Rating: PG-13 to NC-17
Disclaimer or CYA Statement: THIS IS FICTION>>>>IT IS NOT REAL>>>>NO IDEA IF ANY CELEBS ARE GAY!!!
This is a story about friendship, love, romance, and family. While it will in time also include making love, this is certainly not a sex story. You really should be legal to read this story and of course if you are not, then at least do not get caught! Seriously, by reading this story you are agreeing that you are in fact of legal age, where you live, to be reading it. You may contact me at: wildheart407@runbox.com if you have comments, suggestions or whatever.
This story will be written with different points of view (POV), first person, and third person (narrator). The changes in POV should be easy to follow as I will try to clearly mark them.
AUTHORS NOTES: I have opened a yahoo group for this story and any other that I write and any others that anyone would like to allow me to use. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LOVE-AND-MUSIC/ I would rather have stories about love, romance and or friends and family. I also hope to build a web site sometime soon, and would REALLY like to host other stories on that site, so if you have a story and would allow it to be posted, let me know. If anyone out there would like to help me with the web site please let me know.
Hey everyone, the story is now being hosted on the Erotic Dreams Story Archive. Thanks to Erotic Dreams : - ) for allowing my story to be there!! The direct link to my story is: My Story, and to find not only my story but many other great stories, please check out the rest of the archives by clicking on this link: http://gay.eroticdreams.us/
KEVIN POV
After Lance pulled me back to my seat, I noticed that Chad had curled up in fear of me. I saw that and immediately regretted being so angry that I scared him. I could not understand a family that would do that to a kid. I knew that I had to calm down and talk to him and let him know that my anger was not directed at him, but at his folks.
Lance did not speak as I struggled to get my anger in check, just giving me the time to gather myself, knowing that I would want to talk to him myself. Finally after a few minutes, I had control of my anger and moved slowly to Chad. "Chad, I was not angry at you, I was very angry with your parents for treating you this way. I want you to know that while you are here you will be safe; none of us will hurt you! You will never be hit or beaten here. If your Dad touches you, let us know right away so that something can be done."
I had spoken softly and finally he looked at me, as though he were trying to figure out if I was being honest with him. I tried to keep enough distance from him that he did not see me as a threat. I did not want to say anything further until he said something. He continued to look at me for a moment then he almost whispered, "Are you sure I will be safe here? I have never been safe."
Those comments made me want to cry and beat the hell out of his folks at the same time. I could not believe that this kid was even still sane, and I would bet that Cole went through that too, or at least some of it. I think he finally started to trust me a little, and he leaned in a bit and asked once again, "Are you sure that none of you would hurt me? I need someplace safe."
"I promise you that none of us will hit you, or abuse you in any way. We will try to protect you from your father as much as we can as well." I told him with every ounce of conviction I could muster.
"Thank you," he whispered as he fell into my arms crying once again. I held him as he cried and looked at Lance and saw the same conviction shining on his face. I just hoped we could get him away from those damn people. We would have to talk to the others about this as soon as we could, maybe even tonight if Chad falls asleep.
LANCE POV
After Chad lay down, Kevin continued to rub his back and tell him that he was safe here. I just could not conceive of a family that would do this to a kid. I was well aware of the fact that he was adopted, but that was still no excuse for this. I sat lost in my thoughts until Kevin asked me if I wanted to go with him to talk to the others. I looked over and Chad was asleep and looked so peaceful. I nodded at Kevin and we got up and went to see if anyone was up to tell about this.
Brian and Nick were still up, and amazingly enough we did not interrupt anything. Between Kevin and me, we told them about what Chad had told us and I thought we would have to tie Brian to the bed to keep him from going after the father. It took us a while to calm him down, and make him see reason. Once he calmed down we all went to see if Howie and Alex were awake, but they were sound asleep. Next we headed to see if Justin and Chris were awake, and they were awake. They both were very upset, and we had to calm them down as well. Then we went through the same thing yet again with Josh and Joey. We all agreed to try and keep Chad away from his parents as much as we could. We also agreed to try not to provoke Bernie, and try to be civil around him until, and unless he gave us a reason not to be.
After talking for about an hour, we all headed to bed. It would be a long day tommorow, and we all had Cole and Chad in our thoughts and some prayers. As I laid there in the bed with Kevin close to me, I wondered why there never seemed to be any sparks between us. I almost immediately wondered what the hell I was doing thinking about stuff like this when Cole was in a coma and Chad was living in a nightmare. I guess that even when things are bad, you think about things in your own life.
I guess I finally fell asleep because the next thing I know is Kevin shaking me awake telling me that breakfast was ready. I felt the need to visit the restroom right now! So I jumped up and ran to the restroom, and relieved myself, then went about getting ready for the day. I dressed and headed in to eat, seeing that Chad and the rest were already there. Only Chad's folks were not there, and Kevin told me that they had decided to eat in the café downstairs. I was perfectly happy with that, and apparently so was Chad and the rest. I quietly asked Kev if someone had told Howie and Alex about Chad's situation, and he told me that Brian had told them and calmed them down, early this morning.
After eating we got ready to head to the hospital, but we had to wait for Bernie and Rachel to come back from the café. I was not happy that they were there to be honest; I just had a bad feeling about them going to the hospital. I could not really place why I felt that way, but I did.
We all finally arrived at the hospital, and headed to the private waiting area that had been set aside for us. I walked out of the room, and went to let the nurse know that we were there, and ask if there had been any changes. The nurse would not tell me anything, but said that she would let Doctor Cummings know that we had arrived. I went back to the waiting room, and told everyone what the nurse had said, and we waited for the doctor to show up.
I noticed that Chad stayed near me and Kev as much as possible. I thought about how much he seemed to be like Cole, and they were not even brothers. I guess cousins or whatever they are, can and do look alike and act alike. As you can see my thoughts were random and flighty.
We had been waiting for about 45 minutes when the doc came in to talk to us. He looked around the room and saw all the extra people, and asked Joey to come over to the other side of the room. Joey must have asked that we be included, because he called all the guys over as well.
"Ok Mr. Fatone, you are the one who is in charge of Cole's medical treatment. You can give that responsibility to someone else if you chose, however you may not give it to his real parents. Cole's attorney visited today and filed the paperwork with the hospital giving notice that his real parents were to have no say in his treatment. You need to let me know what your decision is, so that we can get the proper forms filed out as soon as possible." The doctor told Joey.
"I will not fail Cole now, but I would like to add Lance and Brian to the list so that there are three of us if we need to make a decision, if that is possible?" Joey asked.
"Certainly you can do that, and that is a very sensible idea. I will get the paperwork done, and you all can sign it before you leave. I called you over here to tell you this because I thought that maybe some of those with you were his parents, and I wanted to try to do this without causing a scene, if possible.'
`Now I know you want to know how Cole is, so I will get right to that, but I guess that we should talk to everyone so that I can answer any questions." Doctor Cummings finished.
We walked over to the rest of the group and the doc started to inform us of Cole's condition. "So far he has avoided infection, and his vitals and blood tests are starting to come back to more normal levels. He is still in a coma and as I told you before, if he starts to come out of it, we will medically induce it for a few more days to allow the body more time to heal. I would say that his chances of survival have greatly increased, and the more time he remains free if infections the better his chances will get. He may need to take medication to help avoid infections because of the spleen being removed, but we will deal with that when and if the time comes. Since there were no tears in any of the nearby organs, and the fact that we were able to remove it cleanly, the chances that he will have to take medication everyday is greatly reduced. There are a few other things that I will go into with him in time, but for now that is the latest. Do any of you have any questions?"
"Will we be able to see him today?" Alex asked.
"Yes you will be able to see him today, but you will have to wear full infection control. I will let 4 of you go in at a time, and you can stay for 15 minutes each, with breaks of 15 minutes before the next set goes in. After all of you have had a chance to see him, I will stop by and talk to you again. I think that it may be a good idea for someone to stay with him, but we need to talk about that. After today, I will allow regular visitors. While no one knows for certain if it helps to have people around a person in a coma, it certainly does not hurt and there is some evidence that it may help. Talking to him, reading to him and stuff like that may help and will not hurt." Doctor Cummings finished.
It seemed that there were no more questions, so the doctor led Joey, Chad, Brian, and I to his room. I could see the very dirty looks that Chad got; in fact we all got from Bernie as we walked away. I was totally unprepared for the way that Cole looked when we finally got in the room. I felt the tears start running down my cheeks. I honestly did not realize that he would look so bad, though I have no idea why I didn't given all that the doctor had told us.
We moved closer and tried to find an area that we could touch him that was not covered in bruises, tubes, casts, or bandages. "Hi Cole, we came to see how your doing buddy. You have to get well soon so you can meet this guy here next to me. You have a brother did you know that? His name is Chad." I told him.
"Hi Cole, I guess you didn't know you had a brother, but I was adopted after you left home. I think that we were cousins, but I am not absolutely sure what the exact relation was before my folks died. I really want to get to know you, we are so much alike and I really want to know you, and I think that this will be the only chance I get to do that." Chad said with tears rolling down his cheeks.
We spent the next 15 minutes talking to Cole, telling him that we would be there as much as we could. We told him we had rearranged interviews to bring the interviewers to us, so that we could be here for him. By the time we were ready to leave, Chad was still very upset, and tears were still coming. We quickly took off the scrubs and stuff and headed back to the waiting room.
When we walked back in, the rest of the guys jumped up and asked Cole was. Bernie looked at Chad and grabbed him and roughly turned him around. "I have told you that you will not act like a little faggot around me, sissy's cry and you are not going to be a sissy."
Brian got to Bernie first, but just barely. He grabbed Bernie, and slammed him into the wall. "You were told last night that you would not talk that way around us. We do not want to hear your hateful garbage. You are a worthless human being to talk to someone like that! I would suggest that you keep your comments to yourself, or you will be here in the hospital!" Brian told him with a steely, calm voice. You could see Bernie wanted to say something, but seen all of us standing there behind Brian and thought better of it.
Josh had pulled Chad over to the other side of the room to protect him from his father. I went over and sat beside both of them. "Chad you are going to be safe with us, he will not be allowed to hurt you if we are around so just try to stay with us as much as you possibly can." I whispered to him. He looked at me, and tried his best to smile.
Howie, Nick, Justin, and Chris went in to see Cole next while we all sat quietly. Bernie sat across from us shooting very nasty looks at Chad. For some reason I felt very protective of him, more than I really should. I mean, I would try to protect any kid in his position, but I felt something more. Oh well, I gave up on trying to figure out how and why my mind works a long time ago.
The next batch to go see Cole were Alex, Bernie, Rachel, and Josh. They headed off to get ready to see Cole, and the rest of us huddled together with Chad and tried to make sure that he understood to stay near us as much as humanly possible. I know I was trying to figure out a way to get Chad away from them, but could not come up with anything off the top of my head. I didn't want to think about getting the authorities involved if we could avoid it, but that would be a last resort.
I suddenly had an idea and asked Justin quietly if he would like to get a couple of the others and take Chad to Disney the next day. He loved the idea as well, so I asked Chad if he would like to go. Naturally he wanted to go. I thought that would be a great way to get him away from his folks for a while.
JOSH POV
I was not happy to be going with Bernie; I would have preferred to keep him away from Cole. I just did not want to cause a fight then and there. I had a feeling that one would be coming soon enough anyway. I know that the guys would not put up with his shit much longer, and I know that I had been about ready to beat the hell out of him too when he got rough with Chad
We had to dress in scrubs and masks and all that to protect Cole from infection. Alex and I had not problem with it, but Bernie and Rachel were bitching about it. I guess I will never understand some people. I can't imagine a person who would be willing to risk their son's life simply because they would be a bit uncomfortable, it just made me sick.
Finally we were able to go in and see Cole. Joey had warned me that he looked horrible, but even that warning was not enough to prepare me for the horror that lay in that bed. I walked over and said hi to him, not knowing if he heard me or not, but wanting him to know I was there if he could. Alex did the same and we both told him that he had a great little brother, and needed to wake up so he could meet him.
As soon as we said that, Bernie spoke up saying; "He will not see Chad, that boy already has enough problems, and does not need to meet another faggot to make him think it is okay to be queer. Chad will not be queer if it kills me, and I will be damned if I let him near this faggot."
Before Alex or I could do or say anything, he turned to Cole, "This is what happens to faggots that refuse to change boy. I told you that you would pay for it, and now you are." As he finished all the monitors in the room, started going off at once, and I saw that the heart monitor had a flat line.
Nurses and the doctor came running in and threw us out. I was stunned at what had happened. I was furious for the things said, and scared that we would lose Cole. I grabbed Alex and ran to the waiting room, and told everyone what had been said and what happened after it had been said.
When Bernie walked into the room, Lance grabbed him and threw him into the the nearest chair, grabbing him by his neck. I have never in my life seen Lance with that kind of look on his face. He pulled his fist back and slammed it into Bernie's face, and in the deadliest voice I have ever heard, said "I swear to you that if Cole does not make it, I will hunt you down and kill you slowly and painfully. If I hear one more hateful word from you, I will not be held responsible for what happens to you."
Then he threw Bernie on the floor and walked back and sat down. I have never in my life thought of Lance as violent, but I had no doubt from the tone of his voice and the look on his face that he would do exactly what he said he would do. I shivered as that thought went through my head, but yet I was proud of Lance too.
I looked around for Joey, but did not find him anywhere. Rachel helped Bernie to his feet and he went to set down and wisely kept his mouth shut. The looks on the faces in the room were more than enough to shut his mouth for now. About 30 minutes later a nurse brought a clipboard in and had Brian and Lance sign something, then she left.
Finally the doctor came in looking both relieved and angry. Before anyone could say anything to him, the doctor started the conversation. "First off, Cole is stable and I think he will pull through. Now that said I have already been informed about what happened and what led to this situation. Now what affect this event will have on Cole's prognosis is uncertain. I will just say that from now on, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers are not allowed into Cole's room and this decision has been signed off on by Cole's medical guardians. If you want to come to the hospital each day, I will give you an update, but you have been listed as not allowed into the room and there will be a guard at the door."
©2004 by WildHeart