Archive of Our Own

“Not to say I told you so, but I told you so.”  Wilbur said, shooting a glance in Tommy’s direction before turning back to the screen where big red letters next to their flight number read ‘CANCELED’.

“How is this an ‘I told you so’ moment?”  Tommy questioned.  “I did nothing to warrant that I told you so.”

“I told you that we shouldn’t go to Chicago until after LA, but no, you wanted to see the bean and whatever that tower was.”  Wilbur huffed. 

“You have to admit it was cool to see though.”  Tommy protested.

“It was.”  Wilbur admitted, he motioned for Tommy to follow him as he began walking.  “But we’re still stuck for now, so we’ll go to the help desk and try to see if there’s an earlier flight out before this storm hits.”  

The two made their way to the help desk and luckily the line wasn’t too long.  While they waited Wilbur had Tommy pull up other potential flight options and he attempted to do the same on his phone but neither of them had any luck finding one that wasn’t already canceled or full.

It didn’t take too long for them to reach the front of the line, and for that Wilbur was thankful, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand in line only to keep finding full or canceled flights.

“Hi, how can I help you boys today?”  The lady, Julie as her name tag read, asked.  

“Hi,”  Wilbur greeted.  “Our flight got canceled due to the winter storm that’s supposed to hit in a few hours, and we were wondering if there were any earlier flights we could possibly get on.”

“Alrighty let me go ahead and take a look.  Can I see your original boarding pass and ID please?”

Wilbur and Tommy both placed their boarding passes and IDs on the counter and Julie took a quick look at them before she started typing on her computer.  It was a couple of seconds of Wilbur and Tommy standing at the desk awkwardly before she spoke again. 

“Well it looks like because the storm is supposed to be hitting much sooner than expected that we unfortunately don’t have any earlier flights for you to get on.”  

Wilbur took a deep breath and grabbed Tommy’s hand giving it a quick squeeze before letting go.  “Are there any flights to another airport where we could get a flight to LA from?”

“I’m sorry, but they have grounded any flights leaving this airport with the exception of the ones already boarded until further notice.”  Julie said sliding their IDs and boarding passes back to them.  “I do apologize for the inconvenience.”  

“It’s okay.”  Wilbur said, forcing himself to take another deep breath.  “Do we have any other options?  Like hotels or anything?”   

“Let me take a look.”  Julie started typing on her computer again before making a face.  “It looks like all the ones we typically send people to are completely full, most likely due to the storm.  However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t ones that have availability elsewhere.”  

“Okay…”  Wilbur trailed off, racking his brain for other options.  “How long until flights start up again if you had to guess?”

“I’d say at least a day, however if it continues to snow the next day as predicted it could be at least 2 days if not 3 depending on how much snow there is.  It’s honestly hard to know for sure.”  

“I get that.  Is there any way we would be able to get the bags we checked?”  Wilbur questioned and let out a sigh when Julie shook her head no.  “Okay.  Thanks for the help.”  

Wilbur grabbed Tommy’s hand leading them away from the desk and over towards one of the more empty gates to sit down.  Wilbur set his guitar case in the seat next to him and pulled his backpack off and set it at his feet Tommy doing the same with his.  

“What’s the plan?”  Tommy asked.

“We’ll just stay in the airport overnight because it’s so late, and hopefully tomorrow we can possibly find a hotel, but I’m not sure how much luck we’ll have because of the storm and I’m not sure we’ll even have a way to get there.”

Tommy nodded .  “So if we’re gonna be here a bit, do you want a granola bar?”  He asked, pulling two bars out of his bag offering one to Wilbur. 

“Thanks.”

Wilbur grabbed the granola bar from Tommy and leaned back in his seat with a sigh.  He knew the chances of finding a hotel tomorrow were slim to none and even if they did, he wasn’t sure how they were supposed to get there because most of the public transit would most likely be closed and the chances of people actually driving in the snow were very low, let alone dangerous, and there was no way that Wilbur was going to put Tommy in a potentially dangerous situation like that.  So he knew logically they would most likely be stuck in the airport until they could get a flight out.  It was going to be a long few days.

Waking up the next morning was a chore.  Everything hurt and Wilbur was hungry and the only thing that made it slightly better for him was seeing that Tommy was still asleep.  

The night before, both of them had trouble falling asleep on the uncomfortable floor and the stress of the whole situation didn’t make it any better.  Tommy did manage to fall asleep before Wilbur did, but a couple of the times that Wilbur had woken up throughout the night he found that Tommy was awake as well.  It didn’t surprise him, but it made his heart ache that he couldn't find them better sleeping conditions and that they had gotten stuck at the airport.  

Luckily the power was still on which meant they were able to charge their phones before bed (not charging them overnight with a slight fear of getting them stolen).  However, even though there was power, they were still stuck in the airport.  Based on the weather reports that Wilbur had looked up, most of the roads were closed and people were being advised to not drive, so even if they were able to find a hotel there was no way they would be able to get to it.  Which meant they were stuck.  In the airport.  For who knows how long.  

With a sigh Wilbur looked back over to Tommy who was still passed out beside him.  He reached over brushing Tommy’s hair away from his face and a soft smile spread across his face as the kid melted into the touch.  

“Sorry Sunshine.”  Wilbur whispered, careful not to accidentally wake Tommy up.  “Didn’t mean to get us stuck here.” 

It was about an hour later when Tommy finally woke up.  And even after that it took the kid about another hour to finally be awake enough to function, which Wilbur didn’t blame him for, it wasn’t like they had anything to do for the day.  They both sat on their phones for a while in silence, both phones plugged in in case the power went out.  Every once in a while one of them would put their phone in front of the other to read a post or watch a tiktok.  That only lasted for about an hour until Tommy stood up from his spot on the floor to stretch. 

“You good there Toms?”  Wilbur asked, raising an eyebrow in Tommy’s direction.

“I’m bored.”  Tommy stated, sagging his shoulder as he looked at Wilbur.  “And I feel gross.  And I’m hungry.”

“Come on.”  Wilbur said standing up from his spot on the floor grabbing his backpack and guitar case, Tommy quickly followed suit grabbing his backpack and suitcase.

Wilbur motioned for Tommy to follow him and began walking to find the nearest bathroom.  

“What are we doing?”  Tommy questioned keeping pace beside Wilbur.

“We’re gonna change into clean clothes and freshen up as much as we can in an airport bathroom and then we are going to see if we can find food that isn’t granola bars and gummy bears.”

“Sounds like a good plan.”

“Glad you think so.”  Wilbur said, throwing a quick smile in Tommy’s direction.  “Cause as much as I’d love to continue eating granola bars, soon enough we will run out, and I think both of us could use some real food.”  

A quick shower in the sink, some fresh clothes, and a walk across the airport later, Wilbur and Tommy found themselves seated at a booth in an airport pub which was luckily still open despite the storm.  (If Wilbur had to guess the workers had gotten stuck at the airport as well, which sucked, but he was thankful they were still willing to cook for him and Tommy).  By the looks of it, he and Tommy were some of the only ones still in the airport.  For the most part the terminal they were in was decently empty aside from a few other passengers they had seen and a few workers.  

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to not have gummy bears.”  Tommy said before taking a sip of his Dr. Pepper.  

“Me too kid.”  Wilbur agreed.  “We haven’t had real food since when, breakfast yesterday?”

“Lunch, remember we had those Italian beef sandwiches not long before coming to the airport.” 

“Oh yeah you’re right, how could I forget those, they were pretty good.” 

“They were.”  Tommy agreed.  “Any plans for the day aside from staying in the airport?”

“None at all, completely up to you what we do, Toms.”  Wilbur answered with a soft smile.  

“I have no clue, what even is there to do in a mostly closed airport?”  

“Guess we’ll have to find out.”

The next few hours were spent wandering the terminal searching for cool places to go and things to see.  So far they hadn’t found anything worthwhile so they spent a good bit of their time staring out the window watching the snowfall.  It was coming down hard, and there was enough of it for everything they could see to be covered in at least 15cm of snow if not more.  Even then they couldn’t see that far though because of how hard the snow was falling.  

“I wish we could go outside.”  Tommy said, eventually breaking the silence that had fallen between him and Wilbur.  

“I know.  I’m sorry we can’t.”  Wilbur said softly wrapping an arm around Tommy’s shoulders pulling the kid closer.  

“Not your fault.”  Tommy whispered, tucking himself closer to Wilbur.  “It is pretty though.  Kinda reminds me of when my parents and I would go visit my grandparents up north.”   

“Yeah?  I never got to do stuff like that with my parents.  I think we got a little snow in London a few times but nothing like this.”  There was a sadness in his own voice that made Wilbur cringe.  He wished he could’ve done something like that as a child, going up to a cabin in the mountains, getting to play in lots of snow.  “Tell me about it, Sunshine.  What was it like?”

For the next hour or so, Tommy recited stories about his time when he would go visit his grandparents.  The times were filled with sledding and snowball fights, sometimes making snow angels, and something Tommy called snow cream.  There was one story that stuck out to Wilbur which was the time that apparently Tommy’s grandparents house had gotten so much snow that his grandpa let him sled off the roof.

“You should come with us next time.”  Tommy suggested after he told a story about the time his grandpa took him sledding behind his four wheeler and Tommy had run into a tree.  “It would be a lot of fun!”

“I don’t know Toms, I wouldn’t want to intrude.”  Wilbur said with a shrug.

“Oh come on, my parents love you more than me sometimes, they would love it if you came with us.”

“They definitely don’t love me more, Toms.”  Wilbur chuckled, pressing a soft kiss to Tommy’s temple.  “But knowing you, you’d probably give them the puppy dog eyes and they wouldn’t be able to say no.”

“Either way you would get to come with us and have fun in the snow!”

“Alright Toms, we’ll make sure we go someday, yeah?  And then instead of having to watch it from the window of an airport we’ll be able to play in it.”  

“Promise?”  Tommy asked, holding out his pinky.

Wilbur laughed softly and hooked his pinky with Tommy’s.  “Pinky promise.”

It wasn’t long after Tommy had made the decision that Wilbur was going to go up north with him and his family that Wilbur and Tommy had decided to start wandering the terminal again.  The sun had long past set, and most of the lights had been shut off for the night.  They were far from where they had started, now in a completely empty section where there were fake walls up from where they had been doing construction.  

“I wonder what’s behind those.”  Tommy questioned nodding to the fake walls beside them.  

“Not to encourage bad behavior, but it’s not like there’s anyone around.”  Wilbur said with a shrug moving closer to the wall to feel where one ended and another one started.  “Only if you want though.”  

Tommy eagerly nodded.  “We’ll never get another chance to do this.”  

Wilbur only chuckled and was quick to find the spot he was looking for.  He lightly pushed inward on the wall causing one of the panels to open enough for him and Tommy to go in.  

“Kinda anticlimactic not gonna lie.”  Tommy said after a moment of looking around.

“Yeah, but a new area to explore?”  Wilbur suggested turning on his phone flashlight.

The place for the most part looked like the rest of the airport, with what was supposed to be the gate areas and some extra rooms that would most likely be stores or restaurants.  The only difference was there was plastic hanging from some of the ceiling supports and some plastic was on the ground.  Though even if it looked similar, it gave a completely different feeling than the rest of the airport.  

“Can we maybe sit for a while?”  Tommy asked instead.  

“Of course.”  

Wilbur and Tommy made their way to the wall of windows and sat down discarding their bags next to them, and Wilbur set his phone on the ground with the flashlight facing up to give them a bit of light.  The two sat in silence for a bit staring out into the black abyss that was outside.  Every so often Wilbur would glance over at Tommy only to see the kid staring blankly outside and every once in a while making small hand movements in the shadows from the flashlight. 

“What’s wrong Toms?”  Wilbur asked after a while knowing that something was on Tommy’s mind and the kid was most likely too scared to say it without being asked.

“I’m sorry.”  Tommy whispered.  “For getting us stuck here, I should’ve listened when you said we should come to Chicago after LA.”

“Hey, no no no, none of that, it’s not your fault Sunshine.”  Wilbur was quick to assure and wrapped an arm around Tommy’s shoulders pulling the boy close.  “I didn’t mean it when I said that yesterday, I was just frustrated.  There’s no way we could've known when we booked the tickets, it could’ve happened after too.”

“Yeah but-”

“No buts.”  Wilbur said cutting Tommy off, refusing to let the boy spiral.  “It’s not your fault.  We had fun didn’t we?”

“Well yeah.”

“Then that’s all that matters.”  Wilbur assured.  “And hey, we got stuck in the airport, so what?  It makes for a pretty cool story of our own doesn’t it.”

“Yeah I guess.”  Tommy said quietly resting his head against Wilbur’s shoulder.  “Can you play a song?”

“Of course I can Sunshine.”  Wilbur quickly unzipped his guitar case and pulled the guitar out resting it across his lap.  “Any requests?”

“Can you play Since I Saw Vienna ?”

Wilbur nodded and started strumming the first few chords to the song, feeling Tommy relax even more against him.  Sure it sucked that he and Tommy were stuck in the airport and probably would be for the next few days, but at least he was with Tommy, his little brother, his everything.  There was no one else he would rather be stuck with.

“Love you Sunshine.”  Wilbur said, strumming the last chord of the song.  “Always and forever.”

“Forever and always.”