Previously on Other Peoples' Heartache

We Live Hard But We Love to Laugh

Note: No prompt given. Dib just needed a day like this, and I needed to write something that isn't directly impacting the storyline in Laughter Lines that I'm struggling with. Set between Flaws and Laughter Lines. Chapter title excerpted from Back Home by Andy Grammer.

.....

For the seventy-sixth time, Dib drew a breath in through his nose, slowly releasing it through his mouth. For the seventy-sixth time, Dib was frustrated by his inability to return to what he knew to be "normal." Normal heart-rate, normal thought patterns, normal levels of focus. There was too much work to do, and it wasn't as if he was pushing papers his whole day either. The ramifications of his proposals for, well, the world were too exciting to permanently grind his soul away. It was something he really, really wanted to get back to.

So he told himself, and so he knew to be normal for him, but his cell phone had not let up once. As soon as the call ended, another one started. An hour and a half, non-stop. The caller ID hadn't changed either. It was her.

And because it was her, every drop of dopamine in his head had done a happy dance at the prospect of hearing words from her. Any words. She could have cursed him out and he would have enjoyed every millisecond. The longer he waited, the more the happy little dance faded out, twisting into something more akin to rampaging anxiety. He was keeping her waiting. She would decide he was no longer worth talking to. He wouldn't get to hear her voice ever again.

None of it was real or rational but it had ramped up so hard during these last few calls that Dib felt a vein throbbing in his temple. How did Timothy survive like this?

He hadn't picked up because he was pretty sure he already knew what she was going to say, and in spite of the fact that he desperately wanted to do exactly what she would ask him to do, he just couldn't let it happen. He was busy and it was important work and really, it was for her and her family in the long run. Why did she have to-

He snatched up the phone, trying to keep his breathing steady. "Yes, Teles?"

A long pause on the line. Now that he'd broken the stand-off, Dib babbled into the silence. "I'm sorry, but I've been very busy. Now isn't a great time. I know, I know, it never is, but this proposal could mean serious protection for your family down the line. I mean, nobody really knows why the mental health crisis has skyrocketed this generation and the data I'm getting from the sessions you and Kay do in the facility is mind-blowing. There's no telling what we could accomplish, and if I can just get these knuckleheads to understand that pointing the research in that direction has way more benefits than trying to develop you as soldiers or agents against your will then we can really-"

"Dib."

His name. His name from her throat. His eyelids drifted shut, and the slow breath he inhaled this time came with a sense of peace. Security. He knew what was happening. She didn't even have to sing to him now, the spoken word was enough to bring about a calm and clarity of thought most humans would envy. It came, however, with a price.

"You haven't left your lab in weeks. Everyone's voiced concerns about this."

That got him to crack an eyelid. "Everyone?"

"Well, everyone on rotation at your labs this last week."

Arthur, you traitor. Dib sighed. He figured Arthur, at least, would understand the urgency of trying to protect the Peppers, for all the time they brainstormed connections and contingencies. But he didn't even have his mechanic on his side. Vivi was a no-brainer sell-out, of course. She'd been trying to slip a lunch meeting into his schedule for days, now. Lunch meeting, of course, being code for Get-Dib-Some-Sunlight-And-Family-Time. Probably Lewis too, then? Dulcie, of course... he ducked his head. Real guilt right there. He had promised to come by... when had he promised, again?