grinned and turned to a pissed looking Ryan.

“Colin, what the fuck?”

“We’re travelling separately. We are going to have a short break so that you can stretch your back out. Then we are going to drive to the motel without waiting for them. We may have to travel the same amount of distance but we can do it faster.”

He still looked pissed. “But, we always travel together, we’re on tour. It’s what we do.”

“I don’t care about that, you’re in pain.”

“Col!” He whined. “But why did they drive off before I could talk to them?”

“Because I told them to go before you could argue.”

He looked really angry now. “In future Colin, I want to be involved with any decisions that are to be made.” He informed me in a frosty voice.

I pretended to look abashed. “Yes dear, sorry dear.” I apologised meekly.

He laughed and put an arm around my shoulders, letting me support most of his weight. “Thanks.” He sounded much more friendly.

“You’re welcome. I’d do it again you know.”

“I know. Now come on I want to lie down.” He steered us towards a patch of grass.

We did get to the motel before the others, we checked in and then left two of the keys at reception to be picked up when they arrived. Then I put Ryan to bed. He took another pill and was out like a light by nine. So much for nursing duties.

Bored and hungry I wandered over to a seven eleven on the other side of the road and bought some sandwiches for dinner. I bought Ryan some too assuming that he would be hungry whenever he woke up. I noted that the motor home wasn’t there when I went back to the motel; so I headed back to the room with the intention of getting an early night. We could meet up with the guys at breakfast.

Comments

[rycolfan.livejournal.com]

I keep getting sucked back into this and want it to keep going! XD

I don't know whether to feel sorry for Brad or just poke him hard in the ribs for being mean to Colin!

Can't wait for the next chapter....great work! :o) x

[charminglygawky.livejournal.com]

Aww thankies, don't worry it will!

*Protects Brad* He's just love sick! ... Anyway I need him later XD

Next chapter soon! *blushes*