shelter_diner | The House Guest

Title: The House Guest
Author:

jess_d_10
Fandom: Shelter
Rating: R
Pairing; Characters: Zach/Shaun; Gabe, Cody
Chapter: 3/9
Summary: Gabe needs help more than he ever has before, and Zach and Shaun step up to the plate.
Notes: This is a multi-chaptered story, but I've already completed writing the whole thing, so I should be posting chapters fairly quickly. I had so much fun writing this ... I hope you'll all have fun reading it!

Previous Chapters:

Chapter One
Chapter Two

New Chapter:

Shaun

The next night, as promised, Gabe babysat, allowing Shaun and Zach to enjoy a dinner out together alone. They lingered over their food and a bottle of wine for over two hours, giving them plenty of time to talk. As they dug into their desserts, utterly stuffed, but somehow finding room for a few bites of delectable sweetness, Zach said, “So what do you think is really going on with Gabe?”

Shaun raised his eyes from his honeyed vanilla panna cotta to meet Zach’s. “What do you mean?”

Zach shrugged, pushing his fork down into his citrus tart. “I don’t know. He just seems different. Doesn’t he?”

“Babe, after what you guys were smoking last night, I think anyone would seem different.”

Zach gave him a gentle kick under the table. “Come on, I’m being serious. You know what I mean.”

Shaun tilted his head from side to side, in a sort of semi-nod. “I guess he’s a little more … subdued than usual. But it’s understandable, right? After everything that just happened.”

“Yeah … I just … it seems like we don’t know everything that happened.”

Shaun shrugged. “Maybe, but does it matter? Do we really need to know all the details?”

“Maybe not.” Zach let out a deep sigh. “I just hope he’s all right.”

Shaun looked across the table at his partner, whose brow was furrowed as he stared down at his plate, surely not really seeing it at all. His Zach, always the one to carry the weight of everyone’s problems on his shoulders. Shaun had always been touched by Zach’s immense capacity for compassion, but he was also concerned that it brought him more distress than it should. He reached over and touched Zach’s arm. “Hey, don’t let it bother you. We’re helping him in the best way we can, and if he needs to tell us something else, he will, OK?”

Zach looked at him and nodded. They were quiet for a moment as they both ate their desserts. Shaun couldn’t finish his. He was full, but not unpleasantly so. He wanted to keep it that way.

They soon paid the bill and left, returning to more pleasant topics of conversation. As they stepped into the vestibule of their apartment building, Zach apparently couldn’t restrain himself any longer. He was on Shaun in an instant, kissing him, and running his hands firmly down his back. Shaun responded eagerly, happy that their bed was not far away. They tumbled up the stairs and into the apartment together, still kissing and groping at each other, completely oblivious to the possibility that there may be anyone else awake in the apartment.

“Looks like you two had a good night.”

The voice came from the living room and they both jumped. It was Gabe, of course, still awake, and sitting on their couch.

“Yes, we did,” Shaun said in the most composed voice he could muster. “It was great, actually. Thanks for letting us have it.”

Gabe grinned. “My pleasure. I was just raiding your DVD collection. So far, I’ve watched Edward Scissorhands—fucking awesome, The Big Lebowski—seen it, but still fucking awesome, and now I’m almost finished Latter Days. This shit is sad, man.”

“You’re watching Latter Days?”

Shaun heard the tone of surprise in Zach’s voice. They had watched the movie together, a film about how the Mormon community treats homosexuality, all wrapped up in a fairly clichéd, Hollywood love story between the two male leads. It wasn’t a perfect movie, but it was certainly entertaining, and had some good messages.

“Yeah, so?” Gabe said.

Zach shrugged. “Just asking.”

“Well, I’d like to get back to it, so you guys go to bed. I can tell you want to.” He threw a wink their way.

They didn’t argue. They retreated to their bedroom and quickly forgot all about any worries or concerns they might have had as they got lost in each other.

On Monday morning, Shaun had to drive into L.A. for an appointment with his agent. He hated driving in L.A., and if there was any feasible bus route from his apartment to where he needed to go, he certainly would have taken it, but the buses in this city were terrible. For a drive that should have taken a little over half an hour, he left two hours before the appointment was scheduled and arrived just in time.

He had enough to occupy his thoughts, though, as he sat in traffic. Despite his calm reassurances to Zach about Gabe’s mental state, Shaun did have some concerns of his own. He couldn’t help but notice how Gabe wasn’t quite acting like himself, and he suspected that there was more going on beneath the surface than what they already knew. Shaun had to wonder what could have happened that would make his brother act any differently than his usual carefree self because normally, nothing rocked him.

Shaun had to admit that Gabe had had it pretty easy for most of his life. Shaun knew he’d had it easy too compared to a lot of people, but there had still been some real moments of darkness for him. Shaun’s father had died of prostate cancer when Shaun was only seven years old. It hadn’t been easy for him, and his mother’s marriage to a wealthy, emotionally detached older man a year later had not helped things either. Larry had stepped eagerly into what he thought was the “father” role, by being quick to criticize everything Shaun did, and warn him that if he didn’t learn how to get hurt without crying, he would never grow up to be a real man. When Shaun was ten years old and his mother got pregnant with Larry’s baby, he was certain that the poor kid would grow up with the same criticism and pressures that he had been facing in the last three years.

That had never been the case, though. Gabe had, for the most part, been given everything he ever wanted. His mistakes were quickly forgiven, and his triumphs were over-enthusiastically celebrated, while Shaun was left feeling like there was nothing he could do to make the only father-figure left in his life feel proud. It did not take him long to make the decision to make sure that no one mistook Larry for his father.

Looking back on those years, Shaun realized that it would have been understandable for his young self to resent Gabe for getting this easy treatment while he struggled so much for approval, but Shaun had never felt this way toward his little brother. As soon as baby Gabe’s personality formed, everyone saw him as the sweetest, most happy-go-lucky child they had ever met. As soon as he could walk, he was getting into trouble, climbing on things, going places he shouldn’t be going, and getting into everything he could get his hands on, but he was easy to forgive. He was always smiling, and seemed playfully curious, rather than mean-spirited. He grew into a fun little boy who Shaun actually enjoyed spending time with, despite their ten-year age difference. And just as Shaun did not want anyone to mistake Larry for his father, he also made sure that everyone understood that he and Gabe were brothers, one hundred percent. Sure, by blood they were actually half-brothers, but Shaun never thought of him that way.

Despite Gabe’s charmed childhood, he had an uncanny ability to empathize with other people’s pain. He had a need to help them out as well, and not in the same self-detrimental way that Zach did. He just had a way of being there for people that seemed to come naturally for him. When Shaun was seventeen years old, and Gabe was only seven, Gabe had walked in on him crying in his bedroom. Shaun had been embarrassed to be caught: he was crying because his mother had finally thrown out his father’s old record collection. Things were as bad as ever between him and Larry, and it made the reemergence of his long-buried grief even more difficult to handle.

“What’s wrong?” the young Gabe immediately asked when he stepped into Shaun’s bedroom and saw him crying at his desk.

Shaun had quickly swiped the tears from his eyes. “Nothing,” he choked. “I’m fine, man. What are you talking about?”

“You’re crying.”

“No I’m—” Shaun quickly gave up protesting. He knew that he was never going to win with his little brother. “I’m just sad right now.”

“Why?”

“Because … because Mom threw out some stuff that used to belong to my Dad.”

“Oh,” Gabe said slowly, realization beyond his years dawning on his young face. As soon as he had been old enough to understand, the situation had been explained to him: Shaun had a different dad from him, and Shaun’s dad was dead. Shaun had always suspected that Larry wanted Gabe to know this so he would grow up never really thinking of Shaun as his real brother. If that was the case, Shaun was glad to know that his plan had failed miserably.

“She shouldn’t have done that,” Gabe suddenly stated with authority.

Shaun’s lips curled into a half-smile. “Why do you say that?”

“’Cause it was your Dad’s stuff! And you shouldn’t throw out other people’s stuff. Even if they’re … you know … dead.” Gabe looked uncomfortable for bringing up the awkward fact of Shaun’s father’s passing.

“Gabe, I know what you mean,” Shaun said, being completely honest. Still, he knew the rest of the reality as well. He had quickly learned this fascinating, and often exasperating, fact about handing down words of wisdom to those who needed it: it meant admitting things that you yourself may not be ready to admit. It meant saying things out loud that you weren’t quite ready to acknowledge are true. So, he plowed on: “But Mom did the right thing by throwing that stuff away. My Dad’s been gone for a long time, and we still miss him, but that stuff was just … stuff. It wasn’t him. We don’t need those things around to remember him.”

Gabe was quiet for a blessed moment as he considered this. It seemed like a lot for him to take in. Of course, Shaun realized, he had never actually lost anyone before. He had never seen death, not even of a pet. He had never met his paternal grandparents, who had died before he was born, his mother’s parents were alive and kicking, and his cat, two dogs, and guinea pig all still had several years ahead of them.

“I guess that’s true,” Gabe finally said. “But still … it’s sad.”

Shaun looked at his little brother, wanting to be above his childish wisdom, but he couldn’t get beyond just how well this seven-year-old boy could say in a few words exactly how he felt.

So, Shaun just nodded, and said, “Yeah, it is.”

Gabe had shown this same uncanny understanding throughout his life, especially in his friendship with Zach. The two boys had become inseparable in the first grade, and Gabe had immediately understood the fact that Zach’s family didn’t have much money, and that they didn’t live the same way Gabe and his family did. So, he had invited Zach over as much as he could, and when Zach had invited him over, he had gone to their tiny home with pleasure and enthusiasm. When Zach’s dad suffered his injury, Gabe had made sure that his parents gave his friend a place to stay when he needed it, and a friend to talk to as well. Years later, Gabe stuck by Zach’s side when his sister started getting into worse and worse trouble, when his mother became terminally ill, and when he learned he was going to become an uncle. He never had to deal with the same problems Zach faced, but that didn’t get in the way of his ability to support his friend. Now, Gabe was the one who needed supporting. Shaun hoped they could be there for him like he had been there for both of them.

Shaun’s agent, Brent Miller, worked in a small, yet modern-looking office building in downtown L.A., which, mercifully, had its own parking garage. Shaun liked him: he had good connections in the publishing world, he was friendly, while still remaining professional, and he had never given Shaun bad advice. The subject of today’s meeting was the final publication date of Shaun’s latest novel, and what the publisher, Simon & Schuster, was expecting of him at that time. Shaun didn’t hear anything he wasn’t expecting: the novel would be published on September 17^th, and he would be asked to do some book signings around the city in promotion of that. There would be a few interviews, all to be determined closer to publication time, and a big book fair in October that they wanted him to attend. Simon & Schuster also wanted him to rewrite his author bio as a lot had changed since his first book came out.

Shaun thought they just about had things wrapped up, and was beginning to stand, when Brent held up his hand from behind his desk. “One more thing, Shaun.”

Shaun sat back down. “Yes?”

“Simon & Schuster are really pushing to market this book as the exciting new work from the author of Pacific Bluff since that novel had a pretty decent following, so they’d like you to do some work to remind the public of your first novel, and maybe even get some new readers for it. They’re hoping it’ll boost sales of the new book, which I think we can all be on board with, yes? Because when that happens, I make money, you make money, and Simon & Schuster makes money.”

Shaun nodded enthusiastically. After all, he had a family to support now. “What do they need me to do?”

“They’re really going above and beyond here, Shaun, you should actually be pretty honored. They’ve set up a month-long, cross-country book tour. We’re talking all expenses paid—travel, meals, accommodations, everything—in addition to compensation for your time, as well as whatever book sales this will generate. This is going to be great for you, my friend, I can’t even tell you.”

Shaun tried to absorb all of the information, but only one detail stuck out for him. “I’d be away for a whole month?”

Brent frowned. “Yes, a whole month, and you should be damn grateful about it. You’ve got to understand, Shaun, they don’t do this for all their authors. This is huge!”

“I know,” Shaun said quickly, “I know. I don’t want to sound ungrateful or anything, really. I am honored.”

Brent leaned forward a little and met Shaun’s eyes. “Look, Zach’ll understand, trust me. My wife hates it when I have to travel, but she doesn’t complain because it always means good things for the family. You’ve always got to be thinking of that, Shaun.”

“Of course,” Shaun said. He mustered up a smile. “I’m excited about this, really. And a month is … I guess it isn’t really that long.”

Brent waved his right hand vaguely in the air. “Not at all. Besides, you’ll be so busy meeting people, selling books, and having a great time, you won’t even notice the time pass.”

“When do they want me to do this?”

“For the month of April, basically. Let me see.” Brent shuffled through some papers that were sitting on his desk. “The itinerary hasn’t been finalized yet, but the plan is for you to leave on … March 28^th, and to get back on the 29^th of April.”

Shaun nodded. It was January now: April seemed like it was ages away. “Well, OK then, sounds good to me.” He smiled. “Thanks, Brent. I’m sure you had a hand in getting this off the ground.”

Brent shook his head, but Shaun would have sworn he was blushing a little. “Nah, they love you over there at Simon & Schuster. I’m really just the messenger.”

“Well, thanks anyway. Is that it for today?”

“Yep. I’ll send you more details on the tour as soon as I get them. Maybe start thinking about which readings you’d like to do—you’ll want to have a few practiced.”

“You got it,” Shaun said, standing up. Brent stood as well, and the two men shook hands.

“Give my best to Zach and Cody,” Brent said as he walked Shaun to the door.

“Sure will. And the same to Lisa and the kids.”

Brent nodded. “Take care, Shaun. I’ll be in touch.”

“Bye,” Shaun said, and headed to the elevator. His mind was spinning with thoughts of the tour, and how good this would be for his career. The excitement was intermingled with worry, though: worry about how he would tell Zach, and worry about how difficult a month away from each other would be.