SNOWSHINE

Chapter 19

   "NO! NO! You sick bastard! I call you again, You SICK, SADISTIC SHIT!" And Brian stood and punched Stockwell to the ground who was laughing like a maniac in a James Bond movie, as if he had just taken over the world. Stockwell hit the floor and was immediately dogpiled and pummelled by group of large and angry gay men. But Stockwell wouldn't stop laughing. He'd had a complete break and just laughed and laughed and laughed and never felt a blow.

   Brian knelt beside his Snowshine, the only bright spot in his life whose light had been snuffed out into darkness. The three pearls on his wrist fixated on a spot in the center of the string and froze there.

   "No! No! Call 911! Someone call 911! He yelled hysterically, moving his wrist. Come on! Clack, clack! Move! Like always, you bitches! Move!

   But they wouldn't move. They wouldn't move again because Snowshine, his beautiful boy with white hair and blue eyes was dead. The magic of the pearls was real.

   "Call 911! Somebody help us! Help me!" he cried out helplessly.

   "Call the paramedics! I can help him," said a voice.

   Brian looked through blurry eyes and search out who had spoken. "What! What can you do? He's dead!"

   Blake forced his way through and knelt beside Brian. "Yes Brian, he is. But I heard Stockwell. This is a GHB drug overdose. In my time as an addict, I dealt with a few overdoses and brought them back like this before." He yelled, "Is there any hydrogen peroxide in this place!?"

   "Yes, in the bathroom, I think! Why?" someone yelled.

   "GET IT NOW...and stop asking useless questions! Oh! And something he can puke into! HURRY!"

   Grimhook hurried and within a minute brought a bucket and the required item. It was the longest minute of Brian's life. Each heartbeat seemed to stretch into an hour. Stockwell continued to cackle.

   "OK Brian, prop him up. Hold him from behind in a sitting position." Brian did so. Blake pushed the bottle of hydrogen peroxide to Justin's lips and poured a quantity of it down Justin's slack throat. Then, quite brutally, he punched Justin in the stomach several times.

   "Blake!! What the HELL!?" Brian yelled.

   "You want your boyfriend back or not!?" yelled Blake back, "Come on Justin! Don't you fuckin' let that asshole win!" He punched him twice more before the reflexes kicked in and Justin bent forward and puked the contents of his stomach. He took a huge breath and his eyes fluttered. He looked over at Brian and said, "Brian....I...You...are...." before passing out again.

   "Justin! Justin!' Brian screamed but he got no response.

   "Brian! It's OK! He's just sleeping. I'm not sure how much the drug was absorbed into his system but at least we got rid of the bulk of it," Blake said.

   "THAT was your solution! Punching my boyfriend!!" Brian reached for Blake's neck, his hand curved into claws.

   "It was the only way to make him throw up! Please Brian, NO!" Blake cried piteously

   And as Brian's hands moved forward there was a clack! Brian stopped his hands inches from Blake's neck and jerked his wrist. Clack! Clack! The pearls moved! They moved again!

   Brian`s hands came closer and closer. "Brian NO! You don`t understand! I'm sorry!" But Brian wasn't listening and his hands were coming closer so Blake just curled into a protective ball and waited for the end.

   And then Brian's whole arms went around Blake and he was crushed into consuming strangling hug. "He's alive! They moved! THEY MOVED!"

   "OK Brian, OK! They moved!"Blake had no idea what Brian was talking about but if it would make him let him go, he'd agree to anything. "OK! They moved! Just one question! What moved!?"

***Please see End Notes

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   For three days and three nights, Justin lay in his hospital bed in a coma, neither in this world or the next, as still as death.

   And for those three days and three nights Brian never left his side except to eat and relieve himself.

   All of the DWARVESZ (and Kiki) came to visit in some capacity. Vixen and Double G came to visit Brian for the most part. Red decided Brian was too thin and brought lemon bars and cannoli from Luigi and stood over him until he ate it all. (Well, the cannoli, not the lemon bars, let's not go nuts here) Kiki would usually come with Red. Winner and Zen came to sit beside Brian for the most part. Brian had to admit that during this time, Michael's hand in his was a rock, a pillar of strength from which he drew power constantly.

   "You know..." Mike said one time, "It's odd. When I first saw him, I thought him a street bum, a user. All I wanted was him gone. But now...I can't imagine our lives without him. He's been so brave. HE was the one who stood up to Stockwell. And if it wasn't for him...and you...for both of you...I'd still be that terrible violent and angry man. I understand what you mean now Brian. I'm in love with Ben. But I love you too and he's good for you. And so, by extension, I love him too and also for giving me my new name and status. He WILL get better Brian. I just know it."

   "Thanks Mikey," Brian said, giving him a kiss that they now both knew meant as much or as little as they chose to make of it. And as profound as it was for both of them, they never considered it filled with the eroticism that they shared with their lovers.

   Swish Stick would come alone or in groups with Mike and Zen Ben or with Ted and Blake. However, he was just too different from Brian to establish a close rapport with him and mostly came to sit on Justin's other side and hold his hand until he would start sniffling too hard whereupon he'd take off for the day.

   Ted and Blake would come and offer silent support. They also came to supply Brian with clean clothes as Brian refused to leave the hospital. They also came to do this because Brian recognized them as the only stolid and dependable people in the group. And as well, Brian would now only trust Blake with his loft key and alarm codes.

   Blake was now elevated to a special status in Brian's esteem. If he had been called on it directly, he would have denied it expressly. Brian Fucking Kinney did not do hero worship. If anything, hewas the hero and everyone should be worshipping him!

   However, hero worship was what it was, or as close to what Brian could muster up to it, as much as his pride would allow. As I said, Blake was entrusted with Brian's loft. For house sitting purposes, you understand, and to get him clean clothes. Blake was also given the keys to Brian's ‘Vette and instructed to take the "girl" out at least once a day. (To keep the oil running through it, of course) Of course. (Wink wink!)

   Whenever they came to visit, Brian's eyes would light up for a second in a way that they never did at any other time and for no-one else. He would move aside to a secondary chair and Blake was expected to take Brian's chair by Snowshine. Ted was relegated to Snowshine's other side. Blake would hold Snowshine's hand and whisper to him, convinced that somewhere Justin could hear him. When Brian saw that, he talked to Justin almost all the time, whispering words of sex and love or he would play classical music on an I-pod for him. And when Blake was there, he found his smaller hand engulfed in Brian's other hand, nearly against his will. Eventually, he just learned to accept it.

   Brian instructed Red that Blake was to be given anything he asked for at the Diner, no questions asked and he would pay the tab at the end of the month. Blake also received a letter on Snowshine's second day from his landlord telling him his rent on his and Ted's apartment had been paid for a year.

   On his next visit to the hospital, Blake screwed up his courage and confronted Brian. "This must stop, Brian! I don't deserve any of this!"

   "Too late. It's a done deal. Can't take it back," was the only thing Brian would say before moving over.

   "But Brian..." Blake said, moving forward, against his very will, drawn in by the magnetism and gravity that was Kinney. "It's too much," he said weakly.

   "Toolatedonedealcan'ttakeitback," Brian said stubbornly, all in one breath. And then he grabbed Blake's hand as usual and refused to say anything more about it. Blake sighed, sat, and shrugged at Ted. Arguing with Brian was like trying to ask a hurricane to stop. He was a force of nature in himself.

   Ted found the whole thing highly amusing. He saw how uncomfortable it was making Blake but since he was getting to enjoy the benefits in an indirect way and he could tell Brian was grieving and had no serious designs on his boyfriend, he put up with it. And when they were alone, he would make it up to Blake by comforting away his discomfort in any way he could...which meant a whole lot of extra sex...which Blake did enjoy. And so Blake put up with it as well.

   Luigi did not visit as he rightly figured that he would be a too boisterous influence in the room and hospital in general. However, with Guido's computer savvy and help, they made a get well card and put in a photograph of a simply enormous pan of lasagne. They explained it had been gotten off the internet but when Justin was well they would hold a banquet and serve a lasagne this big or bigger for Snowshine and friends. The pan was sitting on a banquet table and was fully four chairs long. It would easily feed 20 people. Brian asked Red to tell him thank you and he'd hold him to it.

   For those three days, Brian's wrist autonomically jerked every five minutes. He stopped trying to stop or control it. The clack! clack! comforted him day and night. Sometimes it would wake him up. It drove the doctors insane. It drove the nurses insane. It drove the orderlies insane. It drove his friends insane. But he didn't care. He wouldn't stop. He couldn't stop at this point. And he absolutelyrefused to take it off. Every sounding told him that Snowshine was still alive. Every sounding told him that Snowshine was coming back to him. And he could NOT forget the way the pearls had frozen that night and how he had almost lost the light that governed his life now, the light that was brighter than Sunshine.

   And then, on the fourth day, after showering and shaving and putting on his clean clothes, Brian stepped out of the bathroom and in response, Justin's heart rate elevated. As if he could sense, Brian's presence deep in his cursed sleep, Justin's heart quickened and his breathing quickened for a moment and all his machines sped up. But he wouldn't wake up.

   Brian summoned the doctors and the nurses and the doctor came running but as Justin wouldn't wake, there was little they could do. However a note was made and the doctors grew more hopeful that the dawn would prevail over this twilight death.

   Brian held Justin's hand and stroked his palm with his hand. "Come on, Snowshine! Wake up! Please wake up! We're all waiting for you! Luigi wants to cook this fantastic thing for you! Gus misses you! He loves you! We all love you! I...I love you!"

   Again Justin's heart rate sped up and then went back to normal.

   He stroked his palm and leaned close. "I love you! I love you!" he gasped out hoarsely, "Don't leave me here alone!"

   Justin's machines sped up. A strange energy built in the room. Brian realized he could not move away. A strange magnetism built between them and Brian slowly lowered the rest of the way down and kissed Justin's cupid bow lips gently.

   For the first time in three days and three nights, Justin's fingers on his right hand twitched. His hand moved. Slowly, his arm rose. Brian watched in pure joy. The arm raised and felt Brian's broad back. It rose to his neck. It buried itself in Brian's hair and pulled him down for another kiss and Brian's lips crashed down willingly. He licked Snowshine's lips experimentally and Snowshine's lips parted just enough weakly. Overjoyed, Brian deepened the kiss and gently plundered his partner's mouth for several long beats.

   Finally he pulled up and watched as Snowshine took a deep breath. His eyes fluttered and opened and he awoke.

   "Brian....what....what happened? Where...am...I?" he said.

   Brian kissed his hand and held it to his cheek. "Oh thank God! You're awake! You were poisoned. You're in the hospital. You've been in a coma for three days."

   "Water..." rasped Justin.

   Brian rushed to the sink and brought him a paper cup of water, which Justin drank greedily.

   "Poison....I don't understand...Who...?" His eyes widened in shock. "Wait! I remember now! A man in black! The party! Stockwell!!!"

   Brian rang for a nurse. "Yes. He was disguised. He fooled all of us until it was too late. He dosed you with GHB! Oh Snowshine! You were dead for a few minutes!"

   "Then how is it I am alive?" asked Snowshine, "And Stockwell! What happened to Stockwell!?"

   At that moment the nurse poked her head in. "Anything wrong Mr. Kinney?" she asked.

   "No! Everything's right! Please...get a doctor! He's awake!"

   The nurse's mouth was a perfect O of amazement. Then she

kicked off and ran down the hall to spread the news.

   "Don't worry! Stockwell was dogpiled and sat on until the authorities arrived. He'd had a complete psychotic break. He's in a rubber room until the trial and after that the doctors figure he'll have to be hospitalized for the rest of his days. He'll never see freedom again."

   "Oh thank God!" breathed Justin.

   "As for how you got back, it was Blake. Blake knew a strange remedy from his drug addict days." Brian quickly outlined Blake's remedy that had Justin chuckling weakly by the end.

   "He punched me!? Really?? You must have been livid!"

   "I was! Until it was clear you were alive again! Then I was overjoyed! And now..."

   "And now you've been overcompensating by showering the poor boy with gifts," Snowshine accurately predicted.

   Brian was suddenly shy. He toed the floor. Well....yeah," he admitted.

   "Come here, you!" Justin said and grasped Brian around the neck, pulling him in for another kiss. "You did exactly the right thing," he whispered.

   At that moment, the lovers were forced apart by the arrival of the legion of doctors and nurses who invaded their Utopia of two. Brian backed off to let the doctors ask their questions and the nurses take their blood and basically make a necessary nuisance of themselves when all the lovers wanted was to be left alone.

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   Snowshine needed to stay in the hospital for another few days "for observation" but as he grew stronger and stronger with each passing day, they finally let him go, with a week's worth of antibiotics that he wasn't allergic to, and instructions to have a check up with a doctor after those were gone.

   And so, finally, Brian got to take his Snowshine home to the mayor's mansion where they both belonged. And Brian finally got to fu - uh....make love to Snowshine's hot little heinie in  nearly every room of said mansion.

   And make love it was. At first Brian thought he could revert back to his aloof persona but on the very first night back, as they were falling asleep Snowshine leaned over and whispered in Brian's ear: By the way...I love you too."

   Brian slowly turned over to gaze into the crystal blue depths that seemed to intensify and change color every time he looked. And he knew that he'd never get enough.

   "Soooooo...you remember that, do you?" he asked.

   "Mmmm-hmmm," answered Justin cheekily, propping himself up on his elbow.

   "I thought you were still in the coma," Brian said.

   "Uh-uh." Snowshine shook his head. "Well....it was kind of an 80-20 deal. But I heard you."

   "Oh. Well....since that genie's out of the bottle then....I love you! I love you....I love you....I love you...." Brian flipped Justin over onto his back and kissed him madly, his lips, his neck, his chest, his nipples, his stomach. Over and over he said it until he reached his cock. "And you....I think I'll love you most of all, Scarecrow!"

   Justin jackknifed up. "Hey! That's not how the line goes! And she definitely wasn't talking about....UHHHHHH-OHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

   You see, at that moment Brian had engulfed his leaking cock to the hilt. Brian began a most OZ-tastic blowjob that chased all coherent thought out of his brain. He fell back again and moaned and whimpered and arched his back as Brian intensified his ministrations until Justin was hanging onto the headboard for dear life and when he came he wondered how the pleasure he felt could ever be topped. Of course, this is Brian Fucking Kinney we're talking about. Of course it could. And would.

   Happily ever after.

TBC