Work Text:
Dakota had gotten used to being fine with a lot of things, over the years of working with Cavendish, who managed to get himself killed in so many different and intricate ways, it would take a lot to surprise him. It had gotten to the point where his partner’s death didn’t have any effect on him anymore, and that scared him.
Then, when Milo entered his life, he made Cavendish’s bad luck look like nothing, Murphy’s law was hard to get used to at first, but the kid could always seemingly predict whatever was going to happen, so most of the time, he ended up with a few injuries, but nothing fatal. He had asked Milo how he managed to deal with it every day, and the young boy smiled brightly, explaining how it was sort of like living with any other disease, you just had to adjust. It had happened so much, that it was just second nature for him, and Dakota believed that, and had just stopped questioning it.
Why did that have to change.
He saw it happen himself, too. Dakota had really believed he had gone numb to seeing things like that happen after all of the things he had gone through with Cavendish, but he was wrong. One moment, Milo was sending him a bright smile and greeting, as he was passing over the road, the next, Dakota stood there, staring at the car that came out of nowhere.
The road was covered with glass from the shattered windshield, and a small pool of blood had begun forming underneath Milo. Whoever hit him is being pulled out of the car by an onlooker, there was a lot of screaming, but Dakota’s ears were ringing from the scream he had let out, just too late to warn the poor kid of his demise. His throat tightened as he stared at the blood, he couldn’t even bring himself to look at Milo, the only part of him he had seen was his arm, before he had been swarmed by people, the same feeling from when he had seen Cavendish die for the first time resurfaced.
Milo’s backpack had flown a few feet away, and it’s contents were spilling onto the road, the construction tape on the front had been decorated with a crimson splatter. Dakota felt sick, but he wasn’t even in control of his own body anymore, it felt as if he was on autopilot. Behind him, he could hear more screaming, and a distant ambulance. His fingers tightened around the straps of the backpack as he picked it up with shaking hands. “No… no” the panic he thought he’d never feel again returned and hit him like a sledgehammer as he finally seemed to realize what had happened “no… not… not the kid… nonono” he held the backpack close to his chest.
He looked back, and for the first time, he got a proper glimpse of Milo, who was lying in an unnatural position, his face wasn’t visible to Dakota, but he didn’t think he could bear seeing the kid’s expression anyways. If he had just been there in time, he could have stopped it.
In time… Time…
Before he knew what he should do, he had begun walking and soon found himself in the time machine, behind the wheel, key already in the engine, and his hand hovering over it. Cavendish was still getting dinner after their mission, they were supposed to get takeout, but the other time traveler had completely left Dakota’s mind. He took a deep breath, a bright blue portal opened in front of the car and he shot himself into the timestream with little idea of what he was supposed to say to the past Dakota when he finally got there.
“I will go acquire our dinner, then!” Past-Cavendish exclaimed as Dakota exited the car with the backpack in his hands, waiting for him to enter the restaurant before getting the attention of the past Dakota, who let out a sigh and walked over “really? What the hell did he do this time?” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, preparing to hear about some extreme death, where a truck crashed into the little Chinese restaurant or something in those lines.
Dakota tried to speak, but his voice didn’t seem to work, for the first time in a while, and he raised the backpack so the past Dakota could see what had happened for himself. “What are you doing with the kid’s-“ he trailed off, when he spotted the big splatter of blood across the construction tape, and his expression turned to horror. He stared at the backpack in disbelief “no…” he mumbled “not… Not him. Please don’t tell me...” Past Dakota pleaded, as if it would make it all a cruel joke, and would make the other Dakota and the backpack go away. “Drunk driver” Dakota managed to force out, making the past Dakota let out a deep, troubled sigh. He handed past Dakota the backpack and the ticket to the island “sorry, I have to go, send me a postcard” he said and began running before past Dakota could even ask what he was supposed to do with the backpack.
He ran. For the first time in a while, he ran as fast as he could and didn’t stop, no matter how tired his body felt, until he stood at the same corner he had turned around when he had first spotted Milo and called out to him. There he was again, standing at the same point where he had crossed over before, and he noticed Dakota, the same little smile appeared on his face again “Hello Dakota!” He called cheerfully, just like he had done once before.
He didn’t answer him, he didn’t have time to do so, as he heard the car turning the corner like it had done before. The time traveler began running again, out into the street as the screeching from the car approached him quickly, he flung himself at a very confused and surprised Milo, managing to hug him tight to his chest and turning so he landed on his back on the sidewalk, just in time for the car to screech and turn too quickly, making it crash into a parked car.
After a little while of lying there, just trying to figure out what had just happened, Milo spoke up “woah! I didn’t see that one coming” he sounded a little out of it, probably having realized what would have happened, what he didn’t know Dakota had already seen once. “Thank you, Dakota…” he managed to sit up, and shakily let go of the kid he’d just managed to save, and they both got up “yeah, no problem, kiddo” he wheezed, completely out of breath from all the running. “If you hadn’t been there, that car would’ve…” Milo trailed off as he looked at the car, where the driver was being pulled out, he seemed unusually out of it, and Dakota wrapped the young boy into a hug, not knowing what else to do. He had hugged him back, and they stood there for a bit, Dakota rubbing calming circles onto the kid’s back with his hand.
His backpack had come off when Dakota tackled him, but it was thankfully still very much intact. As Milo got out of the hug again, Dakota could see he had been crying slightly, which he could completely understand. “I just hope the driver is ok…” Milo said in a worried tone, and Dakota admired the child’s empathy for other people “I’m sure they’ll be ok, kiddo.” He couldn’t care less if the driver was ok, they had nearly caused the death of an innocent kid, but he didn’t communicate this in any way. The young boy gave him a little smile, and Dakota was so glad he had gone back to save that smile.
“Say kiddo, how about we give you a lift home? Cav is getting food just around the corner, I’ll let you have some of mine” Dakota offered, beginning to feel the adrenaline wear off, and his hunger return slightly. “I’d love that!” Milo said enthusiastically, and the two crossed over the road once again to find Cavendish.