Gilead:

The Republic of Gilead, colloquially referred to as simply Gilead, is the totalitarian patriarchal theocracy that rules over most of the territory that belonged to the former continental United States in The Handmaid's Tale.

A theocratic, inner party of men, more appropriately termed a junta called "Committee" appears to be in charge. They rule from Washington, D.C., which is the capital of Gilead and the former United States of America.

Unlike the United States of America, Gilead is not a democratic republic but rather an oligarchic one ruled by the Committee.

Individual civil liberties enumerated in the now-suspended U.S. Constitution have been replaced by a system of duties and privileges implemented in a hierarchy of social classes, with every former U.S. citizen being assigned to a particular class and expected (and/or forced) to fulfill certain roles. Much of this legislation is influenced and justified by a rigid, made-up interpretation of scripture. The name Gilead itself is taken from the Bible, referring to several different locations and individuals and generally translated as "hill of testimony."

In particular, Gilead is a patriarchal society, where only men have access to higher education and only they can hold property, a job, or political positions

Some civil rights however are confirmed or assumed to be suspended for good, e.g. freedom of speech (which is considered heresy), freedom of the press, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly.

It is most likely that the leaders of Gilead are an extremist Christian cult. They believe that their strict interpretation of the Bible is the absolute truth and that in order for people to achieve salvation and live a pure, godly life, they must follow these. To do otherwise is seen as living in sin, and the guilty must either repent, or be put to death to prevent them from spreading their evil influence to others.

Homosexuality, referred to as "Gender Treachery," is considered a sin and a crime punishable by death.

Gilead's leaders are largely just using women and minority groups as scapegoats because they can be easily discriminated against. They are also engaged in mass deportation of Jews from America to Israel, cramming them into cargo ships – though in practice, many transport ships simply cut corners by dumping their holds once they reach the open sea, leaving them to drown by the hundreds.

Whilst some of Gilead's leaders and founders are implied to truly believe in the regime, it is hinted that many of them are hypocrites who use Gilead as a means to gain power for themselves. They do not care for its values and ideals at all, and regularly flout its rules whilst punishing others who do so.

The government of Canada never recognized Gilead as a legitimate nation-state and accepts refugees fleeing from Gilead.

Canadians find themselves in a difficult diplomatic situation, as they are home to a large number of American refugees and U.S. military personnel and are well aware of Gilead's human rights violations, while still trying to avoid open conflict with their southern neighbor. Canada does not desire a war with Gilead, as Gilead is extremely powerful militarily.

https://the-handmaids-tale.fandom.com/wiki/Republic_of_Gilead_(Series)

Chapter 1

Justin sat at the side of the big hospital bed and watched the unconscious form of the man lying in it. He still couldn't believe that he was here and more importantly that the other man was here.

As he watched the the still form on the bed and listened to the regular beeping of the machines connected to the man, he tried to wrap his head around everything that had happened in the last eight hours.

His life had been completely turned upside down and he still couldn't make any sense of it. How was this possible? How did they end up here in this hospital in Toronto after all these years? And when would the man who could give him the answers to his questions wake up?

Justin still remembered how he had gotten the call that had changed his life earlier that day and he sighed when he thought back to everything that had happened since then.

“Yeah?” Justin had just come back into the house after saying goodbye to Gus, waving the boy off as he rode his bike to school, rushing back inside when he heard the phone, frowning at the unknown number that was displayed.

“Is this Justin Taylor?”

“Yes,” Justin replied, wondering who was calling him that early in the day.

“This is Toronto General Hospital...”

Justin's breath quickened and he felt fear grip him. He knew that Gus was fine, the boy had just left two minutes ago, but Ethan had been out for an hour by now on his way to rehearsals with the orchestra. He started shaking in fear, hoping against hope that nothing had happened to his partner on his way into town.

“Is he okay?” Justin just asked, not even listening to what the person was saying, just needing to know. He needed to know that Ethan was alright and that he could breathe again.

“Mr Taylor, as of now, the doctors are still assessing his condition, but it would be good if you could come over. We need you to fill in some paperwork and hope that you can give us some more information. All we could find was a piece of paper with your name and phone number, but nothing else.”

Justin frowned when he tuned in to what the person on the other end was saying and started to process the information. That was weird, why would Ethan have a piece of paper with his name and phone number? He was saved in Ethan's contacts in his phone and listed as Ethan's POA.

“As of now we have no way of identifying him, but we hope that you can help. It seems like he was looking for you or seems to know you. All we know is that he seems to be a refugee from Gilead and was trying to make his way to Toronto.”

“Gilead?” Justin breathed out, feeling another kind of fear grip his heart and soul. It had been months since he had last thought of Gilead and every time thoughts of his former home invaded his mind, he tried to push them as far away as he could and tried to forget them immediately, because all they ever brought with them was pain and more pain. He didn't like thinking of his former home and the life he had to endure there and even less he liked to think about all the people he had lost in and to Gilead. Especially the one person... no, he wouldn't go there. Not now!

He forced himself to take a steadying breath, cursing himself for still giving that dreadful place so much power over him. He had left Gilead five years ago, had a new life now, a life away from all the persecution, hatred and intolerance and he wouldn't be pulled into that black hole of painful memories. Not now.

“Yes, his clothing seems to be that of a Gilead concentration camp inmate. That's all we know for now and we hope that you might be able to help identify this man as he had your contact details. Do you have any connections to Gilead? Do you know anyone from Gilead?”

“I...I am from Gilead. We... I...fled five years ago,” Justin said quietly, forcing himself to stay stronger than he was. Damn, why did just the mention of Gilead fill him with so much dread?

“Oh...,” the voice on the other end stopped for a second, as if unsure how to continue. “I am sorry to hear that, Mr Taylor. That must have been hard,” the voice continued full of sympathy.

Not sure what to respond to statements like that, Justin just stayed quiet. After a few seconds of awkward silence the other person continued.

“I understand how hard and traumatising this must be for you. If... if you don't want to get involved, we can just contact the usual refugee agencies and have them help us identify this man. We just thought that you might be an acquaintance and might be able to help us. Might even know the man as he had a piece of paper with your name and phone number.”

“Uhm,” Justin started, trying to gather his thoughts. There wasn't really anyone in Gilead that he knew anymore. Most people he knew had fled a long time ago or...worse. He didn't think there was anyone left behind that still had a connection to him, most definitely not a man, but maybe...maybe there was someone he wasn't thinking of. “You said it's a man?” He asked, just to confirm that he had remembered correctly.

“Yes, sir. He seems to be in his forties, but it's really hard to tell. You know with the way he has most likely been treated... It's always hard to tell someone's real age.”

Justin nodded to himself, knowing only too well what the person was refering to. If you were a prisoner in Gilead's concentration camps, you would have to fight for every scrap of food you could find. You would fight for your survival every single day and most people would age way beyond their time due to that life. He had seen enough images of refugees arriving in Canada and the condition they had been in, he could still remember the day he and Gus had arrived and what they had looked like, so yes, he understood exactly what the caller meant.

“Uhm, would it be okay if I bring a friend? She works for the International Red Cross and deals with Gilead refugees. She might be able to help if I can't and...,” Justin stopped, not quite sure how to continue.

“Yes, that would be alright. We would be contacting the authorities anyway and the Red Cross would be joining this case anyway.”

Justin remembered when he and Gus had arrived and remembered what Daphne had told him about her job and knew that she and her colleagues would get called in every time a Gilead refugee came to Canada looking for asylum. He was sure that she would be able to help even if he could not. And in any case, she would be great for moral support, depending on who the person was they would be finding.

“Uhm... okay... I'll get there shortly,” Justin said finally, still trying to wrap his head around this call. Who could it be? Why would a refugee from Gilead have his phone number?

“Just ask for Maureen Kelly in the emergency room,” the caller advised and Justin made a note of the name before he ended the call and called Daphne.

Daphne had made it to Canada a year before he and Gus had and had then started dedicating her life to helping other Gilead refugees. Helping them to build a new life in Canada once they had managed to flee the oppressive, Christian fanatic, autocratic country the United States had turned into in the last nine years.

When he called her, she seemed as mystified by the call from the hospital as Justin had been, but agreed to meet him there in an hour nonetheless.

Once at the hospital, the two friends hugged, then made their way to the emergency room, looking for Maureen Kelly.

The doctor welcomed them, gave them a short summary of what they knew, which wasn't much, just what he had already been told on the phone and then led them to a small room where the mysterious patient was lying, attached to machines, obviously unconscious.

The moment Justin entered the room and his eyes set on the still form of the man on the bed, his breath got stuck in his throat and his eyes filled with tears. He started swaying and it was only because of Daphne's quick reaction that he didn't hit the floor. He landed in her arms, a sob escaping his throat as she held him close, still shocked by her best friend's reaction.

As she moved her own eyes to the bed, she immediately understood that reaction and tightened her grip around her friend's shaking body. “No...,” she just stammered in the same shock Justin was feeling.

The doctor eyed both of them with confusion, then took control of the situation. “Are you alright? I take it that you recognise this man?”

Daphne nodded slowly, still staring wide-eyed at the still form on the bed, before turning to Justin. “Jus... come on, take a deep breath.”

“It can't be,” Justin pressed out between sobs. “It can't be... he's... dead...,” he forced himself to say the painful words, words that he had learned to accept a long time ago as the truth once he had been informed that the man on the bed had been killed in an escape attempt from Gilead. Only that there he was, lying on the bed, his chest rising and falling with each breath he was taking.

“I can assure you that he's not,” the doctor informed them silently. “He suffers from hypothermia and is very badly malnourished, his body also shows signs of torture and punishments, but he is alive.”

“Oh God...,” Justin whispered, slowly freeing himself from Daphne's hug as he made his way over to the still form on the bed, taking the badly scratched hand in his own and holding on for dear life.

“Brian...,” he whispered, his eyes settling on the face of the man he had loved more than life itself, the man who had made it possible for him and Gus to make it out of Gilead five years ago, the man who had sacrificed his own freedom, so Justin and Gus would be safe from persecution and oppression. “This can't be...”

“We were told that he had died in an escape attempt from Gilead,” Daphne quietly told the doctor, watching Justin carefully, trying to gauge his reaction to the news that his former lover and Gus' father was very apparently not dead as they had been told by the Gilead resistance. “We believed he had been killed four years ago.”

“I am sorry,” the doctor said with real sympathy, by know very used to all kinds of horror stories about their neighbouring country down south. “I can assure you that with a bit of rest and good care he will be fine. We don't think that there should be any lasting damage, except maybe mentally which at this point we can't say yet. So far he has been unconscious and we don't expect him to wake up for at least another day. His body needs the rest. When he was found, he was half frozen to death, his clothes nearly falling off him and soaked. The police thinks he might have made his way out of Gilead by crossing Lake Ontario by boat and then making his way up to Toronto in search for you, Mr Taylor. Which would explain the piece of paper with your name and phone number. They aren't really sure though at this point and I guess no one will know until he wakes up.”

All this time, Justin hadn't reacted to the conversation behind him, still drinking in Brian's face, unable to believe that his former lover was lying in this hospital bed. He had been told Brian had been killed in an escape attempt four years ago, he had grieved for him, had helped Gus cope with his grief for his father and now here he was.

After the doctor left Justin and Daphne on their own, getting the promise from Daphne that she would help filling in some paperwork later, now that the identity of the mysterious man had been confirmed, Daphne made her way over to Justin's side, wrapping her arms around her friend who still stared at Brian's still form in absolute shock and disbelief.

“Pinch me,” he whispered, his eyes never leaving Brian's form as tears ran down his face.

“Jus...,” Daphne started, but then stopped when he continued speaking in an eerily quiet voice.

“Pinch me, Daph... I... I hoped and prayed and dreamed of this moment for so long, but... he died... they said he had been killed...We... we had the memorial for him and... if this is a dream... I... I am not sure I can deal with it. I am not sure I want to be in a dream this cruel.”

“It's not a dream, Jus. He's really here. It's Brian. He's here,” she said calmly as she ran her hands over her friend's back in a comforting gesture.

“H-how?” Justin just asked, as he leaned in, carefully running a hand through Brian's hair. It looked like Brian alright. A sick, malnourished, suffering version of Brian, but Brian alright. He would recognise that nose, those lips, that neck anywhere.

“I am not sure, Jus. I think only Brian knows the answers to that.”

“God...what... how am I going to tell Gus?” Justin turned to look at her, new tears leaving his eyes. “How am I going to tell him that the father he thought was dead for four years is alive and here and... what about Ethan? How... do I tell him?”

Daphne looked at her friend and could feel his inner turmoil and how it quickly turned into a panic. She took Justin's hand, squeezing it tightly, before she made him look at her. “Don't worry about any of that. Not now. Now just try to process that Brian is alive and here. Everything else will fall into place when it's time.”

Not replying to it, Justin just stared at her as if she was crazy. How could she say something like that? His whole life was falling apart. The whole life that he had built for himself, for himself and Gus was now falling apart with Brian's appearance in Toronto and strangely, he didn't care at all. All he cared about was that the man that he had thought dead for four years wasn't. All he could care about was that Brian was alive. Alive and here. In Toronto. Brian had found him. Just like he had promised five years ago on that fateful night in Buffalo.

Daphne had stayed with him for a couple more hours, helping him get a grip on the situation he now found himself in, before she had promised to take care of Gus while he would stay at the hospital with Brian, trying to process the information that his former lover was alive and not dead as he had thought.

“So it's really true,” a disbelieving voice interrupted his thoughts and called him back to the here and now. He turned around and saw Emmett's shocked form in the doorway.

“Em...,” he sighed, thanking Daphne for calling his old friend. For he was sure that it had been Daphne who had called him. She had always liked Emmett and knew of the bond Emmett and Justin had had for years. Emmett and Ted had also made it out of Gilead years ago and had built new lives in Toronto and Justin and Emmett had tried to stay as close as they could. They didn't nearly meet as often as they had in Pittsburgh, mostly because every meeting brought back bad memories and memories of the ones who hadn't made it and who they had lost, but they tried to stay in touch as much as they could.

“When Daphne said that... I couldn't believe it. I had to see it with my own eyes... h-how is this possible?”

“I don't know,” Justin whispered, hugging his friend as he walked over to his side. “I have no idea, but... he's here. He's really here.”

“That son of a bitch,” Emmett said admiringly, looking at the still form on the bed. “I... I thought he had...”

“Died?” Justin finished, before turning to look back at Brian's unconscious form. “We all did. And now he's here...and...God, he's alive and here.”

“How are you holding up, baby?” Emmett turned to his friend, looking at him worriedly.

Justin shrugged. “I think I am still in shock and trying to process everything. I... can't really wrap my head around it.”

“It's one hell of a shock, that's for sure,” Emmett sighed, before he really looked at Brian and took in his malnourished and sick features. “How is he doing?”

“He's malnourished, has hypothermia and...,” Justin's voice broke as he continued after taking a deep breath, “they found... signs of torture...on him. When he was found, he was wearing concentration camp attire and they think he fled from one and made his way to Toronto by crossing Lake Ontario by boat. But... no one really knows what happened yet...”

Emmett nodded quietly, not really surprised by what Justin was telling him. They had all heard the stories about what was going on in Gilead, how undesirables like homosexuals and jews and black people were treated by the new government in place. They had all heard the horrific stories of what went on in those camps from refugees that had made it out and while each account was still shocking and terrifying, by now they were hardly surprising anymore. “I am so sorry, baby...”

Justin nodded, then turned his attention back to Brian's still form, once again running his hand through the older man's hair.

Emmett immediately recognised the old familiarity and tenderness in Justin's touch and couldn't help but smile at the scene that he was witnessing.

“I... I just hope that he's okay...,” Justin whispered, his voice choked up by his emotions.

“He is Brian fucking Kinney. Of course he'll be. If anyone will be fine, it will be him,” Emmett assured his younger friend, though he sounded far more cheery than he really felt. He knew that whatever Brian had been through couldn't have been easy and it wouldn't be easy to move on from.

“I... I don't know what to do, Em. How do I tell Gus? What do I tell him?” Justin looked at his friend from pleading eyes, pleading with him to give him some advice.

“The truth, baby. He deserves to know the truth about his father being alive.”

Justin agreed, but still didn't know how to tell the boy something as big as this. “We... we grieved for him...we had the memorial and all and... damn, it was so hard to move on... I thought I was dying and taking care of Gus was the only thing that kept me going. I knew I owed it to Brian and his memory to make sure that Gus was okay and...,” Justin stopped as new tears ran down his cheeks.

“And you did it. Gus is a great, smart boy. You moved on, you kept on living. Both of you,” Emmett said, squeezing Justin's shoulder. “Brian would have wanted that for you.”

“But... now he's here and...I... I mean Ethan and,” Justin started, not quite sure how to go on.

He had met Ethan two years ago and it had taken him a long time before he had opened himself up to the idea of having a relationship with the other man. They had met in a self-help group for grieving men of all places, both having lost loved ones in Gilead and their shared grief had connected them and slowly but surely a relationship had grown between them. Back then Justin had felt like he was betraying Brian's memory by starting to date another man, but everyone he knew had encouraged him, had told him that it was okay to move on and that Brian would want him to live life to the fullest. And after a long time he had finally believed what they had said and had opened himself up to a new relationship with Ethan. And now Brian was back. God, what was he supposed to do?

“Baby, don't worry about that now. Just take each day as it comes and... for today, just be happy that he's alive and here.”

“I am so confused, Em. I... I don't know what to do...,” Justin admitted, his voice sounding weak to his own ears.

“For now, there's not much you can do here. You'll go home and you'll talk to Gus and Ethan. Give them the news of what happened today. And then... whatever happens... you'll take it one day at a time. All of us will. And you're not alone. You know that Daph and I are here to help you, baby.”

They stayed for another hour, silently talking at Brian's bedside, before the nurse informed them that visiting hours were over for the day and Brian was not expected to wake up until at least mid-day the next day.

Justin reluctantly left Brian's side, before he went home, the whole ride home trying to think about how he would tell his partner and Gus what had happened that day. He knew that nothing would ever be the same as it had been that morning before he had received the call.