| Thoughts on a Friend by loui |
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| Disclaimer: Darien, Hobbes and all Characters of the Invisible Man show are property of others, including, but not limited to: USA Networks Studios, Sci-Fi, and Stu Segal Productions, all rights reserved. Author�s notes: This has got some spoilers for a couple of S1 episodes, but as I�ve only been watching the show a couple of weeks, I�m afraid I don�t know all the episode titles - not yet at least. This is my first IMan fic, I�m still getting used to the characters so any feedback on what needs changed would be greatly appreciated. I�ve created a mythical set of relations for Bobby, as I said I�m new to watching the show, if he�s got real ones, I haven�t come across that episode yet. <G> All right, before these notes become as long as the fic itself, two last things. One, this is unbetaed. Grammar and I have a nodding acquaintance but I do tend to go my own way. Two, I live in the UK and the spelling reflects that fact. Hope you like the fic. This takes place right after the first season Episode"Flowers for Hobbes" ~ Webmistress -- Thoughts on a friend by Loui Finally home, Bobby Hobbes shut his door and leaned back against it with a sigh. These past two days of his life would go down as a bit of a mixed bag, both nightmare and blessing. Recovering stolen sperm, manufactured genius-producing retroviruses� when did his life get even weirder than it already had been? Answer� when he got partnered with the Invisible Man. Eyes still closed, Bobby allowed his thoughts to drift to a somewhat happier topic, his niece Bobbie back in New York. The niece named for him. The niece he wasn�t allowed to see - not as long as he �stayed with all that cloak and dagger shit�. Bobby winced. His sister had her reasons. Widowed at thirty-three, her FBI agent husband gunned down during a screwed-up bust, she didn�t want Bobbie anywhere near the world that took her father�s life. Even if that meant her uncle was restricted to cards and presents sent to her at birthdays and Christmas. He understood� he really did. Bobbie would love Darien, though. His partner - when not being forced to think about how screwed up his life had become - had an air of exuberance about him. Fawkesy knew how to have fun. Not to mention the whole invisibility thing - not that he would - not even under pain of death - but Bobbie would just flip out if she found out her uncle�s friend could turn invisible. Who was he kidding? She�d take one look at Fawkes and flip out anyway. Fawkes turned female heads wherever he went, half the time without even realising it, which only made them like him all the more. He�d seen Bobbie once in the last year - and then, only for an hour or so - but he could hear her voice as clearly as if she was standing right beside him, and he knew what she�d say. She�d take one look at Darien and then whisper - loudly - to him and say, "Uncle Bobby, your friend Mr. Fawkes is a fox!" His friend. Opening his eyes, still smiling at the thought of his niece, Bobby wandered his way through to the kitchen and snatched a cold beer from the fridge - what the Keeper didn�t know wouldn�t get him in trouble - made his way into his living room and sprawled on the couch. He�d hurt his friends, by words and by actions. They�d all forgiven him and firmly put the blame on the damn virus where it belonged. Still, those words had come from him. Why was it, when he couldn�t remember anything else, he could still remember the look on Darien�s face as he�d stood there in the corridor outside the Official�s office and basically told his friend and partner that he was an insignificance that he no longer wanted to be bothered with?! Bobby sighed and put his bottle of beer on the coffee table next to the couch. He�d gone into this latest gig as an agent in the Department of Fish and Game with his armour of cynicism firmly in place; he�d screwed up one to many times, and long given up putting trust in partners - they all eventually let him down; to believe that this job was going to be anything different. And then, the final indignity! They had teamed him up with someone who didn�t even want to be an agent! A person who would have preferred to be anywhere but where he was and doing practically anything but what he was being made to do! An ex-thief - who was only �ex� because he had got caught - otherwise he would probably still be doing his stuff, and Arnaud would have killed Kevin Fawkes, and the bad guys would be the people running around with Quicksilver glands, and� it was enough to give a guy a headache! Bobby stretched and smiled. Unlikely a scenario as it initially seemed, the Quicksilver gland in Darien Fawkes� head was probably in the safest place it could be. The Kid may not like to admit it, but he was getting pretty good at the agent stuff. He was also willing to learn. A partner willing to listen to the voice of experience was a welcome change of pace indeed. For a thief, Fawkes also had a strong sense of right and wrong. When he thought about all the possible places the gland could have ended up, Bobby�s primary feeling was relief. It had the best �keeper� that it could. That didn�t mean he didn�t want it out of his partner�s head nearly as badly as the Kid did. Not many men could wander around with a ticking time bomb in their head and cope as well as Darien was doing. Bobby grimaced slightly. He knew the Official and the Keeper; even Eberts too, wondered why he was apparently quite willing to be partnered with a man that could easily go Quicksilver mad and turn on him - after all, it had happened once already. He�d been offered the chance to be reassigned after that incident - he�d done what he�d been tasked to do. He�d kept the agency�s invisible agent alive during his transitory months from criminal to �good guy�. Another person could have been assigned to be Darien�s partner / back up / watchdog. He�d turned down their offer without hesitation. Surprising him no end, his gut feeling had been to stick with Fawkes, that it would be the right thing to do. The partnership worked. Unanticipated as it was by the powers that be, unexpected by both he and Fawkes, the partnership that had been forced on them had forged a bond between them that actually worked! They were good at what they did, given time and patience they could become great. There were a handful of legendary partnerships within the American intelligence community� if fate didn�t screw them over, he and Fawkes could become another. Bobby shifted into a sitting position, reaching out to fidget absently with the label on his beer bottle. Darien Fawkes was his partner. The minute he�d acknowledged that fact to himself, he�d known he�d die to protect the man. That was what a partner did, especially if that partner was Bobby Hobbes. Adding the friendship that they shared to the equation only made that fact even more incontrovertible. He would die to save Darien, without hesitation or regret. At the same time, he�d also acknowledged to himself that he didn�t and wouldn�t expect the same actions from Darien. It wasn�t that he thought the man was uncaring or a coward, nothing could be further from the truth! Darien was a good friend, a friend that occasionally let his feelings of right and wrong overcome his self-preservation. Darien willingly flung himself into the path of danger to protect people - that was not the actions of a man afraid to face death. He just hadn�t expected Darien to understand the full ramifications of letting his partner become his best friend. Today, five minutes in the �rubber-room� at the agency had shown him how wrong he�d been about that! His civilian, ex-criminal partner, the man coerced into being an agent, had sat in front of him, taken all the shit he had spouted and then shown exactly how much he would give to get his partner and friend back. For that, Darien had offered his life - without hesitation and without regret. Bobby stopped fidgeting with the beer bottle label and rubbed his palms across his face, trying to banish the sight of the plunger pressing down and the virus entering his partner�s thigh. Eyes closed, he took a deep shuddering breath and when he opened them again, they were bright with unshed tears. It had been a long, long while since he had a partner that he knew would die for him. A long, long while since someone had cared that much about him. It was a gift he had no intention of losing any time soon. Hand reaching out for his phone, Bobby called his best friend. "Hey Fawkes� Yes, I�m fine. Really. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go get a pizza and a beer, or something?�� Bobby fought - and lost - the urge to grin at his partner�s enthusiastic response at the offer of getting out of his apartment for some fun and relaxation. "Okay, Kid. I�ll pick you up in an hour." Bobby hung up with a grin. Life was certainly a lot more colourful since he�d met the Invisible Man. A lot more fun too. |