The Beating of Our Hearts Is the Only Sound

Chapter 1: A Terrible, Stupid, Outrageous Idea

Klaus flinched as something exploded near him. Another shot, followed by a shout, made Klaus turn his head to Dave. Any jokes he had prepared were immediately choked out of him. "Dave!" He yelled, reaching towards him, towards the bloodstain growing over his heart. "No! No, no– Dave! Medic! Medic!"

     "Hey, hey, Klaus, it's okay," Dave muttered, pulling his head down from above the barricade. "It's– it's just my shoulder," he said, trying for a smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

     "Oh, thank God," sighed Klaus, his voice shaking. "I thought– I– God, you scared me."

     "I'll be fine, I'm not dying before your scrawny ass does."

     Klaus laughed, but then Dave winced and grabbed at his shoulder. Panicked thoughts started flying through his head. What if the wound got infected, or something? Klaus didn't know anything about this kind of thing. Ben, now would be a damn good time to show up, he thought, but he knew his brother wouldn't. He hadn't seen him since he'd been been teleported, but he still wasn't really used to the absence of his ever-present voice of reason.

     Dave groaned softly and tried to sit up on his good arm. The bloodstain, and Klaus' panic, was growing every second.

     An idea popped into his mind suddenly. It was a terrible, stupid, outrageous idea, but pretty all of his ideas were. And they... didn't normally work out, but he couldn't think of that right now.

     "Dave," Klaus whispered, reaching for the briefcase at his feet. "Dave, listen to me."

     An explosion made them both duck instinctively.

     Dave looked up at him, still trying to mask his pain. "Yeah?"

     "We're getting out of here."

     "What? We– we can't do that!"

     But Klaus wasn't listening. He grabbed Dave's hand tightly and flicked the clasps up on the case.

     "Klaus, what are you–"

     He was cut off by a flash of blue light swallowing them. The two men couldn't see or hear anything, couldn't feel anything but the other's hand. After what felt like both forever and no time at all, they both appeared in a bus. There was only one other person on, a man reading a newspaper. He dropped the paper when they appeared, but barely glanced at them as he returned to his news. Dave pulled his hand away from Klaus' quickly, instinctively.

     "Klaus, what the hell?" Dave said in a loud whisper. He reached up and touched his still-bleeding shoulder, wincing as he tried to put pressure on it to slow the blood-flow.

     "I can explain later, I swear, but now I need to take you to Mom."

     Klaus glanced out the windows and saw that the next stop was the one closest to the Academy. Just as he sighed a breath of relief, a familiar chill covered him. Ben, he thought, smiling a little. He wasn't visible yet, but he would be. Even though he had been with Dave almost his entire time in the past, he had felt weirdly lonely without Ben. They hadn't separated for very long periods of time since he died.

     "Wait, Klaus, you're–" he groaned again, squeezing his eyes shut– "you need to tell me what's going on," Dave said quietly, his words sounded forced and deliberate.

     Klaus ignored his request; he knew he was going to have to explain, but he wasn't sure he could reasonably do that given the circumstances. "The next stop is ours. We're going to get you medical help."

     "From– from your mom? Because you said–"

     "Yeah, basically."

     The bus stopped dramatically, taking its sweet time. Klaus jumped up and Dave followed, more slowly, holding his injured arm. The driver opened the doors without so much as a second glance, until they were on the sidewalk. He tried to yell something at them, but they weren't about to stop.