International Rescue: The Next Phase


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Re: Playing with Fire [message #561 is a reply to message #560] Mon, 23 July 2012 21:43 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
artisticrainey is currently offline  artisticrainey
Messages: 1228
Registered: July 2012
Location: Northern Ireland
Karma:
Field Commander
Switzerland
Dominic clutched a cardboard coffee-cup tightly in his hands and took a deep breath as he stood outside his father's hospital room. Recovering, Matthew had been moved to a side-ward. The doctors had told Dominic that his swift action had prevented severe damage to his father's heart, and with pioneering treatment methods the man would have few permanent problems.

Huffing out a breath, Dominic pushed the room's door open and walked inside. Matthew was awake. Dom set his cup down on the bedside table and washed his hands with antibacterial foam, before sitting down in the chair beside his father's bed, shoulders hunched.

"Dominic..." Matthew said, reaching one tube-covered hand over to his son.

Dominic smiled tightly, and slowly reached his hand up to touch his father's.

Behind the oxygen mask Matthew tried to smile and turned his head towards Dominic, blue eyes glittering with tears.

"Matthew," Dominic said, and took another deep breath. "I'm... I'm so sorry."

"Dominic..."

"No, please. Let me speak." Dominic tentatively squeezed his father's hand, and sighed. Everything he had been contemplating since the moment he had seen Matthew hit the ground was going to come out, once and for all. "I've spent my entire life hating you; truly, deeply hating you. I blamed you for everything wrong in my life, everything that was wrong with my mother." He snorted a rough laugh and dropped his head. "I had never even met you. You were the scapegoat. I'm not saying that I think you didn't do anything wrong, but...you didn't deserve all of the hatred I gave you. Even when you finally invited me back into your life, I treated you with malice. I don't think I even wanted to fit in with your family. I don't think I knew what I wanted."

Matthew's hand slipped over on top of Dominic's, and he squeezed it as hard as he could.

"And when I saw you at Ma's grave I just exploded. I...I just hated you so much. I hated you for being there, for intruding on my space, on her. I shouldn't have screamed at you; I shouldn't have raised my hand against you. I couldn't understand why you were there."

"I wanted to show," Matthew said, pulling the oxygen mask from his face.

Dominic brought a hand up and placed the mask gently back over his father's face.

"Keep it on, please. It'll help."

Matthew made no further attempt to remove it. When he blinked, tears escaped from his eyes.

"Dominic... I wanted to show that...I care about you, no matter what. I know...that I can't make up for what I've done... But I'd like to have the chance...to...to get to know you, and be your father starting now..."

Dominic felt a strange flutter in his chest. Before he would have bristled at the very thought of Matthew being a father to him, but not now.

"I'm surprised that you still do, after what I've done."

Dominic glanced around the sterile room, watching his father in the bed, punctured by needles in all places.

"You didn't do this," Matthew said, trying to smile. "Look at me. I smoke, I'm fifty pounds overweight; the doctors told me...to diet and exercise. But I didn't listen."

"I guess Elizabeth will be flying out to see you any time now," Dominic said. "I'm sure she's worried."

Matthew laughed slightly, and it quickly turned into a cough.

"No, she won't be," he said.

Dominic frowned and cocked his head to one side.

"Why not?"

"She's divorcing me. She...said that if I went through with my...plans to come out and see you, she would leave me."

"My God," Dominic said. "I'm...I'm sorry."

"I'm not," Matthew said. "If she can't accept that I want my...oldest son in my life...then she's not worth it. Not at all."

Dominic squeezed his father's hand as hard as he dared to, and hung his head.

"I don't know what to say," he murmured.

"Just say that you'll give me a chance," Matthew said.

Dominic lifted his head and kept a steady gaze at his father for several moments. Then, he sniffed heavily and nodded slightly.

"I will. It's not going to be easy, but, I will." He paused for a moment. "Dad."

Dom plainclothes heartbeat Luke plainclothes

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