Author's Website: http://www.geocities.com/tayla36/index.com

Warnings: Slash


After the Fire
by Tayla


We had left the nightmare of Hobbs Creek behind twenty minutes ago. I was driving and Bruce was moaning and holding his ribs at every rough patch of road.

"Bruce, maybe we should get you to the hospital"

"No man, I just want to get home."

"I don't think I can make it that far. We should pull over and call the state police and get you an
ambulance."

"John I'm not that badly hurt. Just some cuts and bruises."

"I don't know Bruce. You look pretty bad to me."

"Hey, who's the physical therapist here anyway."

"Physical therapist, not doctor."

"Hey, I know the difference between bruised and broken. I'll be okay."

I sighed but stopped arguing with him. I continued to drive with Bruce dozing beside me in the
passenger seat, my eyes getting heavier with every mile. Now that the adrenaline rush had worn off, I was crashing. I saw the sign for the motel and pulled into the parking lot.

Bruce roused from his doze. "Why are we stopping?"

"I was serious when I said I didn't think I could make it home."

"So we're stopping at a motel?" Bruce commented with a sly grin.

I laughed. "Don't worry about your virtue, I am way to tired for anything to happen."

Bruce laughed also. "Like anything would happen anyway. Even if you were short, black and female, I am just to sore to even think about it."

I left Bruce in the car and went to the office to get the room. When I came back and pulled the car around to one of the back units of the motel. Bruce had drifted off again just that quickly. I got
out and went around to the passenger seat.

"Bruce? Wake up man."

Bruce looked at me groggily. I helped him out of the car and together we limped into the room.
There's a small table with two rickety chairs. I settled Bruce into one of them.

There was only one bed. He frowned at me.

"I'm sorry man, I didn't think to ask for two beds."

"No big deal. Like I said I'm too sore to even think about it."

"Do you have a first aid kit in the car?"

"Yes, it's in the trunk."

I was expecting one of those little white metal cases. When I didn't find it, I took a look in what I
had assumed was an overnight bag. It wasn't. It was full of gauze and tape and plastic bottles of
peroxide and alcohol. Saline. Scissors. A stethoscope. A real portable medical supply store.

"Hey Bruce," I teased when I got back into the room. "First aid kit on steroids, or what?"

"Ha, very funny. I used to be an EMT. You never know what you're going to need at an accident
scene."

"Alright let's see if I can get you fixed up."

I started laying out supplies. Swabs and peroxide and suture bandages. I cleaned and dressed the
wound on his forehead and he didn't flinch once. He is probably the most honest person I have ever met. Totally without pretense. He's never ever flinched from my touch, even though he knows what happens when I have physical contact with someone. And this time was no exception.

I got a flash of a vision. When I get these visions sometimes I'm just a spectator, a disembodied
spirit watching as events unfold. Sometimes I see things from the viewpoint of another person. This time I was seeing through Bruce's eyes. I could see myself being dragged to that stake. Saw the wood being piled at the base of it and the gasoline being poured. The hiss of the flare coming to life.

But I also felt what Bruce had been feeling. Physically and emotionally for those few
moments, I was Bruce. I felt the cruel hands on my arms, holding me in place so I couldn't go to
Johnny's aid. Felt the pain in my ribs and abdomen and face and the ringing in my ears from
the beating I had taken. The anguish as the flare was lit. Our eyes had met across the clearing. The fear in Johnny's eyes. They were going to burn him. They were going to burn Johnny and I
couldn't stop it. And I had never told him . . .

The vision faded leaving that thought unfinished. I was back in the motel room. I was myself again and Bruce regarding me with his warm brown eyes. Well, one warm brown eye anyway. The other was swollen shut. I wonder what he hasn't told me. Must be important if it was on his mind when he thought I was going to die.

"I sure hope you didn't just see something that's gonna interrupt us getting some sleep."

"No. Just something from the past."

He looked interested. "Yours or mine?"

I gave a wry laugh. "Both actually."

"Ah." He replied. "Recent past?"

"Very recent."

He nodded, understanding. "That sucks, man. Bad enough you had to live through that once, without having to relive it in visions."

"The important thing is, we lived through it." Before he could reply and get too deeply into a
maudlin conversation, I got back to my first aid duties. "You want me to wrap your ribs? You
certainly have enough gauze in that bag."

He grinned and said, "Yeah, that might help me to breathe easier."

I grinned back at him. "Okay, you're going to have to tell me what I'm doing."

I managed to get him out of his sweater without hurting him too much. There were angry purple
bruises on his chest and abdomen. I was gently spreading liniment on the discoloration when I was caught in a vision again.

This time I relived what had caused the bruises. Again I was seeing things through Bruce's eyes,
although after the fist smashed into my face a few times, I wasn't seeing much. There were two men holding my arms while a third used my face and stomach for a punching bag. Thank God I snapped out of that vision pretty quickly.

"Oh Bruce man, they really did a number on you didn't they."

He brushed it off. "Wasn't so bad. I've taken worse from thrashing patients."

"You should know better than to try and lie to a psychic. I saw it. I felt it. You went through that
for me. You shouldn't have. I tried to send you away to protect you."

"I know. It was my choice to come back. After all, if I hadn't opened my big mouth to that
glorified meter maid, you wouldn't have been in danger." He gasped as the full implication of his
statement set in. "Oh man, it's all my fault. I almost got you killed."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I feel like it was."

"Bruce, it was those ignorant townspeople. They just didn't understand what I was trying to do."

"Johnny, they were going to kill you. They were going to burn you at the stake and there was
nothing I could do about it. And now you're making excuses for them?"

"I'm not trying to make excuses. It's just . . . I don't . . . " I stumbled over the words, not exactly
sure what I was trying to say. I tried again.

"What good would it do to get pissed off now? It's over. We survived. I'd rather just leave it and
move on."

He shook his head in disbelief. "You can just forgive them that easily?"

"Maybe not forgive, but I would like to forget it. Or maybe I'm just in shock. I might wake up
tomorrow and be mad as hell."

"Speaking of waking up, we need to get to sleep before that can happen."

I helped him out of the chair and over to the bed. "God Bruce. You're moving like an old man."

"Well I'm feeling like an old man. Just get me into bed."

"Anxious aren't you?" I said with a leer.

"Come on Johnny, quit fooling around." I couldn't tell if he was really nervous or just tired and
cranky.

I got him settled and he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

I got myself out of my own shirt and pants and collapsed on the bed beside him. He shifted a bit
as I settled, turning onto his side and throwing an arm over my chest . . .

. . . I gasped. Another vision. A brief flash of the future. My future. The not too distant future.
Bruce still had the wound on his forehead, but it had healed some. His eye was black and blue but not swelled shut. And he wasn't moving like and old man anymore.

He was hovering above me. We were both naked. My legs were wrapped around his waist and he was . . .

. . . Oh my. Definitely not moving like an old man.

Then I was out of the vision and back in that run down motel room.

I snuggle deeper into the pillow, Bruce's arm heavy across my chest. We're going to be lovers.
Sometime within the next few weeks. If nothing happens to change it. I hope it doesn't change.
Those few moments that I glimpsed were amazing. I never thought that I would enjoy that. Sex with a man. I guess I never really thought about it at all. I've only ever been with women and only one woman at that. I wonder if it will feel as good with Bruce. I wonder how we'll actually get to the point of climbing into bed together. I'm not even sure whose bed it was.

If there was one time I wished the vision had continued just a little longer . . . ah well. I suppose
I'll have to wait until it actually happens to get my questions answered.


END