Unexpected Invitations
Part 1/1

Disclaimer: I do not belong the characters or anything else you recognize in this fic. Passions belongs to NBC, JER and a couple of other people, I'm sure. I am not making any money off of this. I write fanfic purely for pleasure, although I'm not opposed to receiving feedback :)

Posted: Thursday, May 8, 2003

Summary: Noah receives an invitation in the mail.

Note: Marissa beta'ed this for me. Any lingering mistakes are my own.

This story takes place shortly before Charity and Miguel's first attempt at a wedding (I'm sure there will be others). Obviously, this is not how the events played out on the show. I'm also quite sure that my characterization of Noah Bennett is not anything like NBC and the Passions producers/writers imagined. Tough. For those of you who are sensitive about that sort of thing, this is slash, although I don't like using that name. I prefer to think of it as two guys in a relationship together. Alex is an OC.

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When Noah woke up, he was cold. Instinctively he reached for the covers, but his hands grasped at nothing. Alex had stolen them during the night. Again.

Yawning, he stretched and ran his fingers through his hair, deciding that he might as well get up. Not bothering to be overly quiet - after all, if Alex hadn't stolen the blankets, Noah wouldn't be up yet - he went into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. Alex, Noah had quickly learned after moving in, was one of those individuals who could not function before having vast amounts of caffeine in the morning.

He didn't truly wake up until his first sip of coffee and wryly acknowledged that Alex was having a great influence on him. With the mug in his hand, he went out to get the morning's paper as well as the mail they had neglected to pick up the previous day. When he got back, Alex was up.

" 'Morning," he said, sorting through the mail, dropping the stuff that looked like junk directly into the garbage and opening the rest.

Alex nodded sleepily as he made a beeline for the coffee pot. "Anything good?" he asked.

"That depends," answered Noah. "Do you count my Visa bill as good? But look! We may have already won a million dollars! That'll cover it for sure."

"Anything other than bills and junk?"

Noah quickly flipped through the rest of the envelopes. "A couple of Christmas cards. Your parents sent one." He frowned slightly. "Mine, too."

"So what's new in Harmony?" Alex asked, sitting down at the table opposite Noah. He took a sip of his coffee.

"Shouldn't you be more curious about what's happening in your own family instead of mine?" Noah asked, staring at the envelope so intensely that it felt as if he were trying to see through it. However, since he wasn't being successful, it looked as though he hadn't miraculously gained x-ray vision overnight. It was addressed to Mr. Noah Bennett only; they still weren't acknowledging Alex even though the two of them had been together for over two years now.

"Unlike you, I actually talk to my family. I don't need the annual mass-produced letter to tell me what's going on."

"I don't talk to my family because they can't accept who I am," Noah said. "Your family, on the other hand, is great. They're always supportive."

"Did your family kick you out?" They had gone through this before. Alex waited for Noah to reluctantly shake his head no before continuing. "Did they disown you?" Again Noah shook his head. "Then you're already heads above some of the guys we know."

"My mother, when I told her, her first reaction was to cross herself."

Alex stopped short - the shock on his face would have been visible to even someone who didn't know him half as well as his lover did.

"You never mentioned that part before."

Noah shrugged. "It's not my favourite memory. I don't like to talk about it. Afterwards, she wondered where she'd gone wrong, what she'd done wrong, to have a child like me. It's a sin, you know. She was trying to set me up with girls the very next day. I'm still not sure whether she's in denial or whether she thinks if I just go out with a girl, I'll 'recover'. My dad was a bit better. Though he was wanting me to go out with girls, too. Said I might just be confused, and there was no hurt in trying. My dad . . . well, he's not homophobic, but he's definitely not comfortable with the idea. Not just of me, but of anybody."

"My parents were uncomfortable at first, too," Alex told him. "Okay, so it wasn't for as long, and they didn't react as badly as your mom did, but part of that was because I talked to them. I stuck around and they got used to the idea. You took off."

"I was already moving out," Noah argued.

"But you haven't gone back since."

"I've been busy."

"You could have made the time."

"So could they."

"They called."

"They didn't talk."

Alex sighed. "Fine. I'm not trying to say they're not at fault. Open the card," he urged. "Maybe they've asked you to come home this Christmas. We don't have anything planned."

Trying to ignore the lump in his throat, Noah opened the envelope, then scrunched his face up in confusion.

"What?" Alex asked. "What is it?"

"It's an invitation," Noah said slowly. "To a wedding."

"Who's getting married?"

"Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald. He was my sister's best friend. Practically grew up at our house. But why would my parents be sending this? Why wouldn't he?"

"Maybe he didn't have your address," Alex suggested, although they both knew this wasn't likely the answer.

"In that case, he would've just asked. Wait a sec - my parents are hosting it."

"You sure?" Alex asked. "Did something maybe happen to his parents? You said he practically grew up at your house."

"I'm not that far out of the loop. I would have heard if something happened to Pilar." At Alex's blank look, he elaborated, "Miguel's mother." He looked down at the invitation again and read aloud, " 'Mr. and Mrs. Sam Bennett are pleased to invite you to the wedding of Charity Patience Standish to Miguel Columba Lopez-Fitzgerald on December 24, 2002.' Charity Standish . . . " Suddenly Noah remembered where he had heard that name and felt like an idiot for not figuring it out sooner. "Of course. My cousin. She lives with my parents; hers are dead."

Alex raised his eyebrows in amazement. "You don't know your own cousin's name, your cousin who lived with you?"

"Never met her," Noah explained. "Didn't even know she existed until her mom died and she moved in with my parents - none of us did. She's Kay's age - Kay's my oldest sister. I guess that would make her eighteen or nineteen now."

"A bit young," Alex said mildly, draining the last of his coffee and going to the counter for more. He brought the coffee pot back with him and filled Noah's cup, too.

"Thanks. Well, the Lopez-Fitzgeralds were always very religious, and if Aunt Faith was anything like my mother, Charity would be very religious, too. Not having pre-marital sex always makes people anxious to marry young."

"See," Alex said, "that's why I'm an atheist."

"Oh, yes. You've sung the praises of atheism to me hundreds of times before."

"It's not like you go to church more than once or twice a year, anyway," Alex reminded him.

"I figure that I went at least once a week for eighteen years of my life," replied Noah. "I've paid my dues."

There was a pause in the conversation until Alex gazed at him intently and said, "So . . . "

Noah looked back at him in puzzlement, wondering what Alex was waiting for, what he was expecting Noah to do or say. Finally, when no more information was forthcoming, he asked, "So what?"

"Are we going? We're free, you know. Julia's going to New York with her new boyfriend, so my parents moved our dinner to the twentieth this year."

"I don't think so," Noah said, pushing the invitation aside. He started to open the other Christmas cards to make sure that they were, in fact, Christmas cards.

"Why not?" Alex pushed.

"It's a bit last moment, isn't it? I mean, it's a couple weeks. We could've had plans. I know we don't, but they don't, do they? Besides, I don't even know her." It sounded like he was grasping at straws, even to himself.

"If you don't want to go, just say so. But cut the crap. They're your parents. They made the first move and you can either take them up on it, or you can continue living your life cut off from your family." Angrily, he pushed himself up from the table. "I'm having shower now."

Noah bit his lip at the reproof, feeling childish and cowardly, which was exactly what his boyfriend had been going for. He picked up the invitation again and stared at it. In the background, the water for the shower was running and his coffee was getting cold.

Alex was right - at least about this possibly being the only chance to make up with his parents. He was wrong about it being a conscious first move towards reconciliation on his parents' part. Noah was invited because he was family and you invited family to weddings. His mother wouldn't dream of not inviting her son, gay or straight. What would the neighbours think?

Still, Alex was right. They were his family and he could practically count on one hand the number of times he had talked to them on the phone since he moved out four years ago. He called them at Christmas and they called him on his birthday. The one time that had varied was when he had called to tell them he was moving in with Alex. His dad had answered, his voice gruff when he took down Noah's new address and phone number. His mom hadn't been home, but his dad had promised that he would get her to call him back. She didn't.

Alex couldn't understand Noah not being able to get along with his family. His own was so close that he couldn't imagine anyone not having the same thing. They talked on the phone several times a week and got together at least once a month. For Noah not to have seen his parents for four years was foreign to Alex. It was a big part of the reason why he was always at his partner to make up with his parents.

And if Noah was being honest with himself, he missed it. He spent time with Alex's family and, as much as he loved being with them, it couldn't be the same. There he was the in-law, not the son.

But could he even ever have what Alex had with his family? His parents weren't like Alex's. They wouldn't accept him for who he was.

"And how do you know that?" Alex's voice asked in his mind. "You ran right after you told them. You haven't given them a chance to accept you."

He was right. Alex was right. He was running.

Noah stared down at the response card for a few more minutes. Then he found a pen and filled it in.

Name: Noah Bennett
Guest: 1