Title: Sold Out
Author: nev
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine.
Rating: PG
Fandom/Pairing: "S.W.A.T."; Jim Street/Brian Gamble
Feedback: please, please, please (pari106@hotmail.com)
A/N: the ending of this will make more sense if you've seen the movie, and may be considered a bit of a spoiler for what happens therein. Dialogue at the beginning is taken from the movie and rewritten slightly.
Sold Out
By Nev
"Six years we've been partners, and you chose the job over me!"
He threw his badge in Jim's direction. Jim caught it with one hand. It felt cold and heavy in his palm; the perfect companion to the weight in Jim's chest, the thickness gathering in his throat.
"You chose yourself over everything else," Jim replied quietly.
Brian threw his piece into his bag and scooped it up, practically shaking with rage. The last thing he was at that moment was quiet. Even his posture shouted things at Jim - ugly things, loud and clear. His eyes screamed betrayal. They struck Jim like nothing else could.
He wasn't the one who'd betrayed their partnership.
He wasn't.
"Fine. Stay here and be Fuller's bitch then," Brian sneered. Jim flinched at his tone. "I can't."
Bri slammed his locker door shut with such violence it swung back open. Then he whirled and planted his fist into the locker next to it. The metal buckled and bent with the impact.
"I can't!" he repeated.
He couldn't back off; couldn't back down. Couldn't see Jim's willingness to do what he couldn't as anything other than rejection. Couldn't see any other way of doing things than his own. Never could.
How had Jim never realized that before?
Why couldn't he just watch him walk away, even now that he had?
"Six years," he said to Brian's back. "And you're gonna end it like this?"
He hated the hopefulness in his tone, and the lack of it. He hated the silent plea for forgiveness. He didn't need to be forgiven.
Brian stopped. And turned.
He was across the room in a few, long strides.
And the back of Jim's head was smashing into the glass of the mirror behind him before Jim had even thought to defend himself. He clutched at Brian's arms as Brian clenched one fist in the front of his shirt, and the other around a fistful of his hair, nearly lifting Jim off his feet.
"Brian..." he began, before Brian slammed him against the mirror again. Little shards of glass fell around them, and Jim's vision blurred. He hadn't had anything to say anyhow. There was too much. Brian's hand at the back of his head came away smeared with blood.
"I'm not the one who's ending it," he said, voice gone deadly and low. Only the lingering emotion in his big, brown eyes and the slightest quaver in the last of his words contradicted the ice in his tone and the blank expression on his face.
"Bri..."
Then Brian crushed Jim's mouth beneath his own, before pushing the other man aside and walking away.
"Remember that," he tossed over his shoulder as he left.
In the train yard, Jim falls to his knees and doubles over, pressing his forehead against the cold, hard ground. He squeezes his eyes shut to block out the sight of death and finality right in front of him. He tastes blood and dirt and Brian. And his own tears.
And tries to forget.
[End.]
A/N: I thought "S.W.A.T." was great, and easily one of the more slashable movies I've seen lately :p I thought writing Street/Gamble would be easy... Um, it wasn't really. But that's probably because writing anything has been like pulling teeth for me lately. In any case, this is a fandom and a pairing I'd so like to see more of. I encourage anyone who's interested to give it a shot. And please let me know if you've seen any S.W.A.T. slash out there. Also, let me know what you think of this! Thanks!
A/N2: I'm aware the Street characterization feels a little weak in this. I was thinking that he'd be really stricken by what had happened, with his career and between him and Brian, if he and Gamble were in a relationship at the time (in my world, they were ;) Plus, he wasn't particularly defensive in the scene in the movie, either. Feeling either too guilty or resigned to fight back. But give me your opinion if you have one.