The boy said nothing more as Noah bathed him gently before putting him to bed. He tucked the slight body in tightly and kissed his forehead as the little eyes stared up at him.

"You sleep well, okay little man?"

The boy nodded, but as Noah rose to leave, the child grabbed his arm and pulled at him to stay.

"Okay, baby. I'll stay here until you fall asleep, alright? There's nothing to be scared of."

Again that familiar little nod.

"I liked it when you said my name today." Noah said cautiously. He didn't want to make too much of a fuss about it, but he also wanted the boy to know what it had meant to him. "Maybe one day you'll say my name again, hey?"

But already the child's eyelids were drooping shut and it took only a minute more before his breathing deepened and his features relaxed.

"Noah?" Jonathan whispered from the doorway, "You look terrible. Won't you please try to get some sleep? Luke will never forgive us if we let you make yourself sick!"

Noah nodded and joined him out in the passageway.

Jonathan looked in at the sleeping child, "What are you going to do?"

"Whatever it takes! I have to find a way to keep him here with me and Luke. It's where he belongs, I just know it!"

"But what about his mother?"

"You know as well as I do she's not out looking for the boy, or we would have heard about it by now! It would be in the local papers in Branson at least! But there's nothing… NOTHING! She doesn't care! She doesn't care about him at all! All she's interested in is where she can get quick cash for her next fix! I mean, you saw her for yourself Jon? What kind of mother has she been to him? The boy is terrified of her!"

"I know… But Noah, no matter how good your intentions are, what you and Luke are doing right now is illegal! And you could be in a lot of trouble! Maddie's really worried about the two of you. And so am I…" He stopped when she noticed Noah swaying. The guy was dead on his feet and over emotional. With this combination there would be no way to reason with him. Instead he patted his shoulder, "Go to bed, okay? Things will feel better in the morning."

Noah nodded. "Thanks. Sleep well."

Noah left him standing in the passage and made his way to the bedroom. He found his phone where he had earlier left it on the bed and checked to see if the police station had called. But there were no messages.

"Luke…" he whispered.

...

By the time she left Noah's place she needed a fix bad!

Michelle had been using since she was fourteen when her Pop's friend dosed her up, so that he could fuck her in the back of his car. He had paid her too, so that's how she learnt to get money. At first she wasn't a regular user… Just at parties… But then Ma and Pop's died and Winston pretty much withdrew, and she found that her appetite, especially for heroin, increased. Eventually she could no longer control when and where she used it. She basically needed it all the time.

Her Ma had left some jewellery, but it was cheap gold and didn't buy her much, so she began whoring a whole lot more than normal. Sometimes it seemed she could never earn enough to buy her the desired amount of the drug. She would break into houses to steal what she could, but even then she always seemed to be in debt to one pusher or another. Sometimes she could pay for it with sex but most of the time they wanted the money. She had been put into the hospital a few times because of it. She'd also been to jail for theft.

She met Paul Harris at a bar and they got high together. He had money and swept her off to Los Vegas for the weekend where they got hitched in some plastic chapel. She thought her ship had come in! They were high together in a five star hotel for a mouth before his parents found them and dragged him off to rehab. He had stolen their cold credit card to pay for his jaunt. That was the last she saw of him.

So by the time Winston returned from his army training she was already a mess and he wanted nothing more to do with her. She knew he paid her the quarterly amount to stay out of his life, but a part of her had always hoped that deep down, it was because he was worried for her. Because he felt in some small way responsible for his little sister. She hoped.

Then one day she noticed how her belly was swollen. She stood sideways to the cracked mirror on the trailer door, swaying because she was still high from her last fix, and frowned at it. She supposed she could be pregnant. She tried to use condoms but sometimes she was so out of it she'd forget, in a hurry to get the job done. Sometimes it was simply a case of the sooner she got paid the sooner she got high.

A trip to the Catholic charity hospital confirmed her fears. Shit! And she was too far along to abort.

They offered to arrange an adoption for the child however over time she had begun to like the idea of a baby. She thought maybe this would help her to feel less lonely. Help her to fix her life. By this point Winston had been paying her for years and she used the money to rent a small one bedroom house in Branson. One of the nuns at the hospital helped her get a respectable job at the laundry mat. The owners weren't happy that she started pregnant, but once she agreed to no maternity payment they hired her on the spot.

The baby came quick and fast on a rainy Tuesday night. She didn't know what to feel for the child. It wasn't as she had expected. He cried a lot. The nuns explained he was addicted to the drugs and would be sick for sometime. They kept him in the hospital at first to watch him, but then eventually they let her take him home. It was a nightmare! She felt guilty for not loving him, but she couldn't force herself to feel what wasn't there. He took up so much of her time and she needed to be out making money or she was behind on her drug payments.

The beginning was the worst because the nuns would check up on her. So she had to make sure he was clean and changed regularly. But eventually they stopped coming and she could let it slide a bit. Just bathing him when the smell became too much in the cramped quarters or to stop him from screaming.

Because of the baby she couldn't go out at night and she started to allow men into the house. She had always avoided this for fear they might one day come back and bother her, which of course some did. She hated the boy even more for this! The baby's bed was in her cupboard so that he wouldn't be seen when her customer's arrived. Sometimes he would start to cry and it would put the guys off! They didn't like that and some would hit her. Her resentment for the boy grew and grew with each passing day.

But it helped that he grew quieter as he grew older. He knew she would only hit him if he cried so mostly he was silent. He never spoke, which she took as a blessing. Once he was bigger she could leave him sometimes with Bill next door. He was a greasy old man but he would do it for sex. That left her free all night to find a trick, get paid and score.

Then last year she didn't get Winston's payment. It wasn't in her account as per usual. She thought that perhaps he had forgotten or made an error, but when she called his number it simply went to voicemail. She left all kinds of threats on there as well as plaintive pleas. Explaining how desperately she needed the money. Please, please, could he help her…? She was sick… very sick… and she needed the money for medicine!

Of course the landlord wasn't impressed when she didn't make her monthly rental and threatened to have her evicted.

"Please! I have a baby? You wouldn't throw a little baby out on the streets, would you?" She had begged him.

"One month! But if I don't get double payment next time you are out!"

One afternoon, a little before her payment date, the boy was gone. She searched angrily for him but he was nowhere to be found. She was actually worried at first. She was surprised by that. But then, she was glad. She felt free. She had her life back and she could do as she pleased.

She felt sure that Winston would make her a double payment on her next due date. So she waited for the day and checked, only to discover that he had definitely cut her off. This time when she called his number all she got was a message to say the service was disconnected.

And that was what had brought her to LA. She'd had to borrow the money for the flight and she shuddered to think how she would pay it back now that she knew Winston was dead.

She stumbled into an alleyway and quickly snorted some cocaine she had in her purse. Her supplies were really low and she was desperate to replenish them before they were finished. There was nothing worse than looking for money when she hadn't had her fix.

...

Noah couldn't remember a time when he'd been so exhausted. His eyes drooped as he removed his shirt and threw it into the laundry basket. He started to unbutton his jeans but he couldn't get the message from his brain to his fingers and eventually he dropped to the bathroom mat, leaning forward and closing his eyes. The tiredness made his body sway. Just a few more minutes sitting like this and he'd be able to change for bed. He yawned deeply.

He could have been asleep, he could have been sitting there asleep for hours, he wasn't sure… but it was while he sat there that he felt the weight of Luke's hands on his shoulders as he steadied himself to kneel behind Noah on the floor. Then his arms wrapped around Noah's neck and their cheeks pressed up against each other. Noah closed his eyes and concentrated on the feel of Luke's solid heartbeat on his back.

"Luke?" he gasped, afraid it was a dream. "Are you really back?"

Luke's hands gripped Noah's chest and he turned Noah's chin to face him so that he could kiss him. "You're trembling…"

The sound of his voice… the feel of his skin…

Noah pulled him closer and kissed him again. Both minds focused in on the join of their lips and Noah's hand grabbed hard onto Luke's forearm. Then he whispered, "I was so scared. I never want to be parted from you… I just want to be with you forever…"

"Noah…" Another kiss; and this time Noah pulled Luke around to lie across him, supporting Luke's head in his hand. Noah's chest burned as though it was their first kiss.

"I missed you so much!" Luke managed to say between breaths, just before Noah's mouth was on his again. And then Luke found himself lying on the floor with Noah's weight pressed on top of him, their tongues deeply engaged, hands finding contact with skin.

Suddenly able to push through the fatigue, Noah lifted himself up to study Luke. He used his fingers to lightly touch his forehead and then cheek and then neck.

"Your hair…" and he bent to kiss Luke's head, "Your eyes…" a kiss on each eye, "Your lips…" a finger smoothed across them, "Your body, your soul, your heart…" a deep, slow and passionate kiss that shook Luke to the core, "… are all mine! You hear me Luke? They're mine!" Noah pulled Luke suddenly up into a seated position and threw his arms around him, holding him tightly and rocking them back and forth. "Say it!" he said in Luke's ear.

"Yes."

"No! Say it! I want you to say it! I need to hear it!"

Luke gripped Noah's shoulders and stared in his eyes, "I'm yours, Noah! All yours!"

"Then let me own you…" It was a shy whisper and before Luke knew it Noah had his shirt off, then his trousers and was kissing his way up his arm. He drew Luke up on his lap and after some quick preparation Luke lowered down onto him, just like that, so that the two of them rowed back and forth together, faster and faster, using their knees as leverage, until Noah had to lean back on both hands during the force of the orgasm, giving Luke access to lick up his chest and bite at his neck.

Leaning back on one hand Noah used the other to grab behind Luke's blond hair and draw their mouths back together, before lowering the same hand to finish him off as they kissed; feeling Luke's body clench against his as he twitched inside of him.

"Noah…" Luke groaned and fell forward to rest his head in Noah's neck. "I love you bubby… so much…"

Noah laid back and pulled Luke over him, closing his eyes tight; his relief at having Luke back home was all consuming. Holding him close like that, after he'd been so unexpectedly taken away from him, felt like perfection.

"Luke…"

"Shh… I know we need to talk, but right now I just want to hold you… Okay?"

Noah nodded, "'kay." His voice was distant and fading.

Luke pulled Noah up and into the shower. They both jolted at the touch of the cold water before it slowly heated up and steamed around them. By this point Noah was a walking zombie. He leaned his body and head up against the cubical as Luke soaped him up and scrubbed him clean. He rubbed the bubbles into Noah's hair and lifted the shower head to rinse the soap off his head and body.

By the time it came to wash himself down, Luke had to do it one handed as the other held Noah up he was so drowsy. He turned off the water and towel dried the man and then himself. Noah stood half asleep on his feet as Luke guided him to the bed. He removed the covers and gently lowered Noah down. Their damp hair would wet the pillows but Luke was too exhausted to care. He crawled into the bed and turned naturally to spoon Noah close, so that their naked bodies coupled as one. It took only a minute before Luke joined him in a deep sleep.

...

She decided the alleyway was as good a place to sleep as any. She sat up against the wall of what turned out to be an Italian restaurant. The food smells made her a little queasy. She had an uneasy relationship with food. She resented having to spend money on it and so she kept it to a minimum. Besides, her customers liked her skinny.

She sniffed another dose of coke and closed her eyes. The coke was a poor substitute for heroin, but it was better than nothing.

Her mind drifted to Noah. Her nephew was certainly a handsome devil! Just like her Pops had been. And of course Winston had always been a looker!

Winston! She felt a sharp pain in her chest and coughed. She was surprised to find herself feeling a little sad about that. There was a time when they had been close… wasn't there?

No more money!

She jolted awake as she remembered her predicament! What the hell would she do from now on? She had to find another source of regular income and at that moment only one name was close enough to her. Only one name sprung to mind…

Noah!

...

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