Till Death Do Us Part ~ Part 2 of The Slade Tales

By E.C.

Fandom: OZ

Pairings: Tobias Beecher/Chris Keller, featuring Sister Pete and Shirley Bellinger.

Disclaimers: Fontana is an angry and spiteful creator, so I swiped the boys and their comrades in order to treat them in a much more respectful fashion with no intention of cashing in. The song "Ex Factor" by Lauryn Hill is also being snatched for non-profit usage.

Notes: This is yet another songfic inspired by a tune with NO RELATION to Slade! Call me crazy *shouts of "you're crazy!"* but it seems to work. *grin*

This is the sequel to "He Brings Out The Devil In Me," set in the same timeframe...basically same story, only from Chris Keller's point of view. Yes, I know he's DEAD, but to paraphrase Augustus Hill, that don't mean he can't keep jawin'. *grin* Special Guests include a visit from the Ghost Of Death Row Past, Shirley Bellinger.

Originally beta'd by my buddy Carmie, but you can still blame all screw-ups on my monkey ass. *grin*

The Slade Tales 2: Till Death Do Us Part
By E.C

"Tobias?"

I glance up from Toby's face as Sister Pete calls out his name. Damn, when did she get here? I'm finding it harder and harder to keep track of time these days. For one thing, it's just too much to be laying beside Toby, so close but so fucking far away at the same time. I can't reach out and touch that strawberry blonde head, can't run my hands over flawless pale skin and lean ropes
of muscle stretched taut underneath...

It's all physical and it's all beautiful and it's all Toby. All of it mine. Shame that that shit don't really matter a hell of a lot when you're dead.

"Ain't that the truth. You still slinking around here, sugar?"

I turned my head to see Shirley Bellinger sitting in the nearby chair, hands folded primly over her crossed legs. Even in prison garb, she's the picture of perfect grooming with her upswept hair and flawless makeup. I'm a little spooked to see that I can make out the rope burn scars on her throat.

"When did you get here?" I ask.

She shrugs. "I pop in and out. This was my cell, too, you know." She gazed at the bars with an almost wistful look. "Those were the days."

I chuckled, settling more comfortably on the bunk as I watched Toby rise from his place beside me. He glides to the front of his cell, posessed by a fluid grace he'd never had in all the years I knew him.

"He's a handsome one." Shirley comments, giving Toby's ass a cool, assessing glance.

"Spoken for." I reply shortly.

"Oh, that so? Need I remind you, Mr. Keller, that you ARE dead."

"Don't matter. He's spoken for...he's fucking MINE."

Shirley laughed, and the gentle sound grates on my nerves. "Now don't get your hackles up, honey...I'm just here to make polite conversation. Didn't mean to rile you."

"Sorry, you're right." I grudgingly apologized. "I just find it harder an' harder to NOT wanna break someone's neck these days. Especially with Toby around. Damn...you'd think my libido would give it a rest after *I* finally did, wouldn't ya?"

Shirley just chuckled. "He thinks you're trying to posess him, you know. That's what they're talking about."

I watch Toby talk with Sister Pete for a few moments, having tuned out their conversation in favor of chatting with Shirley. "He's right. I am."

Shirley raised a skeptical eyebrow. "That a fact? Now why would you wanna go and do something like that, sugar?"

"To keep him." I answer automatically as Toby moves away from the front of the cell and begins to pace. "To own him. To make sure I never lose him."

"That's why you set him up for your own murder?"

I stood up from the bunk, leaning against the back wall. "Sure. I figured that way I could keep my promise...we could finally be together in Heaven."

"You think you've got a chance, dumplin'? You think Heaven's even REAL? I haven't seen hide nor hair of any white light yet."

I shrug. "Who the fuck knows? I ain't seen it, either..." I trail off, grinning. "Then again, I never was real far from Heaven so long as I had Toby on his back, know what I mean? Toby an' me together...THAT'S Heaven, that's bigger than anything, even God. If He's real, he won't have the balls to keep us both out. I figure I'll wait around here for him, then we'll find out together." I pause, growing thoughtful. "I'll make sure he can't leave me."

"Like you did when you turned him over to the police?"

"I did what I had to." I snarled. "I couldn't spent the rest of my life in Oz without him."

"I thought you wanted him to forget Oz once he got out...forget you."

I glare at her suspiciously. "How do you know so fucking much?"

She shrugs playfully. "You'd be suprised how easy it is to eavesdrop when you're a ghost."

"You just don't get it." I finally continue after a long silence when Toby breaks away to pace the length of the cell. "He's out and all of a sudden he's in love with someone else. I never thought that was gonna happen...that he'd be so quick to forget me. That fucking goddamn teacher...no one's gonna take Toby from me. No one."

"Ah." Shirley sighed in understanding, rising from her chair to join me against the wall. "So this is all about ownership! You can give him up...but no one else can have him."

"Yes." I whisper. I knew it was insane, completely animal, but Toby was fucking MINE. He belonged to me and always would. The things we'd done to each other, all the fucking and fighting and killing and shanking...every intimate touch was another link in the chain that locked us together for all time, every drop of blood a brand that marked us as each other's property.

I'm no idiot. I know laying claim on Toby means letting him lay claim on me...but I don't really give a rat's ass anymore. It's been too long...too long since we fucked, since we were together...

Too long since we were happy.

I turn to Beecher as he leans against the bars of his cell, still talking, still thinking. Even now, he's still thinking, still fighting as I take what belongs to me. In life, I owned him body and mind...now that I'm dead, I'm gunning for his soul.

"...I told him if he loved me he'd leave me alone...he hasn't." Toby says softly to Sister Pete. "I begged for life...he couldn't let me have that, either. He gave me everything...his heart, his body, his soul. I didn't give him nearly enough in return. This is the price I have to pay."

"Fuck yeah, Toby." I say quietly, stepping towards him as I forget Shirley's presence in the cell. "I let you have it all, my fucking life included. I'm yours, baby...forever. Just like you're mine. As painful as this thing has been, I just can't be with no one else. You're the only one, Toby...you're the only one from now on. For always."

"That's not love, not REAL love. Real love has no price." Sister Pete says to Toby.

"Seems dear Christopher thinks differently, Sister." Shirley singsongs. I no longer hear her, I barely hear Sister Pete. I can smell Toby again, the warm clean scent of soap and skin filling me up and making my throat tight with emotion. God, he smells good...

"She's nuts." I tell Toby, whisper into his ear. I'm so close I have to believe he can feel me, sense me pressing in on him, posessing him totally.

"Love's got a great big fucking price tag, Toby, and I should know. I paid it. It's pain...not your soul, but your pain. OUR pain. We tossed a lot of that at each other, didn't we? Seems like we had more of that than we did of love, or even fucking. We could always count on hurting each other...BECAUSE of each other." I reach out to stroke his hair, and I almost believe I can feel it
beneath my fingers, silken and warm like always.

"That's in the real world, Sister Pete." Toby explains, his voice sending shivers down my non-existent spine. "That's for relatively normal people. Everyone's right, you know, we're a couple of sick and twisted fucks. Now we're sick and twisted together...you don't get much sicker than turning into your dead lover, do you? You don't get much more twisted than destroying another man from beyond the grave just so you can own him completely...never be afraid of losing him..."

"Never gonna lose you, baby." I whisper, winding my arms around him as I nuzzle the back of his neck. I know I'm imagining it, but his skin is so warm against me, so full of life, so goddamn motherfucking irresistible as always.

"You an' me, we're gonna be together forever. Nothing but me's ever gonna hurt you again."

"You can't do this! You can't lose yourself."

"I don't really have a choice."

//Don't even think about it, Sister.// I think to myself as I sink into the feel of Toby's body pressed against mine, his back warm and firm against my front. I can almost feel myself again, bone and sinew, tissue and blood pumping vibrant and alive through my veins. It's one of the things I always loved about Toby, how he made me feel so alive, so free even when I was locked in one
of those fucking fishbowls.

"There is always a choice. You have to be strong...you can't let despair win."

"It's not despair. It's not that at all. When he said he couldn't let me live, he didn't mean that he'd just let me get nailed for his murder...he meant that he wouldn't let me live...and he's not. He's not gonna let me live...not even long enough to see my own death."

Suddenly we're together again and it's better than sex, better than booze, better than X, better than anything there's ever been. I'm engulfed by Toby, assaulted by memories that become reality in the space of a heartbeat. It's New Years' Eve again and we're making love for the first time, all hesitant touches and months of passion spilling out in every kiss, every thrust...he's kissing me in the laundry room, that tentative touch of lips that turns so desperate and hungry in the blink of an eye...I'm hugging him in the middle of the quad, hacks and everyone be damned I have Toby back in my arms and I'm alive and he's with me and in me and PART of me and I just can't take it anymore...

"Tobias..."

I laugh with Toby's voice, feeling him everywhere even as I become him.

This is how it should be...my presence marking him permanently, making him finally and completely mine. I can no longer tell where he ends and I begin we're so close, and I'm content with that. I know he'll never love anyone else but me because he can't...he's gone. Toby's dead and so am I, both of us having surrendered to this indescribable thing that always binds us to each other, no matter how bad it hurts or how hard it gets to survive it. We're TobyChris, BeecherKeller, the beast with two backs, whatever you wanna call it.

I am his and he is mine. As it should be.

Briefly, I look forward to The Chair...dying ain't so hard, and I tell Toby that, soothing his fear. He holds on and my heart, our heart, threatens to break with sheer joy.

"Sorry, Sister." I whisper through his lips. "But if I couldn't have him...no one's gonna."

//No one loves you more than me,// I whisper to him silently, //and no one ever will.//

******************************

Ex-Factor Written & Performed by Lauryn Hill

It could all be so simple
But you'd rather make it hard
Loving you is like a battle
And we both end up with scars
Tell me, who I have to be
To get some reciprocity
No one loves you more than me
And no one ever will
Is this just a silly game
That forces you to act this way
Forces you to scream my name
Then pretend that you can't stay
Tell me, who I have to be
To get some reciprocity
No one loves you more than me
And no one ever will
Hook:
No matter how I think we grow
You always seem to let me know
It ain't workin'
It ain't workin'
And when I try to walk away
You'd hurt yourself to make me stay
This is crazy
This is crazy
I keep letting you back in
How can I explain myself
As painful as this thing has been
I just can't be with no one else
See I know what we got to do
You let go and I'll let go too
'Cause no one's hurt me more than you
And no one ever will
Repeat Hook
Care for me, care for me
I know you care for me
There for me, there for me
Said you'd be there for me
Cry for me, cry for me
You said you'd die for me
Give to me, give to me
Why won't you live for me

END