Title: Dual Recoveries
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Carl Hickman/Louis Daniel
Fandom: Crossing Lines
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 469
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Carl Hickman or Louis Daniel, unfortunately, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

Carl looked around Louis' flat with a smile; he had liked this place from the first time he'd been here, and he was glad that Louis was out of the hospital and could convalesce at home. A hospital bed was no place for anyone to make a full recovery.

Louis wasn't the kind of man who would recover in a hospital, anyway. He needed more freedom than he could get there, and fortunately, his doctors knew that.

Carl was just thankful that they had firmly said it wasn't a good idea for Louis to be on his own; he knew that the other man had wanted to argue with that diagnosis, but Carl hadn't let him. He had merely told those doctors that he would be staying with Louis.

He intended to stay here indefinitely.

Going back to his trailer in the Hague at the carnival no longer seemed like an option for him; it wasn't a place he wanted to be. It was too far away from Louis, even though the other man had a flat in that city. It was too .... well, lonely.

That trailer was part of another life, a life he hadn't really wanted to lead. Now that he had a second chance with Louis, he wanted to put all of that behind him, even though he knew that this new life they would be starting wouldn't come without complications.

He was going to have to find another way to assuage the pain in his hand. He couldn't keep using the medication that he was on now; it took care of the pain, but it also left his thinking muddled and cloudy. He didn't want to deal with that.

He and Louis both had a lot of recovering to do; Carl thought with a wry smile. But this was the place for them both to do it -- a place that was free of all the encumbrances of their respective pasts, a place where they could get a fresh start.

He would overcome his problems. He had to.

If he couldn't, then he wasn't worthy of being with Louis -- and he wanted to be. He'd never wanted anything so badly in his life. Louis deserved someone who he could be proud of; someone who would stand by his side as his equal. Carl wanted desperately to be that person.

He would do everything he could to ensure that was the case. He was going to prove himself to Louis, prove that he was worthy to be with him.

While Louis was recovering from all that he'd been through, Carl would be going through his own recovery right alongside him. Those dual recoveries would bring them closer together; at least, that was what he hoped for. Somehow, he would make that hope a reality.

***