Before we get going, thank you so much!!! All you readers have pushed this story over the 100th reader mark! I know it's not a big deal, considering how many other stories have 1k or 1m, but it's amazing to me so thank you again!!
Word Count: 2016
Trigger Warnings: swearing, panic attack, not following the speed limit.
Joan is driving right at the speed limit as Talyn calls up Terrence and Valerie. Their voice fills the car with "I can't get to Thomas... yeah we saw the news... no... fuck! We're on our way over anyway, try and see if you can-.... exactly. Thank you guys so much.... me too. Bye." They hang up.
"On their way?" Joan asks, cutting in front of a slow car.
"Yep. Apparently, the media has all of Sanders' houses on watch, so we'll probably be on TV in the next ten minutes."
"Shit."
"Exactly."
"...we're still going." They say it full of certainty.
"Unless you're having second thoughts, yeah."
"Perfect." Joan starts weaving through traffic, perhaps going just a tiny bit over the limit but no one pays attention to those signs anymore so who cares?
In no time, they arrive at Thomas' house, which has about ten TV station vans and a bunch of milling reporters. Joan smirks and drives right on through, forcing the gossip journalists to scatter. They park in the driveway, both of them running out of the car and to the front door. Ignoring the squawking people behind them, Talyn unlocks the door and ushers Joan in before following and locking the door again.
"Where would they be?" Talyn asks as they glance outside at the indignant crowd.
"Living room I guess," Joan answers, leading the way. They stop at an opening, staring into it in shock. Talyn pushes their way forward and freezes.
The Sanders are in the room, all accounted for. The TV is on in front of them.
Thomas is on his knees, clutching his head in his hands, repeatedly saying, "I never should have gone out, I never should have walked home."
Patton is staring off at the wall, his eyes glazed over, tears pouring down his face.
Remus is scratching his wrists, whimpering out "Worthless, fuck-up."
Remy is staring at horror at his bloodied fingers, no doubt from the cuts on his bare arms.
Logan is scratching his chest with bloody fingers, muttering, "Robot, heartless, monster."
Devin is just staring numbly at his bare arms, which have fresh cuts on them.
Emile is shaking, hands held above his chest like he's holding a knife pointed at his heart. "I should have seen it," he whispers over and over again.
Roman is clutching at his arms, trying to hold it together, but his arms have blood on them.
Virgil is choking himself, tears threatening to fall as he gasps out "Couldn't protect Thomas."
Joan and Talyn can't tear their eyes away, can't stop watching the car speeding at another to it's inevitable death. It's too similar to the scene they found after arriving back home via last minute airline tickets after hearing about Thomas. Six in hospital beds and three broken people next to them.
After what feels like an eternity, Talyn wrenches their gaze away and walks in, choosing Virgil to stop first. They start talking as reassuringly as they cautiously touch Virgil, dragging his hands away from his neck after he doesn't react. "Virgil, can you hear me? Virgil?"
"T-t-tal-lyn?" the anxious author stutters out.
"I'm here." That simple confirmation makes Virgil faintly smile, before collapsing in their arms. "I gotcha."
Meanwhile, Joan approaches Remus. They grab his wrists, making Remus snarl at them. Joan just snarls right back. Remus blinks, then blinks again slowly. "Joan?" he whispers, confused.
"Back in the present mister?"
Remus frowns, thinking. "I think so? Wait, why's there blood..."
After laying Virgil on the couch, Talyn turns to Logan. They have no idea where the blood's coming from... "Logan?" they ask. No response. "Logan Crofters Roboten Braine Sanders you are not heartless, now can you hear me?"
His hands still, his eyes meet Talyn's. "But I am..."
Talyn shakes their head. "No you're not. You love Patton with all your heart, correct?"
"Technically it's the brain that loves... but yes..."
"And you are happy whenever you see the fam?"
"Yes..."
"Then you are not heartless," Talyn concludes. Logan runs the numbers and agrees, because he smiles just the tiniest bit and stands up, going over to Patton.
Remus moved to Dee's side so Joan picks Emile next. "Hey Em," they say softly, watching his eyes. "Can you hear me?" A pause in his mumbling. "Em, I need you to list all the characters named in the intro of Steven Universe for me. Can you do that?"
Emile takes a shuttering breath, lowering his hands to his sides. "Um.. there's Garnet-t... Amethy-thyst... P-Pearl... and Stev-ven.."
"Good. Three fusions?"
"Garnet... Stevonnie... and, uh, Smokey Quartz?"
"Wonderful. Two diamonds."
"Pink and.. Blue.."
"And one thing you love about Remy."
"His eyes," Emile replies immediately.
"You back on Earth with me Emile?"
"I believe so."
Remus kneels in front of Dee, gently interlocking their hands. Dee glances at their hands, tilting his head curiously. "Dee?"
"This is new..." Dee murmurs.
"Actually this is ten years new," Remus whispers.
"What?" Dee looks up at Remus, shocked. "I-I... Remus?"
"Snek boi." Dee huffs out a laugh, rollin this eyes. "You back with me now?"
"Princey's premiere, gossip columnists, insensitive news anchor. Sadly it's all real, isn't it?"
"Sorry snek." Dee flicks his tongue at Remus, who just laughs.
Meanwhile Talyn and Joan combine efforts with Roman, who's having a panic attack.
"Roman, listen to me. It's going to be okay, everyone's fine, everyone's alive," Joan comforts.
"Touch?" Talyn asks. Roman nods quickly, Talyn gently wrapping him in a hug.
Joan counts out, "Four seconds for inhale," and Roman tries to follow them. "Seven hold in. And eight exhale."
After a minute or two Roman's steady voice says, "Better." His breathing is more or less even.
Joan asks, "Back with us?"
Roman takes a deep breath. "Yeah. Yes I'm back with you."
Meanwhile Logan sat down next to Patton. He lifts one of the fluffy blankets from the couch and sets it around Patton's shoulders. Patton flinches, then pauses and looks at the blanket in confusion. "Who?"
"Patton," Logan says, reaching out to touch his boyfriend's hand. Patton looks up at Logan, down at their hands, then back up at Logan.
"Lo-gan?" he asks brokenly.
"Salutations."
After being calmed down, Emile walks over to Remy. "Hey." No response. Emile sits down in front of Remy. "Can you hear me on?" Nothing. Emile bites his lip in thought. "What's she telling you," he asks lowly.
"I'm not worthy of you. I'm not worthy of a family. I'm gonna end up just like her, it's guaranteed. She's my blood, there's no way out of it," Remy whispers out, staring off.
"Not true," Emile replies. "Only I get to decide who's worthy of me and I wouldn't choose anyone who isn't you, Remy. I don't care about your past, who gave birth to you and all that jazz. I care about who you are. And you are so much more than her, so much more than she ever could have been. You are you, you're Remy. And I love you." Emile gently kisses Remy, who after a few seconds responds back.
"I love you too," he replies.
Everyone, including Virgil who had woken up before Roman could kiss him, gathers around Thomas, who is clutching his head and crying. "Thomas?" Emile asks, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder.
"I never should have been there," Thomas whimpers our, seemingly deaf to the outside world.
They look at each other and silently decide what to do. Patton hugs Thomas' middle, Dee pries one of his hands from his hair while Roman does the same with the other, Remy settles a blanket around Thomas and Patton, and Virgil forces Thomas to look him in the eye. Logan, Remus, Joan, and Talyn stand back, not wanting to crowd Thomas.
"Thomas," Virgil says, "it's okay, we're all alive. We don't blame you, it's not your fault."
"But-"
"It's not your fault," Virgil repeats. "It will never be your fault."
~~~
"What do you mean, they've staked out our houses?" Remus yells. Dee hisses in response.
Virgil scrolls through his social media in Roman's lap as Roman does the same on his phone. "Yeah it's all over the news. My fans are rallying with me apparently, generally yelling at the journalists to leave us alone and stuff."
"Same on my end," Roman agrees.
Joan lets Terrence and Valerie in, cameras going off in the background. "It's bad out there," Terrence comments, dropping his bag at the door.
"We're not getting out of here any time soon," Valerie continues.
"Logan," Patton whimpers, staring in shock at his phone.
"Patton?" Logan rushes over to his boyfriend. "What is it?" Patton shows his phone, on which is a headline. " 'Lawyer Logan Braine lives with Social Worker Patton Hearte' " Logan reads out loud. As he scrolls through the article, he says, "It goes on to theorize that we're in a relationship, are cheating on others, or some form of scandalous behavior. Patton," Logan turns to his boyfriend, "I love you and we'll deal with this together, okay?"
"I love you too Lo," Patton replies, hugging Logan.
Dee's phone rings. Everyone watches him as he answers in his military voice. "Yes. I know. We're going to address it together.... No one knows who exactly I am, but they have traced me back to my born name.... They have my face... I know this could complicate things-.... Yes I know the director's gonna be pissed.... Oh he already knows.... Great, just great..... Yeah yeah, fine.... Alright, I'll come in after I deal with this.... If I have to lay low, that's what I'll do. Fine." He hangs up.
"So how much trouble are we in?" Remy asks, sipping his coffee.
Dee sighs as he drags a hand through his hair. "The director's pissed, but he understands. I have to come in for a debriefing after we deal with this, but I'll probably have to lay low for a bit before they let me out again."
"But you're not in trouble?" Roman asks, sounding a little guilty.
"Nope."
"Good to hear," Thomas says before turning the TV back on.
It opens to Mr. Murphy sarcastically bashing the media for asking where Roman is on live TV from the outside of his house.
Thomas changes channels, landing on a live feed of Virgil's house with a very angry Puerto Rican older woman threatening reporters with some knitting needles and a sandal.
"Señora Rosa!" Virgil yells. "Why is she outside, I told her to not bother with them?!"
Patton laughs as Thomas tries again. This time, it lands on the live coverage of Remus and Dee's house, an old Victorian style mansion with Halloween decorations up even though September isn't for two more months. A sleazy looking man is walking up to the door, but slips and lands in the plants. He screams as the camera zooms in to show that the plants are in fact thorn bushes and have ripped into the now bleeding man.
"Someone's getting sued," Remy trills.
Thomas tries one more time, and lands on the very beginning of Frozen. "Okay, let's plan what we're gonna do as a press statement while this plays."
Everyone agrees and gathers together on the floor.
They have no idea where Logan got the whiteboards and markers from.
Nor where the cookie platter Patton pulled out came from.
And how Dee managed to, half way through the movie, have a snake curled around his neck.
AND IN THE NAME OF ALL THINGS ALIVE, WHERE IS REMY'S COFFEE COMING FROM AND WHY IS IT IN STARBUCKS CUPS HE HASN'T GOTTEN UP ONCE AND YET IT'S STILL FULL??? SOMEONE EXPLAIN HOW THIS DEFIES THE LAWS OF REALITY PLEASE??