Gap Year - 66. Chapter 66

March 8, 2004

Escorial

Palo Alto, CA

 

Will

I’d been in a very bad mood on the way here. I was really worried about Travis, really confused about what the fuck Curtis Buck was doing, and really pissed that I had to be here instead of in Malibu with Travis. The limo pulled through the gates and my mood immediately began to improve. I hadn’t been here for what seemed like forever, and I had forgotten how important Escorial and the people who lived here were to me. I was home.

The flight to Palo Alto, along with the time change and the ride home, had made me later than I had planned. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 6:50, just ten minutes before the 7:00 deadline for dinner. The driver thoughtfully dropped me off in front, which was closer to the dining room. “I will make sure your things get put into your room,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said, smiling at him. “I really appreciate it.” I patted him on the back and walked up the solid stone steps toward the front door. I was surprised that it opened before I got there to reveal Grand and Stef waiting for me.

“Welcome home,” Grand said. I hugged him and found I couldn’t let go. I just drew strength from him, but despite the drain on his supply, he never seemed to run out. I finally broke that off and embraced Stef, making sure that I held him just as long so as not to make him jealous.

“It is so good to see you both,” I said with relief.

“Are you alright?” Stef asked.

I shook my head. “No, I’m not. I’ll tell you about it after dinner, alright?”

“That is fine,” Grand said, and led me into the dining room. My first reaction was to feel totally self-conscious because the dress code on Sundays was more formal, and I was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. The warm greeting from everyone put my insecurities about my attire to rest, even as I internally rolled my eyes at how I’d been spending so much time with fashionistas my wardrobe had taken priority in my thoughts. My father hugged me tightly, and since he hit my bruise it kind of hurt, but I pretended like it didn’t. I got an equally warm greeting from Jake.

Jake looked at me after we hugged and his eyes narrowed. I didn’t know if he was concerned about the bruise on my forehead, or if he was reading me well and had figured out how upset I was. “Are you alright?”

“Later,” I said. He nodded, and that was our cue to take our seats. “Darius had to go back to LA,” I informed them. Our staff was so amazing that, as if by magic, his place setting was removed.

“We are certainly glad to have you back,” Grandmama said.

“Thanks,” I said shyly, because she was so classy that when she singled me out, she made me feel like a boorish idiot. Just then Gathan burst into the room, which made me smirk since I’d just been thinking about boorish idiots.

“Good evening,” he said through almost gritted teeth.

“Good evening,” Grand responded coolly, all but demanding that Gathan chill out. Unfortunately for Grand, that wasn’t Gathan’s way.

“Zach’s truck caught on fire and burned up. Plus it destroyed two cars next to it,” he said. He was full of outrage and directed those comments at me. “Evidently someone canceled his insurance and didn’t tell him.”

I looked at him with disdain. “I couldn’t care less.”

“Did you do that?” Frank demanded, glaring at me. He was just as outraged as Gathan because Zach was one of his favorites.

“I just got here from New York with no time to even go to my room and freshen up, and you seem to think it’s alright to come in here and pelt me with questions in the middle of dinner,” I said to Gathan while giving Frank a sideways dirty look. Gathan suddenly seemed to realize that everyone else at the table was unhappy with his actions too.

“It was a simple question,” Frank asked, a lot more calmly now.

I stood up and pulled off my long-sleeved t-shirt, exposing my huge bruise. It didn’t hurt anymore, at least it didn’t unless it got a lot of pressure on it, but it probably looked the worst it would look. It was a huge dark purple blotch that spread from below my ribcage almost to my waist, and wrapped around my torso from the front, around the side, and to the back. Pretty much everyone at the table gasped, and most of them were furious. It was actually reassuring that my father and Jake seemed the most pissed off. “When you call Zach back, ask him how I got these bruises,” I said to both of them.

“Well, I just thought you’d want to know,” Gathan said lamely. “I’ll leave you to your dinner.” He all but ran out of the dining room, while I sat down with my shirt still off.

“I think you have made your point,” Grand said, annoyed that I was sitting at the table, on a Sunday night, shirtless. He probably thought that he’d already shown enough tolerance by putting up with my attire.

“I’m not sure that I have,” I said to him defiantly, then glared at Frank.

“I’m sorry you got hurt,” Frank finally said. I nodded to acknowledge his words, then put my shirt back on. I glanced at John and saw him trying not to laugh his ass off, while Marie was doing the same thing only she was less obvious.

The staff brought out food then left us. Tonight, dinner was ‘family style’, where we passed the food around and loaded what we wanted onto our plates. Conversation was light and pleasant until we’d all managed to serve ourselves, then Grand stood up to speak. “You called this meeting because you discovered that our phones were being tracked,” he said to me.

“That is correct,” I said, mimicking his officious style.

“You requested that we address four things,” Grand said, pulling out a copy of my email. “You asked for an explanation on how the system for our phones works and how our information is captured and stored. You wanted to know which individuals currently have, or have had in the past, access to that information. You requested any originals and copies of printed or electronic logs showing our locations. And finally, you wanted us to develop a system to handle this information in the future.”

“You are correct again,” I said, with an officious but playful tone.

“It is probably wise to assume that is the case,” he said, making all of us chuckle.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds, then my father and Jake got up, grabbed three boxes that were the standard size you’d store papers in, and sat them next to my seat. They must have had a lot of paper in them because the way Dad and Jake were lifting them, they looked heavy. I glanced at Marie and raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I was one of the people who had access to those records. Those are the files I accumulated and there are no copies. There’s a box each for you, Darius, and JJ,” Dad said. “I am really sorry that I spied on you and your brothers like that.”

I smiled, got up, and gave him a big hug. “Thanks.” He and Jake were both shocked by my reaction and were speechless until Jake nudged my father, indicating they should go back to their seats. My father had made a mistake, but he’d done what I wanted. He hadn’t lied, he hadn’t made excuses, he’d admitted what he’d done, said he was sorry, then he’d coughed up the records.

“I won’t track you again,” he said sincerely. That placated me, but then the drama moved over to Marie and John.

“Did you have access to these records?” Marie asked Claire and Jack pointedly.

“We did,” Claire answered a bit nervously.

“Then where are they?” John asked. I almost laughed at how Jack and Claire looked like total shit. My father had realized he was cornered and couldn’t win this battle, so he’d completely surrendered. Jack and Claire seemed more defiant.

“They are at home,” Claire said, as if that were a good answer.

“I think that while we eat this wonderful dinner, you should go get them,” Marie said in her snarkiest way.

“We’ll give them to you when we get home,” Jack answered.

“Just in case they don't, do you have rooms for John and me here?” Marie asked Grand.

“You are always welcome,” he said politely, which was his normal reply to his grandchildren. Everyone else was smart enough by now to not make an issue of that.

“Thanks,” John said pleasantly, then gave his parents a dirty look.

“Did anyone else have access to these records?” I asked.

“I did, but only recently,” Jake said. “I haven’t looked at them.” For me, his word was good enough, and it was pretty cool that everyone else seemed to think so too.

“Can you explain how this system works?” I asked Jake.

“I can,” he said. “Cell phone signals are tracked based on contact with a cell phone tower. Whenever that happens, it generates a record showing the phone at or near that location. If you are traveling, it will generate a rough map of your path, but it isn’t entirely accurate. If you stop somewhere or actually make a call, that gives the phone a firm fix on your location.”

“What happens with the SWAT key?” John asked. Everyone had pretty much adopted my terminology for that. “I mean, how does it fix our location?”

“When that happens, the phone sends out an emergency signal that works to triangulate your exact location,” Jake said.

“Why didn’t we know about this?” Marie demanded. I was kind of surprised that she was more upset about this than I was, but then again, I’d had time to grapple with it, and my father had already atoned for it.

“It was felt that as your parents, it was reasonable that we knew where you were,” Claire said.

“You felt that?” Marie asked with a sneer. “You felt that.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you were doing this?” John demanded. No one answered that, which finally pissed me off.

“Here’s the deal,” I said as a preamble. “Tracking us after you tell us is annoying, and at least as far as I’m concerned, would have been a huge issue.” Grandmama had to suppress her giggle, probably at the thought of how I would have reacted to that. “Tracking us without telling us is spying. That is offensive on so many levels.”

“That was in the past,” Jack said, as if that would sweep all this under the rug.

“So what happens in the future?” I asked.

“We’re working to put together a system that is acceptable for everyone,” Jack said. He was annoyed with me, but that wasn’t unusual when we discussed topics like this. I personally thought that was because, in his mind, I should be a lot more respectful and willingly follow his plans without challenging them. It was probably a good thing he wasn’t my father.

“We?” I asked.

“After you called this meeting, we began to develop a system to decide if and when this tracking data could be used,” Claire said, gesturing at Jack, my father, Jake, Stef, and Grand.

“And what have you come up with?” Marie asked.

“Jake will be in charge of the system. We have decided that if there is an issue, your mother and I, along with Brad and Jake, will make a call on whether to look at the records,” Jack said. I glanced at my cousins, and decided I’d have to take the lead on this.

“That is totally unacceptable to me,” I said firmly. “I would like to add that I speak not only for myself, but for my brothers as well.”

“No way that’s happening,” John agreed.

“I’m not agreeing to that,” Marie chimed in. Grand, Stef, and Grandmama seemed mildly amused at seeing the younger generation completely rebel at this proposal.

“That is what we decided,” Jack said, glaring at all of us, but mostly at me.

“You have no leverage here,” I told him calmly. “You can decide all you want, but it’s irrelevant.”

“How is that irrelevant?” Grandmaman asked me nicely, more to calm Jack down than anything.

“Because if those are the rules, Darius, JJ, and I, along with Marie and John if they want to, will simply set up our own system that none of you will have access to,” I said. “I’ve already started looking into it.”

“How long until you get that set up?” Marie asked.

“Can we transfer our existing number?” John queried.

“Don’t know yet,” I said. “I’ll work on it tomorrow and let you know.” I glanced at my father to see him fighting hard not to laugh. He’d put up with me in this mode for years, and it was probably hilarious for him to see Jack and Claire deal with it both from me and from John and Marie.

“One moment,” Grand said, intervening in his calm yet powerful way. “I am curious as to what would be acceptable to the five of you. Would there be a review group? What would this review group do, and who would constitute it?” I loved that he referenced the five of us, emphasizing that my brothers had chimed in on our side with their proxies, more or less.

“You had also expressed concerns about Jake’s role in running it,” Stef said. I glared at him, so pissed off that he’d toss a wedge between me and Jake.

“You don’t trust me?” Jake asked me. It was obvious how hurt and offended he was.

“I have complete trust in you,” I said. “You would never reveal something you weren’t supposed to. That’s where your crazy sense of honor comes in handy.” I said that last sentence lightly, but it didn’t really help that much.

“Then why didn’t you want me to be involved,” Jake asked me.

“Because I was worried that if my father wanted information, then he’d bug the shit out of you to get it, and you’d basically tell him to fuck off,” I said. “I was worried it would cause you problems in your relationship.”

“I think you should let us be the judge of how things will impact our relationship,” Jake said all self-righteously.

“Well right now, I’m remembering a few weeks back when we found the two of you so fucked up you were both pulling trains and Dad was tweaked out on meth,” I said to him a bit rudely. Pretty much everyone had to work hard to hide their expressions and not laugh at that.

“We’re working on things and making great progress,” Jake said, and gave my father a loving look. “It won’t interfere with my handling of the phone system. I made a commitment to maintain confidentiality and I will. And he knows me well enough that if he tried to make me reveal confidential information, it would be a very painful request.” That actually made me laugh, and prompted some chuckles from the others.

“I’m glad you’re making progress,” I said. “I just didn’t want this phone deal to cause you problems. Now that you’ve explained things, I’m good with you being in charge of it, provided everyone else here is.”

“As that was our idea anyway, you won’t find any objections from the rest of us,” Jack said in a snarky way.

“What about you two?” I asked Marie and John. All three of us were annoyed that no one had bothered to ask for their input.

“I think Jake will do great,” Marie said.

“Me too,” John said, then looked at Jake. “Dude, I totally trust you with all this stuff.”

“Thanks,” Jake said, and seemed touched by their sincerity.

“The thought was that if there were a crisis and we needed to access those records for someone’s safety, there would need to be a group of people who could decide to do that,” Grand said. “The team Jack suggested was not acceptable for all of you?”

“It is not,” Marie said firmly. “If that’s the way things are, I’m off the system.”

“Me too,” John said defiantly.

“What alternative group would you find acceptable?” Grand asked us.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said to John and Marie.

“Go on,” Marie said cautiously.

“I think that there should be two members of the older generation in this group. It could be Grand, Grandmama, or Stef,” I said. Stef was infuriated at being lumped into the older generation, but that was payback for him fucking with my relationship with Jake.

“Who else?” Claire asked me politely but skeptically.

“Two members of the younger generation,” I said.

“I suppose you’ll be one of them?” Frank asked a bit rudely, probably because he was pissed about Zach’s car fire and he thought I did it.

“No, I won’t,” I said.

“Then who will?” John asked.

“Marie and Darius,” I said.

“Me?” Marie asked, surprised.

“You,” I responded firmly.

“I do not understand why Brad, Jack, and I have been explicitly excluded from this group,” Claire said. She was so angry that her irritation was seeping through her stoic shields.

“Because you, Daddy, and Brad were the ones who set up this system where only you could look at things, and you could track us behind our backs. You were busted as spies, and now no one trusts you,” Marie said succinctly.

“I think that is an unfair characterization,” Jack argued back.

“Are you okay with that?” I asked Grand, Stef, and Grandmama.

“I can see that as a workable solution,” Grand said, speaking for them.

“And are you two okay with that?” I asked John and Marie.

“Totally,” John said.

“Then that is the way things are,” I said, staring straight at my uncle as I did.

“Don’t dictate to me,” Jack said loudly, breaking the volume rules at Escorial. Grand cleared his throat to remind him of that, and Jack immediately looked guilty.

“Funny how you think it’s okay to do that to us, yet you don’t like it when the shoe is on the other foot,” Marie said to him.

“Jake, can you make sure that the system is set up as we discussed and that no one can circumvent it?” Grand asked

“I can,” Jake said.

“Then I think things are settled,” Grand said.

“You know, I watched you rake your father and Robbie over the coals and treat them like shit,” Jack said, zeroing in on me. “You come up here and twist things around and everyone backs you up, even though they know better. Well you can do that to them, because they’re stupid enough to put up with it, but I’m not going to let you do that to me and my family.” I was actually a bit worried about him, because this was totally out of character for him, but that was drowned by my anger at his comments about me and everyone else at the table.

Despite that, I managed to not scream back at him. I looked at him calmly, with total disdain, and said two words: “Bite me.” He was halfway out of his chair, ready to lunge at me, when John stood up.

“Sit down,” John said to Jack, then focused on his mother. “If I acted like this at a dinner, I’d be grounded until I was Stef’s age. Are you just going to sit there and say nothing?”

“Being grounded until you are 29 is quite a penalty,” Stef said, trying to lighten the mood.

“I am unhappy with this entire conversation,” Claire said, and scowled at Jack. “Including your actions.”

“You’re judging me now?” Jack demanded of Claire, completely outraged. And with that, I felt all of my internal controls snapping, freeing my anger.

I stood up and leaned over the table, getting in Jack’s face, violating all the rules of decorum here at Escorial. “So today, I almost lost my brother and a guy I’m falling in love with. They were a few minutes away from being incinerated in a plane. I’ve got enough to deal with without putting up with your bullshit. You get busted, you don’t say you’re sorry, and you don’t pull up the records and hand them to Marie and John. You have been a total and complete asshole about this, and you sit there like you should be treated with respect. I don’t know why you think I’m supposed to be your whipping boy, but that’s not happening. I am out of here,” I said, and made to leave the room.

“Which brother?” Marie asked me, horrified.

“The one I like,” I said, but as soon as the words were out of my mouth, my mind began whirling. I’d been so focused on Travis and his issues, I hadn’t digested that Darius was supposed to be on that plane tonight. A montage of visions of Darius flashed through mind. I saw him running down the stairs with me when we were trying to get out of the towers on 9-11; I saw him so strong and together at the condo after that. I saw him through multiple parts of my life, and then I saw him walking over to Curtis Buck’s plane today. If he had gotten on that plane, he would be dead now. I could handle a lot of stress and a lot of trauma, but losing Darius would be worse than anything I’d dealt with up to now, and it had almost happened.

“Will,” I heard my father say in a supportive way, because I was standing there in a trance. I turned to respond to him when I felt myself falling, banging into the table and landing on the ground, and then everything went black.

March 8, 2004

Stanford University Hospital

Palo Alto, CA

 

I heard beeping noises, and that told me I was probably in a hospital. I could have opened my eyes, but I wanted to give myself some time to acclimate to what was going on around me. I moved slightly and felt something against my arm, and decided it must be an IV line. I opened my eyes ever so slightly to see if I could figure it out when I heard a familiar voice. “Will?” it asked.

I sighed to myself since I was busted, then I opened my eyes and found myself looking at Casey Bridgeport. Damn, he was one handsome man. “I think I need mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,” I said, flirting with him.

“I can send for the person who does that,” he said, then leaned in to whisper in my ear. “He’s only slightly more handsome than Godzilla.”

“I’ll pass,” I said, acting disappointed.

“Why are you here? What happened to me?” I asked him, completely confused about all of this.

“What were you thinking right before you lost consciousness?” he asked. I narrowed my eyes at him, because I didn’t understand why these psychologist types thought it was acceptable to answer a question with a question. “If you don’t want to work with me, I can get someone else,” he said, then I realized I had hurt his feelings.

“No,” I said firmly. “I need you to be here.” I liked Casey, and I did not want to deal with some shrink I didn’t know. Hell, I didn’t even know why I was talking to this one.

“Then answer my question,” he said, being a little bitch.

“I had a really traumatic experience in New York,” I began, then laid out the whole scene at Curtis Buck’s plane, and how we had seen it burn up as we were taking off.

“I can see why that would have bothered you,” he said supportively.

“I was so focused on Travis because he was totally fucked up, that I hadn’t really processed that Darius was supposed to get on that plane with him. I suddenly had these visions of Darius, and it just freaked me out. He is one of the most important people in my life, one of my rocks, my foundation stones. It suddenly worked through my brain that he’d been so close to getting on that plane, and if he had gone with Travis I would have lost him forever.” There were tears flowing out of my eyes, and Casey leaned in and gave me a nice hug, one that I held for a while as I pulled myself together.

“I think I know what happened to you,” he said, and that certainly got my attention. “I think you had a psychogenic blackout.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It can happen to people who are overwhelmed with stress,” he said. “In essence, you are so overwhelmed you just shut down. It can happen to anyone, but it usually affects young adult men.”

I thought about that. “Does that mean I’m alright?”

“You need to work through these issues and sort them out, then I think you’ll be fine,” he said.

“Will you help me do that?” I asked. Somehow, working with him seemed better than working with my psychologist in Malibu.

“I will,” he said, smiling at me.

“Can I go home?” I asked. I figured there was no way that would happen, but it was worth a try.

“That’s a problem, especially because of your bruises,” he said. “They’re worried you’ve been in an abusive situation.”

“They?” I asked acidly.

“The hospital,” he answered. “Before you go trying to argue with them, consider that they’ve already been dealing with your father for the past couple of hours.

I smiled, then laughed at that. He would be relentless. “I got my bruises when a guy I’d been in a relationship with tossed me across a room.”

“Are you still in a relationship?” he asked.

“We are most definitely not,” I said. “I got home and got a ration of crap from some of my family members because his truck caught on fire and was totaled.”

“They think you did it?” he asked.

“That was what they were implying,” I said.

“Did you?” he asked.

“So how are you going to spring me from this place?” I asked, avoiding the question.

Now it was his turn to really laugh. “I’ve had some pretty nasty breakups in my life. I never got to torch a vehicle, so if you did it, kudos to you.” We chuckled about that for a bit.

“This is really important,” I said to him. “I left a lot of my family members on edge, and with a potential murder of my brother, no one is going to be happy until I can at least talk to them.”

“A murder?” he asked.

“Well if the plane suddenly bursts into flames, that’s a bit surprising,” I said. “Don’t you think that’s suspicious?”

“Let me go see what I can do.”

“Can I see anyone?” I asked.

“Let me work on this first,” he said. It took him a while but I didn’t know exactly how long since I didn’t have my phone or my watch with me. He finally reappeared looking a little frazzled but with a smile on his face. Behind him was a guy pushing a wheelchair.

“You sprung me?” I asked.

“I did,” he responded. “The downside is that I have to keep you under personal observation, which means I’ll need to make sure you’re alright this evening.”

“That’s great news,” I said, and I genuinely meant it.