Epilogue: I'm with the lover of my soul

Tony glanced up from where he'd been staring at the "AMBULANCE PARKING ONLY" sign to see the white security guard inside the waiting room was staring at him again. Tony waved and smiled mockingly.

"Yup, just another brown dude, you racist dick," Tony muttered to himself. The guard turned and called to someone Tony couldn't see. Jorge came into view and waved at Tony. Crap, now he was going to come out and Tony would have to make small talk.

"Hey Tony, why you loitering outside?" Jorge asked. "Come in! I brought some of Pietro's oatmeal cookies to work today." Tony liked Jorge a lot in fact. He maintained the security guard's wreck of a car at a steep discounted and attempted to avoid Jorge's husband's cooking at all costs.

"I'm ok, man. Fresh air is good for me."

"They had a code blue just before end of shift. That's probably what's holding him up," Jorge offered. Tony nodded, waiting for the other man to disappear back inside. "Sorry about that," Jorge said half heartedly. He looked back at the white guard inside who was watching them like a hawk and shrugged as if to say, 'Racists, what were you gonna do?' Tony nodded. Fact of life of existing while brown. "See ya Tony." Tony nodded and examined his nails.

The problem with quitting smoking was not having anything to do with his hands. He did have a pack of months old Parliaments wedged under the seat of his car, the consequence of sending Hannah to buy him a pack, and he refused to buy a new pack until he finished that one. Stale Parliaments weren't exactly appealing.

If he didn't get going soon he wouldn't have time to shower the engine grease off before his gig but he couldn't leave just yet after having driven all the way here so instead Tony turned his mind to issues at hand. Tony contemplated the playlist for tonight, trying to decide if he was ready to commit to it or if he wanted to change out that new Jonas whatever song everyone liked even though he thought it was painful. He considered his mustang that he was still babying along and if it was more trouble than it was worth. He considered his sister, now in LA to become an actress. He didn't like her so far away, but what were you going to do? It was her life and he couldn't exactly move there to protect her as much as his mother would like him to. Tony almost missed the doors opening and his love stepping out.

"Hey handsome," he said to the exhausted Brad who gaped at him open mouthed. Tony had decided on a whim to pick Brad up from the hospital today. It was day three of twelve hour emergency room shifts. Some of Brad's nights were quiet, just people who needed a bandaid or to sit in a room while they sobered up. Some nights were shit shows, like the past few had been, making Brad cranky and impossible to live with. Tony had learned to roll with Brad's grumpiness, knowing a day off would wash it away.

It was funny how life worked. Brad was always going to be temporary, until he wasn't and so Tony had stayed instead of driving away into the sunset like he'd always planned. But he'd rather be with Brad here than elsewhere without him.

"What are you doing here?" Brad asked, still shell shocked from his obviously difficult shift.

"Picking you up. Not about to let you spend 45 minutes on the bus," Tony replied.

"Aren't you working tonight?" Brad said incredulously. Tony shrugged in response. Brad glanced at the racist security guard and kissed Tony. Neither were usually into PDA, but in this case Tony fully approved. They started toward the mustang. "I hate that guy. He started two weeks ago and he drives us all insane. Refused to believe Felicia was a doctor."

"I heard today was crazy," Tony remarked as they got into the car. He hadn't talked to Brad for three days despite sleeping in the same bed. It had been better since Brad had been promoted off the night shift but at the end of the day Brad could only scarf down food and sleep. Tony supported Brad's dream of being a nurse, but damn did it take a lot out of them as a couple.

"You don't even want to know. This one lady gave birth in the elevator as I was bringing her to L&D and then we had a code blue at the end of shift. Not my patient but I was next door so I had to start compressions. I'm so fucking exhausted," Brad commented. He then rolled down the window. "You smell horrible. Are you going to have time to shower? You shouldn't have picked me up."

"Haven't seen you," Tony replied with a smile.

"I'm coming tonight," Brad asserted. "Quick nap while you shower and then promise you'll wake me up?" Tony glanced at the clock on the dashboard. At this point, he barely had time to drop Brad at home, let alone shower. Tony was saved by his phone ping. Brad examined it. "Who is it?"

"Hannah," Brad replied before his own phone vibrated. "Hannah just texted to say she got to her place in Scotland ok. She also has a story to tell us," Brad said, looking at his phone.

"Probably like the time she thought she saw a Hemsworth at Starbucks," Tony commented. Hannah had been traveling to see family in Australia and sent them pictures she had creepily snapped. A quick examination from Brad had revealed the man was in fact not a celebrity.

"She says this is better than when she found twenty dollars on the subway," Brad continued reading with a smirk.

"That's a rather low bar."

"Hey, she talked about that for a week."

"She's definitely in the right profession as a writer."

They rode in silence. At this point, their relationship was defined as much by silences as conversations. They communicated as much by glances and touches as they did by words. Content to just be and exist together. People often said for better or worse but Tony thought it was more the middle, the every day, the 'we're out of toilet paper, can you pick some up on your way home?" Or Tony picking Brad up from the hospital when his nursing shifts went long. Or Brad coming to Tony's gigs even if he feel asleep in his chair. Brad apparently was thinking the same thing. He smiled and put his hand over Tony's on the shift. It was night and the only illumination was from street lights, but regardless, they drove off into the sunset.

This chapter came out as a brain fart while I was waiting in the Shakespeare line. So main question/comment was "Am I going to write more?" specifically in 13 reasons. Answer is unlikely. It would require me to re-watch the series and that was fairly traumatizing the first time around.

Thank you thank you!

9veryoriginalname9 out.