Prodigal Son – Chapter 7

-O-

DISCLAIMER: I am not connected to Emmerdale and its characters, which belong to ITV.

(I do not speak Italian, so apologies to anyone who does, if I've used any incorrect words. The online forums only teach you a limited amount!)

-O-

Aaron and Jackson stood at the bar while Chas pulled the pints.

"How's Eden since he came out of hospital last week?" Jackson enquired.

"He's getting there," Chas replied, "He's up in his room. I would have told you to go up and say hello, but Franco's with him and I don't like to disturb the two of them."

"He's spending a lot of time with Eden these days, isn't he?" Aaron asked a rhetorical question.

"That man is besotted with my lad," Chas had a goofy grin on her face.

"Funny," Aaron quipped, "I didn't know you could be a fireman after you've had a frontal lobotomy!"

"AARON!" Chas has a disapproving look on her face, "Franco's a nice, decent, well-mannered man. Eden's lucky that someone like him is taking an interest. Eden thinks the world of him. My sons are both lucky in the partners they've found," Chas shot Jackson a warm glance.

"Aww, thanks...'Mum'!" Jackson looked embarrassed.

"I mean it," Chas turned serious, "You turned Aaron's life around and now it looks like, with any luck, Franco might do the same for Eden."

"Are they THAT serious already?" Jackson looked surprised.

"Well, Franco spends all his spare time with Eden, they're pretty much inseparable," Chas placed the drinks in front of the two lads, "Plus, Franco is helping to teach Eden to read again, he's so patient with him...patience of a saint that bloke."

"So, that's another invite for the wedding," Aaron observed, "Eden AND Franco."

"That would be nice," Chas' goofy grin returned, "My two boys and their 'significant others' together at a family event, it doesn't get much better than that."

"You soppy mare!" Aaron teased his mother.

"I might have known you'd bring me down to Earth with a bump," Chas gave Aaron her best withering stare.

A couple of days later, Aaron walked into the Woolpack to find Eden and Franco sitting at a table in the bar. Eden had his plastered leg propped up on a stool while Franco was instructing him in something, "Now, that's the twelve at the top," Franco was explaining as he pointed at the clock on the wall, "the big hand is pointing up at it and the little hand is pointing straight down, so it's..."

"Six o'clock!" Eden said, triumphantly.

"You really can't tell the time, can you?" Aaron looked at Eden in amazement, almost as if Eden had deliberately been misunderstanding the figures on the dial.

"Believe me, Aaron," Franco said, "I wouldn't be sitting here going through all this over and over, if he could, bless him."

"Drink?" Aaron asked.

"Half a lager, thanks," Franco replied, "...and Eden will have an orange juice...he can't have alcohol because of his medication."

"Spoilsport!" Eden replied.

Franco looked at Eden fondly, "You're getting cheeky now: you must be getting better."

"Oh my God!" Eden suddenly had an anguished look on his face.

"What's up, babe?" Franco was concerned for his boyfriend, "Is it your leg?"

"No," Eden looked mortified, "I just had a flashback!" He looked at Aaron, "You were shouting at me...your face contorted with rage...what had I done to make you so angry?"

Aaron returned Eden's stare, "You don't remember?"

"No...but it must have been bad to get you so upset."

"If you really don't remember, then maybe I shouldn't tell you."

"Please!" Eden was desperate to know the truth, "Tell me what it was that I'd done."

"OK," Aaron glanced briefly towards Franco, as if he felt uncomfortable speaking in front of him, "It was when Jackson and me first moved into Dale Head...you made a pass at my husband, then said it was his fault and that he came on to you."

"I did?" Eden sat with his mouth open.

"Yes...that's why I went off on one."

Eden sat, he was deep in thought for a moment, "I can't believe it! What a little shit I must have been! I'm sorry, Aaron."

"Well, I suppose there's no point in worrying about it now, especially as you can't remember what happened."

"That doesn't make it right though, does it? I mean, is there anything I can do to make it up to you?"

Aaron looked at Eden again and jerked his head towards Franco, "Just let this man here guide you and teach you right from wrong, Jackson did that for me once and I'd like to think he changed me from an angry teenaged scally into a half-decent human being."

Franco looked at Aaron, "More than HALF-decent, I'd say," he said warmly.

Aaron did not know what to say and there was an awkward silence: then he walked towards the bar, "I'll get those drinks in."

A little while later, Jackson joined the other three at the Woolpack and they were sitting at a table, chatting.

"So," Jackson looked at the young fireman, "Franco's an unusual name, is it Spanish or Italian."

"It's Italian," Franco replied with a smile that could light up the room, "Franco Marano. My parents are from Italy but I was born over here."

"Can you speak Italian?" Aaron asked.

"Si," Franco answered, "I am fluent in Italian and English."

"Wow, I'm impressed," Aaron looked on all agog, "I can't speak another language fluently."

"Yes you can," Jackson had a smirk on his face, "Gibberish!"

The others laughed as Aaron looked at his husband, "I'll get you later, Walsh!" he said with a hangdog expression.

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Franco looked at the man who was sleeping soundly by his side in the bed. They had just spent their first night together after starting their relationship a few weeks earlier. They had both wanted to sleep together, but Eden had worried about his appearance, with bruises and his leg in plaster, not to mention the aches and pains which wracked his body, although they were easing with time. But, he need not have worried as Franco wanted him regardless and was so gentle with him, afraid that he might hurt him. At twenty-three, Franco had not long come out as being gay and Eden was his first proper boyfriend, but he knew his own mind and for him it had been love at first sight. He actually felt Eden's pain and would have done anything to prevent his accident, but, on the other side of the coin, he knew that if the accident had not happened then they probably never would have got together.

Eden roused and saw Franco looking at him with his lovely brown Mediterranean eyes.

"Morning, gorgeous," Eden smiled. He still had only a vague memory of seeing Franco on the fateful night that changed his life, yet he knew that the young fireman was just about the most beautiful man that he had ever met, not just in a physical sense, but a spiritual one as well.

"Good morning, amore mio," Franco replied in his delicious Italian accent.

Eden, although not understanding a word of Italian, knew that Franco had just said something nice and kissed him lovingly, "I'll have to learn Italian so that I know what you are saying to me."

"I think we'd better get you back up to speed with English first," Franco smiled warmly at his lover, "I'll skip the Italian until you understand it."

"Don't do that! I love hearing you say it: it sounds sexy!"

"Si," Franco joked.

"I know that means 'yes'," Eden laughed, "Did you enjoy yourself last night?"

"Si," Franco repeated, before moving in for another kiss.

Eden was putty in his hands!

"I'm really lucky," Eden stared at the ceiling.

"I wouldn't call being hit by a car lucky!" Franco replied.

"I don't mean that...I mean finding you. You're such a wonderful man and, if I'm to believe what my Mum and Aaron have told me about my past, I don't deserve someone like you."

Franco propped himself up on one elbow, making his muscular bicep bulge, "Yes you do! I don't care what you've done, Eden, it's who you are now, right this minute, that matters to me. I know you regret stealing that money from your mum and making a pass at your brother-in-law. I'm just interested in the person you are now...and he's a gorgeous, funny, loveable guy."

"I could do with you as my press agent! Would you put in a good word for me with Aaron?" Eden looked pensive.

Franco stroked Eden's face, "He'll come round. From what Chas has told me about Aaron, he wasn't an angel when he was younger either! I think that's part of the problem, you're too much alike! Aaron's turned his life around and you can do the same. You've got a head start as you don't remember a lot of it anyway."

"I remember some of it...and it wasn't pretty. But, I will try to be a better person, just like my big brother. Doesn't it even bother you that I was a stripper in a gay bar?"

"Why should it?" Franco tried to allay Eden's fears, "I'll let you in to a little secret: I was a stripper once too! You do what you have to when you need to pay the bills."

"You? A stripper?" Eden looked Franco up and down, "Mind you, you've got the body for it!"

"Thanks!" Franco knew that Eden was paying him a compliment, "But not in a gay bar, I used to do it at hen nights and stuff like that, I used to dress up as 'Sven the Viking', wearing a helmet with horns and stuff. That's when I realised that I was gay."

"What...because you dressed up as a Viking?"

"NO! It was all those women shouting, leering and mauling me about! They were like animals, some of them. That's when I knew that those women's hands on me weren't doing anything for me. But I was having fantasies about other men doing the same thing! I was going to switch to performing in gay venues when I got my fire fighters job, so I packed it in."

"You could have been 'Frank the Fireman'...you've even got the uniform!" Eden giggled.

Franco laughed along with his boyfriend, "I didn't have that when I was a stripper, you dipstick!"

"I never want to go back to doing anything like that again," Eden said solemnly, "I want to become respectable and get a decent job. But I need to study and be able to read and write again. Will you help me?" Eden's pleading blue eyes melted Franco's heart.

"Of course I will, tesoro mio," Franco replied, tenderly.

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Reverend Jude Watson had received the news that he had been waiting for and he was anxious to tell two of his parishioners the good tidings. He arranged to meet Aaron and Jackson at Dale Head later that afternoon.

As they sat in the couple's living room with cups of tea and a Dundee cake, Jude spoke, "I'm glad to tell you that I have the go-ahead from the bishop to perform your ceremony at St Mary's."

"That's great news!" Jackson exclaimed.

"Why is the bishop involved?" Aaron was bemused.

"Well, it's this same-sex law that's been passed. It's not universal and depends on individual churches, whether they want to opt in or out, if you see what I mean," Jude looked almost apologetic.

"Are YOU in favour yourself, personally?" Jackson asked.

"Good heavens, yes," Jude smiled at the couple, "I'm all for two people getting married if they truly love each other and I'm sure that's the case with you two. It's quite exciting for me, St Mary's has never had a same-sex wedding before and it'll be the first one I've conducted...it's quite historic when you think about it. As you're already in a civil partnership, I suppose you could call this a blessing. I do hold those sometimes for couples who want to renew their vows."

"So, it doesn't make any difference to you then, that you'll be marrying two men?" Aaron looked at Jude earnestly.

"Not at all," Jude reassured him, "Like I say, whether it's two men, two women or a man and a woman, as long as the couple want to swear their lifelong commitment to each other in front of God and their friends and family, that's all that really matters. Now, is there anything more you want to ask me?"

Aaron looked at Jackson, but neither could come up with any more questions.

"Well" Jude stood up to leave, "Thanks for the tea, you know where I am if you think of anything."

After Jude had gone, the couple sat on their sofa together. Aaron was the first to speak, "He's alright, that vicar."

"Yeah," Jackson replied, "I expect some village parishes are still against gay weddings, we're lucky our one has dragged itself into the twenty-first century."

"I wonder if Ashley would have performed the ceremony, if he'd still been our vicar?" Aaron mused.

"What's brought this on?" Jackson wanted to know.

"Just wondering," Aaron looked deeply into Jackson's beautiful brown eyes, "We might have had to go all the way to Hotten and then I might have changed my mind and done a runner!"

"Please yourself," Jackson said, indignantly, "You can still call it off and we can get a divorce instead."

"Nah!" Aaron had a smirk on his face that Jackson knew so well, "We've made all the arrangements now...we'd probably have to pay a cancellation fee or something."

"You're a cheeky sod!"

"Takes one to know one," Aaron chuckled.

Jackson turned serious, "I don't have any doubts. I love you and I want every person on this planet to know it."

Aaron, for once, could not think of a sarcastic reply, Jackson's heartfelt speech had taken his breath away, "This is what I want and you know I only do what I want to do. I'm just glad that a brilliant bloke like you wants to be married to a hot-headed Muppet with a short fuse like me. I love you too."

As their lips touched, they felt the spark that was always there: it was stronger than ever.