Picture kindly supplied by Ephian One of Two Evil Monks
One Moment in Time
by Derry
They would all soon face another crisis and everyone would be looking to him for leadership (whether he was officially in command or not). But at this moment, he found it simply impossible to think clearly about anything except that wound.
That wound in Archie’s chest. That wound that Archie had made so light of. Men died from wounds such as that. They died from them more often than not.
But Archie didn’t want to know that. He was trying to remain cheerful, trying to keep both their spirits up. He didn’t want to be told that the wound was most likely a mortal one.
Unless, he already knew...
Almost without conscious thought, Horatio gathered his dearest friend up in a tight embrace. Cheerful or not, Archie needed to know that he was not alone. He needed to know that he had the support of his friend. He needed to know that they would stand side by side to face this, the same way that they had faced every other adversity over the past few years.
And it was just possible that the wound wasn’t a mortal one. Nothing was certain in this life. Maybe Archie wasn’t bleeding internally as much as Horatio suspected he was. There was always hope. Archie himself was a living testament to that. Hadn’t he virtually returned from the dead once before? Yes, there was always hope.
Archie needed that reassurance.
And, God help him, so did Horatio.
