Who Needs It?


 

The fireplace was lit and the guys were already settled in front of it. There was silence in the loft - but that was not destined to last for long – and it didn’t.

“So you had a big day today, Baby?” Brian resumed a discussion started earlier. “Dealing with a medical emergency and all?”

“Yep,” Justin agreed. “But it’s all in a day’s work, I guess. It’s good that I’m so cool-headed in times of crisis though, Brian. Gee whiz - Jason and me were just having the #5 Combo at Wendy’s when all of a sudden he like – yelped real loud and bent over in pain…”

“And my own little Dr. Taylor took right over, did the diagnosis,” Brian presumed. “And had the kid heading off to the hospital in a matter of minutes. It’s a wonder you didn’t just remove the appendix right there though. Wendy’s has plenty of plastic knives and forks to work with – and yellow napkins….”

“Well maybe I would have done that very thing, Mr. Wise Guy,” Justin came back playfully. “But I didn’t have my laparoscope with me and plastic knives and forks are out of style these days for surgery – not on the cutting edge at all. But you also know there just happened to be a couple of paramedics at the very next table – they were eating #3 Combos – giganticized too – thousands of calories and not healthy at all – setting a bad example for everybody - and those guys insisted on getting in on the action too – kinda pushy actually - so they packed poor Jason off to the hospital. Of course they insisted I go along to make sure everything went OK.”

“And with you there, I’m sure it did,” Brian smiled at him. “How could it not?”

“Yeah it did, Kinney,” Justin assured him. “They just ran him up to surgery as soon as we got there. Jason wanted to wait till Brandon came – like he wanted to see Brandon just one more time - but I told them to take him on up and I’d handle Brandon – and that’s what they did.”

“Was Brandon already on his way then?” Brian assumed. “You were really cool-headed to call Brandon on the way to the hospital.”

“Well not right then he wasn’t on his way, Bri,” Justin replied. “I was too busy during the ambulance ride to call him – making sure everything was OK with Jason - but I called him right after they took Jason up – and you know – Mercy Hospital is only about ten minutes from Brandon’s office….”

”So I bet Brandon was there in ten minutes,” Brian guessed.

“Nope,” Justin told him. “Closer to eight. Bet you wouldn’t get there that fast if it had been me in that operating room instead of Jason.”

“Yeah, I would have,” Brian defended himself though not particulrly successfully at all. “If Jason had been as cool under fire as you were and let me know right away like you called Brandon - if I wasn’t in a big conference, that is, or else doing something really important.”

“Yeah yourself, Kinney,” Justin pointed out with seeming certainty. “Kinnetics is about fifteen minutes from the hospital and I would have checked on your timing too - and if it had taken much more than that for you to get there, you just might as well maybe not have come at all….”

“But Brandon was there way before the surgery was over though.” Brian figured it was time to vary the subject just a little. “So he didn’t really need to hurry all that much.”

“Well it was a good thing he was early though, Brian,” Justin told him. “That gave me a chance to get him calmed down before they called us in to see Jason. Brandon was like – a real wreck.”

“Well what was he so upset about anyhow?” Brian wondered at that disclosure. “The appendix is a useless organ and the surgery is not dangerous or complicated or anything….”

“Well first of all, Kinney, maybe they did think the appendix was useless when you were in school,” Justin pontificated, “But by the time I got to school they had found out that it does have some use or other – I forget what - so your information is out-dated. But let me ask you this – like – maybe you wouldn’t have been as upset as Brandon if that was me in that operating room instead of Jason?”

“Of course I’d be upset, Baby,” Brian told him. “You know how important you are to me. Who would cook dinner? I’d have to go to the diner – or maybe even eat in the hospital cafeteria – yuck - and I’d have to get some other blond twink to sit by the fireplace with – but only till you got back.”

“Brian Kinney,” Justin complained. “You like – have to make a joke out of everything. And here I was like – a hero and all too – and you’re making a big joke out of it. This was serious stuff and it’s not funny either….”

Brian squeezed the kid and also took some other measures in an attempt to distract Justin from his incipient tirade – and he not surprisingly succeeded too. Brian was sometimes surprised how easy that was. At any rate, the discussion was delayed for a while - but not yet completed.

“Well at least since Jason is now an invalid, Sweetheart,” Brian restarted the conversation in a tone of hope. “We won’t have to go to that new horror movie that you promised we’d see with them on Saturday - without consulting me as I remember it. So some good can come from bad things….”

“But that particular good didn’t come from this particular bad thing, Sir,” Justin corrected him with a grin. “They’ll keep Jason overnight at the hospital and he’ll be home tomorrow – so he’ll be in fine shape for the film by Saturday so….”

“Damn,” Brian conceded. “ But what if he gets so scared at the movie he like – busts his incision?”

“Laparoscope, Kinney,” Justin laughed. “No incision. You can’t bust an incision you don’t have See how out-of-date you are. Jason will be fine.”

“Damn medical science then,” Brian decided. “They never leave anything alone. Always changing stuff. Why are they always…?”

Justin moved over closer to Brian in an attempt to divert the beginning of a tirade on the subject of medical science. And Justin was easily successful in his attempt too – just as he expected to be – so there was another pause in the discussion right then - and the trashing of medical science was averted even when conversation resumed.

“Hey, Baby,” Brian eventually broke the silence with a bright idea – or maybe it was just some Kinneyesque sarcasm – hard to say. “You know how Brandon and Jason are always copying what we do? Well maybe we should show them a thing or two like – let them know how it feels. Maybe you should get appendicitis next time you go to Wendy’s with Jason and….”

“Well actually that might be worthwhile, Honey. It would give me a real chance to see how you would react,” Justin played along. “So I could find out if you love me as much as Brandon loves Jason. Yeah that might be a very good idea – except - I don’t think I want to get appendicitis, Brian - so you’re gonna have to think of some other way to show me.”

“Well I’ll try to think of something, Sweetheart,” Brian played along too. “But it may take me a couple of weeks….”

“I don’t think so, BK,” Justin called his bluff. “I don’t think so at all. You can think pretty fast when you want to.”

And events proved Justin to be exactly right too – just as he expected they would. But it did take a while before anything more was said in the conversation that would not die - and did not die even then.

Brian again broke the silence in due time. “Hey Babe,” he asked the kid as he ruffled Justin’s blond locks ever so slightly. “Are you maybe thinking over my suggestion? Aren’t you beginning to maybe feel a pain in your stomach? Even a little?”

“Ya know, Mr. Kinney,” the twink grinned while reciprocating the locks tousling trick. “Maybe I am beginning to feel just a little pain – and maybe it is related to your suggestion too - but my stomach is not where the pain is at all – if you know what I mean.”

And that finally ended the conversation for the night.
 

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