Disclaimers: Please see chapter 1 for all disclaimers.
If you don't belong in here, please leave when you are done. If you are looking for raw animal sex, try another story. You have been warned.
Adam stood with his back to the men. The master of ceremonies begged the crowd, "All everyone, on the count of three...1...2..3!" Adam threw the garter over his shoulder. All the hands reached for it. But when they parted, two hands firmly grasped a half of the garter each. The man with the mike announced to everyone, "Well, it looks like we have a tie. I've never seen that before." When the shouting died down, it was Aunt Lily who succinctly said it for all the family members around her to hear.
"Well, I guess Joey and Stephen will be the next two to get married."
Chapter 35
The room fell silent for a few seconds. Some people wondered if they had heard Aunt Lily correctly and some just wondered. Katie glanced nervously at Tim. After she had met Stephen for lunch, she had casually tested the waters in the family, trying to see who was receptive and who would be less enthusiastic about the news. The Parker family was quite large, so she hadn't gotten to the far branches of the family tree. But she knew that trouble was in the room. She hadn't really said anything to Tim, not wanting to draw him into the family problems, but had generally mentioned her concerns while driving to the rehearsal.
Danny was the first one to break the silence. He grinned at the big joke and said to no one in particular, "If those two are the next ones to get married, it's going to be a while before the whole family is together again.
Claire said that Stephen wasn't even dating yet, and that's why Joey was his guest."
Aunt Lily repeated her comment, not totally aware of the fireworks that she was lighting, "I meant that Stephen and Joey would be marrying each other."
Danny looked at Aunt Lily, his mind now processing the confirmation she had just given. He mumbled something under his breath about the old girl finally going senile. He shrugged, thinking nothing unusual for his aunt to go spouting off about this or that. He then turned and began walking towards Stephen to crack another joke about the whole episode when he saw in Stephen's expression something that set the alarms off in his head that told him Aunt Lily wasn't the crazy old fool everyone took her to be.
"Oh, shit," he said out loud. He continued heading to Stephen, his mind now going haywire from all the mixed messages. He heard the words Aunt Lily spoke in his head, saw the reaction on Stephen's face and quickly retrieved the memories he held for his sister who had suddenly left him two years ago without so much as a goodbye. The mixture reacted quicker than a nuclear meltdown and blew his mind higher than a volcanic eruption.
The room suddenly moved in slow motion for everyone. Stephen saw the look of mirth on Danny's face suddenly turn black with a rage that he had pent up since his sister's death. He had wanted to vent his anger on something or someone for the accident and now he was blinded by the rage of realization.
Danny saw in Stephen's look the truth that had been so carefully hidden for so many years. It explained a lot of Stephen's reserved attitude and his quietness whenever Danny would spout off some anti-gay rhetoric. Danny always wondered why Stephen wasn't his cheering section, supporting him as he did on many other things. It also made sense of many things that had been said between brother and sister, and that presented Danny the justification for what his mind told him to do.
Katie knew who would be trouble. Many of the relatives were blase about homosexuality, but she knew that Danny was one who had very clearly defined opinions about it and that they were not favorable to the relationship and love Stephen and Joey had discovered for each other.
Adam, the groom, had thrown the garter that started the chain of events only a minute ago. He was the cousin that Katie confided in the most, and although she hadn't named names, she had told him that something like this could happen at the wedding. The nervousness that he had shown at the altar was not entirely because of the vows he was about to make. He began to approach his dad, knowing his intolerance for gays did not exempt anyone in the family.
"You son of a bitch!"
Danny swung his right hand, throwing a huge roundhouse punch, aimed at Stephen. The punch was delivered with as much fury as the punch Stephen had thrown a couple of months earlier at Kevin. It had the power, but not the accuracy. The shot missed Stephen's nose, but landed squarely on his eye. The force of the blow stunned Stephen, snapping his head back. He fell straight backward, and the back of his head struck the dance floor solidly. He didn't get up. He didn't move. Everyone froze. Shock and horror were the emotions running through most of the family watching the events. Within seconds, Joey was on the floor, kneeling beside his lover.
"Stephen........... Stephen, can you hear me?" Joey voice quivered.
He put his hand under Stephen's neck and slid it up to his head to act as a pillow for Stephen. But when Stephen's head twisted to the side, Joey's palm turned up blood red.
What played in Joey's mind was the terror of ripping open old wounds from so many years ago. To walk up to the man you worship, seeing him in distress. The first time, he watched as his father rolled back and forth on the bed, trying to escape from a pain coursing through his blood. The heart attack had been so massive that he had died before the doctors in the emergency room could get him to an operating table.
The second time was even more frightening. Total stillness. Only shallow breathing. And no response to a boy who was begging for a father to answer his pleas. He couldn't see into the eyes of the man he worshiped to know that everything was alright. He needed to be inside those eyes, so that their love could pass back and forth in front of everyone. Those eyes laid closed and the body remained still as the blood began to pool on the floor under his head. Joey began crying as he was convinced that he was facing the loss of the second man in his life who had ever cared for him.
"Oh, my God." Joey wailed. "Help me. Stephen, noooo......"
"Someone call an ambulance."
In the matter of seconds that this was going on, Katie and Adam had rushed to the side of Danny. They grabbed him, pulling him away from the scene now being completed out on the floor of the ballroom. They took him to a small room off the main floor of the center. Tim had the presence of mind to run across the room to a phone hanging on the wall to dial 9-1-1. The paramedics would be there in a matter of minutes.
Joey knew that it would be too late.
Chapter 36
Joey paced the hallway of the hospital, walking back and forth, watching what was happening as nurses and doctors calmly walked in and out of the room where Stephen lay unconscious. Blood stains covered his new suit from his chest to his lap, as he had held Stephen, trying to comfort him. The stains had now dried into the suit, changing the former navy blue suit into one that showed a slightly purplish hue. He didn't care what he was wearing. He just wanted his dad back.
Tim sat on a bench in the hall, watching the caged tiger pace back and forth. He admired the dedication and devotion that Joey showed to Stephen. He reflected back to his own life. His dad had been a workaholic. He was a good man. But emotion was not one of his strong suits. Tim thought about how he wished his dad had at least gone to watch him play playground baseball or any of the other activities that he had gotten involved in to substitute for the time that he wanted from his father. Dead, divorced, or just working endless hours, a boy needs the physical presence of his father.
Tim wished that he could show the same love for his father that Joey displayed for everyone on that floor to see. All he could do was sit and watch as one of his friends waited for his world to come crashing down around him.
A doctor walked out of the room. Joey froze where he stood, thinking that the doctor was going to approach him to offer his condolences. The doctor stared right past Joey, looking down the hall for someone else that he wanted to speak to. He looked the other way to see the person from whom he wanted to request some tests. He walked away from Joey, not paying attention to the boy who was to the point of exploding. Tim got up and walked over to him. He wrapped his arm around him and carefully squeezed him into his chest. Too tight a hug might have caused Joey's head to pop off.
"Hey, guy, you've got to calm down. All the pacing and worrying is not going to change what is going on in there. You have got to have faith that the doctors will do the right thing."
Joey stared up into Tim's face, as if the words Tim was saying was an invitation to fight. He would be damned if anyone was going to stop him from thinking whatever he wanted. He had lived his own life, no one caring what he thought, and so to have a friend who was worried about him was a new experience. One Joey wasn't sure he wanted right now.
Tim was unsure about how to deal with Joey. He had already seen one fight today and he was not going to participate in the second one in less than three hours. But he was also scared to let his friend go, for fear that Joey would allow his emotions to overtake the situation and endanger both of them in the tightly-packed hallway. Just then, the one voice that would make a difference called to him from behind them.
"Joey. Sorry it took us so long."
That voice completely broke all of the drama that was building between Tim and Joey. They turned their heads to see Donna calling to him with Jeff following behind her. Tim had had the presence of mind to call Jeff and Donna to let them know what had happened to Stephen at the party. They had planned a quiet evening, but when the call came in they knew that they were going to spend their Saturday night at the emergency room of the local hospital. It wouldn't be the first time, not with two seven-year-old boys to parent. They had shuffled Greg and Glenn off to the neighbor's house and had gotten to the hospital in thirty minutes.
Donna flew up to Joey as Tim backed away. Joey bear-hugged her, holding on tightly. The tears that he had kept under control since his initial outburst started again. Tim stepped around the two of them to shake Jeff's hand and to fill him in on the details that he had not had time to supply on the phone. They walked a little bit away from the scene with Donna and Joey as they both knew that Donna, and only Donna, would be the one who could bring Joey back into line.
She waited for a couple minutes for the wailing to subside before she addressed him. "Tell me what's going on." Donna got the words out despite that fact that Joey had pinned her jaw to his shoulder.
"Donna, I'm so scared I'm going to lose him. The doctors chased us out fifteen minutes after they brought him into the room and no one is wanting to talk to me. I'm not family to them."
"Wait a minute, sweetheart. I can solve that problem." She pushed him far enough away so that he would look into her eyes and see that she was going to take care of him. He saw a lightness and calm that soothe his explosive panicing. "I didn't marry Jeff just for the sex. He is useful, you know," she smiled. "Wait right here."
She walked over to Jeff and Tim, who were standing only about ten feet away.
With all the noise that usually goes on in a busy hospital emergency room hall, that was far enough that Joey could not hear the directions Donna was now giving to her husband. It was just as well because as Donna spoke, both of the men continually glanced at Joey, looking at him as if he was insane. At that moment, he was.
Jeff nodded his compliance with Donna's requests and then turned down the hallway to seek out some assistance. Joey was not thinking back to the first time he had met Jeff, the confrontation at Stephen's apartment when Jeff had questioned what Stephen had seen in the young man. It didn't dawn on him that Jeff was not going to take no for an answer and he was a master at knowing how to bullshit people into getting what he wanted. He would be back with the answers Joey and Donna needed, and it probably wouldn't take very long. Jeff versus emergency room nurses. In other circumstances, this might sound like a pay-per-view event.
Donna continued speaking a few more seconds to Tim. She had hoped that Tim would be able to stay at the hospital with Stephen, as it was Donna's intention to get Joey out of there, at least long enough to calm him down and into some other clothing that wouldn't emit the essence of Stephen with each breath that Joey took in. Tim nodded his head and said something. Donna reached into her purse and handed him a cell phone. Joey read his lips say "thank you" and stepped to the side of the hall where he began making calls.
Donna waited for Jeff's return. In a few minutes, Jeff approached Donna, stopping to speak to her is a low voice. They spoke away from Joey, who continued to just stand in place. Donna stroked Jeff's arm as they completed their conversation, then returned to Joey, who followed her with his eyes the same way a puppy would follow his master holding a bone.
"Joey, I know you may not like what I am about to say, but you have to trust me. You are not thinking very clearly right now. I would like to do the thinking for you, please. I think you need to come home with me. The doctors are working on Stephen and will be for some time. I have asked Jeff and Tim to stay here. They have my cell phone, and I promise you that one of them will always be standing right here outside Stephen's door. The minute that something happens, they will call us at home and we will be out the door and back here. Right now, you need to come home and rest. I will bring you back the first thing in the morning. Then you can stay all day. But for now, I want you to spend the night at our home. Please come with me. Is that all right?"
Joey just nodded. He was hypnotized by Donna's words and was mindlessly willing to do whatever she suggested. He did trust her, after all it was she who was able to point out to Jeff that he had misjudged Stephen. If she could convince him of that, then she was one person he knew he could put his trust in.
Jeff and Tim approached the other two. Jeff said, "Joey, we will be here for you and Stephen. We will be your eyes and ears and will call you the minute we know anything."
Tim added, "I have called Katie. She will be coming down later tonight, and will help us watch over the two of you. We love you guys."
Joey nodded again. He wanted tonight to be a dream, a nightmare that he would wake up from, but he believed, and Donna had convinced him, that he first needed to go to sleep.
"All right. I'll go." He hugged Jeff. "Take care of my Stephen." A hug to Tim. "If he wakes up, please tell him I love him."
"We will. Go home."
Chapter 37
Donna turned off the headlights of the car and pulled the keys out of the ignition. She opened the door and threw her feet out onto the driveway. She walked around the car, opening the passenger door.
Joey watched her every movement. He was in a daze, aware of everything going on, but totally incapable of doing anything about it. He stared at the car door as it opened, and Donna reach her hand out to him. He took her hand, and she pulled his arm as a signal for him to get out of the car. He stood up. She wrapped her arm around him and they headed for the door. They entered the house. She directed him to turn up the stairway to the second floor where all of the bedrooms were.
At the top of the stairs, they made a u-turn, heading along the front of the house to the room at the end of the hall. This was the guest room. It had been the place that Stephen had called home for almost two months when he was unable to stay in his own house, the house Joey now lived in, after Susan and Scott's death. Donna led him into the room.
"Joey, take your suit off and give it to me. I want you to lie down and get some rest, but I want you to be comfortable."
"I ...uh, I don't want to take my pants off."
"Why not?"
"I don't feel comfortable."
Donna looked at Joey. He was unaware that his face gave him away. He was extremely shy about undressing in front of a woman. Big surprise, coming from Joey. She gently smiled. "Joey, give me your pants, too. I have some jeans here that I think you can wear. Stephen left them when he stayed here and they've never made their way home. Just give me your slacks. It's not like I haven't seen a man in his underwear before." She laughed a little, thinking about Jeff chasing the boys around the house to get them into the shower. "I've got three men running around my house all the time. And all of them," with emphasis on the all, "run around here in a lot less than I'm going to see of you. Now off."
"Yes, ma'am."
The coat came off first and was handed to Donna. Joey stepped out of his shoes. He unbuckled the belt and opened the button. He zipped the fly down and let the slacks fall to his knees. As he held them, he sat on the bed. They came off. It was as if Joey didn't even notice Donna in the room anymore.
"Oh, let me have that shirt, too. I want it to start soaking tonight. If you don't find something here that fits, I'll give you something of Jeff's."
The shirt followed. Joey sat on the bed in only his socks and his underwear. And he didn't even feel them. Numbness and exhaustion combined to dull his senses to the point of nothingness. Before Joey could dress himself again, Donna walked over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Now, young man, lie down." She pulled the covers back. Joey complacently slid under them. She fixed the blanket much the same way that she tucked her own sons in every night.
"If you need me, I am two doors down the hall. Call and I will hear you. The boys' room is further away and I can hear everything that goes on there.
I will be watching over you."
She left to do whatever she intended. Joey didn't care at this moment. He lay in bed, replaying in his mind everything that had happened tonight. Sleep was not going to come to him any time soon. Not with Stephen laying in a hospital bed unconscious. The moon was full tonight, and its glow shone brightly through the window, lighting the whole room. Joey could see all of the furniture clearly. He thought of the times that Stephen had laid in this very bed, wondering what was going to happen to his life without Susan.
Joey now wondered the same thing. What was going to happen to him?
He tossed and turned. It could have been one hour; it could have been four hours. He rolled to his side, sliding his arm under the pillow and laying on it. His hand found the headboard and he bent his wrist down the back of the mattress. He felt something there that didn't feel like part of the bed. It was flexible and about three by five inches. He pulled it out. He sat up on his elbows to try to make out what he had found.
It was a photograph. But the light from the moon did not shine directly on the bed to enable Joey to see who was in the picture. He felt above his head and found a switch to a reading light that was clipped to the headboard. He turned it on and lay on his back to examine what he had found. In the picture was a man, Stephen, standing next to a little boy who was holding a skateboard. They stood in front of a banner that read "Happy Fifth Birthday." The little boy was dressed in a red tank top and matching basketball shorts. He also wore all the accompaniments that came with a five-year-old and his new board. Helmet, elbow pads, wrist guards, knee pads, every protection known to man and father. The skateboard was decorated by a decal of the Tasmanian Devil. Joey could not believe this picture.
In his fog, he wondered how the picture of him at his fifth birthday had gotten into this strange house. He stared for minutes at the little boy and his father. That was him all right. He had lived in that uniform for a whole summer. He remembered the shirt and how he cried when his mother had given it away when he outgrew it. The skateboard was his too. He still had it, even though he had replaced the wheels several times, and Taz's decal had been covered over by decals that represented what mattered most to him at various points of his youth and teen years. It had been left behind in his hurry to move out. If he ever got the chance to sneak back into the garage, that was possibly the one thing he would take.
It didn't occur to him that the two people he saw in the picture would not meet for another fourteen years. It was too real just the way it was. He knew that was Stephen, and that had to be him. No one else could possibly own that outfit and that skateboard. And then he remembered that one of those people lay in a hospital tonight. And the tears began to pour again. He just knew that he was losing his Stephen tonight.
The phone rang. Joey leaped across the room to answer it. He picked it up before Donna could.
"Joey, this is Jeff. Get here now!"
Joey hung up the phone before Jeff could tell him any details. Joey cried out for Donna. He flew down the hall to Donna's bedroom door.
"Donna, I've got to get to the hospital."