IslandAffair

him and Dan looked away, nodding almost
imperceptibly at the men on either side of him. “There’s something else you
should know.”
    John’s heart beat harder. Something in the tone of the other
man’s voice alerted him that he would like this even less.
    “The day you left Paradise, Robin was hurt. Someone shot
him.” John’s knees turned to water and the men on either side gripped his arms
as Dan continued. “We believe they thought he was you. You’re similar heights
and he was wearing your shirt. They saw him with me and put two and two
together.”
    “Is…is he okay?”
    “He’s recovered. But it was necessary to keep you apart. He
made you vulnerable. We needed you here.”
    John stiffened and the hands supporting him became
restraining. Dan kept talking, justifying, but he barely heard him. Anger
warred with worry. He wanted to make Dan hurt the way he was hurting.
The way Robin had hurt. Robin. John needed to see him, speak to him.
Make sure he really was okay and tell him how sorry he was for putting him in
harm’s way and for not being there to help him heal. What must he be thinking?
    He turned for the door, surprised the men released him.
Dimly he heard Dan calling after him but nothing mattered now but getting to
his lover’s side.
    * * * * *
    Robin watched the kids from the class scramble out of the
water and into the waiting arms of their parents. He missed them, being in the
water with them and watching the joy when they realized for the first time they
were floating unaided. He didn’t know when—or if—he would ever be able to do it
again. He understood the concerns about insurance and his safety in the water,
never mind the safety of the class, but it still hurt. They had framed it as a
promotion, giving him a supervisory role, but it was really just a desk job.
    The kids chattered excitedly as his colleague led them to
the changing rooms. It was when they were gone that things became quiet and his
thoughts inevitably drifted to memories of John and the events on Paradise. He
had been shot once in the chest and once in the head. By luck or divine
intervention he’d turned his head at the critical moment and the bullet struck
him a glancing blow, minimizing its damage.
    He had Dan to thank for keeping him alive until help
arrived. The bullet to his chest cracked a rib, punctured his lung and bled a
lot. The injury to his head had been of the most concern, making his brain
swell and causing some small bleeds inside. The hospital had fixed his chest
and induced a coma to let his brain mend and Robin was airlifted home from the
island, still unconscious. He had stayed that way for almost a week. When he
woke it had been a shock to find himself in a hospital with his family at his
bedside.
    He told his sister about John as soon as he had been able.
He’d needed to. There was no way he could hide the way he was feeling from
Joanne. His parents knew most of the circumstances but as far as they knew,
John was just a friend. Only Jo knew the truth. At first she had been angry,
blaming John for Robin’s injuries. It took a long time for him to convince her
not to contact him and berate him for not being at Robin’s side. Robin hadn’t
wanted him there out of a sense of obligation. Besides, they were depending on
John to help take some very dangerous people off the streets and that was far
more important than holding Robin’s hand.
    Joanne let him cry on her shoulder and gently scolded him
for missing his chance. She agreed with John and thought he was wasting his
life pretending to be something he wasn’t. You would think that almost dying
would be a catalyst to start living the way he wanted to and it was. Robin
swore that when he was better he would make a change.
    But it took longer than he thought. Months of healing and
physical therapy to get to where he was now. As time passed, Rob’s
determination waned. People were already looking at him like some sort of
curiosity, he was already different. Did he really want to give them another reason? He looked at his family and friends and his colleagues and imagined
their reactions and found he couldn’t do it. He found himself going through
them in his head trying to decide who would hate him and which ones would still
speak to him. His life had changed enough and he wasn’t ready to lose whatever
comfort familiarity provided.
    Throughout it all, almost every other moment had been
focused on a certain trial, which made headline