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Joe Flanigan and David Hewlett. More than one kind of closet. [Sometime in 2001.] David looks... off when he returns home from work. He walks straight by Max, who dutifully follows him back to the kitchen, and sits down by the door with his head cocked curiously to the side. David's never not said hi to him before. David also doesn't even seem to notice that Joe's attempting to make dinner. He opens the fridge and looks inside, closes it, opens it again, then eventually extracts the chocolate milk. He pours himself a very large glass, then proceeds to let it sit on the counter as he stares out the window at the backyard. Okay. Some people are probably good at the leave it alone and let it come out on it's own thing, but Joe's never been one of those people. Giving the solidly frozen ground beef one more despairing poke, he turns the frying pan on low and goes over to David. "Hey. What's with the thousand yard stare?" "Do you remember Mr and Mrs Beckett? We placed Horatio with them?" "Yeah, of course." Joe nods. He never forgets someone they've given an animal to. "They're fantastic people. They've been coming into the shop for years--we're close to their house, and as they get older, that's a lot better. I've given them lessons--I've told you that, right? Sweet old couple..." "Yeah, I remember them." Joe nods again, giving the beef one more look, then deciding it's fine to leave for awhile and focusing entirely on David. "What's wrong?" "Their computer died. Really, really died. They just had to replace their refrigerator, and their washing machine. But with all the grandkids all over the country..." David finally picks up his milk, but he doesn't drink any of it, just keeps turning the glass in his hands. "Devin couldn't do anything with it, and you know how great that kid is. I didn't want to have to tell the Becketts they'd need to shell out for a brand new computer. Usually Mrs Beckett bakes cookies, and we pretend they paid us for the work up front." "Right. I like that arrangement. I think it's sweet that you guys do that," Joe says, nodding in encouragement for David to keep talking about it. "So what did you do?" "Took it back to my office, opened it up, and, well, got to work." David licks his lip. "It was all I could do--I had to tell everything to start working again." So far, this is all sounding pretty much like a normalish day at the Geek shop. But the part where David looks this distressed, that's not normal. "So you did your super geek thing, and you made the nice old people's computer work again. That's a good thing, isn't it?" "Justin caught me." Okay. Now things start making sense. "Are... how?" he asks, before he can stop himself. "How did he know what you were even doing?" "He saw me with my hand in the computer's guts, and the monitor going through the motions." Finally, David takes a sip of his milk. "What did he say? What did you say?" Joe says, watching David's face carefully. He's never worried quite as much about being discovered as David does--as much as he loves him, David can be a bit conspiracy theorist-ey--but anything that upsets David upsets Joe. "He was... astounded. Of course. Wanted to know what the hell the computer was doing. What I was doing. I told him I'd already fixed it and was just about to close up the machine. He really didn't believe me." "Hey... it's gonna be all right, David," Joe promises him, reaching around and rubbing his back. "Remember? My tech found out what I could do, and it was okay." "Tell no one," David says. "Tell no one. I... I just..." "I know--I know, David." Joe takes the chocolate milk away from him and sets it on the counter. "They're your parents, and they were afraid, and they wanted to keep you safe. But you know Justin. You've known him for how long now?" "Ages," David says. "He's like the little brother I never had. He just--he was so--he was mad at me. He thought I was lying to him." He pauses. "I was lying to him. I just couldn't let him know. He left tonight without saying goodbye. Maybe I'll give him a raise." "Maybe it's okay to tell him," Joe suggests carefully. "If he knows why, he'll understand. He's a great kid. And he's just as much of a geek as you are, so he'd know why you didn't want to tell anyone. He's practically family." David looks absolutely horrified by this suggestion. "Mum'll kill me," he says, as if he's six and he's broken a window. "Baby..." Joe manages not to laugh only because it's so real and present for David. "I'll protect you from her. You told me, didn't you? And you'd known me a lot less time then than you've known Justin." David reaches for his chocolate milk again. "I don't know if I can do this. I can't lose Justin--he's amazing at what he does, the customers love him, the other geeks love him, I want to keep him and feed him chocolate. In a totally platonic way, 'cause I'm way too old for him. And he's got the cutest little dorky girlfriend I've ever seen and he's a good friend and he's got little Apollo--remember little Apollo?" "Of course I remember Apollo." Joe nods, rubbing David's back again. "David... I know you're scared, and I do get why, but I think maybe you need to come out to Justin. Not to everyone. But to him. He can keep a secret. And you don't want to lose him." David blinks a few times. "Justin knows I'm gay." Joe can't exactly facepalm--his hands are busy right now. But he makes a mental note to remember to do it later. "David... everyone knows you're gay. My old Irish very Catholic grandmother knows you're gay. You don't think you're in more than one kind of closet?" A few more blinks, and then David says, "Oh." He bites his lip, looks at the floor, then looks up again. "You think I can do that?" "Yeah... I think you can do that," Joe says, nodding supportively. "I'll go with you, if you want. To talk to him. Anything you need." "Really?" "Of course, really. Anything, anywhere, anyhow, any... any anything," Joe promises. "God." David steps close, wraps his arms around Joe, and hugs him tight. "I love you so much." He closes his eyes, smiles a little, and falls silent for a while. Eventually he says, "I think you've ruined the ground beef." "Oh, SHIT!" Joe jerks away from David as the smell of very burned ground beef hits him, scampering over to the stove and pulling it off the burner, stabbing at the half-frozen half-blackened chunk of beef. "Oh, damn it... okay, I can still save this, right?" "Well... some of it, I think," David says, stepping closer. "We should be able to get rid of the burned stuff and use what's left... it's just a matter of what we turn it into, what little's there." "I was making tomato sauce," Joe explains, pointing at the waiting can of condensed tomato soup. "See? Tomato soup, hamburger. Instant spaghetti sauce. Right?" David smiles. "Of course. We can salvage this. Why don't you get... a few cloves of garlic, some mushrooms, and an onion?" Joe blinks at David a few times, then reaches up into the cupboard and plunks down a can of mushroom soup, a shaker of garlic salt, and a package of onion soup mix. "Like that?" David looks at Joe as if this is the sweetest thing that Joe's ever done for him, then gently takes each item from his hands and puts them back where they belong. He replaces them with the half-package of mushrooms left over from last night's dinner, two cloves of garlic, and a sweet onion, then goes back to fussing with the hamburger. "Could you start peeling all those for me?" he asks. "Right. The mushrooms?" "Start with the onion. Take off the skin and the outer layer, just like I showed you, and then start dicing." David goes to the knife holder, and gives one of the larger ones to Joe, but he opts not to give him that great big one that he's so fond of--the last time David tried to convince Joe to use that one, Joe got this deer-in-headlights sort of look like he thought he'd accidentally chop off his own hand. Joe still doesn't look entirely certain that he should be holding the knife--this from a veterinary surgeon who frequently handles blades with a high degree of precision. "Fine, but the onion soup mix would have been safer." David kisses his cheek. "You'll be fine. You're taking care of me." "I almost used ketchup instead of the tomato soup. Would that have been better?" David blinks, kisses Joe's cheek again, and then goes back to the stove. "The sugar in the ketchup might have burned. You were much better off with the tomato soup." Sometimes, he wonders how Joe's managed to survive this long on his own cooking. "Oh." That almost makes sense. Well, it doesn't, but he can at least respect a rational explanation. Joe returns to his onion. Soon, David's helping, expertly peeling and then dicing the mushrooms, finishing the onion for Joe, but letting him press the garlic. He seems to like doing that part, and anything he can do to let Joe help makes them both happy. Joe's been known to convince David to put extra garlic in things, just so that he could press more of it. "I was planning on making dinner for you myself," he reminds him. "I'm not sure if that qualifies as a nice thing for me to do or not though, considering." "It's always the thought that counts," David says, carefully taking the garlic press and setting it aside. There's always that possibility that Joe might pout a little, and he's still feeling a tiny bit fragile right now--he doesn't think he can handle it. "Next time I'll go with something easier." Yes. Easier than spaghetti. "Hot dogs. Or peanut butter sandwiches." "Hot dogs would be very nice," David says, smiling. He wonders if maybe he should take one Sunday afternoon and make a huge batch of spaghetti sauce that they can portion out and freeze. Joe's pretty good at making pasta now. "I lived on hot dogs in college. All cut up into a can of cold beans," Joe says, looking reminiscent. "I... I, um. That's... well, you have me now." David leans over and kisses Joe's cheek. The things you learn about people you love. "That's true, I do," Joe smiles at David, leaning back against the counter and letting David take over. "You'll never let me starve." "No, I won't. I'm not the greatest cook, but I can cook lots. My mum gave me this great cookbook by Better Homes and Gardens magazine. It's got lots of great recipes but it also has things like instructions on how to hard boil an egg. I wouldn't have survived without it. I'd be living on Kraft Dinner and Frosted Flakes." "There's nothing wrong with Kraft Dinner and Frosted Flakes... but then, I also don't know how to hard boil an egg," Joe admits. David looks despairingly at Joe. "I don't know how you've lived this long, gorgeous." "A stack of takeout menus and a really good multivitamin?" Joe gives David his most charming smile, only partly because David called him gorgeous. "Well, it's a good thing I've been spoiling you now, isn't it?" "I love when you cook for me," Joe says, pushing up off the counter and going to stand behind David, his arms circling his waist. David leans back against him, idly stirring the spaghetti sauce. "I love cooking for you. And watching you eat." "Hmm..." he murmurs, brushing his lips against David's neck, then resting his chin on his shoulder. "Watching me eat?" "Your reactions to certain foods are very, very interesting." "I have interesting reactions to certain foods?" Oh, no he doesn't. Not that Joe's going to admit to, anyway. "Yes, you do," David says, grinning. "Particularly to my carrot cake." Joe's reaction is automatic and instantaneous, his hips rocking forward as he pushes up close against David and moans, right against his neck. Oh. That reaction. "See? All I need to do is talk about carrot cake." David laughs, then pauses, and is thoughtful for a moment. "Hey, maybe I can make little carrot loaves. You could take them in your lunches to work." Again, Joe moans, eyes closing as he holds on tighter to David. "I'm gonna get sued for sexual harassment for eating my lunch." David peeks over his shoulder. "I'm gonna make pepper steak on Sunday night. I'll make sure there's leftovers." "You are both the most amazing boyfriend in the world and the most evil boyfriend in the world." David puts down his wooden spoon, then turns and twines his arms around Joe's neck. "But you love me?" Joe answers that one by tugging David right up against him and kissing him soundly on the lips. "Oh. Hell. Yeah," he murmurs, right against them. David almost purrs. "Good. I've got you exactly where I want you." "Doesn't take much, does it?" "All it takes is carrot cake." "And you. I need both." "Yeah?" "Yeah. Man cannot live by carrot cake alone." "That's true, isn't it?" David spoons up some of the spaghetti sauce and holds it up for Joe to try. "Is it ready?" Joe tastes the spaghetti sauce and closes his eyes, groaning under his breath. "That's a lot better than if I'd used the onion soup mix." "Yes, yes, it is. Go set the table?" "That I can do," Joe says, nodding to emphasize the point, then letting David go. Grabbing plates from the cupboard, he turns around and sighs. "Okay, cats? Off the table, thanks, I know where your feet have been." It's just a table. "I don't want to know where their feet have been," David says. "They're cats. They have a cat box. Do the math," Joe says over his shoulder. "Yes, and we eat on the table, so move your fuzzy little butts, or next time someone tries to pawn an iguana off on me, I won't be strong and say no." "An iguana?" "Or a snake. Something reptilian." "A gecko!" Joe actually turns and ignores the still-on-the-table cats. "You want a gecko?" "Maybe?" "I've been turning reptiles down because I didn't think you'd want them," Joe admits. The fact that he'd shown restraint of any kind still surprises him. "So there guys, see? Don't behave and get off the table, and you'll be having a ten foot boa constrictor following you around the house." The cats give him a baleful glare, then bound off the table to go find trouble. "You're going to find cat puke on your socks," David says, grinning. "Yeah... yeah, I really am," Joe sighs, going over to start setting the table. "But I still might get you that gecko if one comes around that needs a home." "Really?" David puts the food into serving bowls to carry over to the table. "That's really great." "Anything for my favourite geek in the whole world." "That's me, right?" "You're my only favourite geek." |
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