Fic: RunAway - LVI. Return

[silentdescant]

Series info, summary, warnings, and disclaimer

Previous chapters

Chapter Title: Return
Chapter Summary: The moment of truth...
A/N: The chapter you've all been waiting for. :D

The last night of the show, Dom felt inexplicably nervous. He couldn’t think of a reason for the feeling, because besides opening night jitters, he had been perfectly comfortable onstage until now. Feeling like a child, Dom peeked out between the curtains and scanned the audience before the lights went down. Something felt wrong.

 

But that wasn’t true. Nothing felt wrong, it just felt different. It felt strange—Dom felt strange. But the feeling wasn’t altogether unfamiliar, either.

 

Dom had felt something similar when Viggo had come to see him, only this time, it was a much sharper, immediate feeling.

 

“Fuck,” he whispered, and jerked away from the curtain. Helena noticed the action and hurried over to him.

 

“Nicky, love, are you alright?” Dom shook his head. “What’s wrong?”

 

“I… I feel sick,” Dom lied. It wasn’t completely a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the truth either.

 

“Oh, you’ll be fine. It’s just nerves.” Helena stroked his arm, but it was anything but soothing. “The critics love you, Nick. You’ll be great. And it’s the last night, so if you do fuck up, it’s not like there’s a chance it’ll happen again, right?”

 

“Yeah. Right,” Dom replied absently. Helena smiled and left him alone. When she was out of sight, Dom peeked out of the curtain again.

 

“I am so fucked.”

 

***

 

As soon as he stepped into the spotlight, Dom froze. He could feel that familiar gaze on him, burning in a completely different way than the stage lights.

 

Helena gave him a questioning glance, silently begging him to say his line and move on. Dom’s mind was blank. His concentration was only on the feel of Billy’s eyes on him. He turned toward the audience, but the glaring lights made it impossible to see individual faces. Helena had a look of panic on her face. Dom’s heart skipped and his mind jump-started and he suddenly remembered his line. “What do you think you’re doing here?” The same could be asked of Billy.

 

The play continued with no further hitch, although Billy’s presence made Dom self conscious to the extreme. Dom took his bow quickly and rushed backstage as soon as the curtain dropped, not returning for the encore.

 

“Fuck, fuck, bloody bollocking, fucking hell…” he kept up this steady stream of curses under his breath as he hurriedly changed into his normal clothes. His hands were shaking and his eyes were stinging with the threat of tears.

 

***

 

Billy’s jaw fell slack when Dom walked onstage. He watched Dom stop short; his mouth was moving but no sound reached Billy’s ears. Dom turned towards him, but it was obvious he didn’t see Billy in the crowd. Another eternity of silence passed before Dom remembered his line and the play continued.

 

Does he know I’m here? How does he know? Billy thought idly when he watched Dom’s hands shake when he reached for a prop newspaper.

 

By only Dom’s second scene, Billy could feel the tears running freely down his cheeks. He made no effort to stem the flow; his hands were clenched tightly in his lap, twisting the program into knots. It wasn’t as if he could read it, anyway.

 

Billy didn’t know what Dom was saying and he couldn’t really follow the plot based on just the actors’ expressions, but gist seemed to be that Dom was the bad guy. The audience laughed at several things he said, though, which made Billy think that maybe the play was a black comedy. Whatever the story, Dom was well liked by the audience, and that was what mattered to Billy.

 

At curtain call, Dom gave a short, perfunctory bow and disappeared. Billy stood up and started edging out of the row in order to catch him before he ran away.

Next: Dominic