Business and Pleasure: Chapter 17

[saiya-tina.livejournal.com]

TItle: Business and Pleasure
Rating: PG really
Pairing: Brad/Ryan
Summary for the chapter: Life goes on but can change at anytime. 

Overall Summary: Brad's running his own large business and has everything but what he wants the most: someone to be there for him. After 'purchasing' Ryan from the Utopia group to serve the purpose, he slowly realizes that he's breaking their most important rule: he's falling in love with him. After two years together, two years of love, the time has come for Ryan to be taken away. The rules will change, the game will too and the three friends are going to go through the ultimate test.

A/N: Now we're progressing! Please leave a comment!

Wayne sighed as he watched Brad blankly tromp up to his room and shut the door, not even bothering to turn on the lights. It had been a year since Brad had called him up from Paris, frantically saying something about ‘not feeling Ryan’ and that something was ‘horribly wrong’. He had spent the next two hours trying to talk Brad down from his near frenzy state and made the decision to go to Utopia, undercover of course, and enquire about Ryan. Since Drew had barely caught a glimpse of him the one time he had seen him, he was able to talk to him without trouble. However, he didn’t get the information he wanted beyond the part that Ryan was with another client around Brad’s status and that he had extended his contract for another two years. He knew that Brad had been waiting for the contract to expire so that he could go and purchase Ryan again, but just when that dream seemed to begin, he was cruelly woken up. He had been wandering about like a zombie ever since and that piece of news had been given to him months ago.

 

The absence of Ryan from Brad’s life definitely wasn’t healthy and if something miraculous didn’t happen soon, Brad stood a good chance of getting sick. Wayne already didn’t like the pallor of his skin, the obvious weight loss and the dark circles forming under his eyes from too much work and little rest. As much as he didn’t want to tell Brad this, he would either have to make up an outrageous lie that would definitely hurt Brad or try to appeal to his common sense.

 

He walked up to Brad’s room and knocked softly on the door. When he received no answer, he tried the handle and was surprised to find it unlocked. He opened it slowly to reveal a dark room and a lump on the covers, staring blankly at the ceiling. He sighed and made his way over to the bed, sitting down on the edge. He stayed quiet for a few minutes before lightly placing his hand on top of Brad’s.

 

“Ryan?” Brad’s voice cracked like he hadn’t used it in a while and he jolted up eagerly, responding to that touch only to literally deflate as he saw Wayne.

 

“You have to stop this, man,” Wayne said quietly, “This isn’t healthy.”

 

“Leave me alone, Wayne,” Brad said quietly, tugging his hand away and turning on his side.

 

“No,” Wayne said firmly, “Look, you need to pull yourself together. This isn’t how he’d want you to be livin’ without him.”

 

“What would you know, huh?” Brad shot out, turning to look at him, his eyes blazing, “You have no idea what it’s like! Don’t talk to me like you have any idea about how I’m feeling!”

 

“I don’t know how you’re feeling?” Wayne said with fire in his voice, just enough to catch Brad’s attention, “I’ve spent the last three years watching you slowly kill yourself, knowing there’s nothing I can do and you say I don’t know what you’re feeling? He was my friend too, Brad!”

 

“He was just your friend, Wayne!” Brad’s voice cracked, this time with approaching tears, “He wasn’t your soul! He wasn’t the one thing in this world that you would give your life up for!”

 

“And so you’re going to let go of your life when he told us to live it?” Wayne asked quietly. Brad froze as he remembered those words uttered by Ryan so long ago, before he had been taken away from him. Live your life, he had said, don’t let it end just because I’m not there. If you felt pain because of me, I’d feel it a hundred times over.

 

“I’m trying, Wayne,” Brad said, “I’m trying really hard, but I can’t! I just can’t!”

 

“Why not?” Wayne asked in a soothing voice.

 

“Because of him!” Brad shouted, sounding hysterical, “Because everywhere I go, I see him! If walk along the road, I see him walking beside me. If I sit down, I see him sitting next to me! If I sleep, I see him sleeping beside me! If I so much as breathe, I see him breathing beside me....”

 

Brad took a deep breath and continued, “I can’t let him go because I don’t want to. I can’t bear the thought. Even if I won’t see him again, I want to at least see him in my dreams, but even those are getting worse.”

 

“Worse?” Wayne frowned.

 

“I see him dying, Wayne,” Brad said in a broken voice, “Almost every night. When he first left, the dreams were good. Pleasant. But about a few months after he left, I started having dreams of him being beaten and hurt. Sometimes, he’s even died in them. And you know what’s the common factor in those dreams? Me. Every time, he’s calling for me and I don’t respond. I don’t help him!”

 

Wayne hissed in sympathy and gripped his friend’s hand tightly in his, squeezing it in comfort.

 

“I can’t take the wondering anymore, Wayne,” Brad said, “I can’t handle not knowing how he is. If I just knew whether he was alive, it would put my mind at ease. Or at least I thought it would. When you said that Drew told you that Ryan was alive, I was relieved, but I still see him dead. Not dying, just dead. My Ryan dead.”

 

“Maybe you’re just reacting to over load,” Wayne thought, “you’ve been so stressed lately, it’s all coming to a boil and exploding. I told you Brad, you are not healthy. You’ve been getting weaker and that doesn’t allow you body to fight. Maybe if you’d start taking care of yourself, these nightmares will stop.”

 

“You think?” Brad looked up at him hopefully.

 

“Just think of this: how would Ryan feel if he saw you like this? Tearing yourself up because of him? It would hurt him badly, Brad,” Wayne said gently, “Don’t do this, Brad. You have to be strong. You have to be strong for yourself and for him.”

 

“I don’t know if I can,” Brad confessed.

 

“I’ll help you,” Wayne gripped his hand tighter, “You’re not alone, buddy. I’m still here. I may not be as good as Ryan, but I’m there for you, okay?”

 

“Okay,” Brad smiled at him weakly, “Wayne?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I’m really hungry!”

 

Wayne laughed and tugged him up and out of bed, “I’m not surprised! When’s the last time you ate?”

 

“Uh...” Brad frowned in thought.

 

“Never mind. Take a quick shower and we’ll grab a bite. Time you got out of this damn place.”

 

Dl

 

Dl

 

“You serious? He never told me about that!” Brad laughed as Wayne told him some of his stories about Ryan when they performed on stage.

 

“Yup, just started singing in the middle of the African Chant!” Wayne wiped away a tear of laughter, “And when I looked at him, he just turned around and pretended to shush the others!”

 

“And how was his singing?”

 

“Terrible!” Wayne shook his head, “He’s not bad in other games, but jeez!”

 

“That’s why the singing is left up to you,” Brad patted him on the shoulder, “Ryan once tripped into the pond in the park.”

 

“What?” Wayne snorted out the water he was drinking, “How did that happen?”

 

“Well, it was my fault. We were walking by it when he decided to become fascinated by the ducks,” Brad said dryly but with a smile, remembering Ryan’s expression when he saw the birds, “he stopped right in front of me and since I was, and this I admit, staring at his ass, I walked into him, knocking both of us into the pond. We were soaked, muddy and had to walk back home like that. But on the plus side, Ryan got to hug a duck.”

 

“He hugged a duck?” Wayne laughed, picturing it in his head.

 

“Yup. Poor thing squawked at first, then just calmed into it. It started following him around after that!” Brad chuckled.

 

“What happened to the duck?” Wayne asked curiously.

 

“We named him Harry. The next day, we had roast Harry!”

 

“Ew!”

 

“Kidding. When we got home, I took it back to the pond. A duck doesn’t know the way from the park to our place or I’m sure it would still be following him,” Brad grinned, “I’ve seen it around the pond, it came up to him a few times. Ryan loved visiting that thing.”

 

“I wonder if it’s still alive....” Wayne mused.

 

“It is. Still quacking away to glory.”

 

They continued to share stories and even talked about something of the things they, meaning Wayne, had been up to over the last few months. Brad was pleased when Wayne announced his decision to expand his bar. He was doing well, his patronage was good and his shows becoming increasingly popular. He had received a lot of complaints about the place having too little place for the customers and so that decision would probably lead to tremendous profit for him. Brad told him that he was planning on taking some time of work for a journey of ‘self-discovery’. Wayne raised an eyebrow but gave him nothing but support, agreeing that it would probably be best for him. He offered to join him, but was turned down by Brad, who explained that he wanted to make the trip alone for some time to think. Wayne agreed but only if Brad promised to call him regularly and if he didn’t spend the entire trip moping.

 

Two weeks later, Brad was packing for his trip. He had planned out the route he was going to take and had calculated that the trip would take a minimum of six months. The press had been given a statement that he would be ‘on a cruise’ and he was, not for the first time, relieved that his tendency to avoid the press meant that few people, if any, knew him by face. Wayne sat next to him, giving his ‘expert’ opinion on what should and should not be carried, saying that Brad had no idea of necessity. Brad tuned him out after a while and finally shut him up by finding an old sweaty shirt that he hadn’t washed and throwing it at Wayne’s head, smirking at the girly shriek it invoked.

 

As he shouldered his backpack, he heard his doorbell ring and shouted to Bruce to answer it. He made a mental check of what he had carried and talked to Wayne about a few last minute things as he descended the stairs when he saw a man in a formal looking outfit standing outside the door with Bruce looking baffled.

 

Brad frowned, stepping up and dismissing Bruce with a wave of his hand. He turned to the man, “Can I help you?”

 

The man smiled as he saw him, but instead of feeling reassured, Brad felt even more wary. The man looked harmless and unassuming, but Brad could sense that it was just a façade. He felt Wayne move to his side and he knew that he wasn’t the only one who felt something was off.

 

“It’s more of a matter of how I can help you,” the man said smoothly, raising an eyebrow at them, “You’re Brad Sherwood, am I right?”

 

“Who are you?” Wayne asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

 

“Wayne Brady. Good. That means I’m at the right address,” the man nodded to himself than looked back at them, “May I come in?”

 

“Who are you?’ Brad asked again, “And how do you know us?”

 

“Brad Sherwood. Head of Sherwood Enterprises. I’ve had many a contract for you, you know?” the man said casually.

 

“Contract?” Brad frowned, “What are you, a hitman?”

 

“Hitman is degrading,” the man scowled, “I’m merely an....associate, if you will.”

 

“What do you want?” Brad asked, tensing in wariness.

 

“It’s more about what you want,” the man said, once again cheerful.

 

“What are you talking about? Explain yourself or I will call the police,” Brad growled. This stranger was beginning to bother him and now he knew that he was definitely dangerous.

 

“Threatening me like that is a rather foolhardy move, Mr. Sherwood. I rather you not do that when you are in this type of situation. It could very well get you killed,” he said in a bored voice, “If you want to know why I’m here, you can just ask. Nicely.”

 

“Why are you here?” Wayne gritted, standing next to his friend protectively.

 

“Well, something’s better than nothing,” the man sighed before looking Brad straight in the eye, “My name is Colin Mochrie and I’m here about Ryan Stiles.”