Ripper Street/Escape to the Suburbs

[thirstforvice]

When Drake is cleared to go back to work, Jackson's sense of unease grows tenfold. He's been anxious ever since returning to their room in Whitechapel, very aware that the Vigilance Men are down but not out, and very aware of where they live. But there's always been the two of them, together, with multiple locked doors between them and the outside world. Now, he's alone, mobility still hugely limited by his broken leg, and Drake's alone on the streets where he can't keep him close.

The worries would have driven him to distraction, or drugs, if not for Mrs Ramsay.

Their landlady truly was a godsend, more than happy to care for her invalid tenant, completely unphased in the knowledge of what he and Drake got up to behind closed doors. She was gifted at tending to his healing injuries, and she was very happy to both prattle on to him and listen in turn. She doesn't judge him nor take offence, either, when he admits to feeling unsafe in her lodgings. Quite the contrary, she offers to find him and Drake some place safer. Whilst he doesn't like being left alone, he appreciates the offer too much to turn her down.

It only takes her a few days before she finds somewhere she thinks would be perfect. As she lays out supper for her favourite doctor and his sergeant, she tells him all about the house in the suburbs. It's close to one of those new underground rail stations, she tells him, making the journey into the city easy despite the distance. It's large but affordable, on a combined wage of a sergeant and police physician. The neighbourhood is respectable, and safe. And, she can't help but slipping in, plenty of spare space for a housekeeper, should they choose to take one (which, really, she feels they should. Did they even know how to cook their meals?).

Her enthusiasm is really highly infectious.

Comments

[thirstforvice]

"Jesus Christ." Jackson sits up, angrily, then lies back down when he realises there's nothing he can do, right now, about the fact that the charlatan has taken up residence in his dead room.

"You can tell Reid tomorrow that I'm back to work on Monday. I don't care what he says about it."

[thegentlemanthug]

Well, that went about as well as expected.

"And what about what I think?" Drake says softly.

[thirstforvice]

"What do you think?" Jackson frowns up at his lover. He'd have thought Drake would want him to be happy. Not cooped up here, bored, whilst that damned Treves stole his job away.

[thegentlemanthug]

"I want you to recover," Drake says honestly. "Knowing your job will be there for you when you're ready."

[thirstforvice]

"My brain ain't damaged, Bennet," Jackson points out, resting a hand over Drake's and holding it gently.

"That's all I need to work. 'nd I don't like that Treves. The longer he stays, the more likely I'm going to be replaced permanently."

[thegentlemanthug]

Drake is not going down without a fight.

"You can go to the Dead Room if you let me take you in a carriage and you use you wheelchair."

[thirstforvice]

"Unless Treves has already changed everything, my Dead Room is downstairs," Jackson points out, reaching up to pull Bennet down into his arms.

"But I will take your carriage."

[thegentlemanthug]

"You are not standing up all day and running round that place," Drake chides. "If you have the chair, you can have your leg up while you're workin'."

[thirstforvice]

"I don't need an invalid's wheelchair to do that," Jackson continues to be stubborn.

"Any old chair can be sat on. 'nd anyway, gotta rehabilitate myself sooner or later."

[thegentlemanthug]

"Not with that padded cushion what Mr Tre- It would be better for you."

Drake thinks better of using Treves' advice against his lover.

[thirstforvice]

"Who is the doctor here, darlin'?" Jackson asks, more fond than frustrated, fingers playing gently over the flesh of his lover's arm.

"Remind me. Would that be you, or me?"

[thegentlemanthug]

Drake lies down beside his lover, curling in around him.

"I'm the one what looks out for your health is what I am."

[thirstforvice]

"My health is just peachy," Jackson mutters as he shifts into Drake's embrace, enjoying the closeness.

"A broken leg don't make me a plague carrier. Y'know, a lesser man might think you don't want me back."

[thegentlemanthug]

Drake envelops Jackson in his arms.

"Well, Frederick is a very charming man..." he teases.

[thirstforvice]

"You would prefer him as your surgeon?" Jackson jokes, but there's a hint of something darker in his tone, a note of honest anxiety that perhaps he is about to be replaced for a superior model.

[thegentlemanthug]

"Wouldn't let any knife near me but yours," Drake says, warmly.

"But he is rather easy on the eye."

[thirstforvice]

Jackson tenses in Drake's arms, then pulls away to look at his lover properly.

"Is that why you keep me here? Out of the way?"

[thegentlemanthug]

Drake is bewildered for a second, before gently stroking at his lover's cheek.

"I was jesting, Homer. You know no one holds my eye but you."

[thirstforvice]

"Maybe," Jackson frowns, "But that Treves dogs my every step. How am I supposed to believe he won't be takin' my place in this bed as well as in my dead room, before long?"

The vulnerability he feels is clear in his face and eyes, in the way he looks at Drake.

[thegentlemanthug]

"Because you know, well as me, that you were the first to lay claim to my bed - and you will be the last."

Drake kisses his Homer softly, deeply. They have not been able to enjoy each other since their beating, but that does not mean he does not desire him still.

[thirstforvice]

Jackson is stiff and still in Drake's arms for a moment, before accepting his words and settling down, returning the kisses.

"I am lonely, without you," he admits. "I miss my work."

[thegentlemanthug]

"Tomorrow, we will spend our afternoon at leisure. And then you may go back on Monday - if, and only if, you will take both carriage and chair."

Drake is determined to act as the man of the house, even if Jackson is determined to thwart him at every turn.

[thirstforvice]

"Alright, fine," Jackson rolls his eyes. He will take the goddamned chair.

That doesn't mean he will actually make use of it.

[thegentlemanthug]

"See, you can submit to what's good for you."

Drake holds Jackson close to him, careful of his injuries, and yet determined to kiss and comfort where he can.

[thirstforvice]

As their kisses grow more heated, Jackson's body works on instinct to try and push Bennet onto his back, before being brought harshly back to earth when he tries to move his leg.

He pulls back from his lover's lips with a frustrated groan of pain.