Disclaimer: I do not know nor do I claim to know Jake Gyllenhaal, nor do I know or claim to know any other celebrities that may wander through these pages, and I do not know or therefore mean to imply any knowledge of their personal lives or their sexual preferences. This is a work of fiction. The character of Michael is my own creation, and therefore any use of him outside of this story cannot be done without first gaining my permission. If you are under 18 years of age, or it is illegal to be reading this where you live, or you are bothered by the prospect of a homo- erotic relationship between two men, then you had better go find something else to read on another web-site.
Okay, so it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, first things first.....Happy Birthday Peter! (March 7th). It occurred to me while I was writing this chapter that the 1 year Anniversary of Michael and Jake was approaching....One whole year...Alot has happened in that time....I want to take a quick moment to give a shout-out to a few other writers whose work I deeply respect. Avy, the author of Jake's Cowboy, Christopher, the author of Breaking Through, and finally, Tyler Peel, the author of The Road Home, which can be read in its entirety at www.tylerpeel.closettales.org If you haven't yet checked this story out, I suggest you do...Something else to check out is Avy's site, The Gyllenhaal Chronicles at http://groups.msn.com/TheGyllenhaalChronicles/
Now, I'm sure that alot of people are going to read this chapter and say "What the fuck?" but I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, so, that being said, on with the story.....
Jake's POV
Let me just start things off here by saying I hate hospitals, and I really hate them when the man I love is laying in a hospital bed and I know that it's all my fault... Perhaps I should explain how things got to this point....
At first I was afraid that Michael would have regrets and second thoughts about our being together, but there were none, and I was glad that I was his first lover. Of course he had to get up early and head in to the studio, but I met him after work and we took the dogs for a nice long walk in the park and I told him about my visit with my parents. They were both looking forward to meeting him when he flew out to The Coast for the Emmy's at the end of the month. Truth be told, I was looking forward to it myself, being able to introduce my parents to the man I hoped to spend the rest of my life with.
Oh my god!! His house!!! I've never seen anything like it! It's positively huge! After he took me on a tour, I could see why Maggie wanted the third floor space! And all that property! I told him he should have his dad build a tree house or something along those lines for the twins....I even know the perfect tree, an old weeping willow....The Hayes family came in and spent all day Friday and part of Saturday removing the contents of the house, minus the marble mantel-pieces and the chandeliers, and on the following Monday, Michael went up to Albany to verify his winning lottery ticket and field questions from the press, which he handled like a pro.
As promised, he managed to get Maggie, Peter, and myself an "all access behind the scene's" tour of the studios where 'Another Life' was filmed. Speaking of the studios, it seemed to happen almost overnight, the amount of mail that was received on a daily basis quadrupled, the majority of it being for Michael from people wanting him to "invest" in some new venture or another.
Another thing that Michael did was begin working on his house. One of the first things he did was to re-enforce the fence surrounding the property, and add a locked mail box and another larger, separate, box that was divided in half for packages and which actually needed a separate key to open it, so if when one went to check their mail, there was a key in their box in addition to their regular mail, they knew that they had a package. After that Michael spent alot of time working with his dad to find the right contractor to head the renovations on his new home....
I had to fly back out to San Francisco to shoot some pick-up scene's for 'Zodiac', and also do some pre-production work for another film I was scheduled to start working on later in the year called 'Rendition', which was teaming me up with Peter and Reese Witherspoon, so Peter came along too. While I was out West, Michael put in several appearances at meet and greets, all of which Maggie some- how managed to attend, for which I am eternally grateful. I also pitched Paul's idea for Michael's agent to be approached regarding a chance to audition for both 'Inferno' and 'Obsession', only to be told that an offer had already been made, and turned down, which I found odd, as when Michael read the scripts, he didn't even mention either offer, which I mentioned to Jerry, who thought it was weird, and we both agreed to do a bit of digging to find out what was going on. As it turned out, Michael's agent had received a total of eight offers over the past couple of years, and had turned each one down, giving the same excuse each time, that the producers of 'Another Life' wouldn't give Michael any time off for outside projects. One of the parts had been actually been a small part in Zodiac, which I was surprised to learn.
A couple of weeks before the Emmy's I talked Michael into a weekend trip out to L.A. to meet with the producers of 'Inferno' and 'Obsession' just to do a quick read, and by the time we flew back on Monday afternoon, Michael had been made and accepted offers for roles in both films, and also been made aware of what his agent had been doing. Naturally he was pissed! While in L.A., he met with a bright, new, up-and-coming agent named Andine Perretti, a dynamic young woman our age, who's hair was more often than not, as colorful as her personality.
As was typical, all of the Soaps' studios were "dark" during Emmy week, and so on the Friday and Saturday nights beforehand, Michael was busy filming a complicated location shoot. He wouldn't tell me anything about it other than to say that he had spent Friday and Saturday in the studio filming his final scenes to wrap things up so that he would be able to leave the show for the six month shooting schedule that was needed to complete both films, and that I would just have to watch on May 26th if I wanted to know what happened.
My mom fell in love with Michael the minute she met him, and quite often during the week before the Emmy's, if he wasn't at a personal appearance, he was walking on the beach with Naomi, or talking "shop" with my dad. Michael picked up his fifth Emmy that Friday night, his first for Lead Actor, and in a rather ugly and heated confrontation at a post-Awards show party, he fired his agent.
Production on 'Inferno' officially began on Monday, May 1st with a cast meeting and a read through of the script. Shane was late, and right away made a smartass comment about the difference between "Soap Stars" and "Real Actors", to which Michael replied that if Shane ever needed help memorizing his lines, he would be more than happy to give Shane some pointers. On the set, Michael was nothing but professional. He knew his character inside and out, and knew his lines cold, something which caused Shane to view him with a new sense of respect.
It came as no surprise that the daily lunch break coincided with the airing of 'Another Life', which Michael refused to watch. Most of the month of May was leading up to the anniversary of the fictional town's founding as well as the show's own Fortieth Anniversary.
May 26th finally rolled around. The "Anniversary" had been playing out all week as a "single" day, and at some point during the "day", it had begun to rain. Usually, Michael would eat lunch out in the commissary with all the rest of us, his back turned toward the TV where the show was airing, but not that day. On that particular day, he filled a plate and gave me a sad smile before heading back to his trailer. Paul and Shane gave me a "what's up?" look, but I just shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. Whatever was going to happen today, he didn't even want to be out with the rest of us when it happened.
I was beginning to think that Michael had been joking about a "life-altering event", as it was down to the last few minutes of that day's show, and all that was going on was a nice pleasant chat between the twins. His Blake character had had too much to drink, so his Justin character was driving them both home, and as they drove along, they talked about how much better their lives were for having each other in their lives, when out of nowhere, another vehicle, unable to slow down on the wet pavement as it came off of a side road, hit them on the driver's side, and forced them off the road and into a tree. Due to the impact, there was alot of flying glass, and the show ended with a freeze-frame view through the cracked windshield of the interior of the mangled sports car. Justin was lying slumped against the steering wheel, his face hidden from view, and Blake was lying back against the passenger seat, a small cut on his forehead while a broken car horn blared in the back ground, and the picture faded to black.
The first thing I became aware of was Shane's quietly muttered, "Holy shit..." I got up from the table and made my way over to Michael's trailer and quietly knocked on the door. It opened several seconds later, and he stood back to let me enter. The closing credits and music from 'Another Life' were coming from the small TV in the corner.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah....It's just...hard, ya know? I created Justin, and then Blake. Justin has been a part of me for ten years, and, I don't know....It's just going to be so weird to not be playing that character any more, ever again."
"You mean.....?"
"No, Justin is not dead, and neither is Blake, but the next time that they actually show Justin, he's going to look like the Mummy."
"Aahh," I said in understanding.
"Yeah. I spent that last Saturday in the studio in a hospital bed pretending to be in a coma while everyone in my family sat by the bed and talked to me. I liked being able to pre-tape scenes so that I'll still be on air occasionally until I get done here and can get back home and get back into the studio."
Sure enough, when the show picked up on the following Monday, the action switched over to the hospital E.R. where Justin was immediately taken into surgery after it was deemed that his condition was stable enough. By this time the whole family had arrived, and Michael kept refusing to be treated until he knew the outcome of his twins operation. Finally at the end of the show, the Doctor came out and delivered the news that although they were able to save Justin's life, there was too much damage to his facial sub-structure, and therefore, he would never look the same again. As a result if the accident, Blake and Justin would no longer be identical twins. They were going to do everything possible to ensure that Justin got the best possible plastic surgeons available, but the fact remained the same, Blake and Justin would never look exactly the same ever again. The news proved to be too much for Blake to handle, and he cried out, one hand clutching at his forehead, the other flailing wildly before he collapsed on the floor, the apparent victim of a stroke.....So while the viewers had a chance to get used to a "New" Justin, Blake languished in a coma up in the I.C.U.
Eventually school let out for the summer, and Michael's parents brought the twins for a visit. Michael was never happier than when he was around his children. I have to admit they were quickly finding a spot in my heart as well. They had a great time too, between Disneyland and every other place that we took them. And then they headed back home, and Michael was in a better frame of mind. They visited twice more over the summer, and it was enough to get Michael through things. After their last visit, Michael told me something that had been on his mind with increasing frequency. He wanted to start the paperwork to make things official. He wanted to know if I would feel comfortable being named as legal guardian of the twins in the event he was no longer around to be able to raise them. It never occurred to me not to say no! So we started the paperwork.
We were walking the dogs on the beach one afternoon in September when someone called Michael's name. We both turned to see a guy walking towards us. He was probably a couple years older than us, about my height, with close cropped dark blond hair and brown eyes. Good looking with a nice build. I came out of my reverie to hear Michael addressing the stranger.....
"Lucien?"
"Yup, in the flesh!"
"What are you doing here? Jake! This is Lucien Butterworth! He and I went to school together!"
"Actually it's Luc Worth now. I changed it."
"Wow, this is so cool! Luc was the resident 'Bad Boy' back when we were in school together. He was a couple years ahead of me. After he got expelled, he ran off to Europe and eloped with this French Girl. Is Angelique here with you?"
"Nope, not this time I'm afraid."
"Have you been back to the 'old neighborhood'? Luc's family had a house near where my new place is."
"I heard about that! You lucky son-of-a-bitch! And the lottery too!"
"My Italian great-grandmother would have said I was born under a lucky star," Michael said. "We need to get together for dinner sometime before you leave town. Give me your number and I'll call you sometime here in the next couple of days." Luc gave Michael his number and then we parted ways.
The three of us got together for dinner the night before Luc headed back East. He said he was staying in Boston and made Michael promise to give him a call when he got back to New York.
Michael continued getting mysterious phone calls. All that we were ever able to find out was that the calls were placed from a series of pre-paid cell phones, each one registered under a false name, and never activated from the same originating number. The same with the flowers. A standing order of two dozen red roses to be delivered to Michael at the studios once a week. He was starting to get kind of freaked out by the whole thing, especially after the whispered phone calls began. Michael would go and get a new number, and everything would be okay for a few days, but then the calls would start up again. It was especially bad as we were now filming 'Obsession', and a series of "accidents" started happening on the set.
'Obsession', as it turned out, was a more difficult shoot than we had anticipated. The subject matter alone guaranteed it, but we finished it, and Michael went back home to New York to spend the holidays with his family. Maggie and Peter had their first Christmas with their daughter, my niece, Ramona. She's just such an angel....
'Zodiac' came out on March 2nd, 2007. I was wrapping up work on 'Rendition' 'Inferno' was planned for a summer release, and 'Obsession' for a late fall/winter release. And all the while, Michael continued to get flowers, and increasingly frantic, whispered, phone calls. The flowers were always paid for in cash, and no one seemed to be able to recall anything about the guy who placed the order. He always wore dark glasses and a hoodie and/or a baseball cap. He was smart enough to write down the instructions, claiming to be mute, and he somehow always managed to avoid leaving any finger prints....
During Spring Break, Michael flew out to L.A. with his parents and the twins to do some promo work and photo shoots, as well as some pick-up work for 'Obsession'. It was the only scene that had not been done during the actual shoot....
The rape scene.....
Michael and Shane spent the whole morning rehearsing and blocking and working with a stunt coordinator to get every detail timed down to the last second. Finally they were ready to shoot it. The set was lit with blue lights so that everything had an almost ethereal and otherworldly quality.
The finished scene was everything it was written to be. It was brutal, it was graphic, it was animalistic, and Michael and Shane's performances were what made it real, wringing every ounce of emotion out of their characters that they could muster, and they did it in one take....
When it was done, both men had bruises that had nothing to do with the make-up department. Shane let Michael have the shower first, and when they were both done, they both begged off going out for a few drinks. Shane offered Michael a ride back to my folks' place where he was staying and he accepted.
"I'm going to go for a swim and then relax in the hot tub," he said.
"I'll be home in about an hour?" I promised.
"I'll be waiting. I love you," he said with a tired smile.
"I love you too. An hour..."
And then they left.....
An hour later, Paul and I walked into my parents house.
"So you guys are still no closer to figuring out who it is?" Paul asked
"No....Whoever he is, he's one smart son-of-a-bitch," I said as I started up the stairs. My mom was coming down. "Watch your mouth, young man," she warned with a teasing grin.
"Where's Michael? Is he upstairs?" I asked.
"No, I think he's still out in the hot tub in the poolhouse," Naomi informed me. I looked out the window on the landing and was horrified to see thick black smoke roiling above the trees where the pool house was located.
"Oh fuck! Call the fire department!" I shouted, taking the stairs three at a time. "The poolhouse is going up!"
"It's on fire?" Naomi exclaimed.
I turned back at the door. "He's in there! He's got him in there!" And then I was out the door.
Paul was right behind me as we raced across the yard and reached the poolhouse. I kicked in the front door and saw nothing but a wall of flame. Paul and I both called out his name and heard nothing but fire. I heard an ominous creaking groan. The roof was going. we ran for the doorway, but the heat drove us back. It was then that I saw him, or at least I thought I did, slumped by the far wall with the flames separating us. I pointed him out to Paul, and then coughing on the smoke we'd swallowed, we ran around the side of the building. I think I probably prayed harder in those few seconds than I ever had in my whole life. He'd almost made it. That was my first thought when I had glimpsed him through the flames just seconds ago. He was collapsed against Luc Worth near the rear door. Burning wood showered from the ceiling as I threw myself across them. I felt it hit and sear the backs of my hands and neck before I dragged Michael out onto the grass.
"In the name of God--" Naomi began as she came upon us with Maddie and Michael Sr. and my dad.
"Luc's in there," I managed. "Take care of him."
I fought the heat again, nearly giving in at what had been the doorway. Crawling along on my belly, I made my way closer, until I reached Luc Worth. I grabbed hold of his wrist. If there was a pulse, I couldn't feel it, but I dragged him back, pulling him clear. As the roof finally collapsed, I left Luc lying on the grass and rolled over onto my back to draw in air.
"Michael..." Still coughing, I crawled over to him. His face was smeared with soot. I could hear the sound of approaching sirens as he opened his eyes and looked around, his gaze darting around wildly.
"Jake. He--"
"I got him out. Don't try to talk now." He began to cough and shiver, despite the intense heat. Maddie pulled off her jacket and covered her son with it.
"He's going into shock," she said quietly. "Smoke inhalation. He needs to be in the hospital."
"I told them to send an ambulance," Naomi said. Paul stripped off his shirt and added it to Maddie's jacket.
"He's going to be alright. He's tough." Paul said looking me in the eyes.
"Yeah." I cradled his head in my lap. "Yeah."
I felt a tugging sensation on my hand and jerked awake. Michael was laying on his side facing me, his green gaze steady and un-wavering.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
"I almost lost you...When I think about what might have happened....."
"No. I don't want to think about 'what ifs' anymore. Do you know what today is?" he asked.
"Um, Sunday?"
"Buzzzzzz! Wrong Answer. Think back a year ago..."
I wracked my brain, but still drew a blank. "Sorry?"
He let out a sigh. "I guess I'm going to have to be the one in this relationship who remembers all the important dates and such. Allow me to refresh your memory. It was exactly one year ago, on this day, that we met...." he trailed off.
"Aahh, okay. I guess that's why I have this box in my pocket digging into my thigh..."
"You got me a present?"
"Well, yeah!"
"Can I see it?"
"Yeah, okay. So, I know we can't get married and all, but I still wanted you to have this, because the sentiment behind it is just the same." I pulled out a small jewelry box and flipped open the lid. Inside was a plain diamond eternity band. I took his left hand. "So, will you do me the honor and be my one true soul-mate for the rest of our lives?"
"Yes, I believe I will.....I love you, Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal."
"And I love you, Michael Valentine O'Neill-Orsini....."
"Forever?" he asked.
"Forever...." I replied, bringing his lips to mine for a tender kiss to seal the deal.....
Well, that's it for chapter nine, and before you ask, no, it's not the end of the story. Michael and Jakes story is not over, not by any means. Okay, so, what did you all think of Zodiac? I for one loved it and cannot wait for the DVD. Feedback! Us authors crave it! Please write to your favorite authors and let them know that you're reading their stories....We don't know if you're reading or not, we're not mind readers! You can email me at dnsphelps@mcsi.net Just be sure to include the story title in the subject line. I can also be reached on yahoo messenger at twains_fan_03@yahoo.com on msn messenger at twains_fan_03@hotmail.com and AIM at guyoregon8. Thanks for reading and please take the time to write....
Stephen