Work Text:
It's raining.
Patrick is sprawled on the store's back room sofa, picking the strings so gently it feels like the notes are just another type of raindrops, falling gently around David.
Sometimes, Patrick will hum a melody David recognizes, but he soon goes back to just playing and David doesn't complain. He likes the softness of the moment they are sharing.
It comes to a stop, sadly, when his phone rings. It's Alexis who should know better and just text. But it could be important.
It is.
“My father is having a heart attack!”
David's hand are shaking. He's searching the counter's drawer desperately for his wallet and car keys, but he can't see anything through the tears.
Patrick puts a hand on his firmly and whispers:
“Let me drive you. You're too upset. You don't want to join your father in the emergency room.”
He's right, of course, but David still puts up a fight. Someone should stay in the deserted store, in case a very determined client decides to brave the inclement weather to purchase one of their shop's treasures.
Patrick fights him back. He's very persuasive, but David still doesn't understand why his business partner wants to be by his side for what is a personal family matter.
He relents, just because it's easier and he feels weak. Losing all their family fortune had been an ordeal, but compared to this? His dad cannot die. He can't be really sick, or weak. He's his dad. What will David do without him? What will his mom do?
There's no room for a guitar in the car, but Patrick's presence is still soothing him the same way. He spends the ride changing his ring's fingers configuration, so that he has something to focus on. When they get near the hospital, Patrick says:
“It might be a false alarm, you know. One of my uncle gave us quite a fright years ago and he's still doing great.”
David's answer is not louder than a cloud:
“But I don't know yet. Until I do, he could already be dead...”
Patrick parks the car and hugs him, while still wearing his seat belt. He's murmuring encouragement and David feels much stronger. He wishes Patrick could hold his hand through the whole process, so that he doesn't feel he's not enough on his own.
Instead he thanks him and runs inside. He shouts instruction for the shop to the wind and it might be Patrick that answers, but he's not listening. He needs to be inside already. Pass on the strength he's just been given to his family.
They're waiting. There's nothing else to be done and it's harder than anything else he's ever experienced. Alexis is pretending to joke around and not take this seriously but David knows her better than anyone else and he can spot the signs. He tries to taker her hand in his but she shakes it off. Later on, she disappears in the corridor, her cell phone presses against her ear.
His mom is uncharacteristically discreet. David can read her love for their father on her skin, in her eyes, in the way, she looks at him, her son, like she's silently asking him for a miracle.
And through all of that, he has to survive his own fears, his profound guilt. He should have worked harder, taken over the family's well-being. His father had earn his right to rest. Rest... Not a word he wants to use...
It's the second hug he gets that night, from the same person, as he's crying silently in Patrick's strangely welcoming arms. When did he come in? Why isn't he in Schitt's Creek?
“It's okay, I asked Jocelyn to cover for us. She's already complained about needing to go back to work and I thought... She said Yes! immediately. And Roland is manning the motel so that Stevie can come.”
His best friend. The gratitude David feels is so intense he has to lie on the hospital's bench. Not for long, because his mother needs him again and when she looks like that, he can hardly breathe.
When Stevie arrives, they all sit around Moira, looking at her like she's... David suddenly has a flash of his college art classes. He had taken a medieval one first, because of this girl he liked and wanted to spend time with. It hadn't worked, but he remembers the course's material. There was a series of tapestry called “La dame à la licorne”. The woman in the center is like his mother, grandiose and enigmatic. She's surrounded by a strange collection of animals, all staring upward. So, Stevie is the monkey and David has been told he's different and weird so many times, he just knows he's the unicorn. Patrick? He's the lion of course. It's so obvious. That's why he has red hair and is so brave all the time. He's there to protect them.
But there's no place for his Dad in this tableau. He's absent, so far away he could be in another continent. Lost at sea.
The wait continues. Patrick brings him snacks from the vending machine, all the ones that David loves. He crosses the street to bring coffee and tea for everyone and doesn't ask what David wants because he already knows. He's always there and barely talks. David borrows his strength and vows to give something back later. Maybe everything.
There's some movement around them, Alexis seating down, and doctors arriving and suddenly it's too much. He looks into Patrick's eyes and sends him a silent message. David grabs him and they walk outside, under the rain that could never cry as much as David is.
They sit in the car, in a bubble Patrick has woven, a tapestry of red and blue. Then he hears it. A text.
It's from Stevie. She's typed a string of random letters. David doesn't understand but another one appears:
It's not his heart. He's okay!
David collapses. It's a good thing he's already seated. Patrick finally speaks, his words a river of tenderness:
“You want to go back inside?”
David shakes his head no. He can't. He's supported his mother as long as she needed but right now, he's empty. His father is okay and they have each other now. David has felt lonely for so long, he wants to bathe in Patrick's soothing presence a little bit more.
“We could go back to the store, relieve Jocelyn. Who knows how long she can be left on her own?”
The guitar lays abandoned, showing how quickly they left, in another life, before David's world almost crumbled to the ground. Patrick picks it up and goes to put it away but stops when David puts a hand on his arm.
“Thank you.”
“It was nothing.”
David can't let this past. He needs to show him.
They hug again.
Patrick's hands are less sure, trembling a little on his back. There's no more lion.
But somehow, things have changed.
He goes to the motel to greet his father back, trying to explain why he left but it's of no consequence. Both his parents are okay and kiss him good-night. Alexis finally hugs him. They talk all night. Of the future, of death and responsibility. Alexis will leave the Vet's office and find a better-paying job. David will save more.
But there's something he needs to do. He drives to the store at dawn, knowing he'll be on his own on a Sunday. He picks up one of the plants. He loves them, how they bring colors to the store's window. He chooses one with red flowers. It has to be a message.
Patrick has just moved in his new home, on top of a building. It looks small and cute at the same time and it does need a plant. Patrick smiles like he does sometimes, like a sun in David's heart.
“You didn't need to do that... Hey, isn't it one of the plants we sell?”
He looks suspicious and David cannot blame him. But this time he shouldn't.
“I put the money in the cash register, already. I needed to thank you correctly.”
“David... I would do anything for you.”
“I know.”
The rain is still falling outside, its pitty patter a melody on the windows. There's no drapes yet to hide the view inside. If a wandering bird were to look, it would see them, Patrick and David, locked in a kiss, their eyes closed, their faces soft. Like in another painting.