Topher Lydon
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Everything posted by Topher Lydon
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There are some debts that no matter how hard you try you can never repay. The fact William Carter was there, sitting tapping a pencil against his desk staring down over the city of Toronto, was a testament to a debt he could never hope to repay. It bothered him, that no matter what he did, no matter how many times he said "thanks," it just never seemed to be enough. It was a personal thing, he knew that, and Robert Avery would have been happy with just that, but Will honestly felt there
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In the mire of corporate politics, Will Carter is the only honest man left standing. Trying to work out a way to save his company for opportunists. While a runaway, struggles to come back to the closet thing he ever knew to a home. Meeting a bookish, overworked and over stressed man in a grey shirt, who needs to learn how to relax.
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Chapter Twenty-One Andrew leaned around as they felt the plane begin its descent into Gatwick Airport, looking at Brody, who was sitting awake now, listening with interest to Will telling the story of the wedding. "Dude's my friend," he said, nodding to Will in explanation. "A brother's gotta do something." "Thanks," Andrew said, not quite certain what had been done. Will smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Ever play Mouse Trap?" It was the greatest show
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The drive to work the next day allowed him an opportunity to reflect as he wound his way directly towards his office. Andrew hadn't come home after the wedding and Will had collected the keys to his Jeep from the valet and had driven home alone at the end of the reception. After the madness of the last few days, returning to the normal routine did not appeal to him. But life went on, and so did he. Jeff and Lisa were probably in Niagara for their honeymoon, Lisa's father's wedding gift to t
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Chapter Twenty-Three The plane had landed, and the three friends had disembarked into the airport. And Will realized with a start that for the first time in nearly eight years he was home. They were still in the terminal, but it was England. He was home. He stood with his shoulders slumped staring out of a window at the rain-soaked world beyond. So many years of living abroad, so much time, so much of his life had just slipped by him that to actually be there again was surreal. "T
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Laurier House was filled with the wedding guests. It was beautifully decorated in white fabrics and roses; a string quartet performed a beautiful selection of pieces at one end and a large buffet on trestle tables stood at the other. Voices and music coming from beyond the open French doors told of the other guests, and the other entertainment that was taking place on the patio terraces that lay nestled in the gardens. Guests mingled with each other throughout the old house and Will adjusted his
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Andrew rested his forehead on his hand, "I'm sorry Will, nothing happened I swear to you." He gave Will a look filled with pain and hope, "you have to believe that." "I do." Will replied, his voice hoarse. "it just... at the time I didn't know what to think." "I'm sorry," Andrew pressed, "we were up all night talking. She knew I was gay, I told her... in fact we were talking about you most of the night. I just needed to talk to someone about what was going on." Will shrugged, "It'
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When Brody finally pulled up in Jared's Cherokee and laid on the horn, the friends were finally ready to go. Will had lent the keys of his Jeep to Andrew, and Jeff's parents were going to follow behind the Jeep in their rented minivan. A motorcade to the church, which wasn't that far away. There was just so much preparation behind such a simple event that Will was glad he didn't have to go through it again for awhile, unless Kerry got it into her head to drag Jared down the aisle. She was t
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It had been a set-up from the start. But exactly who, and how Will had become the targeted victim, eluded him. Wait, he knew exactly how. Brody was ultimately always the culprit. He knew Brody wasn't solely to blame this time; there was an inherent curiosity in all of his friends to see how he would react to the situation he found himself in. Not that he had been completely in a position to do anything to stop it. He was still struggling against fits of giggles as whatever Brody had administered
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The morning of the big day had arrived and Will hadn't slept. Jared had been stitched up after a four-hour wait at the Civic Hospital's emergency room. A low-priority patient, Jared only required a few stitches. But in a hospital which was ridiculously understaffed, overworked and underpaid, the doctors were too busy trying to keep up with the night's rush that seemed to keep pouring through their doors and Jared was continuously being relegated to the back of the queue. Will had sat with h
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Over the Atlantic "You had nothing to be jealous over." Andrew said softly. Will stopped in telling his story to stare at Andrew, "Didn't I?" he asked seriously, "you don't know what I went through the next day." Andrew was confused, what had he ever done to give Will the impression that a girl could ever compete with him? It had to be all in Will's head, surely? He reached out and touched Will's face, his thumb wiping the tears from his love's cheek. Searching that
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Will should have realized something was wrong when he had pulled up to the bench where he normally met Andrew, only to find he wasn't waiting for him. On any other day, Will would have written it off as just Andrew running late, but not that day, though. That day, Will knew all too well why Andrew was late. He waited, watching as the clock on his dashboard counted away the minutes, slowly creeping closer to an hour. And he watched as the world seemed set to pass him by, people coming to
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Chapter Eleven It was much later when the house finally fell silent. The invasion force had retreated to their encampments. The older Sternostis had taken the master bedroom, rightfully claiming the comfortable bed while relegating the homeowners to the cramped guest quarters. Jeff’s younger brothers had colonized the living room with sleeping bags and the glow of the X-box, and Maria had vanished into the den. Will Carter stood at the kitchen sink, staring at a spot of
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Jeff couldn't be mad at Will if someone paid him for it. Maybe he could if someone gave him a brand new car, but Will seriously doubted it. In the past, Jeff and Will had some serious run-ins. Mostly they were about how much their personalities clashed. When people lived together there was always friction. Will was the oldest, and Jeff was the youngest. Will was always busy, and Jeff was always bored. Will was always serious, and Jeff was always clowning around. He was always so controll
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Mid Atlantic flight "You got tickets to game six?" Andrew was incredulous. "I'm such an asshole." Will sighed, rubbing his forehead. He looked at Andrew, turning and staring at the concerned eyes, and down at the hand that was gripping his tightly. "It wasn't your fault, you didn't know." "I should have called, its just Maria was having a crisis and..." Andrew realized what he was saying sounded hollow. He felt hollow; he hadn't realized how upset Will would get over it.
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It was Monday morning, and like any other morning of the week Will wanted to shoot himself a dozen times before he brushed his teeth. There was a morning ritual that Will went through each day and it usually started with a bleary-eyed stumble down two flights of stairs to the coffee pot in the vain hope to beat Andrew to it so that he could prepare a real pot. More often than not Andrew was up first, his well-developed habit of being up at the crack of dawn had to come from being raised in the c
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June 8th 2003 Will had to escape; his peace and quiet on a suburban Ottawa Sunday morning had been shattered. Somehow, his responsibility as the best man had meant that his home was now Groom Central. Jeff and Lisa shared a small apartment down in centre town. Lisa had occupied that space with her own preparations, and it had fallen to Will to provide space for Jeff to do his. Will's living room had become a mess of piled magazines as Jeff planned the wedding of his dreams. Ordi
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Will watched the clock. A pastime that was enjoyed by employees the world over. The last half-hour of his day was usually spent like that. He booked his interviews for the next day and wrote up the last of his daily performance reviews. Evaluations were always a lot of paperwork, but Scott demanded everything be in writing. Will was tired; he had rushed about his office juggling his own work as well as the "busy" work that Scott had saddled him with. And as the day drew to a close, he found that
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June 9th 2000 It was utter chaos; within just minutes Will knew what it must have been like to be a part of the Blitzkrieg, to suddenly turn around and find himself a victim of an invasion by a malicious occupying force that was intent on taking over utterly. That was how it felt for Will at that moment. When Jeff had said family, Will had assumed just his parents. Instead he now had brothers, a sister, and a pair of grandparents as well. All stuffed into Brody's small townhouse. There
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Thirty thousand feet above the Atlantic, and Will stared into the cup of coffee, the emotions subsiding from him. That sense of being overwhelmed, forcing him to react rather than act, keeping him off balance was fading as he stared into the small coffee cup labeled with the cheap charter companies logo. Cheap coffee, cheap flight, it was typical of the company he had worked for. Typical of the man he had worked for, the hell he had endured, and for what? He hadn't set out for that, graduat
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Andrew's rolling gait kept pace with his best friend, his hands in his pockets and a long, thoughtful expression drifting across his face. Jared was talking about nothing as usual; sports, cars, girls and Andrew enjoyed the fact that his old friend and teammate could just get lost in a conversation. He grinned as he caught what Jared was hinting at. "I can't afford to buy another mustang right now," He said simply. "What between school and everything else I can't afford to keep a car."
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Will found himself out on the balcony with Rafik and Jeff while Peter and the girls discussed the bridal arrangements. Andrew and Jared had made a run to the beer store which left the three men who remained in an uncomfortable silence as they stared across the road at the retirement home that sat opposite Brody's house. Both Will and Rafik realized what was to come. The age-old ritual that men performed just before one of them got married. It was considered the ultimate sacrifice of a friend, to
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"Don't go!" Andrew repeated slipping his hands into his battered leather jacket and affixing those hurt eyes on Will's face. Will stood stock still, one hand holding onto his tickets, the other his carry on bag. He stood there for an eternity, torn between what he knew was right, and what he felt was very wrong. Andrew's puzzled expression eased slightly seeing the distress Will was in. What ever had driven him to this action... this utterly insane choice, he was suffering for
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Days Earlier: Will was hot. He wasn't hot in the kind of way that made screaming girls beat down his door and faint when he looked at them. No, unfortunately for him he was hot because the air-conditioning in Brody's house had decided that afternoon it would meet oblivion. Typically it would decide that Saturday was the perfect day to commit mechanical suicide, and despite the errant landlord's claims to the contrary, the device refused to be resurrected no matter how many times W
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June 13th Mental illness, anxiety, stress. It causes confident people to crack. The pressure that doesn't stop, building as it does till finally it bursts. Grown men that were reduced to hollow shells of who they once were. A breakdown strikes a person when they are weakest, crushing them mercilessly under the weight of things they fail to explain, of things that tear out a soul. Will Carter was broken. So much for life. Open defiance seemed his only recourse after being ba
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