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“I’m gonna go over to the desert today! There’s a mine down there and I gotta get more iridium.” Harvey looked up at Atlas as he leaned into the house, hanging onto the doorway with a mostly empty pack hanging off his back. Harvey glanced towards Delilah, to make sure that she was actually eating the cereal on her high chair table, rather than just smacking it onto the floor. “You need me today, or am I good to go?”
“You’re good to go, honey.” He smiled over at Atlas, who grinned back, bouncing into the house to kiss the top of Delilah’s head, and then Harvey, grinning.
“Thanks love. I shouldn’t be gone too long, but don’t hold that to me.”
“I know how you lose track of time.” Harvey teased as Atlas bounced out of the house, hearing his laughter disappear down the steps as he went to grab the bus.
Delilah threw a cheerio at Harvey’s head.
They made it to the clinic, simply because, while peaceful, Harvey figured it would be nice to stop in and make sure everyone was alright in town. Delilah attached to Maru nearly on sight, which made the other grin, willing to take her for a period of time while nothing much as happening, letting Harvey wander into the upstairs and debate taking anything more back to the farm. It was nice to have multiple areas, though with his planes and the radio at the farm, really all that left was the books and... if they were there, he’d have to read them. It wasn’t something he wanted to do.
There really wasn’t anything left up here, and thus he wandered back down the stairs to the mostly empty clinic, hearing Delilah’s high pitched giggle in the main room, following by Maru’s bright laughter. He sighed, moving to enter the room again.
“I hope she hasn’t been giving you too much trouble out here.” Harvey grinned, looking to where Maru had Delilah balanced on her lap, bouncing her slightly.
“Oh, no, she’s no problem. Cute little thing.” Maru tickled along Delilah’s neck, bringing another loud pealing giggle from the toddler, and Harvey grinned.
“That she is.”
“Where’s Atlas? Normally you don’t bring her in if he’s still at the farm.”
“Went mining. He’s rather excited about today for whatever reason, I think he’s got another goal in mind than just a trip down like normal. Whatever it is, he didn’t tell me, but that’s alright.”
“You know he’s gonna tell you all about it when he gets home, that’s what he’s like.” Maru grinned, looking back to Delilah, who reached up and patted at her face, babbling. “She speaking yet?”
“Not quite. She’s still-” The door to the clinic banged open all of the sudden, and Harvey jumped turning quickly to look and-
The entire group was wet with the rain, Pam holding open the door to let Linus and Sebastian in, carrying a limp body between them. “Doc-” Sebastian looked up and Harvey understood at once.
Atlas.
The mines were a dangerous place.
“Get him in, Maru-”
“I’ve got Delilah.” That she did, keeping his daughter close to her chest. She may have been too young to fully understand what was going on, but no one wanted her to see this.
Harvey led them down the hall, Pam staying in the main room with Maru and Delilah, Sebastian and Linus lugging Atlas down the hall and into one of the beds. Linus had Atlas’s pack around his shoulders, which he dropped down, and Harvey tried to ignore the blood already staining the light fabric of the pack. Or Atlas’s clothes. Or already dripping off his fingers onto the tile underneath-
“Doc, focus.” Harvey’s head flew up, looking to Sebastian. Linus was already gone, perhaps to grab Maru, and Harvey blinked once, then nodded, quickly getting to work, ordering Sebastian to grab a few things without thinking about it.
Luckily, Sebastian took it at face value and did as he was asked.
The clothes were ruined, and god, Atlas was a mess. Blood, both his and monster’s, soaked through the clothing, as well as what seemed to be slime. Harvey ignored it, cutting through the clothing to reveal Atlas’s bruised and battered body, and tried to hold back the incoming panic attack.
“Harvey.” Maru slipped in, and he barely glanced up before shaking his head slightly and getting to work.
Sebastian didn’t leave. Harvey didn’t think that Sebastian had any sort of interest in the work they did, but he did know that Atlas considering him a friend. Perhaps that’s why Sebastian stayed around to help him and Maru, even as it became increasingly obvious he was rather uncomfortable with the proceedings.
Harvey wondered vaguely how long he could think about the other’s reactions before he had to think about Atlas, before he had to think about what he had to do, how horrifically close they got to losing him.
His body felt. Off.
Well, no, not really, Harvey knew what a panic attack was, and he had had them before, but even so, it was hard to conceptualize exactly what was going on for him. He knew the chemical reactions that caused this, he knew the exact things happening in his body at the moment, as his breath picked up, as he slowly sank to the floor of the clinic hallway with his hands fisted tight into his hair, his heartbeat too fast for him to count anymore, thundering behind his ears-
“Hey.”
He looked up, chest heaving against nothing, and saw Sebastian. He had Delilah in his lap, sitting across from him in the hall-when did he get here, Harvey hadn’t even noticed him step into the hallway-cross legged to keep Delilah trapped in his lap, though she wasn’t really trying to escape, looking to be mostly asleep with her head settled on Sebastian’s thigh.
“He’s gonna be alright. You said that yourself.”
He did. He had said that, as long as they kept up with everything, as long as he didn’t get infected, which was a worry still, but not too big of one, everything. Atlas was going to be okay. He was going to be okay. Harvey nodded just a bit, settling his back against the wall and trying to breathe again correctly, focusing his eyes on his daughter’s sleeping form, an anchor to the world.
“I... don’t think any of us could’ve done that.” It had taken time for Sebastian to talk again, enough time that Harvey was breathing again, normally, but still didn’t feel... exactly right on his feet. He didn’t want to stand at the very least. “We’re all still in the waiting room, uh... But I just thought I might step in. Make sure you were good after that. It... had to have been a lot.”
Harvey chuckled softly, carefully untangling his hands from his hair, letting his legs drop from the curled up position he had them in, into a matching cross legged position, and Sebastian carefully lifted Delilah to pass her off to Harvey, who took her carefully, gratefully.
“He’s gonna be fine.” Harvey said quietly, more talking to Delilah’s sleeping form than Sebastian. “As long as I keep up with the cleaning, make sure none of that slime gets into the wounds, he’s gonna be fine.”
They sat in silence for a bit, Sebastian a rather comforting, if unexpected, presence besides him before Harvey stood with Delilah in his arms, Sebastian bouncing up as well to push open the hallway door to the waiting room.
It was barely 2 pm. Harvey noted it quietly, looking towards the sunny sky, Delilah napping in his arms. Sebastian hadn’t lied, Pam and Linus still sitting there in silence, Maru seated behind the desk as usual, but not working on anything. She had been there, just as Sebastian had, to help, she had to know it was going to be fine, they had to have told the others, but it was still a tense silence, before Harvey sighed, nodding a bit. “He’ll... Atlas is gonna be fine.”
A breath went out along the room, and Harvey smiled just barely, a little quirk as he slowly began to rock on his heels without even realizing he was doing it. “As long as I keep up with cleaning the wounds out regularly, he’ll recover. Add a few more scars to his collection, but recover.”
With that, he lets the conversation pass by him, looking back down to Delilah, in silence. She was properly asleep now, lulled by Harvey’s gentle rocking, and he smiled, a bit more real this time.
He was gonna be okay. It was gonna be okay.
“He’s probably not gonna wake up today, at least, not at a reasonable time. You guys can head out.” Harvey glanced up, expecting them to go but-
No. Linus and Pam didn’t move an inch, and Sebastian went and settled in a chair near the door that was open, no one saying a word, but opposing him all the same. He smiled softly, then went through the the back hallway again, opening the door to Atlas’s room so he could hear if xe woke, and then went around to behind the counter, settling in the second office chair there, eyes slipping closed and falling asleep without meaning to.
It was nearly midnight when Atlas woke up. Harvey had gotten a small nap, but Delilah, upon waking up, had decided that if she was awake, everyone was. Maru ran out at some point to grab food from the Stardrop Saloon, and various other residents of the towns came in to see them at points in time-Demetrius came to mind specifically, as he came looking for both of his kids, and found Maru and Sebastian locked in a rather intense uno battle on the floor of the waiting room.
So when Atlas woke up, the four that stayed with Harvey were all rather exhausted at this point, and Harvey had already pulled out extra cots for them to pass out on-of which Pam and Linus had already taken him up on, both sleeping soundly-but that didn’t matter. Atlas woke, when Harvey had come in to check on him. He was just starting to wake up, but Harvey was wide awake in moments, moving over quickly. “Atlas?”
“Muh.”
Harvey snorted softly, as Atlas smacked his lips, frowning slightly, eyes slowly peeking open at him. “Hey hun. If you want, I can help you sit up and you can suck on some ice.”
Atlas stared, uncomprehending for a bit, before nodding slowly, and Harvey helped propped him up, calling out to Maru for a cup of ice as he did. Sebastian was the one who came in with it, but either way, they got a small cup of ice, which Atlas was able to chew on for a moment, staring blearily and confused around.
“You went done in the mines, hun.” Harvey murmured, and Atlas looked to him, nodding slowly. “I don’t know how they knew you were out there, but they dragged you back here. You’re gonna be alright, we just gotta keep up with cleaning a bit more than normal.”
“Slimes are bastards.” Atlas croaked, and the tension bled from Harvey all at once, causing him to snort, settling into the chair next to the bed to laugh helplessly, and Atlas grinned. “Knew I could get you to laugh.”
Harvey grinned at him for a moment, and Atlas grinned back, before cupping a hand over his mouth quickly as he remembered the ice melting in his mouth. “Shit-”
And Harvey laughed softly again, getting up to help him dry off his face. “You had me worried.”
“I know. Just got cornered is all.”
“What’s even down there that you need? It’s not like iridium is that needed for you right now.”
Atlas sighed, then glanced around. “Where’s my pack?”
“Sebastian emptied it out so Pam could clean it. What’re you looking for inside it?”
“A note. It’s not needed i just... Found it. Addressed to me, saying something was waiting a hundred levels down for me. Someone.”
Harvey frowned. “And you believe it?”
“I’ve gotten notes from them before. I know they’re real, I guess I just wasn’t prepared for the trip down.” Atlas smiled softly.
“Atlas.”
“I can’t promise I’m not gonna go again. I can promise to be more careful.”
Harvey sighed softly. “That’s really all I can ask of you, huh?”
“I’ll be staying out for at least a season.”
“Of course you are. I wouldn’t be letting you out until you’re fully healed anyways.”
Atlas sighed, but smiled at him, reaching a hand out towards Harvey, who took it carefully, curling their fingers together in the silence. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Harvey shifted, then leaned over, kissing his forehead. “I’m glad you’re alright.”
“Thanks to you.” Atlas yawned, then shifted, settling back against the pillows quietly. “Where would I be, without you?” Atlas murmured, half asleep, and Harvey smiled, recognizing the routine in it.
“Dead probably.”
“Then I’m glad I’ve got you.” A change, such a small one, and Harvey’s heart flipped, grinning to himself as Atlas slipped off back to sleep.