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Jack knew that guardians weren’t supposed to get any kind of overly attached to their charges, let alone fall in love with them. And every day, Jack spared a thought or ten to hope and pray that his bosses never find out. But the moment he watched Robby hold the hand of a terrified woman as he walked along her bed up to surgery, he was done for. Boom, Cupid’s arrow has a direct hit, love at first sight.
And it only got worse from there. Everything about Robby made Jack fall in love a little bit more, even the things that made Jack want to throttle him.
Not everyone had a guardian angel; you had to be a truly special soul to get one, and even then, there was a waiting list a mile long. (No, really. In a fit of temporary insanity/bravado, a couple of trainee guardians had stolen the list so they could measure it. Jenkins, the long-suffering list keeper, had not been pleased.)
All that to say, only the most worthy got one. And it didn’t take Jack long to realize that Robby would bet every penny he had that he’d never be close to earning a spot on that list.
But Robby was the epitome of every requirement the DGP (Department of Guardians and Protectors) had. He was kind and generous, giving of both his time and money, truly caring about every single soul he interacted with. Jack could wax poetic about Robby’s virtues for days (and had, but that was Lizzie’s fault for getting him drunk on honeysuckle; she knew what that stuff did to his inhibitions and as a fellow guardian, she knew better than to ask questions she didn’t want the answers to).
Jack had also never wanted to strangle one of his charges to this level, either. Because Robby, who was a brilliant and kind human being, who had an impish streak longer than the waiting list, who was absolutely the love of Jack’s life, was a complete idiot: a literal walking disaster with the self-preservation instincts of a squirrel who just saw a nut on the highway.
So Jack has more than once gone to great lengths to keep Robby out of trouble and/or a grave. His cover working in the same hospital and being actual friends helped. He’s hidden Robby’s keys more times than he can count to help him avoid accidents on his usual route home, caused a tree to fall on his neighbor’s car that he knew Robby wouldn’t hesitate to assist with so that Robby would delay and eventually dismiss the half formed plan to maybe walk off a bridge, and once, in a bout of massive desperation, used his mojo to damage his prosthetic leg and vanish away all of his spare crutches so that Robby would be forced to carry him around his apartment to keep Robby from going to the bank and being killed in a robbery. (Lizzie also got him to admit later that the carrying around was a purely selfish silver lining.)
Jack was proud of his imagination in keeping Robby safe, and he always made sure that any collateral damage to another living creature was minor. But this one? This might be his most genius moment (excluding the carrying because nothing was ever gonna top that).
A flash of insight had told Jack that if he let Robby leave the hospital at his usual time, he was going to be ambushed and ultimately killed by a mother who blamed Robby for losing her children after he testified to the abuse she was subjecting them to. Robby would turn into the attack instead of away in order to keep an innocent paramedic standing next to him from also being hurt, and he would be killed instantly.
So Jack needed a plan, and he needed one in the next hour.
He sent his mojo out into the neighborhood to get an idea of what he could use to keep Robby in the ED and close to Jack. It only took a few moments for him to come across a man considering his own questionable idea. Jack rolled his eyes (seriously, why are humans so stupid?), but he felt no shame at all in influencing him to go through with the plan and getting him into chairs and at the front of the line pronto.
“Hey, Robby, I know you’re getting ready to head out, but I could use a hand and honestly, you gotta see this.” Jack had on his ‘exasperated with people’ face, but he also looked a bit delighted (and a lot disgusted) with whatever was going on in the room he’d just walked out of.
Robby grinned a bit. “Anything for you.” Jack hip checked him in response, but he was smiling like a fool as he pushed open the exam room door.
Jack absolutely felt satisfaction roll through him as he felt the change that meant he’d successfully prevented the latest threat to Robby’s continued existence. But he also felt similar satisfaction as he saw Robby take in what exactly was happening in front of him.
Lying on his stomach on the exam bed was a man in his mid-forties, pants pulled down to his ankles, exposing the fish tail sticking out of his ass.
To his credit, Robby collected himself quickly, and had firmly pasted on his ‘I’m here to help, please trust me’ face (never feigned of course, but Jack knew him well enough to know that Robby was holding back the “what the ever loving fuck’ by the skin of his teeth) by the time the man had turn his head to look over his shoulder at him. “Hello, sir, my name is Dr Michael Robinavitch, but everyone calls me Dr Robby. I’m sure you’ve given a run down to Dr Abbot already, but if you don’t mind, can you tell me what’s going on?”
Jack was convinced that Robby had some mojo of his own, because unlike the massive attitude that Jack and the nurse hooking up an IV had caught, the man blushed and stammered as he attempted to get his story out. Robby made even the dumbest among them feel safe.
“Man, I don’t know what I was thinking. I just had this crazy idea, and the next thing I know, I’m going through with it! But it was frozen when it went in, so I expected it to stay that way, I guess? Only, surprise! It didn’t. And now it’s stuck!”
Outside the room, Jack could hear the commotion as the woman showed up looking for Robby. When she didn’t immediately find him, she started yelling obscenities, catching the attention of security, who moved to restrain her. Robby cocked his head slightly, always keeping an ear out to make sure whatever was happening didn’t require him to step in to keep someone else safe, but his eyes remained focused on the patient.
Robby gave a reassuring smile, reaching for some gloves and pulling them on. Jack tried to keep his distraction at that to a minimum. “I know it’s going to be uncomfortable, but I need to take a look so we can get an idea of what might be causing the issue. I have a hunch, but for right now, this is going to be strictly gentle poking and prodding. I want you to tell me if anything feels off, painful, or uncomfortable beyond what you’re feeling right now.”
An hour later, Robby’s hunch had been proven correct, and the man had been taken up to surgery to deal with the now unfrozen scales that were preventing a typical anal object removal.
Robby had also heard about the arrest made of a woman who’d meant to harm someone at the hospital.
The second their fishy patient was in the elevator, Robby wrapped his hand around the back of Jack’s neck and steered him towards the staircase to the roof. “Dr Ellis, you’re in change until we get back. Should be no more than fifteen minutes, but page us if you need anything.” Parker saluted Robby and winked at Jack.
“You’re right, we definitely need to debrief after that.” Jack went along easily, but his whole body shivered at the feeling of Robby’s large, warm, dry palm on his bare skin.
Robby didn’t say anything until they made it to the roof. Once they were at the railing, Robby shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets. Jack was only given a moment to mourn the loss of touch before Robby was pining him in place with a stare. “Who were you saving?”
Jack blinked in confusion. “Um…our patients?”
“No. I mean, who did you save by making that man shove a frozen fish up his ass? Because the way he described the incident has your mojo written all over it, and then that woman came in here looking to hurt someone. I’ve been trying to figure out who your charge is for years. And it’s obviously someone who was here an hour ago, but I still don’t know for certain.”
See, this right here? This is what Jack was talking about. Robby was an actual, certified genius, but he was also somehow the dumbest person Jack had ever met. “Hold on, you know I’m a guardian? You’ve known for years?”
Robby looked more than a little offended. “How dumb do you think I am? I can feel your mojo, for fuck’s sake.”
Oh.
OH.
Well. In that case, maybe his bosses won’t care.
Humans couldn’t feel mojo. It had been tested over and over again, so many trials done over the centuries by higher ups in the DGP. The only exception ever found was in the case of pilialoha. The closest concept humans had was soulmates; pilialoha was a complete connection in every way possible, both platonic and romantic. Only then could a human sense a guardian’s mojo and only that of their pilialoha. Jack had never heard a case of a guardian’s charge also being their pilialoha, but if Robby could feel Jack’s mojo, there was no other explanation.
Jack gave himself a mental shake. “You are.” Robby’s head tilted like a confused puppy. Jack felt another wave of pure affection run through him. “You’re my charge, Robby.”
“Oh.” Jack saw in real time as Robby shut down. His face closed off, going completely blank, while his shoulders hunched in even further. “Um, thanks then.” He made to turn back towards the door leading back into the building, and Jack was moving before his brain fully caught on.
He stumbled forward, grabbing Robby’s arm, wrapping himself around it to better plant his weight and keep Robby in place. Jack had no illusions that he could keep Robby there against his will, but he was banking on him not wanting to hurt Jack by ripping away. “Wait, wait, just wait a minute. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong, Jack. It’s fine. I’m just ready to get out of your hair and go home.”
Robby refused to meet his eyes, and Jack didn’t need the flash of insight to know that he was absolutely going to lose Robby if he let him leave now. “What are you talking about, ‘out of my hair’? I don’t want you out of my hair; I very much want you in my hair. So tell me what just happened.” Jack pushed himself closer, nuzzling into Robby’s shoulder. “What’s going on in the brain of yours, big guy?”
“I…” Robby took a deep breath. He was tense, but he didn’t try to pull away from Jack. “I’m thankful that you’ve been looking out for me, even if I don’t understand how that ended up happening. It’s just…hard to know now that that’s the only reason you’re here. That that’s the only reason you’re my friend.”
It was official. There has never been a bigger idiot than Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch. But if Jack was honest, he also wasn’t surprised that Robby’s negative self-esteem had gone there.
“Hey. Look at me.” He waited Robby out, not continuing until Robby reluctantly met his gaze. “Yes, we initially met because you’re my charge. But don’t for one second think that’s the only reason we’re friends. Guardians aren’t supposed to be friends with charges. We’re supposed to guard from afar, protect without attachment. We’re not supposed to watch hockey games curled up under the same blanket, or beg them to make challah, or drag them to see the tigers at the zoo, or cry on their shoulder after a rough shift, or use them as a pillow for three days when we have the flu from hell, or pout until they let me use them as a heating pad for my stump, or go to baseball games and steal peanuts from them.” Jack grinned when Robby narrowed his eyes in a half-hearted glare at that. “And we’re definitely not supposed to fall in love with them.”
Robby jerked like he’d been electrocuted and his eyes went wide with shock. Jack decided to use this to his advantage. Wrapping his arms around Robby’s neck, he moved forward until Robby was pressed against the wall by the stairwell door, trusting that Robby wouldn’t let him trip. And Robby still looked like he’d been hit by a train, but those big hands of his automatically moved to Jack’s hips to keep him balanced.
“We’re pilialoha. Soulmates. It’s how you can feel my mojo.” Jack gently tugged on the hair at the back of Robby’s neck. “And no, don’t go there, either. I’m not in love with you because fate said I had to be. That’s not how this works.” Robby snapped his mouth closed and looked a bit sheepish. Jack, on the other hand, just looked smug.
“Besides, I just realized we’re pilialoha about five minutes ago and I’ve been in love with you from the moment I saw you with Mrs Petrillo, holding her hand while she went upstairs to have her gallbladder removed.” Robby blinked slowly and his hands gripped Jack’s waist a little tighter. Jack smiled softly. “She looked at you like you were the sun and stars, and my immediate thought was ‘yeah lady, I completely get it’.” Jack delighted in the blush that bloomed over Robby’s face.
Jack took a deep, sobering breath. “I don’t keep you safe because it’s my job. I keep you safe because I need you with me forever, happy and healthy and somehow making me feel more loved and protected and irritated and baffled and giddy than I ever imagined possible.”
“I love you so much.” It took Jack a moment to realize that Robby had spoken and not himself. “I told myself that I had to be realistic, that you were only here because I was geographically close to whoever your charge was. But every moment you spent in my orbit, I fell deeper and deeper until I didn’t even remember that I wasn’t supposed to be attached to you.”
Jack couldn’t wait any longer and pushed up on his toes to press a soft kiss to Robby’s mouth. It was gentle, and nothing about it felt new. It felt like a continuation of every moment they’d spent together over the years. Robby pulled him closer, supporting his weight and lifting him off his toes completely. Jack made a mental note to explore later how hot that was.
After a moment, Jack pulled back slightly. “I never want you to be anything other than completely attached to me. Because you’re absolutely supposed to be, and I’m completely attached to you. We don’t fit because we’re pilialoha; we’re pilialoha because we fit.”