(Written for the_safehouse livejounral "Chicken and Egg" challenge (keywords: "Bodie" and "scissors"))

AUTHOR'S NOTE: AU as my Prosverse has Tommy in it--for this story use whatever reason you like for him to have survived. Takes place after canon episodes.

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We are daring the sea.
We have parted it.
We are scissors.
   --Anne Sexton (1928 -1974)

"Where is he?" asked Murphy as he slid in place next to where Doyle stood next to a series of battered rubbish bins.

"Just round the warehouse to the right," he nodded toward the crumbling brick edifice tightly. "Down by the water."

"How the hell did he get all the way down to the river so quickly?"

"Resourceful he is," Doyle quipped without mirth.

"Anson and McCabe are right behind me."

"How long?"

Murphy considered, "Ten minutes at most."

"Not much time," Doyle wiped the rain from his forehead with his left arm and continued staring at the warehouse. The light was going and rain fell steadily, making everything grey and watery. "We'll have to go now."

"Think we can do it with just the two of us?"

"We'll have to. Go round to the left and I'll circle to the right."

"Rather think you'd best go through the warehouse, Doyle," Tommy materialized out of the gloom.

"Christ Almighty, Tommy!" Murphy hissed.

"Let's do this, then," Doyle said grimly, his lack of reaction to Tommy's sudden appearance telling of his utter focus on the situation at hand. With a nod from Doyle, they broke apart and began their approach. They slid through the shadows, converging on the same point.

He sat on the muddy embankment, slumped over with his arms clasped around his middle, closely guarding the object of his freedom. The only sound was the rain striking ground and water. The stench of the river floated over all.

The three men paused, and Doyle glanced at them. Murphy motioned for him to go ahead, and Tommy nodded. Ray took a deep breath, then sauntered over and sat down next to Bodie.

He focused on the rushing water, then said conversationally, "Not much of a view, I'll grant you, but it's quiet."

Bodie's head swiveled and took him in for the first time, his eyes wide with panic. Then, he frowned and peered at Doyle. "Ray?" he asked hoarsely, not disbelieving, but needing the assurance that he was there.

"S'me, Sunshine," Ray confirmed gently. "Come to see how you're getting on."

"No so well, Ray," Bodie's voice hollow. "They wouldn't let me see you. They wouldn't tell me where you were. I couldn't find you." His eyes were red and tracks of tears glistened on his cheeks.

"I know, mate," Ray turned to face his partner. "I tried to get into to see you, but they were being very fussy about it."

"Knew you'd try," Bodie said with satisfaction. "Never leave me," his voice trailed off. The strange feeling that came and went like waves on the shore threatened his awareness.

"No, I'll never leave you."

Blessed assurance--absolute belief.

"They think I talked."

"Did you?"

"I don't remember doing it. Tell you if I did."

"Know you would, mate," Doyle assured him. "Doesn't matter anyway. You know anyone can be made to talk."

"Fucking CI-5 doctors locked me in a padded room and stuck more needles in me than Caruthers ever did," betrayal colored his words. "They tied me down."

Ray took in a long breath. "They said they'd never seen that combo of drugs before, that you'd had a strange reaction to it. That's why you're confused a bit," he added gently.

"You believe them?"

"About that, yeah. Anything else, I dunno. Cowley's off at that budget conference, incommunicado as they say, and bloody Deputy Minister Manley's been running about mucking things up." Doyle's voice was savage.

"Ray?" Bodie asked quietly. "You gonna let them take me back?"

"No," Doyle said flatly, glancing over at Murphy and Tommy. The two men nodded their agreement with Ray's statement, and Ray felt a modicum of relief. If they could just get Bodie out of here before the others arrived, keep him safe until these side effects wore off.

"The others are coming," Bodie stated flatly.

"Yeah, mate. They're due any minute now. Best be on our way," Ray replied, trying to read his partner's face in the last of the light.

"I couldn't escape," Bodie said distressed.

"But you did get away."

"Not the first couple of times."

"Oh, God, Bodie," Ray helplessly replied. He pushed up on his knees, facing his partner. "Bodie, please, we have to go now." He reached out one hand, but didn't touch the other man, "We'll go someplace safe."

The younger man gazed at the outstretched hand then looked up at Ray. "Safe? No such place," he stated bitterly, but he looked longingly at the hand waiting for him.

"Sure there is, Sunshine," Ray assured him and himself. "Won't let anything happen to you, promise."

Bodie shuddered and heaved himself up onto his knees, facing Doyle. The hospital scrubs he wore were soaked and spattered. He held out his left hand, and Ray could see the bandages around his wrist held dark patches, but his right he kept clasped tightly close to his side.

For a moment, the two hands were frozen in the gloaming, each man looking fiercely at the other, everything else in the world fading into unimportance.

Slowly, hands touched and grasped, then tugged bodies together.

"Love you, Bodie," said Ray quietly, steadily.

"Ray," groaned Bodie over and over again softly against his neck, holding him tightly, a silvery object falling from his hand to the mud unnoticed.

The pair stood, then staggered together from the embankment through to the ruined warehouse. Murphy took point, and Tommy slid in behind, stopping for a moment to pick up the object Bodie had dropped and tucked them into his back pocket. He figured he'd be able to get them cleaned up and back into the medical supplies before anyone did an inventory of such things as surgical shears.

-- THE END --

October 2005