Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 02:19:01 -0700
From: Stephen Phelps <dnsphelps@mcsi.net>
Subject: Michael  and  Jake,  part  9

Disclaimer: I do not know nor do I claim to know Jake Gyllenhaal, nor do I
know or claim to know any other celebrities that may wander through these
pages, and I do not know or therefore mean to imply any knowledge of their
personal lives or their sexual preferences.  This is a work of fiction.
The character of Michael is my own creation, and therefore any use of him
outside of this story cannot be done without first gaining my permission.
If you are under 18 years of age, or it is illegal to be reading this where
you live, or you are bothered by the prospect of a homo- erotic
relationship between two men, then you had better go find something else to
read on another web-site.


Okay, so it's been a while, hasn't it?  Well, first things first.....Happy
Birthday Peter!  (March 7th).  It occurred to me while I was writing this
chapter that the 1 year Anniversary of Michael and Jake was
approaching....One whole year...Alot has happened in that time....I want to
take a quick moment to give a shout-out to a few other writers whose work I
deeply respect.  Avy, the author of Jake's Cowboy, Christopher, the author
of Breaking Through, and finally, Tyler Peel, the author of The Road Home,
which can be read in its entirety at www.tylerpeel.closettales.org If you
haven't yet checked this story out, I suggest you do...Something else to
check out is Avy's site, The Gyllenhaal Chronicles at
http://groups.msn.com/TheGyllenhaalChronicles/

Now, I'm sure that alot of people are going to read this chapter and say
"What the fuck?"  but I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a
reason, so, that being said, on with the story.....


				Jake's  POV


            Let me just start things off here by saying I hate hospitals,
and I really hate them when the man I love is laying in a hospital bed and
I know that it's all my fault...  Perhaps I should explain how things got
to this point....
            At first I was afraid that Michael would have regrets and
second thoughts about our being together, but there were none, and I was
glad that I was his first lover.  Of course he had to get up early and head
in to the studio, but I met him after work and we took the dogs for a nice
long walk in the park and I told him about my visit with my parents.  They
were both looking forward to meeting him when he flew out to The Coast for
the Emmy's at the end of the month.  Truth be told, I was looking forward
to it myself, being able to introduce my parents to the man I hoped to
spend the rest of my life with.
            Oh my god!!  His house!!!  I've never seen anything like it!
It's positively huge!  After he took me on a tour, I could see why Maggie
wanted the third floor space!  And all that property!  I told him he should
have his dad build a tree house or something along those lines for the
twins....I even know the perfect tree, an old weeping willow....The Hayes
family came in and spent all day Friday and part of Saturday removing the
contents of the house, minus the marble mantel-pieces and the chandeliers,
and on the following Monday, Michael went up to Albany to verify his
winning lottery ticket and field questions from the press, which he handled
like a pro.
            As promised, he managed to get Maggie, Peter, and myself an
"all access behind the scene's" tour of the studios where 'Another Life'
was filmed.  Speaking of the studios, it seemed to happen almost overnight,
the amount of mail that was received on a daily basis quadrupled, the
majority of it being for Michael from people wanting him to "invest" in
some new venture or another.
            Another thing that Michael did was begin working on his house.
One of the first things he did was to re-enforce the fence surrounding the
property, and add a locked mail box and another larger, separate, box that
was divided in half for packages and which actually needed a separate key
to open it, so if when one went to check their mail, there was a key in
their box in addition to their regular mail, they knew that they had a
package.  After that Michael spent alot of time working with his dad to
find the right contractor to head the renovations on his new home....
            I had to fly back out to San Francisco to shoot some pick-up
scene's for 'Zodiac', and also do some pre-production work for another film
I was scheduled to start working on later in the year called 'Rendition',
which was teaming me up with Peter and Reese Witherspoon, so Peter came
along too.  While I was out West, Michael put in several appearances at
meet and greets, all of which Maggie some- how managed to attend, for which
I am eternally grateful.  I also pitched Paul's idea for Michael's agent to
be approached regarding a chance to audition for both 'Inferno' and
'Obsession', only to be told that an offer had already been made, and
turned down, which I found odd, as when Michael read the scripts, he didn't
even mention either offer, which I mentioned to Jerry, who thought it was
weird, and we both agreed to do a bit of digging to find out what was going
on.  As it turned out, Michael's agent had received a total of eight offers
over the past couple of years, and had turned each one down, giving the
same excuse each time, that the producers of 'Another Life' wouldn't give
Michael any time off for outside projects.  One of the parts had been
actually been a small part in Zodiac, which I was surprised to learn.
            A couple of weeks before the Emmy's I talked Michael into a
weekend trip out to L.A.  to meet with the producers of 'Inferno' and
'Obsession' just to do a quick read, and by the time we flew back on Monday
afternoon, Michael had been made and accepted offers for roles in both
films, and also been made aware of what his agent had been doing.
Naturally he was pissed!  While in L.A., he met with a bright, new,
up-and-coming agent named Andine Perretti, a dynamic young woman our age,
who's hair was more often than not, as colorful as her personality.
            As was typical, all of the Soaps' studios were "dark" during
Emmy week, and so on the Friday and Saturday nights beforehand, Michael was
busy filming a complicated location shoot.  He wouldn't tell me anything
about it other than to say that he had spent Friday and Saturday in the
studio filming his final scenes to wrap things up so that he would be able
to leave the show for the six month shooting schedule that was needed to
complete both films, and that I would just have to watch on May 26th if I
wanted to know what happened.
            My mom fell in love with Michael the minute she met him, and
quite often during the week before the Emmy's, if he wasn't at a personal
appearance, he was walking on the beach with Naomi, or talking "shop" with
my dad.  Michael picked up his fifth Emmy that Friday night, his first for
Lead Actor, and in a rather ugly and heated confrontation at a post-Awards
show party, he fired his agent.
            Production on 'Inferno' officially began on Monday, May 1st
with a cast meeting and a read through of the script.  Shane was late, and
right away made a smartass comment about the difference between "Soap
Stars" and "Real Actors", to which Michael replied that if Shane ever
needed help memorizing his lines, he would be more than happy to give Shane
some pointers.  On the set, Michael was nothing but professional.  He knew
his character inside and out, and knew his lines cold, something which
caused Shane to view him with a new sense of respect.
            It came as no surprise that the daily lunch break coincided
with the airing of 'Another Life', which Michael refused to watch.  Most of
the month of May was leading up to the anniversary of the fictional town's
founding as well as the show's own Fortieth Anniversary.
            May 26th finally rolled around.  The "Anniversary" had been
playing out all week as a "single" day, and at some point during the "day",
it had begun to rain.  Usually, Michael would eat lunch out in the
commissary with all the rest of us, his back turned toward the TV where the
show was airing, but not that day.  On that particular day, he filled a
plate and gave me a sad smile before heading back to his trailer.  Paul and
Shane gave me a "what's up?"  look, but I just shook my head and shrugged
my shoulders.  Whatever was going to happen today, he didn't even want to
be out with the rest of us when it happened.
            I was beginning to think that Michael had been joking about a
"life-altering event", as it was down to the last few minutes of that day's
show, and all that was going on was a nice pleasant chat between the twins.
His Blake character had had too much to drink, so his Justin character was
driving them both home, and as they drove along, they talked about how much
better their lives were for having each other in their lives, when out of
nowhere, another vehicle, unable to slow down on the wet pavement as it
came off of a side road, hit them on the driver's side, and forced them off
the road and into a tree.  Due to the impact, there was alot of flying
glass, and the show ended with a freeze-frame view through the cracked
windshield of the interior of the mangled sports car.  Justin was lying
slumped against the steering wheel, his face hidden from view, and Blake
was lying back against the passenger seat, a small cut on his forehead
while a broken car horn blared in the back ground, and the picture faded to
black.
            The first thing I became aware of was Shane's quietly muttered,
"Holy shit..."  I got up from the table and made my way over to Michael's
trailer and quietly knocked on the door.  It opened several seconds later,
and he stood back to let me enter.  The closing credits and music from
'Another Life' were coming from the small TV in the corner.
            "You okay?"  I asked.
            "Yeah....It's just...hard, ya know?  I created Justin, and then
Blake.  Justin has been a part of me for ten years, and, I don't
know....It's just going to be so weird to not be playing that character any
more, ever again."
            "You mean.....?"
            "No, Justin is not dead, and neither is Blake, but the next
time that they actually show Justin, he's going to look like the Mummy."
            "Aahh," I said in understanding.
            "Yeah.  I spent that last Saturday in the studio in a hospital
bed pretending to be in a coma while everyone in my family sat by the bed
and talked to me.  I liked being able to pre-tape scenes so that I'll still
be on air occasionally until I get done here and can get back home and get
back into the studio."
            Sure enough, when the show picked up on the following Monday,
the action switched over to the hospital E.R.  where Justin was immediately
taken into surgery after it was deemed that his condition was stable
enough.  By this time the whole family had arrived, and Michael kept
refusing to be treated until he knew the outcome of his twins operation.
Finally at the end of the show, the Doctor came out and delivered the news
that although they were able to save Justin's life, there was too much
damage to his facial sub-structure, and therefore, he would never look the
same again.  As a result if the accident, Blake and Justin would no longer
be identical twins.  They were going to do everything possible to ensure
that Justin got the best possible plastic surgeons available, but the fact
remained the same, Blake and Justin would never look exactly the same ever
again.  The news proved to be too much for Blake to handle, and he cried
out, one hand clutching at his forehead, the other flailing wildly before
he collapsed on the floor, the apparent victim of a stroke.....So while the
viewers had a chance to get used to a "New" Justin, Blake languished in a
coma up in the I.C.U.
            Eventually school let out for the summer, and Michael's parents
brought the twins for a visit.  Michael was never happier than when he was
around his children.  I have to admit they were quickly finding a spot in
my heart as well.  They had a great time too, between Disneyland and every
other place that we took them.  And then they headed back home, and Michael
was in a better frame of mind.  They visited twice more over the summer,
and it was enough to get Michael through things.  After their last visit,
Michael told me something that had been on his mind with increasing
frequency.  He wanted to start the paperwork to make things official.  He
wanted to know if I would feel comfortable being named as legal guardian of
the twins in the event he was no longer around to be able to raise them.
It never occurred to me not to say no!  So we started the paperwork.
            We were walking the dogs on the beach one afternoon in
September when someone called Michael's name.  We both turned to see a guy
walking towards us.  He was probably a couple years older than us, about my
height, with close cropped dark blond hair and brown eyes.  Good looking
with a nice build.  I came out of my reverie to hear Michael addressing the
stranger.....
            "Lucien?"
            "Yup, in the flesh!"
            "What are you doing here?  Jake!  This is Lucien Butterworth!
He and I went to school together!"
            "Actually it's Luc Worth now.  I changed it."
            "Wow, this is so cool!  Luc was the resident 'Bad Boy' back
when we were in school together.  He was a couple years ahead of me.  After
he got expelled, he ran off to Europe and eloped with this French Girl.  Is
Angelique here with you?"
            "Nope, not this time I'm afraid."
            "Have you been back to the 'old neighborhood'?  Luc's family
had a house near where my new place is."
            "I heard about that!  You lucky son-of-a-bitch!  And the
lottery too!"
            "My Italian great-grandmother would have said I was born under
a lucky star," Michael said.  "We need to get together for dinner sometime
before you leave town.  Give me your number and I'll call you sometime here
in the next couple of days."  Luc gave Michael his number and then we
parted ways.
            The three of us got together for dinner the night before Luc
headed back East.  He said he was staying in Boston and made Michael
promise to give him a call when he got back to New York.
            Michael continued getting mysterious phone calls.  All that we
were ever able to find out was that the calls were placed from a series of
pre-paid cell phones, each one registered under a false name, and never
activated from the same originating number.  The same with the flowers.  A
standing order of two dozen red roses to be delivered to Michael at the
studios once a week.  He was starting to get kind of freaked out by the
whole thing, especially after the whispered phone calls began.  Michael
would go and get a new number, and everything would be okay for a few days,
but then the calls would start up again.  It was especially bad as we were
now filming 'Obsession', and a series of "accidents" started happening on
the set.
            'Obsession', as it turned out, was a more difficult shoot than
we had anticipated.  The subject matter alone guaranteed it, but we
finished it, and Michael went back home to New York to spend the holidays
with his family.  Maggie and Peter had their first Christmas with their
daughter, my niece, Ramona.  She's just such an angel....
            'Zodiac' came out on March 2nd, 2007.  I was wrapping up work
on 'Rendition' 'Inferno' was planned for a summer release, and 'Obsession'
for a late fall/winter release.  And all the while, Michael continued to
get flowers, and increasingly frantic, whispered, phone calls.  The flowers
were always paid for in cash, and no one seemed to be able to recall
anything about the guy who placed the order.  He always wore dark glasses
and a hoodie and/or a baseball cap.  He was smart enough to write down the
instructions, claiming to be mute, and he somehow always managed to avoid
leaving any finger prints....
            During Spring Break, Michael flew out to L.A.  with his parents
and the twins to do some promo work and photo shoots, as well as some
pick-up work for 'Obsession'.  It was the only scene that had not been done
during the actual shoot....
            The rape scene.....
            Michael and Shane spent the whole morning rehearsing and
blocking and working with a stunt coordinator to get every detail timed
down to the last second.  Finally they were ready to shoot it.  The set was
lit with blue lights so that everything had an almost ethereal and
otherworldly quality.
            The finished scene was everything it was written to be.  It was
brutal, it was graphic, it was animalistic, and Michael and Shane's
performances were what made it real, wringing every ounce of emotion out of
their characters that they could muster, and they did it in one take....
            When it was done, both men had bruises that had nothing to do
with the make-up department.  Shane let Michael have the shower first, and
when they were both done, they both begged off going out for a few drinks.
Shane offered Michael a ride back to my folks' place where he was staying
and he accepted.
            "I'm going to go for a swim and then relax in the hot tub," he
said.
            "I'll be home in about an hour?"  I promised.
            "I'll be waiting.  I love you," he said with a tired smile.
            "I love you too.  An hour..."
            And then they left.....
            An hour later, Paul and I walked into my parents house.
            "So you guys are still no closer to figuring out who it is?"
Paul asked
            "No....Whoever he is, he's one smart son-of-a-bitch," I said as
I started up the stairs.  My mom was coming down.  "Watch your mouth, young
man," she warned with a teasing grin.
            "Where's Michael?  Is he upstairs?"  I asked.
            "No, I think he's still out in the hot tub in the poolhouse,"
Naomi informed me.  I looked out the window on the landing and was
horrified to see thick black smoke roiling above the trees where the pool
house was located.
            "Oh fuck!  Call the fire department!"  I shouted, taking the
stairs three at a time.  "The poolhouse is going up!"
            "It's on fire?"  Naomi exclaimed.
            I turned back at the door.  "He's in there!  He's got him in
there!"  And then I was out the door.
            Paul was right behind me as we raced across the yard and
reached the poolhouse.  I kicked in the front door and saw nothing but a
wall of flame.  Paul and I both called out his name and heard nothing but
fire.  I heard an ominous creaking groan.  The roof was going.  we ran for
the doorway, but the heat drove us back.  It was then that I saw him, or at
least I thought I did, slumped by the far wall with the flames separating
us.  I pointed him out to Paul, and then coughing on the smoke we'd
swallowed, we ran around the side of the building.  I think I probably
prayed harder in those few seconds than I ever had in my whole life.  He'd
almost made it.  That was my first thought when I had glimpsed him through
the flames just seconds ago.  He was collapsed against Luc Worth near the
rear door.  Burning wood showered from the ceiling as I threw myself across
them.  I felt it hit and sear the backs of my hands and neck before I
dragged Michael out onto the grass.
            "In the name of God--" Naomi began as she came upon us with
Maddie and Michael Sr.  and my dad.
            "Luc's in there," I managed.  "Take care of him."
            I fought the heat again, nearly giving in at what had been the
doorway.  Crawling along on my belly, I made my way closer, until I reached
Luc Worth.  I grabbed hold of his wrist.  If there was a pulse, I couldn't
feel it, but I dragged him back, pulling him clear.  As the roof finally
collapsed, I left Luc lying on the grass and rolled over onto my back to
draw in air.
            "Michael..."  Still coughing, I crawled over to him.  His face
was smeared with soot.  I could hear the sound of approaching sirens as he
opened his eyes and looked around, his gaze darting around wildly.
            "Jake.  He--"
            "I got him out.  Don't try to talk now."  He began to cough and
shiver, despite the intense heat.  Maddie pulled off her jacket and covered
her son with it.
            "He's going into shock," she said quietly.  "Smoke inhalation.
He needs to be in the hospital."
            "I told them to send an ambulance," Naomi said.  Paul stripped
off his shirt and added it to Maddie's jacket.
            "He's going to be alright.  He's tough."  Paul said looking me
in the eyes.
            "Yeah."  I cradled his head in my lap.  "Yeah."


                    * * * * *


            I felt a tugging sensation on my hand and jerked awake.
Michael was laying on his side facing me, his green gaze steady and
un-wavering.
            "Penny for your thoughts?"
            "I almost lost you...When I think about what might have
happened....."
            "No.  I don't want to think about 'what ifs' anymore.  Do you
know what today is?"  he asked.
            "Um, Sunday?"
            "Buzzzzzz!  Wrong Answer.  Think back a year ago..."
            I wracked my brain, but still drew a blank.  "Sorry?"
            He let out a sigh.  "I guess I'm going to have to be the one in
this relationship who remembers all the important dates and such.  Allow me
to refresh your memory.  It was exactly one year ago, on this day, that we
met...."  he trailed off.
            "Aahh, okay.  I guess that's why I have this box in my pocket
digging into my thigh..."
            "You got me a present?"
            "Well, yeah!"
            "Can I see it?"
            "Yeah, okay.  So, I know we can't get married and all, but I
still wanted you to have this, because the sentiment behind it is just the
same."  I pulled out a small jewelry box and flipped open the lid.  Inside
was a plain diamond eternity band.  I took his left hand.  "So, will you do
me the honor and be my one true soul-mate for the rest of our lives?"
            "Yes, I believe I will.....I love you, Jacob Benjamin
Gyllenhaal."
            "And I love you, Michael Valentine O'Neill-Orsini....."
            "Forever?"  he asked.
            "Forever...."  I replied, bringing his lips to mine for a
tender kiss to seal the deal.....


                    * * * * *


            Well, that's it for chapter nine, and before you ask, no, it's
not the end of the story.  Michael and Jakes story is not over, not by any
means.  Okay, so, what did you all think of Zodiac?  I for one loved it and
cannot wait for the DVD.  Feedback!  Us authors crave it!  Please write to
your favorite authors and let them know that you're reading their
stories....We don't know if you're reading or not, we're not mind readers!
You can email me at dnsphelps@mcsi.net Just be sure to include the story
title in the subject line.  I can also be reached on yahoo messenger at
twains_fan_03@yahoo.com on msn messenger at twains_fan_03@hotmail.com and
AIM at guyoregon8.  Thanks for reading and please take the time to
write....
                                                           Stephen