Gabriel (Rewritten Version) - LGBT, manXman

25

"I broke my back so badly they couldn't take me to the hospital nearby, although I went there first. They didn't realise at first quite how badly my back was broken. When the doctors did x-rays, they transferred me to a specialist spinal unit in Sheffield. I never had any ID, a driving licence or anything, so they didn't know who I was. They didn't know I had a family, so they didn't contact anyone."

"We never knew," Jordan said quietly. "You just... disappeared."

"When I finally came home, Daisy looked after me. She let me work in the café, as much as I could, and she helped me with my therapy exercises. But, two months after I moved in with her, she had a heart attack in the night. The paramedics couldn't save her."

The tears formed again, and Gabriel brushed them away angrily.

Jordan put the kettle on, and made them another mug of coffee each.

Gabriel settled in the few minutes of silence, and gathered himself.

"The café closed after Daisy died. I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I went to see Angela. She ran the escort company I worked for. The office was closed, boarded up. One of the working girls who used to work in the café carpark sometimes told me that the police had raided the office one day, and found records of the extra activities which some of the clients paid for. Angela was in prison by the time I came out of hospital."

"So, what did you do?" Jordan asked. "Back to the streets?"

Gabriel nodded.

"I lived in the café for a while. No-one came to open another business, or demolish it, or anything. It was dry, during the winter. I eventually managed to speak to someone at the bank. She didn't tell me much, but she did tell me that the mortgage payments had been missed since I'd been in hospital. Because we were way behind after Mum died, they were already ware of missed payments, so they repossessed the house and sold it."

"I saw the board go up," Jordan said. "I never knew why. The bank wouldn't talk to me, about anything. They wouldn't tell me how much money we needed to stop the sale."

Gabe shrugged.

"They'd been bitten once after Mum died. They didn't want to lose more money. Anyway, I was on the streets for almost a year. One night, I fell asleep in the doorway of the club. Dan woke me up when he came to work the next morning. I was desperate. I wasn't getting any clients on the streets. I'd been away too long, and all of my regulars had moved on. He offered me one of the rooms in the club to sleep in, in return for some bar work. He'd been working in clubs for a long time, though, and he knew what I was. He started hiring me out, taking a cut of what men paid and giving me the rest. He took a larger cut than usual, in return for letting me sleep in the club."

"What now?" Jordan asked. "Don't tell me you still live there."

"No. Max started about six months after I did. He just wanted bar work, not dancing, and he refused to offer the extra services Dan usually asks for. I got friendly, and we moved in together a few weeks later."

"So, are you and him...?"

"Oh, Christ, no. It would be like sleeping with my brother."

They shared uncertain glances, suddenly on a topic neither of them wanted to discuss, before they burst out laughing.

"I wish I knew what happened to the kids, though," Gabe said finally. "I never was able to find out."

"Someone told social services," Jordan told him. "Phoebe and I did the best we could, but after the twins started looking upset at school, one of their teachers started poking around. I suppose they must have called child services."