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wouldbedorothy) wrote2007-12-06 02:30 am
inviting the fire, chapter eleven (the end, almost)
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Title: Inviting The Fire: Chapter Eleven
Author:
wouldbedorothy (AHS)Pairing: Gale/Randy
Rating: PGish chapter (deal with it, lol)
Series/Sequel: only the epilogue to go!
Summary: This chapter borders on schmoopy. Maybe it is. Probably is, lol. There's definitely some cute shit before and after the play, which... uh... doesn't exactly go well... Dylan's not in a good place... Just celebrate that this is the last you see of her! ;) 3710 words.
Author's Notes: Sorry it took so long, but it's long, and I kept getting distracted by ficlets (and migraines)... and maybe I don't really want it to end! I'll still try to get the epilogue up within a few days.
This chapter contains lines from "Dangerous Angels" by Scott C. Sickles. Oh, and I combined Randy's cats into one! lol
Disclaimer: I don't know G or R, and obviously this didn't happen, because there definitely *was* a QAF. Dylan's my character so I don't have to apologize for her (or do I? lol).
Inviting The Fire
by AHS
Chapter Eleven
Randy hurried to the door’s timid knock, ashamed of his relief at spying the tall, rumpled figure through the peephole. He hadn’t really doubted Gale would return, but he couldn’t deny he’d been a little nervous about him going to see Dylan.
“Hey,” said Gale, unconsciously swinging his bag behind his legs when the door opened. “Uh… I’m not sure about where I parked… maybe I should…”
“Why are you hiding your suitcase?”
“I’m… not, I just… don’t want to presume…”
Randy stepped closer and hushed him with lips on his. “Gale, I’d want you here even if you didn’t want to be. But it would make me really happy if you did… Do you?”
Gale smiled for the first time since leaving the apartment two hours earlier. “Yeah, I do.”
Randy reached behind Gale, walking fingers down his backside, his wrist, taking the suitcase and setting it down inside the doorway. Then he grabbed hold of a belt loop on the man’s jeans and pulled him inside. “C’mon.”
*****
After celebrating their new living arrangements, and a couple hours of post-orgasmic dozing, Gale woke to the sound of a small motor… and something soft batting against his face. He opened one eye.
“Rand, why is there a fucking cat on my head?”
“She’s saying hello.” Randy tried not to laugh too hard… but they were so cute. He’d been awake watching them for a while. “You’re not allergic, are you?”
“It’d be a little late if I was,” Gale pretended to grumble. “I keep getting that thing’s tail in my eye.”
“Come here, baby,” Randy murmured, patting his sheet-draped lap.
“Which one of us are you talking to?” Gale grinned sleepily.
“For now, the cat.” The purring ball of fur in question showed no inclination to move, so Randy carefully extricated it from Gale’s pillow… and one paw from Gale’s head… and took it into his arms. “That thing? Do you not like them?”
“Cats? Nah, they’re cool. They’re loners… for the most part,” he amended, rubbing a hand over his hair, still warm. “I respect that.”
“Her name’s Allie.”
“Nice to meet you, Allie.” Gale gave it a little scritch under the chin. “Ah, like alley cat? Cute.” He gave Randy a matching scritch and a teasing smile. “Look at you. I didn’t think you liked pussy.”
“You are so funny.” He tickled Gale’s knee with his toes and made them both laugh.
“Did you have a cat last night?” Gale hadn’t seen one… though, now that he thought of it, he had wondered why there was an empty bowl on the floor in Randy’s kitchen.
“Yes. You were a stranger in her home, so she was hiding. But I guess once you’ve seen somebody walk naked to the bathroom, there’s a certain familiarity,” Randy giggled. “She’s claimed you now.”
“Somebody should tell her you already did that.”
Randy paused at the sweet realization that Gale was happily claimed by him. He felt so fucking lucky. Allie slipped through his loosened arms to jump over Gale, to the edge of the bed, and he draped himself over top of the beautiful, naked man… who wasn’t leaving.
Gale nudged the cat gently to jump to the floor, before sucking Randy’s earlobe into his mouth, whispering, “And tell her there’s no girls allowed in our bed anymore.”
*****
When they finally dragged themselves out of bed, Gale shocked Randy by suggesting they go visit Holly in the hospital.
“I got a voice mail from her husband. She was supposed to have her labor induced today, but the baby decided to get the party started last night. Girl, born early this morning.”
“That’s great. Um, I have to go to work, though.”
“Not until six. We can stop on the way and then I’ll drop you off.”
“Won’t there be a lot of people there? Other people from the theatre, visiting?”
“Probably.”
“And you want us to go… together?”
“You can take your own car if you want, but it seems like a waste of gas.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“I know. C’mon.”
Randy didn’t know Holly very well… by the time he’d come along, she was already having to pull back from her duties at Serendipity… but Gale knew that wasn’t why Randy offered to wait in the truck or in the hall while he visited her. He was sure Gale couldn’t really be okay with friends of his… people who knew him as Dylan’s boyfriend, knew him as straight… seeing them come in together. Gale also knew that if he came in with him, Randy would be convinced whoever was in there could see the change in their relationship and would probably stand ten feet away from him the whole time, to “protect” him.
Which is why Gale took his hand, fingers firmly laced, before they entered the room. And didn’t let him go.
*****
“I told you Dylan wouldn’t be there. Even if she’s sober, she’s not crazy about babies. And Holly’s not that crazy about her.”
Holly’s husband and sister had been there, but the only member of their theatre family present had been Carolyn Adams, Randy’s other female castmate. They had all, almost certainly, gotten the message Gale and Randy were sending, but they were either too occupied with cooing over the baby to care, or they just didn’t.
The beaming new mother, however, had beckoned Gale to lean close and whispered in his ear that he had traded up.
“You were right, Gale. It was fun. But…”
“What?”
“I wouldn’t have expected it to, but… the sight of you holding that baby just made me want to… jump you.”
“You need a reason?”
“No. But you looked… really good. I wish I didn’t have to go to work.”
“You want me to write you a note? ‘Please excuse Randy from the bookstore because we have lost one-on-one fucking time to make up’?”
“Would you?”
“It’s only four hours. I’ve got some… studying to do, anyway.”
“I could help you.”
“Before or after you jump me?”
“Good point. Okay, I’ll go. But… could you just answer me something first?”
“I’ll try.”
“How are you okay with all this?” Gale just looked at him, like he knew what he meant but was waiting for him to say it. “”How are you so okay with everything that’s happened? How are you not uncomfortable with everybody knowing you’re with me? How have you not freaked out once?”
“Do you want me to freak out?”
“No, but… yes… if you need to. Your life has changed pretty dramatically overnight. Not just the last year of your life, but basically everything you’ve ever known. It would be natural…”
Gale shook his head and gestured towards the shop. “Rand, have you been reading some book in there called How To Help Your Straight Boyfriend Through His Coming Out or something?”
There was too much in that question for Randy to even respond to. But he picked out his favorite part.
“Boyfriend?”
Gale smiled and dipped his head for a second, the moment of shyness the only acknowledgement of that word, before going on. “Okay, two things… First, except for my address, you know nothing was overnight. My life started changing from day one of you being in it. I just finally gave in. Maybe it hasn’t all caught up to me yet, maybe I’ll freak the fuck out tomorrow, but I don’t think so. I’m… fucking happy. And second, I don’t know what all this means about me, except that I want to be with you. But that’s all I need to know. What about you?”
“Hmm… I think, yeah… I think that works for me… and my boyfriend.”
Gale’s laughter bubbled against soft lips as Randy kissed him, and he smacked his delicious rear as it wiggled its way out of the truck.
*****
“Oh my God.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“Oh my God, yes, it was!”
“Yeah, maybe it was.”
“Gale, I’ve been a part of many shows, and many less than perfect run-throughs, and that was easily the most disastrous dress rehearsal ever. Everything went wrong!”
“Is this called queening out?”
“Oh, shut up.”
Randy wasn’t exaggerating. Even with no sets to fall down, it had still been a total Murphy’s Law situation… lines forgotten, cues missed, costumes accidentally stepped on and ripped (Randy hadn’t been as guilty as others of the first two, but Carolyn’s dress was completely the fault of his foot). Not to mention the insane amount of tension in the air between Randy and Dylan (and Gale, even mostly from a distance, operating the lights… the one element of the production that had run smoothly). She’d been sober, at least, but it hadn’t really helped. Seemed it had just added sharpness and clarity to the edges of her anger. She hadn’t said anything… not wanting to call attention to their situation… but if looks could kill, Randy would have died about fifty times. The “comforting embrace” scene had been so beyond awkward… closer to scary… it was almost comical. And Travis had been in a weird mood all day, even before the suck-fest commenced.
“You should have been up there, having to deal with all that with me,” Randy mumbled tiredly, experiencing a much better version of a comforting embrace, curled up on his… their couch. “Why weren’t you?”
“I’m just an understudy. We would have had to run everything twice. Would you have liked that tonight? More of the worst dress rehearsal ever?” Gale felt vehement head shaking against his chest and laughed softly, fingers sifting through silky, short hair.
“NO… fuck, no… It’s just so frustrating. Two weeks ago, we were ready. Now that the play opens tomorrow…” He raised his head, at a loss. “It’s just… bad. And the Dylan issues, I feel I should be able to control.”
“You’re amazing, but not all-powerful, Rand. Just think of the saying… a bad dress rehearsal means a great show? Something like that?”
“Then tomorrow could be the greatest performance of a play ever given. I’d better clear space for the awards that will surely start pouring in.”
*****
The next morning, day of the show…
“Fuck… shit…”
Randy walked out of the bathroom, rubbing a towel over his hair. “I thought you were going to join me in the shower.”
“Fuck, shit, and fuck some more!”
“O-kay,” he laughed, then realized how genuinely stressed Gale looked. “Hey, what is it?”
“I have to go on for Booker tonight.”
“Seriously? Why? What happened?”
“He just called. I think he said something about catching a plane, his brother, surgery maybe…? Fuck if I know.” He stopped at Randy’s amusedly shocked face. “Yeah, I know that sounds cold, but I can’t help it. I pretty much blacked out after he said, ‘You’re gonna have to fill in for me, Gale.’ I didn’t think this was actually gonna come up, not this fast.”
“This is so great, though! I mean, not for Booker or his brother, but… you get to go on! You get to act, like you’ve wanted to for so long. Everybody gets to see how good you are.” He walked closer and looped his arms around Gale’s hips, silencing the self-deprecating snicker. “And we get to do this together.”
There was such joy, such pride in him shining in Randy’s eyes. He didn’t want to make it go away, but… “You and me… and Dylan… all sharing the same stage.”
“Shit.” Randy’s face fell, thinking of the previous night’s train wreck… times a thousand. But, with Gale now so worried, he forced some optimism and even managed a genuine smile. “Life is full of surprises, right? But sometimes you get lucky… and they work out better than you could have dreamed.”
Gale rested his fingers just inside the waistband of Randy’s sweatpants, happily distracted for the moment by the warm skin of the best surprise his life had ever gotten.
*****
Serendipity Theatre, backstage, 10 minutes to “curtain up”…
“It’s good that you skipped shaving the last few days. Looks better for playing an old guy.” Randy touched Gale’s jaw and felt the soft scratch.
“Ty is maybe ten years older than me, Rand, you better watch it,” he muttered, skimming over a script.
“You think you’ve got your lines down?”
“Yeah,” Gale said simply, and Randy knew that he did.
“Someone who smokes as much pot as you should not have such a good memory.”
“I’m just special.”
“That’s a good word for it.”
Randy watched Gale sneak a peek at the light booth from their spot in the wings, knowing he felt bad about abandoning his post there. But Holly’s husband, Jerry… who apparently knew almost as much as she did about how everything worked… was filling in, along with another tech, Eric.
“They’ll be fine. You’ll be fine.” He gave Gale’s back a soothing rub. “Can you see? Sounds like it’s getting crowded out there.”
“It’s a packed house, boys.”
Gale and Randy turned at the sound of her voice… Dylan, standing there in costume, cheeks dramatically rouged… teetering on her heels.
“Carolyn told me, Travis told me, but I didn’t believe it,” she said, looking at Gale… the slight salt and pepper sprayed in his hair to make him appear older. “You keep throwing me for a loop, don’t you, babe?”
The men caught each other’s eyes, both silently expressing the same thought… Shit, she’s drunk.
“I’m wearing my lucky heels, see?” She lifted her skirt unnecessarily high, twisting her feet to show off a pair of green pumps, before meeting their uneasy stares with a frightening smile. “Good luck, Randy! Good luck, Gale! Good luck, everyone!”
Randy’s mouth fell open and he grabbed Gale’s arm, whispering to him, “I thought she was really superstitious. Why would she say that?” Randy didn’t consider himself particularly a slave to superstition, but anyone involved in theatre knew those were the two words you never uttered before a show.
“She is.” That was what worried Gale. But, before it could be properly interpreted or panicked over, Travis was calling “places!” and they were on… ready or not.
*****
Things were going okay for a while. Gale was a natural, Dylan was doing a great job of pretending to be sober, and Randy didn’t step on anybody’s dress.
Then, about halfway through, came the scene where Randy and Gale’s characters are sitting in chairs and talking, and Dylan’s and Carolyn’s are having a parallel conversation. Lines alternate and sometimes overlap in a way that is tricky to pull off, but important, because it is revealed that Randy and Dylan (as “Randy” and “Karen”) are having a marriage of convenience and, in fact, both are gay.
Gale spoke the line, “So, when Ben had the ridiculous notion she was marrying a gay guy…”, to which… following a line from Carolyn to Dylan… Randy responded, “On the nose.” Then, Gale and Carolyn, in unison… “Oh, God. So, do you think you’ll be happy together?”
At that point, Randy and Dylan were supposed to reply in unison.
“I think so. We love and…” Randy stumbled slightly on the words, realizing he was the only one speaking them. But he recovered quickly and continued alone, which was really all he could do. “…respect each other. We know each other better than anyone else knows us. Realistically, it’ll probably last longer than most other marriages.”
Gale couldn’t see her face, but he was hoping that slip had been just a forgotten couple of lines, as unlike Dylan as that seemed. But, before he and Carolyn could even begin their next bit of dialogue, everything on the stage was overtaken by giggles… rapid-building giggles, becoming loud and raucous and completely out of the character she was playing. Carolyn did her best to keep the scene going, calling her “Karen” and trying to make it work, bring her back, but it wasn’t happening. Dylan stood up and walked to the other side of the stage, to a horrified Gale and Randy.
“He’s gay?” she laughed, pointing at Randy. “Is that supposed to be a shocker?” She turned to face an audience twittering with nervous confusion… “Who here didn’t know that?”… and then back to Gale. “Shouldn’t you be the one making the big gay confession? Why don’t you fuck him and show everybody?”
Several in the audience gasped, not so much because of what she was saying… they were in Ithaca, for crying out loud… but because she was saying it onstage, mid-play.
“I made him gay,” she announced, her speech beginning to both slur and harden with bitterness. “Took me nearly a year but I did it! I asked for it and burned myself and now where’s my thank you, Randy?”
“Dylan, don’t do this,” said Gale in a low voice. “I know how important this play is to you…”
“I know! I did that, too… ‘cause I’m talented. I ruined the play, ruined us, your birthday… Hey you know what I did? What else?” Gale just shook his head sadly. “I wanted somebody to want me again… like you used to even if we weren’t right… like you wanted him. But somebody did… want me. I didn’t stay at some woman’s house. After the acting workshop I had dinner with Travis… and I had sex with him… at his house.”
It was the most surreal experience Randy had ever had onstage. Bright lights and nervous coughs… a random “Oh my God”… Carolyn’s frantic whisper to Tom, “What should we do?”… and the swaying silhouette of his leading lady, breaking down and dropping bombshells. He fixed his eyes on Gale’s. He could feel how uncomfortable he was, could see surprise… but mostly just concern as Gale stood up to face her.
“I’m sorry it hurt you, Dylan. But, no matter how it happened, I need him.”
Randy stood at his words and connected their hands.
“Dylan, honey…” And then Travis was there, putting an arm around her, taking her gently by the elbow. “Let’s go, okay? You need some rest.”
He gave Gale a look of nervous apology, to which Gale shook his head and said, “Take care of her.”
“Oh my God, Travis.” It was like she had just fully absorbed her surroundings and the horror of the moment. “Get me out of here… please.” She hid her face in his shoulder, and he walked her off the stage and into safety.
After a stunned silence, Tom, the senior member of the group, stepped forward to bullshit some kind of apology or explanation to the poor audience. Randy and Gale didn’t really hear it. Obvious that the show would not go on, Randy ran off and Gale followed.
*****
Gale started to turn his key in the truck’s ignition, but stopped when Randy spoke.
“I’m sorry.” His eyes were watery and looking down.
“Why are you sorry?”
“I kind of suspected something was going on with Dylan and Travis. I mean, not for long, but I thought it. I just figured I was imagining it, or seeing what I wanted to see because I wanted you two to split up. I should have said something to you.”
“Rand, come here.”
Gale stretched his arm out, and Randy slid across the leather seat and into his embrace.
“Gale, I should be comforting you. You’re the one who got outed in front of the whole town and found out your girlfriend’s sleeping with her director.”
“I’m okay. Everything she said had to be hard for you to take, too.” He softly raked fingertips over Randy’s scalp, feeling the tension in his body… and knew exactly what it was about. “You’re mostly just upset the play got ruined, aren’t you?”
“Yes!” Randy pulled back a little, just enough to properly go off. “God, I hate that she did that to you, I hate that I almost feel bad for her, but I really hate that she fucking killed the play! I’m sure she’ll hate herself even worse, but I don’t care! I say, good! I just… we couldn’t even finish, and everyone worked so hard, and it’s like betraying the characters…”
Gale looked like he was about to start laughing, and Randy expected some comment about him queening again. What he didn’t expect was…
“See, this is why I love you.”
Randy froze mid-rant. “What?”
Gale was grinning now, enjoying the cute, flustered expression on Randy’s face. “Are you waiting for me to take it back? I’m not going to. In fact, let me clarify… I am fucking crazy in love with you, Rand.”
He wasn’t sure he was breathing anymore, but he knew he was smiling. He could see it reflected in shiny hazel, so open and so fucking true.
“Then it was all worth it, wasn’t it?”
Randy wrapped his hand around Gale’s chin… giggling slightly at the manufactured gray in the facial hair… and brought their mouths together for a kiss… spine-tingling… celebrational… deep, then light ones, raining on lips, smacking delightfully.
“You were… already… fucking crazy,” Randy declared in pieces between kisses, then rested their foreheads together. “But… I’m in love with you, too.”
It was the first time in a long time Gale had heard those words, and the first time he had ever believed them. He held him tighter. “Good. Now can we go home and…”
Randy slipped his hand between Gale’s legs and squeezed, eliciting a gasp and a gentle, self-preserving shove away. Randy gave in and scooted back to his seat.
“That, too, Rand. But I was gonna say ‘wash this stuff off my face’?”
“Oh, I know. Here…” He opened the glove compartment, pretty sure he remembered a pack of tissues being in there… seeking one for Gale’s face and one for his own, subtly tearstained. Lifting the NY map, and smiling at the memory of their trip, he was distracted from his search by a discovery. “Gale…?”
Gale looked proudly at the keepsake he’d kept close… the #1 candle, held in Randy’s hand. “Yeah?”
Randy curled his fingers around the wax, thinking that it had made more than one wish come true. “Let’s go home.”
Awww!
I'm sad that it's almost over!
Re: Awww!
Think I'm sad, too. But the epilogue should be quick and fun :)
Re: Awww!
I didnt even notice that there was no smut!
weird!
Re: Awww!
I think it's a wonderful compliment that you didn't notice there was no smut!
Re: Awww!
I love the fic!
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Dose this mean it's almost over I'm going to be sorry to see end.
Hugs : Kaylin
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Yup, it has to end, lol. I'm still shocked that I did a chapter story. But maybe now that means I'll be willing to again when I have a *new* idea!
Thanks!!
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Great part, it was interesting to see them begin to blend their lives.
You posted this way late at night.
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Yup, it was way late. Which is why I'm mostly still asleep... *yawn*
I saw you have a new one and I'm not sure what to do, lol. It's another WIP, right? I'm thinking I should read Noir first, but I don't know if I should try and eat it all up in one sitting (will I explode?) or try to space it out, and sometimes I'll need to write when all I want to do is read Noir?!?
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As for Noir, just get off the pot and read it already. ^^
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Noir... I'll get off the pot, lol. But I'm a little afraid it will take over my life until I'm done! (more so than my own stuff, lol)
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That's your only reaction?
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Thank you so much, Anna! :)
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:D
“Gale, I’ve been a part of many shows, and many less than perfect run-throughs, and that was easily the most disastrous dress rehearsal ever. Everything went wrong!”
“Is this called queening out?”
LOL Nuttin but love for ya, Gale.
Seemed it had just added sharpness and clarity to the edges of her anger.
Just had to point out that that is flawlessly worded.
“Gale, I should be comforting you. You’re the one who got outed in front of the whole town and found out your girlfriend’s sleeping with her director.”
I know the situation isn't exactly funny, but when Randy said this I had to laugh. Talk about a bad day.
Randy curled his fingers around the wax, thinking that it had made more than one wish come true. “Let’s go home.”
I can't believe I only have one more chapter, and it's time to get off work! Which means I won't be able to read the epilogue until tonight. So annoying!!!
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Rereading, wow, it got dramatical in that chapter, lol.
Um... if I may ask, what is your job?? :-b
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(And I may have another sequel oneshot after that... soon.)
Yaay! Something to look forward to.
Um... if I may ask, what is your job?? :-b
LOL! I work third shift as a Front Desk clerk at a hotel. I quite seriously do work for a grand total of like 25 minutes, if that. The rest of the time I hang out on the internet since I don't have it at home.