Work Text:
"What happened?"
Cal broke most traffic laws going to get to the hospital this fast. He hasn't been in the best of conditions over the last couple of days, still sorting out his body clock after pulling several all-nighters tracking down the baal shem. He curses himself for not sticking with Nikko all the same. He'd left him with Solomon and Vincent in the middle of an extremely protective Jewish community that had decided to like them. Situations don't come much safer than that, but he should have known that somehow Nikko would manage to get himself into trouble. Now the rabbi, the baal shem himself is dead, and Nikko is in hospital, and here at last is Vincent to tell him what happened.
"The Rabbi's murderer pulled a gun. Nikko tried to disarm him. He was shot in the abdomen. He's in surgery now."
Vincent seems remarkably unconcerned about all this, and it takes most of Cal's remaining willpower to grit his teeth and not deck him for taking Nikko's life so lightly. Well, try to deck him; this is Vincent he's talking about, and Cal has no illusions about ever actually winning a fight against him. So rather than do something stupid, he does something else stupid; he tries to push past Vincent, to get closer to where Nikko's life hangs in the balance.
Vincent stops him, predictably. "Woah," he tells Cal, lips quirking in mild amusement. "They've already got Solomon through there creating havoc, they don't need us as well."
"Yeah, but..."
"He'll be all right."
Cal drags his gaze from the doors beyond back to Vincent. He seems to be completely serious, quietly confident that he is telling a simple truth, which confuses Cal no end. "How can you know?" he asks, trying not to let too much of his feelings show. The very last person he needs on his case over Nikko is Vincent.
Vincent lets a glimmer of a smile show on his lips again. "Never underestimate the power of the baal shem," he says.
"Huh? You mean the old rabbi—"
"—is dead. But he trained his granddaughter in the ways of the baal shem, hoping to hide it even from his own people and make them think for themselves. It seems she took a shine to our Nikko."
Cal stands stunned for a moment. "She saved his life?"
"If you believe in such things. She sang over him there in the street, until the ambulance came."
Cal's thoughts were pretty scattered to start with, but they're positively whirling now. A female baal shem, that's going to upset a few traditional applecarts. He ought to find her, thank her for saving Nikko's life, warn her about impossible, overconfident kids... "They'll hide her away, won't they?"
Vincent nods. "She's probably already gone, while we are busy here."
Cal looks past him again, staring at the way through to the operating theatres. "I wish..." he says softly.
"We can't do any good in there," Vincent says softly. "Neither can Solomon, but he is Nikko's father. He needs to be there."
I need to be there. Cal manages to keep the words off his lips, but from the way Vincent's eyebrow quirks up he's given away his feelings anyway. The fear that has been with him since he first got the summons to the hospital is redoubled at the thought that this is it, his secret's out and he's never going to be let near Nikko again. Just like the baal shem, Nikko's going to be locked away from him, hidden away from his stupidity and—
"Your little brother is in the best possible hands," Vincent tells him, then draws him into a gentle hug.
It's all too much for Cal; the relief that for once Vincent has misread what has to be plastered all over Cal's face, the relief that Nikko will pull through this, perversely even the relief that Nikko's never going to see the rabbi's granddaughter again, it all comes crashing down on him. He has to let go, there's no holding on through this storm of emotion, so he buries his head in Vincent's shoulder and cries like a baby.
Vincent holds him while the sobs wrack through his body. He wishes that it was other arms around him. He's glad that Nikko isn't going to see him like this. He doesn't know what to think, so he stops thinking entirely, switching his brain off until it has all worked through leaving him empty and at peace.
When he finally pulls away from Vincent, Maggie hands him a handkerchief. He has no idea when she arrived, he's just grateful for another familiar face. One that's not Solomon, anyway; he's glad his boss hasn't seen him like this, and he knows Maggie and Vincent won't pass on anything so personal.
"You go freshen up, hon," Maggie tells him, echoing his thoughts. "The nurses say its going really well and Nikko will be out of surgery soon, but they're nearly ready to toss Solomon out on his ear."
Cal nods and, frankly, flees. He's going to need time in the washroom to pull himself together, never mind just looking like has hasn't spent the last however long bawling his eyes out. He needs to get back into being Calvin Banks, archaeological assistant and smart ass. And big brother, apparently.
He'll take it. It's not enough, but he'll take it.