"Be Still In Your Mind"

Title: "Be Still In Your Mind"
Author: Augustina
Fandom: "The Omen" (2006)
Rating: Mature
Series/Sequel: No
Pairing: Robert Thorne/Keith Jennings
Disclaimer: Both characters are the property of their original creators. I am only playing with them for a little while. Honest!
Summary: Keith Jennings gives Robert Thorne all the comfort he can.

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Rome, Evening.

Keith reentered the hotel room he shared with Robert Thorne, closing the door quietly behind him. He stopped short when he caught sight of the other man. Robert sat on the opposite bed, shoulders slumped, his face covered by his hands. He'd obviously been crying. Still was, Keith observed. He quickly strode across the room and knelt in front of his roommate.

"Mr. Thorne? Mr. Thorne? Robert? What's the matter? Has something happened?" he queried gently.

Robert could not answer right away. He still sobbed quietly into his hands, keeping his face covered. Something terrible had occurred but Keith could only wait until the other man had recovered enough to tell him. Hesitantly, he placed his hands on Robert's knees, sensing that the warmth of his touch was needed.

He waited patiently, and after a few more minutes Robert's sobs had abated somewhat and he could finally speak. Keith fetched some tissue from the bedside table and handed it to the other man when he saw how red his eyes were, how haggard his face looked. Whatever it was, it was bad. The whole business they were now involved in was bad. And frightening.

"Katherine's gone."

"Gone? Gone where? What...oh my God." Gasped Keith.
She was dead. Robert Thorne's wife was dead.

"How, Robert? When? What happened?"

Still sniffling a bit, Robert looked into the other man's eyes. For the first time he noticed that their color wasn't just any ordinary shade of blue, but a sparkling topaz blue with little flecks of green around the iris. And the compassion in them was extraordinary.

"I was told that an air bubble got into her bloodstream."

"An air bubble? Do they know how?"

"No one seems to, but considering what we're dealing with I suspect foul play. Someone killed her, Keith. I know it."

"I second that. We've seen too much now to discount anything."

Robert began to cry again, silently, the tears rolling smoothly down his cheeks and dripping onto his expensive shirt. Keith arose from where he knelt and sat beside him on the bed, gently easing his distraught companion into his arms. Instinct told him that rocking would help, so he swayed back and forth, rubbing his shoulders and whispering soothing words of comfort to him. It had been a long while since he'd done something like this for anyone. Truth be told, he couldn't remember the last time he'd done it. At that moment he realized how solitary a life he lived, how empty and barren it seemed. He now feared that the warning he'd been given in that eerie photograph was going to come true, and his time was going to be cut short. He didn't even want to think about how.

"She begged me to stay with her, Keith, and I wouldn't listen. She said, 'Don't let him kill me.' She meant Damien, our son. I didn't listen to that either. I thought she was having delusions. I mean she was talking about a little boy! How could he possibly kill anyone? Why would he?" said Robert in a dull, defeated voice.

"I think most people would have thought the same thing, Robert. We still don't know what, if anything Damien had to do with her death." Keith replied, shivering at the thought of the nanny's body swaying from the end of that rope.

"I suppose you're right, Keith. But I'm her husband, dammit! I didn't even believe my own wife in spite of everything that's happened. I think I owed her that much, a little faith in what she said. Why would she lie about her own son? What kind of husband am I? Oh God!" Robert cried, breaking into a round of fresh sobs, clinging to the other man, desperately needing his warmth and comfort.

"You're a good man Robert, and I think good men make good husbands. I'm so very, very sorry for your loss." Keith dabbed at Robert's face with fresh tissue.

"She was pregnant."

"Oh no."

So that made a double loss for Robert. Keith sighed. They needed God now more than ever, he knew.

Keith was not a highly religious man, but he was not a stranger to the Christian faith, or other faith, for that matter. On many occasions in his life he had relied on prayer for help and support. Now it was beginning to look as if there was undeniable proof that God really existed. His old nemesis certainly appeared to be alive and kicking everyone squarely in the rear end. It was mind-numbing.

Robert's sobs had quieted now, but his breath still hitched and caught in his throat in the way it always did after a long bout of crying. Keith continued to rock him back and forth, still letting instinct guide him in his effort to console the other man.

"We have to get back to England as soon as we can." said Robert.

"I know. Do you want to go tonight?"

"Yes. I need to see about her, and to check in at the house. Damien is there with Mrs. Baylock, but I do not trust that woman. It seems like she came out of nowhere. Damien obeys her like she's his mother an not Katherine. I should have paid more attention to things like that." Fresh tears rolled down his cheeks again, dripping onto Keith's shirt.

"Robert, lay down for a bit. We don't have to rush out this second."

Keith arose from the bed and gently guided Robert to a comfortable lying down position, propping several pillows beneath him. Keith observed him for a moment from where he stood. Even in all his travels as a photographer he had never seen anyone look quite as lost as Robert Thorne looked at that moment.

****************

He walked to the other side of the room and took a moment to glance out the window. The Eternal City, he thought. You existed when Christ himself walked the earth. Keith took a few deep breaths, in and out, calming himself. Rome had no idea what it was dealing with then and it has no idea now, he thought. Perhaps it doesn't need to know, not yet. He could scarcely believe it himself. The thing that kept him from total disbelief was those photographs. Those damnable photographs.

He turned and walked to the bed and sat down, removing his shoes. He looked at Robert's back, watching his chest expand and contract with each breath. Here goes, he thought. He swung his legs onto the bed and carefully stetched himself out behind the other man, sliding one arm around his middle. Robert did not flinch or pull away, he noticed with relief.

"Robert?"

"Yes?"

"Do you mind me doing this?"

Robert took a moment to answer, then, "No, Keith. I don't mind. Right now I can use all the help I can get, I guess."

"Good. Just relax, Robert. Let your body and your mind rest. Be still." said Keith, offering what he hoped was good advice.

Robert tried. He took deep breaths, slowly, in and out, aware of the warmth and feel of Keith's larger frame pressed against his own. It somehow helped to comfort him, so he did not dwell on the fact that that comfort was coming from another man. Women could comfort one another in a similar fashion, why couldn't men? He was in no mood to follow society's constraints at the moment.

By and by, the emotional pain subsided a bit and he was able to achieve the state of calm stillness that Keith had suggested. His wife was still gone, but it seemed easier to bear. Moreover, his mind seemed to have achieved some measure of rest, however temporary. He was most grateful for that.

Keith said nothing, simply offering his presence as an anchor in this horrific time they were going through. After a while,
Robert shifted beneath the arm that encircled his waist and turned to face him. They merely looked at one another, Robert doing so a bit awkwardly, but with determination.

"Thank you for being here, Keith." he said, quietly. "I don't know what I would have done if you weren't."

"You're quite welcome. I am glad to be of help."

After a moment, Robert shifted himself closer and lay his head on Keith's shoulder.

"Do you mind if we stay like this for a while longer?" Robert asked.

"No. No I don't. As long as you want." He absently rubbed a hand up and down the other man's back as he spoke. Robert sighed and closed his eyes.

They both knew that this ordeal was not over and they were still faced with unknown horrors to come. But for a little while, in this private space, they took comfort from each other and offered up prayers of thanks for it.

~The End~


"If you're constantly listening to the devil, how can you hear what God is saying to you?"
Augustina