The divorce was back on, unsurprisingly. Danny dreaded the day when he would become The-Father-Who-Left and have to pay child support. He was very grateful for Sheldon's friendship during this period. Sheldon needed support after kicking Jacob out of his life, and Danny needed support so he could bear the fact that most of his friends were no longer speaking to him. It was hard, especially now Don barely looked at him these days, and all Stella had to say was a barbed insult.
Danny dragged himself up the stairs and poked his head around Mac's office door.
"Heanly's not our guy." He reported without enthusiasm. "his alibi checks out."
"Who are our other suspects?" Mac inquired, sorting through files on his desk. Danny took a step into the office.
"No one." Mac glanced up.
"No one?" he asked incredulously. Danny shrugged. Mac sighed and threw some files back on to the pile. He passed a hand over his eyes before replacing it on his hip.
"Sorry," Danny offered dully. Mac fixed Danny with a hard stare. Danny returned it for a moment then turned away, then thought again and turned back. "So you hate me like the rest of them do then?" Mac shook his head despairingly.
"What you did was wrong," he said seriously, "and you know that. Personally I feel like all this punishment is getting out of hand." He sat in his swivel chair and rubbed a hand over his eyes. Danny walked into the office and let the door swing shut behind him. Mac looked up at him again and motioned Danny to sit in the chair opposite. Danny reluctantly pulled the chair out and sat. There was a pause.
"I'm sick of this."
"So am I." Mac remarked humourlessly. There was another pause. "look," Mac leant forwards, "I'll tell you what I think the others are thinking. Lindsey's obvious, she feels hurt and betrayed, but Don also feels betrayed. He doesn't hate you, but he's hurt that you didn't trust him enough to confide to him what you were going through. I guess he feels replaced, by Hawkes." There was a silence as Mac waited for Danny to say something, but Danny had nothing to say. He continued; "Stella's taken Lindsey's side but she feels….let down, disappointed by you. She expected better of you. Frankly, I think we all did."
"You all expect too much of me then."
Mac leant back in his chair. "You're a better person than you let yourself believe." He said, raising his eyebrows. "You know what the main thing is?"
"Please tell me!" Danny cried with exasperation.
"No one's really certain that you're gay." Mac said. There was a pause as Danny shook his incredulously. Before he had a chance to say anything Mac carried on, "no one's heard your side of the story, not even Sheldon as far as I'm aware. Everyone's made a judgement based on what Lindsey's said. No one knows if you cheated callously or because you were unsure what your sexuality was. So everyone's assumed the former."
There was a long silence while Danny thought about all this.
"What am I supposed to do?" He asked desperately. "Call a press conference so everyone knows what hell I've been through trying to work out where all these feelings have come from?" Mac nodded slightly.
"A press conference might be a little extreme," he remarked with a smile, "But you could start by explaining to me." For the first time in weeks Danny felt a weight lifting from his shoulders. He felt he could start to breathe easy.
Things gradually began to return to normal after the talk with Mac. When Danny tried to explain what he'd been thinking he was surprised at how readily people seem to want to listen. Of course the hardest person to explain it all to was Lindsey, since she wouldn't listen.
"I don't care anymore Danny! Can't you understand, you've messed my life up enough without adding….what you think you've found out about yourself."
"Lindsey I'm sorry-"
"Don't bother, just…don't even try." She walked out of the trace lab. Danny hung his head in shame.
"Hey Messer," Danny looked up to see Don in the doorway. "you wanna come out for a drink tonight? Sheldon said some of his friends are all meeting up, and I'm kinda interested to see the inside of a gay bar-!"
"Oh no, Don, you serious?" Danny couldn't help grinning at Don's shrug.
"Why not? Who knows, I might discover something about myself! See you downstairs at eight?"
"Yeah sure. Hey Don!" Don turned back. Danny gestured helplessly for a moment. "I'm sorry I didn't talk to you about all this. I just…I dunno…" Don came into the lab and walked round to Danny.
"Hey, Mess," Danny looked up, "it's fine, ok? You know, we both did wrong. I'm just glad we're talking again."
"yeah," Danny smiled with relief "me too." Don clapped him on the shoulder then left.
"How gay are your friends?"
Sheldon snorted at the question. "Are you scared someone's going to out-butch you?" he asked. Danny shrugged defensively.
"No! I just need to be aware if there's a…I dunno a Richard Simmons or something." Sheldon rolled his eyes.
"Yan's quite gay, the rest of them….not so much." Danny didn't look convinced. Sheldon put an arm around his shoulders. "Will you relax? What's the big deal, you've been to a gay club before."
"Yeah, but not with you, and Don."
"this is going to be hilarious!" Sheldon grinned at Danny.
All Danny could concentrate on was those eyes, those lips, that chest, (Sheldon was wearing Danny's favourite top, the really tight short sleeved black one with buttons) Danny pinched himself through his trousers. They started pushing through gay couples making out against lamp posts, walls, on the sidewalk. In the distance Danny could see a very excited, short and skinny Asian guy jumping up and down and waving. Then Sheldon waved back.
"Oh no," Danny groaned, "that's Yan isn't it?"
"Oi," Sheldon nudged Danny, "you gotta problem with him?"
"You said he was quite gay," Danny said accusingly, "you didn't say he was really camp."
"Danny, Yan is " Sheldon replied with a smirk.
They reached The Enthusiastic Asian who was surrounded by some other very attractive men, and Yan promptly threw himself on Sheldon.
"Shelley! I haven't seen you FOR AGES!" Cue lots of kisses.
"Hi Yan, URGHLP!" Sheldon looked like he was struggling to breathe. "Help!" he begged Danny. Danny shook his head.
"You got yourself into this mess, you sort yourself out."
"You…" Sheldon disentangled himself from Yan, "are nasty"
"He…" Yan said, looking him up and down, "is GORGEOUS! OHMYGODSHELDONYOUDIDN'TSAYHEWASTHISHOT!"
"I'm scared…." Danny desperately searched around for Don.
"Ok, so you've met Yan," Yan was a head shorter than Sheldon and the rest of the men, and dressed in a bright pink t-shirt that draped off one shoulder and striped long shorts with a sari tied around his waist. His hair had different shades of red and purple going on and had been fashioned to look like a wave. "This is Julian and Carl," two beefed up men in shirts as equally tighter if not tighter than Sheldon's, "and over there is Charlie…Charlie!" Charlie, who was actually a girl, had been chatting to a guy a little way a way and when she turned round that guy turned out to be Don.
"Sheldon!" she came bounding over and gave him a hug. "This is Don isn't it?" don came up apologetically.
"I didn't realise who she was until after she started flirting with me!"
"Don, calm down!" Sheldon laughed. "I don't mind if you want to go out with Charlie, but she is a handful!" Charlie punched Sheldon on the arm, hard. She had one side of her head shaved and the rest of her long black hair had feathers and red bits floating around in it. She looked Japanese and was wearing what looked like a hippie's dress, complete with the vague scent of weed….
"Cool, hi Danny!" she gave him a big kiss on the cheek. "Looks like I'm dancing with you tonight then sexy." She said, turning back to Don. She grabbed his hand, "come on let's go in!" Don's expression was priceless, half bewildered half proud that this girl was dragging him along. Sheldon mouthed 'A Handful' as they walked towards the club's entrance.
Hello! I'm back! I'm stopping here because I don't want it to run on for too long. Next chapter….GAY CLUB! (I know nothing about gay clubs except what I've seen in Queer As Folk. Good show.)