Chapter Text
Henry is standing in line to get a large tea for himself and a coffee with cinnamon for his husband, right before his shift in the New York 911 dispatcher/call center starts.
Henry sighs at the sight of the large coffee that the barista handed him, after politely wishing her a good day and paying for the drinks of course.
He's not particularly happy to feed his husband's already concerning caffeine problem, but he loves Alex and the goofy smile he always gets when Henry brings him take-away coffee to his desk makes it all worth it.
He walks over to Alex's desk and puts an arm around his shoulders, he was planning on placing a tender kiss on his nape but decides against it when he feels Alex tense.
He never wants to do anything that makes his husband uncomfortable, so he removes his arm, even though he doesn't understand Alex's reaction completely, he respects his boundaries.
Alex turns to him with an annoyed expression.
Henry frowns in confusion, as far as he knows they had a lovely morning before Alex drove them to work.
They weren't fighting, so why does Alex seem angry at him?
Maybe he's just frustrated and it has nothing to do with Henry?
Yeah.. that's probably it, maybe Alex talked to Hunter while Henry went for a walk to get them takeaway drinks, that will do; Hunter always manages to piss Alex off.
His thoughts are interrupted by Alex, who hisses "What do you want, Fox?"
Henry feels his heart drop.
Fox.
Alex hasn't called him Fox singular in years, because he's so proud of the last names they share together, it's the cutest thing.
Ever since their wedding day he only ever uses Fox-Claremont-Diaz when referring to either his or Henry's last name.
Even when he's mad at Henry, which Henry assumes is the case right now even though he doesn't remember doing anything that could have pissed Alex off, he doesn't call him Fox, Not anymore.
Henry clears his throat. "I uhm, I got you a coffee', he says unsure why his husband seems so annoyed at him, as he hands Alex the coffee he bought him.
Alex squints his eyes at him. "Thanks...You didn't poison this, did you?"
Henry scoffs. "I just wanted to do something nice for you, no need to be a prick about it."
Alex pinches his cheek. "Are you okay? Are you sick?"
Henry frowns. "Why?"
Alex gestures wildly to the coffee. "Because you got me a coffee!"
That finally makes Henry laugh. "Christ, Alex, I thought you were mad at me or something. Yes, I will admit I'm not normally one to feed your already very concerning caffeine problem, but I wanted to surprise you."
Alex finally flashes him one of those gorgeous smiles.
"Well consider me surprised sweetheart, if you do this more often, one might start to think you don't hate me after all.'
Wait what?
Henry frowns at Alex. "Excuse me?"
Alex waves him off. "It's fine Foxy, if you want a fresh start I can do that, I accept your peace offering."
Henry frowns again. "I wasn't aware that you were mad at me, darling."
Alex all but chokes on his coffee. "Wow there, sweetheart, what has gotten into you today? I know I call you pet names all the time, but you never do that shit? Oh my god, you did poison my coffee! Didn't you?"
Henry rolls his eyes at him. "You're so bloody dramatic, I would never hurt you, you know that Alex. You're the most important person in my life."
Alex makes a face and then starts laughing at him. "Good one, H."
Before Henry can ask him what the bloody hell that is supposed to mean Alex yells for Hunter.
Hunter walks up to them, annoyed as usual. "What do you want Claremont-Diaz?"
Claremont-Diaz
Where is the fox part?
Hunter knows better than to leave that part of Alex's last name out because it always pisses Alex off.
He once went on a thirty-minute rant about how disrespectful and degrading it was and how it came across as biphobic to him until Hunter promised to never leave out the Fox bit of Alex's last name again.
And yet.
"Do you think my coffee tastes weird?" Alex asks Hunter sweetly.
Henry gapes at him as he watches Hunter roll his eyes and take a sip of Alex's coffee.
Hunter shrugs. "Tastes fine to me. Although maybe a bit too much cinnamon?"
Alex sighs. "Hunter, I want to like you, but you make it so hard.'
Hunter rolls his eyes at him again and then he walks away.
"Did you seriously have Hunter taste-test if I poisoned your coffee?" Henry hisses offended.
Alex takes an obnoxiously big sip of coffee and then nods.
"Yeah, sorry about that but it's not every day that your ex-arch nemesis offers you your favorite drink."
Henry groans. "So you are mad at me? Alex, please just communicate with me for Christ's sake. Just tell me what I did wrong. Tell me why you're mad at me. The work we do is very important, I want to be able to focus all of my attention on my job as a 9-1-1 call operator because lives are at stake! I don't want to be worrying in the back of my mind that my husband might be mad at me."
Alex gasps dramatically. "Oh my god! You have a husband? Henry, what the hell? Why have you never told me this? I know, we're not really friends, but this was a peace offering, right? I mean you even put cinnamon in my coffee and everything. So we're friends now, right? Okay cool, now you have to tell me about this secret husband of yours! Is he hot? You're a nice-looking dude, you could probably pull a good-looking guy. What does he do for a living? How old is he? What is his nationality? His name? This is so fucking exciting! Who else knows? Did you elope in secret? Or am I just oblivious and have you talked about him before? Or is he not out yet? Is that why you keep it a secret?"
Henry looks at his husband like he's insane.
Alex scoffs. "Why are you looking at me like I just told you that I'm going to convince the whole office to let me throw you into waters filled with flesh-eating sharks? I'm not going to feed you to great whites, you can relax dude."
Henry cringes. " Dude? Don't call me that, Alex."
Alex frowns at him. "Okay, sorry, that is my bad, I didn't know you didn't like that."
Henry rolls his eyes at him. "Yeah, I don't want my husband to call me dude or bro, how surprising."
Alex raises an eyebrow at him. "Okay, I mean slay I guess? I get that, it makes sense. But I'm not sure what that has to do with me calling you dude though?"
Henry sighs as he looks at the clock, his shift starts in 5 minutes and his husband is still pretending like they haven't been married for years and like Henry is the one who has lost his damn mind.
If Alex continues talking about Henry's husband like that's not him , Henry is genuinely going to lose it.
"What is going on Alex? Please just talk to me."
Alex shrugs. "Nothing is going on, I'm chilling with the coffee that my new friend Henry got me. I'm good, you seem pissy though. What's that about? Do you want me to pay you back for the coffee?"
Henry groans. "Okay, fine , I''m sorry. I don't know what I'm apologizing for, but I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry. Can you please drop the act now? And you can keep the coffee, I didn't pay for it, we paid for it."
Alex swirls around in his chair. "What act?" He asks innocently.
"And what do you mean We paid for it? Did you steal money from me?"
Henry is not even going to bother reminding him their credit cards are connected to the same bank account.
His shift starts in four minutes.
He doesn't have time for this childish act.
Henry groans again. "Fine, if that is how you want to play it, fine. I'll bloody walk home after my shift, I'll see you at home, Alexander."
Alex raises an eyebrow at him. "You want me to come to your home? I mean I guess I could do that, it might be fun and I do want to meet your sexy husband because I'm kind of curious now, but you'd have to send me the address."
Henry groans again. "I'm sure you can find our home on your own."
Alex laughs. "Are you good, du-..Henry? Don't get me wrong this is all very entertaining, but you're acting fucking weird. Our money, our home? What is that about?"
Henry is about to scream at Alex to drop the act when he realizes something and immediately feels nauseous.
"Alex, can you show me your necklace?" He asks a little hysterical.
Alex chuckles softly. "That's random, but yeah, okay sure."
He lifts his necklace out of his shirt and what Henry sees almost makes his heart stop.
The key to Alex's childhood home in Texas is still attached to the necklace, but instead of the key that belongs to their brownstone, there hangs a different key on Alex's chest.
And in place of Alex's engagement ring that he started wearing on the necklace after he started wearing his wedding ring on his ring finger, now hangs the letter J which he assumes stands for June.
The realization hits him in the face so hard he gets dizzy.
Alex wasn't playing a game or fooling around, they're not married.
But how ?
Surely Henry didn't dream up an entire marriage?
Except...what if he did?
The idea that his wonderful marriage was all just a part of his imagination is enough to make him feel sick.
He runs towards the bathroom, yeets himself on his knees, hard, and throws up.
Alex immediately comes rushing in behind him and crouches down next to Henry.
"Hey man, are you good? Do you need me to call your husband?"
And that is officially too much.
"Don't bother, he won't show up", Henry hisses angrily.
This makes no sense because it's not like it's Alex's fault that Henry got attached to a dream he had about being married to his colleague, but Henry is past caring about being rational.
Alex frowns. "What? Why wouldn't he show up if you're sick? That's stupid. He sounds like a dick, no offense."
Henry doesn't have it in him to correct or defend Alex.
Besides his shift is starting.
He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and stands up to wash his hands and snatches some gum from his backpack.
"Wait, we're not done talking about this, why wouldn't your husband care if you're sick? And what are you doing?" Alex asks concerned.
Henry rolls his eyes at him. "I'm getting ready for work." He takes a deep breath and tries to blink the tears away that are threatening to come up.
"And let's just drop it okay, I don't want to talk about my husband anymore."
Alex frowns again. "No that's some Bullshit, your partner should care about your wellbeing, if he doesn't, then he doesn't fucking deserve you, H. And you're not going to work a 12 your shift, you just threw up your breakfast!"
Henry groans. "Why do you care?" He shouts at Alex.
"Because whether we're friends or not you deserve better than that!" Alex shouts back.
"We're not friends! I don't want to be your friend Alex!" Henry screams.
Alex flinches. "Geez, okay, got it, loud and clear. Thanks for the coffee, I'm going to go... but I meant what I said...your husband is a dick and you should go home, you're sick."
Henry cringes. "Alex, Christ, wait a second, I didn't mean it like that."
Alex scoffs. "Then what did you mean by it?"
If Henry hadn't just vomited he'd kiss Alex but he did. "I meant I could never just be your friend."
Alex gapes at him.
"Henry, what the fuck? Look I'm flattered, but you have a husband, you can't just go around saying shit like that! Whether he's a dick or not that's still emotional infidelity!"
Henry groans. "I'm not cheating on my husband", he hisses.
Alex rolls his eyes at him. "Right, you're just casually confessing your love to other men."
"Not to other men", Henry says frustratedly.
Alex scoffs. "You just did, and I'm flattered, I am, but cheating disgusts me, okay?"
"I would never cheat on y-, my husband", Henry defends himself.
Alex rolls his eyes at him. "Were you just going to say; I would never cheat on you ?"
When Henry doesn't answer Alex scoffs again.
"Wow, okay yeah that's reassuring, you'd cheat on your husband but not on your side hoe."
"You're not my bloody side hoe, Alex', Henry yells, entirely fed up with the situation.
Alex groans. "You're damn right I'm not. Look Fox...if things were different, which they're not, but if they were, I'd probably have said yes if you asked me out, but I refuse to start anything with a married person or a person who has a partner in the first place. That's simply a line I won't ever cross. Besides a wise woman once told me if he'll cheat with you, he'll cheat on you. And I wholeheartedly believe that, so even if I didn't have my morals, I still wouldn't go out with a married man."
Henry is going to lose it.
He's actually going to lose it.
He has no idea what he could have possibly done in this life or a prior one to deserve this hell.
And more than anything he doesn't understand what's going on and he just wants his husband back.
He's tired and upset and nauseous and he just wants Alex to hold him, but for some reason Alex has forgotten that they're married and that he can trust Henry or...
Maybe this isn't really happening.
Maybe he's trapped in a nightmare or a coma-induced dream.
That would certainly explain the otherwise unexplainable weird situation.
"Christ, I really hope I got hit by a car or something and this is all just a weird coma-induced dream", Henry mumbles.
Unfortunately, Alex hears him.
'Don't say that", he snaps.
Henry rolls his eyes at him. "What?"
Alex cringes. "Don't say shit like I wish I got hit by a car , just.. don't, don't talk about yourself like that."
Henry shrugs. "Sorry to offend you...with the truth."
Alex groans. "I'm not offended, I mean yes...it's an offensive thing to say to people who have actually lost someone in a car accident or gotten in one themselves. But I just meant that I was worried about you, I am worried about you. Frankly, everything you've done this morning is concerning to me."
Henry rolls his eyes at him again. "Yeah, it's really quite terrifying that I got you coffee."
Alex groans. "I'm talking about the fact that you threw up and basically tried to betray your husband. You and I may not have been friends before today, but I have always had respect for you and based on my previous knowledge you don't seem like the kind of guy that would ever hurt or disrespect his partner like that. And then as if that's not concerning enough you start making suicidal comments. So yeah I'm worried about you."
Henry groans. "Okay first of all I didn't try to betray my husband that's ridiculous and second of all I don't want to die, I just want to get out of whatever weird nightmare situation I'm currently trapped in where my husband has forgotten about our entire marriage.'
Alex looks at him bewildered.
"Wait, hold the fuck on for a second. Did you just imply that you think that I am your husband? Me? "
Henry shrugs. "I don't know what to think anymore but I thought so yeah."
Alex takes a deep breath and then starts laughing as if any of is this even remotely funny.
"Well, I guess that does explain why you referred to your money and your house as ours and why you seemed so offended when I implied that you wanted to cheat on your husband with me."
Henry rolls his eyes at him. again.
"I'm glad this was amusing to you."
Alex stops him from walking out of the bathroom. "Sweetheart, where are you going?"
Henry slaps his hand away. 'I might be trapped in this nightmare, but I still have a job to do, and my shift was supposed to start like 7 minutes ago, so if you'll excuse me.."
Alex stops him again. "H, You can't just drop some life-changing bomb on me and then expect me to do my job normally."
Henry shrugs. 'Well I'm sorry, but duty calls."
Alex rolls his eyes at him. "Well fuck that for a second. I'm sure someone has covered for us by now. It's not like they're going to let the 911 calls go to fucking voicemail. Amy and Cash are probably working an extra hour now and they'll get paid for their overtime so technically we probably have about 53 minutes before our shifts start now. And I'd like to use that time by figuring out what the fucking fuck is happening right now."
"Nothing much, I assure you. I have probably lost my bloody mind. Sorry for the confusion", Henry says as he tries to wrestle his way out of Alex's grip.
"H, Baby, hold on a second. Don't go, let's figure this out, yeah?" Alex asks sweetly.
Henry sighs. "There is nothing to figure out, I'm delusional, I made a fool of myself and after my shift, I'll quit my job and move states and we never have to see each other again and-"
Alex shuts Henry up by pressing a hand over his lips. "I'd shut you up with a kiss but you just puked, now H, I can only imagine that if I was really your husband I wouldn't let you talk about yourself like that.'
Henry shrugs. "But you're not, right? You made that very clear."
" Baby ", Alex tries again. "Baby, look at me."
Henry looks up hesitantly.
"Sweetheart, we'll figure out what's going on", Alex says sweetly as he presses a kiss to his forehead.
Henry frowns. "I thought you hated me?"
"No, I thought you hated me, The whole bitchy, smart, hard-to-get, white guy thing was really doing it for me, and then when you got me coffee I was sold sweetheart ", Alex teases.
Henry rolls his eyes at him. "That's ridiculous."
Alex chuckles. "Who cares? It's your dream, nothing is too weird in dreams."
Before Henry can ask him how he is so sure it's a dream an offensive loud noise interrupts him.
Henry squeezes his eyes shut and tries to open them again.
Suddenly he's no longer in the bathroom at work, instead, he's lying in a bed.
He blindly feels around looking for the alarm clock.
He doesn't find it, he does however find a muscular arm.
Which freaks him the fuck out.
He flinches back so hard that he falls out of the bed in shock.
Christ, he assumed he was lying in bed alone.
Before he can really let himself register what is going on, or where he is, someone turns the offending alarm off and turns the lights on.
Then the same muscular arms are lifting him up into a sitting position and the handsome man that the arms belong to crouches next to Henry.
"Fuck! H, are you okay, baby? Did you hurt yourself?" Alex asks concerned.
Alex?
Alex is here and the necklace on his naked chest includes his engagement ring and the key to their brownstone.
So Henry was right?
It was a dream.
Christ what a stupid dream.
He throws himself into Alex's arms, who starts laughing.
"What's gotten into you, H?"
Henry immediately goes in for a kiss, assuming he only vomited in his dream.
When he pulls back he smiles at Alex.
"I'm just glad you're my husband."
Alex smiles sweetly at him but before he can reply Henry's heart skips a beat.
"You are my husband right?" He asks a little panicky.
Alex laughs a little as he shoves his wedding ring into Henry's face. "I'm afraid so, H. Jesus how hard did you hit your head, babe? Do we need to go to the doctor?"
Henry chuckles a little. "No, no I'm good, I just had a weird dream."
Alex nods in understanding. "I told you that you'd have a nightmare after the call you took yesterday. Speaking of calls, let's get up, a good dispatcher never arrives at work late because trauma waits for no one."
Henry rolls his eyes at him. "That was unnecessarily dark."
Alex sloppily kisses his cheek.
"Common baby, it's shower time, then it's time for breakfast and then we'll be saving the world one 911 call at a time."
Henry grins. "We can shower together though, right?"
"Obviously, I'm going to need a little motivation to be able to get my ass to work and deal with Hunter for 12 hours."
"Well, I guess some things never change", Henry mumbles.
Alex frowns. "Huh?"
Henry waves him off. "Never mind, I'll tell you all about my strange dream in the car on the way to work."
When he looks at the clock he sighs. "I'm sorry but I don't think we have time to shower anymore."
Alex waves him off. "That's fine we'll shower after shift."
Then he starts laughing.
"Oh and I can't wait to hear this, your dreams are always so weird. Let me ask you this; was it weirder than that Time you dreamed you got kidnapped by Bea and Hunter came to save you and then he proposed to you? Hunter. I still haven't decided what I find more disturbing the idea of Bea kidnapping her own brother or the idea of Hunter proposing to My man.'
Henry groans as he starts getting dressed. "I regret telling you that."
Alex grins at him from where he's standing in front of their closet frowning at the size tag in the dispatcher's long sleeves to figure out whether it's Henry's or his.
"Ah, why baby? Your weird dreams are always very entertaining, Netflix ain't got nothing on you", he teases.
Henry rolls his eyes at him as he buttons his jeans. "You know that writing course I took that advised me to start writing down my dreams first thing in the morning every day? They were really on to something, Because you're training your brain so you start to remember your dreams every single night instead of occasionally and they also become more vivid. I'm pretty sure some people started the whole lucid dreaming thing where the moment you realize you're dreaming you can become in control of the dream but I'm not going to do that because after reading some articles about lucid dreaming I'm scarred for life."
Alex chuckles while handing Henry his long sleeves. "It does sound kind of cool though to be able to do literally anything you've ever wanted to do in your dreams, especially if you'll still remember it when you wake up."
Henry nods. "It does sound cool, but sleep paralysis does not. But say you were to try it what would you want to experience if anything were possible since it is a dream and all?"
Alex grins at him as he buttons his jeans. "Oh, I'd have a threesome with my sexy husband and someone famous. A famous man of course, so you can enjoy it too."
Henry glares at him as he puts on his shoes. "if you could experience anything from becoming an Olympic swimmer to a dragon tamer or a wizard or learn how to fly or become a badass spy and dotch bullets knowing you won't really die, you'd choose to have a threesome? Seriously?"
Alex cackles as he walks down their stairs. "I'm kidding baby, we all know you're too possessive for that. Don't worry I'm all yours", he coos while batting his eyelashes at Henry.
Henry groans dramatically as he follows Alex down the stairs. "I think I liked it better when you forgot who I was."
Alex gasps in offense. " Baby , take that back, you love me."
Henry rolls his eyes at him lovingly and wraps him in a hug. "I really do."
Alex kisses his bicep before breaking off the hug again.
"I love you too, but we really need to get ready, Zahra scares me so I don't want to be late. If you make oatmeal for our breakfasts i'll pack our backs and check our work e-mails."
Henry nods and opens the kitchen cabinet while Alex sits down at the dinner table to check their work emails.
"Baby, what was your laptop's password again? I'm too stressed to think clearly", Alex complains.
Henry sighs dramatically. "You're doing this on purpose because you want me to say it out loud."
Alex bats his eyelashes innocently.
Henry rolls his eyes at him. "It's Alexgabrielclaremontdiazfox.David.my.loves, bet no criminal is going to figure that one out."
Alex beams. "See, told you that you're obsessed with me."
Henry sighs. "Is this about the threesome again? Alex if you want one so bad-"
Alex starts laughing. "Relax, baby, I'm just messing with you. I'm completely satisfied with our relationship. Besides I don't like the idea of sharing you."
Henry rolls his eyes at him again.
"You know at some point they're going to fall out", Alex reminds him teasingly.
Henry sighs dramatically again. "What do you want on your oats, love?"
"Peanut butter and apple, please."
Henry nods and gets back to work .
"Anything important on the work e-mails?" He asks curiously.
Alex sighs. "They're expecting a busy day because the night shift had to take almost 14% more calls than usual."
Henry cringes. "Yikes. From which department? Police? Fire department? ambulance?"
"It doesn't say, but it's going to be a long day. Do you mind making me a coffee to go, babe?" Alex asks.
Henry checks the cabinet. "Sorry, love, we're all out of coffee."
Alex gasps. "What kind of hate crime is this?"
Henry laughs. "If I remember correctly my husband was supposed to go grocery shopping last night but he bailed and ordered takeout for us."
"Well... tell your husband that he sucks", Alex whines.
Henry chuckles. "I'll grab us some to-go coffees before shift."
Alex raises an eyebrow at him. "You're going to drink coffee? Is this the end of the world as we know it?" He teases.
Henry shrugs. "I'm tired and you said it's going to be a busy day."
Alex nods.
Henry puts down two steamy bowls of oatmeal.
"Thank you, babe", Alex says before getting up to make both of them some tea since there isn't any coffee.
'You've been writing your dreams down for a while now, right?" Alex asks curiously.
Henry has no idea how Alex's past partners were bothered by his adhd, Henry loves how his husband's mind works, he loves that he asks a lot of questions because he wants to know the answer to everything and he loves that he'll suddenly come back to random topics when something new comes to mind.
After Henry's dad died he was always surrounded by quiet until Alex came into his life and brought the energy back.
He clears his throat.
"Yes, I have. At this point, I never go a day without remembering my dreams and I remember them very detailed. They haven't given me much writing inspiration yet, but it's very entertaining."
Alex smiles wickedly at him. "Oh, so you found it entertaining to find out you were married to a different dude? That doesn't hurt my ego at all."
"I was still married to you, darling. You just forgot about it", Henry explains.
Alex scoffs. "Dream-Alex you idiot, how could he forget a pretty face like that?", He coos while kissing Henry's forehead and handing him a cup of Earl Grey tea.
Henry rolls his eyes at him before pulling him into a sweet kiss.
"Speaking about forgetting things, you said your dream was very vivid, do you still remember what I was wearing?" Alex asks curiously.
Henry nods. "You were wearing your uniform top so long blue sleeves with the 911 dispatcher logo and those jeans that make your arse look really good."
Alex snorts, "Babe, you say that about every single one of my jeans."
Henry shrugs. "It was a compliment."
Alex grins. "Well thank you, baby, I'm sure you looked sexy too."