AN: Hey, thanks all of you again for following this. I know it seems slow but I guess sometimes life is like that. I'm trying a different tatic with Marco in this, probably because I am kinda getting tired of all the fics where he is turned into a sniviling coward, but in most of those the authors managed to work it out so it is good, I don't think I could do that. Blah. Spinner and Dylan are waay too much fun to write. Dylan's mind rambles are the greatest. :P
Disclaimers: I don't own Degrassi: TNG or Star Trek: Voyager.
Part 4: Escape
Another day goes by without any change,
The feeling we live with still remains,
We're stuck in a hole and we're searching for anything to hold onto,
There has to be somewhere that we can be safe from the lives we live each day...
- "Escape"
-----------------------------------
"Welcome to my life as the Dish-Bitch. Please deposit your dirty dishes into the dish tub and
silverware into the suds and all glasses go into the glass-rack." Spinner Mason dead panned to his
visitors to the dish pit of The Dot.
Craig Manning and Jimmy Brooks exchanged looks and tried hard not to laugh. "So, uh, Spin,
your boss just let us back real quick to ask you something." Jimmy started.
Craig paused, staring at the large dish washer that occupied the space beyond Spinner that was
currently emitting a loud whirring noise. "Yeah, we were wondering if you were gonna be able to
make practice today. You neglected to mention that you were, uh, working."
Spinner wiped his forehead; the dish pit, with the dish washer, the running hot water, and all the
manual labor, grew to an unimaginable heat. "Sure, I'll be there, I just got called into help. He
grinned and pointed to a metal square on the floor. "It's grease trap day."
Jimmy eyed the square. "Grease trap? How long is that gonna take?"
"We just clean out the vat that stores the kitchen's grease. All very messy and very gross." Spinner
shuddered. "I suck it all up with a reject carpet vacuum and the smell sticks to everything."
Craig and Jimmy exchange slightly disgusted looks.
"Don't worry. I'll be done soon."
Craig lounged against the glass-rack. "You'll take a shower before you come over, right?"
Spinner laughed as he turned away from his friends to retrieve the vacuum cleaner. "Yeah, yeah.
So have you guys talked to Marco?"
Jimmy shook his head. "Nah, man, we were gonna ask you if you knew where he was. We didn't
catch him after school".
"My guess? Paige's house."
"Why would he be there?" Craig asked in a moment of obliviousness.
Jimmy raised his eyebrow at his friend's slight unawareness. "Dude, Dylan, Paige's brother."
It clicked in Craig's mind. "Oh." it seems as if he had been missing some information during the
Manny-Ashley debacle. "Are they, like together now?"
Jimmy raised his hands in the 'I have no idea' gesture while Spinner suddenly became very
interested in getting ready to suck the grease up.
Craig had never really given it any thought when it had came out that Marco was gay; in the back
of his mind he had always been kind of wondering about him anyway. So in all reality, he wasn't
surprised. But as the events had progressed downhill in the world of sex for himself, he ignored
that facet of Marco. Every now and then Marco would make some comment that would throw his
sexuality into plain view (he was the only guy able to give sensible female emotional advice and
his later scorn to Craig's two-girl relations) but Marco had never outright told him for himself that
he was gay.
After the moment of awkward silence, Jimmy cleared his throat. "Well, Craig and I will swing by
Paige's and see if he is there, otherwise we'll all be at Craig's when you are done."
Craig nodded. "Just don't take too long, man, Ash is coming over later so I'm gonna need you all
out by, like, 7-ish."
Spinner and Jimmy both turned to stare at him, "Ash?" Spinner asked.
Craig nodded, fighting to stop the spreading of a smug smile. "Yeah, she's coming over for dinner,
then we're working on that project."
"Yeah, I heard about that," Jimmy motioned to the door so that they could get on their way. They
both waved to Spinner before Jimmy continued."so there isn't going to be any bloodshed tonight
right?"
"I hope not." Craig walked up to the passenger side of Jimmy's new car."So I know you just got
your licence and your parents got you this nice car, but you can drive, right?"
"Safest driver in Degrassi." Jimmy boasted as they both climbed in. Loud hip-hop blasted through
the speakers as Jimmy turned the key in the ignition. "Now lets run over to Paige's and find our
bassist."
"Just don't kill me."
----------------------------------------------------------
Dylan Michalchuk was starting to grow slightly stir crazy. Paige, Marco, and he were all home
from school and they all were holed up in separate rooms, pointedly not talking to each other. He
could guess why Marco was choosing the isolationist route, but Paige's behavior was strange
to him. Had he missed something at school?
He sighed and stared some more at his ceiling. He was currently laying half sprawled on his bed
with his left leg and arm dragging on the floor. He collapsed in that position when he forced
himself upstairs when he had first got home and he hadn't moved since then. His back was starting
to ache.
Not that he was on his way to being future Canadian Gay-Hockey-star Therapist or anything, but
he was fairly sure something needed to be done about what he privately called 'The Marco
Situation'. The way Marco was closing off was beginning to alarm him.
Well at the moment, he had three choices. One was to go straight to the problem, himself, and
talk with Marco. The second choice would be to talk things over with Paige and get her
information. And then there was the ever popular third option and stay in his bed and get a gimpy
back.
He could see it now; laying in his bed, ruminating over Marco and his parents-from-Vatican-Hell
would lead him to contract some sort of crazy back-cramp disease from his prone position. Then
he would never be able to stand up correctly ever again and therefore destroying any chance for
him to go pro and probably adding even more ammo for the students at Degrassi to make fun of
him and forever to be remembered as the Gay-Gimpy Geek. Well Gay-Gimpy Geek was better
than Creepy Cripple or Hobbling Homo (well that one had a certain ring to it) maybe even
Hunchback Homo-chuk and his personal favorite: Fumbling Fag.
Dylan groaned as he realized that he was mind rambling. For all of his carefully cultured
appearance of calm, Grade 12 jock (who happened to like other boys) he really was a big dork on
the inside. (He had yet to even admit to Paige that he was addicted to Star Trek: Voyager reruns
that sometimes aired)
So there he was back at his original dilemma. Talk to boyfriend (?), sister, or do nothing.
Well the nothing option was out. His back was starting to hurt pretty badly. Dylan knew he
needed to move to relieve the pain and by doing that he would crossing out option three.
"Get up, Hobbling Homo and do something." he muttered to himself. The cracks in the ceiling
were looking pretty nice today. Maybe laying here and getting back cancer wasn't such a bad
idea.
"You're afraid of a grade 10..." he sing-sang to the silent room. Now along with losing the use of
his back, he was developing a sudden case of schizophrenia. Talking to one's ceiling was not
productive.
Psycho Paraplegic Pouf. Dylan had to laugh slightly out loud at that one. He really was a Grade
12 loser.
Moving slightly he grabbed for his remote control. There was always the unexplored Fourth
option.
Wonder if any Star Trek: Voyager was on.
-------------------------------------------------------
Marco del Rossi, totally unaware that in the next room Dylan Michalchuk was worrying about his
well being (and the possibility of becoming permanently disabled), was trying to get some
homework done. He had luckily grabbed all of his school books when he had made his late night
flee so he could keep up with his charade of normalcy.
Unfortunately Castro's Cuba, Khrushchev's Soviet Union and Kennedy's US was not keeping his
attention. Sure there was the whole threat of the end of the world and the onset of nuclear winter,
but his mind kept wandering.
Throwing his book on the floor, Marco gave into temptation and started to pace back and forth.
All day he had tried to keep his emotions in check; emotions that were threatening come breaking
through his carefully crafted wall.
Now he let those emotions leak through.
Why?
Why did they have to react that way?
Marco flopped back onto the guest bed and rubbed at his eyes. He was dead tired. Maybe if his
parents hadn't yelled at him for so long then maybe he wouldn't have had to waste half the night
walking over to the Michalchuk's.
Could it have hurt them, to suspend their rigid Catholic beliefs just for a moment and accept him?
They aren't back in history like the era that his project was from, things were more accepted now.
Why couldn't they be like that?
His train of thought was derailed for a moment when the phone rang. He automatically reached
for it but his hand stalled when he remembered that he wasn't in his own home.
The phone stopped ringing after a few minutes, Paige probably got it or something. Once again,
that feeling of being one step removed from everything pervaded his mind.
At times it felt like he wasn't living his own life anymore.
He groaned out loud and retrieved his book from where it had fallen. God, he was getting
depressing.
------------------------------------------------
Paige Michalchuk stared at the phone receiver in shock. After months of waiting, everything she
ever feared and secretly campaigned for was coming to head.
That had been her attorney. The rape case against Dean was given the go ahead. He had been
hesitant about taking her case with the obvious lack of physical evidence, but after talking with
the Degrassi guidance counselor and receiving the notes on the six months of meetings with
Paige, he had apparently found enough to proceed to trial.
Even if she lost her fragile case, that wasn't the point, she wanted to scare Dean so it never would
happen again.
But he had warned her that it was going to be a hard road ahead. She was going to have to relive
everything about that night. Not to mention, she would have to deal with Dean's defense team
and their efforts to paint her in the negative light.
These were some trials that were ahead of her, he had warned, so she needed to be strong.
In the back of Paige's mind, fear began to grow.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Ellie Nash had been staring at her math supplies for the last ten minutes. Within her mind she had
been waging an on going battle to retrieve her compass or not. If there had ever been a time to
cut, this was it.
Yet the voice of Ms. Suave reverberated in her mind reminding her that cutting was not a way to
deal. The urge and the knowledge warred inside.
Her dad wasn't dead, she had to keep telling herself that. He still was alive and he was going to be
sent home now. She was sure of it.
She really needed to talk to a friend now. Taking a guess he picked up the phone again and dialed
a set of unfamiliar numbers.
A sullen voice answered. "Michalchuk residence."
Paige. "Hey, this is Ellie. I was wondering if Marco was there." he clearly wasn't at his home
anymore, so this was a logical place for him to turn to.
"How did you know he was here?" Paige sounded confused now, the strange depressed tone
slipping from her voice. "I thought he hadn't told anyone yet."
Ellie raised an eyebrow even though the effect was lost over the phone. "Told anyone what?" now
she took another stab in the dark. "That his parents kicked him out?"
"Yeah. He was keeping it quiet for now, at least I thought he was." Paige let out a long sigh.
"Though I'd doubt he'd keep it from his best friend."
"Yeah..."
"I'll get him for you." Ellie heard Paige set the phone down and silence took over. So her
suspicions had been correct; Marco had been tossed out.
A few minutes ticked by until she heard some fumbling and then Marco came on. "El'?"
"Marco." was all she got out before the tears finally came. She had been strong for her mother,
she had held it in while she forcefully turned down the urge to reopen old wounds, but hearing her
friend's voice allowed it all to break out.
"El'! What's wrong? What happened? Is it your mom?" Marco's voice came in a rush over the
connect. "Sean? Did he do something? I'll kill him, I swear, I knew he was bad news-"
"No!" Ellie stemmed Marco's flow of accusations. "No, it's not Sean." she pulled the phone a
way for a second while she wiped the tears away and blew her nose. "It's my dad."
Marco was quiet for moment. "What happened El'?"
"He was hurt."
"Hurt? How? I thought you told me he had been transferred to Kuwait."
"I guess he had one more mission and entered Iraq and there his convoy was attacked." Ellie
sniffed. "He lost a leg, at least that's what my mom told me."
"Oh God, Ellie, I am so sorry. Is there any news on if he is coming home?"
Ellie shook her head before she realized that she was on the phone. "Uh, not that I've heard. But I
think they'll send him home. At least...at least I hope."
"Don't worry about it El', he'll be home, I know it. Thing's are gonna be okay."
"Thanks, Marco."
"No problem."
"Marco?"
"Hmm?"
"What happened with your parents."
There was a silence over the phone.
"What do you mean?" Marco's voice took on a dead tone to it, much like the looks and shrugs
she had been receiving from him all day.
"What I mean is that I didn't know instinctively that you were at Paige's and not at your house. I
tried there first and I got the 'I have no son' response from your dad. What gives?"
She heard a sharp intake of breath over the line. Maybe that was a little too harsh to repeat but
she had a feeling that Marco would be stubborn about this touchy subject.
"What do you think happened, Ellie?"
"I don't know, tell me."
"Look, Craig and Jimmy are here. I gotta go now."
"Marco, tell me. I needed to talk about my dad, you need to talk about this. It must be tearing you
up inside."
"What do you know about how it feels?" he snapped.
"More than you'd think!" she snapped equally back at him. She knew what kind of mood this
was, it was like the time after he had been bashed. He was escaping into himself and not allowing
anyone in.
When had this conversation worked its way around to her helping him?
"Ellie, drop it. I'm going now. We're going to have band practice. Ciao." she heard the dial tone
in her ear as he hung up.
He just escaped from her.