The Scent Of You

Part 3 -- Bits & Pieces

When the two arrived back at Daniel’s place, the tension had ebbed somewhat but Darren still wasn’t opening up any.

"Where’s the rest of your stuff?" Daniel asked, partly just to break the thick silence veiling the air.

Darren shrugged. His shoulders seemed bony even poking up beneath the semi-thick material of Daniel’s jacket. He made his way to Daniel’s stuffing leaking coach and plopped down rigidly, sighing.

"I don’t know, didn’t bother to ask when they took everything away from me. Back at Brackenledge, I’d wager. I don’t care."

Daniel nodded, more to himself than anyone else, and took a seat next to his groggy eyed companion.

"We can swing by tomorrow and pick ‘em up."

"It was just a duffel bag."

"*A* duffel bag?" Daniel asked incredulously.

Darren snorted, "Didn’t plan on staying long."

"Oh?" the blond risked a side long glance that was met with two muddy blue eyes and deathly silence before turning away to pick up the remote and flicking on the tv.

The Late Late Show started up, filling the room with the audiences’ claps.

"I was just going to drop by, see how you were doing. Colbs had something planned when I got back…" Darren’s voice sounded meek and the usual breathlessness was still there, if not more feathery by his weakened and exhausted state.

Daniel considered prying and asking what exactly Colby had planned on, but decided to be polite. After all, his friend was in no mood to deal with petty jealousy that Daniel might’ve dished out.

"Does Colby know about what happened?"

"She knows about my solo deal getting cut, but not about..this."

"You should call her."

Darren nodded but made no move to pick up the phone.

//Give him time.// Daniel reminded himself. "I wonder why the thieves didn’t take your bag…" he asked aloud to avoid them lapsing into silence again.

Darren glared at him weakly before returning his attention to the tv, "They took my wallet, that was bad enough. I had all my credit cards, money in there. There was nothing important in my bag except some extra clothes, toothpaste, toothbrush…" he growled, "and my damned lyrics."

Daniel turned to look at his friend, "lyrics?"

A nod, "Yeah. Was planning on going over them, working out some tunes with you. Thought maybe we could start on the third Savage Garden album."

Daniel could’ve jumped up and wept with joy, but he merely smiled thinly to hide his excitement. He didn’t think they’d ever *see* eachother again, much less work on a third album.

Darren sighed and felt somewhat disappointed at Daniel’s subdued reaction. He was supposed to smile and laugh and hug him, tell him how great that would be, to get working on their next album together. But he didn’t. And pride kept Darren from prodding Daniel on and asking what he thought about it. So what if he didn’t seem too overjoyed, Darren could always change his mind and say he didn’t want any part of Savage Garden anymore.

Silently and moodily, Darren curled up on the couch as best as possible and closed his eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"Sleeping, what does it look like?"

Daniel stood, "No, you can take the bed Daz. You need it more than I do, and you have to take those meds the doctor gave us."

Shrugging, Darren made to pass Daniel and disappeared into the dark of Daniel’s bedroom without a single ‘good night.’

"Your meds, Darren." Daniel called.

"I don’t need them!" the singer shouted back.

"Like hell you don’t." Daniel grumbled and fumbled around in his jacket pocket, finding the transparent orange bottle and popped it open. Grabbing a glass of water and a small, pearl white pill, Daniel flicked on the lights to his bedroom. He kneeled down by the side of the bed and gestured for Darren to sit up.

Sighing, Darren propped his back up with a pillow and ran a hand through his bedraggled locks.

"Do I have to?" in an almost child like voice.