A/n: A little look into the life of our dear friend Mason. I think that if he's going to be a regular character in this story (which for the most part he is) then we should get to know him a little bit better. Also, if anyone is interested, I always like to 'cast' my characters as if I were actually going to put them on the show and if I were going to cast someone to play Mason, it would be Jesse Spencer who most of you will know as Dr. Chase from House (just replace the Aussie accent with a Southern one—and it's just a coincidence that I happened to pick another Aussie actor to be buddies with Alex O'Laughlin)
"Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle."—Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie
Mason had a reputation as being the 'easy going' one. The mild mannered middle son of a North Carolina farmer, he had shocked his family when he announced his intentions of joining the Navy after high school. He had claimed he felt a sense of responsibility to carry on the family legacy since he came from a long line of military men when the reality of the situation was that there wasn't the money to go to college and he had to do something to get away from his small minded hometown. The Navy was the only way he could see to avoid a future where he was stuck plowing the same fields his father and grandfather had. It was respectable work and there was certainly no shame in it, but Mason knew that if he were to stay he would never be able to be his authentic self. He had learned from a very small age that around those parts there was only one way of life that would be accepted and anything different would just simply not be tolerated.
From the time he was about eleven, Mason knew that he was different from the other boys in school. He didn't enjoy a lot of the same activities as his brothers and preferred to stick closer to the house and his mother rather than work outside on the farm with his father. His mother seemed to know there was something special about her middle son and she would protect him from his father who had always made him uncomfortable for reasons he'd hadn't been able to figure out as a child. Mason's differences did not go unnoticed by the other kids and they made fun of him for it constantly calling him a wuss and saying that he was a girl because he liked to read and cook instead of play football or chase girls like his brothers.
Things only got worse for him the older he got and by the time he was in high school, Mason knew that he was gay and that there was absolutely no way he could ever tell anyone about it. He had been questioning his sexuality in the back of his mind for awhile but he had dismissed it as part of his curious nature. It wasn't until he realized that he had a crush on the majority of his baseball team that he knew it was more than just curiosity.
The thought of living the rest of his life in his hometown of less than a thousand people who knew everything about everybody's business depressed him. Mason knew he would become one of the town outcasts instantly if he ever came out and that's when he began to figure out some way of getting out without having to hang his tail between his legs in the process. He had always been well liked around town and his pride made him wanted to be able to leave with his head held high and not have to resort to slipping out in the middle of the night.
His grades were good enough to get him into college but his family didn't have the money to send him. A few schools had come to scout his high school's baseball team but they hadn't been very interested in a back-up outfielder with occasional power. Mason was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to find a way out. Then one day at practice he overheard one of the other guys talk about how he had met up with a recruiter who had literally promised him the world and Mason knew then what he had to do. The day after graduation he drove to the closest Navy recruiting center and signed on the dotted line for a chance at freedom.
Mason knew that being in the military wouldn't be any different than being at home in the fact that he still couldn't tell anybody that he was gay but his plan had been to do his six years and then let the Navy pay for his college education. After that, he could live an open life somewhere that would finally accept him for who he truly was. That plan went to hell the first week of basic training after he met his bunk mate—one Steven J. McGarrett.
Mason had liked Steve from the very moment he met him. They had a lot in common—fathers they couldn't relate to, home towns they could never go back to—and Mason couldn't help but think in the back of his mind too that Steve was an incredibly good looking guy. With years of practice behind him, Mason managed to suppress his lustful feelings in order to build a friendship with Steve. His friend had an air about him that made people want to follow him which was why Mason always knew he'd make a great commanding officer and a fine career naval man. It was Steve's charm that managed to make Mason change his mind about his six and out plan and go to SEAL school instead with his friend. He had been reluctant at first. He had never been a violent person and much preferred to use his words to get out of tense situations than his pistol but the SEALs found value in his ways as did Steve. When McGarrett had been given his first team he had insisted that Mason was a part of it.
They had worked together on the same team for nearly five years which was nearly unheard of amongst SEAL teams and they were a damned effective pair. But eventually Mason had burned out of the lifestyle. He was tired of the secrecy in both his personal and professional lives and knew something had to give. He had considered leaving the Navy all together in order to finally live the life he wanted to but they had managed to convince him to stick around and become a drill instructor which gave him more stability and predictability in his work and the chance for a more normal life. He had accepted, knowing in a way that his leaving the SEALs had hurt his friend in a way.
At that time, Steve didn't understand his desire for normalcy. During many a long night spent together on covert ops, Mason had confided in Steve his deepest secrets including the biggest one concerning his sexuality. It had been an enormous risk to take considering DADT was still in place and all Steve had to do was mention one of their conversations to a superior officer and Mason would have been out of the Navy before he could have blinked. But it was a risk he had been willing to take because he trusted Steve who, as promised, had never outed Mason. He had been totally accepting of Mason being gay but he hadn't understood at the time his desire to have a family. Steve's family was broken and he didn't see himself trying to build a new one with anyone else.
"Why would you want to 'settle down' and get married? I never want to 'settle' for anything. I want to be able to do my own thing without having to worry about how it will affect somebody else." Steve stated as they sat back to back while on patrol one night.
"It's not about settling McGarrett. It's about sharing yourself with somebody else. It's about experiencing things together—the good, the bad and the ugly—it's about the security of knowing there's always somebody out there that's got your back and the comfort of knowing that someone loves you even when the rest of the world seems to be against you. It's about growing old with someone and watching your kids grow up knowing at even when you're gone a little part of you lives on in and through them. Don't you want that, Steve?" Mason explained wistfully. Steve didn't respond but Mason could see the thoughtful expression on his friend's face and knew that he had gotten through to him.
The two men had parted ways some after Mason left the SEALs. He was trying to make a new life for himself in San Diego while Steve was still hunting down bad guys around the world. So when Mason had heard that Steve was not only back in Oahu and had retired from the Navy but was married to another man and had kids of his own, he was admittedly stunned. Steve had always been a bit of a ladies' man when they were in the SEALs so the fact that he was now with a man should have surprised him but Mason really wasn't. He had always wondered about his friend. There had been times that he had thought there might have been a chance for something between them but Mason valued the friendship too much to sacrifice it for anything else. Now it seemed that fate had switched up their hands and somehow Steve had ended up with the life that Mason had always wanted. When Steve had called asking for his help, Mason had gone as much out of curiosity as a desire to help. He had to see who had finally changed his friend's mind.
Mason had to admit that Steve and Danny were good together. They seemed to balance each other out and made up for each other's deficiencies with their own qualities and he couldn't help but root for them to pull through. If they could make it then it gave him hope for him and Andrew. But seeing the way that Steve was treating his partner lately had lit an angry spark inside of Mason. A burning mixture of jealously and disappointment that raged deep in his gut. He had seen how crushed Danny had been when he came home from the hospital and announced that Steve didn't want him anymore and it only added fuel to the fire. His friend was ungrateful for the life he was living—a life Mason had always wanted so desperately. He couldn't just sit back and watch as Steve single handedly ruined his relationship with Danny.
Mason had to do something.