AN: In writing Shells, I have been struggling to compare and contrast the relationships of Danny/Ivo and Tim/Ivo. I felt that going back into Danny's childhood some might help. Hence this little series of Danny drabbles. Never fear – Tim shall be right back!
The very lovely Danny Reyes belongs to Carlos Pedraza and Judas Kiss. He knows I am just borrowing him for the time being.
Family Matters
Danny's father slipped on his boat and was pulled into the hauling rig. He was alone at sea, as always. Danny was the only one to fish with him and once the boy left for college, he never found a replacement. He was old and irritable and set in his ways. A most unpleasant unhappy man. No one would have wanted the job anyway.
When they found him they pulled out what pieces they could. To get the rest of them, they would have to remove the entire engine, one of them said. That was a job best left for the Mounties. They divided tasks amongst themselves – who would call whom. One of the men took it upon himself to call Danny; Stanley's wife was long since dead and there were no other children.
"Now that poor kid can finally have a life," one of the older fishermen said bitterly and they concurred in murmurs.
Ivo took Danny to Vancouver to meet his sister and brother-in-law. His parents had retired to Australia where his mother was slowly dying of cancer. Isabel went regularly to Melbourne to care for her; Ivo and his mother weren't on speaking terms though he dutifully wrote her every month to tell her of his comings and goings lest she start to care in her last gasp of life.
She had rejected him when she learned he was homosexual.
Isabel was an elementary school teacher. Unable to have children of her own, she found joy in caring for the children of others. She welcomed Danny the way she would any child in her third-grade class, hugging him, speaking warmly and calmly to him, seeing to his comfort and well-being. Danny told Ivo that night that he wanted to just move in and be adopted, he'd never met anyone so lovely in his entire life. He was sorely tempted to become heterosexual.
Ivo burst out laughing. He wasn't at all threatened. He knew Danny loved him more than anything in the world.