Help is Round the Corner, Chapter 4

[goblover.livejournal.com]

Title: Help is Round the Corner
Pairing: I admit to Chip/Ryan
Rating: R
Warning: Is there Character death? Is there?

This would be where Didi's line comes in. Yay for the rules of this fic!

Comments=love :D?

Ryan walked out of the back room, making sure not to trip over any children as he did. He stood in the strikingly foreign kitchen and looked to his left. Jeff was still there.

 
 

It was going to be a rough taping. Not rough as in difficult, rough like…raw, tricky. Tightrope, no net. Not even a spotter. That was how it was, working with someone new. Not new, but still fresh. Ryan had met him once or twice, but he didn’t remember much about the guy. Come into the pack this late in the game, it’s not like he was going to stick around long.

 

Chip opened the door and stepped inside. Ryan turned around in surprise.

 

“What are you-” he laughed. “It’s not your day. We got the new kid.”

 

“I know, I just wanted to see you. Is that so bad?” Chip smiled.

 

He closed the door and walked up to Ryan, jumping up on the dressing room counter and pulling Ryan close into a kiss.

 

Chip grabbed onto his belt and unbuckled it. One hand reached up to pull off Ryan’s tie.

 

“Can we make this quick?” Ryan stepped back away from Chip for just a second.

 

“Quick?” Chip laughed. “I’m tearing your clothes off right now. Should I go faster?”

 

“I-uh” Ryan watched Chip take off his shirt and paused for more than a second before continuing. “I have to be out there in a few minutes.”

 

“So? They can wait.” Chip clasped Ryan’s hand and brought him back over. Ryan ran a hand through Chip’s hair and pushed him back on the counter, his back colliding softly with the mirror.

 

Ryan grinded against Chip’s thighs and hooked his hands around his hips, jerking him closer. Chip’s hands skittered up Ryan’s back and held on tightly. Ryan kissed his neck.

 

Chip moaned. The door opened.

 

“Oh,” an unfamiliar voice exclaimed. “Oh god. That’s um…Sorry.”

 

They turned towards the sound of the voice.

 

“Uh…” Ryan searched for the semi-stranger’s name. “Jeff-Right? Jeff?”

 

“I should…” Jeff stuttered. “I’m going to close the door and it-”

 

“Fuck, Jeff.” Ryan partially blocked Chip as he talked to Jeff. “Who doesn’t knock?”

 

“Me, I suppose. Though I’ve just learned it now.” Jeff diverted his eyes, swinging his arms back and forth as he tried to speak. “I-I…I have no reason to be here so I should just leave... I think.”

 

He shut the door. Chip and Ryan stared at the door for a couple seconds in shock. They looked at each other and then continued.

 
 

Ryan stared down Jeff. He knew Jeff could feel it with the way he would tense every now and then, but he didn't look back at him. He wouldn’t look at anyone. Ever since they got there, he had just been attached to the countertop. He would idly half-listen through people’s conversations and not even make the attempt at adding to them.

 

Hell, they all felt out of place but they didn’t have to be so obvious about it.

 

None of them planned on spending the day at Patty’s parents’ house. But she asked and then there they were.

 

Greg spent most of his time interacting with the kids, though he could move to each group of them and carry on a conversation. It was something Ryan found interesting (read: weird) how comfortable Greg could be switching back and forth between people and types of people, when really Greg was this stalwart never-changing being that…how did that work?

 

Ryan did his best to keep Patty occupied, but it was hard for both of them to keep going at the pace Greg was setting.

 

It was just a day after. But everything had already turned into some massive blur, where time was essentially fucked along with any other draw of the senses.

 

“Why do people find the need to make massive amounts of food for you when someone dies?” Jeff ran his hand along aluminum covered containers that Patty’s mom had insisted on putting out.

 

“Because they figure you’re too depressed to make it yourself or want to eat.” Greg leaned against the counter.

 

“They haven’t proven he’s dead yet.” Ryan coughed. “It’s not like they found his body or anything.”

 

“Yeah, cause Chip’s always been one for Andy Kaufman-sized practical jokes.” Greg snorted.

 

Jeff started to speak again when he cringed outwardly. That kind of cringe was noticeable across a room. His left hand started to crinkle the edge of some aluminum foil.

 

“What?” Ryan asked, rather disinterestedly.

 

“It’s weird when things touch your shin.” Jeff forced each word out, looking straight in front of him. His eyes started to glaze over as he refused to blink.

 

It wasn’t a line, he wasn’t being prompted. Why was that so weird and difficult for him…

 

Greg and Ryan looked down.

 

At some point Chase had run up to Jeff and wrapped his arms around his leg, sliding down it. There Chase sat, cross-legged on a one of the pair of probably horribly expensive Italian shoes that Jeff had developed a taste for.

 

“That was Chase,” Ryan pointed down.

 

“I know.” Jeff’s eyes stayed forward.

 

Chase held onto the fabric and buried his head in it.

 

Jeff immediately breathed in a shuddering gasp of air. He looked away, sucking on his bottom lip until it made a sound. He moved his foot awkwardly.

 

His hand hovered over Chase’s head as he hesitated to put it down on him.

 

“The last time you saw him what happened?” Ryan asked, changing the subject while Jeff would still be caught off guard. While he could still respond.

 

“Hm?” he turned to look at Ryan.

 

“The last time you saw Chip?”

 

“I don’t remember,” Jeff waved off the question.

 

He settled for leaning over and reaching down to pry the child off of him.

 

“Go find your mother,” he said detachedly as he pushed Chase away from him as gently as he could.

 

“What do you mean you don’t remember?” Greg asked monotonously.

“I was a little drunk,” he looked off, his attention obviously focused on watching Chase tugging on the ends of Patty’s dress.

 

Greg and Ryan shared a look.

 

“You’re always a little drunk, now tell me what you remember.” Ryan smacked Jeff lightly on the arm. Jeff acted like the hit was a lot stronger than it was.

 

Or maybe that hit jolted him back to reality, he didn’t know.

 

“I just told you I don’t remember anything. Jesus.” Jeff held his arm with his right hand as he shrugged. “When I’m around Chip, I may as well be passed out. Are you happy?”

 

“Chip lets you drink like that?”

 

“No, Chip doesn’t…” Jeff stammered.

 

“Fuck, you’re a problem aren’t you?” Ryan spoke in a joking way but he really really meant it. And Jeff could tell. “Honestly who deals with this shit? No wonder he-”

 

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

 

He brushed past the both of them and walked out the sliding glass door.

 

Greg and Ryan turned to catch up with him, speeding up their pace before they realized they had bumped into him.

 

Jeff was standing completely still, staring out at the horizon, past the level of fog obscuring everyone’s view.

 

Jeff’s ragged breath was the only sound for a while. Then he spoke.

 

“Have they always lived here?”

 

Jeff’s grimace stuck to his face.

 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Greg was confused.

 

“Right here on the fucking—I can’t…”

 

Jeff trailed off as he walked closer to the beach’s shoreline. He disappeared through the layer of fog.

 

Greg turned to Ryan.

 

“He does realize this is Patty’s parents’ place, yes?” Greg cleaned his glasses as the two of them walked towards a railing to lean against. “As in on the beach? I drove him here this morning. Does he not remember this?”

 

“I’ll say no. No he does not.”

 

Greg looked at Ryan in a quiet moment.

 

“What makes a person want to just go and dump their body in the ocean?” Greg waved at the fog, like he could make it dissipate on his own.

 

“Closer to God, maybe?” Ryan lit a cigarette.

 

“Closer to death, only.” Greg took the lighter out of Ryan’s hand and lit his own. “That shit’s painful.”

 

“What is?” Ryan was lost for a half a second.

 

“Drowning. Aspirating water into one’s own lungs. Writhing and squirming for air in a dark watery blue abyss.” Greg scratched at his throat and laughed. “Great ticket to heaven, if you wanna believe in it and get there quickly.”

 

“If you say so,” Ryan shrugged.

 

“You know they say the most painful deaths are the ones that get the good spots in the afterlife.”

 

"That's assuming there's something good there." Ryan pursed his lips and stared out to where the sea would have met the sky, were it not hidden by the thick fog.

 

He squinted to try and look closer, hearing a distant splash.

 

“Shit.”

 

He ran towards where Jeff had disappeared. Greg followed.

 

Ryan splashed through the water, going further and further until Jeff came into view. His seemingly lifeless body floated face down in the still shallow water.

 

Ryan yanked him backwards, doing his best to stand him up. He whapped him in the stomach and made him cough up the water he had swallowed.

 

Jeff's hands rose up and grasped onto the inside of Ryan’s jacket, before slipping off. He face planted back into the water, and bent his legs. Jeff was forcing himself under the water.

 

Even though the water was incredibly shallow, it didn’t stop Jeff from being able to sink like a stone.

 

Ryan tore him out of the water again, this time by his neck. Jeff sputtered and coughed and spat water down Ryan’s shirt.

 

Ryan tilted Jeff’s head up and looked directly into his eyes. There wasn’t much there.

 

That was quick.

 

He was hoping something would be there. An explanation, a need, a desire, something. He might as well have been dead.

 

“I really should just let you do it,” he muttered.

 

Jeff snorted and gasped for air, arms waving about. His feet kicked out from under him.

 

Ryan dropped him and turned away.

 

Jeff’s body made a louder splash as it hit the water.

 

Ryan’s eyes met Greg’s.

 

“-The fuck?” Greg yelled.

 

That came out in an incredibly high pitch.

 

Greg looked at him, halfway in the water, mouth wide open. He charged towards Jeff, legs kicking up huge splashes of water. He wrapped his arms around Jeff and pulled him to shore.

 

Ryan stood on the beach and looked down at Jeff, struggling against Greg in the sand. Jeff rolled over, face pressing hard into the muddy sand as he went to push himself up on his own.

 

Jeff didn’t look good wet. In fact it was frustrating how bad he looked.

 

Because it proved he failed.

 

He rolled up to a sitting position and then started lunging for the ocean. Greg held him back, eventually pinning him back down into the sand.

 

“Let me go back, Chip!” Jeff started screaming. “I need to go back.”

 

Ryan shoved his hands in his pockets and walked to the other side of him.

 

“Jeff it’s okay, I swear. Just-You know what? You need to take a step back and calm down.” Greg spoke, just inches away from his face.

 

“Greg, you don’t get it do you?” Jeff laughed.

 

“I get it. He’s gone, it’s sad.” Greg wiped the sand off of Jeff’s face and held it firmly in his hand. “Stop it now.”

 

“He’s fucking gone, Greg! He’s fucking dead. So shut the fuck up.”

 

“Calm down, Jeff. You realize what you-” Greg let go of Jeff and ran a hand through his hair. He lowered his voice considerably and spoke softly. “Jeff…”

 

“But he’s-he’s-”

 

“Jeff,” Ryan crouched down to his level and Jeff tried to match his. “Stop it. Now.”

 

Jeff gasped for air. Ryan hit him in the face. Greg froze.

 

“You did not just do that,” Greg looked on in incredulity.

 

Jeff looked up at him and immediately slowed down. His breathing practically stopped. He latched onto Ryan and pulled himself close to his chest, closing his eyes and whispering phrases that could never be translated into actual English.

 

Greg just looked on. He stood up and brushed himself off.

 

“Well that takes care of that, doesn’t it Ryan?”

 

Jeff opened one of his eyes to look straight at Greg.

 

Ryan stood up, dropping Jeff face first into the sand.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Beat the kid senseless.” Greg waved his hands in the air. “That way, next time he won’t have the brains to try anything.”

 

“Oh and what was your solution, hug it out?”

 

“Talk to him,” he almost bounced in his fervor. “Like how normal, rational people of this world deal with problems.”

 

“Because that’s worked out so well in the past.” Ryan laughed at that thought.

 

“Shut the fuck up.”

 

“You shut the fuck up.”

 

Ryan pushed Greg’s shoulder. Greg pushed him right back. Ryan knocked the glasses off of his face into the sand. Greg stepped back and rolled his shoulders back. He took a breath and barreled towards Ryan, knocking him to the ground. Ryan grunted and knocked his head further into the sand, before reacting. He pushed Greg off of him and rolled on top of him. They both flailed, neither of them landing a hit.

 

At some point they both stopped, staring at each other and just breathing heavily.

 

“The fuck are we fighting in the sand for?” Ryan looked at him.

 

They started cracking up laughing. Ryan pulled himself off of Greg and arched his back into the sand. It took a while for them to stop.

 

“Would you really consider that whole bitch-slapping thing fighting?” Greg reached over and lay his arm across Ryan for a half a second.

 

“In the world of comedy…yes.”

 

“If you say so.” Greg got up and brushed off his pants once before looking down at Ryan. “Are we done with that?”

 

“I hope so.”

 

“Come on, I’ll help you up.” Greg held Ryan’s hand in his and slapped his face with the other. “Bitch, where my glasses at?”

 

He laughed heartily.

 

Ryan ran his hands through the sand until he found his glasses. He handed them back to Greg and he proceeded to help him up.

 

They looked back at Jeff. Jeff’s head was practically buried in the sand. He wasn’t moving. Not much, anyway.

 

Ryan had assumed he’d passed out.

 

Greg let out a dejected nondescript noise.

 

“Tell me it’s not him.”

 

“Hm?” Ryan turned to Greg.

 
 

“Tell me it’s not him.” Greg walked up to him.

 

Ryan looked at him and then back at Chip. He was leaning over the piano, bopping to the music Laura was composing. Every so often his hand would reach out and hit a key. He’d apologize after laughing.

 

And then he started singing. Not very loud, not very strong, just soft and sweet.

 

“You’re doing it wrong!” he shouted at Chip.

 

Laura stopped playing the piano.

 

“I will sing it how I want to sing it. Stop!” Chip doubled over in laughter before motioning to Laura. “I’m sorry. Keep going. You're amazing at this.”

 

“Tell me you’re not fucking him.” Greg said as he shoved him lightly.

 

He shouldn’t have been as pissed as he was.

 

“I-What?”

 

“I’ve known you a long time Ryan, and you still think you can lie to me? Fuck you.”

 
 

“I said tell me it’s not him. Tell me we left Jeff somewhere and we just picked up this guy by mistake.”

 

“Okay…" Ryan drew out. "It’s not Jeff.”

 

“Yeah,” Greg nodded. “You know I haven’t seen Jeff for years. This-This guy isn’t him.”

 

“So let's get him back.”

 

“If only it were that easy,” Greg shrugged and walked over to help Jeff up.