Who: Jake and Tommy Where: A subway station in Manhattan What: TOMMY IS BACK When: Sunday 27th, Afternoon Rating: awesome (many Feels, some manly hugging and the like) Status: closed, to be completed in comments
Jake was perched up on the back of a bench, watching the tunnel mouth where the rescue team were working. His tail whipped from side to side, brushing against the platform floor as he waited for yet another day to see if they’d finally get through and he’d get his twin back. The other people would get rescued too, which was great, but really, Jake just wanted Tommy back. He hadn’t got a clue what was going on, since he wasn’t able to help or join the rescue team, so he was forced to sit and watch and wait, which was shit.
Nothing said he had to be still while he waited, though, and he’d already explored as much of the station as he could. Finally, there was something familiar in the city. Sure, most of the trains he was used to were MagLevs, needing Unobtanium to work at their best, but there were still subway trains and even ones that still ran on train tracks, although they were few and far between. Hopping down onto the platform, he quickly made his way over to the edge and crouched down yet again once he’d found a spot that gave him a really good view of the tunnel. His ears flickered almost constantly as he did his best to listen to whatever was going on down in the tunnel, but it was all very echoey and muffled. He didn’t have a clue what was going on.
***
The sudden light hurt Tom’s eyes. For the last two - or was it three? - weeks flashlights had been the only source of light. The backup generator of the station had died, leaving them with a few batteries in the kiosk as their only source of electricity. Along with Alan, Tom had taken charge of their little group. While the former had organised the search for a way out, Tom had looked after the safekeeping of the seven people. The food the kiosk had left them with needed to get sorted and they needed to stick to a strict diet to maximise their chance of survival. Hunger had kept everyone on edge and the situation had been close to blow over more than once. Tanja, a young Russian mother, had lost hope after a few days and spent hours crying and screaming. Surprisingly, Tom had kept his cool. It was the rational thing to do. Freaking out got them nowhere. In fact, it was a waste of precious energy. If you had no useful task, the best was to just stay where you were. So Tom did what he’d been paid for back in his time: thinking. Alan, Susie and him had spent nights (or days? Who knew?) whacking their head for a way to escape or at least alarm the people that were searching for them. While everyone else was doubtful if people would actually take an interest in the loss of seven extra people, Tom knew that a search party was out there. At least, Jake would look for him and he couldn’t picture Izzy not worried. And as selfish as it was, Tom only had to survive for a couple of weeks. The moment the door closed, it brought you back to the island. Isabel had proved that. As selfish as it was, it was a comfort to him.
But the thinking had been fruitful. A few basic rules of physics and they had been able to dismantle the bars of the vent shaft. Alan was the tall muscular kind - the kind whose broad shoulders would get stuck in the narrow pathway of air. So Tom had volunteered. Sadly, movies drew a slightly wrong picture of the easiness of climbing through a vent system. Fans the size of a grown man had took Gandalf’s place (Tom was a sucker for classic movies) and forbidden him to pass in one of the bigger compartments of the shaft. It had taken another week to figure out a way to bring it to a halt - or rather a temporary halt as Tom had found out a few minutes after he had managed to climb through the potential human blender. That had been the point where even Tom had started to lose his cool. Trapped in the ventilation system of a subway in the early 21st century had not been the amazing trip to the past he had sometimes fantasized about when he had been a young boy (and a grown up man if he was truly honest). Susie, who had accompanied him on his crawl, and him had stared at each other in horror. Not according to plan. Eventually, Tom had managed to bite down his panic and moved on. He had been able to find an exit - an exit that actually led somewhere and he had informed Susie, told her to return and keep their calm.
The jump down was over two meters - something that was easy to overcome if the direction you went for was down. Climbing up again would be impossible on his own. But he couldn’t go back so what other option did he have? He had listened closely before he had dared to jump. Maybe he had just hallucinated it but he could hear noise. It was there.
Falling more than two meters was not a heroic act. His muscles were too weak to support his attempt to lower himself and so Tom dropped ungracefully to his knees. “Shit, fucking - darn,” he muttered as he scrambled to his knees, inspecting the bruise he had acquired with disdain. But all the hurt was forgotten the moment he could see the literal light at the end of the tunnel. And he blinked against the sudden light.
He couldn’t believe. He hadn’t doubted that he would leave this hole eventually. But being here - now - it was overwhelming. Too much for his starved and shaken self. Slowly, he staggered forwards. “Hey! Hello! Uh, someone there?” he called out, voice not as loud as he would have hoped and shaking with every syllable pronounced.
***
Jake’s ears pricked up at a couple of odd noises - they didn’t fit the usual background sounds from the digger or the rescue workers. Tilting his head, he concentrated hard in case they were repeated and he’d have to go check them out, and then his eyes went wide as he heard a voice. Not just any voice, either. “...Tommy?” he muttered to himself as he stood up to his full height and jumped from the platform to the tunnel mouth.
“Tommy?” he yelled, and then started to make his way along the tunnel in the dark. He had to go slowly at first, to let his eyes adjust, but soon enough he could see enough to pick out where things were lying on the tunnel floor. It helped that his markings were glowing pretty brightly for what seemed like the first time in weeks. He kept sniffing the air as well, picking up on the things he’d expect to find such as the different oils and fossil fuels that the digger needed and the scents of all the people in the rescue team, and then there was what had to be Tommy. His twin’s scent was there, but it was hidden under weeks-old sweat and general filth. As Jake approached, he frowned; there was a sudden sharp burst of iron and salt as Jake picked up on blood. Tommy’s blood. "Ngaru lu tisraw srak?" he blurted out as he got closer still, and then he was on his knees in front of his twin. Finally.
He couldn’t really make out anything other than the vague outline of the smelly lump that was right in front of him, since his markings weren’t glowing that brightly, but it was Tommy and he didn’t care about anything else. He just stared at his twin for a few seconds, almost frozen in place until he gave himself a mental shake, ears flickering as he did so. A hand ghosted up along his brother’s arm, his fingers brushed through Tommy’s now-shaggy hair, and then he had wrapped both arms round his brother and pulled him in close, doing his best to be gentle. “Jesus, Tommy…” he managed, ducking his head to rest on his twin’s shoulder, shutting his eyes against the tears he could feel building. He hadn’t cried at Tommy’s cremation, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually shed tears, but then again, he couldn’t remember ever feeling quite so relieved as he was feeling right at that moment in time.
***
Tom’s emotions bubbled inside of him. His whole body was shaking with relief as his brother’s arms wrapped around him. All the emotions he had put aside for the time he had been locked in were suddenly there like a bare and open wound. It wasn’t just Jake who ended up in tears. The water came as soon as Tommy was convinced that this wasn’t just a dream or a fragment of his imagination.
“You know, Jake, historic New York sucks,” the currently smaller twin mumbled against his brother’s bare skin. Humour was his way of dealing with it. It was his way of telling Jake that he was okay. It was a very Sully way of overcoming something like this.
***
“Heh, yeah, I’d kinda noticed,” Jake replied, equally muffled and slightly sniffly, “I’ve been tearing most of it apart trying to find you. And the Island. There’s been loads of us looking for you, y’know.”
He was loathe to let go of his twin, but he figured Tommy would understand. Besides, if there was a more perfect place to fall apart slightly than a dark tunnel with nobody else around to watch, he couldn’t think of it. He held on to his brother as he screwed his eyes shut tight and tried his best to calm down.
“Don’t... don’t do that again, okay? Just... just don’t, please.”
***
Tom slowly relaxed in his twin’s arms. The parasympaticus did his part of the trick. The tears of relief and shock stopped coming. “‘m sorry, Jake,” he mumbled. He couldn’t imagine what Jake had gone through - no, actually, he could. The moment Jake had gone to war, Tommy had been left with fear. The young scientist had buried himself in news, history and statistics: how high were the rates of casualties usually? What was most likely to happen? He had never wanted to know but he couldn’t stay away and his mind couldn’t stop worrying. Jake was the only family he had left.
“Err, Jake,” Tom mumbled after a short pause. “How about we take this into a direction of a shower?” Tommy had always valued basic hygiene. He had never needed all the fancy stuff but a bit of water and some chemicals to get rid of the grease were basic human needs in his opinion. If you started to smell to your own nose, you had a problem.
***
Jake couldn’t help it. He laughed a little bit at Tommy’s question, with his face still pressed against Tommy’s shoulder. “Sure, yeah,” he managed, before pulling back and laughing some more. He sniffled a few more times as he tried to wipe at his eyes and laugh at the same time, but eventually he pulled himself back together. Settling into a crouch, he wiped his face one last time and looked at what he could make out of Tommy. “You do not want to know how bad you stink right now. You only think it’s bad, but I got a Na’vi sense of smell right now,” he pointed out. "Nga onvä’ lu. Kxänäng!" he said with a grin, his tail wagging happily now as he tried not to laugh yet again.
“Are you okay to walk, or do you want me to carry you?” he asked after a moment. Given Jake’s own hatred of being carried, this was not asked lightly.
***
“Geez, Jake, you just know how to cheer me up,” Tom commented, his voice slowly regaining strength. At this very moment, he was so glad to have a twin brother. He didn’t know how others did it. Normal people - non-twins. He didn’t know how Jake had done it, knowing that you were alone. How did you do that? Not having a second you - even if that second you could be a moron. He wanted to answer in Na’vi but it just did not come to him. English was just easier right now and that said a lot about his condition.
“I’m fine,” he answered his last question. "Thanks, I’ll manage the walking.” Even after stepping away, he couldn’t keep his eyes off his brother’s avatar - yes, somehow, it had become his brother’s and not his. Jake was so much better for it.
***
Nodding, Jake stayed where he was for a moment before pulling Tommy back into another hug. Sure, his brother was stinking and filthy and his clothes were probably sticking to him or something equally as disgusting, but Jake didn't care, he didn't give a fuck about any of that. It was Tommy, his Tommy, and that was all that was important.
He got to his feet afterwards, more than glad that the tunnel was high enough that he didn't need to duck. "C'mon, then. You're not getting any cleaner, and I can still smell blood, I want to check whatever's injured. And you're gonna need food," he said, reaching down to ruffle Tommy's hair. And then he ducked a little to wipe his hand on Tommy's shoulder.
“Neytiri’s staying with us,” he said as they walked out of the tunnel mouth and onto the train tracks, “for a while, I dunno how long yet. The Island’s turned her human. Mind the tracks... this place has tracks, it’s ancient! And you’re not making this jump, so come here, I’ll lift you onto the platform.”
***
Tom patiently let his brother fuss over him. Shower, doctor, food - all of those things were on his long dreamed about list. He carefully walked along his much quicker brother. His knee burned, his stomach growled and his clothes stuck to his body. But Tommy was far from caring. He was free, he was alive and his brother was right next to him.
“Oh,” Tommy said at the news. “How’s she taking it?” He stopped at the platform and was actually happy for the offered - forced on - help. “Yeah, thanks.”
***
Jake lifted Tommy up onto the platform, and was about to check where he was bleeding from when it hit him that this was the first time he could see him properly. They were both at the same eye-level (more or less), with Jake down on the tracks and Tommy on the platform, and other than when the Avatar had first shown up and they’d both gone tearing through the jungle towards the beach, that hadn’t really happened for a long time. Not since... Not since before Jake had been deployed to Venezuela. Jesus.
He might have been Toruk Makto, and taken on the mantle of Olo’eyktan, but Jake was still pretty shit at hiding his emotions when he was Na’vi. His ears and tail gave him away all the damn time, and this was no different. His ears were flat against his head with worry at how rough Tommy looked, pale under the grime and far too thin. But at the same time, Tommy was standing right there in front of him! His tail kept wagging and then dropping back down, as if he had no idea what to be feeling, which was pretty much the case. He blinked hard a couple more times, and then realized he should be talking.
“Oh. Uh. She’s cool, it’s cool, yeah. She says Eywa is testing her, teaching her how to be tawtute and how to understand me,” he explained, before ducking his head to try and look at Tommy’s leg since that was where the blood-scent was coming from. “She’s doing pretty good, given that she’s lost about four feet in height, doesn’t have a tail or a tswin any more and can’t go flying on Seze. And she doesn’t quite get all the Halloween stuff that’s everywhere, but neither do I. There’s Halloween stuff all over the Island, by the way. It’s kinda weird, but it’s cool too. Mr. Chapell never told us anything about all the parties and shit like that. I’m sure I’d’ve listened if he’d told us that sort of stuff... Maybe.”
***
Halloween? Tom could feel himself getting excited. He would see a part of history. It couldn’t beat the plants, nothing could beat real-life nature. He wasn’t an anthropologist like Norm. But it was something he had learned about in school. Something he could experience for his own now.
“Uh, Jake, we were told about that. He just didn’t call it ‘parties and shit’. More festivities and dancing. And, oh, they are dressing up at those parties. Scary costumes and the like,” Tom beamed at the prospect of being part of this shit as his brother had just elegantly called it.
***
They were? “We were? Huh. And yeah, costumes. You gonna wear one?” he asked as he rolled up Tommy’s pants leg as gently as he could. “Grab hold of my arm if you think you’re gonna fall,” he said while he worked, “or sit, if you think that’d be better.”
After a few more quiet moments, where the only sounds were echoing up from the tunnel, Jake looked up at his twin again. “Do you want to, y’know... talk about what happened? Or leave it for now?”
***
Tommy held onto Jake’s arm. His body felt weak and he didn’t trust it to stand upright. His knee was cut open. But it didn’t look too deep from Tom’s position. Nothing a few days of rest wouldn’t fix.
The question came surprisingly. Jake had never been a big talker when it came to feelings. And neither had Tom. “No, it’s fine. I just need a shower and some food. And get the others out, yeah?” he said, his voice slightly shaken again. In hindsight (even this very short timed hindsight), it all seemed like a bad dream. Like he had been stuck in a movie. Or had seen the life of someone else.
***
"Your knee is gonna be fine. And the others will be fine. The rescue team's digging them out as we speak, so don't worry about them," Jake replied, putting a hand to Tommy's back to try and help support him now that he was satisfied that his brother hadn't injured himself too badly. "We just gotta get you sorted. Neytiri, your girls and me, yeah?"
Keeping his hand at Tommy's back, he sat down on the platform, his tail sneaking over to brush against Tommy's leg as he dug the tablet out of his carry-pouch and quickly sent off a text message to the Sully women and a separate text to Auggie to let them know what had happened. The tablet went back in the pouch soon enough, and then Jake swung his legs up onto the platform and crouched in front of his brother yet again. "Are you sure you're okay to be walking? You're shaky as fuck, you know that?"
***
Tom nodded after smiling a ‘thanks’ at his brother.. “I’m okay. Just you know…” He trailed off. The truth was he didn’t know. Maybe everything was still just too unreal. He couldn’t believe being here and not there and at the same time he couldn’t believe ever having been there. "It’s been a bit rough."
The now younger twin tried his foot softly again. The pain was still there but it was easy to ignore.
***
"Yeah, I’ll bet. But you’re out now," Jake reminded him gently, putting his hand on Tommy’s shoulder. "You’re gonna go back to the apartment and get a shower, get clean and get something to eat. You’re gonna get to see Rach and Sarah and Izzy, and Neytiri’s gonna be there, asking you all kinds of questions, and I’m gonna be back later when I’m finished my shift here and then we can do whatever the hell you want. Because you’re out. Yeah?"
Standing up easily, Jake glanced down at himself and raised an eyebrow at the dirt that was smeared all over him, then looked over at Tommy. "I’m gonna vote with going swimming at the beach, if that counts for anything."
***
Tom nodded with a smile on his face. "Yeah, swimming. I like that." His head filled with the image of a beach - a real beach with palmtrees and corals. Not the dead ones they used to have. And his family was there. Talking, laughing, bickering - the way only families could. Tommy slowly moved into the direction of the light. He wanted to get out of this hole. Breathe real air. "You know earth, our earth, it seems so far away sometimes. Like it’s not been real."
***
"It is so far away, that’s why. Through time and distance. Don’t even think about it. We’re here now." Jake followed after Tommy as they headed for the stairs out of the subway station. "It ain’t home, anyway. Not any more. Not after-" He shut up before he could finish the thought, although his ears dropped low against his head. He would get to return to his home at some point, once the Island was finished with him, and he’d go back to Pandora to lead the Omaticaya with Neytiri at his side. This was it for Tommy, though, and Jake refused to even consider that once the Island was done with him, Tommy would go back to being dead.
He crouched down as they got to the stairwell that led to the surface - he was far too tall, but then again, early 21st century Earth wasn’t designed around Na’vi bodies, so he had no cause to complain - and kept a close eye on his brother as they climbed.
***
Tom needed to stop every now and then, balancing his weight to minimise the pain. He flinched occasionally but it didn’t keep him from trying to keep up with his brother. "Yeah, you’re right. It ain’t home anymore." And it would never be. Not for him. He was dead. Tom shuddered slightly. And Jake? His home was Pandora now. "Is it hard for you, not being there?"
***
Jake just ducked his head at Tommy’s question, and stayed quiet as they continued to climb the stairs. With one more flight of stairs to go before they were outside, he paused and crouched down. "I miss it," he admitted, and looked over at his twin. "I miss it so much. I... I’m Toruk Makto now. I’m Olo’eyktan of the Omaticaya. Uh, I kinda got an upgrade while you were, y’know... Here. I remember almost everything that was in that fucking movie, and so much more. It left out shitloads of stuff, but then, it covered months of my life in a couple hours, so, yeah. But yeah, my place is with the People now. I should be there, I need to learn so much more and Neytiri’s helping, don’t get me wrong. But I’m nowhere near Officer material, although Eywa thinks differently." He sighed after that and scrubbed at his face, but then he smiled at his brother.
"But you’re here. This place is fucked up sometimes, but... You’re here." He shrugged after that and fell quiet.