Without A Trace

Chapter Ten Reunited

Chapter 10   Reunited
 
 
Viggo let out a deep frustrated breath and looked down at his watch.  He cursed quietly at the lack of light, then raised his arm towards the car window and tipped his wrist sideways until one of the nearby pier lights caught the watch face and made things legible.
 
9:20 p.m.  He sighed again and ran his hand over his face in aggravation.  This waiting was murder.  He had just dropped the satchel of money off, fifteen minutes ago, under the far end of the Wellington pier behind some boulders where he’d found a sealed envelope waiting for him tacked at sight height to one of the pier’s support beams.  The note was from Orli’s kidnappers. It had instructions for him to wait a half hour before going to a specific phone booth up the beach to get the directions to where Orlando would be dropped off.  He really had to resist rushing headlong over there because in big bold letters at the bottom of the note the kidnapper wrote that his accomplice would be watching him closely to ensure he’d follow their instructions.  Any deviation from the plan, and the kidnapper promised that Viggo’s lover would not be dropped off alive.
 
The Dane reached up and took the envelope off the dash and fingered the note out so he could read it again.  He studied it closely for any clues that might even remotely suggest where Orlando could be.  Nothing.  He let out another deep breath and shook his head.  These bastards knew what they were doing. The note wasn’t even hand written or typed.  They’d used the old fashioned way to make the message. A variety of individual letters, taken from magazines no doubt, were intricately pasted onto the paper to form the words needed to state their instructions. It exasperated him immensely.  He had every intention of going to the police once he had Orlando safely in his arms, and a hand written note could have possibly given the police some indication as to who these sick fucks were. But these bastards had taken every precaution to guarantee that Viggo had nothing to go by.  This disturbed him because if they went to this much trouble to leave no clues, that meant that the kidnappers didn’t trust Orlando to keep his word even though he would have probably assured them that he wouldn’t go to the police.  If that were the case, what exactly had these kidnappers done to Orli in order to convince him to keep his mouth shut?
 
The American actor refolded the note and placed it back into it’s envelope and set it on the seat beside him.  He checked his watch again. 9:24. He cursed again.  He felt so helpless right now. The waiting!  Frustrated and feeling helpless once again, he grasped the steering wheel in his fists and wrung it hard enough to feel the vinyl burn against the palms of both his hands.  He then leaned forward and squinted through the windshield out into the dark.  Sean, Elijah, and Pete were out there, somewhere, in their own vehicle, keeping well out of sight.  Were they just as frazzled as he was? He wondered.
 
 
****
 
 
Elijah fidgeted in the front passenger seat again, let a deep breath out between pursed lips, shifted, and dug his pack of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket. Never in his life had time crept as agonizingly slow as it was right now.  It was making him nervous.
 
Sean watched skeptically as the young American fished a cigarette out of the pack and placed it between his lips. “Elijah, don’t you think the four you’ve had already in the last twenty minutes were enough?”
 
“This waiting is hell.” Elijah reasoned as he lit the cigarette with his lighter and took a deep breath inhaling the smoke. “Why the hell is Viggo still parked over there by the pier?” He nodded in the direction towards said pier where the three of them could clearly see Viggo’s car sitting. Their own car was well hidden from prying eyes but they had a perfect vantage point to watch everything going on around them.
 
“Probably instructions the kidnappers left him.” Sean guessed.
 
Pete scooted forward on the back seat and leaned over the front between both actors. He rested his arms on the back of the front seat. “We could ring him on his cell.” He suggested. “Find out what the hold up is.”
 
“Yeah, maybe the bastards changed their minds about letting Orlando go.” Elijah remarked negatively. 
 
Sean gave the young actor a stern look then pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket and flipping it open, keyed in his friend’s cell number and put the mobile to his ear.  It rang for a long time at the other end before Viggo’s strained, anxious, and somewhat frustrated voice spoke. “Yeah?”
 
“What’s the hold up Viggo?” Sean inquired.
A long dejected sigh could clearly be heard and then Viggo explained. “There was a note waiting for me at the drop off point warning me that I was being watched and that I was to wait here for the next half hour before going further down the beach to a telephone booth to pick up the directions I’ll need to have in order to find Orlando.”
 
“Do you want us to come with you down there?” Sean offered.  If there were very specific orders left for his friend, then that more than likely suggested that Viggo was being watched by one of the kidnappers to ensure the Dane was following the note right to the mark. He wasn’t about to risk getting into the bad graces of the abductors by going against their orders, but felt he should ask anyway, even if he knew what Viggo’s answer would probably be. In the meantime, he was getting just as nervous as the passengers waiting with him.
 
“I think by the time I leave for the phone booth the bastards will already be back here gathering their money. I don’t think it would hurt to come with me but to play it safe stay back here. Maybe you’ll see them when they come for the money. Once I get the directions to where Orli’s being dropped off, I’ll come back here and we’ll all go out to look for him.” Viggo recommended.
 
“Has he seen anything?” Pete asked Sean. “Anybody?”
 
Sean relayed the question to Viggo, and the American answered in the negative.
 
“Okay, Viggo. We’ll wait until you get back.” Sean told him. “Be careful. We don’t know what these sick fucks are capable of doing.”
 
“I’ll be careful. Thanks.” Viggo concluded and the call was ended.
 
Sean shut his cell off and tossed it to the seat between himself and the young man next to him. He turned slightly in the driver’s seat and spoke to Pete and Elijah. “He’s got to wait until 9:30 before he can go down to one of the beach front phone booths to get the directions the kidnappers are leaving there for him. Apparently, that note will give him the directions to where they dropped Orlando off. He’ll come back here after he’s been to the phone booth.” He sighed. “He’s also hoping that by us staying back we’ll see the kidnappers when they come to gather the money.”
 
“Let’s just hope that when we do find Orlando, he’ll be unharmed.” Pete expressed his concern. “These men are obviously insane.”
 
Sean ran a hand through his hair and sighed in exasperation. “I know they are.  I don’t know how we, or Viggo for that matter, will handle it if these guys don’t keep their word.”
 
“If they hurt him in any way or worse, I will do what ever it takes to personally hunt them down. I will find them, and I will make them pay.” Pete promised in an even cold tone. “They will wish they were dead if I get my hands on them. I’ll make them suffer to no end, believe me.”
 
“You’ll have to get in line.” Elijah muttered as he took another draw on his cigarette.
 
A red light in the corner of his eye caught Sean’s attention. He turned and looked out the windshield just in time to see Viggo’s car backing out of it’s parking space. “We’ve been worried about Orlando’s state of mind once we get him back and rightly so. But what’s it doing to that man?” he stated bitterly and indicated Viggo’s car with a nod of his head. “He’s not going to come out of this unscathed. He’s barely glued together as it is. I pray we get Orlando back alive for all our sakes, but if we don’t Viggo’s going to really need us.”
 
Pete and Elijah both looked at Sean speechless.  The British actor had a valid point and both men had thought about the possibilities, as much as they regretted having to think of such unpleasantries, but they had not really considered in depth, just how much of a toll it would take on Viggo.  It would outright destroy the older man. It was slowly sucking the life out of him now.
 
“We’ll get Orli back. Alive.” Elijah tried to assure himself as well as the director and actor sitting with him.  He hesitated and took a long deep draw on his cigarette. “We have to.”
 
 
****
 
 
Viggo swung his car into a parking stall as close to the appointed telephone booth as he could get.  As it was, he had to park at least halfway across the lot from it. With shaking hands he threw the car into park and scrambled out of the driver’s seat as quickly as he could.  Anxiety, apprehension, and fear were causing him to sweat profusely and he couldn’t seem to stop shaking. Without stopping to close the car door, he jogged quickly over to the lighted phone booth and stopped cold. His eyes studied the booth desperately. He couldn’t see anything remotely resembling an envelope.  His heart beat so furiously that it pounded in his ears and he was light headed from the building tension. He stepped right up to the booth and peered at the inside walls of the box.  Nothing on either side, top, or bottom. Had the kidnappers deceived him?  With an anguished cry he ran his trembling hands along the outside of the booth and when he came up empty, he dropped down onto his knees, and ignoring the sudden pain of the impact of blacktop bruising his kneecaps, studied the underside of the booth.  His heart skipped a beat and he held his breath. There, taped inconspicuously to the bottom edge of the phone booth, was an envelope. With tears of relief misting his eyes he reached under and tore the paper off.  He tried to tell himself to calm down as he shakily clawed the envelope open and fumbled out the note. He unfolded it and his brows furrowed in dismay. He scrambled to his feet and leaned into the phone booth cabin tipping the note towards the light so he could see it.  It was a very crudely drawn map. He glanced about himself, suddenly feeling very vulnerable that the kidnappers might still be watching him, turned and headed back to the car at a dead run.
 
Once back in the safety of his car with the doors locked, Viggo studied the crude map again.  All he could interpret was that the location his lover was being dropped off at was somewhere south east outside of Wellington. Pete was from New Zealand, maybe he could figure this out. Viggo refolded the map and slid it back into the envelope. He set it beside him on the seat, threw the car into reverse and pressed his foot to the gas pedal as he turned the steering wheel.  The car lunged backwards with engine laboring and swung in an arc until it was facing the direction he had come.  Viggo then put it into drive and gunned it.  The tires squealed spewing small rocks and debris then they caught the pavement and the car sprang forward. Viggo sped off back to where Sean, Pete, and Elijah were waiting for him.
 
 
________________________________________________________________________
 
 
Orlando came to, and the smell of grass and moist earth flooded his nostrils.  With great effort he cracked his eyes open and found tall grass blocking his view.  It took awhile for his drug addled mind to register that he lying on the ground outside somewhere and that it was night. Obviously the kidnappers had dropped him out in the country and left him to be found. His head pounded relentlessly and it felt as though his brain was going to leak out his ears at any given moment.  His eyes hurt, even to move them, and he felt terribly nauseated.  He tried to shift and his stomach threatened to empty on him. With said movement he also discovered that he was tied.  Hog tied to be more precise. His hands were forced painfully behind his back and his legs were bent back at the knees and secured to his bound wrists.  His mouth was taped shut as well. But much to his relief, they had redressed him in his own clothes before bringing him here, wherever here was. He heard a rustle in the grass and instantly bristled with terror.  He started to hyperventilate and looked about nervously, fearing that his kidnappers had changed their minds after all and were coming back to gather him up.  He struggled in desperation against his bindings, twisting his hands against the rope until he could feel the warm stickiness of blood trickling down into the palms of his hands. With a whimper of dismay he tried to rub his face against the ground in a futile attempt to dislodge the tape from his mouth. All he succeeded in doing was filling his nose with dirt.
 
Finally, when Orlando curbed his anxiety a bit, he discovered the rustling in the grass turned out to be just the wind blowing it gently to and fro in lazy waves. The wind, not his kidnappers coming back for him, he realized, and breathed in relief, relaxed slightly, but kept twisting against the ropes in hopes of loosening them. Suddenly, another thought flashed through his mind and he ceased his struggles. What if his kidnappers had dropped him off in some remote location and left him to die?  Maybe they had never intended to give Viggo directions to where they were leaving him. Or maybe they had given his lover directions to a completely different location, sending the man on a wild goose chase. He tried to banish that thought but couldn’t. He drew in a shuddered breath and squeezed his eyes shut against the sting of tears.  He relaxed his body in defeat, rested his head against the damp earth, and let his sorrow take him.  His muffled sobs were easily drowned out by the loud chirping of crickets and the rustle of the grass as it was caressed by the gentle night breeze.
 
 
________________________________________________________________________
 
 
When Viggo arrived back from the phone booth to meet with the others they regretfully informed him they’d seen nothing that would even remotely suggest the kidnappers had visited the pier. The Older American then quickly went over the map with Pete and they all started out shortly there after.
 
Viggo now drove carefully down the grid road and, leaving Wellington behind, headed in a southerly direction . Pete rode with Viggo to help guide his leading actor through the countryside because the American wasn’t unfamiliar with the area. Sean was following in his car, behind Viggo, with Elijah riding with him. 
 
Viggo glanced in his rear view mirror at the vehicle trailing behind him.  Pete sat in silence studying the obviously distressed driver.  Viggo drove without saying a word, his eyes never deviating from the road in front of him, other than to glance occasionally in the rear view mirror to see that Sean was still there. Pete knew the Dane was lost in thought, his lips were pulled firmly into a thin line as he appeared to be concentrating on where he was going, but the director wasn’t fooled. Viggo’s thoughts were only for Orlando and getting him back safely. 
 
Pete let his eyes drift down to Viggo’s hands and noticed how they grasped the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles were white. This was not good. Not for Viggo and definitely not for Orlando. If they got Orlando back alive, the kid was going to need all the stable support and understanding he could get, but Viggo’s support would be the most detrimental in the young Brit’s recovery. And for that reason alone Viggo had better hold it together.
 
Finally Pete couldn’t take it anymore and spoke with encouragement. “Try not to worry Viggo. We’re going to get him back now. Not much longer.”
 
The handsome American glanced at Pete momentarily, then turned his gaze back to the road. “You say where we’re going is an abandoned farm yard?”
 
“Yes.” Pete started to explain relenting to Viggo’s disregard of the subject. There’d be a time and place to have a heart to heart with his main actor but obviously that wasn’t right now….he’d hold off for the time being. “It’s been abandoned for years and there really is no road to access it any more. Everything is over grown with underbrush and bushes. The yard itself is completely enclosed with trees. If people aren’t really looking for it, they’ll drive right by without a glance.”
 
“How do you know where it is?” Viggo inquired.
 
Pete smiled even though Viggo wasn’t looking at him. “I used to make home movies there with my friends when I was a kid.  It’s a great spot to film if you’re looking for a forest scene.”
 
“Real memorable, I bet.” Viggo replied bitterly. “I know I won’t be forgetting it any time soon.”
 
Pete sighed and looked out the side window. Now or never, he thought. “Try not to worry Viggo, you need to be strong for Orlando. He’s going to need you very much.”
 
Viggo let out a deep sigh and wrung his hands against the steering wheel nervously. “What if he’s hurt?” He couldn’t bring himself to say dead. Hell, he could hardly even think it.  He honestly didn’t know how much he was going to be able to handle without loosing it completely.  He didn’t know what he expected to find once they got to where they were going. He looked to Pete his steel blue-grey eyes filled with sorrow, apprehension, and deep seated fear.
 
Pete returned the look sternly. “Then we’ll take him to the hospital. They’ve let him go. There’s nothing more they can do to him.  It’s what you do for him now that’s going to make the difference.You’ll need to be strong, understanding and very, very patient with him.” He turned and looked out the windshield and his eyes widened with excitement as he started to recognize the area. “We’re almost there. Slow down. It’s the next right. We’ll have to really watch once we turn the corner because there’s a deep ditch we have to go through to get to the road we need to take, there’s not much of a road to go by once we start out on it. It’ll be hard to see in the dark.”
 
Viggo slowly eased off on the gas and glanced in his rearview mirror to find Sean following his lead.
 
Pete pointed to a barely noticeable narrow dirt road just up ahead on their right. “Take that road there.”
 
Viggo applied the brakes and turned on his signal as he drew close to the obscured road.  He slowed the car down even more when he found the grid dipped severely to the right as he made to follow the turn on the grid. Right at the bend of the road, Viggo almost stopped completely and studied the access road that Pete had told him to take.  He would have to drive through the deep ditch to gain access to the little road for it stopped abruptly just before the ditch, opposite to the grid that they were currently on.  It looked as though high water levels had washed out the approach that was meant to access the main grid long ago and no one had bothered to reconstruct it because it wasn’t in use any more. He sighed as he steered the car toward the steep ditch and carefully navigated it down into the hollow as he headed straight for the narrow dirt road.
 
Once at the bottom, Viggo gave the car some more gas and drove more rapidly up the other side and onto the obscured dirt road.  At first the road wasn’t that bad but the further they drove the more overgrown with brush and tall grass it became. Trees closed in on both sides of the path, he was now calling it, and they continued to thicken the further they went until eventually they were completely closed in by trees. Nothing could be seen on either side of the road.  He glanced in the rearview mirror and was grateful to see that Sean was still behind him although he’d fallen back slightly.
 
For the first time in awhile Pete spoke. “We should be getting close now.  There’s a collapsed barbed wire fence somewhere near here. It used to be the entrance to the farm yard I guess. We’ll have to watch for it because it’s too dark to see the buildings that are still on the property.”
 
Viggo naviagated the dirt path slowly. It was getting harder to see anything and he switched the head lights on to high beam but it didn’t help much.  What he could make out in the limit of the lights was how rutted and rough the road was, where he could still see the surface of it anyway.  Rocks and fallen tree branches were littering the path and the Dane found himself having to drive around things more frequently to avoid the threat of damaging the undercarriage of the car and that was slowing them down more than he cared to be.  Tall grass brushed loudly underneath the car the further they went and soon neither Pete nor Viggo could see any sign of a road at all. 
 
“There’s the fence!” Pete blurted out pointing to Viggo’s left. “Go through there. That’s the yard. Once we go through we should see some buildings.”
 
Pete was right. Once Viggo turned through the fence, in the pitch dark he could barely make out a few collapsed building just ahead of them.  Thick trees and tall grass made it hard to see anything else and Viggo’s heart sank. How was he supposed to find his angel in this very large grassy yard?
 
“Better stop here.” Pete warned breaking the handsome Dane from his thoughts. “I haven’t been here for a few years. I have no idea what could possibly be hidden in the grass.”
 
Viggo stopped the car, put it into park and killed the engine. “Let’s get out and start looking.”
 
Sean pulled his car right up next to Viggo’s and shut his car off as well.  Both of them left the headlights on to help light up the yard and aid in the search for Orlando.
 
Viggo got out of his car, followed by Pete, and walked to the trunk and opened it.  He leaned in and dug around pushing his tool kit and sword, that he used for the role of Aragorn, out of the way and finally came up with two high powered flash lights.  He handed one to Pete and slammed the trunk lid closed. “I think we should split into pairs and start out towards the edge of the tree line and work our way to the center of the yard.” He suggested to his friends as Sean and Elijah joined them at the back of the car. “We’ll find him quicker that way.”  He held out one of the flashlights to Sean.
 
Sean studied Viggo closely. Although the older American sounded calm, his face was drawn, pale and haggard from days of endless sleeplessness and stress. He accepted the flashlight offered to him and quickly started to study what he could see of the large yard in the dark. “This yard is huge.” He remarked as he turned back to Pete and Viggo. “I hope it doesn’t take too long to find Orlando. It’s starting to get cold and damp and who knows how long he’s actually been left out here.”
 
Pete shot Sean a stern look trying to discipline him silently. Viggo was edgy and distraught enough without such comments even if they might be a possibility. Sean obviously caught the director’s look and sudden regret swept across his handsome features and he looked to the ground. Pete then turned to Elijah. “You go with Sean, Elijah. Take the north ridge and work your way to the barn.  Viggo and I’ll take the south. We’ll meet by that rusty old tractor over there by those shrubs.” He indicated to the bush just off to the right of them. “If you find anything, holler.”
 
Sean and Elijah quickly walked out towards the north side of the yard, heading for the thicket edge.  Sean kept the beam of the flashlight down on the tall grass just a few paces ahead of them sweeping the bean back and forth in a wide arc as they slowly started their search.
 
Elijah glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see Viggo and Pete repeating the procedure as they made their way south towards the broken down fence line. 
 
Elijah then turned back and looked up at Sean questioningly. “Do you think we’ll find him?”
 
Sean gave the youth a quick glance then turned his gaze back to the ground. “If we don’t we’ll keep looking until we do.” He responded in a determined voice.
 
“But what if the kidnappers didn’t-“ Elijah started but Sean stopped suddenly, in mid stride, and gripping the young man by the upper arm, pulled him to a halt right in front of him. Elijah looked up at him, a startled look gracing his face, large blue eyes impossibly larger. “Listen,” Sean started in a low stern reprimanding voice. “we need to keep comments like that to ourselves. The last thing Viggo needs is to overhear our doubts and negativities. The man’s living on a very thin edge right now as it is. If we end up not finding Orlando out here or worse yet, dead, do you realize it’ll kill Viggo if not right away then slowly over time? He’ll blame himself for all of it, especially for not waiting for Orli that night on set. But to compound his self guilt he’ll also blame himself for this little arrangement. So let’s not talk about that right now and keep looking, okay?”
 
Speechless, Elijah gave the British man a nod and followed silently as Sean resumed his search of their appointed area.
 
 
****
 
 
On the other side of the clearing, Viggo and Pete were searching quickly but effectively.  Pete walked about two yards to Viggo’s right just outside the edge of the flashlight beam sweeping the long brome grass aside with his legs as he watched the ground for any clue which might indicate they were on the right track.
 
“Do you have a cigarette?” Viggo called to the shorter man.
 
Pete shook his head and without taking his eyes off the ground responded. “No. I thought you quit smoking.”
 
“I just started again.” The Dane informed him solemnly. He sighed loudly. “I should have gotten a few from Elijah before we started this search. I really could use one right now.”
 
“We’ll find him, Viggo. Even if it takes all night.” Pete assured, although he wasn’t completely convinced himself. “He’s here.” He knew the reason the actor wanted a cigarette was because he was worried about finding Orlando.
 
Viggo stopped and faced the director, pain and fear etched across his features. Tears misted his eyes. “What if we don’t? Orlando is everything to me. I don’t think I can go on without him.” he confessed, his voice thick with pent up grief.
 
Pete slowly stepped over, stood in front of his leading actor and looked him straight in the eyes, even though he had to look up in order to do it.  He reached up and pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose to their proper position. They’d slipped down from the perspiration on his face. “You aren’t going to have to.” Pete stated firmly. “Please, Viggo, don’t give up. Don’t. You’ve come this far keeping yourself together. Don’t fall apart now. We’ll find Orlando and when we do, he’s going to really, I mean really, need some one solid to lean on and that someone is you. He loves you with everything he has.  I’ve seen that every day on the set. His admiration and love for you is boundless. If nothing else pulls him through this, your strength will. Without you he has no hope at all, so don’t you dare give up on him now!” Pete’s temper was escalating as he spoke and by the time he was finished he was almost yelling.
 
Viggo sighed and glanced down at his feet. Pete was right. They would find his younger lover and be damned if he would give up hope and stop looking now.  He looked at Pete again, determination clearly showing on his face.“Let’s keep looking.” As he raised the flashlight, it’s beam of light swept in a large arc across the tall grass off to the East of them.  Something lighter than the grass flashed under the beam off in the distance and Viggo frowned.  He quickly brought the flashlight beam back to that location and strained to see in the limited lighting.  He paled considerably.
 
Pete looked at Viggo, noting his reaction. “What is it?” he asked as he quickly turned to see what the Dane was looking at. “Oh my God.” He muttered as the blood drained from his face as well. There, in the distance, where the grass had been trampled flatter than the rest, lay what appeared to be a human figure.
 
Viggo didn’t wait. He took off at a dead run through the long grass towards the figure.  His heart beat wildly in his chest and tears started streaming down his face. “Orli!” he called out in desperation. “Orli?! Baby! Is that you?!” Once over the initial shock of their discovery, Pete quickly followed Viggo through the yard.
 
 
****
 
 
Sean and Elijah had just made it to the far side of the yard when Sean thought he heard a commotion coming from the general direction where Viggo and Pete would be searching.  He stopped and turned to Elijah shining his flashlight just off to the side so he could see the young man. “Did you hear that?” he asked as he continued to listen.
 
Elijah nodded and opened his mouth to comment when they heard it again. A voice. Viggo’s voice to be exact and even though they couldn’t hear what he was saying his voice sounded distressed.  “C’mon!” Sean yelled and took off at a dead run back the way they had come with Elijah right on his heels.
 
 
****
 
 
Viggo ran keeping the flashlight trained on the figure in the distance.  Blinded by his tears, he stumbled and fell, landing face down in the grass. The flashlight flew a short distance away from him and the wind was driven from his lungs.  Gasping and ignoring his pain, he staggered back to his feet and had to fight to keep his balance. He hesitated momentarily and bent over resting his hands on his knees. He willed his painful chest to draw in air.  When his bruised lungs got some, he snatched the flashlight from the ground and took off again running even faster than before. As soon as he reached the now struggling figure, he recognized the t-shirt as Orlando’s. With a choked sob he sank to his knees dropped the flashlight beside him and frantically started pulling at the ropes binding the young Brit’s wrists and feet. “Orlando!” he cried breathless. “Orli! Baby?” He finally got the ropes loose and tossed them aside. He desperately tore the tape from Orli’s mouth and grabbed his young lover, pulled him up into his lap, and protectively clutched him to his chest, sobbing in long mournful wails. “I’m here baby, I’m here!” he assured as he rained kisses all over the top of Orlando’s head. Tears of utter joy and relief coursed down his cheeks as he caressed and stroked his young lover’s hair and face.
 
Orlando looked up at Viggo in disbelief and relief.  He clawed at, and weakly clutched Viggo’s shirt in his fists and closed his eyes against his own tears. “I didn’t think you’d find me.” He said barely able to talk.
 
Viggo rested his cheek against the top of his lover’s head and tightened his embrace. “I never quit looking, angel. Never. Not until I found you.” He choked out against his sobs. He kept running his shaky hand all over Orlando as if feeling him physically would prove he wasn’t dreaming. Orlando leaned against his lover’s chest and closed his eyes finally giving in to his exhaustion.
 
 
****
 
 
Sean and Elijah finally caught up to where Pete was standing.  They both stopped right beside the director and looked down at the huddled figures in the middle of the trampled grass.
 
“Is he okay?” Sean panted, winded from his sprint from the other side of the yard.
 
Pete turned and looked up at Sean and then Elijah. Tears were coursing down his cheeks. “I think so.” He whispered.
 
Sean went to walk over to them and Pete quickly put his hand to the man’s shoulder and stopped him.
 
“Let them be for a few minutes.” Pete suggested.
 
All three men stood quietly and watched Viggo hold his lover in his lap, gently rocking him, whispering soft endearments and caressing him in silent reassurance.