The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia

"Tommy? You coming?" A newly-stitched Evan shouted into the almost-deserted locker room.

"Thanks, but I'll sit this one out." Tom shouted from the showers

"You sure?" Evan asked, leaning against the door. Tom was focused on his reflection in the mirror.

"I'm really not feeling sociable quite yet." Tom stated

"Okay, but if you change your mind, we'll be at the Enigma club." Evan left. Tom heard him say "He ain't comin'." to whomever he was with.

"Now why I would go to a club named that of all places to begin with is beyond me." Tom continued to look at himself. By no means would he consider himself a heartthrob, but there must've been a reason for Jeff leaving him. "Fuck, I can't see it."

He returned to his locker and began the laborious task of changing back into his street clothes.

"You've been quiet all night. What do you think?" He asked, but there was no reply at all. "Y'know, this is one time when I wish you could talk." He stared into the big white eyes of his lizard.

Ironically, on the other side of the country, Jeff was having a similar conversation with Bunny, who not surprisingly, was giving him the same response.

"Aren't you going out with Jack tonight?" Matt asked, coming out of the bathroom.

"I told him I wasn't feeling well." Jeff replied "Which I'm not."

"I really think you should talk to Tom." Matt wiped his hands on his jeans and stared at Jeff, idly playing with Bunny.

"He won't answer the phone. I've called him at least ten times."

"Then you know what you gotta do, li'l bro." Matt sat on the edge of the bed and laced his shoes.

"What?" Jeff asked

"Go see him." Matt answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You know where he's gonna be tomorrow, so getcha ass on a plane and go talk to him."

"Where you goin'?" Jeff asked

"Down to the bar. You're welcome to come with. I didn't tell ya earlier coz I thought you had plans." Matt grabbed his drinking money and key card.

"Maybe later." Jeff said, still looking forlorn.

"Jeff, if what you're worried about is Tom not caring about you as a brother, then don't. He just needs time to figure out what he is going to do. I'll see you later." Matt went down to the bar. What he needed right now was to get completely shit-faced and fast. All the drama in the family was getting to him and it was not a feeling he liked.

Jeff stared at Bunny. "It looks like we're goin' to Hot-lanta."

Tom took a longer route back to the hotel. He needed to clear his head and driving down the highway, the top down on his convertible, the radio blaring all retro seemed like a sure fix for his problems. Things were fine until a song started playing on the radio.

Listen to the wind blow

Watch the sun rise

Run in the shadows

Damn your love

Damn your lies

And if

You don't love me now

You will never love me again

I can still hear you saying

You would never break the chain.

Listen to the wind blow

Down comes the night

Run in the shadows

Damn your love

Damn your lies

Break the silence

Damn the dark

Damn the light

And if

You don't love me now

You will never love me again

I can still hear you saying

You would never break the chain...

At first Tom thought it had suddenly started to rain, but then he realized he was crying and it was all because this was the last song that he and Jeff had listened to the last time they were together. He quickly snapped off the radio and tried to clear his vision so he could continue driving, but it was futile. He pulled off the road, sobbing against the steering wheel as the last line of the song played in his mind

"The chain will keep us together." He cried, repeating the line again and again. "The chain will keep us together... the chain will keep us together... fuck that, the chain is broken." He reached inside his shirt and snapped the Hardy insignia chain from his neck and tossed it over his shoulder, intending for it to land in the dirt somewhere. However, it clanged off the side of the car and flew straight in the air, landing on the floor of the back seat. Tom didn't see this, not that he would've cared if he had, but he was too busy trying to get himself under control so he could return to the hotel.

Only when he returned to the hotel, did he notice that he had nine new messages, all from the same number: Jeff's. Eight of them were of the 'let's talk' variety, leading up to a 'please, I'm sorry, I still want to be friends' kind of thing. The last one was from Jack.

"Hey. I'm pretty damn sure that you don't want to hear from me, but Jeff has this crazy idea that if the three of us sit down and talk, that maybe we can work something out. We're flying to Atlanta tonight... maybe we'll see you at the arena."

Tom erased all the messages, except for the last one. He had an idea.

Evan was already at the arena when Tom arrived. "Perfect. Hey, kid, how's it goin'?"

Evan looked up, a little shocked by Tom's joviality. "Good. You seem happy."

"Well, it's been a tough twenty-four hours, but I think I can put all the shit behind me and move on. But I need your help."

"Sure, Tom, what do you want me to do?" Evan asked

The situation was quickly explained to Evan, following by a playing of Jack's message. "Basically, I'm hoping you can play along with me and pretend that you and I have gotten together. I mean, you don't have to be all kissy-kissy, but y'know, just make it clear that I've moved on."

"I can do that." If only Tom knew how easy that was going to be. Evan's mind wandered back to the dream he'd had last night...

As with many of Evan's dreams, it involved wrestling. He was in the ring with Tom and they were having a good tight match. Things got really interesting when Tom whipped him into the turnbuckles chest-first. He bounced back into the middle of the ring, where he felt Tom's hands grip the waistband of his tights. Instead of the atomic drop they'd scripted, he felt a tug and his tights were suddenly down around his ankles.

"Whoa, king... it looks like Bourne fell for it." He could hear Michael Cole say

"And we know what that's a set up for... one of the most vicious moves in all of pro wrestling... the sodomizer!" The King interjected

Evan turned around suddenly and, with his trunks at his ankles, lost his balance. Immediately Tom grabbed his legs and spread them as wide as he could, preparing him for what was to come. Evan suddenly realized that his tights were completely gone. He looked around, but they were nowhere to be seen. Had he forgotten to put them on? He doubted it, but there he was flat on his back in the middle of a WWE ring wearing nothing but a g-string.

He felt totally helpless as Tom continued to work on his lower body, half figure-fours, step over toeholds, leg scissors, by the time Tom was finished, Evan could hardly stand up.

"Uh-oh, King...I think he's going for it!" Cole shouted

"That's how he won his first Intercontinental Championship!" Lawler shouted

As Evan wondered why the King would say that, he'd seen the match where Tom had won his first singles' title and he hadn't done it that way, he felt a pair of hands pulling his underwear down and off.

"Oh, God. What will Vince think?" Was the first thought that went through his mind before he felt something long and hard penetrate his other entrance. The pain was incredible, it felt like he was being split in two.

"What do you say, wanna give up?" The referee was yelling at him.

"Aughhh!" Evan moaned, thrashing about, trying to find a way out of this most devastating hold. The pain intensified, and Evan eventually tapped out.

"Evan, are you okay?"

"Huh?" Evan realized that he'd been lost in his own thoughts.

"I asked if you're okay with this." Tom stated

"Uh, yeah, fine." Evan quickly glanced down at himself. He breathed out when he saw that he was dressed and there was nothing being stuck anywhere.

"I know you said you'll play along, but you don't need to play along that much." Tom whispered, pointing down.

"Dammit." Evan cursed "I hate it when it does that."

"I have two suggestions for you... one, find a nympho or two, learn how to jerk off." Tom replied "Cause walking around like that is gonna get you in a lot of trouble."

"It'll make Jeff jealous, won't it?" Evan teased

"I don't care about jealous, I just want Jeff to think that I'm not the kind of guy who's gonna stand around and wait for him to realize that he'd made a mistake and come crawling back... speaking of which."

Jeff and his new beau had just walked into Tom's line of sight. Tom tried not to let his facial expression give away what he really felt, but ask anyone who's ever played poker with Tom and you'd know that his poker face was not the best.

"Hey guys." Jeff called over.

"What're you doing here?" Evan asked before Tom could ask the same question, but with a few more choice words thrown in.

"Well, I was in the area..."

"Bullshit." Tom muttered under his breath. He knew as well as anyone else where the Smackdown roster was performing.

"...so I thought I'd stop by and say hi and find out how your first night back went." Did Jeff not know about Jack's phone message to him?

"We won." Evan answered. Tom said nothing. If Evan wanted to carry the conversation, that was fine with him. It would make him walking away seem a little less in bad taste.

"I assume this is Jack?" Evan asked Jeff's companion.

"Yeah... Jack Tyler." The other man offered his hand. Evan shook it, Tom didn't.

"I know who you are." Tom retorted

"Tom, don't start please..." The last thing Evan wanted was Tom in a bad mood before Evan had a chance to talk to him about the two of them.

"It's my duty to tell you Tyler that you better be prepared for a good ride but it'll be a hard fall. Once Jeff finds something he likes better, you'll be sent packing like he did with me when he found you. And if you are lucky, he might even tell you sometime within four months!"

Tyler turned on Jeff. "You never told me you were with him! I thought he was your brother!"

"We were and I am." Tom answered "I guess little Jeffro's been lying to more people than just me." Tom smiled cockily at Evan.

"Tommy, I..." In the span of five minutes, Jeff's entire world had been rocked.

"Don't try weaseling your way out, because It's not gonna work."Tom sneered "In fact, I'm cutting my losses right now. Jeffrey Nero Hardy, I've moved on and I have no place for someone with no sense of basic common decency."

"What are you saying?" Jeff's lower lip trembled.

"Stay out of my life. C'mon Evan, let's go have a drink." Tom pulled Evan away, leaving Jeff and Jack standing by themselves.

"Hardy, we need to talk." Tyler grabbed Jeff by the arm and took him away also. Things just went from bad to worse.

Over several drinks at a nearby pub, Evan and Tom talked, hoping it would calm down the elder Hardy and quickly. Evan also wondered why they'd shown up in their wrestling outfits rather than changing first. It wasn't too bad for Tom, considering he still wore the same clothes he'd worn when he wrestled as part of the new Team Xtreme, but Evan wasn't nearly as fortunate. Sitting in a dive bar wearing tights that clearly showed everyone what religion he was as well as no shirt made him feel like an extra in a porno.

"I guess it's a good thing that I have my wallet." Tom smirked "Why didn't you bother changing before we left?"

"I wanted to get you away from Jeff before anything else happened." Evan replied

"Well, that you did and I appreciate it, but what's really going on?" Tom asked

"I told you..." Evan's mouth went dry.

"No, not with me and Jeff. With you. At first I thought it was nervousness, but now I'm not sure." Tom stated "I mean half the time you're around me, you're lost in your own world and the other half of the time you look like you want to jump my bones. Is there something you want to tell me?"

Evan debated the options. He so much wanted to tell Tom what he thought, but he was having a difficult time explaining his feelings to himself.

"Tom, I..." Evan sighed "I think we should get back to the arena before we're missed. If Tiffany finds out we skipped out on the rest of the show, she'll tell Vince and then you know what that means."

Tom shook his head. He could read Evan's thoughts perfectly, but until the kid was sure enough of himself to say what was in his heart and mind, he wasn't going to push him.

"Are you telling me that you were having a sexual relationship with your own brother?" Jack demanded

"Well, uh, Jack... I..." Jeff faltered "I wanted to tell you, but I forgot..."

"Forgot? How could you forget something like this... this isn't like picking up the dry cleaning or running out of milk, this is big." Jack shouted "Is there anything else about your past that you haven't told me... you're not still fucking him are you?"

"No... Jack, we were together before I found out he was my brother." Jeff said, hoping that this little lie would cover the big one he'd just been outed over.

"I don't get why you let it continue after you found out." Jack turned the wheel hard, driving onto a rarely-used dirt path.

"Because I loved him. Just like I love you now." Jeff went to touch his lover, but Jack pushed his hand away.

"How can I believe anything you say any more?" Jack answered "How am I gonna be able to trust you?"

At those words, Jeff retreated into his shell. "How can I trust myself either?" He thought

"I knew this was a bad idea." Evan shivered in the night air. Not only had they missed the end of the show, they'd gotten lost getting back to the arena. Eventually, they arrived to discover that they were locked out.

"Well, we have two options... we can either break in and hope or we can go back to my hotel room and wait for the arena to open in the morning." Tom said, looking at his companion.

"I can't get back into my room, man. All my stuff is in my locker."

"Me too." Tom was glad that he'd grabbed his car keys or they would be stuck outside.

"Might as well wait in my car."

While they walked across the parking lot, both of them were thinking. Evan about what Tom had asked in the bar and Tom was trying to figure out if there was any way he could not get fired for this.

"Did you feel that?" Evan held his hand up. "I think it's starting to rain."

"Shit! I left the top down." Tom took off running, Evan right behind him. It was easy to find Tom's car, it was the only one left in the entire lot. He jumped over the quarter panel, sprawled across the front seats and quickly turned the car on so he could put the roof up. Not a moment too soon either. Within two minutes the light drizzle had turned into a torrential downpour. They barely had time to get everything locked down.

"Fuck, I'm freezing." Evan shivered

"There's a blanket in the back seat." Tom said, reaching to turn on the heater. "It might take a few minutes for the car to warm up."

Evan was still shivering even after the car had warmed up. So much for those Hot-lanta nights.

"I dunno."

"There might be another blanket around somewhere." Tom twiddled with the heater control.

"I don't see one back here." Evan looked around

"I guess we'll have to find some other way to keep you warm." Tom climbed into the back seat and wrapped his frame around Evan's.

"Tom? What are you doing?"

"Body heat." Tom replied, grabbing both the blanket and Evan and arranging themselves as comfortably as possible in the smallish back seat.

"What do we do now?" Evan's shivering was decreasing little by little.

"We wait." Tom squinted at the dashboard. "It's not quite midnight so we may be stuck here for a few hours."

"Ummm..." Evan snuggled tighter into a ball. Between the thick blanket and the warmth of Tom's body, he was starting to feel better. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure Evan... or would you rather be called Matt after hours?"

"Whatever is easier for you."

"Okay, Evan, what do you want to know?"

"Were you really a couple... with Jeff?" He stammered

"Would that offend you if I had been?" Tom asked

"I dunno. It's not something that's widely accepted." Evan replied

"As far as I'm concerned it's nobody's business what goes on in my personal life. Why do you want to know? Seriously Evan are you interested in me that way?"

Evan's lack of an immediate reply convinced Tom that he was. But he needed to be sure.

"I'm not sure what I'm feeling." Evan finally answered "It's weird."

"It's not weird. Everyone needs to follow their heart." Tom said

"Right now it's not my heart that I'm following." Evan said, wriggling into a different position, not necessarily for comfort, but to free his raging cock from being squashed between their bodies.

"Maybe this will help you decide..." Tom took his face in his hand and brought Evan's lips to his own for a brief kiss, quickly breaking it when Evan looked confused.

"Tom, I..." Evan's blush was now a shade similar to that of the car's upholstery.

"Well, did it?" Tom smiled.

Evan couldn't recall anyone looking at him with that much love other than his Mom. "Could we do that again? Just to be sure." He didn't want to seem to anxious, but his mind, his heart, and his dick were all in agreement.

"Of course." Once more Tom pressed his lips to Evan's, this time holding the kiss for longer when he felt Evan returning it.

"Mmm..." This time Evan broke the kiss and it was Tom's turn to look confused.

"I hope you don't think I'm taking advantage of you." Evan whispered

"Why would you?" Tom brushed a few loose hairs away from the young man's face.

"Well, you're on the rebound and I..."

"Shhh..." Tom quieted him with a soft finger across his mouth. "Sometimes I think you worry way too much about what other people think."

"Tom, right now the only thing I'm thinking is how much I want to feel your lips on mine again." Evan sighed

"Kid, that's the best thought you've had all day." Their lips met again and soon everything else was irrelevant.

TBC

So Tom's moved on, but it looks like everything isn't perfect in Jeff's world. Can Jeffro talk his way out of this situation or will the pot of gold waiting at the end of the rainbow be just an illusion.

Read, review, tell your friends!

Song: "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac from the album "Rumours" Copyright Warner Bros. Records 1977