Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

time."
    "Still might have been a slightly extreme way of getting here."
    The pizza arrived hot and dipping with grease, just as the early news began. Sebastian paid little attention to the first couple of stories. He was distracted by the nearly inappropriate amount of moaning Daren was making as he ate his pizza.
    He found himself having to shift a bit as the sounds evoked the memory of Daren curled against his side the night before. Daren was reaching for another slice when he froze, eyes glued to the TV. Sebastian shifted his focus.
    On the screen, Virgil Delaware, the grand patriarch of the Delaware family, stood next to his son Victor Delaware, and gravely stated that the family had been contacted by Turkish police, informing them that they may have found the body of their dear Gerald. They had sent dental records to help make the identification official. The follow-up story was that sources claimed an FBI investigation into the Delawares was being dropped for lack of evidence. There was a quick clip of Agent Kim stomping past some cameras and snapping ‘no comment.’
    Sebastian turned off the TV. Daren sat frozen, staring at it blankly.
    "Daren?" Sebastian asked gently. He got no reply. "Daren?"
    Daren giggled. "Did you see my father?" he asked in a whisper. "Not a shred of emotion on his face. If you're going to declare your only son dead, you should at least fake a tear or two. How fucking hard would that be?" Daren's voice became an angry hiss. "For Christ's sake, they will get away with this too. Find some white boy who OD'd in Istanbul, dump him in a drain for a couple of weeks until he gets really ugly, then chuck a couple of lira at the right officials to mix up dental records or DNA or whatever. Quiet family gathering, closed casket, a few extra Valium for my mother, cremation. And I am dead."
    Sebastian shoved down his own flash of anger at the heartless bastards. "You are not dead. Why would they even do that? I mean, isn't it better for them if you're missing and there are lots of people looking for you?"
    "No. They can dig me up in their own time. This will let them shift my share of family money around and annihilate any case I might have been a part of. They are killing two birds with one stone. Kinda literally. And when they do find me, I get dumped dead in a ditch and dug up as a John Doe. Shit!" Daren shoved himself to his feet and did his best to storm towards the bedroom. He only made it two steps before falling forward, hitting the ground before Sebastian could get there to catch him. "Fuck!" he cursed rolling over, cradling his right arm to his chest.
    Sebastian crouched down next to him. "What did you hit beside your arm?"
    "Everything," he snapped.
    Daren had been leaning on his cane, so with any luck his already broken arm hadn't taken the full force of his weight. "Let's get you up."
    Daren hissed and cursed under his breath as Sebastian got him to his feet and half carried him into the bedroom. He snapped on some gloves and got out the witch-hazel wipes. "Okay. Let me see it." Daren kept his arm clutched to his chest. "I'll do it quick. I just want to make sure you didn't break it again."
    Daren slowly held out his arm, but didn't make eye contact. He just slouched, looking sullen and angry. It only took a minute to have Daren's thin, shriveled wrist free of the splint. Sebastian ran his fingers over it, looking for point tenderness, a sign of another break. It was swelling a little, but nothing seemed too bad. He wiped down the skin and the inside of the splint before wrapping everything back up and fashioning a sling out of a large triangle bandage.
    "I'm sorry," he said after tossing the gloves into the trash.
    Daren gave a little shrug. "I shouldn't have moved so fast."
    "Not about that."
    "I'm dead." Daren tilted his head back and stared at the little crack in the celling. "My family has declared me dead. Sort of makes it all real." His voice squeaked and his body trembled. "I wanted to see them brought down, but not dead, for all that I hate them. I…"
    Sebastian sat on Daren's left and pulled him in close. He didn't know what to say. No words of comfort he had ever heard seemed appropriate to being declared dead on national television by the people who, in a proper world, are supposed to love and care for you.
    Daren squeezed his eyes shut, sending two fat tears rolling down his cheeks. Sebastian put a kiss on the top of his head and held him tight while Daren softly cried.