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pinnithin-writes · 3 years

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The Weight of Living

When the rift in space was sealed and the Resonance Cascade had ended, one glaring problem remained: they were homeless. Not in the “dire financial straits” way so much as the “our living quarters were destroyed by an interdimensional anomaly” way. It was midnight when they left the Chuck E. Cheese, and they had nowhere to go.

Hi I wrote this to cope. Sometimes you just gotta have a nervous breakdown in a hotel room with the love of your life. 5285 words.

It was never really discussed that Gordon would go with Tommy. It just sort of happened. Bubby and Dr. Coomer had dispersed to figure out their own way, and Tommy’s father had vanished to deal with some vast, cosmic problem. Once they were alone in the parking lot, Gordon had grabbed Tommy by his lapels and kissed him, searing him to his core like a solar flare.

They drove. Las Cruces was sleepy and dim; the only businesses open in the middle of the night were 24 hour diners and the Walmart Supercenter. They stopped to venture into that liminal space, numbly picking up packets of clean underwear and cheap t-shirts and armfuls of snacks while the employees they passed quietly stocked shelves. It felt surreal, dreamlike after the chaos and gunfire of the past week. Tommy found himself on edge despite the lack of danger as they wandered the aisles, bathed under the incandescent light.

Tommy paid. Gordon’s wallet had been destroyed along with his locker.

Gordon dozed with his head against the window pane, drifting in and out of consciousness, mumbling half-baked observations as he fought to stay awake. Stuff about the night sky and funny billboards they passed, his voice low and soft in his exhaustion. “There’s a La Quinta over there,” he murmured sleepily, and Tommy pulled in.

A double room was $55 a night. They must’ve looked awful, standing at the reception desk in their bloodstained clothes, plastic grocery bags in hand, one man half dead with exhaustion and the other a rubber band about to snap. The receptionist made the transaction without comment, smiling mildly as they handed over the envelope with their keycards.

“Down the hall to your left,” they said, and Tommy steered Gordon in the right direction.

Perhaps this was one of those situations that should have warranted some nervousness on Tommy’s part. He and Gordon, alone together in a hotel room. Their relationship didn’t exactly fall into any category Tommy would have previously considered: they were strangers not even a week ago, but living through the worst experience of their respective lives together had drawn them to certain unnameable proximity. He felt a twinge of loss as he swiped the key card and unlocked the door. This should have thrilled him. In another life, they would have been able to do this like real people - flirt in passing in the break room and take each other out to dinner and maybe fool around later after a bottle of wine.

Now they were both just tired.

The room was clean, decorated with that bland tackiness that marked a place as temporary. They deposited their grocery bags on the desk and Gordon drifted to the bathroom while Tommy stocked their perishables in the mini fridge. He heard the water cut on.

Keeping himself busy, he took out the phone charger he’d bought and removed it from the packaging, casting around a moment for Gordon’s phone before remembering it was gone along with his wallet. He plugged his own cell in instead, standing in that little aisle between the beds where the nightstand was. Connected his phone to the hotel wifi. That’s another thing Gordon would need, he thought as he mindlessly opened messages and didn’t answer them. A phone and a wallet and an apartment and a ring of keys to call his own and a bed and a good night’s sleep and a job he didn’t hate and -

He locked his phone. At least right now he was getting a shower. Gordon deserved a lot of things - a shower was a decent start.

Tommy removed his shoes, which were all but ruined. Undid his tie and shucked off his lab coat, folding them neatly out of habit even though he immediately crossed the room to pitch them in the trash. His ears were ringing with a staticky fuzz in the calm silence, like they were expecting a flash grenade or the wail of a monster that would never come.

It was over. It was over.

The water cut off, and after some shuffling the bathroom door opened, letting out an exhale of steam. Gordon emerged, looking more human than Tommy had ever seen him.

He didn’t know why he felt the need to avert his eyes. It wasn’t like he was naked as he stood there in his one dollar pair of Hanes and his three dollar souvenir shirt and his gentle smile that couldn’t possibly have a price. Hair soft and clean, steadily drying in the open air, falling freely around his shoulders. The HEV suit had made Gordon’s silhouette hard around the edges, solid and unyielding, but now his shoulders were sloped in a relaxed set of parenthesis.

Soft and achingly mortal. How he survived all this was a miracle. Tommy only stared at him a little like that.

Gordon caught his gaze and raised his eyebrows ever so slightly. “What?”

Tommy faltered. “Here’s - I - you can use my phone if you need to make any calls,” he said, nodding to where the device sat on the table. “I left it unlocked.”

He quickly hurried past him to the bathroom, snatching the grocery bag with his clothes in it on the way.

---

He was never looking at showers the same way ever again.

Tommy found himself running his fingers through his hair over and over afterward as he stood in front of the mirror. Clean, clean, finally clean. A quick pass over his jaw and he felt stubble. Too bad he forgot to pick up a razor.

He didn’t know wearing clean clothes could feel so much like putting on new skin, how much he took that luxury for granted before the events of the past week. He ripped the tag out of the shirt collar, flicked it in the trash, and pulled it over his head. Once he’d slipped on a pair of sweatpants - glorious, comfortable - he left the bathroom.

Bare feet on carpet felt good, too, even though it was that questionable, threadbare hotel carpet. There was just this inherent sensation of being able to breathe, finally, after peeling off the layers of blood and sweat and dirt that the Resonance Cascade had coated them with. The lights were all out except for the lamp on the nightstand. Tommy was ready to collapse into bed.

He stopped short when he saw Gordon, still awake at the edge of the bed he’d picked, the one closest to the window. His legs were tucked up criss-crossed and he was staring at his hands, loosely interlaced in his lap. He looked up at Tommy’s approach and his breath audibly caught.

No one had ever looked at Tommy like that before. Like he was some kind of unexpected gift.

Gordon finally found his voice. “That shirt looks good on you.”

Tommy glanced down, caught the Chuck E Cheese logo with its mascot printed on its surface, and snorted out a laugh. “Thanks,” he said. “Yours is good, too.”

“Yeah?” Gordon asked, smiling despite his exhaustion. He was wearing a shirt with chili peppers - one green and one red - and the text Go Both Ways stamped across the front. “I thought it was befitting.”

Chuckling, Tommy sat at the edge of the other bed, and his legs stretched long enough to almost bridge the gap between the two. He checked the clock. It was 01:15.

“You’re - I thought you’d be asleep already,” he admitted.

Gordon shook his head, still openly staring. “Couldn’t,” was all he said.

He didn’t have to elaborate. The safety in numbers instinct had ingrained upon them so rapidly in Black Mesa that it was difficult to imagine sleeping without someone taking watch. Even in this dingy hotel room, miles away from what used to be the facility, neither of them felt completely safe. Probably wouldn’t for a while.

“I’ll be right here, Mr. Freeman,” Tommy told Gordon, indicating his side of the room.

Gordon nodded, his smile fragile. “Okay.”

“It’s over,” he said, firmly, in as much an attempt to convince himself as it was for Gordon’s sake.

He nodded again. “Yeah.”

They sat there like that, the distance yawning between them, waiting for the other to speak. There was so much to be said, and hurtling through hell they had never been able to find the time or space to say it. Now, it was like the weight of their words would shatter them if they voiced them aloud. The space between the set of beds may as well have been the ocean.

Tommy broke the silence. “Do you wanna-”

“Yeah.”

And then Gordon Freeman was climbing into bed with him.

Tommy felt a brief swoop of panic in his stomach at the willingness with which the other man did so. It shouldn’t have felt so natural, to scoot aside and make room for him, to settle against the pillows together, Gordon on the right side and Tommy on the left. But they’d done this before, hadn’t they? Resting with their backs to a wall so they couldn’t be crept up upon, shoulder to shoulder, bone tired, weapon in hand. Rather, weapon as hand.

A hotel double in a La Quinta was not quite the same thing, but Tommy couldn’t imagine sleeping alone right now, and he suspected Gordon felt the same way. He’d clambered in close but not too close, keeping to his side of the bed so Tommy could have his space. Something welled up in his chest as he watched Gordon situate himself, pulling the covers back with careful hands, and he took a moment to examine how he felt.

This wasn’t a thrill of proximity, and his pulse didn’t race rabbitlike under his skin at the thought of Gordon sleeping with him. It was quieter than that. Gentler. An affection that crept up on him slow like a sunbeam across a hardwood floor. Gordon, here beside him, wonderfully human as he was. Just as he had been the entire week, and as Tommy hoped he would be for weeks to come. The thought of them folding into sleep together was a comfort. It felt… right.

It felt like home.

Once Gordon had set his glasses on the bedside table, he gave Tommy a weary smile. “Goodnight, Tommy.”

“Goodnight.”

He reached for the light switch, but his hand hesitated midair. Several seconds of stillness passed where Tommy watched him carefully.

Then the muscles of Gordon’s throat worked delicately as he found his voice. The words came out unstable. “Shit... I really can’t do this, huh?”

Tommy understood all at once what the problem was. The last time the room had cut to black, foreign hands held him fast and a blade cleaved through his arm. Sure, his father had given the limb back to him, but the fear the incident birthed had crawled inside him and settled there, stuck tight to his lungs.

Tommy chose his words carefully. “You can um, you can leave it on,” he said. “If you want. It won’t bother me.”

Gordon balled his hand into a shaking fist and let it drop to his side. The laugh he let out was soured. “I shouldn’t have to. I sh - I should be able to turn the fucking lights off, man.”

It didn’t matter what he should have been able to do; the fact remained that he couldn’t, and probably wouldn’t for a long while. Tommy didn’t know how to tell him that without sounding like some detached, emotionless asshole, so he remained silent. Gordon kept his eyes on the duvet. His hand was still in a fist.

“This week fucking took everything from me,” he said, so quiet he was almost inaudible.

“It - yeah,” Tommy agreed softly. “It was pretty fucked up.”

Another humorless laugh hissed out of him. “It was so fucked up,” he nodded, his words teetering on the precipice of something. “God, Tommy, it was so fucking fucked up. Why did we-“ half a sob choked out of him. “Why did it have to be us?”

“Mr. Freeman...”

“We went through all that bullshit and everyone at Black Mesa still died . We didn’t save a single fucking person, and now I can’t even - I can’t - I c - c-“

Gordon pressed the heel of his hand so hard against his teeth Tommy worried he was going to draw blood. Tentatively, he reached out to touch his shoulder, light and questioning. Gordon leaned into it immediately as he fell to pieces, curling in against Tommy while short, gasping breaths ran through him.

As soon as he was certain the other man wanted to be held, Tommy slid both arms around Gordon and pulled him in tight.

Gordon was suffocating at the bottom of the ocean, finding himself face to face with everything he’d done all at once. Tommy held him close as sob after shuddering sob wrenched out of him. There were no words to make this better, to undo what had happened to them. He rested his chin on top of Gordon’s head and let him cry messily into his shirt.

The sound of his grief was awful. Something small broke inside Tommy upon hearing it. He threaded an idle hand in his hair, running through the dampened locks over and over, a repetition to soothe himself and Gordon in equal measure. He smelled like salt and cheap hotel soap, and his sobs rolled through him like tidal waves.

This hurt. This was good and it hurt. This was good for him.

Gordon fell asleep like that, against Tommy’s chest, completely worn out. There was a damp spot of tears and drool on Tommy’s shirt, which he didn’t mind, whisking it away with a small wave of his free hand. He kept his other hand buried in his hair, holding him close until his eyes drifted shut, too.

He left the light on.

---

Gordon slept for eighteen hours.

Tommy slept for ten, which was still a lot considering his usual sleeping habits. When he awoke with Gordon still curled up against him, one heavy arm slung around his waist, he nearly forgot how to breathe. His face was soft and yielding, untroubled by gunfire and alien teeth as he slumbered. Tommy took a moment just to stare at him like that, small and quiet and temporal. He was beautiful.

How could someone so soft and lovely endure so much? How could he keep that heart full of love through all that pain? Whoever Gordon Freeman had been at the start of this disaster, he certainly wasn’t the same person now, even as he slept so deep and gentle into the crook of Tommy’s shoulder. Tears welled suddenly in his eyes and he brushed them away with haste.

It was a perversion of humanity, a death of the self. What an injustice.

He eventually extricated himself from the warm tangle of limbs under the covers, leaving Gordon to doze into the hotel pillow without much disturbance. He took care of all those things that humans needed to take care of upon awakening - used the bathroom, washed his face, brushed his teeth. Normal. This was what normal was. As he got dressed, he avoided looking at his reflection in the mirror.

Tommy busied himself until Gordon awoke. He took out the trash in the wastebin - it reeked from their discarded clothing - and walked it to the dumpster out back. He unloaded the rest of their purchases from the previous night, sorting and organizing them on the polished wooden desk. Pairs of socks, a cheap wristwatch, a packet of hair ties. His and Gordon’s. Gordon’s and his. His hand paused over an empty picture frame he had watched Gordon grab off the Walmart shelf on impulse.

The smiling, watermarked child that stood in as a placeholder for a real photo was identical to the one Gordon had kept in his old locker. Tommy traced his finger along the edge of the frame and smiled. He set it on the desk next to his wallet.

He paced. Showered again. Thought about turning on the TV and decided against it. He didn’t want the noise to wake his companion.

He was sitting against the foot of the bed and scrolling through apartment listings on his phone when a muffled noise signaled Gordon waking. Tommy set his phone down and watched the other man shift and yawn, blinking sleepily as he raised his head to look around. There was a brief flicker of confusion in his eyes before they landed on Tommy, and his expression relaxed.

“Mornin,’” he mumbled. His voice was low and hoarse from days’ worth of shouting, coming out of him in a lovely purr.

Affection spread slow and warm in Tommy’s chest. “It’s seven o’clock in the evening,” he informed him.

Gordon scratched his head, hair tousled and wonderfully messy. “How long was I out?” he asked.

Tommy told him.

“Fuck,” he said. “Alright.” He raised his arms overhead in a massive stretch. “Gotta… get back on a routine, huh?”

Tommy liked Gordon like this. Muted and calm, not fully awake, words slow to rise to his mouth. “We’ll figure it out,” he assured him.

They had time, here. In this temporary home they’d made for themselves.

Gordon’s gaze stuck on Tommy for a while longer until he registered the distance away he sat, the glow of the lamp on the bedside table, still alight from the previous night. His breath hitched suddenly in his throat. “Oh, shit,” he uttered, dropping his eyes self-consciously to the comforter. “Tommy, I’m sorry. I like - I just kinda fell apart there.”

“I’m - I think you had every right to, Mr. Freeman,” Tommy intoned quietly. “You went through a lot.”

“So did you, man,” Gordon replied immediately, dark eyes snapping back up to meet his. “So did you. Thank you for being there for me.”

Tommy didn’t acknowledge his answer fully. He spun his phone around in a circle with his index finger and said nothing. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Gordon with the heaviness that now settled in the pit of his stomach. He did. He just didn’t know how to articulate it, how to take it out and examine it under the light and untangle it thread by painful thread. It was safest, he felt, to leave it untouched for the time being.

“Anyway I’m starving,” Gordon said finally, sensing Tommy’s discomfort and changing the subject appropriately. “You wanna like, order takeout or something?”

He nodded. Takeout sounded good.

The following hours passed, in which Tommy and Gordon slowly remembered how to be human. They remembered the taste of cheap noodles out of styrofoam containers. They remembered the dull roar of cars on the distant highway. They remembered laughter, passing Tommy’s phone back and forth to share funny videos.

They didn’t go anywhere – there was little to do in Las Cruces in the middle of the night, and they were both a little fragile to drive to the nearest city with its loud noises and flashing lights. Instead, they tightroped between close and casual in the quiet cocoon of the hotel room.

Some activities were perfectly safe. Mundane and natural. Watching old game show reruns, throwing out guesses and commentaries at the Wheel of Fortune contestants like it was a football game. It felt good, caring about something that had such little consequence.

Other things felt so desperately intimate Tommy thought he might drown. Working out the knots in one another’s shoulders, skin on scar-tallied skin, after carrying the collective weight of the world together. Tommy was struck by how impossible it seemed, that this soft, wordless love was their reward for what they endured.

It didn’t feel entirely real to him. He didn’t feel like he deserved it.

Morning began to dawn, thin and pale, behind the window. Tommy drew back the curtain and watched the distant desert bleed with gold. Behind him, he heard Gordon yawn.

“You should sleep,” Tommy suggested quietly.

When this was met with silence, he turned to look at Gordon, where he sat cross-legged on the bed that was still made. He had the hotel notepad balanced on one knee, glasses halfway down the bridge of his nose as he wrote something down. He raised his eyes to look at Tommy when he noticed him watching.

“Huh?” he asked.

“If you’re tired, you should sleep,” Tommy reiterated.

“Oh, no I’m-“ his sentence was split by another yawn. “I mean, I am. But I can-“ he flicked a look to the alarm clock on the bedside table. The face read 06:27. “I can stay up a few more hours. Maybe falling asleep at noon will get me closer to normal.”

Tommy guessed that Gordon would crash long before that, if his own lingering exhaustion was any indication, but he didn’t voice this aloud. Instead, he offered, “the breakfast buffet should be open,” and watched the other man’s expression brighten.

He volunteered to load down a few plates with food and bring them back to their room so they could eat with their privacy intact. Tommy made a note to remember what Gordon asked for - sausage and eggs, biscuits and gravy if they had any. Now that they no longer had to concern themselves with the immediacy of dying, Tommy wanted to memorize all of Gordon’s favorite things, learning them and tucking them away over time like he was supposed to. How he liked his coffee. If he even liked coffee at all.

There was time for this now. It was over.

---

When Tommy returned, paper plates in hand, he found Gordon sitting on the edge of the bed by the window and watching the news. The story was about an explosion in the New Mexico wilderness, out near Doña Ana County. He drew up beside him as the reporter mentioned something about the Black Mesa Research Facility.

Tommy didn’t expect the name to make him flinch, but it did.

“Hey,” Gordon said, reaching for the remote and ticking down the volume. “We’re in the news.”

Tommy averted his eyes from the screen in distaste. “I - Can we turn that off?” he began. “I don’t - I’m not…” he paused, resorted his words, and tried again. “Sorry. I don’t want to hear about it right now.”

“Really?” Gordon asked, but he complied, hitting the power button and killing the feed. “I thought maybe you’d want to know if there were any survivors.”

“There weren’t,” Tommy said flatly.

He wordlessly passed Gordon his breakfast plate before taking a seat beside him. The syrupy waffle he’d made for himself suddenly didn’t seem as appetizing as it did before, even as the pat of butter in the center melted and swirled hypnotically.

Gordon accepted his food, but didn’t pay attention to its contents as he fixed Tommy with a questioning gaze. “How do you know?”

He picked at the waffle with his fork, not meeting the other man’s stare. “Dad told me,” he muttered.

There was a long stretch of silence, in which Gordon worked through some thoughts, attempted to speak, and stopped to rework. The eggs and sausage he held remained untouched. Finally, he pulled in an unsteady breath and set the plate aside. “He told you how many people died,” he began, quietly, “but he didn’t… tell you anything about what was going on? So you could save them from dying?”

Tommy’s throat went suddenly tight. “I saved you,” was all he could say.

It was all that mattered to him. If he dwelled too long on all the people he failed to rescue in that week of nightmares, he’d wind up at the bottom of a pit he’d never crawl back out of.

“You did,” Gordon agreed. He was staring at Tommy very intently, dark eyes burning like smoke from a car fire. “You did, Tommy. And I’m - god, I’m so glad you did, but like…”

He slid off the bed suddenly, taking Tommy’s food without resistance and setting their plates side by side on the desk by the TV. Returning his attention to Tommy in earnest, he carefully took Tommy’s hands in his, boring into him with that dark burning stare while the other man kept his gaze down. Like this, with Tommy sitting on the hotel bed and Gordon standing before him, they were almost the same height.

Okay, they were doing this. They were having this talk.

“This hurt you, too,” Gordon said, and every word felt like a knife. “I don’t know what kind of fucked up game your dad was playing, but it hurt you, too. You should have had the option to leave.”

“I did,” Tommy admitted, barely audible. He studied the scarred fingers linked in his, unable to raise his eyes. “But you didn’t.”

Gordon’s grip tightened on Tommy’s hands as his words sunk in. His voice was edged with sorrow. “Tommy…”

“You didn’t have a choice and - and Bubby and Dr. Coomer didn’t and all the - every person who worked at Black Mesa didn’t get to just leave if they wanted to.” It wasn’t fair, didn’t make sense that Tommy of all people was saddled with the burden of choice and still decided to stay. An opportunity wasted on the likes of him. “I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I had to stay. I couldn’t just… leave you like that. E-Even if I didn’t know you very well.”

He dared a look at Gordon. His jaw was tight, brow darkened, anger lining the corners of his mouth, but it wasn’t directed at him. Outrage on his behalf, though Tommy didn’t feel his poor decision making was worth the sheer, burning heat of Gordon’s emotions. Gordon’s jaw worked silently, at a loss for words, still clinging tight to his hands.

“I’m sorry,” Tommy went on quietly. “I’m sorry it had to be you.”

Gordon swallowed angrily as his words returned to him. “Why the fuck are you apologizing to me?” he asked. “None of this is your fault. Especially not all the fucked up shit you had to go through.”

“Chose to go through-”

“Bullshit,” Gordon interrupted. “You didn’t choose anything. You were expected to pick between leaving people behind to die or putting yourself through hell, Tommy. That’s not a choice,” he said. “For you? That was never a choice.”

His words fell steadily out of his mouth and into Tommy’s lap, where he could examine them in detail and find them to be true. He felt his chest constrict, and suddenly Gordon’s hands in his were the only thing tethering him as his resolve crumbled.

Tommy didn’t sob outright. He didn’t weep. He broke apart quietly, hiccupping out shuddering gasps while his fingers shook. He leaned forward and buried his face in Gordon’s shoulder, strangled repetitions of it’s not fair, it’s not fair murmured into his shirt.

Gordon let him lean on him, strong and without judgment, freeing one of his hands to cradle the back of his head. “I know,” he whispered. “I know. It’s not your fault.”

Tommy hadn’t realized he had been blaming himself to begin with until he heard those words spoken with such conviction in his ear. And it wasn’t that he had been asking Gordon to forgive him, because he wasn’t even sure what he was apologizing for, but a part of him was stuck back at Black Mesa all the same, begging to come home.

It’s not fair. It’s not fair and it’s not your fault.

This was the absolution of a sin that was never committed. Tommy cried silently, heartbroken in his blamelessness. Gordon ran his fingers through his hair, sniffling softly as he cried, too, and they mourned together on the edge of the bed while their breakfast went cold.

---

They stayed at the hotel in Las Cruces for another week, using it as their home base while they took care of the necessary chores that came with rejoining the living. Trips to the bank to replace Gordon’s debit card. A few hours at the public library to use the computer lab. Gordon checked the news while Tommy browsed a shelf of paperback thrillers, still not ready to revisit what happened.

They tried new restaurants. They visited parks. They rediscovered the world and all its joys, and Tommy thought that maybe surviving the Resonance Cascade wasn’t always going to be a burden on his shoulders. While hand in hand with Gordon, laughing with him while he pointed out ground squirrels and gave them funny names, maybe the weight of living was worth it.

Eventually, they signed a lease after visiting the many apartment complexes Gordon had scribbled down on his notepad list. A quiet little place called Monte Vista near Guadalupe County. Perhaps here they could build the home they had fought so hard for. Tommy’s hand trembled as he filled out the paperwork.

When it came time to check out from the hotel, the atmosphere was subdued, both absorbed in their thoughts about what the future held as they packed up their few belongings. They thanked this in between space for allowing them to become human again within its walls. As Tommy collected his things into a bag, his hand found the picture frame from earlier.

“Here’s - Don’t forget Joshua,” he reminded Gordon, proffering it in his direction.

Gordon laughed as he took it. “My beautiful son,” he said, “I could never. Does this look like a face you could forget?” His smile showed his even teeth as he held up the stock photo beside his face.

Tommy’s mouth quirked in a smile of his own. “I can see the family resemblance,” he said.

Lowering the frame, Gordon chuckled again. He fell silent as he studied the picture inside, his smile tinged with something that was almost wistful. His hair was tied back in a ponytail, showing off his round cheeks and those dimples he loved so much. Tommy watched him in contemplative silence.

“Y’know,” Gordon finally began. “When I bought this for my locker - like, not this one, but the first one? I didn’t… have anything to put in there. So I just sorta left the stock photo in and hoped that like - y'know, maybe one day I could find something worth framing.”

Tommy didn’t really know how to respond to this, so he remained silent, watching the studious wrinkle in between Gordon’s brows deepen. There was a hesitant wonder behind the lenses of his glasses.

“Guess I can’t say that anymore, huh?” He raised his gaze to meet eyes with Tommy. He didn’t look sad, just tired. Hopeful. “Do you still have those selfies we took on your phone?”

He nodded. Of course he did. He’d never delete the first photographic evidence he had of this newfound happiness, their faces smushed cheek to cheek to fit in the shot, alight with laughter. It made his insides go soft, to hear that Gordon was as fond of them as he was.

“Maybe we could get some prints of those,” Gordon said, stowing the frame in the grocery sack he carried with the rest of his few belongings. “If that’s okay with you?”

“Yeah,” Tommy said, fighting for control over his voice. He exhaled shakily, warm in the knowledge that Gordon wanted something permanent in its physicality, a reminder to look at every day. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Piece by piece, they were going to build this new home together. Even with how painful the past was, how heavily the onus of survival rest on their shoulders. Tommy was looking forward to rediscovering joy again and again, with Gordon Freeman by his side.

He couldn’t wait to live.

#ink #fanfiction #part of my endeavor to relocate all my ao3 work #i think this is the last of it #thanks for bearing with me #hlvrai

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drippingspringsguide · 3 years

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Dripping Springs Family Counseling Therapist

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Kids Places Dripping Springs TX 78620

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10 TOP Things to Do in Dripping Springs

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Home - Focus on the Family

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Community Services - Dripping Springs ISD / Homepage

www.dsisdtx.us/Page/480 New Family Guide; Academics; Bullying/Cyberbullying and Internet Safety; ... Communication Tools; Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information; Family Access; Health Services; Notifications; Parent Organizations; Pre-Kindergarten Program; Registration; Return to School; Safety/Security; ... Dripping Springs Elementary; Rooster Springs Elementary.

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www.destinationdrippingsprings.com/p/aboutus/aboutdrippingsprings Dripping Springs is well-known as the "Gateway to the Hill Country." Located just 25 minutes west of Austin, Dripping Springs is home to spectacular natural wonders, historic treasures, unique shopping, eclectic live music venues, exciting rodeos, a plethora of wineries, craft breweries and local distilleries and legendary hospitality.

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www.familydaysout.com/kids-things-to-do-usa/dripping-springs/tx/kids-fun A unique wildlife preserve where there are several endangered species of beautiful animals for kids to encounter, and learn about. Not only that - kids can pat them too! A very eye opening family day out in Texas for the family. 20 Miles from Dripping Springs

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Dripping Springs Resort - Visit Estes Park

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#dripping springs #Texas

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robngay · 6 years

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Into Texas 2/8/18

We ended up taking two nights at Katchner Caverns. it was a perfect temperature and we had some serious drawing and reading to do. We never did go into the caverns but saw the video at the visitor center. That was enough for Rob. We took off on the 8th and headed east towards El Paso. About an hour out we decided to visit the Fort Bowie National Monument. It was about 15 miles off interstate 10 through many acres of pistachio trees (all fed with drip irrigation). Once at the parking lot, we committed to the 1.5 mile walk in. The fort was built in 1860ish to defend Apache Spring which was a critical spot of the over land stage coach trail that carried the U.S. Mail. It was also in the same area where Cochise and then Geronimo tried to protect their ancestral lands. The trail had lots of historic signs, the springs, and a graveyard. The fort closed around 1900 when there was no longer a need but not before the officers had built tennis courts and installed an ice machine. We returned to the parking lot and re-started our journey. There was a possible camp ground south of Las Cruces but they did not take reservations. We got to Las Cruces and went to the town hall. It was actually Mesilla which was larger than the abutting Las Cruces in 1850. It had a nice historic place. Since it was getting dark, we decided to find a cheap hotel and return in the morning. Our cheap ($54) hotel had a decent breakfast and then we restocked at Walmart. We made it to the plaza by 10:15 and Gay spent more than an hour surveying the possibilities of Old Town Mesilla while Rob visited the church and did the crossword puzzle. Very pleasant.

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valerie-michelle92 · 5 years

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My research on things to do in San Jose was probably the most dismal of any city I’ve ever visited. Blog posts with titles like “San Jose: The Capital City with Nothing to See” seemed to be in the majority and the lists of recommendations on TripAdvisor were pitiful, at best.

And to be completely honest, I was okay with that.

Sometimes, you need a place to unplug and relax, and not feel rushed to run around and see and do everything under the sun. And February 2019 was a time in my life that I really, really needed it.

Accommodation

Fauna Luxury Hostel

This hostel was more like a hotel! It had a pool, giant rooms, and my room had a bathroom. I had a desk which was perfect for sitting at and doing work during the day, which was something I so desperately needed after running around from Melbourne to LA to Minnesota. It was really the perfect oasis to unplug and just focus on getting “caught up” both in terms of work (and my tan ;))

Food

Pollos Male

This restaurant was a gem of a find in Escazu. It was super cheap – I don’t think I spent more than $5 for a huge meal. I tried Chifrijo for the first time here – a mix of rice and beans, fried pork, avocado chunks, pico de gallo, and unbelievable deliciousness. I went here several times as it was a short walk from the hostel and it was a great meal to enjoy after a long morning of work.

La Casona de Laly

This restaurant was epic and had a huge menu. I went here before my hike and chowed down on this massive steak and vegetables. I felt very “paleo” except for the yummy, mushroom-pepper cream sauce that I doused everything in. The service is fast and attentive and the portions are huge for the low price. It’s a great spot to stop if you’re looking to eat a massive meal and then chill out the rest of the day, I don’t think I ate dinner after consuming this, despite having hiked nearly 3 miles uphill.

Things to Do

Tres Cruces Escazu Hike

If there’s one thing I can recommend doing while you’re in San Jose, it’s this hike! I found it on the app “All Trails” which I highly recommend anyone into outdoorsy things to download!

The Tres Cruces (or three crosses) is a stunning view of the entire sprawling city of San Jose and the surrounding towns. It’s an intense hike – I took an Uber to the trailhead which was right by a little roadside restaurant and started climbing.

The views on the way up were spectacular. I brought water and snacks with me and wore my sneakers which were enough for the dirt and rock path. I will say – I was almost completely alone during most of the hike (probably because it was a Thursday) and while it was nice to have some peace and serenity, I did think a few times it would be bad if I fell and hurt myself since cell phone service was limited. I only passed one other group of three hikers during the entire 2-hour trek. It’s a good option if you’re traveling with friends, however!

After about an hour and a half, I reached the summit and the final cross! It was a stunning hike overall and something I’d recommend to anyone visiting San Jose looking to get some good overlooking views.

Accommodation #2 Radisson San Jose

After the four days on my own in Escazu, I hopped in an Uber to head more central in San Jose, to the Radisson hotel where my friend would meet me. It was a huge hotel, with a giant pool, hot tub, and restaurant. It also has a Gold’s Gym inside, which was great for getting in a workout during the day.

A buffet breakfast is included every morning, the rooms were spacious with big beds, and it was a great spot to relax for a few days before heading off into the mountains and the jungle for our excursions.

Radisson Restaurant

I’d be lying if I said we ventured out of the hotel to find local food while in San Jose. It just wasn’t an appealing idea, and we only really had 1 full day, so we spent it poolside and ate our meals in the restaurant. The restaurant was great – albeit expensive for Costa Rica.

Overall, San Jose wasn’t a city I’d want to revisit or recommend to travelers, but to be fair, I didn’t do much exploring. It was, however, a place with some excellent hotels and sunny, warm weather, which was much needed after nearly freezing for a week and a half in Minnesota.

Have you been to San Jose? Do you recommend something that I missed out on? Let me know!

Relaxing in San Jose, Costa Rica My research on things to do in San Jose was probably the most dismal of any city I've ever visited.

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the2travel · 7 years

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* World Travel Tips : On This Run Through New Mexico, No Shortage Of Space (And Salsa)

Travel Tips -

Like its painted desert landscapes, New Mexico is always different, always mysterious.

And just when you think you've figured it out, it shifts suddenly like powdery silicate in a wind gust at White Sands National Monument, or the enigmatic native American art in the light of a setting sun, or the red-and-green chili sauce on your plate that's called Christmas but burns like summer.

Our New Mexico adventure started in Las Cruces, after a grueling nine-hour drive from San Antonio. The trek through the desert is hypnotic. By the time my kids and I reached El Paso, Texas, I was nodding off. Thank God for Starbucks. Too bad Americanos don't come in the 31-ounce Trenta size. (I asked; my barista laughed out loud.)

Framed by the jagged Organ Mountains, this quiet town is a fitting preview for what lies beyond it: White Sands National Monument, a bizarre but beautiful landlocked beach. Enormous blinding-white sand dunes await visitors around every bend. Rent a sled and slide down one of these sand hills or build a giant castle.

The photos I took of White Sands were priceless. My middle son, Iden, at first wanted nothing to do with this place. What could you possibly do with all that sand? And there's no ocean. By the time he'd taken a few runs on an innertube, he didn't want to leave. Ah, 12-year-olds!

We couldn't help texting our friend Larry, who produces documentaries about alien encounters. We were so close to Roswell, with its famous UFO Museum, how could we not? But instead of driving all the way to the site of the alleged 1947 UFO crash, we headed over to the New Mexico Space Museum, which celebrates space exploration by humans. The museum has an impressive rocket garden that features a variety of military and civilian rockets, including a rocket sled that reached a velocity of 632 mph.

Inside, there are tributes to the most accomplished human space explorers and a fun Star Trek exhibit. For the kids, there's a play area where they can "dress up" as an astronaut and take a picture against a lunar backdrop.

Albuquerque awaited, which for us was equally mysterious. We checked into a new property, the Hotel Chaco, inspired by Chaco Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the northwestern part of New Mexico. For us, this was more of a museum than a hotel, with original native American art on the walls and serene indigenous music wafting through its cavernous check-in area.

And that's a good thing when you're traveling with children ages 10, 12 and 14. You want them to respect the hotel. No horsin' around, kids! They saved it for the pool, which had just opened after a sudden late spring snowstorm. The locals only roll their eyes when you mention the snow: "That's Albuquerque weather," they say.

It's mysterious -- and unpredictable.

Speaking of museums, Albuquerque has several you shouldn't miss. One of the newest is the Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, quite possibly the most compelling specialty aviation museum we've ever visited. It explains how balloon flight evolved from its beginnings in 1783 to the present day. There are fascinating exhibits on the physics of flight and actual balloons used to cross the Atlantic and Pacific.

Of course, you have to actually ride one of these balloons to understand what makes it so special. On this trip we didn't have that opportunity, but on two previous occasions, we woke up bright and early and drove over to Rainbow Ryders for a balloon excursion over the city. Pro tip: Bring a warm jacket and your camera.

Another must-see museum: the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. If you want to try to understand this place, you really have to start here. The kids were drawn to an exhibit called Chasing the Cure to Albuquerque, about the city's history of treating and rehabilitating tuberculosis patients. People suffering from TB were drawn to the area because of its climate. I had no idea that, without TB, the city probably would not exist as we know it. There are permanent exhibits of note, too, that offer a comprehensive history of Albuquerque, all well worth a visit.

But perhaps the biggest New Mexico imponderable is the food. Whether it's the nuclear-hot chili sauce served at the famous El Pinto restaurant or the exotic sherbet desserts dished out at the Chaco, the New Mexican food caught our attention and held it for the duration of our journey.

Old Town, Albuquerque's historic center, is filled with Mexican restaurants, one better than the next. We wandered from one to the other, with names like Cocina Azul and Backstreet Grill. Try the street tacos and the brisket tacos at those places, respectively. And if they ask whether you want red or green sauce, tell them "Christmas," which is a blend of both. (Warning: They are not cool, like the season.)

Burning and ice. High and low. Old and new. It's a travel story cliché, to find the contrasts.

But that's how Land of Enchantment got its name -- it's filled with mysterious energy, constantly evolving and enigmatic. It's what makes New Mexico what it is, and while we'll keep coming back again and again to try to figure it out.

If you go …

Where to stay For easy access to Old Town, try Hotel Chaco or the nearby Hotel Albuquerque. The Chaco is more of a boutique hotel, and rooms have lots of great amenities (try the chocolate-covered granola bars at turndown), while the Albuquerque is Old Town's convention hotel. In Las Cruces, the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Las Cruces North is close to the city's attractions and restaurants, and offers easy highway access.

What to do The Museum of Natural History picks up where the nearby history museum leaves off, exploring New Mexico's prehistory. One riddle solved: How those white sand beaches came to be. Turns out much of the state used to be under water. Also worth checking out: the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. If your kids are a little older and can sit through a live performance, check out Tablao Flamenco for dinner and an evening of Flamenco dancing.

Christopher Elliott edits the family travel blog Away is Home. You can follow his adventures on Twitter or Facebook.

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World Travel Tips : Find cheap flights, hotels and car rentals. Plan your trip with travel guides, personalized recommendations, articles, deals and more. When you travel, you want your bags to travel with you. Follow these tips from travel professionals on how not to lose your luggage.

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