Of Family Conflicts Part III.
Whilst Wes and Tim were away from the street, enjoying the peace of life at the beach house on Long Island, there was another important day in the life of the street; that Thursday was the day on which Owain would officially qualify as a fully-fledged doctor. He had been working away as such for a few weeks now, but the time had come for the official graduation ceremony for his whole class of medics, an event which was attended by his proud mother and grandmother. At their side in Carnegie Hall, that year's venue, was his Aunt Marcia, who just happened to be in town for a medical conference on the latest thinking in the sphere of paediatric hospice care as the special guest. Over the course of the last two years, the Thad Montgomery Center that she oversaw at the hospital in Columbus her parents had once ruled with a rod of iron, had become a world leading centre of excellence in the field, the ways that they took care of the young people entrusted to their care an example that was being copied around the globe.
Marcia herself had learnt so much over the last few years, watching and observing how Hayden worked then refining the experience for the younger patients in her care, always looking to improve and be better. She had additional help though, now that she shared a privilege alongside her middle brother and nephew. When she had first started to hear Thad's voice in her ear as she worked, she had been filled with fear, worried she was going mad, but then she had realised that he was always encouraging her, never saying anything menacing or accusatory. He had been her guide in some areas, her most ardent supporter in others.
She had eventually been encouraged by the voice to admit that she could hear him to Ollie and had taken the chance to do so whilst he was in Ohio for a family gathering. He had listened to her confession in silence, then had asked her to wait where she was, in a small ante room, whilst he went to fetch someone. She had waited in silence, fearful of who her brother had gone to fetch; when he brought Owain in with him, she wondered for a moment if they were about to perform a psychiatric evaluation on her, but then her nephew had pulled her into a hug with a huge smile on his face, before saying that he was glad that she could finally hear Thad too…
Then had begun an almost surreal four-way conversation between the three medics and an angel, and soon it had all seemed so natural to Marcia that it took her some time to notice that there was now a third person sitting on the sofa alongside Ollie and Owain… The moment she did was immediately obvious to the other two mortals in the room; she stopped talking as her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in shock…
As for Thad, he had stopped what he was saying and said, "Well Marcia, it is clear to me that you can see me as well as hear me now. I just want to reassure you that both Ollie and Owain had the same gobsmacked reaction in their own time, which of course becomes even more extreme when I proceed to do this."
He then stood up and allowed his wings to unfold, which made his sister gasp in shock. She stared for a moment, eyes filling up with unshed tears, before she said in a quiet voice, "Jeff Sterling-Duval can obviously see you too." Thad nodded at his sister's remark, and she started to giggle. That of course had only been the beginning of her experience that day, as just like Owain, she was able to meet the angel that her brother had married, the love of his life, for the very first time…
Of course, as Marcia sat in Carnegie Hall, awaiting the moment that her nephew's name was read out, she was aware that there were numerous angels in that building along with the mortals, figures from various periods in the past, associated both with the Hall itself and with the Medical school at NYU; she recognised some of them from the portraits of illustrious former professors and students that lined the walls of the older parts of the campus. She was also well aware that very soon her older brother and sister were scheduled to join the club and be able to see Thad once more; she had managed to keep silent so far around them, but she could see the worried looks that they had whenever Thad was suddenly audible to them. She could not wait for the moment that they would see him as well, and then all five siblings could gather around a table once more and converse as family should…
All that was for another day; today her focus was on her nephew. As she waited for his moment, she glanced across at Evie, who was sitting beside Owain's grandmother, and she smiled broadly at her presence in the room too. The love between the two of them was obvious and clear to everyone now. There would be a wedding in due course, but that would be a couple of years away yet at least, as Evie wanted to gain expertise in her place of work first. At her own suggestion, she was currently spending time across all areas of the vast Mackenzie business, as she wanted to know how every area actually functioned before she took charge of it in the years to come… It meant she was spending a lot of time away from New York, but Owain understood her motivation and supported her fully.
Marcia had been aware that her nephew's fiancée was heir to the vast company for a while, but she had been quite surprised when Owain had admitted to her that his mother and grandmother had no idea who Evie was, thanks to her surname being Symons. She could understand why he wanted to keep it quiet, as finding that out about your son's future wife would be shocking and worrying to any parent, but she did hope that they would inform them of the truth before the wedding took place. It was not her place to make any such comment directly to them, and to her surprise, Thad was in full agreement that things needed to be brought out into the open before very much longer or there was a danger the secret would be revealed by the media. She glanced up as she thought that once more and saw her brother perched on a ledge high up in the great auditorium, his husband alongside him. She knew their presence would make Owain's smile all the wider as he collected his diploma…
After the events of the day were passed, Owain would be ready to take up his new role in an official capacity at the hospital; he was to be one of the senior doctors under Ollie in the Emergency Room, destined one day to take charge of the department. That was not for a month though, as he was taking a long vacation with Evie to Europe first; they both knew that their work would prevent them from taking long holidays for a couple of years, so they wanted to take the chance to explore now. They were due to leave on Saturday evening on a flight to Rome, the starting point of a tour through the capitals of Europe that would finish in London, a city that Evie had fond memories of even now…
However, Owain would be back at work the following day on the day shift, an unofficial first day as a qualified doctor in his new role; it would allow everyone to see that he was there to stay. It was a time of great change in the Emergency Room as the senior nurse was retiring after a great many years, but at least her replacement was known to the staff in the department; Roderick had been as good as his word to Owain that New Year's Eve and when he saw the job come up and knew Owain was staying, he had applied for it. The interview for the job had been just a formality in many ways. He would start officially in two weeks' time, but he was already in the department, shadowing the woman that was doing the job, seeing everything she did and how it all worked…
When Owain walked into the Emergency Room that Friday morning, it was to find both Ollie and Roderick awaiting him, smiling at the new name badge that he was wearing that no longer had the word student or trainee written upon it; they also knew that now he could be left to work alone without hesitation. Ollie would not be joining them in the department at first, as he had a pile of paperwork to sort through in his office; he put Owain in charge of the department before he headed up, which made the younger man nervous to say the least…
He had no time for nerves though, as almost at once the doors opened to admit the paramedics with a teenager that had been stabbed on the sidewalk, before being pushed in front of a bus. The young man was only still with them now thanks to the swift work of a retired nurse that had been on that vehicle; her actions and the swiftness of his delivery to the Emergency Room meant that he was likely to survive. Owain was also delighted to hear once his work was done that the perpetrators of the crime were already in custody, detained by witnesses; he liked there to be justice done in all things, and this seemed perfect to his eyes.
The rest of his first shift as a qualified doctor was quieter, as if the public wanted to ease him in gently. Time flew as he worked well with the people that he knew and especially with Roderick, who seemed to know exactly what he needed to do before he had to do it. The head nurse he was replacing had no complaints with him and everyone remarked on the easy partnership that already seemed to exist between him and Owain too. The talk soon came back to Ollie that the two of them could run the place between them, and that made him smile, as that was his intention in the long run. However, there would be many more years before that happened, and for now, he was happy that his nephew would be taking a well deserved break with the woman that he loved from the following day.
When the sun rose in the sky the next morning, a normal summer Saturday in the city, it did so over two households in the West Village within which there was an air of anticipation; in a third, however, there was an air of foreboding. In that third home, Jeff had lain awake half of the night, dreading what the day might actually bring; he no idea exactly when Wes and Tim would arrive back from their stay in Port Jefferson, but until they did appear he would be left on tenterhooks. He planned for that day to be as normal as possible, which meant that after an early breakfast, he and Nick would head towards the subway for their weekly trip to their usual supermarket in Brooklyn, before returning home via the green market in Union Square…
At both destinations, Nick wanted to purchase more than they had been doing for the last year or so, stating that they would have a full house, but Jeff refused to agree to it, with a blunt statement that to stock up on food would be irrational in the circumstances. "We both know that they will not be moving back in with us for more than a night or two, and they can do their own shopping for perishable goods once they have moved into their new placed, wheresoever that may be. Now, before you say it, yes, they could take things with them, but they need to be permitted their freedom, and it should start right now."
Nick reluctantly agreed in the Stop n Shop supermarket, and the matter seemed closed until they were in the heart of the market in Union Square; whilst Jeff was dealing with a purchase at one stall, Nick headed to another and returned with bread and cheese of a kind that Wes and Tim both liked, but neither he or Jeff had much taste for; before his husband could protest, Nick pointed out that they would be home at some point, and having food that they liked would make them feel welcome…
When they returned to their home, it was to discover that Wes and Tim were already there; this was evident by the fact that the two small bags that they had taken with on their brief holiday were sitting in the hallway. Nick sighed on seeing them there and said, "How many times do I have to tell that son of ours to always take his things up to his bedroom when he gets back?" He asked the question with a smile on his face, but Jeff took it as a rhetorical one and did not reply; had he done so, he would have stated bluntly that the room in question was not their son's any longer, and that would not have gone down well…
Nick started to make his way down to the kitchen with the bags of shopping, leaving Jeff to bring down his own; the blond did not do so immediately, deciding instead to move the cases to a spot in the hall that would annoy Nick less. As he lifted Tim's holdall, the side pocket fell open and an item fell out. Jeff froze as he saw that it was the young man's passport. He shook his head and put it carefully back in, reasoning with himself that the presence of the document in question did not imply anything…
He grabbed the bags of shopping again and started for the kitchen door, but nearly dropped his load when he saw that Tim was standing there. Jeff wondered how long he had been present, then noticed that the look on his face was not one of anger at his belongings being moved, but one that he recognised at once as guilt; he had seen it before on so many faces when someone had been caught in the act of doing something that they were not supposed to be doing…
"I came up to give you a hand with the bags," Tim whispered as he came to stand by Jeff, taking two of the four bags he was carrying from him. Then he added, in a sentence that chilled Jeff's heart, "I also want to say how sorry I am right now for everything that is about to happen, and I wouldn't have wanted any of this to happen for the world…"
That almost made Jeff drop the bags again, but before he could ask Tim what he meant the young man had disappeared down the stairs to the kitchen with his share of the bags. He paused, part of him thinking that he should just stay exactly where he was or indeed flee out of the door and thus avoid being present for whatever horror was about to unfold. Then he realised that there was no way he could do so, as he needed to be there for both of the men that he loved so dearly and for Tim as well, as he was an innocent in all of this like himself and needed support. He took a breath and headed down to the kitchen, where he saw that Tim was already unpacking the bags he had brought down into the cupboards, everything placed in the correct one from memory…
The whole room was peaceful, a scene of such domesticity that Jeff was momentarily able to imagine that all was well; then he glanced towards the other side of the room and his heart sank like a stone. There he could see father and son glaring at each other in silence, as if both were waiting for the other to throw the first barb. Placing his bags next to the others, he went across to stand beside Nick and Wes, before wrapping his arm around his husband, a gesture that raised a smile on that man's face for a fleeting moment before the glare returned. Then he turned to his son, and said in a cheerful voice, "How did you both enjoy your little vacation at Port Jefferson? I always find that a couple of nights away from the city at the beach can be so relaxing; a great way to focus the mind as well…"
"It was good, papa, although Tim and I will not be able to take the time to do that again for a while, especially as we will be busy elsewhere," replied Wes, his gaze still fixed on his father as he spoke.
"New jobs, a new home and new responsibilities can do that to your life," Nick said in a measured tone. "Both of you will be taking the first steps along the road of your new career path and making your way into the world… That is a topic that I do need to sit down and have a serious conversation with you about son; I have actually been advised of a vacant position that would suit your new skills to a tee in a very highly regarded firm, and it is yours if you want it…"
Wes shook his head, and replied, "I'm afraid that I already have a new position, dad, as does Tim. We have also managed to find the perfect place for us to make our first home together; it is in a prime location, close to transit and priced at a very reasonable rate. The fact that it is also fully furnished and equipped is just a bonus…."
Jeff saw the look on his husband's face then and was not surprised at all when Nick's tone of reply was cold. "Well, you could have had all of that here in the street where you grew up, but with one additional bonus; a rent that was negligible. It makes no sense whatsoever for you to live elsewhere in the city and, quite honestly, waste money. I am sure that with a bit of negotiation you could still get out of the other lease with no great penalty; it is time for you to do the sensible thing…"
Jeff froze as he heard Nick's words and when he finished, he waited for the explosion to occur; however, the angry retort he expected did not materialise. Instead, Wes laughed; a laugh that sounded mocking, a laugh that made Jeff's blood freeze in his veins. The last time he had heard such a laugh had been in the Senior Commons on the night that Hunter had punished him and Nick for the crime he believed they had committed… He looked over at Tim, and as he did so, the younger man ducked his head, the guilty look back on his face; he seemed not to want to meet Jeff's anxious gaze…
"Here we go again, dad," hissed Wes suddenly. "Another of those wonderful moments when you assume that what you think is the right option and the only sensible one, and that whatever I am thinking is, by implication, dumb. I am beginning to think that is what you actually think of me – that I am just a dumb imbecile that makes nothing but bad choices in everything that he does? Just a stupid boy with an unhealthy obsession on baking, who needs to be shown the logical, responsible and practical side of life and become more clinical, intellectual and dare I say it, cynical? Someone that should give up on his dreams and take a more sensible job, even if the very idea of taking that job and becoming just another mindless drone in an office makes me feel sick?"
Nick sighed, and said in a slightly softer voice, "I do not think that you are stupid, far from it; you just lack experience of the real world, which is something that I do have. I am sorry to say that not all of our dreams can be pursued when reality is considered. Sometimes as a younger man, starting out in the real world, we have to learn to take the advice our elders give us; it avoids us making a terrible mistake that will sit with us for the rest of our lives…"
"I am sure there is an element of truth there, but then there is an old adage that states that we can only learn from our own mistakes, so surely if I do not make mistakes, I do not learn? I may lack real life experience in the workplace, but I do possess one key asset, and that is a mind that allows me to outsmart people that try and get in my way. I can find a way around all of the obstacles that other people place in my way; indeed, I have already done so and have found a way that allows me to follow my dream. I am just fortunate that I have in Tim a soulmate that understands what baking means to me and is willing to make a sacrifice of his own to allow me to reach my full potential in that field…"
As Jeff stood in silence, Nick looked for a moment as if he was about to respond with an air of disbelief, but his son did not give him that opportunity, and almost immediately carried on. "Here is the thing, dad; what you believe are the so-called sensible options really are not when you are aware of all the circumstances. Living here, in the West Village, next door to you and papa would not just be impractical but completely impossible for me. I have made a decision about the future that was actually inspired by something you said to me in one of your well-meant rants; you told me that I needed to be unique to succeed in the bakery business in this city, and that is the reason why Tim and I will be leaving New York tonight on a plane to Germany…"
Jeff gasped then, as the final piece of the jigsaw that had been building up in his mind slotted into place. Nick turned to look at him, giving him a stare of disbelief at his reaction, before turning back to glower at his son. "You cannot be serious; you are heading off to Germany today? It is a little irresponsible in my opinion, as you have just had a few days' vacation in Port Jefferson…"
"Dad, you really can be so stupid at times; maybe that is where I get it. We are not going to Germany for a holiday, we are moving there to live. We are heading to Baden Baden to be precise. You see, some of my extended family do actually approve of my choice of career and are in fact willing to train me up to achieve the same status that they have; I will be an officially registered konditormeister. There is no-one in New York that has that status now, so there is my unique selling point, the one that you told me I needed to have. As for Tim, the firm that has been courting him as a future employee has offices in Strasbourg, and they are only too happy to have him start his career there; he will be able to commute every day across the border. That will be made even easier by the fact that we have found a little house to rent midway between the two places, somewhere that has access to public transit as well in both directions. It could not be more perfect and well planned…"
Nick looked at his son, shaking his head as he did so. "This is not just nonsense; it is complete madness! You cannot simply decide to move to Germany at a moment's notice! You will need work permits and residence visas…"
"Strangely enough, we had all of those sorted out weeks ago; everything has been arranged down to the last-minute detail. In just over a week from now, I will begin work as the newest apprentice at the Duval family bakery, with Tim joining his new colleagues officially on the same day. Fritz will be taking me under his wing, and he thinks that in a few years' time, I will have achieved the same certification that he now has. After that, we could come home, but then again, I am sure I could keep working in the family firm as well…"
"I will not allow it!" yelled Nick, startling Jeff. "I will not have those people…"
"…training your son to follow in the footsteps of generations of his ancestors? Go ahead, dad; call Fritz and his father and tell them that their whole way of life and all of the family heritage that you used to value is wrong and stupid. That is a call that I would love to hear, so please put it on speakerphone! Of course, if there is no place for me in the family business, then it doesn't follow that we would have to come back here at all. I am sure that there are few if any knoditormeisters in say Sydney or Auckland. What is there here to bring me back in all honesty? After all, even my own father has zero respect for me and thinks he can control my life…."
Jeff wanted to scream at them to stop, but he felt so numb that he couldn't intervene before Nick growled, "It is hard to have any respect for someone that is acting in such an immature and petulant manner. You are behaving like a spoiled brat, acting out because your elders are not letting you get your own way on everything. There is a secure job here, with excellent prospects, in the city, but because you are fixated on baking you are not even willing to consider giving it a try. Instead, you are dragging Tim off to Germany to pursue a pipe dream, turning his life upside down and potentially damaging his future prospects as well! That sort of performance does not deserve any respect from me!"
"Oh, pot and kettle, dad, pot and kettle! You are fixated on me doing exactly what you want me to do, and papa is too scared to speak up, not that you'd listen to him anyway if he did. Do you think that sort of attitude deserves respect and is mature? You know something, forget about lunch; I think any food that I ate here would leave a nasty taste in my mouth. I guess this is goodbye dad…" Wes turned then and headed for the kitchen steps without a backward glance at his father…
"Wesley, get back here this instant! This conversation is far from over!"
Wes stopped then, and turned round, his face nearly purple with anger. "This might have escaped your notice whilst you were job hunting for me, but I am actually a legal adult now. I do not have to answer to you. Maybe that is the issue here; now that I am all grown up you can no longer control me and everything that I do any longer. If that is the case, I am truly sorry for you." Then, looking right at Jeff, he said in a softer tone, "I am sorry papa, but I have just had enough of all of this…"
Tim gave Jeff a look then, one filled with sorrow, then headed to join his boyfriend at the foot of the stairs. They headed up them without turning around, with Nick hot on their heels. "Go on then, run away! You demand that I respect you but then you refuse to act like an adult and have a discussion on the topic."
"We have talked this over so many times and every time you bulldoze through anything I say and won't even compromise a little! You want me to obey you and take a job that would destroy me from within. You are supposed to be my dad, someone that loves me unconditionally, but these days it feels like you want to be my master and have me as just an obedient slave. I will not be your puppet anymore! I no longer need you in my life, so please don't even try to contact me once I walk out that door," Wes snapped, grabbing his bag. Tim picked his own up, not even looking at Nick, as Wes wrenched the front door open. They stepped outside, Wes symbolically throwing his house keys back inside to land at his father's feet, before he slammed the door shut with all the force he could muster…