I need you so much closer
7.8k || ao3
Carlos Reyes was loved.
Yes, by TK, but not only by him.
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Or, a 4x04 coda in which we get to hear from everyone else and fill in some missing scenes.
This was not supposed to be this long, but it’s done! All the love to @moviegeek03 and @justaswampdemon as always for helping from start to finish (and making sure it actually got finished).Â
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Gabriel Reyes thought he knew fear.Â
He had been a Texas Ranger for most of his life. He had been in law enforcement even longer than that. He had seen the worst of the worst; had stared down hardened criminals that would end his life just as soon as blink.Â
He thought the peak of fear had been finding out that his son’s home had burned down while he was inside. The knowledge of exactly how close he had come to losing his only child had nearly been enough to topple him, and the fact that he had been at least partially responsible didn’t help. There was the day-to-day fear of his son’s job (because of course he had followed him into the same line of work), the occasional instances of bad things happening, and feeling that rush of fear. But this? Looking down at his son’s still body as his fiancĂ© worked to keep his heart beating? Seeing his son lying there and knowing that the only thing keeping the blood flowing through his veins was the force of a distraught TK desperately pumping it through his heart? This was the deepest and most primal fear he had ever felt.Â
Somewhere deep inside he had known that this was a possibility. From the moment TK had showed up at their door with that fear in his eyes the thought had been whispering in the back of his mind. But being here and seeing it, knowing that they had been not even fifty feet from Carlos that morning; that his son had been hurt and in trouble and he had been so close but had done nothing, made it all so much more real.Â
He didn’t even need to ask TK for his professional opinion of the situation, he knew how bad it was. He also knew that if they had been just a few minutes sooner Carlos could have been fine. Just as much as he knew if they had been just a few seconds later any hope they did have (tenuous as it may be) would have expired, right along with his son. It was a cruel trick on the part of the universe; to bring them here so close to saving him but just maybe a little bit too far.Â
[continue reading on ao3]














