Fic: RunAway - XXXVII. Call, part two - Billy

[silentdescant]

Series info, summary, warnings, and disclaimer

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Chapter Title: Call, part two - Billy

Chapter Summary: Billy dares to hope

Passed out in a drunken stupor wasn’t a natural state for Billy, but it was becoming more and more common. He’d not yet reached the point where he needed alcohol to put him to sleep every night, but at the rate he was going, reaching that point wouldn’t take long.

 

Billy didn’t have much to do around the house. When he was sober (and sometimes when he wasn’t, but he didn’t accomplish much that way), he would clean up or organize his possessions. Occasionally (rarely), he would read a book. As a result, every room was sparkling clean and his CDs and DVDs were stacked neatly and alphabetized, something Dom would never do.

 

Dom preferred a type of organized chaos, meaning he could find anything he needed and there was a method to his madness, but to an outsider, it just looked like a mess.

 

Whenever Billy picked up a book for entertainment, he would try to read at least an entire page before he put it back down, but every character, every plot, reminded him somehow of Dom. It was only nights when the memories were overwhelming that Billy drank himself into a stupor.

 

He was passed out cold on his sofa with the television flashing brightly on mute and a mix CD from Elijah’s collection playing. The loud ring of his mobile phone startled Billy from his sleep, and he jerked upright in his haste to answer the call. The coffee table seemed to move into his path, and Billy tripped, the wood hitting his shins painfully. The phone was on its last ring when he finally reached it and drunkenly fumbled the buttons.

 

The man on the line was already speaking. It sounded like he was crying. “…everything. I’m sorry for my life. I’m just an idiot, and fucking idiot, and… I’m so stupid. I’ve gone too far now. I can’t go back after this. I can’t—" The rough voice finally registered in Billy’s mind.

 

“Dom?”

 

“I can’t live like this anymore. It was never really living, anyway. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have done a lot of things, really, but… I can’t live with this. I can’t live with what I’ve done.”

 

“Dominic?” Billy interrupted again, wanting desperately to believe that it was Dom on the line.

 

“I’m sorry. Billy, I’m so sorry.” Case closed, it was definitely Dominic. The sound of Dom saying ‘I’m sorry, Billy’ was burned into Billy’s mind.

 

“Please…” Billy whispered brokenly. “Please talk to me, Dom, please…”

 

Billy was euphoric, but he also had a feeling like a lead weight in his stomach. He wanted to ask Dom what was going on, but he couldn’t find his voice. He wanted to ask Dom a lot of things, really, and at the top of the list were the questions ‘Where are you?’ and ‘Why?’

 

“I can’t. I… I have to go. I’m sorry, I… Goodbye.”

 

“No, Dom! Dommeh, please! Wait, please, Dom, wait! Stay, please!” Billy’s voice grew louder with each word until he was shouting, but even though the noise, he heard Dom’s next words very clearly.

 

“I loved you. But this is it, Bill.”

 

“God, Dominic, stop! Wait, please!” Billy heard the dial tone interrupt him, but he didn’t stop talking. “Dom, come back. Come back to me, Dom, please… I love you, I do, I love you, Dom. Please come back. Please…”

 

Billy cried himself to sleep by the phone, waiting and hoping Dom would call back. He never did.

***

A/N: Okay, so here's what's going to happen during the holidays. There won't be a new chapter until January 2nd, but I am doing a Q&A/drabble thing in another post. More information about that at the post.

Next: Belief