Ficlet: Miserable - Riptide

[katikat]

Title: Miserable
Author: katikat
Fandom: Riptide
Genre: slash (Cody/Nick)
Characters: Murray, Cody
Spoilers for: Double Your Pleasure
Words: ~550
Summary: I don’t want to see either of you miserable...
Beta: yami_tai *smooch*


Murray is on the deck, buried elbow deep in Roboz's gutted torso trying to find the glitch that makes the little bugger run in circles instead of straight lines, when he hears the shuffling and the quiet thump-thump-thumping on the pier. Straining his neck to see over the railing, his eyes open wide behind his thick glasses.

"Cody!" Murray exclaims, jumping to his feet and almost throwing Roboz overboard, but catching the little orange robot before it can topple into the sea.

Cody stops by the boat, looking a bit pale and haggard but smiling up at his friend. "Hey, Murray!"

Setting Roboz back down, Murray rubs his palms against the seat of his baggy jeans. "Hey, what are you doing here? Did they let you out of the hospital already? Why didn't you call? We would've picked you up!"

Smiling, Cody leans on the cane and waves his hand. "Yes, they let me out this morning. And I didn't call because I went to visit Marcy first." He shrugs a little sheepishly. "I wanted to see how she is."

"Oh." Murray falters for a moment, but he pulls himself quickly together again, rushing to the steps. "Are you coming in? Should I help you onboard?"

"Is Nick home?" Cody asks.

Something in his voice stops Murray short and makes him look closely at his friend. "No, he's with the Mimi. He said he needed to do some repairs..." He falls silent.

Cody shuffles his feet for a moment, nodding. "Okay, okay. I will... go over there then. I'll see you later."

Seeing Cody turn to go, Murray calls out. "Cody!" When the blond man looks back, Murray adds softly: "Are you... will you talk with Nick? About, you know, what happened? With Marcy. And about other things?"

Cody turns around, his face unreadable. "Yes. I guess we do need to talk about it, about everything that happened."

Nodding, Murray rests against the railing, grabbing it tightly with his hands, and leans closer to Cody. He looks at his friend, his eyes imploring. "Cody, you..." He takes a deep breath and his next words take Cody completely by surprise. "You fucked up pretty bad there. Not just with Marcy. The way you treated Nick, the things you told him..." Murray shakes his head and when he continues, his voice is still soft but there's underlying steel there, hard and unforgiving. "You hurt him pretty bad. Real bad. I don't know what you expect to happen now, if you want to go back to Nick's bed or stick with Marcy. But clear your head first and make damn sure that the decision you make is the right one for you, no matter what." His voice softens even more. "Either be Nick's lover or just his friend but don't treat him like dirt just because you can't decide what you want from life. I don’t want to see either of you miserable."

For a moment, it looks like Cody will say something, he even opens his mouth to... argue? To defend himself? But in the end, he stays silent. He nods once, curtly and starts shuffling slowly down the pier the way he came.

Murray sighs softly, hanging his head, and feels sorry for both of his unhappy friends.

The End

Comments

[seraphina_snape]

Ouch, this fic hurts. And here I thought I was over Double Your Pleasure.

I ♥ Murray for standing up for Nick and telling Cody to figure it out before he makes it worse. ♥♥♥

~ sera

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for your kind words :) I really didn't like the way Cody behaved in that episode and I think that if he didn't apologize, Murray would have called him up on it :)

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

Whoa. Steel-spined Murray! And for the record, Sera, I don't think it's possible to get over Double Your Pleasure.

Good job!

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you like the ficcie. I think that Cody really needed for someone to knock some sense into him :(

[oddmonster.livejournal.com]

I think we all needed someone to administer a slap round the back of Cody's head for that ep. :)

[tinx_r]

Oh Wow! Thanks kati!

Go Murray. Poor Nick! What a great story. What a great place to take the ep.

Thanks so much for posting this, babe.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

You're welcome :) And I like to see Murray as a strong character in himself, not just the geek with the robot. I think that he would stand up for either of them, Cody or Nick :)

[catyah.livejournal.com]

OMG, I love this, as painful as it is!

And I love *this* Murray. We never got to see enough of this version on the show, so reading a fic like this is a real treat, in an *ooh, ouchie* kind of way.

:: hugs you ::

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! Strong and capable Murray is my favorite one. Him being geeky is fun but I think that the writers overdo it sometimes on the show :(

[creedcascade.livejournal.com]

Poor Nicky! And way to stand up for him Boz!

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you! I like to see Murray with some spine! *nods*