FATHERS AND SONS by Alison

Email:  xalison@excite.com
Category:  Response to challenge
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc
Archive:   Wherever you like!
Summary:   This is in response to the July Topica challenge
featuring a minor character from the Lone Gunmen series.
Spoilers:  Diagnosis Jimmy, Pilot episode

NOTE at end



Tom Dimsdale hesitated outside the door of his father's 
hospital room.  He had been pacing up and down the 
corridor for the last ten minutes, getting as far as putting 
his hand on the door handle before the memory of his 
father's last words to him surfaced in his mind.  
"Go away!  Just go away!"

... and yet ... he's my father, for god's sake!   I'm his only 
on ... his only relative, I'm responsible for him.  Just go 
in there, Tom, say whatever you have to say to get round 
him.  He needs you, in spite of what he says.  

He took another deep breath and headed for the door, 
only to be brought up short when the door opened in 
his face.It was the tall, knockout brunette he'd seen 
talking to the other guy sharing his father's room, the 
big blond idiot. He'd wondered at the time what she 
saw in him.

"Coming in?" Her voice was low and husky .

Tom hesitated.  "Um  ...".  She looked down her nose 
at him with a slight smirk.  "It's all right, I'm just leaving."  
She sauntered off down the corridor with a knowing 
waggle of her hips.

Tom tore his eyes away from her retreating back view 
and looked back towards his father's bed.  His father 
was still asleep, deeply sedated after the surgery.  
"Well, if he's asleep he can't be bawling me out ... " 
He walked to the foot of the bed and looked down at the 
sleeping man.  He looked smaller, vulnerable, crumpled
and somehow pathetic.  

"He's your father, isn't he?"

Tom startled and looked across at the other bed.  He
hadn't noticed that the other patient also had a visitor.  
The young man in the bed was, like his father, also fast
asleep, and next to him sat an older man of about
Tom's own age.
 
Tom shrugged, annoyed.  "What's it to you?"

The guy got up and strolled across to stand by the bed,
his hands in his pockets.  "Sorry, I guess it's none of my 
business really ... but our friend, Yves, you saw her just now,
she told us what happened last time you were here.  
And Jimmy there, he was apparently talking to your dad a 
lot before their surgery.  He's kind of a soft-hearted kid 
and it got to him about your dad yelling at you like that. 
Yves told us all about it."

Tom turned, resentful, and looked at the guy closely for 
the first time.  He was about Tom's own age or maybe a 
little older, unremarkable looking at first in his nondescript 
suit and tie, until you noticed his astonishingly expressive, 
gentle eyes.  Tom felt his resentment melt away.  Maybe 
the guy really did want to help.  Still it went against the 
grain to talk about family matters to a complete stranger.

But the bearded guy must have been a mind reader.  "My 
own father didn't talk to me at all for ten years. And the first 
time I saw him after that, he hit me in the face."

Tom looked at him in disbelief but he was quite serious.
"You're kidding."

"Nope."  The other guy hesitated a little, staring at the
floor as if unsure whether to confide in Tom.  After a 
pause he went on.

"He thought I'd let him down ... I didn't come up to 
the standard he expected of his son.  I gave up a good 
job, good prospects, a good career, to do what *I* thought 
was important.  He couldn't understand that.  It was like 
he thought I'd betrayed him."

Tom laughed bitterly.  "Sounds familiar."  He looked 
sideways at the other man, who had now picked up his 
father's notes and was flicking through them.  
"So what happened then?"

The bearded guy shrugged.  "Well, I didn't hit him back 
if that's what you mean ..... to cut a long story short, we
worked things out, we're talking again now, and he 
understands what I'm doing and accepts me for what 
I am."

Tom shook his head.  "I can't see that happening with 
my dad.  He hates ... despises what I do."

"Maybe so .. but he doesn't hate *you*.  I realised that 
about my father, it was because he cared so much, 
wanted so much for me, it hit him hard when I didn't 
want to do exactly what he expected.  

"He wanted to be proud of me ... and it was like I'd 
rejected him.  It was like he'd been waiting ten years 
to hit me in the mouth, like payback for rejecting him."

Tom sighed.  "My dad's disowned me ... he told me 
to get out and not come back.  What can I do about it?  
How did you work it out with your dad?"

"Well, it was a kind of unique situation ... we got into 
a situation where we both nearly got killed.  After that 
I think he realised .. we both realised how much time 
we'd wasted for no reason.  Ten years ... just because 
we were both too proud to make the first move."

Tom was silent, and the man went on.  "Did you hear 
what happened here yesterday?  That rogue doctor, 
Belucci, who's been murdering patients in several 
other hospitals, they found he was working here.  
He nearly killed Jimmy last night.  It could easily have 
been your father instead.  When your father first came 
round after surgery last night, he asked where Jimmy 
was ... they had to tell him what had happened.

"So your father must be feeling pretty vulnerable right 
now....Maybe he'll realise that he does need you.  
From what Jimmy said to him, I think he realises that 
now.  I think if you give him another chance, he'll be 
more .... approachable."

"Why, what did your friend say?"

"I get the impression Jimmy gave him a piece of his mind ...
he may not be too bright but his instincts are usually pretty
good."

Tom hesitated again.  The bearded guy smiled sadly.
"What can he say to you that he hasn't already said?
What have you got to lose? You'll never have another
chance like this."

Tom took a deep breath.  "Put that way, it's worth a try."

Just then his father stirred and mumbled, and his hand
twitched on the covers.  Tom looked at the other man 
almost in panic.  "Hey ......"

But the other guy was half way out the door.  "Good luck"
was the last thing Tom heard.

Outside, Byers leaned against the wall and wondered, 
sent up a prayer to whoever or whatever might be listening 
for what was goling on behind that closed door.  Hoped that
for one father and son at least, there would be a happy
ending.


END



Note;  I know I've taken some liberties with the time line here.
In the episode, there isn't time for this scene. But I think the
time line is wrong.  Think about it.  Dimsdale and Jimmy are
being prepped for surgery at the same time, then immediately
after there's Bellucci's attempt to kill Jimmy.  When Jimmy wakes
up, Dimsdale is already dressed and ready to leave hospital.
After a hip replacement?  I don't think so!  The only way it would
work is if Jimmy was out of it for about 48 hours .. which I 
suppose is possible because we don't know exaclty what
was in the stuff that Belucci injected him with