Chapter 35

On Friday morning, James Anderson was awakened by his cell phone. Damn his head hurt. Why was the phone turned up so fucking loud?

It was James's colleague, Senator Tom Daniels. Tom's public relations guy was leaving to take a corporate job and a resume from Meghan had landed on his desk. He was surprised James was letting Meghan go considering the great job she had done handling all of the situations his campaign had run into this year but, if James was indeed getting rid of her, could he let Tom know why? Had she done something wrong or was she just looking for a new opportunity? Tom would love to hire her.

Shit.

His staff was starting to jump ship. If Meghan left, the rest would soon follow right after her.

James told Tom he wasn't letting Meghan go and was sure her resume landing on his desk was a mistake. He hung up and stumbled out of bed. He looked at himself in the mirror.

He looked like hell.

He had lost weight, he needed a shave and a haircut. James needed to get his act together. He was about to lose his staff and the election.

And then there was Elaine.

He couldn't remember the last time he and Elaine had slept together, much less had sex. Suddenly, she had started spending all her time at her sister's house. They had barely spoken since Phil's death and even before, things had been strained. Elaine was still mad at him for attacking Blaine after the article had come out. She had also interrogated him about Blaine's claim that James had beaten him twice. When was the first time? James had never admitted anything. Instead, he said Blaine was lying.

James stared at himself hard in the mirror. He was a fucking mess. He had to get it together. He would start with a shower, a shave and a haircut. Then he would call a campaign team meeting. It was time to regroup and figure out the plan forward. He would promote Meghan to campaign manager. That would keep her on board plus, she deserved it.

And, he would get some closure around Phil's death. It was time to go to the condo. Maybe Elaine would go with him. Perhaps they could...bond over it and find their way back to each other.

As for Blaine...he would deal with Blaine later. There was plenty of time. James had to get himself together first.

X-X-X-X-X

James spent the day executing his plan. He called Meghan and apologized for his behavior over the past two weeks. She was flattered by the promotion and the raise in salary. She would make sure everyone was ready to regroup on Monday.

The phone call to Elaine was a bit harder. She sounded sad and weary. James was scared. He didn't want to lose his wife. Elaine took care of him. He didn't want to be alone. She agreed to come home and together, they would go to the condo Saturday morning.

When Elaine arrived home that evening, James had dinner waiting. Granted, it was Chinese takeout but, she appreciated the gesture. James even took out a bottle of wine. Elaine went upstairs to freshen up and came back downstairs looking beautiful. James was reminded of why he had wanted Elaine in the first place. She was gorgeous.

That night, they didn't have sex but, they did sleep in the same bed and James was happy to hold his wife. He had really missed her. Maybe tomorrow night, he would take her out to dinner and then maybe, just maybe they would come home and make love.

Saturday morning arrived sunny and warm. James and Elaine were in a somber mood as they prepared to go to Phil's condo. As they drove over, Elaine realized they had no boxes to pack things in. James said that was okay. Today they would just look around and get a sense of what needed to be done. Plus, James needed to see what campaign files Phil had stored there.

As they entered the condo, James felt overwhelmed by the feeling of loss. He wanted a drink.

Phil had always been super neat so, the condo was immaculate. Elaine went to the kitchen to clean out the refrigerator, guessing there would be some disgustingly spoiled things inside but, no, nothing but bottled water, and beer. Phil had been such a bachelor.

They went into the office.

James sat down at the desk and looked around. Elaine sat on a small loveseat in the corner. She looked at a picture on the wall of their gang in college.

"Boy, we were young then." Elaine sighed.

"Yeah. Young and idealistic and too stupid to know how the world really works. How things really turn out. "

Elaine gave James a little smile. "I don't think things turned out too badly."

James looked at her. Wow, his wife was pretty. Yeah, he definitely wanted to bang her tonight.

"No. Things didn't turn out too badly. Not bad at all."

Elaine stood up. "So, what do you need to get?" She started opening the drawers of the filing cabinet.

"I'm not sure. Phil said he had some important papers stored here. "

They went through the filing cabinet and desk drawers. Nothing of real interest or importance.

Elaine looked at the closet. She tried the door.

"Maybe they're in here. The door is locked."

Phil pulled out the keys and started trying several. The lock clicked and he opened the door.

James and Elaine stood in front of the door in silence.

Hundreds of pictures of Blaine.

Why did Phil have hundreds of pictures of their son?

Why were there pictures of that Kurt kid?

Why were there pictures where James had obviously been cut out, leaving just Blaine and Elaine?

James looked at the bottom of the closet. Phil's porn collection. Awesome. He would smuggle it into his home office but tell Elaine he threw it out.

Then James looked a little closer.

Was that two men on the cover?

Why would Phil have gay porn? James reached down and gingerly looked through the box. Lots of gay porn.

And hundreds of pictures of Blaine.

James felt sick.

Elaine stood there with her hand over her mouth, eyes wide.

Now, she knew.

Now, she had the answer.

It wasn't her fault.

Blaine was gay because of Phil.

Phil had abused her son. He had molested Blaine and made him gay.

She looked at James.

Their eyes locked in mutual agreement.

Then they turned on each other.

"This is your fault. Your fucking fault! You're his mother! I was always in Columbus! You should have been watching him!"

"Me!" screeched Elaine. "He was your best friend! How could you have not known about this!"

"How was I supposed to know? He never acted gay! He always acted like he still wanted you! And you acted like you still wanted him! I was always shocked the two of you weren't screwing around behind my back! Now I know why you weren't!"

"Oh, really James! 20 years later and you still can't get the hell over it! I chose you, remember? Maybe I should have chosen him! At least he wouldn't have reminded me everyday that I was worthless because I can't breed like a rabbit!"

"No! He wouldn't have because he would have been too busy screwing the fucked up son you would have birthed into the world!"

Elaine lunged at him and started hitting him. James had no qualms about hitting his son but, he would never hit a woman. Instead, he put his arms up to block her blows. She was screaming and crying. He finally grabbed her shoulders and pulled her towards him. Elaine collapsed against him in tears. He held her tight.

Fuck.

Phil was gay. How could he have not known? James's mind went into overdrive. Phil had never married. He'd never had a girlfriend. James couldn't remember him ever going on a date. When Blaine came out, Phil had helped James research those deprogramming camps. Was that just to cover his tracks? Get Blaine away from home to make sure he wouldn't tell anyone?

James thought about the past few months. Phil had been eager and willing to deal with Blaine and James had given him the green light.

He had handed his son over to his abuser. Shit.

Elaine was racked with guilt. How could she have missed it? Of course Phil steered her towards James. He hadn't wanted her in the first place. Instead, he had wanted her little boy. Elaine thought she might throw up.

Then she started thinking back...

When exactly would Phil have had the chance to molest Blaine?

When he was little, he was always by her side except when they were at the country club but, Phil was never there.

He had never babysat.

When James was in Columbus, Phil was in Columbus.

There were always people at headquarters when Blaine was there.

When were they ever alone?

Elaine started rethinking her theory. Maybe they were jumping to conclusions. She looked up at James.

Oh.

Oh, my.

James was looking at her the way she had wished he would look at her for the past 3 years. The way he used to look at her before Blaine was gay and it was all her fault. She knew she would never get the look he used to give her in college. That look had been erased when they learned she couldn't have more children but this look...

Elaine could live with this look. She was thrilled to see this look again.

James leaned down and kissed her softly. Elaine sighed happily. He ran his hands down her back and brought them around to the front of her chest. He started rubbing her nipples lightly.

Ohhh...

No need for her to question their conclusion. After all, Phil was gay and dead. He was the perfect scape goat.

Elaine pressed her hips against her husband. He was hard as a rock.

Yep. No need to mention anything at all.

X-X-X-X-X

James and Elaine took all the photos and the porn and drove to an incinerator James knew about in the seedy part of town. They burned everything.

They agreed that James would go back once more to collect any photos of the family and any papers he felt he should keep. After that, they would hire a service to clean out the condo, donate the items, and that would be it. They would keep Phil's secret. No need for anyone to know. Too politically damaging.

And, they would talk to Blaine.

Elaine was nervous about this. Of course Blaine would deny that anything happened because...well...it probably didn't. But, Elaine wasn't about to do anything to destroy her reconnection to her husband. She wanted her marriage to work and she wanted her husband to want her again. The sex they had upon returning from the condo had been incredible. Elaine wasn't about to do anything to keep that from happening again.

X-X-X-X-X

Phil went back on Sunday and collected all photos of the family and Phil's files. He never saw anything important but, he took them all, just in case.

He left the door to the closet open.

He never looked on the top shelf.

By the time Blaine arrived home Sunday afternoon, he was exhausted. The events of Saturday night had finally caught up with him and he just wanted to fall into bed.

He noticed his mom's car in the driveway. Guess she decided to pay them a visit. He walked in the house and took his stuff to his room. He was about to get undressed when he heard his mom call him. He went downstairs. She was in the living room.

"Hi sweetie." She gave him a warm hug. He didn't return the embrace. He noticed his father standing by the fireplace. For the first time in weeks, he had an expression on his face. It was a mixture of fear and...shame?

Blaine looked from his mom, to his dad and back to his mom.

Something was up. The darkness started swirling around.

"Come darling. Sit down. We want to...talk to you about something."

Aww, hell. He was too tired for this.

"Mom, can it wait? I'm really, really tired."

"It's very important dear. We won't take long."

Instead of sitting next to his mom on the couch, he sat down in a chair in the corner. What the hell was going on? Were they getting a divorce? As long as he could live with his mom, he was all for a divorce.

His father started talking.

"Uh, son. Uh...I realize things have been...difficult lately. Actually, things have been difficult for some time. We, um, your mother and I...well, we know we haven't handled the whole gay thing very well. And, uh... James looked to Elaine for help.

Elaine was all over it.

"We know you are gay because of Phil and honey, we are so, so sorry that we didn't figure things out sooner."

Blaine looked at her in shock. "Wh-what?"

Elaine shook her head and started crying. "Oh, darling! I've been such an awful mother! I...we never knew he was gay and we certainly didn't know he had...touched you inappropriately..."

James jumped in.

"Believe me. If we had known, I would have kicked his ass from here to D.C. and we would have made sure he was sent to jail. There wouldn't have even been a trial. I have friends in the justice department. We would have made him quietly disappear into some penitentiary in Idaho." Elaine nodded enthusiastically.

Blaine looked at his parents.

His parents had cracked up.

They had lost it completely.

He wasn't even sure where to begin.

"Listen, I'm not gay because Phil...did something to me. He never did anything to me."

Wait. That wasn't exactly true.

"Well, he did threaten me all the time but, not when I was little. The threats only happened this year. Actually, over the past few months."

Elaine was shaking her head with a sympathetic look on her face.

"Oh, honey. You don't have to cover for him. You haven't done anything wrong."

"That's right son. We will get you the best treatment available."

Treatment?

"With the right program and some time, you will be back on the right track in no time." James nodded at him reassuringly.

"And, you can start dating girls! Just the other day I ran into Rachel Meyers with her daughter, Amy. Amy has grown into a lovely young woman. Very attractive." Elaine beamed at him.

Blaine's head hurt. He was exhausted and his parents had lost their minds.

"Look, I'm gay because I was born that way. Yes, Phil was gay or at least, some type of sick, twisted pedophile but, he never molested me. A few months ago, he started threatening me, demanding oral sex and he..." Blaine stopped. He couldn't tell them about the attack on Kurt. That would lead to more questions and that could lead to them learning about the fire.

"He just threatened me."

Elaine's voice was firm. "Look honey. I understand this is hard for you. You've grown used to...being this way. It's going to be a hard habit for you to break but, darling, we have to get you back right. If Phil had never touched you, you would be straight and dating girls and, everything would be perfect."

Blaine was shaking his head. "Mom...no...that's not how this works..."

"It really is okay son," said James. "We saw what Phil had in his closet. The pictures of you...the gay porn. We understand that it's not your fault. Phil was a sick bastard who preyed on you and we will never, ever be able to forgive ourselves. But, we can make this right. We will help you make this right."

Shit. Phil's closet. That's what brought this on. This what not the reaction Blaine had expected.

He sat back in his chair and looked at his parents. His dad was sober, clean shaven and his hair was cut. His mom looked more relaxed than he had seen her in months and her skin looked like it was glowing. What the hell had happened while he was gone?

Blaine was prepared to just let the whole thing go until his father spoke.

"I think one of the first steps towards the healing process is to remove bad influences. You are to stop seeing Kurt. Immediately."