Secret Prayer Ch. 06

It was easy enough for Gage to win the temporary restraining order, which would be looked at again in a few months to decide whether it should be permanent for an amount of five years. Lucia filed a restraining order on the Phillips too, but they had to be served which meant figuring out where they were staying. Lucia would send one to their home in Texas, but they needed to actually be served and given a chance to be in court for it.

Jeremy also put out the news stories. It included photos of Gage and Tate. Both of them had given interviews to a few reporters, with Tate telling them about how the Mission President had made his entire mission hell from the beginning. He was seen as a problem child from the outset, and Mr. Hartman had disciplined him, taken away privileges, and put him with men that were more than happy to tell on any small infraction, even if it was something like not praying enough.

Gage told them all about being gay, and what the church believed you should do in that instance. BYU had come out recently with their revised rules regarding conduct and dress that was acceptable, and even intimate touching between two men or two women were prohibited if they were thought to be gay. They weren't even allowed to be romantic with anyone of the same sex, while heterosexual couples only had to abstain from sex unless they were married. He talked about Craig's suicide, which was the hardest thing he had ever done, and he had to stop quite often because his emotions overwhelmed him and he had been taught to not cry in front of people. He also told them all about his family using the police against him.

The effect from that was almost immediate. No more missionaries or home visitors showed up at their door after that. Gage had never been so relieved, though he never felt any ill will towards the missionaries or home visitors. Tate did, but Tate had far less empathy at this point. Most of them had been very kind, and some even understanding of the position that Gage was in. There were quite a few home visitors that would offer to pray for his happiness, or tell him that they didn't have a problem with gay people.

Gage was still waiting for the other shoe to drop though, mostly with Jarek's family, and every time he left the house or came back home, he was on high alert. Jarek seemed to take the atmosphere of constant waiting with the same sort of nervous energy Gage did, as if it was a certainty that they would show up eventually, even to the point that he carried around the restraining order service paperwork. They barely left the house except to go to work or school and go back home. They ordered all of their food or groceries in, fortunately on the Foundation's generous dime.

They only really went out for fun once, and that was for Gage to really feel like he had broken free of his family. He ended up with pierced ears, a labret piercing (that Jarek kept calling his lab rat piercing), and a tattoo on his arm of a black bird breaking free of a cage. That outing included getting them coffee for the first time, which Gage liked alright and Tate said he would gladly trade it with his cigarette addiction. He'd take the coffee any day over the cancer sticks.

Jarek secretly hoped Tate could find a way to quit smoking. He always smelled terribly and him going outside to feed his habit made both Jarek and Gage nervous with each time the door opened. Though they had noticed he was doing it less now, and seemed to be chewing gum or sucking on candies more often. Jarek supposed they were still traumatized by what Gage's sister and dad had done.

Tate seemed to be serious about his comment too, because he invested in a coffee machine and ended up outside far less than he had been before. It seemed his cigarettes were a treatment to his own psych issues versus actually getting medication. The Foundation helped him get into a counselor of his own and it seemed to be helping, but being able to indulge in something that went against the Mormon beliefs was something that calmed some of his anger and anxiety down. Coffee and soda soon became his main way of doing that.

A little after the cops had been in their home, Gage started feeling vague pain in his stomach occasionally, and as the weeks went by, it seemed to get worse. His appetite decreased and he was careful about what he was eating, trying to put things on his stomach that were easy to digest and he would sometimes hold off on eating until dinner was cold. He was trying to keep it away from Jarek though, as he didn't want him to worry.

As a few weeks went by without any incident from either the Belfords or the Phillips, Gage was starting to calm down, thinking maybe the Phillips didn't think it was worth coming up to Chicago for. It was why when Xavier let Gage see where they kept the spare wood and parts and how he allowed his workers to make things, sometimes for themselves or family and friends, and sometimes to make things to show Xavier as ideas for the shop, Gage jumped on it with hope of making something for Jarek.

There were two big, long pieces of wood that Gage had some ideas for, and he had a setup done for his small downtimes. He used resin and paint to create a beach scene with a rainbow over the top of the water. There was a box of unused art items that he dug into for the shells and sand, and he added glitter into the sand so that it sparkled in the light. Xavier loved it once he saw the final piece and asked to take photos because he might want them to recreate something like it later. This one, though, was for someone and Xavier knew it.

Xavier even let him borrow his truck to take it to the house. Gage called a little before he got home to ask Tate for help, and so Tate gave an apologetic look to Jarek for having to open the door before he went out to help Gage pull the table down off the truck bed and over onto the porch.

Tate popped his head back in the door and looked at Jarek. "Only good things, but you might want to come see this."

Jarek got up and followed Tate, curious now. When he got outside, he saw the table and just stood there speechless for a moment. Gage gave him a nervous smile before saying, "It's a Gage Belford original. This is the first time I've used so many different types of media in it. Not my first time with resin at this point, though, or else it would look awful."

Jarek laughed good-naturedly at that, but it was clear he was still in awe. "Gage, this is beautiful!"

Gage's smile was so bright it could have left everyone sunburned. "I'm glad you think so, because I made it for you."

Jarek looked shocked. "I couldn't!" he managed to sputter out. "It's your first piece and you deserve to be paid for your work!"

"It's my first full one alone, sure, but there will be others," Gage replied. "And it's nowhere near up to the quality the shop would sell. It's a perfect gift for someone who has helped me through some serious hell and hasn't just up and left over it though."

Jarek looked confused. "Why would I leave? I'm the one on the lease!"

Gage laughed at that. "Okay, or kicked me out. You could have easily kicked me and Tate out. Especially Tate."

Jarek laughed, a short bark. "No," he said, "queers don't give up on each other. I'm going to have to have you watch some of my favorite musicals..."

Gage grinned at that and kissed Jarek. "Tate isn't one of us queers, though," he replied with a chuckle, which made Tate stick his tongue out at them. "I'd love that though. We can put the popcorn bowl and mugs with coasters on the new table while we watch too!"

"I'm queer adjacent," Tate added. "My only friends now are queer, so I guess I'm also learning the no gay left behind thing."

"If I have it my way, soon the house will be filled with furniture I've made," Gage said to Jarek.

"Overachiever," Tate joked.

"You have no idea," Jarek said, petting Gage's arm affectionately.

"Oh god, is that a sex joke?" Tate groaned.

Jarek patted his arm. "You'll learn that men seldom grow up all the way and basically everything is a sex joke. Unless you're Ace in some way, then we tend to respect that."

Tate shook his head while Gage laughed and told them they should get the table inside. While they were working out how best to lift it, a sleek blue sedan pulled up to the curb and the rear doors opened to spill a couple of tall men out who held more than a passing resemblance to Jarek. They were dressed alike in jeans, flannel, and roper boots. As they stood to their full height they placed cowboy hats on their heads at the same time and closed the doors. Two more men stepped out of the front seats as the car engine stopped who were as unalike as the twins were alike.

Jarek's eyes immediately went round at the sight of them and he swore colorfully under his breath. "It's my brothers. That means the rest of the family isn't far behind. Let's just get the table inside and shut the door," he said.

Before they could even begin to lift the table, however, a quick, barking laugh rang out across the neighborhood. "Hey! Look everyone, it's the Phillips Family Fairy! Jarey! Come say hello to your long lost brothers!"

Gage had tensed up and he looked back at Jarek and Tate. "Forget the table. Just get inside. Call Jeremy, and then call the cops."

Tate didn't give Jarek much chance to argue before he grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him inside the house, shutting and locking the door behind them. Gage turned around to look over the men who had gotten out of the car. Gage had his brow furrowed and stood now with his arms crossed in front of him like he was minorly inconvenienced by all of this.

"Can I help you...gentlemen?" Gage asked them.

They shared a look amongst themselves and then advanced upon Gage's position en masse. "Hey!" the original talker said, "what gives with Jarey? Wait, are you the boyfriend? We just want to have a conversation with him, promise!"

"Calling him a fairy and acting intimidating doesn't seem like you just want to talk," Gage replied, ignoring the boyfriend question for two reasons. One, because they were just newly official and that felt a little sacred to Gage, and two because these people didn't deserve an answer anyway. "You can leave your number with me and if Jarek wants to talk to you, he can get in touch."

One of the twins spoke up, "Hear that boys? We's intimidatin'!"

They all had a laugh at that before the driver spoke again. "Nah, that's just how we talk! Jarey's always been sensitive, though. Maybe we shoulda come in here with kid gloves on!"

"I never said it was an impressive level of intimidation," Gage added flatly. "You're kind of like the middle school bullies who are only impressive in numbers. Either way, Jarek isn't interested in whatever you're peddling here. As I said, you can leave your number and he'll get back to you, or we can call the cops. Your choice."

"Aw shucks!" (Gage could NOT believe one of them actually unironically said aw shucks) one of the twins said, "Ain't no reason t' involve the Law fer a family reunion. Hell, Jarey left outta town without even waitin' t' see what we thought of him being a f-- a quee-- gay." It was clear he wasn't used to editing his language.

"If words are so hard in front of me, I can only imagine what you'll say in front of Jarek," Gage growled, this time emphasizing the K on the end of his name. "Much like we said to my family, we're not interested in whatever you have to say. So go on, git."

The passenger finally spoke up, "Yeah, he's the boyfriend all right. Look how protective he is. Look here, Sonny Jim, we're gonna talk to our brother one way or another. Why don't you just scamper on in there and ask him if he wants us to leave. If he tells us himself, we'll go quiet. Like Al said, ain't no call to set the Law on us."

"Does it actually matter if I'm the boyfriend or not?" Gage asked them, and he glanced back at the table for a second before looking towards the front door. He had sent them in without it, but he realized now that these men could ruin it if they had the chance. He just hoped Jarek and Tate were taking care of things inside.

Jarek and Tate were calling people inside. Tate was on the phone with Mr. Thayer and Jarek was trying to convince the police that there were intruders on his property. According to the dispatcher, however, there was no law being broken unless the intruders were trying to break into the house or physically assaulting someone. Moreover, Jarek got the impression that they had been deemed a "nuisance caller."

"Listen, kiddo, we can't send a car out every time you and your man friend get into a spat," the dispatcher said before hanging up.

Tate got off the phone with Jeremy around the same time. "Mr. Thayer and Mr. Sparks are on their way with Lucia. Is Gage safe out there with them?" Tate asked.

"They've only ever been remotely violent accidentally," Jarek responded, "but the last time I saw them was seven years ago. A lot can change in that time."

"Fine, how about this? I'll take a message and pass it along," Gage told the brothers. "But that's as good as it gets. A face to face with you all and Jarek isn't happening."

"Listen, missy," the twin who hadn't spoken before said quietly, "we know the Law won't do anything so long as we ain't bein' rowdy, so just send him on out. We won't go past our side 'n' this here gay table y'all built and he can stay by the door."

"Being gay doesn't make me a woman," Gage growled. "If you won't even treat me with basic respect then you aren't going near Jarek."

The other twin elbowed him in the arm as if to say "I told you so" and they nodded at each other solemnly. "Our apologies, we don't mean nothin' by it. We just don't know how y'all do things. Is Jarey the wife?" It was clear from his tone that the man had no idea and was simply trying to learn, but boy did everything they said rub Gage the wrong way.

He narrowed his eyes at the man for a moment, thinking back to Addison's joke about Gage making a good wifey. Perhaps all of them had similar disillusions about queer people, even when they were trying their best, like in Addison's case. Gage swallowed hard and then looked at whichever brother seemed to be the leader among them.

"Alright, let's say I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt here," Gage commented. "That y'all just don't know better and want to learn. That's commendable. But what exactly are you hoping to gain by doing all of this? What are you hoping to walk away with from this encounter? Because I already gave my own family the benefit of the doubt and almost got thrown into a psych ward, so excuse me if I'm a little jumpy for Jarek's safety right now."

The four of them shared a look, then the driver answered, "We heard about that nonsense. We don't intend no kidnappin' nor other such craziness. We just wanna see if'n our brother is interested in gettin' right with the Lord by joinin' us at Mass this weekend. The folks didn't leave the ranch, as he might expect, and they're not likely to, no matter what yer folks tell 'em about how yer a bad influence."

Gage chuckled at that, mostly because his level of bad influence was only happening recently, and it mostly meant for himself, with his tattoo, which the brothers could see peeking out from his shirt, and the piercings they could see. "I don't imagine that Jarek would want to go to any church, but especially not the catholic kind. Religious trauma, especially the type that comes with touchy priests, runs deep."

"What?" Al said quietly, looking to the other three.

Gage frowned at that. Jarek had spoken pretty openly about it, so he was surprised the brothers didn't know. "I didn't realize you didn't know. That's not really my trauma to talk about though, even if it's one we've both gone through." Gage let out a breath, considering his options. "Wait here. And for the record? Neither person is the 'wife' in a relationship between two men. Plus, we're nowhere near marriage yet. If ever." The way he said the last part made it clear that was his own hangup, but then he turned and walked back over to the front door where he got Tate's attention so he could unlock the door before disappearing inside the house.

He could hear some discussion breaking out behind him as the door closed, including some speculation about which priest it had been.

"We may want to give them a minute because I didn't realize they didn't know about your issues with one of the priests," Gage admitted once the door closed.

"Oh fuck," Jarek said, scrambling toward the door. "I'd better stop them from leaving. They'll lynch someone."

Tate tilted his head and looked thoughtful, like he wasn't sure that was such a bad thing. "Do we really need to stop them?"

"Tate," Gage warned him and went to follow Jarek, since this part was his fault.

"I'm just saying," Tate said as he lined up behind Gage. "If the church isn't going to protect kids, and by church I mean any of them apparently, do we really need to protect the grown ass men in charge from the lynchings they so deserve? If they can do the diddling, they can handle the long and slow painful deaths, right?"

Jarek looked frustrated by the whole situation but he still patiently explained to Tate, "I would prefer that the people involved in kiddie-diddling get what they deserve but in this country the ones doing the lynching go to prison for murder." With that he yanked the door open and yelled, "Stop! You four idiots get back here. You don't even know who it was."

Tate was going to make a comment, but Gage looked back at him with a look that gave Tate some pause. There was a warning in the look, but there was also pain, and Tate couldn't quite figure out what it meant so he went uncharacteristically quiet while Jarek dealt with his brothers.

In the end, he convinced them to help move the table inside and have a seat. He made them coffee and introduced them to Gage and Tate. It turned out their names were Robert, Alec, Noah, and Elijah and that Jarek was the youngest. It was easy to see the resemblance between all of the brothers as they sat there next to each other.

Gage imagined it was probably how he looked when he was sat next to his own siblings, and then he felt a jolt of pain in his chest thinking about how Jarek would never get to meet Craig or see the resemblance between them. Gage swallowed down some of that grief, forcing himself to keep a neutral expression despite the brief wince he gave.

He covered that up by taking a sip of the hot coffee, trying to let the brothers talk. The coffee going down his throat hurt, as a lot of drinks and food had been hurting lately, but Gage didn't want to bring it up. They were dealing with too much as it was, and his stomach hurting more often lately wasn't something they needed. He could handle the pain.

After several minutes of Jarek refusing to give even a clue to his brothers about who the priest was that had molested him, he convinced them to just chill out about that, insisting that it was water under the bridge. One of the twins asked if that was why he was gay, which caught him an elbow from Al.

"I'm pretty sure they're gay because they like the taste of dick," Tate commented.

Robert made a gagging sound and one of the twins, not one to miss a beat, said, "I'm pretty sure they don't gag any more, Rob-bob."

Gage just smiled in response but didn't say anything either way. Tate tapped his temple, like he was remembering something before he looked at Jarek and said, "So he is an overachiever."

Gage rolled his eyes and cleared his throat. "So, it would seem your brothers are hoping to help you 'get right with god' while they are here. I told them I didn't think you'd be open to going to church, any of them, but perhaps I'm wrong."

Jarek looked at them one by one. "That's not going to happen, guys. Even if it weren't for my history with the priesthood, the church itself disagrees with my ideologies and lifestyle. And for the record, I'm not gay. I'm bisexual."