Chapter 10.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Fosters. I do own the character of Daniel Evans.
AN: FINALLY! The chapters are in the double digits. In this chapter, we introduce another OC, who MIGHT become Danny's love interest. This OC will throw Danny and the others for a loop when his identity is revealed...
Danny's POV:
It's the first day back at Anchor Beach after we were attacked. It's kind of hard to believe it's only been two days, and three nights since it happened. It seems like it's only been an hour.
Connor, Jude and I slept at Jude's house the night it happened, and my place the night after. We slept at Connor's last night. It's almost like we're scared to leave each other's company now. Kind of makes me glad that Jude and Connor's classes are all the same, and that they are in three of my six classes.
Jude hasn't slept well since it happened. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. The bags under his eyes are growing. Every night, he woke up from a nightmare and every night, Connor or I comforted him and helped him get back to sleep.
Stef, Lena, Connor's dad, and my parents felt it would be good if we continued our lives as if the ambush never happened, and to let them worry about it. We agreed. We walked to school together. We walked into Anchor Beach at 7:00 am, just like we had done countless times, but this time it was different. This time, we were being watched. Everybody was staring at us as if we were time bombs with a timer stuck on one second left.
"I can tell already, that the staring is gonna get bloody irritating." Connor growled as he noticed.
I looked at him with a strange look.
"You're hanging out with me too much," I joked, "You're both starting to sound like me."
Jude snorted, before he returned to his new favorite activity: glaring at everybody.
That's one new thing Connor and I've learned about him recently. When Jude doesn't sleep well, he IS a ticking time bomb. Connor joked that it's kind of good to know that after dating him for two years he can still find out new things about him.
We made it to lunch without me or Jude killing anybody. We were all walking along talking. I was walking backwards chatting away with them about a stupid assignment from my French class.
I turned back to look in front of me when I collided with a solid object.
"Dammit. Why do I always knock people down when I'm not paying attention?" I growl. I look down at the poor bloke I'd just ran into. I shook my head and knelt down to help him collect his things.
"That's not always a bad thing." Connor said.
"Yeah, that's how you met us. That turned out alright." Jude finished his boyfriend's thought.
"I'm so sorry mate." I tell the strange boy. I try to study his face, but his blond hair was covering his face, "I wasn't watching where I was going."
"That's fine." He said, "I wasn't watching where I was going either."
I could hear a slight southern accent in his voice. I handed him his books, and he shook his hair out of his face, and I leapt back away at what I was seeing.
Blonde hair.
Pure blue eyes.
Small, goofy smile.
I gasped.
"Bloody hell."
The guy looked at me funny, before turning his attention to Connor and Jude, who were also gawking at him.
This guy looked ridiculously like Giddy.
"Did I do something?"
"NO!" I yelped, making the poor kid jump, "Sorry. No, you didn't do anything. You just look... you look remarkably like somebody I used to know. It's uh, it's uncanny actually."
"Sorry." He said.
"Stop apologizing, mate. You've done nothing wrong. " I tell him softly, before standing up. I reach out a hand to him, "Lets getchya back on your feet, yeah?"
He accepts my hand and I pull him to his feet. I offer him a small smile.
"Thanks." He says, offering me a small smile, "It's good to know that, uh, not everybody here is as unpleasant as the people on the bus on the way here."
"You'll get used to it, I did." I tell him, "These two were the first two people I spoke to. Ran into them and nearly knocked one of them over, just like I just did you."
He laughed.
Good god. He even laughs like Giddy did.
I couldn't help but smile back.
"Oh, uh sorry." He said, holding his hand out to shake mine, "The name's Harrison. Harrison O'Reilly. You guys can call me Harry."
"Name's Daniel. That's Connor, and his boyfriend Jude." I tell him, accepting his handshake, pointing to Jude and Connor in turn. He shakes their hands as well, offering them a small smile.
"Are all three of you..." Harry asked awkwardly, "Gay?"
"Yeah." Jude says defensively. Harry smirks.
"My parent's would be pissed if they knew I was talking to you three." He says, "Good to know I'm among friends."
I nod at him.
"Homophobic?"
"Huh." Harry snorted, "I don't know. Does sending their adopted son to the other side of the country to live with his step-uncle so they don't have to deal with him after he came out count as homophobic? If so, then yeah. Extremely."
Connor growled. Harry jumped.
"Sorry." Connor said to him, "Homophobes are one thing I can't stand."
"I should fly you guys out to Georgia and visit them, then." Harry said, "They would have an aneurism if they met you three. I mean, they go through all the trouble to adopt a baby from another country, then dump him 15 years later for something so stupid. They deserve everything that comes to him."
"Yeah." I said, smiling at him, "Uh, do you want to sit with us?"
"Yeah, sure."
We all went and sat at our table, Harry sitting next to me. We enjoyed each other's company. Harry had a great sense of humor.
After school we met up with him again, and Harry called his uncle and told him he was coming over to my house with us. We walked there and I noticed that the place looked empty. We walked inside
"So what about you?" Harry asked me, "You mentioned that they were boyfriends. You're a good looking guy, you have anybody special?"
I froze and stared at him for a second before shaking my head once.
"No. Not anymore." I said stiffly.
"I'm sorry, that was rude of me to ask."
"No it's fine. Don't worry. That's actually why you startled me so much." I confessed. He cocked his head to the side.
"Whaddya mean." Harry asked.
"It's just... well... you look really similar to him." I said, reaching into my pocket and pulling out my wallet. I withdrew the photo of Giddy and I together before he got sick. I handed it to Harry, who took it.
"See?" I say to him.
He looks at the photo, and gasps. His hand starts shaking and he sits the picture down on the table. A single tear falls down his cheek.
"His name was..." I started to say...
But I was cut off by Harry.
"Gideon."
My head whips around to look at him, my eyes wide. Jude and Connor were staring at him, their eyes as wide as mine.
"Gideon Kennedy." He whispered, and another tear fell. He blinked it away.
"How did you know that?" I ask him quietly. He looked me up and down, his eyes widening in recognition.
"I knew you looked familiar." He said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. He handed it to me, and I unfolded it.
It was an exact copy of the photograph I had handed him.
"How do you have this?" I ask him sharply.
He looks at me cautiously.
"HOW?" I ask him again, starting to panic slightly. He sighed, before sniffing and wiping his tears away.
"That's the only picture I have of my twin brother." He said quietly.
I gape at him. I stand up and turn to look out the window. I run a hand through my hair. Connor and Jude moved to stand next to me. They could sense that I was close to a breakdown.
"Twin Brother?" I stutter, "Giddy was your twin brother?"
He nodded slowly.
"How the hell did you end up in Georgia?"
"I've been here since I was three months old. My birth parents weren't very financially stable when we were born, and they could only afford to keep one of us. So they put me up for adoption. This American family adopted me within like, a month. Then they moved back to the States. I never actually met him, Gideon. I never even spoke to him. He used to write me letters. He sent me this picture. He talked about having somebody special. Never mentioned your name though. I was ten when I received the first letter. He wrote continuously for a couple of years. The last letter he sent, he said he was sick. Probably wouldn't write again for awhile. About a year and a half later my step-parents tell me he's dead. 'Good riddance' they said."
I sat down next to him, and put my hand over his and squeezed.
"You were who he was writing to all that time."
He looked up at me.
"What did he die from?" Harry asks. I stare at him for a second before answering.
"Cancer." I tell him, "Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. That's what the doctor's called it."
I reached into my pocket and once again, extracted my wallet. I pulled out the other photo and handed it to him.
"This was taken a week before he... before he died in my arms." I tell him.
Harry choked back a sob, reaching out and pulling me into a hug.
"Was he in a lot of pain?" He asked me.
"Yes, but he died in bliss." I tell him, crying softly. Harry pulled back and looks at me questioningly through tear filled eyes, "He died during our first kiss. I wanted to wait until he was better, but it was obvious he wasn't going to get better, so his last request was to kiss him once before he died. I couldn't refuse."
Harry started sobbing harder and pulled me back into a tight hug.
"I'm so sorry." Harry quietly said to me.
I open my mouth to try to respond, but nothing came out.
"He said in his last letter, that he found his true love, and as long as he had you at his side, he'd be okay. He told me that he hoped I would find that someday too." Harry said, barely holding back tears, "He sounded like such a nice guy. I wish I could have met him."
"He would have liked you," I tell him through my own tears, "He would have loved you. I can tell you that much. He was such a great guy. He was so kind, so compassionate. He would give his last scraps of food away if meant somebody else wouldn't starve. He had a light in his eyes, that I can see in yours too. He really didn't deserve to die so young. We can only hope he's up there watching us."
"I hope so too." Harry choked out.
I sat there, just hugging him, trying to comfort him.
"I could tell you more about him, if you'd like." I offered through my, "I've got fourteen years of wonderful memories of him that I could share with you."
Harry looked at me and nodded, smiling through his tears.
"Yeah. I'd love that. It would make me really happy to have you as a friend." He sobbed into my shoulder, before pulling back to look me in the eyes, "I am really glad that he had you. It does my heart good to know that he somebody so special to look out for him."
I started sobbing too.
"Thank you." I tell him through my sobs, "That means a lot to me."
AN: Another chapter where I sobbed during its writing. Leave in your reviews whether you think Danny and Harry should end up together, and why or why not. If yes, how should it happen?