Ripper Street/Tonight there's going to be a jailbreak...

[thirstforvice]

Leman Street was dark and deserted. It was late, and everybody else had shut up shop and gone home hours ago. But the body brought to them late in the afternoon had required several tests run, to try and ascertain the cause of death. Matthew had made it as far as poison, but was still trying to ascertain the type.

He didn't really need any assistance, but Drake seemed to want to stay with him, and he wasn't about to complain. It was probably sensible, anyway; whilst the worst of his withdrawal had passed through, there was still the odd craving that plagued him, and being left alone in his dead room, and all the pills and potions that came with it, was still not entirely advisable.

The first shouts from the cells below came as Matthew removes the heat from under a boiling beaker of water, his final experiment hopefully complete.

"You gonna go check on that?" he asks without looking up, final goal (and, therefore, home time) almost within his grasp.

Comments

[thirstforvice]

"No..." Matthew takes Bennet's hand in his, holding it in his lap.

"Not you. Reid."

[thegentlemanthug]

"It's that woman's fault," Bennet says vehemently, but his touch is gentle, desperate not to startle.

[thirstforvice]

"She weren't the first to hit me," Matthew reasons, struggling even now to accept Susan was in the wrong for the way she used to treat him.

"And you know I ain't always easy to get along with."

[thegentlemanthug]

"You deserve to be treated like...like the queen," Bennet says, with passion. "They were wrong, all of them."

[thirstforvice]

"Like a queen?" Matthew grins at last, raising his eyebrows.

"A king, maybe."

[thegentlemanthug]

"No king about here," Drake says solemnly. "Of course, you Yanks don't believe in all that."

[thirstforvice]

"Yank livin' in your fair and pleasant land," Matthew finally starts to relax in the seat of the cab.

"I can follow your quaint conventions."

[thegentlemanthug]

Drake's smile returns.

"You gonna let me treat you like my king then?"

[thirstforvice]

"I'd settle for your lover," Matthew shrugs. He'd feel embarrassed, being treated like a king.

[thegentlemanthug]

"Well, you have some strange ideas about what that should be," Drake lectures. "So I'm thinking of trying something new."

[thirstforvice]

"If it'll make you happy," Matthew smiles, "then I will be your King Matthew. You Brits ain't had one of those before, have you?"

[thegentlemanthug]

"King Matthew." Bennet tests the words on his tongue.

The carriage comes to a halt and Bennet swings open the door, stepping down to give his lover a hand out. "Your majesty."

[thirstforvice]

Matthew laughs, but lets Drake help him down nevertheless.

"What does that make you? My consort?"

[thegentlemanthug]

Drake wrinkles his nose at the thought.

"I'm not fit for any palace," he declares, as he pays the driver.

[thirstforvice]

"Well, you're living with a king, by your own admission," an honest smile is back on Matthew's lips as he lopes up the short pathway to their front door.

"And I can't be seen to be givin' my favour to any old man on the street, can I?"

[thegentlemanthug]

Mrs Ramsay opens the door.

"I wasn't expecting the pair of you until evening," she says suspiciously.

"May I present His Majesty King Matthew of the Americas?" Drake says, in his best toff voice.

"Have you been drinking?" Mrs Ramsay inspects them both with a shrewd eye. "It's not even noon."

[thirstforvice]

"If only, Mrs Ramsay. If only," Matthew smiles and pats their dear housekeeper on the shoulder as they pass.

"We have unexpectedly found ourselves relieved from our duties for the day. Sergeant Drake here is a little overexcited at the prospect, is all."

[thegentlemanthug]

Mrs Ramsay frowns. "Have you been let off?" she demands to know, straight to the point as always.

"Only for the day," Drake assures her. "And we'll be out of your hair after we've had some tea."

[thirstforvice]

"That's who you can be!" Matthew suddenly declares, shamelessly taking his Benny's hand in front of Mrs Ramsay as he leads him through to their sitting room. "My Earl of Tea!"

Waiting for Bennet to take his seat, Matthew folds himself into his lap, kissing his cheek. For now, at least, his anxieties are all but forgotten.