Work Text:
Cody was a senior marketing executive in a rather small office building. His boss was more lenient than one would expect from a boss at a standard 9 to 5 job. Occasionally, Cody would be caught slacking off and there’d be no repercussions.
Much to Cody’s dismay, he had to work overtime one night. And it had to be on the one night he would dread most. As he was printing something off, he heard the phone go off.
“This is Cody,” he said, picking up the phone and the freshly printed sheet of paper.
“Cody, it’s Gwen.” His best friend in the office was Gwen, a receptionist who’d often call Cody when she got bored, but not this time. “Can you come out here for a second?”
“I mean, I can,” Cody replied, unsure what to expect. “Gwen, is it that urgent, or are you just dicking with me and trying to find someone to throw paper airplanes with?”
“No, I’m serious,” said Gwen. “Finish whatever you were doing and get your ass out here.”
Without another word, Cody put his paper into a file folder to leave with his boss. He reached across another desk for a paperclip to keep his sheets together. As Cody dropped the folder in his boss’s office, he met up with Gwen at the receptionist’s desk.
“Alright, what’s so important?”
Gwen struggled to turn her computer around without unplugging anything. Eventually, she gave up and told Cody to come around the desk. The screen showed a video of a recent news report surrounding a plane crash near the St. Lawrence River.
“Wait.” Cody moved closer to the screen. “No, that’s Noah’s flight!”
“It is?” Gwen gasped.
Noah was Cody’s boyfriend and was leaving Canada to visit a family owned Airbnb in Edinburgh with two of his brothers. Cody kept biting at his cuticles the more the reporters talked about the incident. It was official; he could no longer focus.
“Are you okay?” asked Gwen, standing up and putting an arm around her troubled friend.
“I don’t believe it,” Cody said softly. “That’s all they said? Did anyone survive at least?”
Gwen paused the video and scrolled through the article. She kept looking through several other articles to see if anyone survived the plane crash. Cody needed a breather, so he filled up a Dixie cup with water at the nearest water cooler.
“Cody?”
He looked up from the water cooler and saw Courtney, the head of the accounting department. Behind her were two other employees: Bridgette and Beth, also part of accounting.
“Hey, ladies,” Cody said dully.
“I heard about the crash,” said Bridgette. “Any survivors?”
Cody shook his head. “Gwen’s looking that up right now.”
Everyone turned around to face Gwen at reception. She lifted her head and bit a lip, shaking her head from left to right. “It’s just articles I have to pay $3 to read.”
Sighing, Cody walked back to reception and entered his information to pay for the rest of the article. Gwen was now able to check for any updates on the crash.
“What’s the verdict?” Courtney asked.
“Nothing yet,” Gwen replied. “The crash was only 20 minutes ago, so they don’t have enough information.”
“Cody, are you going to be okay?” Beth turned to face Cody, who was more terrified than ever.
All Cody could do was shrug. Meanwhile, Gwen kept scrolling through more paid articles to check for any updates in case the first article was out of date.
“Oh. Cody, you’re gonna want to hear this.”
Before Gwen could read everything off, the power in the office began flickering. Gwen didn’t catch most of what the article said, so she couldn’t pass the message onto Cody.
“Whoa, what’s going on, guys?” The branch’s regional manager approached everyone gathered at reception, a hot coffee mug in his hand.
“Cody’s boyfriend was in a plane crash,” Beth exclaimed.
“Oh, really? Cody, can I see you in my office real quick?”
Nodding, Cody took a handful of tissues from reception before meeting his boss in his office. His boss, named Don, pulled out a seat for Cody in front of the desk. The news obviously came as a shock to everyone. Before speaking, Cody blew his nose three times.
“Are you going to be okay, Cody?” Don asked. “Because if you’re not, you’re more than welcome to leave for the day.”
Cody shook his head. He had already gotten a pay raise upon his promotion to senior executive. It would be foolish of him to bail after just receiving a promotion, Cody thought.
All he did was shake his head. “Trust me, Don. I think I have enough horsepower to get through the rest of my shift. When do we all get off again?”
“At 9,” replied Don. “Cody, are you sure you can tough it out? You let me know at any time if you need something, alright?”
As Cody nodded and shook hands with Don, the power flickered again. The flickering lasted a few seconds before the power shut off completely. The whole office was pitch black, with the exception of a few lanterns Gwen had ready to go.
“What do we do for work now?” Bridgette asked.
Don took out his cellphone. “I’ll call corporate. For now, just stay calm.”
As Don walked away to make that call, Cody uttered under his breath, “Easy for you to say.”
The urge to drop to his knees crying was strong, but Cody was even stronger. Beth put a hand on his shoulder to try and comfort him.
“Thanks, Beth.” Cody’s breath was slowly getting shaky. “I just don’t know what to do.”
“I could call my roommate’s boyfriend,” she suggested. “Last I heard, he was at the scene of the crash; he could give us a verdict.”
Cody nodded as Beth took her cellphone out of her pocket. She punched in the number for her roommate’s boyfriend, Tyler, who was typically a sports newscaster. But while in the middle of reporting a Montréal Canadiens home game, he got called to the crash by the St. Lawrence River.
“He’ll pick up,” Beth whispered. “Trust me.”
“Hello?”
“Tyler, it’s Beth. Are you still at the crash?”
“Yup,” said Tyler, who was tripping over debris and lifeless passengers.
“Can you check for someone, please?” asked Beth. “My colleague’s boyfriend was on that flight and he’s worried sick about him.”
“Sure. Just give me a second.”
Tyler was put in charge of counting the ratio of people who survived to the people in the accident. So far, it looked like there were no survivors, as the plane went headfirst into a giant rock.
“Help!” A frightened male voice caught Tyler’s attention while he was still tripping. Someone who survived? It couldn’t be.
While searching for the lone survivor, Tyler was nearly whacked over the head by a plane wing. He forgot he still had Beth on the phone and lost service without anyone knowing. Being located in a remote part of Québec didn’t help either, as Tyler lost service on every single one of his devices, including those used for work.
“Where are you?” Tyler called.
“I’m at the mouth of the river!”
All Tyler saw was a man in a ripped up suit, lying almost unconscious by the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Without another word, he ran to the only survivor of the crash and tried to help him. The passenger didn’t seem to have any life threatening injuries, but he appeared to have a piece of shrapnel in his left leg.
“Shit, I can’t call anyone,” Tyler exclaimed. “I lost connection. Sorry, what’s your name, sir?”
“My name’s Noah.” He tried to stand up, but his legs were shaky like a baby deer’s. “I can’t find my phone either.”
Noah reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a small box. He opened the box and looked at a beautiful diamond ring that wasn’t damaged at all. Even though Noah was in a lot of pain and couldn’t walk the way he used to, he was extremely determined to get home.
“What’s that, Noah?” Tyler asked.
“I was on a flight to meet my brothers in Edinburgh,” said Noah. “I was going to propose to my boyfriend when I got home. Ugh, since there’s no way I can contact anyone, I have to get to him.”
Tyler sighed and helped Noah into his van, not the least bit concerned about his job. He was willing to put his job on the line if it meant the only survivor of the plane crash got home to his boyfriend. Most of Noah’s belongings were already destroyed, so they didn’t bother trying to recover anything of his.
Noah served as a GPS for Tyler, at least until they got service again. Tyler ignored any incoming calls and kept all focus on getting Noah back to his beloved.
“Dammit, it’s raining,” Noah groaned.
Noah put his address into Tyler’s phone. All he could do was hope he could get home and not leave Cody worried. Thankfully, they were only an hour away from the crash. Noah didn’t see Cody’s car in the driveway and smacked his forehead.
“What’s the matter?” Tyler asked.
“Cody’s working overtime,” said Noah. “He’s in one of many office buildings though. It’s a really small one. Don’t worry; I know that address, too.”
Now that Tyler had service again, he was able to call Beth back. The rain was coming down hard, so he drove with caution.
On the other end, there was still hardly any power in the building. In the end, Don decided to let his employees go for the day and the branch would suffer the consequences in the morning. Beth was about to put her phone in her purse when she noticed Tyler calling her back.
All Cody could do was try and stop himself from completely breaking down. There were no updates on if anyone survived the crash. Gwen did her best to comfort him.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do, Gwen.” Cody’s voice kept shaking with every word he spoke.
“I’m going to hold out hope for him,” said Gwen.
“Cody!” Beth shouted. “He called me back!”
Cody and Gwen followed Beth to the elevator. The door was open, but Beth wasn’t in the elevator yet. Instead, she pointed out the window to Tyler’s van.
“Who’s that?” asked Gwen.
“Oh, my God!” Cody gave up holding back tears and started bawling. “It’s Noah!”
He ran into the elevator and rapidly pressed the button to close the doors. Gwen and Beth gave up trying to get into the elevator with Cody, since he needed to see Noah badly.
Outside, Cody saw Noah by the van. He ran past the crowd to get to his boyfriend and into Noah’s arms. Cody didn’t want to let go. He was so sure Noah was a goner. Without another word, Noah grabbed Cody’s face and kissed him like he had never kissed anyone before.
Once Noah broke the kiss, he saw the rain fall on Cody’s face, red from crying his eyes out. He knew there would’ve been no other chance if he didn’t survive. Noah took his boyfriend’s hand and got down on one knee, with Cody’s colleagues looking on.
“Cody, surviving that crash was extremely eye opening,” said Noah. “I need to show you how lucky I am. Not only to be alive, but to know you.”
Noah reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring that was fortunate to still be intact. Cody covered his mouth and the sobbing didn’t stop there. His colleagues were squealing, shocked to see a proposal after Noah nearly died.
“Fuck, I just gotta say it. Cody Anderson, will you marry me?”
At a loss for words, Cody could only nod. Noah pulled him in for another passionate kiss in the rain. They could only hear the sound of people cheering them on. Noah slid the ring onto Cody’s finger and picked him up.
“I missed you,” Cody sobbed. “I do hate to say it, Noah, but because the power went out at work and won’t be back on until morning, I’m probably going to work late tomorrow.”
“That’s okay,” Noah whispered into his ear. “I’m just happy to be with you again.”
“We do need to take care of that leg.”
Noah nodded and put Cody down. Whether or not one of them needed to work later, they were just happy to be together again.