Fish & Chips (Cut & Run 3)

Ty finally cleared his throat and glanced sideways at Zane. “I wouldn"t recommend the rock wall to you. Very high.”

“Get the insults in now while I"m still too thankful to have you here safe to mind,” Zane warned.

“I"ll pass,” Ty muttered. He held up the rope as soon as they were far enough from the crowd not to draw attention. Half of the thick rope was frayed horribly, almost fuzzy from the trauma inflicted by its separation from the other end. But roughly a third of the failed end was clean and straight, with nary a ruined strand to be seen. Ty turned it around grimly. “It was cut.”

AS SOON as the door to their stateroom was closed and locked behind them, Ty felt his knees go weak. He reached out to the wall nearest him and closed his eyes as he let the weakness seep into him while he had the chance to let it. He hung his head and sank toward the carpet without further warning, just thankful to be on solid ground and in private.

“Whoa, baby, c"mon, not on the floor,” Zane murmured as he caught Ty partway down. The worry was clear in his voice, which wavered enough that Ty took note of it and tried to man up a little. He attempted to gather himself with a deep breath. “Much more comfortable on the bed,” Zane continued.

When Ty sat on the end of the bed—or what he assumed was the end of the bed, since the damn thing was round—he simply hung his head and leaned over. No matter how many times a person almost died, it never got to the point that it was easy to shrug off. After a moment of composing himself, he raised his head and dejectedly looked at Zane.

“Even when I"m someone else, people try to kill me,” he joked.

Zane sighed and sat down next to him. “Must be your charming personality showing through all the bleach.” He reached out to run his fingers through Ty"s abused hair.

Ty closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. “I may have given us away out there,” he said ruefully. “Someone is apparently trying to kill or at least injure one of the Porters. If they were watching, they heard me cussing without my accent.”

“I really can"t bring myself to care about that right now,” Zane murmured, rubbing Ty"s back in slow, soothing motions.

Ty looked at him more closely, surprised by the statement. Zane didn"t meet his eyes, and his face was set with what looked like pain.

“Hey,” Ty said softly as he placed a hand on Zane"s knee. “Look on the bright side, right? At least it wasn"t you,” he tried with a laugh as he patted Zane"s thigh.

Zane shook his head slowly as his eyes tracked to meet Ty"s. “No.

That would have been easier to handle,” he said baldly.

“All right then, next time you dangle over the ocean,” Ty offered as he unconsciously rubbed at his abused fingers. He understood what Zane meant, though. Ty knew from a previous, ill-advised discussion about their deepest fears that Zane"s was not being there to save the day when the proverbial shit hit the fan. Zane had been much more eloquent in his wording, of course. It was one fear Ty had no idea how to assuage. And it was a legitimate one, since it probably happened a lot and Zane just didn"t know it.

“No problem,” Zane whispered as he caressed Ty"s cheek with a slightly trembling finger. “I didn"t realize I"d be so—” His voice actually broke, and he looked away, out into the room, his hand falling away.

“Zane,” Ty prompted gently. He was beginning to worry. In all fairness, it really should still be him falling apart at the seams, not his partner. It almost made him angry that he had to be the one to narrowly escape death or injury and console his partner about it. For a brief second, he allowed himself the suspicion that Zane might be putting on just to give Ty something to focus on. He let that fancy pass when he saw the real emotion in Zane"s eyes.

Zane drew a sharp breath and cleared his throat. “Sorry,” he said.

“I think it"s sort of hitting me now. What could have happened. I don"t know why. It"s not like I wasn"t standing there scared out of my mind.”

He offered Ty a smile that didn"t make it to his eyes.

“You damn well better have been!” Ty blurted indignantly.

“I was,” Zane said fervently, taking Ty"s hand up again. “I couldn"t do anything.”

Ty exhaled sharply and stood. “Let"s not linger over it, Garrett,”

he said with forced nonchalance. No matter what he said to Zane just now, he knew he"d be dreaming about falling tonight. Discussing it in detail might help ease Zane"s mind, but it wouldn"t do Ty a damn bit of good.

Zane"s hand tightened to keep Ty from moving away. “You scared me. You didn"t cut your own rope, but how could you literally be hanging by your fingertips and still be joking?”

Ty looked down at him in surprise and gave an insulted huff. “Cut my own rope?” he repeated.

“Ty. Please,” Zane said, his voice carrying a hint of that dismay.

He shook his head a little as he tried to hold Ty"s gaze.

Ty tilted his head and petted Zane"s hand. “One thing I"ve learned is, if you"re too focused on the falling and how horribly it"s going to hurt, you don"t see what"s around you. You might miss the very thing you can hang onto, something that could stop the fall altogether. So if you stay calm….” He shrugged. It wasn"t a lesson he"d necessarily learned while literally hanging in the air, but it served for many of life"s difficulties. Including literally hanging in the air.

Zane still didn"t look happy. “Not one man in a thousand could have done what you did today. I couldn"t have.”

Ty didn"t disagree. He"d had extensive training in order to do exactly what he"d done today. Not to mention a healthy dose of pure dumb luck. Zane knew that, and Ty didn"t understand why he was so upset. He was silent, frowning in confusion as he watched the play of emotions over Zane"s face. But none of them stayed in place long enough for Ty to really interpret them.

“I told you what I think about free fall,” Zane finally said. “And staying calm isn"t enough. You up there joking? You weren"t doing it for yourself, were you?” It wasn"t so much a question as a conclusion.

“Well, you know how amusing I find myself.”

“Yeah, right. You were about to fall thirty feet, and you were more worried about me than you were about yourself.” Zane stood and reached to place a hand on each side of Ty"s face, holding him still.