Chuck cannot understand what is going on for the life of him. He’d only just woken up from a coma, still doesn’t even know how long it’s been, and he only mildly feels guilty for wishing he was still in it.
He’d been absolutely ecstatic to find Raleigh by his bedside, all dopey smiles from him and tearful greetings from the older man. The both of them clutching onto each other tightly. Well, as tightly as Chuck’s weakened state allowed him that is.
They’d been dancing around a relationship before pitfall, didn’t want to make anything official in the off chance one of them didn’t come back, but it was honestly a moot point. Anybody who saw them could see just how gone they were on each other, and the devastation of losing one another was just as bad as it would’ve been had they verbally made it official.
He’d been only slightly bummed out his dad wasn’t also there. He’d kind of expected it. Years of animosity and brush offs wouldn’t have been fixed with only a few words and a singular hug. But he had hoped.
When he’d asked, only slightly shaky and not nearly as snarky as he’d hoped, Raleigh’s face had instantly shuttered, gaze flicking away from Chuck in an obvious tell that he was hiding something. Chuck didn’t get to ask before the door was slamming open, Raleigh letting go of his hand and shooting out of his chair and away from him.
Chuck only had time to blink in confusion before his father was rushing in, all blistering fury and accusations as his gaze stayed pinned on Raleigh. The latter looked every bit the stubborn and fearless man Chuck knew him as, but he could see the way he slightly pressed into the wall a little more with every step his dad took from his vantage point, and that was beyond wrong in his head.
He didn’t get to try and speak up though, Mako rushing into the room and quickly sliding between Raleigh and Herc, her glare fierce as she kept her hands out in front of her. She was smaller than both of the men by far but with the way she was standing Chuck knew she’d lay his dad out on his ass if he took one step closer.
His dad had frozen but his gaze hadn’t left Raleigh, still spitting curses and threats that Chuck never thought he’d hear again after his Uncle Scott had got boot from the program. Raleigh’s jaw was clenched but he didn’t say anything to refute any of what was said, merely averting his eyes and ducking his head slightly as he took every word.
Chuck decided he’d had enough of it, suddenly angry beyond belief at his father, and it feels like the old anger he carried around for years but it also feels brand new.
“What the fuck is going on?!” Raleigh tenses but doesn’t look at him, Mako jumping a little and turning wide eyes on him while Herc freezes for a whole other reason. His eyes are wide, almost unseeing as he slowly turns toward him.
There’s a whole lot of emotions there. Disbelief and devastation being the main ones he can see. But Chuck is still so angry and can’t seem to care much.
Angry that his dad wasn’t right there when he woke up. Angry that the second he was here, it was to blame Raleigh for something that absolutely was not his fault. Angry that Raleigh refuses to look at him and keeps inching further and further away because of his father. And it all kind of coalesces into a familiar thing that he only semi wishes would go away so he could be happy to see his dad again.
Herc doesn’t say anything for a long moment, still staring as if Chuck is about to drop off the face of the Earth if he so much as blinks. It gets kinda awkward before he’s moving, toward him this time and with nothing more that relief and unbidden joy.
He wants to be a dick and reject the oncoming hug but he needs this just as much as his dad does, accepts the contact and sighs into it when the anger dissipates for the moment to leave him with the relief of having his dad here.
He can feel the shoulder under his chin hitch slightly, shuddering breaths muffled by his own and a steady wetness spreading along his sleeve. It’s kinda gross and uncomfortable seeing his dad be this vulnerable but he feels like he kind of owes it to the man, maybe even relishes in knowing that he really does care as much as he always said he did but never cared to show.
He breathes out a slow breath, cracking his eyes open once he realises he closed them at some point. Raleigh and Mako are no longer there and while usually he’d pass it off as them wanting to give him privacy, what he just witnessed tells him there’s a lot more here he doesn’t know about.
He has the decency to at least give his old man a second to collect himself, only settling back when the other pulls back and wipes at his face roughly. Chuck feels the urge to strip his shirt off but the tightness down his side makes him decide he isn’t quite ready to see the state his body is now in.
