Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2001 01:55:25 -0800 From: Chris Knutson Subject: love-just-in-time-4 Love Just In Time, Part 4 (C) 2001 Chris Knutson I know it's been a very long time since I released any part of this story. Life has been very busy for me the last year and a half. I suppose if you want to know, you can drop me an email. I have been trying to get back into writing more lately. I also have another story called "Wonder" that should be released at the same time as part 4 of "Love Just In Time" I hope you all like this part. There are no real big struggles like the last 3 parts, but I just wanted to build on the characters with this part. It won't be the last, trust me. I want to keep these characters going for a while and write about their lives, emotions, feelings, and their love for one another. Feel free to email me at kamin@nventure.com and be sure to check out my website at http://www.e-raist.com/~kamin I hope to hear from you all. I welcome all feedback. ** I slowly wake up, realizing that someone is running their hand threw my hair. I pull my brain back into more consciousness, which takes a bit of effort. I finally realize where I am. "Hi Mark," I say softly. "Hi there sweetie. It's about time you woke up," I hear him say in a surprised tone. "I can't believe I slept longer than you did. What time is it? Oh wait, there isn't a clock in this room." I reach for my cell phone and find out it's almost 9 AM. "Wow, I've been asleep that long. I don't even remember what time I feel asleep. Did I wake in the same position? I feel asleep in? How long have you been up? Mark laughs, "As to the first question, yes. Your head was resting right next to mine. I was still awake when feel asleep, I had a lot I was thinking about. I was thinking about everything you had said to me last night, about the events of the last couple days, and a whole bunch of things that have taken place between us ever since we met. That day seems like an eternity ago that we met, but I still remember the day vividly." Mark lets out a cough. "Shh, shh, there is no need to talk right now," I say to Mark. "John, I want to get this out. I should have realized sooner that I could have trusted you with my deepest secret. Everything told me that you would be OK with it. I was too scared to lose you as a friend. You're by far the only best friend I have ever had. The night that you told me how you felt about me... I was coming over to finally tell you how I feel about you. Granted things didn't come out exactly how I thought they would, but in the end, I know they will. I love you John. I love you more than I have ever or could possibly love anyone." With this, I notice Mark sheds a tear. I slowly let go of Mark's hand and wipe the tear away from his face. "Don't cry babe, it'll all be alright now. I'll take care of you, through thick and thin, I promise. Let's work on the future." "Deal," says Mark. With that, I move a bit and kiss Mark on the lips. I push my tongue to his lips, and am granted access. Mmm, his mouth tastes so sweet. I've got to remember how sweet his mouth is and to kiss it as often as possible. We break off and I laugh a bit. "What's so funny?" asks Mark. "Oh nothing, nothing. Just making a mental note to kiss you as often as possible given how good it tastes," I say with a big smile on my face. "That's funny, I was just thinking the same thing about you," Mark smiles back. We laugh together. "So what happened to my dad?" asks Mark. That really caught me off guard. "Well..." I get cut off. "Knock knock!" I hear at the door. I know that voice instantly. "Hi Sarah," I say back. "Is that loser son of yours Jeff with you?" I say full well knowing that Richie is standing right there the whole time. I had to get the laugh out of everyone. "Hey, who are you calling a loser you fool, what's up?" Jeff responds back just how I expected him to. He takes one look at Mark. "Holy shit Mark! What the hell happened to you?" "It's a long story, I'll give you the brief rundown of it," says Mark. "John, can we talk in private?" asks Sarah. "Yeah, I guess. Let's go smoke a cigarette." I reply back to her, not really wanting a cigarette that much. Sarah's been like a second mom to me after my own mom died. She's helped keep me together on things I couldn't tell Mark about until now. She knew how much I care for him, and she is entirely cool with it. Sarah and I walk over to the elevator, hit the button to go down, and wait. I turn to her. "So..." I say rather nervously. "John, you look like shit," Sarah responds back to me. "I take it it's been a rough couple days for you." "Yeah, you could say that." The elevator arrives and we both step in. We are the only two in there. I hit the button for the bottom floor, and we start moving downward. There is an awkward silence between us. The car arrives on the bottom floor and we walk outside to the smoking area. I realize I have no smokes on me so I motion Sarah to walk with me over to my car. "Damn, when did you get this?" she asks me rather stunned at the car. "A couple days ago," I respond back. "It's nice." "Yeah, it is," I say as I fish for my smokes. There they are. I grab the box and shut the car back up. I pull one out of the box and walk over to the smoking area. I light up the smoke. Sarah does the same thing. "Mark and I are finally together," I say. "It's kind of, well it is a long story. Shall I begin?" "Yes, I'm really interested in hearing it," says Sarah. She is looking straight at me like she knows that this will take a while, but is going to be paying very close attention to every word I will say. With that, I tell her of the events on Friday, what happened at school, my attempted suicide which let to my eventual coming out to Mark and our finding our love for each other. I then continued with the events Saturday, the first attack by Mark's dad that led to Mark running away, my finding of Mark the next day near death, and the arrest of Mark's dad. I also told her of the many hours I waited for Mark to come out of surgery, and how he had heard every word I had told him while he was out. "Fuck," was all Sarah could say. "Why the hell did you try to kill yourself, I told you that you could call me anytime day or night. Why the hell did you do something so stupid?" "I don't know, I just had lost all hope, I felt like I suddenly had nothing at all in the world. Everything that was building up over the last few months finally broke loose. All of a sudden nothing mattered, except getting out of this world before I hurt Mark. Obviously I didn't. I still can't believe I couldn't figure out a lot sooner that he would take my being gay well. I guess in keeping myself closed up I kept my eyes closed. I was too afraid to lose my best friend ever." "Yeah, I can understand that. I'm still pissed at you though," she said in a voice that I'd better get it through my head that she meant it. "I'm just thankful that we didn't lose you. You've become like one of my own sons." And with that she gives me a big hug. I feel loved. "Given what all you've done for him, you really do love him, don't you?" Sarah asks me. "Yeah, more than you could possibly ever imagine. There's nothing I wouldn't do for Mark. I suppose these past couple of days has proven that fact." "What are you going to do about his custody?" "I've got Ken working on that. It shouldn't be hard to get it. Ken's powerful, and any judge with half a brain cell will look at what Bruce has done to Mark over the years. I plan to give testimony on how Mark was before I met him, the physical and emotional scars I've seen in him, and other things along those lines. His condition alone when I found him will probably be enough. Let's go inside, I miss Mark already..." I say while motioning to the door. Sarah and I go back up to Mark's room, bullshitting some more on our way up. I get to Mark's room and walk over to his bed. "Miss me?" I ask him. "Yeah, of course I did," says Mark. With that I reach down and kiss him on the lips. His lips are super soft, just as I figured they always would be ever since I met him. Suddenly it clicks in my head that Jeff is sitting at the end of the bed. "What the fuck? You're a fucking faggot?!?" Jeff yells out. I turn my head just in time to see Sarah slap Jeff across the face hard. "Don't I ever hear you say again!! Not to John, not to Mark, and not to anyone else!!!" Sarah yells out in more anger than I've ever heard her yell before. With that, Jeff looks up in disgust and walks really fast out of the room. "Shit, that didn't go well. I knew he would never talk that news well." I say to Sarah. "Don't worry, I'll talk to him. He should come around eventually. Even if he doesn't, you're always welcome in my house, even if he's around. Always remember that. I can't stand bigotry," Sarah says in a reassuring voice. "Thanks," I say to her. With that, I give her a big hug. "Hey, what about me?" says Mark, kinda looking hurt. Sarah goes over to him and gives him a hug as well. "Please look out for John will you and make certain he doesn't try to do anything stupid again," Sarah whisper to Mark, just loud enough so that I can hear it. "And you," she says look in my direction, "watch over Mark here, and always protect him and treat him well, don't make me hurt you." With that I crack a smile. "I will, I promise." "Well, I hate to, but I need to get going. I'm going to help my husband with some yardwork. I'll see what I can do to get Jeff to come around. If you need anything just let me know." "Alright, I'll do that. I may go back down to Puyallup tonight to get a few things, so maybe I'll stop by. I don't know how long Mark is going to need to be here, I plan to stay with him for a while." With that, I watch Sarah walk out the door. I turn back to Mark and move back to my chair. I look at his beautiful face closely. "What?" Mark asks me. "I'm just looking at your beautiful face. I still wonder how I ever got someone as beautiful as you are," I say to him. "I wonder how I ever found anyone who has truly cared about me like you have," responds Mark. All I can do is smile back more. "You were about to tell me what happened to my dad. I know you didn't let this one slip by. I know how much you hate my parents, especially my dad, I can see it in your eyes anytime he is around, and you have told me on many occasions that you will bring him down for good." "He's in jail. Ken and I made sure of that. I had him arrested with about every charge possible. I know that you wanted me to never do anything do your dad, but I couldn't just sit back, not this time." "John, I'm not mad at you... I know now that I should have let you do something a long time ago. You saw what was going on and tried to do a lot more than I let you. I was wrong for trying to stop you. Maybe it would have prevented this all from happening," says Mark. "Well, yeah, but at least the long term outcome looks good. How about after you get out of here that we go on a long vacation? You still have one more year of high school left, so we'd have to be back by then. Sound like a plan?" "Yeah, it does. I want to take things one day at a time though. The main thing that I know that I want to do is to get better and be with you." I smile. "We'll just let life take us where it leads for a while then. I hate to leave, but I'm starving. I also have to run by home and do a few things then see Ken. I've got some paperwork to do. Till you are 18, you'll be under my custody, that is, if you agree to that." "Of course I will.. I just doubt I'll be leaving this bed for a while," says Mark, laughing a bit at that. I kiss Mark. He reaches up and grabs the back of my head. We kiss for about half a minute. "I'll see you later babe." With that, I leave. ** I get in my car and, put the key in, and turn. All the engine does is turn over. Damnit, I just remembered I have no gas. I grab my cell phone and call up triple A and get someone to come out here and give me some gas. While I stand around I look over a few things on my car. I didn't realize some of the features and luxury touches that it has way deep down. I definitely like this car. I guess I'll have to ask Mark how he liked driving it out to the ocean. I'm glad he didn't wreck at all. I am very glad I taught him how to handle driving a car with a lot of horsepower. He learned how to drive on my Mustang. I sure built that car up for some raw power. I need to get him added to my insurance for all the guys I own. I'll probably let him use the Mustang, he always like that car. He and I have a lot of good memories in that car. It doesn't take the service guy to get here. I only get enough gas to get a few miles, but at least it's enough to get me to a gas station to fill up fully. After filling up the tank completely I stop by Wendy's to get some food then I head back down to Puyallup. I make it there in decent time. I think I will go see Sarah and Sam after I stop by my house. ** I pull up to my house after what seemed like a rather long drive from Seattle. I hate Seattle traffic, I really do. I look at my front yard and see the Mustang still sitting there in the flowerbed. I guess I should move that and apologize to my gardener for the damage I did. One of the things I loved about my house was not the house itself, it was the beautiful grounds it was on. The gardeners and myself did a lot to beautify the yard. I head inside and walk into my office. I see there are two messages on my machine. I hit the play button and listen to the first message. "Hi sexy, it's Mark. I just called to say that I love you and hope you come back up soon. Bye." Damn, that was sweet. I don't care that the message was short, it's the little things like that I like. Sexy eh? I never really thought of myself as that. I am 5'10", 155 pounds, light brown eyes and hair, with decent muscle tone. I guess I am good looking, I just never thought much of anyone saying it, except for Mark. On to the next message. "John, this is Ian, your financial consultant. Please give me a call immediately, it's very important." Hmm... I wonder what that is about. I look up Josh's number and ring him up. "Ian Jordan Financial Consultants. How may I help you?" says Ian. "This is John Morgan. You left a message on my machine that it was important to call you immediately. What is the news that is so important?" I ask Ian. "Hi John. Good to hear from you, it's been a while, hasn't it? Anyway, you will like this news. Remember those tech stocks that you bought that I thought you were foolish to buy? It went up exponentially. You had told me to sell it when it reaching $25 a share." "Yeah, I remember that. I take it you did sell them when them reached $25?" I ask. "Not quite. The stocks shot up quicker than I could catch it. I sold the 75% of it that you told to sell. It sold at $1000 a share. A couple of them then split to $500 a share, then immediately jumped up to $750. You owned so much of those you now have about $175,000,000 in cash added to what you already had." "Holy fuck! You've got to be joking... I hope that selling of it didn't cause the stocks to collapse afterward," I say in a rather shocked tone. "No, not at all, it just made it pick up even more people wanted to jump onto them while they were still climbing. I guess the company that had the biggest price gains had a huge breakthrough in something in their R&D section. I now wish I had bought some when it was $9 a share," Ian says in a rather disappointed tone. "Sorry. Anyway, thank you for the good news on this, Ian. This has been turning out to be a great weekend. Mark will be shocked when I tell him the news of this" "How is he doing, anyway? Ian asks. I tend to become good friends with my financial and legal consultants. It keeps things in order much easier. "He's doing OK, considering his dad almost killed him. Mark and I are now together." I say in a happy tone. "Great, great, that you guys are together. Oh hell, I got another call coming in, I'll talk to you another time." And with that Ian hangs up. I ponder how much I actually have in the bank now. From a rough estimate of everything, I figure it to be around $250 million dollars. Not too shabby. I am definitely going to work on getting it up higher. And still, it doesn't matter at all compared to being with Mark. I only amass such money to have a stable living structure, it doesn't do much for my emotional structure. I can't stand most rich people. They are too stuck up and wouldn't give you a dime to save you're life. I guess my attitude differs from most rich in that I'm new money; it hasn't been in my family at all until my mom and I. She received a large settlement from some rich guy that hit her car when I was very young. She just took it from there and invested wisely and we kept making more and more money. She was also very successful in her job as CEO for a large software company. Sign, I miss her. With that I tie up a few lose ends around the house, and head over to visit Sarah and Sam. ** I pull up in the driveway and see Sam working on his garden. He looks at the Benz pulling up and has a look of who the hell is that on his face. I get out of the car and he looks at me. "Damn John, I knew you had money, but I didn't think I'd see you driving something like this," Sam says in shock. "Yeah, I wanted something a little different from the Mustang. I still have it. For some reason it won't start right now. Could you come inside, I have some things to discuss with you and Sarah." "Sure," says Sam. He gets another puzzled look on his face. I have known that they have been having some financial tightness for a while now, and I decide to help them out. I don't care so much about having the money myself, as it also comes in handy when my friends are in need. Sam and I walk inside and see Sarah sitting on the couch watching a Mariners game. "Can we turn off the TV for a few minutes, please?" I ask Sarah. "During the game?" she says in a tone that I'm definitely interrupting it unwillingly. She really likes the Mariners a lot. "Yes, it's rather important." "I guess," says Sarah. "Have a seat, Sam," I say in a tone that you must. He sits down. "What is this about?" Sarah asks. "OK. I know you guys have been having some financial problems lately. I know it's not really my place to get into this, but I want to help. I just found out today that I hit a very large sum of money from some investments that I made." Sarah looks at me like I really shouldn't be talking about this. "I want to give you guys $300,000 to help out with things, pay off bills, do a few things that you want done, and so forth." "What!?!" both Sarah and Sam say in unison. "We can't accept that, it's too much." Sarah puts in. "I don't care about the money, I've got more than I'll ever need and keep building on it all the time. I want to do this, you guys have given me so much over the last few years." I say to them. "Well, I think Sam and I are going to have to discuss this. Could you give us a few moments please?" asks Sarah. "Certainly," I say, and I head out onto the back deck to have a smoke. I get out on back deck and light up a cigarette. Damn, it doesn't even taste that good anymore. I really should quit. I guess on my way back up to Seattle I'll get some patches. I look down at the road below and see cars driving by in both directions. This road seems like such a constant. There are often cars on it of all kinds, from poor to rich. I often wonder what these people are doing, what this people are thinking, and what their hopes and dreams are. Anyway... It's definitely a nice sunny day out, which I am glad for. I don't really care for rain that much. Sarah walks out onto the deck, followed by Sam. "John, we talked it over and have decided to accept rather reluctantly. We don't care too much for handouts, but if it is something you really want to do..." says Sarah. "It is, it really is. Don't worry about paying me back or anything, I have no concerns about that," I say. "We sure appreciate this though. I don't think we could ever thank you enough," says Sam. "What are friends for?" I ask with a smile. With that, we got back inside and I write out a check. I had it to Sarah. "I want this money spent wisely. No spending it on random useless things, at least until everything major is taken care off. I recommend saving a good amount for things down the road." It feels weird to tell people twice my age on how to spend money. I just want to see things taken care of properly. "Certainly," says Sarah. "Now let's get back to the ballgame!" "Yeah, I want to see the Mariners kick some ass," I laugh out. ** I hang around and watched the ballgame with Sarah for a while (Sam went back out to work in the garden). It was over with a final score of 10-to-1 Mariners. Not bad if I do say so myself. With that I say goodbye and head off. I decide to run by the house once more since it is close by to check the machine and such. I arrive at my house very quickly. I park in the driveway and head inside. As I head towards the office I hear the message alert on the machine. I walk towards the answering machine. First I check the caller ID to see who has called. There is only one call and it doesn't have a number listed. I hit the play button on the machine and the message starts playing. "John, this may come as a bit of a shock, but I think I may be related to you. John, you may be my half brother that I have been searching for a long time for... this isn't a joke I swear. Your dad's name was Alan Richard Morgan, right? Well he is also my dad... I can't give you a number to reach me at but I can give you an email address..." Holy shit... I shake my head realizing that yeah, that is definitely my dad's name. I jot down the email address and hop onto the main workstation in the office. I fire up the email and watch the mail come in. I haven't checked it in a couple days. Ho hum, what to say to this guy who thinks he may be my brother... I write a quick message to him and leave him my cell number to call me on since I don't know how much I'm going to be home in the next few days... I grab my cell phone and walk over to the fridge wanting something to drink. I realize I want a mocha, and I need to get back to the hospital, so I lock up and set the alarm, and head on my way. ** Ah... I feel much better now since I stopped and got a nice 5 shot 20 oz hazelnut mocha, my favorite. I pull onto 167 and head north, deciding to keep my speed at a more reasonable pace. I think I have pushed my luck enough on speed lately. I flip to my favorite son on a Dar Williams CD, called As Cool As I Am. I love Dar Williams, she adds a lot of human touches to her music. It's such a beautiful day out so I decide to pop open the moon roof and let some air flow through the car. All of a sudden my phone rings. "Hello?" I answer. "Hi, is this John Morgan?" asks a voice, rather shyly. "Yep, that would be me. Who is this?" I ask. "John, this is your half brother, Jacob. I know this probably came as a shock to you..." "Yeah, you can say that. I didn't know my, er, our dad, had any kids besides me. He left my mom not long after I was born, so I guess I shouldn't be that shocked. How old are you?" "I'm 15. I never knew him much either. He died when I was really young," says Jacob, with a bit of sadness in his voice. "He's dead? Oh my... I never knew. I haven't ever been able to find him despite having looked for him. What part of the world are you in? How did you find me, anyway?" I ask. "I'm in a town in Oregon called Florence. Have you ever heard of it?" "Yeah, I have." I have been there a few times on road trips, and I have to say, I love the Oregon Coast. It's very beautiful, and romantic. "My mom told me about you. Apparently dad had told her about you before he died. I guess he wanted me to find you someday. I think he felt guilty about having left you and your mom even though he loved my mom. Deep down, I think he always wondered how you were doing. How have you done for yourself, anyway? Where are you living at?" "I'm living in a town called Puyallup, WA. I have done all right for myself. My mom was very successful, and she did great financially, and was a wonderful mother. Things have actually been happening like crazy the last few days. I now have a wonderful boyfriend, the most wonderful in the world. He's currently lying in the hospital though since his dad beat the shit out of him. But he's going to live. I'm driving up to Seattle right now to see him." "You're gay? Oh my... I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to your boyfriend, I'm glad he will be all right. It sounds like something happened to your mom..." says Jacob, in a questioning tone. "Yeah, she died a few months ago in a car crash. It devastated me, and left me in a horrible depression until recently." "How have you made it with bills and such? Must be pretty hard." I laugh a little bit. Nothing could be more than farther from the truth. Like I said, she was very successful, with her job and her investments. I inherited everything, and have done well at managing her investments. The car I'm driving for example, ran about $370,000." I say, not to impress, but more to show that yeah, I'm doing all right. "Holy fuck..." "Yeah." At least I'm not the one in shock. After all, I am driving down the freeway, talking on a cell phone and sipping coffee. If there ever was a Seattle stereotype, I think this is it. "So anyway, geez, I'm still in shock, I have a half brother... Does your mom know that you are talking to me?" I ask. "Yes, she encouraged it in fact. I only found out about you a few days ago. I guess she wanted to wait till I was mature enough to handle the fact and to make the right decisions about it. I would like to meet you, actually. I was hoping that we could get to know each other and that this wouldn't just be a one time call..." he gets the shy tone back into his voice. It looks like I definitely got my strong authority side from my mom. "Jacob, there is nothing more than I would like to meet you. Let me think... Things are a little busy right now, I'm going to stay by my boyfriend's side until he recovers. I love him, very much, and have and will do anything for him. How about after he gets better, that he and I head down there and meet you? Would you be OK if I had him with?" I ask, knowing that I am bringing Mark no matter what. "That would be awesome!" says Jacob, in a rather excited tone. "Do you know how long it will be till he recovers?" "I am not certain, I think it will be at least 2 weeks minimum. He had some pretty bad injuries. I don't want to push him into the stress of a long trip if I don't have to. But I can say that it will probably be before the end of the summer. I have actually thought of taking a road trip this summer with Mark," I say, with a smile on my face. "Wow, this will be great. I am so excited!" exclaims Jacob. It seems that Jacob isn't so shy at least when he gets comfortable with someone. "Hey Jacob? Can I call you later on this evening? I have to call my boyfriend and let him know that I'm going to be back there to the hospital in a little while. Damn, this has been quite the week. I do want to get to know you and where your life has gone for the last 15 years. I promise that I will call later on." I say. "Alright..." says Jacob, in a disappointed but understanding tone. "Drive carefully, and I'll talk to you later on." "Yep, bye Jacob," I say with a smile. Damn, can anything more keep happening? It sure seems like everything is happening at once in my life. At least so far, everything has turned out good in the end. I can only hope that it keeps happening that way. I pull onto I-5 and put a little foot into the gas pedal, with a newfound sense of confidence in my life. All of a sudden my phone rings. Mark, damnit, I forgot to call him. I hope it is him. "Hello?" "Hey sweetie," says Mark. "I miss you... How are things going? Almost got that cute butt of yours back up here?" I blush a bit. "Hey beautiful. Things are going wonderfully, I have a few pieces of news to tell you when I get up there. I just pulled onto I-5 at Southcenter and should be up there pretty soon. I decided to drive somewhat near the speed limit this time. How are you feeling?" I ask. "I hurt, duh. Seriously, I feel a lot better than the doctors are telling me I should be feeling. I know it's odd, but just thinking of you makes me feel stronger." I melt at that. "Awww... Mark, you are so sweet. Hearing that makes me melt inside, babe." I smile. "Good, but just be careful not to melt into a puddle on the floor of the car. I do want to see you as something other than a pile of goo," with that he starts to laugh that infectious laugh of his. I can't help but laugh too. Mark and I talk for a while till I get near the exit for the hospital. I decide it would be best to concentrate on driving through the city. ** I get into the hospital, and decide to stop by the gift shop. I decided on the way in that I needed to get some roses. I find a nice bouquet, purchase it, and head to Mark's room. I walk into Mark's room holding the flowers behind my back. "Hey sweetie," I say. "Hey there. What have you got behind your back? Or did your arm melt into that position talking to me?" Mark asks jokingly. "Nope, but I got these for you." I hand Mark the flowers and give him a big kiss on the lips. "Aw thank you, John, thank you so much," says Mark in a loving tone. He sets the flowers down and pulls me into a deeper kiss. "I missed you very much. I hope everything went well back in Puyallup. So what is the news that you have to tell me?" Ah, where to begin. "Well, Mark, you know how I invested in that stock a while back that was dirt cheap? Well, it shock up exponentially. Ian sold off the amount of it I told him too, long after it hit it's target price. We now have close to around $250 million, I estimate." Mark gets a really stunned look on his face. "Holy shit... I never imagined that it would bring that much in... Our money?" Mark asks. "Well, you are my boyfriend, and you do live with him. I consider everything that is mine to be yours as well. Not that I really care about all that as long as I have you." I see Mark melt a bit with that. "I feel the same about you, John. I could care less if you were a rich guy or just some dirt-poor guy, as long as you are who you are, the guy I fell in love with. I guess this definitely secures our living situations. Not that I had much doubt in that before. I hope you still plan to go to college, though," says Mark, knowing that I consider an education important, a value I instilled in him not long after I met him. "Yeah, I will, I promise. I also have some other news. You know how my dad left my mom not long after I was born? Well, apparently he was killed, but not before he could have another kid. Mark, I have a 15 year old half brother named Jacob..." "Oh my," says Mark with an even more stunned look on his face than when I told him about the money. "How is it, how did you find out?" "I guess our dad left some information about myself before he died. He left a message on the machine at home with his email address, so I emailed him with my cell number and he called me up while I was on the road up here. He seems to be a pretty shy guy but also full of energy. He lives down in Florence, Oregon. He seems to be a pretty nice guy. We talked for a bit about a few things, but I told him I wanted to get ahold of you and that I would call him later on. Mark, how would you feel about a road trip down there after you get better?" I ask. "I would love that, John. I know this must be important to you and that you no doubt want to meet him." "I do." "Well then, after I get better, we'll head down that way. I was hoping that we would do a road trip somewhere this summer, before all this happened. Now, I would love it even more. I remember going down there last summer. I love the Oregon Coast. It was so romantic down there. You don't even know how much I had to fight the instinct not to just make love to you on the beach that night we sat there and watched the stars." "I wish you had. I wish I had. I was thinking the same thing laying there looking up and hearing the waves. That was a beautiful night, laying there watching the stars with a beautiful guy. I can't believe we didn't figure out about each other before just now. We have so much in common that we should have just both assumed that the other one is gay." "Yeah, I know, Mark. We shouldn't worry too much about the past though and let the regret get to us. The important thing is that we are together now, and have a long future ahead of us to build apon. Mark, I have no doubt in my mind that we will both spend the rest of our lives together. Hell, we have already spent almost every moment since we met being around each other, what is another 60 or more years?" I let off a small laugh with that. "I agree. And I couldn't think of any better way to spend those years, then with you," says Mark, while looking straight into my eyes. I reach over and kiss him on the lips. He gets more aggressive and forces his tongue into my mouth. I push my tongue back into his and we kiss for a couple of minutes. I scoot my chair into a position to sit as close to Mark as I can and I take his hand. We sit there and talk for the next few hours, about life, school, and how we want to spend the future together. He gets a bit groggy as the evening comes on. I realize I am a bit tired to, so I lay my head down on his bed, still holding his hand. What a day, what a week, what a lifetime so far. The sun begins to set over the Olympic Mountains across Puget Sound. I look up at Mark and smile, he smiles back. He and I grip each other's hands tighter and we fall asleep. ** End Part 4 I hope you liked this, and that it showed you more of the charectors lives. Feel free to email me at kamin@nventure.com This will not be the last of this story.