Long Time {No See} [James]

[Morgan Tonaya]

It had occurred recently to Morgan that he’d seen just about everyone. Darryl and made a quick and obvious appearance after his return from filming, and they’d had a few drinks since then. He’d finally gotten some quality time with Midori and the lovely little baby his best friend had contributed to. Sean, Cobalt, and Mason had all made frequent appearances too. But one person he could honestly say he really hadn’t seen (no pun intended) in months was James Campbell.

It wasn’t too odd, considering James wasn’t a teach and generally worked completely different hours…plus he traveled. But still, Morgan occasionally bumped into him in the lounge or the halls or something. Since Morgan hadn’t seen him in so long, and the news of Chase taking his last name had finally reached his ears, Morgan decided to seek out the recruiter.

He’d gotten a little lost on the way to the offices, but found another employee to set him in the right direction. He fumbled around the door handle, picking out the placard with the name card. Morgan didn’t bother with Braille so long as the names on the plaques were raised. The letters ‘J’ and ‘C’ jumped out at him in the right order, so he knocked brightly. “James?” he called, just to be sure he wasn’t more lost than he expected. “Are you busy?”

[Dr. James Campbell]

Things were settling down for the Campbells at Hammel. Nikki's adoption was almost completed, none of them had been in the hospital for months, and they were all talking to who they needed to talk to in order to move on. James had started traveling again on occasion for recruitment, and everything had fallen back into place.

Except he was kind of avoiding Morgan.

Every time the recruiter took a longer route to his office, he felt guilty. He felt guilty anyway, but at least he was able to suppress it when he didn't see the teacher, in his dark glasses. He'd been blinded while on a mission to rescue James and Niko, and James didn't forget that. Morgan was blind because of him.

He'd brought food over, the first week after Morgan had been out of the hospital, but that had been the last time the older man had seen him, so he was surprised when he heard the blond's voice outside his door.

James couldn't run, and he had no logical reason to turn him away. (And he'd be even more guilty if he did turn him away.) "Not really! Come on in, Morgan." The recruiter called out, and he stood up, ready to guide the younger man over to a chair if he needed to. "How's it going, being back?"

[Morgan Tonaya]

Beaming, Morgan pushed his way into James’ office, keeping one hand against the wall to keep his bearings. “I’m glad I caught you!” He said brightly, holding out his hand both for a shake and for some guidance. James’ office wasn’t one of his frequented places, and it was almost impossible for him to find out where James wanted him to sit or stand.

At least he wasn’t as embarrassed about it anymore.

“Oh, it’s going.” Morgan said, tilting his head to each shoulder in a sign of indifference. “I’ve gotten into a nice routine, so there’s nothing too special to speak of.” He explained with a bit of a laugh. “What about you?” Morgan furrowed his brow slightly. “I mean I haven’t even really seen you at all.” His worry quickly dissipated again into a smile. “but you always did dive right in to work.” He teased.

[Dr. James Campbell]

James walked over and shook his friend's hand, trying to keep his guilt off of his face, even though the other man couldn't see it. "It's been going pretty well. I'm even traveling again, some." It had been a while since he'd been doing recruiting regularly, and though he wasn't going on week-long trips yet, it was nice to have a bit of the old routine back. He gently took hold of Morgan's arm to guide him over to one of the armchairs by the chess table, than sat across from him.

He wasn't sure what else to say, but his mind jumped to the last time Morgan had been in his office--wow, over a year ago now--and the recruiter started to ramble about something tangentially related to that. "And, uh, Chase actually changed his last name. But that's really all that's been happening, other than work." Morgan did have a point; James was very dedicated to his job. It was actually pretty unusual for him to have much of a life outside of work and his family.

[Morgan Tonaya]

With an appreciative smile in the general direction of James’ voice, Morgan sank easily down into the chair. “Thanks.” He chirped off-handedly. “I’m glad to hear you’re traveling again. Have you visited anywhere exceptionally cool yet?” Though the moment he said it, he thought a bit harder…probably not. If he wasn’t gone for very long, it was likely he was staying local.

Oh well. Conversation was conversation. Perhaps he’d be surprised.

When James mentioned his husband’s name change, Morgan wiggled lightly in his seat. “Wow, really?!” He exclaimed, clapping a hand on his knee. “That’s great! Really great.” He gushed, sitting back again and smiling warmly. “And Niko? How’s he?”

[Dr. James Campbell]

"Not really. I've mostly been taking the recruitments that keep me close, or fast ones, where the parents or older siblings are meta." He'd become a recruiter when he didn't think he'd ever have any more kids, and Ginny didn't live with him full-time. Even when it had been just him and Chase, traveling often hadn't been much of a problem. It was a good thing he liked his job as much as he did, because otherwise it would be way too inconvenient with his home life.

Over a year ago, Morgan had acted like his and Chase's love story was like something out of a fairy tale. True love, united by chance, and all of that fun stuff. "Yeah. He did it as a surprise. Just out of nowhere, he came home with a new driver's license." Okay, James had to smile genuinely at that. It had been such a sweet gesture, and had gone over very well with his family. "It's things like that, that make him my mom's favorite son."

"He's...he's doing okay. My best friend is actually a child psychiatrist, and he's helping him a lot." But Nikki was actually doing really well, considering. And if he was a little more clingy than he use to be, well, so were Chase and James. "And the final paperwork is going through. We're adopting him, for good." Everyone knew that they were headed there, but James hadn't really been talking about it much. Later, when it was completed, they were going to have a party or something, to celebrate.