Nick paced across the room again. Then cursed at himself. He was doing it again. Calm down, sheesh! He plunked himself in front of the television and channel-surfed for a while. It didn’t help. Five minutes later he was back pacing.
It
was a great relief when the doorbell rang, heralding the food he’d ordered.
He
could cook now: How had Emma and Kat managed to teach him how to do that in
only a week? What was most amazing was that he enjoyed it so much. Before, he’d
only seen it as the annoying, long process before he finally got to eat. Now…
it was more fun than the eating. It gave him something to focus on; something
that calmed him; something that only video games and drawing had done before.
Something that was his and his alone.
He
hadn’t shared his new skill with the others yet. Okay, so he had baked some
cookies and presented them to the guys, but he’d passed them off as something
he’d picked up at a new bakery. And the secret glee he felt when they had
gobbled them up quickly and complained that he hadn’t brought more… that was a
feeling of pride that he’d decided he wanted to keep for himself for a while
longer.
And
tonight was definitely not the night to announce his new ability. He was too
nervous.
He
thanked the delivery guy, maybe a little too profusely, and carried the cartons
back to the kitchen. Fussing over that kept him busy, but he was back to pacing
by the time the doorbell rang again.
Nick
was up to something, Howie thought as he waited for the younger man to open the
door. And he thought he knew what. The relieved look on Nick’s face, and the
smell of Chinese food – GOOD Chinese food, not the Cantonese junk that Nick
favoured – confirmed it.
“D!
So glad you could make it. Come on in.” Nick invited him in, practically
pulling the jacket off of his back before hanging it in the closet.
Howie
sighed as he saw the three place settings on the table. Nick had specifically
asked him not to bring Todd, so it was a little obvious whom the third place
was for. Another attempt to get Kevin and him to reconcile. He’d known it was
coming; he’s just expected it from AJ or Rok. Nick usually stayed as far away
from this stuff as he could. He wasn’t great with tense situations and was more
likely to avoid them than confront them. The others must think things were
really bad if Nick had chosen to get drawn in.
He
sighed again. He wished they’d just leave well enough alone. His relationship
with Kevin had been through a lot of changes over the years. From good friend
to lover and back again. Confidante, rival then enemy. They had been slowly overcoming their
animosity towards each other in recent years; there really was nothing as
powerful as enmity between people who had once been so intimate. They had been
doing well; able to talk openly about everything, well almost everything.
Finally accepting that they had both made mistakes that had made things
unbearable for every one concerned. Finally finding a bond that they could both
live with. And then they’d gone to Austin. They’d confronted head-on the one
thing they had avoided since they had begun their low arduous trek towards
reconciliation.
And
it had not gone well.
So
now they had to rebuild it. And that took time. Only that seemed to be
something that the other three didn’t understand. They wanted the two to shake
hands and make up and POOF everything back to the way it had been. “Not going
to happen, guys,” he muttered under his breath.
Still
he had to admire the love that was behind the attempts.
Nick
finally suggested that they eat, when Kevin still hadn’t shown up twenty
minutes later. Neither of them ate much; just pushed their food around a bit,
both trying to avoid looking at the empty place setting.
“Maybe
something came up,” Howie finally said.
“What?”
Nick’s head pulled up suddenly. He’d been checking his watch for the hundredth
time since they’d sat down.
“Kevin.
Maybe there was some sort of emergency.”
“How
did you…” Nick look sheepish. “Not very subtle, am I?”
Howie
grinned. “Not much. But it was a good thought. And I am sure that if he is not
coming its not because of you.”
“Yeah,
well, he HAS to come,” Nick muttered.
“Nick,
it’s not going to happen overnight. We need time. We re-opened a lot of wounds
recently. He’d never really confronted all his feelings about losing them.” Howie’d
had a lot of trouble saying Kat and CJ’s names since the trip to Austin. “He’s
a stubborn man. Also a very private one. It’s hard for him to admit he was in
the wrong to push her away. And even harder for him to admit how much he misses
her.”
Nick
was silent.
“Look,
Nicky,” Howie leaned forward. “This has been great but I should go…”
“No
way! You are staying right here. Please, D. Let me just call him…”
“You
can’t force this, Nick,” Howie reiterated.
“I
gotta try,” Nick insisted. “And if he is going to be a dick and not come over
then you and I can work on some stuff, okay?”
Howie
smiled softly and nodded.
Nick
took a deep breath before he picked up the phone. “Not going to yell. Just be
calm. Get him to come over,” he warned himself. Though he almost lost it when
Kevin picked up after the first ring.
“Hey
Nick. Sorry, couldn’t make it. Something came up.”
“Yeah,
a very busy night of channel-surfing from the sounds of it,” Nick replied
sarcastically.
“Look,
I just didn’t want to, okay?”
”No, Kev. Not okay. I really need you to come over.”
“Is
he still there?”
“What?”
“Don’t
be a dumbass, Nick. I know you invited Howie over too. I figured that’s what
you were up to so I called his house. Todd told me. Stop trying to play
peacemaker. It’s not your strong point,” Kevin retorted.
“Well,
fucking excuse me for caring so much about the two of you!” The strain of the
last couple of weeks was getting to him, and Nick couldn’t hold his temper in
check any longer. “I am trying really hard to do you a favour, Kevin. If you’re
so god dammed pigheaded you can’t see it…”
“Nick!”
Kevin could hear Howie’s voice trying to calm the younger man. “Not the best
approach here.”
“There
is no fucking “best approach” with you two, and I am damn sick of it. You’re
here. He better get his ass over here now,” Nick said angrily.
“Nick,
I can still hear you,” Kevin pointed out, a twinge of annoyance in his voice.
“And I am really not interested in coming over now.”
“Fuck,”
Nick said and hung up.
Howie
watched him pace angrily back and forth across the room. “Umm. It was a nice
thought, Nick.”
“You
don’t understand, Howie. He HAS to be here,” Nick replied with a frustrated
whine to his voice. “He has to!”
“Why?”
Nick
shook his head. “He just has to,” he repeated. He looked down at his watch and
swore. “And he needs to get here NOW.”
“Do
you want me to call him? I mean, I can try. I doubt he’ll listen to me, but
he’s probably not going to listen to you right now… Maybe I can convince him…”
Nick
stood still. “No. It’s okay. I have a trump card I can play. I just didn’t want
to. Promise you won’t leave?”
“Well…”
“Howie,
I really need you here too. Please. This is very important to me. I really need
to talk to both of you at the same time.”
“Got
any ice cream?”
Nick
snorted. “This is ME we’re talking about. The question isn’t do I have any,
it’s how many flavours I have.”
Howie
laughed and loped into the kitchen as Nick picked up the phone again.
“Kevin?
Yeah, I know you don’t want to talk to me. Just do me one thing. Go upstairs…
Well, then go down the hall. Go into Chr—CJ’s room. No, I am not joking around.
Go in there and look at the toy you got for him. Then you decide if you want to
come over or not.”
Kat
wiped Chris’ face, getting the remnants of his dinner off. She took him to
McDonald’s so rarely, he had been excited, and couldn’t keep his eyes on one
thing for long. He’d take a bite of his burger, then turn one way, smearing
ketchup across his face. Take a sip of his milkshake, then wipe the chocolaty
straw across his other cheek as he looked at something else. He was a mess.
He
opened his eyes sleepily as she cleaned the vestiges off his face, smiled, then
went back to sleep. He was just so damn cute. Especially when he was sleeping.
She
leaned back in the seat and sighed. He was driving her crazy. Ever since Nick
had left he hadn’t shut up about it. It was Unca Nick this and Unca Nick that.
And the endless questions about his dad. And his uncles. Then he’d clam up and
not talk to her. When she finally got him to say anything it was, “Just guy
stuff, Mom. You wouldn’t understand.”
Suddenly
her devoted son didn’t want to talk to her.
It
had hurt. Just like his father, suddenly he didn’t want her around.
Okay,
Kat, so that wasn’t exactly the truth. For one week, Chris had had a male role
model in his life. And now he wanted more. He wasn’t rejecting her. He was just
letting her know that he needed more. “Right, and if you keep telling yourself
that, maybe you’ll believe it,” she muttered as she started the engine.
She
needed some time to think, so she checked Chris carefully, then started to
drive along the lake, trying to draw strength from the rippling waves.
“You
really aren’t going to answer it?” Howie said as the phone began to ring. He
wasn’t sure what Nick had said to Kevin, but he had been calling over and over
again for the last ten minutes. Nick just smirked at the handset and refused to
pick it up.
“Nope.
He played hard to get, so I am too,” Nick replied smugly, spooning some more
ice cream into his mouth.
Howie
chuckled. “You really are a bitch, Carter.”
“I
thought that was what you were, Howard, dahling,” Nick retorted with a
drag-queen lisp.
Howie
was about to answer when the ringing of the phone cut off, and was replaced by
pounding on the door. “Umm, I think you have a guest.”
Nick
looked at his watch and flashed Howie the famous Carter smile. “Wow, less than
15 minutes. He really shouldn’t drive so fast, should he?”
Nick
may be known as Kaos, but when Kevin blew in, after Nick finally decided to
open the door, he was a lot closer to personifying a wave of destruction.
“What
the fuck? Why didn’t you answer the phone? What are you playing at, Nick?”
Nick
just smiled silkily. “The phone? You called? Oh I’m sorry, Kev. Howie and I
were talking. I must not have heard it.”
Kevin
grabbed Nick and shoved him up against the wall. “Don’t give me that shit, Nick!
I want to know how you got this!”
“Got
what?”
Kevin
turned an angry face to Howie. “Are you in on this too, D? I thought the crap
you pulled a couple of weeks ago was bullshit, but if you are in on this,
I’ll…”
Howie
was genuinely confused. “In on what? Nick invited me over for dinner, and I
clued into the fact that it was another “get Kevin and Howie to talk” thing.
That’s all I know.”
Kevin
let a struggling Nick go and pulled something out of his pocket, thrusting it
at Howie. “In on this.”
Howie
glanced at the picture quickly, then did a double take. He looked at Kevin,
then back to Nick. “Carter… Talk now! And it better be fucking good,” he
growled, his eyes narrowed.
Nick
gulped.
Kat
gently pulled a still-sleeping Chris into her arms. He snored softly in her
ear, and she smiled as she pulled her bag over her other shoulder. She left the
door to the car open; she’d need some more things from it, and climbed the
steps to the house. It only took a few moments for the door to open.
“Hi.”
“I
was so afraid you weren’t coming.”
“I
almost didn’t,” she replied honestly. “I think the excitement got to him,” she
nodded to Chris’s collapsed form. “Look, could you go grab Chris’ blanket from
the car? And Stomper?”
“Sure
thing.” He stepped forward, then drew back, kissing her cheek. “I am really
glad you are here.”
She
smiled quickly. “Where?”
“Living
room.”
She
turned and looked down the long hallway. Here goes nothing, she thought and
stepped inside.
She
walked slowly, trying not to wake her son, then stood in the doorway of the
living room for a moment, gulping with fear. She turned quickly, walking into
the small den off the living room, and laid Chris down on the sofa. Nick jogged
in and handed her the blanket and the dinosaur toy, glancing at the two white
faces that watched from the doorway. Kat thanked him and covered Chris, tucking
the blanket in. She put the toy in his arms and his eyes flicked open for a
second, just a quick flash of green eyes, before closing again. He squeezed the
toy tightly, then loosened and started to snore again.
Kat
straightened and turned slowly. “Maybe we should go back and talk in the other
room. Let him sleep for a while.”
Nick
nodded, glancing worriedly at the two men. Howie stared wide-eyed at Kat, and
bobbed his head. Kevin was fixated on his son. He ignored the others and walked
over to him, kneeling beside him. He brushed Chris’ hair off his face and
stared intently at him. Then he got up and stalked from the room, dropping onto
the large couch in the living room.
“As
I was saying: talk.” He demanded huskily, unshed tears glittering in his eyes.