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When Rick had found Cliff lying in a pool of blood in the living room of his Cielo Dr. home, he had panicked. He didn’t know what to do, and he couldn’t think straight. Rick couldn’t bare the thought of losing his only friend. Not after everything they've been through. He’d meant it when he told Cliff he was a good friend as he watched him disappear with the ambulance. He had just never realized how much he needed Cliff until he had almost lost him. Cliff had always been the one in danger as Rick’s stuntman. He had been injured on the job countless times in Rick’s stead, but he always came through ready to go again. For the first time in a long time, Rick realized just how close He’d come to losing Cliff forever.
---
Rick peeked his head through the door and saw that Cliff was asleep in his hospital bed. There were wires and tubes running all around him and the soft beep of the monitor kept a steady rhythm. Rick trailed his eyes along the motionless figure in the bed and noted the gentle rise and fall of Cliff’s chest. Rick let out a small breath he didn’t realize he was holding.
Rick looked at the wires that were stuck in different places along Cliff’s chest. Cliff didn’t have a shirt on and Rick felt his gaze linger for a bit longer than was strictly necessary when you’re just worried about your dear friends health. His eyes flicked down to the large pile of gauze affixed to the side of Cliff’s hip. Rick stared at the bandage and thought about the wound it protected underneath.
“You just gonna stare at me like I’m dead, or are you here to get me outta here?”
Rick quickly looked up to see Cliff staring at him through half lidded eyes.
“Fuckin’ shit Cliff. I-I-I didn’t know you were up”, Rick stammered.
“Well I am, and I want to go home, and I really need a cigarette, a beer, and those bagels you were supposed to bring me.”
---
The check out process was more annoying than it needed to be. Even though Cliff had been discharged, the doctors and nurses were still trying to fuss over him. Not every day they got to meet a man who fought off a crazy gang of murderous hippies. When they finally got the go ahead, Rick wheeled Cliff out in a wheelchair. The nurse only let them go as far as the door.
“Of fuckin’ course,” Rick thought. Why bother paying for a private room and good doctors when he couldn’t even take Cliff all the way to the car in the goddamn wheelchair.
Rick helped Cliff to his feet and noticed the sharp breath that came from his friend when Cliff stretched out his leg. Rick stood on Cliff’s good side and pulled Cliff’s arm up and around his shoulder. He wrapped his other arm around his friend’s waist making sure to avoid putting pressure on his injury. Cliff leaned heavily onto Rick and favored his right leg. They walked slowly to Rick’s yellow coupe DeVille.
“Need any help”, came a pleasant voice from inside the car.
“No Sharon i-it’s fine. I-I-I’m just gonna set him in the front seat and then we can get goin’.”
Cliff looked puzzled as he realized that Sharon Tate, Rick’s next door neighbor, was behind the driver’s seat of Rick’s car. He turned to give his friend a strange look like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Sharon, this here’s my good friend Cliff Booth. He’s the one who saved my life,” Rick said with a smile.
“Hi Cliff, I’ve heard so much about you. It’s a pleasure, mine name’s Sharon.”
“Pleasure’s mine ma’a,” Cliff responded with a smile. Turning to Rick, Cliff’s eyes questioned why Sharon Tate was driving his car, and why she was here to pick him up from the hospital.
Rick obviously understood Cliff’s confused look, ”Well, it's not like I could exactly drive myself to pick your ass up from the hospital. Sharon offered after we got to talking about everythin’ that happened, and I thought it was nice of her, don’t you think so Cliff?”
Cliff didn’t know how Rick had become so close to his neighbor in the short time he was in the hospital, but he wasn’t gonna question it now.
Cliff flashed a big smile to Sharon and joked,“I sure do appreciate it ma’am. If Rick here was driving, I’d probably end up straight back in the hospital.”
Cliff gave Rick a quick jab to the side to emphasize the joke, and he immediately regretted it. Pain shot straight through to his hip. He’d been injured worse than this before but a fresh injury, no matter how bad, always stung.
Rick laughed at Cliff’s bad joke and called the sting of pain he saw in Cliff’s eyes a harmless bit of karma. “Well as much as I’d love to torture you with my bad drivin’, I think we’ve both had enough of talkin’ to the cops for one weekend”.
Rick opened up the passenger door and helped Cliff gently into the seat. “Now, can you behave yourself for 10 minutes while Sharon here kindly drives your sorry ass to my house?”
“Yes sir,” Cliff responded with a shit eating grin.
“Good,” Rick said as he pulled out Cliff’s golden aviators from his front shirt pocket and stuck them across his friend’s face none too gently.
---
“Well, you boys stay safe and let us know if there is anything we can do for you,” Sharon said sweetly as she pulled into the driveway in front of her house.
“Th-Thanks Sharon, say hi to Jay for me,” Rick said as he got out and settled into the driver’s seat of his car.
“Oh sure! And it was nice meeting you Cliff, I hope you feel better,” Sharon called through the window. “Make sure he takes good care of you,” she said to Cliff with a wink.
With a wave, the two men watched as Sharon disappeared into her house.
Cliff decided that he definitely liked Sharon, she seemed like a kind soul. He turned to Rick who looked like he had forgotten which pedal was go.
“Are you sure you can make it home from here in one piece? That driveway’s awfully long.”
“Yeah yeah shut up, I said I liked you driving me around not that I liked your jokes”
“You love my jokes”
“Alright maybe, but only because you took a knife for me, don’t let it go to your head.”
“I’ve taken plenty of knives for you”
“A real one, you know what I mean”
---
Rick parked the car in the space in front of the Bounty Law caricature in the driveway. He was only a little bit crooked in the space.
“I know I said I was joking, but you’re honestly the worst driver I know,” Cliff said, only half serious.
“Well that’s why you’re the one in charge of all the stunts,” Rick laughed as he walked around to the passenger side door.
If getting Cliff into the car was a challenge, getting him out was impossible. An awkward angle had Rick leaning too far into the car, crowding Cliff’s space as he tried to get a grip under Cliff’s arms. When they finally did get Cliff to a standing position, they were stood too close. Rick had his arms around Cliff’s waist and he was staring at the prominent scar along Cliff’s chin. He got that scar nearly five years ago when he took a bad fall in a saloon scene and split his chin on a barstool. One of the many times Cliff had really got hurt on that stupid shoot. Cliff contended that the scar made him look like a badass. Rick still thought he was too pretty to be a stuntman.
“Well buddy if you needed a hug you could have asked, but I really need to get inside and sit down,” Cliff interrupted Rick’s thoughts as he huffed out a laugh and winced.
Rick was quick to pull his arms away and make some space between them, a blush coming to his cheeks, but he offered Cliff his shoulder again to help him into the house.
At the threshold Rick could tell Cliff was hesitant. He couldn’t blame him. After all the fucked up shit that had transpired here a few days ago, Rick had been struggling to stay in the house by himself. The only saving grace was Brandy, who had slept by his feet in the bed every night since then.
“You know I had everything cleaned up right? You can’t even tell anything happened, ‘sides the curtain hanging over the sliding door,” Rick tried to make it a joke, tried to lighten the mood, but he could tell Cliff wasn’t really feeling it. “Well, if anything will cheer you up, I know this will.”
No sooner than Rick could get the door open, Brandy came barreling out to greet them. She knew better than to jump on Cliff without his command, but her tail was wagging so hard it made a thud thud thud noise against the doorjamb. She was excited to see him and by god was he happy to see her.
Cliff was only a little sad he couldn’t get down and roll on the floor with her like he would at the trailer, but petting her and ruffling her ears was all he could manage without screwing up his hip.
“Who's the goodest meanest girl I know?,” Cliff gushed to his dog. “Who got the bad guys! Yeah you did, good girl Brandy protecting Daddy and Uncle Rick!”
Rick watched the happy reunion play out in front of him. It was good seeing Cliff so happy considering.
“Speaking of which, where’s the wife? She ok with me coming here? She seemed pretty freaked out by everything that happened,” Cliff asked.
“Ah yeah sh-sh-she was pretty up-p-set by everything, blamed me for most of it though. Yeah she’s staying at a hotel right now. Talkin’ to a lawyer about having the marriage annulled and movin’ back to Italy.”
“Oh man I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be, I really don’t know if it was gonna work out any way. She was gonna make me go broke,” Rick laughed it off. To be honest, he was relieved when Francesca had told him she didn’t want to have anything to do with America or him.
“Well, in that case, let’s get drunk, in celebration of life and your soon to be ex-wife,” Cliff said with his million dollar smile that made Rick’s heart beat just a little bit faster.
---
Rick got Cliff settled onto the living room sofa. Every bit of movement seemed to bother Cliff’s hip. Rick noted that Cliff would probably be stuck with a limp, and that made him feel guilty.
It must have shown in his face because then Cliff said,”Explain the sorry look on your face. I’m the one with the fresh stab wound, if anyone’s gonna be a sad sack a’ shit tonight it’s gonna be me.”
This is always how it was. They’d argue back and forth trying to cheer each other up without ever acknowledging how fucked up anything was. Between all the rumors and lies about Cliff’s wife, Rick’s deteriorating career and potential alcoholism. They never got too close to talking about the serious stuff until they absolutely needed to.
When Cliff’s wife left him and the rumors started around town, the way people talked about Cliff behind his back eventually got to him. One night, when Cliff came to Rick’s trailer on set, it was the only time Rick had ever seen Cliff cry. They never really talk about that night. The night they got so drunk they couldn’t see straight. The night they sat together on Rick’s tiny trailer couch and cried together. That night had changed them. It was the night they became more than brothers but a little less than wives.
---
“I can’t believe you, you sappy shit. You actually bought me bagels,” Cliff laughed, picking up a bagel off the coffee table.”You even went to that little deli down by that one bookstore.”
“‘Course I did, they’re your favorite,” Rick said setting down two beers on the coffee table and pulling of a piece of bagel for himself before popping it into his mouth. He sat on the recliner seat to Cliff’s left. It felt like the night they watched Rick’s FBI debut. Comfortable. Familiar.
“I haven’t had these since our late shoots on the bandito season of Bounty Law, this brings me back.”
“We’re a couple a’ old shits now ain’t we Cliff.”
The two just laughed. They laughed for the old times and over the insanity of the past couple days. Cliff’s body, however, didn’t think it was so funny. He really needed Rick to stop cracking jokes that make him laugh so hard his injury flared.
“Hey am I cleared to take a couple a’ those pain pills the doc gave me? My hip fuckin’ hurts,” Cliff groaned as he gingerly rubbed at the gauze around his right side. He had a cigarette hanging loosely between his lips that he hadn’t lit yet.
“Yeah let me grab em’,” Rick hopped up to grab the little bottle off the kitchen counter. “Up to 2 tablets by mouth as needed, do not exceed 4 tablets in 12 hours,” Rick read aloud. “This is some good shit Cliff, I’ve heard you get one hell’of a high from these.”
“I don’t know man, after that hippy cigarette I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Cliff was hesitant to agree.
“Oh for fucks sake, I’m not gonna do it alone, plus, it’ll make you forget about your hip for a minute right?,” Rick said as he was already tipping out some tablets into his hand.
Never one to argue for too long, Cliff silently agreed and stretched out his hand to accept some pills from Rick. “And awaaay we go,” Cliff bellowed as he downed a couple of pills with his steadily warming beer.
Rick followed suit, and sat down to watch TV with Cliff until they started to feel it kick in.
---
Between the booze and the pills, Rick and Cliff were decidedly flying high. It was dark when Rick woke from his drug-induced nap. The TV was static and the buzz of the black and white snow filled the room. If the night of the attack was the hottest night of the year so far, tonight had to be the second hottest. They both had stripped down to their jeans and Rick wore a thin white undershirt. He looked over at his friend who was still asleep on the couch because his breaths were long and deep. The rise and fall of his chest made the various scars stretch and move in the lamp light. Rick could feel a heat pooling low in his belly as he watched Cliff sleep. He wished he could run a hand over the shadows that the lamp cast across Cliff’s chest.
Before he was caught staring like he was at the hospital, Rick shook his head to clear his mind. Rick’s head sort of felt like it was spinning, but that could also be the floor that was spinning. He tried to stand up carefully, but the moment he did he regretted it. His head felt heavy and he sort of stumbled, hitting the coffee table with his knee. Rick bit the back of his hand to stop himself from yelling, but the impact was loud enough that Cliff shook awake.
Brandy, who had been sleeping peacefully on the floor below Cliff raised her head, concerned by the noise and Cliff’s sudden movement.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Cliff asked,”What time is it?”
“Ah fuck, uh it’s,” Rick looked at the clock, “2:30.”
“Good, that means I can go back to sleep.”
“No now come on, you can’t sleep on the fuckin’ couch on a bad leg.”
“I’m fine right here.”
Rick wasn’t about to let Cliff fuck up his injury lying on his shitty faux leather couch that he knew for a fact was uncomfortable. After spending many nights passed out drunk in his living room, Rick wouldn’t dream of leaving Cliff there.
Rick frowned at Cliff “Here,” Rick walked over to the couch and held out his hands for Cliff to use as leverage.
Rick grabbed Cliff by his forearms and helped steady him by his elbow. Under his fingertips he could feel the long scar that wrapped around Cliff’s right elbow. He traced it lightly as it curled up and around. Rick stared quizzically at the scar. That one had been from a bad fall when Cliff broke his elbow. He didn’t know how long they had been standing there with Rick tracing up and down Cliff’s arm until Cliff broke the silence.
“What are you doing Rick?.”
“I-I-I’m s-sorry Cliff…”
“What?” That was definitely not the answer Cliff was expecting.
“I’m a-always the f-f-f-fuck up getting you into t-trouble,” Rick’s stutter was always significantly worse when he was frustrated or scared. “You-You took a knife for me, and have god knows how many scars from all the years you’ve been with me. I-I-I just wonder sometimes why you stick around.” Rick felt the tears welling at his eyes. He knew he was emotional but it was never this bad, not unless he was absolutely blind drunk. This was the most sober he’s felt in a long time. Ignoring the lingering buzz of the pain pills.
Cliff didn’t know what to make of the man before him. He was used to Rick crying when he was angry or crying when he was really drunk, but this was different. Cliff pulled Rick into a tight embrace. With how close they were now, Cliff could feel every jolt of Rick’s chest when he huffed in a breath and he felt the drops from Rick’s face hit his chest and gently roll down.
“I’ve never regretted it though,” Cliff assured Rick, “Workin’ with you, and I don’t regret what happened the other night. You’re my brother. I’d do anything for you.”
Rick held his hands up along Cliff’s back as he listened to him speak. He was absentmindedly tracing the large burn scar along Cliff’s upper right shoulder blade.
They stood like that for a long time. Though they wouldn’t admit it, they both needed this after everything that had happened.
---
It was Cliff that broke the silence yet again, even though he didn’t want to, “I really need to lay down Rick, my leg’s gonna give out.”
“Yeah alright,” Rick said as he untangled his arms from his friend.
They both shivered at the loss of contact.
Slowly, they made their way down the hallway towards the last door on the left.
When Cliff had tried to make his way to the guest room Rick had protested, “Look my bed is way bigger and softer. It’ll be better than the guest bed. Plenty of room for Brandy to keep you company.”
As always, Cliff didn’t put up much of a fight.
Rick helped Cliff over to the big bed that sat in the center of the room. Cliff sat just at the edge of the bed. The thought of swinging his legs up onto the mattress did not sound like something he wanted to try just yet. Instead he turned to look at the man who was standing in front of him.
“I got you a pair of pjs and a couple a’ changes of clothes from the Van Nuys if ya want it. I didn’t know what else you might want from your trailer so I kinda grabbed what I found,” Rick said walking over to sift through a pile of Cliff’s things that sat in a chair on the far side of the room.
“You drove to my trailer?”
“Well, not exactly, Jay drove me out there but yeah, figured you’d want your own clothes and toothbrush while you were here. And by the way, that is one helluva drive Cliff! You drive back and forth like that every day to pick my sorry ass up?”
Cliff just laughed,”I told ya, I like driving you ‘round, it’s not a big deal, and I'd love to get out of these jeans but I think I’ll leave the pjs, s’too damn hot.”
Cliff flashed a smile at his friend, and Rick felt himself blush again. Happy he was wearing a shirt to hide the pink that was certainly blossoming across his chest.
Cliff just stared at Rick. He didn’t know how his friend could turn such a pretty shade of pink like that.
Rick didn’t know what to do as Cliff started to fumble with his belt. Honestly Rick was trying to look anywhere but Cliff at the moment.
Once he got his belt undone, Cliff realized he still had on his boots and that there was no way he was gonna be able to bend down and reach his feet to get the boots off.
“Uh Rick, I need your help getting my boots off.”
Rick whipped his head around to his friend. His eyes immediately went to the undone belt at Cliff’s waist. He moved over to the bed and knelt down to start pulling at Cliff’s boots.
He started on Cliff’s left boot so he wouldn’t bother his bad leg. Once that boot was off, Rick gently worked at the second boot. This time he carefully rolled up the pant leg so he could get a better hold on the top to work Cliff’s foot out. A long, broad scar ran from the top of Cliff’s foot and disappeared under the pant leg bunched around his knee. Rick didn’t know what compelled him to, but once the second boot had been tossed aside, he felt himself slowly bring his face to Cliff’s leg and push a kiss to his shin, along the shiny scar.
Rick felt Cliff go rigid under his touch, but just as quickly he felt him relax. Rick looked up at Cliff through his lashes and saw the look of disbelief on his friend’s face. Before he lost his nerve, Rick shifted to his knees so he was aligned with Cliff’s crotch and his hands grabbed at Cliff’s waistband.
Cliff grabbed Rick’s hands and stopped their progress on his fly. “Rick wait,” Cliff said in the barest of whisper. “Come here.”
Cliff pulled Rick up so he was staring at him face to face now. Rick was worried he had just fucked up his decade long friendship when Cliff cupped his jaw and brought their lips together.
The kiss was rough and desperate. Rick had to stop himself from letting out the small moan that was forming at the back of his throat. Cliff’s hands threaded through Rick’s hair that was significantly longer now than it had been when they first met. Rick who was still half standing half crouching to meet Cliff’s mouth tipped Cliff’s head back to deepen their kiss. Cliff’s response was to move his hands from Rick’s hair to grab desperately at his waist. Rick could feel himself getting hard in his too tight pants and imagined, hoped, Cliff was in the same position. Rick broke the kiss to push Cliff back into the mattress and place a hard kiss to the right side of Cliff’s throat.
Going with the pace they were trying to set, Cliff moved to flip Rick onto his back and straddle between his legs; however, as soon as he tried to, his hip screamed with pain.
“Ah fuck that hurts,” Cliff yelled.
“That’s fine just lay back,” Rick responded breathlessly as he trailed kisses from Cliff’s mouth to his throat, along the wide scar that circled his left shoulder, and across the thin one on his right collar bone. As Rick came to rest gently on top of Cliff, making sure to support his own weight, he could feel the hard brush of Cliff’s erection against his. The friction sent a wave of pleasure through him as he gently ground down against Cliff.
“Fuck- Rick”, It made Cliff’s body shudder.
Moving farther down Cliff’s stomach, Rick sucked spots all across his abdomen and down to where his skin disappeared into his waistband. Without trying to hesitate, Rick slid his hands into the top of Cliff’s jeans and pulled them down past his ass, past the bandage on his hip, until Cliff was completely exposed.
Ignoring his cock for the moment, teasing his friend just a bit, Rick instead went to the bandage at Cliff’s hip. He knew it was sore, but he still pressed feather light kisses across the gauze.
“Another scar,” Rick thought to himself.
While he’d never actually done anything like this, it wasn’t like Rick didn’t know what he was doing per say. He’d looked at plenty of dirty magazines and he’d been to his fair share of dirty movie premiers. Plus, there had been the one or two enthusiastic young starlets that hung around the set back in the day that had been more than willing to show him a thing or two.
He was tentative at first, barely taking any of Cliff’s cock into his mouth. He licked along the underside and sucked gently on the tip. This was enough to get Cliff’s undivided attention as he moaned and arched into the feeling. When Rick took as much of him into his mouth as he could, what he couldn’t, he gripped with his hand. He quickly developed somewhat of a rhythm between his mouth and his fist, and what he lacked in experience, he made up for with sheer enthusiasm.
Cliff honestly couldn’t focus on anything besides how Rick’s mouth felt on his cock. He was writhing beneath his friend, as he gripped tightly onto the bed sheets around him. He hadn’t taken up Pussycat on her offer in the car that day, but there’s no way it would have been anything like this.
Rick gently stroked the scar along the top of Cliff’s belly button. Barely touching it with his finger tips, Cliff shuddered at the sensationalism
As Rick worked his mouth around Cliff’s cock, he moved his other hand from Cliff’s belly and fumbled at his own zipper to relieve some of the pressure. Once he got his erection freed, he quickly pushed into his own fist. The sensation of his own pleasure coupled with the noises he was eliciting from Cliff’s mouth was almost more than he could bare.
“Rick, Fuck god I’m gonna——fuck,” Cliff’s words were barely audible. His hands that had snaked their way into Rick’s hair again went tight along Rick’s scalp to let him know he was close.
Rick pulled off of Cliff audibly and he kept with the pace he had set. The added saliva making it all a little easier. It only took a few more strokes of his hand before Cliff came with a gasp. Rick followed behind him shortly with his own orgasam. Grinding down into his hand has he continued to stroke Cliff through his own release.
---
After a few moments where he could catch his breath, Rick carefully stood up to grab something he could clean up Cliff and himself with. He settled on one of Cliff’s Hawaiian shirts from the pile in the chair. He was sure Cliff would give him hell for it later, but right now, he didn’t really care. Rick gently wiped away the mess from Cliff’s chest and off his own hands, careful to avoid anything that might still be sensitive. Neither of them had said anything yet. Neither one wanted to break the silence for fear it would break the mystery of the moment. Rick tucked himself back into his jeans and he watched as Cliff did the same. Silently, Rick came to lay back down next to Cliff on the bed.
This time, Rick was the first one to speak up, though he couldn’t make eye contact with his friend, instead he stared straight up at the cealing as he spoke,”I was so fucking scared whe-when I found you that night. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead. All I knew was that I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you. And if this has f-fucked things up, I don’t know that I could forgive myself. N-Now-Now I know you like your space at the drive-in but I was thinking you could move in with me. I-I-I’ve got plenty of space for Brandy and you can bring whatever you want from the trailer and-and-and then it wouldn’t be such a long drive every day, and if you don’t want to that’s fine but I know that I-I fuckin’ l-love you, please don’t leave——“
Cliff cut Rick off with a gentle kiss, less desperate than the one they had shared earlier was, and this time, Cliff could taste himself on Rick’s lips. A single tear ran down Rick’s cheek as he breathed out a small sigh of relief.
When they finally broke apart, Rick laid his head against Cliff’s chest and listened to the steady rhythm of his heart.
Cliff took a deep breath and quietly assured Rick,”you’re not getting rid of me that easily you old bastard.”
Rick smiled against Cliff’s chest before they both fell asleep, squished up next to each other, on the second hottest night of the year.