To Serve and Protect II
A Change of Venue
By:
BJ Williams
(© 2013-2014 by the author)
Edited by: Gerry Young
The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's
consent. Comments are appreciated at...
Introduction of the Characters
Andrew Butler, 35, and life partner with…
Michael Brady, 35, and Andy’s Neanderthal man.
David, age 20 is Michael’s biological son from a past adventure when he was 13 and a foster child at the girl’s parent’s house.
Thomas Sullivan, 52, is life partner to…
Dr. Aaron Smyth, 49, head of the Medical Center of Vermont
Shane and Adam Sullivan-Smyth, age 18, are identical twins that Thomas and Aaron adopted because they were orphaned.
Jonathon Davis-Butler, 20, son of Billy Davis and adopted son of Andy Butler
James Peterson, 33, Michael’s current boyfriend
Theodore (Teddy) Vandercamp, 35, Andy’s neighbor and pretending boyfriend
Dr. Sam Johnson, 52, Hampden County coroner
Kyle Hibbard, 36, Michael’s lawyer
Chapter 10
When Andy finally pulled himself up from the floor, he was a mess. He’d been crying and praying as he considered everything that both Michael and Thom had told him. He decided to shower and make coffee, lots of coffee, because he would need it when Thom and Kyle came to talk with him.
He had just slipped his robe off when the phone rang.
“Hello?” he anxiously asked, hoping that it was Michael.
“My sweet, sweet Andrew, are you beside yourself without your precious Michael,” the familiar caller asked.
“Why are you doing this to us?” Andy begged to know.
“My precious Andrew, I love you, I’ve always loved you and now, I will have you,” he taunted.
“Never, I’d rather die then to be anything to you,” he told him. “Besides, Michael will return to me,” he confidently said.
“I killed to have you… both of them so that we could be together.”
“I knew Michael never… what do you mean, you killed both of them?”
“I had to kill him, or else was going to kill you and I couldn’t have that. As for James, poor boy, he never saw me until it was all over. He looked so innocent lying on the ground, awaiting his final scene for the movie. Why I just walked over to where he laid upon the ground and twisted that tie that your precious Michael so conveniently tied for me. Now he’ll take the fall for what I did and I’ll have you my sweet Andrew.”
“I’ll tell the police that you were the one that killed James,” he threatened.
“And how do you intend to prove it, they’ll never believe you, Andrew. Do you want to know why, because you’re in love with that reprobate of a man. He’s no good for you, look at what he did to you all those years ago. If had truly loved you, he’d have believed in you. But no, he ignore you… fought day and night with you, and in the end, he even divorced you, Andrew. How can you love a man that turns his back on you when you needed him most, when you needed him to believe you, trust you?
“But who else did you kill?”
“Never mind, I’ll tell you who when I get there, Andrew,” he said and ended the call.
Andy knew not to panic, but to keep a reasonable mind about him. He hurried around the house, making sure that he had all the doors and windows locked. He even set the alarm, set to go off whenever a door or window was opened.
“Michael’s gun,” he murmured and hurried up stairs to their bedroom.
He opened the drawer where Michael had always kept the gun… it was gone.
“Fuck… where did you put it, Michael,” he asked aloud and froze when he heard the sudden click of the safety being unlocked. He slowly turned toward the sound and sighed when he saw who it was in the room.
“Teddy… thank God you are here,” he said. “But how, I thought you were staying over at David’s apartment?”
“But I told you that I would be seeing you, Andrew,” he whispered as he stepped closer to Andy, with the gun in his hand.
“You… you’re the one that’s been doing all this?” Andy gasped as he inched further away from him toward the adjoining door.
“I was never good enough for you, was I, Andrew,” he asked standing firm by the foot of the bed. “No, you pined away for nearly ten years for that worthless Michael Brady.”
“But how… how did you get to the pond and kill James without being seen?”
“Oh that was quite easy, really. I simply took David’s car, after all, he’ll not be needing it.”
“You didn’t… oh God, Teddy; tell me that you didn’t kill David also?”
“No sweetheart, he’s quite alive, but… shall we say a bit indisposed at the moment.”
“Teddy, please, please don’t do this,” Andy begged with a hand behind him on the doorknob.
It was securely locked.
“Do you really take me for a fool and think that I wouldn’t have locked the adjoining door, Andrew?”
“I never took you to be a fool, never; we were best friends, Teddy.”
“And that name, it’s not who I really am, Andrew.”
“Of course you’re Teddy, who else could you be?” he almost didn’t dare ask.
“Think Andrew, think back to better days… sweeter times together,” he urged Andy. “Who else has always been there for you, and you for him? Who was it that pledged eternal love and friendship with you?” he asked and smiled when acknowledgement showed in Andy’s eyes.
“Billy?”
“Yes my dear, sweet friend, I’m Billy,” he confessed.
“You can’t be… he died in a fire ten years ago,” Andy told him.
“So it was assumed, but never proven it was me by the coroner. He took yours and Michael’s word that I was the one in the fire. Oh I was burned then, but not so badly that a doctor in Montreal couldn’t expertly repair the damage and give me a entirely new face. It took me a year to recover and establish a new life before I could reappear in your life. Can you imagine how shocked I was to find out that you and Michael no longer were a couple? I was elated, overjoyed, thrilled, you name it and I was it. I followed you to Vermont and where I opened the gym.”
“Then who did the body belong to that was found in the ruins of the guest house?”
“Ah… now you want it all, that is the cop in you, Andrew. I always knew that you would grow up and follow in your father’s steps, becoming a cop. It was your partner Jonas’ son, Mathew. He wanted to kill you for robbing him of his father.”
“Jonas never had any children; he was married to a lush who was a cover for him because he was gay and still in the closet.”
“Mattie was from another time, another place, when Jonas was to find his own sexuality. He got a girl pregnant and she had Mattie. Mathew searched for his father once he turned eighteen, only to find that he’d been killed and that you and Michael were responsible. I ran into him at a bar and he looked so lost sitting there drinking. I took him into my confidence and together we hatched this plan. He would kill Michael and I would kill you, but the thing was, I planned to kill him once he had Michael out of the way, allowing me to step back into your life and pick up the shattered pieces of Andrew.”
“But I didn’t need you to pick up the shattered pieces, I never lost Michael.”
“Oh, but you did lose him, he divorced you once I put it into his mind that you and I were having an affair behind his back. Tell me, Andrew, how does it feel to be rejected by the man you love, as you did me.”
“Billy, we were best friends, and I never allowed you to believe that there could ever be more to us than friends,” he said as he fumbled with the lock… soft and subtle as the sound was, Andy heard it, the door was unlocked.
But the real question was, how did he get through it, relock it from the other side without being shot, he mentally asked himself.
“And I was to feel better being just your friend, when I loved you? No Andrew, I wanted you and I was determined to have you. I wanted my son to have both of us to raise him.”
“How could you have done this to him, it took him years of therapy to get over your death?”
“Collateral damage, there is always collateral damage in every relationship that goes awry, Andrew, and Jonathon was our collateral damage. But you were a marvelous father to him, I know, I watched him grow up to be a fine young gay man.”
“Oh my God, Billy, you and he…”
“Yes, as Teddy, I did have sex with him and I must say, it was very, very good. But he wasn’t you, Andrew, I loved you and wanted to marry you. I would have been contented to remain Theodore Vandercamp, as long as I had you as my husband.”
“Put down the gun, Billy, we can still be lovers… I’ll leave Michael and marry you,” he promised.
“Again, you take me to be the fool, Andrew. I know that once you are free of this room and me, you’ll run to the police,” he said and motioned for Andy to move away from the door.
Andy shook his head as he turned the knob and pushed with his back against the door. It remained closed; something on the other side was holding it closed.
“I have a chair wedged under the doorknob, Andrew, now back away from the door,” Billy said, stepping back as Andy moved away from the door.
“Oh God, Billy, you’re going to kill me… aren’t you?” he asked, looking into Billy’s eyes and seeing a vacant look in them.
Billy nodded.
“But first, can’t we make love together… for the old times, when we loved each other as friends?”
“Oh yes, we are going to make love, Andrew, but first I must make sure that once I begin, you can’t stop me. Now shed the robe and get on the bed,” he ordered.
Andy reluctantly obeyed as he untied the robe and let it fall to the floor. Billy smiled as his eyes drank in the naked beauty of Andy’s body, and he moaned when as he watched Andy crawl upon the bed.
“On your stomach and face against the pillow,” he further demanded.
“Wouldn’t it mean more if I could hold you as you make love to me, Billy? Remember how beautiful it was the other night when we shared that wonderful night together? We can do again, now, there won’t be any Michael to run in and interrupt us,” he suggested with his arms extended out to Billy.
“It was a beautiful night, wasn’t it,” Billy said as he walked closer to the bed.
“It was, and it can be again, Billy, because now, I know it’s my bestest friend ever making love to me. Do you remember when I use to call you that, my bestest friend?”
“Yeah, and I use to correct you and say that there was no such word as ‘bestest’.”
“But you always were my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Billy, and we can be again. Oh, we’ll have to move far away from here, where no one will ever know us. We’ll change our names and live together as husbands… can you do this, Billy, for me, for us?”
“You could live without Michael?”
“I could and I will, because, after all, I did love you first and best,” he lied as he motioned Billy closer to him. “I was a fool to ever fall in love with Michael Brady, when I had the perfect man that loved and trusted me,” he seductively said, as he continued to play his psychological game with Billy.
“Say it babe… say those words that I have longed to hear,” he whispered.
“I love you, William Davis, I have for all of my life,” his voice sang like a soft breeze as his hand finally reached Billy.
“Oh God, Andrew, I’ve loved you my entire life,” he said and tossed the gun aside, lunging into Andy’s arms.
As Billy’s mouth covered Andy’s in a hot, passionate kiss, Andy’s hand subtly moved slowly toward the gun that was but inches from him.
“You lying bastard… you intend to kill me,” Billy shouted, grabbing the gun and slugging Andy across the face with it. “I fucking believed for a moment that you really loved me and wanted to make a life together. I’ll show how I treat those that betray me,” he said and began pistol whipping Andy to the point of near unconsciousness.
Andy lay still on the bed, his face and upper body was covered with his own blood as he lay near unconsciousness.
‘Don’t surrender to the pain, Andy. You must stay conscious or else he’ll kill you,’ he thought as he fought back the pain.
Billy looked down at Andy and saw that he was nearly gone. He set the gun down once again as he maneuvered his body between Andy’s limp legs.
“I’d preferred to have fucked you as my lover, but a fuck is a fuck,” Billy said as he lifted Andy’s legs and thrust his cock deep into him.
Andy groaned as the hardened member sank deeper and deeper into his ass. He laid there as if dead, his eyes swollen closed and letting Billy do as he wished to him. It killed him to hear Billy moaning and grunting as he pounded away on him, but he refused to let his battered body respond to Billy.
“I know you’re feeling this, Andrew, so give in and enjoy it,” Billy taunted.
Andy could feel that sudden swelling one moment and the next, Billy was out of him and falling to the floor.
“I’ll kill you… you bastard, if it’s the last thing that I do,” Michael said as he pounded away on Billy’s face.
“Michael stop… you’re going to kill him,” Thom shouted as he pulled Michael from atop of Billy.
“Michael?” Andy whispered.
“Oh God babe, Thom, call an ambulance,” he shouted as Jake cuffed Billy.
“How?” Andy asked feeling his power to stay alert, failing him.
“Shhhhhh, I’ll tell you later, but first we need to get you to the hospital,” Michael said as he cried.
Andy struggled to lift a hand to Michael’s face and caress it before it fell limp to his side.
“Don’t you dare die on me,” Michael cried, but Andy didn’t hear him.
Michael was holding him, rocking him as his tears fell onto Andy’s face, when the paramedics rushed into the room. Michael surrendered Andy to them and stood watching as they worked on him.
“His heartbeat is strong, he’s just unconscious from the beating he’s taken,” the paramedic to Michael. “But he’s lost a lot of blood, which is affecting his blood pressure. We need to get him up to the hospital… stat,” he said as he helped his partner lift Andy onto the stretcher.
“Can I ride with him?” Michael asked.
“You can ride up front with Dennis,” he told him as they maneuvered the stretcher out of the room.
“I’ll be up there as soon as I process Teddy, Billy or whoever this guy is,” Thom assured him.
* * *
Aaron was appalled when he saw the condition that Andy was in, when he came into the emergency room. He looked over at Michael, saw Andy’s blood all over him and assumed that he had done this.
“Out! Haven’t you caused Andy enough pain and suffering with your senseless beatings?” he shouted at Michael.
“I didn’t…”
“Out I said… someone get security,” he yelled to a nurse.
“Aaron, please, I didn’t…”
“Come with us, sir,” a security guard demanded, as he and his partner each grabbed one of Michael’s arms, escorting him from the area.
“But…” he was gone and Aaron went to work examining Andy.
Thom arrived an hour later and found Michael beside himself with worry. He was pacing back and forth and when he saw Thom, he frantically hurried over to him.
“Aaron won’t let me see, Andy, Thom. He thinks that I was the one that beat him. I need to see him, I need to know that he’s going to be fine.”
“Let me go talk to him and explain what happened,” he said and left to find Aaron.
Michael had been looking out of the window when both Thom and Aaron came back.
“Michael, first let me say how sorry I am for assuming that you had done that to Andy. Secondly, he’s going to be fine, but he’ll need some tender loving care until he’s recovered. Teddy, or rather, Billy did quite a job on his face. He completely crushed his cheekbones and badly cut the rest of his face. I have a plastic surgeon with him at the moment. If anyone can make him right as rain again, it’s Dr. Marcus.”
“But when can I see him, Aaron,” he asked.
“As soon as Dr. Marcus is through with his examination,” he told him as he placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Again, I am so very sorry for having thought the worse of you.”
“I don’t blame you Aaron, after all, my track record has not been the best.”
“Here is Dr. Marcus now,” Aaron said as the doctor entered the waiting area. “Eugene, this is Andy’s husband, Michael Brady, and of course you remember my husband, Thom,” he said, introducing the doctor to Michael.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Michael, and of course, its always a pleasure seeing you again, Thom.”
“How’s Elaine, well I hope,” Thom asked, inquiring about the doctor’s wife.
“She’s fine and so are the boys…” he began, but noticed that Michael was fidgeting as he waited to hear about Andy. “As Aaron has told you, I’ve examined Andrew and he’ll need considerable surgery to repair the damage done to his face. But sadly, there’s not much that I can do until the swelling goes away and his cheek bones have healed.”
“Can I see him now?” Michael urgently asked.
“Of course, but remember, his face is badly swollen and I do not want him talking,” Aaron cautioned him.
“I don’t care what he looks like, I just need to see for myself that he’s alright,” Michael said walking along Aaron.
Michael had known that Andy’s looks would be startling, but he was not prepared for the brutal reality of what he saw. Andy had a tube running down his throat to aid his breathing, his eyes were swollen closed and he saw the various areas where Aaron had to stitch closed the cuts made to his face.
“He’s awake, even thought I’ve given him a sedative which should kick in shortly,” Aaron whispered to Michael.
“Andy, babe, it’s me, Michael,” he whispered as he sat beside Andy’s bedside.
Michael reached over and took Andy’s hand and gave it a slight squeeze.
“Michael,” he asked, squeezing his hand in return.
“Shhhhhh, Aaron doesn’t want you talking honey. I’m here and I will stay beside you until you come home,” he promised.
“Mmmmm,” he moaned and then slipped off into sleep.
Aaron checked him again and smiled over at Michael. “He’s asleep, so why don’t you run home, shower and change, because he’s going to be out for some time,” Aaron suggested, but noticed that Michael was reluctant to leave. “I’ll be here and I promise to call if his condition changes.”
“Is he in pain?”
“No, I gave him morphine to ease his pain, so as I said, he’s going to be sleeping for quite some time.”
“Thom…”
“Sure buddy, come on and let’s go get you cleaned up.”
They left and walked quietly through the hospital, not talking until they reached Thom’s cruiser.
“Where’s Billy?” Michael quickly asked once in the car.
“He’s actually in the hospital, in surgery to repair the broken jaw that you gave him,” Thom told him.
“He’s near Andy, turn around Thom, I need to be there to protect Andy,” Michael said in a panic.
“Don’t worry about anything happening to Andy, Michael. There’s a guard watching him until he can be transferred to the psychiatric unit for observation,” he told him.
“I know that I never asked you earlier, Thom, but how did you come to determine that I was innocent of killing James?”
“Do you remember the wiretap that you insisted I put on your phone, well it was that wiretap that proved you innocent,” he said and noticed Michael’s puzzled look. “Billy called Andy and Andy got him to confess on the phone to James’ murder. At first though, I was reluctant to let you out, not without the DA’s approval.”
“Then why did you?”
“Craig, he told me that I could and he’d clear it with the DA.”
“I still can’t believe that all these years, Billy posed as Teddy, in hopes of winning his heart. He’s on sick motherfucker… sorry, but he is.”
“He was a sick man with an obsession for Andy, which I imagine goes back to their younger years when they had been best friends. A Dr. Benjamin Murkowski has been assigned by the DA to evaluate Billy, once he’s transferred to the psychiatric unit.”
“If I had my way, I’d take him somewhere deep in the woods and beat the bastard to death for what he did to Andy. That’s not love, not what he did to him.”
“Love can take many faces, Michael, with rage over being rejected only one of them. Well here you are, do you want me to stay with you?”
“I’m good, Thom, but thanks. I’ll take a long, hot shower and have a bite to eat, before I head back to the hospital.”
“Dad… how is Andy doing,” a worried David asked once Michael had entered the house.
“He’s going to live, but he’s going to need some surgery to repair the damage done to his face.”
“That’s great… not the surgery but that he’s going to be okay. I called Jonathon, I hope you don’t mind, but he needed to know about Andy.”
“How did he take it… you didn’t mention his real father did you?”
“No dad, but you should know that he’s on his way back here.”
“Great… just what Andy needs, another loved crazed pervert,” Michael sarcastically said.
“Come on dad, you know that love is indiscriminate when it comes to the heart.”
“Would you go to bed with me, David?” he asked.
“Ewwwwww no way, you’re old,” David said making a face of discuss at Michael. “But you and I are blood related, they aren’t,” he told him.
“Still, Andy raised him as his son, so the same line remains, as though they were so. Now, I have to shower and get back up to be with Andy.”
“I’ll talk to you later, give… dad my best,” he said.
“Thank you son, Andy has always considered you his son as well. I know he and I agreed not to ever get involved in each other’s lives once we divorced, but it killed him not having you in his life.”
“I know, I felt the same way, dad. Later,” he added and left Michael to go about what he needed to do.
Michael sat down at the kitchen table and lowered his head and cried. He had suddenly realized how close he had come to actually losing Andy for good.
“Protect him, God,” he prayed as he cried like a two year old.
* * *
Days turned to weeks, weeks into months, before Andy finally regained what had been taken from him… his appearance. He’d refused to go home until he had undergone the several operations to rebuild his face, with the worse being to rebuild his shattered cheekbones. He had even kept Michael away until he felt ready to be seen again as human and not the hideous monster that Billy had caused him to be.
It was the day that his face was to be unwrapped from the bandages that had covered his face while it healed. He was nervous, Michael was nervous, not for himself, but for Andy. Slowly, Dr. Marcus unwrapped Andy’s face, Andy’s back was to Michael. Dr. Marcus stood looking down into Andy’s eyes with no discernable expression in his eyes.
“Well… how do I look?” Andy anxiously asked the doctor.
“That, my dear man is not for me to tell,” he said and slowly turned the chair that Andy sat in, toward Michael.
Michael gasped and dropped to his knees before him, and buried his face in Andy’s lap.
He cried.
“Oh God, Michael, am I that hideous?” Andy asked. “Doctor… a mirror please,” he demanded.
Dr. Marcus handed him the large hand held mirror and Andy gasped when he saw his face. It was no longer a face with scars, but a face that was handsome beyond words. But it was also a face that he did not recognize. Gone were his nondescript cheeks and in their place, the doctor had given him high cheekbones which set off his amber eyes perfectly. Andy turned left, then to the right, taking in as much of his new face as possible.
“Why did you gasp, Michael?” he asked placing his hand over Michael’s.
“You’re beyond handsome, Andy, you’re fucking beautiful. How can I even begin to think that you would still want me… a man whose looks cannot compare with yours, now?”
“Oh babe, I am still the same old Andy inside, just with a different face is all. I still love you more than I ever did,” he said, lifting Michael’s head with a finger to his chin. “You stood beside me all this time, not knowing if I would ever come home to you.”
“I told you then and I’ll say it again, I don’t care how you look, babe, its that inner beauty that I fell in love with, not the shell that houses it,” he said.
Michael pulled Andy to his feet, wrapped his arms tightly around him and kissed him, as if for the first time.
“Can you live with me looking like this, Michael?”
“Hell yeah, now I can have an affair with a hot dude and you won’t get pissed at me,” he mused and Andy punched his arm.
“I’ll give you an affair,” he replied.
“I’m counting on it, babe… damn, I’m so counting on it,” he replied and jumped back to avoid another punch to the arm.
“Well Andrew, my work here is done and if I must say so myself, it’s perfection. You look radiant and beautiful,” he added with a warm smile.
“And younger, Andy, you look twenty again.”
“I guess everyone will think you are out with your son when we are together,” which had been the wrong thing to say.
“Yeah… great, the older dude with the babe of a kid for a boyfriend.”
“Oh stop, your looks are as fabulous as ever, Michael,” Andy told him as he stepped back into his arms. “Mine are just better,” he whispered, which earned him a jab to the arm from Michael.
Michael took Andy home to a surprised party, where family and friends welcomed him after nearly a year away. When the last of their guests had departed, Andy sat cuddled against Michael before a roaring fire.
“Andy?” Michael cautiously said.
“Yes babe?”
“Are you going to re-marry me, or have you had second thoughts?”
“I have had second, third and fourth thoughts, but each one has been me marrying you as the end result. I love you, Michael, I did all those years ago and I still do, but more so now.”
“How about in Vermont, you always loved it there in the fall. The leaves should be peaked by now, and the temps still comfortable. We can fly to the Cayman Islands for our honeymoon after.”
“I’d like that honey, really I would, but can we renegotiate the honeymoon?”
“What ever you like sweetheart, as long as I have you all to myself. These past months have been hell on me, not seeing you and all.”
“They were hell on me also, Michael,” he turned in Michael’s arms and kissed him. “I love you so much, Michael.”
“I love you more, babe,” he said kissed him.
To be continued…
Posted: 04/25/14