He knew this was supposed to be a school exchange, but in reality medical school was exactly what he was trying to get as far away from as humanly possible. The truth was that he was sick and tired of it all; the gloop, the gunk, he hated it more than he could say.
(And he couldn't say it, not really, for much obvious reasons. Hence the English/Finland school exchange, which was nothing but a last-ditch attempt to procrastinate the inevitable confrontation with his parents.)
The one silver lining to his current predicament was the charming and ridiculously attractive chap he happened to share a room with. Milo – that was his name – was partial to flowers and airports, hence the artificial orchids perched on the headboard and the aviation-themed posters decorating the walls; he also appeared to have a penchant for English medical students, if his relentless flirting was anything to go by.
Douglas had never been much into guys before, but even so it didn't take long for Milo to charm the pants off him; quite literally so, as a matter of fact. All in all it was one of the most memorable summers of his life, and it made for quite a lot of fond memories he resorted to holding onto afterwards, whenever the weight of his parents' disapproval became too much for him to bear.
Up until the day he decided to become a pilot, much to his friend's delight and his parents' not so veiled dismay.
.
He and Milo kept in touch throughout flying school. Neither of them was willing to pursue a long-distance relationship; but they were still good friends, and Milo was thoroughly supportive of Douglas' growing passion for flying.
They took up exchanging small gifts now and then. Nothing too fancy; orchid bulbs and model aircrafts, that sort of stuff. When he got married Douglas received a beautiful replica of his namesake A-1 Skyraider; and if he was a little disappointed that Milo didn't come to the wedding, in the end he had to admit it was probably for the best.
Sarah didn't need to know that her husband's preferences swung both ways. He had a strong hunch she wouldn't appreciate that at all.
.
His marriage was falling apart, and there was nothing he could do to fix it. Turning to the bottle was probably one of the stupidest things he had ever done, but according to Sarah he was a selfish bastard so it all made sense in a sort of twisted way. Thank goodness Milo offered a shoulder to cry on when the divorce papers were eventually served on him, and much more than that when the divorce was finalised and Sarah got custody of their beautiful daughter.
For all that he had never liked the expression 'friends with benefits', Douglas supposed it was as good a description as any; not that he actually needed one, and he was pretty sure Milo didn't either.
.
Douglas wasn't particularly surprised when Milo declined the invitation to his second wedding, nor when he received a bunch of rather expensive orchids as a token of their friendship. He was, however, completely unprepared for the sight of Laura's best friend in a bridesmaid dress, and the funny things it did to the pit of his stomach.
But he wasn't that sort of a man, so he put on his best smile and carried on with the show.
.
"You know you're better than this," Milo told him after rescuing him from a drunken stupor in some godforsaken bar of Helsinki. "You still have your daughters, yes?"
He let out a bark of humourless laughter, no matter that he desperately wanted his friend to be right on both counts. The truth was that for all his flaws he still loved his daughters more than he would ever love anyone else, including himself; but the act he felt compelled to put on came with a price, and he wasn't sure he was strong enough to pull himself together this time around. Not after being sacked from Air England, never mind his latest disaster of a divorce.
Still, his old friend stubbornly refused to give up on him in spite of everything, and he supposed that had to count as something.
.
MJN Air was a pathetic excuse for an airline, but at least its owner was willing to turn a blind eye to his smuggling endeavours, and he was secretly grateful for that. He wasn't entirely happy with accepting a first officer position, but with two ex-wives to provide for he couldn't really afford to be picky.
Thank goodness his Captain was a decent man, and the owner wasn't as formidable as she would like everyone else to believe. As for the only steward within the company – well, he made for an interesting diversion during long flights.
Putting up with Arthur's relentless enthusiasm and his bizarre behaviour wasn't always easy, but Douglas was growing rather fond of the young man that looked up to him as if he was some sort of sky god who could fix everything. It made waking up every morning just a tiny bit easier, and heaven knew what a blessing that was to a recovering alcoholic who was always struggling to resist temptation as well as hide the truth about his destructive relationship with the bottle from his current employer.
.
Helena was rather inquisitive when an absolutely spectacular painting was delivered to their new house. It took all of Douglas' smooth operator skills to dodge her questioning without giving away who Milo was to him in the first place.
Their marriage was doomed to fail right from the start, and yet he was too much of an incorrigible old romantic to pass on the chance to call such a stunning woman his lawful wedded wife.
(Even if he had to put on an act, and pretend he was still a captain for the sole benefit of said wife.)
.
When Nigel finally retired Carolyn point-blank refused to give any explanation as to why she'd hired a new captain who was young enough to be Douglas' son. He should have been captain, not some wet-behind-the-ears kid that could barely fly a plane and yet kept banging on about rules and regulations all the time.
Milo didn't comment on it, only asked if the new guy was cute. Douglas spluttered with indignation, but in the privacy of his own mind he had to reluctantly admit that Martin Crieff was rather easy on the eye, if a bit on the short side. Not that anyone needed to know that, obviously.
.
A sodding Tai Chi teacher. He should have seen it coming, really; he was nothing but an old fool, and he was starting to suspect that he would never learn.
Still the show had to go on, and he kept pretending for the sake of his colleagues. Carolyn didn't need to know, and as for Martin and Arthur – they were both too naive, albeit in entirely different ways, and the last thing he wanted was to dampen their spirits with his world-weary cynicism.
So he kept it to himself, up until that blasted trip to Hong Kong and back. And if that meant he had to put up with Carolyn and Martin's feeble attempts at teasing when it came to orchids and Finnish customs officers, he supposed he could live with it.
.
He wasn't in love with Milo. Never had been, quite possibly; but that didn't mean he would miss the chance to seek some much needed comfort in his friend's arms after going through another messy divorce. First Sarah, then Laura, and now Helena – not to mention all the failed relationships in between. His love life was such a disaster he'd rather stop thinking about it altogether, and he was more than happy to do so if only for a few hours.
What he wasn't quite expecting was the look of contempt he caught on his Captain's face when he sneaked back to the hotel room they were sharing some time past two in the morning. He had never taken Martin for a bigot, but he belatedly realised he was probably wrong on that count.
(As on many others, but that was after all the story of his life.)
.
This was getting ridiculous; they were both grown men, it wasn't as if he was going to assault his colleague in his sleep just because he didn't happen to be exclusively straight. In the end he decided there was nothing for it but to confront Martin about his unreasonable behaviour, and that was exactly what he did.
"Of course you're not going to do anything like – that," the ridiculous man blurted out at length. "That is exactly the problem!"
They both paused at his words, Douglas' lips instinctively curling into a delighted smirk. "Oh, I see," he purred, insinuatingly, just as Martin turned beetroot red and looked as if he desperately wished that the ground would open up and swallow him.
"None of that," Douglas added quickly, his fingers closing around Martin's wrist before the other man could consider escape as an option. The kiss they exchanged was probably one of the most chaste Douglas had ever bestowed upon anyone that wasn't his daughters, but it didn't really matter since he had suddenly realised that Milo was quite right.
His Captain was epitome of cuteness when he relaxed enough to smile.