Some Call This Fun (13/25)
Title: Some Call This Fun (13/25)
Summary: On a remote Brazilian island, 22 contestants are separated into 2 teams to compete against one another through a series of challenges. But they’ll soon discover that there are more challenges to be had than just the competition. Hook-ups, fights, partying, back stabbing, secrets and lies take center stage as the crew watches their reality show spiral into insanity. Various pairings.
Cross posted to Camp Toccoa
In this chapter: Webster may have to betray a friend’s trust in order to keep Liebgott’s secret from being discovered and Dick purposefully sabotages Nixon’s plans for the show to help a contestant. Meanwhile Nixon’s challenge has the contestants discovering the truth about each other when they are forced to play HIS version of the game ‘I’ve Never’.
Meet the Crew
Meet the Contestants
Oh Captain My
Captain?
Capture The Flag
We All Fall Down
Tequila Is Not Your Friend
Who Can You Trust?
Saving Me
Look Out Below
Blaze a Trail
Eat It or Beat It
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
On the Beach
“I’m telling you, this is important!”
Nixon squeezed the ballot he was reading in frustration as the intern continued buzzing around him, going on about some fight between Liebgott and Webster.
“Damn it Talbert! We’re trying to count these ballots!” The host continued to snap at him as
Dick gently pried the crumpled ballot from Lewis’s hand.
The gathered red team watched the exchange in interest.
“But-”, the kid tried to protest.
“What you’re telling me isn’t news!” Nixon sighed in anger. “Webster and Liebgott fight all the time! Just make sure that you have a cameraman on it!”
“Well there ARE cameras over there but they’re all-”
“UGH! Would you shut up?”
Talbert frowned and ignored Nixon, going for the more sensitive of the pair. “Listen,” he said to Dick, “Webster was freaking out and they were screaming at the top of their lungs! Then I saw them wrestling and that’s when Bill and Speirs ran up there. When Speirs left Joe freaked and punched Sobel and then I heard more shouting! Something is going on!”
Dick listened intently to what he was being told. Trust Nixon to cut off the intern when he actually had something important to say. “I’m going to go and check this out.” He said to Nixon before walking off towards the trail leading from the beach back to the house.
“What? You can’t go!” Lewis cried, waving the ballots around. “You’ll miss the looks on their faces when they find out that Toye’s up for elimination again!”
“What?” Luz piped up. “Are you freaking serious?”
Nixon tore his eyes away from Dick’s retreating form and glanced back at the ballots. “Uh yeah. Right. The two people competing in the arena tomorrow will be Toye and Penkala.”
“Aw man!” Penkala groaned.
Speirs rolled his eyes at the man’s reaction but was glad at the outcome of the vote. As usual he and Buck had voted for Toye, but after the way Penkala had thrown the challenge by overreacting and drawing the “killers” right to them, everyone had voted for him overwhelmingly. Which was a good thing in Ron’s book, as he was their weakest player and Toye should be able to take him out no problem.
Luz looked over at Toye, who was sitting in a daze. “Are you okay?”
Jo shrugged slowly, “…Yeah.”
His sluggish reaction caused Luz to frown. “You sure? You seem kind of out of it.” But Jo just nodded before slowly rising to his feet and stumbling away.
Luz knew that something about the other man’s behavior was off and would have gone after him if Buck hadn’t come up to him.
“What’s going on?” the blonde asked, checking to see what Luz had been looking at.
The shorter man shook his head. “Nothing, just wondering if we’ll ever find out who keeps voting for him.”
“Eventually we will. When the show’s over.”
“Yeah I guess.” Luz grumbled.
Buck rolled his eyes and tossed an arm around George’s shoulder. “C’mon. What’s say you and I finish that game of strip poker on our own?”
Luz grinned, “Oh you’d like that wouldn’t you?”
That got him a laugh.
Back at the house, Bill had distracted the cameras from the Webster and Liebgott drama by talking about the only thing he thought might catch their attention.
“I guess it all started when I took him over to the infirmary….”
And that thing was his secret Big Gay Feelings for Toye. God…Joe and Webster SO owed him for this shit. When his mother saw this she was going to be thoroughly confused.
Dick walked by the scene and observed it in amusement. There was no way Bill had any actual feelings for Jo, the guy was as straight as they came. But if he was willing to lie and say he did, then there was obviously something going on that he didn’t want them to record.
Unfortunately Hashey wasn’t their brightest cameraman and Popeye, one of their more experienced ones, had the worst gaydar ever.
He walked over to Liebgott and Roe’s bedroom, where Talbert had said he’d heard shouting.
However the door was wide open and, upon further inspection, the room was empty. He walked a little further only to be confronted by Sobel.
The Blue team’s captain had his customary scowl in place, as well as a tissue pressed against his apparently bloody nose. “That stupid freak punched me.” The man spoke, though his voice was muffled. “He and Webster are in the hall bathroom.”
Dick winced and laid a sympathetic hand on the contestant’s shoulder. “I’m sorry about that. Look why don’t you get yourself over to Renee’s and if it’ll make you feel better, we’ll have security present whenever you and Liebgott are in the same room.”
The dark haired man rolled his eyes and stomped off, muttering under his breath about people being kicked off Survivor for less than the shit Liebgott pulled. Dick silently agreed, but knew that Nixon and Harry would never kick Joe off the show for fighting. Not to mention that all the contestants had basically signed away any right they had to sue over any type of personal injury.
Dick walked over to the bathroom door and, not bothering to knock, turned the handle to try and open it up. It was locked, which was unsurprising considering that is was a bathroom. However they had known to prepare for any number of incidents, and therefore had a key that could unlock it from the outside. Only he, Nixon, Harry and security had them. He pulled out his set of keys before finding the one that unlocked all the bathroom doors, the contestant’s bedroom doors didn’t have the luxury of locks.
Cracking the door open he poked his head inside to have a look. The first thing he noticed were the two sets of mikes that had been laid on the bathroom counter and that all the taps had been turned on. The two men obviously didn’t want anyone listening in on them.
He stepped into the large bathroom further and looked around the wall to his left that led past the large shower and toward the toilet. The door to the toilet was wide open and he saw Liebgott and Webster standing with their backs to him, arguing in hushed tones as Webster fiddled with something in his hands.
Dick cleared his throat loudly and the two contestants turned to face him with matching expressions of surprise on their faces. “So what is it you two are doing in here? De-miked?”
Joe had a look on his face that Dick had never seen before. He looked as though he were frozen in fear and Webster immediately stepped in front of him as if to shield him from Dick. “Look Winters...I can explain…”
But Dick was still looking at Joe. “Liebgott? Are you okay? You look sick. Do you need to go and see Renee?”
Neither of them said anything and he sighed. “Look…whatever’s going on...I can help you. I WANT to help you. I hope you believe that. But I need to know what’s going on here. I’m not…I’m not like Nixon, alright?”
He hated having to say it but he knew that he needed them to understand that if this was serious, he wasn’t going to sell them out to the show. Which, as much as he hated to admit it, was exactly what Lewis would do.
The two contestants exchanged looks before Liebgott jerked his head forward, as if giving Webster permission to talk. Webster sighed, “We’re…getting rid of something.”
Dick could feel his entire body sag…he didn’t need to be told much else. “Drugs Liebgott? Do you have any earthly idea how dangerous it is to have those around here? Around other people?”
Liebgott just pulled viciously at his lower lip with his teeth. “Do you think I honestly fucking cared?”
Running a hand through his hair, Dick sighed. “Look-finish getting rid of them and then I want you to tell me everything. Alright? And I mean everything. Liebgott if this has something to do with your problems back home I want to know about it.”
Joe nodded and Dick noted the look of surprise on David’s face. He guessed Liebgott hadn’t filled the other man in on everything.
He nodded to the two of them once more. “I’ll be waiting for you two outside. I’ll keep everyone out of here. Just come and get me when they’re flushed.”
Walking out into the hallway, he shut the door behind him and leaned back against it with a sigh. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. But if Liebgott was getting rid of whatever drugs he had then he obviously wanted help. And the only one who could really help him was Dick. Who else could the troubled man turn to?
Nixon and Harry would just exploit his condition, present it to the network as some sad little storyline that needed to be harped on or use it to drum up more funds. He couldn’t let that happen. Not to mention that something of this magnitude could ruin Liebgott’s life if it was broadcasted. This had to stay under wraps, no matter what.
Toye watched in interest as Bill attempted to shake the cameraman dogging his every move. Finally the Philly boy gave up and plopped down on the couch with an exasperated sigh.
Jo nodded his head towards the hovering cameraman, “Something up?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Bill replied. “I’ll tell you later. So how’d the vote go?”
“How do you think?”
Bill cursed. “Well are you going to win?”
Jo leaned back into the couch cushions with a shrug, eyes fluttering closed. “I dunno. It’s me and Penkala, so maybe.”
“What? Are you tired?”
“Yeah a bit. I think I’m gonna hit the sack. I don’t feel so good.” Jo told him.
He stopped Toye before he got too far. “Well do you need to see Renee?” he asked. The other man just shook his head slowly before walking off and Bill noticed that he leaned on the stair
railing rather heavily.
“Something’s up with him,” said a voice right next to Bill’s head. He jumped slightly and glared at Luz, who was leaning on the couch near him and staring at the stairs. “You see it too.”
“He says he doesn’t need to see Renee.” Bill pointed out, surprised that Luz was even talking to him. He had made his dislike of him pretty apparent up until that point.
“Yeah well he’s fucking stubborn. So…I dunno. Just keep an eye on him.” Luz instructed, pushing away from the couch and pulling a cigarette out from behind his ear.
Bill looked at the cigarette for a minute. “Where the Hell did you get that? I thought you’d lost all yours to Speirs.”
Luz paused with the object in question half way to his lips, “I jack them here and there.”
“What- from Speirs?”
“Fuck that. He’d kill me. I take them from people on the Blue team.” Luz admitted with a smirk before walking outside to smoke.
Sneaky bastard. Bill made a mental note to check his bags before he went to sleep.
Dick listened as Joe reluctantly explained how he had become dependent on drugs…and what kind.
It wasn’t like Dick had never known drug users over the years. It was an unfortunate benefit of his friendship with Nixon and his oversight of his best friend’s career. Many of the people in Nixon’s line of work (television) were incredibly casual about substance abuse. Mostly it was addictions to cocaine, alcohol and occasionally heroin that Dick had to deal with. Meth was new and, honestly, frightening.
He supposed he should have suspected something. Joe was often irrationally violent and irritable…but there was no real way of knowing that this wasn’t his normal behavior. They had all known him for so short a time. Dick suspected that it was only the unusually close relationship that Webster had formed with Joe that had alerted him to the man’s changing behaviors.
And although Dick had the feeling that Joe’s story wasn’t complete (the basic ‘fell in with the wrong crowd’ tale), he doubted it would do anyone any good to pry further.
“Alright here’s what’s going to happen.” Dick spoke up. “Things are going to get ugly. Joe…you understand that don’t you?”
Joe remained silent for a moment. “Yeah I know.”
For a moment Dick thought about drug recovery in general terms. How things got so much worse before they got better. How they stayed worse. At least when Liebgott was on the drugs he most likely got upswings from time to time. Now it was just going to be consistently bad. It almost made him wish that they hadn’t flushed the man’s drugs. The middle of a reality show wasn’t the best time to go through a secret drug detox. He only hoped the man could handle it.
“I will be watching you okay. David and Bill will be watching you. The moment I think you need a hospital- I’m going to have to tell Renee. This is going to be hard to keep under wraps. But I’ll do all I can for you.” Dick tells him. Right now he doesn’t trust Renee to keep this to herself, not after the incident with Gene.
“Thank you.” Joe muttered softly, but Dick could hear the sincerity in his tone. Then the other man cleared his throat and spoke louder. “I’m gonna go make sure Bill still has some dignity intact.”
Webster and Dick watched as Joe shuffled out of the bathroom, grabbing his mike on the way out. Dick turned to Webster. “He’s going to need you. But I hope you understand...if you though he treated you bad before…it’s going to be much worse from here on out.”
Webster nodded with resolve, “I know. I just…I need to be there for him. I don’t really know how to explain it.”
“Then don’t try. But I wasn’t lying when I said this would be a difficult secret to keep.” Dick told him. “We may need a better distraction then Bill’s so called feelings for Toye.”
Webster managed a mild snort of amusement before asking, “Did you have something in mind?”
“I’d rather not be causing problems for anyone but I know this is a much more grave situation than anything that the other contestants are likely to find themselves in.” Dick said, more as a way to make himself feel better than anything else. He continued, “We know for a fact now that Babe is underage. He’s only 17 even though he’s been going around and telling everyone he’s 19. It may not seem like much of an issue on its own, but the fallout that is going to occur as a result of his lying certainly will be.”
Dick watched in interest as Webster bit his lip, looking uncomfortable. “I uh…kind of already knew about that.” David explained. “And I swore to him I wouldn’t betray his confidence.”
The act was noble, and Dick told him so. “However,” he reminded the contestant, “when it comes down to it you may have to decide who you’d rather keep your promise to. Babe…or Joe.”
And deep down David knew that it wasn’t a hard choice at all.
The Next Morning
Gene shuffled into his bedroom to change clothes, knowing that soon they would all be heading to the arena soon to watch Toye and Penkala battle it out and he needed to get dressed. He had spent the previous night curled up next to Babe in the red head’s room, not his own.
The memory made him smile. He couldn’t believe how surreal all of this was. Never in a million years would he imagine meeting someone like Babe- much less on a reality television show.
Not to mention he hadn’t had to deal with bothering Babe’s roommates. Grant and Shifty were gone, and Webster had been AWOL all night. When Gene slipped into his bedroom he understood why.
Webster was fully clothed in the same thing he’d worn last night, sitting up on Liebgott’s bed. Gene’s roommate was fast asleep, his head on Webster’s stomach and his arm thrown over the other man’s hips.
Gene stared at them in muted surprise for a moment before nodding to their sleeping teammate.
“He’s going to have to get up in a little while.” He said softly.
“I know.” Webster murmured, looking down at the man on top of him. He nervously ghosted his hand down Liebgott’s back, as if afraid any moment the man might wake up and tell him to get lost. “He’s just so tired. I’ll wake him up in a minute.”
With a nod, Gene gathered his clothes together and backed out of the room to give them some privacy. He hurried down the hall towards Babe’s room to tell him the latest development. It wasn’t gossip when he told Babe…it was gossip when Babe blabbed it to everyone else. But whatever- it made the kid happy.
Luz was not very happy at the moment. Toye had been acting weird ever since his trip into the realm of unconsciousness at the end of yesterday’s challenge. Now that Luz had torn himself away from Buck’s stupidly attractive self (curse his hotness! It was making things so difficult!) and focused all his energy on watching Toye, it was obvious to him what was wrong with the other man.
Irritation coloring his every move, Luz marched right over to Jo, who was sitting alone on the couch.
“Hey idiot!” Luz greeted him.
“Hola midget.”
Luz glared at him. “You called me an idiot!” Jo reminded him. Luz just threw his hands above his head in frustration.
“That’s not why I’m glaring at you.” Luz responded. “And I called you an idiot because you’re being one. Why the hell would you lie to Renee about not having a concussion?”
“I don’t have a concussion.” Toye argued.
“Sure well if that’s the case then why don’t you stand up and spin around a few times?” Luz suggested, gesturing to the space in front of the couch.
Jo just pursed his lips. “I’d rather not.”
“I wouldn’t either if I had a CONCUSSION!” Luz shouted at him. Jo immediately waved his hands in an attempt to quiet him down.
“Look just leave it alone alright?” Jo hissed. “If they find out they might postpone the arena challenge.”
Luz just gaped at him. “What? Why would you even want to compete with a FREAKING CONCUSS-”
His ranting was cut off when Jo reached up and pulled him down to the couch roughly. “Because I have something to prove.” He said.
“Yeah? To who?” Luz asked, fixing the other man with a hard stare.
Jo leaned in further to Luz’s space and Luz stilled at their proximity. He hadn’t been this close to Jo since…had he ever been this close to Jo?
“To whoever keeps voting for me.” Toye told him in a whisper. “They need to know that I’m capable of taking anything they throw at me. Maybe then they’ll realize that it’s a mistake to make me their enemy.”
“Yeah.” Luz conceded the point before bringing up his own. “Or maybe you’ll lose.”
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take.” Toye said seriously, never taking his eyes off of Luz’s face.
Luz, for his part, remained silent, staring back just as intently. He didn’t say anything. Suddenly Speirs spoke up from behind them.
“Alright red team, let’s move out. Time to go.”
Toye leaned even closer. “Please Luz. Don’t say anything. I need you to do this for me.”
And that just wasn’t fair. Jo couldn’t bring their lips within an inch of touching and then appeal to Luz’s personal feelings for him just to get what he wanted. Even though it was totally working.
“Fine. But when you’re done, you have to swear to me that you’ll tell Winters you need to see Renee and sit out the challenge.” Luz said.
At this Jo’s face broke into a grin. “You think I’m gonna win?”
Luz rolled his eyes. “Of course I do.”
Toye smirked again before moving away from Luz to rise and follow their departing team. Luz grabbed his wrist before he could move off. “Promise me.” Luz demanded.
“I promise.”
George nodded and let him go. Watching him walk away with nervous dread in the pit of his stomach.
In the Arena
“Oh Penkala. We barely knew ye.” Nixon said to Dick with a smirk as the contestants began to filter into the arena.
Dick smiled in spite of himself but shook his head. “You never know what could happen. Today may very well be the day that Toye falls short.”
“Not as short as Perconte!” Talbert piped up behind them. He held a hand up, “Up high!”
Nixon gave him a disgusted look. “No way. Go watch Webster and Joe cuddle and weep.”
The intern glared at him. “Please the only one weeping here is you. What with your unrequited love for-”
“Do you LIKE breathing?” Nixon growled.
Dick watched the intern scamper off with interest. He turned towards Nixon. “Unrequited love? Something you want to tell me, Lew?”
Lewis stared at him in shock. Because if that wasn’t the most loaded question he’d ever heard…
Then Dick continued, “When did some lucky girl -or guy- catch your eye?”
Nixon felt like he had been hit over the head with a shovel. So Dick didn’t know Talbert was talking about him but… “Wait…you know that I date men?”
Dick gave him that-possibly a smirk-again. “I’m your best friend Nix. Do you really think you can keep something that important from me?”
‘You have no idea…’ Nixon thought to himself.
“Although how you’ve managed to keep this mysterious person to yourself I’ll never know. So who is it?” Dick asked as he turned to survey the contestants once more.
“Uh…why don’t we worry about it later?” Nixon asked. “We’ve got to work.”
Dick nodded. “True. Let’s go to it then shall we?”
“And now to my favorite part.” Nixon declared to the contestants as the already assembled pair of Toye and Penkala stood before him. “Deciding your fate. Which, if we’re being honest, is basically my job. But I think it’s important to enjoy what you do.”
“Get on with it already!” Luz shouted from the stands.
Nixon glared at him but reached up to spin the Wheel of Doom which would determine what arena challenge the two red team members would be playing. He crossed his fingers and hoped for the gross food challenge. You could never splice together enough video clips of people puking if you asked him.
However it wasn’t to be as the wheel came to a stop on the flag struggle, which was last seen in the elimination of Shifty by Liebgott. The disappointment on Nixon’s face was evident.
“Lame.” The host muttered before turning his attention back to the contestants. “Well it looks like the wheel has deemed it best for the two of you to compete in a quick game of Snatch the Flag. You may remember this arena challenge as the one that eliminated Shifty. For those of you having to compete in it for the first time today- let’s go over how it works one more time.”
“Each competing contestant is outfitted with a vest upon which multiple flags have been tacked.”As Nixon began to explain the rules, the crew assembled the appropriate equipment behind him. “On the edges of the formed circle in the middle of the arena, there is a box for each contestant to put the flags they have captured from their opponent in. When the time is up, we count the flags in each contestant’s box and whoever has the most is declared the winner. Of course the loser will have to leave the island. For good.”
Liebgott let out a loud yawn. “Can we get this over with already?”
Nixon pouted before turning to watch as Toye and Penkala finished getting their vests on. Penkala was wearing the one with bright yellow flags and Toye’s were bright orange. “You guys suited up?”
They both nodded. Nixon grinned, “Well then take your places.”
Luz watched nervously as his two team members walked to the center of the arena and entered the drawn up circle. They turned to face one another and everyone waited for the signal that would start their battle.
Alex watched as Toye swayed on his feet slightly. And even though his opponent (and friend) seemed off his game Penkala couldn’t help but feel nervous. Jo had won every arena challenge.
But maybe if he wasn’t feeling well then Alex might actually stand a chance.
Unfortunately for Penkala that hope was smashed, for when the bullhorn went off Toye lunged himself at Alex fiercely and began to rip every flag he could get to off of the other man’s vest.
“Oh!” Nixon winced as Alex went down.
“That’s gotta hurt.” Babe observed from the stands. Gene nodded in agreement beside him.
Behind the two of them, Webster was attempting to rouse Liebgott from his sleepy state. Gene frowned at the scene in concern. Was it possible that there was something wrong with his roommate? Liebgott had been acting out of character all morning. Webster looked concerned, but if something was wrong David certainly hadn’t shared it with him.
“Joe.” David whispered as he gently shook Liebgott’s shoulder. “Joe you’re going to have to wake up for the challenge. How can you possibly be this sleepy?”
Joe, eyes still closed, made a face and shrugged slightly. “I dunno. Just am. God I feel like shit.”
There was a lot Webster wanted to say. That Joe had to get through this challenge. That everyone was going to see he was acting strange and want to know what was wrong with him. But then Joe leaned onto David and muttered, “I’m sorry. About all of this.”
Webster sighed as Liebgott’s head settled under his neck and he wrapped an arm around the other man’s back. “Don’t be. I’ll wake you when it’s over.”
And it was over pretty soon. As the two struggled it out it was obvious to all that Toye was essentially kicking Penkala’s ass.
Nixon sounded the bullhorn and the two men ceased their battle, coming to their feet and panting heavily. The host walked over to stand between them as Dick gathered the two boxes to count the flags. Nixon eyed Penakala’s bare vest before turning to stare at the flag’s still adorning Toye’s.
“Though I’m not sure what the point is…I guess we’ll count the flags anyway.” Nixon shrugged.
Dick rifled through the many flags that Toye had managed to take off of Penkala’s vest. Rather than embarrass Alex by stating the dramatic ratio he simply announced, “Toye won.”
Nixon looked at the stands before gesturing towards Dick. “Well you heard the man.” The host said. “Unfortunately for you Penkala this means that you’ll have to leave your team, and the island, for good.”
Penkala sighed, “I figured.”
Toye waved a hand lazily, “Hey Winters?”
From his crouch next to the boxes on the ground, Dick looked up at being directly addressed.
“Yeah Jo? What is it?”
“Remember how I said I didn’t have a concussion?”
“...Yeah.”
“I lied.” Toye told him before promptly falling over.
Dick rushed to his side before turning his gaze towards Nixon.
“Oh that is SO not my fault!”
“Well Toye’s definitely down for the count.” Nixon announced to the contestants who were all gathered outside the infirmary where Toye was resting.
“Yeah no shit.” Luz snapped. “Why is it that he’s the only one who ever gets fucking hurt?”
“Um hello?” Babe called out as he pulled up his bandaged ankle for the shorter man to see. “Jaguar attack?”
Luz shrugged in concession to his point as Babe then began to struggle not to fall over on one foot. “So are they going to sit a player out too?”
“Not this time.” Winters replied. “Jo already told us he was aware of his condition before he entered the arena and honestly he should have told us he wasn’t feeling well right off the bat. That way he could have been treated and might’ve been given a less physically demanding one on one challenge. The team challenge wouldn’t have taken much out of him had he been well rested. As it is we don’t feel the blue team deserves to suffer as a result of his choice. And next time Luz, if you know something’s wrong? Please come to us.”
Luz gaped, “He ratted me out?”
“Nope!” Nixon piped in, “But you just did. Also Blue Team? Where’s Bill?”
In the infirmary, Bill frowned down at Toye, “What the Hell were you thinking?”
The other man shrugged. “I had my reasons alright? Did you sneak in here JUST to give me shit?”
“No.” Bill sighed.
“I didn’t think so.” Toye replied. “What’s up?”
“Okay,” Bill began, “This is going to sound stupid but just go with it. I’m kind of covering someone’s ass by distracting the camera men with fake drama. That’s why they’ve been dogging me all day.”
Toye smirked, “Covering for someone? How like you. But that’s not all that stupid. So what’s the drama?”
Here Bill cringed, “Uh…apparently my very gay love for you.”
A loud stream of hysterical laughter coming from the infirmary caught everyone’s attention and all the interested parties went inside to see Toye doubled over in said laughter as Guarnere glared at him lightly.
Luz frowned, “Well we found our missing Blue player.”
“Okay Bill you can play kissy face with your boyfriend some other time.” Liebgott sneered. “We have a challenge. You remember those right?”
Bill gave him the finger. Ungrateful brat. He leaned in to whisper to Jo, “Look are you going to play along or not?”
Toye pulled back slightly to gaze into Bill’s eyes. Bill shifted uncomfortably, “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
Jo smirked, laughter obviously threatening to bubble to the surface again. “I’m playing along.” He whispered. “By the way you wouldn’t mind losing this challenge so that I don’t have to go into the arena tomorrow would you baby?”
Bill sighed, “You’re going to make me pay for this, aren’t you?”
Toye nodded with a grin, “Oh yeah.”
“Alright you two!” Nixon snapped, “Enough pillow talk, let’s go!”
Grumbling obscenities under his breath, Bill followed his team out of the infirmary.
At the Casa de Losers
Skip just shook his head as Alex downed another ‘Welcome to Loserville’ shot of bourbon. “So you suck.”
Don shrugged, “Could have been worse.”
Alex just stared his cheerfulness down. “Malark-I just got my ass handed to me by a guy with a concussion! How could that have been worse?”
Malarkey paused with his mouth open, ready to answer. He closed it with a sigh. “Good point.”
Grant poured him another drink, “Well on the upside…the booze here is better.”
“Cheers to that.”
They all downed a shot.
The Challenge
“Oh you’ve gotta be fucking joking.” Perconte groused.
“Agreed.” Luz mumbled.
Nixon glared at the two of them, “Well we’re not joking so shut it!”
Webster tilted his head to the side as he studied the contraption behind their host. “You know there are only so many times you can suspend us over the ocean before it reflects a lack of creativity.”
Lewis shook his head, “Just wait till you hear the challenge. Now get your complaining butts on those boats and get out there!”
The ‘out there’ that Nixon was referring to, was a very large and flat platform off the shore and into the less shallow part of the near ocean. It was situated about 30 feet above the water with ladders trailing down the sides which one assumed were meant to be climbed up, but not down.
The red and blue teams filtered into two separate motor boats and were rushed out to the water, Perconte clipping on his life vest with a sigh. “I feel like such a pussy wearing this.”
Luz shrugged, “Tough nuts. It’s either that or drown.”
“Yep,” Buck nodded. “No one’s going to throw a challenge to save you this time.”
George shot the blond man a grin, before telling Perconte, “That’s right. So don’t fall.”
“That’s not even funny!” Frank yelped.
The two just laughed.
After all the contestants climbed up their respective ladders, they noticed that there was a large round table at the center of the platform with name blue and red name plates obviously intended for them to direct each contestant to where they were meant to be.
There were no chairs, so all the contestants moved past one another to come and stand by their name plate. Upon looking below their feet they found that they were (surprise, surprise) standing on what appeared to be a trap door. Should it open up, they would obviously go falling in the water.
Also before each contestant there was a tall glass with an unidentified liquid in it. Babe stared at his suspiciously, “Um what IS this?”
Nixon, who was now standing off to the side of their table, smirked, “It’s liquor.”
Lipton frowned, “Wait drinking alcohol is actually part of the challenge. What if some of us didn’t drink?”
The host snorted, “Please. We watch you guys all the time remember? We know what you do and don’t do. Besides it’s just light beer. But the fact leads me to the heart of the challenge. What you all will be doing today is playing a modified version of the classic drinking game I’ve Never.”
Sobel couldn’t help but be pleased. These kinds of activities always created conflict, and hopefully it could take some of the attention off of him because on his team he was still a popular target.
“I don’t really know how to play that game.” Evans confessed.
Everyone kind of just looked at him. Nixon sighed, “That’s fine as I have to explain the new rules anyway. Here’s how it goes. We have, as I previously stated, been watching you. We know things about you that your fellow contestants don’t. And we think it’s time that you guys start being honest with each other.”
Many of the contestants looked at him with wide eyes. He couldn’t help but grin, this was going to be great.
“We’ve been gathering all sorts of information on you.” He continued to explain. “Both by observing you here and by talking to some of your contacts back home. The way I’ve Never normally works is that you go around in a circle and each person, in turn, states something that they have never done. Anyone who has done that activity, or whatever it is, takes a drink. Normally in a regular game people can still lie. However in this game if you have done something and try to lie about it by not taking a drink, or if you try to call our bluff, the trap door below you will open up, you’ll fall into the water and be out of the challenge. The most truthful contestant will obviously be the last on the platform and will win this challenge for their team. Any questions?”
“Do we make our own questions?” Webster asked.
Nixon nodded, “Yep. Why doesn’t hmm…Captain Sobel start us off?”
As Nixon retreated back to the boat so that more cameramen could come onto the platform, all the contestants turned to look at Sobel expectantly.
Sobel smirked, knowing exactly what he wanted to say. “Well, I’ve never used or taken any illegal drugs.”
Babe sighed and took a drink, recalling his earlier encounter on the main island with LSD.
Liebgott took a drink as well, not bothering to look guilty about it. However if any looks
could kill, the look Webster was giving Sobel might be the one.
Then Luz took a drink (he’d smoked some weed in high school-sue him) along with Evans. Evans shrugged when Sobel gave him a shocked look. “I went to summer camp once.” He explained.
No one else drank and suddenly there was creak and a shout as Perconte went falling into the water.
When he bobbed back to the surface of the water (thanks to his life vest) he glared at Nixon, who was waiting in the boat with a cameraman, “I was 10! How does that count?! Also who the Hell told you about that?”
Nixon smirked, “Your very chatty cousin. Now hop in.”
The person to Sobel’s right was Gene who wasn’t sure what to say but figured that he knew a statement that might have a helpful outcome. “I’ve never formed a voting alliance on this show.”
Bill took a drink- Hell yes he was in an alliance. He wanted their chicken shit Captain gone. Liebgott rolled his eyes but also drank, knowing he was guilty of the same thing.
Speirs, not really afraid of any repercussions, took a drink. He certainly hadn’t actively tried to hide his voting alliance with Buck from the cameras.
However to everyone’s surprise (well not everyone’s) Evan’s owned up and took a drink as well. Sobel glared at him but left his drink untouched. He didn’t want to give them any more fuel to hate him, besides he didn’t have a voting ALLIANCE like Liebgott and Bill did when they ALWAYS voted for him no matter what. He and Evans just came to a consensus on who to vote for.
Yet it appeared that the Show disagreed and both Sobel as well as Buck (who hadn’t wanted to ignite Luz’s suspicions) went falling into the water.
Lipton was looking at Speirs curiously, wondering what he was up to. While Luz was staring at where Buck had been standing in confusion. “What the fuck?” he wondered aloud.
The burden now fell to Evans to make a statement. The red team took a moment to be irritated that only blue members had gone thus far. Evans was just glad he didn’t have to drink any more nasty beer.
“I’ve never had uh…fuzzy feelings for anyone on this show.”
Liebgott just stared at him dubiously, “Fuzzy? Are you for real?’” However knowing what the man meant Liebgott took a drink. Webster stared at him with a small smile forming on his face. Liebgott rolled his eyes at the look. “Oh like you didn’t know. Stop looking at me like that.”
All the other contestants drank except for Bill, whose feelings for those on the show could hardly be described as fuzzy. However he forgot that the producers were going to go by what they THOUGHT they knew-not what actually was. And Bill had been chatting up the cameras about his feelings for Toye.
His trap door opened up and he fell into the water below with a curse. Damn it. Now everyone was going to know about his little charade. He hoped Liebgott appreciated this.
Luz glared at his empty spot. He was definitely not pleased with the apparent developments in Jo and Bill’s relationship.
Finally the Red team had their turn as Lipton was standing on Evans right. He gave it a thought and sighed, “I’ve uh…never kissed another man before I came on this show.”
Speirs smiled at the statement, unable to be anything but pleased as he took a drink. All the others, save Evans, mirrored his action.
Both teams watched in surprise and amusement as Evans went plummeting into the water. Apparently he had lied.
Nixon helped the soaked blue contestant into the boat and raised an eyebrow for an explanation to his lie. Evans sighed at the camera and once again said, “I went to summer camp once.”
David’s turn was now up and he wasn’t really sure what to say. He took a shot in the dark, probably a waste of a turn, and said, “I’ve never been responsible for anyone’s death.”
There was silence and for a moment, no one drank. But then Babe reached out to grab his glass with a shaking hand and took a quick gulp before hurriedly putting his glass back down and avoiding everyone’s curious looks.
Gene stared at him for another moment before taking a drink as well. Working in a medical capacity he knew, sadly, that there were many deaths that could likely be blamed on him. Albeit indirectly. Or maybe he just felt responsible. Either way he wished more than anything that he were seated next to Babe so that he could clutch the younger man’s hand and let him know that-whatever it was- he had been there.
They appeared to be the only two willing to drink. Unfortunately it was an omission that sent Speirs falling into the ocean below.
When he sunk underneath the water’s surface, Speirs took a moment to be irritated. He knew exactly what death was being alluded to and couldn’t help but be pissed off. There had been an incident at the club he worked security at where one night a fight had broken out.
Unfortunately a knife had been pulled and one of his coworkers, who had been trying to break it up, had been stabbed.
Speirs had been outside watching the door but had rushed to help as soon as he could. He subdued the two men that had been fighting but by the time the ambulance came it was too late for his friend. The bartender, Kenneth Web’s girlfriend, had seen the whole incident and for whatever reason blamed his late arrival for her boyfriend’s death. She must have been more than willing to tell the show’s producers all about her version of the event.
And maybe he had felt slightly responsible, but after dwelling on it for a few years he knew that he wasn’t, and he had moved on. He only hoped Lipton hadn’t gotten the wrong impression. He didn’t have anything to hide, not really, and certainly not from Lipton.
It was bad enough that Babe was already reliving an event he hadn’t wanted anyone to know about, now it was Liebgott’s turn and the man’s statement hit Babe hard.
“I have never been married,” The man said and they all rolled their eyes, highly doubting that ANY of them had been married.
However Lipton sighed and took a drink. Luz gaped at him. “Lip, for real?”
Lipton shrugged, “My high school sweet heart told me she was pregnant. It was a lie and also a HUGE mistake.”
Luz grinned, “Speirs is going to just looove that.”
However Babe was slightly freaking out. They couldn’t know. Who would have told them? How would they have found her anyway? She never would have said anything, she had done it to help him! Had they found his parents?
In between all of his mental anguish, Babe’s door dropped open and he fell.
They all stared at Babe’s empty spot in astonishment, Gene most of all. There was silence for a moment before Luz cleared his throat, knowing it was now his turn. “I’ve uh…never intentionally hurt anyone I care about.”
Or at least he didn’t realize he had. The show let it slide as no one drank. Then Liebgott fell into the water abruptly. Webster jerked forward in worry, but knew there wasn’t anything he could do.
Liebgott grimaced as he sluggishly kicked his way to the ocean’s surface. He supposed that if he were being honest with himself that he had slept with Floyd, not just because he had been horny, but because he thought it might be the last straw for David.
He had intended for Webster to find out and finally be successful in pushing the other man away. Only it had indirectly brought them closer and Liebgott guessed that that was probably better. He hoped.
It was now Gene’s turn once again. “I’ve uh…never stolen anything?”
Nobody drank and after a moment Luz’s trap door fell open and he went straight down into the ocean. He splashed around indignantly for a moment, “I was 10! How does that count? Also- who told you about that?”
Nixon rolled his eyes at the familiar question, “Your mom. And you and Perco can bitch all you want but it still counts if you’re 10!”
There were only three of them left and Lipton shrugged before saying, “I’ve never been arrested.”
Gene took a quick drink and Webster laughed. “You’ve never stolen anything but you’ve been arrested. Care to share?”
“Nope. Not unless you do.” Gene said thinking that he might be able to find out what was wrong with Liebgott if he played his next statement right. He normally wouldn’t pry but he had kicked himself for not be more attentive when he started to notice Liebgott’s sluggish and out of character behavior all day, starting from the moment he saw him curled up with Webster that morning. He was supposed to be the kind of person who helped others but he had been so wrapped up in Babe that he hadn’t realized something was wrong with his own teammate.
After Liebgott’s admission that he had once taken illegal drugs, Gene began to be more worried. What was Webster hiding?
David looked at him in apparent confusion. “What the Hell are you talking about?”
“I’m a med student David. Not an idiot. What’s wrong with him? If he’s ill he needs a doctor.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Webster replied with a frown. He knew he needed to get Gene to stop asking questions before everyone on the show got involved. “Why don’t you save it for your turn.”
Gene stared him down, his lips pursed and an expression of worry on his face. But he nodded, not sure if he could pressure the information out of David when his turn came or even if he wanted to. It was probably better discussed in private. But if Webster cared about Joe why bother hiding something at all?
David, for his part, wasn’t going to let Gene get to his next turn. Winters had been right…he had to sell Babe out. Even though he wished he didn’t. He had hoped he’d have more time but it was a credit to Gene that he had caught on so quickly. Webster knew he was only acting out of concern but the truth was that he could make Joe’s life very difficult.
So on David’s turn, he knew he had him. “I’ve never made out with someone 7 years younger than me.”
Lipton and Gene both stared at him quizzically, neither of them moving to grab their drinks. When Gene’s trap door fell away David almost felt bad.
Lipton looked at the empty space where Gene had been and back to David. He had a pretty good idea of what to say himself. “I’ve never kept a secret for one of my teammates.”
David didn’t move to drink. They had no definitive proof that he was keeping a secret for Joe. Winters had made sure of that. However, they all knew thanks to Grant that he, along with Shifty as well, had been keeping Babe’s secret about his real age. And his lie sent him into the water.
Lipton looked around the empty platform in relief. Huh. He had actually won them a challenge.
Down in the boat below Nixon sounded a very unnecessary bullhorn. The other contestants had already been taken back to the shore and he was waiting at the bottom of one of the ladders for Lipton to climb down.
As Lipton walked over and made his way down into the boat, he couldn’t help but wonder what some of the repercussions of this were going to be.
Some of those repercussions were evident immediately when they made it back on the island. Sobel was ignoring Evans, Luz was glaring at Bill and Babe was stark white and still, whereas Gene looked like he was about to explode he was so upset.
“How could you lie to me about something like that?” Gene shouted at Babe, more angry than Lipton had ever seen him.
He walked over to Speirs, “What the Hell is going on here?”
Speirs sighed, “Apparently Babe’s only 17.”
Lipton shook his head in disbelief. “How did he even get on the show?”
Ron shrugged, “Not sure. But Roe isn’t taking it so well.”
That seemed to be a bit of an understatement. Roe was not even looking at Babe anymore.
“Gene I’m sorry. Look I can explain just-“ Babe began to plead but Gene said nothing, obviously too hurt to talk and simply walked away.
Babe wanted to go after him but instead he whirled around and marched over to Webster and shoved him in the chest roughly, causing him to stumble backwards and fall on the ground.
Liebgott began to jolt forward but Bill grabbed him by the back of his shirt and told him to wait it out.
“Thanks a lot!” Babe shouted down at Webster, who was staring at him in shock. “One thing! That’s all I asked for you to do was to keep this ONE THING to yourself! And you couldn’t even do that! Plus you just threw the damn challenge! What the Hell is wrong with you?”
“Look Babe I’m so sorry but if you just understood-” David began to speak as he stood up but Babe put him back on the ground with another violent push.
“No YOU look!” Babe pointed at him as he shouted, “Save your bullshit for someone who cares. You better not have ruined this for me.”
The normally happy teen then turned on his heel to follow after Gene. “Babe wait!” Webster called out to him.
“Fuck you!” Babe hollered over his shoulder.
Everyone was silent for a moment and as they quietly began to disperse Liebgott walked over to help Webster up. David allowed the help and sighed as Liebgott looked at him.
Finally David said, “I’m sorry I did it, okay?”
Joe shook his head. “No it’s not okay. Because I know why you did it Web. And if anyone’s sorry
it should be me.”
Webster looked at him in shock upon hearing the heartfelt apology. Thankfully he recovered and said, “It’s alright. Besides I don’t have time to worry about Babe.”
“But you have time to worry about me?” Joe asked.
“That’s different.” Webster said.
“How?”
David sighed in frustration, “I dunno? Because you’re you.”
Joe just leaned forward and caught David’s lips in a quick kiss, before pulling away just as swiftly. “I mean it Web. I’m sorry. And thank you for doing this for me.”
Webster smiled at him, “You’re welcome.”
Winters watched Nixon as all the commotion wound down. He walked over to his best friend. “You look awfully pleased with yourself.”
Nixon grinned, “I never hoped for an outcome like this. This is crazy! Sweet Gene and Babe fighting and shouting. Just wait until Luz figures out what Buck’s been up to. I seriously love this cast.”
Dick frowned at his friend’s excitement. “Yeah? Well I hate this. This isn’t right.”
Lewis sighed, “You understood that this was going to happen. We have to incite drama for good ratings.”
Dick couldn’t help but look at his friend in obvious disappointment. “I’m not sure what I thought. But I don’t like this, and I don’t like who this show is turning you into.”
At that Lewis straightened up, “What are you talking about?”
“This whole attitude you have going? Like all your authority has gone to your head, you don’t care about anything or anyone unless it’s good entertainment.” Dick told him.
“That’s not true!” Lewis argued. He liked Dick, no matter what. Didn’t that count for anything?
Dick continued, “Now you’re keeping secrets from me about people you have feelings for and plans you have for the contestants. You used to tell me everything.”
“Dick I-”
“Sometimes it’s like I don’t even know you.” Dick accused. And to that Nixon could do nothing but stare. When his friend said nothing, Dick just shook his head and walked away.
Babe didn’t have to wander too far before he came across Gene sitting on the beach near the house, his feet in the water as he stared out at the ocean. It was the same spot that they had fallen asleep at.
He came to a stop next to Gene’s feet and wasn’t all that surprised when the man failed to pay him any mind. Heaving a sigh, the teen sat down beside him and looked out at the ocean as well.
After a moment of tense silence, Babe spoke up. “When I was 11…my parents took custody of my cousin Julian.” Babe began, “We were the same age and had always been real close since neither of us had any siblings. His mother had died when we were 5 and his dad wasn’t all that stable. He owns this crappy bar over in Arizona and one day…he just kind of shipped Julian over to us. Said he couldn’t give him what we needed.”
Gene finally gave him an odd look, not sure where this tale was going, but intrigued as the young man never spoke of his life.
Babe caught his gaze and looked away before continuing, “After that Julian and I were like brothers. We did everything together, y’know? We were always a little different sure, but we were as thick as thieves. My friends kind of thought he was a…loser I dunno. But I always tried to get him to hang out with us. One day, during our junior year of high school, I pressured him into going to this party with me. He didn’t really want to…but he did it just to make me happy.”
Gene noticed that Babe was shaking as he recounted what must have been an important tale and he straightened up to give the young man his full attention. Babe took a deep breath and continued.
“I kind of ditched him when we got there…I spent all my time with this girl that I was real close with-Doris- and he didn’t have anyone to watch him. He got so drunk and…I didn’t know where he was. We had rode to the party together and I needed him to give me a ride home. So I tried calling his cell and…”
It’s there that Babe’s voice choked up and Gene could see the tears forming in his eyes. Despite his earlier anger with Babe, he couldn’t stand to see him so upset. He quickly put an arm around him and gave his shoulder a soft squeeze, urging him to go on.
“A woman from the hospital picked up…said he had been in a car accident.” Babe told him with a struggle. “I called my parents and Doris drove me to the hospital. He was…”
Babe put his head on his knees, “He was dead when we got there though. It was…God it was so fucking wrong…and all my fault...”
“No.” Gene whispered and pulled Babe to his chest, “It wasn’t, Babe you can’t-”
Babe just sniffed and straightened up. “Even if it wasn’t…you should have seen my parents. The way they looked at me. They loved Julian like their own son and when he was gone…things got so fucking bad. It was like I didn’t exist…”
“They were just hurting.” Gene tried to assure him, although he didn’t know.
With a shake of his head, Babe silenced him. “I couldn’t take it anymore. They hated me, Julian was dead. So I got them to sign this parental consent form, they were so detached they didn’t even ask me what it was for. It was for a marriage license.”
Gene looked at him in confusion so Babe explained. “I was 16 so I needed their consent. Me and my friend Doris got legally married so that I could get emancipated from them. Once I was...I just took off. I didn’t have anywhere to go so I went to Arizona to be with my Uncle. I guess I wanted him to forgive me or something. Turns out he didn’t blame me…so he took me in and I finished school over there. After I graduated I worked in his bar a bit but the authorities heard he had a minor working there so we lied and said I was 19. They let it slide but I knew they’d look into it eventually and I didn’t want to get him into any trouble so I took off again. They were having auditions for this show in Phoenix and I signed up. I didn’t…really have a lot of options.”
Once Babe was finally done speaking of his past he just fell back on the sand beneath him and stared up at the sky. “I never expected to meet you, or any of this. I’m sorry I hurt you and I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me anymore.”
Gene looked down at him for a moment before lying beside him. “Babe…I can’t help but want everything to do with you.”
Babe looked over at him in surprise. Gene sighed, “It’s not really your age that bothered me…but that you lied. But I know that we all have things in our past that are hard to escape,
and I could never blame you for that.”
“Wait…are you saying you forgive me?” Babe asked shakily.
“I more than forgive you Babe. I accept you for who you are and want you to know that you don’t have to lie anymore.” Gene told him in earnest. “Whatever happens with this show, I don’t want it to end whatever we could have.”
“Me neither.”
“Good.”
The two kissed on it, just to be safe.
Summary: On a remote Brazilian island, 22 contestants are separated into 2 teams to compete against one another through a series of challenges. But they’ll soon discover that there are more challenges to be had than just the competition. Hook-ups, fights, partying, back stabbing, secrets and lies take center stage as the crew watches their reality show spiral into insanity. Various pairings.
Cross posted to Camp Toccoa
In this chapter: Webster may have to betray a friend’s trust in order to keep Liebgott’s secret from being discovered and Dick purposefully sabotages Nixon’s plans for the show to help a contestant. Meanwhile Nixon’s challenge has the contestants discovering the truth about each other when they are forced to play HIS version of the game ‘I’ve Never’.
Meet the Crew
Meet the Contestants
Oh Captain My
Captain?
Capture The Flag
We All Fall Down
Tequila Is Not Your Friend
Who Can You Trust?
Saving Me
Look Out Below
Blaze a Trail
Eat It or Beat It
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
On the Beach
“I’m telling you, this is important!”
Nixon squeezed the ballot he was reading in frustration as the intern continued buzzing around him, going on about some fight between Liebgott and Webster.
“Damn it Talbert! We’re trying to count these ballots!” The host continued to snap at him as
Dick gently pried the crumpled ballot from Lewis’s hand.
The gathered red team watched the exchange in interest.
“But-”, the kid tried to protest.
“What you’re telling me isn’t news!” Nixon sighed in anger. “Webster and Liebgott fight all the time! Just make sure that you have a cameraman on it!”
“Well there ARE cameras over there but they’re all-”
“UGH! Would you shut up?”
Talbert frowned and ignored Nixon, going for the more sensitive of the pair. “Listen,” he said to Dick, “Webster was freaking out and they were screaming at the top of their lungs! Then I saw them wrestling and that’s when Bill and Speirs ran up there. When Speirs left Joe freaked and punched Sobel and then I heard more shouting! Something is going on!”
Dick listened intently to what he was being told. Trust Nixon to cut off the intern when he actually had something important to say. “I’m going to go and check this out.” He said to Nixon before walking off towards the trail leading from the beach back to the house.
“What? You can’t go!” Lewis cried, waving the ballots around. “You’ll miss the looks on their faces when they find out that Toye’s up for elimination again!”
“What?” Luz piped up. “Are you freaking serious?”
Nixon tore his eyes away from Dick’s retreating form and glanced back at the ballots. “Uh yeah. Right. The two people competing in the arena tomorrow will be Toye and Penkala.”
“Aw man!” Penkala groaned.
Speirs rolled his eyes at the man’s reaction but was glad at the outcome of the vote. As usual he and Buck had voted for Toye, but after the way Penkala had thrown the challenge by overreacting and drawing the “killers” right to them, everyone had voted for him overwhelmingly. Which was a good thing in Ron’s book, as he was their weakest player and Toye should be able to take him out no problem.
Luz looked over at Toye, who was sitting in a daze. “Are you okay?”
Jo shrugged slowly, “…Yeah.”
His sluggish reaction caused Luz to frown. “You sure? You seem kind of out of it.” But Jo just nodded before slowly rising to his feet and stumbling away.
Luz knew that something about the other man’s behavior was off and would have gone after him if Buck hadn’t come up to him.
“What’s going on?” the blonde asked, checking to see what Luz had been looking at.
The shorter man shook his head. “Nothing, just wondering if we’ll ever find out who keeps voting for him.”
“Eventually we will. When the show’s over.”
“Yeah I guess.” Luz grumbled.
Buck rolled his eyes and tossed an arm around George’s shoulder. “C’mon. What’s say you and I finish that game of strip poker on our own?”
Luz grinned, “Oh you’d like that wouldn’t you?”
That got him a laugh.
Back at the house, Bill had distracted the cameras from the Webster and Liebgott drama by talking about the only thing he thought might catch their attention.
“I guess it all started when I took him over to the infirmary….”
And that thing was his secret Big Gay Feelings for Toye. God…Joe and Webster SO owed him for this shit. When his mother saw this she was going to be thoroughly confused.
Dick walked by the scene and observed it in amusement. There was no way Bill had any actual feelings for Jo, the guy was as straight as they came. But if he was willing to lie and say he did, then there was obviously something going on that he didn’t want them to record.
Unfortunately Hashey wasn’t their brightest cameraman and Popeye, one of their more experienced ones, had the worst gaydar ever.
He walked over to Liebgott and Roe’s bedroom, where Talbert had said he’d heard shouting.
However the door was wide open and, upon further inspection, the room was empty. He walked a little further only to be confronted by Sobel.
The Blue team’s captain had his customary scowl in place, as well as a tissue pressed against his apparently bloody nose. “That stupid freak punched me.” The man spoke, though his voice was muffled. “He and Webster are in the hall bathroom.”
Dick winced and laid a sympathetic hand on the contestant’s shoulder. “I’m sorry about that. Look why don’t you get yourself over to Renee’s and if it’ll make you feel better, we’ll have security present whenever you and Liebgott are in the same room.”
The dark haired man rolled his eyes and stomped off, muttering under his breath about people being kicked off Survivor for less than the shit Liebgott pulled. Dick silently agreed, but knew that Nixon and Harry would never kick Joe off the show for fighting. Not to mention that all the contestants had basically signed away any right they had to sue over any type of personal injury.
Dick walked over to the bathroom door and, not bothering to knock, turned the handle to try and open it up. It was locked, which was unsurprising considering that is was a bathroom. However they had known to prepare for any number of incidents, and therefore had a key that could unlock it from the outside. Only he, Nixon, Harry and security had them. He pulled out his set of keys before finding the one that unlocked all the bathroom doors, the contestant’s bedroom doors didn’t have the luxury of locks.
Cracking the door open he poked his head inside to have a look. The first thing he noticed were the two sets of mikes that had been laid on the bathroom counter and that all the taps had been turned on. The two men obviously didn’t want anyone listening in on them.
He stepped into the large bathroom further and looked around the wall to his left that led past the large shower and toward the toilet. The door to the toilet was wide open and he saw Liebgott and Webster standing with their backs to him, arguing in hushed tones as Webster fiddled with something in his hands.
Dick cleared his throat loudly and the two contestants turned to face him with matching expressions of surprise on their faces. “So what is it you two are doing in here? De-miked?”
Joe had a look on his face that Dick had never seen before. He looked as though he were frozen in fear and Webster immediately stepped in front of him as if to shield him from Dick. “Look Winters...I can explain…”
But Dick was still looking at Joe. “Liebgott? Are you okay? You look sick. Do you need to go and see Renee?”
Neither of them said anything and he sighed. “Look…whatever’s going on...I can help you. I WANT to help you. I hope you believe that. But I need to know what’s going on here. I’m not…I’m not like Nixon, alright?”
He hated having to say it but he knew that he needed them to understand that if this was serious, he wasn’t going to sell them out to the show. Which, as much as he hated to admit it, was exactly what Lewis would do.
The two contestants exchanged looks before Liebgott jerked his head forward, as if giving Webster permission to talk. Webster sighed, “We’re…getting rid of something.”
Dick could feel his entire body sag…he didn’t need to be told much else. “Drugs Liebgott? Do you have any earthly idea how dangerous it is to have those around here? Around other people?”
Liebgott just pulled viciously at his lower lip with his teeth. “Do you think I honestly fucking cared?”
Running a hand through his hair, Dick sighed. “Look-finish getting rid of them and then I want you to tell me everything. Alright? And I mean everything. Liebgott if this has something to do with your problems back home I want to know about it.”
Joe nodded and Dick noted the look of surprise on David’s face. He guessed Liebgott hadn’t filled the other man in on everything.
He nodded to the two of them once more. “I’ll be waiting for you two outside. I’ll keep everyone out of here. Just come and get me when they’re flushed.”
Walking out into the hallway, he shut the door behind him and leaned back against it with a sigh. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. But if Liebgott was getting rid of whatever drugs he had then he obviously wanted help. And the only one who could really help him was Dick. Who else could the troubled man turn to?
Nixon and Harry would just exploit his condition, present it to the network as some sad little storyline that needed to be harped on or use it to drum up more funds. He couldn’t let that happen. Not to mention that something of this magnitude could ruin Liebgott’s life if it was broadcasted. This had to stay under wraps, no matter what.
Toye watched in interest as Bill attempted to shake the cameraman dogging his every move. Finally the Philly boy gave up and plopped down on the couch with an exasperated sigh.
Jo nodded his head towards the hovering cameraman, “Something up?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Bill replied. “I’ll tell you later. So how’d the vote go?”
“How do you think?”
Bill cursed. “Well are you going to win?”
Jo leaned back into the couch cushions with a shrug, eyes fluttering closed. “I dunno. It’s me and Penkala, so maybe.”
“What? Are you tired?”
“Yeah a bit. I think I’m gonna hit the sack. I don’t feel so good.” Jo told him.
He stopped Toye before he got too far. “Well do you need to see Renee?” he asked. The other man just shook his head slowly before walking off and Bill noticed that he leaned on the stair
railing rather heavily.
“Something’s up with him,” said a voice right next to Bill’s head. He jumped slightly and glared at Luz, who was leaning on the couch near him and staring at the stairs. “You see it too.”
“He says he doesn’t need to see Renee.” Bill pointed out, surprised that Luz was even talking to him. He had made his dislike of him pretty apparent up until that point.
“Yeah well he’s fucking stubborn. So…I dunno. Just keep an eye on him.” Luz instructed, pushing away from the couch and pulling a cigarette out from behind his ear.
Bill looked at the cigarette for a minute. “Where the Hell did you get that? I thought you’d lost all yours to Speirs.”
Luz paused with the object in question half way to his lips, “I jack them here and there.”
“What- from Speirs?”
“Fuck that. He’d kill me. I take them from people on the Blue team.” Luz admitted with a smirk before walking outside to smoke.
Sneaky bastard. Bill made a mental note to check his bags before he went to sleep.
Dick listened as Joe reluctantly explained how he had become dependent on drugs…and what kind.
It wasn’t like Dick had never known drug users over the years. It was an unfortunate benefit of his friendship with Nixon and his oversight of his best friend’s career. Many of the people in Nixon’s line of work (television) were incredibly casual about substance abuse. Mostly it was addictions to cocaine, alcohol and occasionally heroin that Dick had to deal with. Meth was new and, honestly, frightening.
He supposed he should have suspected something. Joe was often irrationally violent and irritable…but there was no real way of knowing that this wasn’t his normal behavior. They had all known him for so short a time. Dick suspected that it was only the unusually close relationship that Webster had formed with Joe that had alerted him to the man’s changing behaviors.
And although Dick had the feeling that Joe’s story wasn’t complete (the basic ‘fell in with the wrong crowd’ tale), he doubted it would do anyone any good to pry further.
“Alright here’s what’s going to happen.” Dick spoke up. “Things are going to get ugly. Joe…you understand that don’t you?”
Joe remained silent for a moment. “Yeah I know.”
For a moment Dick thought about drug recovery in general terms. How things got so much worse before they got better. How they stayed worse. At least when Liebgott was on the drugs he most likely got upswings from time to time. Now it was just going to be consistently bad. It almost made him wish that they hadn’t flushed the man’s drugs. The middle of a reality show wasn’t the best time to go through a secret drug detox. He only hoped the man could handle it.
“I will be watching you okay. David and Bill will be watching you. The moment I think you need a hospital- I’m going to have to tell Renee. This is going to be hard to keep under wraps. But I’ll do all I can for you.” Dick tells him. Right now he doesn’t trust Renee to keep this to herself, not after the incident with Gene.
“Thank you.” Joe muttered softly, but Dick could hear the sincerity in his tone. Then the other man cleared his throat and spoke louder. “I’m gonna go make sure Bill still has some dignity intact.”
Webster and Dick watched as Joe shuffled out of the bathroom, grabbing his mike on the way out. Dick turned to Webster. “He’s going to need you. But I hope you understand...if you though he treated you bad before…it’s going to be much worse from here on out.”
Webster nodded with resolve, “I know. I just…I need to be there for him. I don’t really know how to explain it.”
“Then don’t try. But I wasn’t lying when I said this would be a difficult secret to keep.” Dick told him. “We may need a better distraction then Bill’s so called feelings for Toye.”
Webster managed a mild snort of amusement before asking, “Did you have something in mind?”
“I’d rather not be causing problems for anyone but I know this is a much more grave situation than anything that the other contestants are likely to find themselves in.” Dick said, more as a way to make himself feel better than anything else. He continued, “We know for a fact now that Babe is underage. He’s only 17 even though he’s been going around and telling everyone he’s 19. It may not seem like much of an issue on its own, but the fallout that is going to occur as a result of his lying certainly will be.”
Dick watched in interest as Webster bit his lip, looking uncomfortable. “I uh…kind of already knew about that.” David explained. “And I swore to him I wouldn’t betray his confidence.”
The act was noble, and Dick told him so. “However,” he reminded the contestant, “when it comes down to it you may have to decide who you’d rather keep your promise to. Babe…or Joe.”
And deep down David knew that it wasn’t a hard choice at all.
The Next Morning
Gene shuffled into his bedroom to change clothes, knowing that soon they would all be heading to the arena soon to watch Toye and Penkala battle it out and he needed to get dressed. He had spent the previous night curled up next to Babe in the red head’s room, not his own.
The memory made him smile. He couldn’t believe how surreal all of this was. Never in a million years would he imagine meeting someone like Babe- much less on a reality television show.
Not to mention he hadn’t had to deal with bothering Babe’s roommates. Grant and Shifty were gone, and Webster had been AWOL all night. When Gene slipped into his bedroom he understood why.
Webster was fully clothed in the same thing he’d worn last night, sitting up on Liebgott’s bed. Gene’s roommate was fast asleep, his head on Webster’s stomach and his arm thrown over the other man’s hips.
Gene stared at them in muted surprise for a moment before nodding to their sleeping teammate.
“He’s going to have to get up in a little while.” He said softly.
“I know.” Webster murmured, looking down at the man on top of him. He nervously ghosted his hand down Liebgott’s back, as if afraid any moment the man might wake up and tell him to get lost. “He’s just so tired. I’ll wake him up in a minute.”
With a nod, Gene gathered his clothes together and backed out of the room to give them some privacy. He hurried down the hall towards Babe’s room to tell him the latest development. It wasn’t gossip when he told Babe…it was gossip when Babe blabbed it to everyone else. But whatever- it made the kid happy.
Luz was not very happy at the moment. Toye had been acting weird ever since his trip into the realm of unconsciousness at the end of yesterday’s challenge. Now that Luz had torn himself away from Buck’s stupidly attractive self (curse his hotness! It was making things so difficult!) and focused all his energy on watching Toye, it was obvious to him what was wrong with the other man.
Irritation coloring his every move, Luz marched right over to Jo, who was sitting alone on the couch.
“Hey idiot!” Luz greeted him.
“Hola midget.”
Luz glared at him. “You called me an idiot!” Jo reminded him. Luz just threw his hands above his head in frustration.
“That’s not why I’m glaring at you.” Luz responded. “And I called you an idiot because you’re being one. Why the hell would you lie to Renee about not having a concussion?”
“I don’t have a concussion.” Toye argued.
“Sure well if that’s the case then why don’t you stand up and spin around a few times?” Luz suggested, gesturing to the space in front of the couch.
Jo just pursed his lips. “I’d rather not.”
“I wouldn’t either if I had a CONCUSSION!” Luz shouted at him. Jo immediately waved his hands in an attempt to quiet him down.
“Look just leave it alone alright?” Jo hissed. “If they find out they might postpone the arena challenge.”
Luz just gaped at him. “What? Why would you even want to compete with a FREAKING CONCUSS-”
His ranting was cut off when Jo reached up and pulled him down to the couch roughly. “Because I have something to prove.” He said.
“Yeah? To who?” Luz asked, fixing the other man with a hard stare.
Jo leaned in further to Luz’s space and Luz stilled at their proximity. He hadn’t been this close to Jo since…had he ever been this close to Jo?
“To whoever keeps voting for me.” Toye told him in a whisper. “They need to know that I’m capable of taking anything they throw at me. Maybe then they’ll realize that it’s a mistake to make me their enemy.”
“Yeah.” Luz conceded the point before bringing up his own. “Or maybe you’ll lose.”
“It’s a chance I’m willing to take.” Toye said seriously, never taking his eyes off of Luz’s face.
Luz, for his part, remained silent, staring back just as intently. He didn’t say anything. Suddenly Speirs spoke up from behind them.
“Alright red team, let’s move out. Time to go.”
Toye leaned even closer. “Please Luz. Don’t say anything. I need you to do this for me.”
And that just wasn’t fair. Jo couldn’t bring their lips within an inch of touching and then appeal to Luz’s personal feelings for him just to get what he wanted. Even though it was totally working.
“Fine. But when you’re done, you have to swear to me that you’ll tell Winters you need to see Renee and sit out the challenge.” Luz said.
At this Jo’s face broke into a grin. “You think I’m gonna win?”
Luz rolled his eyes. “Of course I do.”
Toye smirked again before moving away from Luz to rise and follow their departing team. Luz grabbed his wrist before he could move off. “Promise me.” Luz demanded.
“I promise.”
George nodded and let him go. Watching him walk away with nervous dread in the pit of his stomach.
In the Arena
“Oh Penkala. We barely knew ye.” Nixon said to Dick with a smirk as the contestants began to filter into the arena.
Dick smiled in spite of himself but shook his head. “You never know what could happen. Today may very well be the day that Toye falls short.”
“Not as short as Perconte!” Talbert piped up behind them. He held a hand up, “Up high!”
Nixon gave him a disgusted look. “No way. Go watch Webster and Joe cuddle and weep.”
The intern glared at him. “Please the only one weeping here is you. What with your unrequited love for-”
“Do you LIKE breathing?” Nixon growled.
Dick watched the intern scamper off with interest. He turned towards Nixon. “Unrequited love? Something you want to tell me, Lew?”
Lewis stared at him in shock. Because if that wasn’t the most loaded question he’d ever heard…
Then Dick continued, “When did some lucky girl -or guy- catch your eye?”
Nixon felt like he had been hit over the head with a shovel. So Dick didn’t know Talbert was talking about him but… “Wait…you know that I date men?”
Dick gave him that-possibly a smirk-again. “I’m your best friend Nix. Do you really think you can keep something that important from me?”
‘You have no idea…’ Nixon thought to himself.
“Although how you’ve managed to keep this mysterious person to yourself I’ll never know. So who is it?” Dick asked as he turned to survey the contestants once more.
“Uh…why don’t we worry about it later?” Nixon asked. “We’ve got to work.”
Dick nodded. “True. Let’s go to it then shall we?”
“And now to my favorite part.” Nixon declared to the contestants as the already assembled pair of Toye and Penkala stood before him. “Deciding your fate. Which, if we’re being honest, is basically my job. But I think it’s important to enjoy what you do.”
“Get on with it already!” Luz shouted from the stands.
Nixon glared at him but reached up to spin the Wheel of Doom which would determine what arena challenge the two red team members would be playing. He crossed his fingers and hoped for the gross food challenge. You could never splice together enough video clips of people puking if you asked him.
However it wasn’t to be as the wheel came to a stop on the flag struggle, which was last seen in the elimination of Shifty by Liebgott. The disappointment on Nixon’s face was evident.
“Lame.” The host muttered before turning his attention back to the contestants. “Well it looks like the wheel has deemed it best for the two of you to compete in a quick game of Snatch the Flag. You may remember this arena challenge as the one that eliminated Shifty. For those of you having to compete in it for the first time today- let’s go over how it works one more time.”
“Each competing contestant is outfitted with a vest upon which multiple flags have been tacked.”As Nixon began to explain the rules, the crew assembled the appropriate equipment behind him. “On the edges of the formed circle in the middle of the arena, there is a box for each contestant to put the flags they have captured from their opponent in. When the time is up, we count the flags in each contestant’s box and whoever has the most is declared the winner. Of course the loser will have to leave the island. For good.”
Liebgott let out a loud yawn. “Can we get this over with already?”
Nixon pouted before turning to watch as Toye and Penkala finished getting their vests on. Penkala was wearing the one with bright yellow flags and Toye’s were bright orange. “You guys suited up?”
They both nodded. Nixon grinned, “Well then take your places.”
Luz watched nervously as his two team members walked to the center of the arena and entered the drawn up circle. They turned to face one another and everyone waited for the signal that would start their battle.
Alex watched as Toye swayed on his feet slightly. And even though his opponent (and friend) seemed off his game Penkala couldn’t help but feel nervous. Jo had won every arena challenge.
But maybe if he wasn’t feeling well then Alex might actually stand a chance.
Unfortunately for Penkala that hope was smashed, for when the bullhorn went off Toye lunged himself at Alex fiercely and began to rip every flag he could get to off of the other man’s vest.
“Oh!” Nixon winced as Alex went down.
“That’s gotta hurt.” Babe observed from the stands. Gene nodded in agreement beside him.
Behind the two of them, Webster was attempting to rouse Liebgott from his sleepy state. Gene frowned at the scene in concern. Was it possible that there was something wrong with his roommate? Liebgott had been acting out of character all morning. Webster looked concerned, but if something was wrong David certainly hadn’t shared it with him.
“Joe.” David whispered as he gently shook Liebgott’s shoulder. “Joe you’re going to have to wake up for the challenge. How can you possibly be this sleepy?”
Joe, eyes still closed, made a face and shrugged slightly. “I dunno. Just am. God I feel like shit.”
There was a lot Webster wanted to say. That Joe had to get through this challenge. That everyone was going to see he was acting strange and want to know what was wrong with him. But then Joe leaned onto David and muttered, “I’m sorry. About all of this.”
Webster sighed as Liebgott’s head settled under his neck and he wrapped an arm around the other man’s back. “Don’t be. I’ll wake you when it’s over.”
And it was over pretty soon. As the two struggled it out it was obvious to all that Toye was essentially kicking Penkala’s ass.
Nixon sounded the bullhorn and the two men ceased their battle, coming to their feet and panting heavily. The host walked over to stand between them as Dick gathered the two boxes to count the flags. Nixon eyed Penakala’s bare vest before turning to stare at the flag’s still adorning Toye’s.
“Though I’m not sure what the point is…I guess we’ll count the flags anyway.” Nixon shrugged.
Dick rifled through the many flags that Toye had managed to take off of Penkala’s vest. Rather than embarrass Alex by stating the dramatic ratio he simply announced, “Toye won.”
Nixon looked at the stands before gesturing towards Dick. “Well you heard the man.” The host said. “Unfortunately for you Penkala this means that you’ll have to leave your team, and the island, for good.”
Penkala sighed, “I figured.”
Toye waved a hand lazily, “Hey Winters?”
From his crouch next to the boxes on the ground, Dick looked up at being directly addressed.
“Yeah Jo? What is it?”
“Remember how I said I didn’t have a concussion?”
“...Yeah.”
“I lied.” Toye told him before promptly falling over.
Dick rushed to his side before turning his gaze towards Nixon.
“Oh that is SO not my fault!”
“Well Toye’s definitely down for the count.” Nixon announced to the contestants who were all gathered outside the infirmary where Toye was resting.
“Yeah no shit.” Luz snapped. “Why is it that he’s the only one who ever gets fucking hurt?”
“Um hello?” Babe called out as he pulled up his bandaged ankle for the shorter man to see. “Jaguar attack?”
Luz shrugged in concession to his point as Babe then began to struggle not to fall over on one foot. “So are they going to sit a player out too?”
“Not this time.” Winters replied. “Jo already told us he was aware of his condition before he entered the arena and honestly he should have told us he wasn’t feeling well right off the bat. That way he could have been treated and might’ve been given a less physically demanding one on one challenge. The team challenge wouldn’t have taken much out of him had he been well rested. As it is we don’t feel the blue team deserves to suffer as a result of his choice. And next time Luz, if you know something’s wrong? Please come to us.”
Luz gaped, “He ratted me out?”
“Nope!” Nixon piped in, “But you just did. Also Blue Team? Where’s Bill?”
In the infirmary, Bill frowned down at Toye, “What the Hell were you thinking?”
The other man shrugged. “I had my reasons alright? Did you sneak in here JUST to give me shit?”
“No.” Bill sighed.
“I didn’t think so.” Toye replied. “What’s up?”
“Okay,” Bill began, “This is going to sound stupid but just go with it. I’m kind of covering someone’s ass by distracting the camera men with fake drama. That’s why they’ve been dogging me all day.”
Toye smirked, “Covering for someone? How like you. But that’s not all that stupid. So what’s the drama?”
Here Bill cringed, “Uh…apparently my very gay love for you.”
A loud stream of hysterical laughter coming from the infirmary caught everyone’s attention and all the interested parties went inside to see Toye doubled over in said laughter as Guarnere glared at him lightly.
Luz frowned, “Well we found our missing Blue player.”
“Okay Bill you can play kissy face with your boyfriend some other time.” Liebgott sneered. “We have a challenge. You remember those right?”
Bill gave him the finger. Ungrateful brat. He leaned in to whisper to Jo, “Look are you going to play along or not?”
Toye pulled back slightly to gaze into Bill’s eyes. Bill shifted uncomfortably, “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.
Jo smirked, laughter obviously threatening to bubble to the surface again. “I’m playing along.” He whispered. “By the way you wouldn’t mind losing this challenge so that I don’t have to go into the arena tomorrow would you baby?”
Bill sighed, “You’re going to make me pay for this, aren’t you?”
Toye nodded with a grin, “Oh yeah.”
“Alright you two!” Nixon snapped, “Enough pillow talk, let’s go!”
Grumbling obscenities under his breath, Bill followed his team out of the infirmary.
At the Casa de Losers
Skip just shook his head as Alex downed another ‘Welcome to Loserville’ shot of bourbon. “So you suck.”
Don shrugged, “Could have been worse.”
Alex just stared his cheerfulness down. “Malark-I just got my ass handed to me by a guy with a concussion! How could that have been worse?”
Malarkey paused with his mouth open, ready to answer. He closed it with a sigh. “Good point.”
Grant poured him another drink, “Well on the upside…the booze here is better.”
“Cheers to that.”
They all downed a shot.
The Challenge
“Oh you’ve gotta be fucking joking.” Perconte groused.
“Agreed.” Luz mumbled.
Nixon glared at the two of them, “Well we’re not joking so shut it!”
Webster tilted his head to the side as he studied the contraption behind their host. “You know there are only so many times you can suspend us over the ocean before it reflects a lack of creativity.”
Lewis shook his head, “Just wait till you hear the challenge. Now get your complaining butts on those boats and get out there!”
The ‘out there’ that Nixon was referring to, was a very large and flat platform off the shore and into the less shallow part of the near ocean. It was situated about 30 feet above the water with ladders trailing down the sides which one assumed were meant to be climbed up, but not down.
The red and blue teams filtered into two separate motor boats and were rushed out to the water, Perconte clipping on his life vest with a sigh. “I feel like such a pussy wearing this.”
Luz shrugged, “Tough nuts. It’s either that or drown.”
“Yep,” Buck nodded. “No one’s going to throw a challenge to save you this time.”
George shot the blond man a grin, before telling Perconte, “That’s right. So don’t fall.”
“That’s not even funny!” Frank yelped.
The two just laughed.
After all the contestants climbed up their respective ladders, they noticed that there was a large round table at the center of the platform with name blue and red name plates obviously intended for them to direct each contestant to where they were meant to be.
There were no chairs, so all the contestants moved past one another to come and stand by their name plate. Upon looking below their feet they found that they were (surprise, surprise) standing on what appeared to be a trap door. Should it open up, they would obviously go falling in the water.
Also before each contestant there was a tall glass with an unidentified liquid in it. Babe stared at his suspiciously, “Um what IS this?”
Nixon, who was now standing off to the side of their table, smirked, “It’s liquor.”
Lipton frowned, “Wait drinking alcohol is actually part of the challenge. What if some of us didn’t drink?”
The host snorted, “Please. We watch you guys all the time remember? We know what you do and don’t do. Besides it’s just light beer. But the fact leads me to the heart of the challenge. What you all will be doing today is playing a modified version of the classic drinking game I’ve Never.”
Sobel couldn’t help but be pleased. These kinds of activities always created conflict, and hopefully it could take some of the attention off of him because on his team he was still a popular target.
“I don’t really know how to play that game.” Evans confessed.
Everyone kind of just looked at him. Nixon sighed, “That’s fine as I have to explain the new rules anyway. Here’s how it goes. We have, as I previously stated, been watching you. We know things about you that your fellow contestants don’t. And we think it’s time that you guys start being honest with each other.”
Many of the contestants looked at him with wide eyes. He couldn’t help but grin, this was going to be great.
“We’ve been gathering all sorts of information on you.” He continued to explain. “Both by observing you here and by talking to some of your contacts back home. The way I’ve Never normally works is that you go around in a circle and each person, in turn, states something that they have never done. Anyone who has done that activity, or whatever it is, takes a drink. Normally in a regular game people can still lie. However in this game if you have done something and try to lie about it by not taking a drink, or if you try to call our bluff, the trap door below you will open up, you’ll fall into the water and be out of the challenge. The most truthful contestant will obviously be the last on the platform and will win this challenge for their team. Any questions?”
“Do we make our own questions?” Webster asked.
Nixon nodded, “Yep. Why doesn’t hmm…Captain Sobel start us off?”
As Nixon retreated back to the boat so that more cameramen could come onto the platform, all the contestants turned to look at Sobel expectantly.
Sobel smirked, knowing exactly what he wanted to say. “Well, I’ve never used or taken any illegal drugs.”
Babe sighed and took a drink, recalling his earlier encounter on the main island with LSD.
Liebgott took a drink as well, not bothering to look guilty about it. However if any looks
could kill, the look Webster was giving Sobel might be the one.
Then Luz took a drink (he’d smoked some weed in high school-sue him) along with Evans. Evans shrugged when Sobel gave him a shocked look. “I went to summer camp once.” He explained.
No one else drank and suddenly there was creak and a shout as Perconte went falling into the water.
When he bobbed back to the surface of the water (thanks to his life vest) he glared at Nixon, who was waiting in the boat with a cameraman, “I was 10! How does that count?! Also who the Hell told you about that?”
Nixon smirked, “Your very chatty cousin. Now hop in.”
The person to Sobel’s right was Gene who wasn’t sure what to say but figured that he knew a statement that might have a helpful outcome. “I’ve never formed a voting alliance on this show.”
Bill took a drink- Hell yes he was in an alliance. He wanted their chicken shit Captain gone. Liebgott rolled his eyes but also drank, knowing he was guilty of the same thing.
Speirs, not really afraid of any repercussions, took a drink. He certainly hadn’t actively tried to hide his voting alliance with Buck from the cameras.
However to everyone’s surprise (well not everyone’s) Evan’s owned up and took a drink as well. Sobel glared at him but left his drink untouched. He didn’t want to give them any more fuel to hate him, besides he didn’t have a voting ALLIANCE like Liebgott and Bill did when they ALWAYS voted for him no matter what. He and Evans just came to a consensus on who to vote for.
Yet it appeared that the Show disagreed and both Sobel as well as Buck (who hadn’t wanted to ignite Luz’s suspicions) went falling into the water.
Lipton was looking at Speirs curiously, wondering what he was up to. While Luz was staring at where Buck had been standing in confusion. “What the fuck?” he wondered aloud.
The burden now fell to Evans to make a statement. The red team took a moment to be irritated that only blue members had gone thus far. Evans was just glad he didn’t have to drink any more nasty beer.
“I’ve never had uh…fuzzy feelings for anyone on this show.”
Liebgott just stared at him dubiously, “Fuzzy? Are you for real?’” However knowing what the man meant Liebgott took a drink. Webster stared at him with a small smile forming on his face. Liebgott rolled his eyes at the look. “Oh like you didn’t know. Stop looking at me like that.”
All the other contestants drank except for Bill, whose feelings for those on the show could hardly be described as fuzzy. However he forgot that the producers were going to go by what they THOUGHT they knew-not what actually was. And Bill had been chatting up the cameras about his feelings for Toye.
His trap door opened up and he fell into the water below with a curse. Damn it. Now everyone was going to know about his little charade. He hoped Liebgott appreciated this.
Luz glared at his empty spot. He was definitely not pleased with the apparent developments in Jo and Bill’s relationship.
Finally the Red team had their turn as Lipton was standing on Evans right. He gave it a thought and sighed, “I’ve uh…never kissed another man before I came on this show.”
Speirs smiled at the statement, unable to be anything but pleased as he took a drink. All the others, save Evans, mirrored his action.
Both teams watched in surprise and amusement as Evans went plummeting into the water. Apparently he had lied.
Nixon helped the soaked blue contestant into the boat and raised an eyebrow for an explanation to his lie. Evans sighed at the camera and once again said, “I went to summer camp once.”
David’s turn was now up and he wasn’t really sure what to say. He took a shot in the dark, probably a waste of a turn, and said, “I’ve never been responsible for anyone’s death.”
There was silence and for a moment, no one drank. But then Babe reached out to grab his glass with a shaking hand and took a quick gulp before hurriedly putting his glass back down and avoiding everyone’s curious looks.
Gene stared at him for another moment before taking a drink as well. Working in a medical capacity he knew, sadly, that there were many deaths that could likely be blamed on him. Albeit indirectly. Or maybe he just felt responsible. Either way he wished more than anything that he were seated next to Babe so that he could clutch the younger man’s hand and let him know that-whatever it was- he had been there.
They appeared to be the only two willing to drink. Unfortunately it was an omission that sent Speirs falling into the ocean below.
When he sunk underneath the water’s surface, Speirs took a moment to be irritated. He knew exactly what death was being alluded to and couldn’t help but be pissed off. There had been an incident at the club he worked security at where one night a fight had broken out.
Unfortunately a knife had been pulled and one of his coworkers, who had been trying to break it up, had been stabbed.
Speirs had been outside watching the door but had rushed to help as soon as he could. He subdued the two men that had been fighting but by the time the ambulance came it was too late for his friend. The bartender, Kenneth Web’s girlfriend, had seen the whole incident and for whatever reason blamed his late arrival for her boyfriend’s death. She must have been more than willing to tell the show’s producers all about her version of the event.
And maybe he had felt slightly responsible, but after dwelling on it for a few years he knew that he wasn’t, and he had moved on. He only hoped Lipton hadn’t gotten the wrong impression. He didn’t have anything to hide, not really, and certainly not from Lipton.
It was bad enough that Babe was already reliving an event he hadn’t wanted anyone to know about, now it was Liebgott’s turn and the man’s statement hit Babe hard.
“I have never been married,” The man said and they all rolled their eyes, highly doubting that ANY of them had been married.
However Lipton sighed and took a drink. Luz gaped at him. “Lip, for real?”
Lipton shrugged, “My high school sweet heart told me she was pregnant. It was a lie and also a HUGE mistake.”
Luz grinned, “Speirs is going to just looove that.”
However Babe was slightly freaking out. They couldn’t know. Who would have told them? How would they have found her anyway? She never would have said anything, she had done it to help him! Had they found his parents?
In between all of his mental anguish, Babe’s door dropped open and he fell.
They all stared at Babe’s empty spot in astonishment, Gene most of all. There was silence for a moment before Luz cleared his throat, knowing it was now his turn. “I’ve uh…never intentionally hurt anyone I care about.”
Or at least he didn’t realize he had. The show let it slide as no one drank. Then Liebgott fell into the water abruptly. Webster jerked forward in worry, but knew there wasn’t anything he could do.
Liebgott grimaced as he sluggishly kicked his way to the ocean’s surface. He supposed that if he were being honest with himself that he had slept with Floyd, not just because he had been horny, but because he thought it might be the last straw for David.
He had intended for Webster to find out and finally be successful in pushing the other man away. Only it had indirectly brought them closer and Liebgott guessed that that was probably better. He hoped.
It was now Gene’s turn once again. “I’ve uh…never stolen anything?”
Nobody drank and after a moment Luz’s trap door fell open and he went straight down into the ocean. He splashed around indignantly for a moment, “I was 10! How does that count? Also- who told you about that?”
Nixon rolled his eyes at the familiar question, “Your mom. And you and Perco can bitch all you want but it still counts if you’re 10!”
There were only three of them left and Lipton shrugged before saying, “I’ve never been arrested.”
Gene took a quick drink and Webster laughed. “You’ve never stolen anything but you’ve been arrested. Care to share?”
“Nope. Not unless you do.” Gene said thinking that he might be able to find out what was wrong with Liebgott if he played his next statement right. He normally wouldn’t pry but he had kicked himself for not be more attentive when he started to notice Liebgott’s sluggish and out of character behavior all day, starting from the moment he saw him curled up with Webster that morning. He was supposed to be the kind of person who helped others but he had been so wrapped up in Babe that he hadn’t realized something was wrong with his own teammate.
After Liebgott’s admission that he had once taken illegal drugs, Gene began to be more worried. What was Webster hiding?
David looked at him in apparent confusion. “What the Hell are you talking about?”
“I’m a med student David. Not an idiot. What’s wrong with him? If he’s ill he needs a doctor.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Webster replied with a frown. He knew he needed to get Gene to stop asking questions before everyone on the show got involved. “Why don’t you save it for your turn.”
Gene stared him down, his lips pursed and an expression of worry on his face. But he nodded, not sure if he could pressure the information out of David when his turn came or even if he wanted to. It was probably better discussed in private. But if Webster cared about Joe why bother hiding something at all?
David, for his part, wasn’t going to let Gene get to his next turn. Winters had been right…he had to sell Babe out. Even though he wished he didn’t. He had hoped he’d have more time but it was a credit to Gene that he had caught on so quickly. Webster knew he was only acting out of concern but the truth was that he could make Joe’s life very difficult.
So on David’s turn, he knew he had him. “I’ve never made out with someone 7 years younger than me.”
Lipton and Gene both stared at him quizzically, neither of them moving to grab their drinks. When Gene’s trap door fell away David almost felt bad.
Lipton looked at the empty space where Gene had been and back to David. He had a pretty good idea of what to say himself. “I’ve never kept a secret for one of my teammates.”
David didn’t move to drink. They had no definitive proof that he was keeping a secret for Joe. Winters had made sure of that. However, they all knew thanks to Grant that he, along with Shifty as well, had been keeping Babe’s secret about his real age. And his lie sent him into the water.
Lipton looked around the empty platform in relief. Huh. He had actually won them a challenge.
Down in the boat below Nixon sounded a very unnecessary bullhorn. The other contestants had already been taken back to the shore and he was waiting at the bottom of one of the ladders for Lipton to climb down.
As Lipton walked over and made his way down into the boat, he couldn’t help but wonder what some of the repercussions of this were going to be.
Some of those repercussions were evident immediately when they made it back on the island. Sobel was ignoring Evans, Luz was glaring at Bill and Babe was stark white and still, whereas Gene looked like he was about to explode he was so upset.
“How could you lie to me about something like that?” Gene shouted at Babe, more angry than Lipton had ever seen him.
He walked over to Speirs, “What the Hell is going on here?”
Speirs sighed, “Apparently Babe’s only 17.”
Lipton shook his head in disbelief. “How did he even get on the show?”
Ron shrugged, “Not sure. But Roe isn’t taking it so well.”
That seemed to be a bit of an understatement. Roe was not even looking at Babe anymore.
“Gene I’m sorry. Look I can explain just-“ Babe began to plead but Gene said nothing, obviously too hurt to talk and simply walked away.
Babe wanted to go after him but instead he whirled around and marched over to Webster and shoved him in the chest roughly, causing him to stumble backwards and fall on the ground.
Liebgott began to jolt forward but Bill grabbed him by the back of his shirt and told him to wait it out.
“Thanks a lot!” Babe shouted down at Webster, who was staring at him in shock. “One thing! That’s all I asked for you to do was to keep this ONE THING to yourself! And you couldn’t even do that! Plus you just threw the damn challenge! What the Hell is wrong with you?”
“Look Babe I’m so sorry but if you just understood-” David began to speak as he stood up but Babe put him back on the ground with another violent push.
“No YOU look!” Babe pointed at him as he shouted, “Save your bullshit for someone who cares. You better not have ruined this for me.”
The normally happy teen then turned on his heel to follow after Gene. “Babe wait!” Webster called out to him.
“Fuck you!” Babe hollered over his shoulder.
Everyone was silent for a moment and as they quietly began to disperse Liebgott walked over to help Webster up. David allowed the help and sighed as Liebgott looked at him.
Finally David said, “I’m sorry I did it, okay?”
Joe shook his head. “No it’s not okay. Because I know why you did it Web. And if anyone’s sorry
it should be me.”
Webster looked at him in shock upon hearing the heartfelt apology. Thankfully he recovered and said, “It’s alright. Besides I don’t have time to worry about Babe.”
“But you have time to worry about me?” Joe asked.
“That’s different.” Webster said.
“How?”
David sighed in frustration, “I dunno? Because you’re you.”
Joe just leaned forward and caught David’s lips in a quick kiss, before pulling away just as swiftly. “I mean it Web. I’m sorry. And thank you for doing this for me.”
Webster smiled at him, “You’re welcome.”
Winters watched Nixon as all the commotion wound down. He walked over to his best friend. “You look awfully pleased with yourself.”
Nixon grinned, “I never hoped for an outcome like this. This is crazy! Sweet Gene and Babe fighting and shouting. Just wait until Luz figures out what Buck’s been up to. I seriously love this cast.”
Dick frowned at his friend’s excitement. “Yeah? Well I hate this. This isn’t right.”
Lewis sighed, “You understood that this was going to happen. We have to incite drama for good ratings.”
Dick couldn’t help but look at his friend in obvious disappointment. “I’m not sure what I thought. But I don’t like this, and I don’t like who this show is turning you into.”
At that Lewis straightened up, “What are you talking about?”
“This whole attitude you have going? Like all your authority has gone to your head, you don’t care about anything or anyone unless it’s good entertainment.” Dick told him.
“That’s not true!” Lewis argued. He liked Dick, no matter what. Didn’t that count for anything?
Dick continued, “Now you’re keeping secrets from me about people you have feelings for and plans you have for the contestants. You used to tell me everything.”
“Dick I-”
“Sometimes it’s like I don’t even know you.” Dick accused. And to that Nixon could do nothing but stare. When his friend said nothing, Dick just shook his head and walked away.
Babe didn’t have to wander too far before he came across Gene sitting on the beach near the house, his feet in the water as he stared out at the ocean. It was the same spot that they had fallen asleep at.
He came to a stop next to Gene’s feet and wasn’t all that surprised when the man failed to pay him any mind. Heaving a sigh, the teen sat down beside him and looked out at the ocean as well.
After a moment of tense silence, Babe spoke up. “When I was 11…my parents took custody of my cousin Julian.” Babe began, “We were the same age and had always been real close since neither of us had any siblings. His mother had died when we were 5 and his dad wasn’t all that stable. He owns this crappy bar over in Arizona and one day…he just kind of shipped Julian over to us. Said he couldn’t give him what we needed.”
Gene finally gave him an odd look, not sure where this tale was going, but intrigued as the young man never spoke of his life.
Babe caught his gaze and looked away before continuing, “After that Julian and I were like brothers. We did everything together, y’know? We were always a little different sure, but we were as thick as thieves. My friends kind of thought he was a…loser I dunno. But I always tried to get him to hang out with us. One day, during our junior year of high school, I pressured him into going to this party with me. He didn’t really want to…but he did it just to make me happy.”
Gene noticed that Babe was shaking as he recounted what must have been an important tale and he straightened up to give the young man his full attention. Babe took a deep breath and continued.
“I kind of ditched him when we got there…I spent all my time with this girl that I was real close with-Doris- and he didn’t have anyone to watch him. He got so drunk and…I didn’t know where he was. We had rode to the party together and I needed him to give me a ride home. So I tried calling his cell and…”
It’s there that Babe’s voice choked up and Gene could see the tears forming in his eyes. Despite his earlier anger with Babe, he couldn’t stand to see him so upset. He quickly put an arm around him and gave his shoulder a soft squeeze, urging him to go on.
“A woman from the hospital picked up…said he had been in a car accident.” Babe told him with a struggle. “I called my parents and Doris drove me to the hospital. He was…”
Babe put his head on his knees, “He was dead when we got there though. It was…God it was so fucking wrong…and all my fault...”
“No.” Gene whispered and pulled Babe to his chest, “It wasn’t, Babe you can’t-”
Babe just sniffed and straightened up. “Even if it wasn’t…you should have seen my parents. The way they looked at me. They loved Julian like their own son and when he was gone…things got so fucking bad. It was like I didn’t exist…”
“They were just hurting.” Gene tried to assure him, although he didn’t know.
With a shake of his head, Babe silenced him. “I couldn’t take it anymore. They hated me, Julian was dead. So I got them to sign this parental consent form, they were so detached they didn’t even ask me what it was for. It was for a marriage license.”
Gene looked at him in confusion so Babe explained. “I was 16 so I needed their consent. Me and my friend Doris got legally married so that I could get emancipated from them. Once I was...I just took off. I didn’t have anywhere to go so I went to Arizona to be with my Uncle. I guess I wanted him to forgive me or something. Turns out he didn’t blame me…so he took me in and I finished school over there. After I graduated I worked in his bar a bit but the authorities heard he had a minor working there so we lied and said I was 19. They let it slide but I knew they’d look into it eventually and I didn’t want to get him into any trouble so I took off again. They were having auditions for this show in Phoenix and I signed up. I didn’t…really have a lot of options.”
Once Babe was finally done speaking of his past he just fell back on the sand beneath him and stared up at the sky. “I never expected to meet you, or any of this. I’m sorry I hurt you and I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me anymore.”
Gene looked down at him for a moment before lying beside him. “Babe…I can’t help but want everything to do with you.”
Babe looked over at him in surprise. Gene sighed, “It’s not really your age that bothered me…but that you lied. But I know that we all have things in our past that are hard to escape,
and I could never blame you for that.”
“Wait…are you saying you forgive me?” Babe asked shakily.
“I more than forgive you Babe. I accept you for who you are and want you to know that you don’t have to lie anymore.” Gene told him in earnest. “Whatever happens with this show, I don’t want it to end whatever we could have.”
“Me neither.”
“Good.”
The two kissed on it, just to be safe.