Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 16:56:42 -0800 (PST) From: Deep Diver Subject: The Master and the Mate - Chapter 10 This story is copyrighted to the author. You are welcome to download for personal use but not for sale or profit. The series is homoerotic with detailed descriptions of sex between consenting males age eighteen and above including domination, bondage and s/m. If this is not your scene please leave this site NOW. Also if you are underage to read this type of material or it is illegal in your country please leave. This means you if you are younger than 18! Email comments to the author at deepdiver_pr@yahoo.com xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx After parting from Edwin, and being reminded by him, Ryan surfed over to Nifty.Org hoping to find another chapter uploaded in one of his favourite stories: 'The Road Home' by Tyler Peel or 'Danny's Rehab Program' by an anonymous author who hid behind his web address but was a fellow eminent psychologist aided by a loyal proofreader who lived across the lake The Master and his Mate - by Deepdiver CHAPTER 10 - That night as they shared a pizza, Mark asked Ryan if he had married, if he had children of his own and why he lived alone. Ryan hadn't expected these questions so quickly nor that the boy would be so straight forward.. "Well, Mark, I'll try to be frank with you. What I am going to tell you, I trust you will deal with discretely. I am a homosexual. I had a long relationship with a younger man whom I still love very deeply, but for various reasons, we cannot be together. So to answer your question, I have never married nor do I have any children. I still keep in contact with him, the man I was with, but only through the Internet and a few rare visits.." Ryan confessed. "Well, aren't you lonely?" Mark questioned further. "To be honest Mark, I haven't had too much time to be lonely. And more recently I have been developing a special friendship with two young men. One was working for me on the yacht and the other was a friend of his. So, I hope it doesn't bother you living with a gay man?" Mark stopped eating and looked straight into Ryan's eyes. "My parents taught me not to judge people before I get to know them," he responded sounding like a much older person. "I hope you don't mind having a straight kid in your house, I mean, I wouldn't want to cramp your style." They both laughed. They had only been together since the morning but had already shared such intense feelings that there was already a bond of trust between them that some never achieve in a lifetime. "Dr. Loud, I don't want to sleep alone tonight. Can I sleep with you in your bed?" Mark said both out of his own need, but also as a declaration of trust in this man who had risked his own life to try to save his parents and had shortly before sewn the seeds of faith in an afterlife in a boy needing so desperately to have something in which to believe. "Well, I suppose so, if you promise not to gay bash me or something." Ryan responded, trying to lighten the mood. He was later surprised how easily the young man fell asleep as he snuggled against Ryan's right side. * * * That evening the police contacted Ryan to inform him that the bodies of Mark's parents had been recovered and that Ryan would have to bring the boy to the morgue early the next day to identify them. After Ryan took down the information, he wondered how he was going to explain the situation to Mark. He barely knew the young man, and so far the boy was coping as well as could be expected, but Ryan had no way of knowing if he had sufficient resiliency to be able to identify his parent's bodies and to go through the ordeal of arranging their funerals. Ryan had to wake Mark and coax him out of bed early enough for them to get a bite to eat and then head to the morgue. "Mark, I have some news, and it means you and I need to be up and about a lot earlier than we had planned last night . . . we need to do something very difficult," Ryan began saying. "What? Tell me." Mark said, beginning to get agitated by the way Ryan was looking and sounding - - the boy could tell that all wasn't well. "They've found your parents' bodies and they need you to identify them. Do you think that you can do that?" Ryan said trying to ease a difficult situation. "Will you be with me?" Mark said anxiously Ryan responded, "yes, I will be there with you. I just need to call my secretary and have her reschedule some of my clients. But I can do that on the way." "I need to shower first. I'll be ready in fifteen minutes," Mark said. "OK, I'll shave while you shower and then shower after you; so leave me some hot water." Ryan teased, as he got the front desk to arrange a taxi for them for 30 minutes later. They both moved along nicely and as Mark stepped out of the shower, leaving it running, Ryan jumped in to find the water ice cold.. "I left you plenty of hot water." Mark said as Ryan screeched trying to turn on the hot water. 'Glad to see the kid has kept his sense of humour' he thought to himself. 'This is a good sign.' They had both finished and Ryan had made a quick sandwich for them both with some OJ so Mark had something to calm his butterflies before they set out. They were down in the lobby waiting for the taxi with only a couple of minutes to spare and then quickly on the way to the morgue. Ten minutes after they left the phone in Ryan's apartment was ringing; Kyle was calling, hoping someone would answer and he could obtain some information. He let it ring for a while, but no one answered. Kyle had gotten very little sleep the night before and now was not thinking clearly. His father had already left for work so Kyle went out to the front door and retrieved the newspaper, but the paper was full of the news about Bush's plans to escalate the situation in Iraq by sending more soldiers. After hunting desperately through the paper searching for news about Ryan, the 'Gardie' or the accident, without finding anything at all, Kyle was getting despondent as well as tired. Then it occurred to him to call Ryan's office; he had to find the 'Want ad' he'd kept from when he had first made the appointment for his job interview. He finally located it in a small basket filled with notes and different scraps of paper with numbers on them located near the house phone. By the time he was able to dial, the number was busy and was so whenever he tried that morning as Ryan's secretary was trying to get hold of various clients to rearrange their appointments. After nearly three hours he finally heard the office phone ringing. "Dr. Loud's office, Susan speaking." "Susan, this is Kyle, Dr. Ryan's cabin boy - - you remember you arranged my interview." "Oh Kyle, we were worried about you. Ryan is at the morgue." Hearing this, Kyle dropped the phone to the floor as he clutched the wall in distress at this apparent confirmation of his worst fears. "Hello? Kyle are you there?" the secretary called, but Kyle was too emotional to hear her. He sobbed quietly to himself and soon all his pent up fears, regrets and emotions overtook him and he started to feel physically sick. Gathering himself he staggered off to the bathroom leaving the phone dangling in midair - - his worst fear had been confirmed. * * * It was quite a while before Kyle felt composed enough to leave the bathroom and doing so, he replaced the handset on the phone on his way to the living room. Kyle moped around there, lost in despair at the news that the friend he had found, loved and rejected in such a short space of time was dead before he'd had a chance to repair the damage done by his leaving. Eventually, finally accepting that Ryan was gone, he called Kirk at the machine shop to tell him that Ryan was dead. Kirk was shocked, but now understood why the berth the 'Gardie' usually occupied had remained vacant. "I was hoping you had some news?" Kyle finished his tale of what [he thought] he knew. "Just that my daughter said that Ryan had called here one night looking for you." Kirk informed Kyle. "He did? He was looking for me?" Kyle asked, so glad for even a glimmer of good news. "He and Bill have both been running around looking for you." Kirk continued. "Where's Bill now?" Kyle inquired. "Not really sure, the owners of the 'Mon Cheri' have been in and out of the marina a lot these last few days and I think he's been going out with him." "Well if you see Bill would you give him my number?" Kyle requested. "Sure thing, buddy. Let's keep each other informed." Kirk suggested. After wishing each other well they ended the call. Kyle felt so much better knowing that Ryan had tried to find him. He felt like such as ass hole for running off like a dumb shit and now in his grief he found comfort knowing that Ryan hadn't given up on him completely. * * * Meanwhile, Ryan and Mark had found their way to Mark's dad's lawyer, a Mr. Malcolm James. Apparently they were more than just business associates and the man was quite shaken by the news of his client's death. He explained that Mark's Dad and he had been college roommates and that his Dad had left a will in which he was named executor of the estate and that there were sufficient investments to take care of Mark's needs. Mr James also told them that Mark's parents had left a prepaid funeral arrangement with The Cypress Funeral Home and that they could pass by there and make the final arrangements. He assured them that there was plenty of insurance to cover everything and requested more time to reread the will and then get back to them with the details; he said that as far as he could remember, there was only a distant cousin on Mark's Mom's side out in California apart from Mark mentioned in the will. * * * By this time, Kyle was more settled and decided to call the secretary again to see if she had any more information on what had happened. "Hello, Dr. Loud's Office, Susan speaking." "Hello, this is Kyle calling again. I'm sorry that I got cut off before." Kyle said, more than a bit embarrassed that he had reacted so violently to the news. "Can you tell me anything about what had happened?" "Well, I don't have many of the details. Dr. Loud was involved in a boat accident. Apparently, there was an explosion caused by a collision. The police are still investigating." "You said something about the morgue. Was the body recovered?" Kyle pressed for more information amazed at how cool the secretary could talk about the whole thing without getting emotional. "Yes, two bodies were recovered, but they need to be identified before they can be released." She said calmly and then added, " I will call you back later when I know more. Right now I have to call several more of his clients." "Oh sure, I'm sorry to be keeping you.." Kyle said as he clicked off the phone not hearing Susan's last words, "I'll tell Dr. Loud you called." Kyle then decided that he should go over to the morgue. He arrived about two hours later and said that he was there to identify Dr. Loud's body. He was surprised to find that they did not have his body. "But weren't two bodies recovered from the boating accident?" Kyle insisted. "Yes, but those bodies have already been identified by their son." The clerk informed Kyle. "So Dr. Loud's body wasn't recovered?" Kyle enquired. "I don't know anything about another body from that accident, sorry." The clerk said coldly. Since he was already close by, Kyle decided to drop by the marina and see if he could find Bill. * * * In the meantime, Ryan had gone with Mark to the Cypress Hills Funeral Home to finalize the arrangements for Mark's parents. Everything had pretty much been arranged by Mark's parents; but Ryan suggested that a Christian Burial be added for the sake of the comfort that Mark could receive from a religious service. Since there was no written objection, and Mark trusted Ryan's judgement it was agreed to call a priest to do a Response just prior to the departure to the cemetery. Ryan took the liberty of making the arrangement and called his secretary to get in touch with a priest friend who he knew would say just the right words to help ease the boy's growing pain. Susan took the information, but was so busy rearranging Ryan's appointments she completely forgot to mention Kyle's calls. Ryan suggested they have lunch out. Mark said he wasn't very hungry, but once they were inside Ryan's favourite Italian restaurant the smells of garlic and olive oil had Mark's mouth salivating. Ryan ordered Linguini with a white clam sauce and Mark had an order of cheese ravioli. When the chef took a peak from the door to the kitchen and saw his old friend Ryan he sent out a complimentary bottle of Chianti. Later he came out and greeted his guests. "Ryan, its been ages since you have been here. Where have you been?" "Dominic, so good to see you. Sorry, I haven't been around. I've missed your homemade pasta, but after Edwin left. Well there were so many memories. You understand?" "Understand what? No, I no understand. You lose a friend. You no lose Dominic!" They both began to laugh. "So is this your new friend?" Dominic asked looking at Mark's handsome face, but suddenly realizing that he was much younger than Ryan. Dominic was around Ryan's age, dark haired and typical hairy Itallian, with a Sicilian accent. He had the kind of face and smile that easily won people over. His clients enjoyed his hospitality as much as they enjoyed his homemade cooking. "Dominic, this is Mark. He's just lost his parents and we have just come from the funeral home where we were making the arrangements." "Oh, that's so sad. A young man like you shouldn't have to bury his parents, too sad. I'll tell you what, you come here after the funeral ... and bring your friends... The dinner is on me!" "Dominic, that won't be necessary." Ryan began protesting to his old friend. "I insist. You are a friend of Ryan and Ryan is like a brother to me. You come and don't worry about nothing. You come, hear?" Dominic said ignoring Ryan and talking to Mark. Mark didn't know what to say, so he just nodded his head in acceptance. Dominic smiled at him and patted Mark's head, saying. "Good boy; with me and Ryan as friends you will be OK." Later Dominic sent out his famous ganolies for desert and watched the expression of delight flicker across the boy's pained face. Again thanks for D's proofreading which has saved me from a red face more than once. But I am told he missed something in chapter seven. Did you notice? Remember Safe sex or no sex!!!