Legal Stuff: I don't know NSYNC or any other celebrity mentioned. While real people are the basis of characters, they are characters here and do not represent the real lives, thoughts, or feelings of the real people. Again, these are characters based on them, not the real people themselves. If you are too young, or live in a location where it is illegal to read stories that include love between men, read no further! Like that would have ever stopped me...
Warning: For those of you who do not like cliffhangers or drama, wait until the next chapter is posted tomorrow before reading this one.
It's Never Easy Chapter 12
January passed by in a blur of activity. Nathan's drug tests came back, affirming everything he'd told us, and subsequent testing revealed that he was at least initially complying with our conditions. We met with the Assistant District Attorney who was handling his case, and got him to agree to Nathan being processed as a minor. This kept the record sealed and ensured it would be sealed permanently when he turned 18. His license was suspended until he reached 18 and he received 50 hours of community service that he spent at a teen shelter in town.
He was tremendously bummed out by not having his license. We even put his jeep in storage so he wouldn't be tempted to drive it around. Both James and I were very firm though and wouldn't even let him near the driver's seat on our own vehicles. We ended up paying for a driver to take him around.
Yes, the story did eventually leak to the press, and they tried to run with it. The conservatives even tried the old war drum of how we were corrupting him and tried to make this an example of the unfitness of gay couples to raise kids. They lost steam though when the details of our punishment of Nathan was revealed, and comparisons were made to how the Bush's handled their daughters transgressions.
People actually thought we were being too tough on Nathan, and that the conservatives were too soft on their own kids. A nice role reversal, especially when I appeared on a talk show and said "I have proof that Nathan hasn't touched alcohol or drugs since this incident. Can you say the same for your kids?" Of course his oldest son was in jail for drug dealing and his youngest was well known as a leader of the movement to legalize marijuana.
Debate over, we win.
Keith, the young actor from my show that had taken Nathan with him to the party was a different story. He vehemently denied using drugs, even though he had been arrested with a small amount of pot on him. Nathan admitted that Keith had been supplying him with drugs and encouraging him to use them. The Studio and I agreed on how to handle the matter, and ordered Keith to take a drug test in compliance with his contract.
He refused. The next episode filmed was his last and people were shocked at his death scene. He tried to sue, but no lawyer would take his case. There was a firm "No Drugs" policy in his contract. Nathan was suspended for two weeks from the set because he'd complied with the Studio's directions instead of fighting them like Keith did (remember, Nathan is an unpaid intern, but still has a contract).
Tyler, Kali, Jordan, and Cindy slowly settled into our daily routine. The governess we hired for the youngest helped Nanny and Grandma keep track of them during the day and helped make sure the older kids got their homework done. Tyler and Kali made friends at school and our home was often the site of weekend slumber parties with twenty or so kids running around.
Poor Justin got mobbed every time he came home on the weekends. I don't think he minded too much because I noticed he started spending more time home on the weekends. William was hardly to be seen except for when he came home at night and at breakfast. While the tabloids had him dating three or four young ladies on campus, he never brought any of them home. His security team was so deft at remaining hidden that we barely noticed their presence.
Work was hard. I was still spending twelve to twenty hours a day working and my time with the family was minimal at best. James was busy as well, working with a new Russian media company that was filming in the states. Remember the Russian executive I met when James and I first came to Hollywood? He was the CEO of this new company and had insisted on working with Free Lance. I spent a lot of time on the phone with him on behalf of James.
Free Lance kept expanding until now James had two managers working under him, twelve staff agents, and about forty support people as well. Revenue from the company was now exceeding anything he'd made with NSYNC. Of his band mates, only Justin close to equaling his income, although Josh came in a close second from his songwriting.
Towards the end of the month, we finalized plans for our March trip to Russia. Filming would take place over two weeks, and our family would be staying for three total (no, William was staying in LA). Most of the filming was taking place in Moscow, with two scenes in St. Petersburg. All the permits were arranged and processed for our filming. After much discussion, we decided the entire family would go with us, except Nanny and Grandma. Neither of them wanted to visit Russia.
Since all the kids would be missing school, we hired a local Russian woman to act as interpreter, guide, babysitter, and tutor for them. She was fluent in Russian and English and I had many conversations with her before we were set to leave. She was meticulous enough to correct my grammar a few times so I ended up hiring a Russian tutor for a few hours each week to refresh my understanding of the language.
Nanny and Grandma meanwhile focused on our wedding plans. In fact, getting James and I hitched was fast becoming the focus of their daily lives. As Nanny said, she was getting older and wanted to make sure I was married off before she croaked. I shuddered at the thought and prayed she lived to be a hundred and forty.
They had gotten us to finally set a date for the twentieth of August. The location was going to be Toronto, Canada, and the first guest list they were compiling was up to 2,000 people. I shuddered and had numerous conversations with James about just eloping.
The bastard was on their side.
According to the information they found out from Canada, we could get a marriage license there no problem, even if we didn't live in Canada. The bare minimum was that the marriage had to be performed by a licensed person and that two witnesses had to sign. They found a minister from Canada who insisted on being the person to perform our wedding, and Prince Charles insisted that he would be one of the witnesses. As a side note, he mentioned that he'd already spoken to the Prime Minister about the fact that he would be attending our wedding, and the Prime Minister had insisted on attending as well. He'd be the other witness to sign our wedding certificate.
I couldn't help but rub my hands in glee at the thought of two gay men having their wedding license signed by the head of state for Canada and the crown prince of England. The collective gasps of a few million conservatives were going to be so loud we would probably here it from our honeymoon location (James was in charge of that and refused to tell me where we were going).
As we got closer and closer to the Russia trip, I began to notice how much my relationship with James was changing. First, even though we both worked very long hours, we still ended up in the same bed together almost every night. There were a few times he would make trips across the country, but they never lasted for more than two days. The kids were definitely demanding of what little free time we had, but we were being supported in our raising of them by Nathan, William, Nanny, Grandma, Carmen, and Alicia (their governess). When I was working my 20 hour days, I'd usually miss seeing them, but always tried to make time for them at the studio when I knew I wouldn't be home. That seemed to help, and James was also a constant visitor, even if he just stopped by for a quick lunch, a hug and a kiss.
Those small moments together were ten times better than a two-hour phone call with him across the country. We even managed to get one weekend each month that we would all pack up and go to the Phoenix house for a vacation. During the winter, the weather in Phoenix was absolutely wonderful and we got to see some of my old friends. More importantly, Nathan would get to visit his mother's grave, and see some of his old friends.
The first time we went, I thought it would be bad for him. However, it turned out to be very helpful for him. It reminded him of where he came from, and what was important in his life. His tutor said that after the first trip, Nathan's work on his lessons improved. It was after the second trip that he announced he wanted to spend his senior year of school at a regular high school (albeit a private high school). James and I immediately agreed. He was coming more out of the shell he'd gone into after the Florida incident and was returning to his old self.
It was also during this time that Kelly and Joey announced that Briana would soon have a little sister, and that they were going to get married. Briana spent a lot of time over the house with our kids and was very much a part of the family. We were all very happy, and even happier that they planned the date for early July.
Manuel had been becoming more and more distant from us over the winter, and we found out why in February. There were problems at his work, and it became very evident during post-production of an episode that they were stretched too thin. The owner had over committed himself while not hiring enough new staff to handle the additional workload. They ignored Manuel's demands for new staff and fired him when things got rough. After they fired him, things went to hell and we nearly missed the deadline for two shows, and the graphics that were done were of extremely poor quality.
Manuel borrowed $3 million from Josh, leased the heavy-duty computers needed, and rolled out a new software program he'd been writing over the last year. I convinced the studio to dissolve the contract with his old company and contract with the new company he was forming. He hired five employees and immediately fixed the problematic episodes, then got the next three done in record time and with excellent quality.
Korvan liked his work so much they immediately contracted with him for two other shows and a movie. Within a month of establishing his company, he was able to meet payroll and pay Josh back 40% of his loan. They celebrated by having a very, very private union ceremony and declaring themselves domestic partners with the state. Despite all our efforts, the tabloids still got pictures and printed them.
Manuel's mom called and demanded they have another ceremony so she could attend.
It was the morning before the day we left for Russia that Chris surprised all of us tremendously. I had woken up early and was heading downstairs when the door to Chris' room opened and a guy stepped out. I did a double take at first because while the guy was as short as Chris, he wasn't as well built. On closer examination, I also realized I knew this guy.
"Drew!" I exclaimed, surprised as hell to seen my old Navy buddy.
"Young!" Drew replied, also surprised. We gave each other a quick hug and stepped back to look at each other. Drew was 5'2", about 115 pounds, with reddish-blond hair and thick eyebrows. His hair hadn't changed much, and neither had his figure. He was still quite good looking, and I distinctly remembered a very nice package from the one time we'd gotten together.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" I asked him, totally surprised still. I hadn't seen him in over ten years!
"I should be asking you the same, but I seem to remember you shacking up with one of those boy band guys." Drew replied.
"Uh, Drew, this is my house." I said, staring at him in bewilderment.
"Shit." I heard from Chris' doorway and looked up to see NSYNC's oldest member standing there dressed in a pair of jeans and an old t-shirt. "What are the fucking odds?"
"You mean this isn't your house?" Drew asked Chris. "No, I told you it was a band mate's and his fiancée." Chris said.
"You finally getting hitched, eh?" Drew said to me with an evil smile. "Do they have any idea what a slut you are? I mean you slept with half the ship before you seduced me."
"Hey!" I exclaimed. "I seem to remember that the only reason we didn't hook up sooner was that you were busy with the other half of the crew!"
"Bastard." Drew said with a grin, slugging my arm. That's when I wondered what he was doing here, coming out of Chris' room at four in the morning.
Coming out. Oh shit.
"Well, let's get you home." Chris said suddenly as he looked at my face. He grabbed Drew's arm and pushed him towards the stairs.
"Wait a minute." I said firmly. Chris stopped, and turned around, his face blushing.
"Davey, please." He murmured.
"Well, that confirms it." I said, smiling. "Make sure you have Drew's number so that I can get back in touch with him when we return."
"I've already got it." Chris murmured, and Drew laughed.
"I sure hope so since we've been fucking for two months now." Drew said, and I couldn't help but smile as Chris groaned.
"Don't worry, Chris." I said. "I won't give you a bad time, but I expect to hear the whole story later."
"Okay Davey." Chris said, hanging his head as he walked Drew out.
"And next time Drew can stay for breakfast!" I said a little too loudly. I suddenly felt a little horny so I went back into my bedroom to see if I could wake up James with my mouth wrapped around his pride and joy. None of the kids had climbed into our bed the night before so we were alone.
James was already awake, sitting on the edge of our bed and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He smiled as I walked in and pulled me to him when I got close enough. He nuzzled my neck for a moment before speaking.
"Who were you speaking to out there?" he asked me.
"Oh, an old Navy buddy of mine that Chris picked up last night." I said casually. He nodded, and then stopped suddenly, eyes wide, staring at me.
"Chris didn't..." He whispered, shock evident on his face.
"I don't know, but Drew was a bigger slut than I ever was." I told him honestly. James just started chuckling and fell back on the bed. I noticed that his penis was twitching at the thought of Chris and a guy going at it together. Hell, that had gotten me horny as well.
That session of lovemaking was hot, heavy, and more about lust than love. That's okay though. We made love a lot. Every now and then it was good to let out the passion though and just get wild. Hell, we didn't even notice Justin come in until he'd been there for fifteen minutes, rubbing himself through the sweat pants he wore. He noticed me looking at him though, and quickly disappeared back into the hallway.
I'd forgotten to lock the door. Luckily, none of the kids bothered us. Nor did either grandmother come in to check on us. Justin warned them after he got done in the bathroom. Some months later, Justin admitted that he'd been curious about two guys doing it for a while and was surprised at how erotic our sex had been that day. He didn't really want to try anything with a guy, but watching us go at it satisfied most of his curiosity.
At least there were still two NYSNC men dedicated to women. More than likely there were two who played on both sides of the fence, and one who played exclusively in my ballpark. Actually, what did it matter? It's not like they were still making records.
James and I missed breakfast that morning, and had to endure a lot of knowing smiles. Even Tyler got in on the act and just smirked at us. The day was a hectic one. I spent most of the morning and all of the afternoon at the studios, getting set components packed, verifying cameras were packed and labeled correctly.
We were taking about 100 people with us and had negotiated a special flight on Aeroflot, the Russian airline. No studio execs were going, which surprised me tremendously. Basically, this was my gig and I was going to be running everything while we were in Russia.
The night was finishing my own packing at home, followed by checking the packing of all the kids. I'd talked to the pediatrician, who'd given us some liquid medicine that would act to settle them all down for the flight while not posing any real harm to them like a sleeping pill would.
Nathan got a sleeping pill before the flight even took off.
Everyone in first-class except for one lone businessman was part of the show's cast or family. Many of the passengers closest to the first-class section were our crewmembers and whatever family members they were bringing.
No, the Studio was NOT paying for family members on this trip. That was coming out of our own pockets.
As we passed Hawaii on our flight west, I noticed the lone passenger in first-class that was not part of our show had only spoken to the stewardess. He was sitting across the aisle from me, and I clearly heard him speaking to her in Russian. I realized at that point that he probably didn't speak much English.
Sure enough, after I'd started speaking to him in Russian, I quickly learned that he was a businessman who had been traveling to Mexico. He spoke Russian and Spanish, but very little English. We talked for a long while, and he ended up helping me brush up even more on my spoken Russian. By the time we crossed over into darkness, we'd been talking for a good four hours.
Tyler had come up to sit my lap and stared as we talked. I'd been teaching him a tiny bit of Russian over the last few months whenever I could, but what happened as the businessman prepared to sleep surprised me. Tyler started speaking to me in almost complete sentences in Russian.
We talked for another two hours in a mixture of English and Russian and I was surprised at how quickly picking up the language came to him. Young kids were naturally good at picking up new languages, but Tyler was phenomenal. Even the stewardess commented on how good his Russian was after a few hours. He glowed under the praise and I made a mental note to enroll him in a Russian program when we got back.
Of course by then he was already speaking it like a native. The only thing he had to build on was a bigger vocabulary and the more advanced grammar rules. I ended up hiring a private tutor for him.
Tyler slept in my lap for most of the remainder of the flight. The refueling stop on Novgogrod saw the businessman leave and he whispered a farewell to me over the sleeping Tyler. Tyler groaned as the plane took off again, but remained asleep. He eventually went back to his own seat as they served breakfast. James and I checked on each of the kids before eating our own. Little Cindy was throwing her nose up at the distinctively Russian breakfast, but the stewardess managed to get her to eat.
While it was airline food, it was at least edible.
When the plane landed a few hours later, in late afternoon local time, I was surprised to find we had a welcoming committee. There were four militsia waiting for us, and their leader was a senior colonel if I remembered their rank insignias correctly. Militsia are the equivalent of our police forces. Behind them, another twenty uniformed militsia held back a crowd of reporters and onlookers who shouted questions in both Russian and English.
The friendly colonel greeted us in English and escorted us through customs. No, the Soviet era interrogations at Customs were a thing of the past, and we were practically waived through after they stamped our passports and visas. There were more reporters waiting as we exited the customs area and entered Sherevmetrea airport itself. I couldn't help but smile remembering a video from my first course in Russian back in college. It was filmed at the exact same section of the airport and there was almost no difference between the current version of the airport, and the video from ten years ago.
The colonel politely asked if I would be willing to speak to the reporters for a few minutes while the transportation was being brought up to the terminal and I agreed. I stepped forward, followed closely by James. Tyler was at my side as well, while James held Jordan and Cindy. Nathan was at his side with Kaliann in his arms.
"Good Morning." I began in Russian. "I am David Danilovich Young and am happy to be here in Moscow and hope that you can understand my poor Russian."
Several reporters laughed at my small joke. One of them even shouted out that my Russian was pretty good...for an American. Then a few of them shouted questions, which I amiably answered in Russian. The Colonel stood next to us in case I needed help with translations, but I was able to understand their questions reasonably well.
They asked all sorts of questions including how long we'd be filming, if we would be doing any sightseeing. They also asked me to introduce James and our family. I was pleasantly surprised to find no overt hostility towards a gay couple in this sampling of the media. I continued to answer some questions until the officer signaled that they were ready to leave.
The family and I rode in a limo, followed by two more limos for the actors and director. The crew rode in two buses that followed behind. Along the way, the Colonel politely pointed out points of interest to us, and I again chuckled since that had been another scene in that school video. The Colonel laughed when I told about that.
The hotel was in the Arkady district of Moscow, and we were soon checked in and heading to our room. The bellhop laughed as I commented that the elevator DID work! It had been a joke in my Russian class that elevators rarely worked in this city. The bellhop leaned in and said in broken English that yes, they did work...at least for today.
The suite we were in was beautiful, and had an even more beautiful view of a park. I loved the huge, tall windows with upraised shelves that you could sit on as you looked out. The kids loved them as well, and my heart skipped for a moment when Cindy tried to open one and I realized there was no screen to keep them from falling. I pulled her off of the ledge and gave her a stern lecture about not opening the window.
She stared at me blankly until I realized I was speaking to her in Russian and switched back to English. James was just laughing at me. Tyler was translating for the rest of the kids.
About fifteen minutes later, two people knocked at the door. The first was a young woman in her early twenties. Tatiana Stepanova Kulicha was the young lady that would be acting as babysitter/tutor for the kids. We introduced her to the kids in English, and she was quite fluent in talking to them. Tyler spoke to her in very broken Russian, and seemed to blossom as she praised him on his Russian. Over the next few weeks, she talked to him in Russian more and more each day, and he soaked it up like a sponge. Before we left the country, he was speaking and reading Russian on a level par to young Russians his own age.
Yes, Tyler was revealing himself to be a natural when it comes to learning foreign languages. I learned later that he was quite fluent in Spanish already from picking it up in North Carolina and at his new school. Russian was to be a part of their study while they were here, and all the kids picked up the language to one extent or another, but Tyler by far outshone all of them in his fluency. From the moment Tatiana arrived, he spoke almost no English to her or to me. He reserved English for James and occasionally Nathan.
Poor Nathan, being outdone by a 7 year old! He struggled so hard with the language trying to keep up and that only fueled a new determination in him to keep up with Tyler. He almost did, too, except he ran into the same problem I had with the case declensions of nouns and adjectives (don't ask unless you want to ready a fourteen page dissertation).
The other person at the door had introduced himself as Sergei Illianovich Putin. It turns out he was a distant relative of the Russian President and had been assigned as our interpreter and guide. I had no doubt he also worked for the FSB (the current incarnation of the KGB), but didn't mind since he was a pleasant, and handsome young man.
In fact, James was looking decidedly uncomfortable with the fact that this man was so good looking. While I did find Russian men attractive, none of them could be so attractive that I'd cheat on my James. I would just have to make extra sure HE realized that truth.
An hour or so later, most of the lead crew and actors arrived at the suite and we began to plan out our scheduling. Most of the next day would be taken up with the lead crew and I driving to the various locations we wanted to shoot, verifying angles, lighting, etc. and also working with local police leaders on crowd control and traffic control. The cast would have the day off and go sightseeing while the junior crewmembers met with and trained local help on what they would be doing. Then we'd begin shooting the next day.
With our body clocks still messed up, we followed our guide after the meeting to a local restaurant. That did it for me. I became convinced at that point that my Russian teacher had been very, very good because the conversation at the table pretty much matched a dialogue we'd had to do about ordering food in a Russian restaurant, right down to the it's highway robbery!' Sergei exclaimed on seeing the check. I responded straight from the dialogue telling him such is life, I will pay.'
Tyler had snuck away at one point to use the restroom and returned with a new friend. The boy was the same age as him, and Tyler was doing his best to speak to him in Russian. The boy was trying to speak in English, but was barely understandable. We finally agreed that Tyler could meet up with him later in the week at the nearby park and the boy left the table excitedly. Tyler just smiled.
I was going to have a lot of gray hair once that boy hit puberty. If he was straight, I'd lay awake at night sweating about him getting some girl pregnant. If he was gay I'd be worried about other things. If he was bi...I'd just shoot myself and put me out of the misery because there'd be too much to worry about.
For the evening, James took everyone for a walk through the park while I went to record an interview with a local television station. This was part of the package we'd negotiated with their government. We'd do a lot of press relations while we were here and the government gave us interpreters for free, transportation at a reduced cost, and charged us lower fees for the permits. They needed better relations with the United States and this was part of their plan to achieve it.
Of course being so nice to a producer who was hated by the US government wouldn't necessarily do that, but it would improve the US image to the Russian people, which was a necessary effort of their current political situation. That's politics though: leverage, leverage, leverage.
The interview was mostly in Russian, although there were several sentences I had to ask Sergei to translate for me. He smiled and translated very professionally. We even worked out a system for him to warn me non-verbally if I was making any verbal faux pas in my speaking. He only had to do that once, thank god.
The interviewer was very pleasant, and seemed very surprised at my determination to answer questions in Russian. I was determined to speak in Russian all I could. Remember, if you're in a foreign country and know the language (no matter to what extent), it is only polite to speak that language as much as you can (unless it's France then you shouldn't speak at all).
After the interview, I had Sergei stop the driver at a local bar, and we went inside for a few rounds of vodka. Fortunately, I remembered the rule about Americans not trying to out drink Russians and cut it off after five rounds of shots. I did learn some interesting bits of information though.
The Studio had captioned the show with Russian subtitles a few months ago and was now showing the first season in some of Russia's major markets. Our ratings had been phenomenal, in part because Russia played a major role as part of the `good guys' in the series. Sergei informed me that the episodes were even more popular in the Russian underground and among the young people. He also informed me that it was sparking a renewed interest in space programs and that many younger kids were now wanting to be cosmonauts than in previous years.
Talk about a swelled head. I had a big one, but James popped it with a quick sniff as I returned to the hotel near midnight local time. He'd given the kids a little of the medicine the doctor gave us for the flight in order to get their sleep schedules in sync with our new time zone. He may not have liked the fact that I'd gone drinking without him, but he didn't mind how horny it had made me.
The next day was a total mess. I spent more time than I had planned visiting each site and working with the director (Rupert once again) on how we were going to set up the shots. I'd requested permission to shoot inside a part of the Kremlin, and had originally had approval, but a sore-toothed bureaucrat changed that. Sergei made some phone calls, and confirmed for me that he was a relative of the President when someone higher up in the chain overruled the bureaucrat.
Then there was the problem of some construction changes to certain areas. I definitely did NOT want the large golden arches of McDonalds in a shot, but we couldn't figure another angle to shoot it from that would still work. Rupert finally gave up and said we could take it out later digitally. It was way past dark by the time I returned to the hotel, and we were late going for dinner. That meant the kids were grumpy at least until they ate. Then they became chatterboxes telling us all about their day with Tatiana. James had spent the time meeting with his Russian partners about their projects that had filmed in the United States.
We began filming the next day, and I had to admit that things were going very damn good. The Russians we'd hired, as extras and crew were very well motivated and did their best. Most even spoke pretty good English. We were paying them US scale wages by an agreement with the unions back home. That meant they were earning each hour the equivalent of two weeks of normal pay for them.
We'd managed to get a very experienced crew, and damn good extras as well. Rupert was ecstatic at how well things were going by the time we wrapped for the day. I had another television interview that night and I spent a lot of time congratulating the skill and work ethic of the Russian members of the crew.
By the end of the second week, we were all done with filming every scene in Moscow and in St. Petersburg. In fact, we finished a day early and spent the last day doing landscape shots we could use as filler material if necessary. Most of the crew went home at that point, but we were staying.
The first free day, I spent the morning with James on a tour of the inside of the Kremlin, and we even met President Putin for about 10 minutes. He spoke excellent English, so that was the language we used after the initial greetings. He invited us to dinner the next night, and James immediately agreed. Then we went back to the hotel, got the kids and visited Gorky Park. That night, Tatiana watched the kids while James and I attended the Bolshoi Theatre. I'd never been a fan of ballet, but it was something I'd always wanted to do if we visited Russia.
The next day we all went for a ride on the famous Moscow Metro (Subway). We visited many of the most famous sites Moscow had to offer, taking both Tatiana and Sergei with us. By the time we finished dinner with the Russian President, the kids were exhausted and they went to bed by 9. Tatiana stayed with them while James and I took Nathan to a club. We all danced the night away, and we even let Nathan have a few shots of vodka with us.
He met one of the extras who had filmed with us there and begged us to let him take the young man home. The guy was eighteen, but in this country, Nathan was over the age of consent, so we let him. After that, the two quickly became inseparable, and Nathan began to catch up to Tyler on his understanding of Russian.
Our last full day in Moscow dawned blustery and cold. The morning was spent going on one last tour, this time of a Russian school. Tyler had a blast talking to Russian kids his own age about life in America. He even gave most of his speech in Russian. Tatiana stood behind him practically beaming with how well he spoke. Nathan had begged us to let him spend the day with Misha, his new boyfriend. Like I said earlier, Misha was eighteen, about 5'7, extremely lean with bright blond hair and green eyes.
If I was five years younger...who am I kidding? The only thing that stopped me from chasing Misha myself was the fact that James existed in my world. James was more important to me than a hundred Mishas.
That was why Misha was showing Nathan around his home in the north of Moscow instead of being with us. After a warm lunch at the school, and a crying bout when Cindy was told she couldn't keep a darling little puppy that she found, we began to head towards our last stop, the Space Museum. Both James and I were extremely interested in this exhibit that included several Russian capsules. While James and Tatiana were watching the kids play with an interactive exhibit, Sergei came up to me and introduced a strange person wearing the uniform of the FSB.
"Mr. Young" the newcomer who Sergei introduced as Ivan Ahmedovich said to me. "I am sorry sir, but there is a problem with your oldest son. Could you please accompany me?"
"Yes," I said, my stomach dropping to the floor immediately. I went and told James that I had something I had to take care of, and followed Ivan outside. Sergei was walking beside me. Ivan stopped in front of a non-descript cream Lada (Russian car) and motioned for us to get in. Sergei stopped, staring at the car with furrowed eyebrows and as I turned to look at him I heard a very familiar sound.
Even with a silencer attached, guns make certain noises. I could feel the passage of the bullet and winced as blood sprayed from Sergei's chest. My reaction was fast. I dropped to the ground and swung my legs out in a sweeping kick at Ivan's feet. He dropped to the ground, and he also dropped the silencer-equipped pistol he had used to shoot Sergei. I scrambled for it, but just as my hand reached it, a boot crushed the hand to the ground and the cold steel of a gun barrel made itself felt against my temple.
"Please, Mr. Young," Another voice said in accented Russian. "You will get in the vehicle quietly and not cause any trouble. If you do not, you will die, followed shortly after by those beautiful kids you have."
I pulled my hand back and climbed to my feet. An angry Ivan Ahmedovich got to his feet and recovered his gun before following me into the backseat of the car. The other man got in, his dark arab features framing the eyes of a fanatic. The vehicle drove off and was soon lost in traffic, long before the first siren could be heard from approaching police cars.
Another hour later, I found myself in a basement somewhere, blindfolded, stripped nude, and tied to a bed. I mentally kicked myself for not recognizing the trouble as soon as Sergei had introduced the newcomer. I only hoped his ruse about Nathan really was a ruse. I should never have fallen for this! The fucker's name should have been more than enough warning for me.
Ivan Ahmedovich. Ivan, son of Ahmed.
"Please, God," I prayed. "Please let James, Nathan, Tyler, Kali, Jordan, and Cindy all by okay. Please, I ask nothing for me, but let them be okay."
"It is good to see a man penitent." A new voice said, and I shuddered as I recognized the speaker's voice. "I think we will achieve great things together, nephew, once you renounce your sins and accept Jesus."
It was too bad they had replaced the ropes tying me to the bed with chains. As it was, I did get one leg free before Uncle Phil fled the room and one of the Arabic men came in to subdue me. He shoved a needle in my arm while dodging my kicking foot and blackness soon rushed up to claim me.
Got ya! You thought it was NATHAN in trouble this time, didn't ya! It will be a few weeks before the next chapter is out because I'm really busy.
Just kidding. I won't post this chapter until the next one is ready to go. Look for it after tomorrow's update.
I'm mean, but not that mean.
Before you send me an e-mail saying "this could never happen" I suggest your wait for the author's note at the end of the next chapter.