Work Text:
'They were together'
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Clutching the faded photograph, suddenly proof of something she never knew, a connection to the gentlemen of Baker Street that might make everything make sense, Bea ran through the darkness. In her wake she left a confused, but fundamentally indifferent Mrs Hudson, who simply shrugged and muttered something before retreating to her own lodgings.
Bea ran, the questions in her head loud enough that she was sure every stranger must hear them. She didn’t claim to know everything about her mother but this — this was something so profoundly jarring - it felt like the dust had been wiped from a painting, only to reveal that huge parts were faded, indistinguishable. Somehow, she was getting closer to the truth, but every new piece of information revealed how little she really understood.
With her head clouded and her steps muffled by the sound of her own heartbeat, Bea burst into the cellar almost without realising she’d made it home. She paused to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. Would it be too upsetting to tell Jessie before she’d worked out what was going on? But surely she couldn’t hide this. But if Jessie was asleep, she couldn’t wake her - but there was no way she was keeping this to herself until morning - the buts were interrupted by Billy, who somehow had got a foot away from her without her noticing.
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Jessie had fallen asleep, Spike curled up protectively at the end of her pile of blankets after some abortive attempts to get Leo to explain what had happened.
So Billy was left alone; alone and deeply confused.
He'd accepted Jessie's story about being overpowered and been about to get himself a drink when Spike (always a source of melodrama) had gasped, alerting him to the fact that the rich boy was lying on the floor, looking worse than Billy ever had after a fight.
Had he been in a fight? Why was he injured? Why did he come, injured, to the cellar of all places?
It didn’t seem like any of those questions would be answered any time soon, since after a bit of rambling about how compassionate Beatrice is (as if Billy didn’t know, as if that wasn’t something everyone was already aware of and valued massively) the human inconvenience had slipped into sleep.
Jessie had tried to work out the extent of his injuries (plus she hadn’t seemed too unhappy to have a justification for lifting up his shirt) but to no avail. His breathing seemed even, and a bit of careful prodding from Billy had indicated there weren't any broken bones (he may not like the guy, but he wasn’t going to let someone Bea liked die of an unrecognised injury in their home).
But now Billy was the only one awake, his confusion and frustration almost palpable. He heard Bea enter and then stop suddenly. Approaching her, quietly, so as not to wake up the others, Billy could see even in the darkness that she was properly out of it. She looked more confused and exhausted than even he felt. It wasn’t until he was about a foot away from her, about to put a hand on her shoulder to rouse her from her strange tense reverie, that she even registered him.
'Billy - where are the others?'
She seemed distressed, in the disguised tension in her jaw Billy could so easily recognise. Well. That wasn’t going to be improved by anything he had to tell her.
'Jessie and Spike are asleep, but there’s a problem - our resident posh boy- Leo' - he corrected as she scowled at him - ‘ was here when we got back and in a pretty bad way'
Bea immediately pushed past him to where Leo was stretched out on a makeshift pile of bedding, his face contorted in pain even as he slept. Billy could hear her breath hitch as she saw the few bruises not covered by clothing or blankets.
'Is it bad? Did you check his- are his ribs broken? What happened? How did he-and why did he come here? And-'
'Bumble. Calm down. You’re gonna wake him. I don’t know much but I’ll tell you what I know if we just-' he gestured for her to move away, for them to have this conversation a little further from the others, but Bea seemed frozen in an awkward crouch by Leo - not touching him but looking like she wanted to. Billy sighed.
'Or we can continue whispering right by his injured and sleeping self. That works too. Nothing seems broken but he’s pretty battered from what we could see when Jessie pulled his shirt up' - at this Bea made an odd noise somewhere between concern and...embarrassment? Maybe? - 'and as for what happened, he fell asleep pretty soon after we found him.'
'Did he say anything at all?'
Billy hesitated. It wasn’t as if there was any reason for him to hide the fact Leo thought she was compassionate - it wasn’t exactly news, but it also wasn’t relevant. Besides, something about the way he’d said it made Billy think maybe it wasn’t something for him to pass on as Leo lay asleep at his feet.
'Nothing about how he got hurt, how he got here, or why he came here'.
Bea seemed to accept that but remained in her odd crouch.
'Is his head hurt?'
'I mean probably Bumble - you don’t get this bruised everywhere else and keep your head out of the situation'
'You know what I mean', she muttered, even though he definitely didn’t.
'Maybe we'll get some information in the morning but for now I reckon we should get some sleep.' Billy turned away and moved towards his own sleeping area. As he settled down, he saw Bea cautiously and surreptitiously kiss the top of Leo's head, before turning and catching him looking at her. Even across the dark cellar he could see her blush.
Bea cleared her throat.
'Night, Billy' - there was a weird, false brightness to her voice.
On the one hand, Leo being around did at least seem to make Bea embarrass herself more than she had in the last decade put together. But in spite of this obvious positive, Billy fell asleep determined to keep a close eye on the strange and now injured posh kid that had invaded their little family.