STANDARD WARNING: This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to individuals, living or dead, is pure coincidence. Do not read this story if you are offended by man-to-man romance or sex. Do not read if you are underage according to the laws in the country, state/province, county, city/town/village or township where you live. There is sex between males. You have been warned!

Copyright 2000 by archer. Permission is granted to Nifty Archives, ASSGM and gaywritings to post one copy. No part may be copied, reproduced, republished, or reposted on another website without written permission from the author.

Paternal Instincts

By Archer

Chapter 22

Matt stood in the McGraw kitchen staring down Tim’s father. Patrick has just made a threat to blackmail Matt about Brian.

"First of all, Brian was placed with me because of his sexuality. So I don’t think you’ll impress many people there. Secondly, remember this: Anything you do to hurt me, you hurt your own son and Brian as well. While I care about Tim, he’s an adult and he can defend himself. Plus, he knows just how fucked up his natural family is. As for Brian, he is my son, and I will defend him no matter what it takes. I will not let you destroy the happiness or security he has with me."

"But you were in the woods with him."

"For a picnic only. In fact, I specifically chose Schubert’s woods because I thought there wasn’t any cruising going on there. Besides, what were you doing there?"

"Just having lunch."

Uh-huh. Sure," Matt said sarcastically. "Tim told me you were working in Frankfort. Long drive just to eat lunch, don’t you think?"

All of a sudden, Patrick lost all his bravado. He tucked his male member back into his underwear. "I would never hurt Tim. I love him too much. Your boy seems like a real nice kid, too. I don’t know what I was thinking."

"I’m sorry about you and your wife," Matt said sympathetically. "Maybe this has something to do with it."

Patrick’s eyes filled with tears. "I’m 55 years old, and I’m going to be alone again. Do you know how long it’s been since I was on a date? And I’m not even sure I want to date women. Just between you, me and the lamppost, I’ve always been more attracted to guys."

It made sense. Men of Patrick’s generation had fewer options. Being openly gay wasn’t usually among those options. Men got married. That was it. And they had enough sex with their wives to produce at least one child. If they were lucky, they found a woman who considered sex a chore. Or better yet, a woman with the same tendencies as he had. But overall, gay men and women lived in the closet. There might have been the bachelor florist who everyone whispered about. Or the single uncle who your mom called ‘eccentric’. It would have been unthinkable for a young adolescent like Brian to even consider labeling himself as gay. Such a boy would have been outcast at best, even institutionalized in a brutal, filthy state mental institution with other ‘defectives’.

Patrick and thousands of men like himself found themselves in a quandary. After decades of denying their sexuality, they found themselves alone with their wives. When they were newlyweds, the sexual curiosity, pressure from family, friends and church, and repressive society of the late 1940’s and 1950’s were enough to keep most gay men hidden deep in the closet. One by one, their children grew up, became independent and moved out on their own. When the last child moved out, they found that society’s attitudes had improved, and being gay, although still not on equal footing as heterosexuality, was OK.

As the 1990’s progressed, it seemed almost chic to be gay. Several celebrities had openly proclaimed their gayness. Everyone knew a gay brother, cousin, uncle, friend, coworker, lawyer, accountant, insurance salesman, or auto mechanic. Gays were perfectly acceptable on these intimate terms. But when they got together to ask for, even demand, equal rights with non-gay individuals, the proverbial shit hit the fan. Straight people started wringing their hands nervously, mumbling about Traditional Family Values and how the American Family was being destroyed, as if it hadn’t already been decimated. What those people failed to realize is that the days of mothers at home baking cookies and making beds, evening family meals together, and children completely subservient to adults were gone forever. Divorce, changes in technology, the mobility of Americans, the collapse of traditional smokestack industries and the change to an information-based economy had sealed the fate of the Donna Reed model of the American family. It was gone and never, ever coming back.

Matt felt an almost overwhelming sadness for Patrick. Of course, he was upset at the implication of blackmail. But Matt had called his bluff beautifully. Matt knew he didn’t want to harm Tim, his favorite son.

At a loss for words, Matt simply held his arms out to Patrick. The older man embraced his son-in-law.

"You’re going to be OK, Patrick. You’re very good looking for your age. And you have other things going for you. You’re very down-to-earth. There’s no nonsense about you. When you care about someone, they can do no wrong in your eyes. And deep down, I think you’re really a nice, decent guy. You like to project a macho tough guy image, but I think you’re really a teddy bear."

"Thanks, Matt." They parted. Patrick put a hand on Matt’s neck. "Tim is really lucky to have you."

Matt smiled and relaxed. "Thanks."

"Maybe the two of you could take the old man out on the town sometime."

An image of the three of them in the 129 Club flashed through his mind. It wasn’t an attractive scenario. Matt was careful to give him a noncommittal answer. "I’ll see if I can arrange it. It’s sort of difficult with Brian. He’s at that awkward age – too old for a babysitter, but I don’t want to leave him alone late at night. But I’ll check with Tim."

Matt intended to sit Tim down later and have a serious talk about his father-in-law.

Later that night Matt took Brian back to St. Luke’s. He was comfortable around Tim and Matt and allowed his bright, frisky, intelligent personality to shine through. Tonight, however, he had retreated into silence.

"What do you want for your birthday?" Matt asked in an attempt to break the ice.

Brian stared at Matt a long moment before responding. "I want to live with you and Tim forever."

"Well, you will. When school starts on the 25^th. Which reminds me; we have to register you for school."

They were silent as they waited for a traffic light at Joe Orr Road and Halsted. "I feel sad about going back. It gets harder and harder each time because I want to live with you."

"Oh, honey." Matt put his right hand on the back of his neck. Brian looks so forlorn and sad. "I’m sorry you feel that way."

"It’s like I can’t wait anymore."

"Patience, kiddo. I’m a fine one to lecture you about patience. It’s one of the areas I need to work on. I guess we’re alike in that area. In some ways you’re such a typical Leo." Matt grinned at him.

"Do you believe in that stuff?"

Matt laughed. "No. It was just a comment I made."

"What else is typical about Leos?"

"Supposedly, Leos are leaders. They like positions of authority. They like to be the center of attention. Maybe that’s why you like acting. They’re energetic and open and honest." He laughed again. "That description could fit just about anyone."

"What are you? When is your birthday?"

"December 10, that makes me a Sagittarius. So you and I are supposed to get along, if we don’t let our strong personalities get in the way." He smiled again at Brian.

Like Tim, Brian liked the way Matt’s eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. "What is Tim?"

"Tim’s birthday is October 6, so that makes him a Libra. Different from us. Libra is an Air sign. According to the theory, we compliment each other."

They pulled up to St. Luke’s. Brian grabbed his bag from the back seat. "I just want to go in alone."

"OK."

As soon as Matt stopped the car, Brian jumped out. He crossed around the front of the car, leaving a sad and confused adult in the vehicle.

"Brian," Matt called to the boy’s back.

Brian turned around and strode back to the open driver’s window. His face was a blank.

"I love you," Matt said to him in a low voice. He remembered his strange dream about Prints.

Brian looked left and right. No one else was around. He leaned into the car and kissed Matt on the cheek. "I love you, too, Dad. And I’ll be patient. But if you want to buy me something for my birthday, could I have a bike?"

As he drove home, Matt thought about Brian’s request. A bicycle was certainly something he could do. Bicycle riding was one of those things that the boys at St. Luke’s missed about their home lives. There were no bikes on campus. A bicycle represented freedom and control over their lives. The boys couldn’t drive, but they could use a bike to get where they wanted.

The next week went quickly. Matt had a visit from his District Manager on Wednesday. She took Matt to the Food Court and offered him one of the downtown stores. Matt tld her he needed to think about it. She knew Matt was on vacation the following week, so she gave Matt the time to think about it. She had to have an answer the Monday he returned from vacation.

The store in question was a hellhole. It was opened in the late 1970’s and looked it. Physically, it was falling apart. The manager had recently been fired, and some of the staff quit at the same time. Sales were poor. The stock was old and needed a lot of work to update it. It had three floors of books, and was triple the size of his current store.

It would mean that Matt would have to commute, which would take an hour each way by commuter train. Not to mention the added expense of the monthly train pass, which would be well over $100 to the station in Richton Park. Of course, he would get a raise. The store was closed on Sundays and only open for a limited time on Saturdays. Of course, he would get a substantial raise, but the commute could eat up any monetary gains.

Naturally, the District Manager had sworn him to secrecy. Matt compared the company to a large, dysfunctional family where one person kept secrets from another. Matt also realized he had two more variables in his decision; Tim and Brian. The decision would have been much easier if he were single. If he were single, he would probably have accepted the store, not only for the raise but for the prestige of running a store in downtown Chicago. In addition, company lore said that if one refused a promotion, the next promotion might be slow in coming.

Matt had a lot to think about.

Technically, Brian’s birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, but they would be in Michigan. So Matt had a gathering the Friday night before to celebrate. Marty and Leah were there. So were Matt’s sister Karen and his brother-in-law, two-year-old niece and infant nephew. Matt had invited Father Grimes, but he had a previous appointment. Brian, Matt and Tim were leaving for Michigan the next morning. Karen had never met Brian before. She was very impressed with him. Matt knew his sister had serious reservations about his being a foster father. But the small party had changed her mind, if only a bit.

Brian played with Matt’s niece while the adults talked and laughed. Leah was an expert conversationalist and kept the lulls to a minimum. Marty seemed to suppress his flamboyance for the occasion. Matt pondered that there was no one there Brian’s age. Unfortunately, there was no one to invite. Brian’s friends from St. Luke’s were still at camp, and he had yet to make friends in Park Forest. Matt hoped that situation would change once he started school.

Brian showed off his new 15-speed bike to a chorus of approval. Matt had to give the gift to him early, since there were no hiding places in the townhouse secluded enough to conceal a bike.

Karen and Leah both gave him cash in a birthday card. He gave them both hugs of thanks. Marty, however, arrived with two beautifully wrapped boxes. To Brian’s delight, they were a set of Tommy Hilfiger shirt and jeans. Matt had to accept the fact that Brian wanted to be a fashion plate. Unfortunately, Matt’s salary wouldn’t support such expensive tastes on a regular basis.

Saturday morning dawned warm and humid. Tim followed Matt in the Probe. Brian rode with Matt.

As they passed through the huge quarry in Thornton, Brian asked, "Why isn’t Tim staying the whole week?"

"Because he works construction," Matt answered as if the rest were self-explanatory.

The puzzled look on Brian’s face told him it was not. Matt explained. "Summer is the busy time for construction workers. He can’t take the whole week off. So he’s going home on Sunday night and they coming back Thursday night. He was able to get Friday off."

As they crossed the Indiana border, Brian asked another question. "What’s going to happen at school?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, like how am I going to handle it?"

"Being gay?"

"Yeah."

"How did you handle it before?" Matt paused at a tollbooth to throw in more coins.

"I guess I just never told anyone. No one knew unless I told them."

"Which means you pass."

"I pass?"

"You can pass for straight. Maybe it’s sort of like ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’" Matt was referring to the clumsy and unworkable compromise President Clinton had worked out earlier in the year with the American military. Matt understood what the President was trying to do. Forty years earlier, Harry Truman and racially integrated the military. The result was that American society in general had relaxed racial segregation. The struggle would continue and still continued, but integrating the military was the catalyst that started it. Clinton was trying to accomplish the same thing.

"Brian, remember our rule about your sexuality. You can tell anyone you want about yourself, but not about anyone else. I’m sure you know that there would be consequences if you do. I’m not encouraging you to hide or lie. Just be sensible and think it through before you do. And keep this in mind – you’re going to school to learn."

"Won’t other people be able to tell? I mean, I’m not really an athlete, and I don’t talk about girls."

"You’d be surprised at how most straight people don’t catch on unless you tell them. Like I said, you can pass."

At this point, I 80 and I 94 separated, and they followed I 94 east to Michigan. "And remember, I love you and I’ll defend you. I can’t fight all your battles. There’s always going to be bullies. I ran into a couple of them myself. But if you suspect that you’re being discriminated against because of the fact you’re gay, I’ll be there."

Brian smiled at him and seemed to relax.

"My mom always said the same thing to me and my sister at the beginning of the school year. She said ‘I’ll defend you to the end if you’re right, but if you’re wrong, look out!’ If you’re acting up in class, or a teacher tells me you’re not working up to your potential, you’re in trouble. Remember, you’re not going to school to talk about your sexuality but to learn. You have one job right now, and that job is being a student. I want you to do your best." Matt hoped that this little pep talk would be the end of the subject, but he knew it wouldn’t.

They found the cozy little house on the east side of Red Arrow Highway in New Buffalo. It was just as Father Grimes had described it. Outside, it was a simple rustic cottage covered with brown shingles and shaded by huge old oaks. A skylight was visible on the left side of the roof. The key opened the kitchen door, and a surprise awaited. It was a modern and efficient kitchen even if it was a bit small. Father Grimes had said they gutted it and completely remodeled it. The skylight they had seen from the outside illuminated a center island. A door in the back of the kitchen led to a utility room with a stacked washer and dryer, furnace, water heater, and a shower stall. Grimes had said they used the shower back here to remove the sand from the beach. Attached to the kitchen was the rectangular living room/dining room combination which spanned the entire house from front to back. It was handsome and tastefully decorated in a rustic northwoods motif. Matt thought Father Grimes would like contemporary furnishings more. Next to this room was a small hallway. Directly ahead was the bathroom. On the left and right were two small bedrooms. They were sparsely furnished and the double bed in both rooms almost took up all the space. Both bedrooms had a crucifix hanging on the wall over the bed. The beds were made with military precision. Matt thought a quarter could be bounced off the taut covers.

They took some time to unpack their clothes. Brian finished the task in record time, and Matt thought he had probably thrown the clothes into the drawers. He stood at the door of the other bedroom.

"Can we go swimming now?"

Matt smiled, grabbed the boy and wrestled him to the bed.

"Can we go swimming now?" he mocked as he started to tickle the boy.

Tim opened a dresser drawer and mumbled, "Holy shit!"

Matt and Brian stopped their antics to look up. "What’s wrong?"

They both scrambled off the bed to look in the drawer.

"What’s the big deal?" Brian asked. "They’re just uniforms."

Indeed they were. There was a complete army outfit with green khaki pants, a camouflage shirt, even green army socks and boxer shorts. Next to it was a neatly folded police uniform with patches that identified it as a Chicago police uniform. The two adults exchanged looks. So this is what the two priests did up here with their free time. Matt had always suspected Grimes of being gay. This just confirmed it.

"C’mon," Brian whined impatiently. "I wanna go swimming."

Matt and Tim did too, but without saying a word to each other, they made plans for later that night. They both had semi-erections simply thinking about the evening’s activities.

Matt insisted on going to the grocery store first. Father Grimes told him they were welcome to eat any of the food in the cupboards, but he and Father O’Donnell cleaned out the refrigerator completely every time they left. Matt told the impatient Brian that they would be hungry after they swam, and wouldn’t want to shop then.

Within an hour, they had the food put away, and all three had changed into their swimwear. They drove the four blocks to the public beach. It was crowded this hot Saturday afternoon. The beach was wide and clean. Matt remembered that his parents had taken him on a vacation to Michigan when he was a boy. He remembered the piles of dead fish on the beach. Lake Michigan had been

cleaned up substantially since then. The water was cold and refreshing. They had a marvelous time diving into the waves. Matt and Tim tossed Brian around. They played King of the Raft with an inflatable raft Matt had purchased at Wal Mart. Matt and Tim took some time off to relax on the beach. Brian continued playing with the raft. Soon, he was joined by another boy about his age. The two boys wrestled with the raft. Matt was glad that Brian had made a friend, and a bit relieved. He was relieved too because Brian had found someone closer to his age to entertain him. Not that he didn’t enjoy Brian’s company, but he did yearn for some adult conversation and adult activites.

The boy he was romping with in the water was a handsome one, perhaps a year or two older than Brian. He had dark hair which was cut very short. Matt eyed the boy’s washboard stomach and wondered how such a young man had developed such a perfect stomach. After a while, they approached Matt and Tim.

"Dad, this is Scott."

Matt peered over the top of his sunglasses at the young man as he shook his hand. He had perfect, white teeth and blue eyes. Matt caught himself thinking lustful thoughts about the young man.

"And guess what? He lives in Park Forest, too."

"Where do you live, Scott?"

"On Lester in a duplex." There was something about him that made Matt uneasy. Was he into drugs? He was too clean cut to be heavily into drugs. He seemed polite and respectful enough to rule out the rebel image. Matt couldn’t put his finger on it.

Instead, he said to Brian, "We have to get going, Brian."

"OK. See you later, Scott."

After dinner, Brian was tired out. He stretched out in front of the TV and fell asleep just before ten.

"Let the games begin," Tim kissed Matt after he carried Brian to bed.

To heighten the suspense, Matt changed in the cop uniform in the bathroom while Tim changed in the bedroom. He had a difficult time wrestling his unruly erect cock into the uniform. When he was finished dressing, he quietly opened the door. Tim was masturbating his cock through the open fly of the army fatigues. Matt took control of their little drama.

"Soldier," he barked as loud as he dared.

Tim jerked his head up.

"You know that doing that in public is against the law?"

"Ummm, no."

"Put your hands flat on the wall and spread ‘em."

Tim complied. Matt patted down Tim and for an added measure of humiliation, grabbed his cock, which was will hanging outside the fly of his pants.

"Please officer. My commanding officer will have my ass if I get in trouble again."

"And I don’t blame him." Matt was going to say something to the effect of I’d like to get your ass too, but decided it would be out of character. "So, you’ve been in trouble before? I should have known."

"Please, sir."

Matt pulled on Tim’s shoulder to make him turn around. "I think I can work something out." He put both hands on his shoulders and forced him to his knees. He did so carefully, so that he wouldn’t hurt Tim and have to step out of character to apologize.

Tim’s knees hit the floor with a thud.

"Suck my cock," Matt said with a sneer. Tim stuck his tongue out tentatively, but Matt had other ideas. He thrust his cock deep into Tim’s throat, and heard him gag as the head hit his tonsils.

He thrust his hips foreword and caused Tim to lose his balance. He landed on his butt on the floor with his back against the bed. Matt propped himself up by placing his hands on the bed and locking his elbows. In this position, he could fuck Tim’s mouth with his cock.

Tim sucked bravely. His mouth seemed hungry for Matt’s cock and he moaned. Matt could feel the vibration of the moans transmitted to his cock. Shortly, Matt pulled out his cock and ejaculated all over Tim’s face and also on the camouflage T-shirt he was wearing. When he finished panting, he wordlessly lifted Tim up by his armpits onto the bed. Tim flopped backwards while Matt proceeded to suck him. He brought Tim to an orgasm shortly.

"We’ll have to throw these in the wash," Matt said in a low tone with a chuckle.

The whole encounter lasted less than a half hour, and was heightened by the uniforms, the role playing and their love for each other.

They undressed, leaving the uniforms in piles on the floor. Lips on lips, skin against skin they cuddled in bed.

"That was fun," Tim said.

"I was afraid I’d hurt you."

"Well, my lips are a bit sore."

"I’ll kiss them and make them better."

"I was hoping that’s what you’d say."

Hi there! You've made it this far! How's the story going? Enough twists and turns for you, or too many? Too mushy, too realistic, too slow-moving? Don't forget to check out my website listed below. As always, thanks for reading.

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