Being Different

It Takes One to Know One

A/N: And here's the continuation to that chapter...which is told from Marina's POV...

And oh, what a tangled web of secrets, and lies, and half-truths and...

Well, well, well...As they say boys will be boys! Imagine my surprise, running into my two favorite men at the compound, and better yet, finally getting to meet his well-kept secret in the guise of a seventeen-year-old named Damien. How delightful!

It may have been a long time, but Darius is still as delectable as he was all those years ago, but now he had turned into one very smoldering, sexy silver fox. Bryant, just as gorgeous as ever, hiding behind those baby blues of his, is always ever watchful, ever faithful to his best bud.

But then again, Darius always had a penchant for blonds, be they male or female! It did not take me long to fall for his suave, over-powering, raw, sexual maleness that he exuded with ease.

After his return from Russia, however, he had not lost some of the charm, but there was more of an edge to it, like he had been harboring some deep-seated fear of something that I could not put my finger on. There was also a lingering sadness. I suspected that it was the failed mission and his incarceration that made him bitter and that it had made him look weak amongst his peers.

But he was thought of as a hero, a survivor and everyone wanted to be close to him. He was the daring young hero of the espionage world; the savior; the giver; the redeemer. He could do no wrong. Of course, I was young, naïve and quite taken by this handsome devil of a man. Oh yes, we did the casual flirting on and off, until that one time, in a hotel room at The Marriott in Singapore.

Both assigned on a case that seemed to be going nowhere, we had decided to drown our sorrows in a few martinis, two bottles of champagne and a couple of shots of bourbon to ease the pain.

Somehow, the department had screwed up and gotten us only one hotel room, so we definitely made the most it! Did I have any regrets you might ask? No, I had none, and neither did he! But out of all that, I had been granted my wish – to have an exact replica of the man whom I had secretly loved and admired from afar, in the form of my one and only son, Bron...

This was the perfect time to corner the man and make him confess to the boy as to who he really was. Rhet was never my type, but I had to find someone, somehow. In those days, it was not easy raising a kid on your own, not with special duties that made you travel everywhere all over the world.

I needed security and I needed it fast, and Rhet provided the perfect answer. He had no idea that Bron was Darius' boy. I made sure of that. The only one I felt good about confiding in was Bry. Of course, best buds always stick together and when the time was right, Bry had arranged a meeting between the two of us to hash things out.

Good old reliable Bry knew how to smooth things over between us. But I never wanted anything from Darius. He had already given me my gift, and that was good enough. But I could never forgive Rhet for screwing me over for some young whore in Texas, whom he had kept on the side while I was away on missions.

The only good thing that came out of that was, he loved Bron like his own and gave him the best education he could give as a father would, and for that, I was grateful. It became more evident when I started taking my work too seriously.

I began to bring home the hate, the anger, all the frustration that came with the job, and drowned in it with a couple of bottles of beer. Then the beer came along with some shots of whiskey, tequila, maybe vodka or bourbon...any hard liquor I could get my hands on. I would come home, slobber kisses all over my boy and pass out drunk on the sofa.

Rhet had threatened to leave me. I thought that he was joking when one day, I came home from a trip and he was gone, taking Bron with him. It was my worst nightmare when I did not know where the hell they had gone. At least, he had the decency to call me to reassure me that Bron was safe.

It was then and there that I had decided to clean up my act and get my life back together again. I had re-scheduled all my out-of-town trips just so that I could be with my son, sober this time. I had been granted visitation rights once the county was certain that I was in a clean state of health and I planned to make each visit worth his while.

It paid off but then Rhet had gone away on a few missions of his own, and that was when everything went to hell and I had found out that he was blackmailing Bry over an incident that happened while they were in Russia eons ago.

I was furious! I could not stand being in the same house with that man after what he had done. But now I was a lot stronger than I had ever been, and I finally got the nerve to file for a divorce and win custody of my own son back.

It had been a messy affair, but I was glad that it was over. But then work had gotten in the way again, and Rhet had come back into my life once more, claiming that he had found God and was atoning for his sins.

I believed him and for a while, life went back to normal of sorts. I was still living away from the man but he really loved Bron, or so I thought, and promised to keep on giving me alimony, just so that he could be close to him and make sure he was okay.

I was quite shocked when Rhet had informed me of his decision to leave St. Xavier and take Bron out of there and place him in another school which turned out to be one of ours. But then, I knew what Bron had been going through, no thanks to his schoolmates and I was glad that he had finally had the guts to leave.

But that deceitful son-of-a-bitch could not wait to leave St. Xavier for one reason only...to torment Bry again. I wondered what had gotten into the man to be so hateful to Bry, who had done nothing wrong.

I was relieved to know that Darius had dealt with Rhet properly and tactfully. I knew that I had to thank the man in person for saving a dear friend. Thanks to some very good friends in the Oval office, I took a short leave to join the delegation en route to the brand-new headquarters of The Organization and here I was, caught in the middle of some hostile situation which I did not bank on being in the middle of.

But thanks to both Darius' and Bry's quick thinking, no one was injured except for the two of them. They had sacrificed themselves just to make sure that we remained unharmed. What a nightmare! As if I had not enough of them, the leader was a woman I had known as Egon von Crum's recent lover.

Then I find out that Randy was Egon's full-blooded son, who seemed to resent his father for everything the man stood for. Bry had briefly explained the circumstances of which I had gotten the gist of while I was in my office back in Washington. I had also learned about both Ekaterina's and Hawkes' deaths.

I finally managed to get the two men out of earshot and into one of the small offices one level below to have a long chat over all these issues and more. Once I was certain that no one could hear us behind closed doors, I immediately initiated the conversation.

"Well, are you going to tell him, or shall I? Don't give me that look, D... We both know you can't keep it from him forever..." I had finally cornered him.

"She's got a point, D. She's his mom, and you're...well...you're the boy's dad. I have a feeling that Damien will be okay with all this..." Bry shrugged his shoulders.

"Whose side are you on, Bry? Besides, this is not the time nor the place to do it. I'd rather wait until we're back at the compound safely. Alma's got dinner waiting for all of us and I'd like to get cleaned up after that ordeal!" Darius remarked, scornfully.

We agreed to do it after dinner, when the boys had gotten freshened up and had food in their bellies as well.

"How do you think Bron will react, Marina? He might hate you for keeping this from him for so long. Are you ready for whatever comes?" Darius threw a look of concern at me.

"I'll just have to take it all in, D. You know very well that I want nothing from you, right?" I asked, just to make sure that we were clear on it.

"Loud and clear, Madame Senator..." He teased as he opened the door quietly, and we all stepped out just in time. The boys had come back to get us...

A/N: And what would you all think happens next? 

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