Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 22:42:42 +0000
From: Jared
Subject: Boy Bands - On The Streets - Season Two - Part 3

I don't know the Backstreet Boys, or N'Sync, nor is this story meant to
imply anything about their sexuality, their private lives or their life
choices. Please don't take any of this seriously, it is just a story,
nothing more. Nothing in this story is real, it is the product of the
author's imagination. That's enough disclaimers I think...

Now some suggestions, seeing as everyone else seems to be doing it. My
favourite stories are:
Forever (Kevin)
My New Life (Lance)
JC's Hitchhiker (JC)
Get Another Boyfriend (Kevin)
Whiplash (Kevin)
Blind Date (Lance)
Josh and Just (Duh!)
Jamie's Romance (Justin)
Brian and Me (Brian) <- Love this one, and love where it's going!
Kevin and Dustin (Kevin) <- I just read this one, and I can't wait till the
next instalment, I can't wait to see what happens!
Tales of a Real Dark Knight (Lance)
Under Management (Lance)
Brian and Chance (Brian)
Thieves (Lance)
Lance and Martin (Lance)
That's it, I know there are more I read that I haven't mentioned, but I
can't remember them right now, sorry!
Here is part three of Season Two - I hope everyone enjoys it, and I hope
that I get lots of emails - come on people! My email is at the top of the
page! Give me a shout out if you liked it or hated it...now here is part
three!

On The Streets - Season Two - Part Three

	Today is my last session with Janet Dakes. I was still pretty tired, and
kinda disoriented from the change of temperature, location, and the strange
sleeping patterns I'd had in the last 24 hours, but I headed into work.
After dealing with my morning sessions, I had lunchtime sessions too. The
last group, at 1:30, complained about me being away yesterday. At ten past
two, Janet Dakes walked in, in a form-fitting t-shirt, and a pair of cycling
shorts. She was no Kate Moss, but let's take it, she didn't have the shape
to get down that slim, but then again, who wants to go out with a skeleton.
She had lost a great deal of weight, but had gained proportions which fit
her body beautifully. She looked incredible. Her entire body had firmed up,
even her face had changed, her jawline had smoothed out, and her neck had
slimmed enough to give her an attractive curve which ran from her jaw, round
her nicely shaped breasts, over her not petite, but toned midsection, around
a set of hips, which were very attractive, and down to a set of legs which,
well would make most women approaching their thirties envious. She had put
in a hell of a lot of work. She was tying a scrunchy into her hair as she
walked in.

	"Hey Jared!" She said gleefully.

	"Hey, Jan', what's got into you?" She seemed overly excited.

	"He's coming back." She said with a big grin. "Tonight."

	"No way!" She was talking about her fiance, the ruggedly handsome army man.
He'd been posted in the middle east for about five months now. She wasn't
saying it, but some of the places she'd mentioned, and some of the places
he'd been, sometimes even with her, gave it away that he wasn't your average
infantry soldier, which is it was I'd presumed when I'd first seen the
picture of him. He was involved in something bigger, I was guessing some
kind of special forces, but I wasn't sure what the American equivalent to
M.I.5 was, and I wasn't sure if there was such a thing over here. "What
time's he due back?"

	"Oh, not till about 11 tonight, but I said I'd pick him up from the
airport. He's coming in on United Airlines flight 249." Ok, I know she was
just saying this and reeling off the details just to show she remembered
them, but really, how often do you think the army transports troops by
commercial airlines?

	"Great!" I said with a grin. Without much else to say, I got down to
business. "So, shall we start?"

	"Wait a sec, did you ask Kevin?" She asked hopefully. Oh crap. She'd asked
me to the wedding, which was in less than a week, and I was supposed to ask
Kevin if we could go together. I was going regardless, but I guess she
wanted to know if I was bringing a guest.

	"I'm so sorry." I said with my eyes shut. "I meant to ask him, can I phone
you later on?" I tried to say it as apologetically as I could.

	"Yeah, ok." She said slightly grudgingly. "Don't you be forgetting about me
ok? Just cos we won't have sessions for quite a while doesn't mean I'm not
coming back ok?" She said, the grin finally appearing on her face.

	"Ok, sorry Jan'."

	"It's ok, ok, shall we start?" She got on one of the mats, and, after I'd
pulled the mat I always used off of the table in the middle that I used for
the lunchtime sessions, I laid down on it about a metre to her left.

	"Ok, and one and two..." And so we started. About half an hour later is
when it happened. The door burst open.

	"Janie?" A man's voice shouted into the room.

	"Rick!" She practically screamed and jumped up. She ran over to the door,
and there was her fiance, well, if I remembered correctly from the picture I
saw. Except he was much darker. He had a very deep tan. Unfortunately for
some reason, there were security guards trying to hold him back. But he was
a big guy, and there was no hope of these guys doing much to stop him. He
was at least 6'3", and he was, while not hugely built, obviously very
strong. "What are you people doing?" She shouted at the security guards.

	"Oh, Miss Dakes. You mean you actually know him? He didn't have any ID, and
he's not on the list, so we're not supposed to let him in."

	"Well, he hasn't been in the country for... a long time, and I didn't know
he was coming home just yet." She said. She was staring at him. "Let him
go." They backed off, and walked out the room. I got a feeling that the two
of them needed a moment, so I just headed into the changing rooms, and
started picking up towels and stuff. About five minutes later, I came back
in. Janet was in Paul's arms, her legs wrapped around his waist, and his
arms on her butt, and they were kissing like mad. I retreated again into the
changing room, and sat down, counting ceiling tiles.

	About ten minutes later, I heard a voice. "Jared? Jared, you can come out
now!" It was Janet. I stood up, and headed back into the studio. "Sorry
Jared, I'd like to introduce you to my fiance, Rick Anderson."

	"Nice to meet you Jared." Rick said holding out a hand, considerably larger
than mine.

	"Nice to meet you too." I said shaking it.

	"So, you're the one who got my Janie looking like this?" He had an accent,
I couldn't place it though. It was strange, not really Southern, not even
like Kevin's, nor was it Northern, certainly not Bostonian or anything.

	"Err, well no." I said shaking my head. Janet looked up at me. So did he.
"Jan did this all herself. She's probably the best person I've ever trained.
Certainly better than any of the groups I deal with. And you've put more
effort in than I've seen from anyone else I've worked with." I said the last
bit directly to Janet. Rick just grinned.

	"That's my baby." He turned back to me, and looked at me for a second.
"You're not American are you? You're...English?" I nodded.

	"I was actually just wondering where you're from, I can't get your accent."
He laughed.

	"That's cos I speak a load of languages, and I use them a lot, so my accent
changes back and forth a lot. I guess I've forgotten what my own voice
sounds like, so I just use this one." He laughed again. "But I guess the
reason you can't work it out is cos I was born and raised in Canada, but my
parents moved us down to Alabama when I was 16." I nodded, and turned back
to Janet.

	"I'm guessing you want to cut your session short for today?" I said to her
with a grin. She turned to look at Rick, and they smiled to one another.

	"I think so, yeah." She said, then turned back to me with a smile. "I'll
just grab my bag, come on hun'." She said, grabbing Rick's hand, and pulling
him towards the changing room doors.

	"It was nice meeting you Jared." He said with a grin. Owch, he was even
better looking in person. Janet was still trying to drag him. It was quite
funny, like a child trying to pull a grown up.

	"Don't forget to ask Kevin, ok Jared?" I nodded to Janet, and they walked
to the doors. Rick reached over and pulled the door open for her. He held it
as she went through. I saw him really blatantly checking out her butt. He
turned back as she went into the changing room to pick up her bag. I saw him
mouth the words 'nice job' to me, with a grin, then he followed her in. I
heard them leave by the other door and then walk down the corridor,
presumably out the building, and home.

	I had no more sessions today, N'Sync were once again busy - I was going to
have to work on a more flexible schedule for them, I think they'd missed
about half their sessions since we started working together. So, I decided
to head home. Pulling into our driveway, I noticed this old, maroon Volvo
parked in the driveway. I let myself in and walked through to the kitchen,
where I heard talking.

	"Kevin?" I asked as I walked through the door. Sitting at the table was
Kevin and an older guy, probably mid-forties, dressed all in black. They
were both laughing at something.

	"Jared!" Kevin said, they both started to stand up. "Jared, this is
Reverend Swanson." He said with a grin. "He's agreed to do the blessing at
the wedding." Kevin was pleased about it, and just looked at me expectantly.

	"Pleased to meet you." I begun. "So, does that mean you've found a date,
that's ok?"

	"Err, yeah, I spoke to loads of people this morning, including your
brothers, and most of my family and friends and also some of the people we
should invite just for appearances, and we're sorted. Two weeks Saturday." I
think my mouth dropped open.

	"T...t...two weeks?" My mouth had lost its ability to move properly.
"Th...that soon?"

>>>Kevin's Point of View<<<

	Oh fuck. Was I being stupid? I mean this is a huge step and I just told
Jared we were gonna get married in a fortnight. We hadn't talked about a
date, maybe he had been expecting a couple of months or something? "Could
you give us a minute?" I asked the Rev, and I pulled Jared through to the
hallway. "Jared? Talk to me, please? Did I say or do something wrong? You
weren't expecting it this soon right? Oh God, I'm so sorry Jared, I didn't
mean to surprise you like that. I just, I thought... oh I don't know, I was
being stupid. We shouldn't do this till we're both ready, and you obviously
don't want it yet, so I'll just forget about it for now. We can do it later,
maybe sometime after the tour. I'm sorry." Shit, I felt so...like shit, I
just wanted to curl up under a rock and die somewhere. How can I have
thought Jared was ready for this, I just carry on forgetting that I have
only known Jared for seven months now. It seems like I've known him well,
forever. I just want to show him how much I love him.

	"Perhaps I had better go boys. I will come back at a more opportune time.
Kevin, I will leave open the date we've arranged, and if you decide to go
ahead with it, give me a call. Otherwise, well, just call me when you're
ready."

	"But...yes Reverend." Shit, now I'd probably lost his support too.

	"Goodbye Father." Jared mumbled slightly, as I showed the Rev out the door.

	"Jared, look I'm sorry, I should have spoken to you about this. It was
stupid of me, and I just want to forget about it."

	"No, Kev, we'll do it when you said - when was that? Two weeks Saturday?
Fine." Jared said, cutting me off.

	"No, Jared, I don't just want to settle. I want to enjoy our wedding, both
of us. I don't want you to just give in to everything I say."

	"Why not? That's what we've been doing isn't it?" Jared started raising his
voice.

	"No Jared! I want this to be for both of us."

	"But it's not for both of us. We already agreed that you were the one who
would be arranging most of this!" I couldn't believe he was being
so...bloody-minded. I just wanted everything to be right. I was sick of this
shit.

	"Fine, be a bastard then, I'll do it all myself, or maybe we'd better just
not do anything, heck, maybe it's just not fucking worth it!" I still can't
believe I said that. Jared looked like I'd punched him. He refused to meet
my eyes with his. He nodded his head, and started to head for the stairs.
"Look Jared, sorry, I didn't mean that." I started to edge into his path.

	"E...ex...excuse me Kevin." He said as he tried to get past me up the
stairs.

	"No Jared, look every time we have an argument it always ends with you
running away or crying, and I'm sick of it, couples have arguments, you
can't just expect everything to be perfect."

	"Kevin, move, outta my way." Jared said louder. He started to push past me.

	"No! Jared!" I said louder. I took hold of his arm and pulled him back so
he was in front of me again, and I stood between him and the stairs.

	"Kevin! Move!" Jared said, he was getting angry. He pushed me to the side,
and started up the stairs. I grabbed a hold of the back of his wifebeater
vest and pulled him back down the stairs. He was only on the third step, so
he just took one step and he was back down. I tried to position myself
between him and the stairs again, but he pushed me to the side again.

	"No Jared!" I grabbed the back of his shorts as he'd got to the fourth step
this time, and pulled him back down, he looked like he jarred his ankle as
he came down. "Look, you can't just run away. You've got to deal sometimes!"
I was getting really angry, but then so was Jared.

	"Kevin, maybe I'm not really to deal. Now let go of me!"

	"No, I'm not going to let go of you." Jared gritted his teeth and pushed
me. Hard. I hit my back against the wall, and it hurt a lot, then I watched
as Jared made it most of the way up the stairs. I quickly ran up after him.
I wasn't going to let him lock himself in the bathroom or something this
time. I could feel the adrenaline rushing through me as I mounted the stairs
three at a time. "Jared! Come back!" I almost caught up with him by the time
we got to the top of the stairs. I was suddenly very grateful that Jared was
my fitness instructor - I never could've come close to catching him
otherwise.

	"Kevin! Leave me alone!" Jared shouted. I dove for him once I was at the
top of the stairs. I grabbed him around the hips, but before I could react
again to pull him to me, he had lifted his foot up, and brought it down onto
my shoulder. I had to let go of him. However, we both spun to our feet very
quickly. I noticed Jared had taken on more of a fighting stance - he was no
longer just running away from me. I leaned towards the right slightly, but
my foot gave out slightly under me, I guess I must have twisted my ankle at
some point. That's when Jared came at me, I hardly even saw it coming. He
wrapped his arms around my hips, and pushed me, as if I was one of those
football tackle pads, straight into the wall. I hit my back again, and the
back of my head bounced into the wall too. I slumped to the floor once Jared
backed off slightly. He stood for a second trying to catch his breath, and I
don't know why, it must have been instinct, but I brought my leg up, and
kicked him. My foot landed straight into his stomach.

	Jared seemed to fly backwards a short distance, and hit a table on the
other side of the upstairs hallway with his hip. Then he spun slightly, and
as he fell, he hit his head on the wall. Slumping to the floor, he curled
up, grabbed a hold of his head, and started crying. I realised tears were
running down my face too. Perhaps everything we were doing was wrong? We
were fighting, literally, physically fighting, maybe our relationship just
wasn't meant to be.

>>>Jared's Point of View<<<

	I mucked up didn't I? He just wanted to talk about the wedding, and I ended
up being a prick and, well, we ended up fighting. I'm so stupid sometimes.
My head is throbbing, lying here on the floor. I want to turn to look at
Kevin, but I'm scared. What if he's not there anymore, not there for me? I
rolled onto my back, I could feel my chest heaving, the pain from several
points in my body was still sending shocks through my limbs. I could
practically feel the blood vessels in my head bursting where I'd hit it
against the wall. Now, lying on my back, I could see that Kevin was still
there. He was on his back too, but his knees were up so that I couldn't see
his face. I felt really tired. My chest was still heaving, and I was still
breathing heavily.

	"I'm sorry Kevin." I said across the hall. I wanted to say so many other
things, I wanted to be the strong one for a change. I wanted to say to him
how he promised he would never raise a hand to me or anyone ever again, but
that's the thing I started it. And don't tell me about abusive
relationships, I know, people in abusive relationships always blame
themselves and say that they started it, but I can remember it clearly, and
I was the one pushing Kevin first, and then when he pulled me back, I was
the one who pushed him straight into the wall. So he rugby tackled me at the
top of the stairs? He was retaliating. I know that I started that fight,
both the verbal one and the physical one.

	"You got nothing to be sorry for Jared. I was the one who carried on
pulling you back, and stopping you from moving away, I was in the wrong. I
promised you before I'd never hurt you." He remembered. "And I did. I'll
leave." Something seemed really surreal about that. Oh yeah.

	"Kev, this is your house." That just seemed really absurd all of a sudden.

	"You can have it, just call it an apology for breaking my promise." I
looked over at him, and he'd shifted around slightly. I could see his face
now, and he was dead serious about this.

	"Kevin, I don't want to lose you."

	"Jared, I can't be with you. I'm a jerk, I hit you, I mean, I... just...
can't..." Kevin was crying, I could see the tears running down his face. I
could feel them starting in my eyes again. I twisted around further, god my
hip hurts. I could reach him now. But when I reached out my hand he shied
away slightly, which just furthered my view that I definitely started that
fight.

	"Kevin, you're not getting away from me, I love you. I started all that,
first the argument, then I tried getting away, and just because you tried to
stop me from running and locking myself in the bathroom, I pushed you and
hurt you. I hurt you first."

	"No! Don't you understand? I should never have laid my hands on you in the
first place. I promised I never would, but I did. Jared, I've got to leave
you." Kevin started to sit up. I didn't feel I had the strength to yet.

	"Kevin!" I said in a harsh tone. "Lie back down here." He did. "Kevin what
happened was not your fault. Kevin, I love you that's it. I mucked up. I
started the argument."

	"Jared, you're just saying that. This could so easily happen again, someone
like me, a jerk, an idiot, I could hit you again, and it could happen again,
and who knows we could end up in a relationship where I just hurt you all
the time, and I don't want that."

	"Kevin, have you hit me since we met, I mean before today?"

	"No." Kevin said in a quiet tone.

	"Why not?"

	"Cos I never had any reason to."

	"So why did you hit me today?"

	"Cos you gave me... reason... to." He paused and looked at me. "Cos you hit
me first." He remembered. He started crying.

	"Look, I'm sorry Kevin, I promise you. I'll never do it again. I don't know
what came over me. I didn't, I just... look, I'll make the same offer you
did. I'll leave."

	"No! You can't leave...I'll... I'll I don't know, I'll keep you here
somehow!" Kevin said, suddenly getting almost angry again.

	"Ok, so we're agreed? Neither of us will leave?" Kevin nodded. I laid onto
my back, and Kevin laid next to me, almost touching. We must have looked
very strange. These two guys lying in the middle of the upstairs corridor,
both covered with bruises, and even a bit of blood, just staring at the
ceiling. The image just seemed strangely funny to me. The table I'd hit had
a couple of pictures on it, they'd fallen over, and the lamp that was on it
had fallen too. The main thing hadn't smashed, but the shade had fallen off
the lamp. I couldn't help it I started laughing.

	"What are you laughing about?" Kevin asked with a strange grin on his face.

	"Oh, um, nothing, I was just thinking what we must look like if someone
walked in and saw us right now." Kevin's eyes sort of looked around for a
bit, then realising what I meant he started laughing too. We were both
laughing louder and louder, and then we got tears running down our faces
from laughing so hard.

	"Should we get up?" Kevin asked.

	"I think we'd better." I answered. As I stood up, I picked up the pictures
I'd knocked to the floor, as Kevin picked up the lamp and fixed the shade
back on. I was looking at the pictures and one of them was of Kevin and me.
I knew where it was, it was at the concert in Tokyo. We were kissing. I
don't know why, but I think I remember Brian taking the picture. I looked at
it for a second, and then up at Kevin. I think he knew which picture I was
looking at.

	"Come on Jared, just, I don't know, can we just forget about this?"

	"I wish we could Kevin. But this just goes to remind me how much I don't
deserve to be here. You're the one with the temper, and yet I lost mine. I
hit you."

	"Jared, come on, you didn't do anything unexpected. I wouldn't let you
leave, I probably would've done the same thing, come on, let's just get
cleaned up, and then I'll take you out for dinner or something." I looked up
at him, and saw the love in his eyes. He was holding out his hand to me, and
I took it. Without even thinking I just took his hand and rose up eye level
with him. I love this man.

***

	Kevin and I had a bath together. We needed to after the...physical exertion
of the previous few minutes. We were just lying there in the tub soaking. I
noticed a bruise coming up on Kevin's shoulder. I leant over and kissed it.
"I'm so sorry Kev."

	"It's ok Jared, and I take it you can't see the bruises coming up across
the top of your back." He looked at me seriously.

	"They that bad?" He nodded, then he twisted me slightly. I heard him take
in breath through his teeth.

	"Owch. There's one back here, it looks really bad, it's yellow. I've never
seen one go that colour." He reached up and touched it, and I realised why
one had never gone that colour - I'd never had one that hurt so much. I
practically screamed from the pain, but it hurt so much that I couldn't get
a breath out. Kevin saw my reaction. "Oh god, sorry, I won't be doing that
again." He sort of half-hugged me, and then we both sat back down in the
tub. I'd barely used this bath since I'd come here. It was nice, we should
do it more often.

	I noticed a couple of bruises on Kevin's back, but they didn't look too
bad. There were a couple coming up around Kevin's sides, that must have been
when I grabbed him before pushing him into the wall. I felt the tears
stinging my eyes as I looked at him. He was so beautiful, and I made those
marks on him. "Jared stop it." I heard Kevin say. He still had his eyes
shut, and he was leaning back against a rolled up pillow on the side of the
tub.

	"Huh?"

	"Stop blaming yourself. I can see what you're thinking. You're not the most
obvious person to read, well, not like Nick or someone, but when you're
doubting something, it's obvious. It's like your entire world is crashing
down around you. But right now you need to believe that we'll get over this,
together. Jared I love you. So I've got a few more bruises on my body than I
did before, it doesn't matter. I still want to be with you, and love you
forever. I love you Jared more than anything else."

	"Will you still marry me?" I asked him.

	"Yes, of course if that's what you want?" Kevin said quietly.

	"I do. And I want it in two weeks like you said." I said, suddenly
desperate for that date.

	"Jared, I don't want to do it just because you feel you have to."

	"It's not Kevin. I want you, I want to be with you, forever. And I know
we'll have that, and I don't know, suddenly I see this wedding the way you
said - the commitment, I understand what you meant, how this was like a real
statement of our commitment, please Kevin? Please marry me then. I'd like to
help you with the wedding too, like you wanted me to."

	"Jared." He said, taking my hand. "You're doing this because of what just
happened, I can't let you do that. Jared, we've got to do this for the right
reasons."

	"Kevin, I love you. Please, I mean it, I want to do this for us, and
because I love you." Kevin looked straight into my eyes, his eyes looking
back and forwards between mine, and he must have seen some degree of
certainty that I certainly wasn't feeling.

	"Ok Jared, but if you have any doubts again, please, tell me, no matter if
it's right before the wedding or if it's in the next five minutes. I don't
care, please tell me ok?" I nodded. "Shall we get out? Oh, err, shit."

	"What?"

	"Well, the guys, they wanted to go out this evening."

	"Ok, well we were gonna go out anyway, so, what's the problem?"

	"Well, to start with how are we gonna explain the cuts and bruises?"

	"Oh, shit." He let out a chuckle, then started standing up out of the bath.
Such a beautiful body.

	"Come on, we'd better at least get dried off before the guys come here."

	"They're coming here?"

	"Yeah, Nick said he'd pick us up seeing as neither he nor Leo are drinking,
he'll give us a lift. In case we wanted to have a drink." I nodded my head.
Kevin held out a towel to me, and I wrapped myself up in it, and held his
out. He turned around to pull it on, and that's when I saw the marks on his
back. They weren't one solid bruise, but they were becoming one as they got
bigger. They were still swelling up, and I could see the small yellowish or
purplish spots becoming one big one across his mid-upper back.

	"Oh God." I said, I could feel tears coming to my eyes, and I could hear
the quiver in my voice.

	"Huh?" Kevin said turning around. He must have seen my expression. I looked
up, and saw his eyes, then turned and left the bathroom, quickly. I headed
for our bedroom, and sat on the end of the bed, the towel still wrapped
around me. "Jared." I looked up, he'd walked in, and he was just standing
there with the towel around his waist, and another one around his shoulders.
"Stand up." As much as I felt like running again, I couldn't. "Please." I
did it. "Now turn around." I did. A moment later, he came back. "Now look
behind you without turning around. When I looked back, he had a big mirror
in his hand. It was one that was sat on the dressing table in his room
normally. I looked in the mirror, and there across my back was a bruise
about twice the size of the one on Kevin's back. I gasped. "Not to mention
the concussion I probably gave you when I put my foot in your stomach, and
pushed you against the wall." I looked up at him. "Jared, I hurt you too. I
guess we both learnt that we need to control ourselves today, I never want
to fight with you again Jared."

	"I don't want to fight with you." I said, mumbling. The shock I guess of
seeing the massive bruise across my back brought back home that there were
two of us fighting.

	"Right, so, are you ok now?" I nodded gingerly at first, then I tried a
smile at Kev. It came out pretty pathetic, but, it was there. "Ok, now we
need to sort out about the guys."

	"Well, we could just cover up."

	"Hmm, yeah, if we wore long sleeved t-shirts, that would work."

	"You know we're gonna boil?" I said with a grin. Kevin found it hilarious
that I was starting to suffer the Florida temperature. He carried on saying
to me things like 'what? it's only April!' and 'how can you be suffering I'm
gonna put on another layer!' just to piss me off. I was really not looking
forward to July, or whenever it got hottest around here. I guess my English
temperature controls were still in place.

	"I'm not gonna boil, you might, but it's a nice evening out."

	"Kevin, it's...80 degrees out there." I said looking at the thermometer.

	"That's a nice cool day." I tutted.

	"I'd prefer slightly cooler."

	"Yeah well, what can I say." Kevin grinned at me. I walked over to him,
grabbed the back of his neck, and kissed him. We just stood there kissing
for a good couple of minutes, I couldn't believe how good it felt. After
everything, I just needed him and Kevin was only too happy to oblige. The
door bell rang, and we were still in our towels. Kevin and I both quickly
pulled on a pair of jeans, and as we walked out the room, we were pulling on
long-sleeved t-shirts. When we answered the door, Nick was there in a pair
of khakis that came down to his calves, and a t-shirt.

	"Hey guys!" Nick said. "Err...feeling a little cold?" He was looking at our
clothes, and I felt really stupid. We wouldn't have been out of place in
England in these clothes.

	"Well, we just pulled these on." Kevin said, lying, really badly.

	"O...k, shall we go?" Nick asked. We shut the house up, and walked with him
to the car.

	"New car Nicky?" Kevin asked.

	"Yep." He said with a grin. "Got it today." I don't know what type it was,
big, saloon car, more like a family car. That's when I realised he got it
for Laura's sake. A baby seat probably wouldn't fit in the back of the Jag.
Leo was in the front seat, and Laura was in the baby seat in the back. Kevin
and I sat on either side.

	"I like it." Kevin said as we strapped up.

	"Yeah, it's comfortable, can stretch your legs out." I said with a grin as
I slouched in the chair. A car with leg room - I liked it.

	"Thanks guys, let's go." He started up, and we drove to the restaurant
where we were to meet the guys. I couldn't help but say hello to Laura and
play a bit - she's got this infectious little grin, and if you tickle her
tummy just right she lets out this laugh that's part way between a scream
and a giggle, which just sounds adorable. I looked up and saw Kevin grinning
at me.

	"There's that broody side your brother's fiancees were talking about." He
sat back and chuckled, and I realised he was right. I wanna be a daddy
someday.

***

	The restaurant was nice, and dinner with the guys was cool. It was kinda
difficult explaining the long clothes, but we got through it, even if it was
with some funny looks, and an unfortunate sweating bout from me. Once we got
home again, I looked at the clock, it was 10pm. I was tired - after all, we
only got back from Boston early this morning, and I hadn't had a proper
sleep last night. Then I remembered...

	"Oh shit, err, Kev, do you mind going to a wedding, this Saturday?" I
asked. I hadn't even mentioned it, I'd completely forgotten to tell him
about Janet Dakes' wedding.

	"Err...Janet Dakes."

	"Oh is she getting married already? You didn't say her husband was back
yet."

	"Yeah, he picked her up from her session today."

	"Ah, yeah, sure, I'm free."

	"Cool, I'll give her a call."

	"Are you sure? It's pretty late."

	"Yeah, but she said she needed to know, I just thought it would be a good
idea to get it sorted."

	"Ok." So I phoned her up, and was answered by a somewhat breathless Janet.

	"Hey Jared." God, I hate caller ID's - it takes all the mystery out of
calling someone.

	"Hi Janet, um, Kevin said ok, sorry for calling you so late, we just went
out somewhere with the guys, and just got back." Suddenly, I heard a gasp
from the other end of the line. "Janet? Are you ok?" Then I heard a muffled
conversation - something about 'put your tongue back in your mouth'. I
couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

	"Ok, thanks Jared, I'll make a note of that. So I'll see you on Saturday?
Thanks again for calling! Bye!" She said in a mid-scream, I was guessing
Rick was doing some unspeakable things to her.

	"Bye." I said to a dial tone, then hung up.

***

TBC...
End of Season Two, Chapter Three

Well, I know this chapter probably came as a bit of a shock to a few of you.
It deals with some slightly different issues to normal, but I think also
some very important ones. Now, I don't want people emailing me telling me
all about abusive relationships and how they work out and how the abusee
invariably has to leave the abuser because otherwise they're going to end up
in hospital. This fight they had DOES NOT MEAN that they are in an abusive
relationship, nor does it mean that the relationship is going to become
abusive. I have had a fight before with a guy I've been out with, and if
anything, it helped that relationship - it helped to establish physical
boundaries, and showed us what we're both prepared to go through for that
relationship. I'm not saying it's the case with all relationships, in fact a
lot of relationships which come to blows at any point will end up down the
drain, but not this one, at least not due to this bout. I hope everyone's
still liking the story