WHO: Rafe Brightstar and Tony W with a guest appearance by Kent W WHAT: Accidentally-dosed chocolate truffles (extreme dose) + high potion sensitivity/reactivity + Seer abilities = well, you'll see. WHEN: Valentine's Day WHERE:Camelot Rising set RATING: Language
Rafe's stomach growled, and he patted it as if it was a petulant child. Today's costume was normal school day clothes, nothing fancy, so he didn't have to worry too much about messing anything up. He'd stashed his phone off camera, and he retrieved it and the tiny box that he'd left with it, turning to Tony to offer it up as he removed the lid. "Want one? They might let us out of here in time to eat lunch before midnight, but I'm starting to doubt it." He took one of the truffles for himself and sniffed it, trying to figure out what flavor it was. Nothing was apparent, but that had never kept him from chocolate. He bit off half of it. "Wow. And here I almost didn't take one when they were handing them out earlier."
He sat down again, stretching his legs out in front of him and looking across the room. The crew was busy resetting the scene for a very important Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere reveal for the current episode, and Eve had taken up a spot on the other side from him and Tony. Which was odd. Why wasn't she over here talking to them? He wasn't sure why it bugged him, but it did. He popped the other half of the candy into his mouth. "By the way—there might actually be a bit of time in a few weeks for that so-called housewarming party you suggested. Which, really, will be more like a regular party, at this point, but I'm not exactly complaining. I can't remember the last time I had a place that was big enough for a party at all."
Tony waved away the offer of a chocolate. He wasn't rabid for chocolate enough to want to waste the calories on a mediocre truffle, especially when there were brownies at home baked by his little sister Stevie and he was really looking forward to that treat. He grinned over at Rafe, his own phone already in his hand to send yet another gooey Valentine's Day text to his spouses. "Awesome, man. Even if it's kinda late for a housewarming, there's never a bad reason for a party, right?" He tilted his head, considering that question. "Maybe a funeral or something would be a bad reason, actually. I don't know."
He leaned in on Rafe's shoulder just to be as annoying as was humanly possible. Tony figured that was his due as a brother-in-law. "Your roommate is great," he mentioned. "If I get Ari to join my gym, will you join too? We could all hang out there, it'd be cool, and you could get cut like me." He poked at Rafe's stomach with one finger. "Not that the skinny-soft thing isn't cute, buuut."
Rafe’s smile went soft around the edges before he could help it. “Yeah, I lucked out on that one, though I’m a little peeved at the universe for not giving me a heads up. It might have saved me from that first attempt at a roommate debacle.” He batted away his friend’s hand. “The apartment complex has a pool. What else does a skinny-soft guy need but that? Not all of us can aspire to your level of fitness, man. Or Ari’s, for that matter.” He made an impressed sound. “Seriously, that man looks like he could break me with his pinky.”
His eyes drifted across the set again, and his expression became less dreamy, far more intent. Ari was great, but Eve—she was what he needed. Working together meant they had a great connection already, and she had to have noticed. He could be the Guenivere to her Arthur; well, without the cheating in the mix. Without even realizing his intent, Rafe stood to cross the set over to her side, but froze again as images started flooding his head. “No, that can’t be right,” he said to no one in particular, frowning over the mental images of fighting and crying and throwing things. “I can find a better path. You’ve got my back, right?” He glanced back at Tony, not realizing that he hadn’t even been including him in his thought processes.
Tony was pretty sure he'd seen Rafe and his new roommate mutually flirting on Wizpix and IRL, and he laughed at the comment about Ari's physique. The ongoing saga was highly entertaining, and he would've teased his brother-in-law about his crush, but then Rafe stood up, his expression changing, and Tony scrambled to his feet, too, following his gaze across the set.
"Uh… yeah, of course, man," Tony assured him, his brow furrowing in confusion. "I've always got your back. But what are we talking about?"
Rafe blinked at Tony, not understanding the question for a minute. Conversation wasn't really important right now, but maybe Tony could help. He glanced around to make sure no one else would overhear, and then nodded toward their co-star. "Eve. I have to tell her how I feel, but—" He pressed a hand to his temple as he squeezed his eyes shut, willing another vision to come. It came far easier than he expected, ending with a loud, "Dammit!"
He paced several steps away, eyes intent on the woman he loved, but then he turned back to Tony. "I've got to think of a way. Visions aren't sure things. There are different possible futures. Maybe if I tell her after—ugh, but no, this can't wait." Once again, he turned away, came a few steps closer to her. This time, the images came without him even trying. "Nonononono," he moaned, barely even looking where he was going as he made it to the edge of the set. "Not this time. Not with her."
"Wait, what?" Tony trailed after Rafe, completely at a loss, looking back and forth between him and Eve with growing confusion. "You're having visions about you and Eve? And what do you mean, how you feel? Uh…" He reached out to rest a hand on Rafe's arm to get him to stop pacing and look at him. "Rafe? Buddy? Are you okay? You kinda look not okay. Let's get you some water or something. Can he get a bottle of water, please?" he added to a set PA passing by, flashing her a smile as she scurried off to get one. "Thanks."
"Yes!" Rafe snapped, as if that should have been entirely obvious that he was talking about Eve. He whirled around, shrugging off the hand on his arm. "I'm not okay. Water's not going to help!" he called after the PA, loudly enough that half the set had to have heard him, but he didn't care. His voice dropped again as he readied to try to explain to Tony, to see if his friend could give him any ideas, but he couldn't resist getting another look at her. "I always See something wrong. Always See how things go bad. But I can't, Tony. Not this time. She's too perfect for me. You have to help find a way."
She looked up at him, giving him a smile that seemed to penetrate straight into his soul. Images of possible futures seared through his head like they were ripping brain cells as they went, and Rafe doubled over, clutching his head. It knocked the breath out of him so effectively that he couldn't even curse, but something that sounded half-shout and half-groan came out instead.
Confusion turned swiftly into alarm. Tony half-caught Rafe as he stumbled, steadying him. "Hey! Hang on, man, just breathe a minute, okay?" He got Rafe straightened out and crouched a little to look him in the face, holding him by the shoulders. "Look, if you and Eve have something going on, then that's weird, but you know I'm gonna support you in anything you want to do, okay? But right now I think we've gotta focus on your visions going crazy. Something's really wrong here. I'm gonna text your brother."
He let go of Rafe with one hand to dig in his pocket for his phone again and one-handedly tap out a quick, only-slightly-garbled message to Kent: Rafe emergncy. Can u cm to set crazy visions acting weird. OMG
Rafe jerked roughly away from him, but only managed to stumble his way to his knees. Pain had brought tears to his eyes, but he fought through it to open them, to get one more look at her. There was no more smile on her face. Was she concerned about him? Or horrified? She was probably already disgusted with him, even before any of the visions played out.
Every muscle in his body tensed, and he caught himself, palms of his hands scraping against the concrete of their faux-exterior scene. Tears. Shouting. Broken vase. Wet flowers scattered everywhere. Slammed door. Tears. Shouting. He growled in frustration, squeezing his eyes shut as if it would make a difference, but the visions didn't stop.
Everyone on set was looking over at them now, and Eve along with half the crew was moving toward them, looking confused and concerned. Tony shook his head, jerking his arm in a 'no' kind of motion, honestly kind of terrified of what Rafe might do if Eve was within touching and talking distance, given that this whole thing was somehow centered around her. "Give us some room, okay?" he said, raising his voice a little to be heard. "A healer's on his way. Hey," he said more softly just to Rafe, crouching down at a safe distance. "Sammy's coming, okay?" A quick glance at his phone confirmed that. "Just hang on, Rafe. It's gonna be okay."
Since taking his Boards—and getting his medical license—Kent had been at loose ends. So when he got Tony's texts, his reply had been as succinct as it had been virtually instantaneous: omw
Of course, travel to the set was anything but, so it took him far longer than he remotely wanted to get from fucking security to the goddamned set. There had been no question of if he'd come to his brother's aid, just a matter of when he'd reach there. All Tony had had to type was the magic word—visions—and any other plans had been summarily dismissed. Personal experience with these episodes, rare though they were, told him that he'd already wasted precious time. By the time Kent got there, he could tell right away that this was a really bad one.
He dropped into a similar crouch to the one his husband had adopted, but didn't hesitate to reach out for his shoulder. "Talk to me, Rafe. Find my line. Follow it back. C'mon, bro, I know you can do it."
Rafe was only moderately aware of the world around him as the visions continued to escalate. Even the need to see Eve was starting to be eclipsed by the certain knowledge that he would never, ever have her, and that brought an agony far more acute than the pain in his head. Tears poured down his face, and every reaction he made was to something that no one but him could see: until his brother's hand touched his shoulder. He jerked back automatically, far more sensitive to stimuli than was natural, but he didn't manage to shake the connection.
Find my line. Eve was in his every thought, in every picture that he saw in his head, in every agonizing scenario that had started to run in a loop. But somehow, Sam was there now, too, consoling Rafe after the breakup. Sometimes he was glaring as he consoled, but that was Sam's way, and it was one of the strangely more comforting things in his head, despite the snappy words that always came with that look. "Sam," he managed to choke out, and he reached blindly for his brother. "I can't—all I can see is disaster. She'll never love me."
Still frowning in baffled concern, Tony leaned in to say into Kent's ear, "He's talking about Eve. I don't know why, though. He just started going on about how he had to find a way to be with her, and then this."
Grabbing his brother's hand, Kent took in all of the perceivable symptoms. He cut his gaze sharply to Tony. "Has he had anything to eat or drink? Anything out of the ordinary? I haven't seen him this bad since he went on a bender in school."
Tony shook his head immediately. "No, I don't think so. We've been filming forever, we were just talking about when we would stop to eat. He hasn't had anything but like half a chocolate all morning. And he definitely isn't drunk. I tried to get him to drink some water but he wouldn't."
After working the problem over for a couple of seconds, a muscle in Kent's jaw jumped in mild frustration. "It's just a working theory, but grab the chocolate, if there's any left. We need to take him to a hospital. I can't do anything from here." He glanced toward the object of Rafe's apparent affection and frowned very deeply. There were things about this that were entirely unclear, and he didn't like the half-formed picture coming together in head. He prayed to nothing whatsoever he was wrong. His gaze snapped to someone official-looking. "I need your security to drop the warding on the set. This is a medical emergency."
"Nononono," Rafe intoned, trying to pull his brother closer, to make him understand. "I can't. I can't go to the hospital." Though his eyes were already closed, his face scrunched up as if he could shut the world out even more. The whole night, away from her. That was hell enough. But he could See the night, See himself thrashing in a hospital bed, See the healers and the way they exchanged confused looks, See them pull out the potion bottle. "They'll dose me. I can't. I can't!" Bad things happened when he had potions. And tonight, it would be worse.
Thoroughly freaked out now, Tony jumped to his feet and scanned the ground for the little box of truffles. Finding it, he inspected the contents for a moment, but he couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the remaining chocolate. He held up the box for Kent to see. "You think somebody gave him something in these? On purpose?" He frowned. "You think Eve did?"
Kent did his best to calm his brother down, but his agitation was spreading to the crowd. A muscle in his jaw jumped in his effort to not snarl at anyone. It was a close thing. "That's not what I said." His tones were careful and measured, although it was difficult to tell to whom they were directed. To Tony, however, he continued: "I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but if that's the last thing he ate, and you haven't seen him consume anything else, then we need to assume it's the most probable source."
He turned his attention back to Rafe, and did something rarely done, even in his immediate family: he leaned in and hugged his brother. "It's gonna be okay. I promise. Won't let anything hurt you. You have my word. You've just gotta come with me now."
For the first time since the whole episode had started, Rafe relaxed, leaning heavily into his brother's arms. He was still trembling from the force of it all, mind racing faster even than he could track, but there were snippets in there now that weren't terrible: Sam at the hospital. Sam staring down the healers until they put their potions away. Sam sitting at his bedside. Sam taking him back to his own house for observation the next day, even when Rafe insisted he was fine.
"Okay," he said softly, in stark contrast to only moments earlier. "Okay."