Chapter Text
There’s a ring at the front door.
Douglas smiles to himself. His plan is working. Not that there has ever been any possibility of its not working. His plans always work. Well, almost always, but that’s irrelevant, since this one is going to work if it’s the last thing Douglas does.
“Can you get the door, Tom?” he calls out to his nephew. “I’m busy.” He hopes the boy had enough sense to put on the shirt Douglas had given him. God knows Tom didn’t inherit the irresistible Richardson sex-appeal, and the ridiculous t-shirts with cartoon characters on them he insists on wearing certainly don’t help him to end his almost two-year-long period of celibacy. Luckily, he has Uncle Douglas to sort things out for him.
He hears Tom run down the stairs and open the door, and then, of course, the inevitable silence that follows.
“Err… I’m looking for Douglas Richardson?” says Martin’s confused voice.
“Oh, yes, sorry, of course you are,” says Tom hurriedly. “Please come in, I’ll go and…”
No no no, Tom certainly can’t go and get him. He’s not getting out of this. Douglas rushes into the hall.
“Martin! What brings you here?” he asks, even though he knows – he “forgot” his bag at the airfield, knowing Martin would bring it to him – because he is kind, and also because it’s painfully obvious he’s desperate for company.
“You forgot your bag,” Martin says, looking relieved at seeing him. He was probably already thinking he’d somehow got confused and came to a wrong house. Something like that could probably happen to Martin.
“Ah, silly old me,” Douglas says, taking the bag from Martin, and thinks clever me. “Tom, this is Martin Crieff, my revered captain. Martin, my nephew Tom.”
“Nice to meet you,” both Martin and Tom blurt out, and both blush, and it’s a terrible shame that Douglas hadn’t thought of a way to record this meeting for posterity. He’s sure Carolyn would have loved to see it.
“I – I didn’t know you had a nephew, Douglas,” Martin says, because of course he’s going to talk to Douglas, instead of addressing the young, perhaps not drop-dead-gorgeous but still relatively good-looking, unattached gay man Douglas has brought straight to him.
“It’s not such an uncommon state of affairs, is it? You have one yourself, I think.”
“I don’t, actually,” Martin says. “Only three nieces. A-a-although my brother and his wife are now expecting again and… Obviously only Laura is expecting as in being pregnant, but Simon is expecting as in waiting. And it could be a nephew. I mean boy! It could be a boy. Who’d be my nephew.”
Ah, Martin is babbling and from time to time he actually glances in Tom’s direction. That’s a good sign.
“He’d probably want to be a pilot like you,” Tom says, obviously trying hard to be polite and make conversation, and Douglas feels proud of him for choosing the best possible topic. “I remember I wanted to be a pilot like Uncle Douglas when I was kid.”
Martin’s face lights up, and he instantly gives Tom all his attention.
“Actually,” he says, and really, his ability to blush is unparalleled, “my niece Jeannie – she’s six – wants to be a pilot. She has all those picture books and toy planes and she always wants me to explain things, but her parents don’t approve because I…” he stops, suddenly looking slightly panicked. “They don’t approve.”
After Tom’s shocked enquiry whether Jeannie’s parents don’t approve because they think it’s not a job for a woman, Douglas manages to steer them to the living room and disappears to the kitchen, pretending to be busy cooking. He congratulates himself on the brilliant idea to introduce Tom and Martin to each other, and only wishes he’d thought of it sooner.
The truth is, Martin hasn’t been much fun these past few months, ever since he and John broke up. Martin refused to explain it properly, but from his drunken mumblings Douglas managed to make out that John had left him for someone else. Douglas knows there was more to it than that, but Martin doesn’t want to speak about it. All that’s clear is that Martin is deeply hurt. Of course, he is Martin and prone to overreacting, and it was his first relationship, but it couldn’t have been just that.
Martin has been… dejected. Douglas can’t even tease him, when instead of turning red in the face and starting to splutter, he just bows his head and remains silent. It’s no fun, and it does something alarming to Douglas’s heart. Douglas knows that deep down Martin has never had a high opinion of himself, but it seems to have become even lower now. If Douglas ever comes across John Watson again, he’ll make sure the man remembers it for a long time.
What Martin needs is to find someone else, but he seems to hold out even less hope that it could happen than he did before John. Luckily, he has his First Officer to sort things out for him.
Tom would be right for him, Douglas thinks. He hasn’t had much luck in the love department, either, and his last boyfriend was an utter bastard, and if Douglas ever comes across him again, he’ll make sure that he remembers nothing at all. This last experience made Tom, who’s never been very outgoing, retreat even further into his shell. But there’s no one more non-threatening than Martin, and Douglas is sure that a way for Martin to overcome his insecurities would be helping someone else to overcome theirs. They could help each other.
Douglas listens to them talking about why Tom decided to be a translator instead of a pilot, and he thinks it’s going rather well. They seem to be having a relatively normal conversation, which is impressive, given that one of them has a tendency to babble nonsensically and the other to keep quiet for as long as possible. It could work. Douglas will have to provide them with plentiful opportunities to see each other before one of them gathers the courage to ask the other out, but Douglas is nothing if not resourceful. And he wants the old Martin back.
*
Martin lies in bed, staring at the brown patch on the ceiling. He had a strange dream. It’s becoming blurry already, but he thinks it had something to do with the time he and John went to Duxford Air Museum. His thoughts drift lazily to the terrible restaurant they went to afterwards and how they kept laughing even though the food was awful because something was very funny – Martin can’t remember what it was.
After a moment Martin realises that he’s feeling kind of weird. It takes him another moment to work out that no, he’s not feeling weird, he’s feeling… normal. All right. He’s thinking about John and it’s not making him feel wretched. When did this happen?
It’s been almost nine months since he and John broke up, so it’s about time. And it probably also has something to do with Douglas’s nephew. They went to the cinema yesterday, and then Tom walked him home, and Martin was feeling brave and so he kissed him, and Tom smiled at him in a way that made something flutter in Martin’s ribcage.
Martin’s being cautious, of course. He barely dares to hope. But Tom is really quite lovely, and he seems to be just as nervous as Martin, and Martin finds himself wanting to be strong for him, make him feel at ease. Tom isn’t very talkative himself, but he always listens to Martin, he actually seems to like it, and Martin never feels inadequate with him and it’s… nice. Really, really nice.
Martin reaches for his phone that’s sitting on the bedside table, wondering whether it’s too early to text Tom, barely nine hours after their first date. He finds a text already waiting for him.
*
John isn’t furious yet, but he’s getting there. He hasn’t slept for god knows how long, their suspect has just flown off on a plane they missed by two bloody minutes, he went to use the airport’s bathrooms and when he came back to where Sherlock was supposed to be waiting for him, Sherlock was nowhere to be seen. Now John is standing in the middle of the Gatwick Airport arrivals hall, and when someone bumps into him and runs off without apologising, it seems like the last drop.
John turns after the young man, and sees him rush towards a very familiar figure dressed in captain’s uniform. John blinks. No, he’s not imagining things. It’s definitely Martin who’s currently being pulled into a tight hug. John watches the couple dazedly as they kiss, oblivious to the world around them.
John remembers that Martin’s job sometimes kept him away from home for a longer period of time. He’s probably only just returned to England. He’d be back in Fitton in a few hours, tomorrow at the latest, but the chestnut-haired young man obviously couldn’t wait so long. And nor could Martin – John cannot see the rest of MJN anywhere, which means Martin must have run ahead.
They stop kissing and just hold on to each other, and Martin is looking at the other man like he used to look at John, but there’s something different, something that probably has a lot to do with the fact that this man doesn’t hurt him. Martin’s boyfriend looks at him with similar adoration, and John can’t help but let out a sigh and smile.
Martin’s all right. John didn’t break him. He’s happy and in love and loved in return. It makes something warm burst inside John’s chest, and he can’t remember what he was angry about.