HELPING HANDS

Chapter 27

Kelsey uses a code to unlock the door. She opens the door and then steps aside to allow everyone to enter.

"Wow! This is awesome." Austin says as he looks up at the high ceiling.

"Glad you like it." Kelsey smiles. "This is going to be our home for the next few days."

"It's absolutely beautiful." Adam compliments.

"I should have brought my cane." Tim mumbles mainly to himself. He was feeling very unsure about the steps he was taking.

"You didn't bring it?" Adam asks.

"No, I forgot." Tim answers.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I remembered it." Adam smiles as he kisses his boyfriend's cheek. "I figured you'd want a little bit of freedom to walk around without me or Satchmo."

"Thank you. How did I ever survive without you." Tim says with a smirk.

"I don't know, Sweetheart." Adam chuckles.

"There's one bedroom downstairs and the rest are upstairs. Unfortunately, there's no elevator." Kelsey tells them.

"Well, then. I guess we know who gets the downstairs bedroom." Rob chuckles.

"I'll show Rob where the bedroom is and the rest of you can go claim a room." Kelsey says as she leads Rob down a hallway.

"How many steps do you think there are?" Tim asks quietly as he takes hold of the railing with one hand while still holding on to Adam's bicep with the other.

"I don't know. There's quite a few." Adam says as they begin to go up the stairs. "This place is huge."

"Shhhh." Tim shushes him. "I'm counting."

"Sorry." Adam says with a giggle.

"Just tell me when we get to the last step." Tim says and Adam nods even though Tim couldn't see him.

"Okay, we have one more step and we'll be on the second floor." Adam says.

"Seventeen." Tim says as he steps up to the second floor. "You don't know how embarrassing it is to try and take another step when there ain't one." He chuckles.

"Adam, you and Tim can have this first bedroom." Chris says.

"Seventeen steps, turn right, first room on the left. Got it." Tim nods.

~~

"Sweetie? Have you ever been fishing?" Adam asks from inside the closet while he was hanging up their clothes.

"Yeah, I just have to be really careful with the hooks." Tim answers.

"Do you know how to swim?" Adam asks as he hangs up one of Tim's tee shirts.

"Yeah. You know what else I can do? Help unpack." Tim answers with a bit of sass. "That is if you'd show me where the dresser is."

Adam walks out of the closet to see Tim still standing in the middle of the room where he had left him.

The room was huge and Tim didn't know where anything was located. Or what obstacles he might trip over if he tried to find his way around.

"Baby, I'm so sorry. I keep forgetting you're not familiar with this place." Adam says as he takes his lover by the hand and leads him over to the bed where the suitcases were.

"Can I ask something?" Tim asks as he reaches into the suitcase to see what was left.

"Sure." Adam says as he heads back to the closet.

"Am I a ball and chain? I don't mean to be if I am." Tim says as he slowly picks some boxers out of the luggage.

"What?" Adam asks as he quickly turns around. "Honey, what kind of question is that?"

"I just...sometimes, I don't know, I sometimes feel that I'm a burden." Tim says with a slight shrug.

"Oh, my God. Baby, I'm so sorry if I made you feel that way." Adam says as he quickly makes his way over to the blind man, pulling him into a hug.

"I try to do as much as I can by myself so that I won't become a burden to anyone." Tim says.

"Hush." Adam says as he places a hand on each side of Tim's face. "You are NOT a burden. And I won't have you talking that way. You amaze me at what all you can do. You're so good at it that sometimes I forget that you can't see. You're so good at it that it just didn't occur to me that you are unfamiliar with this place and can't get around as well as you do at home. That was very thoughtless on my part and I'm so sorry."

"I just don't want to put a damper on your fun while we're here." Tim says, again with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"I'll have fun and it will be with you. WE are going to have a great time." Adam says as he lightly kisses Tim's lips.

"I'm going to hold you to that." Tim smiles. "Now, who's boxers am I holding? And where's the dresser?"

After unpacking, Adam leads Tim around the room allowing him to get familiar with where everything was. The dresser, the closet, the bathroom. There was a chair sitting in the room that Adam moved over next to the window to keep Tim from running into it.

"I think I got it." Tim nods as he reaches for his cane that he had laid on the bed. "You wanna go see what the others are doing?"

~~

"Watch your step." Adam warns as he and Tim start out to the patio where everyone had gathered having a few drinks. "There's a step down here."

"Well, it's about time you two showed up." Austin complains.

"I didn't know we had a time limit. I thought we came here to relax." Tim says as he starts to sit down on the patio couch.

Chance chuckles as he quickly scoots over to keep the blind man from sitting on his lap.

Feeling movement beside him, Tim reaches over to see who it was. Gently laying his hand on Chance's cheek.

"Did I almost sit on you?" Tim asks with a smile.

Chance chuckles and nods his head.

"Well, you should have spoken up." Tim smirks as he pats the mute man on the cheek.

Chance laughs as he takes Tim's hand and lays it on top of his.

"Or maybe you should watch where you are sitting." Chance signs.

"Touché." Tim chuckles.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Adam asks as he hands his boyfriend a beer then sits down in his lap.

"Well, it being the 4th of July, they probably have a lot going on in town. Probably a parade and I think they usually have a band before the fireworks." Kelsey answers.

"The band would be cool and I could probably handle the parade but I'm not too sure about the fireworks." Tim says shaking his head. "Loud noises like that raises my anxiety level to the max."

"They don't bother me at all." Austin laughs.

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