Chapter 3: Complex Body Part

Sean was walking down the hallway of Balsam Hotel slowly, hanging his head, but very nervously at the same time. It didn't take him much time to make up his mind to go to Christian, what was to decide, it was his children's welfare that was at stake. God knows what kind of father Christian's been to them and how much Annie knows about sexual relationships by now. He would do everything to help them, do the surgery of course, but first he wanted to talk to Christian, catch up with what's been happening to them, now that Julia decided he was allowed the information, trying to understand what was going on or simply pummel him into the ground till he passed out, the option he preferred most. For that reason he went over late in the evening, betting on the children to be asleep. He was relieved to see that light was coming from underneath the crack of the door, but he could hear no noise. The kids must be asleep, but Christian not. He momentarily had this vision he would find a babysitter instead and Christian would be out practicing his field sport on old hunting grounds, but then he knocked on the door anyway softly and uncertainly, his heart hammering in anticipation of seeing his sleeping children again. When the door started to open his pulse rate accelarated again. He knew he had no right to open up with a punch, Julia had left him and was free to do anything, with Christian or otherwise, but it would've felt so good. What he came to say was however entirely different.

Christian's eyes immediately lit up up when seeing him. He smiled a little embarassed, but happy, "you made it. I wasn't sure if you'd come today, but I knew you would. Come on in."

Sean nodded and stood awkwardly for a moment facing him as he stepped in. He didn't exactly know what to say after what he had found out today, but he followed his insticts and suddenly squeezed Christian's shoulder and pulled him into a hug, feeling a stange sense of ease as his arms wrapped around his back and pulled him close so tight he got breathless. For a few seconds, it was only their feelings for each other that mattered.

But when the embrace ended they were back to ill at ease. His only satisfaction in the matter was that Christian looked unquestionably uncomfortably squirming too, bouncing a little on his heels, "all right, enough greetings and stuff. Beer?"

"Sure. Uhm...I bought a three bedroom house when I arrived here with the intention of having the kids over sometimes...so I don't see why you would stay at a hotel." He wanted them under his roof before he really went on the offensive.

Christian opened the beer bottle for him, "Annie? Do you wanna go stay at your dad's?"

The young girl appeared in the doorframe of the adhacent bedroom, "that would be nice," she nodded politely, not sure how to be around her old dad.

"How come you're up so late princess?" Sean opened his eyes wide.

"Mum insisted I have to write the introduction to the school science project since I'll miss some classes anyway while I'm here," she shrugged. "But it's not bad. I can choose pirates! And Christian said you'll take me to the Maritime Museum while we're here to gather some facts for it."

"I thought it would be somewhere to start," Christian shrugged apologetically.

Sean wanted to answer, but there suddenly was some tam tam music coming from the bedroom and she ran off.

"That's her phone," Christian explained, "she's so into this Jack Sparrow guy."

"She's not in love witth a boy from school already?"

Christian laughed, "you know you should go watch a film occasionally. Her ringtone is from the pirates of the Carribean. Fourth installment, huh? But she's pretty popular at school, and not just with girlfriends."

"Is she studying good?"

Christian smiled again, "she's all right, but not as perfect as you'd like her to be."

Sean couldn't take the attitude anymore, not matter how much he wanted it to go peacefully, especially that Annie could hear them. He didn't need to be reminded every minute how he wasn't part of their lives and how Christian was. "Don't be such a crack. You destroyed..."

Christian walked over to the bedroom door and shut it, "do you know I wasted twenty years of my life being considerate with you? So fuck you Sean. Does it even matter to you I patiently waited decades till I can have Julia back? I never made one move taking you into consideration. So don't give me that shit. You took Julia away from me at the university and you know it. I never wanted to take your family away. In fact, here, I just brought them back for you, see? I didn't mean to hurt you Sean. And that was why everybody else was hurting for so long."

"So now you gonna spit it into my face that I could never be happy with Julia because the whole time she was in love with you?"

Christian sighed and leaned back. There was no point to agreeing with the obvious. "Sean, we were brothers. That was what I was supposed to do as your brother, as your best friend. No matter what the consequences."

Sean dug into his hair half groaning, half growling, "just tell me how it happened..."

tbc