Last Christmas 07/16

[marea67]

Last Christmas 07/16

By Marea67
About: Walkers and their satellites. Original Characters Alex Grodin and Max Carter are back!
Rate: from G to NC-17 - This one "G"
Disclaimer: The Brothers & Sisters and satellites may not belong to me, but Alex Grodin and Max Carter definitely are figments of MY own sick fantasy.
Summary: Just before Christmas, a prisoner escapes with unfinished business on his mind.
Extra: To completely understand the full impact of this story you should (have)(re)-read "Happy Now?" chapter 1 to 12
Extra EXTRA!!! I've situated this story in season 4, until 4.09, so it will contain ***spoilers*** for those who have not seen season 4.

*****
“Sarah, have you heard from Kevin since yesterday?”
“No, Kit, why should I? He’s away with Scotty. Just some time for the two of them. Who knew our little brother could be such a romantic? Go Kevin!”
“No! Not ‘go Kevin’.”

“Not?”
“No. All this romantic stuff? Right… I think Robert is hiding something about Kevin and Scotty.”
“Like what?”
“Something.”

“Kit, you’re not making any sense.” Sarah’s voice is dismissive, but then Kitty quickly explains to her what she overheard the night before.
“I am right, right? This is very creepy.” Kitty asks.

“Well, it is a weird conversation, I agree, and Robert's lying.... Now I am worried as well.”
“Sorry….”
“Yeah…”

“What do we do?”
“Nothing… We leave it alone… It’s probably none of our business. We should trust Kevin… although I don’t understand why he confided in Robert and not us…”
“Curiouser and curiouser….” Kitty mumbles.

*****

Max slowly lowers himself on his chair, reading intently the report before him. He hears and sees nothing else, except the words that dance before him. There is no further doubt. The man who died was a guard and this means that Alex is gone.

“This isn’t happening.” He whispers. “This cannot be happening.”
“More bad news.” Joanna Pellew, his partner, sits down and throws her note book on his desk. “I did some more investigating. Did you know that no one ever checked Alex’s stories to see if they were real or not?”
“He confessed to killing them.” Max replies, not understanding where Joanna is going.

“But why would he? Aside from the attempted murder on Mr Wandell, which could be proven, we never had any evidence against him in other cases…”
“That was exactly the problem. Enough suspicions, never proof. He’s good.”
“Wrong. There were never even suspicions. He flew completely beneath everyone’s radar.”

“I’m sorry, it’s late. Is this going somewhere?”
“I checked five of the men allegedly killed by Alex. In three of those cases there was no one in the victim’s vicinity called Alex Grodin. There was however Michael Malherbe, who was the victim’s boyfriend who died in the same boating-accident.”

She places a picture before Max and Max takes a good look at the face before him. “He looked a lot like Alex, but had blue eyes and not brown. He also had very short cut blond hair, not dark curls like Alex.” She picks up another picture and places it next to the picture of ‘Michael’. “There was Eric Donovan, green eyes. Black hair, worn longer around the ears, but no one ever really noticed the hair being curly.”

She places the last picture next to the other two. “….And there’s Jonathan Buchanan, hair: peroxide-white. Short. He had the ‘bluest eyes ever’. Quote from one of the women.” Max stares at the pictures that Justine placed before him. At first glance they look like 3 different men, but if you truly look at the men, there are traces to indicate that they are all the same man. Cheekbones, face structure, something about the mouth…

Joanna is right. There was no way that they would have connected Alex to these men. Especially since the men in question were ‘victims’ themselves. They disappeared during the accidents and were assumed dead…
“So, now he’s like a chameleon, taking on other identities and killing them too…?”
“Don’t know. But it would seem that we have an added problem.” Joanna replies.

*****

“Well, Sarah, if you told Kitty to stay out of this, then maybe you should take your own advice and… you know… stay out?”
“Justin! Of course I can’t. Not now I know that Kevin may be in trouble… So, think! Did he say anything to you? Did he do something weird?”

“Nnnooo…” Justin says hesitantly. “but then, who do you recognize ‘weird’ in our family?”
“Good point…. He didn’t say anything about there being some marital problems?”
“Were there?”

“I don’t know. But I doubt that he would have left just like that, if there wasn’t something important going on.”
“It there were marital problems, I didn't hear about them.”
“Who is having marital problems?” Rebecca asks, having only heard Justin’s last words.
“Kevin and Scotty.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.” Rebecca sympathizes, but then she returns to unpacking the groceries.

However, Justin is already back to his conversation with Sarah.
“Sarah, leave it alone. Kevin is a grown up man. In fact, sometimes he’s more sensible than all of us. If he just wants some time alone with Scotty, then give him that time. Whatever it is, I’m sure they’ll work right through it.”

Sarah nods. Maybe that is the best option. “Yes, I think you’re right. I will let it rest and concentrate on the holidays with the kids.”
“Good idea… Have fun.”
“What will you do?”
“We’ll have David and Holly over for dinner.”

“Oooh, Christmas with Holly, sounds like the perfect nightmare to me.” Sarah grins.
“Don’t worry. I’ll survive.” Justin laughs, but once the conversation with his sister is over his smile vanishes and a worrying frown appears on his face.

*****

“Was he free? Did I do it right?” Alex asks is a little voice. “Did I set him free? Was it enough?”
“Alex?” Max takes a long look at Alex. “Alex? What did you do?”
“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?” Alex's return-question surprises Max. “But I’m not.”
“Never said you were.”

“I knew what I was doing…. I couldn’t destroy the only beautiful thing my life has ever had… you know, I love him. I would pay any price for him. You were right this afternoon. He still has a wonderful life ahead of him….. So…. I gave him back his freedom … I let him go…. I made it right.”

Max cannot help but remember this small conversation he had with Alex, after he had been caught and he stares at the pictures before him again.
“Why?” He then says out loud.
“Why what?” Joanna asks.

“Why the sudden change of heart? Why did Alex run away? He cannot possibly hope that Kevin will still want him, after everything he confessed to? Kevin had been the reason to incriminate himself in the first place. He had a strong need to protect Kevin and rationalized that the ‘safest’ thing for Kevin would be for him to be in prison…”
“Obviously he fell out of love with this Kevin and now wants revenge?”

“No. I doubt it. Kevin was too much a part of his life to dismiss him over a few months.”
“Maybe he grew to hate him… Making it a good decision for your friends to leave.”
“I just cannot imagine Alex hating Kevin…. If you had seen the devotion on his face when he talked about him…” Max shakes his head. “It’s just weird.”

“Maybe I can shed some light on your questions?” A voice says and Joanna sees a woman enter Max’s office.
“Ah, doctor Melinda, this is my assistant Joanna Pellew. Joanna, this is Mr Grodin’s psychiatrist.”
“I understand that you know Mr Walker personally?” Melinda asks. “I’ve brought the file on Mr Grodin with me.”
“I knew him in highschool, though not as good as I’ve come to know him over the last few months. I stayed in touch with him and his husband, Scotty Wandell, after the attempted murder on Scotty.”

“I see… At first, Alex talked about his past, but he never mentioned Mr Walker or Mr Wandell. It wasn’t until I pushed the subject a bit that he talked about them and … he did that in the most neutral of ways… Like he was totally unaffected by them…”
“Isn’t that a positive sign? A sign that maybe he’s not going hurt either of them.” Joanna asks hopeful.

“Well, that is what I thought too. That he had somehow dealt with his obsession over Mr Walker… He was given some more space and some more freedom within the prison-walls. One of those liberties was access to the internet… until we found out about the file he was keeping on both men and their families and friends…”

“What did you do?”
“We confiscated the file and denied him access to the internet for a month… and after that only under supervision.”
“You grounded him?” Max asks stupefied.

“I saw no reason to approve of his way of demonstrating his obsession. He was stalking Mr Walker over the internet…. And then there was the utterly ridiculous request to speak to Mr Walker and Mr Wandell.”
“Wait a minute! Alex sought contact with Kevin and Scotty?”

“He asked for permission to talk to them, yes.”
“Which they refused?”
“No, we never contacted them. Mr Grodin wasn’t ready, in my opinion.”
“Unfortunately, it seems he had a different opinion…” Max shakes his head.

*****

“Justin, please, you know how the family works… Kevin is probably just done with the constant interference from everybody and took Scotty someplace where they won’t be interrupted while having sex…” Tommy dismisses Justin’s concern, slightly annoyed that he’s getting dragged in the same old family-shenanigans.

“So, you don’t think it’s weird that he suddenly left like that?”
“Justin, you weren’t even safe in Iraq. What makes you think that Kevin can escape mom? Or Robert or Kitty… Stop worrying about Kevin. He’s a big boy and he can take real good care of himself and he’d rather die, than let anything to Scotty. They will be alright.”

“We can’t even reach him by phone!” Justin is not giving up so fast.
“Kevin told me that mom once called them while they were busy, because she needed to know from Scotty if some recipe would work better with cherries or apricots or something,…not exactly an incentive to an active sex-life.”

“Ughh, Kevin must have been really frustrated.”
“Well, yeah, at first, but then  the cherries, strawberries or whatever fruit they were discussing gave Scotty an idea that helped Kevin get over his frustrations… and that is already way too much info…. I didn’t ask for the details…”
“Oh, thanks…” Justin replies in appreciation. There are things about his brother he doesn’t want to know.

*****

Scotty throws down the dish-cloth. It’s unfair! They had spent a wonderful day together in the snow, taking a long walk, having a snow-fight, followed by hot chocolate at Aunt Alice and a great dinner at ‘their’ house. Right after dinner, Scotty had suggested they’d quickly clean up the kitchen. Professional habit.

And he had hoped on an evening with just the two of them, making love, being sweet, get reconnected and now all of sudden Kevin is gone. He had left with some lame excuse about checking his voice-mail and that was 20 minutes ago… Scotty feels disappointed about being left alone, until he enters the living-room again…

The lights are dimmed and replaced by a great number of candles placed all over the room, giving the room an even warmer glow. Scotty’s jaw drops. Kevin shyly plays with the box of matches.
“I’m sorry for letting you finish the dishes all by yourself… I just wanted to create a romantic mood…” Kevin apologizes nervously. He had seen the angry look on Scotty’s face when he walked in.
“Forget it… This is beautiful.”

“Thank you.” And, much to Scotty’s amusement, Kevin starts to blush. “I.. uh… I went through Chad’s cd collection and… “ He switches on the cd-player and a soft melody starts to play. “Do you want to dance?” Kevin asks, reaching out to Scotty.
“Oh, Kevin…” is all Scotty can whisper and then he’s in Kevin’s arms.

*****

“I’ve tried to reach Kevin, but I can’t. I think he turned off his phone… or he’s elsewhere engaged..” Max says, while putting down his phone.
“What do we do now?” Joanna wants to know.
“We go public and send out a warning for Alex… It’s the only thing we can do…” Max decides.

*****

Holly quietly enjoys the silence that follows after her carefully spoken concern over Kevin and Scotty. She can clearly hear that Nora didn’t know about it.
“When Rebecca heard it from Justin, she was concerned about you even more. It must be so hard for you to see yet another child go through marital problems.”

Her vivid imagination conjures up an image of Nora exploding in anger on the other side. At the same time she feels a bit sorry for Nora. With Kitty’s cancer, Sarah losing Luc and Tommy somewhere in Seattle, it must not be easy to see the relationship between Kevin and Scotty go sour as well…

“I hope that you will reconsider and join us for Christmas. You might need it very much to get out of the house…”
“Well, thank you, Holly, for your concern…” Nora’s voice droops with sarcasm. “But I’m sure that Kevin and Scotty are strong enough together. They will work through it.”

“Well, I hope so…” Holly smiles, not knowing that she just made Nora even more determined to get out of the house on Christmas. Holly says her goodbye with a huge grin on her face, even more so, because she’s convinced that she heard Nora mumble, just before she hangs up:
“Why doesn’t anyone ever tell my anything in this house?”

END OF PART 7