Chapter Text
Michael entered the apartment with no small amount of trepidation. His kids and David creeping behind him anxiously. They’d pushed him in front, almost as a human shield which he supposed he deserved. They had no idea what they might find.
Bobby had texted the night before, a short missive to say that they were both okay and that they would speak to him the next day, but it hadn’t helped soothe the knot in his stomach.
The knot of guilt.
He should never have pushed Athena the way he had. He should have listened to Bobby, should have stuck to Dr Sanford’s plan of action. He wasn’t sure what had possessed him.
Lingering aftereffects from his surgery or treatment?
His tumour returned?
Or just merely his own impatience and frustration?
He depressingly suspected the latter.
He’d been berated by his husband and his children the night before and rightly so. He had no defence for his actions. Only a desperate need to shake Athena out of whatever madness had her in its grip. To help Bobby who had been so heartbroken and adrift.
Although maybe it was also an acute awareness of his and his family’s mortality, a refusal to let those he loved waste a single moment that the gift of life gave them. They’d all faced trauma, but they were all still here. That had to mean something and he was damned if he was going to let the people he loved most in the world lose sight of that.
He looked around the darkened apartment, it was getting on for 6pm, and turned on the lights.
It was eerily silent.
“Hello,” he called out, wincing at the nervousness he heard in his own voice. He turned to his kids who shrugged.
“Maybe they’re in their room?” Harry suggested and May scoffed at her brother.
“You first,” she said and Harry gave her a withering look.
“I’ve already been scarred by walking in on you and Ravi, I don’t need to be scarred by walking in on one of my parental units.”
“Well as someone who has already been scarred by that parental unit, perhaps the other parental unit can take one for the team,” May said looking at her father and stepfather.
Michael turned slowly to David who rolled his eyes and walked towards the bedroom door.
“Athena? Bobby? Are you here?” he called out, as he knocked on the door.
There was no answer and David stared at them helplessly as Michael and his kids wordlessly encouraged him to look.
David whispered a silent prayer before opening the door and Michael felt a rush of affection for his much put upon husband. He didn’t know how he put up with the craziness the Grant-Nash’s brought with them, he really didn’t.
“Oh.”
“Oh?” Michael asked as David returned.
“Empty,” he shrugged.
“Where are they?” Harry said, an edge of frustration to his voice which Michael knew was born out of concern but there were times when his 19-year-old son still sounded like the grumpy teenager that had lived with him in Florida.
“Do we wait?” May asked her dad.
Michael sighed, “We wait.”
So they did. For a couple of hours. They’d ordered Thai and left enough for Athena and Bobby and tried not to panic. Their messages had all gone unanswered, calls straight to voicemail.
And then just as they debated whether to start calling round hospitals the apartment door opened and in walked Athena and Bobby, ladened with bags that they dumped just inside the door. They looked tired but a lot more relaxed than Michael had expected and, he noted with relief, they were smiling at each other before finally noticing the welcome parade.
“Well, hello, how long have you all been here?” Athena said and Michael struggled to place her tone. Was she mad? Happy? None of the above?
“A while,” May said with an edge to her voice that sounded suspiciously like her mother – or even her grandmother. He made a mental note never to comment on that.
“Were we expecting you?” Athena shot back in the same tone and Michael watched as Bobby smirked.
“We are glad you are here,” Bobby interrupted before mother and daughter could spar.
“We are?” Athena huffed in question at her husband.
“We are,” Bobby said defiantly but with that calm, patient tone of his that Michael had always envied. And adored. Bobby’s certainty was like an anchor, it always had been. It had been Michael’s anchor when he had first been diagnosed all those years ago, it had left them all adrift while he was gone. Its return made Michael want to weep in gratitude and relief.
Bobby beckoned them all to the dining table where they could all sit together comfortably, Athena and him on one side, the rest on the opposite with Harry claiming the head of the table.
He couldn’t see but from how they were sitting he was almost certain Athena and Bobby were holding hands. They finally looked relaxed in each other’s presence and the knot loosened.
“I’m so sorry,” he blurted out, “I should never have ambushed you like that Athena.”
“No,” she said honestly, “You shouldn’t. But although your methods were questionable, I get why you did and to be honest, given where we are now, I can’t regret it.”
“And where are you?” May asked her mother.
Bobby and Athena gazed at each other, small smiles on their faces and Athena nodded at Bobby to answer.
“Together. Bruised. But not beaten. Tired and in need of sleep. But lighter than we’ve both been since this nightmare began.”
Athena nodded and explained, “We’ve spent most of the afternoon with Dr Sanford.”
Michael was surprised and was unable to arrange his face in time for it not to show.
Athena caught it and laughed lightly, “I know. Bobby didn’t even have to take me kicking and screaming. We needed it and to be honest I am very glad we went.”
Bobby nodded in agreement moving his arm round Athena’s shoulders as she cuddled into his side, “We’re going to be seeing her regularly for some time, together and separately. We’ve got a lot of stuff to work through but we’re both committed to doing that work and seeing it through.”
“Are you moving back in,” Harry asked, and Michael smiled at the eagerness in Harry’s voice. Harry had admitted how much he had missed Bobby, grieving him had been one of the worst experiences of his life and then going through the academy without Bobby by his side had been painful. When he finally got him back, he’d been Bobby’s shadow, desperate for Bobby’s approval and mentorship during his last months of being a probie and so the separation had been particularly hard on him.
Bobby nodded, “I am. That’s why we are a bit late in getting back, we’ve been to Bucks to pack my things.”
“He’ll miss you,” David said.
Bobby smirked, “He’ll miss my cooking, but he was pleased that Athena and I are sorting things out. We popped in on Hen and Karen too. We know that all of you and the 118 have been affected by the past few weeks, and we’re sorry that we put you in the middle of it all.”
May shook her head, “We just love you both and knew you loved each other too. We just didn’t know how to get you both to remember that.”
“I don’t think we had forgotten,” Athena replied thoughtfully, “We were just over-stimulated from buckets of trauma and not a clue how to navigate.”
“But we’ve got help now,” Bobby said decisively, “And we’re going to get better, and we’re going to be happy.”
“I already am happy,” Athena said softly looking up at her husband with such tenderness, Michael was unable to stop a tear from cascading down his cheek.
“Michael,” Bobby began in concern but he placated him with a smile.
“I’m okay, I just am really, really happy that you’re sorting things out. The universe wasn’t right without you Bobby and it wasn’t right without you Athena being together. Feels like the world is healing.”
“We’re all healing,” David said, his hand clasping Michael’s and his eyes equally as watery.
“Family hug,” said Harry, encouraging them all to stand in a jumble of Grant-Nashes, arms around each other. Holding each other tight. A family. Bruised but not broken. Healing and happy.
Later that night, they sprawled in the living room, Athena and Bobby curled up together in the armchair laughing at the competitiveness of May, Harry and Michael as they finished a card game that Bobby, Athena and David had long been out from.
As Harry taunted May, Michael took a look at the newly reconciled couple, who had moved their attention away from the game and towards each other. They looked happy, they looked complete.
He remembered the first time he had seen them together in that way, the night he had insisted on Bobby joining them for dinner the night of the earthquake.
He’d put the kids to bed and left Athena and Bobby cleaning up the kitchen, Bobby insisting it was the least he could do.
When he’d returned the couple were curled up on one of the patio chairs, softly murmuring to each other, interspersed with equally soft kisses and smiles.
He knew at that moment that Athena had found the love of her life. And although he hadn’t known Bobby that well, he was pretty sure Bobby had found his too. He looked at her like she was his moon and stars, and she looked at him in exactly the same way.
At the time, in his selfishness, he had been relieved. The guilt of his betrayal and lies lessening somewhat, the guilt of blowing up their family easing. Now though, he was able to see it for what it was. Love in its purest form. A partnership in its truest sense.
Neither made much sense without the other, even though separately they were, in some ways, so different. But Michael believed that was what made them so perfect for each other.
They were a couple united by the things they shared, a commitment to duty, their strength both physically and mentally, an understanding of the lives they both led as first responders, love for May and Harry, love for their wider family and friends.
But where Athena was sharp, Bobby’s softness helped to round out the edges, and where Bobby was weak, Athena was strong.
They were each other’s pillar, the calm to each other’s storm.
No one made Athena laugh like Bobby did and vice versa and, although he hated to admit it, he suspected that Bobby knew her better too. And she knew him. They both knew all parts of the other, even the parts that they tried to hide.
They were lightning in a bottle, so rare and precious and so powerful.
As they gently kissed Michael turned back to the card game to give them some semblance of privacy, not that they particularly deserved it, making out in front of everyone.
He felt at peace, finally contented and able to breathe in a way that had been impossible since he got that awful news of Bobby’s supposed death. It had been a long, hard year, they’d all suffered but they had all come through it. Still a family. Still together. And no one, not even God himself could tear them apart.