The Ring Bearer (18 page)

“What is she talking about?” Daniel asked approaching Heaton.

“This has nothing to do with me,” Heaton assured her. “This is about you picking fights with the wrong people and endangering us.”

“Yes, but your reaction seems too calculated to be honestly come to. At this point, you would use any situation to force a wedge into this team. Anything to give you the freedom to abandon it without recrimination.”

“You lied,” Daniel said. Heaton looked to him even though he was still trying to maintain the argument with Nevia. “You are still trying get transferred.”

“Daniel…it’s complicated,” Heaton said as guilt washed over him.

“I thought we were friends. Feck, I thought we were brothers.”

“I’m not trying to hurt you. I just don’t want to change what we have.”

“You’ve been…” Daniel looked down. He wasn’t sure how to describe the relationship he had with Heaton. He was a friend, and family, but also his balance. Belus may have gotten him on track to becoming a better person, but Heaton was the one who kept him steady and forced him back on track when he got out of line.

Heaton was still struggling to offer an explanation, but Daniel didn’t hear any of it. All he heard were excuses for his abandonment and rejection. It was just enough to tip the scales. Not on his temper, but on hurt. He could have walked away from Nevia forever at that moment, and still not felt the anguish of his friend wanting to leave him.

It was too much.

Heaton never expected the punch. Despite his so called gift, Daniel had never been a fighter. He was far more likely to take a punch a pretend to be passed out, than actually engage in the barbaric display. He told himself that he didn’t have the skill to fight, but given that Heaton’s body flew back several feet with the impact, he decided there probably wasn’t as much skill required as he thought.

The expression on Heaton’s face behind his blood probing hand said that he was just as insulted by the attack, as Daniel was by his breach of friendship. He set his jaw and lunged back at Daniel. As much as Heaton probably wanted to settle the matter diplomatically, he couldn’t let the assault go unanswered for. His pride was far greater than Daniel’s and with his masculinity in question, he wouldn’t be satisfied until he had proved himself superior or at the very least equal to the aggressor.

Daniel flew back from Heaton’s tackle. Nevia jumped out of their way, barely avoiding getting wrapped up in the brawl. Heaton pushed him into the railing of the short stairs preceding the office hallway. Daniel hoped Danato wasn’t around. He would likely blame him for the violence no matter how bad Heaton bruised his face.

Heaton’s first official punches landed in quick succession in his stomach. He did his best to tighten his muscles, but the first blow had already tenderized them. Daniel shoved him away, with more strength than Heaton was prepared for. He stumbled to the floor.

Daniel took the opportunity to get the upper hand, but Heaton kicked him with the heel of his shoe before he could. Heaton adeptly flipped himself from the floor into a standing crouch. He punched Daniel in the face, offering what Daniel assumed to be his half strength. The gesture did nothing to soften Daniel’s resolve. He punched him back.

They paused in a moment of question. They could either stop the battle there and discuss this as gentlemen, or they could throw away everything and once and for all decide who the better man was. Naturally, they decided to brawl out their differences.

Nevia had been yelling in the background the whole time. Daniel hadn’t been listening since he was otherwise occupied, but somewhere in the middle of their wrestling match, he had managed to get the upper hand and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

“Just tell him the truth, Heaton!” She yelled.

Heaton’s legs wrapped around Daniel’s and he was a moment away from regaining a dominant position. They had both paused to hear her statement. Daniel panted overtop his friend squishing his cheeks into his eyes with his left hand, while his right hand struggled to keep Heaton from ripping out his hair. Thankfully neither of them skirted the line of actually trying to choke the other.

In that hesitated moment, Daniel saw how ridiculous they both looked wrapped up in each other like a pretzel. He remembered another reason he didn’t like fighting. No matter how tough the guys were, they always ended up looking like two little kids fighting over a piece of candy. The word immature didn’t translate when the pain of fist blows were fresh, but all coiled up on the floor with the high of aerobic exertion offering clarity, he felt juvenile.

He released Heaton’s face and rolled off him. He sat on the floor and cussed a few times just to give himself a moment to think before he spoke again. Heaton stood up and looked at him. If there was an apology to be said, it wouldn’t be said yet, but for the moment a truce had been reached.

“I’m sorry,” Nevia offered the apology. They both looked at her baffled. Not only was she placing the apology too early by any male standards, she was also offering it without cause. “This is all my fault,” she said.

“How’s that?” Daniel asked. He noticed his bulbous lip. It tasted like blood. He wondered if it was possible to use his power on himself.

“You two wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for me. I’ve made you question your friendship.”

“He made me question it, not you.” Daniel nodded to Heaton offering him a glare that he mirrored back to him.

“I’m the reason he’s leaving, Daniel, not you.”

Daniel furrowed his brow and looked between them. “What the feck is going on between you two? What did I miss?” He shrugged. “If I’m getting in the way of something, you should have told me.” Neither of them offered confirmation or denial. “Fine,” he stood up and dusted himself off, as if the glaring white floors actually had dirt. “Just keep your little secrets. Neither of you needs to transfer, I’ll check with Danato about finding a new parole officer.” He glared at Heaton as he walked over to the steps leading to Danato’s office.

“Tell him!” Nevia’s voice filled the room. He was surprised she could muster so much volume from her tiny body. He looked back at Heaton. He looked guilty again, and a little scared. “This has gone too far. He thinks we are conspiring against him. The damage made by telling your secret is small in comparison to the damage it is doing by keeping it.” Nevia waited for Heaton to say something, but when he made no attempts to stop her approach to Daniel she blurted out the long held secret. “Heaton’s gay,” she hissed like it was still a secret they should keep the walls from hearing.

“What?” Daniel was thinking it, but it was actually Ethan that said it as he came off the elevator.

30

To say he had missed something was an understatement. Ethan could see the bloody noses and freshly bluing bruises on his friends. He had only just overheard the mention of the secret to be revealed. Upon its revelation, he was shocked enough to offer question to it.

“What?”

Everyone looked over at him noting his arrival. Heaton was not happy to see him, and cussed under his breath as he turned away from all of them. Daniel laughed drawing Nevia’s attention back to him. “Heaton’s not gay. I’ve know the guy for five years. I would know if he were gay.”

Ethan looked to Heaton for confirmation, but he didn’t offer anything more than disappointment. Somehow the conversation they had the other day was making sense. Heaton was worried about telling his secret because it would change how they saw him. Given that Daniel was his closest friend, it would follow that he would be most affected by the revelation.

Nevia shrugged. “I’m sorry, Heaton. I can’t let you destroy your friendship over something as trivial as your sexual preference.”

Heaton turned to her. “But it’s okay to irreparable transform it into a fraction of its former self!”

“You’re not gay,” Daniel insisted as if Heaton were merely mistaken. “You go home with women all the time.”

“I leave the bar with women all the time. I generally walk them home, because unlike the men in the bar trying to get into their pants, I am genuinely a gentleman.”

“What the feck?” Daniel scoffed with no particular purpose other than to express his disillusionment.

Heaton looked to Ethan. “What do you have to say?”

Ethan felt blindsided by the question, like he had been called on to give an oral report. “Umm, congratulations?”

Heaton glared at him. “I’m not coming out, you twat. I’ve been out since I was sixteen.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” he asked starting to feel the betrayal of the Heaton’s omission.

“I didn’t tell you because I hadn’t told him.” He nodded to Daniel.

“Why didn’t you tell him?” Ethan asked. Daniel moved closer to him and crossed his arms to wait for that same answer.

“First it was inappropriate information to share. Then it was unnecessary. Then it was just none of his business.” Heaton glared at Daniel, but it faded quickly. “Then…” He looked away.

“Oh good Lord,” Daniel cringed. “Are you in love with me?”

Nevia chuckled, and Heaton crinkled his nose at him. “Dude!”

“What? Isn’t that a logical chain of events?” Daniel motioned to himself as if he were clearly irresistible.

“Yeah, if I didn’t think you were a complete ass, which I do? So no, I’m not in love with you. I was going to say that our partnership became invaluable, and I thought that my revealing my homosexuality to someone who was so grandly heterosexual might make you uncomfortable. I kept it out of common knowledge to keep our work life easy, and then I just didn’t want to ruin our friendship.”

Daniel thought about that a moment. His anger was starting to fade, but he still looked hurt. “So, you’re saying, in the entire five years of our employment together…you never once thought about shagging me.”

Heaton groaned and Ethan stifled his laughter along with Nevia. “I…you…no!” Heaton stuttered flummoxed by Daniel’s change of direction.

“Why not?”
“Dude, I have taste. You aren’t my type and frankly your enthusiasm for the opposite sex, kind of puts off even the remotest thought of…what difference does it make!? You aren’t gay!”

“If
I
was gay I would totally want
you
. Wouldn’t you, Ethan?” Daniel threw the question at him like he was supposed to be offering support to their newly crippled gay friend. He only managed to stammer.

“Daniel, don’t you have anything serious to say about this?” Heaton asked returning to his calm demeanor. Ethan could sense the levity Daniel was struggling to hold onto to make the situation bearable, fade away.

“About what?” Daniel asked, “About you trying to abandon your best friend, just so you can go be gay in peace, without the burden of my presumed judgment looming over you? I do have something to say about that, but since we’ve already beat the snot out of each other, let’s just draw an arrow from this conversation back to five minutes ago, when I first punched you in the face.” Daniel started to walk away, but turned back unsatisfied with his exiting words.

“Did you really think ditching me was better? What did you think I was going to do if you told me the truth? Pick on your hair, and call you a poof. Oh, wait, I do that already. It actually takes the fun out of it now. I would lay down my life for you two.” Daniel looked at Ethan to include him. “Did you think I would recant that level loyalty just because you want to have a boyfriend instead of a girlfriend?”

“I never questioned your loyalty, Daniel,” Heaton said closing the distance between them. “I just didn’t want…” He motioned to the space between them. “…this to change. I didn’t want to lose what made this work.”

“Well, of course it’s going to change.” Daniel furrowed his brow in disapproval. “I’m going to be calling you a poof a lot more and I’m going to making fun of your hair and clothes more.” Even though Daniel was trying to bring back the humor to the situation, his face didn’t show it yet.

Heaton chuckled. “I’m not quite sure why I would have expected any less.”

Daniel shook his head approaching Heaton. “Because you’re an eejit.” He gave Heaton a bear hug that prompted a less enthusiastic back pat from Heaton. When he finally released him, Daniel narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously. “Not once?” He asked.

“Dude,” Heaton grumbled.

Ethan looked to Nevia who had a pleased smile on her face. “I take it you knew about this already.”

“I hate secrets,” she said losing her smile.

He was about to ask why she had such a strong aversion to secrets when the lights flickered and went out.

31

Danato cussed in the pitch black. He grabbed the walkie-talkie and called for his maintenance department, who doubled as dock personnel. After a minute wait, the device squawked and someone came on the line.

“Boss, we’re working on it,” the voice sounded breathy like the man had been running.

“I hope to hell so. It’s pitch black in here. Why isn’t the back-up generator turning on?”

“There’s been an overload or something. We’re still determining why the backup hasn’t turned on. I’ll let you know more in a few minutes, when I reach the sub-basement and get a look at the grid.” The radio clicked off.