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“-That you should stop them?
He should have seen this coming. Really, he shouldn’t have let his emotions get the better of him. But he had. Stone had watched as Ivo drove off on his own, and he had panicked. Abandoned all the training given to him over his many years working for G.U.N. and rushed into that house to check on him. It was a stupid mistake. One he never would have made in his earlier years. Hell, he wouldn’t have made it three months ago. But ever since that horrible day, Stone had been on edge. More than unusual. He’d gotten clingy to a point even Ivo was growing tired of his constant surveillance. Berating him for ‘worrying too much’ and ‘acting like a fool’. Stone had tried so hard to prove himself, to show that what had happened before was just a mistake. Something that would never happen again. Maybe he had been a bit too overbearing, but he was just doing his job. Right? Well, he was now finally paying the consequences. He’d failed the Doctor… again. He’d let his emotions get the better of him, hadn’t thought things through. His one job was to stay at his Doctor’s side, make sure he was safe. Yet Ivo had managed to slip away from him again. He’d gotten hurt for fuck’s fake. Stone was an agent; he was supposed to be perfect, yet here he was.
“Open your mouth, and say that you thought that you should stop them.”
The Doctor was pissed off, and it was his fault. Ivo’s temper is a familiar thing, fickle and short fused. Yet even this feels different, altered. They both knew this could have gone so much worse, yet all Ivo is concerned about is going after the man who’d punched him. And some sort of creature? Something catches in Stone’s throat, and he’s hit with the distinct realisation that something feels very wrong. His breath hitches, and he has to force himself to remain calm as he faces the glare Ivo sends his way. He tries to take a subtle slow breath so he can answer the Doctor. It does little to push back the panic that had built up inside him on his rush to follow Ivo. And Stone had a very bad feeling that he was on the verge of something he couldn’t quite name at the moment. He knew people were waiting outside and that Ivo still had work to do. Despite all this, he doesn’t feel the need to correct his mistake and rush after whoever did this. In fact, right now, Stone wanted little more than to collapse onto the floor.
“No, I thought that maybe I should check to see if you are okay-“
He doesn’t expect the cold press of the Doctor’s gloved fingers in his mouth. Maybe he should have, but he can’t say for certain that he’s feeling entirely rational right now. They curl into his jaw, pulling him closer to Ivo so the Doctor can yell in his face. There’s a faint taste of metal and leather in his mouth. It’s a thick, heavy taste that settles on his tongue, one that he hopes will linger for hours after. It’s a taste that is distinctly Ivo. He’s slightly tempted to suck on the digits. But he’s not so far gone in whatever this was that he had lost the ability to tell that was a bad idea. The strain on his jaw as the Doctor uses his mouth as a handle is almost grounding. If not for the fact that Stone can feel which fingers had been recently broken by the variation in pressure. And like a switch, the taste changes from comforting to horrifying as he thinks back to the blood that had coated Ivo when he’d found him tied to that chair.
“You know what’s hard about being the smartest person in the world?”
“Everyone else is stupid-“ He mumbles around the fingers.
“Yes, way to go, you got that one,” Ivo snaps.
The Doctor lets him go, wiping spit-coated fingers across Stone’s chest. And Stone feels himself slip further into his mind; he’s sure he can hear the Doctor talking to him. Talking about something, the creature maybe. He’s facing away, which normally meant he was just talking to himself, but that wasn’t always the case. He needed to pay attention. He needed the ringing in his ears to stop. Stone does his best to at least pretend he can hear what the Doctor is saying to him. It must work because the Doctor doesn’t stop talking, and soon enough, they are joined by the agents he drove over with. And then another set. As more agents flood into the house, Stone finally clocks on why his mind feels so fuzzy all of a sudden. As barely familiar faces begin to feel more like enemies than allies. He wants to reach for his gun, to feel the weight of it against his palm. But he knew that was a bad idea. He leans closer to Ivo. Tapping a finger to the exposed wrist of the Doctor’s left hand in a unique pattern. And Ivo turns to look at him immediately, his eyes searching Stone's face in concern. A sheltered concern that housed itself in the deep brown of Ivo’s eyes meant only for him.
In the next few seconds, there’s a hand around his wrist. And Stone finds himself being forcefully dragged out of the house. He’s vaguely aware of the fact that Ivo is barking out orders to the people around him. But Stone’s sole focus now is on not having a panic attack in front of the people he’s supposed to be in charge of. He practically falls down the stairs, barely avoiding faceplanting thanks to the Doctor’s continued forward pace. Dragging him forward until the mobile lab comes into view. Stone feels Ivo grab onto his shoulders pushing him into the mobile lab. He manages to stumble up the last few steps before he falls onto his hands on the lab floor. His breathing becoming shallower by the second.
“Move, Stone. You’ll regret it if you stay like this.”
The hands return to his shoulders. Dragging him up and further into the lab until he can sit on Ivo’s chair. This position allows him to lean back and focus on breathing. Focus on the hand that was now settled on his knee. Anything to ignore the terror of believing he had lost Ivo. Again. The tap of Ivo’s control glove starts in that familiar rhythm of control, and Stone begins to follow along almost automatically. He hadn’t had many panic attacks in front of Ivo. But the Doctor had been quick to pick up on how to help him through them. But this is different. His reality doesn’t feel blurred; there’s no confusion as to where he is. All he can feel is the rush of adrenaline as his heart pounds in his ears. The sheer, overwhelming weight of anger pressed down on his lungs. When he rescued Ivo from his captors, he had been precise. Striking vital point after vital point to ensure that Ivo was safe as soon as possible.
But in reality, he had wanted nothing more than to tear them to shreds. Hurt them like they’d hurt what was his. Stone had wanted to make it hurt, to drag it out for days on end until they begged for mercy. Anger and panic had become one twisted mass inside his head. The two signals raised their heads whenever he felt even the slightest bit of stress about Ivo’s well-being. His medication was no longer effective, and everything they tried only seemed to make it worse. Whatever this was was slowly consuming him. All he could focus on was Ivo. On keeping him safe, ensuring harm never came to him again. He had given himself one mission, and it had only taken a few months for him to fuck this up too. A whine slides free from his throat, and Ivo sighs beside him. There’s a hand in his hair and a hitch in his breath as Ivo pulls sharply on the strands.
“Focus Stone.”
It’s easier to focus on the pain than the downward spiral of his thoughts. Whenever his breathing began to shallow Ivo was there with a sharp tug to drag him back up to the surface. It wasn’t logical, he was sure for most people the pain would only make this worse. But the knowledge it was Ivo doing it, controlling him. It was one of the most comforting things he could experience. Eventually the panic begins to subside. Leaving him with a strange fog in his head and he tries to right himself. They had work to do after all. He leans his head back, letting out a sigh as he feels his breathing settle. Before he drags his gaze down to find Ivo staring at him. Concern creeping into his expression. A slight furrow to his crow, a curl to the corner of his mouth. Subtle things that only he would notice. Normally Ivo would be more open with his emotions around him. But ever since he’d been taken he’d fallen back into a shell that Stone hadn’t seen for years.
“These have been getting more frequent, Stone. “
And they both knew why. Ever since Ivo had been kidnapped all those months ago, Stone had been on high alert. No matter how much Ivo had assured him that it was a mere fluke that allowed him to be taken in the first place. It wasn’t a fluke, he hadn’t been there for Ivo. And now anytime the Doctor left his line of sight for too long he found himself growing restless.
“I’m sorry, Doctor.”
Ivo clicks his tongue. Tilting his head at Stone in consideration. He feels remarkably like a specimen being studied, and he finds that for once, he doesn’t like it. It sends a shiver down his spine. This wasn’t how Ivo looked at him; this was how he looked at everyone else. The ignorant fools that surrounded them throughout the day.
“If this work is becoming too much for you-“
“What?! No sir. What could possibly make you think that?”
The doctor sighs, rolling his eyes.
“We were separated for barely an hour. If you continue to react like a lost little puppy whenever you can’t see me, I will never be able to get my work done.”
“Sir…”
He didn’t understand; it was like they were back to square one. But there was no way Ivo was being truthful; there was no way he was actually considering getting rid of him. They had promised each other. This was a mistake; it had to be
“This creature could offer a breakthrough in my work; we don’t have time to waste. I’m not dying anytime soon . So pull yourself together or get out of my way, I’ve got a hedgehog to catch.”
Ivo doesn’t even wait for him to respond; he just shoves his way past Stone without a word. A tension high in his shoulders as he strides out of the house.
“Of course, Doctor.”
Stone finds that the worry he feels never truly vanishes. It hovers over him like a bad omen, warning him that something terrible is coming. Instincts that he had trained for years were screaming at him to prepare for the worst. And yet he ignores them. He watches with delight as Ivo attempts to destroy this mysterious creature. He stands on the sidelines waiting for the Doctor to win. And when the Doctor steps into the prototype and flies away to capture the creature. He waits patiently for his Doctor to return. Monitoring his vitals from the mobile lab as he performs meaningless tasks to keep himself occupied. And all this time, he finds himself repeating two simple phrases in his head. They were fine, he was fine. Over and over as if he could will it into existence. They were fine; this was just a simple test run. He was fine; the Doctor was more than capable of catching a space hedgehog. They were fine; Ivo would be back any minute. He was fine; Ivo promised he wouldn’t leave.
They were fine.
He was....
Gone.
Ivo was gone. Somewhere unknown. Somewhere where Stone couldn’t follow him. And G.U.N. wasn’t doing anything to get him back. In fact, they were doing the opposite. File by file, he watches as all available information on Robotnik vanished. He’d backed up as much as he could on private servers. Blueprints, notes. Anything he could get his hands on. But he couldn’t save it all. He couldn’t save him. He had failed at his job. He’d failed to keep the Doctor safe, and he had no way to get him back. Stone knows G.U.N. was waiting for him to return so he could be reassigned to someone else. But he runs. Far away. He runs and hides and collects scraps of the Doctor along the way. Stone waits and waits until one day he finds it. His next order, left behind by the Doctor. He returns to Green Hills, and he begins to work. Waiting for his Doctor to return to him.
Ivo had promised, and so Stone would wait.