Zack and Jay
Chapter 17
Author: Kevin
Author's note: I would like to take this opportunity to tell everyone that I am feeling a lot better, some days. For the first time in almost two years I can honestly say I feel good. Thank you to all of you who have helped me through this hard time. Your emails, chats, thoughts, and prayers have done their job.
I have some good news; I have changed careers. By the time you read this I will have gone to school to get my CDL and will be driving a tractor trailer over the road. And I think I have found the one for me, he just doesn't know it yet! CDC hopefully someday I can show you how much you mean to me.
Again thanks for all of your support. Kevin
Over the next few days Jay and I get ready for New Year's Eve. We plan on staying home and having a nice time celebrating in the New Year as a family. We invite Diane and she accepts warmly. We make a few snacks for the evening and buy some shrimp for shrimp cocktails.
New Year's Eve Diane comes over for dinner and we spend the evening watching TV together. We watch the ball drop in New York City and toast the New Year with sparkling cider and around one AM Diane goes home.
Over the weekend Jay and I go shopping and get Shawn's birthday presents and the ingredients to make his birthday cake from scratch. When we get home we wrap his presents together. After a while Shawn is getting very tired and Jay takes him and lays him down for a nap.
On Monday afternoon, we make his cake together. When it is cooled down we apply the frosting and decorate it with small cake decorations of Barney which is Shawn's favorite show.
Jay receives an emergency phone call from the counseling service and heads out to meet with a guy that is thinking about suicide. He tells me he will be back in time for dinner.
Diane shows up just as I am finishing making the meal and helps me set the table. After about an hour Jay still isn't home. I try his cell and it goes to voice mail immediately.
"Damn it! He did it again," I say out loud but more to myself.
"What?" she asks.
"Jay didn't charge his phone. It went right to voice mail. He told me he wouldn't be late. He knew that you were coming over and what time we were eating."
"Maybe he is having trouble getting through to the guy that he went to talk to," she says trying to reassure me.
"Well we better go ahead and eat before everything gets cold."
We sit and eat in silence. I am getting more and more pissed the later it gets. I try his cell again; same thing, voice mail. I try his direct line to his office; I get his voice mail. I try his emergency number. The service says they have been trying to contact him, too. They discovered the phone call was a hoax after which they called the police to report the situation and nobody was at the address given. Now I'm getting worried and scared.
I tell Diane, "That's it. I'm not waiting any longer. He's just going to have to miss his son's first birthday party."
We sing Happy Birthday to Shawn and just as I'm about to cut the cake my phone rings. I pick it up and look at the caller id, it's Jay.
"Where the fuck are you? How come you're not fucking home...? "
I'm interrupted by a male voice that I do not recognize, "If you ever want to see this faggot alive again you had better get to his office, now!" The line goes dead.
"Oh my God, Diane would you please stay with Shawn? Somebody has Jay and they are at his office. They said if I want to see him alive again I have to get over there now."
"Go. Don't worry about Shawn. He'll be fine. Zack, don't go there unprepared. Call the police, please."
"I'll call them on my way. I'll be back as soon as I can."
I head out to my car, start it and floor it out the drive way. I grab my cell phone and call the police and tell them what is going on. They try to get me to not go to Jay's office but I refuse. They try to tell me not to go in once I get there but I hang up on them.
When I arrive at the administration building on campus there are already three police cars sitting in front of it and four more follow me into the parking lot. I see Jay's car sitting in his assigned space and I just know he's in there.
I get out of my car and an officer comes up to me and trys to stop me. "If you really want to stop me from going in there, you're going to have to shoot me in the back as I walk away. There aren't enough officers here yet to stop me." He can tell from the tone of my voice and the look on my face I'm serious and he steps out of my way.
I carefully and quietly make my way up to Jay's office not knowing how many guys are in there are what they may have as weapons. I make it most of the way down the hallway and I can see light coming out of his half open door. I can hear three voices; one of which is Jay's. I can tell from the way he is talking that something is wrong with him. His speech sounds slurred and muffled.
As carefully as I can I make my way to his office door and try to see how many people are inside. I can see Jay sitting in the opposite corner tied to his office chair. My heart sinks as I see what they have done to him. His nose is bleeding and obviously broken. From the huge egg sized bump on the side of his jaw and the way he is talking, I think it's broken, too. He has a goose egg on the right side of his forehead which is also bleeding.
Just as I am about to push the door the rest of the way open I freeze as I hear electricity crackling. I've heard that sound before and know instantly what it is. It's a taser. `Oh my God, Jay what have they done to you?' I think to myself. I stand there a few moments longer and listen. I have been in Jay's office enough times to know the layout. From the movements in the room I can tell there are three people besides Jay in there. Jay is the only one I can see.
I hear a noise coming up the hallway from behind me; I turn my head and see about ten policemen in full riot gear making their way towards me. I motion for them to stop. They ignore me. I plead with them as best as I can, but they won't stop. I'm not sure what other weapons the guys that are holding Jay have but for his sake I can't let the guys in the room know the cops are here. I step into the room and close and lock the door behind me.
"Good the one we really want is finally here," one of Jay's attackers says to me.
"What do you want with me?" I ask him. "If you wanted me so bad why did you do that to him?"
"Because we couldn't get to you physically, so we decided to get to you emotionally. Look at what you did to your faggot husband!"
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because of what you have been doing, teaching that class of yours; helping faggots defend themselves. Getting three of our brothers arrested. If it wasn't for you we would have succeeded in ridding this school of every last faggot. But no, you had to take it upon yourself to protect them and train them how to protect themselves."
"I know your voice. I know who you are. You might as well take off the ski mask." I tell Jay's former coach.
After pulling off the mask he says, "You only talked to me for what five minutes; how did you know it was me?" "I have a thing for sounds and that includes voices. It's almost like a photographic memory, but mine works with sounds. I can remember just about every sound I have ever heard. You're voice is very deep and very distinct."
Then I hear another familiar voice coming from my left. This one is a little harder to place but after a couple of minutes I am able to put a face to it. The older maintenance guy that came to my room after John was expelled to pack up his belongings and remove the furniture. He says, "Damn it I wish I would have known you were gay the day I cleaned out your ex-roommates belongings. I would have taken care of you right then and there. The way you looked that day I'm sure I could have easily killed you."
"You think so do you?"
I hear the taser again. This time Coach is standing right next to Jay and is holding it about an inch away from the side of his neck. I know how they feel from my unarmed self defense class and if he hits Jay there with it, it is going to hurt really bad; especially with the way Jay is sweating.
"If you touch him with that thing I will kill you!"
"You don't get to make threats here." Coach says.
"That wasn't a threat. It was a promise."
I'm still not sure who the third guy is because he has not spoken yet and is also wearing a ski mask, but I know I can easily take the two older men.
Just then there is a load bang on the door and someone yells through it, "Boston Police Department, open the door!"
"You called the cops?" the third guy asks. I don't recognize his voice.
"Of course I called them. Do you think I am stupid?"
"Obviously you are. You called them. You two will be dying in this room tonight."
"I don't think Jay and I will be dying here. I think the three of you will be. At least you will be paying for what you have done to him."
"I doubt that!" Coach says as he pushes the taser into Jay's neck and squeezes the trigger. Jay screams in pain and his body goes rigid from the fifty thousand volts of electricity coursing through his body. After what seems like hours to me he finally pulls the stun gun from Jay's neck and his body flops to the side the only thing holding him upright is the arms of the chair and the ropes holding him to it.
"You will pay for that, mother fucker, with your life." "I don't think he will," the third guy says as he pulls a gun out from behind his back and points it at Jay.
There is no time for me to think. My training takes over and I react to the situation, everything seems to happen in slow motion. I see and hear everything that goes on in the room during the fight. I go for the unknown guy with the gun. I get to him a mere second before he pulls the trigger and knock his hand to the side. The bullet misses its target, but finds another. It strikes the coach in the center of his chest. The guy must have been aiming directly at Jay's forehead.
Coach stands there stunned for a second or two. Then he drops the taser and slowly brings both hands up to his chest. He holds them there for a moment then pulls them away and looks at them. They are covered in blood. A pool of it is now running down the front of his shirt and he slowly crumbles to the floor.
"You're going to pay for that faggot," the third and still unknown guy says to me.
Still in slow motion, I watch as he spins and tries to aim the gun at me. I easily react to him and charge him again. I do a butterfly kick, connecting with the side of his head and send him head first into Jay's large solid oak desk. I hear the top of his skull and the bones in his neck break on impact. He lands in a heap on the floor.
Just as I am turning to the maintenance guy there is a huge crash from the door and it is flung off its hinges into the room. About fifteen police officers come storming in. He immediately puts up his hands and gives up.
I can finally turn my attention to Jay and go to him. He is unconscious and barely breathing. I yell for the police to get some EMTs here as quick as possible and start untying him. I can finally see how serious his injuries are and I start to get really scared. Finally a bunch of EMTs show up and they start working on Jay.
One of them goes and checks the other two and says they are both gone. The maintenance guy says to me, "You killed my son!"
The EMT had taken his ski mask off while checking his vitals and I finally recognize him as the guy from the orgy that had grabbed me by the crotch and wouldn't let go. I'm not sure why I didn't recognize his voice except maybe how upset I was about the whole incident.
"Don't blame me for his death. You guys brought this on yourselves. And besides which I'm not even sure why he was helping you."
"He was my son. He would have done anything I told him."
"Does that include hurting people that are gay? Because your son was."
"My son was what?" He asks.
"Your son was gay."
"He was not. I know my son. I know for a fact he wasn't gay."
"I'm sorry but he was. Do you have any idea how he got the broken nose last year just before Christmas?"
"No he wouldn't tell me. The only thing he would say was that he got into a fight at some party."
"Well it was sort of a party. We were at an all male orgy and he grabbed my crotch and wouldn't let go. I punched him in the face and broke his nose because he was hurting me."
"I don't believe you."
"I really don't care if you believe me or not, but that is what happened. And I know for a fact your son wasn't straight. I saw him do some things that night that would make you sick if you really feel the way you say you do about gays."
During this exchange the EMTs have been working on Jay and just as I am turning back to him they start doing CPR on him. One of them is yelling stuff I don't understand into his radio and getting things back that scare the crap out of me. I hear defibulator... Central line... then everything seems to just start running together. Nothing they say makes sense to me. I watch as they hook him up to the defibulator and he is repeatedly shocked by the machine. They finally say that they have a heartbeat and yell, "Let's move! Now!"
I watch in a haze of confusion and incomprehension as they carefully place him on the gurney and start taking him from the room. One of the EMTs grabs me and pulls me out the door with him. I am half dragged and half led down the stairs and outside to an ambulance and watch as they load Jay into it and push me in next to him. The doors are slammed shut and then the sirens blare into life and we are moving.
The sound of the sirens screeching in my head slowly brings me back and I can start to think. I grab my phone out of my pocket and call my parents. I explain what has happened and dad says they will be here as soon as they can get here. I also call Diane and tell her. She says she will meet me at the hospital in a few minutes so that Shawn can be there when Jay wakes up.
I have no idea how long it takes to get there, but we finally arrive at the Emergency entrance. There are five doctors and a bunch of nurses standing in the ambulance bay waiting on us when we pull in. Jay is taken from the ambulance and wheeled into the hospital with me at the foot of the gurney. As they turn to enter an examination room, one of the nurses stops me and says I can't go in. She points to a small room down the hall and tells me I can wait there.
I make my way down the hall and push the door open. The room is empty except for a few overstuffed chairs. I collapse into one and my emotions take over. I start to cry and wonder if I could have done anything different. Then I start praying to God that he helps Jay through this. "I can't lose him, too. Please make him better. Don't let him die." Soon Diane shows up and is escorted into the room by the nurse that had told me I couldn't go in with Jay. As soon as Shawn sees me he starts screaming, "Daddy!"
Diane just about drops him with the way he is fighting her to get to me. I finally manage to get a hold of him and he cuddles in my chest giving me a hug. I think he can tell something is wrong. He pulls away from me a little bit and looks up into my face and says, "Daddy?"
"Everything's going to be alright little man. I promise," I tell him with tears streaming down my face. `I hope!' I add to myself.
Finally a doctor comes in and gives us an update on Jay's condition. He says that Jay needs to have surgery. He explains that they will be cutting away a portion of his skull to relieve the pressure that is being put on his brain due to the swelling from the head injury. At the same time another doctor will try and fix his broken jaw with screws and plates. He also tells us the extent of his injuries. At some point they must have either kicked him or hit him in the chest with something breaking three of his ribs, two of which pierced his right lung and caused it to collapse. They put in a chest tube to drain the blood and other fluids that had collected in his chest to protect his lung and allow it to re-inflate itself. His nose was broken as I had thought and they will be setting it in the operating room after they finish with the other things they have to do.
He tells us that Jay is still unconscious from the swelling in his brain and they won't know more until he wakes up after the surgery. I ask if I can see him before they take him up. The doctor says yes but only for a minute and that I cannot take Shawn in with me. I hand him back to Diane and as soon as I do he starts crying.
"Everything is going to be alright. I'm just going to see how daddy is and I'll be right back," I tell him.
The doctor shows me into the exam room where Jay is laying waiting to be taken up to surgery. He has wires and tubes stuck everywhere. Things being pumped into him and others being sucked or siphoned out. I start crying just by seeing him lay there like that. I say a prayer for God to look after him and whatever he decides I know he knows best.
I give him a kiss on his forehead and tell him I love him. A tear lands in the corner of his eye and makes it look like he is crying too. I squeeze his hand and reluctantly leave his room as an orderly comes to take him upstairs.
I return to the waiting room and as soon as I open the door Shawn screams, "DADDY!" I take him from Diane and he cuddles into my chest. I hold him to me as I sit down and loss it. I cry uncontrollably for who knows how long. The only thing I do know is that both Diane and Shawn try to comfort me. Eventually, I can't cry any more tears and just sob. Even those stop after a while.
The three of us sit in silence for what seems like hours and it must have been because the door opens and my parents walk in looking worried. As soon as I see my parents I start crying again. Mom comes to me, takes Shawn and hands him to my father, and pulls me into a hug holding me while the emotions run their course again.
About twenty minutes later I can finally speak and answer their questions. I tell them everything I know about what happened in Jay's office and the extent of his injuries.
While we are talking a doctor walks in and asks if we are Jay Miller's family. I stand and say, "I'm Zack Miller, Jay's husband."
"Please sit down," the doctor says. "My name is Dr. Morrison. I'm sorry..."
That's all I hear. The room starts to spin and loose color. Then everything seems to blur together and fades to black.