openish } but nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight

[choosetruth]

Who: the After the End Times crew and maybe YOU??
Where: ASGARD! Sort of.
When: Throughout the event
Rating: PG-13 for violence and swear words probably
Summary: Shaun makes poor sartorial choices that lead to his demise. Georgia does not handle it well. Thank fuck Mahir and Maggie are here to be the adults they need.
The Story:

[Starters in the comments!]

Comments

[talesuntold]

[Maggie's gaze snaps toward Shaun immediately when she catches a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye, extremely grateful to see him sitting up and catching a blood test unit.

That tone in Georgia's voice is almost as disconcerting as the dead coming back any way besides shambling and virus-driven. A relief, obviously, but disconcerting. Maggie keeps her voice the sort of pleasant it only ever is when she's been angry or worried.]

I have to second what she said. Keep yourself in one piece, please.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun jams his hand into the testing unit, wincing slightly as the needles bite into his skin. Feeling pain is always a good sign, if not a pleasant one. Plus, being immune, it's pretty unlikely that he's going to amplify at this point. If he's conscious, he's probably okay.]

I didn't plan to do it at all.

[choosetruth]

[George is sitting forward, barely containing herself as the lights flash. When they finally settle on green she stops holding back and slams forward, curling her fingers in his shirt and yanking him into a desperate kiss. She can feel his pulse under her fingers, the way his breath brushes her skin, how warm and alive he is. She doesn't give a particular fuck about their audience right now. Just Shaun. Alive. In her arms.]

[talesuntold]

[Maggie didn't expect that, but she isn't surprised by it either. After what happened with Becks, how could she help suspecting? She's honestly more surprised by the fact that Georgia didn't wait till she got Shaun alone.

...But then, Georgia has hardly been thinking clearly the past 24 hours.

Maggie quietly gets to her feet and heads for the door.]

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun probably should have expected this reaction, considering how their reunions after other separations have gone, but he'd actually sort of expected her to punch him. Which he definitely would have deserved, given his behavior over the past couple of days.

This is a much better reaction.]

[choosetruth]

[Oh don't worry, the punches are coming. She's mad, but she's far more grateful that she got him back, that his stupidity didn't mean losing him for good.

From the corner of her eye, she registers Maggie leaving and, well, this is pretty awkward. She'll have to make it up to Maggie sometime. For now, she's just glad.

Once she's assured herself properly that Shaun is, indeed, alive and well, she pulls back, though not far enough to actually let go of him. Just far enough to give her room to punch him in the side. Hard.]

God fucking dammit, Shaun. That sucked.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Ow.

[He flinches away from the hit--George doesn't pull her punches, even with him, even when she's as relieved as she is that he's breathing again.]

I didn't do it on purpose, George.

[choosetruth]

I know. It was Wonderland and that stupid armor.

[She whacks him again, though without much force this time, then leans her head against his chest, letting the sound of his heartbeat calm her.]

It did something to you. Made you.... [She frowns, fingers curling in his shirt.] Stupid. The way everyone always thought you were. And then a troll got you and.... you were dead, Shaun. [She tugs her sunglasses off so she can press her face into his shirt before the tears start up again.] I didn't let you reanimate.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[He lets out some of the tension he hadn't even known he was holding. That's good. He might not be able to amplify, but he's pretty sure that if he dies by some other means, he gets right back up and starts looking for his next meal. So he's relieved that George hadn't let that happen, even if he's... considerably less happy that it had to be her to prevent it.

The worst moment of his life had been doing that for her, and he still has the scars.]

Are you okay?

cw suicidal ideation

[choosetruth]

[She is definitely not okay. She barely remembers the last time she was okay, and to be fair, that's partly because it wasn't really her.

She'd always thought she had prepared herself for this. She knew losing Shaun would hurt. She'd even known she wouldn't want to keep living after she lost him. But she'd still thought she was ready. That she wouldn't have too much trouble putting a bullet through the skull of the man she loved because it was the right thing to do and she'd always promised she'd be there to do it.

Fuck, it had been so hard. And how much harder must it have been for Shaun, who had to shoot her while she was still alive enough to say his name?]

Better now. [She sits up and gives him a watery smile.] You came back earlier than I thought you would. I guess our first death didn't count.

[adaptiveimmunities]

Lucky us.

[Which means that if something happens to George he won't have to wait as long as he thought, but he can't actually think about that for very long without starting to scream internally, so he doesn't. He takes one of her hands in his and traces his thumb over her knuckles, frowning.]

I'm sorry. I didn't know about the armor. If I had... [He shakes his head.] I don't care how badass it looked, I would never have put it on.

[choosetruth]

[She nods. She knows. He might not have a ton of self-preservation for his own sake, but he'd never intentionally leave her alone anymore than she'd leave him. She squeezes his hand.]

I'm much more mad at Wonderland than at you. It's stupid. We shouldn't have to fear clothes.

[adaptiveimmunities]

No shit. [He makes a disgusted noise at the back of his throat.] I didn't even know anything was wrong. How the hell didn't I know that something was wrong?

[You were acting like yourself. The was you used to act.]

[Shaun glances over and sees the other George leaning against a wall, arms folded over her chest.]

[You should have known.]

I should have known.

[choosetruth]

I should have known.

[Normally she knows Shaun almost better than he knows himself. Why didn't she see how dumb he was being? Why didn't she listen to Mahir?

But what was she supposed to do, not trust Shaun to know his limits? He always had before.

She squeezes his hand, more tightly than can possibly be comfortable.]

Please don't leave me again.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[The fact that it's not all that comfortable doesn't mean he's going to take his hand away. He needs this as much as she does.]

Not if I can help it. I'm so sorry, George.

[choosetruth]

[She presses a kiss to his knuckles and leans against him again.]

Maggie will have told Mahir you're back by now. [She goes slightly pink.] It's good we decided we don't give a fuck who knows about us anymore. I don't know if I could have stopped myself.

[adaptiveimmunities]

I think Maggie guessed anyway. [Some of the conversations they'd had before Wonderland had leaned in that direction, and Maggie's not a stupid person.] Maybe Mahir, too, but we haven't really talked about it.

[choosetruth]

I wouldn't be surprised. He's always been smart. [There's a reason she hired him.] They certainly know now.