Best of a Bad Situation

[helpdesk_hero]

The worst part is that he can't REACH. Okay, no, the worst part was that he hadn't seen it coming. That he hadn't been better at this. But he'd been taking their kid, their little boy, to the doctor. It was stupid that he even had to. But David wasn't a pediatrician, and he was big on the 'don't treat your family unless it's an emergency,' and so it had been a trip to the doctor for what was clearly an inner ear infection that he needed to get a script of ear drops for.

They'd taken them in the car. Run him off the road and the car had flipped and were it not for the baby seat, things would have been worse. Everything after that had been... distant. Foggy. Terrible until David had woken up in a non-descript room, woken by his little boy, in a literal cage, crying and screaming. David, chained to a wall and bleeding from his brow and dizzy, just wants to reach across to grab his baby and hold him close. Less than a year old, no way he could understand what was going on. couldn't understand why his daddy didn't just pick him up.

"Shhhh, shhh baby. It's okay. It's gonna be okay."

They want his money. They want his secrets. And they intended to let his son get very sick and very weak to make sure that David was willing to work with them.

And he knew it would work.

Comments

[zoomandboom]

It'd just been a normal day. Or as normal as a day in their lives could get, since his brother was an almost-god, his brother-in-law was a space emperor, and he was married to one of the richest men alive, and they were all sort-of superheroes. Normal wasn't really a part of Tommy's general life. But it was an average day, anyway. Luke had been kind of fussy, and Tommy had asked David if he wanted Tommy to stay home with them, but David promised he had it. Tommy had gone to a team meeting with the others who were on the planet and then run to help with the search and rescue from a fire in California.

He wasn't supposed to come home from that to an empty house and a demand for David's hard drives. No sign of his husband or their son. Tommy's heart stopped and he was actually frozen for a second, foreign as that was for him, paralyzed by fear and not sure what to do. They'd all had incidents over the years, where one or another of them was threatened or taken. David got threats more often than most because he was the most well known, and had the most money and influence. But it'd never been BOTH of them. Tommy's whole world, already taken.

Tommy made himself breathe and try to think not of what he wanted to do - which was immediately start running to every single place in the city to search for them and then start working outwards - but what David would do. Be smart. Alert the others. Try to track them.

He managed not to break the phone when he called Billy, fiercely glad they didn't have Katie here too right now. He explained and let Billy and Teddy start taking charge of organizing things, and then Tommy quickly reviewed all the security footage from their house.

David left with Lucas under his own power - he'd texted Tommy about the doctor, so that made sense. Tommy tracked the car then, and found it offline, but he ran to where it'd been last to start searching from there.

[helpdesk_hero]

Too bad there weren't many clues there. Whoever had his them had been thorough. But it's also not like Tommy had to do it alone. He isn't there long before Kate's there too, Hawkeye looking stressed and angry and ready to kill.

"What you got?" she asks as she moves to join the speedster, frowning at the overturned car. And she sighs. "Not enough blood for him to be dead. Baby seat gone too. That's the best I can give you."

[zoomandboom]

Tommy scowled. "He's not DEAD. They want shitfromhim. He's not going to be dead." The mushed words was a giveaway that Tommy was not on solid footing - he hadn't done it much for years.

"Nothing on the security at home. The GPS for his phone and the car cuts out here," Tommy said. He looked around. "There's gotta be a traffic cam that might have caught something though." If he could get the vehicle they'd taken him in, and figure out where it went, then maybe he could find them.

Usually it was David who'd do stuff like checking footage or stuff like that. But he wasn't here. He called Billy again, asking him to check, and then moving anxiously around while he waited, looking again and again for some other trace, frowning when he found Lucas' little plush bunny toy under the ruined seat, its arm torn. He shoved it in his pocket, loath to leave it.

[helpdesk_hero]

Kate's mostly just following because the team had agreed that someone need to try and keep Tommy sane. Nothing can make a good hero go bad so fast as losing their family. And someone has to keep him sane.

"Did... they tell you where they wanted whatever they want delivered to? Maybe... maybe just this once we give it to them?"

[zoomandboom]

"His hard drives," Tommy said. "But he's gonna have everything passworded and encrypted. They'll need him to open it all up for them. So if he won't, they might hurt Luke to make him. And if he does, then they WON'T need him, andtheymight," he choked it off, looking away, fists clenching and unclenching.

Breathe in. Out.

"The car's signal cut out like four hours ago. Too many places they could make in four hours. They could even have put them on a plane. We need somekindoffucking direction."

Tommy didn't know what to do. He wanted to rip someone's head off for taking his family, and he wanted to cry, and he didn't want to feel either way because it wasn't helping. He hadn't protected his little family, and now him being a wreck wasn't going to help him get them home safe.

[helpdesk_hero]

"Well, I guess the question is whether or not David planned for this," Kate says, moving to put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Tommy, you know David. If he did, he'd find a way to make sure you could find him. But he wouldn't leave it somewhere someone else could find it. He'd leave it at your house."

They should have moved into the Avenger's Manor. They should have done it the second Luke was born. And instead David had said they should stay in their nice house in a nice part of upstate New York, to raise their son like 'normal people'. It had been a mistake.

But if anyone had been smart enough to leave Tommy a secret, an answer, it was David. And it would be in their home.

[zoomandboom]

"If he did, he should have hidden it for someone smart enough to know wherethefucktofindit," Tommy said bitterly. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, and then nodded. "Yeahokay."

He pulled away from Kate - and then vanished, running home again to start tearing the house apart, trying to wrack his brain for what David would do. A tracker maybe? Something in his glasses might not work, since he could lose those, or get them broken. So an implant that only he could track? Or something he never took off? Both?

But how to get into it? If it even existed.

Tommy picked up David's spare glasses and put them on, trying to use them to connect to him. It didn't work, which he'd expected. So he just started going through David's files, looking for anything familiar, getting more and more agaitated.

Finally a folder tucked away labeled "Rings Project" caught his eye. David never took off his wedding ring. He'd had both his and Tommy's made and engraved. It could ...

The file was password locked, and Tommy tried everything he could think of off the top of his head. Birthdates, anniversary, names. Finally on a whim he thought of the endearment David used for him that had baffled him so much when he met David in this time as his younger self. "My heart", in french. It was on his ring, too. Tommy tried that, with their wedding anniversary.

It opened up, and Tommy's heart started to race, even for him, as he pulled up a tracking program that showed an active dot in Pennsylvania. Tommy put it into his phone quickly and called Kate, giving her the same location without bothering with any other explanation - and then he was gone, running his way there.

Maybe he should wait for backup, but Tommy's patience only held up long enough to make sure that someone KNEW where he was going, in case David and Lucas needed more help than he could give.

[helpdesk_hero]

It's not smart to head alone, but it's something. And the timing is good. Because David's still there, trying not to sob. Lucas has stopped crying, and his baby needs fed and it's cold and Lucas isn't crying anymore. Makes him scared.

"Lucky Lukey," he coos, struggling against his chains. He just has to get to the cage. It hurts, struggling. He's certain he's cut his wrists up to try and get closer.

"Now now," a voice comes. One of the kidnappers. The one that had been watching, laughing. The one with the gun. The one waiting for the codes to unlock what Billy is going to bring him. "You don't want to set a bad example for the kid."

[zoomandboom]

Tommy pulled up in front of the building the tracker led him to. It was a nondescript house, with nothing to stand out about it. Expect Tommy had been doing this for a while. He saw the signs of the bullet proof glass windows, noticed the drawn curtains, the other little details of things that were off.

It wasn't going to stop him, but he was careful when he went in. They'd known to find David, how to take him. They'd known he had a speedster husband, too. They were likely to have prepared for it. But hopefully not that well, since they'd have hoped he wouldn't figure out where they were.

There were tripwires at the doors, laser alarm beams inside. Tommy managed to evade them. But he couldn't hide his heat signature, which set off an alarm as soon as he was inside.

From upstairs there was shouting and then muffled thumping as Tommy gave up on stealthing and just sped from room to room, taking away weapons and dropping bad guys, searching for his family.

[helpdesk_hero]

There's no denying how OBVIOUS it is when someone like Tommy barrels into a place. And David, down in the basement, almost wants to sob with relief. Except the gun has moved from pointed at him to pointing at Lucas. And the man puts a finger to his lips to indicate David needs to be silent. Be quiet or he's going to shoot Lucas.

He can't argue against that. There's no way to know if Tommy's fast enough to save their son from this range. There's no certainty that he can when Tommy clearly doesn't know where they are. When David can't seen see a door into the room which means it's probably a secret entrance. And their son is so still. So still and so quiet and David can't help the tears rolling down his cheeks.

All he can do is hope. Hope and pray Tommy finds them in time.

[zoomandboom]

They were there. Somewhere. Or David's ring was, which meant that he'd been here. And David's ring didn't come off easily so why would they bother? They weren't trying to rob him for his ring.

Tommy jerked a tall, gangly man with close-cropped hair and pale skin out of his way and slammed him against the wall. "Where are they?" he asked through gritted teeth.

The guy didn't answer. But his eyes flicked downward. It was enough for Tommy to know where to look. Another circuit of the house and another man downed and Tommy felt a faint difference in the floor beneath him. He yanked up the rug and found the hidden door, pulling it open.

He wanted to charge down, race in and grab David and Luke. But they might have trapped this for him, too. So he took the second to check in the dimmed light. And saw the pointed gun, freezing, mentally calculating the distance and time. It was a bigger space than he'd thought, and he'd have to get down the stairs and in front of the gun to get it away or block it. He could do it, but there was just ... a chance. Because from the angle of the stairs, he couldn't see the angle to where the intended victim was. He couldn't know for certain. "David?" he said, voice strangled.

[helpdesk_hero]

Oh god. The voice. Tommy was there and that meant... That meant the plan was ruined. Which meant that David and Lucas were disposable. David yanks against his chains, shouting wordlessly, trying to distract the gunner. There's no time. No chance. The second his name passes from Tommy's lips the man's trigger finger squeezes.

Lucas, no, not his baby, not his boy. His good little boy. He can't even sit up yet, not on his own. Their precious little baby,

[zoomandboom]

Tommy moved as soon as he saw the trigger moving, the first note of his name in David's voice.

It was closer than it should be. But the angles were all bad for him to move as quickly as he could. He still got there, still got the gun away and struck the trigger man against the head with it to send him slumping to the ground. But the gun went off first.

It didn't hit either David or their son though, so Tommy didn't care. He knocked the gun upward enough that the shot went clean through his shoulder. With the rush of adrenaline, Tommy didn't really feel it. He sped through, making sure the other two men were disarmed and unconscious and getting the keys to David's chains and then unlocking his chains, opening the cage to retrieve their too-quiet, too-warm son.

The pain caught up to him then and Tommy stumbled a little, catching himself on the cage, Lucas in his arms. "You're okay, you'reokay, you're okay," he said quickly, not sure if he was telling himself or them.

[helpdesk_hero]

The shout becomes a scream as the gun goes off. And then fades as, in a blur, everything is different. He collapses forward with the chains gone from his wrists. And despite the pain, the agony, he uses his hands to push himself up and moves to his husband and son. Tommy... can probably survive the gunshot wound for a moment. Panicked he reaches instead for their son, tears running down his cheeks as he carefully starts to inspect the boy.

"They wouldn't let me feed him. Or hold him. He..."

Is breathing. Is too hot but he's breathing.

"Stay here, I need ice."

He has to cool their baby down. He has to get them all to a hospital. He needs a lot to happen in very short order.

"Don't you dare let him go, for even a second. You protect Lucas."

That matters more than his own life.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy holds tight to his son with one arm, but clutches at David with the other hand as soon as he's close enough. "It wasn't that long. He'llbefine. David ... you take him. I'll hold you and run us out of here. I don'tknowifthey've got anyone else coming in. We should get him to a hospital."

Once he was used to the pain, Tommy could ignore it, focus on his family.

[helpdesk_hero]

Touch him? Hold him? His hands are covered with his own blood. This is a mistake. But he nods and carefully takes his son into his arms, trying not to shake in his fear.

"Please. We all need a hospital. Be quick."

[zoomandboom]

"Just hold tight. I'm sorry. Iloveyou." Tommy transferred their son into David's arms carefully, and then gathered David in close. His shoulder screamed a protest, but he ignored it, running them out of the house.

Just in time, since there were two more SUV's pulling up. They were too late though, since Tommy got them well clear and to the nearest hospital. He only slowed down in front of the ER to let the automatic doors register him and then carried them inside, letting David down carefully and yelling at the woman at the intake desk. "Our son has a fever and isn't responding, and my husband is bleeding. They were abducted. Weneedhelpnow!" he demanded. When the woman's face looked blank at the last he repeated it, spacing out the words.

[helpdesk_hero]

"And you were shot," David reminds his husband. And tries to ignore the look on the nurse's face as she finally processed who was in front of her. Damn him for becoming recognizable. That doesn't mean he doesn't follow them inside to a bed. Which was mostly there so Tommy could sit down.

The hospital soon becomes a flurry of action around them, one on call doctor coming to deal with David's wrists before a pediatrician is brought down, with a baby sized bed, to look over their son.

All David can do is sit on the bed, close to Tommy but not so close to mean they can't interact with Tommy.

"Your son," the doctor says after a bit, "seems to have a fever from an ear infection. We're going to be able to deal with that easily. But there's been a lack of feeding, and the cold..."

"Just tell me he'll be okay," David pleads, leaning heavily against his husband.

[zoomandboom]

Tommy agreed, since yeah, he was shot. He'd just forgotten. Or not forgotten but ... not cared. Compared to his family, it didn't matter.

He took Luke from David so he didn't have to hold him and let the doctors and nurses shuffle them to a room, and sat down when he was told, not relinquishing Lucas until the little bed had arrived for him. Even in the tiny bed, he looked entirely too small and too still. Though he roused a little during his exam.

"They wouldn't let David feed him. And he was fussy this morning because his ear hurt, so he wouldn't eat. David was bringing him to see his pediatrician when they were abducted," Tommy said, voice a little too even and slow, proving he had to work for it to stay that way. "He was fine yesterday, he can't be that bad yet. Unless they gave him something? Did they?" he asked, anxious eyes turning to his husband.

[helpdesk_hero]

"I don't know. I just... I woke up in that basement," David says, nervous as he watches the doctor.

The doctor is quiet for a few moments and then shakes his head.

"We will want some time to observe. I will take the baby up to a room. You can come up after you're taken care of," the pediatrician says. "You're no good to your kid if you bleed out."

[zoomandboom]

"Someone just tried to fuckingkidnaphim," Tommy snapped. "We're not letting him out of sight until one of our family gets here to keep watch too." Tommy wasn't going to risk losing his son again. All it would take was a nurse or a doctor getting slipped a few thousand in bribes. "I'm fine, I'll keep pressure on it until Kate or someone gets here," he promised David.

[helpdesk_hero]

"No," David dismisses. "You're going to get yourself looked at. I insist, Tommy. I'll just watch. Please, I need you to be okay."

And David looks so damn pained at the idea of being separated, but their son needs helped and Tommy needs it too.

[zoomandboom]

"Someone took YOU, too," Tommy said, leg pressing against David's. He heard the fear in David's voice and hated it. Tommy couldn't even take his hand because it might hurt him. "Just ... let us stay together until our family gets here," he said again, voice thin. His shoulder hurt like a bitch and Tommy felt sick with worry for Lucas and David. But he didn't care, he just needed them to be safe. "I texted Kate and Billy, someone will be here soon."

[helpdesk_hero]

"You've been shot," David snaps angrily. "Given location and your biology, and the lack of an exit wound, you're likely bleeding internally. Given the strain to your arm and how fast your heart beats, it's even worse. You ARE going to let them perform surgery."

Don't you DARE make him worry longer over you, Tommy. He's too upset.

[zoomandboom]

"There's an exit wound," Tommy said. And then twisted to look and realized yeah, there wasn't. He'd thought it'd just been a clean through shot, but he'd been wrong. It explained why he didn't feel like he was healing like he should be yet.

"It can wait ten minutes for them!" Tommy insisted. "I can't lose either of you again!" He swallowed. "Just ... let me make sure you're both safe and then they can do whatever they need to."