Aaaagghh: “Hovering behind Isaac, Dani seems to be in the same predicament, his bright face warped in worried heartbreak.”!!
God, Jamie, owwww!!
Thank god for Roy for remembering concussion protocol!!
Poor Jamie: “It’s more of a croak than anything, hoarse and quiet. Roy barely refrains from recoiling. He’s never heard Jamie sound like that, not even when Wembley happened — small and scared. Trembling. Hurt”!!
Oh Ted!! He really got knocked for an emotional loop didn’t he?
I love Roy taking over the head injury screening and coming up with his own questions!!
This also made me laugh a bit and it’s a great line: “It’s an obstinate, blunt little mumble, but it’s technically an accurate summary of events, so Roy accepts it.”!!
Owwww: “Not that bad?” Roy repeats, incredulous. “How can you possibly be saying that right now?” “Because I’ve had a lot worse!”!!! Oh Jamie bud!!!
Poor Roy, he’s struggling so much (for excellent reasons): “Amazingly, that really doesn’t make Roy feel better about things.”!!
I feel you there Roy: “The urge to get up — turn around and go back there, make his way through the cluster of people that separate them now and give in to the desire that he has thus far suppressed and just fucking kill James — is overwhelming.”!!
I’m sure everyone is glad Jamie’s talking and also somewhat horrified by everything he’s saying
God I have so many feelings: “But he shoves it down and locks it away, because Jamie needs Roy here, with him, and not over there, committing homicide.”!!
Oh Jamie bud, I want to give you so many hugs!!!!
I love this so much: “As long as it doesn’t seem like he’s actively bleeding to death or about to have a stroke or a seizure or something, Jamie ought to be able to make his own decisions about what happens to him right now.”!!
I’m both shocked and not shocked Roy forgot about the press cameras
I love Roy being torn about calling Keeley and staying with Jamie, it’s so good and so him!!
Love this line: “He wants to stay with Jamie, wants to stick right by him, keep a hand on him and make sure that he knows Roy is there. That Roy’s going to protect him, that he’s safe.”!!
Thank god for Dani!!
This sentence is such a mood for this moment: “He hates the deadly serious look on Ted’s face, he hates Jamie shaking and bleeding next to him and not saying a word, he hates the entire profession of journalism and whoever the fuck it is who invented the goddamn internet.”!!
Roy I love you: “and for once the uncanny ability that man has to read people’s minds every so often isn’t creepy or absolutely infuriating. It’s the best thing that’s happened to Roy all evening.”!!
Keeley is the best!!!!!!
Roy you’re doing so good!!
Will I love you!!!
Oh Roy, I love this line: “Contrary to what some people might think, Roy does actually know that he sounds like someone who might be hired to play a frightening giant in one of those kids movies he's seen with Phoebe, and at the moment, he would really like to avoid giving Jamie another reason to flinch away from him.”!!
I love how much Roy cares: “Every time it happens, it feels like someone's reached into Roy's chest and yanked on something that he didn't know was there, and it hurts more than should be possible.”!!
Wow this bit, I love how you wrote it and it hits hard: “Jamie's face looks like a fucking crime scene. (Jamie's face is a fucking crime scene.)”!!
Roy I love you so much for doing some research and remembering!!
I love this line so much: “It feels weird to be acting so cautiously with Jamie — someone whose relationship with Roy has always been characterized by the two of them grating against each other like jagged sheets of torn metal that wouldn't fit right — but that's just how it has to be right now.”!!
Roy I love you deeply!!
This line kills me: “Roy gets the feeling that maybe nobody's been careful with Jamie in a long, long time, maybe not ever, and fuck if he's going to touch the kid now without his consent.”!!
Will again is wonderful!!
I love this description, it’s so evocative and I know the feeling (though not from this kind of thing): “It’s like the interior of Roy’s head has been emptied and replaced with the static of a radio station that’s gone out of range.”!!
I love how Roy keeps pushing back, in this instance, his own pain to be there for Jamie!!
Roy I love you so much and you’re doing so well: “Alright,” Roy says, mildly and distantly proud that his voice sounds as calm and casual as he’s managed to keep it, “about finished here. Looking a lot less like an extra from a ‘90s slasher movie, so that’s an improvement.”!!
I really love Roy’s “I’m so out of my depth here but not going to make it worse for Jamie because I’m a bit nervous” thing!!
This made me chuckle a bit just from the phrasing: “looks somewhat less horribly violent”!!
I see Roy using Phoebe as a standard for dealing with Jamie now has started😀: “Well done,’ came out of Roy’s mouth anyway, just like it did whenever Phoebe sat still and put on a brave face long enough for him to apply peroxide and a plaster to a scraped knee.”!!
I love this whole chunk so much: “Nothing about this is the same as a scraped knee. Roy knows that. But it’s easier to think of Phoebe falling off her bike and shrieking for her uncle with her knee clutched to her chest and a twisted look of little-kid dismay on her face. Roy would rather think about that than the sick crack that James Sr.’s fist had made when he split his son’s mouth or the gut-lurching smack of Jamie’s head hitting the concrete corner of the curb, busting open his eyebrow. At least a fall off a bike is something he can fix with a plaster and a bowl of ice cream. A fall off a bike doesn’t make him feel homicidal.”!!
Sam!!!!!! Hi Sam!!! I love you very much!
I love Sam giving Jamie his spare shirt!!
I love this whole chunk: “There are many times over the course of the last year in which Roy has fervently wished for a Jamie who was silent or cooperative, and would have only imagined he might be able to get both at the same time in his wildest dreams. Oddly enough, now that he has it, he hates it, and wishes with even more strength that Jamie were running his mouth or swatting at Roy’s hands or making an obnoxious nuisance of himself in any way. It barely feels like Jamie at all. Roy never could’ve guessed how much that would bother him.”!!
Aww: “Anything that’s going to make Jamie feel at all better is something Roy is happy to contribute as much of his own effort to as is necessary.”!!
I love that Jamie thanks Sam!!
I love this phrasing so much: “Somehow, Roy has found himself in the position of being elected, without his knowledge or permission, to the position of ‘wielder of the first aid kit.’”!! Roy you did just clean up Jamie’s face!
Oh Roy I love you: “This is something that Roy would probably appreciate more if it weren’t for the fact that he’s apparently responsible for operation ‘patch up Jamie’s busted face on a moving vehicle while Jamie languishes in some kind of trauma-and/or-concussion-induced-haze.’”!!
Roy you’re doing great!!
Oh Roy bud: “There would be no way to do that without abandoning Jamie in the process, or at least feeling like that’s what he was doing, and Roy has failed enough times to do what he should when it came to the kid’s dad showing up and ruining everything he could possibly ruin.”!!
Roy, you’re wonderful!!
Oh god this fic is so good and amazing and I love it!!
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Vita_sine_fantasy_mors_est on Chapter 1 Thu 01 Sep 2022 09:32PM UTC
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altschmerzes on Chapter 1 Sat 03 Sep 2022 03:36PM UTC
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