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Linus isn’t sure what he expected when he rang Reuben’s doorbell in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm. Maybe a rant, a medkit thrown at him, and a space in the guest bedroom? Instead, Reubens swings the door open and asks, “What the hell are you doing here!?”
Linus probably should have gone to a motel. He had the money. But he was too freaked out to really think straight, and the last time he saw Reuben, he’d promised a warm, safe place to stay. And that’s all Linus needed right now.
He’s just about to apologize for the late hour, and explain how he just needs to lay low for a while, then be gone first thing in the morning, but Reuben grabs him by the shoulder and drags him into the house.
“Kid?” And suddenly Rusty is there, poking him in the ribs and grabbing his chin to check his eyes for signs of concussion. Why is Rusty at Reuben’s?
“Rus? What’s-ow! Hey! Quit it!”
“Danny!” Rusty calls over his shoulder.
“Danny?”
“What?” Danny appears from the kitchen with a glass of scotch in his hand. He quickly sets it down after he and Rusty exchange a look.
“What the hell happened, kid?”
Danny strides over and pokes (gentler than Rusty had) at his probably cracked ribs, and Linus smacks his hand away. He must look pretty bruised up if both Danny and Rusty went straight for the ribs.
“Nothing,” he says, though he can feel his adrenaline crashing, his pain and exhaustion finally catching up to him now he's finally safe. "Job gone bad.”
Reuben starts swearing and pushes him towards the couch. Rusty turns off the TV (ER?) and begins poking his ribs again, just a bit gentler. “Who were you working with?”
“No one.” he says.
Danny gives him a look, and Jesus, Linus can’t lie to Danny (or Rusty for that matter). After a moment he finally relents. “Alright, well, no one now. They died on the job. I was brought on late, and apparently, the munitions expert had a vendetta. He blew up the entire jewelry store we were hitting, not just the safe. Luckily, I wasn’t in the building yet, and he promptly disappeared.”
Rusty makes a wounded noise and pulls off Linus’ hat to feel his hair (blood-soaked, just his luck).
Reuben returns with some gauze. “Jesus, Kid,” he says, “Who the hell did this?”
Before he can tell them it’s not that bad, just a concussion and maybe some bruised ribs, Danny answers for him while dabbing at his head wound. “Some asshole with an ax to grind blew up a jewelry store and didn’t let Linus in on the gag.”
Reuben’s mouth tightens, and his brow furrows. “There haven’t been any explosions in Vegas. I would know.”
Linus winces. Damn.
Rusty pins him with a glare. “Linus…”
“I wasn’t in Vegas.”
“Where the hell were you!?”
“Bullhead…”
Danny pulls his hand away from treating his head wound to yell at him. “You drove all the way from Bullhead to Vegas with at least three cracked ribs, a bleeding head, and a concussion!?”
Linus winces at the noise. “I just had to get out of the city…”
“Why didn’t you call us!?”
The question puzzles him. Why hadn’t he called them? Well, he wouldn’t have called Danny or Rusty because last he’d heard, they were in Jersey. But plenty of the guys were in the area. Reuben, Saul, Livingston, even Yen. He could have called them, especially if his injuries look as bad as they think. Linus knows that they’re all friends, but he wouldn’t have wanted to inconvenience them. So he’d stolen a car and driven himself to Vegas, to Reuben’s house, so he could have a safe bed to sleep in.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I just thought-”
Linus feels a surge of nauseousness and quickly stands up to rush to the bathroom. But strong arms pull him down, and a bucket is pressed into his hands. He vomits. When he’s done, Reuben takes the bucket as Danny pats his back. Danny turns to Rusty, and they do that (kind of fascinating, mostly infuriating) thing where they read each others minds, and talk over him, not to him.
“He’s got it,” says Rusty.
“Should we?” Danny asks, and Rusty shrugs, gesturing at Linus.
“I don’t like it.”
“What do we do?”
Rusty sighs. “Morning?”
“Morning.”
Linus wonders if they’re mad at him. He did show up unannounced, and he was dumb enough to accept the jewelry job in the first place.
“We gotta-” says Danny.
“I know,” Rusty says. He gets up and goes into the kitchen.
Reuben comes back and sits down in his lazy chair. “He’ll be here in half an hour.”
“Who?” Linus asks. It's like one in the morning. Who'd be coming?
Danny and Reuben look surprised. Danny quickly presses his palm to Linus’ forehead, as if checking for a fever. Linus can't tell if it's for a joke or not.
“Gee kid, you really are messed up,” Reuben says. “It’s Sam. Sam’s coming to check on you.”
Sam? Reuben called Sam? That’s nice. Linus didn’t really need a doctor, it was just a few bangs and bruises, but it’s nice of Sam to come and nice of Reuben to call.
Linus drifts for a while, closing his eyes to the pain. Rusty had lowered the tv, but he could still hear faint dialogue and hospitall-y noises. He was also trying to ignore the pointed, hair-on-the-back-of-his-neck feeling that Reuben and Danny were watching him. He opens his eyes when Rusty returns with three mugs of coffee and hands them out to everyone but Linus. Linus pouts at him.
Rusty laughs, then says, “Sorry kid, caffeine and concussions don’t mix.”
They all laugh at whatever expression appears on his face, and then Reuben clears his throat and says. “So.”
“In the morning.” Danny and Rusty reply at the same time. Rusty turns the TV back on, but Linus asks, “what?”
The three men share a look. Then Danny says, “Don’t worry about it, kid, later.”
Rusty turns the volume up on the TV then says, “Now remember, no falling asleep.”
Linus nods jerkily. God, his head hurts.
Sam comes over a little while after to check him over. He wraps his ribs, dresses his head wound, and gives him some pain pills. He tells the others to wake him every few hours to make sure he can be roused and that he’ll return in two days to check his progress. Rusty grabs a pillow and blanket from one of the spare bedrooms and sets up a bed for Linus on the couch.
“Aren’t you gonna sleep?” Linus asks.
“Nah,” says Rusty. “Gotta wake ya up every once in a while, and I wanted to catch up on ER.”
Before he falls asleep, Linus notes that Rusy spends more time glancing at him than the show.
---
Linus wakes late that morning (after being woken late that night, then early that morning, and so on) to find more people in the house than there was the night before. Saul is sitting on the couch next to him, eating apple slices with peanut butter. He offers Linus a piece, and he takes it, sitting up and munching on it slowly.
“When’d you get here?” he asks after a moment.
“Around two hours ago. How’s your head, kid?”
Linus considers this for a moment. “Ok. Not great, but a hell of a lot better than last night.”
Saul nods and hands him another slice of apple before turning to the TV, which has been switched to the news.
Rusty walks into the room on the phone. “No, Turk, I’m telling you, you gotta take I-15” he takes an apple from Saul’s plate. “Hey, kid. Yeah, he’s up. Should see his bed-head.”
Linus self-consciously tries to smooth down his hair, but the pressure hurts too much, so he stops.
“Anyway,” continues Rusty, “you take 95 to 15, and it’ll shave like three hours off the trip. Yeah, I know I said to take 93 last time, but last time 15 was covered in construction. Ok? Ok. No, Frank will be here at six. He’s flying in from Detroit. Yeah, and we can order pizza. Yeah. Alright, we’ll see you guys when you get here. Yeah. Bye.”
He reaches down to check Linus’ bandage. “Feeling better, kid?”
“Yeah. What are Frank and the Malloys doing coming here?”
Rusty smiles. “They heard about your predicament and figured it was a great excuse to come down here and mooch off Reuben’s hospitality and eat pizza.”
Danny comes into the living room and hands Rusty a muffin. He turns to Linus. “There’s donuts in the kitchen, Sam said you’re good to eat, just make sure to tell us if you have any more nauseousness or balance issues.”
Linus nods his agreement and gets up to eat breakfast when Danny turns to Rusty. “I thought you said Yen was here?” he asks.
Rusty takes a bite from his muffin. “He is. In the shower, came straight from a show.”
Linus internally groans. Danny and Rusty must’ve called everybody. The Malloys are driving in from Salt Lake City, Saul is here, Frank is flying in from Detroit, Yen came straight from a show, and-
And Basher and Livingston are in the kitchen, eating breakfast. Great.
“Ya know,” says Linus, after grabbing a chocolate donut. “I told them this wasn’t a big deal.”
“Yeah,” Basher says, smiling cheekily. “Danny and Rusty don’t really know what to do with a small deal.”