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The first time George is kidnapped, it’s certainly an experience. One moment he’s walking home from work, and the next he’s being pulled into an alleyway with a hand over his mouth.
“If you struggle, this will only make it worse,” a voice says in his ear, and George goes still. Sapnap and Dream warned him that something like this would happen after that time where George couldn’t drag Sapnap into the apartment and had to stitch up the stab wound in his side on their balcony. Since then, he’s dragged nearly every superhero in the city into the apartment he shares with Sapnap and Dream to help take care of their injuries.
Which, alright. It gets a bit disgruntling sometimes, being expected to take care of all these superheroes, but he doesn’t mind. He’s an ER doctor, it’s literally what he does, he loves saving lives. What he does not love, however, is getting off a twelve hour shift, wanting nothing more to go home and see his boyfriend and best friend, and being pulled into an alleyway by a supervillain.
So George goes still, because this is his first time being kidnapped, after all, and he’s got every piece of advice that his friends have given him circling through his mind as he’s dragged further back into the dark.
“Good,” whoever’s got him says, and he manages to turn his head enough to see Wilbur Soot, infamous throughout their entire side of the country. “You’re George, correct? Beloved of the superheroes?”
“Sure,” George says, and it’s completely muffled by Wilbur’s hand. Wilbur deems it good enough, and the next thing George knows, there’s a sharp stinging in his neck and he’s out cold.
When he wakes up, he’s sitting in a chair, and his hands are tied loosely behind him. He’s completely alone, and he’s really cold. He also doesn’t appreciate the fact that he was drugged to get here- they could have just put a bag over his head, or something. He twists his wrists against the ropes binding him, and they fall away loosely.
Incredible, he thinks sarcastically. He stands up and stretches, then tries the handle of the door to the room he’s in. It’s not even locked. It may be his first time being kidnapped, but it’s clearly Wilbur’s first time doing the kidnapping. George pokes his head out of the doorway and sees no one.
Alright, then.
The first time George is kidnapped ends like this: he literally strolls out of the building and directly into Sapnap’s arms. They both stop for a second, and then Sapnap bursts into laughter.
“Jesus,” he says. “Some kidnapping.”
George snickers and lets himself fall into Sapnap’s arms. They make their way home together, and George takes a long bath and then eats dinner with his roommates and laughs with them about how incompotent villains are. The next day, they get a message from Wilbur.
Well played, it reads, and it’s delivered by a crow.
The second time George is kidnapped, Wilbur does a bit of a better job of it. It’s on George’s way into work this time, instead of on his way home, which is almost worse. This time Wilbur does throw a bag over his head as he shoves him into the car, along with throwing a punch toward his cheek.
“That’s for escaping last time,” Wilbur says. “Ooh. I think that’ll bruise.” George just thinks that Sapnap is going to be extra displeased.
And indeed, Sapnap is displeased, when he arrives and finds that George has already used the chair he was sitting in to knock out the two goons Wilbur left to watch over him. The only reason he wasn’t able to get out was because the door was actually locked this time.
“Come on!” Sapnap cries when he sees George sitting on the floor (the chair was broken when he slammed it against the back of one of the men). “What’d he do to you?” He cups George’s face in his hand and thumbs along the bruise that’s forming. George hums contentedly.
“Nothing important,” he says. “I missed a shift at the hospital, I think.”
Sapnap curses. Being a superhero doesn’t pay the bills; George is their main source of income.
The third time George is kidnapped, he’s just frustrated.
“Hey, guys!” George calls out, slamming the bag of groceries down on the counter of their apartment as he kicks the door closed with his foot. “I’m going back out, but I got those frozen pizzas you like-”
He freezes when he realizes it’s not Dream or Sapnap sitting on their couch, but Technoblade, possibly Dream’s worst enemy. Sapnap isn’t too fond of him, either. The lights are all turned off, and he has one leg crossed menacingly. He stands when George sets his keys down and shrugs off his coat.
“Can I at least text my friend that I won’t make it to dinner?” he asks Technoblade, who just laughs and shakes his head. George sighs. Karl will have to forgive him.
Technoblade keeps him in the apartment, which is kind of a stupid move on the villain’s part. George sits on the couch and puts on Netflix and tries to ignore Technoblade sitting next to him with a gun drawn.
“Text your friends,” Techno says. “Tell them I’m holding you hostage. Don’t call anyone else if you know what’s good for you.” George does as he’s told, choosing to add that he’s perfectly fine on his own. A phone starts ringing shortly after that, and Techno stands up to answer the call, keeping an eye on George warily.
He turns his back for just a second, and that’s his second mistake. George makes a break for the window. Techno cries out, but he’s too late- the glass is already shattering, and George is falling the six floors into the dumpster he knows is below.
His back hits the stuffed-full bags and he laughs off the pain. Techno’s sticking his head out of the window and staring down in disbelief, and then he disappears. George allows himself just a moment to recover before he’s up and making his way to the front of the building. Karl is parked on the street, and he brightens when he sees George limping his way over.
“Hey- you okay?” he asks as George slides into the front seat.
“Technoblade is in my apartment,” George groans. “I jumped. Drive, please.”
“You jumped ?” Karl cries, and George pulls out his phone and calls Sapnap.
“Hey,” Sapnap says breathlessly. “I got your text, are you okay?”
“Oh, I’m fine, I jumped out the window,” George says. “Techno might still be in the apartment, though.”
“We’ll take care of him, we just got here,” Dream’s voice says. “Are you in Karl’s car?”
George rolls down the window and pokes his head out, waving at the two superheroes. They wave back as they make their way inside the building.
“So,” George says, ignoring the look on Karl’s face. “Dinner?”
The fourth time George is kidnapped, he doesn’t even see it coming. One minute he’s waiting for Dream and Sapnap to get home, and the next his vision is going blurry, then black.
He wakes up in a dingy cell and sighs. Round four, he supposes. This time, it isn’t Wilbur or Techno or anyone else in their gang- it’s Schlatt, who looks at George with a menacing grin.
“Good to see you,” he says. “Welcome to the party.”
“Thanks,” George groans. Schlatt just laughs from the other side of the bars.
It takes three days before Schlatt actually opens the cell doors, and George rushes forward and tackles him to the ground. He cries out, attempting to hit back, and George just gets up and runs. Thankfully, the streets are familiar. He makes it all the way back to his apartment building and stumbles inside. Dream and Sapnap both jerk up from spots in the living room, where they’re poring over maps, and stare at him in shock.
“I think we need to move,” George manages to get out before he collapses.
When he wakes up again, this time he’s in bed, and Sapnap is laying next to him. He jerks up when he realizes George is awake, peppering his face with kisses. George laughs and shoves him off.
“I’m so sorry,” Sapnap says. “We’ve been looking for you for three days-”
“I’m fine,” George promises. “It was Schlatt, he made the mistake of trying to get close. I tackled him and ran.”
“Jesus, George,” Sapnap laughs, bundling him up in his arms. “This is why I don’t want to let you go places alone anymore.”
“He got me from the apartment!” George protests.
“Alright, alright,” Sapnap concedes. “We can look for a new place to stay.”
They’re one week away from moving into their new apartment, most of their things packed up in boxes and ready to go, when Sapnap is the one being kidnapped. Dream is out of town with Karl, and of all the things to have happened, it just leaves George a little pissed off.
“They left a note,” he tells Dream over the phone. “With a location and a request to fight. I think it’s meant for you.”
“Do you want me to come back?” Dream asks, sounding immensely concerned.
“Nah,” George snorts. “I can handle it. I just wanted to let you know.”
He shows up to the location at the written time in his work scrubs. Sapnap is in the middle of the room, tied and gagged, and there’s a metal bar around his ankle. George rushes forward, lowering the cloth from Sapnap’s mouth.
“Power restrainer,” Sapnap gets out. “George, you need to get out of here, you need to-”
“You’re not Dream,” a familiar voice says loudly, and George turns to see Quackity, a former superhero turned supervillain. He’s looking at George with an expression of confusion, and his gaze darkens. “That doesn’t matter. Now I have two of the people he cares about most.”
“Sure thing,” George snorts, standing up and turning away from Sapnap. If he had longer sleeves, he’d be rolling them up. “If you can take me down.”
“You’re cute,” Quackity says. “You think you can beat me.”
“Why does everyone keep underestimating me?” George asks, and with that, he’s charging forward.
The fight doesn’t last long- Quackity’s superpowers are based around gambles and luck, which aren’t going to help him against George. It’s when he finally has Quackity pinned to the ground that he spits out, “Who even are you?”
“Come on,” George says. “Just because I’m not currently a superhero doesn’t mean I can’t be retired.”
Sapnap laughs with pure glee. “That’s my baby!” he cries, and Quackity groans.
Because how else would George just have happened to meet two superheroes and become best friends with them? How else would he jump six stories and survive? George’s powers revolve around healing, sure, but he knows plenty of self-defense. Other than that, he’s able to heal himself and others, and that’s why he works in an emergency room, that’s why the city’s superheroes come to him when they’re hurt.
He retired because he found better ways of saving people, with the amount of superheroes constantly on the rise. But that doesn’t mean he got out of shape, or lost his powers. He’s just retired.
Later, when the police have taken care of Quackity and Sapnap’s been untied and they’re back in the apartment, boxes surrounding them and cuddling on the couch, Sapnap presses his lips to George’s temple.
“Thanks for saving me, baby,” he says. “You thinking of coming back to the hero game now?”
“Nah,” George says. “I’m good. But I can keep saving myself.”