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It hurt to laugh.
But there Jowd was, the immovable man, doing just that in lieu of his best friend. It was the greatest gift Jowd had ever given him; Jowd had come here first. He’d taken the choice to live first back into his hands. He’d taken the last gifts the unstoppable Cabanela could bestow in this life. What more could a man who followed the spotless path ask? He’d saved him and he’d likely destroyed him again.
The besplotched hero could stride out into the last night of the world because someone had left him a clean and tidy way to do so. It was something to be proud of.
Except.
It wasn’t. It couldn’t be. There was so much more that had to be done, so much more that Cabanela needed to say. Well, wanted to say. So he should just say it, surely, while his heart still beat and the sound of the name could hang lovely in the air.
“Jowd.”
His vision was getting dimmer, but he could imagine the look he was getting from the room’s only other human occupant. All right, fine, it wasn’t a lovely name. It was a heavy name, a name that thudded into the still air of the room like a boulder. But it was still lovely, because it was his.
“Jowd’s gone.”
The voice was flat, no-nonsense. The fingers binding his wounds and stripping away the ruins of his coat were gentle, but the sounds hung too loud in the air. He sounded a little choked, as if he were struggling to get the words out
“I know, man,” Cabanela said, his eyes squeezed shut. “Indulge me, baby. Could I get some tea?”
“Probably not a good idea. You have some internal damage and they may want to get you straight into surgery.”
It hurt to laugh.
“Sure,” Cabanela said instead, twisting his mouth in an ironic smirk. “They’re gonna stitch me right on up, nothin’ like a few scars. Just let me bike riiight on over to the hospital.”
A sigh. “Lovey, if you would.”
Cabanela felt the familiar, careful weight settle on his chest. Well, he certainly wouldn’t dare to unsettle the lady.
“The ambulance is on its way. Just be still.” The fierceness he heard surprised Cabanela. Surely that wasn’t concern for him. It was Jowd, always Jowd, that needed the concern. The caring. Cabanela could, as always, keep his own nose clean.
“Yeah, yeah, baby, you know me. Not movin’, nothin’ like it.”
“When you’re injured to the point that you are, you’ve got that right.” Footsteps, as the other man moved away. Lovey cooed, gently. It sounded like a name.
Jowd.
Lovey stayed. A little time passed. A junkyard required attention and so its supervisor attended it. And Cabanela…ached. There was a Jowd in his head, a ghost that was Cabanela’s alone, and Cabanela passed the time talking to him. He wasn’t sure any longer whether it was aloud or not, but still he could move his mouth if nothing else.
“Solved the case at last, old friend,” he began, a little tentatively. “Is it enough?”
“Enough for what?” Jowd’s familiar warm rumble. Cabanela’s chest rose and fell in a sigh.
“For you, man. To move on.”
“Ha ha ha! You ask a lot of me to move on without you.” Cabanela’s fingers twitched and he raised them in a shaking caress to the air, to his Jowd’s chest, beyond caring what anyone in the room might think.
“Cruel to tease me, baby, even if you’re imaginary. I know you won’t have any problems.”
A torpor spread along his limbs, weighing him down even more than the living one on his chest. It felt as though he was being gathered in. Unheard, a pigeon squawked in alarm. The red lights flashed along white stripes in the road as the ambulance rushed to him. And his Jowd picked Cabanela up and held him close.
“I’ll have all the problems if you don’t make it,” his Jowd said, the words shivering through Cabanela’s limp body. His head dropped to Cabanela’s, his beard warm and scratchy along Cabanela’s jawline. “Stay here. For once in your life, wait for me.”
It hurt to laugh.
“Heh. Been doing that along… old friend…” In the world, his hands drooped to his sides and he sagged. Paramedics swarmed. And yet, someone had his back. There was warm breath against his temple. A soft kiss, a cold breeze, a caress full of warning. Not Jowd. Who… ?
“Then, please, wait a little longer,” she whispered in his ear. “Please save him one more time by saving yourself. For your sake and mine…”
“Alma… I’ll… I’ll tryyy….” His heart was thudding heavily in his chest, like footfalls. Like a name.
Jowd. Jowd. Jowd. Jo–----
“Fools, you’re losing him!” Sharp voice and cold hands and bright lights and pain. Pain.
He could have gone right then, to where it didn’t hurt and the Jowd and Alma in his head stood tall and beautiful and full of light, inviting him into their embrace. But somehow, Cabanela fought back to the pain anyway. Not yet. The real Jowd still needed him and he could and would keep moving to the end of the world. Time to rest? Ha!
It hurt to laugh.
But he was alive to do and that helped him struggle back to consciousness as the paramedics strapped him onto a stretcher and rolled him into the waiting ambulance. He twitched a hand at Lovey and her human in a parody of the jaunty wave he’d given Jowd on the way out the door.
It could hurt all it wanted to. The pain could keep coming and he’d welcome it, for the sake of the important lives in his charge. Cabanela kept on anyway. What choice was there?
Somewhere, he thought Jowd might be laughing. And so, he’d stay. He’d stay until the world ended, for the sake of laughter that fell into the world like boulders, and then, together, they’d move on.
It hurt to laugh. But Cabanela smiled with Jowd anyway, and waited.