Ends and Beginnings : Part III

The following morning saw Jeff heading back to the West Village, this time with Nick and Mike for company, squashed together in a laden 'L' train. None of them would miss the crush of the morning commute to school or work in Manhattan on this train; sure, the '1' Train could be busy, but not quite so cramped as the 'L' was on a daily basis. They had decided that they should explore the neighbourhood a little the night before, checking out the nearest venues to their new home for coffee, newspapers and baked goods.

This done, it was time for the main purpose of their trip today; to meet up with Artie on the corner next to the final house in the row; the one that would be Mike and Tina's one day. He snapped a quick picture of it on his phone on an impulse, and sent it to her with the caption 'Does this look anything like your dream house?' He received a response in moments; 'Yes, but I think that we would have to rob a bank. Please don't rob a bank, Mike. As long as I have you, Mike, I don't need the dream house.' Mike felt an urge to hug himself in delight, and also made a mental note that he would have to hand out earplugs to everyone the moment that he told her that the house in question was their house. She would no doubt squeal the place down…

"Here he comes!" said Nick suddenly, breaking in to Mike's thoughts. "He has brought Kitty, as we all expected, but thankfully she is every bit as good at keeping a secret as he is."

Jeff and Mike nodded, then all three went to greet the newcomers. "So what do you think Artie? Is this not just perfect, period Manhattan? I mean, they have filmed here for TV and films before," said Jeff, after the hellos.

"Yes, I checked it out online. I think they used an apartment block around here when they filmed Sex in the City. It is also the kind of neighbourhood that I think we would all aspire to live in one day. Maybe I can when Kitty had made her first million…"

They all laughed, apart from Kitty, who stayed silent, before turning to Jeff as the others stopped. "Ok, so what is really going on here guys? This has nothing to do with finding Artie a filming location. I can see it in your faces, all three of them. You are up to something…"

"There is no fooling you, is there Kitty," replied Nick, "although you must admit that it would make the ideal location for him to use as the area in which his Seb and Dave live for his short film."

"That is true," said Artie. "Not using Murray Hill as the location would make it even less likely that people would work out who it was based on. The problem would be getting permission from the owner of this place to film here."

"Oh, I think that the owner would be more than ok with that," said Mike, with a wink.

"Ok, spill everything now you three," said Kitty snappily, "or I will call in Santana as back up!"

Nick and Mike looked at each other, then at Jeff. It was the latter that spoke. "Gordon Clarington left a multi-million dollar will. He left his entire estate to his son. His estate included not just this house, but the four next to it on this street, as well as a host of other properties. Grace spent the last few months preparing and then arguing a case on my mother's behest that his son should actually mean me. She won; and so as the owner, I grant Artie permission to film, free of charge."

Kitty stood frozen to the spot, her mouth wide open, in shocked silence. As for Artie, he quickly went from shock to grinning, and he was just about to offer his congratulations to Jeff when the latter spoke again. "Of course, the thing is, this isn't a house; it has been divided up very cleverly. There is actually a fully accessible apartment in the basement right here. I was hoping that as well as filming, Artie might want to move in here too…"

There was a moment when it seemed as if even the constant distant hum of traffic in the streets nearby had fallen silent. Artie was just staring at Jeff as if he was waiting for the punch line; Kitty, whose face had been moving through all the degrees of shock and surprise as Jeff had been speaking was now watching him stunned.

"He's telling the truth guys," Mike said, breaking the silence. "I must admit that I thought this was another elaborate prank when he first told me, but he and Nick were with Grace at the time, and we all know that she would never be party to a joke of this kind. Then there is the small fact that I actually had to sign as a witness on the papers he had to complete to accept the legacy. I've only seen inside your apartment quickly as of yet; I spent my time here before being shown the house on the corner above it, mainly as Jeff has earmarked it for myself and Tina when we want to move in together. I guess that would make me your next door neighbour, more or less."

"I still don't quite understand why and how that douchebag could own all of this!" exclaimed Kitty.

"He bought it when a group of elderly ladies, the original owners, needed to make repairs and didn't have the cash to finance it themselves. He planned to knock these beautiful buildings down, and replace them with a hideous block of concrete condos, when the last of those lovely women died. It was just a pity that he happened to predecease the last of them…" said Nick.

He said those final words with so much tongue in cheek that Kitty had no option but to burst out laughing, secretly so happy that it had been the case. Her laughter stopped abruptly when she realised that Artie was crying. She placed a comforting hand on his arm as Jeff also noticed, and went to kneel in front of him. "Of course, you don't have to live here if you'd rather not, Artie. The last thing that I would ever want to do is upset you…"

"It's not that," replied Artie in a choked voice. "It's just that I can't believe how lucky my life has been these past few months. I'm doing well at the school of my dreams; I am engaged to one of the most wonderful, beautiful women in the world; and now, I'm being offered a place to live, that is adapted to my needs, in one of the best areas of Manhattan. These are happy tears, Jeff, just trust me on that.."

"Now, of course, there is still the question of rent to discuss," said Jeff. "I was thinking that we could charge you the same as we will be charging Mike. $10 a month…" Kitty choked in shock, and Artie began to cry all the harder; Mike too was swiping at his tears as he saw his old friend weep. "I'd just give the place to you if it was up to me, but that raises all kinds of tax issues, so we will just have to agree on a peppercorn rent that never goes up. So, how about we go and take a look round inside?"

Artie nodded, as Kitty swiped at the tears that she would later deny point blank had ever happened. They made their way over to the house; as the others took the steps, Artie made his way down the gently sloping ramp, which was covered in to protect it from the weather, and came to a stop at the door, noticing at once that the door locks were at the perfect height for him to reach from his chair. Jeff handed him a set of keys, and with trembling hands, he unlocked the door. "I think that now you just press the button on the key fob," Nick said as Artie went to push the door. He did, and to his delight the door swung open automatically; he grinned as beside him Kitty's face was beaming with pleasure. If this was how the house started, the rest would be a dream.

As they went from room to room, it seemed that it was. Sockets and switches were all at a convenient height; the inside doors all slid open, gliding on smooth runners, set in the floor so that Artie's chair could pass over them without even a bump. Every possible adaptation had been made, from low work surfaces in the kitchen, to a wet room. There was a guest bedroom, and a study, which had room for all the computers and tools that he would require to edit his films. There was even a small garden, with smooth surfaces and raised planters, which caught the sun, just off the kitchen. Artie's eyes did not stay try for too long at all as they made their tour; Kitty had to keep excusing herself to powder her nose as she saw them, as she had a reputation to maintain. The other three cried on and off too, just from the look on Artie's face as he made each new discovery. Now, at the end of the tour, all five of them red eyed, Artie turned to Jeff, and said "How soon can I move in?"

Jeff laughed, then replied, "Well, we are intending to move in next week, either on Monday or Tuesday, so after that; though if it suits you, then sooner would be ok. The only thing about it is we haven't told any of the others yet, not even Tina. We intend to do so this weekend, but until then…"

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with us," said Kitty, as Artie nodded. "It's the least that we can do for you after this… It is just so typical of you, Jeff, and reminds us all why you are nothing like the two other men in your family. I just have one question; if you have five houses…."

"The intention at the moment is that Flint and Ethan will be offered the apartment immediately above yours; and the other top portion at this end we are going to offer to Elliott, so he, Beats, Josh and his boyfriend Scott can all live together. The house that sits between these two and ours we are going to offer to the boys - that is, Luke, Duncan, Seth, Colin, Edward and Skylar. As for the two places on the other side of our one, well we haven't decided yet."

Kitty smiled, and shook her head. "No doubt all of them will be let out at the same exorbitant rent? Well, can I just say that I am so, so pleased that this has happened to you. You deserve this. Just remember to invite us to the official announcement, and let us know whether you want us to pretend we didn't know in advance or not."

"Oh, definitely. We want everyone to hear it together," said Nick, with a subtle wink to Jeff. After all, there was something that even Mike did not know about yet they would be telling their friends that day too…

Nick and Jeff took their leave then, leaving Mike with Artie and Kitty. Artie was busy taking photos of the apartment to send to his mom back in Lima, as otherwise she would never believe just how wonderful the place he had been offered to live in was. She would be relieved that her son had managed to find somewhere new to live; he had only told her, not even Kitty, about the fact that the film school had contacted him to tell him that they had a freshman student arriving for the start of next year who scored higher than him on the accessible living requirement test, and that he would need to move out, or be prepared to share his home with a total stranger. His mom had been horrified at the way he was being treated, and had wanted to contact Burt and ask him to intervene, but the prospect of that made Artie sick to the stomach. He did not want to end up the centre of attention just because he was in a chair. Yes, it was unfair, but that was the way life was at times for everyone, so he just needed to deal with it. Behind everyone's back, he had surfed the net looking for alternative accommodation, but like all of the others, he had discovered that he was priced out of the nicer areas, even with Blaine's money, and was excluded from many other places due to lack of access.

He had in the end come across a place that wasn't too bad, in a reasonable area, and within his budget, but there was a catch. The prospect of having to commute to the city on a daily basis from Staten Island left him cold. There had been no other option though, and with reluctance he had decided that he would just have to endure it; it was the only way that he could keep his independence. That was why he had said nothing to his friends. He would have been inundated with offers to put him up, but he didn't want to be a burden; didn't want to have to depend on other people helping him up and down stairs day in, day out. Through all of this he had received regular visits from Kurt and Blaine, together and separately. He could not keep his woes a secret from them after all. Now he realised that each time, as they left, they had told him to keep his chin up; that something would turn up. They had obviously known about the property in the will, and had also predicted what Jeff would do with it. So now, instead of psyching himself up to tell Kitty the truth, as he had been, he was sending his mom a text with dozens of photos attached, and the words 'My guardian angels have been looking out for me; found a new place I can well afford. Will talk to you later and tell you everything.'

Once it was sent, he smiled up at the two people with him. Mike smiled back, and said "So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much do we love Jeff right now?"

"A heck of a lot more than 10," replied Artie, as Kitty nodded at his side.

"Me too," said Mike. "It's so hard to imagine now that the Warblers were once seen as our enemies; that we shared nothing with them, apart from Blaine and Kurt. Now they are some of the best friends that we have, and instead of seeing them as competitors, we see them as allies in a pretty awful world."

Along the street, Nick and Jeff were properly checking out for the first time the house that Jeff had chosen to offer his cousin, his boyfriend, and the four youngest Warblers. Although it was almost identical to their own place next door, the décor was a little less opulent. As they checked out each of the six bedrooms, knowing full well that only four would see regular use, they nonetheless could appreciate all the little period features that the property had retained, and the small garden that it had behind it. It was there that they found a surprise; nestling in a corner of the small patio was a hot tub. "I thought that it was a group of elderly ladies that lived here; it's an unusual thing for them to have.." remarked Jeff.

"From what I can gather, this particular group of ladies had quite the reputation for being rather Bohemian in their day, so it isn't that shocking really to me. Anyway, I am certain that the hot water would have been quite soothing for the aches and pains that come with old age," replied Nick.

"I guess… I just kind of wish that it had been in our garden," said Jeff wistfully.

"I'm sure that the guys will be only too happy to let us use it - and in any case, there appears to be a gate in the fence to let us do so. Let's face it, if it had been next door, we would have to have taken care that Caleb didn't jump or fall into it. He would have hated that…"

"That's true, Nicky. It would have made him change his mind on this place…" Jeff stopped, as he realised that he had just let slip that the cat had seen the house.

Nick just laughed. "I knew you had brought him here, Jeffie. I told Mike, and he said no - but then I saw the extra cat carrier in the closet last night. Some people would think that it was a mad thing to do, but me, I just think that it reminds me just how wonderful and kind my husband is, and that I have to be one of the luckiest men on this planet to have you all for myself."

"We're both lucky to have each other, Nicky," said Jeff with a smile. "So, when do you think we should speak to Elliott? Should we wait until Beats is free, or do we put Elliott out of his misery and speak to him sooner, as we have done with Artie?"

"Sooner I think. The whole thing about not being able to find the home he wants is telling on him, so we should put him out of that misery. We get him on his own, and he can be the one to tell Beats and Josh. Something tells me that he will get quite upset about the whole thing, and he might prefer to do that on his own. We don't even know that he will say yes anyway. He has a lot of pride, and the whole low rent thing might put him off. We need to make it sound like he is doing us a favour by moving in, not the other way round. To that end, I was thinking that we could tell him that we need him to be the responsible adult to supervise the house that we are currently standing in when we aren't around. After all, we would be too nice towards the boys when they messed up because they're friends and family…"

"Then we go on to point out that this arrangement would provide Scott with a home too, and it would be easier for him to supervise them if they were all living under the one roof."

"Now that is a very good point, Jeffie. Do you know, the best thing about all of this is that we get to make so many people happy."

"And we are also making my father mad. Let's face it, what we are doing, it would make him so mad, to think that all he had worked for was being given to people like us and our friends…"


As Jeff enjoyed playing the role of best friend ever in Manhattan, Wes found himself back in the court in Boston, as the trial of his father continued. Whereas the previous day's proceedings had been more or less about the incident at the restaurant in Rhode Island, today the case had moved on to the next set of charges; a set that had been added at the last minute to those he was already facing. The court had only been told of the extra charges that morning; it seemed that a number of the young woman that he had forced into abortions over the years had decided that enough was enough. It had been bad when they had thought that they had been the only one that he had treated in such a shameful way, but now they had been made aware of just how many of them there were. The charges of blackmail were bad enough, but what was added next made Michelle gasp, and left Wes, Finn, Mitch and Gabriel stunned. It seemed that as well as leaving each of these ladies pregnant, he had also given them all a particularly virulent STD. As each of them had been infected by the same strain that tests showed Randy himself was carrying, it also made it easy to identify him as the common denominator. The shock turned to outrage when medical records were submitted which proved that he had been informed that he was carrying the disease ten years earlier, but that he had declined all forms of treatment.

Michelle was by then glowering down at the man in the dock, who was still trying to make out that he was the victim in all of this, being blamed for things that he had not done. 'If looks could kill…' Wes thought as he sat at his cousin's side. He himself was pondering the sheer arrogance of the man that was partially responsible for his very existence. It was not in Wes' nature to hate anyone, but that resolve was being sorely tested as he heard more and more about the man in front of him.

The evidence that day was harrowing; the operations that had been performed on two of the young woman had gone badly wrong; the others had reduced fertility as a consequence of the disease. Randy had destroyed the lives of every single one of them and the charges that were now being laid against him were totally justified. The long term effects of his condition did explain at least one thing; why the Montgomery family had not had to pay out to solve any of Randy's messes with the woman that he had seduced for the last few years. Michelle could barely hide her delight when it was announced that Randy was now infertile, and that he was also likely to suffer from increasing degrees of impotence as time went by. She kept quiet as the urge to cheer and holler would only get her thrown out of the gallery.

She had no such qualms as they broke for lunch; as they walked out of the courtroom, she announced quite happily that she hoped it would drop off in the end, and moments later, the four of them were bent double with laughter in the corridor as others passed by wondering what was so funny.

Michelle went off to call her parents after that, as she did every lunchtime, to update them on what had happened in court that morning, leaving the three former Warblers to sit in silence and contemplate the actions of Wes' father. "What I don't get is why he chose not to go for treatment. If I had an infection there, which is highly unlikely, I would be embarrassed, but I would still go an have it treated," remarked Gabriel. "I mean, it wasn't as if the doctor didn't already know he had it, for heavens sake!"

"I think that there may well be other factors in play here," Mitch countered. "The date of his diagnosis fits in well with something very significant if you think about it. It took place more or less at the time that the Montgomery family left Ohio to go back to Boston. I would be prepared to wager any money that the infection was diagnosed by the family MD in Ohio, but the decision was then taken not to inform the new MD in Boston, probably out of pride on Randy's part."

"I think you might well be right," replied Wes. "It would not have done for such a thing to have become public knowledge in Boston society. I would suggest though that it wasn't actually the family doctor that he saw in Ohio, as if he had, it would have been passed on with all his other medical records as a matter of course. It would probably have remained Randy's dirty little secret if it had not been for the young woman that he infected along the way discovering that they were not alone in their trauma…"

At the end of the day, Wes left Michelle and his two friends and headed back to the office, Finn heading off to see his stepbrother. Elizabeth had told him that he should take the time off to deal with the events of the trial and sort it all out in his head, but she had known that he would ignore her. So she had left a small pile of paperwork in his in tray, just enough to keep him occupied if he did indeed return to try and take his mind off things with his usual work. As he collated that days figures though, Wes found himself unusually distracted. His usual levels of concentration were constantly disturbed as his mind kept returning to the poor, unfortunate victims of his father, and also to his unborn siblings. He still thought that there was a possibility that somewhere out there he had a younger brother or sister, conceived before he caught the virus that had rendered him infertile. He also wondered who exactly had passed the virus on to his father. He felt quite guilty that his first thought on thinking that was that he wanted to meet them and shake them by the hand. Like it or not, the STD had been a massive and well deserved punishment for his wayward parent…