Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2005 21:17:58 -0800 (PST)
From: Thomas Gaige <togaige@yahoo.com>
Subject: Brendan's Christmas Wish

DISCLAIMER:  The following story is FICTIONAL.  It contains descriptions
of sexual  activities between men, teenage boys, and between men and
teenage boys.  If you are not over 18 years of age, or if you find this
type of story offensive, or viewing this material is illegal where you
are, then please DO NOT READ IT!  If you choose to read it, then - I hope
you enjoy it!

			 Brendan's Christmas Wish

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chris Logan was sitting alone in his house in Bayonne, NJ late one
evening.  It was about a week before Christmas, and he was feeling
lonely.  Chris, who was an only child, was just 21 years old, and
already, both of his adoptive parents were dead.  His father had been a
NYC fireman who was killed on 9/11 at the World Trade Center.  His mother
had died of cancer a little over a year ago.  Since then, he'd lived
alone in the house he'd grown up in.  Each day, he commuted by train to
work in New York City, where he was a cook at Houlihan's restaurant in
the financial district.

Chris had a lot of friends, but he didn't hang out with them as much as
he would have liked to.  They were always on him, trying to get him to
look for a girlfriend.  They all had girlfriends, and couldn't understand
why he didn't, especially since he was so good looking.  Because he'd
been so moody lately, they assumed he was still depressed over his
mother's death, and thought a girlfriend was just what he needed.
Recently, when they'd begun badgering him again to start dating, Chris
started to avoid them.  He told them he was busy with his school work.
They believed him, because he was taking night courses at a local
college.  He hoped to get a degree in hotel technology and restaurant
management, so that someday, he might be able to open his own
restaurant.

When Chris used his school work as an excuse, it was an outright lie
though.  His school work was all caught up.  He was just trying to avoid
his friends, so he didn't have to come up with a different reason not to
date whatever girl they'd found for him, or so that he wouldn't have to
go looking for one with them.  He couldn't tell them the truth - that he
didn't want to have a girlfriend, or it might've caused them to uncover
Chris's most guarded secret - that he was gay!

Nobody knew that Chris was gay - nobody except for one person - a boy
he'd grown up with, who was also gay.  And, he'd found out by accident!

Almost every afternoon though since Kerry had walked in on Chris as he
was jacking off in the garage while looking at a Playgirl magazine, and
they'd discovered their common desires, the two had gotten together after
school, at one of their homes.  Then, while their parents were still away
at work, they would spend a couple of hours happily sucking each other
off, fucking each other, and intermittently, as they needed to rest up
inbetween their sex sessions, doing their home work.

Chris would've been happy if his life had continued on that way
indefintely, but it wasn't to be.  Kerry had gone away to college, where
he'd met and fallen in love with another guy.  When he'd come home for
Christmas break in his freshman year and told Chris about it, Chris had
put on a brave front and congratulated him.  Later that night though, as
Chris lay alone in bed, he'd cried softly for a while, as he realized
he'd not only lost his fuck buddy, but he'd also lost the chance at being
Kerry's boyfriend too - which is something up until that point, he hadn't
realized he wanted to be.  Chris finally realized he was in love with
Kerry, but by then, it was too late!

Eventually, Chris had gotten over Kerry, but since then, he hadn't found
anyone else he was interested in romantically, or at least physically.
Oh, there'd been plenty of guys he found cute, but they were either
straight, or if not - they were already in a relationship.

Additionally, because of being so "closeted", Chris, ended up isolating
himself from his friends.  Thus he lead a very lonely life.  Worse - he
had NO sex life to speak of, except for the 2-3 hand jobs he gave himself
each day, either in the shower, or lying on his bed with a bottle of hand
lotion, watching gay porno flicks.  Occasionally, he'd tried
self-sucking.  Although he could usually get 2-3" of his 8" dick in his
mouth, the position was uncomfortable, and afterward his back and neck
hurt.

Now, because his friends were "on" him again about finding a girlfriend,
Chris was again feigning the need to stay home and study for finals,
while they all went out and partied.

As he sat on the couch, absentmindedly rubbing his semi-hard cock through
the material in the crotch of his jeans, he wished he wasn't gay, so that
he didn't have to hide home alone, and be so lonely.  Better still, he
wished Kerry would come home and announce he had broken up with his
boyfriend, and that he was actually in love Chris!  Feeling sorry for
himself, but also realizing his dick was hard, Chris sighed, got up and
went to his bedroom, where he pulled off his clothes, then he lay down on
his bed, and took a bottle of hand lotion off the night stand.  Pouring
some in his hand, he spread his legs further apart, relaxed his body, and
slowly began rubbing the lotion on his dick and stroking off.

                     *            *            *

As Chris lay on his bed, sadly pleasuring himself in Bayonne, about a
hundred miles away in an orphanage for boys on the outskirts of
Philadelphia, another, much younger boy lay on his bed too.  Only this
boy was sobbing into his pillow.

Even though he'd only been at the orphanage a little over a week, Brendan
McAllister's life was more miserable than he could ever have imagined it
could get!  The last couple of years of Brendan's life had sucked, but
they were nothing compared to what he was forced to endure now.

Brendan was a shy and timid 12 year old boy, who was short and thin. He
didn't appear to be very muscular, and he had sad brown eyes, freckles,
and reddish-brown hair.  Until recently, he had lived with his father in
their home in Abington, not far from where he was now.

Tragically, Brendan's mother had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer about
a year and a half earlier.  At the time, her disease had already
unfortunately progressed past the point of being curable, and she was
given only six months, at most, to live.  Brendan was devastated by the
news, but did everything he could to make her last few months the best
they could be.  In particular, he had done everything he could think of
to make his mother's last Christmas as happy for her as possible.  While
his father, who knew the end was fast approaching, and couldn't deal with
it, buried himself in his work to ward off the pain he was feeling,
Brendan had decorated the house with more decorations than they'd ever
put up in the past.  He even tried his best to bake some cookies,
although, most of them were burned.

Then, on Christmas Eve, as his mother lay on her death bed, he'd raced
out to buy her a Christmas present.  He knew exactly what to get her.  It
was something he knew she'd been wanting for a long time - a set of pearl
earrings, and a matching necklace with a single pearl on it.  Brendan had
worked hard all fall, raking leaves for the neighbors and doing other
yardwork to save up the money for it.  Adding his latest allowance to his
funds, he finally had enough to buy it for her!  When he went to the
store though, he found that they'd raised the price of the set he wanted
to buy.

When the clerk told him he needed an additional $35, he'd burst into
tears, and sobbing he'd poured his heart out about how his mother was
dying and the jewelry was to be his last present to her - something she
could be buried in.  With tears rolling down her cheeks too, the clerk
had quickly decided to put the set on sale, and had wrapped it up for
Brendan, taking what money he had to offer.  Joyously, yet sadly, Brendan
thanked her profusely and hugged her.  Then, he'd run home to give his
mother her gift, before it was too late.  His mother had loved the
jewelry and put it on right away.  She was still wearing it when she died
two days later, the day after Christmas.

Brendan's father was completely lost after his wife's death.  He turned
to drinking, and within a few months had become an alcoholic.  He managed
to get to work yet each day, and hold onto his job, but as soon as
quitting time rolled around, he'd head for the nearest bar, and drink
himself into a stupor.  Poor Brendan was left on his own, to fend for
himself.  The only company he had was their dog Roger, a large Great
Dane, who was a gentle lumox, weighing in at 280 pounds.

Each morning, Brendan got himself up, showered, dressed, fed and watered
Roger and let him out to pee, then he got on the bus for school.  After
school he did his homework, then ordered his dinner - usually Pizza or
chinese food, with money his father had left him.  Then he'd lay on the
couch and wait for his father to stumble through the front door.  Some
nights, his father was able to get into his bedroom and collapse onto the
bed by himself.  Other nights, Brendan had to help him navigate.  A few
nights he had to clean up a trail of vomit that lead from the front door
to his father's bed.

It wasn't much of a life for Brendan, who because of the situation,
didn't have any friends outside of school.  Once his homework was done,
Brendan entertained himself with TV, a few video games, and more
recently, after listening to some of the other boys' conversations at
lunch at school, and in particular to one boy's rather in-depth
description of how he'd watched his older brother masturbating, Brendan
had begun exploring his body.

At first, because it was all anyone had mentioned, Brendan had just
exposed his genitals and fondled himself.  It felt nice, so he did it
whenever he got bored.  A few days later though, after the same boy,
Frank, had told the other boys at lunch how he'd watched his brother
again, and this time he'd used their mother's hand cream to get his boner
slippery before he wrapped his hand around it and sliding it up and down
it, Brendan couldn't wait to get home and try that.

As soon as he was home, Brendan ran to the vanity in the bathroom.  Sure
enough, there were still a few bottles of his mother's hand lotion
there.  He took one and went to his bedroom.  There, he quickly stripped
all his clothes off, and climbed onto his bed.  Then, he squirted some of
the lotion into his hand, laid down, and slathered it all over his
already stiff penis.  To his delight, he found that what Frank had
described his brother doing, felt fantastic!  It felt so good, that he
just kept on going.

Up until that point, when Brendan masturbated with his dry hand, although
he'd had orgasms, none of them had produced any semen.  He'd heard a
couple of the boys mention something about "jizzing", but he hadn't
really understood.  He'd noticed some of the other boys looked clueless
about "jizzing" too.  Using hand lotion felt so much better to Brendan,
than his dry hand had ever felt, that he slowed down and decided to take
his time and really enjoy it, like Frank had said his brother had done.
To his delight, Brendan found that it felt even better to go slower!  It
felt incredible in fact!  He kept at it, and the pleasure he felt kept on
building and building, until he felt as if he was going to explode!
Finally, he couldn't help himself and sped up.  The pressure inside him
built up even more.  Suddenly he felt as if he had to pee.  Before he
could think to stop, or leap up and run to the toilet though, he'd
emitted a sharp high-pitched gasp of joyous suprise as his slight body
was wracked by the most powerful spasm of pleasure he'd ever felt.  At
the same time, a glob of white goo had blasted out of his cock!  It felt
incredible when that happened.  Although he'd been surprised, and a
little frightened by his sudden ejaculation, he was experiencing so much
pleasure by then, he couldn't stop to think or worry about it.  Instead,
he just kept on going.  With each wave of pleasure, his dick had
exploded, sending more white goo flying, which landed on his belly.  It
felt incredible, and ended all too soon to suit Brendan.

When it was over, Brendan curiously scooped up some of his cum and looked
at it.  He knew what sperm was, and that it would someday come out of his
dick when he fucked girls, but he wasn't positive if that was supposed to
happen when he jacked off too!  He felt OK though, in fact he felt
great!  So, figuring that everything must be OK, he cleaned himself up,
then started his homework.
Later, after supper, he couldn't stop thinking about it.  Of course he
quickly developed another boner, so he went to his room and jacked off
again.  Again, he ejaculated semen.  Confused, and slightly scared, he
didn't masturbate anymore that evening.

The next day at lunch, he pulled Frank aside and asked him if white stuff
was supposed to come out of his dick when he jacked off.  Frank had
howled with laughter, but then confirmed that it was semen, and that it
was normal.  He said his brother shot loads of it all the time!  Brendan
was greatly relieved!  Then, even though he asked Frank not to tell
anyone what they'd talked about, and Frank promised not to, Brendan still
worried that Frank wouldn't keep his promise.  Happily, Brendan found out
that Frank was a nice guy and didn't broadcast his lack of knowledge to
the other boys.  After that, Brendan started to spend more and more of
his time lying in bed jacking off.

One day not long after that, at lunch again, Frank surreptitiously told
the guys to all huddle around him.  When they did, he brought out a
"Hustler" magazine of his brother's which he'd helped himself to.  As he
opened the magazine and showed them the centerfold, the other guys had
all gone crazy over the picture of the nude girl.  She was a pretty
blonde, who was showing her crack.  Apparently, many of the boys, like
Brendan himself, had never seen a picture of a girl's vagina before.
They were going nuts over it.  All of them claimed to be getting horny,
and surreptitiously glancing down, Brendan saw that a couple of their
crotches were indeed starting to tent.  He began thinking then about what
they might look like naked.  He wondered if their dicks looked like his,
and got as big as his, or if they were bigger or smaller.

Suddenly, Brendan realized that until he'd noticed the other boys'
crotches, he hadn't felt horny at all.  The picture of the naked girl
really hadn't done anything for him, other than appeasing his curiosity
of what a cunt looked like.  The other boys appeared to be practically
salivating over the picture though.  Brendan realized that it was seeing
evidence of their arrousal that had actually started his own dick's
growth.

Then, Frank turned the page, and there was a picture of a naked guy
kneeling between the girl's legs.  The guy's butt was the prominent image
showing on the page.  As he was in position to insert his dick in the
girl's vagina, his cheeks were spread open, clearly showing his asshole,
and of course his scrotum, which had two large testicles dangling in it.
Brendan was surprised to see hairs growing from the skin of the guy's nut
sack.  He hadn't realized grownup men's sacks got hairy.

A couple of the boys complained that they didn't need to see that
particular picture, but giggling, Frank had then pointed out how the
girl's cunt was open.  As the other boys ogled that, Brendan realized he
really didn't care about her cunt, but that he was very interested in the
guy's body.  This, coupled with the fact his own dick was suddenly rock
hard, startled, and upset him.  "What the hell is going on?" he thought
to himself, suddenly terrified by his reaction to seeing the picture of
the naked guy, and seeing his friends' bulging crotches.  As upset as he
was at this thought though, as he glanced down at his friend Kenny's
crotch, he saw the point of its bulge press outward swiftly and
forcefully, then recede back to the size bulge it had been a moment
earlier, as Kenny apparently flexed his dick in response to some
stimulus.  Brendan's own dick flexed involuntarily in response to Kenny's
apparent arrousal.

Suddenly Brendan began to realize there was something wrong with him.  He
began to feel sick about his apparent attraction to boys, rather than
pictures of naked women.  He understood what it meant to be gay, and he
was suddenly terrified that maybe he was gay!

Over the next few weeks, Brendan dwelled on his worries about what
excited him sexually.  As he walked through the hallways at school, he
focused his attention on the girls all the guys thought were hot.  They
didn't cause a rise in his Levis - not even a tingle in his balls.  On
the other hand, he noticed that the moment a guy he thought was good
looking walked by, his attention immediately, and automatically was drawn
away from the hot girls, and became glued on the hot guy!  It was the
same thing on TV and in magazines.  After a while, the realization sank
in that he was one of the faggots, who liked boys rather than girls, that
his friends would tease, sometimes unmercifully.  Worst of all was the
fact that whether the boy being picked on was indeed gay or not, didn't
matter.  If he was perceived to be strange in any way at all, he was
generally branded a "faggot"!  Now, here Brendan found himself literally
fitting into the category his friends all seemed to detest.

Completely distraught by this realization, Brendan at first spent a few
days holed up in his room, crying about it.  Finally, realizing that
wasn't helping matters, he decided to do whatever he had to to hide his
true feelings from his friends.  To do this, he withdrew even more from
them at school, and never saw anyone away from school.  As he did this,
his friends slowly gravitated away to other pursuits, so that he only
ever saw them during lunch.  His life became lonely and desolate.  He
fell into a dull routine of going to school, then coming home to do
homework, and then the housework, which his father never did anymore.  In
between, as disgusted as he was with himself over his urges, he continued
to masturbate.  It was the one thing in life that gave him any pleasure,
that and his one true friend  - Roger - who was always at his side when
he was home.

When Thanksgiving rolled around, Brendan and his father were home alone
together.  They had no living family members to visit, and Mr. McAllister
had allienated all his former friends because of his excessive drinking.
To celebrate the holiday, Mr. McAllister picked up a couple of turkey TV
dinners.  By the time it was time to cook them though, he'd had enough to
drink while watching the Macy's parade on TV, that he'd already passed
out cold.  Sadly, Brendan microwaved his TV dinner.  When it was done,
parts of it were hot, hard, and rubbery, while the center was still cold,
and almost frozen.  Brendan ate what he could of it, then made himself a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich, took Roger and went to his room.  Roger
settled in his spot on the floor, and Brendan lay on his bed and
reflected on what a miserable life he had.

"What life?  This is only an existence!" he thought sadly, as he wiped
his eyes, which had begun to feel gravelly.

Finally, he pushed the bad thoughts out of his mind as best he could,
then he did what he always did whenever he was bored.  He reached for his
bottle of hand cream.  For the next few minutes the only sounds in the
room were Brendan's heavy breathing, the soft snapping sounds his
lotioned hand made as it traveled up and down his 5-1/2" rod, and the
slight squeaking of his bed springs.  After about five minutes, the
sounds all increased in volume and intensity, until with a gasp, Brendan
shot a streak of semen out his dick, which landed on his belly.  He
continued pumping his tool, and gasped a few more times, as pleasure
rippled through his body, and more semen collected on his stomach.  When
his orgasm was over, Brendan felt just a little better about life.

                     *               *                 *

One evening, about two weeks later Brendan was surprised when the door
bell rang around 8:00.  When he answered the door, there were two
policemen there.  They looked grim.

"Yes?" he asked looking timidly at them.

"Is your mother at home?" one of them asked.

"Um... she died last year," Brendan said.

"Oh!" the cop said, suddenly looking distraught.  "I'm sorry.  What's
your name?"

"Brendan McAllister?" Brendan said.

"Are you home alone right now?" the cop asked.

"Yes," Brendan said, beginning to feel uncomfortable.

"Was Steven McAllister your father?" he asked.

"Was???" Brendan asked, looking confused.

The cop went red in the face and looked embarrassed.

"Are you his son?" the other policeman asked.

"Yes," Brendan said.

"May we come in please?" the second cop asked.

"I'm not allowed to let anyone in," Brendan said.

"We're police officers," The first officer said, "and unfortunately, you
don't have a choice this time.  We need to talk to you, and it's what
your father would want you to do."

Nervously, Brendan opened the door and let them in.

Once he'd closed the door, the first policeman said, "I'm sorry son, but
your father's been in an accident."

"Is he hurt?" Brendan asked.

"Um..." The cop hesitated.

"Oh my GOD!  Is he dead?" Brendan cried, remembering how he had asked
"Was" Steven his father.

"I'm sorry...  Yes he is," The cop said, looking scared that Brendan
might freak out.

Brendan stood stunned, staring at him, as Roger nuzzled his hand.  Oddly,
he felt devoid of any emotions at all.

"He was drunk, wasn't he?" Brendan asked finally.

"We did smell alcohol, but we can't say for sure," The policeman said
uncomfortably, looking at Brendan curiously.

As Brendan processed the fact that his father was dead, he was surprised
that he hadn't started crying.  In fact, he didn't really feel like
crying.

"What's going to happen to me?" he asked, looking up at the policemen.

"Do you have grandparents, or an aunt or uncle we can call?" one of them
asked.

"No, no one.  It was just the two of us," Brendan said.

"Did your father ever tell you who would take care of you in an emergency
if he couldn't?" the cop asked.

"No, there really isn't anyone," Brendan said, suddenly beginning to feel
scared.

"OK," The officer said.  "We'll have someone come take care of you, until
we can figure it out."

Brendan just looked at him, as the other officer stepped over to the hall
phone.

Things began to happen quickly then.  Within 20 minutes, a lady arrived.
She asked Brendan if he knew who his father's lawyer was.  Brendan
remembered hearing about a Mr. Ford.  She said she knew who he meant and
bustled off and made a phone call.  A few minutes later, she came back
and told Brendan he'd have to pack a few things and come with her until
they could sort things out.

"What about Roger?" Brendan asked.

The police officers said they'd take good care of Roger.  Somehow,
Brendan doubted that, but he didn't know what else to do.

The lady had gone to his room with him then and helped him pack a bag.
When he was packed, she let him pet Roger good-bye, then they'd left.
The policemen were still there when they left.  They'd said they would
take care of Roger, and lock the house up.  Brendan told them what to
feed Roger each morning and evening.  By then he was too upset to see the
look that passed between the two cops, as one of them told him not to
worry, that Roger would be fine.

Brendan and the woman left then, and got into her car.  She'd driven for
about a half hour, stopping finally in front of a building on the edge of
the Philadelphia city limits with a sign stating it was "The State
Department of Social Services - Youth Division".  It looked ominous to
Brendan, and he felt a sense of dread as he got out of the car and
followed the lady inside.  Within minutes, he found out that the building
was actually an orphanage for homeless boys!  Brendan felt paralyzed with
fear, as he sat waiting.

A little after 11:00 the lady led him up to a large dormitory style room
that held a dozen beds, all of which, but one in the back corner, were
filled with sleeping bodies.  The next morning, Brendan would see that
they were all boys his age, or older than him.

The lady whispered to Brendan that he could unpack his suitcase the next
morning, and put things in a small dresser to the left of his bed.  She
told him where the bathroom was, and told him he should quietly use the
bathroom, then go to bed.  When she asked if he needed anything else, he
was so upset, all he could do was shake his head "no".  The lady left
then.

With a sinking feeling, Brendan sat down on the empty bed and looked
around.  As bad as his life at home had been, it wasn't nearly as bad as
this.  At least there he had Roger!  A feeling of dread swept over him
then, as he wondered what the cops had done with poor Roger.

"I want to go home!" Brendan thought miserably, as tears finally began to
well up in his eyes.

As his eyes flooded, Brendan quickly shoved his suitcase under the bed,
and flopped down on it on his stomach.  He buried his face in the pillow
then and began sobbing.

                      *                *                  *

Early the next morning, Brendan woke to a hard poke in the arm.  As he
became more awake, he heard the raucus noise of a bunch of boys' voices
yelling and carrying on rather close to him.  When he opened his eyes,
and looked up, he saw several strange boys all staring down at him.

"So who're you?" one of them asked.

Blinking Brendan looked around confused.  Suddenly the previous night's
events flooded back into his brain and he remembered where he was.

As he felt his eyes beginning to sting again, he looked at the boy who
had spoken and said, "Brendan McAllister."

"How come you're here?" another boy asked.

"My father died," he replied.

"And your mother?" the first one asked.

"Sh-she's dead too," Brendan replied, feeling his lower lip beginning to
tremble.

"Sucks!" another boy said.

"Yeah," a fourth boy agreed, nodding.

"ALRIGHT LADIES!" an older boy's, deeper voice barked.

"Shit!" one of the boys standing by Brendan yelped, leaping away.

"Watch these guys!" another hissed to Brendan, before he too scurried
away.

All the other's scattered quickly as well, as two older, rougher looking
boys stepped over to Brendan's bed.

"So!" one of them said.  "Who're you?  And why are you here?"

Brendan looked up at him with wide eyes.  Timidly he said, "Brendan
McAllister, and my father just died."

"Well,  I'm Lance Durante, and this is Jim Spoor, and we're in charge
here!  If we say 'shit' - you better run for the toilet!" the older boy
replied.

Brendan didn't reply, he just stared up at the two.

"Did you hear what Lance said?" Jim barked.

"Y-yes," Brendan replied.

"Good!  Remember that!" he said.

"Alright!  As you were!" Lance barked, turning and looking at the other
boys.

Nobody moved as he and Jim turned and strode back out of the dorm.

Once they were gone, everyone relaxed visibly.

"You gotta be careful of them," the boy at the next bed whispered to
Brendan.

"Forget it.  He's 'fresh fish'.  He's their's!" another boy who looked a
little older said, with a haunted look in his eyes.

"Don't!  He just got here," Someone else hissed at him.

"He needs to know!" the other boy replied.

"Exactly!" another boy said, angrily.  "I was new a month ago and they
got me the first night I was here!  Then they got me the next night, and
the next, and the next, til they were tired of me and went after some of
you again.  I'm sorry, but you don't stand a chance Brendan!"

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Brendan asked, fearfully.

"You'll see tonight," he replied.

"But -" Brendan was cut off then when a man in his 30's walked in.

"Good morning boys!  Up and at 'em!" he announced.  Then, he spied
Brendan  "You're new here, right?"

"Yes," Brendan replied.

"OK, they'll want to see you in the office then.  It's downstairs on the
left.  The rest of you come with me please!" he said.

The man and the boys all filed out of the dorm then.

Brendan got up and straightened out his clothes.  He'd been so distraught
the night before, that he'd slept on top of the bed, in what he was
wearing when he arrived.  Quickly he ran for the bathroom at the end of
the room and scooted into the stall.  As he emptied his bladder into the
toilet, he wondered what everyone expected the two bullies to do to him
that night.

He didn't have time to think about it anymore though, as he heard a
woman's voice calling his name from outside the bathroom door.

When he got there, he found it was the lady who'd brought him there.  She
had Brendan sit down then and told him what his daily schedule would be
while he was there.

"How long will I be here?" he asked.

"I don't know Brendan.  I'm sorry.  We'll have to wait and see what your
father's lawyer comes up with," she said.

"What if he doesn't come up with anything?" Brendan asked.

"Well... you'll always be able to stay here," she said, looking a little
guilty, as she realized it wasn't what anyone would want to hear.

"So... what did those cops do with Roger?" Brendan asked.

"I don't know dear," she said.  "I imagine unless there's someone to take
care of him, that he'll have to go to the animal shelter."

"NO!!!!" Brendan had cried, horrified.  "They can't take HIM away from me
too!"

"I'm sorry dear," the lady said, as tears began to stream down Brendan's
face.

Unable to control himself, Brendan turned and ran back into the
bathroom.  There he locked himself in a stall, sank down on the toilet,
and began sobbing.  Several minutes later when he'd gained control of
himself again, and decided to get his suitcase and leave, he discovered
when he walked back into the dorm room that the lady was still there
waiting for him.

"I'm sorry for everything that's happened Brendan," she said.  "If I
could make it better for you, I would.  Right now, I think you'd better
come with me!"

Realizing he couldn't sneak out just then, Brendan had gone with her.

                      *              *                 *

The rest of Brendan's day was filled with talking to various counselors,
filling out papers, and being left to sit at times with magazines to
read, or TV to watch.  Brendan couldn't focus on anything though.  All he
could do was sit and worry about himself, wondering what those bullies
might do to him.  When he wasn't worried about that, he was worried about
where Roger was, if he was OK, and most especially, if he'd ever see him
again!

That night, at 10:00, bedtime was announced.  Brendan followed the other
boys and mimicked their routines, then crawled into his bed, wearing just
his boxers, like the other boys did.  Having decided earlier in the
evening to try and runaway from the orphanage after everyone was asleep,
he left his jeans, sneakers and sweatshirt stacked on the floor next to
his bed though.

At first, after lights out, all was quiet, except for the sound of the
counselor who was sitting out in the hallway.  Then, about 15 minutes
later, the counselor got up and left.  Almost immediately, there was some
whispering among some of the boys.  A couple minutes later, a different
counselor poked his head in the doorway.  All went silent again.  The new
counselor must've gone and sat at the little desk just down the hallway,
as his shadow shone on the wall outside the boys' dorm door.  Things
remained quiet then for a few minutes.  Brendan relaxed a little,
thinking that if the counselor stayed at the desk, nothing would happen
in the dorm room, so the bullies wouldn't be able to get him.  Of course,
he wouldn't be able to get up and sneak out of the orphanage either!  He
decided all he could do was stay awake, and hope that once the other boys
were asleep, that the counselor would wander off long enough for him to
make a break for it.

A few minutes later, Brendan heard a couple of the boys snoring.  Then,
the boy in the corner across from him must've started to jerk off, as
Brendan heard a tiny rhythmic squeaking sound start up.  A couple of
other boys snickered in response to the sound, but the boy in the corner
didn't stop.

Then, Brendan saw some movement a few beds away, and looked in time to
see one boy sneaking from his own bed, to join a boy in the bed next to
his.

"What the -???" Brendan started to think, but then he suddenly caught a
glimpse out of the corner of his eye of someone standing right next to
him.

A strong hand suddenly clamped swiftly over his mouth before he could
make a sound.  Looking up, Brendan saw Lance and Jim standing next to
him.  Apparently, as he'd watched the other boy sneaking into his
neighbor's bed, the two of them, who must've been waiting in the
bathroom, had snuck out.  It was Jim whose hand was covering Brendan's
mouth.  The boy in the next bed was awake.  Brendan could see the look of
terror in his eyes.

"You'd best get to sleep!" Lance said tersely, pointing a finger at the
other boy, who instantly slammed his eyes shut.

Lance snickered softly.

Why he noticed this, Brendan couldn't fathom.  But he also realized the
squeaking bedsprings from across the aisle had stopped as well.

"Shut up and come with us now, otherwise you'll seriously regret that you
didn't!" Jim hissed into Brendan's ear.

Terrified that they'd hurt him if he didn't do what they said, Brendan
let them pull him up out of bed.  Quickly they dragged him into the
bathroom.  As they did, a feeling of dread swept through Brendan.

Once they were in the bathroom, Jim took his hand from Brendan's mouth
and told him in a low voice to keep his mouth shut.  Then he reached down
and ripped Brendan's boxers off.

Brendan was shocked and horrified.  He was also embarrassed to be
standing completely nude in front of the older boys, as they looked down
at his crotch.

"What're you-?" Brendan started to ask in a terror filled voice.

He didn't get to finish his question though, as Lance slapped him hard
across the face.

"We told you to shut up!" he hissed!  "Seems you need to be taught a
lesson!"

With that, Lance spun him around and made him bend over his lap.  Then,
he began slapping Brendan hard on the ass with his bare hand.

"OOOowww!" Brendan cried out, causing Lance to whip his ass even harder.

"SHUT UP I SAID!" he growled, and he started hitting Brendan repeatedly.

Praying the counselor had heard his cry, and would come and save him,
Brendan figured he'd best be quiet, to keep them from hurting him worse
until the man got there.  As Lance continued sharply slapping his ass
nobody came to help Brendan though.  His heart sinking, Brendan decided
he'd better remain quiet and hope they'd finish getting their jollies
from beating him, then let him go.

With tears burning in his eyes, Brendan endured the painful beating
Lance was inflicting upon him as best he could.  Oddly though, after more
than a dozen hard slaps, as Lance continued spanking him, Brendan
suddenly realized his his dick had begun to harden.  At first, Brendan
couldn't fathom why that was happening, and it terrified him to think
what Lance and Jim would do when they noticed.  Not only was he scared
they'd notice, but he also became extremely embarrassed about it as
well.  He didn't want the bullies to think he was a faggot.  Lance
must've noticed though, because he shifted slightly, so Brendan's dick
slid down between his thighs, then chuckling a little he held his knees
together, squeezing Brendan's burgeoning cock.

Finally, after several more smacks on the ass, Lance stopped.

"Yeah, nice and red," Jim murmured.

"And he likes it too.  He's gotta chubby going between my legs!" Lance
said, grinning, and snickering.

"Bet he'll like this too!" Jim said, in a lewd tone.

Suddenly, Brendan felt hands separating his ass cheeks.  Looking back to
see what was going on, he was horrified to see Jim moving up to his ass
with a full-fledged hardon sticking out in front of him.

"He wouldn't!" Brendan thought, his eyes widening in terror.

Then, he saw that Jim's dick was lubed!

A second later he felt it push up against his anus!

"NO!" Brendan cried, realizing Jim was about to stick his cock up his
ass.

Instantly he felt Lance's hand smash into the side of his face.

"SHUT UP YOU LITTLE FAIRY!" Lance growled.

"Please don't!" Brendan begged pitifully, as he felt Jim's dick pressing
harder against his asshole.

Lance's hand smashed him in the face again, and Brendan felt tears
welling in his eyes.

Jim grinned nastily, then Brendan felt a pain like nothing he'd ever felt
before in his life, as Jim roughly thrust his hips forward, rocketing his
hard cock through Brendan's sphincter.

"AAAAAAAhhhhh!!!!" Brendan shrieked in agony, as he felt Jim's long, fat,
rod slide far up into his intestines.

"IT HURTS!" Brendan screamed, writhing in pain, as tears flooded his
eyes.

Lance's hand slapped him sharply in the head again.

Mercifully, Jim began to pull back out of Brendan.

"Thank God!  He's gonna take it out!" Brendan thought.

A moment later he screamed in agony again though, as again, Jim slammed
himself deep up inside him.

Lance slapped Brendan in the back of the head and told him to shut the
fuck up, as Jim began fucking him roughly then.

He screamed once more, causing Lance to begin pummeling him.

Brendan didn't scream or cryout anymore then, realizing they'd hurt him
worse if he didn't shut up.  He couldn't help grunting and groaning in
pain though, which they seemed to not care about.  They also didn't care
that he'd begun sobbing pitifully.  If anything, Jim seemed to enjoy
that.

"Why doesn't the counselor come help me?" Brendan wondered through his
tears, suddenly remembering him.  "Certainly he had to have heard me!"

Jim began pistoning in and out of Brendan then, causing the boy
incredible pain.

The glimmer of hope Brendan had felt when he remembered the counselor in
the hallway faded, when after several seconds it became apparent that
neither he nor anyone else was going to come save him.

Jim began slamming his cock in and out of Brendan even faster a few
seconds later.  Just as Brendan began to wonder if the agony would ever
end, Jim suddenly gasped, and Brendan felt like the insides of his
asshole were suddenly wetter than from just the lube.  He realized then
that Jim was cumming up his ass!

After a few more shoves, Jim's orgasm ended.

"OK," Jim gasped.  "Switch!"

To Brendan's horror, Lance pushed him off him, and got up, while Jim sat
down, and Lance pushed him back down on top of Jim's lap.  Lance didn't
bother to lube up as Brendan's ass was wet with Jim's lube and cum.
Instead, he just plowed his dick up Brendan's ass and proceeded to fuck
him.

Just as Lance was shooting his load in Brendan's rectum, Brendan heard  a
third voice.  Twisting his head and looking back through his tears,
Brendan saw the counselor.

"Great!  Now he shows!" Brendan thought.  "After it's over!"

Never-the-less, Brendan felt a wave of relief at the site of the
counselor.  The feeling lasted only a couple of seconds though, when to
his horror, Brendan saw him open his pants, drop them to the floor, and
step up next to Lance, with a huge hardon sticking straight out from his
body, its tip wet with pre-cum, as he waited his turn at Brendan's ass!

"NO!" Brendan gasped in horror, as Lance finished cumming and pulled out
of him.

The counselor smiled lewdly at Brendan as he stepped into Lance's place.
Then he too shoved his even bigger dick up inside Brendan, causing
Brendan to groan in agony, as he got the sensation that the tip of the
guy's dick was stretching all the way up into his belly.

"Now I know what 'being ripped a new asshole' really means," Brendan
thought to himself ruefully, as the guy began rutting on him.

As tears streamed from his eyes, praying the agony would end soon,
Brendan looked down at the floor and gritted his teeth, as Jim held him
firmly in place, and the counselor fucked him hard up the ass.

As the counselor fucked Brendan, an odd thing happened though.  As the
man continued slamming his hardon in and out of him, Brendan began to
feel like he did when he jacked off, and his own orgasm began to form.

"What the -?" he thought, as he realized he was actually beginning to
enjoy the feeling of the guy's dick sliding in and out of his poop chute.

"mmmmm!!!" he moaned after a moment, unable to hide the sudden pleasure
he was experiencing.

Lance giggled then and cried "Hey!  He's startin' to like it!"

Brendan hated that what Lance said was true, but he couldn't deny the
fact that he was indeed beginning to enjoy it.  In fact, if the guy
didn't stop soon, he thought he might have an orgasm too.  Jim had
thoughtfully pushed Brendan's dick between his thighs, like Lance had,
when they'd switched places, and as the counselor fucked him, it made him
pull back and forth a little so that his dick felt a little like he was
fucking someone too.

As the man continued fucking him, Brendan's orgasm started to grow.  Soon
he was moaning with pleasure, with each of the man's inward strokes.

"I knew this one'd like it!" Lance chortled, squatting down in front of
Brendan, smiling, at him and mussing his hair in an almost affectionate
way.

Brendan didn't have time to wonder about Lance's sudden attitude change,
or even to get angry that Lance was right about him liking it, as his
orgasm started growing more rapidly then.  As he groaned louder with each
of the counselor's forward thrusts, the man started moaning too.

"AAawwwww!!!!" Brendan groaned suddenly, as he climaxed and sprayed Jim's
legs with his cum.

"Ewww!  He slimed me!" Jim cried, grinning.

Brendan expected another hit in the head from him, but, instead Jim just
chuckled.

"Fuccckk!!" the man grunted, and Brendan's ass suddenly felt sloshier
than ever, as the man deposited his load of semen inside him.

"Mmmmmm!!!!" Brendan moaned, shooting more cum all over Jim's legs, and
squeezing the man's rod tightly with his sphincter.

"Fuck me, I'm gonna be soaked," Jim exclaimed, as Lance chuckled too, and
rubbed Brendan's hair affectionately again.

"You go boy!" he smiled at him.

"Ahhhh!" The guy gasped, filling Brendan with more jism.

"Awwwww...." Brendan gasped softly, and still more juice squirted from
his dick.

"Oh yeah!" The man exclaimed, emptying himself again, as his orgasm began
to wane.

Brendan spasmed and dribbled a little more cum down Jim's leg one more
time, before his orgasm ended.  The counselor's orgasm ended then too.

"God Damn!" the man said, as he stopped fucking Brendan, but left his
dick stuffed up his ass.  "You got a great ass kid!  I love how you
squeezed me each time you came!"

He gave Brendan a friendly slap on his right cheek as he pulled his dick
out of him.

Lance had stood up and was standing behind Brendan then.

"Damn!" he said, his eyebrows shooting up, as he leaned over to examine
Brendan's asshole.  Whitish liquid with brown and red streaks through it
had began oozing from Brendan's still wide open asshole.

"OK, get off me faggot!" Jim said, shoving Brendan roughly off his lap.

Brendan quickly straightened up.  As he backed away from the older boys
and the counselor, he felt warm slime running down the insides and backs
of his thighs.

Lance, Jim, and the counselor all stepped over to the sinks and quickly
washed their cocks off.  Then they used paper towels to dry themselves.
After that they dressed.

As they turned to leave, Lance looked back at Brendan, who was still
standing naked with bloody lube, semen, and liguid shit running out his
asshole, and smiled slightly.

"You were good!" he said.  "Same time, same place, tomorrow night!  If
you don't make us come and get you - it'll go better for you.  You make
us come and get you, it'll be rougher.  Either way - it's gonna happen
again - it's your choice!"

"Clean up and get back to bed," the counselor said, looking nastily at
Brendan.  "And not a word about this to anyone, or you're dead!"

The three of them left then.

Brendan slipped into a stall and sat down on the toilet and began
weeping, as he felt more warm fluid flowing from his rectum and dripping
into the toilet.  Brendan had never felt so alone and desolate in his
life.

Eventually, Brendan wiped his ass.  He was horrified when he saw how
bloody the toilet paper looked.  He wiped himself several more times,
until he was finally clean and dry.  By then, he couldn't stand the
feeling of the toilet paper rubbing his raw anus, so he stopped.  Leaving
the stall, Brendan went to one of the sinks and washed himself.  He used
paper towels to dry off.  Then, finally, he retrieved his boxers, slipped
them on, and slipped out of the bathroom and went back to his bed.

When he entered the dorm again, the boy who had snuck out of his bed to
join the other boy in the next bed, was back in his own bed.  Everyone
appeared to be asleep.  As he slipped back into his bed, the boy next to
him opened his eyes.

"You OK?" he whispered.  He looked concerned.

Brendan didn't answer, but nodded slightly.

"They've done the same to all of us!" the other boy whispered.  "So you
don't have to feel as embarrassed as you might."

"Thanks," Brendan whispered, wondering if any of the other boys had had
orgasms as well.

He turned onto his stomach then and buried his face in his pillow,
allowing his tears to flow once again, as his asshole burned, and cramps
rippled through his lower intestines.

                     *                *                  *

The next morning, most of the other boys acted as if they didn't know
anything about what had happened in the bathroom the night before.  In
reality, they'd all been through the same treatment by Lance, Jim, and
the night counselor, and although they thanked God Brendan had come along
so they would have a reprieve from more of it themselves, they all felt
Brendan's pain along with him.

The only one who acknowledged what had happened was the boy who slept in
the bed next to Brendan's.  He smiled sadly and knowingly at Brendan.
They spoke a few words to each other then about the orphanage in general,
and Brendan finally found out his name was Jason.

As it was a Saturday, the boys didn't have school.  Instead, they all had
various chores to perform.  Brendan was assigned various tasks as well,
and sent off with the other boys to do them.

Lance and Jim bullied all the other boys on and off all day.  They left
Brendan alone though.  In fact Lance winked at him a couple times.  Each
time he did, Brendan's stomach churned with fear.  Jason told Brendan
that Lance and Jim were always nice to the ones they were "doing" at
night, so at least Brendan wouldn't have to face their usual wrath during
the day.

Just before bedtime, Lance walked past Brendan.

"Remember!  You come to us, or it'll be worse if we have to come get
you!" he whispered.

Brendan felt his heart sink.

"They mean it too," Jason whispered, when he'd gone.  "I didn't go the
second night.  When they came to get me - they beat the hell out of me
first, then they used me.  After that I went before they came looking.
They didn't hurt me then.  They just used me."

"That hurts enough!" Brendan hissed.

"They're gentler if you go willingly," Jason murmured, turning pink in
the face.

"Jason, when they ... you know... well... did you......." Brendan trailed
off.  He wanted to ask Jason if he'd had an orgasm, but was too
embarrassed.

"Did I what?" Jason asked.  Then, in a somewhat sneering sounding, low
tone he added,  "Like it?"

"Y- no...um...I know you didn't like it - who would.... It's just I -
well... I got off when the night guy did me!  I just wondered if maybe
you did too?" Brendan said.

Jason studied Brendan's face for a moment, then nodded slightly.  "Tell
anyone and I'll say you're lying though!"

Brendan nodded, then he smiled for the first time since he'd arrived.  It
was a small sad smile.  Jason's severe look softened and he nodded again
solemnly.

As soon as lights were out, and the counselor who'd put them to bed left,
Jason whispered, "Go now and save yourself some pain!"

Quaking with fear, but hoping he was making the right choice and they
wouldn't hurt him as much, and also hoping that Jason wasn't playing him
for a fool so everyone would laugh at him afterward, Brendan quietly
crawled out of bed.  As he did, he saw the same boy who'd slipped into
the next boy's bed the night before, getting up too.  He smiled and
winked at Brendan, then slipped into the other boy's bed again.  He
crawled on top of the other boy and they immediately began kissing and
humping their pelvises against each other.

"Why can't they use them?" Brendan thought, as he felt his dick stir,
wishing he was one of those two boys instead.  Then, he dashed silently
and hastily into the bathroom.

As he stood waiting, he prayed Lance, Jim and the night counselor
wouldn't show up.

A moment later though, his hopes were dashed, when Lance and Jim walked
in.

"You really did like it didn't you?" Lance said, smiling.  He strode over
then and gave Brendan's crotch a gentle squeeze.

Brendan wanted to say he didn't, but was afraid to make things worse, so
he kept quiet.

"OK, strip, and this time I got first," Lance said.

Miserably, Brendan stripped off his boxer, as Lance and Jim pulled
their's, which had both been tenting quite a bit in front, off too.  Jim
sat down on the bench, and gestured for Brendan to come to him.  Brendan
did.

"You know the position," Jim said.

Brendan bent over Jim's lap, and Jim reached between Brendan's legs and
directed his penis so that it dangled between his thighs.  Brendan hated
the fact that he liked how Jim's hand felt as he touched him.

"How's your hole feeling?" Jim asked, reaching up and fingering Brendan's
asshole.

Brendan sucked in his air quickly.

"Well?" Jim asked, as he pushed a finger against Brendan's anus, a little
harder.

"It hurts a little!" Brendan blurted, hoping maybe they'd be gentler
since he seemed to be cooperating.

"You'll get used to it," Lance said, giving his right cheek a gentle
slap.

Brendan felt the tip of Lance's lubricated cock poking his anus then.  A
moment later, he groaned with pain as Lance impaled him, pushing all of
his manhood up inside him.

Then, similarly to the night before, but thankfully without any other
over violence other than being used as a receptacle, Lance fucked
Brendan.  Then Jim did the same.  Finally, Rico, the night counselor
joined them, and had his turn.  Again, like the previous night, as the
counselor fucked him, his dick must've rubbed Brendan's prostate just
right, because, Brendan became arroused, and again had an orgasm, this
time spraying Lance's calves and ankles with his semen.  Again, the three
of them seemed to enjoy the fact that he'd gotten off too.

Within 20 minutes, it was over and Lance, Jim, and the counselor had
left.  Brendan again used the toilet, then washed and dried himself, and
went to bed.  This time, when he returned to the dorm, the two boys who
had been humping each other a few beds down were still in bed with each
other.  The blonde boy was laying on top of, and fucking the darker
haired boy, who was lying face down.  As Brendan walked back into the
room, the blonde boy was just starting to have his orgasm.  He continued
fucking the dark-haired boy as he continued spasming, and within seconds,
while the blonde boy was still cumming, the dark-haired boy started to
get off as well.  Brendan watched for a moment, until they'd both
finished.  Then, with his own dick starting to grow again over what he'd
just seen the two boys doing, he quickly crawled back into his bed.
Quickly he turned onto his stomach and buried his face in his pillow.  He
only cried for a minute or so.  Then, he started thinking about what he
could do to get out of the mess he was in.

                  *                    *                    *

Two nights later, the lady who'd brought Brendan to the home, came to get
him.  She had a suit with her, which she had him put on.  Then, she'd
taken him to his father's wake.

Brendan stood quietly for two hours near the head of his father's open
coffin, as people he didn't know, who worked with his father, or knew his
father in some way, passed by, each pausing to tell Brendan how sorry
they were.  As they walked by, Brendan hoped and prayed that someone
would stop and ask him if he was OK, or if he needed somewhere to live.
They didn't though.  In reality, not that many people came to his
father's wake.  Of the ones that did, Brendan only recognized a few of
them as neighbors, and none of them appeared to be concerned with where
Brendan was staying.  As the wake drew to a close, Brendan's heart again
sank.

That night, he got back to the orphanage after "light's out".  Lance and
Jim were waiting up for him, and they weren't happy that he'd made the
wait.  They didn't care that he'd just come from his father's wake, and
they let him know by beating him, and fucking him roughly.  When they
were done with him that night, Brendan was again left sitting on a toilet
with blood oozing from his asshole, and a swollen lip and nose.

The next morning, the lady took Brendan to his father's funeral.  There
was a church service, then they went to the cemetery.  Afterward, he was
dropped off again at the orphanage.

That evening, Lance gave him a long, meaningful stare at the dining hall
table as they ate their supper.  Immediately after "lights out" Jason
motioned to him from his bed to go.  Grudgingly, Brendan got up and went
into the bathroom to wait for his nightly abuse.  That night they went
easier on him again, because he had shown up willingly.

After that, each day and night became a mirror image of the previous
one.  Brendan was put in a new school, along with the other boys.  There,
the kids who weren't from the orphange were all picked on by the other
kids.  Since Brendan was new, he took the brunt of it.  Then, each night,
rather than facing a certain beating, Brendan went to the bathroom after
lights out, and let Lance, Jim, and Rico each have a go at him.  The only
consolation, if you can call it that, was that each time, by the time it
was the the counselor's turn to fuck him, and he was about to climax, or
was in the throes of his own orgasm, Brendan had had enough action, so
that he'd cum too.  Lance, Jim, Rico all seemed to take pleasure in the
fact that Brendan would cum too, and generally, didn't treat him as badly
as they treated the other boys the rest of the time either.

By the time a week had gone by, another problem occurred though.  A few
of the boys in the dorm began to pick on Brendan, saying that he must be
a faggot, because he always went so willingly to his nightly fucking.
Jason tried to convince Brendan to ignore them, but Brendan was upset.
He didn't want to be thought of as a faggot, even if it was true he did
eventually get off while he was being fucked.  As the teasing got worse,
Brendan finally decided to rebel against Lance and Jim, and one night he
didn't get up and go to the bathroom.

Then, when Lance and Jim came to get him, he made the mistake of saying
"NO!  Why don't you use someone else for a change?"

That turned out to be a nearly fatal mistake.  Lance and Jim became
furious and dragged poor Brendan from his bed and into the bathroom.  The
ripped his shorts off, then beat him unmercifully.  When they'd given him
a bloody nose, two black eyes, a fat lip, and other cuts and bruises all
over his body, as well as a severe whipping on his bare ass with Lance's
belt, they had ravaged his asshole with their dicks, then after the
counselor fucked him too, the took a mop handle and shoved that up his
ass and fucked him with it until he was screaming in pain and terror for
help.  Finally, they'd left him in a bloody, quivering, dirty heap on the
bathroom floor.

"Don't you ever talk back to us again!" Lance snarled at him, as they
strode out of the bathroom.

Brendan lay on the floor not moving for some time, sobbing and throbbing
all over in pain.  Eventually he got up, cleaned himself up, and made his
way to his bed, where he collapsed on his stomach.  Pulling the covers
over himself, he buried his face in his pillow and sobbed uncontrollably
and inconsolably for some time.  Eventually, his crying subsided, and he
rolled over onto his back and laid there wondering what he could possibly
have done to cause himself to end up in such a miserable situation.

As he laid there wracking his brain for a way to get himself out of the
orphange, from the hallway, he heard the faint strains of a Christmas
song playing on the night counselor's radio.  It was "All I want for
Christmas is my two front teeth".

"Hmmph!" he snorted, miserably.  "Merry Christmas to me!"

As the song continued, tears filled Brendan's eyes and he whispered to
himself, "All I want for Christmas is to get out of here, get Roger back,
and find a decent place to live, where nobody will hurt me!"

He rolled over again onto his stomach, and buried his face in his pillow
again, and cried some more.

                   *                   *                   *

Albert Ford was Steven McAllister's attorney.  The morning after Mr.
McAllister had died, and Brendan was taken to the orphanage, shortly
after Al had walked into his office and had gotten himself a cup of
coffee, he stepped over to his files and pulled out a thick one labeled
"McAllister".  Opening it, he glanced down at a summary sheet.

"Dammit!" he said.  "I kept telling him to find someone to take the boy
if anything happened to him!  Well... too late now!"

Al had thumbed through the folder then, looking at each document.  When
he reached Steven McAllister's will, he saw an envelope laying in front
of it that he'd forgotten about.  It was labeled "Open only once I'm
dead!" and it was signed "Steven McAllister".

"Guess I can open it now!" Al said, smiling ruefully.

He pulled the envelope out of the folder, set the folder down and slit
the envelope open with a fingernail.

"Hmmm..." he said.  There was another envelope wrapped inside a sheet of
paper.

"Well, well, well," he said, after having read the piece of paper that
was wrapped around the inner envelope.

"Get me Brody would you please Marie?" he called out the open office
doorway.

"Certainly!" his secretary replied.

                *                    *                  *

A week had gone by since Al spoke with Raymond Brody, a private
investigator he used whenever he found it necessary to employ one.  The
report Mr. Brody had given him was thorough though, and enabled Al to
take the next step.  He'd quickly cleared his schedule for the remainder
of the day, and the entire following day, gone home and packed an
overnight bag, and driven to Bayonne, NJ.

Now, at the same time Brendan was lying crying in bed, Al pulled up in
front of Christopher Logan's house.  Although a car was parked in the
driveway, the house was dark.  It was also ominously devoid of any
Christmas decorations, which made Al feel uneasy.

Checking his watch, Al realized it was too late to call on anyone, so he
pulled away from the curb, and went in search of a motel.  He found one
not far away and checked in for the night.

                *                    *                   *

Early the next morning, as Chris lay in bed, leisurely stroking his
lotion-slathered hardon, he heard the doorbell ring.

"Who the hell is dropping by this early?" he muttered, quickly grabbing
some Kleenex from the box on his night stand and wiping his dick dry.

Chris got up and took his bathrobe off the hook on the back of the
bedroom door, and put it on.  Then, he padded downstairs to the front
door.  The bell rang again, just as he reached it.  Peering through a
crack in the curtains over the door's window, he saw an older man
standing there, who he'd never seen before.  He was certain the man had
the wrong house, but opened the door to see if he couldn't direct him to
the right one.

"Yes?" Chris asked, blinking in the early morning sunlight.

"Are you Christopher Logan?" the man asked.

Surprised, Chris said he was.

"My name is Albert Ford," The man said.  "I'm an attorney for a man I
expect you've never heard of, but believe you'll want to find out about.
Would it be possible for me to come in and speak with you please?"

"Look man, whatever you're selling, I don't want any," Chris said, and he
started to close the door.

"The man I'm talking about was your birth father!" Al blurted.

Chris froze for a moment, then pulled the door open again and said
"Excuse me?"

"You were adopted, were you not?" Al asked.

"Yes," Chris said.  "How did you know that though?"

"Because, I'm your birth father's attorney," Al said.

Chris stood looking at Al for a minute, blinking, as he digested what Al
had just told him.

"Is he looking for me?" Chris asked.

"No," Al said.  "I am."

Chris looked at Mr. Ford with a confused look.

"Please Mr. Logan, may I come in and explain?  I promise you'll want to
hear what I have to say," Mr. Ford said.

Chris stared at the lawyer for a minute, totally stunned.  Then he shook
his head sharply as if clearing cobwebs from his brain and said, "I'm
sorry, sure, come on in.  Um... can I get you some coffee?  I know I need
some!"

"I'd like that, thank you," Al said, and he stepped inside the door,
which Chris was holding open for him.

                     *                     *                    *

A few minutes later, Chris and Al were sitting at the kitchen table, each
with a cup of coffee.  A box of doughnuts that Chris had picked up the
night before sat between them.  Mr. Ford had his briefcase sitting open
on a chair next to him.

"So... you know my birth father?" Chris asked, sipping his coffee.

"I've been his attorney for some time now," Al said.  "Please, if you'll
allow me to, I'll bring you up to speed."

"OK," Chris said.

Al proceeded then to tell Chris about Steven McAllister.  He told him how
many years earlier he'd become Steven's lawyer, and all about Steven from
that point on.  He told Chris about Steven's marriage to Cindy, and about
their son Brendan.  Chris's eyes got big when Al mentioned Brendan.  Al
noticed, but quickly continued, telling about Cindy's tragic death,
Steven's despair, and his spiraling downfall, including his dependence on
alcohol, which had eventually led to his untimely death the previous
week.

"Oh my God!  So, he's dead?" Chris asked.

"I'm very sorry, but yes he is," Al said.  "It was when I looked for his
will, that I found the envelope with information in it about you and your
adoption.  I hired a private investigator to track you down.  I have a
letter for you from your father.  Here it is."

Al reached into his briefcase and withdrew an envelope and handed it to
Chris then.

His hand trembling slightly, Chris took the envelope.  It was heavy.
Quickly he slit it open, and pulled out a letter, which was wrapped
around several pictures.  He glanced quickly at the pictures, staring at
two in particular.  One of his father, as a young man.  At the time, he
looked amazingly like Chris did now!  The other picture Chris lingered
over a moment was of Brendan.  He too looked a lot like Chris had looked
at the same age.  Chris set the pictures down, then, and opened the
letter and read it.

When he was finished, he looked at the lawyer and said, "This is
amazing!  I've always kind of wondered who my birth parents were!  It's
awful though - they're BOTH dead!"

"He mentions your birth mother?" the lawyer asked.

"Yes, and he says she died not long after I was born in a house fire," he
said.  "Here, read the letter."

Chris handed the letter to the lawyer who read through it.

When he finished, he looked at Chris and said, "Nice letter.  Your father
was a good man.  It's a shame Cindy passed away.  He couldn't handle it,
and it ultimately led to his own passing."

"That sucks," Chris said, not knowing what else to say.

"I see Steve talks about your conception and birth," Al said, re-reading
part of the letter.  Purposely he added "He even mentions that your
mother said when she saw you for a few minutes after you were born, that
she saw you have a birthmark in your armpit."

"Yeah!" Chris said.  "I must be their son, cause I've got it!  Wanta see
it?"

"Sure," Al said, trying not to sound too interested.  He'd been hoping
though that Chris would confirm that he had the elliptical birthmark in
his armpit that Steven's letter mentioned.  It was added proof that Chris
was really Steven's son.

He smiled as Chris untied the belt of his bathrobe, so he could better
open the top of it and show him his birthmark.

"Here it is," Chris said.

As Chris pulled the lapel of his bathrobe aside to expose his pit, he'd
forgotten that the bottom half of his robe was no longer secured, and it
too slid sideways, opening the front of his bathrobe and completely
exposing his entire, naked body.

"Shit!" Chris exclaimed, ripping the robe shut and turning scarlet.

"I'm sorry," Chris murmured, the redness in his face darkening.

"Not to worry," Al said, smiling benevolently.  "I see though that not
only do you have the birthmark, but you also inherited your father's
large endowment as well!"

A strange look crossed Chris's face, while at the same time his redness
deepened, and Al realized he probably was confused.

"Your father and I used to belong to the same health club, and as such,
saw each other in the buff on occasion," Al said, smiling and turning a
little red in the face himself.  "He was rather large down there too,
just like you are."

"Oh!" Chris said, smiling modestly, and blushing a little deeper.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a minute.

Suddenly Chris's expression changed, and he said, "So... they had a kid?
A boy named Brendan?  I have a brother?"

"Yes!  Although technically, he's your half-brother," Al said, picking up
the pile of pictures and selecting the one of Brendan that Chris had
looked at a couple minutes ago.  He handed it to Chris and said, "This is
him.  Although it looks like it was probably taken a little while ago.
Brendan is 12 now, and looks a bit bigger and older."

"Wow!  Looks a lot like I did at his age," Chris said, looking at the
picture wonderingly.

"He's a fine boy," Al said.

"Who's he living with now that both his rents are dead?" Chris asked.

Suddenly, the moment Al had been dreading had arrived.  Now was when he
had to do what he did best.  He had to convince someone to do something
he didn't think they would want to do.

"Well... it's tragic really," Al said.  "He's a wonderful boy, but...
there's nobody left to take care of him.  He's an orphan.  At the moment,
he's living in a local orphanage."

"AN ORPHANAGE?" Chris cried, stunned.

Al nodded sadly, and said, "he has no living adult relatives."

As Chris sat blinking at him, Al suddenly saw a look of comprehension
cross his face.  The look changed quickly to one of astonishment, mixed
with a little horror!

"OH NO!" Chris nearly shouted.  "Wait one minute!  You DID come here to
try and sell me something, didn't you?  I'm an adult and you know that.
So he DOES have a living adult relative - ME!  And you came here to try
and get ME to take him - didn't you???"

Al looked at Chris, studying his expression, then he smiled slightly and
said, "well, I did have to get your letter to you, but I'll admit, that
could've been done through the mail.  So, yes, I did come here to tell
you about your brother, and see if maybe you couldn't help him out.  He
really is a wonderful young man, and it's tragic that he is being forced
to live in that dreadful place!  I was hoping that you would at least
want to come and see the boy, and then make up your mind if maybe you
could help him out.  By the way, your father did leave money for his care
and maintenance, and he will also receive Social Security funding as
well, so financially, it wouldn't be a drain on anyone who took him in.
I also know that you live alone, and this is a rather big house!  Don't
you find it rather lonely at times?"

Chris sat staring at the lawyer with big eyes.

Finally, he said, "Man, you pull out all the stops don't you?"

Al merely smiled slightly at him.

"And how'd you know I live alone?" Chris asked, looking accusatively at
Al.

"The private investigator I hired to find you told me," Al said.

"Oh," Chris said.

"So... would you consider coming to Philadelphia and at least meeting
Brendan?" Al asked, trying to sound hopeful, but feeling Chris wouldn't
agree.

Chris felt a rush of mixed emotions then.  Completely confused, he just
stared into space.  He was definitely curious about this new-found little
brother, and did want to meet him.  But, he was terrified by the
implication that if he did, he'd be laying claim to the boy, and that the
authorities would just dump him on him.  The last thing Chris wanted was
to be saddled with a kid to raise!  He had NO IDEA HOW to raise a kid to
begin with!

Seeing the looks of confusion, curiosity, fear, and complete uncertainty
about what to do flashing across Chris's face, Al realized Chris was
trying to figure it all out at once.  This was a good sign, Al thought.
It meant that at least Chris was curious about his brother, and probably
would want to meet him.  He realized it was a lot to ask though that
Chris take the boy in, and become a parent to him.  Never-the-less, Chris
seemed to be a nice young man, so maybe it would be the best situation
for Brendan.

"Listen," Al said, after Chris had sat lost in thought for a couple
minutes.  "The only thing you have to make a decision about right now is
whether or not you'd like to meet your brother.  Any other decisions can
wait until after that."

Chris looked at him, but didn't reply right away.

Just as Al was about to open his mouth to speak again, Chris said, "OK.
When will it happen?"

Al smiled, and said,  "Well, all things considered, the sooner the
better.  How about later today?"

"TODAY?" Chris said, jerking back in his seat.

"Well, it doesn't have to be today, but tomorrow is Christmas, and I'm
not sure I can set it up on a holiday," Al said.

"Oh," Chris said.

"Will you be able to get off work today?" Al asked.

"Probably," Chris said.  "I'll have to call and see though.  Let me go do
that before you try and set anything up."

"OK," Al said.

Chris got up and went to the phone and called Houlihan's.  He spoke to
the manager for a few minutes.  When he returned to the table and sat
back down, he told Al that he'd been given the day off, and wasn't
expected back at work until Tuesday.

"Excellent!" Al said.  "So do you want me to set up the meeting then?"

"Sure," Chris said, looking slightly apprehensive.

Al smiled.

"It'll be fine," he said.  "You'll see.  Your brother's a wonderful young
man!"

Chris smiled back, but his mind began racing then, wondering what he'd
talk to the boy about.

                    *                     *                     *

A couple hours later, Chris pulled into a parking space behind Al at the
orphanage in Philadelphia.

"All set?" Al asked, when they got out of their cars.

Although he nodded nervously, Chris was feeling a great deal of emotional
turmoil.  He was extremely nervous about meeting this boy, who was his
younger half-brother.

"Let's go in then," Al said.  "And, relax.  I promise it'll go fine!"

Chris merely smiled nervously in response, then followed Al into the
building.

                     *                  *                     *

A few minutes later, Chris and Mr. Ford were in the Executive Director's
office, seated in front of her desk.

"If you're ready to meet Brendan, I'll go and get him," Mrs. Melcher, the
Executive Director, said.

"OK," Chris said, feeling his heart beginning to race.

"I'm sorry, but it'll take a few minutes, since we haven't told Brendan
about you yet," she said.

"Why did you wait?" Chris asked.

"We didn't want to get his hopes up, in case you were unable to make it
today," Mrs. Melcher replied.

"You mean in case I backed out," Chris said, looking across the desk at
Mrs. Melcher.

"Well... truthfully, yes.  I'm sorry, but, it's happened before, so we
don't take chances anymore," she said.

"I understand," Chris said.

"Good.  I'll go and get Brendan now," she said.  "I'll be back as soon as
possible."

"Thank you," Chris replied.

Mrs. Melcher left the office then.

                 *                     *                      *

Brendan was surprised when he was called out of his math class.  He
really didn't care why he was being called out.  He didn't care about
much of anything anymore.

Mrs. Melcher looked down at Brendan when he walked out of the classroom.

"Oh dear!" she said, when she saw his slightly black eyes, and the scab
that had formed over the cut on his lip.  "Have you been fighting?"

"No Ma'am," he said, dully.

"Well, how did you get these bruises and cuts?" she asked.

Brendan didn't reply.

"Brendan, is anyone beating you up?" she asked

"No Ma'am," he said again.

"But your face..." she said, trailing off, as she looked at him more
closely.

"I'm fine Ma'am, it's nothing," he said, backing away from her a little,
hoping she'd drop the subject.  The last thing he needed was for her to
find out about how Lance and Jim had beat him the night before.  If she
did, he knew he'd face worse the next night.

Mrs. Melcher looked at Brendan with concern.

"I'm fine, really.  What did you need me for?" Brendan asked, not really
caring, but hoping to divert her attention from his wounds.

"OH!" she said, "I have a surprise for you!"

"What?" Brendan asked.

"Why don't we step in here, and I'll tell you," Mrs. Melcher said,
indicating a small conference room.

Once they were inside, not knowing how to delicately put what she had to
tell Brendan, Mrs. Melcher looked at him and said, "Were you aware that
when your father was a high school student, that he had a girlfriend who
got pregnant?"

"No!" Brendan said, looking at her with surprise.

"Well, he did, and the girl had a baby boy," Mrs. Melcher said.  "Because
your father and his girlfriend were too young to get married and raise
the baby, he was put up for adoption."

Brendan wasn't sure where the conversation was going, but all of this was
news to him, and his curiosity was piqued.

"Your father's lawyer, Mr. Ford, has been looking for any relatives or
friends of your family, who might be willing to take you in and care for
you, so you don't have to live here at the home," Mrs. Melcher said.
"While he was doing this, he found out about your father's baby that was
put up for adoption.  Investigating further, he found the baby, who's now
a 21 year old man, and your half-brother."

As Mrs. Melcher watched him, Brendan's eyes grew large and round as he
stared back at her.

"I have a brother?" he asked finally.

"Yes you do, and he'd like to meet you," Mrs. Melcher said, smiling.

Stunned even more, Brendan's pulse suddenly quickened as he instantly
grew very nervous.

"H-he wants to meet me?" he asked, still completely flabbergasted by this
turn of events.

"Yes he does.  In fact he's waiting in my office right now," she said,
still smiling.

"HE'S HERE NOW?" Brendan cried, his emotions changing instantly from
surprise, as he became distraught.

"Yes he is, and he appears to be a very nice young man," Mrs. Melcher
said.  "It'll be fine."

Brendan just stared at her, his mind in complete turmoil, and his stomach
churning from nervousness.  He had a brother.  His brother wanted to meet
him.  Right then.  Brendan couldn't believe it!  As he became lost in
thought, it suddenly occurred to him, that maybe this brother would take
him away from the orphange!  Maybe he could go live with him!  But...
what if living with him was worse than living at the home?  Brendan's
mind was in utter confusion, and he didn't have a clue what to do or even
what to think.

"Would you like to meet him?" Mrs. Melcher asked.

Brendan looked at her, not knowing what to say.

Finally, Brendan said, "What's his name?"

"I'm sorry," Mrs. Melcher said.  "His name's Christopher Logan.  He goes
by Chris."

"Chris," Brendan repeated.  A moment later, his mind was racing again,
wondering what to do.

"Chris traveled all the way from Bayonne, NJ to meet you," Mrs. Melcher
said.  "How about we go meet him?  I can stay with you if you'd like."

Brendan looked at her.  He felt the blood rushing through his veins.
Finally, he nodded.

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Melcher said.  "Come with me then."

Dumbly, Brendan let Mrs. Melcher lead him down to her office on the
ground floor of the building.  As her office drew nearer, Brendan became
more and more nervous.

                       *                   *                     *

Chris's head jerked up as the door to Mrs. Melcher's office opened.  He
was a nervous wreck.

As the door swung open, Mrs. Melcher ushered a short, thin, nervous
looking boy, who Chris recognized to be Brendan from the pictures his
father had enclosed with his letter, into the room.  Quickly, Chris stood
up.  Brendan's eyes widened slightly, when he saw how tall Chris was.

"Brendan, this is your half-brother Chris," Mrs. Melcher said.  "And
Chris, this is your half-brother Brendan."

The two stared at each other for a moment.

Finally, Chris spoke first.  He smiled slightly, and held out his hand
and said simply, "Hi!"

"Hi!" Brendan replied, taking Chris's hand nervously and shaking it, but
completely avoiding eye contact with Chris.  He noticed that Chris had a
big, warm, and somewhat sweaty hand.  Or was the sweat from his own hot
hand, he wondered?

"How about we leave them alone for a few minutes, so they can get to know
each other privately?" Al suggested.

Mrs. Melcher appeared to become agitated.  She looked at Brendan and
said, "Would that be alright with you Brendan?  Or would you prefer that
I stay?"

Brendan looked at Chris for a moment.  Given the treatment he'd received
by older males all week, he felt mildly nervous about being alone with
any older boy or man now, but he realized, most guys didn't do the
horrible things to younger boys that Lance, Jim and Rico did.  So, he
looked at Mrs. Melcher and in an uneasy voice said, "It's OK.  I'm fine."

"Alright then, we'll be just outside in the hallway if you need us," Mrs.
Melcher said.

She and Al exited the office then, leaving Brendan and Chris alone.

Neither of them spoke right away.  Instead, they both just stood looking
for each other for a minute.

Finally, Chris said, "So... did you know about me at all?"

"No," Brendan said.  "Did you know about me?"

"Nope," Chris said.

They were both silent again then.

As Chris looked Brendan over more carefully, he noticed the bruising
around his eyes, and the scabbed-over cut on his lower lip.  His left
cheek looked puffy and bruised too.  It appeared the boy had been in a
fight.

"Were you in a fight?" he asked.

"No!" Brendan answered, quickly.

Too quickly Chris thought.

"How'd you get the shiners and fat lip?" he asked.

Brendan looked guiltily at Chris, and didn't reply.

"Is someone here hurting you?" Chris asked, surprised by his sudden
feeling of protective concern for this boy he didn't even know.

"No!" Brendan said, instantly.  Chris could see from his expression he
was lying, and he realized Brendan was probably being beaten up, but was
afraid to tell anyone for fear of getting it worse.  Suddenly Chris felt
awful for him, and wanted to do something to help.  What could he do
though?

"I can tell you're lying," Chris said.  "I expect you're scared it'll get
worse for you if you say anything, so I'll drop it for now.  But if you
need or want help - you can tell me and I'll do whatever I can to help
you."

Chris saw the look of surprise on Brendan's face.  Quite honestly, he was
surprised with himself for having said what he'd just said.  Brendan
didn't reply, but just looked at Chris with big eyes.

"One more thing," Chris said.  "If we're gonna be brothers, you can't be
lying to me anymore, OK?  I promise I won't lie to you either.  Brothers
always need to be honest with each other! I understand why you lied just
now, but can you promise that'll be the last time?"

As Brendan's look of surprise deepened, so did Chris's own feeling of
surprise.  What was causing him to say all this to this boy he'd only
just met?  It was almost as if he was being directed by an unseen force!

"Well?" Chris asked, when Brendan didn't reply right away.

"OK," Brendan said.  Then he added,  "And, I'm sorry."

"It's OK," Chris said.  "I get it.  But, you're not alone anymore!  I'm
here now, and I'll help you if you need any help!"

"Really?" Brendan asked, surprised.

"Uh... yeah, I guess so," Chris said, rather astounded himself by his
offer.  He didn't know what it was about this boy, but he found himself
wanting to help him in any way he could!

"Why?" Brendan asked, still looking surprised, but also looking confused
now too.

"Why what?" Chris asked.

"Why would you want to help me?" Brendan asked.

"Because you're my little half-brother," Chris said.

"But... until today, we never even knew each other existed.  Why would
you want to help me, when I'm a stranger to you?" Brendan persisted.

"To tell you the truth," Chris said.  "I really don't know.  I just have
this feeling it's what I'm supposed to do."

"So... you really don't want to help me.  You just feel obligated?"
Brendan asked.

"NO!" Chris said.  "I really DO want to help you.  When I said I thought
I was supposed to do it, I meant I kind of feel there's a reason I'm
supposed to do it - not that I'm doing it just out of obligation.  I feel
like I'm meant to do it."

"Do you get these strange feelings often?" Brendan asked, looking
curiously at Chris.

Chris smiled then, and chuckling said, "No, never!  So I think it's truly
meant to be!"

Brendan was quiet, and just kept looking at Chris then.

"So... how is it being in this place?" Chris asked, watching Brendan's
face to see his expression.

Brendan didn't reply immediately.

After a long pause his face took on an anguished expression, and Chris
thought it looked like his eyes were welling with tears.

"It's like living in Hell!" Brendan replied.  Quickly he looked down at
his feet, to hide the emotions he was sure his face was exhibiting.

"Wow!  Um... I knew it wouldn't be great, but I didn't think it would be
that bad," Chris said.

"It's awful," Brendan said, shakily, still looking down at his feet.

Chris stepped toward Brendan.  As he did, he saw Brendan flinch and tense
up.  Gently he put his index finger under the tip of Brendan's chin and
lifted his head, so he had to look at him.  Chris felt awful when he saw
the boy's face.  His eyes were filled with tears, and he looked anguished
and frightened.  He could also more clearly see the cuts and bruises on
his face.

"Someone here's hurting you, aren't they?" Chris said, looking down into
Brendan's watery eyes.

As Brendan looked up at Chris, he saw a kind, benevolent, sorrowful young
man looking back at him.  Looking into Chris's eyes, Brendan finally
began to feel he could trust him.

"I can't tell you," Brendan cried in a hushed, anguished tone, as he felt
his lower jaw beginning to tremble, and his eyes flooding to the point he
knew they were about to overflow.  "If you really meant it when you said
you wanted to help me - then get me out of here!  PLEASE!"

As Chris looked down at him, horrorstruck by his inferred admission that
he was being beaten up, Brendan lost his battle to control his emotions,
and tears began to stream from his eyes.

"Come here," Chris said softly, reaching for Brendan's shoulder and
pulling him over to him.

Brendan didn't resist, in fact, he let Chris pull him to him.  He
buried his face against Chris's chest then and wept bitterly, as Chris
wrapped his arms around him protectively.  As awful as he felt for the
boy, Chris smiled slightly to himself when he felt Brendan wrap his arms
around him and hang onto him as he cried.

It was as he held his weeping brother in his arms, that Chris realized
there was no decision to be made.  There was only one choice.  He had to
try and get custody of Brendan and get him out of that orphanage.  If he
didn't, who knew what would happen to him, and for reasons he couldn't
explain, Chris did care!  He also knew he'd never be able to live with
himself if he didn't help the boy.

Chris held onto Brendan, rubbing his back soothingly, and resting his
chin lightly on top of his head, until Brendan had cried himself out.  He
was surprised when after Brendan appeared to have stopped crying, that he
didn't pull away from him though.  In fact, Chris thought it seemed as if
he was hugging him tighter.

After a few minutes, Chris gently pushed Brendan off him, and reached
down and hooked his chin again with his finger and pulled his head up, so
he was looking at him.

"I'm sorry it's so awful here!  I -" Chris said, but Brendan cut him off.

"It's WORSE than awful!  It's a fucking Hell hole!  Not only do I lose my
father, and Roger, but they take me out of my house and dump me here!" he
cried, looking up at Chris as new tears threatened to burst from his
eyes.

Chris looked at him for a moment, confused, then said, "Wait a minute.
Who's Roger?"

"My dog!" Brendan cried.

"Oh!" Chris said, relieved that it wasn't another brother he didn't know
about.  "What'd they do with him?"

"The night the cops brought me here, they took Roger to the animal
shelter!" Brendan wailed.  "He's big and and he's not a puppy!  Nobody
would want him.  They probably killed him!"

Brendan threw himself against Chris, and began sobbing again.

Chris felt awful.  He couldn't imagine how anyone, especially a kid,
could cope with all the losses Brendan had experienced, and then to be
put in a place like this, where he ended up getting abused as well!  As
he thought about it, his pity for his little brother's situation began to
turn to anger at the system.

After Brendan had cried himself out again, and he'd held him a couple
more minutes as he thought things through, Chris pushed Brendan away
again.  Brendan looked up at him this time.

Brendan," Chris said. "I can't imagine anyone going through the hell
you've gone through, and I'm so sorry you had to go through it.  I'm
going to do whatever I can to help you.  I can't make you any promises
though, other than I'll do my best to fix things for you!"

A small, sad smile broke on Brendan's face then, as his eyes watered
more.  He leaned back in and hugged Chris tightly.  He was afraid to
believe anything would change for the better, but he couldn't help but
feel relief and hope.

Chris smiled slightly, as he pushed Brendan away from him again.

"There'll be more time for hugs later.  I gotta get to work on this now
though, OK?" he asked.

"OK," Brendan said.

"I gotta ask you a question," Chris said.  "If I can fix it so it works -
would you be willing to come live with me?"

Brendan had been too afraid to hope this is what Chris meant.  Now that
he'd said it, Brendan still couldn't believe it.

"You really want me to come live with you?" he asked, incredulously.

"Yeah," Chris smiled.  "But, you'll have to help me out.  I don't
anything about raising a kid.  You'll have to cooperate and do things I
tell you to.  I promise though, if you do that, I'll be fair.  And I
promise I'll never hurt you, and always do whatever I can to protect
you!  So will you agree to help me out if you come live with me?"

"I will!" Brendan said, snuffling, and fighting back new tears of joy and
relief he felt welling up within him.

"OK," Chris said, smiling.  "I can't promise they'll let this happen, but
it's what I'm going to try and do then!  OK?"

"OK," Brendan said, smiling apprehensively.  As good as it sounded,
Brendan knew better than to count on it.  There had to be something that
would go wrong.  It always did.

"Al!" Chris called sharply.  "Are you out there?"

"Yes," Al said, opening the door, and looking in.  Mrs. Melcher peered
into her office over his shoulder.

"Come on back in here please," Chris said.

"How are you two getting along?" Al asked, looking back and forth between
them.  He was concerned when he saw Brendan wiping the tears from his
eyes.

"Really well!" Chris said.  "I'm buying what you're selling.  I want you
to do whatever it is you have to do to get Brendan placed in my full
physical and legal custody, as fast as you possibly can!  I want him out
of here and with me as of yesterday!"

Al grinned.  Mrs. Melcher smiled, but looked apprehensively at Chris.

"Is there a problem Mr. Logan?" she asked.

"While my brother remains here, you're to keep better watch over him.  I
don't expect to find another cut or bruise on him from this point on!
And you will NOT pursue an investigation into what happened to him up
until this point, until he's been released into my custody and will no
longer have to be here!  You will not question him in the least about
this until he's out of here either!" Chris said, heatedly.

Both Mrs. Melcher's and Al's eyes grew wide as they looked at Chris.
Brendan looked horrified.

There was silence for a moment, then Mrs. Melcher stepped over to Brendan
and opened her mouth to say something.

"I said, he's not to be questioned about it in the least, until he no
longer has to live here!  Until then, you're to just keep extremely close
watch over him, so that he isn't hurt again in any way!" Chris said.

Mrs. Melcher turned and looked at Chris, who's eyes were blazing.

"I understand," she said.  "You must understand though, that I was
completely unaware of any mistreatment, and it is necessary for me to
investigate and take corrective actions.  No child should ever be harmed
here in anyway!"

"I'm glad to hear that.  I suggest you work with my attorney then to
secure Brendan's release into my custody as soon as possible, so that
you'll then be able to question him and start your investigation!" Chris
said.

"Certainly Sir!" Mrs. Melcher said.

Al was looking at Chris with an amazed look on his face.

"How soon can you spring Brendan?" Chris asked him.

"That's up to Mrs. Melcher I believe," Al said, giving him a look that
implied he might wish to be nicer to the lady.

Mrs. Melcher wore a slightly trimphant look on her face when Chris looked
at her, until she saw the threatening look on his face.  She knew that he
could make a lot of trouble for her if he brought in the police to
investigate how his brother had gotten hurt, and looking closer at
Brendan, it was obvious someone must've been hitting him.  She felt awful
for the boy, and wanted very much to ask him what had happened so she
could fix the situation and hopefully protect any other boy who might be
being hurt too.

"Well," Mrs. Melcher said.  "We'll work on this as quickly as possible.
The thing that will hold things up the longest is the criminal check,
however, I think given the situation, we can hand-walk the fingerprint
check through Criminal Justice.  You'll need to fill out some forms Mr.
Logan, and be fingerprinted.  You'll also have to prove your relationship
to Brendan.  I believe Mr. Ford has that documentation though already.
Finally, a judge has to approve your guardianship of Brendan.  You can
fill out the papers here and now, and then go to the police station just
down the block.  I'll call ahead, so they'll be expecting you.  They'll
fingerprint you.  Then we wait for the results of your fingerprint
check.  In cases where children's custody is involved, this is given top
priority - so the prints are actually hand delivered, and checked
immediately.  It only takes a few hours.  In the meantime, we'll check
your references and the data you give us on the forms.  And working with
Mr. Ford, we'll draw up the papers.  If everything checks out OK, then
all we need is a judge's signature on the paperwork.  Conceivably, if we
hurry, we can accomplish this today yet.  Otherwise, we might not
complete the transaction until Monday.  Tomorrow is Christmas afterall."

As Chris watched Brendan, he saw how upset he became at the thought he
might have to stay at the orphanage for a while yet.

"Let's move then!" he said.

"OK.  I'll get you the forms," Mrs. Melcher said.  "Please wait here!"

She left the office then.

"You could go easier on her, she is on our side afterall!" Al said to
Chris.  Then he turned to Brendan and said, "Now what's this about you
getting hurt?"

Brendan's eyes grew large.

"I said he wasn't to be questioned about it until he was in my custody,"
Chris said.

Al looked at Chris and said, "I'm on your side too you know."

"I know that, but Brendan doesn't want to discuss it while he's here yet,
in case he has to stay here longer, and word gets out he talked about
it," Chris said.

"I see," Al said.  "Alright then."

Mrs. Melcher returned with several large folders.  She sat at her desk
then, and started handing Chris forms to fill out, which Al looked over
quickly as well.  Brendan sat in a chair, off to the side, watching and
listening.  After about a half hour, all the necessary forms were done.
Mrs. Melcher signed them, and Al notarized a couple that required
notarization.  Mrs. Melcher organized the forms into various batches and
had her secretary take three sets and courier them to their appropriate
destinations.

"Now, you just need to be fingerprinted," Mrs. Melcher said, looking at
Chris.  "I expect there's no reason that should present any problems?"

"No," Chris said.

"Good," she said.  "I'll call ahead, then you can run to the police
station to be printed.  They'll transmit your prints to Criminal Justice,
and I'll call them to confirm that it's a rush.

She made a couple of short phone calls, then told Chris how to get to the
police station, and who to ask for.

"You're welcome to come back here when you're finished, and we can wait
together for the results of your application," she said.

"I've got an errand to run afterward, but I'll be back as soon as I can
be," Chris said.

He left then.  Al went with him, saying he'd be at his office.  Before
Chris left, he asked Mrs. Melcher again to please honor his request to
not ask Brendan about how he'd gotten hurt, but to keep a close watch
over him.  She looked mildly annoyed, but agreed.

                 *                     *                      *

Chris went to the police station then, found the Seargent he was supposed
to see, and got printed.

A few minutes later, he was in his car again, heading to the animal
shelter to see about Roger.  As they'd walked out of the orphanage, he'd
asked Al where the dog had been taken, and Al told him how to get to the
shelter.

When Chris arrived at the shelter, he asked for the manager.  When he
told the woman that he wanted to get his brother's dog back, and
explained how he'd been brought to them, she became visibly upset.

"You didn't kill him already did you?" Chris asked, alarmed.

"No!" the woman said.  "It's just that... well... someone's already come
and adopted him!  They picked him up yesterday!"

"NO!" Chris cried.  "I need to get him back!  My brother's devastated!  I
need to give something - someone back to him!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but he's gone!" the woman said.

"I need to know the name and address of the people who took him!" Chris
said.

"I'm sorry, but we can't give that information out!" she said.

"Excuse me?" Chris said.  "That dog was brought here to be taken care of
while relatives of my brother could be found who'd take him!  You had NO
RIGHT to allow him to be adopted!  I want that dog back and I want him
now!"

"I'm very sorry Sir!  But we had permission to allow him to be adopted!"
the woman said.

"Not by someone who was authorized to give it apparently!" Chris said,
sounding more nasty.  "I not threatening legal action yet!  I just want
the people's NAME AND ADDRESS!"

At the mention of legal action, the woman looked flustered.  She picked
up a stack of folders and riffled through them, selecting one.

"I can't give you what you want," she said.  "But, I will call the man
who adopted Roger and explain what happened to him, and see if he'd be
willing to meet with you."

"Thank you," Chris said, calming down a little, but still feeling
apprehensive.

The woman made the call.  A couple minutes later, she jotted down some
information on a pad of paper.  When she hung up she handed the paper to
Chris.

"He's willing to meet you," She said.  "Apparently Roger is very
depressed and moping around.  Mr. Henly's worried about him.  Once he got
him home, he seemed to be a little larger than he thought he'd be too.  I
guess he's already knocked over a few things with his tail."

"So, he's willing to give him back?" Chris asked.

"Maybe.  It might be helpful if you offered him the $50 donation we
charge when people adopt a pet.  You'd have had to pay it yourself if you
just came and picked him back up here," the woman said.

"OK," Chris said, smiling finally.  Suddenly his smile faded and he
looked puzzled.  "Um.... OK this might sound stupid, but I never saw the
dog - what kind of dog is he?  I mean how big is he?"

The woman smiled and fought back a chuckle.

"You really don't know?" she asked.

Chris shook his head.

"Roger's a Great Dane!  One of the biggest I've ever seen in fact!" she
said.

She chuckled then, as Chris's eyes grew huge.

"Jesus what've I gotten myself into?" Chris said, smiling resignedly,
before he thanked her again and left.

                   *                        *                       *

Mr. Henly turned out to be an older man, who lived alone, and had wanted
a big, gentle dog for companionship.  He appeared to be a nice man. When
he answered the door, Roger was with him.

"Holy Christ!" Chris exclaimed when he saw him.

"Yep, he's a big boy!" Mr. Henly said.

He invited Chris in and offered him a cup of coffee.  Chris accepted the
invitation in, but declined the coffee.

As soon as Chris walked inside, Roger, whose head came up to Chris's
chest, became animated.  His ears perked up and he started whining and
sniffing Chris excitedly, especially the front of Chris's shirt.

"He smells Brendan I bet!" Chris said, smiling.

"Oh," Mr. Henly said.  "Now what is it that happened?"

Chris ran through the whole story then, telling Mr. Henly everything that
had occurred.

"Oh the poor boy!" Mr. Henly said.  "And poor Roger too!  You must take
him, and give him back to your brother!"

"Thank you so much!" Chris said.  He was surprised to feel tears of
relief and happiness welling in his eyes.

"Well, I'll miss him, but he really has seemed very depressed. This is
the liveliest he's been since he got here," Mr. Henly said.  "And he is a
little bigger than I'd imagined.  I tried to walk him, but it turned out
he walked me.  If he ever wanted to pull on me, I wouldn't be able to
hold onto him!" Mr. Henly said.

Chris offered Mr. Henly some money then for the adoption costs, and
anything he might have purchased for Roger, but Mr. Henly said he didn't
want any money.  Chris insisted on at least giving him the $50 adoption
fee, and Mr. Henly finally accepted it.

"What would you have done if I didn't want to give him up?" Mr. Henly
asked.

"I would've offered you more money," Chris said, smiling.

"How high would you have gone?" Mr. Henly asked.

"I don't know.  Quite high," Chris said.

"You must think a lot of this brother of your's!" he said.

"I really don't even know him yet," Chris said.  "But I know he needs his
dog back in his life!"

"He's a lucky boy to have found you!" Mr. Henly said.

"Thanks!" Chris said.  "So... what are you going to do about not having a
dog now?"

"I'll go back to the pound and find a nice one who's a little smaller,
and hopefully, a little happier," Mr. Henly said.  "There's usually a
bunch after Christmas.  Although they're usually puppies.  Puppies are
fun though.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll take a puppy!"

Chris smiled and said he had to get back to the orphanage then, to see
what was going on with Brendan's papers.  Mr. Henly walked Chris and
Roger to the door, and lifted a heavy leather collar with tags, and a
long thick woven hemp leash off a hook on the wall.

"This came with him," Mr. Henly said.  "I believe those are even his old
license tags!  I didn't get a chance to get a new license for him yet.
You'd best take it with him."

"Thanks," Chris said, taking the collar and slipping it over Roger's
head.

Mr. Henly patted Roger on the head then and said good-bye to him.  Chris
and Roger left then.  As they walked down the walk to the street, Roger
stopped and stepped off the path into the snow.  First he peed on a bush,
then as Mr. Henly, who was standing on the stoop laughed, Roger stepped
forward and took a massive dump in the snow.

"I see you're one of those dog owners who lets their dog do his business
on other people's lawns!" he said, laughing.

"I'm sorry!" Chris called, laughing.

"Don't worry about it!  I was only joking!  Besides!  He was my dog until
a few minutes ago.  And, better there than in your car!" Mr. Henly
called.

Chris grinned, then gave Roger a tug, and the two walked to Chris's car.

"Looks like you have no choice but to lie down on the back seat!" Chris
said, looking at Roger.

Obediently, Roger plodded into the back seat of the car, and laid down.

"OK then!  Let's go see Brendan!" Chris said, as he slid behind the
wheel.

                      *                       *                        *

As Chris drove along, heading for the orphanage, his cell phone rang.  It
was Mr. Ford.

"Excellent news!" he chortled.  "You've been approved!  AND... Mrs.
Melcher is friends with the judge in charge - even though it's Christmas
Eve and he was scheduled to leave work at 2:00, she got him to hang
around long enough to sign the papers!  They're all signed, sealed and
will be delivered to you as soon as you can get back to the home!  I'm on
my way there right now!"

"YES!" Chris cried, jubilantly.  "I'm on my way too!  Does Brendan know?"

"Mrs. Melcher wanted to wait til you were there too!" he said.

"I'll be there in about 10 minutes," Chris said.

"How'd you make out with the dog?" Al asked.

"He's in my backseat as I speak!" Chris said.

"Wonderful!  Brendan is going to be so happy!" Al said.  "I'll see you in
a few minutes!"

"OK," Chris said, hanging up.  He couldn't stop grinning, as he drove
along.

                         *                *               *

Ten minutes later, Chris walked into the orphanage with Roger on his
leash.

"Aaaccckkk... You can't bring that-that... beast in here!" Mrs. Melcher's
secretary exclaimed, her eyes bugging out, when Roger walked up to her
desk and poked her in the elbow with his nose.

Chris grinned and said, "I'm certain I have Mrs. Melcher's permission.
Where is she anyway?"

"In her office.  So is Mr. Ford.  Brendan's with them too," she said.
She smiled then and in a low voice said, "I heard the news.  It's
wonderful!"

"Thanks!" Chris said.

He walked over to Mrs. Melcher's office door and knocked then.

"Come in," he heard Mrs. Melcher call.

Just then, Roger must've picked up Brendan's scent, as he began
whimpering and sniffing wildly by the door.

Chris opened the door and Roger pushed his way into the office.

"ROGER!" Brendan cried in a strangled voice, leaping up and jumping over
a wastebasket as he ran to toward the door.

Roger leaped toward Brendan too, and the two collided in the middle of
the room.  Roger began whimpering happily, and licking Brendan all over,
while Brendan, who had tears of joy running down his cheeks, fought to
hug Roger.  It was a joyous reunion!  Even the adults all had tears in
their eyes.

Eventually, Brendan was able pull his focus away from just Roger, and he
stood up and faced Chris.

"How did you get him back?" he asked.  "Is he back for good?"

"Yeah, he's back for good, and he's all your's!" Chris said.  Brendan
beamed, and his eyes glistened with tears, as he listened to Chris's
story about how he'd gotten Roger back.

"Thank you so much!" Brendan cried, throwing himself at his brother and
hugging him.

Chris hugged Brendan back and said, "No problem!  You two belong
together!"

"Can you stand some more good news?" Mrs. Melcher asked then, stepping
over to Brendan, after he and Chris broke their hug.

Brendan nodded.

She handed him a folder full of papers.

"These are for Chris, but they concern you.  They're the papers that make
Chris your legal guardian.  They're all approved, and signed.  Chris has
been your legal guardian for about an hour now!" she said.

Brendan stood blinking for a minute, holding the folder she'd put in his
hands, staring down at it dumbly.

Finally he said in an unbelieving voice, "D-does this mean I don't have
to stay here anymore?"

"That's right!  You'll be living with Chris now!" she said, smiling.

Brendan continued staring at her for a moment.  Then he turned toward
Chris.  When he did, Chris saw that his face was again wet with tears.
Chris smiled and reached to muss his hair, but Brendan threw himself
against Chris's chest and again buried his face against him.  This time
he sobbed uncontrollably for a minute or two, as Chris wrapped his arms
protectively around him and squeezed him tightly, as he continued crying.

"It's OK now," Chris murmured softly, kissing the top of the boy's head
gently.  Brendan cried on.

After a few minutes, Brendan's crying finally subsided.  He didn't
release Chris immediately though, and just held onto him.

When he finally did let go of Chris, he looked up at him and asked, "When
can we leave?"

"Right now," Chris said.

Mrs. Melcher cleared her throat.  Everyone looked at her.

"You told me that you'd let me ask Brendan some questions about who hurt
him, once he wasn't a resident here anymore.  Since he's not a resident
anymore, I'd really like to ask him those questions now.  I don't want to
upset him.  I just want to be able to prevent any of the other boys from
being hurt," she said.

Chris felt Brendan's arms snake around him again, and contract firmly and
tightly around his torso.

"It's OK now," Chris said, riffling a hand through Brendan's hair with
one hand and wrapping his other arm around him.  "You're out of here.
You never have to deal with any of them again!  Maybe something you can
tell Mrs. Melcher will help another boy to not suffer like you have!"

Trembling, Brendan looked up at Chris and asked "Do I have to?"

Chris thought a moment, then said "No!"

Mrs. Melcher looked exasperated.

"I won't force you to talk to about it, but I really think you should,"
Chris continued.  "I'll be right here with you!  Nobody can hurt you
anymore.  I won't let them.  There must be one or two boys here you like
even a little, who you don't want to see suffer though."

Brendan looked at Chris and said, "You're really taking me away from here
today?"

"Absolutely!" Chris said.  "That's correct, isn't it Mrs. Melcher?"

"Yes it is," she said.

"Can you wait outside then?" Brendan asked Chris.

Chris looked at him in surprise.

"You don't want me to stay with you?" he asked.

"I'll be OK.  Roger can stay with me.  Just please don't leave me here!"
Brendan said, in a pleading tone.

"I'd never do that," Chris said.  "You really want me to wait outside
though?"

Brendan nodded.

"OK," Chris said.  "I'll be outside then.  Holler if you change your
mind."

"Thanks," Brendan said.

Chris turned then and left the office.

Brendan looked at Al then and said, "You're a lawyer, right?  So you
can't tell anyone what your client says, unless they say so, right?"

"Yes, that's true," Al said.

"I want to hire you as my lawyer," Brendan said.  "I'll tell you what
happened, but you can't tell anyone.  Not til Chris and I are gone from
here.  And NOBODY can ever tell Chris!  OK?"

"Well..." Al said.

"That's my only offer.  It's that or I don't talk!" Brendan said.

"OK," Al said.

"But..." Mrs. Melcher said.

"I can't tell you," Brendan said, looking at her.  "I can only talk to a
guy about it.  And not Chris.  You can't ever tell Chris about this
either!  Agree, or I don't talk!"

Mrs. Melcher looked exasperated again, but finally said in a deflated
tone, "fine.  I'll be outside too then."

She too left her office then.

                       *                    *                     *

"He booted you too?" Chris asked, looking up in surprise from the chair
he was sitting in.

Mrs. Melcher nodded, and dropped into the chair next to him.

"He's hired your lawyer to be his lawyer, and won't let him tell anyone
what he tells him," she said.

Chris looked at her strangely.

"And he couldn't talk to a woman about it," she added hollowly.

"What?" Chris asked.

"I'm afraid this is worse than we thought," She said, looking very
agitated.  "I expect that means there was some sexual abuse as well!"

"NO!" Chris cried, leaping up.

"You cannot go in there!" Mrs. Melcher hissed, leaping up and jumping in
front of Chris as he was about to barge into the office.  "Whatever he's
telling your lawyer, he doesn't want you to know about!  He's too
embarrassed for you to know!  Let it go for now!  He needs time to get to
know you better, before he can talk to you about it!"

Chris looked hleplessly at her.

"What do I do then?" he asked.

"When you get settled in, take him to a doctor and have him checked for
any sexually transmitted diseases, and any damage to his sex organs,
rectum, and throat.  Call the doctor ahead, and tell him to make it seem
like a routine physical, so Brendan doesn't suspect you know.  By all
means, if he exhibits any physical problems though - take him to the
doctor immediately and forget about not knowing what I'm telling you,"
she said.  "Assuming there are no overt physical problems though,
whatever you do, don't push him to talk about it!  Just let him know
you're there to talk to about anything when and if he wants to!  Also,
you have to watch him for nightmares, and for depression.  He might need
to speak with a psychologist if he experiences either."

"Holy shit!" Chris said, horrified at the implications of what she was
saying.

"I'm so sorry," She said, guiltily.  "I truly had no idea!"

"What are you going to do about it?" Chris asked.

"Put a stop to it!" she said.  "I'll see how much, if anything your
lawyer will tell me.  Brendan indicated he might tell me at least some of
it.  I'm not allowed to tell you though!  Then, I'll set a trap to get
whoever it is!"

                   *                    *                   *

Inside the office, Mr. Ford was sitting in a chair facing the wall, as
Brendan had asked him to do.  It was a good thing Brendan had asked him
to face the wall, as it wouldn't have been good for him to see Mr. Ford's
face.  Mr. Ford was very distraught and had tears in his eyes as he
listened to Brendan, who was sitting on a chair behind him, hugging
Roger, who was sitting next to him.  Brendan explained in a dull
monotone, in detail, all the abuse he'd suffered in the week or so he'd
lived at the orphanage.

When Brendan was finished speaking, Al sat thinking for a minute.

Finally, he said, "Do you trust me Brendan?"

"Not really," Brendan said.  "I'm sorry.  It's just that I don't know you
at all!"

"Fair enough," Mr. Ford said.  "Brendan, this isn't something you can
keep hidden from Chris.  The fact of the matter is, I think you should be
seen by a doctor.  The doctor needs to look at you - specifically at your
penis and butt.  He needs to make sure you're not hurt in any way.  He
might also want to take some blood tests.  Chris is your guardian, and
only he can make the decision that you see a doctor."

"NO!  YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T TELL HIM!" Brendan cried shrilly.

As Brendan began yelling, out in the hallway, Chris leaped from his chair
and bolted into the office before Mrs. Melcher could stop him.

As Chris threw the door open, Brendan was still hollering.

"He can never find out!" Brendan cried.  "If he does he won't want me!
He'll think I'm a faggot, and that I'm damaged goods!"

"That's not true!" Chris said firmly.  "I'd NEVER not want you!  No
matter what they did to you!"

Brendan spun around and was mortified to see Chris standing in the
office.

"You said you'd wait outside!" Brendan wailed.  "How much did you hear?"

"I heard you cry out.  I thought something was wrong!  I thought you
might need me!" Chris said.

"How much did you hear?" Brendan cried again, sounding more upset.

"Brendan," Chris said, lowering his voice and walking slowly over to
him.

When he reached Brendan, he looked down at him and said softly, "Can you
and I talk please?  Just the two of us?  I promise.  I won't make you
tell me anything, unless you feel it's OK to tell me.  And, I promise
you, that no matter what's happened, or what you might have been through,
or done to survive your ordeal - I'll still want you with me!  You're my
brother!  I'm going to take care of you!  That's final!"

Brendan looked ready to cry again, but slowly he nodded.

Looking relieved, Mr. Ford quickly got up and retreated to the hallway.
Mrs. Melcher went with him, closing the door.

Chris spun the chair Mr. Ford had just vacated around, so it was right
next to Brendan's chair, and sat down in it, so he was right next to
him.  Gently, he draped his arm around Brendan's shoulder and gave him a
hug.

"Look, I know you and I just met, but we gotta come up with a way to
communicate together.  I mean, we're brothers, and we're gonna live
together.  There won't really be any secrets between us.  And there
shouldn't be.  You need to understand that you can tell me anything about
yourself, and I'll be OK with it.  I'll always be here for you - no
matter what!  No matter how bad something seems, I'll be there for you!
And Brendan, I'll never hurt you, or make fun of you about anything!
You'll always be absolutely and completely safe and cared for with me!"
Chris said.  "Now I get the impression because you wouldn't talk to me,
or to Mrs. Melcher, because she's a woman, and a little bit by that
comment that you made about me thinking you might be a faggot, that
whoever hurt you, did something sexual to you too!  From your cuts and
bruises, I can tell you got beaten up.  If I put two and two together, it
sounds like you were probably sexually abused too.  If that's so, you can
tell me.  And you don't have to be embarrassed or upset or scared.  I
won't think worse of you because of it.  I know it's nothing you wanted
to have happen to you.  So you can tell me.  And Brendan, I promise, I'll
still respect you, and care for you, and want you!  And in no way are you
'damaged goods' because of it!"

Brendan looked up into Chris's eyes.  He looked sincere.  By then,
Brendan was exhausted from the whole last two weeks' ordeal.  He just
wanted it to be over with.  And he knew until Chris knew all of what
happened to him now, that it never would be over with, because Chris
seemed like the type of guy that wouldn't relent until he knew the whole
story.

As tears fell from his eyes again, he leaned on his brother.  Chris's arm
enveloped him protectively.

"They raped me!" Brendan whined, softly, turning his face, so that he
could smush it up against Chris's breast.

As he felt Chris's protective arm squeeze him a little tighter, he again
gave into his tears.  Then, inbetween quiet sobs, he poured his heart out
to Chris and told him everything about his horrific nightly abuse.  The
only thing he didn't tell Chris was how he himself had an orgasm each
night as they abused him as well.

When Brendan was finished, the only sound in the room was his soft
snuffling noises, as he fought to bring his weeping under control.

"It's OK now," Chris said, softly, squeezing him gently.  "Nobody's ever
going to hurt you again!  I'll see to that!"

"Y-you still want me then?" Brendan asked, looking up at him and sounding
surprised.

"Of course I do!  I told you that!" Chris said, smiling grimly.  "You
couldn't help what happened to you!  You have no reason to be
embarrassed.  There were three of them.  They were all bigger and older
than you.  You had no choice but to comply - or get the hell beaten out
of you.  You still have all my respect, like I told you before.  And I'll
see that things get fixed!"

He gave Brendan a squeeze and a kiss on top of his head, then said, "Let
me go talk to Mrs. Melcher and Al for a minute."

"Can we leave then?" Brendan asked.

"I don't know.  Now that we know what happened, we might have to hang
around a bit longer now.  But soon!" Chris said.

Brendan sighed and hung his arm around Roger.

                     *                      *                       *

"He told me everything," Chris said to Mrs. Melcher and Al.

"I hope you're not upset, but Mr. Ford told me what Brendan told him, and
I called the police.  It's the law that I do so in such cases," Mrs.
Melcher said.

"I figured as much," Chris said.  "Let's get this over with fast though,
I just want to get him out of here."

"He'll have to be checked by a doctor too," she said.

"I know," Chris said.

"No, I mean immediately," she said.  "It's all part of the
investigation.  I've already called the facility doctor.  He's on his
way.  It'll be quicker this way."

"OK," Chris said, resignedly.  "What do we do now?"

"Wait for the police and doctor," she said.

"Can we leave after that?" Chris asked.

"Yes, I think so," She said.

"Good!" Chris said.  "One more thing Al, can we get into Brendan's house
and get his clothes and things?"

"Yes, I have the key with me if Brendan doesn't have one.  Everything in
the house was left to him, so legally it's all his.  He can take anything
he wants to," Al said.

"Great!" Chris said.  "I'd like him to get the things he knows he wants,
so that maybe we won't have to come back here for a while.  I think he
needs to get settled in at home."

"So you're going to live in Bayonne then?" Al asked.

"For the moment," Chris said.  "I'm really not sure.  But for now, I
guess.  Unless, he really want's to live here yet.  I'm going to have to
talk to him about it yet."

                   *                 *                   *

The police arrived as they were talking.  They spent 45 minutes
questioning Brendan.  Chris was allowed to be with him the whole time.
By then, Brendan had told the story twice already, so he was able to tell
it without crying.  When he was finished, they asked him to sign his
statement, which he did.

The doctor had arrived in the meantime.  Brendan was upset that he had to
submit to a physical exam.  He was scared of what the doctor was going to
do, and embarrassed too.

On top of it, on one hand he wanted Chris to stay with him while he was
being examined, but on the other, he was embarrassed.  Even though they
were half-brothers, they didn't really know each other yet, so it was
embarrassing for him to have to strip in front of Chris.  In the end,
because he didn't want Chris to know he was embarrassed though, he let
Chris stay with him when he asked him if he wanted him to.

Sensing that Brendan was embarrassed about having to get naked, Chris sat
in a chair near Brendan's head and avoided looking at him from the chest
down.  Brendan realized Chris was purposely giving him privacy, and was
silently grateful.  He couldn't believe how nice Chris was being to him.

The doctor examined Brendan's penis carefully, and afterward, had to put
a scope up his butt.  At first Brendan was scared to have him do it.  He
thought it would probably hurt, like it did when Lance, Jim, and Rico
were using him.  The doctor could tell he was scared and explained that
he would lubricate the instrument, and be gentle.  He said it might feel
uncomfortable, but that it wouldn't hurt.  Brendan finally acquiesced and
turned onto his stomach and assumed the position the doctor asked him to
- with his butt sticking up in the air.  It was an extremely embarrassing
position to be in, and Brendan was mortified, especially when he
developed a hardon after the doctor had inserted the scope in him.

Noticing Brendan's erection, and the embarrassed look on his face when he
glanced back at him for a moment, the doctor smiled and said, "it's
alright Brendan, that happens to a lot of men."

Realizing what must've happened, Chris winked at him, smiled and said,
"Don't sweat it!  Happens to me too anytime anyone plays around with my
lower parts too!"

"You've had something stuffed up your butt?  And it made you hard?"
Brendan asked, surprised.

Attempting to save either boy from further embarrassment, the doctor
smiled and said, "Anytime something foreign is inserted in your rectum,
if it rubs you right - for instance like this" he moved the scope up and
down once so it rubbed against Brendan's prostate.

"Ohh!" Brendan gasped, and turned purple with embarrassment.

"it'll feel good and many times causes an erection," The doctor
continued.  "Sometimes, it even causes you to have and orgasm and
ejaculate.  It doesn't mean anything if that happens, other than you got
rubbed in a pleasing way.  There's no reason to be upset or embarrassed
about it. I'm a doctor.  I'm used to it.  Besides, you have nothing to be
embarrassed about down here!  You're well built for your age!"

Brendan smiled slightly, but blushed deeper still at the doctor's
inference that he was large.

"OK, luckily, I see no damage anywhere, except some rawness right around
the anal opening.  I'm sure that's uncomfortable, and it's not good to
have any open lesions in that area, so I can give you a tube of cream to
use for it," The doctor said.  "You can get dressed now Brendan."

"Thank god!  Can we leave now please?" Brendan asked, climbing down off
the table and bending over to pick up his underwear, than had fallen off
the chair he'd put it on, onto the floor.

"As far as I'm concerned you can," the doctor said.

"The police were done with you too, so I expect maybe we CAN go!" Chris
said.

"EWWw!" Brendan cried out suddenly.

Surprised at his outburst, Chris spun around just in time to see Roger
nosing Brendan's butt.  As Chris looked, he gave Brendan's asshole a
lick.  Apparently, he liked the KY jelly the doctor had used for
lubricant for the scope, some of which was still smeared on Brendan.

For as much as Brendan was outwardly trying to show he was disgusted,
Chris got the impression from the look on Brendan's face that he had
liked the feeling of Roger's tongue.  Chris also noticed that Brendan's
dick was stiff as a board, and that like the doctor had inferred, Brendan
was rather well endowed for being so young.  He had what looked to be
almost six inches, embedded in a nice curly brown bush, with a couple of
good sized balls dangling loosely under it, in a hairless sack.

When Brendan realized Chris had turned around and seen him, and noticed
his hardon, Brendan again turned maroon.

Hoping to diffuse his embarrassment, Chris smiled and winked at him.
Then he said "Doctor's right.  You're built nice and big down there -
just like me!  Rog, C'm'ere and let Brendan dress."

Brendan smiled kind of foolishly, but turned absolutely purple at the
same time, as Roger obediently got up and stepped over to Chris and sat
down on his foot.  Chris smiled, then looked down at Roger, giving
Brendan his privacy again.

A couple minutes later, Brendan was dressed and ready to go.  The doctor
had left, and so had the police.  Mrs. Melcher said they were free to go,
so Brendan ran up to his dorm room, accompanied by Chris and Roger, and
packed his suitcase.  He left a note for Jason, the only one of the boys
he cared to say good-bye to.  Then, they went downstairs, where Mr. Ford
was still waiting for them.

                  *                 *                 *

"Still want to drop by the house?" he asked Chris.

"What for?" Brendan asked, looking at Chris.  "I thought we were going to
live at your house?"

"Well... that was kind of what I'd planned on, but... we never discussed
it really.  Is that what you want to do?" Chris asked.

"What do you mean?  Have you changed your mind?  You don't want me after
all?" Brendan asked, becoming alarmed.

"NO!" Chris cried.  "You and I will be together!  I just mean - do you
want to live at my house in Bayonne?  Or would you rather stay in
Abington?  If you want to stay here, I suppose I can sell my house and
get a job around here somewhere."

"You'd do that for me?" Brendan asked, incredulously.

"Well, I guess... if you'd prefer it that way," Chris said.

"Wow!" Brendan said.  "I can't believe it.  I mean we just met each
other."

"Well, I kind of was thinking about it and thought maybe it'd be too much
to ask you to move away.  I mean you just lost your father, and you lost
your mom not to long ago.  I thought maybe it'd be too much asking you to
leave your friends and home behind too," Chris said.  "And, it wouldn't
be that hard for me to move if you wanted me to.  So...???"

Brendan was quiet a moment, clearly thinking over the possibilities.

Finally he said, "I think I'd rather move to your house, if it's alright
with you.  I'd just as soon leave all the memories from here behind.  It
wasn't really so great living here.  Maybe a new start somewhere else
would be good!"

"Really?" Chris asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Brendan said.

"Well, that's fine with me, as long as you're not just saying it because
you think it's what I want!" Chris said.

"I'm not," Brendan said.

"You'll have to go to a new school," Chris said.

"That's OK.  The one I'm at isn't so great!" Brendan said.

"OK then," Chris said.  "In that case, we should stop by your house then,
to pick up some of your clothes and stuff you'll want, before we head
back to my house."

"Oh...OK," Brendan said.  "I guess there are a few things I could use.
And I could bring Roger's toys and stuff too."

"Do you have a key to the house?" Mr. Ford asked Brendan.

"Yes, I do," Brendan said.

"OK then, I'm going to say good-bye for now.  Everything in the house is
your's Brendan, take whatever you want with you!  And Chris, once you and
Brendan know what you're doing, let me know what to do with what's left,
and the house itself please," he said.

"Certainly," Chris said.

He thanked Al, and shook hands with him.  So did Brendan.  Then the two,
accompanied by Roger, left the orphanage and went out to Chris's car.

               *                  *                   *

Brendan directed Chris to the house.  He became very quiet when they
pulled into the driveway.

"You OK?" Chris asked.

"Yeah," Brendan replied.

They got out of the car then and went inside.  Roger immediately happily
plopped down on a comforter on the floor, and began gnawing on a raw-hide
bone that was lying on it.  Brendan, on the other hand, remained quiet as
he walked through the rooms on the first floor.  Chris noticed that the
rooms were a little cluttered, and the house needed a good cleaning.

"Everything OK?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, it's just like it was when I left it," Brendan said.

"You sure you want to move away?" Chris said.

"I think so," Brendan said.

"Tell you what," Chris said.  "How about we not make any final
decisions.  How about we pack up some of your clothes, and the things
that are important to you, and Roger's things, and go to my house.  Then,
after you're there, and see what it's like, you can make your decision.
Sound like a plan?"

Brendan looked around for a minute, then said, "Not necessary.  I don't
ever want to come back here to live!"

Chris looked at Brendan and saw the mixture of sadness and despair on his
face, and thought how awful his life must've been since his mother died.

"Well, it's OK if that's how you feel, but we can still take your stuff
and go to my house, but not do anything with this house, until you're
sure, OK?" Chris said.

"OK," Brendan said.

"Well, let's figure out what you want to take with you," Chris said.

Brendan looked around the room, and suddenly walked over to a set of
shelves and started taking framed pictures off of it.  He put them on a
chair.  He took a few more off the walls and added them to the pile.
Then he opened a cabinet and began pulling photo albums out.

As he started piling them up, he looked at Chris and said, "Is it alright
if I bring these?"

"You can keep whatever you want," Chris said.  "Of course - within
reason.  I mean - we don't need more furniture really, and it won't fit
in my house, or in my car for that matter."

Brendan smiled slightly, and walked around the room some more, pulling
things off shelves, off the walls, and out of cabinets.

As the pile mounted, Chris realized there was going to be a problem
packing and moving everything with just his car.  There was already a
sizeable pile of things on the chair, and they hadn't gone up to
Brendan's room yet.  They only had the car trunk to fill, as Roger took
up the whole back seat.

Chris knew he had a really big problem when Brendan noticed a stack of
boxes in the corner marked "X-Mas" and said, "Oh!  I never even got to
decorate for Christmas!  Can I bring our Christmas decorations too?"

"Uh... sure, but all this stuff's not gonna fit in my car.  You gotta a
U-Haul place around here?" Chris said.

"Actually, yeah - there's one a few blocks away," Brendan said.

"Cool!  Can you take me there, we'll see if they have a trailer I can
rent - I have a hitch on my car, and you have too much stuff to move in
one trip without it," Chris said.

"Sure," Brendan said.  "C'mon."

He picked up his jacket and started to put it on.  Roger immediately got
up.

"NO!  You stay here Roger!" Brendan said.  "We'll be right back!"

Obediently, Roger went back to his comforter and bone.

                    *                   *                  *

Within a half hour, Chris and Brendan were back at the house.  A trailer
was attached to Chris's car, and he'd bought several packing boxes as
well.

"OK, let's get packing," Chris said.  "Tell you what, why don't you go
room to room and gather the things you want to bring, and I'll pack them
and load them in the trailer."

"OK," Brendan said.

He quickly finished going through the living room, while Chris started
loading boxes.

Within an hour, Brendan had moved through the entire house, with the
exception of the garage, and created quite a pile of things for Chris to
pack up, including his own belongings, all the family photos, the
Christmas ornaments and decorations, and a few boxes of knick-knacks and
heirlooms.  By the time it was all boxed and loaded, the trailer was
almost completely filled, and so was the trunk of the car.  Chris had put
all Brendan's clothes in it, carefully wrapping them around the TV/VCR,
Stereo, and computer from Brendan's bedroom.  As they'd gone through the
cellar together, Brendan offered Chris anything he wanted as well, so
Chris packed up their father's tools and power tools.

"Can we bring my bike?" Brendan asked, as they walked out to the garage.

Chris looked at it, and then at the car and trailer.

"Yup, I'll tie it down on top of the trailer," he said.

Brendan smiled as he picked up his skateboard, and a few other items.

Finally, everything Brendan wanted was packed.

"OK, you got everything?" Chris asked.

"I think so.  I don't know.  I hope I didn't forget anything!" Brendan
said.

"Well, I expect we'll have to come back at least once or twice to take
care of things yet, and you can pick up anything you've forgotten," Chris
said.

"OK, I guess I'm done then," Brendan said.

"Let's get going then!" Chris said.  "Hopefully, we'll be home in time to
unload things and drop the trailer at U-Haul before it closes!"

The two of them and Roger locked up the house and went out and got into
the car then.

                  *                     *                     *

At first, as they drove along, Brendan was quiet, looking out the window
at his old neighborhood one last time as they drove away from it.  Chris
flipped on the radio to a channel that was playing strictly Christmas
music.  They rode in silence, listening to it for a few minutes.  When
they finally got on the highway heading northeast, Chris decided to try
and engage Brendan in conversation.

"So... what'cha thinkin' about?" Chris asked.

"Everything that's happened in the past couple of weeks!" Brendan said.
"It's weird how fast things can change so much!  Just two weeks ago
things were fine.  Well... as fine as they ever were since my mom died.
I was home, getting out the Christmas decorations.  I was going to get
Dad to take me to get a tree the next day.  Then, suddenly my dad dies.
Roger gets put in the pound.  And, I end up in the worst hell hole on
earth!  I was going to try and run away from there, but the assholes kept
too close a watch on us.  I was seriously starting to think about killing
myself!  Then, this morning, you show up.  And now, here we are.  I'm
sprung from hell.  We have Roger back, and you're taking me to live with
you!"

"You really considered suicide?" Chris asked.  He'd become quite alarmed
when Brendan mentioned that.

Brendan looked at him for a minute, then said, "Don't worry.  I'm not
anymore.  But if you'd had to go through what I went through, and you
thought there was no way out, you'd have considered it too!"

"I'm glad I got there when I did!" Chris said.  He shuddered to think how
things would've turned out if he hadn't.

"I'm glad you did too!" Brendan said.  "I still can't believe you really
want me to move in with you though!"

"Well, I do," Chris said.

"Would you tell me if you didn't?" Brendan asked.

"You wouldn't be in the car with me right now if I didn't want you!"
Chris said.

"I mean, if you really don't want a kid screwing up your life, I don't
have to stay with you.  Roger and I can leave.  But, we'll just leave.
No way will you put me back in that place.  I can take care of myself if
I have to," Brendan said.

"You and Roger are living with me now!  That's final!  No more
questioning me if I mean it!  No more thoughts of leaving!  And you'll
never be put in a situation like that again!" Chris said.

Brendan smiled slightly.

They both remained quiet for a few minutes, thinking.

As they drove on, it occurred to Chris that tomorrow was Christmas.
Before he had no reason to want to celebrate, but suddenly he had a
little brother.  He supposed he should do something about it, but what?
He didn't even have a tree up!

A minute later, he remembered seeing some trees at the "Shop Rite" yet as
he drove past it in the morning.  Maybe they still would have some!  At
the same time, he needed to get food in the house for both he and
Brendan, but also for Roger!

"So what kind of food do you like?" Chris asked.

"It's OK, I can cook TV dinners," Brendan said.

"Excuse me?" Chris said.

"You don't have to worry about trying to make food for me, I can handle
it," Brendan said.

"I guess you don't know yet, but I'm a chef!" Chris said.

"Really?" Brendan said, surprised.

"Yeah, so there won't be any TV dinners for us!" Chris said.  "Now what
kind of food do you like?"

They talked for quite a while about food then.  Their conversation flowed
more freely then, as Chris questioned Brendan about various things, and
they told each other more about themselves.

             *                         *                        *

Eventually, they arrived in Bayonne.  As the "Shop Rite" came up, Chris
turned in.  He was elated to see they had a few trees left on the
sidewalk in front of it.

"Why are we stopping?" Brendan asked.

"We need food for us, food for Roger, and a Christmas tree!" Chris said.

"Oh!" Brendan said.  "Um... OK I guess we need food, but we really don't
have to bother with a tree."

"You don't want one?" Chris asked.

"It's OK if we skip it," Brendan said.

"So how come you brought your Christmas stuff with you then?" Chris
asked.  Without waiting for Brendan to answer, Chris added, "Look, I know
this month's been shitty for you, but I think the best thing to help make
things better is to try and do normal things.  It's Christmas.  You've
always had a tree.  I think it'd make things seem more 'normal' for us if
we had one!"

Brendan looked at Chris for a minute, then said, "Well... OK, if you
really want to."

"I do!" Chris said.

Leaving Roger in the car, they bought a tree, which didn't look too bad,
considering there were only a few left.  It smelled good yet too.
Together they carried it to the car, and Chris heaved it up on top of
Brendan's bike, which was on top of the trailer, and tied it down.

Then they went into the store and Brendan pushed the cart, while Chris
grabbed various things off the shelves, and filled it, as they progressed
through the store.  Brendan selected a large sack of dog food for Roger
as well, and put that under the cart.

When they were finished shopping, they paid and went out to the car.
They had to load the groceries in the front seat, and Brendan moved to
the back seat and sat with Roger for the short drive to Chris's house.

                        *                      *                     *

"Here we are!  It ain't much, but it's what I call home!" Chris said, as
he pulled in the driveway of his house.

"It's nice," Brendan said, looking out the window at the house.

"It's adequate!" Chris said, looking at his watch.  "Shit!  We only have
a half hour to unload and get the trailer to U-Haul!"

"We better hurry then!" Brendan said.

The two of them spent the next 15 minutes quickly unloading the trailer
then, shoving boxes into the house, stacking them all over the living
room.

When they had everything in the house, Chris said, "C'mon, let's get this
thing turned in!"

Leaving Roger happily chewing on a bone on the living room floor, Brendan
and Chris left again, and drove to the nearby U-Haul center.  The clerk
didn't look very happy to have customer's right at closing time, on
Christmas Eve, but he did all the paper work quickly to take the trailer
back.  A few minutes later, Brendan and Chris were heading back to the
house.

                   *                       *                       *

When they got back to the house, Chris showed Brendan around.  Then he
suggested that Brendan move into what until then was the "guest room".
He told Brendan that after the holiday, he'd help him fix the room up any
way he wanted to.  New paint.  New curtains and comforter.  Maybe a new
computer desk, so he'd have a place to do his homework.  Brendan thought
that sounded nice, but felt guilty about costing Chris more money.  He
didn't say anything though.

Together Chris and Brendan distributed the boxes of Brendan's belongings,
except for the Christmas boxes, to the various rooms in the house they
belonged in, getting them out of the living room.

Afterward, both their stomachs were growling, so they fed Roger, then
Chris made them some cheeseburgers and fries for supper.

After they'd eaten, Chris suggested they set up the Christmas tree.  He
flipped on the stereo and tuned it to a channel that was playing
Christmas music, then they set about moving the furniture around a bit to
make room for the tree.  Together they carried it in, set it up, and put
the lights on it.  As they decorated it, Chris could see that Brendan was
having bittersweet memories.  With each ornament he hung, Chris could
tell he was thinking about Christmases past.

As they finished, Lonestar's "This Christmas Time" began playing on the
radio.

"Crap," Chris said, as they sang about 'presents under the tree'.  "We
don't have any presents to put under the tree."

Brendan smiled and said, "it's ok!  Like the song says that's playing now
-  'the greatest gift in life is you and me together' 'to be here with
you', and I do 'thank heaven for sending you' to me this Christmas time."

Chris felt tears welling in his eyes.  Brendan's eyes looked moist too,
as Chris stepped over to him and wrapped his arms around him.

"And the greatest gift you could give me, is saying that!" Chris said,
hugging him, as Brendan hugged him back.

When they'd released each other, Brendan said, "I don't suppose it would
be possible for you to take me to a church?"

"Um... sure, but what religion?" Chris asked.

"It doesn't matter," Brendan said. "I'm Catholic, but we never went to
church.  I ... just need to go to one now - any religion will do."

"OK," Chris said.  "I'm Catholic too, and it's been years since I've gone
to church, but I think they're having midnight mass at St. Mary's, and
it's 11:15 now.  Wanta try to run and catch that mass?"

"Um... I don't need a whole mass, but if you wouldn't mind, I'd really
like to go," Brendan said.  "There's something I have to do!"

"Let's go then!" Chris said.

                      *                    *                       *

Brendan was quiet as they drove to the church.  People were arriving
already as they got there.  Together they walked in, and Chris followed
Brendan to the pews near the front of the church.

"Do you want me to sit with you, or do you want to be alone?" Chris
asked.

"I think I'd like to be alone if you don't mind," Brendan said.

"OK," Chris said.  He slipped into a pew, and Brendan proceeded to the
very front pew.

As Brendan knelt down on the kneeler, he looked around for a moment at
the sea of poinsettias and greens, then he focused on the statue of
Christ on the cross over the altar and clasped his hands together.

"God, I know I don't come to church often enough.  And I know you must be
upset because I never really knew if I believed in you or not.  But, now
I know you're real!  For the past couple weeks I didn't believe you could
exist.  I couldn't believe you'd let anyone suffer, like you let me
suffer.  But now, now that you sent Chris to me, I know you do exist, and
you do care!  I know you knew I needed to be helped, and you sent him to
help me!  You granted me my only Christmas Wish!  I don't know how to
thank you God!  All I can say is thank you so much for saving me!"

Tears began to stream from Brendan's eyes then.  He was glad he was bent
forward, kneeling, so nobody could see he was crying.

A couple pews back, Chris saw Brendan's shoulders shaking slightly, and
guessed that he was crying.  He wanted to get up and go sit with Brendan
and comfort him, but Brendan had asked to be left alone, so he didn't.
As he sat looking at Brendan, Chris said a silent prayer, asking God to
protect Brendan, and help him to help Brendan to be happy again.  At the
same time, as he thought about how drastically his own life had changed
in less than 24 hours, he realized that maybe Brendan was just what he
needed.  His life had had no direction until that morning.  Now he had
responsibilities, and it actually felt good.  He smiled, and silently he
too thanked God for giving him the chance to help the Brendan.

Eventually, Brendan sat up, and breathing deeply, he wiped his eyes.
Chris got up then and went and sat next to him.  Brendan smiled a small
smile, as Chris draped his arm around him.

"You OK?" Chris asked softly.

"Yeah," Brendan said, sniffing, but smiling more broadly.

They sat quietly for a few minutes, listening to the choir singing.

A few minutes later, Brendan looked up at Chris and said, "We can go now,
unless you want to stay."

"I'm done I think," Chris said, smiling.

Brendan smiled too.  They got up then and walked out of the church
together.  Silently, they rode home together.  When they got walked in
the house, the grandfather clock in the hallway was chiming midnight.

"Merry Christmas Brendan!" Chris said.

"Merry Christmas Chris!" Brendan replied.

Chris wrapped his arms around Brendan and hugged him.  Brendan hugged him
back.

"Everything's gonna be OK for you from now on," Chris said.

"I know," Brendan said.

"You do?" Chris asked.

"Yup," Brendan said, hugging him tighter.  "Cause God sent you to help
me!  He granted my Christmas wish.  That's why I had to go to church and
thank him.

Chris's eyes stung with tears of happiness, as he squeezed Brendan
tightly.  "I feel the same way about you too Bren!"

The two remained holding each other for some time afterward, finally at
peace with themselves, each other, and the world.

                                  *
*                          *

As the days, weeks, and months that followed unfolded, Brendan and Chris
learned all about each other.  They got to know each other intimately,
and genuinely grew to love each other.  Eventually, it became clear to
each of them that they were more similar to one another than they
would've initially thought.

One night, Brendan witnessed Chris masturbating in his bedroom with a gay
porno movie playing.  Chris didn't realize Brendan was up, and that his
door was ajar.  Brendan didn't let on that he'd discovered his brother's
secret.  The next day, when Chris was out, Brendan snuck into his room
and "borrowed" the tape Chris had been watching.  Chris came home early
that day, while Brendan was busy jacking off while he watched the film.
Chris stumbled right into the room while Brendan was "busy"!  Extremely
mortified, Chris told him it was alright, that he still cared about him,
and always would, whether he turned out straight or gay.  As Brendan
remained quiet, and guilty looking, Chris suddenly realized Brendan was
watching HIS video.  Suddenly he realized that Brendan must know about
him.  It was now his turn to turn red in the face.  He smiled though when
Brendan gave him the same speech he'd just given him - that he'd still
love him no matter what!  The two talked then, and divulged to each other
that they were each gay.  They each then professed their continued love,
support, and respect for one another.  After that, Brendan seemed happier
than he'd been earlier.  He also felt more at ease because he had someone
to discuss his "problem" with.  Chris felt better too, that he had
someone to talk with about everything, without having to remember which
lies to tell who.  Each took his strength from the other, and together
they helped each other to grow and mature.  And, even though they were
both "out" to each other, and they were both handsome young men, and it
was obvious from the hardons they developed whenever they saw each other
naked, or nearly naked, that they found each other attractive, Chris made
it clear from the start that nothing sexual would happen between the two
of them.  They needed each other as brothers, not sexual partners, and
Brendan in particular needed an adult he could trust not to compromise
him in any way - especially sexually, given how he'd been abused
earlier.  Because of their similarities, and the mutual respect they
showed each other, and the love they exhibited for one another, the two
became closer than most full blood brothers who've lived together all
their lives ever do - without ever having a sexual encounter!

Eventually, both boys each met a nice gay man, who they fell in love
with, and became partners with.  Both experienced the love and full
sexual relationships they so deeply desired and deserved.  The two
couples remained living very close to each other though, and Brendan and
Chris never lost their closeness!

And each and every day since that first Christmas Eve when Chris took
Brendan to church, Brendan thanked God for granting him his Christmas
Wish, and bringing him into Chris's life.  Chris too thanked God
regularly for the gift of Brendan in his life as well.

And the two lived happily ever after...

				  The End

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I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of my readers a very Merry
Christmas, and a Happy and Healthy New Year!