A/N: Okay not so much of Emma and Aaron in this chapter but I need this chapter so I could get on with telling their story without any confusion. I'm gonna throw a couple of these chapters in occasionally. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise; only the characters I've made up myself.

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Chapter 7: Jack and Ryan

When Paul returned to the room he was hounded by questions as to why Jack and Ryan had left. He shrugged them off by saying, "People with issues. Speak to Logan."

Everyone turned to Logan who replied, "A gay guy and a Homophobe. Not a good mix."

"Ryan's not homophobic," said Paul. "He's Jack 2 years ago, me 3 years ago."

"Are you trying to say that my brother's gay?" asked Jamie angrily.

"Yeah, well, if he's not then my gaydar's not workin'," replied Paul sarcastically.

"It must be broken then cos' my brother is not gay," Jamie replied getting angrier by the minute.

"Come on Jamie, you know he is just as well as Natalie and I do," said Aaron.

"Some psychologist you're gonna make Logan," said Erica somewhat randomly. "You can't even tell the difference between someone who is homosexual and homophobic."

"Correction, Erica, I am a psychologist in training. Even Freud made mistakes," he replied.

"What the hell are we gonna do if Mom finds out?" asked Jamie.

"Well it's only a matter of time, seeing as he and Jack are getting cosy on that stupid garden swing his mother insisted on buying," replied Paul.

"What! Right Now! They've only just met!" exclaimed Jamie.

"I'm only kidding! But they are out on the garden swing. However, Jack is far too hung up on me to think about seeing someone else," he said.

"Says Mr Modest," said Emma. "Ryan is coming to terms with too much stuff at the moment, he's not gonna want to do anything with Jack."

They all looked at one another in agreement before Erica said:

"Yet."

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Meanwhile, downstairs the older members of the family were surprised at how much they were getting along with Janice, even Joey who was deep in conversation with Janice at the dinner table about his new movie.

"Is it just me or was Janice kinda normal tonight?" asked Phoebe.

"I thought she seemed nice," said Mike. "Wasn't she always like that?"

"No, no-no-no-no-no-no-oo," replied Chandler. "And did I mention NO!"

"I don't know why you're going on about how she's so bad. We were the ones who had to put up with her, you went out with her!" stated Ross quite matter-of-factly.

"Uh, Ross, honey so did you," added Rachel.

"Ha, see, you have just as bad taste in women as I do!" said Chandler triumphantly.

"Um, bad taste in women was that Chandler?" said Rachel.

"Comparing us to Janice were you, Chandler?" added Monica.

"Of course not! I…um…so are you excited about the wedding?" he asked.

"Yeah I suppose so. I mean they are quite young but if they're happy I'm happy." replied Ross.

"Is it just me or are Joey and Janice being very cosy this evening?" asked Phoebe.

"Yeah, I thought I was imagining things. I mean they're actually flirting," said Rachel.

"They're not flirting!" said Monica, "I mean they're just talking and she's stroking his hand and he's feeding her leftover lasagne… A stop must be put to this!"

"Hey Joey, Janice, why don't you join us, we're just talking about Ross becoming a Grandpa!" shouted Chandler.

Somewhat reluctantly Joey and Janice joined the rest of the group.

"So, Ross how do you feel about being a Grandpa?" asked Mike trying desperately to stifle a laugh at Chandler's expense.

"I suppose it's a little weird but cool at the same time." replied Ross.

"Does that make Rachel a step-grandma?" asked Janice.

"Yeah I guess it does." Rachel replied.

Chandler began laughing at the thought of Ross and Rachel as grandparents when he was interrupted by Phoebe.

"At least he knows his son's not gay!"

"See now Phoebes, that's not strictly true because my father's gay and he married my Mom so he could be."

"Please don't say that," said Ross. "That's just too weird."

"So is Jack gay?" asked Janice.

"No we just like to make Chandler think that he is," replied Monica sarcastically.

"You know I normally get vibes like that from people but I didn't get that from him!" said Janice sounding very shocked.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Chandler didn't know until yesterday," said Monica.

"So what's it like having a gay son?" asked Janice.

"He's pretty discreet so we wouldn't really know, why?" asked Monica.

"Because I think Ryan might be gay and he's been outside with Jack for a while now." she replied.

"I'm sure they're just talking. I don't think you have anything to worry about," said Rachel unconvincingly.

"Anyway, Jack's dating Paul isn't he?" said Mike.

"Nope," said Ben who had just come downstairs.

"What do you mean 'Nope'?" asked Chandler.

"They broke up a couple of months ago. They're far better apart than they are together." he replied.

All of the adults turned to look at the two young men outside but it was too dark for them to see anything, so they just sat in silence waiting for them to return.

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Outside Jack sat on the chair swing as Ryan stood, sometimes looking at the empty space beside him and other times looking vacantly towards the horizon. Eventually the silence became far too much for Jack and he decided to break it.

"So are you gonna stand there all night or are you gonna sit down?" he asked. "I promise you I won't bite, I'm not Paul."

Reluctantly, Ryan sat in the seat that had just been vacated by Paul. This time he stared at his hands, occasionally looking up at the bedroom that contained his brothers and his sister as if he was scared to be next to Jack. It later occurred to Jack that he probably was. However, again not one for silence, Jack tried to talk to him.

"So did you enjoy yourself this evening? I hope my Mom's food wasn't too much to handle. She enjoys experimenting when Joey's here cos he'll eat anything."

He got no reply. However, also never one to give up, Jack gave it another go.

"Do you like Emma? I mean if your brother ever married her, she'd be your sister-in-law. She's a really great girl you know. Absolutely no fashion sense whatsoever though, and her mother works for Ralph Lauren so you would think that she would but she doesn't."

Again all he got was silence. He contemplated going for the shock factor but decided to make small talk instead.

"Do you have a tongue in there? I don't think I've heard you say one word all night. Are you deaf? Cos I know how to sign a little bit."

Ryan still stared at his hands.

"Okay, well enjoy the view, I'm outta here"

But as Jack went to leave, Ryan grabbed his arm. Jack was then faced with a dilemma; he could leave, Ryan wasn't holding on very tight so it wouldn't be too much of a strain. But as he looked at Ryan he saw a slightly younger version of himself and decided to sit back down and wait for Ryan to speak to him.

"I'm sorry for earlier," said Ryan quietly.

Jack didn't say anything at first; he was too struck by how nice Ryan's voice was and was suddenly pulled back to earth by the realisation that Ryan was looking at him.

"That's okay. I shouldn't have stormed out like that. My flight defence mechanism kicks in a little too quickly," Jack replied.

"I'm not usually that nasty. I guess you just freaked me out," said Ryan.

"Just me or me and Paul?" asked Jack.

"More you than Paul," he replied.

"But when Paul came in you became unbearable. You were tolerable during dinner," said Jack becoming quite confused.

Ryan looked at the ground for a few moments before replying;

"When he kissed you in your bedroom, something happened to me. It was only for a couple of seconds. I had butterflies in my stomach. It was as if I wished I were Paul. I hated myself for those two seconds so I took it out on you and I'm sorry."

Jack sat for a few minutes trying to digest what Ryan had said before managing to string a sentence together.

"So you were jealous of Paul for being with me?"

"Not really. I was jealous of both of you for doing what I'm too scared to do."

Jack decided that it was time for the shock factor.

"So, are you gay?"

"I dunno, I mean, I've never been with a girl before, never really had any interest in girls other than as a friend."

"Okay then, have you ever felt anything for another guy, other than friendship?" Jack asked.

"Not until tonight," mumbled Ryan, thinking that Jack couldn't hear him.

Unfortunately Jack has hearing to rival a dog's.

"Was it just me and Paul or something else tonight?" he asked racking his brains as what else he could have possibly done.

"The first time was, um, when you…" he mumbled the end of the sentence so quietly that even Jack couldn't hear him.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that end bit, 'when I…' what?"

Ryan sighed heavily before answering.

"Came into the room with no shirt on." he said before looking away.

"Oh…"

Jack looked at Ryan for a minute wondering if he wanted to reveal what he felt was the most humiliating experience of his life with a complete stranger. But as he looked at Ryan he realised that it was ultimately the best experience and that he needed to hear it.

"You know I had the exact same experience."

"How do you mean?"

"A couple of years ago, I was just like you, scared of what I could be, wondering what I was… But anyway, I went to meet Emma somewhere and I got to the place I was supposed to be meeting her when I found she wasn't there yet, so knowing that she was dancing with Paul, I went into their dance hall to see if I could find her. I couldn't so I figured she was getting changed and I went to meet her outside the changing rooms; unfortunately I took a wrong turn and instead of ending up outside the girls changing room I ended up in the men's shower room."

"Oh, my, God."

"Yeah, and then as I turned to walk away, who comes out of the showers, dripping wet with nothing but a towel on. I didn't say anything, I just stood there staring at him for just a couple of seconds before running out of the room and waiting outside in the rain for Emma."

"What did you say to Paul?"

"Nothing. Not for weeks. Then one day he came round to the house when he knew I was alone and sat with me in silence until I was ready to talk to him."

"What did you talk about?"

"What happened, why I ran off, why I had always been weird around him; everything."

"Then what happened?"

"I admitted it to myself"

"What?"

"That I was gay. I had fought it for long enough and I was tired of fighting."

"Was that when you came out?"

"Kinda. I told Emma and Erica that night and Logan guessed within five seconds of the girls returning to the room."

"He seems pretty perceptive"

"Too perceptive for his own good sometimes. It took me a couple of months to tell Ben but he said he had always suspected. Claire was easiest to tell cos at the time we didn't know her."

"No preconceptions?"

"Yeah. That was it. I only came out to my Dad yesterday and that's cos my Mom guessed and 'outed' me."

"When did you get together with Paul?"

"The night I told Ben and Claire."

"Why then?"

"Cos once I had spoken to Claire, a person I didn't even know, about my sexuality I was finally comfortable with it"

"I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with it."

"I felt the same at first but it gets easier."

"I don't want to be gay-- if anyone at school found out…"

Jack shrugged. "Then they find out. I nearly died when people at school found out about Paul and me. But this is the 21st century; most people are okay about it now. You will always get a couple of jerks in life that are nasty about this stuff, but if my Dad can pretend to handle it then there's hope for us all!"

For the first time since they had met, Ryan laughed. Jack didn't really notice him laughing, only how cute he was when he smiled.

"What school do you go to?" asked Jack, eventually.

"Newpark High," he replied.

"That's where I go! How come I've never seen you before?"

"It's a big school and I tend to blend into the background."

"Well if any of those jerks give you a hard time…"

Ryan looked at Jack expectantly.

"I'll send Emma and Erica to go and sort it out."

Seeing the disappointed look on Ryan's face Jack spoke again;

"Or if you'd prefer me to do it instead…"

Jack looked straight into Ryan's eyes. Before he realised what was happening, Ryan felt himself leaning in towards Jack before kissing him. After a couple of seconds he pulled away and ran into the house, Jack hot on his heels.

"Mom can we go soon?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, we can go now if you go and get your brothers and sister."

Ryan ran upstairs quicker than Jack could move and within seconds came downstairs with everyone in tow. He then ran out of the house followed by Jamie and Natalie who were looking at him worriedly. Aaron agreed to meet Emma tomorrow and then followed his siblings to the car where their mother was waiting.

"They left pretty quickly," said Joey.

"Damn," said Jack under his breath.

"What did you do?" asked Emma.

"I didn't do anything!" Jack replied.

"You must have, Ryan's been with you for the last half hour and suddenly he comes rushing upstairs begging to leave!" said Paul.

"You kissed him didn't you!" asked Erica.

"No" he replied angrily.

"Um, guys, you do realise you are having this conversation in front of our parents?" said Logan seeing the shocked faces of the adults in the room.

"I don't care because I haven't done anything wrong." said Jack angrily.

"You have kissed him, I can tell by the look on your face!" said Paul.

"I didn't kiss him, he kissed me."

"Well you must be a pretty bad kisser if he ran out of the room in tears." said Joey.

"He didn't run away because I'm a bad kisser. It's because he's petrified."

"Of what?" asked Chandler, trying to wipe the image of his son and Janice's from his mind.

"That he's exactly like me," replied Jack.

"So what are you gonna do now? You're not likely to see him again but I can tell from the look on your face that you're not going to give up," asked Emma.

"He goes to the same school as us. I'll find him and by God I'm not giving up. If I have to stalk him I will," said Jack defiantly.

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A/n: Ooh a man with a plan. Sorry for the length of time it took me to post, I've just started teacher training so life's a bit hectic at the mo, hopefully this will be enough to last you till chapter 8 which shouldn't be too long since I'm half way through it.