Taking You Home
Pairing: Kyle/Diane
Rating: PG
Word
Count: 998
Archive: At my site, The Band Gazebo
Notes: For the LiveJournal Writer’s
Summary: “Will you take me home?”
When he and Jake first walk into the lab, Kyle doesn’t know that anything is wrong. He’s too busy looking around for Diane, to beg her for paracetamol, vital after an eight hour stakeout with Jake. Only when he sees Fran’s worried expression, no Diane in sight, do the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. “Where is she?” he asks, and Fran looks over her shoulder, at the closed door that leads into the other room.
“She got a phone call from her dad,” she says, and that’s all that she can say before the door opens, and Diane walks out.
Fran bites her lip, and Jake gasps, but Kyle can’t do anything but stare, blood turning to ice in his veins, because he can’t imagine what has made her look like that. Or rather, he can; he just doesn’t want to. Her eyes are wide, rimmed in red, the way they get when she’s battling back tears. Her hair is wilder than usual, and when she reaches up to push a lock of it back, her hand is shaking. Kyle is frozen, speechless, and for once, he’s grateful to hear Jake’s voice.
“Diane, what’s happened?”
The younger man takes a step towards her, arm outstretched, and Diane backs away, as if she doesn’t want to be touched, which Kyle knows is a bad sign. Jake doesn’t though, his face registering hurt, then dismay as Diane speaks. “That was my dad… it’s my mom… she’s had a heart attack…”
Her voice trails off then, her gaze dropping to the floor, and Fran asks timidly, “Is she…”
Diane looks up, swallows hard, shaking her head rapidly as tears pool in her eyes. “She’s dead.”
Stunned silence follows, with no-one sure of what to say, and characteristically, Jake is the first to break it. “Diane, I’m so sorry,” he says, and she nods, pressing a hand to her nose and lips. Kyle has never seen her look so lost, and it’s that more than anything that makes him step forward, speaking to her for the first time.
“What can we do?” he asks simply, and he’s unprepared for her reaction, for the way her head snaps up, her eyes locking on to his. For a moment, she is stock-still, save for the single tear that makes its way down her cheek. An instant later, she is in his arms, face buried in his suit jacket, her shoulders heaving with sobs. Kyle’s surprised, but he does the only thing he can, holds her tightly, whispers platitudes neither of them will ever remember into her hair. He does this in the full heat of Jake’s shocked glance, because the younger man has never seen them like this before, know nothing of their previous relationship. Fran, on the other hand, is remarkably sanguine, studiously avoiding looking at them.
Kyle has no idea how long it is before Diane straightens up, and when she does, the look in her eyes breaks his heart. “Kyle…” is all she can whisper before the tears start again, and his hands knead her shoulders, his eyes never leaving hers.
“What can I do?” he asks, and her response surprises him.
“Will you take me home?”
He nods, thinking abstractedly that Lou will understand. “Of course,” he says, slipping an arm around her waist, turning her to the exit. “Come on, I’ll drive you…”
“No,” she says, and he stops, tilts his head curiously. “Not to my apartment…” She draws in a shuddering breath, one ice-cold hand finding his. “Will you take me home?”
The penny finally drops, and Kyle doesn’t even have to think, just nods slowly once, his free hand caressing her cheek. “Of course,” is all he says before leading her out of the lab to his car.
They go to her apartment first, where he books their flights, calls Lou to let her know what’s going on. A quick stop-off at his place to pack a bag, and they’re on their way to the airport. She grips his hand tightly as the plane takes off, and she holds it throughout the whole flight, the pressure never lessening, not even when her head rests on his shoulder and he tells her that she should sleep.
If her family find it odd that he is there with her – after all, it’s over a year since they split up – then no-one comments on it. Nor does Kyle comment when they automatically assume that he and Diane will be sharing her room – after all, they always did in the past. And he certainly doesn’t say anything when Diane curls up beside him, just as she always used to, and falls into a fitful sleep at his side.
It’s a long time since he’s been in Bar Harbour, so he spends his time there re-familiarising himself with the place, helping out the family in any way he can, being a safety valve for Diane when she needs to get away, to vent. They walk for miles, her hand in his, and at the funeral, when she reads the psalm, it is his arms into which she walks when she returns to her seat. He stands beside her at the graveside, watches the red rose shake in her hand, wonders if she notices the tremor in his as his handful of earth splatters against the coffin.
The house afterwards is stifling, and he knows Diane needs to escape, and they do, ending up on the beach, sitting quietly together on the sand. Despite the August sun, she is shivering, so he drapes his jacket over her shoulders, rolls up his sleeves and puts his arm around her waist. Her head drops to his shoulder, and she whispers, “Thank you for coming home with me… I know you didn’t have to…”
“Yes I did,” he says simply, and leaves it at that, because he genuinely wouldn’t be anywhere else.
Because as long as he’s with her, he’s home too.