Addison Albright - Cut Scenes

Another Dream -- Scenes that didn't make the final cut. For the most part these are unedited, having been cut before even getting that far.

A prologue that gave backstory and was unnecessary because the info ended up being revealed in the story anyway and would have slowed the momentum of the story beginning. An epilogue that, while sweet, took away from an even better ending that had been at the end of the final chapter. There were miscellaneous other scenes that, while interesting, didn't forward the story.

Prologue

Marty shouldn't have told him. He flat out shouldn't have told him. Fuck! He looked around his bedroom, trying to decide what to pack. INXS's Need You Tonight was playing on the clock radio. Boy was that ever true. He needed Billy tonight. He needed him right now.

He took his suitcase down from the closet and started tossing clothes into it. He took his Die Hard poster down from the wall, folded it up, and placed it on top. What the hell, Bruce Willis was hot, and it wasn't like the poster was taking up any space. He dug around in the closet, found his Brownsville High gym bag, and filled it up too.

George Michael's Father Figure came on next. Marty snorted. Father figure indeed. Dad said Marty wasn't his son anymore. Fuck him. He wasn't Marty's father anymore either, then. Marty didn't need him. He wanted his radio, though, so he unplugged it and squeezed it into the gym bag.

He took a long final look around his room, and found himself choking up. Shit. It was just a room. Four simple walls painted pale yellow, a closet, a twin bed, a dresser, a desk. It was no reason to get emotional.

But it was.

He and Billy had made out for the first time on that stupid little bed. Jesus, he could remember how fucking hard it had been to make that first move, that first time. They'd both been making eyes at each other for a while, each trying not to get caught checking the other out. Finally, after busting Billy ogling his ass one time, he'd just walked over and started kissing the hell out of him. At first, just for a moment, Billy hadn't reacted. Hell, he'd probably been in shock. But then Billy'd thrown himself into it, and given it back to Marty just as fervently as Marty was giving it to him.

They'd ended up tearing each other's shirts off, then their jeans and skivvies. Then they'd rolled around on the bed grinding away on each other, all the while sucking each other's faces off. Damn, it had been so fucking hot. They'd both been so scared shitless afterwards, but Marty had gotten them laughing about it to avoid the awkwardness. From then on, anytime they knew they would be home alone -- oh yeah -- they were making out like there was no tomorrow.

Yeah, Marty's entire life so far he'd lived in that room, in that house, with his parents and his sisters. Fuck, what about his sisters? Would they feel the same about him now as Dad did? Did he want to hear them telling him he wasn't their brother anymore?

Brenda and Betty were married. They had families of their own, kids of their own. Would they still want him around their kids now? Hell no, they wouldn't. Not after listening to Dad they wouldn't. And Sally? Shit. How much of Dad's verbal attack had she heard? He couldn't face seeing it in her eyes…the disgust and loathing that he'd seen in Dad's eyes, or even the anguish that he'd seen in Mom's.

So he just left. He carried his bags down to his 1968, blue, 2-door, Plymouth Valiant. It might have been twenty years old, but it was his, and its 318 V8, with 230 horses would get him to California. He pulled out of the drive and headed towards the bank so he could drain his account. Then he'd go see Billy.

Shit. Billy was his best friend in the world. Hell, Billy was his best friend and his lover. Would this be goodbye, or would Billy come with him?

Epilogue

Marty held Larry's hand gently in his own as they listened to Mike and Wes say their vows to each other. When they'd all decided to have a double ceremony they'd discussed the particulars beforehand and had agreed that they would each say custom, personal vows to each other followed by the traditional marriage vows.

He felt Larry squeeze his hand and he squeezed back. He truly loved this man who he'd known for little over three months. He'd never felt as confident about anything in his life as he felt about the decision to commit himself to Larry.

Soon it was their turn to say their vows. Marty went first. “Larry, I promise to walk beside you through life with love and honor in my heart, as your partner, as your sweetheart, as your best friend. I will be your honest, patient and compassionate companion. I will forevermore be true and faithful to you and live life with the intent of making you happy that you consented to marry me today.”

Marty saw that Larry's eyes were large and solemn as he listened to Marty speak his vows. He continued, finishing with the formal traditional wedding vows.

“I, Martin, take you, Lawrence, to be my husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live.”

Larry took a deep breath then spoke his vows to Marty. “Marty, you are my best friend, and I will love and respect you for the rest of our lives. In my heart I know that you will be my loyal friend, my dependable partner, my one true love. It is my greatest desire to love you and to be faithful to you always. I will listen to you, comfort you, respect you, honor you and seek to meet your every need. I will share in your dreams, I will be committed to the growth of our relationship and be your partner for the rest of our lives, no matter what life brings to us.”

It was beautiful. Marty smiled encouragingly at Larry as he continued.

“I, Lawrence, take you, Martin, to be my husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live.”

Cut Scene - Waking Up

Marty liked it when he awoke naturally before his alarm could signal it was time to get up. Tuesday morning was one of those fortunate mornings. As Marty lay awake in the minutes before the buzzer signaled the start of a new day he thought back over the last few days and held Larry snugly against his chest.

Seeing Billy again had been weird. He hadn't really had any expectations of how their meeting would go, but he never would have imagined the morning playing out as it had. He remembered Billy as a happy-go-lucky young man. Full of life. Full of laughter. The Billy he'd reunited with seemed worn down by life. Marty didn't want to say that Billy was downright unhappy, but he didn't exactly give the impression that he was thrilled with his life either. Perhaps Billy was content with his family, but he was not happy inside.

Marty had assumed, when he'd heard that Billy was married, that he'd been wrong in assuming that Billy had been simply gay and that he was actually bisexual. Had Billy succumbed to the weight of social pressure and made a choice to live his life in a manner that was not his natural inclination? He wasn't so sure, anymore.

Seeing the effect that choice had had on Billy made Marty glad he'd been brave enough. Brave enough to admit to himself that he was flat out gay. Brave enough to come out to his family, despite the fallout. Brave enough to be himself, and to be happy despite the hassles often directed at him by society's smaller minded people.

Hopefully he'd simply caught Billy on a bad day, and he was really happier than he'd appeared to be. He wished his old friend the best. Marty had enjoyed the quiet afternoon with his sisters on Saturday. As promised photo albums, both old -- from before he'd left, and newer -- showing what he'd missed, had been brought out. Sally had previously scanned all the old family photos onto her computer and created photo CD's for each of them. She'd given a set to Marty.

They'd had a great time showing Larry Marty's baby pictures. The baby pictures he hadn't minded, but he could have done without Larry seeing the pictures of his awkward early teenaged years, though. But what the hell, everyone went through those stages. Between the photos and reminiscing the afternoon had gone by quickly.

The drive home on Sunday and Monday had been uneventful. They'd spent time discussing the mechanics of moving in together.

They'd discussed what furniture to keep, and what to sell. It was decided that they would sell Marty's living room furniture, but buy another bookcase to match the two Larry already had to accommodate his stuff. They would sell Larry's full sized bed and use Marty's queen sized one instead.

Marty knew that being in charge of the decorating was important to Larry and made a point of telling him that they could use some of the proceeds from the furniture sales to buy new bedding for his bed so it would match the rest of Larry's bedroom décor.

There was enough room in Larry's dressers so they would just sell Marty's, as well as Marty's little dining table. Marty's washer and dryer were practically new; he'd replaced them just six months ago. Larry had bought his set used several years back, so they decided to sell Larry's and move Marty's over. His kitchen stuff they'd simply merge in with Larry's.

It looked like Larry was still out cold and probably needed the sleep so Marty carefully rolled over to the alarm and turned it off before slipping out of bed. He grabbed his clothes and went into the bathroom to wash up before heading down to the kitchen to rustle up a bowl of cereal and throw together a sandwich for lunch. By six-thirty he was out the door.

Cut Scene - Lunch at the Zoo

Ray chuckled. "Not to change the subject, but I'm hungry," said Ray. "Anyone else ready for lunch?"

Hell yes. Walking around all morning was wearing Larry out. He would welcome a little break as well as the food. Apparently he wasn't alone with that feeling as both Marty and Ronald quickly agreed with Ray.

"You know," began Marty, "We're not going to be able to see the entire zoo in one day. We should decide which other areas we're most interested in seeing today and then maybe pick somewhere to eat that's either near here, near there, or somewhere between here and there."

"Excellent idea," agreed Ray. Ronald and Larry agreed as well.

"How about the elephant mesa. Lions and bears are near that, too," suggested Ronald.

"Oh, that sounds good," said Larry.

"Yeah, I'll second that," added Marty. "Elephant mesa it is then." Ray smiled then added: "The Treehouse Complex is near here. They have several restaurants, although the Treehouse Café has my vote. It has a nice variety. How about we eat there before heading for the elephant mesa?"

Everyone agreed. Ray had Larry at 'near here.' He was going to have to step up the aerobic portion of his workout routine after the cast came off of his arm because, damn, he was feeling sapped.

It really was rather close and the menu looked delicious. Larry wanted the barbeque ribs, but that would never work one handed -- at least not in a restaurant. He settled on chicken enchiladas. Marty got the ribs, though. Ray got spaghetti and meatballs and Ronald just got a sandwich.

Ray turned to Larry. "Do you know when you'll be getting your cast off yet, Larry?" he asked.

"Yes, I've got an appointment now for the Friday before Christmas. The cast will have been on five and a half weeks by then and that's long enough."

"Oh good," said Ronald. "I'm glad you'll have it off before Christmas."

"Yeah, me too. It'll be a pain for our Thanksgiving travels, thought."

"That reminds me Marty," said Ray. "You gave me the short version on the phone, but that's such terrific news about your sisters!"

Marty smiled. "Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. I'm still amazed at how well received I was."

"That's wonderful Marty. I'm so happy for you," said Ray. "We'll miss you at Thanksgiving but are happy for the reason for it."

"Absolutely," added Ronald. "I told you years and years ago you should get in touch with them and at least give them a chance. I'm so glad you finally decided to do it"

"I know, Ronald. All these years I've though that if they wanted me in their lives they would have contacted me. I hadn't thought about how difficult I would be for them to find. Turns out they did try, but didn't have any luck."

"What made you finally decide to do it?" Ray asked.

"Well, I'd gotten to thinking about them, and after using Larry as a bit of a sounding board for my thoughts, he pretty much talked me into it. It just finally made sense and seemed like the right thing to do. So I did it before I could talk myself back out of it"

"Good for you, Larry," Ronald smiled at him. "You succeeded where we'd failed."

Larry blushed. "I didn't do that much really. I think Marty would have come to the same conclusion anyway."