Chapter Text
Klaus paced in the tent, biting his lip and glancing nervously between the briefcase set on his cot and the tent flap. They’d been given the orders to move out . . . they were supposed to go to the front . . . Klaus swallowed thickly, his hands fumbling with the screw-top of a flask to take several long pulls. He had one shot at this, he knew it and if he blew this . . . Klaus shook his head and slapped himself a few times,
“No! No no, we don’t think about the scary bad stuff!” He muttered then his spine stiffened when he heard someone coming in but immediately relaxed, “Dave.”
Dave sighed, “You shouldn’t drink before we move out, gotta be sharp and ready.”
Klaus smiled tightly and put the flask in his pocket, hurrying over to take Dave’s hand tightly and kiss his cheek, “Dave?”
Dave breathed out slowly through his nose, “Klaus, sunshine, we don’t have time for that-”
“We might have a lot of time.” Klaus licked his lips and glanced over his shoulder, “What if . . . What if I told I you that we could go live a life together, be safe and away from war?”
Dave chuckled, “Once we’re back in the States, we will.”
“No, I mean . . . “ Klaus shifted nervously, “Right now.”
Dave’s eyes widened and he stepped back, “You mean go AWOL? Klaus, we can’t just run off !”
Klaus shook his head, trying to take Dave’s hand again, “No, you don’t understand-”
Dave took another step back, “You’re right, I don’t and I’m not running away! I came here to serve my country-”
“Dave, please, please listen to me!” Klaus stumbled forward, grabbing at Dave’s shirt, his eyes welling up with tears.
“I know you’re scared, Klaus, but that’s no reason to get hysterical! We need to keep our heads.” Dave grabbed Klaus’s wrists and held them in a firm but gentle grip, “C'mon, sunshine, take a breath, it’s alright, we’ve done this before and we’ll be fine.”
Klaus’s eyes started to stream and he shook his head frantically, “No! No, Dave, listen we can get out of this! We can run! We can be safe and together and-”
Dave opened his mouth to respond but there was a loud whistle and orders barked for them to load up and move out! Dave closed his mouth then grabbed Klaus and pulled him in close, pressing his nose into Klaus’s messy hair,
“I know you’re scared, I am too, but we’ll be okay.” He murmured.
Klaus breathed in deeply, Dave always managed to smell so good . . .
“You’re right. We will.”
It was bad.
Klaus screamed and no one came, he yelled and no one heard, but he knew what he had to do as he dragged Dave back behind the line, he just didn’t have time . . . not enough . . . ever it seemed. Klaus’s muscles strained as adrenaline gave him enough strength to pick Dave up and run, he stumbled over a dead body that he vaguely recognized and got to the truck where the briefcase was stashed, he grabbed it by the handle and fumbled with the latches until it opened and everything changed.
“Please! Someone help us!” Klaus screamed as he pressed on Dave’s chest, minutes were all they had.
One of the people gathered must have made the call because the relieving sound of sirens filled the air and a familiar face was suddenly was next to them,
“Phil!” Klaus called to the EMT that he knew shockingly well, “Phil. please, he’s been shot!”
“Jesus, Klaus,” Phil was rapidly opening his kit and pulling things out that Klaus didn’t know the name or function of, “The hell you get yourself into this time? Move your hands, quickly!”
Klaus reluctantly pulled his hands back and Dave gasped, his body jerking and his eyes wide, Klaus quickly took Dave’s hand tightly,
“It’s gonna be okay, baby, it’s gonna be alright, they’ll fix you right up!” Klaus kissed Dave’s hand as he tried to stop crying.
“Okay, Klaus, I’m getting your friend stabilized and we’re gonna take him to the hospital, you need to let go.” Phil and his partner were getting the gurney out.
Klaus shook his head, “I need to go with him!”
“Family are allowed in the ambulance, Klaus, you know that.” Phil said tightly while they prepped Dave for transfer, “And we don’t have time for this!”
Klaus slowly let Dave’s hand go, “I’ll see you real soon, babe, I promise, I’ll be the first thing you see.”
Dave’s eyes were sluggishly flitting about and he grunted and reached for Klaus before being loaded up and taken away. Klaus swallowed and turned to stare at the briefcase on the ground, he’d have to get rid of that before anything else.
A good smashing ought to do it.
Klaus’s boots slammed into the pavement as he ran toward the hospital, tripping and bumping into people as he went, Ben was there, which was a welcome sight as he’d missed his spooky bro,
“Almost there.” Klaus panted through clenched teeth.
“I’m sure you’ll explain everything that’s going on?” Ben asked loudly.
“Later!” Klaus snapped, “I got things happening!”
“What?” Ben shouted but Klaus took a hard left turn after vaulting the front steps of the hospital and shooting through the doors.
He didn’t stop to speak to the front desk and ran right to the ER, he could hear people behind him yelling his name (he made a side note to have a long sit and rethink his life, when the entire hospital staff knew your name, your life is in need of prioritizing), but he didn’t stop until he came to the ER desk, gasping for breath.
The nurse/receptionist lady glanced up in a bored kind of way,
“What crisis is it now, Klaus?”
“Not me.” Klaus breathed heavily as he tried to speak, “Guy with. Gunshot wound. In chest. With me.”
“I can only give information to next of kin, Klaus.” She said slowly as if talking to a very reactionary child, which, under normal circumstances, Klaus would think she had every right to but this was serious.
Klaus looked around in a panic then said the only thing that came to mind, “I’m his husband!”
Her eyebrow rose a bit and she looked less than impressed, “Really?”
“Yes, Dave is my husband and we . . . were on our way back home, from . . . “ Klaus glanced at the clock, half past noon,”From lunch, and-and some guys I used to know jumped us and, uh, um, we got in a fight, one of them pulled a gun! You know I don’t like guns,” Klaus glanced at her name badge, “ . . . LInda , and Dave got in the way and . . . and . . . “
He could tell she wasn’t buying a syllable of it, tears started to well up in his eyes and spill over, Klaus leaned forward on the desk,
“Linda, please, please I’m telling the truth. The man i love is in there with a bullet in his chest and I have to be there if . . . when he wakes up. Please .”
Linda stared at him and she grimaced, “Go sit down and I’ll let you know when he’s out of surgery, that’s the best I can do until he’s moved to a recovery ward.”
Klaus nodded and slowly moved to take a seat as far from anyone as possible, he slowly pulled his legs up onto the chair and hugged his knees, his eyes streaming and he tried to keep his breathing as quiet as possible. He wished he had his Walkman to give him some background noise because right now . . . well, right now he wasn’t sure if he was going to throw up or pass out, or a combo of the two and he also had a sinking suspicion that he’d pissed himself at some point between the front line and now.
Ben sat next to Klaus, “ . . . I changed my mind, I don’t think I want to know.”
Klaus curled more in on himself and pressed his forehead into his knees as his efforts to keep himself quiet started to crumble and he let out a strained sob.
“Klaus? Mr. Hargreeves?”
Klaus jolted awake, looking around, “Yes?”
The nurse stood over him, her brow crinkled in concern, “Your . . . er, friend -”
Klaus jumped to his feet and grabbed her shoulders, his eyes already getting itchy, but he didn’t think he could cry anymore, “Dave? Is he okay?”
“He’s stable but unconscious.”
Linda pulled back a bit but it didn’t matter because Klaus had to let go of her to sink to floor and burst into dry sobs, hugging himself and thanking her over and over again. She blinked in utter disbelief at him,
“You . . . you weren’t joking, were you?”
“No,” Klaus said around gasping, stuttering breaths, “I-I wasn’t ! Wh-When can I s-see him?”
Linda grimaced, “You can’t. I told you, family only until he's moved to the regular ward.”
“And I told you ,” Klaus shakily got to his feet, “I’m his husband.”
Linda sighed, “Klaus, you and I both know that you aren’t his husband.”
“Please, I need to be there when he wakes up, you don’t understand!” Klaus begged, clasping his hands in front of his face and preparing to get on his knees if he had to.
Linda looked around, there was almost no one there and she licked her lips, “Alright, I’ll give you a few minutes but no funny business , no taking drugs or stealing anything to sell! I could lose more than my job and you can bet that you won’t be allowed back in here without security.”
“Fine, just bring me to Dave.” Klaus shifted his weight from foot to foot anxiously.
Linda lead the way down a hall, the beeping of the machines made Klaus twitch and lots of the noises made him flinch but he kept right behind Linda and kept his hands to himself when they weren’t desperately wringing the hem of his vest or clenched in his pockets or pressed his face or doing a circuit of any of those.
Please. Please. Please. Please.
Klaus couldn’t remember pleading for anything more than this as they entered a room and stepped behind the curtain and there he was. Klaus breathed out when he heard the now-reassuring beep of a machine and only a few tubes hooked up to Dave who was passed out in the bed, his brown, slightly curly hair looking disheveled and plastered to his head, there were bandages all over him, some with darkening splotches and he had nothing on, just a sheet covering him from the waist down.
Linda stepped back when Klaus moved closer to the bed, “You got ten minutes, make it count.”
Klaus nodded as he sat down in a chair next to the bed, but shook his head when he heard her close the door, “If she thinks she can drag me away from you now, she’s in for a helluva fight, Dave.”
He took Dave’s limp hand that didn’t have the IV thingy sticking out of it and licked his lips,
“I figured when I didn’t, uh, didn’t see you right away that you might be okay. Or maybe I’m not sober enough . . . I mean, I didn’t really want to see you if I lost you but . . . but . . . well, you know what I’m trying to say.”
Dave didn’t respond but Klaus sort of expected that, Ben was a different story,
“So . . . when you popped out of existence, where’d you go?”
Klaus answered without taking his eyes off Dave, “Vietnam war, 1968.”
“Hoo boy,” Ben grimaced, “And he’s . . . ?”
“Dave, a guy I met.”
“A soldier, okay, so he got shot-”
“In combat.”
“You brought him here-”
“To save him.”
Klaus briefly looked at Ben and swallowed, “I couldn’t convince him to leave before and . . . I couldn’t leave him to die.”
Ben nodded slowly, “Okay . . . how do you think he’s going to take all this time travel stuff?”
“Well, haven't thought that far ahead . . . "
"Oh boy . . . "
"But-But I mean, there’s no worry of him seeing his older self anywhere because if I hadn’t taken him, he-”
Klaus clicked his mouth shut and Ben waved his hand dismissively,
“I get it.”
Klaus slowly put his head down on the bed next to Dave, “Baby . . . I really need you to open your eyes for me . . . I know you’re probably not going to but, uh, it’d mean a lot to me if you did.”
Dave continued to be quiet and immobile but the machines said he was still alive and his hand was warm to Klaus resigned himself to those truths and tried to remain calm. He shifted and put Dave’s hand on the back of his neck and closed his eyes, just hoping that everything would be okay.
His time was up much too soon, Klaus shook his head vehemently when Linda came back in to tell him he had to go now.
“You have to leave!” Linda hissed, looking over her shoulder.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Klaus growled, looking back at Dave, “I’m staying right here until he wakes up.”
“Klaus, if you don’t go, I’ll-”
“You aren’t going to call security, Linda, you’ll lose your job,” Klaus’s eyes narrowed, “What you are going to do is go forge some paperwork that says I can be in here.”
Linda blinked then scowled, “You’re more trouble than you’re worth.”
“Don’t I know it, go on, get that paperwork filed nice and neat.” Klaus’s jaw tightened and he had to fight to keep himself from crying again, this was a very risky game.
She turned and hurried out of the room and Klaus was left alone, well, except for Ben and Dave but neither of them really counted with Ben being dead and all and Dave being . . . well, being asleep.
“I sure told her off, didn’t I, babe?” Klaus smiled, “You’d be proud of me, I think, like that time I punched out that bigger guy for calling us names. Remember? You got all flustered and blush-y and I walloped him, ‘course, he also then handed my ass to me, but still.”
Dave didn’t respond much but that was okay, as long as those beeps kept going and the respirator kept hissing and Dave wasn’t suddenly behind him, he was okay for now.