Chapter Text
“Dirk watch out!”
*Clang*
Todd was pacing around his apartment, up and down, up and down, like he’d lost his way in life and momentarily gone mad. He supposed he had really. He was stricken with worry, the kind of worry a mother has for her child. But Dirk wasn’t Todd’s responsibility, right? Yeah, totally.
It had been an hour since Dirk had had his ‘Hit and Run’ incident - or rather in his his case; the ‘hit with a shovel and fall down incident’, and he still wasn't awake.
“Farah, for the last time, why can we not go to the police? Or- or the hospital?? Dirk was attacked, attacked! By a guy with a shovel! That doesn't concern you at all?”
Farah clasped her hands over her face and sighed, looking over from the unconscious Dirk on the couch to the still pacing Todd, biting her lip and walking over to him.
“Todd I know.. You're worried but, we can't.” Todd began to interrupt but was soon silenced by Farah’s waggling finger. “Ah ah, look. They'll wanna know why we were there in the first place. It's a condemned building Todd, an illegal one. We don't need to get ourselves into anymore trouble. Besides, how would we explain that we were there because our ‘psychic detective’ had a hunch that it was important somehow? We'd be deemed…” “Insane.” She turned back around to look at Dirk, sprawled out rather uncomfortably on the couch, and mumbled “And I don't need anymore insanity right now.”
“If it's hospital bills you're worried about, Dirk has money, he always has money. An-and he’ll be fine right, he’ll just have a bump on the head right? Farah? Do you think he's okay?” Todd asked, sounding frantic.
Todd watched Farah take in a few deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth, as he was sure too many had taught her over the years. He felt as if he wasn't making her act of ‘playing it cool’ any easier.
“He.. He looks okay? I mean, look, he's breathing Todd, it- it sounds rational right? And he's no paler than he usually is so... Maybe when he'll just need an ice-pack or something, he's gonna have a heck of a headache when he wakes up.”
Todd nodded slowly, and for a couple of minutes they sat in a comfortable, but slightly tense silence. A silence like this would by now normally be filled in by a wild tale, entertaining whether true or not, by Dirk; like the time he managed to dislodge a sofa out of the very narrow stairwell of a London flat, just by putting two and two together and making connections between the leather of the sofa and a specific brand of butter. But right then Todd sat there enduring the silence, listening to the sounds of shallow breathing, and marvelling at the way Dirk's gangly legs managed to curl over the edge of the battered couch in such an odd manner.
The silence was soon interrupted by the ping of Farah's phone. She sighed heavily and got up.
“Todd, I have to go.”
“Wha- Farah, y -you can't leave?!” protested Todd, his demands coming out more like nervous questions.
“I'm sorry, something’s come up. The other client just texted, wants me to go check out some graffiti on his wall or something, I- Dirk.. Is gonna be fine, all fine. He's concussed. He’ll wake up, be confused or whatever, and everything will be okay. Besides, Dirk would want me to go check it out, it’s a lead.” Todd stared at her with pleading eyes. “Okay Todd?”
His shoulders slumped slightly.
“O-Okay,” he mumbled, and he showed her to the door.
No sooner had she left than the gently snoring detective on the couch started to stir.
Todd grabbed a wet cloth for Dirk to hold on the bump that was sure to have formed on his head, and sat on a stool beside him, trying to hold in his fairly idiotic excitement.
‘Everything is fine,’ he thought. ‘He'll wake up and annoy you with a story about how him and Thor once shared a 99 with a flake in it on a beach back in England’.
He clasped his sweaty hands together and watched nervously as Dirk slowly opened his eyes and squinted at the sun streaming in through the window.
Todd smiled softly. “Dirk? You okay? You were hit pretty hard back there.”
Keeping one hand pressed firmly on his head, Dirk sat up with a rather befuddled expression on his face, looking slowly all around the room before finally settling on Todd.
“Where am I?”