Protect you
Author: Scar
Beta-reader: Hannival Kinney
Category: Soap opera
Series: Hollyoaks
Characters: Brendan Brady, Stephen Hay, Declan Brady
Genre: drama, angst, romance, suspense.
Rating: R, orange
Warnings: slash, hurt / comfort, domestic abuse, Ste/OMC
Summary: No Joel, no Doug, no Deli. Just a little thing written around December, before Brendan fired Ste.
Love is a strong force to be reckoned with, but is it enough to be happy?
What happens when the impulses take over, when someone fails to stop being violent and dangerous and someone else can not stop thinking of a new feeling growing inside him? What would you do to protect the person you love?
chap 1
As soon as the ship docked at the pier, Brendan sent a message to Cheryl to let her know that he would have joined the club with Declan by the time they agreed on.
The man put on his sunglasses to shield himself against the glaring red of the sunset and, probably, to prevent someone from seeing his eyes, wet for the inevitable emotion of seeing his kid after months.
Many things had happened in the meantime.
He had hired Mitzeee to work at the club, Joel had left the village again headed towards an unknown destination, and above all he had given Stephen his old job back. His relationship with him, now, was limited mostly to the one between employee and employer, at best. However, sometimes it happened that the lad ended up breaking a glass, forgot to run an errand or opened his mouth inappropriately. The possibility that one of the former events could happen was almost nonexistent, actually. Stephen was the best worker he ever had, but also the worst treated. Sometimes, though, the bartender could not help himself and, when there was no one around, he would yell his anger against Brendan's face, and then he would promptly threaten to quit.
But he never did.
The next day he would be back to serve behind the counter or cleaning the floors. Brendan knew too well that Stephen needed that job, the flexible hours, the bonuses every month, and he used it to take advantage of him in every way.
Sometimes he even felt the temptation to fire him, or found himself hoping that Stephen would actually go ahead with his threats and not come back the next day, sparing him the trouble and the inevitable guilt which hit him in the most unexpected moments.
This happened, especially, when he used to stop watching, with big disappointment, his haughty profile, lips bent down, or his bright smiles direct to anyone but him. Teasing him for every little thing was the only way not to being ignored.
He hated him in moments like those. And he hated himself for what he had to do.
But now it would all end. His son would fill the void that had become his life in the last months.
His ex-wife had agreed to let Declan spend the whole summer with him. There was no way to pursue the issue, but Brendan had sensed that something unsaid was hidden behind her sudden burst of generosity, guessing, correctly, that adolescence was a step too turbulent and difficult to manage even for her.
Declan appeared behind the travelers' tail, porcupine hair and a huge smile on his lips. Brendan waited till he was near, then pulled him into his arms.
"Hey! Mickey money!" Brendan addressed him, ruffling his hair and noticing immediately that Declan was taller than him by a couple of inches.
"What the hell did your mother give ye to eat?" He asked, as they walked towards the car.
Declan replied with a mocking laugh, complacent, straightening his shoulders in a exaggerated way to further increase those embarrassing inches of difference.
Arsehole.
During the first part of the trip, the man enthusiastically informed himself about the latest developments in Declan and Padraig's lives. Declan took part in the conversation with several monosyllables, such as yes, no, I dunno, maybe, plus a whole lot of gibberish that meant nothing. Then he used the second part of the journey to brush up a bit Bradys' old rules: don't walk around too much, don't come back home late, don't go to the club when it's too full, but above all...
"How are things with Ste?"
Exactly!
"I'd rather ye had nothing to do with him."
"Why?"
"It's a long story," snapped his father.
"We have time," replied the boy, insisting, determined to know what was bothering his father, now that his sexual tastes were no longer a secret. Or there was more?
Brendan exhaled a long sigh. "he disappointed me."
"How?"
"Well... ye know... When I had been accused of those murders ... "
"Ste thought you were guilty or something?"
His moustache jerked in a spasm of confirmation, while a flash of that terrible time pierced his mind from side to side causing him only the ghost of that old, familiar pain, but still pain. But now, unlike before, he could talk. Even if briefly.
"I thought you had left everything behind you, Dad."
"I did" he confirmed, flashing a toothy smile under his moustache, large and bright. Almost sincere.
"Why then?" tried his son, again.
"Ye can't trust him and I don't want ye to deal with people like him. That's all!"
Brendan could not tell him that, in the past, he had also given Stephen good reasons to believe him guilty of the murders, but fuck, he couldn't just get over it. And in any case he needed this. He needed to keep that grudge against him to avoid the need he felt for him more than he was able to admit.
Time wasn't good to calm his emotions, whether good or bad they were; neither it was fucking other guys or plunging headlong into work; taking care of his sister, always in pieces for a relationship gone wrong, helping her to put together the shreds for what it was possible; or getting close to his children again, after months in which he had kept apart, convinced he was a worse father than he had ever been.
Declan muttered something that sounded like an okay, but after a few minutes of silence he resumed.
"You loved him a lot, didn't you?"
Brendan looked away from the road for a few moments, staring at him open-mouthed. He had never thought that his son could be so direct.
"It was so obvious" replied Declan, with an arrogant look. "Although he has always denied there was something between the two of you... just as you've always done. "
Brendan frowned, puzzled. Who knows why he had thought Stephen was unable to keep his mouth shut, especially when he had the opportunity to make him worse in front of his son's eyes. Earlier, somehow, he had come out with this conviction and Declan had simply responded that Stephen had never talked about him.
"And what have ye talked about?" He had asked that time, after they had resumed to phone each other thanks Cheryl and Eileen's intercession.
"Mostly about me," had said Declan simply.
Brendan remembered he had laughed hysterically, and still he hardly saw Stephen as a good listener, with large mouth he had. Suddenly, all the times when he had sealed his lips with his own, driven him on the bed, suffocating him and reducing him in silence with his kisses came back to him, causing an incipient erection.
He took a deep breath and snorted. "It was a mistake, a very big mistake," he said finally, looking ahead.
"So... now... I mean... it's over between you two? "
Brendan glanced at him, frowning. "Dead and gone."
Declan did not utter another word, but his father, his eyes again absorbed in the guide and his head lost somewhere, did not notice the smug smile on his son's face.
Your love is mine for the taking
My love is
Just waiting
To turn your tears to roses