Joe
It’s close to midnight when Andy finally drifts off on the armchair. Nile pushes a pillow under her head before returning to her bed. Joe pulls her back by the wrist, and she indulges him with a soft smile.
He itches to draw her then, for how much kindness she seems to radiate like a beacon.
“We are very lucky to have found you,” he says earnestly.
Her cheeks redden a little as he lets her arms drop back to her side. She shrugs her shoulder, which roughly translates to, no big deal.
He scoffs at that and takes both her hands in his.
“I mean it Nile. You’re one of the fiercest, kindest souls I’ve ever encountered. You returned to rescue us mere days after you’d met us. You fell through a window to protect Andy,” he starts.
“Well it’s not like I can die,” she interjects. She’d squirming a little under the weight of his words and her eyes are shiny. He squeezes her hands lightly before dropping them.
“I’m honored to call you my sister, my family,” he says.
A tear creeps down her cheek and she hastily wipes it away with the back of her hand before returning to her bed. Her breathing’s evened out by the time Nicky enters the room. He’s silent as he clambers onto the bed and presses his side up against Joe’s.
Nicky’s head falls against his shoulder, and Joe lifts a hand to run through the slightly unruly strands of his hair.
“We should wait on a little more information from Copley before going,” Nicky says.
Joe pulls back a little to look him in the eye, confused.
“It was her Nicky. I’d know her anywhere,” he says.
“Booker said he needed help Joe. That means trouble,” Nicky counters.
Booker’s name brings on another tide of anger, hurt and frustration searing through him. If the Frenchman had somehow managed to get himself into trouble in the one week they’d left him alone, Joe was going to kill him when he found him.
“Screw Booker,” Joe hisses. He knows he sounds like a child but Nicky only makes a clicking noise, ever patient, as he presses closer to him. Nicky’s hand covers his heart, and Joe brings up his own hand to intertwine with it.
“Quynh has spent the last 500 years in the ocean drowning Joe. She’s not the same woman we lost,” Nicky says softly.
“She’s still Quynh,” Joe says stubbornly. He’s not sure who he’s trying to convince.
All he knows is that he’ll never be able to forgive himself if she’s broken in a way that can’t be fixed after he abandoned her to her fate all those years ago. She has to be their Quynh, or eventually be their Quynh. The woman he traded stories over warm fires with. The woman that called him her brother within just days of meeting him.
“She is still Quynh but she has been tortured in a most inhumane way Yusuf,” Nicky says.
“We’ll find her. We’ll help her,” Joe replies instantly.
He turns to face Nicky, who tilts his head back so their foreheads fall against each other.
“We will help her Joe. I’m only urging us to be careful,” Nicky says.
He can tell Joe isn’t convinced, because despite understanding exactly where Nicky’s coming from, Joe cannot make out Quynh to be a threat in his mind. It’s foolish, but she’s frozen in his memory exactly as he lost her.
“We’ve just saved ourselves Joe. I can’t, I don’t,” Nicky says, before faltering.
Nicky draws in a long breath before releasing it shakily.
And Joe remembers all too vividly, the bullet through Nicky’s mouth, the blood and bones he’d washed out of his hair later. The fear of being trapped and experimented on forever. They hadn’t taken much time to recover since then, hadn’t even taken much time to breath.
“We’ll be careful Nicky. We’ll wait,” Joe says immediately.
He lifts a hand to cup the back of Nicky’s neck, finger stroking over the light stubble on his jawline. Nicky’s still far away, mind trapped in the lab that they could have spent eternity in.
“And once Quynh is back, and better, we’ll spend a year in Malta,” Joe promises teasingly.
And it’s all it takes for Nicky to return to him.
The corner of Nicky’s mouth quirks up in a smile and after all these years, after all he’s seen, he still thinks it’s most the beautiful sight the world has to offer.
He’d once teasing Nicky about how a little flirtation was enough to dispel his cloudy moods. Nicky had chuckled wryly at that, shaking his head as he replied matter-of-factly.
It’s not the flirting Yusuf. It’s just you. Your voice.
And then he’d proceeded to comment on a shawl he’d noticed in one of the market stalls they’d walked past, like the words he’d uttered weren’t the sweetest ones Joe had ever heard.
“Make it two years,” Nicky murmurs against his lips, bringing him back to the present.
Joe laughs a little and they fall into their usual place, with Nicky tucked against his chest. Neither of them sleep much that night, but they stay like that. Two bodies, one soul. Nicky’s heartbeat is steady beneath the palm of his hand and in it, Joe finds his peace.
Joe doubts he’ll find any sleep though until Quynh returns, and the haunted look he’s seen on Andy’s face far too many times over the past centuries finally begins to fade.