Work Text:
Healy groaned as he was rudely awakened by the ringing of the landline across the desk from him, lifting his head from the desk that he was supposed to be working at, a lined piece of paper that was half-filled with information about their current case stuck to his forehead. He ripped the piece off of his face and glared at the phone that was continuing to ring, as if he was daring it to continue, he debated letting it ring out, but something was telling him that he should probably answer it this time.
Sighing he reached over and put the phone to his ear,
“Hello?” He spoke, his voice rough from sleep, his lips and the back of his teeth sticky with that horrible stickiness that you get when you take a nap when you weren’t quite meant to,
“Hey Jack, it’s Jonathan, hate to call you for this, your uh… business partner? He’s causing quite a commotion, I mean he's currently standing on one of our tables trying to get away from a few of our other patrons, something about him comparing their mothers to various farm animals? Either way, he’s wasted, I'm pretty sure he’s about to get his ass handed to him, do you mind coming by to get him? I don’t wanna have to be scrubbing blood off the floor again”
Healy sighed and rubbed a hand down his face, fighting the instinct to groan loudly with Jonathan on the other line, Jonathan was the barkeep of a bar that he and Holland frequented, especially after closing cases, so who knows why Holland had ventured his way there by himself, he took a deep breath in through his nostrils,
“Yeah, yeah I’ll.. I’ll come grab him, make sure he doesn’t get his ass beat too hard before I get there won’t you? I need him somewhat coherent for tomorrow” Healy grumbled out
“Yeah of course Jack, thank you, just get here quickly I doubt these guys will want to hold out for too much longer the way he’s going on” Jonathan replied, the call ending with a muffled yell from out in the background, Healy couldn’t quite tell from who it came from, but either way it wasn’t sounding promising.
Stretching back against his hard chair, feeling his back pop in a few places, Healy let out a large breath and got up, grabbing his jacket that was hanging over the back of his sofa, and his brass knuckles that were sitting on top of his TV set, not knowing quite what he was going to be walking into, but at least he wanted to be prepared if he had to rescue Holland from whoever he had pissed off this time.
As he made his way down the stairs of his apartment and through the back door of the comedy club and towards his car, he tried to remember just how many times he had to rescue Holland from his many, many fights or the times he would drink so much he’d pass out or even the time that he drank so much that somehow he got on a bus to Bakersfield in nothing but his underwear and tank top, missing his shoes and somehow his right sock, with no recollection of how or why he was there or where his right sock had gone, but he had managed to get his hands on a seashell that apparently would whisper the secrets of the universe to you when you held it up to your ear.
Healy guessed that he traded almost all his clothes for the seashell, how he ended up in Bakersfield that was as good as anyone’s guess.
As he pulled up to bar, Healy could hear already some form of commotion from inside, and the fact that he could pick out Holland’s slurred shouts among the others just spelled out disaster for Healy, he put on the brass knuckles before entering, wanting to be prepared for anything.
Cracking his knuckles and rolling his neck, Healy stepped inside the bar, the sight in front of him was exactly what he expected and also nothing that he expected at the same time. Holland was on top of a stool that balanced precariously on a table that was surrounded by four or five angry looking men who kept swiping at Holland, trying to get him to fall off, and to his credit, Holland was somehow staying on with almost cat-like grace.
He looked roughed up, his hair completely out of place, a cut above his eyebrow, blood streaked down from his nose, spots on his shirt and tank top, the shirt itself had a rip where the arm met the body, Holland’s shoulder peeking out through it, it seemed that he probably got beaten up and then scrambled up the stool and table.
Shouts and that high pitched scream of his kept escaping his mouth as every time they got closer to him, what was coming out of his mouth didn’t quite make much sense, a lot of trying to placate the angry men, but in the next breath he’d snicker and laugh at them when they miss to pull him down, making them more and more frustrated.
Deciding that he had seen enough of the scene in front of him, Healy walked over, clearing his throat and grabbing the shoulder of one of the men in front of him, dragging him backwards, the man stared at him, but before he had a chance to swing on him, Healy reeled back and punched him square in the face, knocking him out cold.
Holland, from his vantage point watched him knock out the first man and shouted out,
“Healy!!! My savior!! My knight in shining armor! Haha you guys have no chance now you fucking idiots! He’s gonna wipe the flo-” Holland didn’t get to finish his sentence as when he was slurring/shouting out his words, he was gesturing wildly and managed to fall backwards from his tower, crashing to the floor with an almighty bang to the floor and a groan escaping his lips.
Healy looked down at him, back at the other men who had suddenly doubled since he last looked and considering now he had to protect himself and the curled over form of his business partner, he decided he would admit when he was outnumbered and hurried over to Holland, grabbing him by his shoulders and dragging him out of the bar as quickly as he could, ignoring the whines of protest from the man, kicking over a couple of chairs with his feet as he went to try and slow them down.
Hearing the men shout and try to force their way through the lousy barricades that Healy put up, he picked up Holland from under his armpits and ran with him, one arm around his waist and putting Holland’s arm around his shoulders and sped over to his parked car, shoving Holland into the passenger side and sprinting to the drivers’ side, shutting the door just as one of the men managed to get to the car, putting the car into drive, he sped off, driving as far as he could away, taking them back to the rental, Holland falling asleep by the time that they had hit the interstate.
As they finally pulled up to the driveway of Holland’s rental, Healy looked back at the man next to him, noticed the lack of chatter that was absent from his right hand side and saw that he was fast asleep, his head lolled forwards, his chin hitting his chest as he snored quietly, Healy debated leaving him there, seeing how peaceful he was for a moment, and knowing how much of a pain he was likely to be when he woke up. But he soon thought otherwise, knowing he’d only hear protests from Holland about how his neck would be hurting after sleeping in such a position.
Letting out what felt like the fiftieth sigh he had let out that evening, he got up out of his car and walked over to Holland’s side, opening the door and shaking his shoulder,
“Nooo, please, don’t take my french toast….. I.. I need it” Holland sleep-mumbled, his hands reaching out in front of him at an invisible thief, Healy rolled his eyes, shaking his shoulder more forcefully, waking Holland with a start,
“Wha.. where are we?” He asked, blinking slowly as he looked around the driveway
“Home, or rather your home, get out” Healy spoke gruffly, stepping out the way, Holland started to get out slowly, but stopped and touched a hand to under his nose seeing the blood that came back on his hand, and showed it to Healy like it was a new discovery,
“Yeah you got your shit rocked because you’re a idiot who can’t handle his drink” Healy explained,
“Hey I’m not an idiot, that’s not fair, plus I can handle my drink fine thank you very much” Holland pouted,
“Yeah sure, not like there's at least ten instances where I can think of on the top of my head from the past three months alone, lets just get you inside before the neighbours see you, or you wake them up with your shouting” Healy pulled him out of the car and shut the door, locking the car after, he then walked over to the door, pulling out his spare key that he had mixed opinions on owning, but when Holly explained that he needed one in case her dad had gotten too drunk again and she needed him here, Healy had taken it in a heartbeat.
“Wait wait wait” Holland started, holding out his one bloodied and one clean hand at Healy, who simply cocked an eyebrow at the man,
“We gotta be quiet, Holly is asleep and she’s got that big history test tomorrow” Holland explained, holding a finger to his lips and making a shushing noise that was anything but quiet, his drunken state remembering that he had to be quiet but the volume control part not realising how loud he was being.
“We’ll be quiet, don't worry March” Healy rolled his eyes at his dramatics and unlocked the door, leaving it open for Holland to follow after, shutting it quietly.
Now that he was closer to Holland, he realised how roughed up the man looked, the blood still sluggishly leaking from the cut above his eyebrow, the semi-dried blood from his nose, the bruise he could already see forming over his left eye, the men he had pissed off evidently got a few good licks in before he used his cat-like grace to scuttle up his makeshift tower.
Healy hadn’t realised that he was just standing there staring at Holland’s face for a good few minutes like he was some love-struck teenager, until the aforementioned man suddenly turned and headed towards the liquor cabinet in the kitchen, Healy shook his head, clearing his mind out, and glad that Holland was so out of it that he hadn’t even realised how long he had been staring for, Healy jogged after Holland,
“Ah ah no, you’re getting cleaned up, don’t want you complaining in the morning about how I let you bleed all over your fancy sheets, even though I really should let you considering how much of a pain in the ass you’ve been tonight” Healy dragged him back by the arm, ignoring the whines and whimpers that Holland let slip from his lips made him feel a little funny for a moment.
Swallowing thickly he resumed his grip on Holland’s arm, dragging towards the bathroom, being sure to be as quiet as he could as he passed by Holly’s room and setting Holland down on the closed lid of the toilet,
“Stay here im gonna go grab the first aid kit” he grabbed Holland’s face and pointed at it,
“Dont. move.” he reiterated and let go of his face, speedily walking into Holland’s bedroom, noticing the clothes dotted around the room and the unmade bed, shaking his head in disbelief, Healy shrugged off his jacket throwing it onto the bed for now since he was sure Holland was going to be a pain and he didn’t fancy taking the jacket to the dry cleaners for the third time this month for mysterious blood stains, they were starting to get suspicious.
He reached down under the bed to grab the shoddy first aid kit that Holland kept, still unsure as to why he kept it in the bedroom and not his bathroom which made much more sense to Healy, but then there were a lot of things that Holland did that didn’t make sense. With the first aid kit in his hand he walked back to the bathroom.
He was genuinely surprised to see that Holland had actually listened for the first time in his life and was still sitting on the toilet seat, a dopey smile on his face as he looked at Healy when he came back in, with the pure look of something between admiration and the kind of look a dog gets when their owner comes back from work, it made Healy’s heart skip a little, something that again he shoved right down with all the other feelings he was having this evening.
“Alright come here” he motioned with his hand, grabbing Holland by the chin as he got an alcohol wipe and wiped off all the blood on his face, cleaning all that had dripped from his eyebrow and his nose, then got a fresh wipe and wiped the actual cut above his eyebrow, Holland’s face scrunch up as he did so.
He relaxed the tight hold on he had Holland’s face and started to get out the steri-strip out when he felt Holland’s face melt into his hand and when he looked back he saw how his cheek squished into his hand and the soft look returned in his eyes, Healy felt his breath catch in his throat and looked at the floor behind Holland, trying to look anywhere other than his eyes, taking a deep breath in through his nose and using that hand to still Holland as he carefully placed on the steri-strips, focusing all his attention on that task instead of the look he was currently being given.
“Don’t go falling asleep on my hand” he spoke out, his voice sounding more broken than he was expecting, coughing afterwards to conceal it as a rough throat as much as he could, but Holland didn’t even seem to notice anyways, his eyes were slowly falling as more weight pressed into Healy’s hand.
“Hey I said don't fall asleep in my hand” he reiterated, moving his hand away and gently slapping his cheek a couple of times,
“I wasn't falling asleep!” Holland retorted, scrubbing a hand over the non-injured side of his face, his face turning a light shade of pink, Healy shook his head in disbelief,
“Are you done now, Nurse Healy?” He asked snidely, tilting his head, “am I allowed to go now?”
“Yeah to bed, I’m not carrying your sorry ass from the sofa after you’ve raided the liquor cabinet to drink more” Healy grumbled out, packing away the first aid kit, turning to look at Holland after he didn’t move any further,
“You’re no fun” Holland stated
“No, you just don’t know how to handle your drink. Now. Bed” He pointed out the door like a father telling a little kid to go to bed, Holland stared at Healy for a moment more, waiting for him to relent and change his mind, but seeing as though he wasn’t Holland groaned and walked out the door, muttering all kinds of nonsense under his breath.
Healy kept an ear out listening for the telltale sign of Holland collapsing on his bed in a dramatic fashion and kept packing away all the parts of the first aid kit, throwing away the bloodied wipes and leaving the kit somewhere in the bathroom, it made more sense to keep in here, Healy had no idea why Holland kept in the bedroom.
Walking out the bathroom, Healy walked into the kitchen, filling up a glass of water that he downed in one go, and walked over to the sofa that had basically become his second bed at that rate, the spare blanket and pillow tucked away into the side unit to the left of him, something Holly had insisted.
He pulled them out and got them ready on the sofa, deciding already that he was going to stay the night, he knew full well Holland wasn’t going to be in any state in the morning to make Holly her breakfast and take her to school and well if she had her important history test then Healy didn’t mind waking up with a sore back to make sure she made it there on time and with a full belly.
He sat on the sofa for a moment more, the feeling of butterflies in his stomach returning that he had felt earlier when Holland had melted his face in his hand, the look that he gave Healy, the look that he felt safe, that Healy deserved those soft eyes of his, the kind of look you gave to someone you loved.
No, that wasn’t right, it couldn’t be right.
Pushing down that feeling of hope, Healy got up quickly as if he could outrun his own thoughts and decided that he should probably get Holland some painkillers and water for when he woke up with god knows how bad a hangover in the morning. He filled up a fresh glass and pulled out the little sheet of pills and popped two out for Holland and walked over to his room, shaking out the feeling of nerves that he had when walking up to his room, like as if Holland could read minds and knew what he was thinking.
Before he even took a step in the room Healy found himself stopped in his tracks, there was a soft glow from the hallway lighting up the bed and Holland on top of it, two lines of golden light settling over his sleeping form, the back of his hair turned golden in the light, still in his bloodied tank top from the evening but missing his trousers and thankfully still having both of his socks on.
He was tangled up in his sheets and in between his arms, was Healy’s jacket.
Holland was hugging, or in actuality he was practically cuddling his jacket, the collar of the jacket sitting right underneath his nose, hiding away the bottom of his face and his moustache, his arms were wrapped around the bulk of the jacket and even his legs were tucked up so the tops of his thighs were slightly covered by the bottom of the jacket, like as if he was stranded in the ocean and the jacket was the only thing keeping him afloat.
Healy wasn’t too sure how long he had been standing there, watching Holland cradle his jacket, time felt as if it was frozen around them at that moment.
“You know you’re not getting that back anytime soon” A voice spoke next to him,
Jumping out his skin and almost spilling Holland’s water all over the floor, he turned to see Holly standing there with her identical glass of water, looking also at the sight in front of the two of them,
“What?” Healy asked, his brain filled with only thoughts of the fact that Holland was cuddling *his* jacket
“The jacket? You’re not gonna get it back like any time soon” Holly repeated as if it was obvious “He did this last with mom’s shirt that he found in one of the boxes a few months ago, he slept with that thing for like a week straight until the smell went, then he was like depressed for a couple of days or something” She explained like she was talking about the weather, taking a sip of her water and looking up at Healy.
“Oh, right yeah” Healy nodded looking at her for a good thirty seconds, not knowing what to say, “shouldn’t... shouldn’t you be asleep? Your dad mentioned something about a test?”
“Yeah I just needed some water, night mister Healy” she spoke with a smile and with an innocence of not knowing what she had just unleashed upon Healy and scurried off back to her room, closing the door behind her and leaving Healy with the view he saw in front of him again.
Taking a large breath in, Healy ventured into the room walking past Holland and never able to keep his eyes off of him and the way that he was cuddling his jacket, barely looking away enough to put down the pills and the glass of water and as he turned to go, he watched as Holland let out a soft noise and held the jacket tighter to his chest, his hands grasping tightly to the fabric, breathing in through his nose, a long exhale following, the fact alone making Healy’s heart skip that little bit more.
He scrunched his eyes closed realising how weird it was that he was just standing there watching his business partner sleeping with his jacket and walked out the room, a part of him not wanting to leave, to stay, to replace the jacket with himself instead, to be the one that Holland held on so tightly, but he pushed through and walked back to the sofa that he would be sleeping in.
He settled in, fluffing up his pillow and resting his head on it, pulling the blanket over his body and sat in silence, his thoughts going a mile a minute and slowly fell asleep his dreams and thoughts filled with the idea of joining Holland in his bed instead of his jacket.