Roses for my Man

First defense against evil – open your damn eyes!

Reese, Forever Knights

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Chapter 3

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He grinned at the room around him; he was getting it ready for his lover. It would be so nice to finally have the boy here with him. To keep him company and keep the anger and depression away. Tommy would love the new room that he had painted and redecorated for him. Of course he had to take precautions. Temptation was a huge factor and he knew he would half to teach the boy where his love rightfully belonged.

He attached the last bolt to the wall and pulled. It would hold, he decided.

He looked at his watch and decided to take a more active roll in Tommy's life. If the boy was going to live with him, they needed to get to know each other better. Well, he knew all about Tommy…

--

He was dozing when the phone rang. He looked to the clock which read one in the morning. He wondered who it could be that was calling and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Hanson, how are ya feeling?" it was Doug.

"Fine, I just got to sleep," Tom yawned.

"Sorry, man, I'm still worried about ya," Doug replied.

"It's fine, I'm feeling better," Tom reassured his friend.

"Okay, if you need something, call me, kay?"

"Sure," Tom said.

"All right, sorry for waking you up,"

"No problem,"

"Goodnight,"

"You too," and with that Tom hung up the phone. Gingerly he laid back down. It hurt a bit to move around, and gym class didn't help at all. Tom was determined to skip that class. Besides, Jimmy had all ready invited him to skip anyway. Maybe he would be able to find out something by hanging out with Jimmy. Not to mention, Tom had seen Jimmy make out with another kid at the school. Which meant that Jimmy was either bi or gay. Which didn't matter – Tom needed to get into that group and hopefully fine the perpetrators of the gay bashings.

However, that afternoon, both Tom and Doug hadn't been clued into the fact that there had been a game played while they had been in Gym class. Apparently, someone else had decided to skip and had ended up in the hospital from a bashing game; if the kid was gay or not was up in the air, but that seemed to be the consensus of the kids.

The phone rang again. He groaned but turned over to answer it.

"Hello?"

He heard nothing but breathing. It was heavy and…did the voice just chuckle? He shivered in the dark as he looked around. It was dark still but Tom couldn't make out any of the shadows as being that of his aggressor.

"What do you want?"

This time it chuckled; "You, my love,"

"What…I don't understand," Tom replied, he moved and turned the light on. It revealed no one else in the bed room with him.

"I have everything ready, all you need to do is join me,"

"Why would I do that?" Tom asked. Trying to feel this person out. The voice wasn't one he had heard before, therefore it wasn't anyone he knew.

"Because you love me,"

"Aaaahhh…I've never met you before…"
"True, but I've met you. I have everything ready. Wait for me," and with that the line went dead. Tom shivered. Wrapping the blankets around him, he knew he had to tell Fuller about this. Maybe the older man would have something Tom could do besides the new locks and gun.

--

By the time he had gone into work, he was almost shaking. He had gotten three more phone calls from the psycho that was after him – and he couldn't stand it. He was glad that the work phone was at least unlisted. Tom decided that he had to tell Fuller about the problem. There had to be something they could do about it. After all, he was a police officer…what could they not do?

As soon as Tom got into work, he was accosted by Doug. He was all ready for School. "Yo, Tommy!"

"Hey," Tom replied with less then a heart felt shake of the hand that had been meant to be a wave.

"Whoa, what's the matter with you? Ribs still hurting? It's been two days…" Doug said.

"No, my ribs are fine…it's just…some idiot keeps calling me," Tom sighed.

"Old boyfriend?"

"No, worse,"

"What's worse than an old boyfriend?" Doug asked. Tom gave him a look.

"It's a stalker, I'm sure of it,"

"How can you be sure?"

"He left roses, and pictures of me and he called me three times last night. He basically told me that he's going to own me!"

"No one can own you," Doug shook his head.

"Well, whoever this guy is, he needs to be committed for life," Tom groused.

"HANSON, PENHALL!" Fuller yelled. The two panicked before hurrying to the office.

"Give me a heads up on the case," Fuller said as the two young officers took seats in the office.

"I met this kid, his name is Jimmy. I'm gonna meet him this afternoon before gym class," Tom said.

"Yeah, I'm still looked at Brent, he and the rest of the team seem to at least agree with the GBG,"

"What is GBG?" Fuller asked.

"It's short for Gay Bashing Game," Tom informed him.

"Okay, stay with it, is there anything else I should know?" Fuller asked.

"Yeah, someone's decided to start stalking me. I've gotten roses and photographs. One was taken when I was asleep, form inside the apartment," Tom said.

"Has any other contact been made?" Fuller asked. Tom went pale.

"Yeah, he called me three times last night," Tom said.

"I'll have a couple of black and white's patrol the place for the next few nights. Hopefully more police watching out will help to dissuade, but have a back up plan just in case, someplace this guy doesn't know about," Fuller said.

"Okay," Tom said.

"All right then, make sure to stay in crowded places as well," Fuller threw at them as the two made to leave.

"I'll be careful," Tom promised.

--

Jimmy smiled at the other boy; Tom had decided on a simple black t-shirt and jeans for school today. He looked exhausted as well, didn't even give the bright smile that made others swoon for him. Jimmy gave him a look; "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, sure," Tommy nodded his head. The bleachers were on the far side of the field from the green pasture the gym class was being held. Besides Jimmy there were two other boys. One went by the name of Ace and the other by Duce. They were twins.

"Hey, Tom-Tom!" Duce waved and smiled at the youngest of the group (or so they thought).

"Hey, Duce," Tom replied. There was only one way to tell the twins apart. That was clothing. They didn't like to dress the same unless their parents made them or they wanted to play a trick on someone. Duce was Preppy and Goth while Ace was more Nerd and Rock. But both boys didn't care much about it at all.

"You look a bit sick," Ace said, he marched up to Tom and felt Tom's forehead.

"You don't feel hot," Ace said, "Even though you ass does look good in those jeans," he said as by way of a joke. Tom chuckled just a bit.

"There's that smile we've been waiting for," Duce said with a laugh of his own.

"Yeah, sorry – I had a stressful night," Tom shrugged, he sat down on the grass to get comfortable. They'd be there for the next two hours. Sometimes they would play stupid kid games, they would tell stories about their parents, or they would just sit and think.

"Dude, did you see the pass Brent gave the new guy…what was his name again?" Ace asked.

"Doug Hall…wasn't it?" Duce replied.

"I know that kid, Tom-Tom got into a fight with him a couple days ago," Jimmy smirked at the named boy.

"Yeah, well…I would have done better but I was a bit off that day," Tom said.

"It looked painful, he barley got a scratch!" Ace declared.

"Yeah, my Uncle wanted me to go to the hospital," Tom shrugged with a sigh.

"Did ya?" Ace asked.

"Naw, I hate hospitals, I seem to end up in them more often than I want,"

Ace, Duce and Jimmy laughed at this; "Man, my Ma thinks I should be committed," Jimmy said.

"What for?" Tommy asked.

"This," Jimmy rolled up his sleeves to show his arm, he had several fresh scratches.

"Your cat sure does have a set of claws," Tom joked.

"Jimmy is allergic to cats, bugger, that does look bad," Ace said, looking over Jimmy's arm.

"She thought I'd stop, I tried but…the stress got to be way too much. What with all the ridicule for being gay and the GBG going on….school work….I can't stand it," Jimmy admitted.

"Hey, it's all right. You're Mom's just worried about ya," Tom said.

"Yeah? Well that's not how she acted. She went ballistic! Screaming and crying and shit," Jimmy sat down next to Tom who put his arm around the boy by way of comforting. Ace and Duce raised their eyebrows at Tom who ignored them.

"Said I should go to the hospital, that there had to be something I could take for this. What she doesn't know is that I used to snort coke. My cousin helped me to get off of it and helped me through the withdrawals. Cutting, it helps when the temptation to snort gets to big for me to handle," Jimmy explained.

"Have you tried talking with her about it?" Tom asked.

"No, she never would understand," Jimmy shrugged, then he smiled, "But she does care. All she did was asked me to talk to someone about it, I went to the school councilor. But he knows I'm gay so he won't talk with me. What about you, Tom-Tom?"

"Me…? What about me?" Tom was confused.

"Aren't you gay?" Jimmy asked.

Shit, I am! Tom opened his mouth to say something, then he closed it before trying once again; "I don't know anything 'bout…addiction or stuff," he admitted.

"That's fine, I just need someone that I can talk to when I really need it," Jimmy said. Tom nodded his head. Then he reached into his pocket and brought out paper and in his bag he found a pen. Tom gave the kid his personal number.

"Here, if you ever need to talk to anyone, go ahead and call me, kay?"

"Thanks man, you know, you're really cool…for being weird and all," Jimmy replied. Tom grinned at that.

"There we go! Our hottie is back!" Ace whooped.

"I am not hot as you so graciously put it," Tom disagreed.

"What are you talking about, man, if I didn't have the idea you'd kill me I'd totally kiss you!" Ace replied.

"I don't kiss people who still watch Sesame Street!" Tom replied.

"What? Arg! Kiddy-show! Run away!" Duce made like he was dieing.

"All right, you two need to quit being stupid,"

Raspberries were made at Jimmy for that particular comment.

"No, truly, Tom-Tom! You're just HOT! I mean, have you seen how many kids look at you're ass?" Ace asked.

"I didn't think anyone was looking,"

"Well, besides us, yes they do. The girls are totally giggling but all the guy's want a piece of it," Duce said.

"Yeah, I accidentally heard Johnson and Hall talking about the GBG in the locker room the other day. I don't know who's heading that whole operation, but I think it's Johnson," Ace said.

"Either him or his stupid little brother Milo," Jimmy put in.

"Why would they want to do that to…people like us?" Tom asked.

"Tom-Tom! Their Dad went gay! He divorced their Mom and got with another guy,"

"And you know this how?" Tom asked.

"Used to be best friends with them, before their Dad went off his rocker – they didn't care what sexual preference we had. All we did was hang out, then…well, after their Dad did all that shit, they just stopped talking to us, it was like it was our entire fault," Ace shrugged his shoulders.

"But it wasn't; no matter what their Dad did, it wasn't your fault," Tom reassured the twins.

"Uhhh…right, Tom-Tom, whatever you say Man," Duce shrugged his shoulders. Tom got the feeling that something else was going on here. He just didn't know it.

--

Jimmy walked home alone that afternoon; Tommy had been held back by a teacher and Duce and Ace had someplace to be. Usually the boys would walk together, protection in numbers and all the rot. But today was different and Jimmy wished he had called his Mom for a ride, no matter how embarrassing that was; he started to prefer it right about now. He also wished he had stayed on the more crowded streets. The alleyways of the city were dangerous normally, but for the Lone Ranger, it was a bit more so.

Jimmy never saw the fist as he rounded the corner, and he never saw the guys that beat the shutout of him. It was later when a homeless man was being arrested by two officer's that the body was found.

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A/N – I was going to go on, but I thought that was a good place to stop this chapter. I was also planning on putting a bit more of my stalker into this chapter, but he decided to bugger off so…I had to do something else…anyway. I hope you all enjoy! Also, I am glad that I was able to creep you all out. I hope to be able to make the chills happen more frequently.

I want to thank everyone who has reviewed. I appreciate it, they make me want to write more.

Ta,

Dizzy