Love, Loss and Despair.
Most of those that were attending Gabriel's wedding from the West Village had left by the time that the groom himself was ready to go. David had left with Thad, Mercedes and Simon five minutes before, having handed his keys to Mitch temporarily. He did not entrust them to Gabriel; he could recall the way that his own head had been in the run up to his own marriage, and he would barely have been able to open the door, let alone set an alarm and lock up properly. As Mitch ensured that the latter was done, Gabriel looked down the street and saw his two best men approaching, but he couldn't help but notice that they seemed to be walking along with far more distance than was normal between them, and there was no sign of Louis' partner, who had been supposed to come with them in the car. It had arrived just moments earlier.
As Mitch headed down to the sidewalk, he instantly noticed that there was a frostiness in the air between the two older men. He wondered what had gone on, but decided it wasn't really his business. "So, Louis," he began, "Will…"
"No, he has gone on ahead," snapped Louis. "He felt that in the circumstances, it would be best for him to travel separately."
"It wouldn't have been an issue for him to come with us," replied Gabriel. "After all, there is plenty of room in the car…"
"Trust me, this is a much better arrangement," said Connor, with a note of venom in his voice, looking everywhere but at Louis.
"Yes, some people do think so," snapped Louis in reply.
Gabriel just looked bewildered, and so it fell to Mitch to intervene. "Right, I don't know what is going on here, and I have the distinct feeling that I really do not want to know either, but the two of you need to sort out whatever the problem is between the two of you before we get to the hotel."
"I am not the one with the problem!" snapped Louis.
"Well, it isn't my fault either!" Connor retorted.
"Right, enough!" said Gabriel, snapping out of his wedding day stupor. "Get in the car the pair of you, and we will try and sort out between us whatever the heck is going on before we reach the hotel, or I will ditch the pair of you for Mitch. I love you guys, but I swear that if we can't resolve this, then I will go to Thad, borrow Mr Bangy, and smack the pair of you with him!"
Mitch held the door of the car open as Gabriel glared at his two friends; Connor climbed in first, with Gabriel next, and finally Louis. Mitch followed, then closed the door, knowing that this was going to be an interesting journey….
David and Thad were standing outside the hotel as the car arrived, and thus were witness to the moment that Louis and Connor jumped out of the car together, muttering that it wasn't funny, as Gabriel and Mitch were howling with laughter in the back seat. Thad just rolled his eyes and shook his head as the groom and his remaining friend climbed out. "So firstly, what is up with those two, and secondly, what is so funny?" he asked as David went after the other two.
"We can't possibly say, as that would be unfair on them," said Mitch in a contrite tone.
"But as one Head Warbler to another, there was alcohol involved, and let's just say that this morning Connor woke up to find himself between a couple."
"He found himself between…" Thad began, then it dawned on him. "Ohhhh! But if nothing untoward happened, then it wasn't an issue surely? Unless of course it did…"
"No, it didn't, but Connor wasn't exactly ecstatic about waking up naked with a naked Louis lying on his chest, and his boyfriend in a similar state spooning him. I mean, there was a scream…"
"Yes, David told me about that. A bit of an overreaction from Connor…"
"Actually, that was Louis when he woke up," said Mitch. "Anyway, all of it together meant that they weren't exactly talking to each other, and of course, when we forced them to tell us why the atmosphere was cold, we might have started laughing…"
"Which had the desired effect of reuniting the two of them against us," said Gabriel. "Of course, this can go no further, and you know nothing."
"Nothing about what?" replied Thad with a wink.
"Right, come on Mitch, I need to see if I still have two best men, or if they are going to be in a huff all day…" said Gabriel, and he and Mitch hastened inside.
Thad stood on the sidewalk, shaking his head, glad that he had ensured that the groom at least had remained as sober as a judge the previous night. He just hoped that the other two would remember their commitment to Gabriel and not be petty. "Oh, they will," came a voice that instantly made Thad smile. "I might have cornered the pair of them and threatened them with Mr Bangy for a second time, plus I suggested I would let everyone know what happened last night," remarked Wes. "That had a remarkable effect; it is all forgotten, at least for now…"
When Louisa walked into her wedding later that day, she had no idea that there had been any kind of issue. Connor and Louis stood happily, side by side, smiling, as Gabriel waited patiently for her to come down to the front of the room and join him with the celebrant. Everything was just as she would have wanted it, albeit several hundred miles from where it had been planned to be. Those that were now present as a consequence of that were pleased to be there; Drew in particular was glad to witness his first Warbler wedding since Sebastian's, and he sat smiling with Ethan and a grinning Evie. They did not notice that Thad was looking at them, knowing now the secret of their sleeping arrangements thanks to a little mouth. He knew that they were only doing it to keep away Drew's nightmares, but others even in their own circle would read other things into it. For his part, all that mattered was that the two of them were happy, and by the way they looked that day, that was definitely the case. He could only hope that would carry on; he could now shift his worry to the young man who lived next door much more fully…
The post wedding party was every bit as successful as the wedding itself. Mercedes had managed to get the hotel to pull all the stops out for the newlyweds; the fact that she was attending, was well known, and had connections to so many influential people had helped her case enormously. The meeting with the events manager had been frosty until the moment that Mercedes' phone had rung; it was David, but she told her that she had to take this call as it was from Isabelle Wright of Vogue, and from then on, nothing had been too much trouble….
Isabelle herself could not make the wedding, although Mercedes had invited her, but she had still agreed to send someone along to take a few photos of the guests, although everyone knew that the only guest that she was thinking of was Mercedes; any event that she attended these days was deemed newsworthy. That someone turned out to be Isabelle's new intern, a young man that was not long off the bus from the small town of Orange, MA. The moment that Isabelle had interviewed him, she was instantly reminded so keenly of someone else that had once held the role, nearly a decade ago….
Gideon Hannaford was a lot like Kurt Hummel in temperament, in character, and in his sense of fashion. He had also been the only out gay kid in his year at high school, but there had been others in the years above and below, so his experience had not been nearly as awful as Kurt's. He had two loving parents and two older brothers that looked out for him; had anyone laid a finger on him in high school, they would have killed the perpetrator. He was taking a year out between high school and college in Boston; he had come to New York at the suggestion of his eldest brother, who was in his final year at NYU. His brother knew that Gideon had always dreamt of living in the city one day, of immersing himself in its atmosphere, and he was in the position to give him a taste of that before he headed to college to study his true love, modern languages.
The position at Vogue had been one that had jumped out at Gideon as he looked for a job to support him whilst he was in the city, and hopefully build up some funds for college, but when he had attended for the interview, he had never expected to get it, given that he was the only man in a room full of glamorous young women. However, he and Isabelle had clicked on site, and within a week he was returning to the offices of Vogue to work, living out another part of his dream, and the envy of several of his former female classmates back in Franklin County. Isabelle had sent him to the hotel with the brief that he was covering the wedding of two young people from Boston, but he had not told her that the bride was actually one of his potential tutors when he headed to college, given that she was a newly appointed senior lecturer in Spanish…
He had not however expected to see Mercedes Jones at the wedding; once he had passed the initial fan boy stage, and regained the professionalism that he needed to have for the job, he had introduced himself to her, and was also made known to the bride and groom. He had taken a few photos and chatted to the happy couple, taking notes about their link to one of the greatest female recording artists of her generation. He did mention his college plans, and that had elicited a smile from Louisa, who made a mental note to look out for the young man in her classes next year. Then she was called away, leaving Gabriel to introduce Gideon to his two best men, who had managed to get over the awkwardness of that morning situation, and finally, he introduced him to Mitch when the latter hurried over.
Mitch had smiled at Gideon, before telling Gabriel that his wife required him on the other side of the room. The groom had grinned, and hurried over, ignoring Connor's quiet "And so his married life begins.." to Louis, who had laughed, until his friend had added "As you will find out when you marry Andy…"; that had given him a little start, as suddenly the thought of marrying his long term boyfriend entered his head, and the prospect wasn't all that terrible…
Mitch took charge of the young reporter, ushering him over to introduce him to David and Thad, the former of which Gideon immediately recognised as Mercedes husband and occasional duet partner. He stood and listened politely as the two of them talked about the newlyweds, and then moved on to the day that David had married Mercedes. Then she appeared again, and that meant Gideon needed to take a few more photos of the three of them, as both halves of the married couple had stopped Thad from walking away.
That done, Gideon headed off to take a few more general images of the guests; even if they were not famous, some were exceptionally well dressed, and he knew that they would fit in well in the pages of the magazine. His eyes however kept returning to Mitch for some reason, and he felt sad when he saw him sitting alone as everyone else formed into small groups to chat. He found his feet heading in his direction, and when he arrived the ever polite Mitch invited him to sit down and join him.
"It will be nice to have some company that isn't hitched or attached, although you may well be the latter at least," Mitch said as the younger man sat down.
"No, I am afraid to say that I am not that fortunate, nor have I ever been yet. I don't feel the need to have someone right now; maybe once I am in college…" Gideon replied with a smile.
"Wow, a young man with restraint; not as unusual these days as it once was though. Me, well let's just say that Louis and I had an arrangement for fun when we were at school together. He left, and I got a girl, but that was over a while ago now… I have to admit that I do find it lonely sometimes, plus people keep saying the word thirty to me all too often now. I still hope that I will be lucky soon and find my special person to spend the rest of my life with…"
Gideon had been looking intently at Mitch whilst he had been talking, and he had to admit that the fact that he had just admitted that he was bi made him happy for some reason, not that he saw the older man that he had just met in that kind of way…or did he? He forced that thought out of his head, then replied, "I know exactly what you mean. At school I was surrounded by people that seemed to have no other topic of conversation other than relationships, and to be frank, it is more or less the same at Vogue. We humans are all just a little too obsessed with them in my honest opinion. I think that it is far more important to be happy in yourself, and that we need to make time for discussions of the more serious things in life, like politics and the environment."
Mitch laughed, then said, "You would fit right in with my old friends and me then. You see that guy over there by the groom? That's Flint, and he works in environmental sciences; he advises one of the biggest corporations in the city on how it can be more conscious of the environment in what it does. Then there is Nick of course; he isn't here, as he works for the UN in human rights law, and is on a secondment to London with his husband right now. Also absent from proceedings today is Trent; he was my roommate at Dalton after Louis left, and he works in DC, and writes speeches for the Oval Office…."
Gideon gawped for a moment, and then replied, "Wow, that is certainly impressive. So when you guys do all get together…"
"We do talk about the real issues of the world. It was something that we were encouraged to do at Dalton; Thad of course went back there after college to teach, and he is now continuing that tradition, ensuring that a new generation is turned out to be the kind of smart, independent thinking people that this country needs in these times…"
"Hopefully when I get to Boston University I will find a circle of friends like that; I do not want to end up in a frat though…"
"None of the guys I went to school with were in one, although we were all asked, with the exception of Nick and his husband Jeff, largely because they were already married by the time that they started at Columbia."
"Really? That is just… they were lucky to find each other so soon. I sometimes wonder if I will ever find someone to love me like that…"
Mitch nodded in understanding, and on a whim, took the young man's hand in his. The moment that he did so he felt a spark, a moment of realisation that Gideon was someone that was going to be special to him. He had heard talk from his friends of the 'soulmates' moment, but he had dismissed it as nonsense until now. He looked into Gideon's eyes and saw the look of surprise and wonder in them. Had he also felt that spark, the warmth that now seemed to be spreading through his body? "I am sure," he said, "that you will find someone like that. He might just appear from nowhere, totally out of the blue, but you will know that he is the one for you…"
"Maybe I have already met him," replied Gideon, "and just don't know it yet; haven't realised just how important he will be to me."
"That could well be the case… Did I mention that I live in Boston? I am quite familiar with the city, so if you needed someone to show you around, or just to talk to when you move there for school, well I would be only to pleased to help."
"I might just take you up on that," replied Gideon with a smile. Yes, Mitch was at least a decade older than him, but he had always been taught that age was just a number. There was just something about the man that he was sitting next to that made him want to befriend him, at least for a start…
The fact that Mitch seemed to be entranced by the young intern from Vogue had not of course gone unnoticed by his friends. Gabriel had been the first to spot it, and had smiled at the way that his friend had been talking to the young man, and then he had witnessed the moment that their hands touched and the way that their faces had changed at that spark. He would later claim that he had seen a flash as it had hit them, knowing what it was like because that was what had happened to him the day he had met Louisa.
Thad had spotted where the newlywed was looking and had followed his gaze. At first he was a little surprised to see the two of them talking, but he gradually realised that this was more than a casual chat; the way that they were sitting in relation to each other was an indicator that this was something more important. He knew that it was the kind of thing that he had felt for Wes, right from the day that he had been introduced to him, the start of a love that death could not destroy… He sighed then, feeling his loss keenly all of a sudden, as he often did at weddings and parties. He looked away then from the new couple, and saw that his soulmate was there, across the room, also watching what was developing intently. Thad excused himself from the table he was sitting at, and headed across to the quiet corner in which the angel stood.
"How are you bearing up, my little one?" Wes asked tenderly. Thad just shrugged and smiled, which Wes knew meant that h felt much the same as he did at that moment in time; happy for Gabriel, but sad for himself.
"On a different note, Wessie, I take it that you have seen what is going on with Mitch?"
"Indeed I have, and I am pleased to say that you have read all of the indicators correctly. That young man is the one that Mitch has been waiting for. They will not have it easy, with the age difference, but all the tribulations they will go through will not matter to them. They just need to be together…"
Gabriel's wedding day would be judged a massive success by everyone concerned. It might not have been in the city they would have wished, thanks to a fire, but everything else had been just as they would have wished. The guests had enjoyed themselves too, which was a bonus. The awkwardness that had existed between Louis and Connor at the start of the day thanks to their drunken antics the night before had been overcome by the end of the day, neither of them wishing to lose a friend over something as trivial as that. It was noted by some however that Connor had only had a sip of the glass of champagne presented to him for the toast, and then abstained from any alcoholic beverage for the rest of the day, just to ensure that he could not end up in the same situation again, even though he had been reassured by Wes, Kurt and Blaine on three separate occasions that nothing had happened….
When the guests that had been staying in the West Village left the following morning, Mitch surprised no-one when he asked if he could possibly stay on for a few extra days, offering to head to the apartment at the end of the street if David and Mercedes had had enough of him. They agreed though that he could stay, largely because they expected that he would be busy elsewhere. As Kurt had also paid a quick visit to Isabelle to let her know of the events between her new intern and Mitch at the reception, Gideon found that after he had given her the photographs and the written up interview notes that he had made, he was told to take a few days off to enjoy himself after working on a Sunday. She had seen the way that he was positively glowing when he stepped in that morning after all.
As for the young man himself, he had been a little embarrassed when Isabelle mentioned that a little bird had told her he had made a new friend at the wedding. He was expecting a rebuke, so to be given time off instead was a massive surprise. He did not know of course that his boss knew Mitch slightly, and was positive that as one of the Warblers, he would never do anything to harm the young man that was standing before her. Gideon had already told her that he had a date for lunch, and so she told him just to go after that; she had watched from her office window as Mitch appeared, well turned out, to take Gideon out to lunch, and it was every bit as clear to her as it had been to everyone else that their connection was strong and immediate. She would spend her afternoon wondering how she could arrange a number of overnight trips to Boston for her new intern without it looking too blatantly obvious that she was trying to match make…
As love began to blossom for Mitch and Gideon, the fall began to show its hand to the residents of New York City. The nights began to draw in, and the weather became cooler and stormier. Raincoats became the order of the day, umbrellas being of little use in the gusty winds. Drew however did not mind the weather as he walked the few blocks from Evie's kindergarten to his office every day; he was just glad to be back at work, doing the stuff that he had such a passion for. He had felt more than a little rusty in the first week, but his employers had made allowances for that, and had given him unfettered access to all the research that had been done both by themselves and their sister company back in Oxford over the last five years. To his surprise and delight, the project that he had been working on when he had been forced to leave by his lovely wife had not been taken up by anyone else, and he was allowed to take it back on. He quickly realised that the progress that had been made elsewhere in those last five years meant that he know had less work to do himself, and to his credit, a lot of the suppositions that he had made back then had been proved correct by other's work.
His working hours were such that he was able to leave in time to pick up Evie from kindergarten all but two days a week; on those days he took advantage of the kind offer that had been made by Dante to help out. So it was that on those two days he would head over to the kindergarten on his walk home, collect the young lady, and spend an hour watching over her until Ethan arrived home. His employer had been kind enough to let him leave a little early those two days to help out, which was no chore really given that he was usually in the office an hour before his fellow employees.
That Dante would happily agree to babysit without any bribe had made Beats and Elliott immensely proud of their foster son; it was just another example of how much he had changed since they had first met him. His academic results had also improved remarkably, which was just the proof they needed for their theory that he had always been smart, but had been dragged down by the negative environment in which he had lived. He took a great pride in his appearance, and had the kind of manners that would make any parent proud. He had also managed to find himself a boyfriend, the son of a stockbroker. Naturally, Lachlan was every bit as polite and well mannered as Dante had become…
It was on one of the nights that Dante collected Evie that the bubble would burst and everything was brought crashing down. Elliott was just arriving home from his early shift at the Spotlight when the phone call came; the insistent ringing had him cursing under his breath, the timing inopportune as he struggled in with several bags of shopping. As he set them down, he expected the phone to stop ringing, which as was ever the case, it did. He did not expect it to immediately start ringing anew, as if the caller had decided voicemail was inadequate, and a response was vital. Elliott answered, and was a little perturbed the moment that he realised that the call was from their usual contact in Children's Services. He knew that there were periodic checks, but the last had been only two weeks earlier, so there wasn't one due for nearly two months. He listened as she talked, and his face fell as she went on. He thanked her for calling in the end, and arranged for her to come and see them the following day…
When Dante arrived home with Evie just minutes later, he kept a massive smile on his face, not repeating her words to his foster son there and then. Dante sensed nothing as the evening came along, but the moment that Beats walked through the door, he realised that something was off. Through the non-verbal communication that all couples developed, he managed to let Beats know that yes, there was something up, but he would tell them later; the ex-Warbler nodded discretely in reply.
As soon as Dante retired upstairs to do his homework, Beats followed Elliott into the kitchen, closing the door behind him. "Okay, so what is up?" he asked lightly. Elliott turned to him, and the moment that he saw tears in his partner's eyes, his heart sunk.
"I got a call; Dante's mom has been found dead. As a result of that, his status has changed in the department. There is every reason to believe that as a result, he will be taken away from us, and there is absolutely nothing that we can do to stop it…"