32. Wallace #3
Wallace put a hand to his chest. “Fuck. I mean… Oh, God. I had no idea. I thought it was just delivering a part you needed or something. I would have sent anything through that Ben ordered of course, but…” Wallace shivered.
Just thinking about what might have happened if he hadn’t been there was harrowing.
“Nope. I downloaded myself to its harddrive. I don’t even know how I made it back to Ben’s place, but now I know that I have you to thank.”
Wallace shook his head. “You shouldn’t thank me. All I did was turn off a few alerts and take the cart out of inventory.” It was nothing compared to what Oliver was doing right now to save his Daddy. Not even close.
“And spied on us?” Oliver asked, sounding more amused than annoyed.
“I mean… I told them to keep you all in sight but not stand close enough to listen in on conversations. I didn’t want to bother anyone, just find out if you were alright. I, uh, did hear about your new name, though, and I saw that you’re on a new patent.”
Oliver sighed. “I suppose it wouldn’t help now to say that you should have just tried talking to us?”
Wallace shook his head. “Ben hates me. With good reason. And I figured you were just being nice to me so I wouldn’t rat you out.” He ducked his head. “Which I ended up doing anyway.”
“That wasn’t why I was being friendly,” Oliver said.
“Yeah?” Wallace asked, still a little surprised.
“I mean, it absolutely was at first,” Oliver announced, without a trace of embarrassment. “But then I saw your dickwad father talking to you, and figured that the three of us had more in common than we realized. I was genuinely trying to be your friend.”
“Ah. So I fucked that up, too.” Wallace’s belly roiled. He hadn’t fully realized the depth of his betrayal.
“Yeah,” Oliver answered, with what sounded like a shrug. “But it sounds like you’re trying to do better.”
“I am.” Wallace folded his hands together, pleading. “I promise I am. Uh, not that I’m expecting your friendship now.”
“You can still have it, though,” Oliver said, as if it were really that easy.
“Yeah?”
“Yes, Wallace. You’re a good boyfriend, and I think you’re probably a good person. You’ve been very open since you got here, you’ve apologized, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you better. The real you, outside of Orbit.”
Wallace’s chest felt light, and his fingers actually tingled. “Really?”
Oliver chuckled, a warm, comforting sound. “Really, really. In fact, I’d like for you to meet some of our friends tonight, if you’re up for it.”
The absolute last thing that Wallace wanted to do right now was leave Volt’s bedside, and he still hated to meet new people. But if Oliver wanted him to be there, he would do it. “Oh, um, okay.”
“Excellent.” Oliver sounded happy, and that was good, right?
Maybe Volt would be back to himself by then, and they could meet new people together? At least he could hope.
Wallace looked down at his Daddy, stroking that perfect wave of hair as it fell over his brow.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Oliver said softly. “Just call if you need me.”
“Thank you,” Wallace said, again overwhelmed by the inadequacy of those words.
He pressed a kiss to Volt’s cool, lifeless lips, then started to tell Daddy about his new friend. It turned out, he had a lot of stories about Oliver, too.
He talked until his throat was dry, and at some point Squeaky returned with a bottle of water and a pot of hot tea with lemon.
In between stories, he texted Angel a few times. Even though Angel was getting updates from Oliver, Wallace wanted to reach out. He wanted information on Magnolia’s health, too.
He realized, belatedly, that it might be helpful to get some more info on Colton Alexander, and he sent a quick text to Parker, the private investigator who’d been giving him reports on Ben.
He didn’t have much to tell her, but it sounded like Oliver was ahead of him there anyway. He put the two of them in touch.
He’d even messaged a few folks at work, apologizing for not coming in during his last few days at the company and—daringly—explained that his boyfriend had a medical emergency.
He hadn’t checked his email yet, but he didn’t need to.
Either they would wish him and his boyfriend well, or he would never have to see them again.
Compared with Volt’s life, it was inconsequential.
But mostly, he stroked Volt’s cheeks. Memorized the shape of his brow.
Planted barely-there kisses on his slack lips, as if some fairy tale magic would help his Daddy wake up.
He described their first few dates, and how awkward and worried they’d both been.
How excited he’d been that Daddy had chosen him.
Food came later, a hearty salad in a lightweight bowl that he could hold while leaning perched on the edge of the bed, his hip touching Volt’s shoulder. In between bites, he massaged Daddy’s shoulders. Told him about how Oliver was taking care of him. What a good friend he was.
The sun was getting low in the sky when Ben wandered in—notably without knocking—and sat on the desk, swinging his feet so that they thumped in a loud, obnoxious rhythm. “Good morning!” he chirped.
Wallace’s instinctive reaction was annoyance at the childish behavior, but he reined it in.
This was Ben’s home, after all, and Ben was helping with Volt.
Wallace was just a guest. So Ben could sit on his office furniture if he wanted to.
It wasn’t necessarily designed to piss him off. “Hey, Ben,” he said lightly instead.
Ben picked up a paperweight or something and began tossing it into the air, catching it lightly as it came down only to toss it back up again.
God, Wallace hated that shit. It reminded him too much of his brother, Rick.
“I did some digging into the takeover mod,” Ben said. “I didn’t realize that you’d brought the nickel in, or I would have started last night. It burned through two tablets before I got it wrangled into shape. Definitely gotta keep it away from anything with an internet card.”
Wallace’s eyes widened. He hadn’t realized that Ben had been working on Volt’s problem. For most of the day, it sounded like. And at the cost of some potentially expensive equipment.
“Thank you,” Wallace told him, aware again of how insufficient the word was. Of how that annoying paperweight tossing meant nothing against having all of Ben’s expertise working on his problem.
“Yeah, it was definitely looking for someone or something named Mitchie. You know anything about Mitchie?”
Wallace shook his head. It was just meaningless sounds to him. Mitchy? Mitch-E? Mitchie? It wasn’t ringing any bells. He figured that Oliver had already asked Angel about it, since the two of them were talking, and Angel knew so much more about Volt’s background.